Pat W

The Starting Grid

The few of you who read Too Much Racing will hopefully have noticed my two links sections. The second set is your usual collection of links to racing news websites, forums, and Firefox.

The first set, the one in the prominent position underneath my profile, that’s more important. It is a selected group of blogs I spend a large amount of time reading and I recommend you check out each of them.
The box the links live in is actually quite a nifty Blogger widget which lists the links in order of most-recently updated blog, it is a regular pastime checking to see who has jumped to the top of the list lately. I thought I’d post a bit about each, at random intervals.

The first choice is The Starting Grid, by Mark and Void. Not least because… drum roll… I’ve been invited to contribute!

I’d like to say thanks to the guys for the invitation. I’m flattered that I was even asked. Either you like my stuff or you are desperate.

Starting Grid is a kind of a news/humour/opinion site, all mixed together sometimes in one post. You get some good forthright opinion without beating around the bush, along with some snarky or sarcastic commentary and Photoshops. I like that.
If I got that wrong then I apologise! I still like it though.

Make sure you check out the site and add it to your links and/or blogroll:

http://www.startinggridnews.com/

Preview: 2008 Santander Italian Grand Prix

or.. ‘Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander d’Italia 2008‘ – as the official F1 website has it.

This is yet another race sponsored by Santander, yet another unique trophy replaced by corporate tat. The trophies for this race will be identical to those given in Britain and at least one other race, maybe two. Was it Germany? Their corporate logo. Pfft. Every race should have a unique pot.

Let’s not dwell on that though. We’re at our second classic venue in as many weeks, the historic Monza, just outside Milan.

Autodromo Nationale di Monza.

Just reading the full name gives me goosebumps. This is the home track of Ferrari, if you don’t count Imola and most don’t any more since Imola stopped holding GPs. I’m not a fan of Ferrari but I respect the history of the team. Ferrari is the oldest F1 team by quite some margin, formed in the 40s and having roots in the Alfa Romeo teams of the 1930s. What blows the mind is this: Monza is older than that – it was built in 1922. That was ages ago! It isn’t as old as Indianpolis, it does have as much history. Indycars even raced at Monza in the 1950s on the oval, so in some ways the USGP at Indy was completing the circle. I love this stuff.

The cliche about Monza is that you can feel the history at Monza, sense it in the air. That cliche is actually true. There is just something about the place which you can’t help but soak up when you are there. Okay it doesn’t have the spectator facilities of a modern circuit, and it can be a bitch to find. It is worth it. It isn’t like any other track I’ve visited and I’ve now been to several. I’d like to go to an F1 race there.

The other, maybe bigger cliche: Monza is the Temple of Speed. The fastest F1 circuit on the calendar, both in average lap speeds and I believe in top speeds as well. They run wings specifically designed for Monza and remove many of the little aero devices, winglets, etc. The GP2 cars even run with oval-style rear wings! That makes GP2 races at Monza unmissable.

I went to Monza in May 2003 as a warm-up before going to the Monaco Grand Prix. The Ferrari Challenge was there for a test day, which meant access was basically unrestricted, the only place we couldn’t go was the track itself.

I was with a group and we got into the pitlane, climbed on the pitwall, leaned through the gaps in the fence to see the cars come by. The drivers even waved at us as they left pitlane! We watched turn one from a grandstand with the old banking below us. We visited the second chicane and saw smoking tyres and the killer gravel trap which has now been replaced by asphalt.
We also found a way on to the banking, got our car on to it – I can say I have driven on the old Monza banking. It was a rental people carrier but that doesn’t matter. We got out, walked around, tried to climb to the top – very difficult, it is near-vertical. I didn’t manage it but others did.

This was taken from the very end of the pitwall during the Ferrari Challenge test. From 2003 Monza

Many of my photos from that day are on my Picasa page. If you get the chance you should go and visit Monza on a day where you can walk around anywhere, preferably when there are cars of some sort on-track. I imagine the place can be quite restricted at Grand Prix time.

Take a look at the Picasa link and bear with it while it loads each picture. Go to the official F1 website map and follow the drop-down menus to their history write-up. If you are not familiar with Monza, and I have no idea how you couldn’t be, but if you aren’t just go and take a look at those two links before this weekend’s race. Like another historic venue, Indianapolis, you have to ‘get’ Monza before you watch any race held there.

Speaking of Indy, the MotoGP crowd has landed there, hopefully causing a buzz with the locals. I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with the place, and what the MotoGP people make of Indy. It’ll be a good race, make sure you watch it on Sunday some time after the Italian GP is over.
If you are in the UK it will NOT be live on BBC2 as per usual according to the RadioTimes.com listings, they are showing it delayed at 10:45pm (it might be available via ‘red button’ or on the BBC Sport website). Check BBC2 at 7pm and 8pm anyway. Eurosport will air it live from 7:15pm, as well as the 125s and 250s earlier on. I don’t have Eurosport so will either watch online or hang on avoiding the internet for the delayed showing (in which case my F1 notes will appear Monday). I think one of the big networks is showing it in the USA? I hope so.

I nearly decided to go to Silverstone for the 1000km Le Mans Series race but with a double-header this good, no way, I’m staying right here in front of the TV.

Okay, enjoy the weekend’s racing!

Bits and bobs

Just a few things you can expect from me in the next few weeks:

F1
Race notes on the remaining F1 races this year, starting with the Italian GP this weekend. If I think about it tomorrow or Friday I’ll do a race preview but it won’t be as good as the Belgian one. I liked that preview. I guess I could gloat about having been to Monza.. Nobody likes a show-off, least of all me, but everyone likes to show off…. so that sounds like a plan. Consider it done.

Then there’s Singapore, Japan, China and Brazil. I think that’s the right order. I haven’t been to any of those so the previews would probably be a bit rubbish.

MotoGP Indy
A little after the Italian GP this Sunday is the MotoGP race at Indianapolis. If last Sunday’s IndyCar madfest at Chicago and F1 craziness in Belgium didn’t get you going, then how about back-to-backs at two of racing’s most storied venues? Shit if these 8 days don’t do it for you, you don’t like racing, and if you don’t like racing what are you doing reading this? Go away!

GP2
I keep promising to watch (and post about) some GP2 – and then I end up doing something else entirely. I’m not watching the races and ignoring the blog updates, I really haven’t seen the races yet. Basically this means I’m like 8 weeks behind on GP2. So yeah I need catch up with that, now the IndyCars are done I should have an extra couple of hours a week for doing that. Any bets on when I’ll *actually* watch the things?

A1GP
I said I’d do a series preview for A1GP. Their first race of the new season was due ten days from now but it got postponed, apparently indefinitely. I think there’s a clear weekend in there somewhere so I’ll see if I get time to knock something up but I’m not promising anything.

I’ve just realised I have no clue why I’m posting this, yet I’m going to hit Publish anyway. Does this mean I’ve become a Blogaholic? Is that a word? Help!

By the way, on the whole Lewis vs Kimi thing:
Both put in great drives and I’d have been happy for either to win – ON THE RACETRACK. Post-race decisions disappoint me, especially ones which make no sense at all.
Glock got the same penalty as Hamilton but I understand that, he passed under yellows, that’s a No-No. Fine. Yet Hamilton backed off enough that Raikkonen was ahead by a nose. The position was returned in accordance with accepted precedent.
Hamilton was faster on the straight because he had been faster for the whole of the previous lap. The McLaren is just better in the rain on this type of track.
What about all of this did the FIA stewards miss? Even Charlie Whiting of the FIA told McLaren it was safe – twice! The stewards are independent of Whiting..
The FIA’s structures are too rigid and old-fashioned, and they always have been. Time for a rethink.

2008 Chicago Indy 300

2008 Chicago Indy 300, or..
2008 Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300
Chicagoland Speedway
Joliet, Illinois, United States
Round 17 of 17 points races
Round 17 of 18 in total

I’m guessing the TV name is what you’d call it if there were no sponsors. Maybe PEAK didn’t want the TV exposure.

Held: 7 September 2008
Watched: 8 September 2008

Coverage: ESPN world feed
Commentary: Gary Lee & Larry Rice
Pitlane: Jack Arute, Brienne Pedigo, Vince Welch

Here we go for the final points-paying round of the 2008 season – there will be a non-points event at Surfers Paradise a few weeks from now, a later addition to the schedule.

Scott Dixon has a 30 point headstart over Helio Castroneves going into this round, this means Dixon only needs to finish in 8th position even if Castroneves scores the win and the bonus points for most laps led.

Cars are lined up on pit road.
Drama in qualifying! Drivers were told NOT to go under the white line which marks the change from racetrack to the warmup lane or whatever it is. Helio crossed that line on each of his 4 qualifying laps – and was sent to the back of the grid.

Vince with Helio, who had a long talk with Brian Barnhart: “I want to thank all the fans who emailed their support, they keep pushing me, they have a great spirit. Its going to be a great show. We’re ready to race.” Vince keeps asking him about Barnhardt, lots of deflections from Helio! He never did answer the question.

Video about Scott Dixon getting married, both of them speaking some boring mushy crap. You can tell they are loved up. You can tell I’m a bitter singleton. Basically the whole of this five minutes is to make the point that he’s more laid back than he used to be. Brienne is with Chip Ganassi who makes similar points.

Jack is with Scott: “Tough couple of weeks. Credit to the team for the whole season. We got our fingers crossed.” Major concerns today? “Biggest problem is a DNF, a mechanical failure will destroy our day. Keep doing what we’ve been doing all year and win the race.” Had to get up at 6am on race morning to run the dog to the vets!

Gary Lee says if Dixon wins he’ll set a record of 7 wins in one season. I think he may refer only to the IRL rather than all of US open wheel history – they really need to unify the histories for 2009 because going back to 1996 now just sucks. They unified the teams, drivers and tracks, let’s do the histories too, right? If someone sets a record for wins I want to be sure that it goes right back to the era of the first Indy 500. The days of fighting ‘the other side’ are over. Run two sets of stats if you must: IRL and overall AOW. Personally I’d rename the series for 2009 and merge the overall stats, noting which series the stats were scored in when relevant.

Ryan Briscoe: “After all these road courses it will be nice to be back on an oval! Got to keep the momentum of the season.”
Briscoe starts on pole.

Cross to public address system, who’s announcer mentions ‘race fans’. He means ‘racing fans’, to use real English.
Some old guy called Tom Hervis (sp?), we are told nothing more than his name: “Ladies and Gentlemen – Start Your Engines!”

Engines are fired!

Biggest starting field since Texas. Sarah Fisher is back! So is Tags!

START ORDER

Briscoe, Dixon, Patrick, Kanaan, Andretti, Wheldon, Scheckter, Meira, Roth(!!!), Power, Mutoh, Servia, Carpenter, Rahal, Foyt IV, Hunter-Reay, Camara, Fisher, Tagliani, Duno, Wilson, Rice, Manning, Perera, Junqueira, Viso, Moraes, Castroneves

Franck Perera is in a second AJ Foyt entry, he started a few races early in the year for Conquest but got bumped for Camara.

Race distance: 300 miles / 482.803km / 200 laps.

Kanaan in a yellow car, usually green, blue last week. Stop changing it! Makes you look amateur. Field-fillers change their liveries every week – top teams do not.

Start was waved off despite being in good formation. Larry says Race Control tells them the cars were not spread out ENOUGH! They actually want the bad starts.

Okay here goes.

GREEN FLAG

Small onboard Window on Helio. He’s up several places already before they hit lap 2.

Kanaan outside of Briscoe. Y’know that paint scheme reminds me of the old Team Rahal car in Shell colours, the one driven by Kenny Brack in CART in about 2001.

Dixon and Patrick fighting with Wheldon in proximity. He’s in his last race, moving to Panther possibly as soon as Surfers Paradise. Dario Franchitti back in the IRL in Dan’s current seat!

L6 – The laps tick by quickly here. We’re only a couple of minutes in. Roth is at the back already, was he moved there or did they all pass him?

L8 – Helio just passed someone, think it was Wilson, VERY closely. Now he gets a red CDW car and then Mutoh. Who’s got CDW? Looks like Servia. Wilson’s colours from last year – nice to see them back.

L10 – Wheldon washes out, Larry Rice suggest his air was taken away.

L13 – Ed Carpenter has been passing cars, he’s up to 4th now. Just got Patrick. Wheldon is trying a move. Alongside.
Helio has got half the field already, more than that, he’s 12th. Wow he closes down on Rahal as if Graham is not moving!
The big problem with the ticker on an oval is it gets in the way during onboard shots, because of the banking and curvature of the turn. I like the position ticker, unlike the vanishing F1 ticker it keeps you up-to-date constantly – but maybe they could shove it at the bottom like the F1 ticker so we can see where we’re going.

L19 – Gary is explaining the Franchitti/Wheldon/Meira shenanigans.

L25 – Viso is trying to go outside of Scheckter. This is for 12th. Larry says Tomas has understeer. Helio is ahead of them and Rahal ahead of Helio – Graham got the place back!
Wilson is catching all of these cars it seems, but this whole group is falling away from the group ahead of them.
They’ve gone single file in this group now.

L30 – Helio gets the tow from Rahal, tries to pull out and go outside but can’t make it. Tries again, alongside, s.l.o.w.l.y. goes around the outside of him (relatively) and makes it stick this time.
Now Viso goes to the inside of Rahal. Gets him. Not sure I like this aero package. They get alongside and hit the air, it matches the speeds of the two cars. It comes down to who can get away with not lifting the throttle. I’d prefer to see the cars a little faster but having to brake into the turns – whoa Carpenter in the wall! Orange flames.

YELLOW

That was a shame, he was running well. Car comes to a rest. He’s struggling to get out.. the marshals get the fire out but Ed still can’t get out. That’s bad. You should be able to extricate yourself very quickly.
Replays. Larry immediately says something broke, the car bottomed out. Sparks. Can’t see what broke because of the camera angle.
Pits are open. What lap are we on? We lost ticker a while ago during the Viso/Rahal racing.

Gary says we’ve gone 38 laps. Like he read my mind despite the race being recorded 24 hours earlier. Cars enter pitlane. I should note that for the first time in 3 races I go into this not knowing the result – I saw spoilers for Sonoma and Detroit.

TK and Dixon up 2 places, Briscoe drops 2 places, that’s for the lead.

Order: Kanaan, Dixon, Briscoe, Wheldon, Patrick. Although there is an orange Conquest car between TK and the pace car. Is he lapped or did he not stop?
Marco Andretti is 11th after starting 5th.

Gary says this is their last international broadcast after doing it for 7 years. Sad for those guys, feel for them here. Larry thanks everyone around the world for watching for the last 7 years, and Gary thanks “the guys in the remote truck that let us talk about all the action”. Nice touch.
So.. who’s doing Surfers in the world feed? Will that race even get coverage outside of Oz and the US – or do we get the US domestic for that one?

Jack Arute with Dario yesterday (err, Saturday), leads in with a mention of a domino effect as if it had just been referred to by someone – when was the deal done? “Deal was done Sunday in Detroit, Chip and I started talking about it Thursday. Thought OK we’re gonna talk about the 41 NASCAR but we went on to talk about IndyCar.”
Gary says it will be nice to have Dario back, ‘he has been a good ambassador for the sport, he ‘gets’ Indianapolis, the history, because he was a fan of Jimmy Clark.’
Larry: “I’m not sure he ever liked ovals, he prefers road courses, but some of his best races were on the short ovals like here and Richmond.”

Are we still yellow? This is taking ages to clear up. Lap 44 now.

Graphic – 2008 win list: Dixon 8, Briscoe & Wheldon 2 each, followed by Rahal, Patrick, Kanaan, RHR, Helio, Wilson all tied on 1. Does this include Long Beach? I know Meesh questioned IRL’s stats at her blog.. It goes back to what I was saying about stats earlier.

GREEN
Not sure what lap, my coverage jumped from lap 45 to 52.
RHR vs Viso vs Rahal, and Rahal looks faster. The other two are side-by-side and Graham doesn’t have room to pass. Power comes up now. We’ve got 2 x 2 wide!

L54 – Power lost momentum and drops back, but gets the tow behind Scheckter to stay with them. There’s so much going on its hard to take notes! This is NOT a complaint.

L58 – Gary says Danica is on the radio complaining about Wheldon. I’m not sure why we don’t get radio on the world feed. She’s behind Dan right now, Helio behind her.
Helio drives around Danica and Dan! Now here comes Vitor fast, he gets Patrick. Wheldon and Patrick must have slowed each other!

Helio is 4th now. There’s a big freight train led by Rahal. Loads of them there. Larry: “There’s a whole bunch of ’em there, I don’t know exactly how many!”
L62 – Larry: “Helio appears to be the fastest guy on the racetrack.”
Gets a run – Helio alongside Dixon. Can’t make it, drops behind again.

L66 – Lapped traffic, Helio goes around Dixon because Dixon had to lift in the queue. Someone further ahead had to lift for slow traffic, it had an effect along the line of cars.
Kanaan leads Briscoe, Helio, Dixon, Wheldon. Will Briscoe let Helio through or stay ahead to help Helio save fuel? Helio wants those bonus points for leading, remember..

Foyt passes Wheldon – next up for him is Dixon.

L73 – Power gets Rahal, Wilson gets the draft from Power and gets a nose alongside Rahal briefly, but lifts. Scheckter is the current leader of the freight train.

YELLOW

Meira is in the wall. His last race for Panther ends in the wall, this isn’t how he wanted to end his time with them. Lap 74. Gary Lee says if Panther can get another car next year Vitor would be the likely driver.

Gary: 37 laps since last pit stop, everybody will be in.
‘Thank You Vitor’ on the pitwall of Panther. Nice touch. I was quite hard on them in a comment at MyNameIsIRL for firing Vitor by email. Maybe that was the agreed method? They seem to think fondly of him and if he’s thinking of staying.. okay pitstops are here.

We get pit-car radio here.

Helio +2, TK -2, Power and Viso also up 2.

Penske 1-2! Helio JUST ahead of Briscoe coming out of the pits, very close at the exit line.

Top ten on Lap 80 – Helio, Briscoe, TK, Dixon, Wheldon, Foyt, Patrick, Power, Viso, Rahal
Some ‘transition’ guys in good places which means they are making progress. We are going to get some incredible oval races next year. They’ve been pretty good this year. Penske vs Ganassi (with Dario) vs AGR vs NHL vs KVR vs Panther. Not bad at all.

Jack Arute reports with Mike Hull, Dixon’s strategist, who calls his opponent Heeelio. “Lot of credit to Heeelio, heck of a segment for him, mark of a true champion no matter what happens today.” Jack talks of fuel conservation. Mike: “The numbers are good, it’s as good as what we’ve seen it’s not any better, let’s see what happens.”
Vince with Tim Cindric of Penske: “Try and win the race and lead some laps, we’ll just do things we can control.”
Brienne with Vitor as we’re about to go green: “Something on the right rear, a puncture or the suspension, got loose and crashed it. Appreciate the 3 good years I’ve had with Panther.”

GREEN FLAG on lap 84

TK mixing it already, Briscoe has him covered.

Wheldon has passed Dixon and is working on Kanaan.
Foyt is outside of Dixon. No.
Slow car on the apron.
Foyt is going again, Larry says Dixon will not be enjoying this! Dixon wants to see a parade with no passing. Viso is there too. He’s the last one Scott wants to see.

Championship ‘as of right now’ tracker is at 10 points, advantage Dixon.

Moraes is 8th, he passed Patrick.
L91 – are laps like 20 seconds or something?

Briscoe alongside Helio with Wheldon there. Shit this is close.
Gary: “Larry this is a crash waiting to happen. If these guys don’t crash they missed a wonderful opportunity.”
THREE ABREAST for one whole lap.
This can’t happen. Shit I can’t look.

TWO lots of 3-wide now.

Someone restores sense to the field and they go to just the two wide..
Who is where..
Viso is 4th or 5th now..

L98 – Dan credited with the lead of one lap. According to the scoring, Tags in 23rd place is only 9.5 seconds behind the leader. That’s just crazy! That’s not possible. This isn’t NASCAR, you can’t do that in open wheel cars.

HALFWAY – LAP 100 – crossed flags green and chequered furled flags.. don’t see that in other series, I like the meaning.. doubt the drivers can see it but what the hey.

Dixon is suddenly 10th now. He dropped back in traffic.

Gary and Larry are saying this is the best race they’ve seen in the seven years they’ve covered it. Gary was tracking the leaders, writing them down each lap, he stopped because it changed so often.

YELLOW for debris
Gary: “I’d like to see the debris. Was that a debris yellow or was that to slow everybody down? I want to see the safety vehicle pick something off the race track”
I think he’s been reading Pressdog.
Cut to debris! “Wow we do have something out there!”

Okay.. calm it down.. where is everybody? It was too hard to keep up with the position changes.
Pits are open so let’s sort it out in a minute. The debris was Servia’s mirror. Again.
Cars are in the pits.

Helio emerges in the lead but CRASH – Rice has contact in the pitlane. Wing damage.
TK, Viso, Patrick, Dixon all +2 places. Moraes -4. Foyt -2.
Rice has new sponsorship I think – I’ve never seen those colours before (or heard of the sponsor ‘Dad’s Root Beer’ – you couldn’t make it up!).

Replay: Someone hit Rice hard and spun him around, can’t tell who it was right now, camera is too far away. Gary: “Rahal made contact we are told.”
View from Wilson’s car, the camera doesn’t track around quickly enough though.

Lap 112 – top ten after the stops: Helio, Briscoe, Wheldon, Kanaan, Viso, Foyt, Patrick, Dixon, Moraes, Wilson.
Larry says they should pit Rahal to check for damage. Gary shortly after that tells us the IRL have ordered Rahal to the back. Larry: “We’ll now they should bring him in, they’ve got nothing to lose.”

Points As Of Now tracker: Dixon 630, Helio -4
Gary and Larry talking of Larry’s visit next week to Brisbane, Australia for a classic car event and Gary tells him to take lots of pictures!

L115 – Rahal is in for a damage check. Servia is in for a new mirror.
L116 – Pace car pulls in, one lap to green. We are told Mutoh currently leads the Rookie of the Year standings with Wilson close behind.

L117 – GREEN FLAG

Cars are more spread out now.

YELLOW again

Sarah Fisher out! Bummer. She’s on the tri-oval section with a broken rear wing and damaged front wing. Europeans: She’s the Susie Stoddart of the IRL. A likable fan favourite.
She’s out of the car, but limping.. Tough break for the small family-run team.

During this yellow a Conquest car ran through the pits but we don’t know who or why.

L123 – top ten under yellow: Helio, Briscoe, Wheldon, Kanaan, Foyt, Viso, Patrick, Dixon, Wilson, Moraes. Foyt passed Viso and Wilson passed Moraes on that one lap of green.

Aerial shots of Chicagoland, nice to see a good crowd in the stands.

L125 – GREEN FLAG

Wilson goes around Dixon. Briscoe is keeping Wheldon back. Dixon got back past Wilson.
Larry: If Helio doesn’t get the most laps bonus, Dixon only has to finish in the top 10.
This is useful information, could have used that earlier.

L130 – Where did Wilson go? He’s suddenly dropped back.
Dixon gets a run on Patrick, passes her and is now among the next group. He had to lift.

T131 – Tony Kanaan! Passes both Penskes on the inside, great move.
Tony gets clear but Helio gets into the tow again and closes in.
Dixon now passes Briscoe for 3rd. Not sure where Wheldon is now.. looks like 7th.

L136 – TK, Helio, Dixon, Briscoe, Patrick, Wheldon, Foyt, RHR, Wilson, Power

L137? – YELLOW

Ernesto ‘EJ’ Viso in hard contact with the wall. Rear wing and suspension major damage AND the whole left side.

Gary: “Viso was 18th, last car on the lead lap.”
He’s okay, waves to the crowd.
Larry: “It’ll be interesting to see how many laps this yellow is, if it is 6 or 7 laps somebody may attempt to stretch the fuel.”

Replay: Viso alongside Manning.. he lost it himself, it came around. Not sure it was his fault. Just snapped on him.
Larry: “On the second look it looked like the front end got away from him.”
Pits open, cars coming in. Several stayed out.

Helio first, Briscoe 2nd, Patrick 3rd?

Marco +4, Moraes +4, Patrick +3, Kanaan -3, Dixon -3
Mechanic not happy.

Replay of Dixon stop: Tyre rolled away, mechanic had to recover it.

L142 – Milka Duno leads! She did not stop so will have to in a little while, which makes zero sense unless they are only after sponsor airtime.

Duno, Helio, Briscoe, Patrick, Wheldon, Kanaan, Dixon, Moraes, Andretti, RHR.
Milka Duno is leading her first laps in her IndyCar career, she managed to stay on the lead lap until now. Foyt has fallen back to 14th.

Marty Roth is between Duno and Helio, Roth is 2 laps down. Two slow cars to negotiate although she is much faster than he…

L145 – GREEN

3 wide on the restart between Dixon, Moraes and Kanaan.
Roth is dropping back but Milka holds on to lead another one. The Penskes held back for a bit there to take it easy past the slower cars.
Helio now leads.

Larry says the only stops now will be a splash and go, no tyre changes. (apart from Duno)

L150 – 50 to go Wheldon tries Briscoe but it doesn’t go.
L151 – Dixon almost collects Patrick! Moraes goes by Dixon. Dixon takes it back.
L154 – Dixon now gets Kanaan and then goes alongside Patrick, he’s working for the win.
Both Penske cars vs both Ganassi cars! 2 AGR cars just behind.
Wheldon is harrying the two Penskes who are running side by side at times, or at least an overlap. Dixon holding station behind them.
L160 – Very slow car on the track which the frontrunners fly past. Larry says it was Mutoh.
3 wide with Wheldon in the middle. He broke them up!
Dan side by side with Helio now.. with Briscoe bouncing back as Kanaan trying to pass Dixon.
Moraes has got Patrick (unseen).

L164 – They are still at it! We have a five-car breakaway now, Penske and Ganassi with Kanaan as the interloper in 5th. Patrick has dropped away but has got ahead of Moraes again, he may have held her up and she’s giving chase again.

L169 – Mutoh is in the pits having work done, long stop and they aren’t hurrying.. May lose his Rookie of the Year if Wilson moves up a few places..
2 x 2 at the front.
Patrick, Moraes and RHR are catching the leaders again, who may be holding each other up by running side by side as they are.

L175 – They are STILL 2 x 2 wide, haven’t moved single file for several laps now.
Ryan Hunter-Reay is now 6th and closing.

Gary saying the racing used to be like this 2 or 3 years ago but we haven’t seen it lately because of the harsh winters and the way the track changes year to year.

L178 – Danica has pitted. Leaders with Milka again, she stays in the middle! They go either side. Top Gun – break!

L179 – Larry: If there is a yellow and the others pit, she’ll be leading.
I’ve had enough of the shots of Emma Dixon now.

L181 – YELLOW

Danica’s prayers are answered.

Moraes has made contact with the wall. He was running well, his best race of the year easily.
Larry: Patrick should be leading after these stops but she doesn’t make good restarts.
Gary: Patrick lost a lap on that pitstop so she’ll go to the back of the lead pack.
Larry: Guess not so smart after all.
Gary: That’s why we’re in here and not calling the strategy!

Gary shouts out to Johnny Rutherford in the pace car.
Tongue-in-cheek Larry: “And he only crashed it twice!”

Gary again saying this is their last race for the IRL, the two have covered IRL for the last 7 years but have worked together for 19 years, thanks Larry for his friendship and his brotherhood.
Larry – “same to you and thanks to all our listeners in Europe, UK, South Africa, South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand.”
They have a great rapport, it would be a shame for them to break it up. Versus should consider them for the 2009 international feed.

Pitstops. Big traffic jam getting out.
Dixon +3 to lead, Foyt +1, Power +1, Wheldon -2, Helio -1, RHR -1, Manning -1

New top 10: Dixon, Helio, Briscoe, Wheldon, Kanaan, Foyt IV, RHR, Power, Manning, Wilson.
Interesting names in there from Foyt down.

Gary: “If Dixon can lead 5 laps he sets a record for most laps led in one season.”
Again, is that ever in AOW or just in the IRL since 1996? I assume the latter.

14 laps to go. Dixon leads with a mass of cars between him and the pace car, they will get the wave by. This is going to be a sprint finish for the championship, however I’m not sure why we are still yellow for what was only a whitewall for Moraes.

Danica is now back on the lead lap, the last car on the lead lap running in 14th but physically at the back of the pack with all those lapped cars mixed in.

L189 – GREEN FLAG

Rahal touches the wall, whitewalls it.

YELLOW – really, for that?

FFS. All the cars cleared him, he dived for the apron, he was out of the way – STAY GREEN. Short yellow. One lap slowing down, one behind pace car, one speeding up.

RESTART…. no. They waved it off for no apparent reason. Larry says Helio wasn’t nose-to-tail so they waved it off.
They do the same again! This is stupid – you should allow him to get a run as long as he doesn’t pass before the line. This is nuts! What a stupid rule.

L194 – we finally get RESTARTed

Helio is making several attempts, an attempt every lap into turns 1 and 3. They are pulling away from everyone else. This isn’t for the title, this is for honour. Bragging rights.

White flag as they are side by side.
Almost touching!
Briscoe comes up to push Helio.
THIS IS VERY CLOSE

A PHOTO FINISH!!

I thought it was Helio on the line, scoring shows Dixon so commentary says Dixon, someone spins on the tri-oval grass. No idea who.
Dixon wins by 0.001 seconds. Unbelievable.

I want to see the photo-finish, that looked like Helio. Here we go on the replay.
Too close to call.. too fast..
Freeze-frame shows Helio winning!! That’s got to be conclusive. If Scott is scored as winning, his transponder was mounted in a different place on his car, compared to Helio.

They say it is the closest finish in IRL history whichever way it goes. This I can believe.

Jack Arute with the Champion, Scott Dixon. Jack says we are still awaiting the photo finish. “I can’t believe it, we were back and forth, some of the guys we didn’t expect to be racing with were super-fast today.” Jack on machine-gun questioning.. Scott responds same way.. You are the Indy 500 winner and championship winner. “It’s been amazing. My year in general, getting married, having the season we’ve had has been amazing.”

Vince with Helio – ‘We just found out YOU have just won this race’. He goes crazy! Jumps around with Briscoe! “I knew it I knew it!!” He thanks the team and leaves Vince, probably to look for a fence.
Confirmation that Helio is the official winner.

Larry makes the point I just made about the transponders being mounted differently in the cars – he says they are supposed to be in the same place on every car for this very reason.

Gary: “For the final time, from Larry Rice, I’m Gary Lee, so long from Chicagoland Speedway.”

And that’s it, the coverage bailed out here. Goodbye to Gary and Larry, they will be missed, I wish I’d watched more of their races this year instead of US domestic super-patronis-a-vision. We don’t see Helio climb a fence, or the championship trophy being presented. That’s a shame, maybe those yellows were too long for the allotted time. I look forward to seeing the video in the pre-race montages for Surfer’s Paradise.

RACE RESULTS

1. Castroneves 200 laps
2. Dixon +0.0033sec
3. Briscoe +0.0788
4. Kanaan +0.6095
5. Power +1.3580 [where he come from?]
6. Wheldon +1.8729
7. Manning +2.3224
8. Andretti +2.4627 [despite being crap all day]
9. Hunter-Reay +2.7993
10. Patrick +2.9276 [got a couple at the end]
11. Wilson +3.0218
12. Tagliani +4.2072
13. Foyt IV + 1 lap [he was the last lap spinner]
14. Duno + 1 lap
15. Perera + 2 laps
16. Roth + 3 laps
17. Servia + 4 laps
18. Camara + 13 laps
19. Rahal + 14 laps
20. Junqueira + 16 laps [any ideas why he’s out?]
21. Moraes + 19 laps
22. Mutoh + 23 laps
23. Viso + 64 laps
24. Fisher + 84 laps
25. Rice + 90 laps
26. Scheckter + 113 laps
27. Meira + 126 laps
28. Carpenter + 164 laps

Results from Autosport.com

Scoring monitors showed 0.001sec gap initially, and the official results as declared several hours after the race confirmed it at 0.0033sec for the second-closest finish in IRL history.

Whenever scoring monitors show a margin of victory of 0.006 or less, IndyCar officials revert to photo evidence to determine or clarify the winner and the precise margin of victory. Within minutes of the cars reaching the finish line and Dixon being declared the unofficial winner, Castroneves was declared the official winner – after Dixon had already celebrated in Victory Circle.
– Jeff Olsen on Autosport.com

Points (top ten)
1. Dixon 646
2. Castroneves 629
3. Kanaan 513
4. Wheldon 492
5. Briscoe 447
6. Patrick 379
7. Andretti 363
8. Hunter-Reay 360
9. Servia 358
10. Mutoh 346

I may come back with a separate post with the full list of points later in the week, depending on the time I have.

That concludes the points race for this season but we’re not finished yet – the next event is the non-points race at Surfers’ Paradise along with the unspoken debate about where to put the apostrophe, if indeed there is one. It will be interesting to see how many cars make the trip to Australia.
Right I’m out of time – I gotta get to bed else I’ll be late for work tomorrow, and sorry this one has run on so long. I need to make the margins wider somehow. Someone let me know how. Catch you later in the week!