Fearless Leader Mike Whitesell and the ever intrepid John Olsakovsky holdown the fort as Shaw and Patterson attend to real life issues. Formula 1 gets relegated to circus status until they get their act together, the IndyCar Houston Grand Prix offered two extremely different races and is now off to Pocono, and the boys relay Shaw’s comments on the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, the Mt. Washington Hill Climb, and Rally Poland.
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OpenPaddock.net Podcast, Episode 238 – Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Summer angst and illness edition
Preview
- F1 – Relegated. May be replaced by Monster Jam coverage. (I vote for lawnmower racing!)
- IndyCar – Houston double review & Pocono preview
- Rally – Pikes Peak, Mt Washington, and Poland
Motorsports news uncategorized dumping ground
- F1 doesn’t care about the integrity of their sport, so it is now relegated to our miscellaneous section. If you wonder why we have taken this stance, here is why:
- Standing restarts confirmed by WMSC (and no meaningful cost controls)
- Bernie goes on the warpath against Monza
- How soon until he wakes up with a prancing horsehead in his bed?
- Bernie thinks bigger teams should run 3 cars and smaller teams should GTFO
- F1 – Strong rumors that Caterham has been sold. To be announced tomorrow. “F1 hasn’t worked” Vijay
- Formula E has better news!
- Katherine Legge joins Aguri
- Heidfeld & Sarrazin join Team Venturi
- Tweaks to “Fan Boost” absurdity (One 90hp boost for the top 3 tweet-whores)
IndyCar
- Houston Race 1
- The NRG Park facility:
- The killer bump was removed!
- $1M in improvements: Reinforced catch fences, grandstands moved back.
- Lack of USF2000 & Indy Lights had the fan area looking like Mother Hubbard’s cupboard
- Fan amenities were abyssmal (on Fri at least)
- Saturday saw rain, bringing temps down: Good for everyone!
- Wet standing start with drying track throughout
- Should the blue flag have been shown to Marco? Walker said they “created a new rule” for him. (The douchebag rule?)
- Was the fine/penalty justified? Enough?
- “Blocking for his own damn car is a bunch crap”
- Kimball first to go to slicks and was immediately on pace with the Sato
- Hinch passed Sato in the pits after closing up on him with Marco’s help….
- Aleshin takes out Sato who was running second, trying to get his lap back.
- Will Power shoots his 12th foot of the season
- Briscoe tags Savedra with 4 minutes to go for a full course yellow
- Huertas, Montoya, Kanaan, Rahal, Munoz with 1 lap of green to go
- Rahal punts TK before the restart, gets a 30s penalty, and causes a yellow finish
- Columbian podium. Huertas, Montoya, Munoz.
- results
- Best commentary team ever. Matchett, Difey, PT
- Johny Rutherford said he almost lost the brakes in the pace car due to all the cautions.
- Houston Race 2
- Rolling start instead of standing
- Race 1 winner ends day with mechanical failure on lap 2
- Bourdais bad pass attempt on Helio puts him in the wall
- Bourdais finishes race with damaged front wing (further damages front wing with late contact with Kanaan)
- Helio tried to blame Bourdais for the incident, but will change his mind when he sees the footage.
- Newgarden brake problem with 26 laps to go. FCY puts everybody on same strategy.
- Andretti tries to pass Wilson (24 to go), but puts him in the barrier instead
- Fun to watch a super aggressive Montoya
- Will Power loses pace from 3rd as rear suspension fails on penultimate lap, finishes 11th
- Pagenaud gets win, teammate Aleshin 2nd with a flat tire in closing laps, Hawksworth goes from last to 3rd
- results
- standings
- Event and attendance
- (Any attendance figures or TV ratings?)
- Stands & fan areas looked half-empty on TV, especially wide shots
- Andretti interested in Pagenaud for 2015
- New floor for 2015 aerokit cars
- Indy scoring pylon taken down
- Derrick Walker confirms serious talk with 2 potential new engine manufs. for 2016
- Pocono preview
- Rahal w/ special Natl Guard livery at Pocono.
- Does Graham deserve a car that looks this good?
Rally
- WRC Poland goes to Ogier
- Promoter has to defend himself after cancelling most of the Lithuanian miles
- Rally Poland – Ogier may have won, but his biggest rivals are from within the team and getting better all the time.
- Mt Washington Hill Climb
- Hill Climb Results
- Rally America results
- Pikes Peak
- results
- Fatal accident at the top
