Australian Will Power believes he’s at the right place to try to improve on his dominant start to the IndyCar season.
Power has taken out the Sao Paulo 300 the past two years and is a short price to win again on Sunday on the streets of South America’s biggest city, at a track he calls one of his favourites.
Power also has won the past two races coming into Brazil, but he is expected to be heavily challenged in Sao Paulo by the drivers using Honda engines, which will get their turbochargers upgraded for the first time this season and should gain in performance.
Three-time defending series champion Dario Franchitti is among those drivers. Home-crowd favourites Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Rubens Barrichello and Ana Beatriz also hope to challenge.
“The competition is very tough and – to have a race weekend go your way – you need everything to fall in place and, obviously, that doesn’t happen all the time,” Power said. “But I will give my absolute best and we will see what happens.”
Power has been the driver to beat on the 2.5-mile, 11-turn Anhembi temporary street circuit. He won from pole position last year in a race postponed because of heavy rain, and took the inaugural Sao Paulo 300 in 2010 by passing Ryan Hunter-Reay with three laps to go in another race affected by rain.
“I like the whole track,” the Australian said on Friday. “I love the fact that they built the track with really long straights, which creates passing, but then you have a very technical session with a whole complex of corners. The resurfacing made it probably the best street course that we come to. It’s smooth, almost like a road course.”
Power finished seventh in the season-opening race in St Petersburg despite starting from pole, but rebounded quickly with dominant performances in the next two races before Brazil. He charged from a ninth-place start to victory in Alabama, and from 12th to first in Long Beach.
“It’s been a great start to the season,” Power said. “From a team perspective, we came very well prepared. At this point, I think we are the strongest team.”
Power leads the drivers’ standings with 127 points, 24 more than Penske teammate Castroneves, the winner in St Petersburg.
He has won seven of the past 11 IndyCar races on road and street courses, including five last year, when he just missed on the series’ title.
Franchitti will be one of the drivers in Brazil hoping to get a boost from the new engines from Honda, which has been allowed to change the compressor cover on its single turbocharger after a panel denied an appeal by Chevrolet.
The race in Brazil is the last before the Indy 500 on May 27.
