2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!!

[Timothy A]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

F1 discussing going to full ground effects in the future, but retaining the complicated front wings. Interesting.

[alfablue]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Seems like it's been a long time since I've been able to see a race, and even longer since it's been an Indy race. But caught the one at the Mile yesterday- good race, I thought.

Especially that Bourdais and his team changed to a speed strategy vs. a fuel economy strategy- which made most of the field look like they were standing still. So nice to see someone DRIVE to win a race vs. conserve, sometimes. He was SO much faster that you would have thought that other team leaders would have done the very simple math that over the 40 laps of a stint you would (and did ) get more than enough time to add the one extra stop, let alone two more. Had that gone green instead of that late caution, I think he would really would have had all but a few lapped. Curious that so many cars were slow after the last start....

I can stand watching that.

[solovsfett]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Seems like it's been a long time since I've been able to see a race, and even longer since it's been an Indy race. But caught the one at the Mile yesterday- good race, I thought.

Especially that Bourdais and his team changed to a speed strategy vs. a fuel economy strategy- which made most of the field look like they were standing still. So nice to see someone DRIVE to win a race vs. conserve, sometimes. He was SO much faster that you would have thought that other team leaders would have done the very simple math that over the 40 laps of a stint you would (and did ) get more than enough time to add the one extra stop, let alone two more. Had that gone green instead of that late caution, I think he would really would have had all but a few lapped. Curious that so many cars were slow after the last start....

I can stand watching that.

Milwaukee was great. I was about 35 rows up above the flagstand.

The strategies were interesting. Clearly Bourdais' team nailed it. I thought Helio or Montoya would have something for him in the end with tires that were about 12 laps fresher but they must not have had the set-up dialed in.

Unfortunately, the late start (4:30 on a Sunday? Are you ****ing kidding me???) killed attendance along with a lack of the omnipresent advertising they had in the early 90's.

I don't think Andretti will promote this race again. Indycar's leader (Miles) doesn't give a **** about the series as a whole, only the 500's bottom line, thus the schedule is in a constant state of flux etc. and this inconsistency in dates, along with the split that killed Indycar before it, has resulted in maybe 12-14,000 going to Milwaukee. You want to know your hardcore fans? Those were the people in attendance on Sunday. But you need the Chicago/Minneapolis/Indianapolis/Detroit etc people coming to fill the stands and maybe push it towards a sell-out and you cannot do that a start time of 4:30 on a Sunday and only one support series race to offer those who come.

If Milwaukee continues, it NEEDS to be run on the Sunday after the INDY 500 like it was traditionally for about what? 60 years? 50? Problem is Penske won't move that ****y Detroit race (and let's face it, Penske has never cared about the series health, only his own team). But I digress. Run Milwaukee on the Sunday after INDY, at 12pm or 1pm. Have Indy Lights and Pro Mazda race on Saturday or have qualifying for all 3 series on Saturday with Pro Mazda race Saturday afternoon and Indy Lights race after the Indycars on Sunday.

The answers for Indycar seem so obvious and Milwaukee isn't like Louden, New Hampshire or that **** track in St. Louis. IT ABSOLUTELY can and should work here...the powers that be must acknowledge what worked in the past and act on that knowledge.

Kudos to Michael Andretti, I believe his group did everything they could but so much of what could make Milwaukee successful is out of his hands

[Timothy A]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Milwaukee was great only because of Bourdais ended up running flat out, the rest of the field minus Rahal and Helio just tooled around in fuel mileage mode. I just hate that. I don't how to fix that as it's the strategists' fault. I can only imagine how awesome it would have been with all the cars running using Bourdias' strategy.

I'm not convinced moving Milwaukee back to it's traditional spot would help at all. The time of the race sucked for sure. It also sucked having qualifying on the same day as the race. I like the buildup of a racing weekend, but maybe I'm all wet on that. Solo, how much of the day did you attend?

[solovsfett]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Milwaukee was great only because of Bourdais ended up running flat out, the rest of the field minus Rahal and Helio just tooled around in fuel mileage mode. I just hate that. I don't how to fix that as it's the strategists' fault. I can only imagine how awesome it would have been with all the cars running using Bourdias' strategy.

I'm not convinced moving Milwaukee back to it's traditional spot would help at all. The time of the race sucked for sure. It also sucked having qualifying on the same day as the race. I like the buildup of a racing weekend, but maybe I'm all wet on that. Solo, how much of the day did you attend?

I had family in town and was also taking a first timer (future Mrs. Solo) so we arrived just in time for the Lights race at 2pm.

I think in the future (if there is a future for Milwaukee) they should have Indycar, Lights and Pro Mazda, they NEED at least 3 races on the weekend.

Qualify all 3 on Saturday, race Pro Mazda late in the afternoon or spice it up and have them qualify first, then Lights then Pro Mazda race then Indycar qualifying

then Sunday Indycar race at noon or 1pm and Lights at 4pm...but what do I know, I'm not Mark Miles

[Timothy A]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

I think in the future (if there is a future for Milwaukee) they should have Indycar, Lights and Pro Mazda, they NEED at least 3 races on the weekend.

Qualify all 3 on Saturday, race Pro Mazda late in the afternoon or spice it up and have them qualify first, then Lights then Pro Mazda race then Indycar qualifying

then Sunday Indycar race at noon or 1pm and Lights at 4pm...but what do I know, I'm not Mark Miles

That's exactly how I'd do it and it's how it was done back in the CART days. Great minds think alike.

Looks like ratings are up for whatever reason, that's a good thing.

[alfablue]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Jules passed.

http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com...mily-confirms/

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Jules passed.

That really sucks about Bianchi. Odd that the first news I saw about him in months was just a couple of days ago and his father expressed the feeling that he would have been better off dying immediately instead of living comatose for months. A sentiment I can certainly understand. NASCAR driver Rick Balwin was in a persistent vegetative state for 11 years following a qualifying crash at Michigan International Speedway in 1986. Never came out of it and died in June of 1997, almost exactly 11 years after the accident. Baldwin crashed near where Ernie Irvan suffered near fatal injuries at MIS in 1994 and Irvan won the race at MIS the weekend that Baldwin died.

[solovsfett]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Terrible news about Jules Bianchi


Iowa was another fantastic race for Indycar. 9 different winners in 13 races and a 1-4 for U.S. drivers. Of course, no-one will care about that in the papers come Monday but maybe there is a glimmer of hope in having Graham Rahal and Ryan Hunter-Reay be successful.

However...I must say Graham Rahal and Sage Karem have been driving recklessly for a while now (witness Karem swerving at Carpenter last night or Rahal chopping people at Fontana all night) and if left disciplined they're going to kill someone

[Timothy A]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Terrible news about Jules Bianchi

Iowa was another fantastic race for Indycar. 9 different winners in 13 races and a 1-4 for U.S. drivers. Of course, no-one will care about that in the papers come Monday but maybe there is a glimmer of hope in having Graham Rahal and Ryan Hunter-Reay be successful.

However...I must say Graham Rahal and Sage Karem have been driving recklessly for a while now (witness Karem swerving at Carpenter last night or Rahal chopping people at Fontana all night) and if left disciplined they're going to kill someone

Right on on all accounts. At least now Jules' family can have some closure, seeing him in that state of virtually no hope must have been very sad.

Rahal especially is being too reckless.

It's a bummer to see all the Penske guys performing so poorly.

[solovsfett]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Right on on all accounts. At least now Jules' family can have some closure, seeing him in that state of virtually no hope must have been very sad.

Rahal especially is being too reckless.

It's a bummer to see all the Penske guys performing so poorly.

I think it's desperation on Rahal's part, the pressure is on to perform, Honda has underwhelmed and the team isn't that strong (although...did he show that well w/Ganassi?).

For Sage Karam, I think the kid has a ton of talent but he's playing with fire right now. I recall Michael Andretti making some kamikaze moves in 1987 and maybe Montoya when he first broke in but I never felt they were as seemingly unaware as Karam.

As for the Penske guys, I'm most disappointed with Pagenaud...He's lost...Perhaps 4 cars is just one too many for any team to handle and he's the odd-man out sort of like Charlie Kimball has been (generally) with Ganassi.

The championship is still JPM's to lose and I've been really heartened by HCN's last 2-3 races. Helio has always been a favorite of mine.

[alfablue]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

So Mercedes took the front row. And at Hungary, that should determine the race finish.

Not.

Sorry about the spoiler, but that was an interesting race. Not great racing, per se, but interesting things happened.

[Timothy A]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

So Mercedes took the front row. And at Hungary, that should determine the race finish.

Not.

Sorry about the spoiler, but that was an interesting race. Not great racing, per se, but interesting things happened.

What an insane start by Ferrari, and then to just pull away was amazing. I am trying to correlate what I saw this last weekend with what will happen in the last part of the season. I know Ferarri and RB are good on the twisty handling tracks, Mercedes seems to have an advantage on the power tracks, which most of them are. At the restart, I thought Hamilton was going to win the race, but he fell apart.

[Timothy A]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Just watched Mid Ohio, the cars have outgrown that track. There's no way to pass your way back to the front if you get in a spot like Dixon.

Walker is stepping down; from what I read his hands were a bit tied by Miles, which seems to have led to some convoluted decisions. Miles did infer than Road America will be back on for next year. Speaking of Road America, I want to go there next year for the Tudor race and watch/feel/hear/smell the new Ford GT.

[Timothy A]

Re: 2015 Open Wheel Racing - The Devil comes to Ferrari & the return Wayward Driver!!

Road America is back on baby! I am so there with the boys. Too bad they aren't there with another series that races sedan type cars or the Tudor series. It was fun back in the day to watch Cart practice, the TransAm race, then Cart qualifying, plus the Indy Lites or whatever other series were there.