obviously my twitter-autosport conversion rate is better than yours.

When does practice start, and at which time is qualifying on?

Am too busy watching the (real) rugby!

Only got local times.

Practices: 9:00- 10:30, 12:30-1:30

Qualifying: 3:30- 5:00

Sunday warm up: 9:00- 9:30

Race: 1:00-3:30

They've run 3 practice sessions and the track is so bumpy down the main straight that the race may not even go ahead. How can organizations be so fvcking unprofessional that this happens?

Neil

The concerns arose because it is slippery, not bumpy as you oddly and incorrectly say, in a very specific area (even though it is as bumpy as any street circuit in other places)... In the concrete area the Samba Shows happen (some 500 metres, those very white ones)... And they used higher standards than Indy requires, btw, so they were a little bit more professional whilst building the track than your post would suggest...

Had the stream running earlier. The track at that straight is so slippery that cars are spinning out on it. Must be extremely difficult to put the pedal down. Looked like they were driving on ice.

Qualifying has been postponed to tomorrow morning local time. Commentators said during the night there will be some kind of diamond mills trying to harshen the surface. So hopefully they can drive there tomorrow.

yes...
let's wait and see what happens tomorrow... but the biggest issue is not the bumpiness of the track (and the whole track is very bumpy) but the lack of grip in the finish/start straight, the cars just slides a lot, they are not using full throttle in that straight, they are running with a high gear but even so they are struggling a lot to keep the car going straight...

I hope whatever they will do fix this

A little bit of info can be found here as well. Perhaps those threads should be merged, dunno.

You're right of course about the slipperiness, not sure why I said bumpy, although I suspect it's because that's also obvious on the video. It doesn't change the issue of what an astonishingly unprofessional series IRL is. You simply don't turn up at a new track and find it so bad.

Neil

How on earth is this ok?

Its not a Lotus-Cosworth, so why would they call it one and why are they even allowed to call it one?

I can somehow understand and accept the Lotus branding (of a team running a Dallara car) but adding the Cosworth thing on top of the pile sounds quite ridiculous.. it's a bit of a mess, the road cars are running Toyotas, F1 are running Cosworths and Indycar are running Hondas

Versus and Direct TV reach a deal:

http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-i...ack-on-directv/

Great news, I get to follow a season of IndyCar, relatively guilt free now that FTG is gone and the wife gets her Bullriding back.
DirectTV statement.

Great news..!

This weekend watching F1 and Indycar.. I had lost some interest in Indy after the Cart death..but Indy put on much the better race..had PASSING..excitement..
F1 was again a procession with the winner taking the lead on the first lap and the outcome quite determined AGAIN early on..

Get some new cars that look modern and exciting and Indy COMES BACK..

Instead of an F1 race at Indy..how about two Indy car..the 500 and another on the road course..
SP race was really a road coarse though..

Love to see them at the new Argentine track..

Wouldn't have anything to do with the hockey would it?
Jp

PS...nice steady run from Bia.

Curt Cavin from the IndyStar with his first thoughts back from Brazil:

http://blogs.indystar.com/racingexpert/201..._on_brazil.html

Excellent! Watching in HD will beat the crap out of the stream I watched Sunday.

http://audio.mpix.org.uk/mwm2010/mwm5-12.mp3 < radio le mans indycar preview, but its virtualy all about the new cars and stuff, and a huge interview with the new CEO. he seems like the right man for the job for me

full interviews with the chassis constructors

http://audio.mpix.org.uk/indy/2010_indy_swift.mp3 Indycar State of the Series: Brendan Kennelly and Chris Norris interview

http://audio.mpix.org.uk/indy/2010_indy_bowlby.mp3 Indycar State of the Series: Ben Bowlby interview


http://audio.mpix.org.uk/indy/2010_indy_mccool.mp3 Indycar State of the Series: Peter McCool interview

ive not listened to the full interviews yet so dont know the difference between them and whats in the main program...

its very good listening btw

See the new Boss same as the old Boss, it will be Dallara so they can continue to get the kick backs on parts and spares

Up to 40) entries expected for this year's Indianapolis 500, which is only 72) days away:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100319/S...ndianapolis-500

Well, I watched the Sao Paulo race. I must say it was a pretty good one. Crash at the start, rain interruption and some great passes for the lead. We also saw some pretty spectacular 3 and even 4 wides while passing lapped cars. It's amazing the fun you can have with a bunch of old spec cars on a bumpy street track made up of right angles and a long straight.
I'll definitely watch some more this season. They actually have more road courses than ovals on the schedule this time.

Best review of TV race coverage EVER...

Gang, this guy is hysterical....and SO to the point.

Enjoy
Jp

Very good.
I still miss Mr. Bolshevik's race reports though...
Here's a Classic from what I still believe to be the all time best poster on the Atlas F1 boards.
Some of you that have not been here for a long time should go back and read his posts, they are freakin' great.

http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-i...r-for-baguette/
Another european refugee, Bertrand Baguette joins Conquest.

http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-i...nd-new-chassis/
Plus, an advisory committee to choose the new chassis.

Awesome.

This guy could be quite good.

Well, his bread is delicious. nom nom nom.

Agreed. Great to see him get a drive somewhere. Plus, let the bread puns begin.

Rahal appears to be returning to Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan at Long Beach and beyond:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ind...returns-to-nhl/

The good news on our favorite poster is.... he is not dead.
Last Seen: 16th March 2010 - 14:47
Now...if we all flood him with PM's begging for a post or two perhaps the resurrection will be televised..
or some such.

http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showuser=5290
Jp

I'm not a fan of Rahal at all(I think he's way overhyped), but NHL definitely deserve better than who they've got now.

Good news.

Being name checked on P-Dog was like a career highlight.

http://racecontrol.indycar.com/player.php?type=false

Man... this is some seriously poor streaming.
I am on an 8 meg connection but it's streaming at 250k
It took half the practice session to load and then looked like a rapidly moving impressionist painting.
Jp
Anyway..
After the first session in StPete..



1 12 Will Power 1:03.6471
2 10 Dario Franchitti 0.0032
3 6 Ryan Briscoe 0.1332
4 3 Helio Castroneves 0.0375
5 06 Hideki Mutoh 0.1896
6 11 Tony Kanaan 0.0636
7 9 Scott Dixon 0.0802
8 37 R Hunter-Reay 0.0777
9 22 Justin Wilson 0.2618
10 5 Takuma Sato 0.1670
11 67 Graham Rahal 0.0744
12 26 Marco Andretti 0.0185
13 77 Alex Tagliani 0.0311
14 4 Dan Wheldon 0.0581
15 24 Mike Conway 0.1374
16 19 Alex Lloyd 0.0345
17 7 Danica Patrick 0.1616
18 14 Vitor Meira 0.1700
19 8 EJ Viso 0.0172
20 34 Mario Romancini 0.0493
21 2 Raphael Matos 0.0572
22 78 S. de Silvestro 0.1213
23 32 Mario Moraes 0.1695
24 18 Milka Duno 6.1539

Um... I'm sorry, I've just exploded here. How much money must you have to survive in a race series if you're 6.1 seconds slower than the person who's one place ahead of you???

Especially when the rest of the field is covered by a little more than 2 seconds!

Especially when all drivers from Indy Lights, bar Carmen Jordá, set a better time.
Sam Schmidt, who set the penultimate time of the Indy Lights did 1min09s721 against 1min11s745 from Milka.

And it's a short lap!!!

Yup. Being 12.7% from the leader is not acceptable in my opinion. In the second session, she did improve to a 1:08.992, but she's still 10.7% from the leader.

I dont understand why she insists in racing in Indy Car being so slow, she would have a better time doing endurance

Good old embrassing Milka Duno.

http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-i...advisory-panel/
De Ferran chosen as the teams owners representative on the advisory panel for choosing the new chassis et al.

excellent choice, de Ferran...

If her lap time was any longer, that's what it would be.

That should be James Winslow, driving for Sam Schmidt. Although to be honest, I think Schmidt could still outdrive Milka!

How can I watch IRL in Canada? I don't have versus, just basic cable.

CC

and ya wounder why ratings and attendence sucks so bad, but they have Roping Randy to fix that

3:30P-6:00 ABC/TSN2
IZOD Indycar Series Honda Grand Prix of of St.Petersburg, St. Petersburg, FL, HD, L

This site is wonderful for us. http://www.racefantv.com/CANAMTV.htm

What about Australian fans... oh wait, we get nothing

Your best bet may be http://www.indycar.com/ which claims to livestream it.