The 2012 IndyCar Series thread

golic_2004 · Post by **golic_2004** » 19 May 2011, 23:33

Cynon wrote:
golic_2004 wrote:http://www.indystar.com/article/20110519/SPORTS0107/110519006/Indy-500-practice-Simona-De-Silvestro-involved-in-hard-crash?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CSPORTS

Horrible crash for Simona. I'm glad she is okay. The girl's got plenty of guts, especially if she actually tries to qualify this weekend.

Guts are something Simona has in great quantity -- even for an IndyCar driver. However, the speed of the HVM car has not been the greatest, so I wouldn't expect too much from Simona this year.

Being a single car team, HVM is not expected to be front runners, but you cannot take away their willingness to achieve success. They can be a surprise.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 20 May 2011, 21:56

golic_2004 wrote:
Cynon wrote:
golic_2004 wrote:http://www.indystar.com/article/20110519/SPORTS0107/110519006/Indy-500-practice-Simona-De-Silvestro-involved-in-hard-crash?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CSPORTS

Horrible crash for Simona. I'm glad she is okay. The girl's got plenty of guts, especially if she actually tries to qualify this weekend.

Guts are something Simona has in great quantity -- even for an IndyCar driver. However, the speed of the HVM car has not been the greatest, so I wouldn't expect too much from Simona this year.

Being a single car team, HVM is not expected to be front runners, but you cannot take away their willingness to achieve success. They can be a surprise.

From the sounds of things, I'd say their chances of making the grid are not too good...

eytl · Post by **eytl** » 21 May 2011, 09:36

golic_2004 wrote:http://www.indystar.com/article/20110519/SPORTS0107/110519006/Indy-500-practice-Simona-De-Silvestro-involved-in-hard-crash?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CSPORTS

Horrible crash for Simona. I'm glad she is okay. The girl's got plenty of guts, especially if she actually tries to qualify this weekend.

Having seen the footage, I can't believe how she managed to get airborne not once but twice. From the snippets of Indycar that I've seen over the last 12 months, and following the results, I've got to say Simona has really impressed me. Forget a certain D. Patrick ... if Bernie were looking for a potential female driver for F1, look no further than de Silvestro.

Without her in quali there's still 39 drivers in the field ... absolutely awesome. It's terrific that a series still allows (and in fact is actively encouraging) one-off entries for marquee events. Too many series have stopped that in the name of professionalism, and I think that's just absurd. Sure you don't want weekend-warrior stragglers, but often competitive one-off entrants can add a lot of colour and interest to an event. Good on Indycar.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 21 May 2011, 10:34

eytl wrote:Without her in quali there's still 39 drivers in the field ... absolutely awesome. It's terrific that a series still allows (and in fact is actively encouraging) one-off entries for marquee events. Too many series have stopped that in the name of professionalism, and I think that's just absurd. Sure you don't want weekend-warrior stragglers, but often competitive one-off entrants can add a lot of colour and interest to an event. Good on Indycar.

That's been the way IndyCar, or rather, American racing in general has always been. Competitive one-off entrants have a history at Indy as well, such as the pre-split Team Menard with their in-house stock-block V6. Outfits that aren't professional either don't qualify or are asked not to race -- unless we're talking about ARCA, which is so professional that Milka Duno is a frontrunner. I'm not even making that up.

jpm · Post by **jpm** » 21 May 2011, 14:12

Goodbye Mr Speed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCKcwbZdbe8

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 21 May 2011, 15:51

jpm wrote:Goodbye Mr Speed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCKcwbZdbe8

Apparently Speed and Jay Penske kissed and made up -- but the replacement drivers for Scott Speed don't sound much faster...

Ho Pin Tung smashed the wall after looking fairly strong in qualifying. Alex Tagliani (who I think could win the race) is on provisional pole.

Also, do not write off Danica Patrick -- of the five Andretti Autosport cars, she is the only one of them who isn't sucking.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 21 May 2011, 17:24

jpm wrote:Goodbye Mr Speed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCKcwbZdbe8

Speed has struggled to find speed.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 21 May 2011, 17:38

Takuma Sato is currently 8th -- good enough to make the Fast Nine shootout for pole.

Andretti Autosport is sucking right now. Danica is the fastest of them by quite a substantial margin (no surprise there), but none of them are in the race right now!

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 21 May 2011, 18:14

Sato was bumped out of the Fast Nine by Ed Carpenter -- driving for Sarah Fisher Racing, the Super Aguri of the IRL. Small team, very popular.

jpm · Post by **jpm** » 21 May 2011, 19:12

Great day for the underdog so far; Bertrand Baguette, Townend Bell, Ed Carpenter, Tomas Scheckter etc. I hope Pippa & Bruno make the field!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 21 May 2011, 21:08

jpm wrote:Great day for the underdog so far; Bertrand Baguette, Townend Bell, Ed Carpenter, Tomas Scheckter etc. I hope Pippa & Bruno make the field!

I'm definitely rooting for Pippa, but also Simona too, particularly after the week she's had. Danica - does anyone here care? And is Milk and Doughnuts competing?

jpm · Post by **jpm** » 21 May 2011, 21:42

dr-baker wrote:I'm definitely rooting for Pippa, but also Simona too, particularly after the week she's had. Danica - does anyone here care? And is Milk and Doughnuts competing?

Nope Duno is racing in ARCA.

The fast 9 consists of Oriol Servia, Buddy Rice, Dan Wheldon, Townsend Bell, Alex Tagliani, Ed Carpenter, Will Power, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon (Servia currently faster than Power and Rice). Ryan Briscoe for Penske, Paul Tracy and Ana Beatriz for Dreyer and Reinbold, Alex Lloyd and James Jakes for Coyne, Sebastian Saavedra and Pippa Mann for conquest Racing, Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal for Ganassi, and the Andretti Autosport quartet Marco, Danica, Conway and Ryan Hunter Reay are not yet in the field

What a turn up if they all got bumped!! Scott Speed elected to save his tyres for tommorow, and Ho Pin Tung crashed for Dragon; not sure if he'll be out again tommorow

And congrats to Simona de Silvestro who qualified in 24th after her horror crash!

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 22 May 2011, 11:30

dr-baker wrote:
jpm wrote:Great day for the underdog so far; Bertrand Baguette, Townend Bell, Ed Carpenter, Tomas Scheckter etc. I hope Pippa & Bruno make the field!

I'm definitely rooting for Pippa, but also Simona too, particularly after the week she's had. Danica - does anyone here care? And is Milk and Doughnuts competing?

And Simona made it! This is indeed a remarkable girl. She looks like the real deal.

And can anyone tell me what happened to Andretti autosport?

jpm · Post by **jpm** » 22 May 2011, 13:48

Great run by Tags to take pole from Dixon, Servia, Wheldon and the rest. Unbelievably, Franchitti ran out of fuel; absolutely ridiculous error by Ganassi which drops him to 9th.

rffp wrote:And can anyone tell me what happened to Andretti autosport?

Andretti Autosport had an unmitigated disaster; their only car in the field so far is John andretti; Danica, Marco, Conway and Hunter-Reay are competing on Bump Day

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 22 May 2011, 17:37

To clarify: Simona's place in the field is not secure. Yet. Her time needs to stand until 6:00 today -- and her case was perhaps helped with rain on the track.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 22 May 2011, 19:27

Everyone but Danica has made their runs on Bump Day...

... and we have RAAAIN!

Cue Danica conspiracy theories.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 22 May 2011, 19:33

Cynon wrote:To clarify: Simona's place in the field is not secure. Yet. Her time needs to stand until 6:00 today -- and her case was perhaps helped with rain on the track.

Yes, indeed. But to achieve 24th position on Saturday is still remarkable.

golic_2004 · Post by **golic_2004** » 22 May 2011, 19:35

Can you IMAGINE Danica DNQing the Indy 500?

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 22 May 2011, 19:39

golic_2004 wrote:Can you IMAGINE Danica DNQing the Indy 500?

Would Michael kick his own cousin out of the grid to give Danica the berth? Or Richard Petty could veto that?

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 22 May 2011, 19:58

rffp wrote:
golic_2004 wrote:Can you IMAGINE Danica DNQing the Indy 500?

Would Michael kick his own cousin out of the grid to give Danica the berth? Or Richard Petty could veto that?

Possibly, but there is a history of full-time drivers taking the place of one-off teammates in the Indy 500 if something should go awry. Scott Goodyear took over Mike Groff's car in 1992 and then came within an eyeblink of winning the race! Goodyear vindicated his Indy showings by winning Michigan later in the year. Groff never came anywhere NEAR winning a race in CART, and the car was not very good until Goodyear made adjustments on it during the race.

In all fairness, Danica deserves to get a shot at qualifying for the race -- because she has not gotten her first run on Bump Day in yet.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 22 May 2011, 21:20

More Indy drama -- Danica's in, Marco Andretti on the bubble, Mike Conway out! Conway has two attempts charged against car #27. Alex Lloyd, driving Dale Coyne's #19 car, is being pushed towards the pit lane, in order to have a shot at bumping Marco.

I noticed that Lloyd has an older car, though, or at least, older mirrors...

Alex Lloyd, Marco Andretti, Mike Conway, and Sebastian Saavedra are all gunning for one spot in the field.

Final Attempt for Lloyd.... he doesn't go out, and Mike Conway went out... and failed! So the car 5th in points racks up a DNQ!

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 22 May 2011, 21:50

Cynon wrote:Final Attempt for Lloyd.... he doesn't go out, and Mike Conway went out... and failed! So the car 5th in points racks up a DNQ!

Now the question is: will the cousin be ordered to yield the seat to Conway? It seems very plausible.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 22 May 2011, 21:58

Oops, Marco was bumped! More drama for his father's team.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 22 May 2011, 22:05

Marco got in, but Ryan HR is out. What a disaster for Andretti!

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 22 May 2011, 22:09

rffp wrote:
Cynon wrote:Final Attempt for Lloyd.... he doesn't go out, and Mike Conway went out... and failed! So the car 5th in points racks up a DNQ!

Now the question is: will the cousin be ordered to yield the seat to Conway? It seems very plausible.

John Andretti made it clear he won't get out of the car, and if King Richard has a stake in that car, it won't happen.

Hunter Reay got bumped by Marco... OOOOHHHH BUDDAY this is a repeat of Penske's Fiasco in 1995 -- because Penske got bumped by one Stefan Johansson driving for Tony Bettenhausen then, and the Bettenhausen car was Penske's customer team...

... speaking of the late Tony Bettenhausen, that team became HVM Racing...

eytl · Post by **eytl** » 23 May 2011, 00:05

Four women in the field - awesome!

Is that the first time or have we already seen that in recent years with four of Patrick, de Silvestro, Beatriz, Fisher and Duno all making it?

golic_2004 · Post by **golic_2004** » 23 May 2011, 01:50

eytl wrote:Four women in the field - awesome!

Is that the first time or have we already seen that in recent years with four of Patrick, de Silvestro, Beatriz, Fisher and Duno all making it?

There were four last year. The first four you mentioned out of the five made it to qualifying. Duno DNQed.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 23 May 2011, 09:58

golic_2004 wrote:
eytl wrote:Four women in the field - awesome!

Is that the first time or have we already seen that in recent years with four of Patrick, de Silvestro, Beatriz, Fisher and Duno all making it?

There were four last year. The first four you mentioned out of the five made it to qualifying. Duno DNQed.

Although there were a couple of races last year that all 5 of them participated.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 23 May 2011, 12:42

eytl wrote:Four women in the field - awesome!

Is that the first time or have we already seen that in recent years with four of Patrick, de Silvestro, Beatriz, Fisher and Duno all making it?

Fisher is no longer driving since she wanted to focus on raising a family and running her team. The four women in the field;

#7 - Danica Patrick
#24 - Ana Beatriz (For everyone else out there who knows her as Bia Figueiredo, that's the name she uses of her own choice in American racing, thank you very much)
#36 - Pippa Mann
#78 - Simona de Silvestro (Driving the oldest car in the field by... a fair margin. The Swiss Miss drove the wheels off that car to get it into the field on Pole Day)

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 23 May 2011, 17:08

Go Pippa!

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 23 May 2011, 17:48

dr-baker wrote:Go Pippa!

Where's Douglas, by the way? Too slow even to get there before Bump Day?

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 23 May 2011, 17:51

Phoenix wrote:
dr-baker wrote:Go Pippa!

Where's Douglas, by the way? Too slow even to get there before Bump Day?

Didn't want to show his sister up! Busy preparing for a parallel Monaco Grand Prix! He is her team boss! His lap time was too fast to be recorded!

jpm · Post by **jpm** » 23 May 2011, 20:00

So pleased for Paul Tracy and Jay Howard after their fiascos of last year!

The grid in full;

1. Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt 227.472mph
2. Scott Dixon Ganassi 227.340mph
3. Oriol Servia Newman/Haas 227.168mph
4. Townsend Bell Sam Schmidt 226.887mph
5. Will Power Penske 226.773mph
6. Dan Wheldon Herta 226.490mph
7. Buddy Rice Panther 225.786mph
8. Ed Carpenter Sarah Fisher 225.121mph
9. Dario Franchitti Ganassi
10. Takuma Sato KV 225.736mph
11. Vitor Meira Foyt 225.590mph
12. JR Hildebrand Panther 225.579mph
13. James Hinchcliffe Newman/Haas 225.572mph
14. Bertrand Baguette Rahal Letterman Lanigan 225.285mph
15. Davey Hamilton Dreyer & Reinbold 225.250mph
16. Helio Castroneves Penske 225.216mph
17. John Andretti Petty/Andretti 224.981mph
18. EJ Viso KV 224.732mph
19. Bruno Junqueira Foyt 224.691mph
20. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 224.511mph
21. Jay Howard Rahal/Schmidt 224.483mph
22. Tomas Scheckter KV/SH 224.433mph
23. Tony Kanaan KV 224.417mph
24. Simona de Silvestro HVM 224.392mph
25. Paul Tracy Dreyer & Reinbold 224.939mph
26. Danica Patrick Andretti 224.861mph
27. Ryan Briscoe Penske 224.639mph
28. Marco Andretti Andretti 224.628mph
29. Charlie Kimball Ganassi 224.499mph
30. Graham Rahal Ganassi 224.380mph
31. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 223.957mph
32. Pippa Mann Conquest 223.936mph
33. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 223.879mph

Any predictions?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91680

I would love to see a veteran like Oriol Servia or Tracy to win it, or one of the one off entries winning it like Dan Whelson, Bruno Junquiera, or even Pippa Mann in her first Indycar start, or an underdog like Ed Carpenter for SFR, James Hinchcliffe, or Bertrand Baguette. Personally, I think Dixon will win, as he has experience of winning it in 2008, and has a good grid position. I have nothing against Tags and it is refreshing to see a non Ganassi Penske car on the pole, but I just find him to be a bit of a whinger really.

Go Oriol go!!

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 23 May 2011, 20:54

No Conway

Am I right in thinking that this race, in all of motorsport, is the only major race in the world that you can fail to qualify for these days?

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 23 May 2011, 22:29

Call me sexist if you please, but I've nearly fell off my chair in laughter with this:

"It's a tough break - both me and Ryan, not in the show," he [Mike Conway] said. "I'm pretty gutted. Danica spent some time with me, putting me back together, after I got back to the garage.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 24 May 2011, 05:41

Phoenix wrote:Call me sexist if you please, but I've nearly fell off my chair in laughter with this:
"It's a tough break - both me and Ryan, not in the show," he [Mike Conway] said. "I'm pretty gutted. Danica spent some time with me, putting me back together, after I got back to the garage.

We've just booked first class tickets to hell for laughing at that haven't we?

jpm · Post by **jpm** » 24 May 2011, 08:19

This news really hacks me off.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91682

I have now lost all my respect for Hunter-Reay, and just feel so terrible for Bruno; thats the second time hes been screwed over and had to hand his car over to someone else in 3 years!!!! Bruno is way quicker than Hunter-Reay anyway, and is far more reliable; Hunter-Reay is just a crasher.

Rant over.

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 24 May 2011, 08:54

I didn't know they were allowed to do that...

Watching the 95 bump day where the penske drivers fail to qualify in a car that wasn't even theirs (thats how i saw it)... I assumed you qualify the driver no matter what car he's in...

If the driver doesn't get in, tough, get quicker next time around.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 24 May 2011, 10:23

jpm wrote:This news really hacks me off.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91682

I have now lost all my respect for Hunter-Reay, and just feel so terrible for Bruno; thats the second time hes been screwed over and had to hand his car over to someone else in 3 years!!!! Bruno is way quicker than Hunter-Reay anyway, and is far more reliable; Hunter-Reay is just a crasher.

Rant over.

Not entirely as surprising as it sounds. Why?

Well, let's consider who owns the #41 car... A.J. Foyt. What kind of person is he? Is Foyt the kind of person who prefers that Americans drive his cars?

Oh yeah. He was quoted as saying in 2001 or so that he'd rather see; "an IRL driver win the 500 instead of one of those momma's boys from CART."

ADx_Wales wrote:I didn't know they were allowed to do that...

Watching the 95 bump day where the penske drivers fail to qualify in a car that wasn't even theirs (thats how i saw it)... I assumed you qualify the driver no matter what car he's in...

If the driver doesn't get in, tough, get quicker next time around.

Penske bought the #9T and #11T cars from Bobby Rahal -- fitting because Rahal bought two of Penske's cars the year before to get himself and Mike Groff in the race because the Hondas were such shitboxes!

I suspect the deal here is that one of Hunter Reay's sponsors told Michael Andretti to either put them and Hunter Reay in the race, buying a car or no, or risk losing them for the rest of the season. However, this is the first time I can think of a driver replacing another driver that wasn't his teammate, so this is admittedly a worrying (but not surprising, since it's happened in NASCAR before) precedent.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 24 May 2011, 10:29

Cynon wrote:I suspect the deal here is that one of Hunter Reay's sponsors told Michael Andretti to either put them and Hunter Reay in the race, buying a car or no, or risk losing them for the rest of the season.

On their current form I'ld say they deserve to have a sponsor walk out.