415 replies to this topic

[red stick]

…and Sowery, in a Coyne car, made Siegel look completely average.

Sowery has a decade on Siegel. Even at the tender end of the age spectrum, "relative" old age and treachery may trump youthful exuberance. In other words, it's a little early to give up on TK's phenom.

Edited by red stick, 25 August 2024 - 22:33.

[red stick]

That said, I hope Sowery sticks.

[ensign14]

One of my favorite stories was when Wally Dallenbach was dominating at Ontario, some charged he had a nitrous bottle hidden in the car. There were protests and a complete teardown by USAC officials, who found nothing out of order.

After, a comment was made: "The bottle turned out to be Wally" or "It turned out the bottle was mounted to Wally." In other words, it was all him.  I do not recall if that was in Autoweek, or not.

Mike Lawrence noted in The Story Of March that one driver was known as "Beauregarde" because of his baggy overalls - which contained the nitrous bottles...

[krapmeister]

Shame for all those points that bled out this year for Power - it would've made the last stretch of the season way more compelling. Cheers y'all - interested to see how the ovals will pan out.

Will may really regret Toronto and St Louis...

[jonpollak]

Sling, geek and super power your Portland podium !


Overall into Milwaukee next week.

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 25 August 2024 - 23:08.

[red stick]

My fantasy team.

 

[Ben24]

This is Power's best race for a damn long time. Nobody else has looked like a potential winner.

He had quite a few races earlier this year where he was equally as strong but just kept getting unlucky with the timing of cautions. I actually thought he was the standout driver for the first quarter of the season even though the results weren't ultimately there. Since then he has had a few off weekends and also threw away some good results with some stupid errors so I would now say that Palou has clearly been the best driver of the season overall.

[SenorSjon]

Just understand Siegel was only hired as a cash cow.

But Zak said...

[andysaint]

Not a great race, little overtaking and Power and Palou were in a class of their own. Credit to Scotty Mac for a great recovery drive

[Seppi_0_917PA]

Firestone tire report:


As you can see, Palou ran primaries more than Power did. "I thought the primary and the alternates were going to be closer, and they were not,” said Palou. (Source) That plus Power had better pitstops.
 
 
  I thought Nathan Brown had the best coverage of their battle: https://eu.indystar....le/74847122007/
 
  https://www.indycar.com/leaderboard - the Difference to Leader and the Gaps info was very wrong for most of the race.

 

Edit to add: More tire talk https://racer.com/20...cided-by-tires/

Edited by Seppi_0_917PA, 27 August 2024 - 16:28.

[Jim Thurman]

Mike Lawrence noted in The Story Of March that one driver was known as "Beauregarde" because of his baggy overalls - which contained the nitrous bottles...

Just for the sake of clarity, Wally Dallenbach was cleared of any charge and didn't have a baggy driver's suit.

 

The joke being the extra speed was internal, and part of Dallenbach's being. It was within him.

 

I don't know why someone thought because it was Wally, it wasn't possible for him to improve that much. It just showed the difference it made to finally be with a top line team in better equipment. Until he got to Patrick, which was an improving team in itself, he had often been in what could be described as "fair" equipment, at best.

 

Probably as in the old American short track tradition, the protesters were cheating and couldn't understand how someone could be faster/better than them! 

Edited by Jim Thurman, 26 August 2024 - 20:20.

[Jim Thurman]

Not a great race, little overtaking and Power and Palou were in a class of their own. Credit to Scotty Mac for a great recovery drive

But, a very pure, organic race. What racing used to be like without all the artificiality.

[Jim Thurman]

Also, on the remarks about Foyt and cheating and USAC.

 

For the most part, I feel USAC was too incompetent and inept to be crooked, at least until the IRL era, which was still more down to incompetence.

 

At their worst, USAC never came remotely close to NASCAR. Even in the Gordon/Stewart era, as evidenced by the times those two didn't win.

[ensign14]

Indeed USAC never needed to be - by banning rear-engined sprint cars they basically grandfathered the sixties drivers in for the seventies...

[SenorSjon]

Firestone tire report:


As you can see, Palou ran primaries more than Power did. "I thought the primary and the alternates were going to be closer, and they were not,” said Palou. (Source) That plus Power had better pitstops.
 
 
  I thought Nathan Brown had the best coverage of their battle: https://eu.indystar....le/74847122007/
 
  https://www.indycar.com/leaderboard - the Difference to Leader and the Gaps info was very wrong for most of the race.

 

The undercut didn't really work this year it seems. Top 9 all had long first stints.

[Jim Thurman]

Indeed USAC never needed to be - by banning rear-engined sprint cars they basically grandfathered the sixties drivers in for the seventies...

USAC needed to be, to replace AAA, but it also needed to be better. As far as the rear-engined sprint cars, USAC acquiesced to the owners - who were concerned that they'd have to scrap their existing equipment, which had just been obsoleted. On one hand, I can understand that, though I agree with Johnny Parsons Jr.'s assessment when he remarked that the concern was needing one car for pavement and one car for dirt, adding that it was what happened anyway - only with upright cars - "so I fail to see what was gained or accomplished."

 

Skip forward thirty some years and USAC had no trouble scrapping the entire Silver Crown equipment in favor of the horrid, superspeedway version that NASCAR convinced them to go with. The "new" car died a quick death while the classic car rebounded under other sanction and returned to USAC.