Returning Portland champion Sato: Age (42) no problem

Published 12:00 am Thursday, August 29, 2019

It’s better late than never for Takuma Sato, whose racing seasons after age 40 have been the best of his long career.

He won the 2017 Indianapolis 500 for Andretti Autosport, outdueling Helio Castroneves and erasing memories of his 2012 Indy 500, when he spun and crashed while trying to pass Dario Franchitti on the final lap.

Sato then won last year at Portland International Raceway in the inaugural IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Portland, that victory for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

In the return of open-wheel racing at PIR, which previously hosted CART and Champ Car from 1984-2007, Sato started 20th, the lowest a driver has started at Portland and came away victorious. The win was in part thanks to a two-pit, fuel strategy.

Sato is back this week, along with all the other IndyCar stars, for the second Grand Prix of Portland, Friday through Sunday at PIR.

Sato also won this April at Birmingham, Alabama, from the pole position, and, just last week he finished first at Madison, Illinois — and made some personal history

Sato has now won races on all four types of courses that IndyCar Series features: superspeedway (Indy 500), street course (Long Beach, 2013), road course (PIR, Alabama) and short oval (Madison, Ill.).

Before 2017, Sato had one win (Long Beach, 2013) in seven seasons. Now, in his 167 career IndyCar starts, he has nine poles and five wins.

Sato, 42 and from Tokyo, has taken all the questions about his age in the past couple years in stride. He’s the second-oldest driver in the series behind Tony Kanaan, 44.

“Every time I jump into the car I’m excited and motivated,” he said. “Being an over-40 athlete, it’s kind of older, for sure.

“But, we have great experience in the race craft. Racing is a sport for the science, you work together with engineers, you gain what is total performance. I’m still mentally and physically healthy and still improving. I don’t worry about anything about my age — until I feel some degradation, I shall put 100 percent commitment into it.”

Sato said young drivers have their advantages, including youth, strength, potential and talent.

But he won’t concede much else to the youngsters, who include teammate Graham Rahal, 30, once the record-holder for youngest race winner. That distinction now belongs to Colton Herta, 19, who won earlier this year.

“It’s really individuality and human by human,” Sato said, referencing the names of Mario Andretti and others who found success at older ages. “The greatest drivers in history are not necessarily the youngest.

“It is definitely physically demanding; you have to compete in 17 races, and it’s three consecutive weeks right now (with races). That’s intense. You have to have great training behind you and health, as well as conditioning and not being injured. I absolutely feel fresh. Motivation is really high.”

He’s really motivated to return to PIR, where caution flags helped him win last year. He made only two pit stops, rather than three, and nursed his ride’s fuel for an improbable victory.

“It was just a great moment, and also very nice to share the winning with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing … and Bobby Rahal,” he said. “In victory circle, the first person I saw was Bobby and he had a huge smile on his face.”

Fuel and pit strategy are seemingly always part of the Portland race. Sato believes more people may try his strategy, although the race dictates strategy.

Sato enjoys the PIR road course.

“It’s a fantastic course, which has a long history for IndyCar (meaning CART/Champ Car also),” he said. “The fans just long-waited, they’re just so enthusiastic, you can tell the atmosphere is fantastic.

“It’s a flat track, compared to other race tracks, no elevation change. However, the combination high speed and double apex corners make it very challenging. The length of the race (last year) was perfect for us just to make two stops. You have to have a lot of fuel saving, and you have to have yellow caution.

“It gives us a lot of opportunities with strategy. It gives fans a great, exciting race. There’s also a heavy braking area into chicane. The track has a lot of things.”