It’s the Rally Edition of the OpenPaddock.net Podcast as we have Chris Leone on hand to discuss all things GRC and a tip on how you can some some bucks in New York, and Chris Duplessis to recap the Mt. Washington Hill Climb and preview the New England Forest Rally. The boys also look back at the IndyCar race at Iowa, argue about penalties, and scratch our heads about why no one is watching these magnificent races.
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Open Paddock.net – Episode #240 for Tuesday, July 15th, 2014
Preview
- Rally – Chris Leone on again to talk about Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship, and Chris Duplessis to talk about Mt. Washington and upcoming New England Forest Rally
- Grab Bag – News from F1 and SCCA Pro Racing
- IndyCar – RHR wins a barnburner in Iowa in front of tens of fans… so why can’t ovals work?
Rally
- GRC – Chris Leone
- GRC to return to DirtFish
- Pedro Piquet (Nelson Piquet Jr.’s little brother) taking his place in GRC Lites
- GRC Detroit axed and second LA round added
- GRC New York preview and track layout
- Rally America – Chris Duplessis
- Kitty Smiles Rally Adventures – http://www.kittysmiles.com/
- Short review of Mt. Washington Hill Climb from one that was there
- Preview of New England Forest Rally
- Chris to talk about getting back in a car, what class he’ll be racing in, and what his target is for the weekend
- WRC
- Kubica dominates Italian tarmac rally, a preview for WRC tarmac events?
- New Hyundai i20 WRC likely won’t be ready until mid 2015 season
- Next Event – Currently On Summer Break, Rally Finland July 31st – August 3rd
UMMM
- SCCA – Former HPD chief Robert Clarke named to head SCCA pro racing
- F1 – German Grand Prix – World Cup ticket scheme
- Hockenheim German Grand Prix preview
- F1 – Caterham looking to replace drivers… maybe as early as this weekend
- F1 – FIA now says titanium skid blocks are for safety
- FRICkin suspension changes – McLaren will get the FRIC out for Germany.
- Hunt / Lauda rivalry returns with sons racing in MRF this winter
IndyCar
- Iowa
- More laps, no heats
- Ganassi locked out front row in qualifying
- early rain put the race in a brief red flag
- hobbs got to try out a victory loin
- red flag ends, Aleshin takes out Sato, tried to go below yellow line on cold tires
- caution for JPM’s delaminated rear wing
- 161 – Saavedra bumps the wall, keeps it together and gets to the pits. Yellow.
- Rough night for KV, Saavedra out of contention with rear suspension damage, Bourdais out with a flaky intercooler.
- great battles all over the track – hinch v pagenaud, carpenter v kanaan, hinch v newgarden, kanaan v dixon,
- 232 – Marco’s engine goes pop, right as everybody was gearing up for green flag stops. Pagenaud was ducking down to pit road, but had to drive through instead of stopping. Montoya goes from lap down to rear of lead lap to 7th after wing delamination.
- Jan pointed out the swirling vortex of Marco’s engine demise as an example of the dirty air that follows the high downforce package.
- 18 to go, Ed chopped JPM while while JPM was trying to go low and pass him for 6th. No penalty, but probably deserved it. JPM said “I’ll take some action later.” Ed said. my fault “hopefully we can talk about it without me getting my butt kicked.”
- Ed later apologized. Did it warrant a penalty?
- Restart with 10 to go. RHR, Newgarden pitted for new tires before the restart.
- Fantastic finish for RHR and Newgarden (21st to 2nd) who both pass the dominant TK for 1st & 2nd.
- Ganassi shows speed for the first time this season, and they blow the strategy call to take tires with ten to go.
- Best quotes:
- Ryan Hunter-Reay “Man that was fun. It was like a video game at the end.”
- Josef Newgarden “That was the weirdest experience I’ve had in a race. It’s almost unfair. You put on tires like that and you just have so much more grip than everybody. It was a great call.”
- Great footage of Dixon and Kanaan getting out of their cars at the end of the race, hugs and what-the-hecks.
- results – standings
- Great race, but Iowa didn’t notice
- Nobody is noticing.
- Pocono TV ratings are a dismal 0.2 (342,000)
- Iowa ratings are 444,000 (0.3 or so?)
- Why aren’t ovals working – Miller
- In general: Road course ratings are generally up, ovals are down.
- Who is dropping the ball and why?
- Looks like the King’s Royal at Eldora had more fans in the stands than Newton, and they paid out $37k to the winning 50/50 ticket. Hmmmm.
- Good time to mention Brad Plat’s In-Focus picture
- John Force to teach Graham how to drag… swap cars with Ashley
- Changes to IndyCar Drive thru penalties (odd)
Wake me when the show starts!