Racing Of The United States Variety

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Practice two has concluded with Ryan Briscoe recovering nicely from his crash to top the charts. Yes, there is another Aussie in this game...

Dubya and the Hunter complete the would-be-podium, with Scott joining the usual crew in fourth. Alex Tagliani continues a strong weekend in fifth. Castroneves, Andretti, Meira, Wilson, and Servià the rest of your IZOD IndyCar Series top ten.

Franchitti still struggles for speed in P12, just ahead of James Hinchcliffe. Simona and Chuck way down in twenty-first and twenty-second respectively.

Paul Tracy's crash leaves him at the bottom of the score sheet, having logged just two laps in the session.

[HandyNZL 1]

C'mon Simona! Use that nuclear powerplant of yours!!

Thanks for the update Eric.

Expect Franchitti to copy some stuff from Dixon then drive off....damn cheatin' tootin' Scot.....

So much motorsport on for me this weekend...China GP, Longbeach GP and V8 Supercars sliding around a wet track just dwon the road from me....ahhhh...motorsport...

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Good night, American Le Mans.

Scott Atherton and Dr. Don Panoz did a wonderful job really ****ing around after last year, whoring themselves out to the ACO to get another ILMC snoozer of a Peugeot-Audifest and signing the worst broadcast contract in the history of sports.

In doing both of those things, they are now left with 2 LMP1s and 2 LMP2s at Long Beach, a race that was, in 2010, one of the best I've ever seen. And both of those LMP2s are from the same team; one is probably going to be withdrawn.

I've said all along that ACO rules would never work in ALMS and guess what? They don't. Having our own rules at the expense of not having the ILMC events at Sebring and Petit is definitely a worthwhile trade-off; both races always got bigger grids even without the ILMC.

And the TV contract, well, it's no coincidence the amount of money spent to develop the Abruzzi is equivalent to the amount of money Panoz used to pay to buy airtime on SPEED/CBS for the series. Not saying it was the right/wrong allocation, but the Abruzzi was built at the expense of the American Le Mans Series, so I wonder if, in retrospect, Panoz wishes he hadn't; all the teams and fans do.

A lot of ex-prototype teams are already talking to Randy Bernard about running INDYCAR next year, and with Grand-Am making some big moves (new DP and GT cars coming soon, new DTM support series), it's fair to say ALMS has died. I'll miss what it was, but I can't say I'll miss what it is now, especially when I can't see any of the "races."

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Final practice concludes with Ryan Briscoe on top once more. He's got to be starving for a NASCAR off-weekend so Nicole will be home to get a good result after the start he's had.

Dubya, Dixon, Franchitti, and Hunter-Reay are the top five. Sebastián Saavedra comes out of nowhere to take P6; Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Takuma Sato, and James Hinchcliffe follow. E.J. Viso doesn't crash, but Oriol Servià does (they end eleventh and twelfth).

Not doing as well as they should:

13. Castroneves

15. Rahal

16. Conway

17. Tagliani

18. Wilson

20. de Silvestro

21. Kimball

23. Bourdais

24. Tracy

25. Hildebrand

[HandyNZL 1]

Told ya that cheating Scot would nick Scott's data and move up the grid

TK doing well...for some reason I like him. No reason why. Not like he has flowing blonde locks to get all excited about......

[lewisthegreat2 0]

It's a hat trick of PEAK Performance Pole Awards for Will Power!

1. Will "Dubya" Power

2. Ryan Hunter-Reay

3. Mike Conway

4. Oriol Servià

5. Justin "Bad ***" Wilson

6. Hélio "Tax Cheat" Castroneves

7. Dario Franchitti

8. Scott "Handy's Man" Dixon

9. Alex "No ****ing Cars" Tagliani

10. Tony Kanaan

11. James "The Mayor" Hinchcliffe

12. Ryan "Newman" Briscoe

13. Vitor "Grizzly" Meira

14. Marco Andretti

15. Sebastián Saavedra

16. Graham "Starbucks" Rahal

17. E.J. Viso

18. Simona de Silvestro

19. Raphael "Chilli" Matos

20. Danica "Princess Sparkle Pony" Patrick

21. Sébastien Bourdais

22. Takuma Sato

23. James Jakes

24. Charlie Kimball

25. Paul Tracy

26. Ana Beatriz

27. J.R. "Captain America" Hildebrand

It's of interest to all that we have a new rivalry: Power and Dixon. Scott's ****ed about Power holding him up, and we all know about last weekend with the restarts. Rivalries are fun and Power's infinitely better than Dixon anyway. Quit being a sissy and go A.J. Foyt on him if you want to prove a point.

Or send Chip to fight your battles. I wouldn't screw around with the Chipster.

[HandyNZL 1]

Yeah he was getting a bit miffed at the restarts in 'bama. Justified too as he wasn't on his side of the track.

And the commentators got their wish then of bringing back the biff...or whatever it was he said....lol....gonna get good...but you do have to bear in mind that its an Aussie v Kiwi thing....they'll be playing to the media and having a good chuckle too...

[HandyNZL 1]

Oh and watch out for my other man in the 82 coming thru....

[lewisthegreat2 0]

If Kanaan does his usual gain ten spots on the start deal, he'll be in good position today.

Indy Lights and INDYCAR both live today, streaming at the usual place.

Talladega is live, too, and ought to be wild...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGKixxiOEM

That was yesterday.

[JHS 1]

Got the Indycar on right now. I missed the NASCAR, but from what I've seen online, it looks like it was an awesome finish! So much good racing has gone on this weekend.

[JHS 1]

Wow! Helio takes out Power. Uh-oh. Unhappy team mates.

[JHS 1]

Sato, Kimball and Saavedra also out. Caution out.

[JHS 1]

Hahah wow, Servia does an awesome job to avoid that crash infront of him and slot back in to the race after a quick spin.

[JHS 1]

Hunter-Reay with issues, almost takes another car out. That was silly, especially if he has problems on the car. Not a great fan of his.

Conway up to 1st!

[JHS 1]

Conway's a street track specialist. I remember him winning at Monaco in GP2 a few years back.

Great to see Hinchcliffe running so strongly too, go for the podium!

[JHS 1]

Power gets by Matos and back in the top ten. I imagine he's furious with Helio. 5 to go.

[JHS 1]

Wow. Didn't see that coming. Mike Conway takes his first Indycar victory. Briscoe second, Franchitti third. Hinchcliffe great result, fourth.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biAFUrtAJKA

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Big congratulations have to go out to Mike Conway for coming from ****ing nowhere to win his first IZOD IndyCar Series race! Wild Ginger finally learned how to finish one.

His move on the restart to get to fourth, by the way, was all hamburgers. Impressive.

Ryan Briscoe had great strategy today; he must have no idea what hit him. The man calling the shots, of course, is Roger Penske, so that explains why the strategy was so good...

...and speaking of Penske, I don't want to be Hélio Castroneves or Will Power today. Chip Ganassi's funny when he's angry; Roger Penske isn't.

Sébastien Bourdais let two ****s slip on the air today; brilliant stuff. Gotta love cable. I'm sure someone somewhere with a little kid was really really angry that their child might have maybe heard and repeated it, but I think it's great TV to let the emotions air unadulterated. Big Man Award to Marco; grew up and confessed to it all being his fault. I was hoping secretly that he wouldn't, if only to see Bourdais fight him. Hey, it would have been a great lead-in to the Canucks/Blackhawks NHL match tonight on VERSUS... (don't talk to me about the Bruins, but hey, the Rangers finally got a W).

Sucks big ones for Servià to get caught up in the Penske boys' crapping of the bed, but he recovered nicely to take sixth. Great start to the season for him, and purely Servià-esque to be so consistent. Great personality, too. Speaking of Newman/Haas and great personalities, anyone want to tell me who finished fourth? Nice weekend for young Canadians, with Wickens being pretty good in the WSR, too (Wickens is a Marussia-backed driver, by the way, and if we can get him in the MVR next year I'll tune in and go in Scott Speed denial mode and defend his every move...but I will, at the very least, be watching F1 for once ).

Can't fault Danica for her drive today. Nothing special, nothing stupid. She's a much better oval racer, she showed some spark (not much), and to just salvage good points before the stretch that starts with one of her best tracks (Indy herself) is good enough. I doubt Michael expected his two best-placing drivers to be Mike and Danica.

Really tough break for Hunter-Reay, though I'm not sure why he ran Meira up there. No point when your car is dead. I've always liked RHR, but he's been a bit annoying since he joined Andretti's team. Then again, that's just the culture there. Very high-strung team.

Paul Tracy's over-hyped return amounted to nothing. I'm not surprised. Time for fresh blood; Paul's all hot air these days.

Not much else to say. Race was a super snoozer until the last mess of a million accidents all on one lap; the final 16 laps salvaged this puppy. On to São Paulo we go...

[lewisthegreat2 0]

I thought of something else I want to say.

The restarts today could have been thought out a little better, I think. There's no way to form double-file off of turn eleven, and the drivers weren't exactly going to try their damnedest to do so. Solution? Have the restart line be different than the start/finish. There's a long back stretch (Seaside Way) if they don't know, and it could be easier to form up there. Come on guys, get creative...

[JHS 1]

I did wonder about the restarts, hardly looked like double file to me for most of what I saw. Only about the top 4-6 cars would form up, everyone else AWOL.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Some funny mistakes on the broadcast today, but I have to say that INDYCAR on VERSUS has been a large success.

Jenkins is still messing a lot of things up, but he has a lot more energy this year with Wally Dallenbach alongside, and Dallenbach's always been a brilliant analyst. Beekhuis, too, is really good, and plays well with Wally.

And on pit road, Lindy Thackston's always been good (she should replace Bob in the booth...I'm serious), Kevin Lee's turning out to be solid, and Marty Snider has been absolutely flawless in his new role. You'd never know Marty's only really covered NASCAR prior to this. Perfect delivery. Pit road team is great, and any of the three would work in the booth as play-by-play, I think (Jenkins has to be close to retirement).

Then there's Robin Miller. An odd addition to the broadcast, but I like it.

Above all, the VERSUS team have chemistry. They all know each other and like each other, and I think that's facilitated by Dallenbach and Snider's days with NASCAR on NBC where there was always a lot of commentator-to-commentator banter. The ABC team all lack talent, and they also lack any ability to gel with one another. Really enjoy these races on VERSUS; even the boring parts are watchable because of the team doing such a good job.

Still some production stuff to work through, and Jenkins' age shows (he's truly an American sportscasting legend), but the broadcasts have been great these last two weeks.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

And if I'm Roger Penske, I'm scouting some talent for 2012. One of these three has to go bye-bye (though Penske may just cut back to two cars). Hell, I'd have fired them all after today. Dubya looks like Viso out there when he was on cold tires (but then again, Long Beach : Power :: Indy : Andretti; did anyone kiss Will in 2008?), Hélio's looks like Viso all the time (must be distracted; it is tax season after all, and he actually has to pay them now), and Ryan was the highlight of the race for the team (when the highlight is a sloppy weekend and eventually losing the race...)

It's just been a bad start to the season for all of their boys and if they come home without Indy and without a title again, Roger best not be soft.

[HandyNZL 1]

Shhh...JHS...good job Cav's definition of motorsport only extends to F1, otherwise he would be in here calling you a troll for posting about the race and not looking at the live timing board to determine that if x driver didn't finish in 8th then he had the speed and lap times to win the race....

Just finished watching the highlights...kudos to Conway..he was racey at the start but then got bumped down to 19th at one stage...nice fight back up the grid..

Marco Marco Marco....you may have the name, but the gene has deteriorated over the generations...

Princess Sparkle Pony just chugged along today and picked up 7th....kind of like a Force India driver

And Viso....oh boyyyeee....

[lewisthegreat2 0]

I wish Cav's definition of the Internet extended only to Neopets. Even when I watch, I can't even be bothered to go into F1 Discussions when he's around...(heheheheh this is like a PM because no one else will read it).

Scott Dixon is angry at Hélio Castroneves. He is justified in that. Castroneves has been relentlessly sloppy this year and, at times, blatantly.