2018 Indycar

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Don’t have another race till April 7 but just wanted to get the thread up and going here. 

Don’t think I posted this in the other thread but Conor Daly finally got a ride for the Indy 500. Dale Coyne Racing in the US Air Force machine.

[Anton Chigurh 3320]

I guess he didn’t have any luck with Lindsey Vonn. 

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Dude took his shot tho. 

[taybo20 2887]

I won't be here until the 500

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Fucking finally it's race week again.  Time for the Phoenix Grand Prix!

Check out this article my buddy wrote for the Indy Car blog about the history of racing/drivers and Phoenix.  Pretty cool...

https://www.indycar.com/News/2018/04/04-03-Voices-Query

[Capn81 373]

Yeah, glad to see Indy back on the schedule this weekend. Weather looks terrible here, so Indy Saturday night and F1 Sunday morning it is.

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Great win for Rossi yesterday at Long Beach.  The kid has 3 wins in his career... Indy, Watkins Glen, and Long Beach.  That's one hell of a trifecta in the Indycar world/history.

[wood 11303]

Alex Fuckin' Rossi.

Good guy. Deserves all the good things coming his way.

[wood 11303]

On 3/25/2018 at 1:30 PM, Anton Chigurh said:

I guess he didn’t have any luck with Lindsey Vonn. 

Judging from the crazy eyes on that amazon, he got lucky if it didn't work out. 

[pwinger 35]

 

The pass by Bourdais was breathtaking

[wood 11303]

It really was. Eye-popping.

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Listened to the radio broadcast and Jake Query loved that pass. Really was something of a beauty. Place where it’s tough to go two-wide and he makes that insane pass going three-wide.

[Capn81 373]

I agree. This was a great pass.

[Anwar Namtut 344]

Ordered my tickets for this week for the return to Portland. Excited about that.

[Prepuce of Doom 21112]

Anyone else going to Road America? 

[BlueGreySky 1032]

It's May tomorrow!  The terrible winter weather is gone (but barely) and the track is going to be running for the entire month leading up to the 500 mile race.

And there are limited cars out on the track testing!  Best month of the year.

https://www.facebook.com/indycar/?hc_ref=ARRU5J8bUl-OK0knqnZDaN4gVGPwwqHTL1u7Qzxk2k302RtVlN--gFSQp1kC9IdKvb4

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Marco and Rossi have switched numbers 98/27.

Cars are pushing 224 already and it's not even noon.

Danica is there (doing a rookie refresher right now) and will be out on track this afternoon.

[BlueGreySky 1032]

morning session was great.  21 cars went out.  18 of them got above 220mph.  helio ran some laps... he's back in the yellow submarine backed by penzoil!

afternoon session about to get rolling in the next 45 mins.

Edited April 30, 2018 by BlueGreySky

[BlueGreySky 1032]

edit - danica won't run till tomorrow. 

later today newgarden will be testing a wind screen (the same one dixon was testing earlier in the spring)

tomorrow the cars will be running 10-1 and 2-5.

[Shoxthemonkey 1983]

I'm not a fan of the fenders but Indycar has done a good thing by removing the air intake behind the drivers head. These cars look much better than the last few years.

I'm hoping Helio can get #4 this year and ride off into the sunset. Keep the post coming BGS.

[BlueGreySky 1032]

The new design is really great, imo.  They changed some of the aero-package and now there are less fins and other parts on the car.  Rather, they added some components on the undercarriage of the car to increase downforce.  The car creates less dirty air as a result and allows for cars to presumably draft at closer distances because of that.

 

[Shoxthemonkey 1983]

I watched the last couple hours of practice on Youtube and it  looked like they were handling rather well in traffic. It made me miss being there over Memorial weekend. I'm going to have to look into tickets for this year.

[BlueGreySky 1032]

I'll be at the Grand Prix, Fast Friday, Bump Day (38 entries so far, so we get a REAL bump day!).  Only the second race I'll miss as I'll be out of the country for work (first one was the day my eldest son was born).

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Happy May 1st!

Track is live and a few cars are out running.  Rookies, I believe.  Got the stream on in the background silenced right now as I'm on a conference call.

Edited May 1, 2018 by BlueGreySky

[wood 11303]

Newg's windscreen test seems to have gone well...

 

Edited May 1, 2018 by wood

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Don't hate it.  

Morning session was pretty meh with rookies out there.  Veterans who aren't full time Indycar drivers coming up at 2pm eastern.  (includes Danica - eyeroll) 

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Danica out there turning laps.  My volume is off because I've been in on a few work calls, so not sure what they're saying about how she's doing.

[Shoxthemonkey 1983]

Month of May, Indianapolis, Emmylou. This belongs here.

@BlueGreySky is there a Youtube Indy channel schedule for the rest of the month posted somewhere?

[Prepuce of Doom 21112]

Pietro Fittipaldi hit the tire barriers at Eau Rouge this morning and has broken both legs. 

 

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Dammit.  I was very much looking forward to him going through quals at Indy and potentially making the race.

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Bump Day is baaaaaack! 

2018 ENTRY BREAKDOWN

Winners (6): Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato

Rookies (4): Pietro Fittipaldi, Kyle Kaiser, Matheus Leist, Robert Wickens

American drivers (14): Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter, Conor Daly, JR Hildebrand, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Kyle Kaiser, Sage Karam, Charlie Kimball, Josef Newgarden, Danica Patrick, Spencer Pigot, Graham Rahal, Alexander Rossi, Zach Veach

International drivers (21): Max Chilton, Jack Harvey, Jay Howard, Pippa Mann, Stefan Wilson – England; Helio Castroneves, Pietro Fittipaldi, Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist – Brazil; James Davison, Will Power – Australia; James Hinchcliffe, Robert Wickens, Canada; Gabby Chaves, Carlos Munoz – Colombia; Sebastien Bourdais, Simon Pagenaud – France; Takuma Sato – Japan; Oriol Servia – Spain; Scott Dixon – New Zealand; Ed Jones – United Arab Emirates

Engines (35): Honda 19, Chevrolet 16

https://www.indycar.com/News/2018/05/05-04-Indy-500-Entry-List

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Indycar is live on FB for practice and qual for the Grand Prix.

Headed out to the track later for the afternoon.  Will be back again next Friday for Fast Friday. 

[BlueGreySky 1032]

The Grand Prix is over and done.  Didn't go this year because my son's team had a baseball DH.  The two F-16s that did the flyover buzzed our fields on the north side of town as they prepared to fly over the speedway at the national anthem.  It was fucking awesome - lowest I've ever experienced jets like that.  Everyone including the umps and coaches just stopped and watched for a few seconds.  When they turn on those afterburners, holy shit.

Will Power continues his success at the Grand Prix.  Hopefully he continues to suck ass at the 500.  I don't dislike him as much as I used to.  He's less of a dick than he used to be, self-admittedly, because of becoming a dad.  Rossi continuing to look strong at all races this year.  He's in my top 3 this year for sure.

The track was closed yesterday for Mother's Day and closed today to finish converting everything back to oval settings.  

Thor, Hemsworth, will be waiving the green flag as the 33 come around turn 4.  Not sure if the national anthem, pace car, and "back home again" have been announced who's doing those yet.

Will be out at the track at the end of this week for Fast Friday.  May in Indy officially getting into high gear!

[elfenix 34364]

indy GP was almost as processional as the spanish GP (and of course abcspn was in commercial during the pass for the lead).  not as fun as either st. pete or long beach. 

[elfenix 34364]

can hinch get his car going and stay off the bump?  

[Bill Brasky 1468]

That sucks for Hinch 

[elfenix 34364]

danica makes the fast 9 and race fans lose their minds

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Gotdamn. Hinch doesn’t make the big show. Pissed that Mann got the last run of the day. It was quite clear her car didn’t have it.

I don’t understand on weather days like today why the speedway doesn’t add an hour or two on for quals keeping the track open till 7 or 8. There wasn’t even a full hour of bumping.

I wonder if Wickens or Howard will be asked to give up their ride for Hinch?

[BlueGreySky 1032]

Oh, or it might be that Schmidt buys a ride from Foyt or someone else (Foyt has sold before, back in 2011).

[Anton Chigurh 3320]

The Mayor of Bumptown.

[BlueGreySky 1032]

From another site and discussion about today's events...

My dad was in the garages when the team got back. He got a first hand view of a very excited Hinch crew member yelling at a Firestone rep and then shaking the tire at fault. There was a clear rattle during that. The tire was taken apart by Firestone and the offending part was placed in a bag and taken away. My dad tried to figure out what it was but neither the Hinch guys nor the Firestone people would say what it was. Hope it isn’t this way, but the tone and word choice of the Hinch crew makes it sound like Firestone might have dropped the ball on this one.

[Mudcat35 196]

Damn shame about Hinch.  Given the exposure he's getting in national advertising for Honda, IndyCar would probably be well-served by just starting all 35.  You need the face of your series actually in the race.  

[Anton Chigurh 3320]

Fellas, we are green!

[El Diablo 4232]

5 minutes ago, Anton Chigurh said:

Fellas, we are green!

Just tuned in, have I missed anything?

[Prepuce of Doom 21112]

Annoyed by family obligations that will force me to watch on DVR later this afternoon, the Coca-Cola 600 after that, and to avoid spoilers for both all day long. 

[El Diablo 4232]

This is the first race I've watched in a long time, are all of the networks doing the commercials in a window like ABC is doing today? I like it.

[PittsburghTiger 6225]

Danica crashes out?   

[elfenix 34364]

watching on dvr:

how the fuck was davison not black flagged by race control to fix his obviously non-working car?  dude was 10 mph slower than everyone else and in the racing line.  i saw that wreck coming 30 laps ago

Edited May 27, 2018 by elfenix

[Robin Masters 122]

1 hour ago, PittsburghTiger said:

Danica crashes out?   

Shocking isn't it.

 

[El Diablo 4232]

11 laps to go, 19 cars on the lead lap and a restart coming up. Fuuuuckk. Kanaan just had to spin out there.