Author: thepitwindow

I'm a retired educator and lifelong racing fan. I hope to return to fostering greyhounds in the near future. Living mainly in Indy and wintering in Florida. I attend about 10 Indycar races a year as well as some sports car events

INDYCAR Set for Historic, Innovative Showcase at The Thermal Club

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From Indycar

 The Thermal Club  $1 Million Challenge Rules To Feature Unique Format in Nationally Televised Spectacle

INDIANAPOLIS (Thursday, March 14, 2024) – One of the most unique race weekends in the history of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES will take place March 22-24 at the picturesque The Thermal Club near Palm Springs, California.
Located at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains, just down the road from the world’s premier entertainment market of Los Angeles, The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge event weekend includes a crucial two-day Open Test, group qualifying sessions, two heat races and a 12-car “all-star” race with $1.756 million at stake – the largest purse for an INDYCAR SERIES race outside of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES non-points paying The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge is the first non-championship INDYCAR SERIES race since the Nikon Indy 300 in 2008 at Surfers Paradise, Australia.
The Thermal Club also is opening its gates to a few thousand guests as it hosts a public event for the first time. Spectators will include members of The Thermal Club – a private, world-class facility featuring an expansive 490-acre property known as the ultimate destination for driving-minded celebrities, corporate executives and motorsports enthusiasts.
“This will be an incredible new event for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES,” Penske Entertainment Corp. President & CEO Mark Miles said. “The unique format and record-setting purse will bring extra energy and drama to a competition set against a scenic and compelling backdrop. We can’t wait for viewers across the country to tune in on NBC and look forward to an amazing weekend with Tim Rogers and his team at The Thermal Club.”
At a draw party, Thursday, March 21, The Thermal Club members will be paired with the 27 full-time teams scheduled to test and compete Friday, March 22-Sunday, March 24. Members will be embedded with their respective teams with immersive integration, including – but not limited to – team meetings, driver question-and-answer sessions, racecraft instruction and tips, and use of premium, authentic race team gear. A previously announced sharing of total prize money between paired members and drivers who finish in the top five will not occur but will not impact the purse total for drivers and teams.
Announced earlier, the total driver and team portion of prize money for The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge:Total: $1.756 million (Largest purse in INDYCAR SERIES history outside of Indy 500)First Place: $500,000Second Place: $350,000Third Place: $250,000Fourth Place: $100,000Fifth Place: $50,000Sixth through 27th Place: $23,000 each.
“The Thermal Club will be a phenomenal setting for the paddock, and a record purse only adds to how special this weekend will be,” INDYCAR President Jay Frye said. “It is a unique and challenging knockout format that will test the drivers and teams in new ways and bring out the best of both. The facility was a perfect backdrop for the Open Test last year, and we look forward to adding this layer of excitement and competition.”
The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge Qualifying
The Thursday, March 21 draw party also will include a random draw to divide the field into two groups. Each group for qualifying, which starts at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, March 23, receives a 12-minute qualifying session on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile layout to determine the starting order of their respective heat race the following day.For the first time in a NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying session, push-to-pass will be available to the drivers, with each driver receiving 40 seconds.Timing of the session begins at the declaration of the green flag, with timing stopping at the first red flag condition for each group but not for subsequent red conditions.
The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge Heat Races
Two NTT INDYCAR SERIES heat races at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday, March 24 will determine the 12-car field for The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge. It is the first time since 2013 (Iowa Speedway) that heat racing has been featured in the INDYCAR SERIES.Each heat race will consist of 10 laps or be timed at 20 minutes. Laps under full course yellow will not count; however, the race clock will continue. A lap is deemed complete when the leader crosses the start-finish line. The cars’ position on track will be determined by the last timeline crossed on track at the moment of the full course yellow condition.A new set of Firestone Firehawk tires will be allotted for the heat races. Pit stops for emergency service only will be allowed. Tires used during qualifying will be the only approved replacement tire(s) and must be approved by INDYCAR. A car making an adjustment not deemed emergency in nature will be disqualified.As in qualifying, cars will receive 40 seconds of push-to-pass in each race.
The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge
The top six advancing cars from each heat race will make up the 12-car field for The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge. The pole position and odd number starting positions are determined by the heat race winner, with the fastest time from qualifications occupying the pole and the remainder of that heat race line up in positions 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11.The final will consist of 20 laps divided into two 10-lap sprint segments with a 10-minute “halftime” break following the completion of Lap 10.
During the break, all cars will return to their pit boxes and only allowed to:
Add Shell 100% Renewable Race Fuel
Adjust front and rear wing angles and wickers
Adjust tire pressureAttend to the driverAll rules from the heat races will apply except:A time limit shall not apply.40 seconds of push-to-pass will be reset after the “halftime” break.During the second 10-lap segment, should a full course yellow occur, the cars’ actual position on track will determine the restart lineup.Tires used during the heat race will be the replacement tire for the final, if needed and approved by INDYCAR.Additional rules of The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge are available here.
Peacock will provide coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Open Test from The Thermal Club from noon-2 p.m. ET and 5-8 p.m. Friday, March 22.
The INDYCAR Radio Network will supplement Peacock with Open Test coverage from noon-2 p.m. ET and 4-6 p.m. Saturday, March 23, followed by coverage of The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge qualifying beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
Coverage of The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge begins at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday, March 24 on NBC broadcast television, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. 
 
 
 

Iconic Blue Envelopes Containing Indy 500 Tickets Mailed to Fans across Globe

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One of the three best days of the year!

From IMS:

  INDIANAPOLIS (Tuesday, March 12, 2024) – Indianapolis 500 fans will watch their mailboxes after the highly anticipated blue envelopes featuring Race Day tickets were mailed Tuesday, March 12 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ticket Office.
AJ Foyt Racing’s Sting Ray Robb and Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist (photo, left, right, with IMS President J. Douglas Boles) were on hand to assist with the initial mailing, which included shipments to all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and 36 countries around the world as race fans eagerly await the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 26.
“This is really cool,” Robb said. “It’s the start of what we dream about during our offseason, and it feels like it’s becoming real as we approach the Month of May.
“It’s really cool to see physical tickets still going out to the fans because you see people who have been coming to the track for 50, 60, 70 years for the ‘500,’ and they probably still have some of those tickets laying around. We’re continuing that history here today.”
Rosenqvist and Robb also took time to write notes and signatures on a few envelopes, with Rosenqvist’s special messages going to ticket buyers from his native Sweden.
“It’s cool to give a little message to some select fans back home,” Rosenqvist said. “It gives you a perspective of what we are doing. It’s so cool that people are coming from all around the world to watch this race. It means so much to me. I actually live here in Indy now, and the Indy 500 is both the greatest race in the world and my home race, but the fact that people are coming from my home country to watch, it gives you an idea how big it is.”
It takes approximately nine weeks to package all pre-ordered tickets for mailing, from orders the day after the previous year’s race up to current orders. Hard work from employees in the Ticket Office and other Penske Entertainment Corp. departments ensures the ticketing process runs smoothly and on schedule
.A few facts and figures about this year’s initial ticket mailing:
Number of tickets sent: More than 190,000 items (includes 160,000 Indy 500 Race Day tickets, parking, qualification and practice tickets, concert tickets, etc.)
Number of blue envelopes sent: More than 26,000
Number of U.S. Postal Service trays to accommodate envelopes: More than 580
Weight of all ticket envelopes and trays in first mailing: More than 5,300 pounds
Hours needed to fill envelopes by hand: More than 800 person-hours.
Number of working days to package envelopes: 48
Number of Penske Entertainment employees who fill envelopes: 48
Number of states distributed: 50
Number of countries distributed: 36 (including United States)Federal postal inspectors came to IMS with a large truck for the first mailing.
Robb and Rosenqvist joined several IMS employees in helping to load the trucks.
Receiving an eagerly awaited blue envelope in the mail is a rite of spring for thousands of fans of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” But why are the envelopes blue?
In the 1970s, Indianapolis 500 tickets were mailed in brown envelopes with the IMS return address in the upper left corner. In the 1980s, a heavier-stock, gray-colored envelope was introduced to mail the tickets, with just the IMS Post Office box number in the upper left corner. A computerized printer also was used for the first time in the 1980s to print ticket customers’ name and address on each envelope.
When the NASCAR Cup Series was added to the IMS schedule in 1994, the Ticket Office needed a way to distinguish between the envelopes containing tickets for the Indianapolis 500 and the annual NASCAR race, especially if the Postal Service returned the envelope as non-deliverable.
So, the IMS Ticket Office decided to color-code the ticket envelopes for each event. Indianapolis 500 ticket envelopes became blue, Brickyard Weekend envelopes became purple, GMR Grand Prix envelopes became green, and ticket envelopes for other IMS events use a variety of colors, including red, cream, gray and yellow.
Tickets for the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 26, the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 11 and all other Month of May events are available at IMS.com/Tickets or via the IMS Ticket Office at 317-492-6700. 

Requiem

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In memory of Steve Chicoine, who took life’s checkered flag in January. 2024.

At 12:30 last Friday afternoon a wall of bricks crushed me. I noticed my friend Brian, a photographer, in the media center at St. Petersburg. We hadn’t seen each other since Iast season. I walked over to his desk to say hello. The wall began shifting.

“You got my email about Steve?” he asked.

“No, what about him?” I had just talked to two other mutual friends about him who told he was coming to Indy for the 500.

“He passed away,” Brian said, and the wall tumbled on me.

Brian showed me the email he thought he had sent me the Sunday before. I never received it. A check through my inbox didn’t show it.

I Googled Steve’s obituary. The rest of the afternoon I felt like I was watching everything from afar. I was there but detached from everything. There was work to do, and it got completed in a perfunctory manner.

Indycar regular fans may know he is. He always wore a white hat and white shirt with tan or white slacks.

I first met Steve here in St. Pete in 2013. I can’t recall how we started talking, but we recognized ourselves in each other- two IndyCar nerds hanging out together. A walk out to the spot where we met, on the plaza in front of the Dali Museum, cleared my head a bit.

Steve was a regular at St. Pete and Indianapolis. Occasionally he would go to Detroit after the 500 and then go to other nearby races if his schedule allowed before going home to New Hampshire.

After he graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Steve served in the Army for two years, then worked as an animal inspector for the US Department of Agriculture.

Steve went to every race on the schedule one season, something I tried to do a couple of years ago.

There are two stories we always laughed about. Before the race one year in St. Pete, we were standing in the empty paddock in front of Bobby Rahal’s team tent. Fans were walking by heading to their seats.

“Bobby! I’m a big fan! Nice to meet you!” He shook Steve’s hand and walked away smiling.

We looked at each and then burst out laughing. As you can see from the photo, Steve looks nothing like the bald heavy Bobby Rahal.

In Detroit one year, I was invited to wave the green flag to start qualifying. I’m up in the starter’s stand, green flag in hand, and someone shouts from the grandstand behind me.

“What the heck are doing up there?’

I turned around to see Steve, smiling.

I will miss Steve, and the races may be a little less fun for a while. But I know he is at peace.

Heck, he gets to watch his favorite, Ted Horn, Vuky, Justin, and Dan race on that big track in the sky.

Slow Thoughts-Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

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Photo by Kyle McInnes

First, I want to welcome Kyle Mcinnes to The Pit Window team. Kyle will be this site’s photographer for the majority of races this season.

I’m back home at a functional computer. Here are just a few thoughts on yesterday’s Indycar race. Not the greatest race ever, but at least the season is underway.

Formula 1 style races happen, and Sunday was one of those times. Josef Newgarden did have the best car by far, and Chevrolet had the dominant engine. Team Penske has served notice that they are back at full strength.

Alex Palou now has 18 consecutive races where he has finished no worse than eighth place. He had to work hard for yesterday’s sixth place finish, starting 13th, in a race where passing was at a premium.

Scott Dixon, Palou’s teammate, had a rare day ending the race outside the top five. he still grabbed a top 10 spot, but it was strange not hearing his name all day.

Is St. Pete becoming Scott McLaughlin’s track? Yes, Newgarden won his third career race in the season opener, tying Helio castroneves for the most at the track, but in McLaughlin’s three years at the street course, he has a pole, a first and at third. In 2023 he was in contention for a second straight victory before tangling with Romain Grosjean.

Kyffin Simpson drove a clean, steady race. The rookie driving for Chip Ganassi Racing came from 23rd to end the day in 14th place. Simpson made some very nice passes in a race where there was little passing. I had some concerns about his moving up to Indycar this season, but those worries were put to rest yesterday.

Pietro Fittipaldi, while not an Indycar rookie, drove in his first Indycar race in six years. he did an admirable job, improving 11 spots. Fittipaldi made several nice passes in turn 1.

MSR Rising?

Felix Rosenqvist may be just what Meyer Shank Racing needed. The Swedish driver needed a home where he was welcome, and MSR needed younger drivers.

Rosenqvist nearly grabbed the pole for the race, only to be edged out by Newgarden’s last qualifying lap. He hung in the top five most of the day, and finished seventh after a pit stop issue on his second stop.

I think Felix is going to have a really good year on his new team.

Fuel Saving Races

Sunday became a fuel saving race as soon as everyone got through the first lap cleanly. The field got strung out quickly, and if Marcus Armstrong had not hit the turn 10 wall on lap 27, there may not have been a hint of drama all day.

I don’t think there is much the series can do to discourage fuel saving tactics except allow larger fuel tanks, which is a bad idea for many reasons, or shorten the races, also not a good idea.

Tomorrow I will have a weekend wrap up focusing more on the event with more photos.

Newgarden Leads Chevy Sweep of St. Pete

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Photo by Kyle McInnes

Josef Newgarden dominated the Indycar season opener in the Grand Prix of St Petersburg this afternoon.

The race was a much tidier affair than last year’s event., with just three scattered yellows which were cleaned up quickly.

Chevrolet took the first four spots. Pato O’Ward was second, and Newgarden’s teammates, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power, finished third and fourth.

I will gave more thoughts on the race tomorrow.

Thanks for following this weekend.

Newgarden Inches Past Rosenqvist for Pole

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Photo by Kyle McInnes

My computer crashed this afternoon. Reports tonight and tomorrow will be brief, but when I get home tomorrow night, I will catch up on everything.

Newgarden won the pole by 58 ten thousandths of a second, the closest margin on a street course since Detroit 2012 and the fourth closest street course margin since 2008.

Results:

I will post results tomorrow. I apologize for not being able to write more, but doing this by phone is not fun