Great IRL race today

I thought the IRL race today at Barber Motorsports Park was great. A lot of passing, very few crashes, and a come-from-behind winner.

I attribute a lot of this to the new car, the Dallara DW-12, named after the late, great Dan Wheldon, who was the development driver. The series currently has three engines (Honda, Chevrolet and Lotus), and thus is much less of a "spec" series than before. More engines are in the works--there's talk of VW joining the fray [sorta Porsche content]. And next year teams will be able to choose different body configurations, so the cars will also look different from each other.

The new car also seems to absorb punishment a lot better, with fairings to prevent incidents of banging wheels from turning into flying race cars. Plus it's a bunch safer in other ways. Marco Andretti also proved the front wing is a pretty stout "chrome horn."

All in all, a great spectacle. I think the IRL guys and gals, who run on street circuits, road courses, and ovals, are awesome talents.

Can't wait til Indy!

Terry

[Por_sha911]

Awesome race. I think that the different engines and turbo vs NA is a big part of it.
I don't care for the extra bumper protection. It makes "open wheel racing" into "almost open..." Someone is going to get tired of Marco playing bumper cars with them and either brake check him or run him off the road. Marco drove like a bozo.

[Zeke]

Marco always drives like the bozo he is.

Long Beach is next and as usual I will attend on Fri for the practice. I can't stand the sound of the 6 cylinder engines. They let them run 12,000 RPM to try to make up for the horrible sound, but it doesn't fool me. (Now that's a lot of speculation on my part, but that's the way I see the circus.)

The driver line up is one of the best in modern times. That being since the IRL and CART rejoined. Before that, the CART driver line up was as good as F1. They just didn't have F1 cars. These guys are going to run some races. It's still all qualifying and pit work, but there will be some racing.

Nothing will take the place of the turbo 8's of the CART days. And the new bodywork? Good in some aspects, terrible in others. That "thing" behind the rear wheels doesn't look like it comes from the same car. What a POS. If they want bumpers, put on bumpers.

[motion]

Pathetic, amateur, circus clown cars, if you ask me. I know you didn't, but I had to share. Owning a Swift ChampCar is on my bucket list. These things aren't real cars, sorry. The whole show is a farce.

[ShakinJoe]

Zeke

Hang in there. I was at St Pete and the Honda and Lotus engines sounded Ok. The Chevy was a bit rough for my ear.

That being said, while I think that in general the IRL sucks.....the formula so far this year is very good. I am actually looking forward to Long Beach

BTW... CART ran 4 cyl turbos I think...not eight.

[Reg]

maybe there is less crashing because they do not have parts yet where last year the cars were on the way out and plenty of spares.

Agree they look strange from the back end.

[motion]

CART ran 2.65 litre V-8 turbos. Beautiful.

[Zeke]

The only 4 cyl turbo of note was the Toyota IMSA car. 1000 HP.

I won't argue with Marco being a bozo, Zeke. It's fitting that grandpa owns a wine company, 'cause that's what Andrettis do. Whine.

I agree that the CART days prior to the split were the halcyon. The 2.65 liter turbo 8 was magic. But those days are gone, along with Greg Moore, my favorite young driver. Just think--he'd be 38 today, probably retired. I cried when I saw that accident--knew he was dead the second they showed it. IMO, that accident was the beginning of the end of CART.

I like the new cars because they allow close racing on ovals with less chance of killing my heroes. I'll always be an oval track fan first--they give me the biggest rush. If an ugly car makes it a bit less dangerous, fine. If turbo sixes bring in more manufacturers, great. I haven't heard the cars live yet so I'll withhold judgement.

I love IRL. F1 racing seems to be all about cubic money, qualifying, and who makes it through the first corner. Then it's mostly parade laps. I see more passing in drag racing.

To each his own, I guess.

[intakexhaust]

Originally Posted by motion

CART ran 2.65 litre V-8 turbos. Beautiful.

+1

Haas has racks full of Lola tubs....... wonder where they will end up? Support to run them in any future vintage sanctions will be really difficult.

[Embraer]

Originally Posted by motion

CART ran 2.65 litre V-8 turbos. Beautiful.

i preferred the Buick V-6 turbos

[intakexhaust]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

I won't argue with Marco being a bozo, Zeke. It's fitting that grandpa owns a wine company, 'cause that's what Andrettis do. Whine.

I agree that the CART days prior to the split were the halcyon. The 2.65 liter turbo 8 was magic. But those days are gone, along with Greg Moore, my favorite young driver. Just think--he'd be 38 today, probably retired. I cried when I saw that accident--knew he was dead the second they showed it. IMO, that accident was the beginning of the end of CART.

I like the new cars because they allow close racing on ovals with less chance of killing my heroes. I'll always be an oval track fan first--they give me the biggest rush. If an ugly car makes it a bit less dangerous, fine. If turbo sixes bring in more manufacturers, great. I haven't heard the cars live yet so I'll withhold judgement.

I love IRL. F1 racing seems to be all about cubic money, qualifying, and who makes it through the first corner. Then it's mostly parade laps. I see more passing in drag racing.

To each his own, I guess.

The Fontana tragedy is exactly whats wrong with open wheel racing in archaic bullrings. Nothings changed. The numerous serious accidents just last year alone reminds me of grand prix racing a few decades ago. Back then, only a few drivers stepped up to protest but changes came. (It sort of seems odd Monaco is still on the schedule.)

The Indy car scene today is a band-aid with a $3 mil avg. budget per driver. Thats a complete joke compared to other racing big leagues. Fans have left. The attendance last year was terrible and that was with whats her name.

Not trying to be a pessi' but until the mentality of the league changes and allowing engineers to showcase out of the spec series and with a loaded schedule of road racing, no bullrings, I'll follow it again.

[ShakinJoe]

Originally Posted by motion

CART ran 2.65 litre V-8 turbos. Beautiful.

Thanks for the correction. I knew they were small displacement.

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

The Fontana tragedy is exactly whats wrong with open wheel racing in archaic bullrings. Nothings changed. The numerous serious accidents just last year alone reminds me of grand prix racing a few decades ago. Back then, only a few drivers stepped up to protest but changes came. (It sort of seems odd Monaco is still on the schedule.)

The Indy car scene today is a band-aid with a $3 mil avg. budget per driver. Thats a complete joke compared to other racing big leagues. Fans have left. The attendance last year was terrible and that was with whats her name.

Not trying to be a pessi' but until the mentality of the league changes and allowing engineers to showcase out of the spec series and with a loaded schedule of road racing, no bullrings, I'll follow it again.

Well the schedule is loaded with road courses and street courses (which, I think, are historically more dangerous than ovals).

I am old enough to remember when Indy really meant something--innovation like Mickey Thompson's four-wheel-steering car and, of course, the immortal STP Turbine Car. I was a little kid when that thing came along, and I remember being fascinated by it.

I love ovals because they offer so much opportunity for passing. They are getting much safer with the SAFER barriers, etc., but when a car goes airborne into a fence, like Wheldon's did, all bets are off. Racing is dangerous, which is why I have to sign a waiver every time I go on track.

[Embraer]

a lot of guys here bad mouth IRL, yet have never been to one of the races.

the sights, sounds, and smells are amazing. spend the month of may in indy, and they'd understand.

I agree. I took my kids to the '07 race, and it was flat amazing. When the cars took the green flag at speed, we could not believe how exciting it was. My daughter said it brought tears to her eyes (she's a track driver, so she knows what 150 mph feels like, and still can't imagine what 225 feels like).

It had a four hour rain delay, so we walked all around the pits. Got to see Paul Newman riding in a golf cart and a bunch of other cool stuff.

Nothing quite like Indy in my book.

[Embraer]

ive mentioned some of my stories on other threads here. my dad was a USAC timing and scoring official back in the day. i spent a lot of time at the track growing up.

[Doug&Julie]

The IRL doesn't exist anymore. It's called INDYCAR gentlemen...and for good reason.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Zeke

The only 4 cyl turbo of note was the Toyota IMSA car. 1000 HP.

I respectfully disagree, Zeke.

THIS:


Was in THIS!

[Zeke]

I missed that one. Who was the driver and what success did it have?

The Toyota destroyed IMSA knocking off Nissan who knocked Porsche off. I think the Toyota won 11 out of 12 races.

At least that's a WAG. PJ Jones was the 2nd driver and won a couple. Juan Fangio II won the rest. The car won 14 in a row winning 21 out of 37 entered.

Edit: I saw an article that stated the 1.6 turbo 4 was good for 750 HP, not a 1000.

But, that's what Gurney said.