Copper World Indy 200 @ Phoenix Thread ** SPOILERS **

[rustyfan]

Speeds from the first two practice sessions;


Practice 1

1. 1 Scott Dixon G-Force-Toyota 175.432
2. 3 Helio Castroneves Dallara-Toyota 175.136
3. 11 Tony Kanaan Dallara-Honda 174.353
4. 52 Ed Carpenter Dallara-Chevrolet 173.416
5. 6 Sam Hornish Jr. Dallara-Toyota 171.603
6. 27 Dario Franchitti Dallara-Honda 171.322
7. 26 Dan Wheldon Dallara-Honda 21.068 170.872
8. 4 Tomas Scheckter Dallara-Chevrolet 169.584
9. 10 Darren Manning G-Force-Toyota 169.234
10. 13 Greg Ray G-Force-Honda 21.321 168.847
11. 51 Alex Barron Dallara-Chevrolet 168.808
12. 2 Mark Taylor Dallara-Chevrolet 168.652
13. 14 A.J. Foyt IV Dallara-Toyota 167.588
14. 7 Bryan Herta Dallara-Honda 167.270
15. 8 Scott Sharp Dallara-Toyota 167.063
16. 15 Buddy Rice G-Force-Honda 165.221
17. 12 Tora Takagi Dallara-Toyota 164.510
18. 24 Robbie Buhl Dallara-Chevrolet 162.187
19. 5 Adrian Fernandez G-Force-Honda 159.596
20. 55 Kosuke Matsuura G-Force-Honda 158.556



Practice 2

1. 3 Helio Castroneves Dallara-Toyota 168.528
2. 52 Ed Carpenter Dallara-Chevrolet 168.074
3. 11 Tony Kanaan Dallara-Honda 168.004
4. 15 Buddy Rice G-Force-Honda 167.776
5. 13 Greg Ray G-Force-Honda 167.690
6. 7 Bryan Herta Dallara-Honda 167.289
7. 1 Scott Dixon G-Force-Toyota 166.815
8. 6 Sam Hornish Jr. Dallara-Toyota 166.170
9. 5 Adrian Fernandez G-Force-Honda 166.147
10. 26 Dan Wheldon Dallara-Honda 166.000
11. 4 Tomas Scheckter Dallara-Chevrolet 165.848
12. 27 Dario Franchitti Dallara-Honda 165.612
13. 2 Mark Taylor Dallara-Chevrolet 165.447
14. 14 A.J. Foyt IV Dallara-Toyota 164.114
15. 51 Alex Barron Dallara-Chevrolet 163.831
16. 55 Kosuke Matsuura G-Force-Honda 163.799
17. 8 Scott Sharp Dallara-Toyota 163.610
18. 10 Darren Manning G-Force-Toyota 161.384
19. 12 Tora Takagi Dallara-Toyota 159.255
20. 24 Robbie Buhl Dallara-Chevrolet 155.945



Great to see Fernandez doing a lot better during the second session, and I have to say that I'm really impressed by Carpenter as well so far

[Down F0rce]

I would have thought that the G-Force would have made more of an impact, but only three of them are in the top ten in the first session, and four in the second...lets see what qualifying brings.

[GP Racer]

Wow, I have to be impressed with Greg Ray! I love to root for the little guy, he's kind of like the Minardi of the IRL!

Also Carpenter is doing much better than the firt test at Phoenix last month.

Looks like Adrian is getting up to speed, thats good!

[rustyfan]

Qualifying underway.

Dan Wheldon is currently fastest with a lap of 174.779 mph. Sam Hornish Jr. is second fastest and Scott Dixon third fastest.

Tony Kanaan is currently on track, and he just grabbed second.


(edit)

1 Dan Wheldon (26) 20.5974 174.779 2 D/H/F

2 Tony Kanaan (11) 0.0577 20.6551 174.291 2 D/H/F

3 Sam Hornish Jr. (6) 0.0988 20.6962 173.945 2 D/T/F

4 Scott Dixon (1) 0.1678 20.7652 173.367 1 G/T/F

5 Kosuke Matsuura (55) 0.4583 21.0557 170.975 2 G/H/F

6 Buddy Rice (15) 0.5998 21.1972 169.834 2 G/H/F

7 Tora Takagi (12) 0.6185 21.2159 169.684 1 D/T/F

8 Mark Taylor (2) 0.6347 21.2321 169.555 1 D/C/F

9 Ed Carpenter (52) 0.6893 21.2867 169.120 2 D/C/F

10 Alex Barron (51) 0.7244 21.3218 168.841 1 D/C/F

11 Robbie Buhl (24T) 1.1968 21.7942 165.182 2 D/C/F

12 Scott Sharp (8) 0.0000 -0.0001 0.008 0 D/T/F


Sharp waved off his qualifying lap. Not sure why.

[Down F0rce]

Thanks for the heads up. Listning now...

[rustyfan]

Adrian Fernandez next to go out - go Adrian!

[Down F0rce]

Very solid lap by Greg Ray...he's been looking good all weekend.

[rustyfan]

Scott Sharp up next - he'll get one green lap after having waved off his previous run.

[Down F0rce]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH DAN!!!!!

[rustyfan]

Copper World Indy 200 Line-up;


1 Dan Wheldon (26) 20.5974 174.779 2 D/H/F

2 Tony Kanaan (11) 0.0577 20.6551 174.291 2 D/H/F

3 Helio Castroneves (3) 0.0723 20.6697 174.168 2 D/T/F

4 Sam Hornish Jr. (6) 0.0988 20.6962 173.945 2 D/T/F

5 Scott Dixon (1) 0.1678 20.7652 173.367 1 G/T/F

6 Darren Manning (10) 0.2124 20.8098 172.995 2 G/T/F

7 Dario Franchitti (27) 0.2255 20.8229 172.887 2 D/H/F

8 Tomas Scheckter (4) 0.3213 20.9187 172.095 2 D/C/F

9 Bryan Herta (7) 0.3253 20.9227 172.062 1 D/H/F

10 Kosuke Matsuura (55) 0.4583 21.0557 170.975 2 G/H/F

11 Greg Ray (13) 0.5188 21.1162 170.485 1 G/H/F

12 Buddy Rice (15) 0.5998 21.1972 169.834 2 G/H/F

13 Adrian Fernandez (5) 0.6140 21.2114 169.720 2 G/H/F

14 Tora Takagi (12) 0.6185 21.2159 169.684 1 D/T/F

15 Mark Taylor (2) 0.6347 21.2321 169.555 1 D/C/F

16 Ed Carpenter (52) 0.6893 21.2867 169.120 2 D/C/F

17 Alex Barron (51) 0.7244 21.3218 168.841 1 D/C/F

18 A.J. Foyt IV (14) 0.7633 21.3607 168.534 2 D/T/F

19 Scott Sharp (8) 0.8168 21.4142 168.113 2 D/T/F

20 Robbie Buhl (24T) 1.1968 21.7942 165.182 2 D/C/F


Some notes;

- Several drivers mentioned that they were very loose.

- Greg Ray walked off without talking to the media - apparently he wasn't pleased at all with his effort

[Down F0rce]

Greg did a very good lap, not sure what he's so upset about but he did back off (apparantly) on his second lap - maybe he had a problem, where he thought he had some more in the car?

But again, YEAAAAAAAAAAH DAN!!!

[Down F0rce]

I think the MIPS Phoenix 100 is up next, in just over an hour

[Down F0rce]

Greg made a change to the set up, which cost him a better position...he wanted to take the safe road as far as his team is concered, but the driver in him wanted to go for it..."sometimes it's hard to seperate the owner from the driver"...he said a "high 6 or a low 7" was possible, meaning a top five would have been a realistic possibility...

[rush1]

Very good effort by Wheldon, I think he is due to win a race. Manning came in for some nagative comments in Miami and it will be intersting to see how he does in the early laps.

[Kicking-back]

3 Brits in top 7 - good news.

[BootsOntheSide]

Yep KB - although BBC Ceefax inexcusably referred to Wheldon as being American.

The Fernandez/SAFR team seems to ahve got its act together progressively over the weekend - Adrian has every chance of a good result, which he deserves considering his late change of series.

Rice wasn't as competitive as before, which might not help his chances of keeping the ride fulltime.

Dallara/Honda seems to be the package to have this weekend, but at Homestead Toyota were much better in the race, so maybe the same again.

Unusual to have such a Noah's Ark look to the front of the grid - 2 AGRs, 2 Penskes and 2 Ganassis line astern.

[Hazza]

Ahhh...shades of Suzuka 2002.

This is going to be good

What time does the race start? Do they webcast the commentery over the net?

[Down F0rce]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
Unusual to have such a Noah's Ark look to the front of the grid - 2 AGRs, 2 Penskes and 2 Ganassis line astern.

And the single cars teams are quite far down. Really shows that having a team mate can be very beneficial.

Originally posted by Hazza
What time does the race start? Do they webcast the commentery over the net?

The race starts at 9:30ish UK time. Well thats when the coverage starts anyways. And yeah, Indyracing.com will be broadcasting the radio feed.

[Ac.]

Bad start for Fernandez. Looks like the gearbox fell apart and he went behind the wall for repairs, many laps down already.

Lousy coverage by ABC. The basketball game ran 5 minutes long, and when they went to the race it was already 8 laps in. What ever happened to the prerace?

Looks like another thin crowd in the stands too.

[GP Racer]

Your right about ABC coverage. 5 minutes late, and they were already on lap 8! Ridiculous!

But the crowd looks pretty darn good to me, its hardly thin!

[Hazza]

I'm kicking myself, I was going to tip Kanaan for the victory. *kick kick kick*

[Ac.]

Originally posted by GP Racer
But the crowd looks pretty darn good to me, its hardly thin!

I'm not sure 60% of capacity is good. The bottom third of the seats all the way around are empty, and the seats in the corners are less than half full.

Pretty dominant victory by Kanaan though. What was Dario looking at???

[GP Racer]

A pretty good race! Some quick observations:

Kannan totally dominated. AGR was looking very good until Franchitti went out, again!

Tough day for Hornish, who was looking good, but a slow spin into the wall ended that. He almost saved it. Minor damage, at least he finished.

Unforgivable accident when Franchitti ran into the back of Scheckter though, during yellow. Thats two bad starts for Franchitti now.

Good race for Dixon, just didn't have enough for Kanann in the end.

Tough day for single car teams, like Down Force had pointed out during practice.

Adrian had a very tough intro to the IRL. Better days are coming!

Could you imagine a Nascar race where the first 8 laps and the start were cut-off on TV!? It would never happen! ABC needs to do better than that! Good race call though.

Oh, and most importantly, I only scored 1 point, in the fantasy picks. There's still hope Down Force!

[Hazza]

And did you see what happened to my picks?

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by Hazza
And did you see what happened to my picks?

No doubt about it, your the hard luck kid Hazza!

At least you scored 5 though with Dixon. I had him for the win, with Franchitti 4th, which is where he was before he closed his eyes and ran into the back of Schecter! Doohhhh!