If you missed the Sonoma race this weekend, you missed a lot. For the first time in many seasons, I remained conscious for the entirety of the race at Infineon. Now before the haters start digging into me, let me say (and if you read my Mid-Ohio post you’ll know this to be true) I love road courses. In fact, the circuit at Sears Point, aka Sonoma, aka Infineon, is a heck of a lot of fun to drive. Sadly, its not a heck of a lot of fun, typically,…
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IndyLights – Mid-Ohio Review
The general fan reaction around the blogs, forums, and twitter streams to the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course have all been about the same, and in my opinion, completely off the mark. I can hear the detractors now, “So, Doug, what makes you think that you’re right in the face of so many who say that the races were boring.” I have two comments to that: I was actually there, and I paid attention to more than just the leader. Listen to the…
Read MoreIndyCar – Mid-Ohio Review
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a beautiful race track, and the morning sun on Race Day made it look even more fantastic. Even at 7:30 in the morning, the hills along the Esses were filling up fast. Qualification on Saturday was amazing to watch, especially with Justin Wilson doing so well. Briscoe earned the pole, but Wilson was right along side him qualifying P2 for Sunday’s race. In the previous road race at Watkins Glen, Wilson scored Dale Coyne Racing’s first ever win in any major open-wheel series. It…
Read MoreIndyCar – Why Switch Teams Robert?
The official start of silly season happened this week as Doornbos has taken his father’s checkbook to HVM. If you recall, it was pretty widely reported at the beginning of the season that Robert had secured a 12 race deal with NHL. Lets be honest though, NHL is one of the most likely candidates to end up as one of the top teams in coming seasons, and certainly the move to HVM is slightly south of lateral. It appears that there was some pretty bad blood at the team as…
Read MoreIndyCar – Kentucky Changes
The IndyCar race at Kentucky easily qualifies as the best oval race they have put on this year, and in my book, also outshined the fantastic street race at Toronto. Hands down, best race of the season! It was just a bonus that I was in attendance. Congratulations to Ryan Briscoe, who took the photo finish win over Ed Carpenter. Their side by side battle has to go down as the best season highlight on ovals so far. The teams were given very little practice time with these new features…
Read MoreIndyCar – 2010 Schedule Thoughts
The IndyCar series schedule for 2010 was release last Friday. By now you have probably already laid eyes on it, but I wanted to give my thoughts next years lineup of events. Date Venue Track Sunday, March 14 Brazil (city TBA) TBD Sunday, March 28 St. Petersburg, Fla. 1.8-mile street course Sunday, April 11 Barber Motorsports Park 2.48-mile road course Sunday, April 18 Long Beach, Calif. 1.968-mile street course Saturday, May 1 Kansas Speedway 1.5-mile oval Sunday, May 30 Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.5-mile oval Saturday, June 12* Texas Motor Speedway…
Read MoreIndyLights – No. 100 at Kentucky
The original Indy Lights series, sanctioned by CART, ran from 1986 to 2001. In 2002, the Indy Racing League revived the series as the Menards Infinity Pro Series until the title co-sponsors withdrew and the series was renamed the Indy Pro Series. In 2008, with the merger between the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series, Firestone came on board as a title sponsor and the old name “Indy Lights” was resurrected. The series now known as the Firestone Indy Lights Series celebrated its 100th race sanctioned by…
Read MoreIndyCar – Thoughts on Push-to-Pass
Curt Cavin let the cat out of the bag in an article today on IndyStar.com: Push-To-Pass will make its IndyCar Series debut in Kentucky. (As an aside, if you don’t already read Mr. Cavin’s Q&A, you should! Its great stuff.) Personally, I’m skeptical of the move. The push-to-pass button so often becomes a push-not-to-be-passed button, take a look at how KERS is used in F1 for example. On a restart everyone will mash their Go-Fast buttons and there will be no difference. Some drivers will use the button for offense,…
Read MoreIndyCar – Sweet Home Alabama
As Bob Jenkins eluded to during Sunday’s broadcast from Edmonton and verified today at IndyCar.com, the IndyCar Series will be racing at Barber Motorsports Park next season April 9-11, one week before the traditional date for the Long Beach Grand Prix. The IndyCar Series has tested at Barber a few times in recent years, but drivers and league officials have stated that there must be some significant course changes before the venue would be suitable for a race, especially in establishing safe run-off areas. The track has proved to be…
Read MoreIndyCar – Aerodynamic Changes Debut at Kentucky
In an effort to improve the oval-racing product, the Indy Racing League, sanctioning body for the IndyCar Series, will loosen up some of the aerodynamic rules that it had previously tightened in the name of cost-savings and parity. The problem with tightening the engineering rules in oval racing is that the large teams still spend just as much as they would have before, but now they spend it on the minutiae rather than on more substantial engineering. For the Meijer Indy 300 at the Kentucky Speedway on August 1st, team…
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