Thoughts on the "First" street race for the IRL.

[JohnSSC]

First, I have to watch the rest of the race on tape - but caught bits and pieces. I was impressed. I thought the cars looked good, speeds were good and the competition was definitely there. Lots of faces in the main grandstand - all good things.

Whoever dreamed up that whole side-by-side thing is a genius. It is great to cut to commercial and still be able to see the race!

I thought the IRL took a big step forward - what did the rest of you think?

[Testure]

A good day for AGR Didn't get to see it on TV, just followed the timing on the IRL site. Seemed to be quite a lot of little "incidents"?

[GP Racer]

I'm with ya John.

I'm not a huge fan of street racing, but this was pretty good all in all. The competition was as fierce as any I've seen on street courses, and a long first stint without a yellow was great. I think the drivers handled themselves pretty well, but there were a couple of real boners, like Scheckter, who really can't afford any blunders, and Briscoe cutting down Kannan stand out. The yellows seemed abit long to.

But I have to agree, the IRL proved that it could put on a great street show, draw some big fan numbers, (I'm hearing 600,000 for the weekend!)and yes, it was step forward.

[rustyfan]

Just saw the tape-delayed coverage, and the first two thirds of the race was your average not-too-exciting street-circuit race. The last third, however, was real good - and quite intense at times! So all in all I thought it was a pretty solid first non-oval race for the IRL, although some of the yellows took too long to get sorted.

And what the hell was Briscoe doing? The mirrors are there for a reason, dude - use 'em the next time.

Lastly, that "Forsythe" adverts plastered around the walls at one section of the track, I assume that was for some local company?

[SPRacer]

Great race - especially the last third, indeed. Brico was on Speed saying he "didn't see Kanaan," and Kanaan was interviewed and said pretty much, "yeah, right." It's too bad b/c Brico seemed to be showing a lot of skill earlier in the race when he built up a big lead on a different pit strategy. Glad Wheldon zipped by, though. We're all thrilled that our hometown driver won!!!! Good experience all around.

[drewdawg727]

The race was quite interesting.
I was at work today so i set the VCR but because i forgot to set my TV ahead an hour for daylight savings, i missed the first 26 laps...oops.
But i turned it on and i saw Danica and Briscoe up front...? And Penske/AGR/Ganassi nowhere to be found. Of course, the middle part was a little boring, but i must say i did enjoy the street circuit race. It's too bad that they didn't have more of those...
I actually spent a lot of time watching that whole deal with Darren Manning unfold...it took me forever to realize what was going on there, and i still can't quite figure it out. What do you think should have happened to prevent that bottleneck? I think Manning should have realized he was slow and let some more of those guys through instead of blocking Dixon and having him knock Kosuke off the road.
Very poor sportsmanship on Briscoe's part at the very end. I had a feeling that he was going to be blocking when the green came out and he pulled Kanaan up towards the wall on the front straight. If Briscoe thought he was going to hold off Tony Kanaan for ten laps then he was truly mistaken. Instead of crashing himself out of the race (which is clearly what he did) he should have just let the leaders go through and fall down to maybe 5th or 6th and still earn SOME points..
But that's just me. Overall on a scale of 10 i rate this an 8

[thebear]

Just wondering. Is it possible that Mr George is considering an IRL road course event at Indy as a companion to the F-1 event at some point? It would make sense in that the track is already staffed and it certainly would draw additional spectators.

[trow]

The first half sucked but the second half of the race was real good. I enjoyed the fact TK raced it like he stole it. He was spectacular.

Danny won it which doesn't hurt my feelings none. He's a really nice guy and deserves to win as much as anyone!

Overall the stands were filled, and the race was worth its billing. I enjoyed it!

MIPS is probably going to race at the track this year as a lead in to the F1 race. I haven't heard for sure yet but I know they tested out there last week. We shall see!

[marcus]

I thought it was very interesting.

they did a great job and it was close which is always good

I hope the other road courses later in the year are as good as this was

[mac]

Originally Posted by drewdawg727

If Briscoe thought he was going to hold off Tony Kanaan for ten laps then he was truly mistaken. Instead of crashing himself out of the race (which is clearly what he did) he should have just let the leaders go through and fall down to maybe 5th or 6th and still earn SOME points....

You would make a great racer! Pull over and wait until everyone who you think is quicker than you is past, then jump back into line.

PLEASE.

The first part of that lap was brilliant, with Kanaan and Briscoe dicing. It just went pear-shaped when they collided.

I fully believe Briscoe didn't see Kanaan - if you look at the replay, Tony came from a long way back. Do you think Ryan crashed into him on purpose?

Again ..... PLEASE.

Kanaan comes off a little arrogant with some of his comments. It was totally Ryan's fault but, come on Tony.

Up until then, Ryan had certainly impressed.

[Tenoch]

I really enjoyed it the only thing i didnt like were all the shadows the racetrack has, which makes watching the race really hard. But other than that I have no real complaints, although i was expecting a bit more at the start.

[roland]

Originally Posted by GP Racer

I'm with ya John.

I'm not a huge fan of street racing, but this was pretty good all in all. The competition was as fierce as any I've seen on street courses, and a long first stint without a yellow was great. I think the drivers handled themselves pretty well, but there were a couple of real boners, like Scheckter, who really can't afford any blunders, and Briscoe cutting down Kannan stand out. The yellows seemed abit long to.

But I have to agree, the IRL proved that it could put on a great street show, draw some big fan numbers, (I'm hearing 600,000 for the weekend!)and yes, it was step forward.

six hundred thousand?

[sr230772]

good race i was impressed dunno about 600,000 fans though as posted earlier but a good show

[MickAU]

Finally, the IRL developed some real credibility with an event off an Oval!

It was a great race, what amazed me though was the commentary team that we got here in Australia's (ESPN International - Derek Daley and Larry/Buddy Rice(not sure of his name??)) lack of knowledge about Briscoe. They were speaking of him as though he'd never driven a car before - for God's sake, he is the Champion in arguably the toughest racing series in the world - the Euro Formula 3 Series!! The 'block' which he put on Kanaan was nothing compared to what you'd see even in a tame Euro F3 race...give me a break!

As for the Kanaan/Briscoe clash, Kanaan came from a hell of a long way back and IMHO he would have gone straight ahead into the tyres if Briscoe weren't there.

Another thing about the commentary, we don't get all the pit reports on ESPN Int'l, they tune in every now and then to a US TV Interview (whilst commentating over the US feed), usually they cut half an interview off then speculate as to why this or that happened. I don't see the need for this surplus commentary team, please ESPN, give us the US commentary! I cannot believe how out of touch Derek Daley seems, for a guy that has been around it for so long.

Bring on more IRL road races!

[Xpunk75]

I have to agree with everyone I thought the race was awsome from start to finish. It was nice to see Danica Patrick up toward the front to bad her gear box got screwed. I thought cars looks a little unstable compared to the CART cars but I thought it made the race more fun to watch. I was really once again Dissapointed with Shector how he managed to slide his car into the wall all by himself blows my mind must of just cam into the corner to quickly and had bad break wear.

All in all the race brought back feelings and memories of Indy Car use to be like when I was a huge fan. I thought all the drivers did a great job and you guys can't be two hard on Brisco he was the leader so he can choose any line he wishes to run. Although he did cut off kannan a couple times but it was exciting racing and fun to watch. Kannan is one tough dude in a race car and does anyone think he looks like Vin Diesel with a bigger nose lol.

[rustyfan]

They use a different commentry-crew for the international feed because in some countries - like in Sweden - the broadcast runs flag-to-flag commercial-free, and apparently that is too hard for the US crew to cope with.

Personally I'm just happy to have US commentary, as opposed to having to listen to a bunch of dreadful Swedish commentators.

[MickAU]

American racing with no Ads?? I'm moving to Sweden!!!

I don't understand Swedish, but I reckon they might be closer to the mark than the ESPN-I comm's! LOL

We have ads here in Oz, and they sort of throw to and from them.

[bigted]

All i can say over here in the uk, the coverage is terrible. going to ads and finding u have missed 10 or so laps, and finding that your under a full course yellow with half the field pitted. And dont get me statrted on the presenters on both sides of the atlantic!

I had just watched Nascar from Bristol uninterupted for 5 and a half hours, maybe i had just been spoiled by Fox

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by MickAU

American racing with no Ads?? I'm moving to Sweden!!!

I don't understand Swedish, but I reckon they might be closer to the mark than the ESPN-I comm's! LOL

We have ads here in Oz, and they sort of throw to and from them.

Actually, we get the int'l US commentary feed on the IndyCar broadcasts since - unlike Eurosport - the network with the IndyCar & NASCAR rights, Viasat, understand that regardless of how questionable the US commentary might be, it's still eons better than what the best Swedish commentators can muster.

Personally I'm extremely glad to get US commentary, even if it's the Int'l feed. Sure, I'd like to get the proper US one, but since I have never gotten that one I don't really have anything to compare with and as such the Int'l is just fine by me

EDIT - Anyway, going back to what I mentioned earlier the reason they even have an int'l feed is probably due to scenarios such as the one with us Swedes getting the 'raw' broadcast. Unlike FOX/NBC and the NASCAR coverage, ESPN probably felt like it was better to have commentary all the time, rather than switch to something like FOX/NBC does whenever the US broadcast goes into commercial, a random on-board camera with the non-narrated original audio.

[JohnSSC]

Hmmm. 600K? That sounds optimistic, but I think this answers another big question: "What would happen if an IndyCar race took place at a recent OWRS/CART venue?"

It seems people will show up for the "Event" despite (in spite of?) the sanctioning body. Street races are shows. The IRL put on a good one and that will help next year's gate. However, the fans came before they knew it would be a good race.

I hope this puts to rest the "they won't show up to see Series X" sort of comments.

Getting back to the race presentation, the shadows did not bother me at all - in fact they are a good thing as they show the varying conditions the drivers deal with each lap. Also, here in the US they show commercials with a box to one side showing the race - no commentary but the pictures tell the story while the commercial rolls - I love it!

[BootsOntheSide]

A shame to see AGR dominate to sucha an extent, but ti was hard-thought and could've gone to any number of drivers. Quite a lot of incidents as expected, but still a fairly high standard of driving, and lots of action. It's a shame Briscoe made a rookie mistake, and that Danika's car didn't last the distance, because they had both shown quite well.

[rustyfan]

I'm quite sure GP's remark on the attendence, given the smiley, was a bit tongue-in-cheek...

[JohnSSC]

But someone raised an interesting point about something I saw as well:

There were banners plastered all over one corner, and interspersed along the rest of the track. The banners read "Forsythe." Another company that has the same name as a team owner in an open wheel series?

I will have to check St Pete's website....

[MickAU]

I saw something like IT underneath the Forsythe, assume its an IT company, there was somthing I saw on an onboard with race cars on the fence, not sure what company that was

[SPRacer]

From the gpstepete Web site:

"Forsythe Named Official Technology Partner --- Forsythe has joined the 2005 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg as an associate sponsor and the Official Technology partner of the event. Based in Skokie, Ill., Forsythe, has served as a national provider of technology infrastructure solutions to organizations across all industries since 1971. The company is a sponsor of Andretti Green Racing and began its relationship with the team in 2003 as an associate sponsor."