IndyCar 2012

Skeeter said:
To be fair though, they don't really help themselves. IndyCar do leave themselves open for slating with a lot of what they do.
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Sure, but it's a struggling series, I'm amazed it's running at all with the competition as strong as it is (and by that I mean the NASCAR leagues).

I'm pretty sure it was being bashed before the IRL\Champ Car split too. Though NASCAR usually gets the most venom for ovals and the chassis specs. It's not so much the criticism of the races themselves that annoys me, it's the unwarranted nationalism (in both directions).
 
Yeah, the 'its rubbish because its American' thing.

The ALMS is great, arguably better than the European series.

I did try with NASCAR (I only get Nationwide) but MotorsTV don't always seem to show highlights shows and the full race is to long for me to watch either live or recorded. Plus, after a promising start at Daytona there was some god awful boring races.

IndyCar has been interesting so far, what I have seen of it at least. Although I think more so because of the new car and some of the odd things that have gone on (like the LOLRestarts yesterday, and that race at the start of the season where they opened the pitlane under caution with a recovery truck in the pit entrance :rolleyes:).

It gives some good racing, its just a shame people dismiss it so easily. The same thing happened with BTCC. A lot of people just dismiss it now because 'its just a bunch of hatchbacks'. Which is a massive shame because I think the BTCC has the best 'racing' of any circuit based series anywhere in the world.
 
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Skeeter said:
Yeah, the 'its rubbish because its American' thing.

The ALMS is great, arguably better than the European series.

I did try with NASCAR (I only get Nationwide) but MotorsTV don't always seem to show highlights shows and the full race is to long for me to watch either live or recorded. Plus, after a promising start at Daytona there was some god awful boring races.
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You'd rather they threw out more dubious yellows instead? :p

Eurosport was great back in the day for coverage of numerous motorsport events, I don't know what they have now though.

Skeeter said:
IndyCar has been interesting so far, what I have seen of it at least. Although I think more so because of the new car and some of the odd things that have gone on (like the LOLRestarts yesterday, and that race at the start of the season where they opened the pitlane under caution with a recovery truck in the pit entrance :rolleyes:).
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As I said previously, less street venues next year would be good. The locals in Sao Paulo clearly weren't organised (and that includes the TV crew). On top of that the NBC commentators weren't even at the track.

http://blogs.indystar.com/racingexpert/2012/04/30/april-30-on-susie-wheldon-and-grhaam-rahal/

Skeeter said:
It gives some good racing, its just a shame people dismiss it so easily. The same thing happened with BTCC. A lot of people just dismiss it now because 'its just a bunch of hatchbacks'. Which is a massive shame because I think the BTCC has the best 'racing' of any circuit based series anywhere in the world.
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I preferred 90s BTCC, for the greater number of manufacturers if anything. The Williams F1-Renault Laguna tie in was a good one.
 
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Last year saw the most manufacturers ever on the grid, the most models of car ever, and the most entrants ever in the BTCC, which a lot of people didn't realise.
 
Edit: IZOD have kindly uploaded NBC coverage of the entire Indy 300 at Sao Paulo to Youtube.


Will Power now has a 45 point lead over Penske teammate Helio Castroneves going into the Indy 500, with James Hinchcliffe of Andretti Autosport in 3rd place. Simon Pagenaud drops to 5th, Takuma Sato is now joint 7th with Ryan Briscoe and JR Hildebrand.

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Apparently Jean Alesi is being heavily backed by Lotus to get a drive at the Indy 500:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-lotus-alesi-indy-500-deal-done/

SPEEDtv.com said:
With Newman/Haas confirming it has officially passed on running Jean Alesi at Indy, could another team be waiting in the wings to field the Lotus-powered deal?

SPEED.com has learned that Lotus' anchor team, HVM Racing, is one of a handful of teams considering whether to run the 47-year-old ex-Formula One driver during his first attempt to qualify for the 500.

Reached by telephone on Thursday, HVM owner Keith Wiggins offered a simple "No comment" when asked about the possibility of running the Frenchman alongside Simona de Silvestro, his full-time driver.

Alesi, known as one of the hardest chargers during a 13-year F1 career that came to a conclusion in 2001, switched to the DTM between 2002-2006, and has raced sporadically in tin-tops and sports cars in recent years.

But with more than a decade having gone by since his last serious outing in an open-wheel car and zero experience on ovals to draw from, the appeal of running the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix winner is proving to be somewhat limited.

Reports circulated at Long Beach that Lotus was shopping a deal worth somewhere between $500,000-$750,000 for a team to take Alesi, and with Newman/Haas now out of the picture, the financial incentive to field a car for the former Ferrari pilot could be of interest to teams in need of a cash injection.
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Why would anyone pay to put Alesi in a car? :eek::confused: He is too old, too inexperienced, and wasn't that great when he was younger.

Why don't they just ask Jackie Stewart to drive the car?

I can only imagine he is bringing some money to the deal, as there must be thousands of drivers who are younger, hundreds of drivers who are better, and quite a few who have at least driven an Indycar before.
 
Money.

Its all about money. Anyone likely to win is already well established in the IndyCar field, so the additional places are just there for anyone who has the funds to have a go.
 
Skeeter said:
Isn't the Indy layout 100% flat out? How can you be nearly 6 seconds off the pace on a flat out circuit?
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It's not Vegas, you do have to slow down for the turns :p

The team's new to Indycar and is using the worst engine on the grid.

Aside from which we already know about Alesi's lack of oval experience (and recent open wheel running).
 
Well, after the 3rd day of practice, Josef Newgarden of Sarah Fisher/Hartman Racing goes fastest (222.486mph) followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti.

http://indycar.com/en/News/2012/05-May/5-14-All-American-trio-at-top-of-practice

Takuma Sato placed 9th, championship leader Will Power 17th, Justin Wilson 20th, and Rubens Barrichello 26th.

Both Dragon and HVM Racing were unable to get any timed laps in due to technical problems. Jean Alesi continues to lag behind the end of the field at just 211mph.
 
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