667 replies to this topic

[Risil]

NTT Data Indycar Series Rounds 5 and 6: Iowa Indycar 250s

Indycar in its relentlessness and lumpy glory travels Plainswards for a third and then fourth race in seven days: the bold experiment in not practising, not spectating and improvising your schedule around disease outbreaks continues. This weekend sees our facemasked, firesuited and deflector-shielded friends pitch up at the 7/8-mile banked oval situated about a half-hour’s drive from Des Moines through corn fields and over something called the South Skunk River. Iowa Speedway! It’s a track where Andretti Autosport used to win every year, but after sweeping every event from 2010 to 2015 they’ve not picked up an Iowin since. Race strategy in recent years has often been dominated by somebody chancing their race on a new set of tyres for the endgame: Scott Dixon pulled a second place out of the bag with that manoeuvre, and Josef Newgarden fell victim to a more embarrassing variation in 2018 when he pitted from second for fresh rubber on lap 294 of 300, rejoining the pack to watch the race not restart and James Hinchcliffe clinch the win under yellow. Nothing is predictable.

Last week at Road America, Chip Ganassi Racing extended their winning streak to five out of five, with Saturday seeing Scott Dixon defeating Will Power and clutches and gearing defeating many-laps leader Josef Newgarden in the pits. On Sunday Dixon barely featured, but his teammate Felix Rosenqvist reeled in and passed Pato O’Ward for victory with two laps to go. This is a dehydrated astronaut food pouch of a summary of two races that had more than the usual amount of thrills, incident and fight – video highlights are here for your long Friday morning:
 

 


When is it?
We have two of these events, and they’ll both be held in the evening in the Midwest of America, which is to say early in the morning in Europe, breakfast time in Asia and I dunno when in Australia. These two events are asymmetrical: as Red Stick’s haiku explained, the two races have a single qualifying session late Friday afternoon, with drivers taking two laps each. The first lap sets the grid for the first race, second lap sets the grid for the second. Logical, but strange. If you want to be understand it less, here’s an IndyGraphic from the Indy website:

 
Me neither! Getting back to concepts I can understand, I am confidently stating that the Friday race is at a slightly later time than the Saturday race, but neither will finish as late as last year’s event, which started late at night owing to thunderstorms and ended past 1am on the Sunday morning. Or will they? Forecast says no, but it’ll be hot. As usual. Anyway, times are Iowa time, which is to say Central Time, or BST minus 6 hours.
 
Friday, 17 July: Race 1
1pm: Rookie practice
1.30-3pm: Practice for everyone
4.30pm: Qualifying
8.15pm: Race 1
 
Saturday, 18 July: Race 2
2.30-3.30pm: Practice
7.45pm: Race 2

Who’s racing?
The metaphorical pack of Indycar driver shaped playing cards gets a moderate shuffle: Max Chilton drops out of Carlin because he doesn’t like ovals, Ed Carpenter drops back into his own team because he does like ovals, and Conor Daly drops out of Ed Carpenter Racing and back into Carlin to fill the gap. 2010 winner Tony Kanaan is back in the second Foyt car, replacing the well-heeled Dalton Kellett. A spotter's guide would be useful, right? Here it is:

In a broader sense? It’s the usual bunch, but after four rounds yielding consistent success to Chip Ganassi and nobody else, a lot of drivers could do with a change of fortune. Penske drivers are 3rd, 5th and 7th in points with a couple of second-places between them, and of course no wins. Andretti full-timers Rossi, Hunter-Reay, Veach and Marco are all languishing (yes! languishing) outside the championship top ten, with wild-haired youth Colton Herta at least supplying the consistent finishes, although fourth at the Indy GP is still as good as it’s got. East Midlands Hero Jack Harvey has a best finish of 16th (in Texas) from two front-row starts and another from inside the top 10, and is beginning to wonder whether he inherited the personal rain cloud above his head from Previous Brit Jack Hawksworth. Finally, while it’s too early in the season to talk about the HOT SEAT, the gap between McSchmidt drivers O’Ward (12-8-8-2) and Askew (9-crash-15-crash) is getting to look like something that could support its own bullet point. So unless you’re a Ganassi driver – unless you’re Scott Dixon, really – there is a vasty mountain of hope to climb and plenty of soul to search.
 
That’s Iowa. We’ve got two of these races, and they’re both at challenging times for us Europeans. On the other hand, they’re definitely not going to clash with the F1 and MotoGP. How could you refuse? How dare you refuse.

[maximilian]

Lovely!  FINALLY another IndyCar race.  Make that 2!  Can't wait!!   

[jonpollak]

“but neither will finish as late as last year’s event, which started late at night owing to thunderstorms and ended past 1am on the Sunday morning”


Jp

[ANF]

Condensed spotter guide: Rossi looks like Harvey, Kanaan looks like Ericsson, Rahal looks like Newgarden.

[FLB]

[krapmeister]

Excellent! Both races are late morning for me - so far I am liking this Covid-19 race schedule 🙂

[red stick]

Cockpit cooling contraptions continue . . .

 

Among other things in the works:

 

"The series is also seeking more input from its paddock to look at other, long-term options to improve cockpit cooling. Seat cooling technology, small aerodynamic turning vanes designed to channel more air out of the cockpit, and thermal insulation barriers between the side-mounted radiators positioned to the left and right of the cockpit, are among the items on the exploratory menu."

 

https://racer.com/20...evice-for-iowa/

[M66R]

Peak anticipation for the races. No guarantees I'll make it to the start of each race but that is what the record button is for

[SenorSjon]

Cockpit cooling contraptions continue . . .

 

Among other things in the works:

 

"The series is also seeking more input from its paddock to look at other, long-term options to improve cockpit cooling. Seat cooling technology, small aerodynamic turning vanes designed to channel more air out of the cockpit, and thermal insulation barriers between the side-mounted radiators positioned to the left and right of the cockpit, are among the items on the exploratory menu."

 

https://racer.com/20...evice-for-iowa/

 

Perhaps remove the large object on top of the car will aid cooling. Just like the first pic from the OP.

[red stick]

Luddite!

[DS27]

I hate waiting so long between races.

[maximilian]

Hinchcliffe clinch the win 

 

Say that 7 times fast!

Edited by maximilian, 17 July 2020 - 15:04.

[search]

Peak anticipation for the races. No guarantees I'll make it to the start of each race but that is what the record button is for

I'm quite thankful for Dazn's "as live" replay option - Indycar at breakfast is about as good a start into the day as it can get ;)

 

Usually Newgarden is hard to beat in Iowa. Let's see how it goes this year.

Edited by search, 17 July 2020 - 15:20.

[Risil]

Practice in 15.

[DS27]

I wish Sky F1 showed Indycar practice instead of F1 practice repeats. I suspect one would be slightly more interesting than the other.

[jonpollak]

Wookie Pwactice is NAO !!

 

https://racecontrol.indycar.com/

 

 

Hey DS27, I talked to a Sky person I know not so long ago about this issue.

It seems they are only allowed Qualy and Race and NO replays.

 

I questioned him as to why because Comcast owns all this stuff..He just shrugged his shoulders and blamed 'Americans'.

 

Jp

[jonpollak]

DS27

You've got mail....

Jp

[prommer]

Cockpit cooling contraptions continue . . .

 

Among other things in the works:

 

"The series is also seeking more input from its paddock to look at other, long-term options to improve cockpit cooling. Seat cooling technology, small aerodynamic turning vanes designed to channel more air out of the cockpit, and thermal insulation barriers between the side-mounted radiators positioned to the left and right of the cockpit, are among the items on the exploratory menu."

 

https://racer.com/20...evice-for-iowa/

 

How about a hot-swappable Reddy Ice pack on the back of the driver's neck?

[loki]

I questioned him as to why because Comcast owns all this stuff..He just shrugged his shoulders and blamed 'Americans'.

 

Jp

Americans want more money...

 

To get practice here we’ve got to get Gold.  But at least we get replays.  Race is after the fact stream.  No live race on Gold.

 

Cooling for the deflector shield?  Ice bucket challenge on each stop.

Edited by loki, 17 July 2020 - 18:46.

[maximilian]

Americans want more money...

 

To get practice here we’ve got to get Gold.  But at least we get replays.  Race is after the fact stream.  No live race on Gold.

 

I am boycotting GOLD until they add LIVE races.  It is ridiculous.

[maximilian]

deflector shield? 

 

[djparky]

I wish Sky F1 showed Indycar practice instead of F1 practice repeats. I suspect one would be slightly more interesting than the other.

Likewise...equally I'd like to have the app which would allow us to watch it

[jAnO76]

Just discovered the app! Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool...
Throttle input.. brake % revs... track position... 🥰

[jAnO76]

Rinkey is revving along nicely..

[DS27]

Picking a team for race 1 feels like more of a crapshoot than usual.

[jonpollak]

Daly showing Reigate a thing or two thousand.
Jp

[maximilian]

Daly showing Reigate a thing or two thousand.
Jp

 

Hard to believe he doesn't have a full-time ri... oh, wait.

[PiperPa42]

I'm here now, hopefully i'll be awake for the start 

[milestone 11]

Picking a team for race 1 feels like more of a crapshoot than usual.

Picking a team for any oval seems like a crapshoot to me.

[ANF]

So Colton Herta was fastest in practice, doing fewer laps than anybody else.

[Risil]

Hard to believe he doesn't have a full-time ri... oh, wait.

He has two full-time rides

[Anja]

5 hours until the race and I've had my first yawn. I'd better start making some coffee. 

[maximilian]

Nothing cures the yawns like IndyCar short ovals action! 

[jonpollak]

5 hours until the race and I've had my first yawn. I'd better start making some coffee. 

Have a power nap...

No, not like Will Power had at RA2...

More like a cat on the sofa.

 

xx

Jp

[M66R]

Time to Indycar!

[DS27]

Marco looked good for 60 seconds until it became clear the track was much quicker than in practice.

[M66R]

Nooo Sky taking the adverts.

[ezequiel]

THE BUMPS

[Risil]

The live timing is ordering the drivers in terms of the average speed across both qualifying laps ... which means precisely nothing.

[maximilian]

Conor! 

[SenorSjon]

The live timing is ordering the drivers in terms of the average speed across both qualifying laps ... which means precisely nothing.

Here is lap 2 that sorts them.

[Dolph]

wow

[loki]

The live timing is ordering the drivers in terms of the average speed across both qualifying laps ... which means precisely nothing.

Sounds like the timing is feeding it like normal and calculating for a normal qual.  At least on TV they are showing each lap.

 

Pags waved off, no fuel pressure.

[Dolph]

Pagenaud no fuel pressure. Cant run in qualy

[loki]

Good job Carlin.

[Risil]

Ouch, that's a double blow for Pags. Hope he's got a good race setup.

[Risil]

Pole for Conor! Looks like a good starting position for race 2 as well.

[maximilian]

Man, come on, sponsors... that Carlin #31 is just standing around!  Get with the program! 

 

Congratulations to Conor!   

[jonpollak]

Daly showing Reigate a thing or two thousand.
Jp

Make that three thousand

Jp

[jonpollak]

To my Picks I go....D'oh

Jp