Tag: Indycar

Who Will Make the Cut?

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Thanks to all who nominated drivers for the Greatest 33 Non Winners project. I have learned a lot from doing this. First, Indycar fans not only are passionate, but they are knowledgeable and respect the sport’s past. I always thought that, but in discussions with some people, including some I do not know well, this came through loud and clear. Second, some drivers I thought would look great statistically did come out so well in comparison. I was quite surprised by some drivers’ overall records, both good and bad. In any case, this has been a lot of fun so far.

I am looking to cut my 58 nominees down to 50. After the race at St. Pete next week, I will announce the 50 finalists for you to choose and grid. I am using a statistical formula based on poles, front row starts, laps led, top 5 and top 10 finishes. I have not been surprised by who the top 10 are, although the order was not quite what I though it would be. A couple current drivers fared very well.

Part of the grid will be chosen with my head and part of it with my heart. That is just natural.  Keep in mind this is all for fun. I hope this helps fill the gap between St. Pete and Long Beach.

Here are the drivers with the most nominations:

Michael Andretti     8

Rex Mays                     5

Scott Goodyear           5

Lloyd Ruby                    5

Harry Hartz                  4

Ted Horn                       4

Vito Meira                     4

Robby Gordon               4

I’ll be back Monday with the dreaded season preview and some Indycar news.

Update- Greatest 33 Non-Winners; 57 Drivers Nominated to Date; Nominations Close Wednesday Night

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So far,57 drivers have received at least one nomination. Michael Andretti is the clear runaway leader with 7.  Five drivers, Rex Mays, Vitor Meira, Scott Goodyear,  Lloyd Ruby, and Robby Gordon, have 4 nominations.

Nominations close at 11:59 pm Eastern Time Wednesday. Not a minute later, because that would be Thursday. I will narrow the list down to 50 and then ask each of you to choose the final 33 in gridded positions.  Friday I will announce the finalists and present some race statistics for each driver.

I haven’t decided on a grid deadline yet. It will most likely be after the St. Pete race.

Thanks to all who have participated so far.

Greatest 33 Non-Winners Update-What a Response!

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Wow! Thank you all for your contributions to date.  So far, 55 drivers have been named. I will accept names through March1, next Wednesday, then narrow the list to 50 for the final round. If you have drivers in mind, share them anyway, since the top 50 vote getters will get to the final round for you to make your grid from.

As of 5 pm today, Michael Andretti leads with 5 votes, Rex Mays, Scott Goodyear, and Robby Gordon have 4; and eight drivers have 3 votes.  Please only vote once for each driver.

Special thanks to Kyle Lakatos, who submitted a gridded list of 32 drivers. He had a great mix of drivers from different eras.  Again, gridding is not necessary at this stage.

Also thanks to Don Caldwell, who submitted 33 names, many of them who were not listed yet.

Keep them coming!

Indycar News ; The Greatest 33 Non-Winners, A Reader Particicpation Event

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The long offseason enters its final fortnight in just two days.  I thought this was a much more tolerable one than most because of what seemed like nearly constant news.

The big news this week is Juncos racing, a pillar of the Mazda Road to Indy,  purchased cars and equipment from KV Racing, and will enter at least one car,  likely two, in the Indianapolis 500.  Juncos’s   long range plan was to move up to Indycar in a couple of years. The sad demise of KV allowed them to move up their plans. Additional races this year don’t look likely, but eventually, possibly by 2019, they will be full time.

Other announcements- Lear Corp, which had sponsored the outstanding volunteer staff at the Detroit GP, is now the presenting sponsor of the race… Andretti Autosport. confirmed they will run a fifth car at Indianapolis. The driver has not been named. Last year Townsend Bell drove their fifth car.

 

In 2011, The Indianapolis Star and IMS invited fans to participate in finding the Greatest 33 drivers of the 500.  The majority of the drivers who made the final list were race winners, of course.  I would like to do another Greatest 33 for the non-winners.  These are the guys who consistently came close but never got their face on the Borg-Warner Trophy. I invite those of you who read this blog (both of you) to submit your suggestions and how you would grid them, Indy style. I would like to find fifty, then have you vote on gridding them.  You do not have to name 33, just as many as you feel like. Criteria is up to you.

Drivers that come to mind for me are Rex Mays, Ted Horn, Harry Hartz, Michael Andretti, Lloyd Ruby.  I look at laps led, top five finishes, and qualifying results.  Who else can you add to this list?  Let me know.

 

Next week will be my long awaited (dreaded?) season preview.  Hope to hear from you soon.

A New Look for Indycar Weekends; P2P Revised; Reds GetMore Track Time

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Yesterday Indycar announced format changes for race weekends. Most of the new procedures affect road and street course events.  The oval  races at Phoenix and Gateway will have a new prerace look also. Some of the changes affect certain tracks only. Here are the changes, followed by my thoughts. Thanks to Eric Smith of Race Review Online for providing the list.

• Phoenix and Gateway qualifications: Qualifying at two oval tracks – Phoenix Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park – will be held on the same day as those Saturday night races. The first day of those two-day event weekends will focus on a pair of practice sessions, the latter falling within the same evening time slot as the race.

• Firestone alternate tires: At road and street courses, each car will receive an additional set of Firestone’s red-sidewall alternate tires, bringing the total to four sets of the softer-compound Firehawks available for the weekend and allowing teams to better gauge performance characteristics of the alternate tires in comparison to Firestone’s more-durable, black-sidewall, primary-compound tires prior to qualifications. Each entry must return one set of tires – either primary or alternate – following the first practice session of a weekend and another set – the opposite compound from the first returned set – following the second practice session.

• Overtake assist time allotment: Push-to-pass overtake assist in road and street races will be based on a maximum time allotment for each car instead of the number of uses. The events at the streets of St. Petersburg, Raceway at Belle Isle Park and Sonoma Raceway will have a total overtake time allotment of 150 seconds for each race, with the other road/street races set for 200 seconds. When a driver engages the overtake via a button on the steering wheel, it increases engine turbocharger boost pressure by 15 kilopascals (kPa) to 165 kPa – good for about 60 added horsepower. Once engaged, push-to-pass will run for a pre-established duration equivalent to approximately the time needed to drive the length of the track’s main straightaway (15-20 seconds). Drivers will now have the ability to disengage an overtake activation midway through its use to save time for a later use. In addition, push-to-pass will not be available at the start of a race or for any restarts, with the exception of a restart commencing with two laps remaining in the race.

• INDYCAR Grand Prix schedule: Verizon IndyCar Series on-track action at the INDYCAR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course will consist of two days, Friday and Saturday, May 12-13, to create a more action-packed event. All three levels of the Mazda Road to Indy development ladder will still have track activity on Thursday, May 11.

• Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix qualifications: For the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix doubleheader in June, qualifying sessions for each race will see the field divided into two groups based on practice times, with 12 minutes of track time allotted for each qualifying group (with five minutes of guaranteed green-flag time). Previously, qualifying for the first race followed the advancement round format used at other road/street events. Qualifying groups for Belle Isle will be based on best lap times from the practice session immediately preceding Race 1 qualifications. If a car causes a red-flag situation during a qualifying session, its best two timed laps will be disallowed and it will not be permitted to continue in the session. One driver and entrant championship point will be awarded to the fastest car in each qualifying group on both days.

• Standardized road/street practice times: Practice sessions on the first day of most road/street course event weekends will have standardized start times of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. local. Each session will be 45 minutes in duration.

 My thoughts:

I love same day qualifying. It is hectic for the teams, but it really provides value for the fans. I have been to many races where the race starts in late afternoon and there are no support events.  A night practice for a night race makes sense, especially in the same time slot as the race. Indycars under the lights are an amazing sight. Unless there is a drastic change in weather in 24 hours, this will help teams know what to expect.

About time drivers are allowed to practice on the alternate reds during practice. I’ve always thought it was silly to not be able to practice on what you would use in qualifying. Another step helping the teams put on a better qualifying show. Thanks to Firestone for the extra work this involves making the extra sets available.

The push to pass change will make starts and restarts fairer and possibly safer.  I really like that a driver can decide not to use a full burst and save time for later. This is essentially is the same amount of time as before, but a driver could get more uses from it.  I wonder if all teams and the fans will be made aware of how much time other drivers have left. Indycar attempted to keep that information hidden for awhile last year, but that policy seemed to fade away.

Compressing the Indycar Grand Prix of Indianapolis schedule is a good idea. Thursday was mainly just let’s get the dust off the track day.  I like the idea of the three Mazda Road to Indy series getting the entire Thursday to themselves.  Anytime the future stars can get a showcase can only help Indycar in the long run.

The Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix qualifying format makes sense for a couple reasons. The schedule at Belle Isle is really packed. It will free up 30-45 minutes of track time.  This is the procedure used for race 2 qualifying, so it standardizes the weekend’s qualifying procedure. One thing I would change is have the groups on Sunday based on Saturday’s starting positions rather than have the same groups both days.

I will like going to a track on the first event day knowing when the practice sessions are. I always take a copy of the schedule with me, but it will be nice to know the first session is at 11 and the second one is at 3.   Shortening the practice sessions to 45 minutes and allowing practice on the reds should make for more on track action during the sessions.

These are great changes for the Verizon Indycar Series. I like that they are trying to have practice sessions simulate qualifying and race conditions while providing more on track running.  Adapting procedures to the situations of different tracks is helpful as well.

Notes:

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced Copper Moon Coffee will be the team’s official coffee supplier through 2018. Will the steering wheels have an espresso button?

Zachary Claman DeMelo signed with Carlin for his second Indy Lights season.  I thought he showed steady improvement during the year. It appears there will be 12-14 cars on the Indy Lights grid. Considering that Schmidt is not entering the series this year, that is a nice number.

We are just 32 days away from the first practice day at St. Pete. I’m ready.

I’m working on my season preview, which I plan to publish March 1. I will be back before then.  You can’t get rid of me that easily.

 

 

Indycar News-All Seats Accounted For; Rolex24 Photo Gallery

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Mikhail Aleshin returns to Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports in the #7 car. There was some doubt about his filling this seat. Seems he had been talking to Trevor Carlin about driving for him, but Carlin is going to wait at least another year before joining the series. Funding apparently was not the issue.

Sage Karam will be back for the Indianapolis 500 in the DRR entry. Karam was having a great race last year, moving up to 6th place before his contact with another car put him in the wall.

7-Eleven returns to the series as an associate sponsor for Tony Kanaan, highlighted in four races- St. Pete,Long Beach, Indy, and Texas. 7-Eleven was a long time sponsor of Kanaan’s in his years at Andretti.

Tim Cindric will be the strategist for Josef Newgarden in his first year at Penske. This move appears to be an attempt to help Newgarden have a comfortable first year with Penske. Simon Pagenaud struggled in his first year with the team, and it may be that Team Penske learned from his struggles.

Starting February 1, Firstone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg ads began running in the Tampa Bay Times. The ads have run daily. I noticed them last year as well. This is a city that really gets behind the race. Each year I have been here local support seems to have increased.

Rolex24 Postscript and Gallery

First, after watching a replay of the late race incident between Ricky Taylor and Fillipe Albuquerque, I stand corrected in what I stated in my last post. Taylor was in no way at fault, and I agree with the no call by the stewards.  Enjoy the photos.

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Cold, Wet, Wild- Rolex24 Recap

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After the 1992 Indianapolis 500, I was positive I would never be any colder at a race. After last year’s Angie’s List Grand Prix, I was positive I would never be any colder at a race. After last weekend’s Rolex24 at Daytona… you get the picture.  This race completed the podium of cold weather races on the top step.  Plus there was rain. Despite the weather, it was a great race. The skies cleared and the temperature warmed enough at the end for an exciting finish.

 

Endurance racing is a different type of racing. Race three hours. Try to survive during the  night. Race the last three hours. Some drivers must drive a designated amount of time. A driver can only drive so many hours in a certain time frame. Pit stops must work around these factors.

The opening segment had lots of good racing throughout all the classes. As evening came, most teams settled in to their long range strategies. The rain began around 8 pm and continued for thirteen hours off and on. Mostly it was a steady light rain punctuated by two heavy downpours.

Your intrepid reporter put up a good fight, but surrendered at 1 am.  I went back to my lodging and tried to sleep. I returned to the track around 7. I found out the previous hour was almost entirely under caution for rain. The class battles  tightened up after the race returned to green. The rain finally stopped for good a little after 9. The skies eventually lightened and actually got a bit sunny by the end of the race.

As for the end of the race, I happened to be sitting directly across from turn 1. I thought Taylor could have waited to pass Albuquerque. His car was the fastest the entire race. It had cut through the field to regain lead in short order after every pit stop. He would have passed on that lap anyway.  But contact occurred and the stewards ruled no foul.

The GTLM class had a four car battle going until the end. The #66 Ford GT of Chip Ganassi.Racing won with a late pass. Indycar driver Sebastien Bourdais was a driver on the winning team. Other Indycar drivers didn’t fare as well. All had car problems at some point. Some Indycar drivers will return at Sebring the week after the Verizon Indy Car Series opens at St. Pete.

Good places to watch

There are several great places to watch this race from. The most popular is the bleacher section at the exit of the International Horseshoe, turn 3. From here you have a view of turn 1, where the cars exit the oval; pit out, the horseshoe, and the straight leading to turns 4 and 5. I also like standing behind the fence at the apex to turn 3 and at the entrance to turn 3.  From the last two spots you get a great sense of how to drive this corner. There is quite a difference in the approach of prototype and GT car.

In the main front stretch grandstand, the entrance of turn 1 provides a great view of 95% of the track. You can see the entire road course section, watch some pit stops, and watch the reentry to the oval. This year I walked along the grandstand to the end, to turn 4 of the oval.  It’s a beautiful view of the cars sweeping through the high banked turn. As the cars come in to the pits, they all come to nearly a complete stop as they try to get down to pit speed before the cones.  The rain made for great rooster tails here. As I went to my car parked outside turn 4, a cloud of spray rose from the track as cars ran through the turns.

Notes

Cadillacs are fast and proved to be durable in their debut.

The GTLM class will be the one to watch for close battles this year.

I hope there are more video boards next year. There is one in the fan plaza and one in turn 6 very far away from most spectators.

I really enjoy the vintage cars display and the fact they take laps before the race. Below is a 1962 Ferrari and two Lolas.

I will publish more photos in a couple days as well as catch up on Indycar news.

 

Rolex 24 Indycar Driver Tracker

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First, a sad note from Indycar- Chuck Weyant, who drove in the Indianapolis 500 from 1955-1959, passed away at the age of 92. He was the oldest living 500 veteran.

8 active and 8 former Indycar drivers will be driving this weekend in Daytona for the Rolex24. This guide has the class, car number, drive,r and car. I hope this helps make it easier to track the Indycar contingent throughout the race.

 

P class:

31    Mike Conway   Cadillac

52     R C Enerson      Ligier

55       Spencer Pigot    Mazda

70       James Hinchcliffe      Mazda

 

PC class- all cars Oreca

20       Buddy Rice

88        Sebastian Saavedra

 

 

GTLM class

66      Sebastian Bourdais   Ford GT

67        Scott Dixon                 Ford GT

Ryan Briscoe

69         Tony Kanaan              Ford GT

 

GTD class

14      Sage Karam          Lexus

23       Townsend Bell    Audi

75       Tristan Vautier         Mercedes

86        Ryan Hunter-Reay     Acura

93         Graham Rahal          Acura

Katherine Legge

 

Qualifying begins Thursday afternoon at 3:15.   I’m planning an update post qualifying. Enjoy the race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indycar Silly Season- It Was Done, Now It Isn’t; My Season Begins

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Just when we thought all the rides were filled, one may be open again.  Spencer Pigot returns to Ed Carpenter Racing to drive the 20 car on road and street courses. He joined the team after the 500 last year and drove the remaining street/road courses. This is a great move by ECR. They have a driver they are familiar with and who worked with them last year. Continuity is always an advantage for a young driver.

Almost at the same time, doubt was cast on Mikhail Aleshin’s ride in the 7 car for Sam Schmidt. This is most likely a funding issue.  Aleshin had some great races last year, winning the pole at Pocono and nearly winning the race at Mid-Ohio. Things have been very quiet about what will happen there.

It appears we have seen the last of KV. Nothing new has surfaced since reports of talks with former F1 driver Pastor Maldonado a couple of weeks ago.

In a great move for A J Foyt racing, Will Phillips joins the team. Phillips is the latest addition to a team that is building toward having a much improved season.

Next week: My thoughts on the new season.

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My at track season begins this weekend with the Rolex24 at Daytona. I hope to have reports all weekend as I track the Indycar drivers taking part.  There are a lot of them. I will get a list out later this week. As a free service for the race, I will telephone you personally at 3 am Sunday morning with a live in-race update. Just DM or message  your number.