1007 replies to this topic

[Massa]

Races I might watch this week:

Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series from Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL.  That will be aired tape-delayed on SPEED Saturday at 4:00 PM my time (GMT -5) and likely streamed at that time.

9 Daytona Prototypes, 19 Grand Touring entries: http://www.grand-am....ries=r&eid=3431

USAC National Midget championship at Ace Speedway in North Carolina Friday and Saturday night.  Sometimes http://www.3widenetworks.com/ broadcasts the races legally.  Other times http://www.usacracing.com/pitpass does, well, they always do, but it seems this year they might be charging money.  Hopefully one of the two will broadcast the race free.  I love USAC and local driver Bobby Santos is running for RW Racing in their Toyota-powered entry this weekend.

Other races that I personally am just not feeling: Indy at Barber, NSCS and NCWTS at Martinsville.

[Massa]

Rumors going around, credible ones, that SPEED Channel is about to change.

News International apparently want to make SPEED a sports channel to compete with ESPN; it is in 82,000,000 households already and feel they can get better viewership out of it (SPEED's viewership is third behind ESPN and ESPN2 as it is, though a far distance from both.  Viewership has been very stable in the last few years).

News International also own Fuel TV in the U.S. which has expanded into racing programming (Mazda Motorsports Hour to showcase Star Mazda, US F2000, and the MX-5 series).  Fuel is in 30,000,000 homes.  It currently shows UFC among other sports and bills itself as an upscale male lifestyle network.  There were rumors last year that Fuel would become a sports network, and SPEED would become a NASCAR-owned channel.  These rumors did not come true.

It makes more sense to make SPEED a sports channel given its distribution.  I am not sure if they would move motorsports programming to Fuel, or what live auto racing would be included on a sports channel (as ESPN shows NASCAR and NBCSN shows IndyCar).  SPEED currently airs, among other things:

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Formula One
MotoGP
Motocross
Grand-Am Rolex Series
Grand-Am Continental Tire Challenge
Australian V8 Supercars

They also show BTCC, WTCC, DTM, and FIA GT1 highlights during the winter.

SPEED launched SPEED2, an online streaming-only motorsports network.  The concept never really took off, though it still exists.  It claims to air dozens of series but seemingly doesn't show a whole lot of anything.

Certain cable providers already carry SPEED in basic cable.  Others, such as ours, carry it as a super-duper-high-tier channel that requires payment for a host of other channels.  SPEED is not widely available in high definition; that is regional by carrier (motor racing markets tend to have SPEED in HD on cable, as does DIRECTV, owned by News International).

If motor racing content is freed by any move that may be made, NBCSN could be keen to add the Truck Series and/or F1, both of which score ratings that would be above nearly everything NBCSN presently airs (as VERSUS, only NHL playoff games, and I doubt all of them, would outscore CWTS and F1 on SPEED; regular season NHL games trail behind both CWTS and F1 in viewership.  Misleading in that only two of the thirty teams play in one game, so obviously the entire NHL fanbase isn't watching, so you get a lot of unique viewers over the course of a season whereas it's the same crowd each week for the racing series mostly).

Some details: @Ourand_SBJ

[Massa]

So today I found out Rubens Barrichello isn't classified as a rookie in the IZOD IndyCar Series.  He wants to be, probably to get the extra 30 minutes of practice, but here's the thing...

He's never raced in IndyCar.  Ever.  Therefore, he is a rookie.  Nigel Mansell was a rookie.  Emerson Fittipaldi was a rookie.  What INDYCAR (the sanctioning body is all caps) have done is say "F1 is a better, more important, higher level series than our own."  And whether or not that's true or generally accepted, that's just terrible marketing, isn't it?  "Oh our series is second-rate."  Would they classify Jeff Gordon as a rookie?  Why was Takuma Sato a rookie?

The reason it really just looks so poor on their part?  Simon Pagenaud and Katherine Legge are rookies.  Pagenaud has one full season in Champ Car, Legge has two.  INDYCAR say they've merged the record book to include every sanctioning body, all the way back to AAA.  But they obviously aren't acknowledging Champ Car if Pagenaud and Legge are rookies, but Barrichello isn't.

Does it matter?  No, not at all.  But it makes INDYCAR look like it's run by amateurs.  Probably because it is run by amateurs.  "WE HAVE ONE UNIFIED RECORD BOOK NOW, YOU CAN BUY IT FOR $25."  But then they don't include Champ Car track records, and they don't include Champ Car as past IndyCar experience, and then they include F1 as past IndyCar experience, but only sometimes.  Bush league.

[Massa]

First night of USAC Nat'l Midget competition at Ace Speedway:

1. Bobby East (former NASCAR competitor in NNS and NCWTS)
2. Bobby Santos, III. (Tommy Baldwin Racing development driver running NNS at Daytona in July)
3. Mario Clouser
4. Darren Hagen
5. Kyle Larson (Earnhardt-Ganassi development driver racing K&N Pro with the team; first Japanese-American NASCAR driver)
6. Tanner Swanson (top-rated prospect, like his brother)
7. Caleb Armstrong (brother of NCWTS driver Dakoda Armstrong)
8. Nick Drake
9. Levi Jones
10. Bryan Clauson (raced Indy Lights last year and NNS in the past; may run Indy 500 this year)
11. Kody Swanson (top-rated prospect, like his brother)
12. Tracy Hines (former NNS and NCWTS competitor)
13. Dillon Welch (son of IndyCar on ABC and NASCAR on ESPN pit reporter Vince Welch)
14. Zach Daum
15. David Byrne
16. Jason Wolfe
17. Davey Ray
18. Jimmy Simpson
19. Taylor Ferns
20. Dalton Armstrong (Caleb and Dakoda's brother)
21. Isaac Chapple
22. Levi Roberts
23. Mike Larrison
24. Rico Abreu

Second race is tonight.

Both races are in honor of Shane Hmiel.  Hmiel struggled with bi-polar disorder.  After misdiagnosis, he began self-medication, and as a result, he was suspended by NASCAR for drug violations multiple times before receiving a lifetime ban.  Prior to his troubles, Hmiel was one of the top young drivers in stock car racing, having been signed with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s team and Braun Racing.  Hmiel began treatement for bi-polar, and fought his problems with recreational drugs.  He returned to restart his career in USAC, and had signed to race in Indy Lights with hopes of racing in the Indy 500 one day.  Hmiel was seriously injured in a vicious USAC wreck which has left him in a wheelchair.  He currently works with 3 Wide Networks, who broadcast USAC races, and RW Racing, who fielded cars for Santos and Clouser in this particular event.

[Massa]

Why is USAC important?  Take a look at some 2012 competitors:

Sprint Cup: Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, J.J. Yeley, Ken Schrader, Josh Wise, and P.J. Jones

Nationwide: Ricky Stenhouse, Cole Whitt, Mike Bliss, Brad Sweet, and Bobby Santos

Truck: Jason Leffler and Dakoda Armstrong

K&N Pro: Chad Boat and Kyle Larson

IndyCar: Ed Carpenter

F3 Euro: Michael Lewis

Stenhouse, Whitt, and Larson are only the future of NASCAR.  Stewart and Gordon only have seven Cup titles between them.  Carpenter's only the best oval racer in IndyCar.

[Massa]

IndyCar press doing their job to convince people not to watch/care.  If there's one thing Randy Bernard has to fix, it's how his sport gets covered.  There's never anything positive without being checked by eleven negatives.

http://www.indystar....ews|text|Sports

Only reason I share is the part about how engine deals need to be in place for Indy within the next two weeks.  No chance of last-minute entries like past years.

It will definitely be the toughest year they've ever had getting to 33.  I hope they do it.  The 500 is the only IndyCar race I might be able to care enough to watch this year, but I'm not there if there's no qualifying drama and a short field.  Why?  Because.

[Massa]

This is pretty cool.  ASA used to be a really big deal for developing stock car drivers.  On TV, too.  Doesn't even register now, but I like seeing stock car racing, grassroots stock car racing, being established elsewhere.

http://www.nationals...o-south-africa/

[Massa]

NASCAR paid Google to make a bad April Fool's Joke.

http://www.google.com/racing/

I am done.  This sport used to not suck.

USAC results from last night:

1. Darren Hagen
2. Mario Clouser
3. Caleb Armstrong
4. Dalton Armstrong
5. Bobby East
6. Kody Swanson
7. Tanner Swanson
8. Bobby Santos, III.
9. Bryan Clauson
10. Levi Roberts
11. Dillon Welch
12. David Byrne
13. Tracy Hines
14. Jimmy Simpson
15. Rico Abreu
16. Jason Wolfe
17. Levi Jones
18. Isaac Chapple
19. Davey Ray
20. Nick Drake
21. Zach Daum

[Massa]

RE: SPEED.

Bob Varsha, the play-by-play announcer for F1 in the U.S. for quite some time, says that the only report he has seen is replacing Fuel TV with the new project, not SPEED.  I'm curious about that, mostly because I have to think his employer, News International, isn't very happy that he's fueling speculation about their channels, two of which (SPEED and FOX) he works for.

Personally, I think it makes no difference.  Whether SPEED is SPEED next year or a general sports channel, they'll still be showing F1 and Trucks.  They get about 600,000 viewers per F1 race.  No TV executive is stupid enough to not realize how incredibly good 600,000 on a cable network at 8 AM ET and 5 AM out west really is.  Most of the people worrying have only ever seen NASCAR Sprint Cup TV ratings and don't realize that most things on cable get really, really low viewership.

However, I wish, deep down, that F1 would get away from SPEED/FOX.  The grass isn't always greener but the coverage has gotten worse and worse and worse and worse every single year.  Varsha's great, but he's not very sharp anymore.  Too careless.  Steve Matchett brings excellence knowledge, but he's better suited to another role as a technical analyst outside of the commentary box.  You could probably do something interesting with him in the pits, though they don't have the budget (they use Will Buxton, who would already be there anyway).  David Hobbs is loveable, but getting on in years.  Buxton is probably the most annoying person on TV.  The broadcast is very unprofessional, sloppy, careless, hard to stomach.  It doesn't give F1 the "F1 treatment," it gives it the typical FOX Sports treatment and I don't like that.

Watch this and you'll see why.  This was the intro to the Australian Grand Prix.  Sam Posey, the narrator, does a very good job on his own pieces, though he is very straight-laced and serious.  They are completely misusing Sam having him do crap like this, and misusing my time making me watch it.



I'd love to see F1 get a fresh broadcasting package elsewhere where it would be treated with a bit of respect.  I suspect you could even take the current SPEED team and they'd be 100 times better on another channel that wasn't telling them to be silly.

[Massa]

Bob Jenkins on NBC Sports Network:

Quote

Grand Pee of Alabama

Quote

Katherine's leg car

Augh.

Mike King and Davey Hamilton on IMS Radio Network:

Quote

MK: Rubens Barichello has stopped...that's not Rubens Barichello...

DH: It's Alex Zanardi.

MK: Aleeexxx....

DH: ...Tagliani.

A sport covered as professionally as its run.

Lotus won't be testing at Indianapolis.  They won't field beyond their five cars for the 500, either.  I wonder if Bernard knows anyone at Ford or Fiat/Chrysler or anywhere else (these two have both been rumored to be looking at Indy, which is why I mention them over others) he could talk to.  I think they'll need a new supplier soon.  Judd would do a great job if they had a real badge funding it.  I can't imagine Lotus will build an aerokit for 2013...

...and Dallara won't be doing an aerokit for 2013...though they will apparently support anyone running the 2012 car's bodywork or something...I think most aerokits will be outsourced to ORECA or Swift or whomever by the manufacturers (Chevy and ORECA, Honda and Swift, one might think) and that will be what you get.

I think aerokits will make me more interested.

[Massa]

I don't care much for the New York Times, but I suppose I've linked to news from worse sources before, so here's some stuff on the SPEED situation:

http://www.nytimes.c...&sq=espn&st=cse

I am under the impression the new cable channel would inherit the current NASCAR on FOX broadcasts (outside of Daytona), taking them off network and putting them on cable.  Would that violate their contract?  Not sure, but ESPN managed to show fewer and fewer races on ABC year after year, in both Cup and Nationwide, so I doubt it.

I figure F1 is safe, which, as I said before, is actually a shame.

[Massa]

Alright guys, let's talk about some American drivers racing in Europe:

Eddie Cheever, III. (guess who his father is) won both poles in Italian F3 running at Valencia (which isn't in Italy).  He finished first (with fastest lap), third, and sixth in the three races, sitting second in the standings.  Unfortunately, I think he's racing under the Italian flag again...though his helmet mimics his father's, which is based on the Arizona flag.  Eddie Cheever, Jr. was, in fact, raised in Rome but always identified as an American because he's a good guy.  Eddie, III. does have both the U.S. and Italian flags on his uniform, but come on, you're an American Eddie!  Oh well, his father's a favorite of mine, so I'm glad he's doing better this year.

Alex Rossi will run select Friday practice sessions with Caterham this year.  I'm assuming ones that don't conflict with his World Series by Renault running for Arden Caterham, and probably Texas if that happens.  Not a fan of his, but he's what we're getting like it or not, I suspect.

Michael Lewis is one of the 18 finalists in the FIA Institute Young Driver Academy.  His father Steve owned USAC midgets.  Some guys named Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne drove for him, whoever they are.  Lewis is working on his economics degree at California State - Fullerton, mostly through online courses, which I think is so awesome.  He's been okay in F3 EuroSeries testing with Prema Powerteam (Cheever also races for them in F3 Italia) this year, as high as third behind the title favorites, but there are only nine cars.  He's the guy I'm really pulling for so hopefully he finds a little something to go faster.

Conor Daly and Ethan Ringel are in GP3.  You won't need to pay much attention to that.  Same goes for Jake Rosenzweig, confirmed at Team ISR in World Series by Renault.  He thinks he's British now, though, sort of, he runs under the U.S. flag, I guess.

[HandyNZL]

Massa, on 02 April 2012 - 06:17 PM, said:

Bob Jenkins on NBC Sports Network:





Augh.

Mike King and Davey Hamilton on IMS Radio Network:



A sport covered as professionally as its run.

Lotus won't be testing at Indianapolis.  They won't field beyond their five cars for the 500, either.  I wonder if Bernard knows anyone at Ford or Fiat/Chrysler or anywhere else (these two have both been rumored to be looking at Indy, which is why I mention them over others) he could talk to.  I think they'll need a new supplier soon.  Judd would do a great job if they had a real badge funding it.  I can't imagine Lotus will build an aerokit for 2013...

...and Dallara won't be doing an aerokit for 2013...though they will apparently support anyone running the 2012 car's bodywork or something...I think most aerokits will be outsourced to ORECA or Swift or whomever by the manufacturers (Chevy and ORECA, Honda and Swift, one might think) and that will be what you get.

I think aerokits will make me more interested.

Lol....they sounds reals smart, theys do, Shirley

No Lotus at the 500?  Bugger.  So that makes, what, 21 cars?  Maybe???

Swift had a nice concept to start with, as in teh whole car...I thought either them or the Lola car were the best looking (even if I am biased towards Lola, he says with his Lola hat on (and that's a real Lola hat I have on, not a made up one)).

The aerokit thing was one thing I was looking forward to...here's hoping it does actually happen.  And the spare parts thing will solve itself over time.  In the long term I would not be too worried.

And so far it looks like the cream has still risen to the top...3rd and 2nd for Dixon in a Honda powered car.  Guess the Honda wasn't THAT bad afterall.

Bit disappointed in Rubes so far.  Either he is Sh#t house, or all those guys finishing infront of him could have beaten anyone on the F1 grid....

[Massa]

Lotus will be at the Indy 500; just not testing.  They will have no extra cars, just their five.  Initially planned Jean Alesi in a second HVM car, as well as Conquest and MSR.  None of those will happen.  Chevrolet and Honda are willing to add a few more each if the contracts are finalized within the next two weeks.  Makes it hard to get to 33, and definitely over, but we will see.

I really loved the Lola concept, too.  Swift had some nice ones, and some less nice ones, but very innovative.  Problem was none of them could make it work without it being a spec series, so they went with the supplier they trusted most, Dallara.  Not sure I trust Dallara over Lola.  Lola have supplied a few spec series in their time...recently Champ Car and ALMS LMP.

What's up with Franchitti?  Did he run into trouble?

Rubens...he was on TV last night.  Said he loves the Indy 500, went in 1993, stuff like that.  Then said the lack of tire warmers is doing him in.

[HandyNZL]

Speaking with some race guys here in NZ who are in the know - apparantly the car ahs a division between the go pedal and the whoa pedal and this prevents right foot braking.  Rubes always right foot broke, so I would think this more of an adjustment than tyres being warm of not.  Afterall, everyones tyres are cold.

[Rainmaster]

HandyNZL, on 03 April 2012 - 04:55 AM, said:

Speaking with some race guys here in NZ who are in the know - apparantly the car ahs a division between the go pedal and the whoa pedal and this prevents right foot braking.  Rubes always right foot broke, so I would think this more of an adjustment than tyres being warm of not.  Afterall, everyones tyres are cold.

Yeah but everyone's tyres being cold doesn't make it not an adjustment for Rubens, it's only his tyres that matter to him! As for right foot braking, well he said on the Flying Lap podcast that he does but not always; he can left foot brake too because you have to for a fair number of corners in F1.

[HandyNZL]

Yeah i know he can left foot but i think as recently as an F1 magazine article towards the end of his first williams season that he said he still prefered to right foot it.

Whatever it is i still would have pegged him to be top tenning it and be up there with TK at least.

I'm starting to regret saying that he'd do well since everyone is in new cars and due to his F1 background would develop his car faster.

Oh and hello to mine erics and james hideout. You wanna membership badge or just a stamp on your hand to show mummy you hung out with the cool kids

[Rainmaster]

Yeah he definitely prefers the right foot. Cool kids? Eric and James? Behave!

[Massa]

A date which shall live in infamy...



...but I must post things and so it will disappear.

ALMS owner/driver Scott Tucker (Level 5 Motorsports) is a payday loan scammer.  I've shared articles about that in the past.  Today, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against him.  His race team may be seized.  They have two LMP2 cars entered for the Long Beach race next weekend.

http://sports.yahoo....-paydayloanscam

Some other information about Tucker that this article doesn't get into:

Tucker is an ex-convict.

Payday loans are illegal in many states.  Tucker makes payday loans over the Internet to people in those states.  States have been unsuccessful in shutting Tucker down because of the many shell corporations he's hiding behind.  Plus, tribes are held equally sovereign as states, meaning tribes can't be sued in state courts.  Tucker's alliances with tribes help him; though the company is in their ownership, Tucker is running the business himself from Kansas.

Articles here that really go in depth:

http://www.iwatchnew...-racers-fortune

http://www.iwatchnew...loan-businesses

[Massa]

Rubens: He never passes on an opportunity to tell you why he isn't performing as well as you think he should, so I figure he'd have said something about right-foot braking.  Since the very start, he's been talking about tire warmers, even at his first test, how hard it is, and how Kanaan is so good at just going out on cold tires with no adjustment, etc.  Yeah, they're all on cold tires, but some of these guys have been on cold tires for years.  It makes a huge difference.  Danica Patrick was awful at getting heat in her tires, which is why she never accomplished as much as she possibly could have.  Not saying right-foot braking makes no difference.

Aerokits: Power says take downforce out, make them drive it, too much reliance on aerodynamics, too easy to drive.

33 at Indy: Some are implying that Lotus won't field extra engines at Indy because they don't want more than 33 cars there.  More than 33 means Lotus fails to qualify.  They want all five of their cars in the field, so they're cutting supply.  BUT I don't believe that.  I just think their program is a huge joke (as evidenced by not even testing) and they can't afford it.  Could have told them that months ago.  Company sells 3,000 roads cars per year worldwide, sponsors 3,000 race cars worldwide now, too.  Not a model for success.  Honda and Chevrolet sell more cars in a day in the U.S. alone than Lotus sell in an entire year in the whole world.  It was never going to be close.  I'd love to see someone give Judd some real money to save this program, and I'd love to see someone link up with Cosworth and add a fourth engine.

[Massa]

Oh, and, TV ratings...everyone's in a huff about TV ratings for Birmingham.

NBCSN is paying about $1.85 per viewer per IndyCar race.  NBCSN is paying about $10 per viewer per regular season NHL game.

Let's break that down.

There are more unique viewers in the NHL.  Few people watch all 100 games NBCSN shows.  Most only watch when their favorite team is playing, or when there's a really compelling game.  So you are paying less than $10 per unique viewer.  IndyCar?  It's about the same every single race.  Very little variety week-to-week, other than fringe NASCAR fans who will watch Indy when it isn't up against a NASCAR race.

So is IndyCar undervaluing its broadcast?  Maybe, but Randy Bernard claims that INDYCAR turned it's first profit EVER in the 2011-2012 fiscal year (early March 2011 - early March 2012 for them...before the racing season started in 2012).

Is the problem the ratings, or is the problem the demographic?  Are IndyCar viewers only worth $1.85 a piece?  A demographic of aging, low-income white men isn't helping the sport much.  It has to be a goal to get the right viewers that sponsors and partners want to see, viewers they can't get from any other outlet (aging, low-income white men are a dime a dozen, or, in this case, $22.20 a dozen), not the present goal, which is to just get as many people as possible to watch, a flawed goal considering IndyCar is a niche of a niche sport (auto racing in general; only 2.25% of the U.S. population tunes in to a typical NASCAR Sprint Cup race, which is less than half of the percentage that would watch BBC F1 highlights in the U.K., meaning motor racing is an even smaller niche here, and then you divide it among an over-saturation of different series).

How do you get younger people, when car culture has largely disappeared, interested?  How do you get women interested?  How do you get ethnic minorities interested?  That's what IndyCar needs to work on.  Not how do you get the highest possible ratings number.  I can tell you people in my age group don't watch Indy; hell, I don't watch it much, either.  Young people are embracing things like global rallycross, whatever the hell Ken Block does in those videos of his, and, to a very, very small extent, F1.  You'll find a lot more F1 fans on a college campus than NASCAR fans or IndyCar fans.

You can be successful as a niche.  Hell, IndyCar may already be profitable as it is.  People have to think beyond their point-whatevers because honestly, getting 450,000 viewers on a cable sports channel is REALLY GOOD when NBCSN averages much less than that; in fact, only ESPN averages more viewership than that.  It's who makes up that 450,000 that really differentiates it, as if it is not already differentiated enough by drawing a few times more viewership than most things get on the same channel.

Fun fact: F1 draws 600,000 viewers at 8 AM/7 AM/6 AM/5 AM start times for the European races, compared to IndyCar at 450,000 for a 1 PM/12 PM/11 AM/10 AM race.  I'll give Indy fans a hint: success doesn't come from having American drivers, so it's time to let that argument go.  Maybe it'd help get a few more aging, low-income white men...but...

I hope everyone on every IndyCar forum that I've been banned from somehow sees this.  It's so frustrating to see "IndyCar got a .25, it's doomed, needs more Americans" every week when it's all wrong.

[Massa]

That's the new speedway wing.  Fitting touch on Kanaan's...

Kanaan, by the way, was the subject of NBCSN's first episode of IndyCar 36.  Graham Rahal will be shown next weekend.

[Massa]

Chevrolet and Honda testing in Indianapolis today.  That track makes it better.  The cars are hideous crapwagons but they're at Indy so it's not so bad.

Lap times are around 211 mph average.  213 if you're blazing.

213 last would have sat on pole in 1985.

Will Lotus even break 200?

Honestly, I don't care too much about the speeds.  Part of me almost likes it; I think I would like it, if it were intentional, as the result of less downforce, for better racing.  But when it's actually just the unintended result of terrible balance, I'm sort of bothered by it.  I wish it were safe to go really really really fast and then slow down in the corners.  That would be grand.

What would really be grand, and this goes for all series, is if broadcasting would go back a decade and a half and use camera angles that make the cars look fast.  They all look so slow now.  Every broadcast.  Cameras move with the cars, all tight and everything, they look slow.  You don't get a sense of the speed.  When there's no sense of speed, it's only interesting when there are passes.  So then they have to create artificial passing for the viewer.  Instead they should just go back to cameras that make it look really fast.  Replace that grandstand-top camera with an HD one and you're good to go.  I'm all for having a lot of angles and things, but the main angle should illustrate the speed.  Speed is captivating, even more than passing.  Watch a video of someone really on it in a qualifying lap on the old style broadcast, where the cameras didn't move around much, then watch an overtake on today's cameras.  I can't see where the latter is more compelling.

So, for Indy, you can get away with being 10 mph slower than last year by making the cars look faster by using cameras that really highlight how fast 213 is.

[HandyNZL]

Bear in mind that these are new cars and they have not been developed over seven years like the last ones, and they are using new engines with few available spares.

It takes time to get the balance of the guy set, and AFAIK they don't use telemetry like F1 - it's more about the driver giving feedback - as it should be.

[Massa]

Chevrolet and Honda have well over 40 engines each.  Lotus have no spares, and therefore aren't testing.

But I agree, it's a new car...it's just that the aerokit they are running was never intended to be used.  Hadn't seen wind tunnel time before Wheldon gave it the first go at Mid-Ohio last year.  It's just...weird.  But they are faster than last time at Indy, marginally.

ALMS: two Dodge Vipers later in the year (least surprising news ever).  Viper also at Le Mans in 2013.  Using #91, just like the old days.  Dominik Farnbacher, Marc Goossens, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Kuno Wittman will drive.  Wittman joins a long list of Canadians in the Dodge fold; Andrew Ranger has Dodge support, as does Maryeve Dufault, and Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Tagliani, etc. have carried Dodge colors before.  Dodge have a very large presence building cars in Canada and all that.  I'd love to see Ranger in a GT car; he is a very hard racer, used to be Hamilton's teammate for something like two races in Formula Renault UK (a reward for winning the North American Formula Renault title), decent Champ Car guy, good in stock cars.  I'd also like to see David Donohue return, he's a local guy (both from Morris County, NJ, where I no longer live), and ran the Oreca Dodge at Le Mans a decade or so ago.  And Robby Gordon, Dodge guy in NASCAR, Daytona 24 champ, that'd be incredible.  Never going to happen.

Hunter-Reay is a Chevy guy in IndyCar, as you know, but his Dodge connections go back to when he raced in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge National Championship...later rebranded and run by a certain Sergio Pérez...

[Rainmaster]

I hate to post here again, but I must agree with what Eric said about cameras, cars looking fast, etc. It's so right.

[HandyNZL]

Just ditch your HD television sets then...go back to a big clunky CRT and watch all those colours blur

[HandyNZL]

Oh, and it's OK - we won't hate you for posting

But I have been meaning to ask the meaning behind the carpet bit...

[HandyNZL]

Massa, on 04 April 2012 - 09:21 PM, said:

Chevrolet and Honda have well over 40 engines each.  Lotus have no spares, and therefore aren't testing.

But I agree, it's a new car...it's just that the aerokit they are running was never intended to be used.  Hadn't seen wind tunnel time before Wheldon gave it the first go at Mid-Ohio last year.  It's just...weird.  But they are faster than last time at Indy, marginally.

ALMS: two Dodge Vipers later in the year (least surprising news ever).  Viper also at Le Mans in 2013.  Using #91, just like the old days.  Dominik Farnbacher, Marc Goossens, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Kuno Wittman will drive.  Wittman joins a long list of Canadians in the Dodge fold; Andrew Ranger has Dodge support, as does Maryeve Dufault, and Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Tagliani, etc. have carried Dodge colors before.  Dodge have a very large presence building cars in Canada and all that.  I'd love to see Ranger in a GT car; he is a very hard racer, used to be Hamilton's teammate for something like two races in Formula Renault UK (a reward for winning the North American Formula Renault title), decent Champ Car guy, good in stock cars.  I'd also like to see David Donohue return, he's a local guy (both from Morris County, NJ, where I no longer live), and ran the Oreca Dodge at Le Mans a decade or so ago.  And Robby Gordon, Dodge guy in NASCAR, Daytona 24 champ, that'd be incredible.  Never going to happen.

Hunter-Reay is a Chevy guy in IndyCar, as you know, but his Dodge connections go back to when he raced in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge National Championship...later rebranded and run by a certain Sergio Pérez...

So if my maths is right, 21 cars have either a Honda or a Chev, right?...so that's two engines per car, roughly?  The smaller teams might only have one still?

Just one spare engine is not enough for the sort of engineering that they do...by that I mean, full strip downs and rebuilds after every race.  Sure, our 40-year old engines in the back of our FFords are not stripped down every race, but they are after every 50-hours (about a season and a bit), and we have two spares between two cars.

In short, there's still not nearly enough engines and spares to push the cars at the moment.  There just won't be enough blocks or heads.

[Massa]

HandyNZL, on 05 April 2012 - 09:53 AM, said:

So if my maths is right, 21 cars have either a Honda or a Chev, right?...so that's two engines per car, roughly?  The smaller teams might only have one still?

Just one spare engine is not enough for the sort of engineering that they do...by that I mean, full strip downs and rebuilds after every race.  Sure, our 40-year old engines in the back of our FFords are not stripped down every race, but they are after every 50-hours (about a season and a bit), and we have two spares between two cars.

In short, there's still not nearly enough engines and spares to push the cars at the moment.  There just won't be enough blocks or heads.

No, about four per car.  Honda have over forty, Chevrolet have over forty.  No teams have any engines; they are all leased (well, technically, Penske has all the Chevrolet engines because he owns Ilmor who are leasing them).  The supplier (Ilmor, HPD, Judd) keep and maintain all the engines, and bring them to the track.  They are then "randomly" assigned (always been corruption in the engine pool in the Honda days) each race.  A team can request an engine change and the supplier gives them one of the spares.  If the engine change is not necessary, it's a grid penalty.  If it is necessary, it is not a grid penalty.  The supplier can also withdraw an engine from a team and give them a different one at their own discretion; if the team did not request this, it is not a penalty (Honda did this for Dario Franchitti like every week last year...you really think Ganassi didn't request it?  There were Ilmor Honda engines and Judd Honda engines in the pool and one was better than the other).  So theoretically a team has access to about 30 engines (40 total, 10 for the other cars).

That may not still be enough but the teams aren't involved in engine maintenance at all and they couldn't break 215 in the simulators (pre-aero update).  Not like it really matters a whole lot but Power's convinced they will not be able to hit 220.

But just put on a good race at whatever speed, a race good enough I won't be complaining that I don't like the cars and that the engines don't sound as good as I wanted them to and the camera angles are terrible and blah blah blah.  The best laps of last year's Indy 500 were run well below 200.