IndyCar 2012

Been a while since RHR stood on the top step of the podium. James Hinchcliffe's 3rd puts him second in the championship race, thanks to another poor run for Scott Dixon. Hunter-Reay moves up to fourth.

Good stuff from EJ Viso, for once he isn't holding people up while in the top 5. Oriol Servia shows it was just a working engine he needed to be competitive. Rubens gets another top 10 finish. Justin Wilson's car breaks on him again. Why am I not surprised to see another DNF for Sato-san? :rolleyes:

Scott Dixon's penalty for overtaking under yellow was found to have been unwarranted after post-race analysis: http://www.indycar.com/News/2012/06-June/6-16-Technology-glitch-leads-to-unwarranted-penalty

Full results:

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Highlights:

 
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The race at Iowa this weekend will use different rules for qualifying and a reduction in downforce. Three heat races will be used to determine the starting grid, with the heat grids determined by practice lap times.

http://www.indycar.com/News/2012/06-June/6-18-Rear-flap-angle-set-for-Iowa

Indycar.com said:
Pursuant to input from IZOD IndyCar Series drivers and team engineers, INDYCAR has directed a maximum rear flap angle of 37 degrees with no wicker allowed for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 on June 23 at Iowa Speedway.

The technical bulletin sent to teams June 18 follows two days of testing by 21 cars total at the .875-mile oval last week. The rule will reduce downforce available by about 8-9 percent.

...

Race 1 will consist of the even-numbered positions, starting with the 10th-quickest practice time overall, and determine the even-numbered positions in the starting field from 10th down.

Race 2 will consist of the odd-numbered positions, starting with the ninth-quickest practice time overall, and determine the odd-numbered positions in the starting field from ninth down.

Race 3 will consist of drivers ranked one through eight by combined practice times. Results of Race 3 will determine the first four rows, with the winner taking the pole position.
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Drivers' preview of the race:

 
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Just a quick update on the schedule at Iowa: the race is Sunday morning at 2:30am on Sky Sports 2. No idea if Sky will be showing the heat races, but highlights will still be available on the indycars youtube channel.
 
sr4470 said:
Three heat races will be used to determine the starting grid, with the heat grids determined by practice lap times.
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What happens if a car in heat 2 crashes, and then another car crashes in heat 3. Which positions do they take for the race; at the back in order of practice time?

To me this seems a very strange way to qualify for a race. In essence, practice=qualifying and qualifying=a good chance to be out for the rest of the weekend.
Also, some are already struggling with the engine management and mileage, so to make them do an extra 30 laps at race speed seems mad.

Also a short race with only 8 cars sounds very dull.
 
El_Watcher said:
What happens if a car in heat 2 crashes, and then another car crashes in heat 3. Which positions do they take for the race; at the back in order of practice time?
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I would guess so.

El_Watcher said:
To me this seems a very strange way to qualify for a race. In essence, practice=qualifying and qualifying=a good chance to be out for the rest of the weekend.
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It's an oval though ;) Not a street race.

El_Watcher said:
Also, some are already struggling with the engine management and mileage, so to make them do an extra 30 laps at race speed seems mad.
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The existing qualifying rules aren't that great either. I think this weekend is an experiment in advance of permanent rule changes.

El_Watcher said:
Also a short race with only 8 cars sounds very dull.
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Speaking of which, I wouldn't mind seeing some rain in a race as opposed to practice...not that it wasn't cool watching Bourdais slice through the streets of Detroit.

 
First practice highlights:


Despite the rule changes, top speeds were faster than last year by 4mph. Marco Andretti was fastest with a time of 17.4126 seconds (184.832 mph), followed by Josef Newgarden (17.4458s) and Alex Tagliani (17.4743s).

The second practice session will set the grids for the heat races. Live timing will be available for the races and the Iowa Corn Indy 250 itself on http://www.indycar.com.

Edit: Practice 2 highlights -


Marco Andretti went fastest with a lap in 17.2994 seconds, followed by Dario Franchitti (17.3298s) and Helio Castroneves (17.3300).


The heat races were completed without incident, Dario Franchitti was fastest in group 3 and will take pole position for the Indy 250, with Castroneves alongside him on the front row and Marco Andretti next to James Hinchcliffe in 3rd and 4th. A poor engine continues to hamper HVM and Simona de Silvestro's progress, but she was much closer to the rest of the field than before. Team owner Keith Wiggins believes the Judd engines will improve with the recent input from a European consortium.

Championship leader Will Power lines up 6th, Rubens Barrichello a solid 11th (ahead of his KV Racing teammates Kanaan and Viso due to their early engine changes). Graham Rahal was also issued a 10-place grid drop for the same reason. Justin Wilson will be 13th on the grid, Takuma Sato starts a disappointing 23rd.

Full grid:

1) Dario Franchitti
2) Helio Castroneves
3) Marco Andretti
4) James Hinchcliffe
5) Ryan Briscoe
6) Will Power
7) Ryan Hunter-Reay
8) Scott Dixon
9) Alex Tagliani
10) Josef Newgarden
11) Rubens Barrichello
12) JR Hildebrand
13) Justin Wilson
14) Charlie Kimball
15) Oriol Servia
16) Katherine Legge
17) Mike Conway
18) James Jakes
19) Tony Kanaan
20) Graham Rahal
21) Ed Carpenter
22) Simona de Silvestro
23) Takuma Sato
24) EJ Viso
25) Simon Pagenaud
 
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Racer.com has some analysis of the season so far, focusing on team and driver performance:

http://www.racer.com/indycar-series-2012-mid-season-review/article/246687/1/

Edit: Last night's race at Iowa threw up a lot of action in the form of several drivers spinning off or colliding, James Hinchcliffe and Will Power being among them. Ryan Hunter-Reay took his second win in a row putting him just 3 points behind Will Power in the championship. The race ended under caution due to Katherine Legge's crash 2 laps from the end. Marco Andretti was a close second, followed by Tony Kanaan. Takuma Sato finally finished without crashing, in 12th. Rubens Barrichello ended a solid 7th and Justin Wilson was 10th. Simon Pagenaud had an excellent run from the back of the grid to 5th place, and Scott Dixon reignited his title chances with 4th.

Highlights:


Classification:

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Only just managed to catch up with the race (bloody recording clipped the end due to the delay :().

Was quite an eventful race with the retirements. Felt real sorry for Dario when his car decided to **** itself before the race had even started.

Another win for for RHR has really closed the gap to Power now.

Was also great to see TK get another podium and Rubens get a decent 7th place finish.
 
Guerrilla said:
Only just managed to catch up with the race (bloody recording clipped the end due to the delay :().

Was quite an eventful race with the retirements. Felt real sorry for Dario when his car decided to **** itself before the race had even started.

Another win for for RHR has really closed the gap to Power now.

Was also great to see TK get another podium and Rubens get a decent 7th place finish.
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Power was very competitive on the ovals last season, so it's disappointing to see him get involved in that crash with Viso. Whatever Dario might think, I'd absolve Ernesto of any blame this time. Briscoe did a similar thing with Newgarden (I feel sorry for Josef, he seems to suffer from a lot of bad luck on top of his inexperience causing a lack of results).

Hinchcliffe had a good run, that error was very unlike him, but I guess he was just pushing a bit too hard for the reduced grip levels.. and aero is more of an issue on these ovals too.
 
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It seems to be set up for a close Championship at the moment, those no results for Power and Hinchcliffe have made it really tight!

Will be interesting to see who can keep the momentum on the upcoming circuits.
 
Guerrilla said:
It seems to be set up for a close Championship at the moment, those no results for Power and Hinchcliffe have made it really tight!

Will be interesting to see who can keep the momentum on the upcoming circuits.
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I think Will Power is still odds-on myself. Hunter-Reay and Dixon aren't far off though. Maybe an outside chance for Pagenaud or Franchitti.
 
This weekend marks the start of the two-race Canadian leg of the Indycar calendar. The first race is in Toronto starting July 5th, a street circuit layout that tends to produce high-attrition races (much like Monaco in F1).

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The second race will be at Edmonton on an airfield-based course - unfortunately Montreal is not an option for Indycar at this point.

In the meantime Indycar has accepted Lotus's request to allow for engine updates to be tested at Mid-Ohio today: http://www.indycar.com/en/News/2012/06-June/6-28-INDYCAR-approves-Lotus-updates

Drivers' preview of Toronto with Dario Franchitti, James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay:

 
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Skeeter said:
Why so? The Nascar Nationwide series uses it, doesn't it?
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If it were possible it would have been done by now. Champ Car tried to do the "cheap clone of F1" thing and it killed itself in the process because it was running at tremendous losses on most venues. At this point Indycar doesn't have the negotiating power of Nascar or F1.
 
Ah ok. I thought it was something to do with the track layout or something.

Does IndyCar currently run on any 'proper' road circuits?
 
Skeeter said:
Ah ok. I thought it was something to do with the track layout or something.

Does IndyCar currently run on any 'proper' road circuits?
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Permanent ones are Barber Motorsports Park, Mid-Ohio and Sonoma. Road America is a possibility. The reason why there are so many street circuits is Indycar's precarious financial position. Sao Paulo was very profitable for both the series and the promoters. The fact that Indycar had several local drivers there (Barrichello, Kanaan, Castroneves, Beatriz) helped significantly.
 
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