Category: IndyCar

IZOD IndyCar Series

Congratulations to the Indy Racing League for securing a new sponsor for the IndyCar Series, which will henceforth be known as the IZOD IndyCar Series.

From all reports IZOD sound like a fantastic partner to work with, and not just reports from yesterday’s announcement but also from during this season where they were a personal sponsor for Ryan Hunter-Reay. I like the attitude and marketing style they appear to bring to the series. I say ‘appear’ because living here in the UK I had never heard of them before they came to the IRL.

The announcement was webcast live last night, unfortunately the usual gremlins crept in and the feed was very quiet at first, then lost sound before dying completely. This is not unusual for IndyCar.com live streams, either pressers or races, and Allen makes a fantastic suggestion on how to fix it – the IRL team have some really good ideas but their tech and implementation don’t seem to ever catch up, so imagine mixing those two groups of people.

So yeah, good news for the series which is finally starting to heal some of the old wounds of the past. First the reunion, now the sponsor, next.. the car?

Some have attempted to spin this as Tony George doing good. Ha. No. He is the cause of the mess we are only just crawling out of. We haven’t quite got to the ‘standing up and dusting ourselves down’ bit yet, but we will.

Anyway, good to have some positive news after what has been a bit of a negative week for the rest of motorsport.

Presumably this means the series acronym will now be IICS – for those not following closely, i.e. most reading this I presume, over the last 18 months or so they’ve been redefining ‘IRL’ to refer to the sanctioning body rather than the championship, so the series has sort of started to be called the ICS, for IndyCar Series. So we now have IRL IICS. Not catchy.. needs work.

Jeff Olson has a good piece over on AUTOSPORT.

EDIT – IndyCar.com has a nice landing page explaining it all, though unfortunately the main site underneath is still a mess and has auto-run video (it is video of the announcement though, so check it out).

Weekend Preview: 8-9 August 2009

Feature Events


IRL IndyCar Series

– Honda Indy 200
– Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
– Lexington, Ohio, USA
– (13/17)
– www.indycar.com

Mid-Ohio is a nice place and I’m sure it is a fantastic place to drive a racing car – it certainly looks it – unfortunately I find the ‘racing’ to be processional, this is a strategy event. The place is too narrow and too bumpy. There is one passing opportunity, the do-or-die at the end of the long straight, if it works you look a hero but if it fails… into the kitty litter and an almost-certain safety car. There have been some very good moves at that corner but it really is a “send it up the inside and hope it works” type of place, rather than somewhere to set up a move.

I remember it said in my short CART-watching stint 8 or so years ago that it needed widening and nothing has changed. They should widen only some of it though! The back section is a good test of driving skill and is the best feature of the course, keep that as it is. For all it’s faults it is really good to see IndyCars away from street racing and on natural terrain courses – it needs more open road courses and fewer streets, IMO.

TV Guide:
UK – TAPE DELAY on Sky Sports Xtra at 10.30pm BST Sunday
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 1pm ET Sunday

The tape delay is due to live NASCAR at the same time and Sky Sports are showing golf, tennis and cricket on the other three channels (perhaps ironically, the golf is also from Ohio).

Other Events


American Le Mans Series

– Acura Sports Car Challenge
– Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
– Lexington, Ohio, USA
– (6/10)
– www.americanlemans.com

Thankfully the racing in the ALMS at Mid-Ohio can be better than the IRL, and that is because of the traffic of the different classes. Unfortunately I am not able to make this a ‘Feature Event’ until live coverage returns – and that applies both here in the UK where several races have been aired a week late, but also in the USA where this event is delayed one day. I’m not saying I’d be able to see it but as far as I’m concerned, not offering even a same-day tape is unforgivable.

TV Guide:
The race starts at 3pm EDT Saturday and you can follow it at their website and Radio Le Mans.
UK – TAPE DELAY on MotorsTV at 5pm Sunday 16th
USA – TAPE DELAY on NBC at 2.30pm Sunday 9th


Also at Mid-Ohio:
Indy Lights
Atlantic Championship

NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen
– Watkins Glen International, New York, USA
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports Xtra at 7pm Sunday
US – LIVE on ESPN at 1pm Sunday

NASCAR on the road course will be frenetic. They are on a version of the course which is a bit shorter than the one used by IndyCar a few weeks ago. I think that’s all there is to say there, other than the name of this race is genuine, this isn’t a parody!


NASCAR Nationwide Series

– Zippo 200
– Watkins Glen International, New York, USA
– www.nascar.com

I didn’t realise Nationwide was a support to the main series on the roads..


Grand-Am Rolex Series

– Crown Royal 200 at the Glen
– Watkins Glen International, New York, USA
– www.grandamerican.com

Formula Nippon

– Twin-Ring Motegi
– Motegi, Japan
(with All-Japan F3)

Dutch Supercar Challenge // German F3 Cup

– Assen
– Netherlands

Brazilian V8 Stock Cars

– Salvador
– Salvador, Brazil

Possible support series for the new IndyCar round?

* * * *
Sources:
Live Sport on TV
RadioTimes.com
and several of the series sites mentioned above

For motorbike fans, I don’t usually note anything other than MotoGP but FYI the British Superbikes are at Brands Hatch this weekend. Otherwise it seems most European-based series are on a break for this weekend, meaning a very US-dominated schedule for this weekend. Nothing wrong with that – if only we could see it live!

Weekend Preview : 1-2 August 2009

Feature Events


IRL IndyCar Series

– Meijer Indy 300
– Kentucky Speedway
– Sparta, Kentucky, United States
– (12/17)
– www.indycar.com

Changes to the aero rules for this race (see previous post) should mean an improvement in the racing on this 1.5 mile oval, as it has been fairly bad on ovals earlier this season. Since side by side open-wheel racing on ovals is the hallmark and unique selling point of this series, let’s hope they work.

Note this is a Saturday night race under the lights.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 2am Sunday (repeated 11.30am and 4.30pm on SS Xtra)
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 8pm ET Saturday

Other Events


Le Mans Series

– 1000KM do Algarve
– Portimao
– Algarve, Portugal
– (3/5)
– www.lemans-series.com

The is the first evening/night race for the Le Mans Series in Europe, and also the first visit of the series to this new circuit. The race will begin at 7.15pm local (and UK) time and run for the usual LMS distance of 1000km or six hours.

TV Guide:
UK – Eurosport at 7pm for 1h30m.


Formula Renault 3.5

– Portimao
– Algarve, Portugal

Supporting the LMS, both races are on Saturday afternoon.

TV Guide:

Race 1 on Eurosport at 12pm Saturday.
Race 2 doesn’t appear to be covered.

NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Pennsylvania 500
– Pocono, Pennsylvania, United States
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 3 at 7pm Sunday
US – LIVE on ESPN at 1pm Sunday


NASCAR Nationwide Series

– Iowa Speedway
– Iowa, United States
– www.nascar.com

NASCAR Camping World Trucks

– Nashville Speedway
– Tennessee, United States
– www.nascar.com


DTM

– Oschersleben
– Germany
– www.dtm.tv / www.dtm.com

dtm.tv should have live coverage from 1pm UK time.

V8 Supercars

– Norton 360 Sandown Challenge
– Sandown, Australia
– www.v8supercar.com.au


Indy Lights

– Oschersleben
– Germany


F3 Euroseries

– Kentucky Speedway
– Kentucky, USA

Superleague Formula

– Donington Park
– Leics., England, UK

World Rally Championship

– Rally Finland
– www.wrc.com

Kimi Raikkonen has entered his home round of the WRC in a Super 2000 spec Abarth. After the first day’s stages he’s performing among the top runners in his class and in the top 20 overall!


Intercontinental Rally Challenge

– Rally Vinho Madeira
– Madeira, Portugal
– www.ircseries.com


British Touring Car Championship

– Snetterton
– Norfolk, England, UK

TV Guide:

UK – The usual six hours (3 x BTCC plus lots of support races) on ITV4 from 11.30am!

* * * *

Sources:
Live Sport on TV
RadioTimes.com
and several of the series sites mentioned above

A Push To Pass

As reported in several places, the IndyCar Series will adopt a ‘Push to Pass’ system this weekend and for the remainder of the year. This system will provide a horsepower boost for a duration of 12 seconds per button-press. The amount of extra hp will depend on the fuel mixture setting selected (there are several preselected settings from full rich all the way to full lean, to save fuel, and a yellow flag setting). A fully rich setting will gain just 5hp while a leaner setting will benefit from up to 20hp.

These are not big gains. The Senior Technical Director of the IRL said the small amounts were due to the fact these are normally-aspirated engines which are already near their full potential, unlike Champ Car turbos which only needed a boost level change to get big hp gains. Perhaps he’s inferring that the A1GP engines are somewhat detuned under normal conditions, considering they get a rather larger bump from their normally-aspirated P2P…

What is very interesting about this development is that it is being introduced on an oval. No variant of P2P has ever been used on an oval, to the best of my knowledge, since Champ Car had stopped racing on them by the time their system was implemented. On an oval the horsepower and car setup are everything. Perhaps even just this small difference will be enough to create close racing? Maybe less so on the shorter tracks, but at those where their foot is on the bulkhead all the way round, definitely.

I am much more sceptical on the road and street courses where I really don’t think it’ll make an ounce of difference, the jump in power just isn’t enough for those tracks.

What is interesting is a tweet from Allen from The Furious Wedge. He mentioned another change that has been lost among the hoopla about P2P – the removal of the ‘wicker bill’ from the rear wing (as well as the general freeing-up of the aero regs). The wicker bill is a part on the trailing edge of the rear wing which creates drag. I’m not entirely sure why they are there, perhaps in a previous evolution of the aero package they helped the racing but it seems the reverse is true now, for whatever reason.

Let’s hope these changes improve the racing which has reportedly been dire this season. I’ve not really been able to see much of this year but I have recordings which I will watch over the coming weeks.