Indycar 2015

Every top race series should have a Holmatro Safety Team. I'm often shocked after an F1 accident, by how long it takes ANYONE to respond.

Think of Heiki's fire...

If an unresponsive driver were in that car

Of course if the suspension is in your pelvic region, AND you're on fire, well.....the Hibachi Safety Team would be required.

I don't particularly care if they go FASTER than ever, just want tight, unpredictable but safe racing.

A bad experiment gone bad. Indy wanted to break some of the speed records so they upped the power and didnt correct the aero. Now they are worried about safety and dont know how to get things fixed. Pulling back on power means that the cars go full power all the way around the track yet no one knows what would happen if you mess with the aero package. The drivers have to be terrified.
I just hope it doesnt ruin the best day of racing for us racing geeks.

Weight, tire and displacement. All other non-safety rules should be scrapped. Spec series races, at the professional level, are boring to me.

The drag crowd did a class where the rules were simple. An Outlaw 10.5 car had to conform to five basic limitations: stock firewall, stock-style front suspension, mufflers, and all in a 3,000-pound package riding on 10.5-inch rear slicks. That was pretty much the entire rule book other than safety equipment.

I'd like to see NASCAR, F1 and Indy adopt a similar rule set. Racing might be interesting again.

Look at the tunnels in the underbody of an Indy car. Good for down force but excellent air scoops when going backwards. Along with the wing creating lift.

So, no talk of the big show?

I thought it was a great race, and for all his controvasy as a person I loved seeing JPM win. I thought it was a great race and so so glad that there were no more ;big' accidents.

It must have been heart braking for Conor Daly. All that work, gets a shot at Indy and his bacon mobile is on full broiler before the green flag. If there's one small bit of good news from the wrecks leading up to it, I hope that Daly get's to fill in for Hinch until he returns. The kid is damn good.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: So, no talk of the big show? I thought it was a great race, and for all his controvasy as a person I loved seeing JPM win. I thought it was a great race and so so glad that there were no more ;big' accidents. It must have been heart braking for Conor Daly. All that work, gets a shot at Indy and his bacon mobile is on full broiler before the green flag. If there's one small bit of good news from the wrecks leading up to it, I hope that Daly get's to fill in for Hinch until he returns. The kid is damn good.

You are slipping Adrian. http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/indy-500-2015/102043/page1/

Too many beers or brats over the weekend?

Race 1 in Detroit. Started wet, dried up, and rained again. Young guys being aggressive and veterans logging laps. Crazy race with some hurt feelings. Carlos Munoz wins after a red flag for lightning.It all comes around again for race 2 on Sunday. One of the good things Indycar has done is dual race weekends, but I'm sure some of the teams with wrecked cars might disagree with me.

Leaving the circuit now with Tom Spangler and my76 year old race fan mom. Despite the wet dry wet stop, it was a great race to watch. Sato pulled some great overtakes right in from of us into 5. Missed how Munoz passed Marco for the lead though.

Tudor race was awesome to watch too. All in all a great days racing in the D

he had pitted for slicks ~ 6 laps later than Marco after the first rain … was able to stay out (because of fuel) that much longer when Marco HAD to pit .. even though he would rather have stayed out on drys …

in those extra 6 laps Munoz was able to gap Marco by more than 25 sec and was able to pit for fuel and rains and retain the lead

Great time despite the rain and interminable yellows (really, why does it have to take 20 minutes to remove one piece of debris from the track?).

Marco, Munoz, and Pagenaud certainly timed the rain better than everyone else. IMO, the Penskes, etc came in way too soon for wets. The track was still very dry at that point.

according to the weather apps that all the teams were using, rain was " 3 - 6 min. away … Mario kept telling Marco to come in … that rain was emanate … he kept replying " the track is still dry, I'm staying out"

he, Munoz, and Pagenaud all had more fuel, and consequently were able to stay out longer

Considering the chance that Penske and Ganssis' teams did by putting on wets so early- it was pretty gutsy for both Andretti and Munoz to stay on slicks. Had the rain started (and it was starting QUICK around here yesterday) on the wrong part of the track- they would never had a chance. But they built a lead fast enough to do a pit and still be ahead- and some good luck for Munoz to have the fuel to lead Marco so far to pit and stay in the lead.

Ganassi needs beter meteorologitsts. Man did they mess up by putting Dixon back on wet tires.

Two days in a row, they blew chunks.

Peneske- interesting to see two of them take each other out.

Both teams had pretty bad weekends- even when you put Montoya's finish in context with every one else who stopped the same time he did.

Great to see Munoz win (a pretty anti-climatic ending) and Bourdais get his first win of the season.

I would love to see some of the smaller teams win a bit more often … gotten really tired of it always being Ganassi or Peneske

alfadriver wrote: Considering the chance that Penske and Ganssis' teams did by putting on wets so early- it was pretty gutsy for both Andretti and Munoz to stay on slicks. Had the rain started (and it was starting QUICK around here yesterday) on the wrong part of the track- they would never had a chance. But they built a lead fast enough to do a pit and still be ahead- and some good luck for Munoz to have the fuel to lead Marco so far to pit and stay in the lead.

and yet it didn't start raining for … what ? 20 some odd laps … the drivers were making the call … at least the ones that stayed out

wbjones wrote:

alfadriver wrote: Considering the chance that Penske and Ganssis' teams did by putting on wets so early- it was pretty gutsy for both Andretti and Munoz to stay on slicks. Had the rain started (and it was starting QUICK around here yesterday) on the wrong part of the track- they would never had a chance. But they built a lead fast enough to do a pit and still be ahead- and some good luck for Munoz to have the fuel to lead Marco so far to pit and stay in the lead.

and yet it didn't start raining for … what ? 20 some odd laps … the drivers were making the call … at least the ones that stayed out

Looking back on what happened- even those who stopped for fuel- it would have made sense to stay with the slick, and change when it actually rained. The time difference was high enough that 3 laps would have given you a big enough gap to add a stop.

Off topic. Anyone see a lot of similarities between the Mansell 93 livery and the 2015 Power and Castroneves in the Verizon and Hitachi cars?

Especially flashing by in person and on TV I see a lot of similarities which the nostalgic in me likes

If they had run the full number of laps instead of a timed race, the finish would have been a whole lot different. Some ran out of fuel on the cool down lap.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Especially flashing by in person and on TV I see a lot of similarities which the nostalgic in me likes

Well, yes, I do. But Mansell was carrying what was pretty much the standard Newman-Haas livery of that era. Here are Michael and Mario from the year before:

Tom_Spangler wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Especially flashing by in person and on TV I see a lot of similarities which the nostalgic in me likes

Well, yes, I do. But Mansell was carrying what was pretty much the standard Newman-Haas livery of that era. Here are Michael and Mario from the year before:

They used that combo for several years. Great look cars too compared the hideousness they drive today.

I like Takuma Sato. The fact that a Japanese driver is teamed up with Texan A.J. Foyt makes him even more interesting. Yeah, he might be a tad wild at times, but he's fun to watch and gets things done or wrecks trying. Hopefully someone will soon realize all those little carbon fiber winglets and extra pieces that seem to fly off with the slightest touch are not a good image for Indycar racing. The racing is good, but the cars are not pretty, at least not like the cars above.

They do lose a lot of little bits and pieces, but the main parts of the car sure seem tough. And not just tough as in Hinch slams the wall at 125G and lives to tell the tale, but tough as in they can rub wheels or touch the wall and continue on as before.

That stuff around the rear wheels sure is ugly, and the million element front wings just look like something a Japanese drifter would put on his Toyota, but I'm old and irrelevant. Maybe they look cool as hell to the youngsters.

the support race at Indy had MUCH nicer looking cars

I must be in the minority because I love the rear pontoons behind the back wheels. I think it's a great idea.

I also like that they are doing the aero kits so there is more differentiation and less of a total spec series.

I like this from Saturdays race.

Note the different size and location of the Gurney flaps on the front wings. This must be to enable gross changes in front end grip if they need a new nose during the race.

Yes they fly off a lot, I'm not sure if they need to be stronger, or if they need better driving standards, F1 doesn't have the same issue. That's another plus of the rear pontoons, they stop the # of cut rear tires from the trailing cars end plates.

P.S. what I am showing above is the modified Honda front wing that was dictated by Indy car. Here is a before and after of the road course kit, how they started the year and what they are having now. I think this is great, not just differentiation, but progress through the year.