2012 Iowa Corn Indy 250

[NaBUru38]

Three heats!!! I thought it was two with 12 drivers each. Heat C will have the top 8 drivers in practice, Heat B will have the odd-placed drivers and Heat A the even-placed. "Groups for qualifications will be determined by combined practice session times."

[Juarez Jed]

Makes it like a Saturday night Sprintcar show with your A,B & C Mains, but without the winners progressing up to the A.
I guess the top 8 will be interesting as a shootout amongst the best without slower cars getting in the way.
The other heats for odds (9,11, 13 etc) and evens (10, 12 ,14) will give some cars and drivers that never get much exposure to run at the front and have some fun.
I like the idea, I think it suits the venue, being in the same state as Knoxville and all that.

[bjohnsonsmith]

It's all neatly explained here:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100327

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Juarez Jed

Makes it like a Saturday night Sprintcar show with your A,B & C Mains, but without the winners progressing up to the A.

That could be fixed easily: heat 1 and 2 winners would start in the back of the grid of the heat 3. But those two teams may prefer to race just once. I don't mind either option.

Originally Posted by Juarez Jed

The other heats for odds (9,11, 13 etc) and evens (10, 12 ,14) will give some cars and drivers that never get much exposure to run at the front and have some fun.

I'm sure that's why they chose that format: to give midpack drivers more exposure.

[NaBUru38]

There's a minor tweak to the weekend format: heat race grids will be determined by practice 2 times only. It's good they fixed that.

[bjohnsonsmith]

IndyCar are going to set a rear wing limit like they did at Texas.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100491

[gomick]

Dario on pole...

[gomick]

Pity he couldnt make the start - terrible season for Dario, but he still won Indy... Will Power will be happy to see the end of the ovals for a while
Wonder if Michael Andretti was really happy with Ryan winning with Marco in P2 - about time Marco had a good finish, he should be doing better than what he has been doing - if he is anygood!

[Peat]

Good race. Highly entertaining.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Unfortunately had to watch highlights again as the race was on so late over here but what I saw looked really good and there seemed to be a good attendance.

[Paradise City]

I did enjoy the race although the jerky camera work meant I spent most of the time in a state of semi-confusion. I think the NBC camera people need a quiet word with their competitors on how to cover these short tracks. Franchitti was very unlucky but I enjoyed his remarks esp. over Viso.

[Peat]

Yeah, i quite like Dario in the booth. Can he retire early from every race??

[JHamilton]

Yet another good race! I enjoyed Dario's commentary as well.

[Jonerz]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Yet another good race! I enjoyed Dario's commentary as well.

Agreed.

Chris

[mac]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

I enjoyed his remarks esp. over Viso.

The Viso comments were very funny - and absolutely spot on... Especially after Viso's classy crotch-grabbing gesture in the direction of the guy who has won more races than EJ could ever hope to do in a lifetime...

[NaBUru38]

I had a university activity 400km north of my city. I had one of these little laptop computers (I'm doing outreach with them), but there was no internet at the time of the race. Now I've checked ESPN's schedule and there's no reruns this week. So I've just watched the highlights video.

There were many crashed by frontrunners, I'm surprised. What happened between Viso and Power?

[mac]

Power came down on Viso and they collected each other. Seemed either Will's spotter hadn't told him or the message hadn't gotten through because he just took his line like any old lap... They hit and ended up in the wall...

Viso then proceeded to stand in his cockpit, look towards Power and tap his helmet with his index finger in a derisive manner, before grabbing his crotch in a quite aggressive manner as Power sat there in his car.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Yet another good race! I enjoyed Dario's commentary as well.

His brother Marino has been excellent when he's commentated on sportscar racing, it seems to run in the family!

[mountainstar]

Well the Iowa Corn 2 Fiffy race only pulled a 0.18 TV rating, down 42% from last year. Gruesome.

[Paradise City]

Iowa was on at a ridiculous time for me. A time I only remember Motegi being at. And there was a rain delay on top of that. They seem to be tampering a bit with the scheduling this year. At least I'm getting blind sided by funny times and Saturdays. Not what I'd recommend if I'm trying to revive a regular following to my series that has difficulties promoting itself.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I don't get the point of racing on a Saturday evening. I would have thought most people would be out at either a bar or club etc.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Well the Iowa Corn 2 Fiffy race only pulled a 0.18 TV rating, down 42% from last year. Gruesome.

MOMENTUM wooohoo!

At this rate, Indycar under the great leadership of Randy Bernard will become the biggest series in the World, F1 and NASCAR are doomed.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

MOMENTUM wooohoo!

At this rate, Indycar under the great leadership of Randy Bernard will become the biggest series in the World, F1 and NASCAR are doomed.

Momentum downwards.

I think it's safe to say that sports car racing has surpassed open wheel formula racing in terms of fans that tune in on an average race weekend, as the ALMS out pulls the irl and grand am runs even or higher. Especially when you combine the numbers together. Add in the numbers of cars in both fields as well as support series and all the manufacturer support and it is larger than the irl.

They, the irl, are trying to emulate what they hated to begin with, CART, so it's never gonna work.