As if Dixon wasn't far enough ahead already, Penske has lost its two primary cars to fire.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ind...s-primary-cars/

I'll Tony Kanaan or a CCWS boy on this race

Ouch. That hurts. No cell phone coverage?

Guess whose transporter drivers are about to get equipped with satellite phones?

There's nothing like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted..............................

Just because one horse has left you don't leave the barn door open.

Not only that, but I imagine other teams will be looking into the same thing.

They should hold out for TG/Honda buxs!

They should go to one of the Champ Car teams and ask for assistance

Who was their "partner" team during the transition? I can picture it now: "Um, 'member when we lent you stuff?"

It was going to be Walker I think.

Sucks that PT is not in for this race

Anyone here that Dixon is heading to ALMS next year?

At this rate all Don Panoz has to do in a few years is rip off a little body work and he'll have the market cornered for OW racing in the States - having the majority of OW racers - teams and venues from the past.

Except the Porsches are probably on their way out, AGR may be closing their ALMS team, etc. I think Dixon just wants to do some extra stuff, I wouldn't trade a top IRL ride for a top ALMS ride. For starters I wouldn't get anywhere near the money, or even the mileage.

Where have you heard this???

Autosport (mag) have the Porsche stuff, SpeedTV.com had the AGR stuff both in the Robin Miller stories about Tony Kanaan and in the ALMS rumour blog thingy from Marshall Pruett.



I wonder if the rumour from a few weeks back about Roger wanting to supply engines to the IRL and Porsche maybe not doing ALMS anymore, if we could see "Porsches" in Indycar but built, run, and perhaps even sold; by Penske.

U.S. TV coverage? Where & when?

Danica seems to be on form today.

is it on now?:$

No - the source was wrong - the intent of agreement by Porsche was neve even on anyone's radar.... Just never happened.

I see that the censors are in today, a mild interchange having disappeared, when in other threads all sorts of insults are allowed to stand - Odd.

Cavin's notes from the race:

Turbos return in 2011, probably with a six cylinder block, and Castroneves quickest in practice (fire, what fire?).

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...8/1052/SPORTS01

Anyone know why Wheldon hasn't appeared?

Hello! He's suddenly appeared on the live timing chart, after the session had "finished", having, apparently, done 4 laps and been 5th fastest.

Mike Conway tested with PAnther racing. What does that mean? Is he going to race IndyCars in '09? Could someone, please, shed light on that?

Someone post Qualifying please. Good to see turbos back in 2011 I vote for V-6s because I think they sound better. What size ou think for an engine? I say around 2.0 Liters to keep hp down.

He went fastest in the test and a lot of people are excited to potentially see him come over but like most things in the American open-wheel atmosphere, he's gotta' bring some cash.

Maybe Honda can fork over some backing to Panther [or whoever he may drive for] but without it, he may not make the field or may land a lesser ride.


I would like to see him in a second Panther car or maybe at Rahal-Letterman but that's dependent on finances.


A lot of people are also grumbling about the lack of progression from Indy Lights drivers like Alex Lloyd, Jay Howard, etc. Lights champions who don't have rides. Raphael Matos looks to have a ton of ability and has come up through American feeders [Atlantics and Lights] and may not even land a ride next season.

Qualifying:

Pos Driver Name Best Time Best Speed
1 Helio Castroneves (3) 1:16.9027 107.809
2 Ryan Briscoe (6) 1:16.9185 107.787
3 Will Power (8) 1:17.0875 107.551
4 Tony Kanaan (11) 1:17.1286 107.493
5 Scott Dixon (9) 1:17.6682 106.746
6 Oriol Servia (5) 1:17.8377 106.514
7 Justin Wilson (02) 1:17.0056 107.665
8 Ryan Hunter-Reay (17) 1:17.0378 107.620
9 Danica Patrick (7) 1:17.0458 107.609
10 Marco Andretti (26) 1:17.2705 107.296
11 Mario Dominguez (96) 1:17.4614 107.031
12 Mario Moraes (19) 1:17.5882 106.856
13 Bruno Junqueira (18) 1:17.8306 106.524
14 E.J. Viso (33) 1:17.4189 107.090
15 Graham Rahal (06) 1:17.9012 106.427
16 Dan Wheldon (10) 1:17.4738 107.014
17 Tomas Scheckter (12) 1:18.1238 106.124
18 Vitor Meira (4) 1:17.5399 106.923
19 Townsend Bell (23) 1:18.3267 105.849
20 Hideki Mutoh (27) 1:18.0038 106.287
21 Darren Manning (14) 1:18.3885 105.766
22 Buddy Rice (15) 1:18.1139 106.137
23 Ed Carpenter (20) 1:18.4034 105.745
24 A.J. Foyt IV (2) 1:18.3715 105.788
25 Marty Roth (25) 1:19.9435 103.708
26 Jaime Camara (34) 1:19.4711 104.325
27 Enrique Bernoldi (36) -0.0001 0.000

Burn your car, burn the field...

Displacement don't matter much with turbos.. the pop-off valve is going to dictate the output. Remember turbo 1.5 liters F1 engines?

The article says IRL plans to increase engine output to 750 BHP from current 650. I'm hoping they'll increase it more, to roughly 900-1000. That would really separate the men from the boys (and women from girls)

On qualifying, what an amazing job by Penske! Both their primary cars burn down and they still qualify 1-2! Great job!

Also glad to see Servia and Power up there, they really are the best team to come over from ChampCar. NHL are also doing quite well, although they are more inconsistent.

I see that Danica is also doing well... kudos to her!

Disappointed to see Wheldon, Mutoh and Rahal so far down. And I know the Vision boys are more "oval-oriented", but their performance was still shocking today!

Alex Lloyd breezed the IndyLights championship last year, and has only been allowed out once this year, so I don't fancy Conway's chances.

Conway has a lot of money, a much better CV, and the blessing of Honda. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get a ride.

Conway is not exactly distinguishing himself this year in Formula Renault (Large division).

He's in GP2, not World Series. He's also got an F3 title and Lloyd has an Indy Pro Series title no one cares about. Conway will be fine, LLoyd will end up in Grand-Am if he's lucky.

It was a joke Ross, if you look on the air box of a GP2 car you will see RENAULT writ large.

Thanks for the tip.

Not surprisingly, move to turbos is a popular move with drivers. Two to three manufacturers, plus Honda, purportedly interested in building a turbo engine.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ind...onoma-notebook/

Anybody got a book open on which lap Marco punts Danica off the circuit?

I hope they take each other out, they deserve each other.

Damn I love this track. Proper old school American classic, right up there with the likes of Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca. Although they might want to water the grass a bit more. And apart from that silly roundabout/extra loop bit, is that new/butchered?

They keep fixing things that ain't broke!

Is it NASCAR? Bumper racing

Can someone remind/remark as to who are the pay drivers/relatives/etc and who are there on merit?

All I can remember as far as non-meritorious ones is that one guy is TG's stepson or something, and Milka Duno (obviously not in the race) is "sponsored" by Hugo Chavez.

I imagine Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, and Vitor Meira are the real deal.

Let's leave Danica out of this, she clearly is overexposed, but certainly not one of the worst 5-10 drivers, either.

Three words: Marty Roth.

OK as a total dilettante, I'll take a stab: (BTW there's nepotism, meaning he's obviously there due to last name and has equaled his namesake (perhaps, in come cases, yet), and there's nepotism, which is, he's had every opportunity to show some talent and there's nothing there)

18 4 Meira, Vitor merit
19 23 Bell, Townsend merit
20 27 Mutoh, Hideki merit
17 12 Scheckter, Tomas nepotism
14 33 Viso, EJ meritEdit: see note
15 06 Rahal, Graham nepotism
16 10 Wheldon, Dan merit
25 25 Roth, Marty no idea[/COLOR]Edit: rich guy?
26 34 Camara, Jaime merit
27 36 Bernoldi, Enrique no idea
24 2 Foyt IV, AJ nepotism
21 14 Manning, Darren merit
22 15 Rice, Buddy merit
23 20 Carpenter, Ed nepotism(edit--this is the TG stepson)
4 11 Kanaan, Tony merit
5 9 Dixon, Scott merit
6 5 Servia, Oriol merit
1 3 Castroneves, Helio merit
2 6 Briscoe, Ryan merit
3 8 Power, Will merit
7 02 Wilson, Justin merit
11 96 Dominguez, Mario no idea
12 19 Moraes, Mario pay-to-playEdited
13 18 Junqueira, Bruno merit
8 17 Hunter-Reay, Ryan merit
9 7 Patrick, Danica this space intentionally left blank
10 26 Andretti, Marco nepotism

OK Marty Roth--nepotism or some other kind of favoritism?

EJ Viso--he's sponsored by PDVSA, which I know as "Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A." (Sociedad Anonima, or Corporation). Something tells me that he wouldn't be in IRL if he was Travis Galliano from Iowa.

Edit: Briscoe, Bell, & Hunter-Reay edited to be merit. Rahal & Scheckter are cursed by their last names (Didn't Bobby win a title & a 500, and didn't Jody win in F1? Correct me if I'm wrong.)

I suggest you reserve judgement until you actually know who any of these drivers are.

Uh, that's why I posted, to find out for real. Take my list and correct it, then. I'm obviously seeing every last one in action right now right this minute, and I'm also obviously never going to get to know more than a handful of them personally, at best.

Hunter-Reay, Rahal and Briscoe should definitely be under 'merit'. They've won races this year, and the first two are rare examples of that dying breed, OW-racing Americans. Townsend Bell has an Indy Lights title, whatever that means, and Tomas Scheckter worked miracles in an underfunded team once upon a time. As a human being, though...

IMO Dominguez will never recover from his 'victory' at Surfer's, and Bernoldi and Viso have decent, if unspectacular GP2/F3000 records. The latter is probably most famous for vaulting the barriers at Magny-Cours, the former for holding up David Coulthard. But leave a big question mark, or at least an asterisk, by anyone driving for a team that was in Champcar last season.

Duno and Roth are poison.

What's he done besides try to pick up a hooker?

Wow that made the F1 race look exciting.

Office Linebacker--Carpenter is the one who is Tony George's stepson.

Marty Roth is some rich guy. And Mario Moraes is pay to play.

Mutoh is there on Honda-bux, but doesn't suck.

http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php...y=&pagenumber=1

I suppose one shouldn't moralise, but 'Graham Hill without the class' possibly springs to mind.

What on earth was the meaning of that remark?

As in if you could imagine the attitude and behaviour of Graham Hill, and translated it into such a low-life schmuck as to eliminate his fine, human qualities, you'd have a pretty good approximation of Tomas Scheckter. I don't think Tomas won at Monaco even once, though...