IndyCar 2011

TheChrisD

So, first big piece of news - the fields for every IndyCar race this year, bar the 500 and Vegas, will be limited to 26 cars: http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-indycar-series/41626-twenty-six-is-the-limit/

Bets on how many races Milka Duno doesn't qualify for?

AugustusMinimus

Can't see the point in that.

No problem in running 33 cars on most ovals. Maybe makes sense on road courses where 26 is a good figure.

Will only put pressure on smaller outfits who will struggle with sponsorship if they are not qualifying.

TheChrisD

Well, I did a little bit of finding out last year's car totals, and who would have fallen foul by DNQ'ing.

Sao Paulo: 24
St. Pete: 24
Barber: 25
Long Beach: 25
Kansas: 27

Not qualified on speed: Lloyd, Duno, Romancini
Top driver points provisional: Romancini
Best practice time: Lloyd
DNQ: Duno

Indy: 38
Texas: 26
Iowa: 25
Watkins Glen: 25
Toronto: 26
Edmonton: 25
Mid-Ohio: 27

Not qualified on speed: Rahal, Howard, Duno
Top driver points provisional: None (Duno top points, but not in the top 22)
Best practice time: Rahal
Next best qualifying time: Howard
DNQ: Duno

Sonoma: 25
Chicagoland: 29

Not qualified on speed: Fisher, Duno, Simona, Hamilton, Howard
Top driver points proivisonal: Simona
Best practice time: Fisher
DNQ: Duno, Hamilton, Howard

Kentucky: 27

Not qualified on speed: Rahal, Kanaan, RHR
Top driver points proivisonal: RHR
Best practice time: Kanaan
DNQ: Rahal

Motegi: 25
Homestead: 27

Not qualified on speed: Simona, Mutoh, Duno
Top driver points proivisonal: Mutoh
Best practice time: Simona
DNQ: Duno

EDIT @13:15: Also bear in mind at the moment, we're only at 19 confirmed full-time drivers this season, as well as Cunningham for 3 ovals, Carpenter for 9 races, and about 7 Indy only entries.

amacachi

TheChrisD wrote: »

EDIT @13:15: Also bear in mind at the moment, we're only at 19 confirmed full-time drivers this season, as well as Cunningham for 3 ovals, Carpenter for 9 races, and about 7 Indy only entries.

Around the same last year wasn't it? I'd say towards the end of the season availability of chassises (how to pluralise "chassis") will be a factor for one-off entrants. Not many are going to hire a car for the last year of the current spec.

TheChrisD

amacachi wrote: »

Around the same last year wasn't it?

Well, last year there were 24 full-time cars (including the 24 of Conway+relief drivers; and the 34+36 for Conquest), 9 part-time cars (27, 43, 02, 20, 15, 21, 23, 66, 67)), and 6 Indy-only cars (41, 25, 33, 99, 29, 30).

Also this year, there's yet to be any announcements with regards to Dale Coyne, Newman-Haas, or Conquest, so we could still see another 3-6 full-time cars. James Hinchcliffe and Oriol Servia tested with NH over the winter so may get rides, and there have been rumours of Bourdais coming back with Coyne. Tracy's trying to get in with Conquest, and there are still other drives without plans yet including Alex Lloyd, Baguette, Moraes, TK, Matos and of course Milka

amacachi

Coverage of St. Pete starting in half an hour.

amacachi

Well, it's starting now that those rich men are finished hitting balls around a bit of countryside. :pac:

gs39t

Bourdais crashed in warmup and the car burnt quite badly - they have no backup so he's not starting!

smooch71

amacachi wrote: »

Well, it's starting now that those rich men are finished hitting balls around a bit of countryside. :pac:

Yeah was panicking there myself for a few minutes. I remember years ago when Eurosport showed the IndyCar World Series they would often miss the first half of a race due to Under 21s Spanish Soccer or some ****e goingo into extra time!

amacachi

gs39t wrote: »

Bourdais crashed in warmup and the car burnt quite badly - they have no backup so he's not starting!

Ah ffs, was looking forward to seeing him back in US racing.

smooch71 wrote: »

Yeah was panicking there myself for a few minutes. I remember years ago when Eurosport showed the IndyCar World Series they would often miss the first half of a race due to Under 21s Spanish Soccer or some ****e goingo into extra time!

I didn't used to watch it but I do remember Eurosport being hilarious for that kind of stuff. :P

Has to be said, there really are some great tracks in the US that aren't used enough.

smooch71

amacachi wrote: »

Has to be said, there really are some great tracks in the US that aren't used enough.

Yep, would love to see Laguna Seca and Road America back. Classic tracks.

I'm looking forward to Baltimore but maybe thats just because of The Wire!

amacachi

smooch71 wrote: »

Yep, would love to see Laguna Seca and Road America back. Classic tracks.

I'm looking forward to Baltimore but maybe thats just because of The Wire!

I actually meant the ones Indycar does use, Sonoma just looks awesome from above and the Glen is nice. I was more thinking how there's those awesome tracks that aren't used outside of Indycar. Well, by fast cars anyway. :P

Would love to see them hit Sebring, partly because I know the track unbelievably well from Forza :pac: but also because there's something about the track I really like, it's very raw or something.

Agreed on B'more, they've a long contract too. If there was a good oval race before or after it I'd do everything I could to get over there.

amacachi

Watching about 5 minutes behind and wondering WTF this is, I watch motorsport to get away from women bitching! :pac:

amacachi

amacachi

Of all the times to race like this it's one of the few that's on network TV. Sigh.

gs39t

Simona up to 2nd :eek:

TheChrisD

At this rate, we'll have more cautions laps than green laps, and probably won't even make Lap 75 before the 2h time limit :rolleyes:

amacachi

gs39t wrote: »

Simona up to 2nd :eek:

Aye, fair play. Noticed a couple of restarts ago she was up around 9th.

Race control needs to get onto the drivers and get them 2-wide through the last bend.

TheChrisD

amacachi wrote: »

Race control needs to get onto the drivers and get them 2-wide through the last bend.

Doubt that, remember they moved the restart zone on all tracks to pretty much straight under the flagstand!

amacachi

TheChrisD wrote: »

Doubt that, remember they moved the restart zone on all tracks to pretty much straight under the flagstand!

Aye but they should be lined up properly going onto the straight. What seems to be happening is the front 10 or so are lined up then the others are speeding up to catch them then some have to slow down when they catch up and others don't, leaving it 4 or more wide into turn one.

amacachi

1 lap earlier for that caution would've been some craic. :pac:

Grim.

danica lol

amacachi

Come on Simona!

TheChrisD

Dayum Simona that was close! Great run though

TheChrisD

Dammit, I missed all the action during the middle segment at Barber because of dinner

amacachi

Team owners really need to have a word with the drivers, it's been like amateur hour the last two races.

amacachi

I wonder if Power has a room for all those novelty cheques. :pac:

amacachi

Just watching the race now, if IndyCar can hold on to Kimball it'll help them a LOT.

amacachi

Where the fcuk did Conway pull that out of!? Fair play!

TheChrisD

Conway's been pretty damn quick all season long, and he managed to pull it off

Think Helio's getting a pay cut?

amacachi

On a different note the coverage seemed a fair bit better than usual yesterday which is much needed.

Ghost Train

Wet in Brazil, race was stopped but looking like it might restart soon

acquiescefc

what time does it go dark in sao paulo :rolleyes:

TheChrisD

They're finally running again! Come on, let's get this thing over with!!!

TheChrisD

Back to red

EDIT: Postponed until 1pm EDT tomorrow!

Ghost Train

TheChrisD wrote: »

They're finally running again! Come on, let's get this thing over with!!!

if they do start, there should be plenty of action, still very wet, hope they at least give it a go, would be a pity not to get a race after waiting

Another red flag

acquiescefc

game over for today... 1pm eastern tomoro

Ghost Train

Pity

Charlie-Bravo

Ghost Train wrote: »

Wet in Brazil, race was stopped but looking like it might restart soon

What channel is the Indycar shown on this year???

acquiescefc

astrofluff wrote: »

What channel is the Indycar shown on this year???

sky sports in this region. this race is gonna be on SS channel 4 on the red button, which i dont have

forecast isnt good apparently for today either

TheChrisD

Well the weather sure played a funny. They all started on slicks, then it rained on the pace laps and they all had to pit just after the start for wets

Also, g'wan Sato! Just a pity the strategy didn't work out in the end.

amacachi

The fcuk!? Thought it was at 5 today!?

Don't give any more spoilers, I'll watch a replay.

TheChrisD

amacachi wrote: »

The fcuk!? Thought it was at 5 today!?

While Versus originally announced 1pm ET, it was scheduled for 8am ET today.
Versus aired it live, and will re-air at 5pm ET, hopefully someone will stream for you.

amacachi

Ah fcuk it. Hopefully Sky will have a replay, don't think they did last time a race was put back.

amacachi

Found a download, fun race I thought. Loved the comment about how they're not able to keep up production of the front wings. :pac:


Roll on Indy, few days after my exams end so hopefully I'll be out of hospital in time. :pac:

amacachi

Indy in a week and a half. Main qualifying on Saturday in case anyone was wondering!

gs39t

Was watching the practice live yesterday when Simona had that terrifying crash, trapped upside down and on fire, very scary and very lucky she only has light burns to her hands. She's running out of lives.

Bump day will be fantastic, 40 cars, 33 spots

amacachi

Women drivers. :rolleyes:

Glad I wasn't watching that live, looks awful with the car upside down and on fire.

TheChrisD

So, Pole Day's running strong, less than an hour to go before the 4pm gun to lock in the top 24 before the shootout

Current Top 9:

1. Tagliani - 226.954
2. Dixon - 226.701
3. Franchitti - 226.379
4. Wheldon - 226.300
5. Bell - 226.227
6. Carpenter - 226.171
7. Power - 226.089
8. Servia - 225.775
9. Rice - 225.746

andyman

Tags on pole. What an achievement for Sam Schmidt considering they're not a full time team. Townsend Bell in 4th as well.

TheChrisD

Absolutely delighted for Tags. I was really hoping the rain would hold and he wouldn't have had to go through another run, but he excelled and took a well-deserved pole

Tags for 500 spoiler maybe?

1 77 Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt Motorsports 227.472 mph (366 km/h) 15
2 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 227.340 mph (366 km/h) 13
3 2 Oriol Servià Newman/Haas Racing 227.168 mph (366 km/h) 12
4 99 Townsend Bell Sam Schmidt Motorsports 226.887 mph (365 km/h) 11
5 12 Will Power Team Penske 226.773 mph (365 km/h) 10
6 98 Dan Wheldon Bryan Herta Autosport 226.490 mph (365 km/h) 9
7 44 Buddy Rice Panther Racing 225.786 mph (363 km/h) 8
8 67 Ed Carpenter Sarah Fisher Racing 225.121 mph (362 km/h) 7
9 10 Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing No time 6

andyman wrote: »

What an achievement for Sam Schmidt considering they're not a full time team.

Actually Tags' #77 is a full-time car this year. Although Schmidt did mention on the coverage that they are still looking for a sponsor to run 2012...