491 replies to this topic

[Risil]

Hola! Indycar’s extensive midwestern sojourn reaches its next stop as the tracks unload, drivers disembark and the Firestone Firehawk, er, puts his suit on for the 9th round of the season at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Mid-Ohio is the second track in a row to have a corner named the Carousel and a little stretch of straight line called Thunder Valley, although in almost every other way it is different to Road America. It’s twisty and a bit narrow and any passes off the back straight have to be held onto through the extraordinary sequence of corners that takes up half the lap. Many things have happened at Mid-Ohio over the years but I only choose to remember the race when Charlie Kimball beat Scott Dixon, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud. A good day.

 

Playing the modern-day equivalent of Charlie Kimball specifically at Mid-Ohio specifically in 2013 is Alex Palou, the slightly irritating Spaniard who is doing to the opposition in 2023 what he did to contract law in 2022. He has won as many times this year as Pato O’Ward has finished second and as many times as rivals Ericsson and Newgarden have finished on the podium. For a series where nobody traditionally wins very much this is highly destabilizing and makes me wonder what happened to that chaotic and slightly awkward apple cheeked racing series where Charlie Kimball could win and “Graham Rahal” and “title contender” could be placed plausibly in the same sentence.

 

Will this weekend be different? Every weekend is different in Indycar. Will Colton Herta’s fuel strategy work? Will Scott McLaughlin and Romain Grosjean stay out of each others’ way? Will Scott Dixon and Will Power have a clean weekend? Will Alex Palou run over some food packaging resulting a catastrophic engine failure? These are questions that time will ultimately convert into ludicrous suggestions.

 

Race gets underway on Sunday at 1.30pm Eastern Time, which is 6.30 in the UK. Qualifying is at 2.45pm/7.45pm, on Saturday, as usual. Come to this thread to unload your comments! Enjoy!

[PayasYouRace]

Some things haven't changed in the last 28 years.

 

 

While I'll likely miss the GP, I'll probably be home for this.

[jonpollak]

Yes PaYR, I’m one of those things !!!

A few drivers call this track their favorite on the schedule.

I’ll be picking at least one of them for INDYCAR FANTASY

Jp

[eibyyz]

When does GRO meet gravel?

 

(Ashamed to say, since Elkhart I've been expecting to see Grosjean trending on Twitter.)

[markpenske]

I will be in attendance. 

Afterburner: Bring your car and join us in the S2000 car coral, should be a huge turnout this year.

[aportinga]

Hoping for a really good race.

 

Should be an excellent weekend for lots of action!

[loki]

I will be in attendance. 

Afterburner: Bring your car and join us in the S2000 car coral, should be a huge turnout this year.

I’m in!

[Afterburner]

I will be in attendance.
Afterburner: Bring your car and join us in the S2000 car coral, should be a huge turnout this year.

We’ll be celebrating the 4th of July with my family, but knowing there’s an S2000 coral at Mid-Ohio has automatically put this race on my bucket list.

[markpenske]

I’m in!

Slap an S2000 logo on that thing any you can participate in the driver's parade lap if you choose 

[aportinga]

Wondering if this weekend is do or die for Grojean?

[red stick]

Well, "do" or "not do."

When you've already cheated

death, what's a mere job?

 

[red stick]

And I'm going to stop rating threads.  Sigh.  I promise I hit five.

[milestone 11]

Cripes, I thought this was a week away.

[Afterburner]

And I'm going to stop rating threads.  Sigh.  I promise I hit five.

We know you were trying to say Risil is number one.

[jonpollak]

Latest Pato Push 2 Pass episode...

 

 

Jp

[red stick]

We know you were trying to say Risil is number one.

Should I ever have the opportunity to wave to Risil, rest assured I'll use all of my fingers.

[prommer]

I once owned a 1987 Honda Prelude. Is there a corral for them?

 

[red stick]

Should be. Great car.

[FLB]

I once owned a 1987 Honda Prelude. Is there a corral for them?

 

 All of those years' Hondas were great cars. 

 

 

(Mine was a 1990 Civic)

[prommer]

For me, they really started getting good right after that, in the 1990s -- the CRX and the Integra come to mind.

 

I was just reading up on the Marysville, Ohio Honda plant, which has been issuing forth the USA's Accords like a firehose since the 1980s... In a couple of years, they'll be making EVs, while the Accord production is being switched over Greensburg, IN, a town of no other distinction than a tree which has been growing out of the top of the courthouse for the last 150 years.

 

 

(well, they also had an A&W where you placed your order at your booth via table-top telephone, but that was in the 1970s. Now they have an app for that.)

[Afterburner]

I once owned a 1987 Honda Prelude. Is there a corral for them?

There’s one of these that drives around near where I work in REALLY great shape but I wouldn’t doubt it has 200,000 miles on it. No idea who owns it but I love the Hondas of that era (well the Hondas of any era really but is anyone surprised).

[red stick]

For me, they really started getting good right after that, in the 1990s -- the CRX and the Integra come to mind.

 

I was just reading up on the Marysville, Ohio Honda plant, which has been issuing forth the USA's Accords like a firehose since the 1980s... In a couple of years, they'll be making EVs, while the Accord production is being switched over Greensburg, IN, a town of no other distinction than a tree which has been growing out of the top of the courthouse for the last 150 years.

 

 

(well, they also had an A&W where you placed your order at your booth via table-top telephone, but that was in the 1970s. Now they have an app for that.)

 

The Greensburg judges.

Throwing shade at counsel for

o'er a century.

 

[red stick]

 All of those years' Hondas were great cars. 

 

 

(Mine was a 1990 Civic)

 

My first car was a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R, from what has turned out to be Nissan's last really great age.  I looked at Hondas but was put off by the NOLA area dealers.  They mellowed over the years, and my wife now drives a decade-old Accord.  

[JimmyClark]

Will there be any visibility problems this weekend? I saw pictures of Ohio looking very smoky from the Canadian fires this week.

[Beri]

Unpopular opinion: Who needs Road America when one has Mid Ohio?

[LolaB0860]

Race schedule - no Stadium Super Trucks like in previous years but rest is there

Friday
4:40PM - 5:20PM - USF2000 - Race 1

Saturday
11:00AM - 11:40AM - USF 2000 - Race 2
11:55AM - 12:45PM - USF Pro 2000 - Race 1
1:00PM - 1:40PM - Porsche Sprint Challenge - Race 1
4:30PM - 5:10PM - USF2000 - Race 3
5:25PM - 6:15PM - USF Pro 2000 - Race 2

Sunday
8:00AM - 8:40AM - Porsche Sprint Challenge - Race 2
11:40AM - 12:35PM - Indy Lights - Race
1:53PM - IndyCar - Honda Indy 200 (80 Laps)

Times in ET

Edited by LolaB0860, 30 June 2023 - 08:53.

[B Squared]

Unpopular opinion: Who needs Road America when one has Mid Ohio?

They have both; no need to diss one because you like the other. What didn't you like during your visits to RA?

[Beri]

As a circuit to watch from my comfy seat, I always liked Mid Ohio more than Road America. It is not therefor to piss on the latter, but it is genuinely my opinion. This to the opposed opinion that many regard Road America to be the cream of the crop.

[Risil]

Very different circuits! Road America is all wide open straights and few twisty bits. Mid-Ohio does remind me of Barber though.

[B Squared]

As a circuit to watch from my comfy seat, I always liked Mid Ohio more than Road America. It is not therefor to piss on the latter, but it is genuinely my opinion. This to the opposed opinion that many regard Road America to be the cream of the crop.

, plus Watkins Glen for me when talking about road circuits in the U.S. I will confess I have the most personal bias towards Watkins for the memories that go back 50 years - then after becoming great friends with Michael Argetsinger and spending non-racing related time in the village and on the shores of Lake Seneca, it feels like a second home.

[milestone 11]

Very different circuits! Road America is all wide open straights and few twisty bits. Mid-Ohio does remind me of Barber though.

All three are great circuits unlike some of the dross the FIA dish up.

[GlenWatkins]

All three are great circuits unlike some of the dross the FIA dish up.

Anti-Tilkedromes for sure!  

[PayasYouRace]

As a circuit to watch from my comfy seat, I always liked Mid Ohio more than Road America. It is not therefor to piss on the latter, but it is genuinely my opinion. This to the opposed opinion that many regard Road America to be the cream of the crop.

It’s like comparing Brands Hatch (Mid-Ohio) to Spa-Francorchamps (Elkhart Lake). Both great circuits.

And I rate Laguna Seca above both. All personal preference.

[LolaB0860]

It's a sign of high quality when Road America is on the lower end of my top 10 favorite US tracks, and Mid-Ohio fits into top 15. Such awesome tracks in US (+Canada).

Edited by LolaB0860, 30 June 2023 - 11:22.

[aportinga]

Unpopular opinion: Who needs Road America when one has Mid Ohio?

 

Mid-Ohio is in desperate need of some updates - not the case for RA.

[LolaB0860]

Mid-Ohio is in desperate need of some updates - not the case for RA.

 

What updates does it need?

[Risil]

A bridge with a giant photo of a sausage on it

[LolaB0860]

A bridge with a giant photo of a sausage on it

 

Perhaps they could build a fake marina with sausage-themed cardboard bridge on top of it

 

Although horror shot like that would feel more at home along the spiders and ghoulies of Barber Motorsport Park

[Sabre1977]

Some things haven't changed in the last 28 years.

 

 

While I'll likely miss the GP, I'll probably be home for this.

 

PAPYRUS Indycar Racing II?  I probably have lost a significant portion of my life with this game...not only playing but making mods and carsets for it.    

 

[FLB]

PAPYRUS Indycar Racing II?  I probably have lost a significant portion of my life with this game...not only playing but making mods and carsets for it.    

 

 

I think this also applies to quite a few of us here...   

[LolaB0860]

Race schedule - no Stadium Super Trucks like in previous years but rest is there

Friday
4:40PM - 5:20PM - USF2000 - Race 1

Saturday
11:00AM - 11:40AM - USF 2000 - Race 2
11:55AM - 12:45PM - USF Pro 2000 - Race 1
1:00PM - 1:40PM - Porsche Sprint Challenge - Race 1
4:30PM - 5:10PM - USF2000 - Race 3
5:25PM - 6:15PM - USF Pro 2000 - Race 2

Sunday
8:00AM - 8:40AM - Porsche Sprint Challenge - Race 2
11:40AM - 12:35PM - Indy Lights - Race
1:53PM - IndyCar - Honda Indy 200 (80 Laps)

Times in ET

 

Here are the livestreams for all of the support races

 

Indy Lights - Practice 1

https://www.indycarl...actice-1-v29dv8

(requires registration)

 

Indy Lights - Practice 2

https://www.indycarl...actice-2-4kr26d

(requires registration)

 

Indy Lights - Qualifying

https://www.indycarl...ications-savcnt

(requires registration)

 

Indy Lights - Race

https://www.indycarl...ohio-race-0knzj

(requires registration, geoblocking for United States + selected countries listed here https://www.indycar....ORIES_2023.pdf)

 

USF2000 - Qualifying

& USF Pro 2000 - Qualifying

 

USF2000 - Race 1

 

USF2000 - Race 2

& USF Pro 2000 - Race 1

 

USF2000 - Race 3

& USF Pro 2000 - Race 2

 

Porsche Sprint Challenge GT3 Cup - Race 1

 

Porsche Sprint Challenge GT3 Cup - Race 2

Edited by LolaB0860, 30 June 2023 - 14:52.

[Jim Thurman]

 

(well, they also had an A&W where you placed your order at your booth via table-top telephone, but that was in the 1970s. Now they have an app for that.)

A&W used to have an intercom at each drive-in parking space for ordering, the carhops would place a tray on the driver's side window.

 

A&W, Allen & Wright, started out in Lodi, California.

 

And while I'm old enough to remember carhops before they were a nostalgia item, I do not recall the autogyro's scheduled runs to Prussia 

[Jim Thurman]

A bridge with a giant photo of a sausage on it

Irrelevant. Road America is sausage, specifically bratwurst, country. Mid-Ohio, not so much.

 

Though sausage, from the various immigrants, is truly nationwide and broad in its scope in the U.S.

[GlenWatkins]

A&W used to have an intercom at each drive-in parking space for ordering, the carhops would place a tray on the driver's side window.
 
A&W, Allen & Wright, started out in Lodi, California.
 
And while I'm old enough to remember carhops before they were a nostalgia item, I do not recall the autogyro's scheduled runs to Prussia 

At our local A&W the servers would roll up to your car on roller skates with your food.

Oh, and I loved their root beer floats!

[loki]

Unpopular opinion: Who needs Road America when one has Mid Ohio?

Everyone.  Everyone needs Road America…

[juicy sushi]

At our local A&W the servers would roll up to your car on roller skates with your food.

Oh, and I loved their root beer floats!

Sadly, at least in Canada, they no longer have floats. I was heartbroken.

[Jim Thurman]

At our local A&W the servers would roll up to your car on roller skates with your food.

Oh, and I loved their root beer floats!

Oh, yeah, while I don't know that I ever experienced roller skating carhops in person (I think I did, but I was awfully young), they were a thing, as depicted in American Graffiti and it's TV follower, Happy Days.

[FLB]

Sadly, at least in Canada, they no longer have floats. I was heartbroken.

Yeah, they've turned it into just another fast food chain (although they have the best burgers and onion rings). When I was a child, there was a sit-down A&W in Brossard (Quebec), with service at the table and all. I also remember being to a drive-in A&W in the late-1970s-early1980s where the service was exactly as Jim Thurman describes (no roller skates, though).

 

What they've got in Canada now are Starbucks-style drinks, served into frozen glass mugs: Brew Bar at A&W Canada - Delicious hot and cold beverages. (aw.ca)

Edited by FLB, 30 June 2023 - 18:23.

[loki]

A&W used to have an intercom at each drive-in parking space for ordering, the carhops would place a tray on the driver's side window.

 

A&W, Allen & Wright, started out in Lodi, California.

 

And while I'm old enough to remember carhops before they were a nostalgia item, I do not recall the autogyro's scheduled runs to Prussia 

 

 

At our local A&W the servers would roll up to your car on roller skates with your food.

Oh, and I loved their root beer floats!

 

There is still a remaining A&W building with the canopy and carhop config a mile or so from here.  It closed 15 years or so ago and became a Chicago hotdog place for a while.  Now it’s a well regarded birria and menudo joint and busier than ever.  No carhops though but they still have them at Sonic.

[PayasYouRace]

The mental image you're all creating for me is Hill Valley, 1955.