Watkins Glen Race Thread

marcus · 5 Jul 2007, 09:28 (Ref:1954977)

The Famous Watkins Glen is up this weekend in what should be an interesting event.

Scott Dixon has won twice here so should be the favorite yet again but im sure guys like Helio , Kanaan and Dario want a piece of the action as well.

Dario is on fire at the moment but can anyone actually stop him ??

also noticed that Milka Duno is not racing this weekend , seems strange to me considering her road racing background and how much she is struggling on the ovals , maybe a road course would of done wonders for her confidence.

anyway bring on the glen in what should be a great weekend

Tim Northcutt · 6 Jul 2007, 13:57 (Ref:1956206)

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcus

Dario is on fire at the moment but can anyone actually stop him ??

also noticed that Milka Duno is not racing this weekend , seems strange to me considering her road racing background and how much she is struggling on the ovals , maybe a road course would of done wonders for her confidence.

I shared those same exact thoughts in my latest column -"IRL Mid-Season Report Card" - that was published yesterday.

Keep in mind that if Dario has one bad race with a DNF or something and Dixon, Wheldon or Kanaan win that event, we have a close title chase again.

and I just plain do not understand why Milka is not entered at Watkins Glen...it is one of the few tracks that she has driven before and she does need a serious confidence boost after two forgetable races at Iowa and Richmond, where she didn't have the experience to handle it.

Tim Northcutt · 6 Jul 2007, 16:58 (Ref:1956360)

Here are the times from this morning's first practice session:

1 Buddy Rice - 1:30.2580
2 Dario Franchitti - 1:30.3110
3 Sam Hornish Jr - 1:30.3723
4 Helio Castroneves - 1:30.4954
5 Scott Dixon - 1:30.5734
6 Dan Wheldon - 1:30.6998
7 Vitor Meira - 1:30.8752
8 Tony Kanaan - 1:30.8803
9 Kosuke Matsuura - 1:31.1697
10 Marco Andretti - 1:31.3934
11 Tomas Scheckter - 1:31.9467
12 Darren Manning - 1:32.0287
13 Scott Sharp - 1:32.1340
14 Danica Patrick - 1:32.1824
15 Jeff Simmons - 1:32.6367
16 Ed Carpenter - 1:34.2662
17 AJ Foyt IV - 1:35.0747
18 Sarah Fisher - 1:36.7652

Excellent result for Rice thus far....He really seems to have turned the corner with D&R and his engineers

Leighton Irwin · 6 Jul 2007, 19:45 (Ref:1956516)

Unfortunately for Sarah the other D&R car is at the opposite end. Maybe Buddy will help her with set up.

Tim Northcutt · 6 Jul 2007, 19:56 (Ref:1956524)

This is her first time at the Glen and, IIRC, only her second road race in the IRL....she'll spend this weekend getting acclimated, but Sarah won't give up...she is a hard worker and she is focused on getting better with more experience

Leighton Irwin · 7 Jul 2007, 13:42 (Ref:1956877)

Sure hope so. I like her far more than the 'princess'.

kingfloopy · 8 Jul 2007, 21:49 (Ref:1958022)

Certainly an interesting end to the race with a hockey type brawl breaking out. It'll be interesting to see what happens with that.

Congrats to Dixon too on his third straight win.

J.D.

**Adam43** · 8 Jul 2007, 21:54 (Ref:1958026)

Well that was an odd end!

Dixon drove well and there was some good racing in the mid part of the race.

ThePenguin · 8 Jul 2007, 22:06 (Ref:1958036)

I am waiting to see if any of the drivers in the post race fight will be punished, because they are the ones that started the whole thing.

Hazard · 8 Jul 2007, 22:22 (Ref:1958048)

More details on the post race fight please? I only watched the car stuff.

deejay · 9 Jul 2007, 01:32 (Ref:1958107)

Great result Dixon!

Terrific effort by Hornish as well. He can well and truly put the "can't drive on road courses" allegation to bed now.

Good to see an IRL road race that wasn't marred by yellows as well. Driving standard must be improving. They also seemed to get the pace car off track quicker than in previous years.

As for the post-race brawl, Kanaan should be suspended for that. Unless my eyes deceived me he deliberately crashed into Hornish coming into the pits after the race – in retaliation for what can at worst be described as a racing incident earlier. I’ll need to see the replay though.

Davhut · 9 Jul 2007, 02:59 (Ref:1958142)

I was kind of hoping Hornish's dad's punch would miss and knock off the (former) Mrs. Mike's hat...

Seriously now, what are any of these people...parents, wives, ex wives, kids, doing in the racing pits? I would think they'd be better off in the hospitality suite watching the big screen.

ThePenguin · 9 Jul 2007, 03:20 (Ref:1958149)

Here is the link to the video of what happened after the race.

http://www.indycar.com/multimedia/vi...ayer.php?v=697

deejay · 9 Jul 2007, 03:57 (Ref:1958163)

Full post-race, including the pitlane entry incident that got Sam riled:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ce33tzL6E

Apparently it's Danica's dad who knocks down Sam's dad.

heh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVhhJ7wPL-E

With comment from AJ Foyt!

ThePenguin · 9 Jul 2007, 04:14 (Ref:1958169)

Quote:

Originally Posted by deejay

Apparently it's Danica's dad who knocks down Sam's dad.

That is what they originally thought, but then they later found out that he was no where near the incident when it happened.

NAC · 9 Jul 2007, 08:07 (Ref:1958256)

On ya Scotty. I'm out of town and would you believe it no bloody sky in the rooms, I'll have to watch it when I get back. In short what was the fisty cuffs about.

georgeboi999 · 9 Jul 2007, 08:47 (Ref:1958287)

That was the most entertaining part of the race.

foreversideways · 9 Jul 2007, 09:32 (Ref:1958357)

Def handbags at five paces. Is there anything more amusing than old men trying to have a fight. Still added a little spice to the event.

Knowlesy · 9 Jul 2007, 10:39 (Ref:1958431)

Tony put it well: "That's why dads should be in the grandstands".

How stupid was that though? No need for it, I'm sure Sam and Tony would have had a heated word but nothing else. Now they should just forget about it and head to Nashville.

Good moment in the Sky Sports post race chat too

Keith Heuwen: "Another good drive from Marco today. He's really a name of the future. I know he's a part of the Andretti dynasty but he didn't necessarily have to have the talent to get where he is today did he?"

Tim Scott: "Well obviously not, look at A.J. Foyt IV."

Cue giggling from Keith and Paul Cherry covering his microphone to hide his imminent explosion of laughter.

marcus · 9 Jul 2007, 12:45 (Ref:1958567)

Ive only just finished watching the race (They had it on about a 12 hour delay here in Oz

)

interesting Race wth Dixon proving he is a gun on road courses and especially Dixon's Glen (Oh I mean Watkins , maybe next year the name will be changed)

good drives from Manning and Buddy Rice as well , bad luck for Helio but thats what pressure does to people.

all in all a great race.

the end was dissapointing to see but at the same time was highly entertaining in a twisted kind of way LOL , but the end result is that its the sport that suffers.

Now I dont quite understand what happened , Sam's Dad pushed TK and someone else took offence to that and the next thing they were on the ground.

The best bit of it all was 2 oter drivers.

Marcop Andretti and Dan Wheldon.

Dan grabbed TK and walked him away from the incident and Marco grabbed Michael and tried to get him out of it.

Ok Dan's a bit older so I guess maturity came ino it but it was a very sporting move by both of them and a very mature move on Marco's part (I guess it may have been different if Eddie Cheever was involved LOL)

Im not getting into who was wrong and who was right because I wasnt there TV didnt capture it perfectly but I was impressed with those two lads and there efforts to try and bring things under control.

Great Race at the Glen

Hazard · 9 Jul 2007, 20:31 (Ref:1959034)

Well, we're missing the big part in the puzzle - that being Kanaan hitting Hornish on the slow down lap.

If that happened, then Kanaan deserves a whopping penalty in my opinion - regardless of the on track incident.

As for Hornish Snr and the fight, well, since quite a few of Penske & AGR seemed ready for a fight, some team penalties could well be deserved, but maybe restricted to fines and a serious verbal reprimand. Banning Hornish's dad from the track for a bit might be in order if he's going to start slamming drivers though.

Fish_Flake · 9 Jul 2007, 22:41 (Ref:1959144)

I never saw Kanaan actually make contact with Hornish on the cooldown lap. Tony cut down on Sam at the pit entry, but I don't think they hit one another. The aftermath justifies any potential penalties regardless.

The conspiracy theorist in me speculates whether the IRL orchestrated the entire incident for TV ratings. The race ended a good half-hour ahead of its broadcast window, and nothing reflects worse onscreen than dead air and drawn out interviews. I'm only about 40% serious on that, though.

mac · 10 Jul 2007, 04:07 (Ref:1959244)

Don't know about the cooldown lap (didn't see any of it), but Hornish's attempted move on Kanaan was terrible. He definitely should have been pinged for it - Kanaan's fury is understandable.

D.R.T. · 10 Jul 2007, 10:02 (Ref:1959486)

Found the whole thing pretty funny.

Hornish Sr and that random dude in there throwing punches win the two biggest goose awards. Terrible but entertaining

JamesRamone · 10 Jul 2007, 11:50 (Ref:1959568)

If you watch the vide clip on the IRL website, you can see Kanaan cut Hornish up on pit entry on the slowing down lap. I thought the actual race clash was just a racing incident, and Kanaan was abit petty to cut him up for that.

Some poster on the IRL site says it was all fixed, due to the race finishing ahead of scheduled TV time, and this was a ploy to keep viewers tuned in

I liked Marco taking Michael away from it all, thought that was quite funny.

Anyway not too forget Dixon, well raced for the 3rd year in a row. Castroneves mistake was suprising. I quite like Watkins Glen, think its a decent track.

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