Indycar 2023

[greglepore]

Its in the rules that steward has discretion on the yellow, but that car was in a sketch spot. It sucked.
Honestly, I love the racing but Palou's dominance this year was a little dull. He is an amazing driver, but most of the year on the road and street courses everyone else was running for second.

[Por_sha911]

I feel the same about winning on fuel savings. Dixon is the master at it and I applaud him using the rules to his advantage but it stinks when a lesser car or driver wins because they drove like my grandmother (Rossi at the Indy 500).

[URY914]

What a crazy season Rahal is having. Up/down/up/down

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by URY914

What a crazy season Rahal is having. Up/down/up/down

You have to wonder what is the cause of the inconsistencies? Is it him ? Is it setup ? Strategy ? All the above ? I am not a racer and don't pretend to be an expert . But to me a team that has been around as long as RLL should be consistently good at every track .

They must have tons of setup data from each track . So at the very least unloading off the trailer your baseline setup should be close . It seems when they are off they are way off . I would assume every team has checklists and procedures in place so every week they go through the same motions . Nothing is missed . Maybe I am wrong .

[Reg]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

You have to wonder what is the cause of the inconsistencies? Is it him ? Is it setup ? Strategy ? All the above ? I am not a racer and don't pretend to be an expert . But to me a team that has been around as long as RLL should be consistently good at every track .

They must have tons of setup data from each track . So at the very least unloading off the trailer your baseline setup should be close . It seems when they are off they are way off . I would assume every team has checklists and procedures in place so every week they go through the same motions . Nothing is missed . Maybe I am wrong .

I think they’ve had a turnover of employees. You need a well oiled ‘machine’ to win.

[rfuerst911sc]

MSR signs Rosenqvist to a multi year deal .

https://racer.com/2023/09/05/rosenqvist-signs-multiyear-indycar-deal-with-meyer-shank-racing/

[Por_sha911]

RLL has been struggling for a few years and they did a house cleaning at the end of last year. The last few races they've had great setups (pole positions) but nn the most recent race they screwed up with strategy.

[rfuerst911sc]

As I watched qualy yesterday I again realized what a fantastic design feature the corkscrew is . I am sure TV doesn't do justice to the roller coaster affect .

Being newly paved the warm up and qualy laps were quite exciting . Looking forward to today's race . A great track to end the season at .

[Scott Douglas]

Rick - Having driven the corkscrew just a handful of times in my 912 and my brother's '67S, I can assure you, you are correct in that assumption about TV not doing justice to it.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

Rick - Having driven the corkscrew just a handful of times in my 912 and my brother's '67S, I can assure you, you are correct in that assumption about TV not doing justice to it.

That is awesome . I worked with a guy at Lockheed Martin that transferred to Florida from California . He said he watched many motorcycle racers carry the front wheel in the air through the cork screw !!!!! The entire track just looks fantastic in that setting in the hills .

[Scott Douglas]

I've been to numerous bike races there, some even before they changed the shape of the track. That was when I rode motorcycles and Fast Freddie was racing Honda's. It is a pretty spectacular track. My favorite recollection is when I got to hear a Formula One Ferrari do some laps one year. Sitting on the pit straight grandstands and hearing that howl coming from way up on the corkscrew was something I'll never forget.

[rfuerst911sc]

Many years ago when I lived in Orlando . Went to the 24 Hours of Daytona with my oldest son . Ferrari 512SP with that glorious V12 . The Panoz bat mobile with the earth shaking V8 . The Mazda Kudzu with its 3 rotor rotary . Three better sounds will never be heard 😁.

But then add a gaggle of boxer six Porsche's and it gets even better . That was a great two days .

[Zeke]

It is a fun place although I haven't been since the primitive days. We camped on the hillside where you see people sitting now. They let us stay overnight. Riverside too, but the stupid thing there was we had to leave and line up at the gate again Saturday night. They would let us back in at 6 PM. Camping on the back straight only, so backside gate only.

That was a tailgate party in itself. Drinking all day, drive out and line up, more drinking, come back in and more drinking, pass out, get up with the sun and more drinking. Half our group never saw the race. But that was what I was there for, so I managed.

Somehow.

[rfuerst911sc]

Lots of ugly and stupid racing so far . Kind of disappointing so far .

[rfuerst911sc]

Congratulations to the winner . It doesn't surprise me he won , seems to be the master of winning chaotic races . Looking forward to next year . Thanks Indycar 👍

[Scott Douglas]

Yes, ugly at times but overall a very fun race to watch.

[astrochex]

Nutso it was. I think the new surface was a factor in many of the incidents.

[Scott Douglas]

For sure it was. Can't wait till it gets broken in some so there's more than one line.

[Zeke]

Hah! So many yellows the pace car had to be gassed up in the pits from a can NASCAR style.

OK, so I'm no pro race car driver but I have laid down some laps and know a bit about passing. I watched the Indy Lights, or whatever they call them, yesterday and I could see the mistakes as they were made. Most of them did not end as planned. It's young drivers making rookie mistakes. You would think that they learned in their karting days when you can screw up being too aggressive. But I forget how aggressive karting has become. In my many years of karting we had little side nerf bars and 4 exposed tires. Touch tires at speed and someone was going flying. We had to race w/o banging and besides that, if we pushed on the straight or banged in the corners the black flag came out and you were on a one race suspension. Good thing too because when you went flying, bones break.

Apparently the youngin's now didn't break too many bones.

I thought the Indy Car guys might know that it just never does work to sneak a nose in by the guy in front rear tire. Going around on the outside in the marbles — come on, that is not even a hail mary. Rear ending cars is 50/50 an accident or stupid. Each will have his story.

Even Dixon was vulnerable, but I think the race marshalls decided that he didn't commit the infraction they penalized him with. He wins anyway. Way to go.

How does he do that, they ask. He makes better moves and better use of his time on the track.

Will Power, I don't know. He is/was good. How he was last years champ was not his brilliance alone. He sometimes makes stupid moves and most of the time he drives well. But he's not Dixon.

Actually I could criticize most of the better drivers like Newgarden. Lots of ability but sometimes has plain ol' bad luck. When he's not having bad luck, he is capable of making his own. Put him in front and he is a machine. Put him mid pack and he gets impatient and desperate. That goes more or less for many of them.

You gotta like Palou. He knows where his car is supposed to be. Seldom does he get in a situation where he isn't where he wants to be. But it does happen to innocent drivers out there with fools.

Before I go through the whole field I'll stop with one more comment: Graham needs to follow Marco and step out. He didn't develop when he was younger and he's not going to now. He must own the record for 1st lap crashes.

Oh (and I said I would stop.... but) I'm happy Castroneves is done. Because he is done. What he did at Indy coming back after being properly put out to pasture by Penske was a fluke. A good fluke, which many flukes are.

[astrochex]

^ I’ve been over the HCN show for a while. He has been doing stupid things on track for a while but he always gets a pass, especially from NBC. Spiderman, blah, blah, blah. I wish he was done for good in racing, he is past his service date and a hazard to others.