Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Let Them Eat Cake!


(above: members of IndyCar media storm IRL offices, W 16th St, Indianapolis, in anticipation of chassis announcement.)

Mark the date: July 14, 2010 (as reported by Curt Cavin), is quite possibly the most important date ever in American Open Wheel Racing. There's still no indication as to whether an actual decision has been made by Randy Bernard's ICONIC committee, but we at least have a concrete date.

As you can see from the article, Cavin (or someone he's in contact with) considers Lola and Dallara the favorites for the big contract, but who knows what's being siad behind the closed doors.

Remember: July 14. Oh, and I'm sure there will be cake. Vive la (chassis) Révolution!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Ovalicious Off-Weekend Report

There have been several stories of interest to come out of the world of IndyCar this week, and the majority of them seem to center around the 2011 schedule.

A little while ago, I put together a post about the fact that six of the eight oval tracks on the schedule this season are 1.5 miles in length and four of those are roughly the same shape. BO-RING! It seems someone has been in one Randall Bernard, CEO, Indy Racing League's ears on this subject (or, indeed, he's come to the conclusion himself) and he's possibly looking to instigate a little change. He's said flat-out that the series should be half-oval and half-not-oval -- and not this one-third oval, road, and street thing that Tony George used to somehow differentiate roads and streets...I know the differences, but I'm not buying that.

Anyway, apart from the new street twisty in Bawlmer (Baltimore), all of the schedule talk seems to center around tracks of the all-left-turn variety:

First on the list is the one that seems to be confirmed: the Magic Mile at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The key thing with this track is that track president Jerry Gappens wants the IndyCar Series to be there, and has for the last couple of years. For reasons that are completely beyond comprehension, the league saw NHMS' advances to appear on the 2010 schedule and said, "ehh...no thanks". You have fans complaining about ovals disappearing, you have your only mile oval getting shut down because its finances are handled by drunk orangutans or something, and you have a beautiful track in an untapped market actually trying to get you to come to their track. We weren't sure what would happen when mighty Tony stepped down from his post, but it turns out that it would make room for someone with the sense to make halfway decent business decisions. I'm sure the NHMS people weren't feeling too happy this time last year, but Mr. Bernard has sewn up the wound and placed the Magic Mile on the schedule for 2011. By the way, Sunday, 1PM eastern, TNT is the place to be to get a glimpse of NHMS in action with the "stock" cars.

Another track that's been mentioned is the 1.5-miler at Las Vegas. This is one of those tracks that, by all acounts, Mr. Bernard is in the "talking stages" with at the moment. However, given the fact that Homestead barely draws the flies that buzz around its floodlights, which is more pathetic when the race becomes your championship conclusion, the last race of the season needs moving. The reason IndyCar has tried the Homestead experiment for their championship conclusion in '09 and '10 is that they can have their big championship banquet at Miami Beach. Well, one of the few places that's more interesting than Miami and has more banquet space than just about any city on the planet is Las Vegas. Put the cars under the lights on Las Vegas' oval, which is more akin to Chicago's side-by-side excitement than Homestead's endless drudgery, crown a champion, then hand out checks somewhere on The Strip the next night. I'm not saying Las Vegas would draw a better crowd than Homestead for a finale, but with SMI ownership and a much better location, it stands a much better chance.

The Milwaukee Mile has been relegated to the status of constant wild card. There's still no official operator of the facility, and I have a sneaking suspicion that, should the calendar flip over to January before an operator is found, the Milwaukee Mile won't see its 108th year of existence. HOWEVER! If an operator is found in the next month or two (and I'm pretty sure the Wisconsin Fair Board would like the money the Mile is capable of bringing), the first call will probably be to West 16th Street in Indianapolis. As much as some purists would probably like a date the week after Indianapolis, I think a better draw would be a night date during the Wisconsin State Fair in August; there will already be people on the grounds eating brats and drinking beer, so they can just wander over to the track, pay $20, and watch the race. An IndyCar series without Milwaukee almost doesn't feel complete -- get this one back on the schedule!

Another track that an IndyCar championship feels somewhat incomplete without is the Diamond in the Desert just southwest of Phoenix. The main issue the IndyCars have had with this track is a mess of lame-duck promotion and an operation group that seemed hell-bent on driving open-wheel cars off the schedule. I think that occurred because, four years ago, NASCAR sold out all of their races and a Sprint Cup race was like winning the lottery for promoters. Times have changed, and even Bristol is struggling with ticket sales; perhaps PIR will be a little more receptive to bringing in IndyCar now that this is the case. Still, I don't see this one as being terribly likely until the tide really turns for IndyCar because of that International Speedway Corp. connection and the rough divorce this facility had with open-wheel.

And then we come to one of the stranger names I've heard in the rumor mill: Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. Sure, the IndyCar Series probably needs one of those 2-mile D-shaped tracks on the schedule. But is this the right one? Sure, Auto Club is a nice facility, was built right across the road from what used to be Ontario Motor Speedway, and it serves the biggest metropolitan area in the country, but nobody in that metropolitan area seems to care that the facility exists. The NASCAR races there, in spite of the fact that two of NASCAR's best drivers are Californians, had trouble drawing fans even when there was no such thing as an empty seat at a Sprint Cup race. IndyCar races there drew even fewer fans and somehow were nowhere near as exciting as the races on ACS' sister track in Michigan. Really, the only notable open-wheel events at this track were Gil de Ferran's brilliant qualifying lap in 2000 with CART (still a closed-course average speed record), and Greg Moore's fatal accident in 1999. Oh, and IndyCar already has a pretty big event you may have heard of in the L.A. metro area. I really don't see Fontana happening; if IndyCar wants a 2-miler, check out that track up in the Irish Hills.

So, one of these ovals is already set for 2011, and I could definitely see a situation where two more of them find their way onto the calendar (Las Vegas and Milwaukee). I certainly understand why Randy Bernard is chatting with the ISC tracks, and I think those guys might be finally coming to the realization that "the rising tide raises all boats," but I'm still not sure if they're willing to play ball. Let's add to the equation the fact that there are two ISC tracks that could well find themselves off the calendar for 2011: Kansas and Homestead. Kansas seems to be poorly promoted and that track is doing the same thing Phoenix did: pushing for a second Cup date while seemingly brushing off IndyCar. Homestead, as I've stated, can't bring fans due to lack of promotion and its poor location relative to Miami.

If we lose those two ovals, add Loudon, Las Vegas, and Milwaukee, and toss the Baltimore race in there, and that's a 19-race schedule with 10 twisties and 9 circles. Like I mentioned, I have a hard time seeing either of those possible ISC tracks playing ball and making it a 10/10 split, but you never know. What I do know is that it looks like the League may be giving the oval lineup a much-needed shakeup.

Oh by the way...

The #24 car, which has had two different drivers in the two races since Mike Conway was pitched into the North Chute catch fence, will have its third different driver at Watkins Glen -- a driver that the Canadian contingent will be pretty happy with. Paul Tracy will pilot the rolling advertisement for the Toronto race in upstate New York for Dreyer & Reinbold. Now, I'm going to get a little convoluted here, but stay with me: Paul, a perfectly competent road racer, had a terrible race there last year because he was given a terrible car; Paul moves to a team that, while not spectacular, has had decent results; throw into the teammate mix the guy that won this race last year and his engineer. Might the #24 Honda Indy Toronto car be a challenger next week? It wouldn't surprise me.

and I almost forgot...

One of the biggest announcements in the history of open-wheel racing in the United States is supposed to happen either the 30th of June or, more likely (in my opinion), the 2nd of July when everyone's arrived at Watkins Glen. The presentations to the ICONIC committee have been made by the different potential chassis manufacturers, the final deliberations are being made, and the deadline is arriving next week. The next IndyCar should be known to the world by the time the current cars hit the track at Watkins Glen.

That race goes off on the Fourth of July, and I should be somewhere near a TV when it happens. Until then, cheers!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Wrapup: Iowa Corn Indy 250

I hate to say I told you so...but I really did tell you so! In fairness, so did Oilpressure and, I'm sure, a few other word butchers and perhaps some actual journalists as well.

The fact that Kanaan started way back in fifteenth did seem like it might end up being a bit of trouble, and he very nearly ended up a part of Justin Wilson's first lap spin. However, a lightning-fast pit stop during the first round of stops had Kanaan firing past a surprised Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon (who ended up hitting each other) to take second. TK sat and watched Dario and Dixon go at it for a while, then had his own run at Dario when Dixon's tires went off a bit. When Dario had his own issues later on, it was Helio's turn to battle with Kanaan -- a battle that was joined by E.J. Viso for a while. Eventually, Tony took the lead and took it for good with about 8 laps to go, racing off into the distance while making Helio look like he was standing still. It was a well-deserved and well-driven victory for both TK and Andretti Autosport.

It's also finally a victory for those who had been the have-nots in this series. The "haves" (cars that, until recently, were red and white) had used their superior engineering and monetary powers to dominate everything in sight for almost exactly two years. Andretti Autosport was always one of those teams with the potential to step back up and knock off the red cars; after all, it used to be the "big three", with Andretti-Green being the third.

Say what you will about Danica Patrick over-stepping her bounds in publicly calling out her team several times at Indianapolis for giving the entire team some really bad cars, but I think we can look at that moment as the turning point of Andretti Autosport's season. Sure, Ryan Hunter-Reay won the race at Long Beach, but that team had looked lost since early 2008. Who's to know what happened behind closed doors between Pole Day and Race Day at Indianapolis, but those cars have suddenly worked like a charm the last three times out.

One other thing about this race: it was really, really fun to watch. There was drafting and passing, side-by-side racing, and actual driving determining the order of finish, all on a 7/8-mile bullring. Iowa was the only race last year before Kentucky that was any good, and the aerodynamic tweaks to the cars and Honda's horsepower boost have only made it better. I could've done without the lapped cars (namely Milka Duno, of course) causing the amount of near-calamity that they did, but that's an integral part of the sport and the driver who does the best job dealing with it often turns out the winner. The racing at Iowa is good, the crowds at Iowa are good, and IndyCar would do well to keep tack owner Rusty Wallace as happy as possible and keep coming back to this track.

We know I got the winner right (for once), but let's have a look at my other picks...

Alex Tagliani's car would be really strong if this were a rally. That FAZZT car is good in both practice and qualifying at just about every track, but turns to complete rubbish when the air is taken off the front wing. One of these times, though, they'll get that setup right and really challenge on the ovals.

Takuma Sato is, perhaps, the second-unluckiest guy in this entire series (with the first being teammate Mario Moraes). For the second time this year, Sato was right up there at the sharp end of the field before the wall inconveniently smashed his car to bits. At Kansas, he crashed out of sixth when he and Mutoh got together on a restart. Today, his inexperience with short ovals proved costly as he got caught up in the wash from a lapped car, understeered into the marbles, and was along for the ride into the wall. Today's crash was particularly tough because, I would say, Sato was absolutely going to challenge for the lead down the stretch. Who's to know how that would've turned out, but we never got the chance to see.

The ladies...barely existed today. Danica was given a mandatory camera shot while she tooled around in 12th-ish, but that was it. Simona's car had all sorts of trouble, including an air-jack hose that got caught and put her left-rear tire changer in the path of her wheel as she jerked the car forward; later on, something simply didn't work and her race was over. Sarah Fisher had some trouble with that evil "grey stuff" off the racing line and, in spite of her best efforts, sat helplessly while her car skidded into the wall. Milka Duno, after nearly wrecking every other car on the track at some point in the first 30 laps, was mercifully black flagged.

The heart rates are down and everyone's breathing again. One weekend off, then we celebrate a little good old American freedom with a 4th of July weekend race at American road racing's ancestral home, Watkins Glen. Incidentally, some signs are pointing to this being IndyCar's last visit to the Glen, as ISC stinks out loud with promotion and sponsors don't like hosting parties on a holiday weekend; it'll be interesting to see what happens there. Until then, I'll try to keep up with the chassis announcements and 2011 schedule updates. Cheers!

Yellow Shirt Preview: Iowa Corn Indy 250


"If you build it, they will come," says the film Field of Dreams, and Iowa's racing jewel in the cornfields has never had trouble bringing the fans through the gates.

Unfortunately, it looks like the fans' diligence and dedication may be getting no reward but a rainstorm today. The chances of rain, according to the weather types, are fairly high beginning at 1PM in central Iowa. A quick gander at IndyCar's schedule for the day puts the green flag at 1:30PM. Hopefully the clouds can hold their drink from a couple of hours this afternoon and we can get this show in.

Another story will undoubtedly be "The Bump". Every year, the soil around that infield tunnel in the lower center of that photo above seems to settle just a little bit more and the asphalt of the track settles right with it. That puts a nice big bump in the track right at the apex of turns 1 & 2. Last year, the bump claimed its fair share of victims, and its bitten drivers in three of the Indy Racing classes so far: Charlie Kimball in the Indy Lights race, one of the Star Mazda cars in their race, and IndyCar's Milka Duno in qualifying. With the cloud cover today, the engines will be strong and the tires may not be as sticky, so the bump could be important.

Today's race is going to be an interesting one for predictions across the board because this is our one short oval of the day. Much in the way that road courses can highlight the talents of a great driver over the talents of great engineers, short tracks are generally the territory of the strong driver. The width and speed of this track do require some engineering prowess, but the drivers will still have to use their right foot to steer the cars. Therefore, today might be the day that the red cars are dethroned from the list of oval winners.

Winner: Tony Kanaan. Yes, I think TK might be the one to do it. After all, he was the last non-red driver to take the checkered flag on an IndyCar oval and that was at the similarly wide and short d-shaped oval in Richmond. Few drivers have shown the sheer ability to drive a car like Kanaan has over the last few races. His drive from 33rd to 2nd at Indianapolis was truly a sight to behold, and I don't think his relatively low starting position will be a problem today.

Dark Horse: Alex Tagliani. Tags is becoming sort of my permanent dark horse. The FAZZT Racing car has speed in it and Tags is a very capable driver. It helps quite a bit that few non-red drivers have had the qualifying consistency of the #77 car. Will that striking black, white, and copper car be able to operate in traffic and stay near the front? I think so.

Ninja Dark Horse: Takuma Sato. This pick is contingent entirely on one thing: the #5 KV Racing/Lotus car being on the track at the end of the race. KV Racing has been single-handedly keeping the carbon fiber industry in business this year with all the broken cars they've finished races with. However, Taku has only gotten better as the year has gone on and, should he see the checkered flag, there's no reason he shouldn't be in the top ten or even top five.

The Ladies: Much to the chagrin of the anti-hype haters, the one lady of the hour will likely be Danica Patrick. Andretti Autosport has suddenly found consistency after having the gauntlet thrown on their car-preparig abilities by their feisty young lady. After strong days in Indianapolis and Texas, I fully expect Danica to challenge the top five and easily be a top ten car. Simona de Silvestro, despite her clear talent, is way too far down the field for the start and a driver's oval like this is definitely not something she's got a lot of experience with. Sarah Fisher will be popular with the midwesterners, but that doesn't necessarily translate to speed; maybe top 20 for her. I'm putting my over/under on Milka Duno being pitted with "handling problems" at lap 20 -- place your bets now!

Unfortunately, I will not be anywhere near my TV during the race, as the bossman has called me into the office today. However, the DVR is set and ready to roll, so a review will be upcoming later tonight or tomorrow. Cheers!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Wrapup: 24 Heures du Mans


(photo: ACO/LeMans.org)

The old motor racing adage goes as such: "To finish first, first you must finish." I am fairly certain that no one understands that more now than Olivier Quesnel and the rest of the Peugeot Sport clan.

It had been clear the entire week that the Peugeot 908s were, like last year, consistently faster than their chief competition from Audi's R15-pluses. Any time the two teams were out on the track together, the Peugeots' lap times were about two seconds-per-lap faster; the same held true once the race opened up. Every once in a while, a Peugeot driver would turn an incredibly fast lap before being told by his crew to slow it down and help preserve the cars a bit. It was thought by most that this was just Peugeot being conservative and improving their already good chances to with the race.

Instead, as we began to find out just after sunrise, it turned out to be a matter of the engines being a little too strong for their own good. First, it was the #2 car whose exhaust began spitting flame in the early daylight, relinquishing the lead of the race to the Audis. Then, as the #1 Peugeot was trying to chase down the Audis (and doing a fine job of it, to be sure), smoke began emanating from it's right-side exhaust as well. Finally, with about an hour and fifteen minutes remaining, the privately-entered ORECA-Matmut Peugeot began spitting it's own flames from that right bank of exhaust pipes. With car #3 having had a suspension failure before nightfall, all four Peugeot 908s were in the garage, watching the rival Audis cross the line in formation when the clock hit zero.

Audi, while their rivals down the pit lane were falling away, continued to be the model of consistency and professionalism that they had been since their first victory in 2000. Apart from a rare moment of emotion from team boss Wolfgang Ullrich when the #7 spun to avoid the stricken BMW Art Car, everything was calm, cool, and collected from the four rings as they endured Le Mans once again.

In the LMP2 class, it was all about the Strakka HPD/Acura, who kept out of trouble while their closest competitors from Highcroft began developing issues after daybreak. Many other LMP2 cars found themselves having accidents as they had to get past slower GT cars while watching their mirrors for quicker LMP1 cars.

GT1 was the class of major attrition this time around, as seemingly none of the cars survived without some sort of problem. The Ford GTs were all quick in the early going, but fiery mechanical failures and crashes ended up taking them out. The Aston Martin DBR9 started out the race quickly, but it too could not stay in one piece. Both of the Luc Alphond Corvettes had their share of issues during the night. The Japanese Lamborghini Owners' Club Murcielago spent significant time in the garage during the darkness before being retired for good. All of this left the Larbre Competition Saleen S7R to waltz home with, in its final of 10 years at Le Mans, the Saleen's first GT1 class victory.

GT2, while not as brutal as GT1, had its fair share of cars fall out of the race. It was clearly a battle between the factory Corvette C6.R ZR1s and Risi Competizione's Ferraris as the race began. Risi Ferrari #82 had to start at the back after a failed tech inspection, but it immediately shot up the order in the early laps. The Risi had made it to the top of the field when it started developing transmission issues and was forced to drop out. As day broke over the circut, Risi's other car began showing smoke from its exhaust and, after a quick once-over from the crew, it was retired.

That left the Corvettes to circle around in the top two spots, but they ran into issues as well. First, the #63 was caught off the racing line as Peugeot #1 was charging past and lost control into the barriers, tearing the back end of the car apart. Not too much later, Corvette #64 developed a mechanical issue that, once the car came to the garage, was clearly not going to be fixed. That left Felbemayr Proton Porsche #77 to take the lead and hold it to the end of the race.

As far as my predictions went, you'll notice that I listed all of my predicted class winners as cars that fell out of the race. As I mentioned in my preview, this is not an easy race to predict. Certainly, there are only two teams with a realistic shot to take the overall victory these days, but you never know what might happen to those two teams. There was never any indication going into the weekend that the Peugeots might be over-stretching their engines and the Audis would be so much more reliable. It's unpredictability like that which makes the 24 Hours of Le Mans such an interesting race.

Now we can look for advertisements proclaiming the superiority of Audi's TDI technology, and assurances from Peugeot that whatever problem they had will be learned from, and the lessons learned will improve their future products. Next year, many of the rules will be changed, so it will be interesting to see what the various automakers present us with next time the teams descend on Le Mans.

We return to your normally-scheduled IndyCar programming this week as that circus pulls into Newton, Iowa. See you later!

24 Heures du Mans: Single Most Important Event of the Race

Just having come out of the pit lane after a refueling stop, the #2 Peugeot, who had easily been leading the race, burst into flame as it passed under the Dunlop Bridge. Franck Montagny has exited the car and, while he hasn't stepped away from it yet, he and the world know that Peugeot has lost its second car of the race.

Timo Berhard in Audi #9 has now flashed into the lead, with the sister car #8 a minute behind him. Peugeot still has one bullet left to fire in its #1 car, which is a couple of laps down, but has 7 hours, 45 minutes to put the pedal down and chase the Audis. Again, I'll report on the final result after 9AM. Cheers!

Update! Twitpic by beakdal24hours, whose website provides many resources for following the race, of TV's view of the flames coming out of the Peugeot.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

24 Heures du Mans: Sunrise



It's one of those surreal, visceral moments. After the sounds of the cars, from the whoosh of the diesels to the beastly scream of Aston Martin's V12 and everything in between, accompanied by seemingly-disembodied headlights floating down the roads of Le Mans were the only things marking the passage of the cars, the fire of the sun fills the sky and reveals the scars of the battle through the night. The campers stir to awakening, fire up their grills for breakfast, and prepare to cheer the winning cars home.

On this night, things actually stayed fairly civilized, with most of the cars that were running when sun fell still in the race after the sun circled back to the eastern horizon. The only major casualty of the night was the defending GT2 champions from Risi Competizione, who tried their best to keep their transmission going after a hellish charge from the back to the front of the GT2 standings, but could not.

The other major happening occurred to yet another of the Peugeots; this time it was the ORECA/Matmut Peugeot 908 suffering a driveshaft issue and requiring a stop for repairs. What this did was remove all but one obstacle from the path of Audi Sport's three entries, with the only Peugeot not experiencing excitement being the #2 car. It's been about three hours since ORECA's issues, but with over a third of the race still to go and the other three Peugeots all having mechanical difficulty, the folks at Audi have to be just sitting and waiting for something to go wrong with the leader so they can strike.

Speaking of Audi, the winningest driver in the history of this race, Tom Kristensen, hopped into the #7 car at about 12:50AM and drove on and on into the night until, by rule, he had to get out at 4:40. That's a grand total of three hours, fifty minutes, with four seperate stops for fuel during that run. Very impressive stuff by Audi's veteran champion.

Due to the considerable haze and humidity in the air for this year's 24-hour race, the sky has turned a fantastic set of oranges, pinks, and purples over the eastern horizon beyond Tertre Rouge. Just about nine-and-a-quarter hours remain in the race; my next update will be my wrapup at the end of the race. Being six hours behind France, sunrise at Le Mans coincides with bedtime in Indiana. Good Morning!

Leaders
LMP1: #2 Peugeot; Nicolas Minassian, Stephan Serrazin, Franck Montagny
LMP2: #42 Strakka HPD/Acura; Jonny Kane, Danny Watts, Nick Leventis
LMGT1: #50 Larbre Saleen S7R; Gabriele Gardel, Roland Berville, Julien Canal
LMGT2: #64 Corvette; Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, Emmanuel Collard

24 Heures du Mans: Into the Night...


(photo: dindocapello.com)

At 3PM, everything started off innocuously enough; the field came through the Ford Chicane, the flag of France waved and the four entries from Peugeot started running away from the field, with Audi trying their best to keep up.

Several laps in, though, a former world driving champion started the chaos. Nigel Mansell, who was entered on a team with his two sons as co-drivers, apparently suffered a flat tire that pitched him hard into the barrier on one of the fastest parts of the course. This gave us an early chance to experience the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's asinine new safety car rules.

This year, three safety cars are deployed at various points on the track to get the field bunched up and slowed down quicker. That's all well and good, except that one of the safety cars slotted in between the four Peugeots and the three Audis, which immediately set the Audis back by roughly one-third of a lap whether they liked it or not. Then, we found out that when a car pits under the safety car, they will not be allowed to leave the pits until the next safety car hits the front straightaway -- cars had to sit on the pit lane for up to three minutes while waiting to lose position for no reason. Much noise was made about this on both the Radio Le Mans broadcast and on Speed Channel's coverage.

Things continued on after Mansell's wreck was cleared up, and several cars had their share of issues. The all-lady Matech Ford GT of Natacha Gachnang (with Cyndie Allemann and Rahel Frey as co-drivers) burst into flames on the Mulsanne Straight, forcing Natacha to pull the car over and dive out of it. One of Matech's other GT's found itself sideways just after the Dunlop Bridge and clouted the barriers. The BMW Art Car, which looked fantastic, had a fantastically short race with several issues, first of which being a flat tire and broken suspension piece that set its downward spiral into motion.

The three events that got the most attention so far, though, affected three of the top cars in the race. First, as Peugeot #3 (Pedro Lamy at the wheel) streaked down the Mulsanne, a tire appeared to start rubbing and a lot of smoke started coming from the right-front of the car. The Peugeot mechanics took one look at the car and it was apparent there was no going on -- the right front suspension had physically separated from the chassis of the car. A few hours later, Audi R15 #7 (Tom Kristensen in at the time) came up on the BMW Art Car, which had suffered another flat tire. The BMW had trouble making the initial left-hander of the Porsche Curves and drifted wide, forcing the Audi to run onto the grass to avoid it; the Audi crashed and had to have its rear bodywork replaced, sending it down the leaderboard. Finally, just after night fell, Peugeot #1 came into the pit and was immediately taken into the garage, where the mechanics descended on the electrical system.


Other cars have come and gone. We've had the safety cars take to the track for the third time after one of the LMP2 cars had some sort of catastrophe on its left-front, leaving debris all over the track. During the safety car period, the #13 Rebellion Racing Lola, with Jean-Christian Boullion at the wheel spun off the track, wrecking the back end of the car.

Perhaps I'll pass on another update when the sun rises over Le Mans. Cheers!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Yellow Shirt Preview: 24 Heures du Mans


Yes, I know that I aspire to be a blogger of things of the IndyCar persuasion. However, certain events are just to important to overlook.

Certainly, many interesting and important innovations have come out of the garages of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but those pale in comparison to the relevance of what car makers do every June on the public roads just south of Le Mans, France. As strong and smart as the folks behind Offenhauser, Cosworth, Ilmor, Watson, March, and many others were, chances are you've rarely run into a component that one company developed at Indianapolis (after the mid-'50s, at least) to put exclusively into their own cars.

But have you ever seen an Audi (or Volkswagen, for that matter) flying about the highways in your hometown wearing a badge reading "TDI"? A lot of the technology in those vehicles was perfected by the runs made by these guys and their V12 diesel monster. Likewise, in Europe, many Peugeots and Citroens share the "HDi" badge and particulate filter technology with this stealth-bomber-looking thing. Heck, those swoopy beauties flying down the hill towards the old esses at the top of the post were the first of Porsche's many successful efforts from the late '60s and on through the '90s to show how good their sports car technology was. These days, Corvettes, Porsche 911s, Ferrari 430s, and many others are also souped up and run against each other at top speed in an effort to show the world whose product works best.

What sets this race apart, though, is that it's a true test of endurance. While increases in speed have made races like the "500" shorter by elapsed time, Le Mans doesn't finish until the clock crosses 4PM on Sunday. Races now regularly go longer than three thousand miles, with many thousands of gear changes, foot-to-the-floor accelerations, stomps on the brakes (about 205 m.p.h. down to 30 or 40 at the track's slowest point), and cranks of the steering wheel testing the vehicle's build quality every minute of it. The men and women behind the various efforts are also tested as the clock ticks away through the darkness, and sleeping co-drivers and mechanics are one of the more popular sights around the garages. When it's their time to go, they have to be absolutely on their game -- be it a driver having to go out into the night at 200 m.p.h. or a mechanic being rudely awakened when a complex repair has to be made.

One last thing: the majority of this, including the fastest parts, is on public roads. The D338 and the Route de Mulsanne are closed off to allow for the race, but only for the week the cars are in town; the rest of the time, these roads are a lot like the two-lane highways you might find in your own hometown: full of leaked motor oil and other fluids and very, very bumpy by modern racing standards. The bumps have had their effect on the results in the past as cars that were considered to be nearly perfect by their makers were sent airborne by a bump putting some wind under the car. The cars are generally more planted these days, but there are still occasions where a car gets light and becomes nearly uncontrollable.

This is a difficult race to predict, but I think it's my duty as a word hack to give it a try (by car class)...

LMP1/Overall Winner: Peugeot #3. Pedro Lamy is an ex-F1 driver, Simon Pagenaud consistently rocked the ALMS with Acura, and Sebastian Bourdais used to pretty much own Champ Car. The Peugeot was the car to beat last year, and I'm not sure that Audi will have been able to develop their R15 to keep up with the French. Really, you could pick any of the Peugeots here, but I like this group of drivers because of their skill and their drive to win. France might be a bit down after a poor showing on day 1 of the World Cup, but I think they'll be flying the flag proudly again on Sunday.

LMP2 Winner: Highcroft Racing Acura #26. They might be minus their sponsorship from Tequila Patron, but they've still got the drive that has won them several races in the States. Acura's pitched battles with Porsche in America gave them quite an edge that will serve them well in France. David Brabham, Marino Franchitti, and Marco Werner are some top-notch drivers as well, and they'll be more than capable of wheeling their green and black car to the podium.

GT1 Winner: Aston Martin Racing #52. This class is awkwardly tiny this season because of realignments in various international sports car series. General Motors has moved their official program down to GT2, leaving the C6.R effort to privateers. The only factory team left is Aston Martin Racing's one DBR9, and they've put star driver Tomas Enge back in the car. Barring trouble, I see this crew taking the win.

GT2 Winner: Corvette Racing #64. I could never bet against Oliver Gavin, Olivier Baretta, and Emmanuel Collard when they were wheeling the C6.R around, and they've shown up in GT2 to help fly the General Motors flag against the dominant Porsche 911s and Ferrari 430s. While American teams like Flying Lizard and Risi Competizione (from Houston, in spite of their very Italian name) are the dominant squads in this class, Corvette Racing is the only one with an American car. Sure, it's good to take an objective look every once in a while, but I say, "To hell with that!" U.S.A. all the way! The cars with the engines up front take the GT2 crown.

That's what I'm thinking about the single greatest sports car race on the planet and one of the best sporting events that exists, period. The French flag signals the start of the race at 3PM local time, which translates to 9AM in the east of the U.S. There's a plethora of coverage as the race drags on, but your best bets will be Speed.com's live video and RadioLeMans.com's live audio. I'll try to throw a few updates in when I'm not watching the World Cup or taking a nap or some such thing. See you later!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

This Just In...

Tony Kanaan is a funny guy. Make sure to tune into Wind Tunnel for some of his hilarity (and fake bandages). As a bonus, Robin Miller is chief host-man tonight as Dave Despain is on vacation.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Firestone 550k Pseudo-Live Blog

The fans are filling in and the drivers have descended the steps to the front stretch at the Texas Motor Speedway. It looks like it's going to be an interesting hot and breezy night north of Fort Worth.

We've got Penske and Ganassi holding station at the front of the grid, but a few surprises lurk just behind. Alex Lloyd and Hideki Mutoh were the best of the rest in qualifying, and they've got Danica, Mario Moraes, and Marco Andretti filling out the top ten behind them.

Jon Beekhuis has also mentioned on the Versus pre-race show that, because of today's extreme weather, a lot of cars appear to have dialed in a bunch of downforce. That means the cars will be more planted, but a car running in clean air may experience extra drag. What we like to hope that means is the pack racing will return to Texas after a couple years' absence.

We're getting ready to begin; updates begin when the cars start!

8:45, pre-race
Best "start your engines" command we've had in ages from some guy who is obviously important to someone. All rows have been called "hot" and we're ready to get this party started.

8:47, pre-race
Is it just me, or should we be concerned that Moraes and Marco are starting the race next to each other? I feel like that's never a good situation.

Lap 1
Ryan Briscoe leads them to the line and we are...GR-er...YELLOW! Briscoe jumped the crap out of the start while everyone else stayed in line.

Lap 2
Take two on the start and we are...GREEN! Start was just as bad the second time around, but you get the impression that Barnhart stopped caring. Three and for-wide back in the pack.

Lap 2
Our first near-contact of the night as Kanaan nearly hit someone trying to avoid Marco's jumpy car.

Lap 5
Hey Versus! Quit it with telling us who the leader is but not putting up the lap count! That was annoying a month and a half ago and it's still pretty bad.

Lap 8
Still no lap counter. Dario fighting Briscoe for the lead, nearly touch off of four. Alex Lloyd showin some mojo at the front of the field.

Lap 12
Dixon slips to second, Power falls into the clutches of Helio and they're side-by-side. Look out for Sato, now in the top ten.

Lap 15
Andretti starting to move up the grid a little bit. Kanaan battling epically with Mutoh further back.

Lap 20
The front of the field has settled a bit. Jay Howard in early, looks like it's a problem with the powertrain. Insert sad face here.

Lap 25
A lot of single-file now, but Danica and E.J. Viso are racing pretty hard for 9th.

Lap 28
Will Power has moved around Dixon for third. Patrick and Andretti doing the side-by-side thing for 8th. Danica has found a bit of speed, it seems.

Lap 31
Danica just caught up with and passed Dan Wheldon like he was standing still! Now she's working on Alex Lloyd. Look out, boys!

Lap 34
Will Power finding speed as well. He's into second past Franchitti.

Lap 36
Danica now to sixth past Lloyd, then past Helio as well.

Lap 38
Briscoe now weaving past lapped traffic as Will Power tries to hunt him down.

Lap 40
Wheldon fires the camo-mobile into sixth past Helio. Marco now working on Helio as the #3 goes the wrong way down the charts.

Lap 42
Scott Dixon has a lot of green and black in his mirror...

Lap 44
Danica with a high-side pass on Dixon into fourth! That car is way hooked up!

Lap 46
and we are...YELLOW! Debris on the track, big run on fresh ethanol and rubber upcoming.

Lap 47
Pit stop time! Chaos in Alex Lloyd's pit at the back of the picture. Race off pit road won by...Dario! Power out second, Danica third. That wake-up call she gave her crew back on "500" Pole Day seems to have done its job.

Lap 48
We haven't had a replay on Lloyd yet, but you could see his car parked very sideways at the back of the picture...too bad for him, eh? Briscoe was also apparently a bit crooked in his pit box leading to a drop to 5th.

Lap 53
We are...GREEN! Dario gets the jump on everyone. Danica looking up high on Power, Dixon slots in under her, she stays in third.

Lap 55
Briscoe trying to get past Dixon, lots of cars behind them, Danica trying for second again but she won't have it.

Lap 57
We are...YELLOW! Sato nailed the wall in turn two, then ricocheted back to the inside of the backstretch. Poor guy was really moving up the field. Taku was moving around and has thumbs-upped the safety crew, so that's good. Replay shows something may have broken in Taku's car and he became a passenger.

Lap 59
Versus gives us the "push-to-pass" update on Danica, who appears to be picking off other cars without the extra horsepower. Should we be looking out for the GoDaddy car? I think so.

Lap 62
Eddie Gossage, always looking for new ways to install caution lights, has put some on the front stretch catch fence (crazy bugger!). A couple of drivers are looking to go off-strategy. Jack Arute, meanwhile, is attaching bowling balls to his head...no joke.

Lap 64
Sato being interviewed by Versus. He confirms that something appears to have broken. He was enjoying the side-by-side before the incident took place. He always was aggressive with the side-by-side in F1...it just doesn't work nearly as well there.

Lap 67
and we are...GREEN! Dario gets the jump again. Briscoe tries to get around Danica before the stripe. Kanaan follows them in fifth.

Lap 69
Briscoe moves ahead of Danica. WOOAH! Lots of cars lifting off ans TK had to back off.

Lap 72
The front four are single-file, TK, Dixon, and Wheldon really going at it for fifth, though. Replay shows that big "WOAH" was caused by Dixon nearly taking off TK's wing.

Lap 76
Dixon escapes the chaos. Now it's Kanaan and Wheldon battling for sixth. Other cars are starting to settle a bit, though.

Lap 78
Kanaan escapes Wheldon, now Viso looking for 7th. Dixon moves past Danica into fourth.

Lap 81
Dixon now looking for third from Briscoe. Versus gives some love to Bertrand Baguette, who is doing nicely in his third-ever oval start.

Lap 83
Danica had apparently moved up to fourth, nearly had Briscoe when he backed off, Dixon moves back ahead of her.

Lap 87
Power inside, Briscoe outside for second, Power hangs on. Danica looking for fourth again.

Lap 92
Everything's settled down quite a bit. We're starting to sneak up on that pit window, though...

Lap 96
Front four were holding station for a bit, but Ryan Briscoe has drafted right up to Will...he'll drop back a bit again, though.

Lap 98
We are...YELLOW! Simona de Silvestro's car is heavy into the wall and her car is WAY on fire. We only hope for the best from Simona as that fire rages in her right sidepod. What the hell are these safety people doing?! It took them a year and a day to start squirting the fire, but they finally got Simona out of the car.

Lap 100
Holy hell, Simona's car is very burned up...perhaps oil just sat in the sidepod and just burned into the night. That was really one of the scariest things I've seen in a while in an IndyCar race (Mike Conway's wreck excepted, of course).

Lap 101
Pit stops! Dario, Power, Briscoe, Dixon, Danica your top five at the out line. Ryan Hunter-Reay slotted into the pit box wrong, so he drops way back. Much apologizing on the radio as RHR has to come back in and top the tanks.

Lap 103
Is it too much to ask to see a replay of Simona's wreck here? That was ridiculously spectacular and we have seen no tape of it? REALLY?!

Lap 104
Keith Wiggins puts the smackdown on the safety team on the radio broadcast. Clearly not happy (and who would be, really) about the guys standing around with hoses and not turning on the taps. In their defense, we haven't seen a fire like that in years. I'm not going to defend them a bit, though...it was inexcusable of them.

Lap 106
IndyCar officials have taken over the investigation of the busted car of de Silvestro. Will Power's crew in pit lane, apparently there's some debris stuck under Will's car, so he's coming in to clean it up.

Lap 109
Power in and out, and it looks like a hole of some sort may have been taped up on the bottom of the car. A piece of someone else's suspension (Simona's probably) was removed from the bottom of the car, so it was good to get that fixed.

Lap 110
Wheldon had some issues with handling on that last run. When they took the wheel off his car, it was nearly flat, apparently.

Lap 113
We are...GREEN! Briscoe holds with Dario this time. Lots of side-by-side further back. Marco had to really back off while battling with Scheckter.

Lap 116
Wheldon now working on Kanaan for fifth. Helio and Viso follow them and Viso fires up next to Wheldon for sixth.

Lap 118
Alex Lloyd now tenth, working on Marco Andretti. Some drivers are starting to consider the merits of going three-wide here, but it's a bit early to be doing that...

Lap 120
Get your beer out for the block party!!! Danica nearly put Kanaan into the inside wall on the backstretch and there was nearly contact!

Lap 123
Alex Lloyd now working on Wheldon for seventh. Lloyd's car is doing great since that pit miscue earlier.

Lap 126
Kanaan sneaks under Lloyd, but has to back way off. Viso now putting the work on Danica.

Lap 130
Danica escapes Viso and...we are YELLOW! Big crash on the front stretch. Castroneves, Mario Moraes, Bertrand Baguette. Helio not happy with Moraes at all, and the safety crew has to separate the two.

Lap 131
Helio is more frustrated than I've ever seen him as he walks straight back to his pit box...replay coming...

TWEEET! Blowing my official yellow shirt whistle on Moraes! Brain fade on his part as he just kept drifting up the track off of four and collected Helio. Insert Brazilian swearing.

Lap 133
Pit stops! Dario, Dixon, Briscoe, Danica remain your top four. Our millionth pit stop brain fade goes to Marco Andretti, who parked his car sideways on the pit lane. The interview with Helio on Versus gives you the impression that he may not be so happy...

Lap 134
Lucky/awesome drive of the moment goes to Bertrand Baguette, who threaded the needle just between the crashing cars of Helio and Moraes to hold his damage to just a broken suspension. A foot or two either way and we could have a repeat of Paul Dana's fatal accident.

Lap 138
and we are...GR--er...yellow. Alex Tagliani didn't pit, so he leads the field, but race control thought he led the field a bit TOO much.

Lap 139
Take two, we are...GREEN! Tags leads 'em down. Dario looking for second with Wilson's lapped car hanging out on the outside...THREE-WIDE!

Lap 141
Wait...how did Power get back up there?! He's really racing Tags for the lead, but lost a bunch of momentum.

Lap 144
Briscoe up to fourth, now Danica to fifth as Dario loses some momentum. Dixon rides for second with Power.

Lap 147
E.J. Viso now trying to race for the front again. He is really working on Danica for whatever position she's in now (it changes every time I look away...)

Lap 149
Briscoe all over Power for second. Danica trying the move on Dixon now and Viso lurks.

Lap 153
Where the hell did Vitor come from?! He just went three-wide with Kanaan and Lloyd for position....and he's fast!

Lap 158
Viso, Lloyd, Marco, and Vitor are all over each other for sixth. Viso holds it down well as everyone lines back up, though.

Lap 161
Battle for second! Power and Briscoe goin' at it. Danica finally moves past Dixon for fourth.

Lap 164
Marco on the move, and he's dragging teammate Hunter-Reay with him. Andretti Autosport is on the move!

Lap 169
Tagliani into the pits! Power, Briscoe, Patrick your top three now. Still lots of battling behind him...Tags stalled it and the hose man fell over! Everyone looks to be okay, though...

Lap 170
Power pits as well. Briscoe and Danica now fight for the lead!

Lap 172
Marco Andretti fires his car like a cannon into third place behind Briscoe and Danica.

Lap 178
50 to go! Turn up the wick on this one, folks! Briscoe and Danica holding back the field, Andretti and Dixon behind them.

Lap 180
The front three gapping Dixon a bit here. Danica plays follow-the-leader with Briscoe right now and Andretti holds back a bit from her.

Lap 183
Briscoe washes up off of four, Danica now tries to go side-by-side with him now.

Lap 185
Lapped traffic now a factor, Danica had to back way off for some reason and lost some ground on the #6.

Lap 187
Once again, we're sneaking up on that pit window...it's going to be time for the crews to shine here in a little bit.

Lap 190
#7 hits pit lane...this is her big moment! really good looking pit stop and she's away!

Lap 192
Briscoe now in as Danica circles the track looking to catch him. He has a good stop as well, Danica on the front stretch.....and Danica is right behind Briscoe and she has him!

Lap 193
Briscoe goes high trying to pass Danica. This is great right now!

Lap 195
Danica's car works so much better in the draft than in clean air. She's been so good in traffic all day, but can't seem to hold that lead.

Lap 200
This has been a pretty interesting race so far, but Briscoe definitely has the advantage now. If there's a caution, though, there are a lot of fast cars lurking back in the distance...

Lap 203
Big battle for third between Power, Marco, and Dixon. These are those fast cars I was talking about...

Lap 206
Don't look now, but that second pack is really moving. The issue here is that Will Power might run out of fuel...

Lap 208
20 to go! Briscoe now running off a bit, but you never know...

Lap 213
Now 15 to go. Briscoe now up over a second on Danica. This looks like it's going to be one of those airstrike situations...

Lap 218
The gap now 1.1 seconds from first to second. It's looking like Will Power may not make it on fuel...

Lap 223
Five to go. Briscoe firmly in control now...his car is amazingly hooked up. Attention now turns to Will Power who is being followed by Marco...and there goes Will!

Lap 228
White flag for Briscoe as he looks to cap off a dominating performance.

Checkered Flag!
Briscoe redeems himself for his wreck last week with a win at Texas! Patrick, Andretti, Dixon, Franchitti, Kanaan, Hunter-Reay, Lloyd, Wheldon, Meira round out the top ten. It was shaping up to be a great race as Danica's pit crew put her in prime position for a win, but Briscoe's car was just too much on that last stretch. Well-deserved win for Ryan.

Danica is happy...obviously lightly frustrated with not being able to catch Briscoe, but she's definitely happy. Dario's car seemed to have fallen apart once it got caught in traffic, but he leaves Texas with the points lead. Marco Andretti feeling the love down at Andretti Autosport after an excellent race for third.

Briscoe now pops out of his car and the Firehawk and Carmen, IZOD Trophy Girl, take their spots in the background of the shot. Briscoe says the car was amazing, but he had to put that push-to-pass button on to make the big pass on Danica with about 35 to go. After that, the car just drove itself right into victory lane.

So, let's look back at this year's edition of the Texas race. One thing I can definitely say is this race was A LOT better than last year's. Last year, this was the point where people started realizing the aero package on the Dallaras was completely wrong and cars simply could not pass each other. This year there was a lot more draft-and-pass and cars drafting so much that they had to back out of the throttle. What was nice was the fact that, even though we had a lot of drafting, the race was decided by green flag pit stops followed by the fastest car on the track making an on-track pass for the league. That's the way racing is supposed to look, folks.

Finally, we have to put a big "What-If" stamp on Alex Lloyd. Alex's car was obviously good, as he was able to pick his way back up to the top 10 after a catastrophic mistake in the pits. How would his race have turned out if he hadn't locked up and missed his pit box? Well, who knows?

My predictions...well, I got the winner fairly wrong. That one is down to a lack of spotter and driver thinking from the #32 team (a troubling theme with that group). My dark horses were both strong, but fell victim to a little bad luck in pit lane; Marco definitely would have had a shot if there had been a caution, though.

I seem to have gotten my prediction on the ladies right too...first time I've done that in a while. It's worth noting that Simona was having a heck of a run until her car found the turn two wall and turned her right hand into a s'more. Milka and Sarah had no shot. Danica...well, I was writing her name down quite a bit tonight, so good for her.

The circus rolls to Iowa for the only short track on this year's schedule. It's always an interesting track and it should be fun to watch. See you then!

(Post-script: Roger Penske looks AWESOME in a 10-gallon hat. I think he should make that a permanent look...)

Friday, June 4, 2010

Yellow Shirt Preview: Firestone Indy 550k


Wait...is that the right picture? It's either the front stretch at Texas Motor Speedway, or Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano...the temperatures will be roughly the same, at any rate. The latest predictions for Fort Worth, Texas, have three digits underneath the word "temperature", so look out for that.

The major trick as the cars zoom around the Texas bullring tomorrow evening will be the fact that, while everything will start out hot as blazes, shadows will creep from the entrance of turn 1 and across the track as the race goes on. Once the bright sunshine is removed from the surface, every possible aspect of the race will change. The track temperature will have gone from something in the 130-to-140-degree range to about 90 degrees, and the air temperature could drop as much as 15 degrees; a race car that was ideal during practice and qualifying today may very well drive like a brick dragging an aircraft carrier across an ice sheet by lap 228 tomorrow.

Unfortunately for those who might be looking for a little parity in the world of IndyCar racing, the teams that are best-suited to deal with such vast changes in the track conditions are those two with all of the resources and prize money -- I think you know who I'm talking about. To make an upset even more unlikely, one of those teams has all the momentum, while the other is looking to bounce back from an uncharacteristically awful Indianapolis "500".

Therefore...

Winner: Helio Castroneves. There's no real rhyme or reason to why I picked Helio; you could have thrown all five Penske and Ganassi drivers' names into a hat and picked one. The only things that I think will help Helio this week are a) that awful "500" his team is more than capable of bouncing back from, and b) he won here last year.

Dark Horse: Marco Andretti. I'm not a hundred percent sure why I put Marco's name here, but something draws me to Marco at this track. In past races here, he's been more than comfortable running up in Sam Hornish's old territory on the way-outside line and making it stick. With the cars as planted as they are, the guys (or girls) leading the charge can run the white line all the way around the track. That makes the outside line the possible winning line.

Ninja Dark Horse: Alex Lloyd. After qualifying, I had a hard time picking this one. On one hand, you had Alex Lloyd, who was coming off a huge (albeit gained more by fuel strategy than anything) fourth place at Indianapolis and used that momentum to pick up sixth on the Texas grid. On the other, you have Hideki Mutoh, who drives for a team that still has a few trips to victory lane left in it and wrangled his car to seventh on the grid. As much as I like Newman/Haas and young Hideki-san, I gotta go with the momentum that Lloyd is taking into this weekend as a possible catalyst for a good finish.

The Ladies: Like last week, there are four of them in the field. Unlike last week, one of them is Milka Duno. Before you groan too hard, though, I direct your attention to the sixth name on the list of practice times from the afternoon session at Texas: Duno, Milka; 214.727 m.p.h. She didn't have a terrible qualifying session, either, putting herself 17th on the grid with some pretty good names behind her. Of course, I still think she'll finish outside the top 20. Simona didn't seem entirely comfortable on the track and she's starting way back in the field -- I expect her to stay there in her first race at this track. Sarah had a decent qualifying run and she's had top-10 runs at this track before, but I don't see her car being too helpful and she'll probably sit back in the top-20. Danica Patrick is the only lady I really have confidence in at this track; she's done well here before and I think she could pull in a top-5 finish when all is said and done.

One final note: Tony Kanaan, winner of the fans' hearts as he charged from 33rd to 2nd at Indianapolis before a late fuel stop, will head to Rossburg, OH, on Wednesday for perhaps the coolest non-"500" event in racing: The Prelude to the Dream. Tony Stewart's big charity event at his Eldora Speedway attracts many NASCAR drivers and a couple of moto-crossers to drive late-model dirt stock cars on the half-mile, high-banked oval. Kanaan will be the first driver to fly the IndyCar flag at the Prelude, and it'll be a big crock o' fun to watch a Brazilian open-wheel star wrestle a big dirt car. The race is live on HBO Pay-Per-View ($25), but will be replayed later in the summer on the Speed Channel.

The engines fire at Texas in about 26 hours. I'll see you then!