150 replies to this topic

[Risil]

Indycar Series round 12 of 15: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio

Track map:


The graphic on the left is called "Conflicted Loyalties".

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, OH
85 laps
Lap length: 2.258 miles
Lap record: Dario Franchitti, 1:05.347 (1999)

Nice circuit, this. Mid-Ohio fits nicely with Barber, Sears Point and Laguna Seca in that elite group of American natural road courses where you shouldn't expect much overtaking or excitement. Here's Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe Danica Patrick trying to generate some excitement last year. All they managed to generate was ignominy! Paul Tracy had a similar experience of Mid-Ohio's twisty turns during his championship non-challenge in 1993. However Bobby Rahal gets the best marks for contriving, with 20 laps to go, to turn a straightforward victory into, well, a straightforward victory for Roberto Guerrero instead. It's difficult to pass, okay! Rick Miaskiewicz never knew what hit him.

And I say elite group, but as a matter of fact all of NASCAR's ovals lately have moved onto this turf so fast you'd barely have time to say "There goes the neighbourhood". But we're race fans! We make our own fun! Also if you're a total road course nerd you might be interested in things like undulations and cambers and trees and shit. Go back to Spa-Francorchamps, hippie.

Mandatory Points Standings Talk
This season I haven't really felt the championship as a very urgent or gripping matter. This feeling wasn't alleviated by my discovery that Chevy wrapped up the engine contest last week. However I suppose we've got one now and courtesy of Will "Aggressive Pit Exitist" Power, we've even got a fraction of controversy. RHR says he needs another race win to keep himself in the good seats but as Power has shown, a points advantage in Indycar is a remarkably difficult thing to maintain. And Helio Castroneves's been one of those consistent-finishing, good-qualifying, crash-avoiding bastards your mother warned you about.
RHR: 362 points
HCN: -23 points
Willy P: -26 points

Ryan's racing in green this weekend, by the way. If you want to know why, it says so here. (Auto Racing Daily dot com: come for the press releases, stay for the Danica swimsuit pics!)

Rhetorical question
Do you remember how absorbing and easy-to-follow the Edmonton race was? How your understanding of the race wasn't totally ruined by the whole field shattering into 20 different fuel strategies the moment the yellows came out? My anguished cry into the eternal night of Indycar decision-making cannot be fully reduced to language, but if one tried, phrases like "God damn race announcers", "can't polish a turd with double-file restarts" and "Code 60" might be intelligible.

Bit o' news
The big one first. The protagonist of Indycar's favourite adversity-story-cum-infomercial encountered a little more adversity at the general test last week. As a result, GP2 Thread cult hero Giorgio Pantano is subbing in at Team Ganassi. Now personally I'll always remember Pantano as the man who didn't win the 2002 Formula 3000 title. But it might be wise to note that you could fill a very talented grid with people who Didn't Win The F3000 Title. Pantano's also an old associate of the Coloni team, as featured in OPs passim.

This month's race at Sears Point has a new sponsor (cool) and a slightly altered layout (meh).

All this talk about Ryan Hunter-Reay is probably making you ask, Where's James Hinchcliffe? I know I was. I'm not anymore though, because he's the subject of this week's Indycar 36!

Jeremy Shaw's Team USA has announced candidates for its scholarship to Euro open-wheel racing. Two of the successful nominees will contest the Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy at the end of this year, another will race in the last two rounds of the BARC Formula Renault championship. Fellow Indy-fanciers, I urge you to go to one of these events and lend them your support/curiosity. And hands up if you ever suspected Jeremy Shaw looked this awesome? Hasselhovian, even.

Here's a schedule with some unusual features! (Ohio uses EST, which is equal to GMT -5. Race is live on SS4 from 5.30pm, so you might just want to remember that time.)
Friday, 3rd August
08.45-09.45: American Le Mans practice one (ALMS! Remember ALMS?!)
11.15-12.15: American Le Mans practice two
12.25-13.35: American Le Mans qualifying
14.00-15.30: Indycar practice one

Saturday, 4th August
08.00-09.00: Indycar practice two
09.20-09.50: ALMS warm-up
11.00-12.15: Indycar qualifying
13.05-15.50: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge
16.15-16.55: USF2000 race 1
17.10-18.20: Porsche World Challenge race 1

Sunday, 5th August
08.05-08-35: Indycar warm-up
09.55-10.55: Porsche World Challenge race 2
11.10-11.50: USF2000 race 2
13.00: Green Flag! Thunderbirds are go!

That's right! A race programme with more than one race on it you might actually want to watch! Indy Lights are in Trois Rivieres this weekend.

Heads up
Indycar's website notes that Mid-Ohio boasts "a challenging entry to pit lane". You have been warned.

Edited by Risil, 02 August 2012 - 22:19.

[loki]

The graphic is brilliant!

Love that circuit.

[Ross Stonefeld]

The map is...


*bows and scrapes*

[gm914]

Like Sato said to himself on the last lap of the Indy 500:
That there is a nice opening.

[PayasYouRace]

Is that an official Indycar map?;)

(Auto Racing Daily dot com: come for the press releases, stay for the Danica swimsuit pics!)

To early in the morning. Read that wrong

Edited by PayasYouRace, 01 August 2012 - 07:10.

[Muppetmad]

Hopefully the racing will be better this year than last year, last year was the definition of a processional race. With the new car though, I think some good racing could be possible - we saw it at Barber, and Barber is narrower than Mid Ohio I think.

[OfficeLinebacker]

Posting in this thread so the icon catches my eye going forward. Thanks.

[Ross Stonefeld]

There will be a delayed introduced of a few seconds into the push to pass. So if you want to use it on the straight, you need to punch it going into the corner preceding it(it won't activate while turning in, don't worry). The idea is it will prevent defensive push to pass because even if your crew says "he's on it!" and you thump the button, nothing will happen for a few moments.

So close your eyes and pretend it's a late 70s F1 car.

[Option1]

That's just getting silly.

Neil

[Slowinfastout]

That's the weirdest thing I've heard in quite some time.

The guy in front is just as likely to tell himself he's gonna need to defend shortly.

Bit of a knee-jerk after Edmonton, this is the path towards something like DRS where the guy ahead is naked.

[Muppetmad]

That is just frankly bizarre. That's likely to prevent as much overtaking as encouraging, plus cause headaches.

[TimRTC]

Just imagine what the F1 Red Bull guys could do with rules like that to play with....

[Haribo]

Sounds like from Hinch's Twitter that the drivers weren't even consulted about the P2P change

[Ross Stonefeld]

Boohoo. It's not like their safety is at risk.

[loki]

That's just getting silly.

Neil

At first I thought he was taking the piss, but it's serious. Don't know if I should laugh or cry...

[Ross Stonefeld]

It'd probably just be easier to not show the boost-use live, preventing the other team from responding to it immediately. How about once the boost shot is used, they update the amount of seconds on screen.

[Disgrace]

Let them experiment, I was under the impression that this year is very much a learning year with the new car and new engines. Sounds dumb, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it dropped sooner rather than alter.

[Radoye]

Based on what we've seen in the first few races, the push-to-pass is totally unnecessary. Just give them full boost and let them go at it, no need for gimmicks to "improve the show" the racing was already good. I daresay this year Indycar races were generally more entertaining than F1, although F1 currently has one of the craziest seasons on record looking at race results and points standings alone.

[loki]

Based on what we've seen in the first few races, the push-to-pass is totally unnecessary. Just give them full boost and let them go at it, no need for gimmicks to "improve the show" the racing was already good. I daresay this year Indycar races were generally more entertaining than F1, although F1 currently has one of the craziest seasons on record looking at race results and points standings alone.

Yep, due in no small way to DRS and KERS. There are those that feel DRS and KERS are gimmicks too. P to P in the big picture is not really any different than either of those technologies. They were all introduced to spice up the show.

[Radoye]

Yep, due in no small way to DRS and KERS. There are those that feel DRS and KERS are gimmicks too. P to P in the big picture is not really any different than either of those technologies. They were all introduced to spice up the show.

Yeah i know, however in my opinion while KERS has some value as in road relevant technology development, DRS is completely unnecessary and has ruined more races than improved. As i said, in my opinion the racing is currently better in Indycar where there is no DRS, mandatory overtaking zones and other such silliness.

There is no need for a "push to pass" in today's F1. What was crucial to spicing up the show this year was the need for drivers to manage evolving cars over the duration of the race. With refueling banned and tires that degrade much more than they used to a few years ago drivers now have to adapt to these changing conditions, gone are the times of race being broken into a few short sprints with a perfectly trimmed car all the time. And what produces most of the show is when cars at different stages of change meet each other on the track and how this plays out over the entire race distance.

In such circumstances DRS is now unnecessary. Unless they change it so that it can be used freely around the whole track (and for defending too) like in qualy so it is just another tool to make car go faster, more like KERS, and not a free pass ticket. (OK, there are tracks where DRS was ineffective but there are those where it was overkill, so you probably know what i mean here.) KERS too should in my opinion be opened for development and made significantly more powerful as in use as much as you are able to store, not time limited but rather performance limited.

But, this topic is about Indycar, not F1 so let's not digress too far...

[PayasYouRace]

Of course this is pretty meaningless to the viewer when we can't actually tell who's using P2P and who's not due to terrible TV direction.

[Ross Stonefeld]

You can. In fact it was so easy they've put this rule into place. The minute anyone was using boost it was present on screen and the team of the driver ahead would tell their guy who immediately used his boost, cancelling it out.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Today in Paint©

Briscoe is in the PPG car, Castroneves in what seems to be his regular Penske yellow.

Dario is in another Alternate Target livery with GE. But it's basically his Milwaukee paintjob with different sidepod stickers. Blue and some bluey-purple.

Spotter's guide has Servia in his 'who will it be this week' black blankness.

Hunter Reay is swapping yellow for green as part of a local charity promo



And Sarah Fisher Hartman Newgarden have been watching the Team America DVD

Edited by Ross Stonefeld, 03 August 2012 - 13:13.

[jonpollak]

Breakfast of Champions.
http://t.co/CfWogBd9

Jp

[billm99uk]

Personally I think it's an attempt to make P2P more like DRS, which is fine by me as I just don't see the point if both drivers can use it (sorry 'purists' ). But the racing has been good enough this year that it's not really needed anyway.

Plus why do they they need simulated turbo lag? Couldn't they make do with ordinary turbo lag? Or are modern turbochargers too clever for that?

Now if they could do something about "fuel economy runs' I'd be much happier (I'm lookin' at you Dario!). It may be an underrated driver skill but it's up there with "ability to find a decent budget" as a driver skill I could live well without seeing too much more of.

[Prost1997T]

Is that Pippa Mann doing commentary with the US broadcasting team for this race? It seems so from the practice highlights I just watched.

[Ross Stonefeld]

I think she does radio, which is the audio they use for most clips.

[Prost1997T]

I think she does radio, which is the audio they use for most clips.

Fair enough, only heard her commentate on Indy Lights up till now.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Today in Paint©

Servia is in black with yellow trim, basically the black/green Valspar look but with the yellow. Obviously.

JR is in pink camo. Same livery, just they're trying to be invisible at a breast cancer marathon. Is it cancer month? I thought September was usually when sports teams go pink?

[Magoo]

Heads up
Indycar's website notes that Mid-Ohio boasts "a challenging entry to pit lane". You have been warned.

The pit exit is just as tough. It used to be worse.

[teejay]

That drawing.. brilliant

[PayasYouRace]

Practice 1 for anyone who missed it

[Option1]

I suspect I'm the only person on the planet getting ready to watch the ALMS race live, but to my mind it's a series that still beats the living crap out of GrandAm and their dodgy pretend NASCAR prototypes.

Neil

[Ross Stonefeld]

*ponders*


Do we have ANY engine changes this weekend?

[Muppetmad]

*ponders*


Do we have ANY engine changes this weekend?

Tagliani. He's getting a 10 place grid drop.

[PayasYouRace]

and Helio http://www.autosport...t.php/id/101723


So the usual suspect on pole, again. Hope the race is a bit more interesting. At least I should be able to watch this one, after missing Edmonton.

[Ross Stonefeld]

How does rain = wanting new engine

[PayasYouRace]

If anything, rain would be great for an engine that's already old and can do without being stressed to much. But then I'm not a Penske engineer so maybe they know something we don't.

[Option1]

I suspect what was meant that if it rains then the loss of the grid places will matter less, and that factor ever so slightly shifted the decision in favour of a new engine.

Neil

[Muppetmad]

Pagenaud in third, and rain predicted too - could he take that first win here?

[Andrew Hope]

Reporting in, and doing so much too early. Not only did I manage to set my alarm to go off an hour early, but I somehow changed the time to an hour earlier as well. I nearly woke up for this race yesterday.

[PayasYouRace]

Don't worry Andrew. I'm in early too.


Hoping for this weekend's British sporting success to continue in Mid-Ohio!

[Ross Stonefeld]

Broadcast chirps into life in 40 minutes and our first view of the current weather.

ABC race by worked on by the NBCSports crew, so interesting to see how it turns out. Not sure which announcers that gives us though.

[HuddersfieldTerrier1986]

Apparently a storm blew through in the morning leading to some wet patches (obvious I know, I meant some patches will be wetter than others, and some sections may be totally dry), and there's a chance of even more rain I think.

[Rob G]

The weather radar is looking good right now. Virtually all the rain has either pushed off into Pennsylvania or is sitting in Kentucky.

[Andrew Hope]

Track looks wet! Clouds look threatening!

[Andrew Hope]

Oh wait, no they don't. Still, track looks piss-swept.

[PayasYouRace]

Emma Dixon

All the best ones are married.

Sky viewers will know why I'm talking about her.

Edited by PayasYouRace, 05 August 2012 - 16:39.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Everyone on slicks

[PayasYouRace]

Could still rain though.

(Could we agree to strangle anyone who uses the word "threepeat"?)