2013 Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Peat

This is the worst race i've seen in a while. Ugly.

What race have you been watching? Yeah, couple guys have pushed too hard and gone over the edge of stable but most of the drivers have been mixing it up through the field. esp Conway and Kimball. But guess having them cruise around playing follow the leader safely would be a less ugly race, nice a pretty but boring as hell. Personally would like to see that pitwall cut back a little, would have spun off track and less carnage but sometimes **** happens.
These guys seem to all be torturing the tires in the fast corners, almost old school drifting around some of them.

[fieldodreams79]

Double file restarts are stupid in OW racing, especially on street courses.


Good for Jean Girard and Schmidt Motorsports. They deserved a good result and finally got one.

[canamman]

Simon Says " Watch my first Indy Car win!"

What a cool indycar year so far. Nice to see
some new faces in the winners circle. Need to go back and watch
the dvr - missed a couple of big cautions.

[Peat]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

What race have you been watching? Yeah, couple guys have pushed too hard and gone over the edge of stable but most of the drivers have been mixing it up through the field. esp Conway and Kimball. But guess having them cruise around playing follow the leader safely would be a less ugly race, nice a pretty but boring as hell. Personally would like to see that pitwall cut back a little, would have spun off track and less carnage but sometimes **** happens.
These guys seem to all be torturing the tires in the fast corners, almost old school drifting around some of them.

I meant all the yellows. When we had racing, it was great, like yesterday.

Well done Pag!

[Paradise City]

It was a very exciting race. I thought Conway had it in the bag pre-race, how wrong I was.

[bjohnsonsmith]

There was a no show on ESPN over here, for the second race.

[Purist]

Broadrun, Will had it locked down, so he wasn't going off the track anyway; Hinchcliffe went around to Will's right and was still on the road.

The end of the pit wall is already on the other side of the grass, and there is no wall immediately on the inside of the track going through Turn 1.

You NEED the pit wall to extend that far to prevent incursions, either from someone spinning to the inside of Turn 1, or from somebody overdoing it coming off pit road, and doing a Zanardi out into the middle of Turns 1 and 2. Back when CART was running at Belle Isle, you had walls the whole length of the stretch, both on the inside of the track, and on the outside of pit lane. You had a small, inside verge going along and past start/finish, but that was gone by the middle of Turn 1.

The racing, when it was green, was excellent! I LOVED seeing the guys getting those twitches and hanging the tails out! THAT is REAL drifting!

[NaBUru38]

Congratulations, Simon! I'm happy that he got to win a race.

Some drivers were too aggressive today. Their team directors must be fuming after seeing so many pieces flying around.

[Salamus]

The final third of the race was awesome! Those cars look like a lot of fun to drive, and they definitely were fun to watch. Congrats to Simon! Conway was so close but was too aggressive.

[MoMedic9019]

Good race today...I think IndyCar is beginning to make a comeback. I find myself actually seeking it out to watch it. Still don't give a $hit about the ovals, but, the road racing product is getting entertaining.

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by Salamus

I'll definitely watch it!

I find it troubling when a racing fan (myself) doesn't even know a race is going on.

Think about the above....
I'm a racing fan and I make sure I know when races are going on. I know of no series that hasn't a schedule posted.
I understand a non-fan not being aware.

[JHamilton]

What the hell was that about? They really have to rethink the double file restarts, especially at street courses. I have a hard time putting all the blame of the last incident on Bourdais as it appeared in the overhead view that Power slid out wide... but I guess he should be prepared for that.

On the plus side, the reconfigured course is excellent. Reminds me a lot of Melbourne. Once they got going we saw some excellent racing. Congrats to Pag, I was pulling for him. He seems to be a really popular guy considering his disability being a franceman and all.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Does anyone have TV and attendance figures?

[Yannick]

Great to see the #77 win yesterday. Congrats to Simon Pagenaud and Sam Schmidt. This one was well deserved.

What about that corner Simona and RHR crashed in? Can they have an escape road there next year?

[NaBUru38]

Standings after Detroit:

1. Hélio Castroneves (Penske), 206
2. Marco Andretti (Andretti), 206
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti), 191
4. Scott Dixon (Ganassi), 186
5. Simon Pagenaud (Schmidt), 177
6. Takuma Sato (Foyt), 175
7. Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne), 161
8. Tony Kanaan (KV), 160

Hinchcliffe is 9th, Franchitti is 11th and Power is 16th.

[Purist]

JHamilton, except for that once, the double-file itself wasn't really an issue, and even then, they've had trouble at Turn 1 before, with a less bunched field than they had in either race this past weekend Also, I can understand not wanting the last guy being half a lap behind when he takes the green, when they do single-file restarts.

Yannick, there isn't a road going straight on from Turn 8, so no, I don't see a real option for an escape road there. Simona was unfortunate to have a puncture, or whatever it was, right there. Hunter-Reay simply had brain fade in the preceding right-hander, and paid for it.

I left a comment about this on an article on the Series' site, but anyway, there should NOT be one of those wall gaps there where the cars are tracking out at the exit of Turn 2. Christiano da Matta had a nasty wreck there on a restart in 1999.

[gomick]

I liked the track & the battles on it - seems it could be lottery each round now as to who is going to win which is great... Dont mind the double race wekkends either

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Purist

JHamilton, except for that once, the double-file itself wasn't really an issue, and even then, they've had trouble at Turn 1 before, with a less bunched field than they had in either race this past weekend Also, I can understand not wanting the last guy being half a lap behind when he takes the green, when they do single-file restarts.

Except for the one, that contributed to an accident as you alluded, double file restarts cause an unwarranted mess throughout the first lap; good for action if you like contact, but it shouldn't be done on street/road courses in OW racing. Brasil was a mess and there was an incident here, all directly related to double file restarts. The drivers do as well as they can, IMO, but it's Russian Roulette every time.

And the guy half a lap back on the restart is probably closer to the front than he/she was when the yellow came out. Don't want to be half a lap back on the restart? Go faster.

[rwintle]

Finally watched the last 20 laps of race #2 on PVR... wow! That was excellent. I was sure Conway had it nailed when it became clear that Pagenaud and Jakes still had to pit in front of him. But Pagenaud's crew absolutely nailed the last stop and he drove those laps like we were used to seeing him pedal in the ALMS. Great stuff, really glad to see him take the win.

Fabulous result for Jakes too... someone I've never paid much attention to (even though apparently his best previous result was 8th last year in Toronto, a race I was at). Great for Conway too, nice mixed-up podium.

Poor Dario going backwards while driving to a fuel number... not used to seeing the Ganassi team get their strategy so wrong.

All in all, crazy bumpy circuit made for some great racing, all the first-half crashiness notwithstanding.

[HJJ]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Does anyone have TV and attendance figures?

06/03/13 ABC's overnight ratings see gain for Detroit event Overnight television ratings for ABC's live telecast of the second race of the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit on Sunday, June 2, grew 14 percent over last year's Sunday telecast, which also aired on ABC.

The network earned a 0.8 overnight rating, up from a 0.7 overnight for last year's race at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park. The Saturday race, which was new this year, earned a 0.7 overnight rating on ABC.

Several markets saw large increases in overnights year-over-year, including Indianapolis, which led all markets with a 3.8 rating, up 54 percent from last year's 2.4. Nashville saw a 300 percent increase, earning a 1.6 rating compared to a 0.4 overnight last year.

Fort Myers/Naples was up 275 percent (1.5 vs. 0.4), Columbus was up 160 percent (1.3 vs. 0.5), Tampa/St. Petersburg rose 133 percent (1.4 vs. 0.6), Philadelphia was up 100 percent (1.2 vs. 0.6) and Dayton, Ohio, saw a 60 percent gain (1.6 vs. 1.0).

.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by HJJ

.

I don't know about those figures for Indy. According to Gordon Kirby's article, there was a fourteen per cent drop from last year's figures.

http://gordonkirby.com/categories/co..._is_no387.html

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I don't know about those figures for Indy. According to Gordon Kirby's article, there was a fourteen per cent drop from last year's figures.

http://gordonkirby.com/categories/co..._is_no387.html

That's the Indy 500 ratings which were the second lowest in history and the lowest ever number of viewers for the event in history. Those figures were for the Detroit race

Last year's Detroit race got a 0.7 which had a red flag for a half hour and saw the finish on ESPNNews, this year got a 0.8. So essentially a full race got a point better than a race that didn't even finish in the time slot last year. Congrats.

Every Indycar race in 2013 except Detroit has had decreased ratings from the year before. Fact. Tejas will be a big test in prime time.

The supposedly 'unpopular in America' F1 race on NBC at Monaco got a 1.0 and over a million viewers at a 7:30 am time slot and a before wakeup time slot for F1's biggest fanbase in the U.S., California and the West Coast.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

That's the Indy 500 ratings which were the second lowest in history and the lowest ever number of viewers for the event in history. Those figures were for the Detroit race

Last year's Detroit race got a 0.7 which had a red flag for a half hour and saw the finish on ESPNNews, this year got a 0.8. So essentially a full race got a point better than a race that didn't even finish in the time slot last year. Congrats.

Every Indycar race in 2013 except Detroit has had decreased ratings from the year before. Fact. Tejas will be a big test in prime time.

The supposedly 'unpopular in America' F1 race on NBC at Monaco got a 1.0 and over a million viewers at a 7:30 am time slot and a before wakeup time slot for F1's biggest fanbase in the U.S., California and the West Coast.

Cheers; always can rely on you for viewing figures.

[HJJ]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I don't know about those figures for

Uh, based on the date of your original post I thought you were looking for Detroit ratings.

Cheers.

[NaBUru38]

What does NBC Sports broadcast on weekend morning and afternoon now? In August they'll show soccer and other serious stuff. That will help to attract casual viewers.