Round 2:Desert Diamond West Valley, Phoenix Grand Prix. Phoenix International Raceway

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 2: Desert Diamond West Valley, Phoenix Grand Prix. Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale. 1st-2nd April.

After an 11 year absence, this weekend's race marks the return of IndyCar to Phoenix International Raceway. The last IndyCar race held there was the XM Satellite Radio 200, Presented by Argent Mortgage and was won by Sam Hornish Jr, driving a Dallara IR05-Honda HI7R V8 for Team Penske.

The first race ever to be held at Phoenix was in 1915, on a dirt oval at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. In 1950 the American Automobile Association revived the race and when the United States Auto Club became the sanctioning body, the race was added to their calendar in 1956. In 1964, the race was moved to the newly built Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, on the outskirts of Phoenix.

During the USAC era, two races a year were held, one in the Spring and one in the Fall/Autumn. After the split with USAC, the race became a CART event from 1979 to 1995. The track continued to hold two races a year, with the spring race often serving as the season opener but in 1987 the track dropped the Fall race. In 1995, after a dispute between the track owners and CART series officials, the event was dropped from the 1996 CART calendar and immediately switched to the IRL for that year.

This year's return to Phoenix will be a night race.

Some trivia:
Phoenix saw the last career win for Mario Andretti, in 1993.
Only two drivers from the current crop have won at Phoenix, Hélio Castroneves in 2002 and Tony Kanaan in 2003 and 2004.

The driver with most wins: 6, Al Unser Sr, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1976, 1979, 1985.
The Team with most wins: 8, Penske Racing/Team Penske, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2002, 2005.

Track layout:
The track has both road course and oval configurations. The original road course ran both inside and outside of the oval but was replaced in 1991 with an infield course. The oval gets its unusual layout with the "dogleg", due to a combination of terrain, the original road course and a drag strip. In 2011, the oval underwent significant changes, the most notable were to the front stretch, widened to 62 feet (19 m) and the "dogleg" being moved outward by 95 feet (29 m), as well as its radius being increased to 500 feet (150 m).



Length: 1 Mile (1.6 Km)
Turns: 4

Lap record old configuration: Arie Luyendyck, March 23, 1996. 19.608, 183.599 mph (295.474 km/h), Treadway Racing, Reynard 96i-Ford Cosworth XB, Indy Racing League.

Lap record new configuration: Jimmie Johnson, November 13, 2015. 25.147, 143.158 Mph (230.390 km/h). Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Last IndyCar race winner:
Sam Hornish Jr.
Team Penske.
Dallara IR05-Honda HI7R V8

Laps: 200
Distance: 200 Miles (321.868 Km)
Race Time: 1:30:24
Average Speed: 137.753 Mph (221.69 Km/h)

Race Broadcast:
NBCSN. April 2nd, 8.30pm, EST

[rwintle]

Thanks again. Time for a new lap record.

[fieldodreams79]

Yup on the record! Heard MP on MWM saying the speeds were stupid quick during testing (the numbers astonished me, at least). PIR was always more of an IndyCar track to me, rather than for stockcars. The new configuration was made for stockcars so it'll be interesting to see these cars there.

Caught this in time and may actually watch live!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by rwintle

Thanks again. Time for a new lap record.

No probs.

Even though the general layout is the same, the track has changed so there can't be a true like for like. However, it will be interesting to see what sort of speeds the DW12 with its Chevy and Honda aero-kits, can achieve, compared to Arie Luyendyck's Reynard, of 20 years ago.

[BudLightJaguar]

Night races are fine but quite a pain to watch live from this side of the pond. It'll be around 4 AM here when the green flag waves.

[10TENTHS]

Sato totalled his car after 5 laps of practice...

[Purist]

I'm sometimes dubious of IndyCar's published track lengths, especially when no other source goes along with them. However, It's basically impossible for this track to not have gotten slightly longer.

From what I gather, the revised lap length for Phoenix is 1.022 miles.

BTW, where did you get that 18-second-bracket time for Luyendyk from 1996?

On a 1.000-mile oval, a speed of 183.599 corresponds to a time of 19.608 seconds. The lap time given would correspond to a speed of 191.918-mph. Alternatively, the previous layout at Phoenix was only 0.957 of a mile.

Qualifying is coming up. Let's see what we get.

[10TENTHS]

No, the track was definitely 1 mile. This is probably like that CART Fontana thing where they said de Ferran did 241, but his lap time didn't match up with a 2 mile track length. A discrepancy could be caused by measuring the outside line which is longer.

For what it's worth Wiki lists the record as 19.608s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoeni...tional_Raceway

[Purist]

Well, the Wikipedia bit makes me feel somewhat better.

Convention is supposed to be track center line. Now, I wonder sometimes, with ovals, if it happens that the first lane of the apron to the inside is counted and the measurement goes off because of that. I'm quite certain that sometimes they do count the apron lane toward track width.

As to Qualifying, right now, T&S seems to be down. Also, Munoz just clouted the wall in Turn 1/2.

EDIT: As I was typing, it looks like T&S is up and running.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Purist

I'm sometimes dubious of IndyCar's published track lengths, especially when no other source goes along with them. However, It's basically impossible for this track to not have gotten slightly longer.

From what I gather, the revised lap length for Phoenix is 1.022 miles.

BTW, where did you get that 18-second-bracket time for Luyendyk from 1996?

On a 1.000-mile oval, a speed of 183.599 corresponds to a time of 19.608 seconds. The lap time given would correspond to a speed of 191.918-mph. Alternatively, the previous layout at Phoenix was only 0.957 of a mile.

Qualifying is coming up. Let's see what we get.

Welcome back.

You're quite right that doesn't make sense. Totally my mistake. I pasted the wrong time. It should have read 19.608, 183.599 mph.

[Purist]

Good to slide back in.

Qualifying went smoothly after Munoz. Helio put down two stellar times. His quicker lap was a 19.100, 192.628-mph.

Hopefully, the Hondas have better race pace, because the grid doesn't look so good from their perspective.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Castroneves has officially broken Luyendyk's lap record. Lap 1: 19.0997, 192.631 mph. Lap2: 19.1607, 192.018. Combined laps 38.2604, average speed 192.324 mph.

[D.R.T.]

Now thats fast.

Good to see Power back on track and hopefully moving up from 9th starting position.

Max Chilton also very impressive

[Purist]

Despite the practice crash earlier, looks like Hinchcliffe has a strong piece.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying results:

Total domination by Chevrolet, as three Honda powered cars fail to post a time. An impressive 8th for Max Chilton and a conservative 9th spot for Will Power.

1. Helio Castroneves. Team Penske. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.2604, 192.324
2. Tony Kanaan. Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.4228, 191.511
3. Juan Pablo Montoya. Team Penske. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.4520, 191.366
4. Charlie Kimball. Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.4813, 191.220
5. Ed Carpenter. Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.5700, 190.780
6. Scott Dixon. Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.6519, 190.376
7. Josef Newgarden. Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.7093, 190.094
8. Max Chilton. Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.7341, 189.972
9. Will Power. Team Penske. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.7797, 189.749
10. Simon Pagenaud. Team Penske. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:38.7990, 189.654
11. Marco Andretti. Andretti Autosport. Dallara DW12-Honda. 00:38.9188, 189.071
12. Ryan Hunter-Reay. Andretti Autosport. Dallara DW12-Honda. 00:38.9403, 188.966
13. Mikhail Aleshin. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara DW12-Honda. 00:39.1409, 187.998
14. Alexander Rossi. Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian. Dallara DW12-Honda. 00:39.3625, 186.939
15. Sebastien Bourdais. KVSH Racing. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet. 00:39.4460, 186.544
16. Luca Filippi. Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara DW12-Honda. 00:39.6009, 185.814
17. Jack Hawksworth. A.J. Foyt Enterprises. Dallara DW12-Honda. 00:39.7653, 185.046
18. Conor Daly. Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara DW12-Honda.00:39.9347, 184.261
19. Graham Rahal. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Dallara DW12-Honda. 00:40.9323, 179.770
20. Takuma Sato. A.J. Foyt Enterprises. Dallara DW12-Honda. No Time
21. Carlos Munoz. Andretti Autosport. Dallara DW12-Honda. No Time
22. James Hinchcliffe. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara DW12-Honda. No Time

[gert]

Anyone knows how long till race start from now?

Now = 22:44 GMT/UTC; 00:44 my time.
I'm still undecided if I should stay up to watch it or not ...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by gert

Anyone knows how long till race start from now?

Now = 22:44 GMT/UTC; 00:44 my time.
I'm still undecided if I should stay up to watch it or not ...

It's just gone 7:00pm EST and the race broadcast is from 8:30pm EST.

[gert]

Thanks.

So, broadcast at 8.30. Do you know when the race itself starts?
There was a timer counting down on the indycar website, but it has reached 0:0:0 a long time ago

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by gert

Thanks.

So, broadcast at 8.30. Do you know when the race itself starts?
There was a timer counting down on the indycar website, but it has reached 0:0:0 a long time ago

If you click on to the link for the race itself, under Desert Diamond West Valley, Phoenix Grand Prix it says 9:15pm.

[gert]

Right!
Thanks, hadn't noticed that.

That makes a 3.15am start over here. I guess this will be a short night then

[canamman]

Been a rough week for a few teams this week at Phoenix.
A lot of torn up gear. Cant get over how the slightest
twitch of the steering wheel can throw you in the wall.
Little room for error. Should be an entertaining race.

[FLGTFAN]

The pre-race starts now. I'm ready for this. 1 mile oval at 190mph. Yes, please.

[rwintle]

Booyah! Let's go IndyCar drivers!!!!

[rwintle]

Kimball and Chilton starting high up the grid. Good stuff. This should be interesting...

[bjohnsonsmith]

They are just about to start and it's a clean one.