420 replies to this topic

[Risil]

IZOD Indycar Series Round 1 of 19: the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg
Track Length: 1.8 miles
Race Length: 110 laps
Left or right turns: Both
Exciting track layout: No
Previous Winner: Helio Castroneves (Penske)

It's that time of year
What time of year? Oh, that's right, the offseason was so long everyone's forgotten about the Izod Schmizod Indy500Car World Series. Thankfully I've done some research and I think I've figured out what happens.
1) It used to be said that Indycar was like Formula One, only with crasser driving standards, contrived schemes to ensure close racing, and they don't go out in the rain. The goalposts have since been moved. Now it's essentially Formula Nippon with ovals.
2) Races usually go like this: Will Power qualifies on pole and takes the lead. Then there are three safety cars and everyone except the front four pits five times each. Somehow at the end they all finish in a non-random order, but Will Power comes in 10th.
3) They have double-file restarts, but no one ever takes two tyres at the stops.
4) All the team owners either used to drive in Indycar or are surnamed Penske (aka Demogorgon). Despite the whole series being based around giving Penske-Demogorgon Racing elaborate backhanders, free passes and other advantages, Penske-Demogorgon never wins the championship.

Every year, some poor sucker reads the Indycar calendar and thinks they're racing in Russia in March
It's the one in Florida, silly!

The times when things happen
Friday, 22 March
11.10-11.55: Indycar practice 1
14.40-15.25: Indycar practice 2

Saturday, 23 March
9.25-10.10: Indy Lights qualifying
10.25-11.10: Indycar practice 3
12.15-12.55: USF2000 race 1
13.10-13.50: Pro Mazda race 1
14.05-15.15: Indycar qualifying
15.40-16.40: Indy Lights "race"

Sunday, 24 March
8.45-9.15: Indycar warm-up
9.30-10.10: USF2000 race 2
12.00: NBC Sports begins its "broadcast"
12.33: "Drivers", "start" your "engines"
12.40: Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg GO
15.00-15.40: Pro Mazda race 2, like anyone's going to watch that

Wasn't there some preseason testing?
Yes. Will Power was fast and Marco Andretti was slow. Honda reassured everyone by saying they're not panicking. The KV cars were quicker than they'll ever be in the races.

Driver market heat death
I'm a little depressed. Roger Penske and Pip Ganassi field the best teams and they haven't changed drivers since 1980 or something. In the crumminess stakes giving AJ Allmendinger a two-race season rates at Weetabix-level. And now Andretti have regained their big-team status, they're keeping their Good-Moderate-Bad trio of RHR, Hinch and Marco. No, Viso doesn't count. What gives?

On the other hand, this state of extreme stability is good for three drivers I like but who after 2012 are desperately in need of do-overs. Dario Franchitti won at Indianapolis so his season was technically a success, but as a championship contender he was about as credible as Takuma Sato. James Hinchcliffe spent most of the season angling for a spot on Saturday Night Live, and gradually forgot he's supposed to drive like Kimi too. And Josef Newgarden needs to crash less.

Oh, and then there's Rookie of the Year Contender™ Tristan Vautier. He's pretty quick.

Politics
There were some of those last year, you might remember. Walking Ideas Man Randy Bernard was replaced by Walking Man Jeff Belskus. He told us that nothing would change, and indeed it hasn't, because nothing has happened. Which is ironic in itself, because under Bernard the Indy head office handed out magic bullets faster than a Congolese warlord.

Then some consultants from Boston got involved and everybody laughed at the idea that the business world, which already pays for the whole show (when it's not urinating on ladies' shoes), might also have a clue about running it. Whatever, they clearly failed to take into account the STRONG FEELINGS of the Indycar fanbase which is legion and constituted entirely out of people who give enough of a damn to voice an opinion about them. And it only takes a gnat's fart of political news blowing downwind in their direction for the burning torches to come out.

Conceptual Venn diagram:


Okay, that's enough. Are you even going to watch the race?

[chumma]

Is another split coming? I hate oval racing...but the road course side of things in Indycar I like, when IRL and Champ Car were around, I watched the champ car side of things and couldn't even tell you who won a title in IRL, what about you guys in the states, do you prefer road courses or ovals?

[Risil]

I hate oval racing...but the road course side of things in Indycar I like, when IRL and Champ Car were around, I watched the champ car side of things and couldn't even tell you who won a title in IRL, what about you guys in the states, do you prefer road courses or ovals?

I'm not from the States but I can tell you that I like them equally so long as the drivers have to lift when they go around the corners.

Is another split coming?

The Split is in your mind...

[jonpollak]

....Hello..I'm new here, rather than get my head blown off by the savage warpo's that inhabit this thread maybe I should tread lightly and say...
What's it all about, Alfie?

Разве не было бы здорово, если бы люди потребовалось время,
чтобы собрать факты и сделать впечатления на основе осознанного опыта

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 19 March 2013 - 23:24.

[Dolph]

When I first heared of a race in St.Petersburg in 2003 I thought: Hell, yeah, a CART race just 6 hours drive from where I lived. I was ecstatic!! I was definately going!


...

Then, of course, I realised that some genius ran out of city names in America and they borrowed one from Russia.

[Andrew Hope]

I prefer road course racing but oval racing never bores me by default. I'll take a reasonably-exciting oval race over another fuel mileage race at the ****ing Nordschleife.

Ovals have given us (despite the worst) some of the best memories in recent years:



(High-res).

[Wander]

I've never watched a single Indycar race.

Should I?

[Risil]

Yes!

[Dolph]

Will Power has lost the last three championships by having

2010: 0.8% less points than the champ
2011: 3.1% less points
2012: 0.6% less points


I recon in 2013 its gonna be a crash in the last race for Will and a loss by 1 point to Dixon.

[Dolph]

I've never watched a single Indycar race.

Should I?

If you like F1 you'll probably enjoy an IndyCar road course or a street race.

[Peat]

yay! Risil's IndyCar threads are back! 6 months is a loooong time.

[PayasYouRace]

I've missed your OPs Risil

Hope you have a similarly approprate pic for Birmingham next time out.

he's supposed to drive like Kimi too.

That's just scary.

[Andrew Hope]

I've never watched a single Indycar race.

Should I?

Hell yeah. IndyCar races are a ton of fun (as are these threads).

My advice: don't watch the race comparing it to F1. We get people doing that all the time. If you go in expecting an F1 race you are not going to be impressed. It's a different sport in a different market with a different history, just enjoy the comedy of IndyCar and ask in this thread any questions you may have.

[Andrew Hope]

By the way, Risil, can I do the Toronto Indy thread?

[Prost1997T]

OP full of whining

Season finally begins

Seriously, the worst thing about Indycar is its so-called fans who want any excuse to moan pack it in and wait for the race to start at least. Personally I'm interested to see how well Vautier, Bourdais, Beatriz and de Silvestro do.

[Wander]

I do enjoy and have enjoyed plenty of other motorsport forms like Moto GP and Suberbikes and occasional touring car races so I should be able to separate it all. Sometimes I do wonder if it isn't just... Somewhat easy to drive an Indycar on an oval with the levels of downforce they have at those speeds? They probably go off the throttle a little and pick the best line and all that... But you'd think that the setup is more important than the driver, or am I totally wrong here?

Edited by Wander, 18 March 2013 - 23:07.

[Lemnpiper]

I've never watched a single Indycar race.

Should I?

Even better plan to attend a race (if one is in your area )


Speaking of which while i did enjoy Baltimore last year i was wondering if Pocono this year would be a good selection to attend.

Anyone here ever attend previous Usac/Cart/Irl? races run at Pocono and able to tell the best parts or it or even some of the worse parts as well.



Paul

[Risil]

By the way, Risil, can I do the Toronto Indy thread?

Check your PMs, man

OP full of whining

Season finally begins

Seriously, the worst thing about Indycar is its so-called fans who want any excuse to moan pack it in and wait for the race to start at least. Personally I'm interested to see how well Vautier, Bourdais, Beatriz and de Silvestro do.

Don't forget Pagenaud!

Edited by Risil, 18 March 2013 - 23:12.

[Andrew Hope]

I do enjoy and have enjoyed plenty of other motorsport forms like Moto GP and Suberbikes and occasional touring car races so I should be able to separate it all. Sometimes I do wonder if it isn't just... Somewhat easy to drive an Indycar on an oval with the levels of downforce they have at those speeds? They probably go off the throttle a little and pick the best line and all that... But you'd think that the setup is more important than the driver, or am I totally wrong here?

There are a few tracks that they just go 100% throttle on but there are also weird ovals like Milwaukee, Iowa and Pocono on the calendar this year. Indycar also has some guys who are oval specialists (like Ed Carpenter in that pic I posted, which was of him winning his first race after 8 seasons or so).

IndyCar has seperate aero kits for oval/road course as well. Observe:



Oval above, road course below.

[PayasYouRace]

OP full of whining

Which OP is that? 'Cause this thread's OP is full of jokes.

[TimRTC]

I need to watch more Indycar this season. Are there any good race recaps available. NASCAR have a good 15 min recap on Youtube but Indycar's official channel has gone over to overly short music video summaries. Thanks

[Dolph]

Which OP is that? 'Cause this thread's OP is full of jokes.

+1

[billm99uk]

St. Petersburg. St Petersburg. No, I can't remember a damn thing about the track at all. Can anyone remind me what happened last year?

[Wander]

Even better plan to attend a race (if one is in your area )

Sure. So how many races do they have in Europe?

[Deluxx]

I disagree, I rather like St. Pete's layout. Goes right through downtown and has some pretty cool turns.

Interesting to see Hinch get win #1 this year. Know he can do it!

[SR388]

Takuma Sato is in it to win it!!

[Deluxx]

inb4 crash on 1st lap

[Ross Stonefeld]

St. Petersburg. St Petersburg. No, I can't remember a damn thing about the track at all. Can anyone remind me what happened last year?

Something about diabetes.

[Prost1997T]

Don't forget Pagenaud!

He's done a full season in a good team recently so I know what to expect from him. My apologies if you or any posters felt I was being harsh, but the "jokes" seemed more like thinly veiled complaints to me.

Edited by Prost1997T, 19 March 2013 - 01:03.

[Pikachu Racing]

I'm ready for the season. Go Indycar

[Deluxx]

Come to think of it that start/finish straight is the whole freakin airport runway. Forgot about that rofl.

Still fun when they go around the Bank of America building turn tho.

Good thread btw Risil

[packapoo]

Risil.....Brilliant

[Muppetmad]

I must say, when I first looked at the calendar in 2009, I thought "Gosh, a race in Russia is interesting!"

[jonpollak]

... 'Cause this thread's OP is full of jokes.

Those aren't jokes..
Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 19 March 2013 - 07:37.

[wacktifosi]

I don't think the season can officially start without Hinchcliffe hijinks so here we are.

http://auto-racing.s...mbs-will-power/

This also qualifies as a reason to start watching IndyCar.

[Vitesse2]

What happened to "Will Power throws a tantrum?" Or will that not be till race 2?

Should we run a book on how long it takes?

(Personally I'm just hoping that the ESPN UK streams remain easy to find because I'm not prepared to pay them a tenner a month to not watch football. But I suspect that if and when it goes to BT it may get harder.)

[PayasYouRace]

What happened to "Will Power throws a tantrum?" Or will that not be till race 2?

Should we run a book on how long it takes?

(Personally I'm just hoping that the ESPN UK streams remain easy to find because I'm not prepared to pay them a tenner a month to not watch football. But I suspect that if and when it goes to BT it may get harder.)

I posted this in the general thread too. UK TV Schedule http://indycaruk.wee...ule--uk-tv.html

[SR388]

inb4 crash on 1st lap

No way!

[billm99uk]

Is this the place where they always crash at the first corner?

[BoschKurve]

Every year I imagine myself watching the IRL season from start to finish.

Then as soon as I see Roger Penske on my TV screen, a lot of things flash through my mind: Trans Am, Can Am, Mark Donohue, 1994 Indy 500.

It makes it tough to watch. Penske has more blood on his hands than anyone in racing. I imagine he has the carcass of CART stuffed and mounted on the wall in his home.

[Prost1997T]

Is this the place where they always crash at the first corner?

That would be Sao Paulo it's a shame that they can't use Interlagos, but that's FOM and Bernie for you.

[Deluxx]

Every year I imagine myself watching the IRL season from start to finish.

Then as soon as I see Roger Penske on my TV screen, a lot of things flash through my mind: Trans Am, Can Am, Mark Donohue, 1994 Indy 500.

It makes it tough to watch. Penske has more blood on his hands than anyone in racing. I imagine he has the carcass of CART stuffed and mounted on the wall in his home.

I have this app on my DVR that replaces his face with an orangutan. Makes it easier to watch and I often forget about his past.

[InSearchOfThe]

I do enjoy and have enjoyed plenty of other motorsport forms like Moto GP and Suberbikes and occasional touring car races so I should be able to separate it all. Sometimes I do wonder if it isn't just... Somewhat easy to drive an Indycar on an oval with the levels of downforce they have at those speeds? They probably go off the throttle a little and pick the best line and all that... But you'd think that the setup is more important than the driver, or am I totally wrong here?

Experience on ovals is massive. Ask Piquet sr. They even bite the masters. Ala Rick Mears. So NO, driving 190Mph+ , wheel to wheel, 3 wide is ever easy.

[Prost1997T]

Yup. Mansell crashed and injured himself on his first attempt at an oval. When you're driving them at the edge there is much less room for error than road courses and lost time is very difficult to make up.

[PayasYouRace]

Which makes it even more impressive that Mansell won all the remaining ovals that year apart from Indy.

[sblick]

Mansell was awesome sorry little rant. I think it takes someone with a sensitive butt and minute reactions on the wheel to do ovals right. In my opinion, usually oval drivers aren't great on road courses because they can't work around the deficiencies of their car in corners where their set up isn't the best. Road course drivers get going faster on ovals than vice versa in my book. It is the very reason you don't see Sprint car drivers (not NASCAR) going into Indy Car. It is a leap to far nowadays as much as us American's would like to see it.
Anybody see weather for this weekend? To lazy so far. Go Seb Bourdais

[InSearchOfThe]

Which makes it even more impressive that Mansell won all the remaining ovals that year apart from Indy.

True for'93.
Which makes '94 so unimpressive with zero wins and a 8th place final standing.(3rd at Phoenix was best oval finish) Don't get me wrong, I love 'ol Nige, and his first year here was shattering, my point was never underestimate an oval.

[PayasYouRace]

True for'93.
Which makes '94 so unimpressive with zero wins and a 8th place final standing.(3rd at Phoenix was best oval finish) Don't get me wrong, I love 'ol Nige, and his first year here was shattering, my point was never underestimate an oval.

I completely agree. His title defence was quite a disappointment.

[Risil]

He's done a full season in a good team recently so I know what to expect from him.

That's true, but even if he's been racing in America for a while, this was his first year in IRL-Indycar, and his first year in a while doing the same thing two seasons in a row. It'll be real interesting to see if Pag and Schmidt can win races this year.

My apologies if you or any posters felt I was being harsh, but the "jokes" seemed more like thinly veiled complaints to me.

Don't sweat it, that's quality sig material.

[HaydenFan]

Hopefully the Indy Lights race has more than 8 starters though. While it is 8 quality rides, but... 8 cars isn't a strong number. While history in that level has seen entries this low before (9 at Milwaukee in '03 or '04), and history has shown that the series (Light and Atlantics) has never averaged more than 12-15 full time rides consistently, but 8! Not a big issue though, as 25 (at least 15 of them quality racers) is a solid grid.