Formula 1 – FP2 Notes; Vettel Sweeps Practice

Sebastian Vettel stormed to P1 in both practice sessions from Albert Park as the 2013 Formula 1 season kicks off. Vettel’s Red Bull was the class of the field as he and the team picked up where they left off at the end of last season. There was a lot of interesting data collected as the super soft tire compound took center stage. The new Pirelli rubber was due to be faster by approximately a second, but suffered an extremely short life with times dropping almost immediately. The real surprise…

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Star Mazda – Open Practice at Iowa Speedway

The Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear started off the competitive laps at the Iowa Speedway this afternoon with a four-hour open test/practice session. The two Juncos racing drivers Martin Scuncio in the #60 and Gustavo Menezes in the #28 topped the charts this afternoon, but not by much, after putting up times of 22.028s and 22.044s, respectively. The Team Pelfrey duo of Connor De Phillippi (#11) and Nick Andries (#81) weren’t too far back falling short of Scuncio’s time by 0.016s and 0.050s, respectively. Good enough for P3 and…

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IndyCar – Fast Friday Recap

Here are your practice times for fast Friday. Amazingly, the track stayed mostly dry today except for the occasional yellow for moisture in turn X. And while the track was green, a whole slew of faces made their way to the top of the timesheets for today. Helio, Tagliani and Power all put in 226+ times, while Townsend Bell and Graham Rahall mixed up the status quo by placing 10th and 11th respectively. Dan Wheldon and Mike Conway chose to sit out today’s session though, most likely because today’s conditions…

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IndyCar – Indy 500 Aggregate Practice Times Through Thursday

Tony Kanaan, Paul Tracy, Marco Andretti, Dan Wheldon & Hideki Mutoh put in their quickest times of the month yesterday, and all of them are firmly in the top 10. Here is your aggregate timesheet. . Pos Driver # Team Best Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur . 1 Castroneves 3 Penske 227.046 226.603 227.046 – 224.833 225.563 226.08 . 2 Dixon 9 Ganassi 226.971 226.237 226.202 – 226.549 226.971 225.035 . 3 Kanaan 11 Andretti 226.775 224.685 225.524 – 225.171 225.66 226.775 . 4 Briscoe 6 Penske 226.633 224.384…

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IndyCar – Wednesday Indy 500 Practice Recap

Scott Dixon continued to impress at Indy today, once again setting quick time. This is becoming a trend. Action on the track was pretty heavy today with several of the contenders working on race setups. At times today there were 10 or 12 cars running together in packs on the track. EJ Viso did not make it on the track today after being released from Methodist last night and being cleared by IMS medical staff today. While EJ was a bit sore, he seemed no worse for wear, which is…

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IndyCar – Aggregate Indy 500 Practice Times After Wednesday

Here are your aggregate practice times updated through Wednesday practice.  Things are starting to look clear up at the top as Dixon has so far been the class of the field during all practice sessions, save for Helio’s staggering weekend performance.  Kudos to Hideki Mutoh for moving from 17th up to 6th on the aggregate speed chart. . Pos Driver # Team Best Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed . 1 Castroneves 3 Penske 227.046 226.603 227.046 – 224.833 225.563 . 2 Dixon 9 Ganassi 226.971 226.237 226.202 – 226.549 226.971…

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IndyCar – Aggregate Times for Indy 500 Practice Sessions So Far

Here are your combined aggregate times for practice sessions so far. Note that we are not making a distinction between “T” cars and regular entries. Also, note that we are not keeping track of Kanaan’s herculean effort taking laps in all 5 Andretti entries on Saturday. At this point, financing for Bruno Juniquiera’s seat at FAZZT has not yet come through. I am starting to get concerned that it isn’t going to happen for Bruno this year. This was a class A move by FAZZT and Alex to bring Bruno…

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IndyCar – Indy 500 Tuesday Practice Results

Rain held off on Tuesday to allow a full day of practice for the IZOD IndyCar Series, in preparation for The Greatest Spectacle In Racing.  But it did have a little bearing on today’s procedures as they didn’t go green until shortly after 1:00 PM EST since the track was drying from earlier rain. Scott Dixon put up quick time today, which isn’t much of a surprise given his affiliation with one of the big dog teams.  But the results sheet behind him was an appealing surprise and hopefully a…

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IndyCar – Green For Practice At Indy

This was the scene earlier this morning as track crew worked to dry out the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in time for practice.  With rain washing out yesterday’s activities and rain threatening for most of the remaining week, practice time is at a premium as everybody prepares for qualifying this weekend.  Throw in the fact that the schedule this month is severely compressed and qualifying has been shortened from four days to two. That said, at 1:07 PM EST and the track went green.  Ambient temperature is only 55F and there is a…

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