A Great Ruse

Team Owner · 3 Aug 2004, 12:33 (Ref:1055020)

One of the greatest ruses ever was perpetrated on AGR Sunday. During the last caution the team manager of the #15 Argent car driven by Buddy Rice asked an IRL pit tech to call Brian Barnhardt on the directors channel and ask if they could possibly extend the yellow and allow teams to top off the cars so that all could reach the end without running out of fuel so as to make a better race for the fans. Brian announced " pits are closed, show the field one lap to go to green at the start finish line " The stage was set for the finish. Tony Kaanan got a call on the radio telling him to let Buddy Rice around him and tuck in to save fuel as Buddy didn't have enough to finish the race and would even burn more if he was out front. Needless to say Rice won the race, did 2 victory laps plus a burnout and when his fuel tank was pumped out had 1.7 gallons left in it.
Tony Kaanan was furious at his crew and stormed off on his scooter and refused to talk to anyone as when he was behind Rice his car pushed and he couldn't get back around him.

RLR is to be congratulated for one of the greatest ruses of all time.

Now you know the rest of the story !

Kicking-back · 3 Aug 2004, 12:49 (Ref:1055053)

Well done.

Great bit of gamesmanship - and it won them the race.

rustyfan · 3 Aug 2004, 13:58 (Ref:1055133)

Thanks for the story Team Owner - that's a classic, and now I completely understand why Kanaan was so angry afterwards

macdaddy · 3 Aug 2004, 14:25 (Ref:1055151)

Great story!

JohnSSC · 3 Aug 2004, 17:46 (Ref:1055356)

Good stuff Team Owner!

Sometimes the real "racing" is going on behind the pit wall! I bet Michael & Co. are still talking to themselves over that one.

Best part is next time RLR does that the other teams are going to be tied up in knots trying to figure out if it is the real deal or not.

Kicking-back · 3 Aug 2004, 17:55 (Ref:1055361)

A team asking for a yellow to be extended is not a move I hope the officials would ever agree to.

GP Racer · 3 Aug 2004, 19:45 (Ref:1055470)

Whoa, Michael has to be smarting over that one! How does he possibly approach Tony to tell him what happened, that they were duped?

Speaking of ruses, is this rivalry as contentious and heated between AGR and Rahal, as TV and the IRL would like us to believe, or is it overly hyped to gain viewer interest?

Just wondering...

Team Owner · 3 Aug 2004, 19:52 (Ref:1055479)

Quote:

Originally posted by Kicking-back
A team asking for a yellow to be extended is not a move I hope the officials would ever agree to.

The only time it would be agreed to is if there was something wrong on the track that might compromise everyones safety.

Team Owner · 3 Aug 2004, 19:54 (Ref:1055485)

Quote:

Originally posted by GP Racer
Whoa, Michael has to be smarting over that one! How does he possibly approach Tony to tell him what happened, that they were duped?

Speaking of ruses, is this rivalry as contentious and heated between AGR and Rahal, as TV and the IRL would like us to believe, or is it overly hyped to gain viewer interest?

Just wondering...

MA was so mad after he found out that no one could talk to him for a couple of hours.

The rivalry is very real dating back to MA versus Bobby Rahal. The teams really don't like each other and neither do Buddy and the AGR drivers.

Down F0rce · 3 Aug 2004, 19:58 (Ref:1055489)

Well, Buddy almost had a punch up with the AGR crew last race after the incident with Dan.

And now there's this...which would suggest to me that it's more heated than we are led to believe...

This is what was needed to complete the picture. A great rivalry. That's whats been missing in motorsport for so long now.

Roll on Kentucky

Down F0rce · 3 Aug 2004, 21:02 (Ref:1055557)

What they are saying...from Speed TV.

“I did what I was told to do,” Kanaan said. “Somebody asked me to let him by. I did. That’s what happened. … Having to let somebody by because someone is telling you on the radio that he’s not going to make it and then I see the guy make it doesn’t make me very happy. I’m not going to point fingers at anybody. I’m a team player, and I’m a part of that, too. Today, I don’t think we were very smart. I think the other team was smarter than us. It is what it is....The race ended being a fuel-mileage race, which I‘m really not happy about. If I had won the race, then I would be happy. Racing shouldn’t be about fuel mileage; racing should be about racing.”

“It came down to a bit of a fuel race,” Rice said. “Obviously, we had saved more than he had. When it came down to it and we had to run full rich, we were able to do it and drive away.”

“I don‘t know why they thought we were going to be out of fuel,” said Scott Roembke, the Rahal Letterman Racing chief operating officer who calls Rice’s races. Sure ya didn't

“They have the same motor we have. We gave Buddy the numbers we needed to work with, and normally we’ll save fuel until the lap when we want him to go to full rich. That lap came, we went to full rich, and a half-lap later, we were P1.”

marcus · 4 Aug 2004, 07:27 (Ref:1055825)

a very interesting tale for sure , hands up those who dont think AGR will do the same in Kentucky ?

GP Racer · 4 Aug 2004, 19:34 (Ref:1056456)

I'm thinking that AGR better come up with a new ruse for Kentucky marcus. No one is ever going to believe what they over-hear on the radio again!

I'm betting Tony has his game face on for Kentucky. No more Mr. Nice Guy...

gttouring · 4 Aug 2004, 21:53 (Ref:1056553)

better than ferrari has ever done

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