Thursday, July 29, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Indy Molson Toronto
Great IndyCar race on Sunday (although its no longer called the Molson Indy, I wish it was). Some highlights below. But my highlight prior to the race was getting a question re: Milka DuNOT on ESPN chat with John Oreovicz. John does a great job with ESPN's IndyCar coverage, which is a blessing among ESPN's significant NASCRAP coverage. Plus, he lives by Putnam Park in Indiana. Here is what I asked John.
CJ (Minneapolis (via Indiana))
How many laps do you think Milka will complete this year before she is asked to stop due to "handling problems" (e.g. her pace is a danger to others)?
Oreo
(3:34 PM)
John:
She was slower than the entire Indy Lights field here. She's 8.5 seconds slower than Hunter-Reay[fastest at that time], 6.4 seconds slower than her teammate (who was 22nd of 26) and 6.0 seconds slower than the next slowest driver. She is especially dangerous on a tight street circuit like this, where, let us not forget, a death occurred during the 1996 CART race. If they let her start, I expect her to be parked within 10 laps. They'll let her get lapped once then pull her off.
John could not have been more correct. As soon as the leaders caught her the stewards parked her on...wait for it...LAP 10!! Well done. You can read the whole chat here.
Will Power is both lucky and fast. Also a great result for Graham Rahal and a big disappointment for Justin Wilson.
Also announced last week were the plans for the 2012 car. Enough has been written about that so I am just going to say that I am cautiously optimistic, but think they would have been better off with multiple chassis makers.
CJ (Minneapolis (via Indiana))
How many laps do you think Milka will complete this year before she is asked to stop due to "handling problems" (e.g. her pace is a danger to others)?
Oreo
(3:34 PM)
John:
She was slower than the entire Indy Lights field here. She's 8.5 seconds slower than Hunter-Reay[fastest at that time], 6.4 seconds slower than her teammate (who was 22nd of 26) and 6.0 seconds slower than the next slowest driver. She is especially dangerous on a tight street circuit like this, where, let us not forget, a death occurred during the 1996 CART race. If they let her start, I expect her to be parked within 10 laps. They'll let her get lapped once then pull her off.
John could not have been more correct. As soon as the leaders caught her the stewards parked her on...wait for it...LAP 10!! Well done. You can read the whole chat here.
Will Power is both lucky and fast. Also a great result for Graham Rahal and a big disappointment for Justin Wilson.
Also announced last week were the plans for the 2012 car. Enough has been written about that so I am just going to say that I am cautiously optimistic, but think they would have been better off with multiple chassis makers.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Head Work
The M3 has had an extended stay in the garage on stands thanks to an earlier issue at BIR this year and I had not had time to tear into it until last week. It's getting fixed now and also getting a fancy new valve job.
As soon as I have some video, I will update the events at the 24 Hours of Iowa Speedway event.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
BIG Racing Weekend
This weekend brings us both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Canadian GP. Here are some videos to get you excited or at least for me to entertain myself.
Some classic onbaord video with one M. Schumacher.
Glad to see the Canadian GP back on the schedule. Will be very interesting to see how the Red Bulls do this weekend given the McLaren's straight line advantage and the long back straight before the "Wall of Champions" (Axis of Oversteer had some great video of this here). Also be nice that the race will be on at a decent time of day in the States.
The main event this weekend has to be the 24 Hours du Le Mans. The first qualifying session is in the books and it looks like rain for today so the grid may be set.
In LMP1, Peugeot looks to repeat on home soil and was extremely fast in the first session of qualifying - swept the top 4 spots. Can Audi rebound after last years disaster?
In LMP2, the Acuras look like the cars to beat and hopefully Brabs and the Patron Highcroft team (ALMS regulars and champs) can give the Euro teams a run for their money.
In GT1, can't say I really care or have any idea. An Aston or a Vette will probably win and an Aston is on pole. Also, Roman Grosjean crashed a Ford GT during practice.
GT2. This is going to be where the real battle is. BMW vs. Porsche vs. Ferrari vs. Corvette vs. Aston vs. Jaguar. Ferrari set the fastest lap on the first qualifying session but were closely followed by two Vettes. The top 9 cars are covered by 4 seconds; not much on a 4 minute lap. I will be rooting for the Hankook Farnbacher Ferrari, which it turns out my friend from high school engineers and is the lead mechanic (finished second at the Nurburgring 24). As always I will be rooting for the M3s too (being run by Schnitzer).
In typically Le Mans fashion, the weather may end up being the big story on race day. Good teams make their own luck though and this one will feature the best endurance racers in the business. Since my next race is a 24 hour race too, I will be even more interested than usual to watch the strategies play out and watch how the teams react to changes and setbacks.
Finally, if you have not seen "Truth in 24", I highly recommend you hop over to iTunes and download it (it was free). Outstanding production revolving around the 2008 race and it's narrated by Jason Statham (which is awesome of course). If you are one of the 7 people that reads this though, you probably have either already seen it or don't care.
Some classic onbaord video with one M. Schumacher.
Glad to see the Canadian GP back on the schedule. Will be very interesting to see how the Red Bulls do this weekend given the McLaren's straight line advantage and the long back straight before the "Wall of Champions" (Axis of Oversteer had some great video of this here). Also be nice that the race will be on at a decent time of day in the States.
The main event this weekend has to be the 24 Hours du Le Mans. The first qualifying session is in the books and it looks like rain for today so the grid may be set.
In LMP1, Peugeot looks to repeat on home soil and was extremely fast in the first session of qualifying - swept the top 4 spots. Can Audi rebound after last years disaster?
In LMP2, the Acuras look like the cars to beat and hopefully Brabs and the Patron Highcroft team (ALMS regulars and champs) can give the Euro teams a run for their money.
In GT1, can't say I really care or have any idea. An Aston or a Vette will probably win and an Aston is on pole. Also, Roman Grosjean crashed a Ford GT during practice.
GT2. This is going to be where the real battle is. BMW vs. Porsche vs. Ferrari vs. Corvette vs. Aston vs. Jaguar. Ferrari set the fastest lap on the first qualifying session but were closely followed by two Vettes. The top 9 cars are covered by 4 seconds; not much on a 4 minute lap. I will be rooting for the Hankook Farnbacher Ferrari, which it turns out my friend from high school engineers and is the lead mechanic (finished second at the Nurburgring 24). As always I will be rooting for the M3s too (being run by Schnitzer).
In typically Le Mans fashion, the weather may end up being the big story on race day. Good teams make their own luck though and this one will feature the best endurance racers in the business. Since my next race is a 24 hour race too, I will be even more interested than usual to watch the strategies play out and watch how the teams react to changes and setbacks.
Finally, if you have not seen "Truth in 24", I highly recommend you hop over to iTunes and download it (it was free). Outstanding production revolving around the 2008 race and it's narrated by Jason Statham (which is awesome of course). If you are one of the 7 people that reads this though, you probably have either already seen it or don't care.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Indy 500 Forecast
Sunday
Partly cloudy. Scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of thunderstorms 40 percent. (Weather Underground)
Looks like the storms may stay away until after the race though. Fingers crossed.
Also, welcome to the readership Nodler.
Partly cloudy. Scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of thunderstorms 40 percent. (Weather Underground)
Looks like the storms may stay away until after the race though. Fingers crossed.
Also, welcome to the readership Nodler.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Indy 500 - SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!!
Although keeping track of the festivities and ongoing is much harder from the North Star state than it was from the Crossroads of America, the Indy 500 is just a few days away. Did I mention I once met Ludacris in the VIP at the Indy 500? But I digress (as I so often do).
Helio is on pole along with most of the usual suspects, but keep an eye on Tags (starting 5th)and the impressive new FAZZT team and Graham Rahal starting 7th for his Dad's team that didn't even have a car ready until about 2 weeks ago. Both are great stories and hopefully one of them will keep the Capatin's drivers and the Target Chippy guys from drinking the milk come Sunday. If you are one of the 6 people that reads this blog then you probably already know that there will be kegs, cornhole, bbq and racing in HD at my place on Sunday. If you show up you better know the words to "Back Home Again in Indiana" or I will sick Jim Nabors on you (video below should help).
To see how far this great race has fallen, read this series of articles from ESPN writer Ed Hinton and curse Tony George's name with me.
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