Rain races

[PHJIndy]

Today's CART race is a good example why there should never be racing in the rain.

[Turn13]

Naaahh- just makes me appreciate Michael Schumacher all the more

[Railbird]

No racing in the rain?

What about the cold? heat? wind?

As long as everyone is on the same track drop the flag

[silvercrown]

yeah, T13, good point. Doesn't seem to me that the F1 guys run that many full course yellows in the rain...

Normally I like rain at Portland. Makes the race much more interesting. Gotta say that this years edition is rather bad. Oh well.

[shed]

The problem with today's race is CART's need to throw a full course yellow for even minor off-course excursions. Get a few cranes, or have the safety workers push the car to a safe position with just a local yellow. CART's way of handling today's rain race was horrible.

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[Teej]

ditto Turn 13



"That's Racing. What comes around goes around." - Robby Gordon

[oddlycalm]

The full course yellows today were mostly just bad luck. There just happened to be cars off in bad spots. I do agree that a crane or two in the chicane should be added.

I also agree that it made the first three quarters of the race tedious.

If someone got injured due to a parked car, the screaming would never end, so I can't fault CART.


In the end though, with road racing you take the weather as it presents itself. If the race was held 2hrs later, rain wouldn't have been a factor.


oc

[racermike]

Originally posted by shed:
The problem with today's race is CART's need to throw a full course yellow for even minor off-course excursions. Get a few cranes, or have the safety workers push the car to a safe position with just a local yellow. CART's way of handling today's rain race was horrible.

Lets see how apprehensive you all would be to jump the fence and go out to the car in those conditions. We had cars off in real bad spots yesterday and it is not worth sending people out to get it with cars sliding off everywhere.

After two weeks of sunshine we had rain yesterday after almost 6 days in last two weeks of cars running on course, which meant there was a TON of oil, fuel, and car fluids that came to the surface. We talked about this on the land line that morning and knew we would be very busy.

Before you critique us out there, come on out and join us, and you will see how unsafe it really is in those conditions to NOT shut things down and get the car into a safe position.

[Bozo]

My take........



1.) Firestone needs to work on the wet tires.



2.) F1 has a small advantage over CART in that they don't have turbos. Therefore, the power band is much more evenly dispersed throughout the acceleration. When the turbo spools up and kicks in and added 150-200 hp within a matter of a few feet it is extremely difficult to feather the throttle to adjust for the sudden power increase.



3.) CART needs more road/street events. This will give the drivers more of an opportunity to face the challenges that the rain causes.

[oddlycalm]

Originally posted by racermike:
After two weeks of sunshine we had rain yesterday after almost 6 days in last two weeks of cars running on course, which meant there was a TON of oil, fuel, and car fluids that came to the surface. We talked about this on the land line that morning and knew we would be very busy.

Thanks for the dose of reality amid the sea of idiocy from arm chair experts.

The track was clearly very slippery when we were walking on it while they were gridding the cars. Later on the way home, I actually turned the traction control on in my own car to prevent spinning at every green light. A long hard rain would have been less treacherous, as it would have at least washed the surface.

oc too

[patrick]

Cart at Portland:

"I'm spinning in the rain, just slipping in the rain, what a glorious feeling, I'm crashing again!"

(apologies to the writer of Singing in the Rain")

[cmjc80]

I don't care much about the effect on the on-track action but more fans will attend a race in the sunshine rather than the rain. Its a proven fact. More fans=more concessions=more souvaneirs=more money. I'm sure the "stockholders" would appreciate this.

[MrIndy]

Actually, I think CART just got caught in the middle on this one. There wasn't much they could do under the circumstances. See above about the track condition due to all the previous racing and no rain.

Also, they pretty much had to go full course yellow under the conditions they had. It would not have been safe to put a safety car/truck out there with it being so slick.

I think CART did the best they could do under the conditions they were facing.

[KnockOff]

"....the best they could do..."?

"After two weeks of sunshine we had rain yesterday after almost 6 days in last two weeks of cars running on course, which meant there was a TON of oil, fuel, and car fluids that came to the surface. We talked about this on the land line that morning..."

Until it dried, I think the track was unfit and unsafe to have green flagged the start.
Lap three should have been the final wakeup call.

CAN'T race?
DON'T race.
Until you CAN race.

btw: safety crews are like corpsmen with white crosses on their helmets, TARGETS!
I salute their efforts during the Portland Episode.

[MrIndy]

KO, after Texas, there really was no way they could postpone the race. Can you imagine the field day the press would have had. They would have cut CART to ribbons. CART was definitly caught with a catch 22 at Portland.

[racermike]

Originally posted by MrIndy:
<STRONG>KO, after Texas, there really was no way they could postpone the race. Can you imagine the field day the press would have had. They would have cut CART to ribbons. CART was definitly caught with a catch 22 at Portland.</STRONG>

Listen ..

This is not up to CART, they have raced in WAY worse conditions. Seems to be, on MOST message boards, that CART is criticized whether they race or not.

We will ALWAYS, and if I may repeat myself, ALWAYS race in the rain. This is NOTHING compared to a few of the races I have worked in downpours. Worst I can remember was 1994 Portland IMSA. Rained 2.7 inches in an hour during the race (which was subsequently red flagged with 20 minutes left). Thats the only time I have seen a session stopped for moisture, by itself. That does not count the sessions stopped for accidents resulting from rain.

Fans not showing up because of rain? Please, you got to have a better argument than this.

Some of the comments by arm chair experts just drive me nuts! (venting)

Thanks for the comment KO .. at least you know we are doing our best out there.