Infineon Race Thread (Spoilers)

Hazard · 26 Aug 2006, 23:13 (Ref:1693155)

Well, Rahal, Fernandez and Ganassi have rolled out the Panoz's again for this circuit race.

Worked out well so far for Dixon...pole. Marco Andretti in 2nd, as AGR show that they have good circuit speed with all 4 cars qualifying in the top 10.

Helio will start from 3rd, Hornish will start 10th - never a top road racer.

7th place for D&R with Briscoe at the wheel, good performance there.

Nice new feature from Indycar.com this weekend...we could watch live qualifying...it dropped out a lot, and wasn't 'as live' as the LTS - oh, and no commentary feed. But a good, new FREE development nonetheless.

Boxy · 27 Aug 2006, 01:33 (Ref:1693211)

I'm looking forward to his one.
Awesome track, and a Dixon victory will tighten the championship battle..
Top effort from Ryan Briscoe! How good is this kid? He was here is Aus earlier this week testing the HRT V8 Supercar for the upcoming enduros, then heads stateside and puts an IRL car (a D&R no less) on the 4th row. I'm sure the Briscoe knockers will still find something though...
I really hope the talk of Ryan joining the V8's next year aint true. He has far too much talent to come back to Oz at this early stage in his career. DON'T DO A COURTNEY!!!
Bring on the race!!

deejay · 27 Aug 2006, 02:12 (Ref:1693231)

Quote:

Sears Point: Starting grid

1. 1:17.0344 Scott Dixon
2. 1:17.0830 Marco Andretti
3. 1:17.2127 Helio Castroneves
4. 1:17.2320 Tony Kanaan
5. 1:17.2893 Dario Franchitti
6. 1:17.5946 Dan Wheldon
7. 1:18.2612 Ryan Briscoe
8. 1:18.3012 Vitor Meira
9. 1:18.3510 Bryan Herta
10. 1:18.5940 Sam Hornish Jr
11. 1:19.0287 Danica Patrick
12. 1:19.2128 Buddy Rice
13. 1:19.2421 Kosuke Matsuura
14. 1:19.5633 Jeff Simmons
15. 1:20.0960 Jeff Bucknum
16. 1:20.3379 Ed Carpenter
17. 1:21.6590 Scott Sharp
18. no time Tomas Sheckter

Great stuff Scott and Marco... get thee to a series with more road courses!

Knowlesy · 27 Aug 2006, 02:13 (Ref:1693232)

With no Cheever tomorrow, who'd bet against a strong result for young Marco?

Here's hoping. And also for a result that sets up a close four way fight for Chicagoland!

deejay · 27 Aug 2006, 02:19 (Ref:1693235)

Yes, Hornish should see his lead slashed here. Helio sitting quite nicely.

... I'm still cursing Ganassi for Dixon running out of fuel at Michigan though. He'd be right in the hunt now otherwise. As it stands he really has to rely on the 3 guys in front in the points having difficulties. </biased kiwi supporter>

Knowlesy · 27 Aug 2006, 02:23 (Ref:1693236)

I agree deejay, and I'm not a "biased kiwi" as you so eloquently put it!

karimbo · 27 Aug 2006, 03:44 (Ref:1693250)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boxy

Top effort from Ryan Briscoe! How good is this kid? He was here is Aus earlier this week testing the HRT V8 Supercar for the upcoming enduros, then heads stateside and puts an IRL car (a D&R no less) on the 4th row. I'm sure the Briscoe knockers will still find something though...
I really hope the talk of Ryan joining the V8's next year aint true. He has far too much talent to come back to Oz at this early stage in his career. DON'T DO A COURTNEY!!!
Bring on the race!!

Isn't it a discrace that Briscoe and Courtney are seeing their careers going down the drain this way ?

They should be racing single seaters in competitive team !!!

rustyfan · 27 Aug 2006, 21:54 (Ref:1694154)

Congrats to Marco Andretti on winning his first career IndyCar race!

ensign14 · 27 Aug 2006, 22:00 (Ref:1694160)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boxy

I'm sure the Briscoe knockers will still find something though...

Well, his race pace was not exactly top-notch...

But what a totally bull

"race". Marco Andretti goes for a fuel gamble but if the race stays green he has no chance of winning. So what happens? Hapless hopeless team-mate spins so there's a yellow flag.

What an incredible, astounding, miraculous, mind-destroying, brain-twisting coincidence. The last time I saw such an astonishing coincidence was at Indy 1992, when Mario Andretti stopped on track to cause a yellow that gave Michael Andretti another shot at Mears for the win.

Will the IRL investigate? The same series that allowed Ed Carpenter to win at Indy in the one race where he had the measure of Mark Taylor because of a superior straightline speed in a spec series? The same series that had its owner decide that there was no point following the appeal procedure over the Indy 500 result because what he said goes? Will they bogroll.

Fish_Flake · 27 Aug 2006, 22:09 (Ref:1694164)

Define awkward: A pit lane celebration featuring Michael Andretti being hugged by his ex-wife and Marco's mother, immediately after giving a hug of his own to his Playboy model fiancee.

Anyway, big congrats to Marco for his first win. We've been seeing a lot of those in open-wheel racing lately. I hope it keeps up.

jab · 27 Aug 2006, 22:14 (Ref:1694166)

Marco drove well today. He did a helping of luck but he hasn't at other times this year, and the way he drove towards the end showed maturity beyond his years

I feel for Dixon though - he would've won if it wasn't for that stop gone wrong

deejay · 28 Aug 2006, 02:03 (Ref:1694228)

Grrrrr.

Those full course yellows everytime someone spins are really ridiculous. Dixon was robbed!

deejay · 28 Aug 2006, 02:06 (Ref:1694230)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jab

I feel for Dixon though - he would've won if it wasn't for that stop gone wrong

It was more the fact that yellow flag pitstops completely disadvantage the fastest car. If there'd been green flag running like there should have been he would have been 30 seconds up the road and the long stop wouldn't have mattered.

Boxy · 28 Aug 2006, 11:35 (Ref:1694452)

QUOTE=ensign14]Well, his race pace was not exactly top-notch...

.[/QUOTE]

I stuffed my recording and missed the race

I noticed in the results Ryan had a 'handling' problem next to his name, and only completed 67 laps. What happened to him? Was he really that far off the pace?
Congrats to Marco on his maiden win

He is just getting his road course eye in before he hits F1 in a couple of years

From here, I would really like to see Helio win his first title. A very deserving chap...

ensign14 · 28 Aug 2006, 12:42 (Ref:1695312)

He got turfed off by Meira when the latter was coming through the field. He was on a strategy that had him out of sync with most of the field and he was in a poor car but, let's be honest, we're not talking top-notch road-racing competition here...

strider · 28 Aug 2006, 15:20 (Ref:1695446)

Top-notch road-racing competition or not, I'm glad that Marco Andretti's first success at this level came on a road course.

Neil22 · 28 Aug 2006, 17:31 (Ref:1695574)

Quote:

Originally Posted by deejay

Grrrrr.

Those full course yellows everytime someone spins are really ridiculous. Dixon was robbed!

Totally agree. Having full course yellows on a road track is one of the reasons I follow F1 more than the native open wheel cars. At least they haven't created yellows for commercials like another series I know of.

botsquad · 28 Aug 2006, 19:07 (Ref:1695730)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil22

Totally agree. Having full course yellows on a road track is one of the reasons I follow F1 more than the native open wheel cars. At least they haven't created yellows for commercials like another series I know of.

so i guess your going to stop watching f1 now.
after all, the safter car caution, and the pit stacking caused m.s. a place over alonso.

deejay · 28 Aug 2006, 22:39 (Ref:1695902)

Quote:

Originally Posted by botsquad

so i guess your going to stop watching f1 now.
after all, the safter car caution, and the pit stacking caused m.s. a place over alonso.

I knew someone would bring that up.

Quite a bit different situation there though. Liuzzi was stuck on the racing line on the exit of a fast corner with cars going by very quickly. There was a good chance of someone getting killed there if the safety car didn't come out... I actually think they left it too long, Liuzzi was left in a very precarious situation, but that just shows how keen F1 are to keep the action going.

The IRL race on the other hand was being stopped for cars that were off the track entirely, easily sightable, with cars going by much slower, and easily removable by a tow vehicle. Herta for example was well out of the way.

They're basically applying oval safety car rules to a road course. They need to review that.

We get no more than a handful of safety car periods a year in F1, we get more than that in a single IRL road race. Something wrong with that. It appears to be born from an American mentality that safety car periods make the racing exciting - rather than being for, you know, safety.

rustyfan · 30 Aug 2006, 10:19 (Ref:1697447)

Quote:

Originally Posted by deejay

The IRL race on the other hand was being stopped for cars that were off the track entirely, easily sightable, with cars going by much slower, and easily removable by a tow vehicle. Herta for example was well out of the way.

During a Champ Car race at Vancouver in 1990 a track marshal was run over by Willy T. Ribbs and killed, and that incident happened at a very low speed. I highly doubt the same type of accident would happen today, however (the 1990 tragedy was a result of several extremely unfortunate circumstances, and Ribbs himself carried absolutely no blame in the incident), but nonetheless it was a fatal accident that happened at low speed.

Also, let's not forget the infamous crash during the CART race at Detroit in 1991 where first Michael Andretti, and then his father Mario, crashed into a stationary safety truck attending another car, despite local yellows being waved. It was pure luck there were no injuries in that accident.

While it obviously is hard to know for sure, I wouldn't be surprised if both incidents lead to an increased use of full course cautions within US-based open-wheel racing.

Michael Edick · 31 Aug 2006, 22:20 (Ref:1698889)

conspiracy theory, anyone?

according to Robin Miller, the rumor has it that Herta "took one for the team" by spinning on purpose with 7 laps remaining so that Marco would not run out of fuel at the end...

http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/31838/

regardless, Marco drove well that day...

mac · 1 Sep 2006, 01:12 (Ref:1698938)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ensign14

Well, his race pace was not exactly top-notch...

When Meira turfed him, it caused damage and resulted in serious handling problems.

mac · 1 Sep 2006, 01:13 (Ref:1698939)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ensign14

He got turfed off by Meira when the latter was coming through the field. He was on a strategy that had him out of sync with most of the field and he was in a poor car but, let's be honest, we're not talking top-notch road-racing competition here...

Seeing as we're "being honest", honesty would suggest that Ryan is also in one of the worst and most under-funded entries in that series.

Knowlesy · 1 Sep 2006, 22:57 (Ref:1699615)

And rightly so.

okeefe · 5 Sep 2006, 11:52 (Ref:1702262)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Edick

conspiracy theory, anyone?

according to Robin Miller, the rumor has it that Herta "took one for the team" by spinning on purpose with 7 laps remaining so that Marco would not run out of fuel at the end...

http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/31838/

regardless, Marco drove well that day...

So will Herta ever get asked this and his data checked to see if he did this on purpose for his teammate?

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