Sato in Indycar

Mister Fungus · Post by **Mister Fungus** » 18 Feb 2010, 07:37

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81564

Oooh I am definitely following that series this year. Sato on ovals, that can't be good

coops · Post by **coops** » 18 Feb 2010, 08:23

Sounds crash-tastic. Go Taku!

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 18 Feb 2010, 08:42

Which Bon's Eye will show up? Predictions?

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 18 Feb 2010, 09:11

Sato will be this year's Indy 500 winner. You heard it here first :mrgreen:

Seriously though good luck to him.

TeamTipper · Post by **TeamTipper** » 18 Feb 2010, 10:12

Good luck for Sato. Shame that he couldnt get a F1 drive but maybe Indycars will provied more sucess.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 18 Feb 2010, 10:14

Given the level of competition, he might have some success.

DonTirri · Post by **DonTirri** » 18 Feb 2010, 10:46

rffp wrote:Given the level of competition, he might have some success.

Agreed. I mean, Sebastien Friggin Bourdais won four championships there...

Mister Fungus · Post by **Mister Fungus** » 18 Feb 2010, 11:32

Bourdais was in Champ Car

Also even though IndyCar is a spec series, you still need to be in a top team like Penske or Ganassi to have a chance for winning, so I wouldn't have huge expectations from Sato.

P_Friesacher · Post by **P_Friesacher** » 18 Feb 2010, 11:58

The level of ompetition isn't that low - there are a number of really mediocre drivers, but the top people like Franchitti, Briscoe (well...) and Dixon aren't that bad at all. Also, as has previously been said, you need a good team there to win. Bourdias had a really good team in Newman/Haas, Sato's team is not all thar great. Still, I hold Sato in rather high esteem, so I believe he could do very well on the road courses, because he is used to that and driver ability counts for more there.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 18 Feb 2010, 12:04

Yes, Ganassi and Penske have been crushing the opposition, but Dale Coyne managed a win last year and even Ed Carpenter missed a win by 0.02s! So the occasional surprise can occur with some frequency.

In F-1, events like the 2009 Belgian GP are not so common, although I really wish to see the Force emulate that performance again.

As for the driver quality, well, who of those guys could do well in F-1?

kowalski · Post by **kowalski** » 18 Feb 2010, 12:17

Imagine him driving this bad boy:

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/17022010/36/fu ... cky-0.html

watka · Post by **watka** » 18 Feb 2010, 12:28

Wizzie wrote:Sato will be this year's Indy 500 winner. You heard it here first

Seriously though good luck to him.

He's already come 3rd at Indy before...

Yannick · Post by **Yannick** » 18 Feb 2010, 13:33

Sato joins KV Racing as their full time driver. KV managed to get great things out of Mario Moraes. The guy was in his 2nd season and scored a podium on one of the ovals after having been a backmarker in his debut season. So KV Racing surely knows how to teach talented drivers how things work on the ovals. Sato's part time team mate will be Paul Tracy.
Good luck to Sato-san.

frongor · Post by **frongor** » 18 Feb 2010, 13:34

Very good news!!

So many series to follow this year!!

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 18 Feb 2010, 14:51

Make Shikeagi Hattori feel proud, Taku!

LucaPacchiarini · Post by **LucaPacchiarini** » 18 Feb 2010, 15:13

That's a great news... I'll be cheering for him!

and it will be entertaining on ovals, I bet
I think this year in the IRL the gap between the top 2 teams and the rest will be reduced, so hopefully he'll have chances to win

shinji · Post by **shinji** » 18 Feb 2010, 19:28

At least he's no longer stagnating.

My fear would be that the Americans wouldn't fully appreciate the Banzaiosity that Taku will bring to their sport.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 18 Feb 2010, 19:58

shinji wrote:At least he's no longer stagnating.

My fear would be that the Americans wouldn't fully appreciate the Banzaiosity that Taku will bring to their sport.

At least I do assume it won't be reckless Banzaiosity.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 18 Feb 2010, 20:22

kowalski wrote:Imagine him driving this hideous piece of ass:

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/17022010/36/fu ... cky-0.html

Fixed.

Also, Bourdais won four Champ Car titles, and even if he didn't have the best team with the best car I still think he would have won at least one. Champ Cars and Indycars have always required a much different approach from F1 cars because they're heavier and because they are/were spec series (to an extent). The only driver that I can think of that was competitive in both F1 and Indycar/CART (post-1979) for more than one season is Emerson Fittipaldi. I'm talking about transitioning form F1 to Indycars, not the other way around.

On the ovals in the IRL in 2009, once they had the new aero package, the racing was quite good, but you had Penske and Ganassi running away with those races largely in the pitlane. At the Chicagoland round of the IRL in 2009 (which I am very happy to say I was at), the two Penske cars and the two Ganassi cars built up a HUGE lead over the rest of the field after the first pitstop, with Ed Carpenter a solid 5th. Nevertheless, the racing at the front of the field was very good. I should also point out that Robert Doornbos was running around that track at Life W12 pace during that race.

IdeFan · Post by **IdeFan** » 18 Feb 2010, 20:29

Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.

@Cynon

I'm not a Bourdais fan but I thought he did a solid job in his rookie year, he wasn't a million miles off Vettel, unfortunately for him he had a bad case of second year blues. Had he got into F1 much earlier (didn't he win F3000?) I think he could have done a much better job, I think champ car might have dulled his "european style" racing skills somewhat.

shinji · Post by **shinji** » 18 Feb 2010, 21:11

IdeFan wrote:Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.

Think it's only on Sky, and even then irregularly.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 18 Feb 2010, 21:16

IdeFan wrote:Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.

Its usually on at the same time, on the same channel man :lol:

Though sometimes they bathplug with the schedules and swap it for MLB at the last minute so my Freeview+ Box doesn't record whatever was on Five that I asked it to (usually V8 Supercars)

IdeFan · Post by **IdeFan** » 18 Feb 2010, 21:21

kostas22 wrote:
IdeFan wrote:Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.

Its usually on at the same time, on the same channel man
Though sometimes they bathplug with the schedules and swap it for MLB at the last minute so my Freeview+ Box doesn't record whatever was on Five that I asked it to (usually V8 Supercars)

Ha! Thats kinda embarrassing, but in my defence I don't follow Nascar that closely, I just watch it if its on and I happen to be up at 3AM.

shinji · Post by **shinji** » 18 Feb 2010, 21:26

kostas22 wrote:
IdeFan wrote:Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.

Its usually on at the same time, on the same channel man
Though sometimes they bathplug with the schedules and swap it for MLB at the last minute so my Freeview+ Box doesn't record whatever was on Five that I asked it to (usually V8 Supercars)

Five? Don't get that here. Guess I'll have to stick with Sky, woe of woes.

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 18 Feb 2010, 21:27

kostas22 wrote:
IdeFan wrote:Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.

Its usually on at the same time, on the same channel man
Though sometimes they bathplug with the schedules and swap it for MLB at the last minute so my Freeview+ Box doesn't record whatever was on Five that I asked it to (usually V8 Supercars)

mmmm... baseball.

captainhappy · Post by **captainhappy** » 18 Feb 2010, 21:58

Totally stoked to have Takuma Sato in with KV racing. A man with serious if erratic speed, wrecklessness, and balls. F1's loss is our gain!!! Shame we couldn't have the whole Super Aguri brought with him. (Except IDE, we have enough drivers of that caliber already.)

BANZAI!!!!!

LionZoo · Post by **LionZoo** » 18 Feb 2010, 22:36

So I'll be keeping an eye on Indycar this year. I wish Taku was still in F1, but him racing is better than him not racing.

Valrys · Post by **Valrys** » 18 Feb 2010, 22:48

IdeFan wrote:Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.
.

You can stream it for free via the official Indycar website, although you have to put up with numerous annoying ad breaks

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 18 Feb 2010, 23:30

Valrys wrote:
IdeFan wrote:Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.
.

You can stream it for free via the official Indycar website, although you have to put up with numerous annoying ad breaks

And as far as I remember its not the official TV feed used by Versus (the TV station that has the rights for IndyCar) - it's just a camerea on the pit straight and some onboards that rotate between different drivers every half hour - and no commentary either.

Try www.justin.tv - there's a video feed of almost every sports event under the sun. I use it to watch the occasional NASCAR race live (which even Sky Sports have stopped in the UK now I think). It means you get to see what all the Americans are seeing on their TVs...

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 19 Feb 2010, 00:46

captainhappy wrote:Totally stoked to have Takuma Sato in with KV racing. A man with serious if erratic speed, wrecklessness, and balls. F1's loss is our gain!!! Shame we couldn't have the whole Super Aguri brought with him. (Except IDE, we have enough drivers of that caliber already.)

BANZAI!!!!!

You know, Super Aguri was in IndyCar before it was in F1.

Valrys · Post by **Valrys** » 19 Feb 2010, 12:18

kostas22 wrote:
Valrys wrote:
IdeFan wrote:Taku's presence is enough to make me follow Indy more closely this year.

Is it available free to air in the UK anywhere? I know five shows some Nascar late night but i've not seen IRL.
.

You can stream it for free via the official Indycar website, although you have to put up with numerous annoying ad breaks

And as far as I remember its not the official TV feed used by Versus (the TV station that has the rights for IndyCar) - it's just a camerea on the pit straight and some onboards that rotate between different drivers every half hour - and no commentary either.

I watched the final race last year, and there was definately commentary, and the cameras certainly weren't stationary

Mister Fungus · Post by **Mister Fungus** » 19 Feb 2010, 13:41

The cameras were stationary, at least on ovals. They would move and zoom in the action etc. but otherwise stationary, also the commentary provided was a radio feed that often had nothing to do with what the camera is showing which is even more confusing if you don't know who drives what colored car. It's much better to find an actual TV feed, and I think there's a payment option too on the official IndyCar site.

captainhappy · Post by **captainhappy** » 19 Feb 2010, 16:17

thehemogoblin wrote:
captainhappy wrote:

BANZAI!!!!!

You know, Super Aguri was in IndyCar before it was in F1.

No , I didn't. What is the story with IRL and SUPER aguri

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 19 Feb 2010, 17:08

Indycar is now officially worth watching.

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 19 Feb 2010, 21:32

captainhappy wrote:
thehemogoblin wrote:
captainhappy wrote:

BANZAI!!!!!

You know, Super Aguri was in IndyCar before it was in F1.

No , I didn't. What is the story with IRL and SUPER aguri

For a long time, Aguri Suzuki and Adrian Fernandez split a two car team between them. Fernandez would drive one car, and Aguri Suzuki would get sponsorship for a Japanese driver in the other car.

It's not like he went into F1 cold.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 20 Feb 2010, 12:35

Paul Tracy, his future teammate, has began taunting Sato:
"How many races has he won? You can bring him home and I'll show him my trophy collections."

Come home? Trophy collections? This seems like a cheap pick-up line.

IdeFan · Post by **IdeFan** » 20 Feb 2010, 14:28

rffp wrote:Paul Tracy, his future teammate, has began taunting Sato:
"How many races has he won? You can bring him home and I'll show him my trophy collections."

Come home? Trophy collections? This seems like a cheap pick-up line.

My response would be: "How many times has Tracy passed a reigning double champion, round the outside, in a vastly inferior car?"

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 20 Feb 2010, 14:34

IdeFan wrote:
rffp wrote:Paul Tracy, his future teammate, has began taunting Sato:
"How many races has he won? You can bring him home and I'll show him my trophy collections."

Come home? Trophy collections? This seems like a cheap pick-up line.

My response would be: "How many times has Tracy passed a reigning double champion, round the outside, in a vastly inferior car?"

Why so complicated? Just ask him to show his IndyCar victory trophys and the man is down...

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 20 Feb 2010, 17:40

Klon wrote:
IdeFan wrote:
rffp wrote:Paul Tracy, his future teammate, has began taunting Sato:
"How many races has he won? You can bring him home and I'll show him my trophy collections."

Come home? Trophy collections? This seems like a cheap pick-up line.

My response would be: "How many times has Tracy passed a reigning double champion, round the outside, in a vastly inferior car?"

Why so complicated? Just ask him to show his IndyCar victory trophys and the man is down...

He'll show you those shirts he made that say he won the Indy 500 in 2002. I'd need to look at that race again to see if PT was in front of Castroneves, but those shirts are all he has for an IRL trophycase.

Henrique · Post by **Henrique** » 21 Feb 2010, 02:59

Look what I found: http://www.playseat.com/en/takuma-sato-seat