The 2012 IndyCar Series thread

dnhrudi · Post by **dnhrudi** » 28 Jun 2011, 05:38

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Speaking of Dan Wheldon, can one of you explain to me why he's out of a drive now? I mean, he did win the title a few years back, didn't he?

According to Autosport he is going to be one of the testers for the 2012 package, but if he doesn't get a ride next year I will be utterly perplexed

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 28 Jun 2011, 20:46

dnhrudi wrote:
BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Speaking of Dan Wheldon, can one of you explain to me why he's out of a drive now? I mean, he did win the title a few years back, didn't he?

According to Autosport he is going to be one of the testers for the 2012 package, but if Nick Heidfeld gets a ride over him next year I will be utterly perplexed

Fixed.

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 29 Jun 2011, 12:08

Is Dario Resta related in any way to Dario and Paul? :?:

jpm · Post by **jpm** » 29 Jun 2011, 18:05

Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Is Dario Resta related in any way to Dario and Paul?

Yep, Dario is his cousin, and has said on numerous occassions that he reckons Paul is the best driver in the world apart from him!

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 29 Jun 2011, 19:10

jpm wrote:
Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Is Dario Resta related in any way to Dario and Paul?
Yep, Dario is his cousin, and has said on numerous occassions that he reckons Paul is the best driver in the world apart from him!

I think he meant 1916 Indy 500 winner Dario Resta, not current IRL champ Dario Franchitti. I think I read something somewhere that Dario Resta was related to them, but I can't seem to find anything about that right now.

Rocks with Salt · Post by **Rocks with Salt** » 29 Jun 2011, 19:21

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
jpm wrote:
Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Is Dario Resta related in any way to Dario and Paul?
Yep, Dario is his cousin, and has said on numerous occassions that he reckons Paul is the best driver in the world apart from him!

I think he meant 1916 Indy 500 winner Dario Resta, not current IRL champ Dario Franchitti. I think I read something somewhere that Dario Resta was related to them, but I can't seem to find anything about that right now.

[INSERT EVERYONE IN SCOTLAND IS RELATED JOKE HERE]

In all honesty, Iowa was a great oval race, and as much as I dislike Marco I say he deserved the win. It was nice to get Dan Wheldon as an announcer throughout the race, too; it gave a nice perspective to the action even if he rarely went in to detail about it.

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 29 Jun 2011, 22:42

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
jpm wrote:
Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Is Dario Resta related in any way to Dario and Paul?
Yep, Dario is his cousin, and has said on numerous occassions that he reckons Paul is the best driver in the world apart from him!

I think he meant 1916 Indy 500 winner Dario Resta, not current IRL champ Dario Franchitti. I think I read something somewhere that Dario Resta was related to them, but I can't seem to find anything about that right now.

Yes, I meant the 1916 Indy winner, as I'm very well aware that Franchitti and di Resta are related. It's just that while increasing my databanks, I came across that name, and found it a bit perplexing that he has both 'Dario' and 'Resta' in his name. And he's Italian!

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 29 Jun 2011, 23:30

Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Yes, I meant the 1916 Indy winner, as I'm very well aware that Franchitti and di Resta are related. It's just that while increasing my databanks, I came across that name, and found it a bit perplexing that he has both 'Dario' and 'Resta' in his name. And he's Italian!

I agree, that is a bit of a large coincidence there. I found myself with the same question a while back, too - but I really can't remember if I found something conclusive or not. I do sort-of half-remember reading on Wikipedia that Dario Franchitti was named after Dario Resta, though I'm not sure if I simply assumed that - and even if I didn't, it's (obviously) not conclusive proof that they were related. Resta did move his family to California at some point, though, so he'd only be a great-uncle or something to Franchitti and di Resta at closest.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 01 Jul 2011, 04:24

jpm wrote:
Cynon wrote:Viso was so embarrassing that I could have sworn Deletraz tried an oval for the first time. What happened between Milwaukee and now?!

It was the same Viso we saw crudely blocking Simona back at St. Pete for 'the benefit of the team'. Apart from the Venezuelan oil money he brings, he is of no value to the team surely? Wold they not be better off in signing a proven talent. Dan Wheldon, Adam Carroll, JK Vernay anybody?

Viso has a massive sponsorship bill. Carroll and Vernay are two of the guys I think deserved a shot. Wheldon sort of has a drive as a 2012 test driver -- I guarantee he'll be full-time again because of that fact alone.

dnhrudi · Post by **dnhrudi** » 02 Jul 2011, 06:47

Just wondering, with Brian Herta's team and Dan Whelden employed to develop the 2012 package, will this have an impact on them entering the 2012 championship? They might after all be perceived as having a significant, (perhaps even an unfair) advantage, real or not......

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 02 Jul 2011, 22:09

dnhrudi wrote:Just wondering, with Brian Herta's team and Dan Whelden employed to develop the 2012 package, will this have an impact on them entering the 2012 championship? They might after all be perceived as having a significant, (perhaps even an unfair) advantage, real or not......

Maybe, but this is a series that is more "do as the winners do" rather than "bitch and whine to the sanctioning body" like many others. (cough cough)
IMHO, it might get brought up by commentators and whatnot, but I'm not expecting Chip Ganassi or Roger Penske to get all bent out of shape about it.
That is, unless he gets every single pole position, leads every lap, and wins the first 8 races.

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 02 Jul 2011, 23:41

Hey Cynon, when did Greg Moore and Adrian Fernandez appear at Talladega? I just saw their names here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSBOI-VMauI

1:05 and 1:10

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 03 Jul 2011, 01:09

Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Hey Cynon, when did Greg Moore and Adrian Fernandez appear at Talladega? I just saw their names here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSBOI-VMauI

1:05 and 1:10

Ah, that's IROC, the International Race of Champions. Basically, it pitted NASCAR drivers against IndyCar/CART drivers, in Pontiac Trans-Ams, IIRC.

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 03 Jul 2011, 01:42

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Hey Cynon, when did Greg Moore and Adrian Fernandez appear at Talladega? I just saw their names here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSBOI-VMauI

1:05 and 1:10

Ah, that's IROC, the International Race of Champions. Basically, it pitted NASCAR drivers against IndyCar/CART drivers, in Pontiac Trans-Ams, IIRC.

I see. Thanks.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 06 Jul 2011, 06:46

Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:
BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Hey Cynon, when did Greg Moore and Adrian Fernandez appear at Talladega? I just saw their names here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSBOI-VMauI

1:05 and 1:10

Ah, that's IROC, the International Race of Champions. Basically, it pitted NASCAR drivers against IndyCar/CART drivers, in Pontiac Trans-Ams, IIRC.

I see. Thanks.

IROC was a cheap excuse for NASCAR drivers to appear more talented than they really were.

Malinth · Post by **Malinth** » 06 Jul 2011, 10:22

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92863

Fontana is back. The track gives me nightmares (see avatar & signature), but it's nice to have the track back. In my opinion, what IndyCar lacks at the moment are the fast superspeedways (and turbos, and Hanford device, and different chassis and engines, and, well, you get the point), so Fontana is a welcome addition. I would really like to see Michigan back, however.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 06 Jul 2011, 10:48

Malinth wrote:http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92863

Fontana is back. The track gives me nightmares (see avatar & signature), but it's nice to have the track back. In my opinion, what IndyCar lacks at the moment are the fast superspeedways (and turbos, and Hanford device, and different chassis and engines, and, well, you get the point), so Fontana is a welcome addition. I would really like to see Michigan back, however.

Fontana + Turbo cars = Fun.

I hope so, at least, because the possibility exists for a repeat of 2000 where unreliability was R A M P A N T.

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 06 Jul 2011, 13:14

Malinth wrote: Fontana is back.

YYYYYYYYYYES!!!!!
Finally, Indycar returns to it's roots of going ultra fast. They better make it a 500 mile race!

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 06 Jul 2011, 13:26

Malinth wrote:http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92863

Fontana is back. The track gives me nightmares (see avatar & signature), but it's nice to have the track back. In my opinion, what IndyCar lacks at the moment are the fast superspeedways (and turbos, and Hanford device, and different chassis and engines, and, well, you get the point), so Fontana is a welcome addition. I would really like to see Michigan back, however.

Finally! I agree with you! IndyCar really needs more 2 mile + oval races. At the current moment it's only Indy as far as I know!

But like F1000X, I think they really need to make it a 500-mile race. Since it was the Marlboro 500 back in the CART-era, we just need to take the omnipresent sponsor of a front running team. Erm, the Target 500? I was thinking IZOD 500 (they are series sponsors afterall), but they already sponsor the Las Vegas race.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 07 Jul 2011, 07:31

An interesting article I dug up about Richie Hearn and Della Penna Motorsports' IRL tenure. Worth a read if you have some time to kill.

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 07 Jul 2011, 09:11

Cynon wrote:An interesting article I dug up about Richie Hearn and Della Penna Motorsports' IRL tenure. Worth a read if you have some time to kill.

Thanks Cynon. After reading that, it just raises my ire that CART ended screwing themselves up. I guess it's slightly biased, but the article really shows the IRL gang as a bunch of arses.

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 07 Jul 2011, 13:22

Also, IndyCar have an ongoing poll on which oval we would like to see added to the calendar. Just go to their website, and scroll to the bottom. Admittedly, the choices are limited, but still, good to give your views. I voted Pocono for the record.

EDIT: Is Richmond the one which is essentially two short straights with two hairpins?

Post by **tommykl** » 07 Jul 2011, 13:29

Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:EDIT: Is Richmond the one which is essentially two short straights with two hairpins?

No. That's either Martinsville or Bristol.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 07 Jul 2011, 14:24

Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Also, IndyCar have an ongoing poll on which oval we would like to see added to the calendar. Just go to their website, and scroll to the bottom. Admittedly, the choices are limited, but still, good to give your views. I voted Pocono for the record.

EDIT: Is Richmond the one which is essentially two short straights with two hairpins?

That's Martinsville. Richmond is kind of like Michigan/Fontana, except only .75 miles long. Bristol's the one with more banking than Wall Street.

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 07 Jul 2011, 14:25

tommykl wrote:
Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:EDIT: Is Richmond the one which is essentially two short straights with two hairpins?

No. That's either Martinsville or Bristol.

Could be Atlanta, that's a quad-oval.

I want to see Texas Motor Speedway back! However, that is never going to happen, so I'll settle for Atlanta.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 07 Jul 2011, 16:18

Pity there wasn't a vote for Martinsville, Eurospeedway Lausitz or Rockingham, UK...

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 07 Jul 2011, 16:25

dr-baker wrote:Pity there wasn't a vote for Martinsville, Eurospeedway Lausitz or Rockingham, UK...

Damn right! Rockingham in sunny Corby all the way!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 07 Jul 2011, 16:27

Faustus wrote:
dr-baker wrote:Pity there wasn't a vote for Martinsville, Eurospeedway Lausitz or Rockingham, UK...

Damn right! Rockingham in sunny Corby all the way!

It's happened before (with Champ Cars)! It can happen again!

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 07 Jul 2011, 22:30

Faustus wrote:
tommykl wrote:
Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:EDIT: Is Richmond the one which is essentially two short straights with two hairpins?

No. That's either Martinsville or Bristol.

Could be Atlanta, that's a quad-oval.

I want to see Texas Motor Speedway back! However, that is never going to happen, so I'll settle for Atlanta.

Thanks for the info, but TMS has been on the schedule for some time! Since the second ever season IIRC!

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 08 Jul 2011, 09:27

Faustus wrote:
tommykl wrote:
Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:EDIT: Is Richmond the one which is essentially two short straights with two hairpins?

No. That's either Martinsville or Bristol.

Could be Atlanta, that's a quad-oval.

I want to see Texas Motor Speedway back! However, that is never going to happen, so I'll settle for Atlanta.

The IRL just raced at Texas. Less than a month ago.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 08 Jul 2011, 09:49

Cynon wrote:
Faustus wrote:I want to see Texas Motor Speedway back! However, that is never going to happen, so I'll settle for Atlanta.

The IRL just raced at Texas. Less than a month ago.

That's where they had the two races, with the second race decided by lottery, wasn't it?

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 08 Jul 2011, 09:50

dr-baker wrote:
Cynon wrote:
Faustus wrote:I want to see Texas Motor Speedway back! However, that is never going to happen, so I'll settle for Atlanta.

The IRL just raced at Texas. Less than a month ago.

That's where they had the two races, with the second race decided by lottery, wasn't it?

The starting grid was a lotto, which while not really being fair, set up some very interesting battles and some good racing. Milwaukee was a better race, and Iowa was an AWESOME race.

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 08 Jul 2011, 10:56

Hold on! I'm missing something extremely major here! When did INDYCAR announce the series was switching to turbos!? I'm totally and utterly embarrassed I don't know! Does anybody have any news links and such? :oops:

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 08 Jul 2011, 11:29

Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:Hold on! I'm missing something extremely major here! When did INDYCAR announce the series was switching to turbos!? I'm totally and utterly embarrassed I don't know! Does anybody have any news links and such?

About the same time they announced the new car. Honda, Chevrolet, and Slowtus will provide turbocharged V6 engines for Indycar.

Next.

Year.

...

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 08 Jul 2011, 12:19

Cynon wrote:Next.

Year.

YEEEESSSS!!!!!

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 08 Jul 2011, 19:25

Jeroen Krautmeir wrote:
Cynon wrote:Next.

Year.

YEEEESSSS!!!!!

To further the story a bit; the teams are not in favor of the new turbos because of the cost hikes that it will imply. However, what we do know is that Penske will reunite with Chevrolet, with Ganassi keeping his Honda ties. So the big two teams are divided on their engine of choice. Other than KV Racing, I have no idea who is leaning towards Lotus (or for that matter, what everyone else other than Ganassi and Penske are doing), but something tells me that Lotus's engine will be shite.

To add to the buzz, this logo was seen on the rear wing endplates of Will Power and Ryan Briscoe's cars at Indy this year... it ran rampant throughout the NASCAR community online but I'm not entirely surprised that it was missed by what is admittedly a mostly-F1 crowd here.

If you don't know what I'm getting at, Hendrick Motorsports is the Ferrari of NASCAR, and Rick Hendrick's General Motors ties run deep. Meaning that it's entirely possible that the Chevrolet V6 Indy engine will be built by Hendrick.

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 08 Jul 2011, 19:48

they will also put it in ganassi's and penske's cars. calling it right now

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 10 Jul 2011, 20:55

I thought Al Unser, Jr. had gotten over alcoholism...

Rocks with Salt · Post by **Rocks with Salt** » 10 Jul 2011, 21:21

I think we can all agree that the pace car led more laps than anyone else in Toronto... That was the most amateurish farce of motorsport I have ever seen. What is it about Turns 1 and 3 that elicit the worst out of drivers, if you can call them that? I think the only people who didn't get into a "racing incident" were Scott Dixon and maybe Simona de Silvestro and Ana Beatriz, if only because they were at the back. Franchitti, Hunter-Reay, Andretti, Meira, Bourdais, Briscoe, Hildebrand, and Viso all suffered some sort of damage during the race and still ended up in the top ten. I will admit that the stewards acted with some grace, though, since they knew that nobody was trying to be malicious and that all the incidents really were just racing incidents, even if there were way too many of them.

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 11 Jul 2011, 04:15

Rocks with Salt wrote:I think we can all agree that the pace car led more laps than anyone else in Toronto... That was the most amateurish farce of motorsport I have ever seen. What is it about Turns 1 and 3 that elicit the worst out of drivers, if you can call them that? I think the only people who didn't get into a "racing incident" were Scott Dixon and maybe Simona de Silvestro and Ana Beatriz, if only because they were at the back. Franchitti, Hunter-Reay, Andretti, Meira, Bourdais, Briscoe, Hildebrand, and Viso all suffered some sort of damage during the race and still ended up in the top ten. I will admit that the stewards acted with some grace, though, since they knew that nobody was trying to be malicious and that all the incidents really were just racing incidents, even if there were way too many of them.

THIS.
I absolutely agree with you Rocks, this wasn't a case of a poor circuit layout, Toronto has been on the calendar for over 2 decades. Nobody had any patience or discretion when trying to make any passes today, and what we got was a boring and frustrating 2 hours. For me, this race tops Korea 2010 as one of the biggest wastes of time I've ever watched. I watched this race with a friend of mine, and over the course of this mess we had two discussions, one which I think needs to be seriously addressed.

First off, I don't think anybody likes the no blocking rule, I believe by mandating that the inside line always be open to the pursuing driver, you invite the less patient drivers (i.e. ROOKIES, CASTRONEVES, PAUL TRACY) to be overly ambitious and attempt risky overtakes, the result of which is a race like we saw today. I don't imagine there are many people on this forum who wouldn't agree with me though. This is one place I think Indycar should take a page from Formula 1's book and consider DRS (lest we forget that F1 stole the 2 compound tire idea from Champcar).

The second thing we discussed, is why in a single make series are Indycars not using onboard starters? Mandating onboard starters would eliminate the additional caution laps needed for the safety crew to arrive and get the cars refired, and also empower the drivers to quickly move their cars out of a dangerous position, reducing the risk of turn every simple spin into a pileup.

Finally, and nobody has to agree with me on this, but bathplug Dario Franchitti, you bathplug scumbag, you punted Power out of your way, and then that spineless bathplug Brian Barnhart only to repeal it like the limp wristed c**t that he is after Ganassi whined about it. This is why I root against Ganassi across every series that he competes in. He's a classless, weasel bathplug and everybody knows it.