WHOA! I had no idea
 

Marco Andretti came in looking cool but then set down the hottest lap on the first full day of Indy 500 practice, with an average speed of 226.599 mph.


I thought they just went around at 180, but 226!:eek:

Pass.

180 is probably the average race speed.

I'd be more impressed if:

1. They had to turn the wheel to the right occasionally
2. They were running the Cosworth Turbo V8s (like the Champ Cars had before FTG killed them)
3. They were allowing CART/CC chassis instead of the crapwagons.

FTG. CC forever!

hmm, i'm sure i've done 229 myself with that old dos based indy 500 game

I think I've seen top speed around 235 at Indy in the past, but I could be wrong.

More than 235...

237.498 mph / 382.216 km/h, one lap, Arie Luyendyk, 1996
236.986 mph / 381.392 km/h, four-lap average, Arie Luyendyk, 1996

Wow, that's 12 years ago.

With the steep banked ovals and downforce, it's almost like a straight line.

Agreed.

so how can we make it more entertaining?

i'm thinking Ben Hur, it was an Oval as well
damned exiting to watch

let's break it up
- feathers on leather helmets
- shredders on the axle hubs
- leave wrecks on the track
- Charlton Heston (but he's out, so no luck there)

what else was there?

Oval racing, by its very nature, is boring to me.

The strategy is to stay on the lead lap until there are 20 or so laps to go, and then start racing. Make minor handling changes (wings, tire pressure, wedge, etc) during the pit stops so that you are in good shape for the last 20 laps. Then, as the lead changes so often in oval racing, you need some strategy so that you happen to be in the lead on the single lap that counts. Needless to say, only one person succeeds at this. You might be in the lead the lap before the one that counts, or if there were one more lap you might have led that one. Basically the person that happens to lead the single lap that counts had a certain degree of luck to lead that one, as opposed to the lap before or the imaginary lap after.

Who is in the lead for the duration of the race until the final 20 or so laps in an oval race is meaningless. People get all excited about all the passes in these races, but to me, they are meaningless. There is only one pass that counts. In road racing, a single pass for the lead could indeed be for the win, even if it is early in the race. That makes that single pass far more exciting than all the passes in an oval race combined.

But this is just me.

Either that or make it so nobody knows when the race will end. Just make it run for a random length of time and whoever happens to be in the lead then will be the winner.

You'd see much more competition that way.

"Leave the wrecks on-track". LOL! I love it!

sure Kang, but let's focus on fixing it, mmmkaay

shredders, leather helmet's with feathers, leaving wrecks on the track.

what else?

Nascar musical chairs would bring the redneck factor WAAAY out. I would pay to see that. When the Charlie Daniels stops the person leading wins. Yeehaw!

Have each tire valve stem fitted with an explosive device. There is a button in race control, connected to a random number generator, that when pressed, blows a random tire valve stem.

nah, let's keep it competitive , they all have ben hur style shredding thingies allready
we're talking open wheeled race cars, i'm sure they'll manage without explosive valve stems

That's actually a brilliant idea.

Be kinda hard to schedule for TV though, eh? :-P

How about a push to pass button and a primary and optional tire (you must complete at least one stint on each tire)?

:)