Hawksworth and Rahal looking forward to Iowa

Unfortunately he had to stand down from his driving duties in Pocono, but Jack Hawksworth is charging into Iowa looking for a fresh start.

Hawksworth had an accident during the second practice session at Pocono and was diagnosed with a myocardial contusion.  He was not cleared to race and the team decided to pack up shop and prepare for Iowa, where Hawksworth last ran in an Indy Lights car.

“You’re going a bit quicker and you’ve got a bit more grip, so it all happens a little bit faster.  I haven’t got a proper idea of the differences yet but yeah, I just imagine everything’s going to be a lot more quicker when you’ll get a few more cars on track,” Hawksworth said.

His history at Iowa has been a mixed bag, with a 15th place finish in the 2012 Star Mazda Championship and a 3rd place finish last year in the Indy Lights series as Sage Karam won both races.

Another driver looking for success is Graham Rahal.  Rahal has had extremely limited success this year but thinks he has a lot to build on for this weekend.

“We came here with a setup that was very similar to what we ran last year, IT was just a few things that we changed and instantly found enough time and I think we went half a second faster than we qualified last year, and I think our time in the test was good enough for the front row, so we certainly felt that we had found a bunch of stuff there, definitely made the car more drivable and getting a better balance,” Rahal said.

The brief time on track might have helped, but only slightly since the first practice ended early.  Rahal ended the first session 13th.  However, he remained realistic about the situation.

“We’re learning.  There’s no doubt that we’re not where we need to be, we’re still behind the big teams but we’re getting a lot closer and I think our performances of late, the speed that we’ve had as of late is starting to show,” Rahal said.