RACER magazine, the new one.
Page 12: "From short ovals, to speedways, to road courses, to street tracks, the quality of IndyCar's racing in 2012 has impressed."
Isn't that job one?
Of course, the headline of the piece reads, "THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!"
RACER magazine, the new one.
Page 12: "From short ovals, to speedways, to road courses, to street tracks, the quality of IndyCar's racing in 2012 has impressed."
Isn't that job one?
Of course, the headline of the piece reads, "THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!"
"Each day well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this one day for it, and it alone, is life"
~ Sanskrit poem attributed to Kalidasa, "Salutation to the Dawn"
Brian's Wish
The much-improved quality of the racing is mostly due to the changes made in Race Control.
Thank you, Mr. Beaux Barfield. Your presence is appreciated.
That and the racey new car.Originally Posted by PenelopePitstop
"Is that my *** that I smell burning?" ... Helmet Stogie from "Death spasms of the Mabuchi"
I would attribute it far more to a car that was completely unknown coming into the season. As the setup sheets become more and more refined things will return more to the norm, unless more variables are thrown into the equation.
Some people won't admit that. The new car is the best thing to happen to IndyCar in a long time.
I have to admit being wrong about it. I hated it at first, but you can't argue with great racing.
I was 100% the same way!
RIP Dan Wheldon
Yes it is. But for more than a decade job two has been ignored. That would be getting more people to notice the impressive racing and getting more people to discover that IT IS ENTERTAINING and getting them to both watch on TV and buy tickets to races in greater numbers. Why has OW always been so satisfied with getting job one done and never proceeding to take care of job two?RACER magazine, the new one.
Page 12: "From short ovals, to speedways, to road courses, to street tracks, the quality of IndyCar's racing in 2012 has impressed."
Isn't that job one?
Of course, the headline of the piece reads, "THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!"
How long will it be before that job gets done and RACER has a story about the impressive popularity of INDYCAR racing?
"You can't arrest those guys, they're folk heroes"
"They're criminals"
"Well most folk heroes started out as criminals"
I didn't like the new car while it was standing still. However, watching Dan Wheldon at IMS last year testing it, it looked racy at 212!
Have a very blessed day!
It's been a great year on-track so far. I'm loving this championship battle, too.
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On Twitter as @indycaradvocate
Bollocks....the car is the reason the racing is better. Race control looks the same to me
"I think there's only so many people that can take care of themselves, and can take care of other people. And the rest of the people … they're useful in terms of compost for the whole planet, you know." - Bill Murray
I'll simply never get over "everyone is good to go to the end on fuel"......7 lap yellow for a tow in.....no thanks
The racing IS better than it has been in years, and it is probably 80-90% the new car.
I still hate how it looks, however, and I fear that is hurting popularity more than they will admit.
They really need to get rid of those hideous wheel ramps, then the car will be good on all fronts.
+1
But with what consequences? I'm betting the new car is 2 to 3 mph slower at Indy without the wheel ramps. (and I agree with you that they are UGLY!)
Same here. I hated the look of it at first (except when you are viewing from the front) but the racing is so good I no longer care
Couldnt have any thing to do with generating downforce through ground effects and the undertray making it easier to follow closely at high speeds, could it?
Yes and no, in my view. Yes, definitely, a vast majority of the reason is the new car (everyone starting from scratch should have made a place like Barber even more of a parade, but it was the opposite, yet with few spins or crashes at all in the first several races; the new car is just flat out racier on most circuits). But race control is not the same as before. There is marked improvement and consistency, though certainly not perfect. I truly hate the long yellows, but that has often been due to sweeping up the marbles in order to make the remaining action better, and I can see the point of that. Adding a couple laps to one yellow to prevent another one or two more yellows seems a decent trade. There have been mistakes, but it is much more consistent and has actually admitted mistakes (>gasp!<)
"It is marvelous to go very fast!" Lisa, portrayed by Françoise Hardy, in the film [B]Grand Prix
"A big, fat, piddling weasel, yes. But not truly evil." JB
I'll defer to the experts on that. I'm pretty sure Spike said the undertray is still very flat. It's certainly bigger. I'm not sure how much more downforce it produces or doesn't.
But...
Think back to Texas and Dario's performance. Here is one of the guys that we're used to running away with races and he's completely lost, losing lap after lap. Do you really think that will happen again next year, after Chip has a full year's worth of data on the car? I won't hold my breath for it.
Let me say that I'm not trying to take away from the car. It's been great. What I'm saying is that in order for this kind of racing to continue year after year, there must be more variables thrown at the teams. If the cars were truly open for the teams to tinker with, we might see this kind of racing for many years to come. That is not the fate of a spec series though, unfortunately.
If I'm not mistaken, Franchitti lost almost all of his time within a period of just several laps, indicating a major handling issue, and after he pitted to make adjustments, was pretty much running with the rest of the pack for the rest of the race. I don't think it has serious significance.
No surprise - this is the deepest field talent-wise that I think I have ever seen in the league.
When was the last major handling issue he had in the IR07? Was that because it was such a superior car or was that because he and his engineers knew it so well?
When he was doin' them endos
"The series may be hesitant to say it, but the day is here for everybody that loves IndyCar racing to link arms and help each other out. Anybody who doesn’t want to do that needs to find something else to do with their time.”
-- Eddie Gossage, President, Texas Motor Speedway, ICONIC Advisory Committee & TrackForum member
[EDIT: A quick Google search tells me I'm somewhat mistaken in my facts and thus possibly my conclusion. He didn't pit until lap 21 and only lost one lap then, pitted again under yellow and made more major changes. The car was off compared to qualifying, but it's not at all clear why. But based on the facts, I can't make a strong argument against your point.]
He qualified outside the front row, so it wasn't an engineering issue. Something broke or came loose, someone made a silly mistake or there was a defective part. Sure, Dario was often off the pace the first couple races, but not by that much and he certainly wasn't at Indy. Every team makes mistakes, Penske and Ganassi fewer maybe, but they still do, and I don't see how this case necessrily has anything to do with the new car.
Last edited by JimmyB10; 07-19-2012 at 10:58 PM.
Here's the thing, How do you explain having 50-100 less horsepower yet still being 2 seconds faster on road and street courses. Hell, with only 600hp during indy qualifying the pole speed was 226.4 as opposed to 227.4.
Not saying that there isnt some truth to what you're saying, I just dont think it's playing as big of a role as you say it is
At an oval? I dont know. I do know that Penske and Ganassi had certain parts other teams didnt have (remember that period of open development to try and stop AGR Honda from dominating?) which probably contributed a good bit to their domination.
This has been a great season with some outstanding racing. DW12 has produced terrific racing to say the least and the engine competition has been fun to watch.
Last edited by doitagain; 07-20-2012 at 09:31 PM.
My words may not be what you want to hear.....but what you need to hear. TF CHALLENGE: CONVINCE 1 NEW PERSON TO WATCH INDY NEXT SUNDAY
yep
What does horsepower and speed have to do with it? You could have great racing at 100 mph or terrible racing at 1000 mph. My point is that the unknowns of the car are what has lead to parity among the field. As the car becomes more known the incidents where a guy like Dario is completely lost will rapidly diminish and the occasions where he runs up front the entire race will become much more frequent.
Left to settle the cream will always rise to the top. The only way to prevent it is to keep stirring.
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