Michigan 400 Thread

[TWRv12]

Franchitti survives monster crash
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...-39478,00.html

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by luke

Seems to me I was the only one who didn't like that race. Bare in mind I only watched the first 20 laps then tuned in again on the wedsite to watch 130 onwards... I didn't see the early stuff but after that very long caution and just 7 or 8 cars running and Kanaan just glued to the white line I don't like the way these guys currently race. This has been the case in IRL for a while and even in Champ Car at Las Vegas when they have too much d/f and just stick to the white line holding the inside. Each to their own but I find that boring and frustrating. i thought as the track would be green there would be more side-by-side racing...

Well I am off to go see Montoya vs Andretti 2000 at Michigan 500 now that was a battle.

Sorry dude - you missed the most amazing laps. You can't be judging races on the little bits you decided to watch.

[OpenWheel4ever]

agree with you Hazard. Personaly, I watched all race and it was one of the most exciting race of the season.

[luke]

Originally Posted by Hazard

Sorry dude - you missed the most amazing laps. You can't be judging races on the little bits you decided to watch.

Maybe but I did say bare in mind and I think I was right though about the last stint with 7 or 8 cars.

I didn't watch laps 30-130 because of the problems as they didn't show it here and I had to watch it on the main site but it was very viewable in the end as they actually had more than the in-car cams.

[NAC]

sorry bad post. please delete

[Dutton]

A quite unlikely race, by all accounts.

I'm just thoroughly relieved that everyone got away with The Big One. That could so easily have been a very nasty result.

Other than that stuff, well, it really was a fun race. It is particularly nice seeing them run three wide and such (OK, not through all the corners, or anything, but cool anyway, ).

It was a shame to see so many cars out, though.

[Knowlesy]

A shame that Michigan is now gone from OW above all.

It's a track that puts you through everything really. I'm sad to see it go.

Lucky escape for Dario but he was always going to survive, he's a Scotsman. I thought Dixon was even luckier to be honest.

What scares me about the IRL cars is they seem to float away so easily in a way quite unlike other cars I've ever seen, save perhaps for the Mercedes CLR's. They become airborne at the merest excuse.

[deejay]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

What scares me about the IRL cars is they seem to float away so easily in a way quite unlike other cars I've ever seen, save perhaps for the Mercedes CLR's. They become airborne at the merest excuse.

Well, I thought it was quite understandable. Dario's car got turned sideways going at over 200mph. The aerodynamics obviously disappear at the point. Perhaps they could design the underneath of the car to handle that situation better or something, but I get the impression it's more to do with nature of the racing than the car in particular.

So yeah, I think "merest excuse" is a bit of an understatement.

Watch the clip again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3NO_zYCvb4

If you sent an F1 car down a track sideways at 200mph what would happen to it?

[NAC]

I have to agree with Knowlesy, the IRL cars to me do seam to lift more than any other single seater. I remember watching Mario Andretti in the practice session before his last Indy and the lift he got on that was huge. It the time remembering asking a few people why they thought these IRL cars seam to get more lift.

I would like to know if any others have thoughts on this.

[Purist]

The Le Mans Prototypes, Champcar, and F1 cars have the raised noses to make them less dependent on the ground effect, so they're less vulnerable to this sort of thing. The LMP undertrays have also been designed to deal with dissipating the lift when the cars turn sideways. When Ralf Schumacher had his flight at Melbourne in 2002, the car lifted off because of wheel-to-wheel contact, but the car's attitude once on its rear wheels stayed pretty stable until the car lost enough speed that it came back down. I believe it was Brack and Papis that had contact at the Michigan 500 in 2001, and neither car left the ground.

It very much is a case of the aero setup on the IRL cars making them relatively susceptible to lift-off.

[Purist]

As to the cars always being on the white line. The IRL cars have less horsepower and more drag now so that they are slower overall, but also, so that they are nearly flat-out all the way around most of the ovals. Since they don't have the horsepower, using a wider/higher line costs speed, and the fastest way around becomes following the white line the whole lap. It's what the Toyota Atlantics did at Fontana in 2001.

The cars need a bit more horsepower, and less of a Gurney flap so more lines are useable, and so outbraking comes into play at more tracks. That's the only way you can have decisive passes on the larger ovals. It's one of the things that really frustrates me. It's cool to see the cars side-by-side two or three rows deep, but it's annoying after awhile when no one can actually pull off a decisive move.

[drdisque]

I think if an F1 car was in the same situation, it would've done the exact same thing.

Last weekend we saw the best and the worst of MIS. The best in side-by-side racing, high speeds, and multiple grooves.

The bad was the wrecks and potential danger that the track can cause and the low crowds caused by its location in the middle of nowhere and the fact that it has no support race because no feeder series wants to race there.

[deejay]

It looked to me like Dario was going to go into a normal spin but caught Dan's car perpendicularly, which would have trapped some of the airflow under the car, enough to send it upwards. If Dan’s car hadn’t been right against his Dario probably would have just kept spinning.

[luke]

I finally saw the whole race and before the major accident it was a fantastic battle at the front so I am annoyed most of the front runners got taken out.

[Dutton]

Yep. There were too many accidents before that, too.