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Conway in IndyCar test

A timely story for this blog given that the last couple of posts are notes on IndyCar and GP2 races, and a story which came seemingly from nowhere today, was that GP2 race winner Mike Conway topped the IndyCar test at Sonoma, California.

Conway won a race at the Monte Carlo round of the GP2 Series, supporting the Monaco GP, and currently sits 11th in points. Not stellar, but respectable given the competitiveness of the midfield in GP2, and a win at Monaco is nothing to be disregarded. I saw that race and he was dominant, it was not a fluke.

The only report I can find about this test is from autosport.com, none of the US racing sites seems to have reported a single thing from this test which featured several teams and drivers. Given the test was on Wednesday and Thursday I would have expected at least something by now. Even IndyCar.com has nothing. If this were F1 or NASCAR there would be reports, even basic ones, on all the major racing sites. Very odd.

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GP2 Series from Magny-Cours, France

GP2 Series [series website]
Circuit du Nevers Magny-Cours, Nevers, France
Held: 21 & 22 June
Watched: 14 August


Anchor & interviews: Charlie Webster
Commentary: David Croft & Chris Goodwin

I wrote some notes on the GP2, as promised. These notes are for my own writing practice and I don’t know if I’ll do the same for the following races (unless there is a demand – hit the comments if you are interested).

I’ve been storing these up unintentionally, you know how it is, you keep meaning to watch something but never get around to it, I’m the same with DVDs. This is why I’m only as far as France when the series has since visited Britain, Germany and Hungary.

GP2 has two races per weekend, a long Feature race with a pit stop on Saturday, and a short Sprint race without stops on Sunday morning before the Grand Prix. All races this year are on the F1 undercard whenever F1 is in Europe. There are 20 races at 10 events, France saw rounds 7 and 8 of the 2008 series.

Points after rounds 5 and 6 in Monaco:

Senna 24
Pantano 24
Grosjean 19
Parente 19
Buemi 14

Senna and Grosjean have been hotly tipped to be the main title fight since the winter, but Pantano has something to say about that while I’ve tipped Parente as a talent for a while now. Red Bull (company not F1 team) have chosen Buemi for their never ending conveyor belt of talent.

I’ve rambled enough so let’s skip the pre-race and go straight in.

FEATURE RACE
(41 laps, roughly 1 hour, inc. 1 mandatory pitstop for at least 2 tyres and no fuel)

Start order has changed between the graphic and the start line, due to grid penalties for infractions in qualifying. ITV didn’t update their graphics. All I know right now is that there are 26 starters and GP2 paint schemes are impossible to identify.

Beverage selection: Kronenboug 1664 with the new fangled device for the little bubbles. Kroney is one of the best mass market lagers going although frankly I prefer the bigger bubbles so I’ll not spend the extra money on that again.

Valerio stalls on the formation lap and will start from pitlane.

Lots of drivers have changed teams for this race due to injury, not gelling with the team, or sponsors failed to poney up. Too many changes to go through now as the cars line up!

5..4..3..2..1..GO

Action everywhere, don’t know where to look. Dust at the back.

Kobayashi didn’t get away, pushed into pits.

Fillipi passes someone but so do a lot of people.

Order at start of L2, top 8:
Senna, Pantano, Grosjean, di Grassi, Maldonado, Petrov, Zuber, Buemi

di Grassi has returned after time away, this is his first GP2 race of the year. He was a frontrunner last year and has been testing F1 cars for Renault.

Fillipi runs through the gravel.

L3 – race is settling down now. GP2 paint schemes are very vague and the driver helmets don’t really stand out, add in that half the grid is unpronounceable, making it difficult to follow when there is a lot of action at once. But we love it anyway.

12 months ago Ernesto ‘EJ’ Viso (now in IndyCar) had an almighty shunt at this track. Look it up on YouTube.

L7 – Pit stop window is officially open. You’re not allowed to take your mandatory stop in the first or last few laps of the race. Only applies in Feature, not Sprint. Need to change 2 tyres at least. If you pit before the window, you’ve gotta come in again. Durango car runs wide.

They are using F1-style lap counter so at L8 they show 33/41. I’ll say 33 To Go (TG).

33TG – Buurman in, he’s way back so we don’t stick with it.
Maldonaldo locks brakes.

32TG – Cars are running close together but seem unable to pass. For the last few years passing has been exceptional in GP2 but they changed the aero this year which seems to have killed a lot of it.

31TG – Chandhok in 9th is being caught quickly by Conway.

27TG – Pitstops began while ITV were in break. d’Ambrosio passes Buemi who had just pitted.
Zuber stops. He emerges in front of a lot of guys but clear road ahead. Well timed.

26TG – Grosjean in. And out okay, no problem. emerges roughly 8th. When will Senna stop?

Chandhok in a lap later, he’s Senna’s teammate so maybe the crew are warming up.
3 wide through the hairpin!

23TG – Senna stops. JUST out in front of Grosjean, retains his lead and only just. Grosjean tries a move on warm tyres in to the hairpin, can’t make it stick. He’s pushing hard through this lap whilst Senna is on cooler tyres.

A lap later, Grosjean has the momentum along the long straight and dive bombs Senna inside, gets him! Senna saw him, didn’t turn in on him, others wouldn’t even have seen it coming.

Conway leads but hasn’t stopped, then Grosjean, then Senna who both have, as has Georgio Pantano in 4th who is also quick.

Oh! Senna slows on the straight. iSport guys hands in the air. Continuing. What happened there?

Grosjean passes Conway who is on worn, old tyres. Why hasn’t he pitted? Conway concedes to Pantano almost straight away.

Senna brings the car in and gets out. Lack of drive, or a gear selection problem?

18TG Conway is in.

Jean Todt looks on at the ART pitwall, his son runs that team and is also Felipe Massa’ manager. What conflict of interest?

Senna’s retirement puts Pantano 2nd and he just set Fastest Lap on L24.
Aha we have a pit report from Charlie, she’s with Senna. “Clutch failed. Car was brilliant but then the clutch went.”

Conway emerged in 10th. Ought to have pitted earlier before his old set were too worn.

13TG – Gap from 1st to 2nd is 0.7sec. Pantano gets it a bit wrong in the next to last corner. Buemi pits from 18th and they aren’t in a hurry to attend to it, he’s done. He’s not getting out though…

So far we’ve had six races and six different winners. This race will end that run – but last year we went nine races! That was until Glock repeated in Germany. This year Grosjean will end the run. F1 drive for him next year?

10TG Valerio passes Asmer and someone who’s name I can’t spell, in one move way back in the field. Asmer might be a lap back at the rate he’s going there. [EDIT – he’s not]

TV focussing on battle for 14th despite a close fight up front. Commentators a bit frustrated as it isn’t in ITV’s control which pictures we see.

9TG Fillipi defends from Nunes. Didn’t think I’d write that ever. Nunes locks up and drops back. Commentary tells us he went testing and found pace last week.

Grosjean slow!! He skips the chicane and he’s at walking pace. Cars flashing by at speed. Pantano leads! Car is in the rev limiter. Clucth problems again? Sounds like it. He pits. This is his home race, he’s gutted.

5TG – Pantano now has a clear lead of 9 seconds over di Grassi. Maldonado is 3rd, Petrov 4th.
Charlie with Romain Grosjean: “Gearbox. Hydraulic pressure problem, it was fine but suddenly I exit the hairpin and the car was not working. I was leading at the French GP which is something special for me.”

3TG – Good fight between Buurman, Soucek and Villa back in the field. Two of them lock up and go wide, cut back in, Villa couldn’t get through.

FLAG – Pantano wins!
I can’t recall if he won earlier in the year so don’t know if the winning streak is still unbroken.

Results:
Pantano, di Grassi, Maldonado, Petrov, Zuber, d’Ambrosio, Chandhok, Conway, Parente, Fillipi, Nunes, Buurman, Soucek, Villa, Valles, Iaconelli, Asmer, Valerio (+ 2 laps), Grosjean (DNF), Rodriguez (DNF), Buemi (DNF), Hanley (DNF), Senna (DNF), Herck (DNF), Tung (DNF), Kobayashi (DNF)

Points go to the top 8 positions in this race, plus a bonus for Fastest Lap which goes to Pantano. Note that you have to finish in the top ten to claim that point, all through last year guys at the back pitted for fresh tyres and did qualifying laps to get that point, hence the rule change.

I’m skipping through the podium ceremony and Conway interview to get to the winner.

Pantano: “Great win, great start, we tried to push Senna working together, lose a bit in the pit but was quicker than them. Difficult to stay close in turn 2. This weekend I have the luck. It’s good. I have so many problems like those in the past and this year is going well for me.”

Long interview which I really cut down. Also talked to Maldonado. They are all saying the race was very difficult, tough on gearbox and brakes.

I’ll skip the points and do that after the Sprint race.

SPRINT
(28 laps, no mandatory pitstops)

Starting order: The grid is decided by the finishing order of the Feature race but with the top 8 positions reversed. Conway is on pole, Pantano is 8th and positions from 9th down are as they crossed the line yesterday (or how many laps they completed if a DNF) – that puts Grosjean and Senna at the back.

Cars are on the grid which is damp, some guys have intermediate/wet tyres and some have dries, this could be interesting!

5..4..3..2..1..GO!

D’Ambrosio and Petrov away very quickly, up to P2 and 3. Slick-shod guys are slow away and dropping back. Grosjean picking off three cars in a hundred yards under braking for the hairpin!

Chandhok slides very wide, luckily no gravel there.

27TG – Conway, D’Ambrosio, Petrov, di Grassi, Zuber, Maldonado, Pantano, Nunes.

D’Ambrosio goes bouncing along the kerbs, loses many places, now 15th.

A car through the polystyrene distance markers! It was Valerio. Quelle surprise! Marker disintegrates, drivers will just have to remember where 50 metres is because unlike computer games it doesn’t magically reappear next lap.

D’Ambrosio pits and engine off. He’d hit another car with his front wheel later in the lap and must have damaged the steering or suspension.

Laptimes are 18 seconds slower than yesterday’s race due to the wet – but it doesn’t look all that wet out there, it isn’t raining and the track is only damp with dry areas.

25TG – Valerio pits, he’s done.

Two wide at the end of the lap!

On the onboard camera you can see it is very wet in turn one. Rest of the track seems okay. Conway sets fastest lap.

23TG – Pantano tries it around the outside of Maldonado but there’s no way that’ll work there.

Cars are pitting from dry tyres. Grosjean, Chandhok, who else is there?
Kobayashi.

22TG – Conway pits for dries as does di Grassi. Petrov now leads, then Maldonado, then Pantano.

Woah someone off quickly into the gravel – it’s Grosjean on his dry tyres!!

21TG – Senna started on dries, so did Buurman. Both are moving up the field as other pit and struggle to get temperatures up.
Maldonado pits for dries.

20TG – Pantano pits. This puts Buurman in 2nd but he’s under pressure from Parente and Buemi all on slicks. Pantano weaving in the pits to get heat into the tyres.
Asmer spins 360 and continues. Buemi sets fastest lap and passes Parente.

19TG – Petrov pits, Buurman leads and sets new fastest lap which is immediately beaten by di Grassi. Everyone now hopes it won’t rain again.
Senna spins! Rejoins.

17TG – Petrov passes Zuber for 11th. Pantano is now running 14th.

16TG – 2 very slow cars which Zuber flies past at huge speed – he’s at racing speed and those two were crawling, no idea why.

15TG – Pantano t-bones Petrov at the hairpin, slow-speed corner so hopefully not too much damage. Looks like Petrov might have turned in on him, didn’t see him there or didn’t expect the move. No, Pantano’s suspension is damaged he’s struggling. A win and a no-score for him. That’s GP2.

13TG – Parente goes off and drops back. Got his braking wrong, lost a couple of seconds but no positions. Valerio is back in the race but we only know that because there he is running through the gravel! Pressdog talks about clowns jumping out of cars and disrupting race cars… Valerio is that clown! The Great Valerio!
Zuber takes an unknown car.

11TG – Pantano had suspension damage, but his radio had already broken so he had to make the call to pit for tyres earlier, no info from team.
Laptimes are more like it, only 6 seconds down on dry times now.

10TG – Zuber takes Villa for 10th and Kobayashi follows him by. Parente slow on the pit straight so loses a place to Senna. Replay: He spun on the chicane kerbs and is now back up to speed.

8TG – Teammates Buurman and Buemi fighting for the lead. Parente has retaken Senna who looks like he has more gearbox trouble. He may continue running.

Buurman ran wide, Buemi alongside all down the long straight! Buemi takes it at the hairpin. Nice move. Clearly no team orders at Arden!

4TG – Parente is dropping places again, he’s slow rather than spinning.. Technical problems. Meanwhile Petrov in 13th runs off track through the gravel, manages to get out. Hanley then into the same patch of gravel but has beached it, he’s out. Local yellows.

3TG – Fillipi passes Senna who is struggling on the straight. A lap later di Grassi gets him in the same way.

FLAG – Sebastien Buemi wins from 21st on the grid! Good choice to start on dry tyres when most of the field were on wets.

Results:

Buemi, Buurman, Fillipi, di Grassi, Senna, Conway, Maldonado, Zuber, Kobayashi, Villa, Asmer, Valles (+ 1 lap), Iaconelli (+1), Tung (+2), Herck (+2), Rodriguez (+2), Valerio (+2), Petrov (+3). DNF: Parente, Hanley, Nunes, Pantano, Chandhok, Grosjean, Soucek, D’Ambrosio.

Fastest lap point goes to Kobayashi.

Championship Points after 8 of 20:

Pantano 35
Senna 28
Buemi 20
Grosjean 19
Parente 19
Maldonado 18

Pantano and Senna are building a lead over the others, can Grosjean make amends next time out?

Teams:

iSport International 41
Racing Engineering 38
Piquet Sports 35
Barwa Int’l Campos Team 29
Trust Team Arden 25

Amazingly, the previously dominant ART Grand Prix are only 6th in the team standings despite Grosjean’s standing. The reason is his teammate Fillipi only got his first points of the year at the Sprint race in France.

The next race (for me at least) is at the British Grand Prix meeting at Silverstone. The next race in real life is at the European GP in Valencia, Spain.

I hope you enjoyed reading. Hit the comments box if you’d like me to continue covering GP2 in this way. I’ll make a decision next week when I watch the races at Silverstone.

Comments on the Meijer IndyCar 300 from Kentucky

Meijer IndyCar 300 Presented by Pepsi and Edy’s
Kentucky Motor Speedway, Sparta, Kentucky, USA
200 laps of a 1.5 mile oval
Held 9 August 2008, watched 11 August 2008

Coverage: ESPN2
Commentary: Marty Reid & Scott Goodyear
Pitlane: Jack Arute, Vince Welch, Brienne Pedigo

I managed to catch this last night, earlier than I’d expected, so no GP2 notes for now – maybe I’ll do them if I think I need practice but I won’t normally cover GP2 in that way. That makes this my first attempt at blog comments – wish me luck!

Prerace

Beverage of the pre-race: Tetley tea.

We start with a short season review.
Helio must finish ahead of Dixon to keep title fight open. It won’t be over if he’s behind, but it’ll be asking a lot.

Marty really has too much makeup for HD. I take the US coverage because it is better than the international feed (yes, really).

Quick flashback to Edmonton.
Dixon with Vince Welch. “We always go for wins. TCGR are 1-3 on grid. Meira will do well.” Vince says he’s always a threat.

Helio with Jack Arute. “Do the opposite. Be cautious if need to. Hopefully Meira and others can steal some points from Dixon.”

Points going in:
Dixon 505
Helio -65
Wheldon -115
Kanaan -118
Briscoe -181
etc

Flashback to Edmonton again, this time focus on AGR.
Radio to Danica harshly: “you’d better let TK pass you”. Unsaid: “..or else”.
Didn’t move over, didn’t reply on radio. Marco runs up inside and takes both out.

AGR team-mate crash montage. This could take a while.
Stupid echo on Goodyear’s commentary during montage as if he’s Obi Wan Kenobi!

AGR shut themselves in the truck after the race, team bigwigs and the four drivers, because of all the incidents this year.

Vince with TK: “A lot of yelling, team owner really upset. Did some laundry, now understand each other very well. I wasn’t happy but now we’re good.” TK signed again as he doesn’t want to leave a team that’s struggling, a team he’s been with for years.

Brienne Pedigo (keep wanting to hear ‘Petticoat’ when they cross to her) is with Danica who’s wearing stupid bugeye sunglasses: “Need to have good teammates. Great news TK with us. Lot of help from Tony.”
Will start last due to practice crash.

Marty and Scott doing a talking heads bit, I wasn’t paying attention – I’m accustomed to ITV’s F1 talking heads bit with Mark Blundell boring the pants off everybody, so my brain now automatically tunes out two men in suits with microphones in a race paddock. Read more about this in my upcoming F1 notes.

Michael Andretti: “A little upset at Edmonton race. Nobody working together thru weekend. Need to all work as one for the results.”

Goodyear asks why Graham Rahal drives for a team other than his Dad’s, and suggests Marco should do the same. Scott Goodyear expressed an opinion! This after they finding they aren’t covering many races next year – connected?

Briscoe now. Marty: “Go thru the lows to get to the highs.” Replay. MASSIVE crash a few years back in the Ganassi car. Amazing he survived unscathed.
Came back to IndyCar because “the opportunity to drive for Roger Penske meant the world to me.” Helio says he’s FAST and that they looked to their sportscar programme first, as soon as they knew Hornish was leaving his IRL seat.

I’m not sure why ESPN uses the radio commentary in replays rather than their own TV guys. What’s going on there?

( EDIT – I wasn’t really paying attention to the Penske love-in montage. And I like Penske! I’ve even forgiven him for ditching CART first, I realise now he was trying to end the split from the other side ‘cos CART wasn’t listening when he tried it there. )

*Race Coverage*

Command to start engines from Miss America, she’s not that into it. Marty says the same just after I thunk it!

Engines up.

Two pace cars apparently.

Goodyear: Don’t forget guys are also racing for points in the top ten, not just the title fight here.

Start order:

Dixon, Meira, Wheldon, Mutoh, Briscoe, Helio, TK, Carpenter, Andretti, Foyt the 4, Roth, Servia, Power, RHR, Rice, Fisher, Manning, Duno, Wilson, Rahal, Viso, Camara, Moraes, Bernoldi, Bruno, Patrick
Roth on the nitro in quali?

My tips: Roth to fall back or crash. Wilson to get a good oval finish. Meira to fall back despite what thingy said earlier.

Replays: Edmonton pit miscues. Cue dramatic music. Dramatic music suddenly ends.

Meira’s rookie test and his first start was at Kentucky some years ago. This is his 90th race now and he has a chance. Runs well here.

Cars move two abreast for the start: Sun is setting, glare in eyes at T3+4.

( EDIT – Key to notation: L = lap; S = start position or Q = qualifying position; P = current position; T = turn; )

START – 200 laps to go

Crowds are waving white flags or something. Are we in France? Looks more like old women’s underwear.

Wheldon jumped start, move back a place. TK on move.

L2 Power hit wall – YELLOW

Wheldon passed Meira before the start line. Can do that on restarts but not the race start. In European-based racing you can’t do that EVER.

L4 Power pit. Danica pit.

Power steering broke. Will Power’s steering broke not the power steering broke. Both maybe. Something broke and he only glanced wall. Sending him out.

Showing DP practice crash. Goodyear says wheelnut fail?

GREEN on L5 – Not too long a yellow. They’re learning. Laps go thick and fast here will try my best!

Power back in. Hope these engines get changed with the new car, that buzz is annoying.

L8 Tight, close racing.

L11 Mutoh vs Penskes.

L13 Meira going fast, looking to pass. Must keep Dan back else he’ll help Dixon.

L16 Carpenter Q8 now 5th.
Rahal Q20 now P13.

L18 Rahal pits. Ed Carpenter around Mutoh.

L23 Marco racing Briscoe. Going high..Not quite. Then ran wide. He’s already ahead of Helio.
Roth 17th.
Fisher 18th.

L25 Rahal now out.
TK falling back. Has to lift, car not working. Can’t hold it in the turns, turn-in understeer.
Crashed the race car in testing so using backup.

Teams will do 3 stops if enough yellows help them out, else it will be 4 stops.

Bit about Danica. Fisher racing Duno for position, looks faster than Danica, both ahead of Danica who is still working through the field.

L40 Dixon/Meria/Wheldon running V CLOSE, all are well ahead of the field.

L41 Up To Speed.
Dixon struggling to hear engineer Mike Hull.
Wheldon in Polaroid colours. Wants to know fuel mileage. Car a bit tight.
Marco 4th +3.5s leader, understeer.
Mutoh 5th, understeer, wing adj coming.
Ed 6th – he’s going under Mutoh.
ESPN lost Up To Speed here when the track action got dicey.

L45 Meira around Dixon through Bernoldi – nice move! Dixon had to lift.
Lapping commences.

Back to Ed, still fighting Mutoh, Briscoe catching both of them.

L50 Helio 11th but “I’m stuck”, can’t go faster “even using all of the tools in the car” as Goodyear says. Needs adjustment at next stop.

L51 Green flag pitstops commence with Meira in.
Wheldon beats Vitor out.
Dixon in. Pitlane very busy. TK in. Penskes in.

ESPN missed where Dixon emerged. Eventually we learn he’s leading but we had to see Princess Danica’s stop first despite her running no higher than 20th so far today.

Switching to Guinness.

This side by side box during the ads is a good idea but it’s fuckin tiny. Why all the borders? Ditch the borders and make both screens bigger, you can do that while retaining the leaderboard and still remain within the 4:3 dimensions.

I’m convinced TV people don’t actually watch TV.

L61 15 cars on lead lap. Dixon 1st, Dan 2nd.

L63 Ed, Foyt, Helio 9-10-11
Rahal is back out. Was dropping out of gear, 25th 9 laps down. Getting oval experience (and points if there’s a huge smack).

Mmm, cold Guinness and racing,
Moraes 3L down – why?

L66 Foyt went high, Helio and TK go by, then Foyt way high! Good save to keep it out of the wall. Surprisingly we don’t go yellow.

L71 Arute compares fuel strategy to Olympic rowing… okaaay.. Sidenote: Britain always does well in the rowing so that’s always one of our best hopes for Gold medals.

We keep jumping between Dixon’s fight and Helio v TK, and whoever is around them, which is understandable given the points battle but it would be nice to see the other 20 drivers.

L79 TK makes it around Helio.

L80 YELLOW – debris on the racetrack
Goodyear guessing Fisher/Patrick touched. Rahal back behind wall (unrelated).
Fisher came by Danica, wheel touched wing, possible debris.
13 cars on lead lap now.

Everyone pits.

Marco beat Meira out. RHR spins in pits! Ed up 3 spots. RHR spun his tyres too much, went around. Wilson being pushed down pitlane to his stall.

Viso, Servia, Camara, Patrick, Bernoldi stayed out to get their laps back.

L89 GREEN

Briscoe takes Meira
L90 Andretti under Wheldon
TK under Mutoh.
L92 Petticoat with Rahal: “20th to 12th in 10 laps. Gearbox broke, jumped out of 5th gear twice, looks like Wilson has the same.”
L94 Ed around Rice for P8. Ed’s passing a lot of cars but still lower than before, must be losing time in pits?
Marco caught Dixon.

3way camera! Outside, onboard Dixon, onboard Marco all at once. FOM (F1 world feed TV provider) needs to learn from this.

L100 we’re halfway

Roth slow in 3 & 4, pits. Scott: “Wait, you say Marty is slow?” Other Marty shoots back: “Roth not Reid!”

L100 Vince w/Power: suspension upgright broke, happy he didn’t hit wall.

L103 Marco getting a lot closer and has an overlap outside, can’t complete it.

L104 Bernoldi and Servia in. Oriol wants a good finish to build that Moe Mentum. Americans don’t say ‘mumentum’ like how wot we does do.

Leaders lap Viso, Marco struggles to do it. Viso not giving way! Goodyear advises him to blend out of the throttle. I wonder if EJ will watch the race replay.. half the field hopes so..

L108 Danica pitting.

L120 Dixon had to lift for traffic, Andretti speeds around. Slow car was Conquest car pitting.
Bernoldi.
Whedlon got by too. L122 Meria trying it. Can’t do it.

L132 YELLOW Duno major damage, hit wall. Mutoh had pitted, will drive thru and pit when it re-opens.

L134 pits open, leaders in. Will need to stop again.
Marco holds his lead. Or does he? Timing shows Dixon ahead. JUST gets it on the line on the replay. Has that pit advantage where he doesn’t need to swing around another team. I reckon they should move the teams down one or two boxes to prevent that, at venues where there is room to do so..

Foyt the 4, gearbox problem, behind wall. Goodyear/Reid: Why so many gearbox issues? This is an oval, they are in the top two gears. Maybe track is bumpy.

L140 TK 3rd. Was that in the stops? They need a camera at pit out, where the feeder lane rejoins the track not just where pitlane ends.

L143 Long yellow, could get within fuel window. Helio pits and tops off. Mutoh did it a little earlier.

L145 / 55 to go – GREEN Dixon leads the restart over Marco and TK

TK tries Marco, fails, falls back. Meira gets TK. It cost the Moe Mentum.

L149 Briscoe takes Ed.
Helio moved up to 10th on his high fuel strategy. A Penske with big fuel is faster than light midfielders. I know fuel costs less on an oval but even so…

L157 Mutoh in. I thought he was in under yellow?
TK vs Wheldon – close! Ed and Briscoe do same just behind briefly , but TK & Dan remain side by side…
L162 STILL they are side by side!
RHR now goes for Briscoe, HR recovering from pit spin.

L164 Marco passes Dixon for lead but they are approaching Viso again..
L165 Meira going for Dixon, backs out, spotter shouts, didn’t catch what he said.
Runs again, gets him! Spotter: “Go get ’em!”

Obligatory shot of Michael whenever Marco leads.

L173 TK and Dan at it again! This is for 4th. Dan gets him.

Nice save from RHR who got pushed high.

L179 Meira catching Marco.

L182 Green flag splash and dash stops will be needed for most of the top drivers. Rice blinks first from 9th. Helio is now 9th, last car on lead lap but will NOT have to stop.

L188 Fisher pits. Andretti AND Meira running nose to tail pit. Dixon stays out.
Meria beats Wheldon who also pitted, Andretti ahead of both.

L190 – TEN TO GO

Dixon trying to lap Helio before Scott pits.

L192 Briscoe pits as do TK and Ed.

L193 Dixon pits. Left wheel on grass on entry.

L194 Dixon pauses as Fisher unlaps from Helio, but she’s still a lap back.

FIVE TO GO, Danica unlaps from Helio – can he make it? He’s on mega fuel saving. Several lapped cars are catching him.

4 TO GO Rice unlaps from Helio, Dixon homing in FAST in 2nd

2 To GO Servia unlaps. Leader right behind him! Radio shouting: “Gotta go gotta go, white flag!”

1 TO GO – almost there, almost

last turn – he’s out of fuel! DIXON WINS!!!

Who said fuel strategy wasn’t exciting?

They dodged Sarah going walking pace into T3.

How’s that for payback for Chicago last year? Shades of Motegi for Helio. Twice in one year. It’ll work one day boys.

Postrace

Mike Hull: “Scott is very very good at making fuel, fuel saving.”

Helio, helmet still on – “what can I say?”

Dixon: “It was crazy, team told me nothing about Helio. He ran me into grass on way to pits.”

Helio is smiling. Is asked – What do you have to do? “We took a gamble, saved fuel, didn’t have the car. Just hundreds of yards short. Incredible strategy. 2nd seems to be my place. We’ll keep trying! If there’s still points we’ll go for them. Flashback to Japan. Should I finish the race or what do I do?”

2nd 7 times this year.

Meira 4th, ‘raced all night’ (Arute): “Doing a very good job of improving.”
What are you lacking? “Consistency.”

Marco 3rd: Rough few weeks, satisfied with 3rd?: “We had 2 bad races, today it was myself or Dixon for the win, not a bad run today. Seem to be racing the same guys, Ganassi + Penske.”
Marco only JUST missed out on 2nd at the line, we see it on slowmo replay.

Results:

Dixon, Helio, Marco, Meira, Wheldon, Briscoe, Ed, Briscoe, TK, RHR, Rice, Patrick, Servia, Viso, Junqueira, Fisher, Camara, Moraes, Mutoh, Manning, Foyt (DNF), Duno (DNF), Bernoldi (DNF), Roth (DNF), Wilson (DNF), Rahal (DNF), Power (DNF)

Carpenter 6th: “Good handling car until sun went down, 6th place was good, beat the guys we’re racing in the championship.”
Sarah 15th: “Was 11th until bearing failure! [on final lap] Great fun, I think it went well, so excited about Chicago.”

Points:
Dixon 558
Helio -78
Wheldon -138
TK -147
Briscoe -208
etc

Helio needs 26 points more than Dixon at each remaining event. Surely impossible?

Next IndyCar notes are for the race at Sonoma, California in a fortnight.

Things learned:
– I suddenly like drivers with short names.
– Ed is faster to write than Carpenter.
– I can’t spell ‘Meira’ at speed. I’ll call him Vitor from now on.
– Editing for spelling/grammar/readability seems to take almost as long as writing it in the first place!
– Blogger isn’t great at inserting images. There is a button to upload images but not to find one I’ve already uploaded.

I enjoyed that, it got me more involved in the race. Hopefully it wasn’t too similar in style to anyone else, and hopefully it was readable.

Okay that’s it from me, my next scheduled notes are for the F1 European Grand Prix around the marina of Valencia, Spain on 24 August. The Sonoma notes will be a couple of days behind those.

I may or may not do some other notes as practice beforehand, especially if I don’t have any other content to put up!

See ya.

All Quiet..

There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of news around at the moment, racing news, though the Autosport.com Paddock Life for Hungary noted that a lot of the non-specialist racing press (i.e. the newspaper people) were heading out to China for the Olympics rather than show up in Hungary. Can’t say I blame them given Hungary’s reputation for tedious races. OTOH there’s the big buildup and expectation for the Olympics only to get there and realise that most of the events are completely boring, too, since most of us only give a crap about the track events. Maybe that’s the just the racing fan in me but I don’t think so.

—
Oh, one completely off topic note:

I’m writing this with the aid of a pint of Carlsberg (it’ll be red wine in a minute), dimmed lights, and the band Yndi Halda, particularly the song Dash And Blast which is nearly 17 minutes long with no words and contains maybe the greatest riff/hook/whatever you call it I’ve heard. Go to the second link there and hit the big play button in the flash player on the right, wait for the long quiet intro, then carry on reading with ears open. Hopefully it’ll carry on playing into the 2nd track.

BTW these are links to Last.fm. I’ll probably link there often as it is the best site on the internet, you can see my profile by clicking the appropriate bit in the red box to the right.

—
Okay back to it.

So the specialist F1 press has continued albeit seemingly quieter than usual, apart from the big Mosely interview on Autosport.com (and in the mag) which I’ll read later because it is fucking long.

All the news at the mo seems to be in IndyCar with the apparent bluff/double bluff of Kanaan playing Ganassi via Robin Miller, so that he (Kanaan, not Miller) secures better terms with AGR.
Clever him. It brings into light the fact that perhaps we don’t always know what the hell is going on behind the scenes, how people manipulate the press to get the result they want.

Also around is the ’09 IRL schedule, which is fine, not spectacular but fine. The longterm Champ Car fanatics love the addition of more road/street tracks – although not necessarily the good ones. The longterm IRL fanatics hate that fact and want to return to the roots of the IRL – all ovals, or 80-90% ovals minimum. Hopefully these idiots on both sides will die out soon, or at least shut the hell up.

The more reasonable fans appreciate good racing wherever it is. They also recognise that Homestead and Belle Isle are shite and should be dropped forthwith. I really hope the IRL isn’t taking or keeping some venues purely to fill an oval/road quota or ratio because that would truly suck especially with some excellent venues currently missing out.
Elkhart Lake, Mont Tremblant, the Michigan oval. I don’t really care for street tracks so let’s not go the Champ Car route, just have three solid street events and leave that there.

And it looks like by the time of this year’s race or just after, Surfers Paradise will get announced as an A1GP event for ’09. They dropped Eastern Creek near Sydney for the upcoming season. All of which is great for A1GP who will be in the 2nd year of their relaunch by then and will be bigger than now, but that ought to be an Indy race.

The other thing around is the US TV deal to move from ESPN to Versus, a smaller channel. At first this looked bad. Then people on other blogs started commenting that the focus Versus will give might actually help. Seems to be helping NHL, they say. I have no idea about that. I just hope it works, and I hope they get the international deals right whether that means staying with current deals or moving on.

That’s all for now, more in a day or two. I’m disappearing for a bit to avoid the news and blog sites spoiling the IndyCar Kentucky race which I think is happening right now, and which I won’t get to see until midweek. If I get the chance I’ll write some test notes on GP2 as a prep for the upcoming IRL and F1 races.

You’re probably at the bit where they go “lalala” near the end. I told you they were good.