Nikon Indy 300 - Australia

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DanicaFan

Guest
Well, the IndyCar Series is back on the track this weekend. Thank goodness. They are racing at Surfer's Paradise in Australia. Its a street course.

Well, the IndyCar teams have a day of practice in now. They had 2 sessions today and they practice again tomorrow. Qualifications are Saturday. Danica didnt do as well as I hoped but now that she has some laps on the track, Im sure she will do good from here on out. I look for her to easily be in the top 10tomorrow and for qualifications.

Will Power was the fastest today. And look at Dario Franchitti, 3rd quickest!

Here are the combined results of today's practice sessions..

Rank / Car# & Driver / Lap Time / Speed

1. #8 Will Power / 01:34.8084 / 106.130
2. #3 Helio Castroneves / 01:36.1609 / 104.637
3. #10 Dario Franchitti / 01:36.1712 / 104.626
4. #5 Oriol Servia / 01:36.4394 / 104.335
5. #06 Graham Rahal / 01:36.4963 / 104.273
6. #02 Justin Wilson / 01:36.5127 / 104.256
7. #9 Scott Dixon / 01:36.5812 / 104.182
8. #17 Ryan Hunter-Reay / 01:36.8863 / 103.854
9. #36 Alex Tagliani / 01:37.0625 / 103.665
10. #11 Tony Kanaan / 01:37.0650 / 103.662
11. #18 Bruno Junqueira / 01:37.3127 / 103.399
12. #6 Ryan Briscoe / 01:37.5183 / 103.181
13. #33 EJ Viso / 01:38.3860 / 102.271
14. #19 Mario Moraes / 01:38.6572 / 101.990
15. #27 Hideki Mutoh / 01:38.8353 / 101.806
16. #2 AJ Foyt IV / 01:39.0920 / 101.542
17. #14 Vitor Meira / 01:39.1538 / 101.479
18. #4 Dan Wheldon / 01:39.8513 / 100.770
19. #26 Marco Andretti / 01:39.8582 / 100.763
20. #7 Danica Patrick / 01:40.0527 / 100.567
21. #34 Jaime Camara / 01:40.4821 / 100.137
22. #15 Buddy Rice / 01:40.7196 / 99.901
23. #20 Ed Carpenter / 01:41.4751 / 99.157
24. #23 Townsend Bell / 01:41.5490 / 99.085
 
I thought the season was over? What in the world did the merger do to the schedule???
 
Magnethead said:
I thought the season was over? What in the world did the merger do to the schedule???
Click to expand...

It is over. This is a non-championship points race. The only reason they are going there this year is to fulfill contract obligations. Whether they return next year is unclear at this time but talks are under way to go back.
 
Well, here are the results of today's practice session. I dont like the look of this. Danica placed even lower. I still have faith in her. Hang in there Danica.

Wilson and Power running fast.

Rank / Car# & Driver / Time / Speed

1. #02 Justin Wilson / 01:34.5072 / 106.468
2. #8 Will Power / 01:34.6523 / 106.305
3. #9 Scott Dixon / 01:35.0684 / 105.828
4. #10 Dario Franchitti / 01:35.1053 / 105.799
5. #3 Helio Castroneves / 01:35.7208 / 105.118
6. #17 Ryan Hunter-Reay / 01:35.8260 / 105.003
7. #6 Ryan Briscoe / 01:36.0483 / 104.760
8. #5 Oriol Servia / 01:36.1073 / 104.695
9. #06 Graham Rahal / 01:36.2337 / 104.558
10. #36 Alex Tagliani / 01:36.5997 / 104.162
11. #33 EJ Viso / 01:36.6073 / 104.154
12. #18 Bruno Junqueira / 01:36.7597 / 103.990
13. #19 Mario Moraes / 01:36.9109 / 103.827
14. #11 Tony Kanaan / 01:37.0313 / 103.698
15. #27 Hideki Mutoh / 01:37.7170 / 102.971
16. #2 AJ Foyt IV / 01:38.2213 / 102.442
17. #14 Vitor Meira / 01:38.4132 / 102.242
18. #4 Dan Wheldon / 01:38.6506 / 101.996
19. #34 Jaime Camara / 01:39.0564 / 101.578
20. #20 Ed Carpenter / 01:39.2413 / 101.389
21. #26 Marco Andretti / 01:39.3099 / 101.319
22. #15 Buddy Rice / 01:39.3540 / 101.274
23. #7 Danica Patrick / 01:39.8326 / 100.789
24. #23 Townsend Bell / 01:41.0120 / 99.612
 
Well, qualifications are over. Will Power takes the poll. Congrats Will. He is joined by Scott Dixon in the front row. Unfortunately Danica didnt have a good qualification run, she recorded no time due to her causing a caution during the session by a wreck and stalling the car. I look for her driving skill and good pit strategy to bring her to the top.

The track was wet due to rain and therefore the times were slower, especially for the first group.

Here is the starting grid..

Row 1
1. #8 Will Power / 01:34.9451 / 105.977
2. #9 Scott Dixon / 01:35.7672 / 105.067

Row 2
3. #6 Ryan Briscoe / 01:35.8007 / 105.031
4. #10 Dario Franchitti / 01:35.9336 / 104.885

Row 3
5. #17 Ryan Hunter-Reay / 01:36.4030 / 104.374
6. #3 Helio Castroneves / 01:36.7425 / 104.008

Row 4
7. #36 Alex Tagliani / 01:41.3122 / 99.317
8. #11 Tony Kanaan / 01:41.4023 / 99.229

Row 5
9. #02 Justin Wilson / 01:42.0429 / 98.606
10. #33 EJ Viso / 01:42.9185 / 97.767

Row 6
11. #14 Vitor Meira / 01:44.3348 / 96.440
12. #19 Mario Moraes /01:51.5054 / 90.238

Row 7
13. #06 Graham Rahal / 01:55.6155 / 87.030
14. #26 Marco Andretti / 01:52.2084 / 89.672

Row 8
15. #5 Oriol Servia / 01:55.6628 / 86.994
16. #27 Hideki Mutoh / 01:53.3353 / 88.781

Row 9
17. #18 Bruno Junqueira / 01:58.0183 / 85.258
18. #4 Dan Wheldon / 01:53.9160 / 88.328

Row 10
19. #20 Ed Carpenter / 01:58.7664 / 84.721
20. #34 Jaime Camara / 01:54.0514 / 88.223

Row 11
21. #23 Townsend Bell / 01:58.9264 / 84.607
22. #15 Buddy Rice / 01:54.3489 / 87.994

Row 12
23. #7 Danica Patrick / No Time
24. #2 AJ Foyt IV / No Time
 
Unfortunately, Danica had a bad race. She had a bad weekend. Time to move on, she will be back strong next year. She got clipped by Helio which left damage to the front wing causing her to pit to replace it. Then she stalled the car during the yellow trying to avoid the stalled cars on the track that caused the yellow. The safety crews didnt get her started very quickly on that.

Here are the final results..

1. #6 Ryan Briscoe
2. #9 Scott Dixon
3. #17 Ryan Hunter-Reay
4. #36 Alex Tagliani
5. #5 Oriol Servia
6. #33 EJ Viso
7. #3 Helio Castroneves
8. #27 Hideki Mutoh
9. #06 Graham Rahal
10. #4 Dan Wheldon
11. #02 Justin Wilson
12. #15 Buddy Rice
13. #26 Marco Andretti
14. #14 Vitor Meira
15. #18 Bruno Junqueira
16. #10 Dario Franchitti
17. #2 AJ Foyt IV
18. #7 Danica Patrick
19. #34 Jaime Camara
20. #20 Ed Carpenter
21. #11 Tony Kanaan
22. #8 Will Power
23. #23 Townsend Bell
24. #19 Mario Moraes
 
i don't like the fact that they waited sooo long to run this race. they're screwin up man, of course they need to bring the Australia race back, it's a popular event...
 
Wish I had seen this race. My Aussie friend has told me that these cars are very boring down there and it's a good thing the Super V8's were racing with them or there might not have been a very big crowd.

We then went on to discuss open wheel racing here in the US. I told him of the split of USAC way back when and then the eventual merger back just this year. Here's a question for you Indy Car fans that pay attention to this sort of thing. Is the series heading back to what it was just before the split? The IRL was beginning to gain fans because the competition was so close and had some really great, close finishes. It was the high dollar teams that went on to form CART and then the Champ Car series, but when they really wanted to get back to Indy, they had to conform with Tony George's rules. Now that they are back solidly, will the big money and foreign drivers again make this the F! series of America?
 
CART/Champ Cars destroyed itself by striving to be more international and elite. They had no chance of competing with F1 followers and couldn't afford to sustain themselves financially. Hopefully they can integrate into the more competitive IRL without trying to push a lot of rules changes. Considering the global financial problems they should be very happy competing on a leaner budget. The IRL will benefit having more good drivers to compete with. I see it as a big win/win situation for everyone that likes American open wheel racing.
 
buckaroo said:
Wish I had seen this race. My Aussie friend has told me that these cars are very boring down there and it's a good thing the Super V8's were racing with them or there might not have been a very big crowd.

We then went on to discuss open wheel racing here in the US. I told him of the split of USAC way back when and then the eventual merger back just this year. Here's a question for you Indy Car fans that pay attention to this sort of thing. Is the series heading back to what it was just before the split? The IRL was beginning to gain fans because the competition was so close and had some really great, close finishes. It was the high dollar teams that went on to form CART and then the Champ Car series, but when they really wanted to get back to Indy, they had to conform with Tony George's rules. Now that they are back solidly, will the big money and foreign drivers again make this the F! series of America?
Click to expand...

Looks like it is heading back to a CART type series now. If you look at the CART seasons 92 and 93, which were both very good years, with great racing and gret attendance, there were 16 races, half on oval, the other split between road courses and temporary street circuits. But, it was still CART at the time when the fans and the racing were at the peak.

Unfortunately, Tony George had an idea. A good idea, in my opinion, just poorly executed. He tried to bring the indycar series back to it's old USAC roots. More ovals, more American drivers, a place where some of the current USAC starts like Tony Stewart (and Jeff Gordon a couple years before) could go on to shine like Andretti and Foyt before them. Problem was, you either had to do it his way, or no way. In fact, I think the 1996 500, the first under IRL, George locked the top 25 positions down to only those teams that would sign on with the IRL, thus dropping any of the non-commital CART teams to the back.

They, in turn, told Tony to screw off, and held their own, competing 500 mile race at Michigan on the same day. Disaster in the attendence, TV numbers, and marred by a rediculously bad start, which wiped out a third of the field before the green flag even flew.

And that was the beginning of the worst thing for open wheel racing. Now that there's one series, hopefully they can continue to get better. Right now it's more ovals than road courses, but it is starting to look more like CART did in the early 90s. Hopefully, though, history won't repeat itself.
 
Just seems like racing goes in cycles. Back in the 70's, NASCAR was more of a southern thing with fans spotted around the country, USAC and the big time race at Indianapolis was the top dog in racing in this country. Though there were many people who had heard of Richard Petty and David Pearson, fewer had heard of Cale Yarbrough or Bobby Allison. However, the names of AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, Bobby and Al Unser, Johnny Rutherford and Gordon Johncock were much more widely known. But those were the times when racing, though for it's fans was big, wasn't a really big attraction in the US. Few races of any kind were shown live on TV, but the Indianapolis 500 was hyped and hyped and that was probably the biggest race of the year for any series, Daytona 500 included. So what killed USAC? It is my opinion that there were several things that led to the demise of USAC. First and probably foremost, NASCAR got in it's way and began to show more and more races live on TV. But still, the Indy 500 was the premier event of racing in this country and could still command the biggest attraction. As NASCAR began to swell, USAC needed something to lift their series in order to compete, so what did they do? They brought in an international racing star by the name of Teo Fabi from Italy and showcased his racing. Now USAC had an international flair which they believed would bring in more fans not just from the US, but from around the world. It worked and while NASCAR was still growing and moving in the same direction that it had grown, USAC was reaching out to the bigger picture. Until then, USAC was an American sport with the foreign names like Andretti being around from the start and a part of it's history. Now those foreign names were real foreigners who were coming to this country just to drive. Now longer were the drivers coming up from the midgets and sprint cars from all over the country, but were now coming from the likes of Europe and South America. Names like Mansel and Fittipaldi were taking control of the series and those old big time names like Unser and Andretti and Foyt were beginning to retire, leaving their legacy to their off springs. The series was getting big alright, but at what expense. Technology proved to be very expensive and to win took more and more money. And then one of the most damaging things to ever happen to USAC and the Indy 500 was when the defending champion of the race failed to even make it the following year.

In my opinion, I don't think that the IRL/Champ Car series will ever be what it was before the split and will continue to be F1 lite. When you have more foreign drivers than American's in the cars, the fan base will not grow. Yes, the competition is what is important, but the fans have to have someone to identify with. I'm not an American only fan, but a realist. I've witnessed the growth and split of USAC and heard the many complaints about it. I'm now witnessing the same thing in NASCAR, trying to internationalize, and while at first it's a win for the series, but over the long run, the loyal fans begin to wane. Maybe auto racing in this country is losing it's appeal to the public, but that has happened in the past. But I see more and more people are preferring to check out their own local racing rather than attend the big time races. Where does it all end?
 
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