Clicky

Jump to content

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Pucky the Whale

Racing Of The United States Variety

Recommended Posts

Your entries for the Firestone Twin 275s from the Texas Motor Speedway...so plentiful, in fact, they are in rows of three! 30 cars will take to Saturday night's double-header in Fort Worth.

Special considerations:

Hélio Castroneves wears the AAA Insurance colors again.

J.R. Hildebrand reverts to the usual camo from the different livery he had at Indy.

Ryan Briscoe gets Guidepoint GPS on his sidepods.

Paul Tracy is in Dragon's 8 with Motegi Racing branding.

Dario Franchitti gets the Huggies sponsorship. His teammates Scott and Graham would be better fits, but after the stink about not being able to conserve fuel, well...

Davey Hamilton returns in the 11 car.

James Jakes' new Acorn livery from Indy sticks. Now he'll actually get to race it.

Alex Lloyd in the 19 again. That's what I like to see.

Mike Conway's 27 has the Hire Heroes program on it again. I assume they have no sponsor this weekend and are just trying to do anything to make up for Indy. Andretti should know better. Nothing makes up for Indy.

Three SSM cars: Jay Howard (through Rahal) with Service Central, Wade Cunningham with Creatherm, and, of course, Alex Tagliani. Wade will succeed.

Check out the spotters' guide:

http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/Texas_Spotter_Web.pdf

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Prelude to the Dream from the dirt track Eldora Speedway is tomorrow night!

Stars of American racing will drive dirt late models for charity. Awesome event...

Racing for Levine Children's Hospital:

Jimmie Johnson (Sprint Cup)

Denny Hamlin (Sprint Cup)

Bill Elliott (retired Sprint Cup)

David Reutimann (Sprint Cup)

Austin Dillon (Camping World Truck)

Ryan Evernham (former Sprint Cup team owner and crew chief, NASCAR on ESPN analyst)

Cruz Pedregon (NHRA)

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta:

Ryan Newman (Sprint Cup)

Carl Edwards (Sprint Cup)

Clint Bowyer (Sprint Cup)

Joey Logano (Sprint Cup)

Ken Schrader (he's raced everything...literally)

David Gilliland (Sprint Cup)

Ron Capps (NHRA)

St. Louis Children's Hospital:

Kyle Busch (Sprint Cup)

Kasey Kahne (Sprint Cup)

Bobby Labonte (Sprint Cup)

Justin Allgaier (Nationwide)

Kenny Wallace (Nationwide)

Ron Hornaday (Camping World Truck)

Ricky Carmichael (Camping World Truck, formerly motocross)

Children's Medical Center of Dallas:

Tony Stewart (Sprint Cup)

Tony Kanaan (IndyCar)

Matt Kenseth (Sprint Cup)

Brian Vickers (Sprint Cup)

Marcos Ambrose (Sprint Cup)

Aric Almirola (Nationwide)

Dave Blaney (Sprint Cup)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ever complain about commentary and TV production?

Well, don't. It will never be worse than this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI2wTfHvaBM#t=04m08s

Problem: when Justin Allgaier ran out of fuel, the commentators declared Trevor Bayne the winner. A car flew past and crossed the stripe and the director decided to zoom in and follow that car while the commentators celebrated Trevor Bayne's victory on return from whatever illness has sidelined him for so long. Which is great...except that the car that they thought won was Kevin Lepage, 7 laps down in the 52 car. Bayne was a long distance back in third. Allgaier won.

It's bad when one commentator gets screwed up. All three had no clue what was going on. Making it worse was the director just assuming the 52 car was Bayne. Hilarious...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Grand-Am looking to expand the 2012 schedule. Could include Indy. The ISC ties deepen. Street circuits also mentioned.

Big sports car news is coming Thursday from what I've been told. No specification if that refers to homegrown sports cars, or the ones that race in Eurasia, or the entire world of sports car racing. But I guess it's going to be big. Anyone have any info? I'll feel stupid if there's nothing announced. :P

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Marco Andretti broke his 79 race dry spell and won the Iowa 250....quite a good race...some close passes, and I was a bit gutted to see Sato hit that wall towards the end - he had been going great guns...qualified on pole, running top 3....smash.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Jimmie Johnson's streak of five titles doesn't look likely to become six. Tenth after two races in the Chase, and just not running well. His epic save when racing with Kyle Busch is part of why he's so damn good; surrounding himself with the best and just being so damn clever are among that (I still insist the only time I've ever gotten excited by a driver is watching Jimmie Johnson defend a lead or try to set up an overtake for it...yes, they have to set up on ovals, too...god that guy is just so tricky. He fools everyone, every time. I'm so glad he's actually a decent guy because he's exactly the kind of driver I'd like to support).

I never would have expected Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski, two of the lowest seeds, to be among the favorites at this stage. Still hoping for Jeff Gordon to put it all together; there won't be many more chances like this one. He could race and be competitive until he's 105, but he'll retire young-ish. Stewart will probably race into his 70s and still be a damn fine driver...

Really going to be fun to see if Johnson can turn it around, if Stewart can keep up this form, if Keselowski's for real, and if any of the guys lurking like Harvick, Edwards, Kenseth, Gordon can turn it up a level.

The Loudon race was actually pretty fun; watch it if you have a chance.

I'd mention some things about ALMS but the rumors contradict each other hourly. So I'll just let them announce it. I think now we're talking about are we still with the ACO (I hope not), will Dyson add a third car, where will the factory Dodge Viper run in GT...and some other stuff. I think Team Muscle Milk is having talks about running an Audi of some sort or the new HPD LMP1...or just running Grand-Am when ALMS whores itself out to ACO's rules further.

The new Grand-Am car isn't half-bad looking. Once they get to a point where Jim France doesn't subsidize the weak prototype field...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

IndyCar is shown in the United Kingdom on some obscure subscription channel late at night. The U.K. has 1/5 the population of the U.S. 120,000 people watched the Kentucky Indy 300 in the U.K.

Meanwhile, 188,000 people watched the same race in the U.S. on second-tier cable that most households have. The NASCAR race from Dover, televised simultaneously, scored around 4,000,000 viewers in the U.S. while NFL football obviously won overall.

The last race, at Motegi, scored 112,000 American viewers.

The attendance for Kentucky was less than 15,000 people. My local short track has had more than that for modified races.

Good night, IndyCar.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Perspective:

While only 188k bothered to watch all-American underdogs Ed Carpenter and Sarah Fisher win an oval race in the heart of the country, the average Formula One race of all foreigners running single-file in their foreign cars on foreign tracks at times ranging from 5 AM to 8 AM depending on your coast scores 939k viewers on SPEED, a channel in about as many households (if not less) than VERSUS. This is, admittedly, pretty ****ty, too.

Of the 188k fans, you will find some pretty unappealing demographics for sponsors. Most fans are rather old, rather low income, and rather concentrated in Marion County. A niche sport like American Le Mans finds ways to be profitable with high attendance, an improving TV deal (I was against it at first but now that they televise them same-day or next-day with four live next year, it's not so bad), and having an average fan income of $100,000.

Meanwhile, IndyCar fails to recognize itself as a niche sport, and instead alienates the niche with a poor product while trying to appeal to the masses with gimmicks that continue to fail.

Where Randy Bernard cannot make his $5,000,000 Challenge even materialize, he becomes the ultimate moron: he brushes real issues (like race control, the rampant cheating, etc) aside with the "uh well I dunno uh new car uh uhhhhh" card and tries to hide behind the fact he's a "marketer." Here to sell the product, not fix it. Yet everything he's done to sell it has failed, and TV ratings have dropped to record lows, attendance is way off, tracks are falling off the schedule like crazy, no new casual fans have been found, and a sport with few "hardcore" fans to lose has, well, lost a lot of them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

American fans watch NASCAR because it's mostly American drivers driving cars that look like the ones in their driveway with sponsors they can identify with. There's also a heritage there with familiar legendary names like Petty and Earnhardt. It's familiar and doesn't require much thought to grasp the technology or the rules or the racecraft involved.

Open-wheel has a longer heritage in America, but it's filled with foreigners driving weird-looking cars with odd sponsors. The racecraft and technology involved is over most American's heads. And, more importantly, they've already invested a bunch of emotions in NASCAR..why switch?

Open wheel racing in 'merica is a dead sport. Let it die.

Torrent the BBC coverage of F1 and leave it at that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

V8 Supercars live on SPEED tonight at 7 PM ET. Bathurst 1000. Big downside? Darrell Waltrip is on the broadcast. Mike Joy will be there, too, but he's a great commentator who has called NASCAR, F1, Indy, baseball, ice skating, and more. I do expect he and Leigh Diffey to make a lot of "this is sort of like NASCAR but..." statements. Darrell will just spew.

But beggars can't be choosers. We get live stock car racing on SPEED. That's cool. Gold Coast 600 will also be live, and without Darrell.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Why wouldn't they take the Aussie commentator feed? The pictures are for Aussie, so when they go into the pits and do the (many) pit wanders and talking to the team managers, what is someone like Waltrip going to say...er this is some geezer called, um, d#ck Johnson, and um, he's kind of like, um, some team owner...would he even know DJ has won upteen times at Bathurst???

Anyways, enjoy one of the best races in the world, and possibly, the best endurance race in the world.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Why wouldn't they take the Aussie commentator feed? The pictures are for Aussie, so when they go into the pits and do the (many) pit wanders and talking to the team managers, what is someone like Waltrip going to say...er this is some geezer called, um, d#ck Johnson, and um, he's kind of like, um, some team owner...would he even know DJ has won upteen times at Bathurst???

Anyways, enjoy one of the best races in the world, and possibly, the best endurance race in the world.

The goal was to establish a connection to the typical SPEED viewer, who is a NASCAR fan. With the Austin race coming up eventually, they basically want to lure NASCAR fans in and show them true stock car racing. Mike Joy is a brilliant commentator, and they did have Leigh Diffey and Calvin Fish handle the pits. They all know their stuff and did a good job there. Darrell, well, he was there to offer a perspective of someone "learning" the V8 Supercars since they expected a lot of viewers who didn't know much about them (though SPEED actually airs every race the next week, and it has a decent following. Hell, I think BTCC has more viewers in their winter re-airs than IndyCar, and it should, since it's good stuff). I'll give D.W. some credit: he obviously did his research and stuck to his notes for a lot of the broadcast. The only real annoyances weren't that he had no clue what he was saying, but more that he was saying things like he was some expert who had raced these cars and won in them and driven the track before.

I didn't see the whole thing, but I liked what I did see. I'm a touring cars and sports cars guy more so than open-wheel, so it's no surprise. Looking forward to the live Gold Coast 600 next, and with the Aussie commentators this time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The last few laps were great...Tander and Lowndes putting in qualifying times on destroyed tyres...finished 0.2secs apart after 1000km of racing...great stuff...and Tander's co-driver was the youngest winner in a long long time, and first rookie in 30-years to win the race. Lots of the usual tangles with the walls, and tangles between cars. Bathurst always throws something up good....no 'roo's on the circuit this year though.

Gold Coast can be a bit monotonous - not many overtaking spots...but usually lot's of yellows because of guys trying to pass where one would think it impossible. And throw in the "celebrity" drivers and you get a real lottery. I expect a lot of the guys that raced as the co-drivers last year will fare better this year.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I want to keep this out of my Wheldon thread, so I'll say some things here about the day after:

I do think it's important for IndyCar to take a serious look at itself, the style of racing it is doing, the safety of the tracks, the safety of the cars this winter. Not today, not tomorrow, but before we go racing at the season-opener in St. Petersburg (Dan's American hometown).

So I certainly see where some opinions are coming from. I know we all have our ideas. And I know we all cope differently. For some, getting to the issue is the only way to handle this. It's not meant as disrespect.

I can get that.

But what I can't justify...is some of this media coverage. Some of these people who didn't know what the IZOD IndyCar World Championship race even was, or who Dan Wheldon was, just two days ago. Now they're on TV or writing articles as "experts." They're spreading ideas, they're telling people what the problems are, they're telling them the solutions, they're giving auto racing a very bad name. But they aren't the people with the knowledge, and none of us are the people who have taken some time to get collected, and then even more time to think on it.

It was nice to see many in auto racing offering their support to Dan's family and the IndyCar community.

But I also see many drivers who have never raced in IndyCar telling IndyCar what the problems are and how to fix them. I am seeing a lot of elitism in series like NASCAR or F1, "we're safer than you." And maybe so. Maybe what they say is right. It just seems disrespectful.

The people I care to hear from, are the ones so deeply effected they aren't talking yet. Because they know, that the best ideas, will come in time, if they decide ideas are needed.

I know there's a lot of talk. Talk about Randy Bernard's future running the sport. Talk about Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Tomas Scheckter, Will Power, Simona de Silvestro, Paul Tracy, and many others leaving IndyCar or racing in general. And I'm sure all parties are reflecting on that. I'm sure none of them conclusively know what they want to do next year.

And they shouldn't have to know.

I don't have the answers. I don't know the problems. But I don't like to see other people, like me, talking. If you can talk about it now, it's very likely you weren't close to the situation. If you were, you just couldn't be ready to tackle these issues.

Just my $0.02. I like the tribute of showing both the 2005 and 2011 Indy 500s on ESPN Classic tonight. But it's the same network that phrased a headline: "Danica ends IndyCar career on tragic day." That was the ultimate in classlessness barring some comments made on what used to be Champ Car Fanatics and is now but an ***hole, and many of us let them know it.

It's sad to see this be the day after. They give us a few hours to think about it, and now we're supposed to have answers now. And not even our own answers. The ones someone who would confuse IndyCar with F1 or think the Indy 500 was a NASCAR race gives us on a news shows.

Tell me when Dr. Steve Olvey talks. Tell me when Tony Kanaan talks. Tell me when Dario Franchitti talks. Tell me when Randy Bernard, Brian Barnhart, and Tony Cotman talk. Bruton Smith. Marshall Pruett, Gordon Kirby.

Though we all know none of them will for a while.

Because we all know they get it. They respect it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Whilst the author may or may not be an expert, Eric...at least they have put together something credible, and with peer-comment.

Clicky

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fryer's well-respected in NASCAR by everyone but Kurt Busch, who grabs transcripts from her hand and tears them in half...

But anyway. That was better than a lot of what's getting thrown around.

Alex Tagliani said he talked with Randy Bernard, and it seems like getting rid of the rear wings for the ovals only, as well as having wheel covers, and a different nose/front wing are on the table. The theory is to reduce downforce to reduce speed by making the drivers have to lift/brake in the corners at ovals, like they do in NASCAR.

If it gets rid of the packs, it's the right thing to do. The pack racing's not going to work and, quite honestly, as irrelevant as this is, the pack racing is very monotonous to watch.

There's another line of thinking from drivers like Tomas Scheckter, who believe they actually need to make the cars faster, to force the drivers to brake. But, while I don't want to blame the drivers here, umm...let's just say NASCAR and F1 have much more, uh, qualified, fields than some of the ones that show up for Indy. No disrespect is meant, and I don't think driver inexperience played much of a role if any at Las Vegas, but I really wouldn't trust a lot of these guys to handle faster cars. They'd just try to hold it flat anyway, and it'd be even worse...

Paul Tracy, who is considering retirement, has suggested a few ideas, including closed c#ckpits like an LMP1, and replacing fencing with a ballistic plexi-glass-like thing. The latter idea actually came from Tony George years ago, but the money wasn't there. George was, of course, the real proponent of the SAFER barrier.

Of course, all the ideas coming from the Indy people may not matter: the FIA is investigating. Because Indy was a U.S.-only series at the time of Paul Dana's passing, this is the FIA's first chance to tell Indy what to do.

I don't mind the FIA giving suggestions, though I think their safety record is a bit overstated (not saying they don't do a good job, I just think they toot their own horn a lot. They still have some vulnerabilities, as any series does). But the problem is the FIA are very...forceful. If the FIA think they know everything about Indy racing and oval racing, and they sure as hell do not, and decide to just force their ideas, I'd rather see Bernard cancel Toronto, Edmonton, São Paolo, and Qingdao if he has to to get out from under them.

I'm not saying FIA won't come up with anything useful. But they certainly frighten me with their power and I think Indy will take care of itself, though it should certainly welcome suggestions from the FIA, NASCAR, etc. and be able to make the final decision independently. I just have the feeling the FIA will basically say they don't approve the 2012 calendar unless they make the changes they say.

I'll wait and see what the FIA have to say...it could very well be the best advice ever. I just don't like that we're obligated to follow it given FIA's power, and I just don't like that a lot of people in the racing world, trying to help as they may, are just coming off as arrogant about it all.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On another note, I know a lot of people hate Indy's "no-blocking" rule, which was loosened a bit this year.

But I hope those people now understand it.

I tried to illustrate it with a what if...

Blocking didn't cause this accident.

But now I hope those people can see that, at 220 mph, if a car chop-blocks and another goes over the rear wheels given the fact that it all happens so fast at 220 mph (and so slowly at 60 seconds a minute afterward in the waiting) and you really can't do anything even if you're 300 feet behind, let alone right on a guy's tail...

That's why they have the blocking rule. I would still be fine with three new people in race control in next year (we'll have at least one given Al Unser, Jr.'s personal issues), but Barnhart was right with his no-blocking rule. Maybe not everything they called was "blocking," but that's another story.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

And while I advocate modifications to an already modified oval car...

...I would certainly listen to drivers talking about Las Vegas as the wrong place to be.

Even Andrew Ranger, who raced in Champ Car when the track had just 12° of banking, said it was just too tight for the speed. The cars stick to the track too well; the bumpier Kentucky had lower speeds.

For 2012, the ovals are:

1. Indianapolis - given many races end in fuel strategy, with some cars running 150 mph and others running 215, accidents like Conway's happen. And while Conway survived, had he hit the fence at a different angle...we'd have been where we are now a year earlier.

2. Texas - similar layout to Las Vegas, though with higher banking, and slower whether that was due to engine tuning or the surface not being as sticky. But you only have to look at Davey Hamilton getting in the fencing there in 2001, and requiring 27 surgeries and six years to return to racing, to know how dangerous that can be. Not to mention Kenny Bräck's unbelievably 214 G impact into the fence at Texas a few years after that. Both survived, but again, you change a few inches, and it's identical to Wheldon's wreck.

3. Iowa - a short track. No concerns.

4. Las Vegas - no longer as certain to return, but obviously, a problem.

So if you look at it...I think the first 3 would be fine with car changes. I don't think the layouts are as dangerous as the formula. Las Vegas? I'd blacklist it, personally. Champ Car had a brilliant street circuit layout, or there could be a new one. LVMS itself has an infield road course, so if you want to run a roval, you could try that.

Just some thoughts.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

And while I advocate modifications to an already modified oval car...

...I would certainly listen to drivers talking about Las Vegas as the wrong place to be.

Even Andrew Ranger, who raced in Champ Car when the track had just 12° of banking, said it was just too tight for the speed. The cars stick to the track too well; the bumpier Kentucky had lower speeds.

For 2012, the ovals are:

1. Indianapolis - given many races end in fuel strategy, with some cars running 150 mph and others running 215, accidents like Conway's happen. And while Conway survived, had he hit the fence at a different angle...we'd have been where we are now a year earlier.

2. Texas - similar layout to Las Vegas, though with higher banking, and slower whether that was due to engine tuning or the surface not being as sticky. But you only have to look at Davey Hamilton getting in the fencing there in 2001, and requiring 27 surgeries and six years to return to racing, to know how dangerous that can be. Not to mention Kenny Bräck's unbelievably 214 G impact into the fence at Texas a few years after that. Both survived, but again, you change a few inches, and it's identical to Wheldon's wreck.

3. Iowa - a short track. No concerns.

4. Las Vegas - no longer as certain to return, but obviously, a problem.

So if you look at it...I think the first 3 would be fine with car changes. I don't think the layouts are as dangerous as the formula. Las Vegas? I'd blacklist it, personally. Champ Car had a brilliant street circuit layout, or there could be a new one. LVMS itself has an infield road course, so if you want to run a roval, you could try that.

Just some thoughts.

TMS was, iirc, the place where the Champcar (might have still been CART back then) drivers, lead by Mikey Andretti, complained that the speeds were so high the Gs were pulling the blood from their heads. They called the race, I think. Too dangerous.

Ovals are not the place for modern open-wheelers. They generate too much downforce and reach dangerous speeds. Contact often results in injuries that wouldn't have happened from the same contact on a road course.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...