Sunday, July 4, 2010

Pseudo-Live Blog: Camping World GP at The Glen

Hi-ho, and happy birthday to this fine nation of ours; she might be 236, but she doesn't look a day over 207. There are few better ways to celebrate the holiday than by cooking up some hamburgers and hot dogs, cracking a few beers, setting off some commercially-available colorful explosives, and watching some auto racing.

(By the way, to steal a thing from Pressdog, beer of the race is Sam Adams Summer Ale; a startup business from the crucible of the Revolution that makes fantastic beer...can't get much more American than that!)

The race is on ABC today, so no lengthy Lindy-tastic pre-race show and no Jack Arute doing something ridiculous. The masses weep for the lack of such entertainment.

The cars are gridded in the pit lane and the big stage is set up for driver intros on the front stretch. The weather is entirely beyond amazing, with sunshine reflecting off of Seneca Lake and the lovely green hills surrounding it. The helicopter shot on the online feed showed a decent contingent of campers and general admission types, with a decent smattering of folks in the grandstand.

Everything looks set for a full day of great racing -- we just wait for the command to get moving!

3:50, pre-race
Mr. Camping World Man gives the command and the engines are fired. ABC's audio board operator has the engine noise up massively loud and we can barely hear the "Row (blank), hot!" calls. Doesn't matter, because ABC needs to throw down on commercials. Race time when we come back to live pictures.

3:55, pre-race
One to go before the green flag. Everything looks nice, including the crowd. Once more around through the pit lane reporters and we'll get going.

Lap 1
Pace car off, rows form off of turn 11, and we are...GREEN! Slight contact at the rear of the field. Power to the lead in the Bus Stop and the two Ganassis are really pushing the Penskes. Justin Wilson past Dixon in the boot. Power runs off a bit to lead lap 1.

Lap 2
Franchitti and Wilson all over Helio for third. Dario nearly had it in the Bus Stop, but had to be careful because of that #22 car behind him.

Lap 3
Dixon back to fifth past Wilson. Power, Briscoe, Helio, Dario, Dixon, Wilson, Sato, Marco your top eight after three circuits.

Lap 4
Three-wide! Helio, Dario, Dixon go Indianapolis-style down the backstretch. Everyone jumps back in line as they hit the Bus Stop, though.

Lap 6
Paul Tracy and Adam Carroll getting some decent airtime as they battle for ninth...good for ESPN to cover those guys. Dario past Helio for third. Replays show some ridiculousness with the slow cars of Baguette and Tagliani being passed by Danica.

Lap 7
Dixon waits too long to pull out and pass on Helio. Scott has a busted wing, Helio has a flat tire. Completely Dixon's fault as far as I can tell.

Lap 8
Replays show Helio was running slow through the esses and Dixon tried an outside pass instead of backing off. Perhaps backing off would have sent Dixon spinning, but it's something he should've tried.

Lap 10
Big gaggle of cars further down the order. Ryan Hunter-Reay makes his new group of sponsors happy by putting the moves on Paul Tracy for ninth.

Lap 12
Takuma Sato puts the moves on Justin Wilson for fourth. Unfortunately, the top three cars are a big distance away from Taku...let's see how that F1 experience works for him here.

Lap 15
Station-keeping formation at the front of the front of the field. Big battle is (again) between Adam Carroll and Paul Tracy. Tracy just nearly pulled the Eddie Cheever move across Carroll's nose coming out of the boot.

Lap 16
Tracy's car is not happy as he's locking the brakes everywhere. and we are...YELLOW! Wheldon spins in turn 8 with a little help from Alex Lloyd. Many WOAH! moments as cars avoid Wheldon. Wheldon's car stalled in a bad spot, so the full-course is fully warranted (the cars need DP01 on-board starters...).

Lap 19
Pit stops! Everyone hits the pit lane except Helio and Dario (they pitted earlier). Penskes and Dario out first. Matos and Moraes out 4th and 5th in the pit order. Tagliani and Viso also stayed out with Helio and Dario, so that pit order starts with fifth position.

Lap 20
We are...GREEN! Field mostly clean through the first few turns. Dixon, Viso, Tags, Helio, Briscoe, Power, Dario are the first seven.

Lap 21
E.J. thinking about first position as they head for the first turn. Baguette puts the pass on Danica into the Bus Stop; also looked like Taku was trying a similar move on Marco Andretti. Romancini spun in the boot -- many WOAH!'s as cars dodge. Still green.

Lap 25
Mostly in station-keeping mode again, though Power just took fourth from Tagliani. We're essentially circling and waiting for some fuel strategy shoes to drop -- as I type that, Viso hits the pit lane from second.

Lap 27
Marco gets a good run on Tony Kanaan, but doesn't really have the momentum to get past. Also, Franchitti all over Matos for fifth, but Rafa is defending well.

Lap 28
Chrome Horn vs. Princess Danica back in the field...that #24 is NOT happy. Scott Dixon finally hits pit lane with Helio right behind.

Lap 31
30 down, 30 to go. Power, Briscoe, Matos, Dario, and Moraes holding down the sharp end of the field. Paul Tracy, clearly in the "struggling" category, changes up strategy a bit and pits early.

Lap 33
I've started the cookout here, since the race is in parade mode. I'll jump in when interesting things happen.

Lap 36
We're looking at pit stops coming up soon. The fun battle is for 5th through 10th: Moraes, Kanaan, Andretti, Wilson, and Carroll.

Lap 37
Marco's bringing the beer for the 4th of July block party. There is no chance he's letting Wilson by, and he seems willing to wreck both cars rather than surrender the spot. Carroll first of the top 10 to say hi to his pit crew. Car dropped off the jack before the left rear was secure! Tsk-Tsk, Andretti Autosport.

Lap 38
Briscoe and Power pit, Briscoe beats him out! Everyone and their mothers hits pit lane, Kanaan races Matos out, but Matos is out first. Dario Franchitti still making laps, as he's the fuel-saving expert. He'll be in at the end of the lap.

Lap 39
and we are...YELLOW! Simona de Silvestro got loose coming out of turn 7 and she fought the car all the way to the outside barriers. Full-course caution to clean up the car.

Lap 41
Briscoe, Power, Dixon, Helio, Viso, Dario, Matos, Wheldon, Moraes, Kanaan are your top 10 under caution. Much discussion on the radio of (dun dun duunnnnn!) fuel strategy, which has been completely thrown to the wind by this yellow.

Lap 42
Speaking of fuel strategy, several cars head for the pit lane with 19 laps left on the board. Dixon, Helio, Viso, Wilson, Patrick, Tagliani, Carroll, Sato, and a couple others hit the pits.

Lap 44
and we are...GREEN! Everyone lined up nicely down the front stretch. Briscoe and Power looking to run off with this one aaaaaaand Power has him at the Bus Stop!

Lap 46
Stepped out for some cookout-related stuff. RHR past Kanaan for eighth. Front of the field holding pretty durned steady at the moment, though Dario has Briscoe in his sights.

Lap 47
Dario has second from Briscoe and puts Power firmly in his sights.

Lap 49
The de facto battle for the lead may be the battle for 10th between Helio and Dixon, as those two are on the slightly-off strategy, pitting two laps later than everyone else.

Lap 51
With 10 to go, we're starting to hear those magical fuel mileage numbers from the pit reporters as the leaders wonder whether or not their fuel tanks will survive the distance.

Lap 53
Helio is really all over Dixon for what could be the magic spot. Dixon puts Marco Andretti in the middle of that battle, though, and Dixon starts to run off a bit.

Lap 54
Dixon getting past Marco may have bee the move of the race. Helio can't pass Marco and now Wilson is all over Helio. Meanwhile, Matos, Wheldon, and Moraes are going at it in the middle of the top ten.

Lap 55
Helio and Wilson dispatch of Andretti and are setting off after Dixon.

Lap 56
Radio boys seem to think Will Power is good to go to the finish. It's sounding like some of those other front-running cars are good to go as well. Seems like Briscoe is catching up Dario for second.

Lap 58
Three to go. Still Power running off a bit. Dario and Briscoe are battling for second, though Dario drives off a bit in the last few turns each lap.

Lap 59
Two to go, everything's holding steady, though Briscoe is certainly trying. Push-to pass graphic lighting up like a Christmas tree for those guys.

Lap 60
White flag, and Briscoe takes second as they pass under the flag! Kanaan is the first fuel victim, and he stalls his car in the pits...big issue for him. Dario doesn't seem like he can challenge for second.

Checkered Flag!
We return to the roads and Power is back in victory lane! Briscoe, Franchitti, Matos, Moraes, Wheldon, Hunter-Reay, Dixon, Castroneves, and Wilson round out the top ten. Great stuff by the Penske cars, as usual. Huge result for Rafa Matos and De Ferran-Dragon Racing. Massive result for KV Racing -- all three cars finished the race! Cars here and there running out of fuel on the cool-down lap, but Will Power has enough to find that winner's circle.

Will Power's pleasantly satisfied with his relatively easy win; once he was past Briscoe, it was game over. Rafa Matos is madly happy to get his result because his team really needed it -- especially when their telemetry stopped working on that final stretch. Dario a little peeved at someone on that last restart; he said he had worn something out a little bit because of that issue. Briscoe also happy even though he didn't quite make it back to the pits after the flag. Tony Kanaan, who stalled on the splash and go near the end, sped through pit lane on a scooter, obviously not wanting to chat about that very tough break. Dixon talks about the contact he made with Helio early on; says he thought Helio would do one thing, he did a different thing, and the closing rate was a bit too much for Dixon to handle. Helio says Dixon should've held off a second and gone for the inside into the Bus Stop.

So, a relatively safe race, some pretty good battles here and there as the afternoon went on, and fuel strategy ended up not counting towards the result. Good work by Will Power and the Penske contingent, and many thanks for proving my fearless(ly bad) prediction correct. Sato looked racy early on, but didn't really do much on the way to the checkered flag. Paul Tracy seemed to be let down by his car as he dropped down in the order throughout the day; he managed to jump back up a bit, but there was never a challenge. The ladies barely existed today, except for de Silvestro's unfortunate accident.

We have a two week break until the cars hit the streets of Toronto, Ontario, to try and relive the excitement of last year's race there. In the meantime, blow some stuff up in honor of America (it's what the founding fathers would have wanted), but don't hurt yourselves. Chassis announcement comes in 10 days, so that should be the next big story of 2010 for the IndyCars. Until then, cheers!

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