3938 replies to this topic

[Peat]

 

Look at these munchkins!

[B Squared]

Dick Wallen has passed away.

https://www.usacraci...en-passes-at-90

[jcbc3]

 

 

Look at these munchkins!

 

Is the tall one Ticktum?

[PayasYouRace]

Just noticed the champagne is Ford branded.

[pacificquay]

Is the tall one Ticktum?

 

Yes

[jcbc3]

Just noticed the champagne is Ford branded.

 

Noris still working on his opening skills

[Sterzo]

Didn't know Herta was a BTCC fan.

He used to race on the support programme in "MSA Formula" (=F4). So he's been at Brands Hatch for BTCC meetings and seen the crowd. (Though he may not have counted them correctly).

[krapmeister]

What’s he missing?

The BTCC being the premier national racing series in the UK? With local/popular drivers who are probably more well known than most of the Indycar field?

I love Indycar, as do a lot of us on this and other motorsport forums - but in the UK I would think the BTCC is more 'mainstream' than Indycar. No big UK driver as well, though having Mclaren involved and their marketing activation would help.

Would likely be a similar situation here in Australia with Supercars/Indycar, though Scott McLaughlin would be a big drawcard - because Supercars.

Edited by krapmeister, 19 September 2024 - 11:38.

[eibyyz]

Oh crap. IndyCar may have its own version of SpyGate 2007:

 

FBI agents carry out operation at RLL headquarters | RACER

 

♪...Send lawyers, guns and money

Dad, get me out of this...♫

[StraightEdge]

MSR seats are filled. Marcus Armstrong is in
https://racer.com/20...shank-for-2025/

[FLB]

If this whole RLL/AA thing has made you wish for a palate cleanser, here's one: https://racer.com/20...t-doug-boles/5/

 

Doug Bowles Q&A   

 

 

Edit: Boles is spelled B_O_L_E_S (I failed to notice notice the lack of W...    )

Edited by FLB, 19 September 2024 - 21:46.

[loki]

If this whole RLL/AA thing has made you wish for a palate cleanser, here's one: https://racer.com/20...t-doug-boles/5/

 

Doug Bowles Q&A   

We may have different expectations of a palette cleanser….     

[prommer]

I appreciate the responses on the BTCC issue. I posted the quote not because I wanted to stir up an argument but because it did strike me, as others pointed out, that Colton was being, shall we say, optimistic in his view of Indycar vs BTCC. From my myopic perspective, although the core contributors here at our Auto Sport For 'Um are British, I can't tell if the 20-30 most regular posters here constitute the entirety of the British interest in Indycar. 

 

Having said that, I'd LOVE for them to visit Brands Hatch, not just because JP will drive me there, but also to give me something to look at that's not just Danny Ongais in 1978, as enjoyable as that race is/was.

[jonpollak]

I went through my RAC-MSA racing licence at the Hatch.

Any race there is a good one to attend regardless of what transpires on track.

 

Also, Thanks for the Doug Bowles Q&A. Consider my palate refreshed !!

 

Jp

[Jim Thurman]

Does Doug Bowles have any connection to Ross Brown? 

[jonpollak]

Oh schitt I spelled his name wrong

Doug Boles

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 19 September 2024 - 21:25.

[FLB]

Does Doug Bowles have any connection to Ross Brown? 

My bad!       

[Afterburner]

Douggie Ballz (as DwR likes to call him) is the genuine article. I suspect when RP (as DwR likes to call him) hangs it up, he's got to be on the shortlist to inherit the earth.

[red stick]

MSR seats are filled. Marcus Armstrong is in
https://racer.com/20...shank-for-2025/

Had partial funding.
Willing to travel.
Helps Chip, your new tech partner.
Makes sense.

[jonpollak]

Had partial funding.
Willing to travel.
Helps Chip, your new tech partner.
Makes sense.

Kiwi.

 

Jp
 

[Dmitriy_Guller]

Oh crap. IndyCar may have its own version of SpyGate 2007:

 

FBI agents carry out operation at RLL headquarters | RACER

I guess Andretti is still sore about losing three titles to Bobby.

[Jim Thurman]

I guess Andretti is still sore about losing three titles to Bobby.

Or he's still upset with Bobby for laughing at he and his father's incident with the safety car/stalled car at Detroit 

[red stick]

What?

The close of the season was barely 48 46 hours ago. We don't have an official schedule yet. They're still sweeping up sections of Laguna Seca. Rosenqvist, Grosjean, Malukas, Ericsson, Hunter-Reay, DeFrancesco, Castroneves, etc., have barely cleaned out their lockers. Heck, Helio's part owner now--he'll get around to it when he's ready. Or get a lackey to do it. There hasn't been a single additional Sunday for Robb's backers to pass the collection plate.

Isn't this a touch premature?

Hardly. May as well set up a spot to move on from the carnage, either the wrecked cars from last weekend or the debris from Palou's "9th place is for amateurs" run through the season's schedule on his way, at 26, to Championship Number Two, so we can discuss the pressing issues of tomorrow.

Questions, so many questions . . .

Will "hybrid" powerplants change the prevailing status quo of Ganassi, Penske, and the minnows?
Will McLaren find a way to turn cubic dollars into wins?
Will Colton Herta stop spending his mega-salary long enough to rediscover his mojo?*
Will Marcus Ericsson show us it's the driver, not those well-prepared CGR machines?
Will Marcus Armstrong show us he's worthy of those well-prepared CGR machines?
Will Linus Lundqvist, surely the feel-good story of late 2023, carry the magic into 2024?
Will Alexander Rossi rediscover his mojo?
Will Malukas find it, hide it, and leave him in the dust?
Will a major league open wheel rookie and a journeyman Swede, now in his third and worst team, raise the game at Meyer Shank Racing where two ex-Penske champions could not?**
Will Palou find a way to get through a season finishing no lower than 6th?
Will RLL find the magic on ovals and sweep Andretti aside in the "Big Four?"***
Will Ed Carpenter hire new engineers/strategists?
Will Juncos Hollinger find inner peace?
Will Power?
Will a long-awaited third engine manufacturer finally appear?****

Stay tuned.

* Although, seriously, great gift for your father.
** A reminder, also seen in opinion polling, that how you frame the question often suggests the answer.
*** We still speak of a "Big Four," but, if we're honest, it's really a situation as referred to in the first question.
**** Grandfathered-in question, out of habit. See also, where's the new chassis?

 

Time to revisit the OP and see how cloudy our crystal ball may have been.

 

Will "hybrid" powerplants change the prevailing status quo of Ganassi, Penske, and the minnows?

Winning teams, pre-Mid-Ohio:

McLaren (1), Ganassi (4), Penske (4).

Winning teams, Mid-Ohio and after:

McLaren (2), Penske (5), Andretti (2).

In the sense that Ganassi was twice the victim of hybrid-related failures, I guess a qualified  "yes?"  Except it still won the championship.  Hybrids appeared to make no discernible difference, apart from making Ed Carpenter see red.

 

Will McLaren find a way to turn cubic dollars into wins?

Three.  All O'Ward.  But three more than 2023, and a "What if?" at the biggest race.

 

Will Colton Herta stop spending his mega-salary long enough to rediscover his mojo?
Yes.  Second in the Championship.

 

Will Marcus Ericsson show us it's the driver, not those well-prepared CGR machines?
As Mars Blackmon once opined, looks like it was the shoes.

 

Will Marcus Armstrong show us he's worthy of those well-prepared CGR machines?

No, but reliable funding means he's off to MSR.

 

Will Linus Lundqvist, surely the feel-good story of late 2023, carry the magic into 2024?
No.  But there was one pole.

 

Will Alexander Rossi rediscover his mojo?
No.  Could he actually be without a ride next year?

 

Will Malukas find it, hide it, and leave him in the dust?
Shadow Penske contract says "Yes!"

 

Will a major league open wheel rookie and a journeyman Swede, now in his third and worst team, raise the game at Meyer Shank Racing where two ex-Penske champions could not?
OMG, Yes!  Frozen finds a home.

 

Will Palou find a way to get through a season finishing no lower than 6th?
Not remotely.  Yet the same result.

 

Will RLL find the magic on ovals and sweep Andretti aside in the "Big Four?"

 

Will Ed Carpenter hire new engineers/strategists?
Another lost year for a team that recently occasionally was an oval threat.

 

Will Juncos Hollinger find inner peace?
Yes, but it was addition through subtraction.  Sorry, Agustin.  Don't let the door hit you and your fan base . . .

 

Will Power?
We knew the answer was "yes" from the git-go.  

 

Will a long-awaited third engine manufacturer finally appear?

See RLL, supra.

Edited by red stick, 20 September 2024 - 20:23.

[red stick]

Bumping this before all gets subsumed into the new thread.

[Frood]

AS I have done with the other IndyCar series, I also track the quali and fastest lap pace in IndyCar.

Now, I can't claim this to be in any way scientific - the Quali pace, for example, is taken from the outright fastest lap set in qualifying by each driver. On ovals, this is the grid, but on the road & street courses, it's the fastest time that driver set in the qualifying session as a whole, hence some of the numbers won't quite match up to the actual qualifying results. I decided to do it consistently across the board instead of messing about. The only non-oval where this wasn't the case was Road America - only Quali Group 1 and Group 2 were taken into account as the wet conditions were roughly equal.

For qualifying pace, where 100% is the best lap in the qualifying session. Three dropped scores.


 
Team mate comparative pace:
 

Spoiler

 
Fastest lap means basically nothing in IndyCar, but here's the final standings anyway:
 

 
Team-mate comparative pace in fastest laps:
 

Spoiler

 
And a couple of bonuses - first, the quali just on road and street (raw data with no dropped scores)



And oval quali:

[Muppetmad]

Your hard work in tracking all this across so many series is much appreciated, Frood 

[FLB]

Your hard work in tracking all this across so many series is much appreciated, Frood 

I could literally lose hours trying to (over) analyse all of it   

[Frood]

I could literally lose hours trying to (over) analyse all of it   

 

I do. 

[jcbc3]

So give us the TL;dr 

[Frood]

tl;dr Penske fastest car. McLaughlin over one lap in quali, Newgarden over one lap in the race. Robb needs to pray.com the most.

[Muppetmad]

My takeaway from the data is that Palou is making the difference at Ganassi in qualifying. All three Penske drivers are right up there in qualifying pace, but none of the Ganassi drivers other than Palou are in the top 5. Seeing Armstrong 8th ahead of Dixon in 10th is a surprise, I must admit, and shows how Dixon's race pace is still strong enough to catapult him up the field.

 

The Penskes are uniquely strong on ovals – but I guess we knew that already!

[FLB]

What I'd want to know is per tire type, i.e. who's able to exploit the reds/blacks better. And who has a tendency to bin it under pressure, i.e. who's lost the most qualy laps.

[Frood]

What I'd want to know is per tire type, i.e. who's able to exploit the reds/blacks better. And who has a tendency to bin it under pressure, i.e. who's lost the most qualy laps.

 

For the second one - as far as I can tell, most people who've binned it on quali laps this year have only done it once. I *think* the only one who did it twice was Siegel (Indy, Nashville technically by binning it in practice and missing quali)

[jcbc3]

tl;dr Penske fastest car. McLaughlin over one lap in quali, Newgarden over one lap in the race. Robb needs to pray.com the most.

 

Thinking back to the day I read about Penske taking ScottyMac to the US and saying "FOOLS, he's just some moderately successful touring car driver. What are they THINKING??!?"

[krapmeister]

Honestly, those stat's make me think 'why the hell is Scotty Mac not the champion?'

They confirm his by now undoubted speed. Just needs that last piece of the puzzle to drop, consistency.

[jonpollak]

Thinking back to the day I read about Penske taking ScottyMac to the US and saying "FOOLS, he's just some moderately successful touring car driver. What are they THINKING??!?"

He’s the dude.
Jp

[H0R]

I don't care if this is OT or not (of course it isn't) but if you'll ever have a bad day Mrs. Frozenqvist, her hubby and their best mate are there to make it better. 

 

[jcbc3]

Who's the best mate?

[red stick]

O'Ward.