Shootout at Turn One

[Liz]

Just finished watching another session of Indy testing, and they ran a whole series of "Crash at Turn One" clips ... plus an interview with an obviously very discouraged Billy Boat who was one of them and could shed no real light on the problem, and is apparently out of the running now as he has no car.

What is the story with Turn One? Why is it that everyone who crashes during qualifying seems to have come to grief in that area?

[floid2000]

Simple....Turn one is the first time you find out if your tires are up to temp and if the aero engineers were right. With 4 identical turns ,by the time you get to 2 you know if the car's working" as advertised"

[Liz]

Well, then, if they all see the other guys stuffing it in Turn 1, why don't they take it easy through there?

Incidentally I see Billy Boat qualified his backup car.

[KC]

They all want to set on pole and the only way to do it is as Montoya and Ray did it. You must drive a qualifying speed lap on cold tires. Only these two could get it done and that is why they reside on the front row. Qualifying times are not based on the fastest lap, but on the average speed of the four laps they run. So a slow first lap drags down the average.

[enzo]

Turn One has some strange & unpredictable air patterns in it, depending on exactly which direction the prevailing wind is coming from. As it is the southwest corner, & the winds usually come from the west to southwest, & it is "shrouded" by the stands, you often get circular wind storms in the middle of the corner that almost never happen in any of the others.

Also, the turn entry is optically different than any other because of the stands. This optical illusion (delusion for some!) can make it hard to judge the entry line at times, especially for the less experienced drivers.

[bella]

billy boat - *snigger*
what is it with irl (or whatever) drivers and silly names? eg greg ray

[Dave S]

Johnny Rutherford stated that Turn 1 is really difficult because of the stands ,as mentioned above,making the turn in point almost invisible. Also, the stands were redone since last year, which has totally changed the wind patterns. Add to that the fact that qualifying has changed so that there are only 2 warm up laps instead of 3 as in years past. Also Sat. was colder than it has been in practise.

[Crash Test]

"billy boat - *snigger* what is it with irl (or whatever) drivers and silly names? eg greg ray"
-I still think Indy has a long way to go before beating Dick Trickle....seriously, WHAT was his mother thinking?...

[Liz]

I remember somebody writing in F1 Magazine once that if Billy Boat were to drive in the Monaco F1 race, the only place he'd end up was in the bay. At the time I read that, I had no idea there was really a guy named Billy Boat. I guess he's lucky his mother didn't name him Tug.

And he qualified in A.J. Foyt's car.

[Crash Test]

Tug....that is terrible....
Lucky Dick Trickle's last name isn't Tug....that's it...i'm off to club arse....

[floid2000]

Wouldn't Dick Tug be an improvemrnt ?