Friday afternoon and no USGP posts?

Wavey · 06-30-2006, 12:48 PM

Is anyone else going? I'm only 4 hours away so I figured "what the hell". Probably my last chance to see it this close, and there's at least the potential for a very good race. 5 of us are leaving at 3am Sunday so we can squeeze in breakfast at the Speedway Inn and still make the Porsche Cup race. Got to talk with Vic Elford there 2 years ago, which was the highlight of all the USGP trips.

strupgolf · 06-30-2006, 12:55 PM

Here's the latest news update: The cars started. They practiced. Drivers complained. Bernie was an *******. Film at 11. Have a good safe trip.

Wavey · 06-30-2006, 12:58 PM

Par for the course, huh?

theclaw · 06-30-2006, 01:07 PM

I'm heading down too. meeting up with fellow Pelican from South Bend, I'm in chicago. doing the same thing about leaving at the crack of dawn to make the cup race.

Jeff

patkeefe · 06-30-2006, 01:18 PM

Are more than six cars racing this year?

Wavey · 06-30-2006, 01:27 PM

One can only hope.

rusnak · 06-30-2006, 03:30 PM

I've been a fan of F1 since the TAG Porsche days. But I've had it with bickering back-stabbing sawed off Eurotrash Bernie Ecclestone and Max Moaning. They already ruined qualifying, and to desecrate Indy is not forgivable. They rip off the fans, the blame us for not being loyal enough or spending enough money on their sport.

I've given up on F1. One good thing is that Michelin has done a lot to repair its image, but to F1 I say go back to Europe, take your candy-a** "footbol" with you, and don't let the door hit 'cher butt on the way out.

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

I know I've said that racing's racing--it's all exciting. But, heck, after last year's insult, who the &*$% cares?

rusnak · 06-30-2006, 05:47 PM

I agree, Noah totally agree. But it looks like Tony George is going to bend over and lick Bernies balls.

http://www.planet-f1.com/News/Story_Page/0,15909,3210_3213_1309361,00.html

strupgolf · 06-30-2006, 05:54 PM

A bunch of Indy area P-car guys will probably park in the corral, on the back straight. I be there with my slantnose. See ya, or maybe not. I'll be getting in town about 9am

724doorE · 07-02-2006, 06:52 PM

Went and parked in the corral Sat and Sunday. The cup races were great as usual. Actually the F-1 race was halfway interesting, as in would Truli end up ahead of Alonso with his one pit stop?

Lots of nice cars inthe corral, although as usual, they let any freakin buddy park in there with a pass no matter what they drove.
Clearly the best part about the corral is the close proximity of parking, easy in and easy out.

BTW, there was one 356 and two long hoods, both 72E's, One eggplant from Texas, BTW a nice car there sir if your on here, and a black coupe that looked nice and clean as well.

Had seats in the Northwest vista and caught all the action first hand, it was pretty cool!

cegerer · cegerer's Garage

fryardds and I were there Sat in a Conda Green 70S (in case anyone saw that car buzzing around), but just parked in a regular lot along Georgetown. We were both surprised by the huge crowd on Sat. We were expecting the place to be empty after last year's fiasco.

The real interesting part of any F1 weekend these days is qualifying. The races are usually a snore. So Sat is the day to go - the action is better and the crowds are smaller.

lateapex911 · 07-02-2006, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Noah930
I know I've said that racing's racing--it's all exciting. But, heck, after last year's insult, who the &*$% cares?

Insult?? Who insulted who?

The lawyers made the call, and can you blame them?? They were racing in America, and we can thank ourselves for our litigeous reputation.

Whose fault was it that Michelin screwed the pooch and brought a tire that couldn't take the heat??

They COULD have raced....the software guys could have easily programmed in limits for that corner, or they could have pitted more often...but they CHOSE not to.

yea..it sucked.....but blaming Tony or Bernie, is not fair.

I for one hope they can be back next year.

724doorE · 07-03-2006, 03:06 AM

Curt, sorry we missed the S, Of course we were inside most of the time. Sat. is definitely the most bang for the buck, and the new qualifing is pretty cool!

To start a firestorm, I'd suggest that maybe Michelin screwed the pooch more this year than last since they seemingly failed to spend the time and money to engineer and test a proper tire for this track and instead just said, here is a "safe" tire boys, contest 3rd place! Since they won't be in F-1 next year, do they care??

Anyway, it was a fun weekend

SpeedracerIndy · 07-03-2006, 06:36 AM

Boring race, but fun day. Bigger crowd than I expected. I had my silver 81 SC there with my dad and his espresso brown 88 targa in the corrall. saw many beautifull cars including some of the ones mentioned in this thread! hopefully they come back next year, but not a huge loss if they don't

Wavey · 07-03-2006, 07:05 AM

Agreed, the race itself was rather boring (at least after the first corner fun!). But after about lap 20 we roamed the track and watched from several areas. Saw Jacques blow up at almost the same place he did 3 years ago, when I got to shake his hand after he exited the car. But the best thing we saw was watching the braking at the end of the back straight (Hulman Blvd). Schumacher was definitely going the deepest, way past the bridge then down 4 gears while lighting up the rotors. Everyone else was braking incrementally farther back, with the backmarkers shutting down about 5 car lengths earlier. Truly awesome.

Also stopped to look at the purple 911E from Texas - sweet car!

call911 · 07-03-2006, 09:09 AM

Just got back at 0100 this am from Indy! We had a great time, but the first corner shunt really spoiled the rest of the race. Montoya's excuse was that Kimi "braked really hard for the first turn". After Schumi passed Massa in the pits, it was pretty much over. I was really bummed for Scott Speed as he looked to be in the points. McLaren really never seemed on pace all weekend, but boy did Ferrari! Everyone was surprised that Alonso pitted soon after Fisi, as he was holding him up significantly in the beginning with what we thought was a heavier fuel load. Renault really struggled. I think someone hit it exactly - Michelin wanted to play it safe this year and brought a very conservative tire. Graham Rayhal raced to 2nd in the IndyPro Series - looks to be the real deal. Supercup was great as well.

The back straight has some nice cars, including a GT3RS! Saw an F40, followed a 360 Challenge Stradale with Mass plates on US70E on the way home.

Surprisingly good turn out after last year. All the teams want a US GP, we'll see what Bernie does...

Keep both hands on the wheel was never more important! This happened right in front of me at Turn 1

jimi_c · 07-03-2006, 09:56 AM

I was under the assumption that the main problem was that no one could change tires in a pit last year. If they had made a rule change at the last minute to satisfy anyone running Michelin, it would have been unfair to Bridgestone teams etc (can't blame the other teams there). This year they let them change tires. Where they screwed up was not offering a refund.

Quote:

Originally posted by lateapex911
Insult?? Who insulted who?

The lawyers made the call, and can you blame them?? They were racing in America, and we can thank ourselves for our litigeous reputation.

Whose fault was it that Michelin screwed the pooch and brought a tire that couldn't take the heat??

They COULD have raced....the software guys could have easily programmed in limits for that corner, or they could have pitted more often...but they CHOSE not to.

yea..it sucked.....but blaming Tony or Bernie, is not fair.

I for one hope they can be back next year.

fryardds · fryardds's Garage

Rats! I should done some homework on finding the Porsche coral before Curt and I went down. For future reference where is it located on the back side and how do you get to it? Thanks.

Saturday was a lot of fun especially for $20. I had not seen F1 qualifying before and though it was pretty cool. The other events also very fun to watch.

SpeedracerIndy · 07-03-2006, 10:53 AM

The Car corrall is on the back stretch. you can't miss it if you head toward the back of the track.

I forgot about the GT3 RS, how did that get into this country???? That thing was amazing!!!

I wish they would group all of the cars together like they did a few years ago. I would rather see a bunch of Porsches,Farrari's, etc... together rather than have to sift through all the ho-hum cars also. Nothing against a riced out 1994 VW Jetta, but I can see one of those any day of the week.