Well, I tuned in for IRL qualifying in Brazil today .... and it wasn't there. The concrete section of the street course was a skating rink, so they're going to have to try to cut microgrooves tonight to make the track usable tomorrow. But there's a perfectly good race course in Sao Paulo. Why are they running on the streets? Is FOM insisting that tracks hosting F1 don't host "other" events? (I'd have liked to compare lap times.)
Bernie, (the midget one), has in the past. But how could that be a concern today. Paranoria of IRL pigs. BTW it was Mansell who made him paranoid.
+1. IRL is doing just fine running itself into the ground, no need for Bernie to help. IIRC, this Brazillian street race was heavily funded by the local gov't.
Once upon a time this series would have been on a US network. Now it's not on ESPN, not on Speed - it's on "Versus," a channel DirecTV doesn't carry, so for many it's not even on TV. What a joke. Thanks, Tony! And: ride 'em, cowboys!
Simona's leading! Although she's the only one not to pit under yellow. Wait a minute. She pitted under green a few laps ago and is the solid leader.
Ok, here's Simona. Petite LeMans last Oct. She had just finished 2nd in Atlantics. She certainly has the most potential of any of the girls, ever. I'll have to dig back for Ana. Image Unavailable, Please Login
From my reading, while Comcast are no angels, I'd have to call this one against DirecTV. Shortly after VS announced they were picking up NHL coverage, DTV suddenly announced that Comcast was asking too much money for VS. According to Comcast, the conflict was because DTV was going to relegate VS to the "Premium" package, along with HBO, SHO, etc --- which also would have taken them off of all the "Basic" and "Choice" subscribers. From a little web research, I figure the price increase would have been about 5 cents per subscriber per month. Later, Comcast announced that they dropped their price increase for VS, and only demanded to not be exiled to the premium package. But DTV still claimed the conflict was over "pricing". VS was removed from DirecTV just in time for DTV to start hyping their "Center Ice" *pay* coverage of NHL. I noticed that, after DTV dropped VS -- to avoid an "outrageous" fee increase -- that my rates didn't go *down* at all. The funny part is that a lot of the vitriol I hear on this board about Indycar reminds me of the huge barrel of trash talking DTV did about Dish, when I told them I was canceling DTV (after over nine years), and going with Dish. I gather I'm not the only one to change from DTV to Dish, lately. The VS controversy caused me to review some of the changes in DTV over the years. "Interactive" was dropped years ago. The online channel guide doesn't even carry the date of movies, anymore. (But they'll be glad to sell you a paper guide.) And my rates have gone up more in the last year or two than in all the years preceeding. Maybe this aligns with the take over by Liberty Media, or maybe it's just picking up too many cable company personnel. But DTV is getting more and more like those "we're the only option" cable companies that caused me to switch to satellite in the first place. I did tell DTV that I ought to thank them for making me pay attention. For what I was paying DTV for plain SD coverage, I got HD DVR service from Dish. (And that doesn't even include the first year's discounts.) I not only got VS back, I also got several more HBO/MAX channels that DTV doesn't carry. (Liberty Media is parent to both DTV and STARZ.) And HD Theatre gives me WRC coverage. (I hesitated to go for HD coverage with DTV, due to several reports of issues with DTV's new HD DVRs.) The DVR does make Speed's F1 coverage less painful. Today, I started the playback an hour after the pre-race show (a half hour into the race). After skipping forward over the commercials (and much of the pre-race blather), I wound up only three minutes behind the "live" coverage. (It would have been closer to live, but I expected to skip the "grid walk" garbage, which Speed seems to have, thankfully, dropped.) Oddly enough, Dish also offers "Center Ice" pay coverage of NHL -- and even advertises it on VS. (Not that I've ever cared about hockey. But I *do* care about Dakar, the Iditarod, and Indycar -- all of which VS carries. IMO, VS was worth a nickel a month more. They're hugely improved over when they were OLN.) And the DVR will also be handy for when Fox and ABC run delayed F1 and live Indy races against each other. Dang! I hijacked my own thread. But what a "eventful" race that street circuit was. Hoo-Boy!.
Riiight. What a silly bunch of rules Indycar has: - Must use both of two tire compounds during a race. - Stripe to designate option tires. - Pits closed at start of a full course SC period - Specified engine supplier (Honda, not Cosworth) - "Knock-out" qualifying - Points: Code: Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 IRL-20 30 20 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 FIA 25 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1 Of course, there isn't a testing ban, and they have ovals, as well as street and road course races. Oh yes, and who made the chassis for two of the three new F1 teams?
"From my reading, while Comcast are no angels, I'd have to call this one against DirecTV." Thanks for the post, I didn't know the history of the dispute. As for vitriol towards the IRL, that's actually a fair characterization of my feelings. "Contempt" would be another. Hadn't watched an IRL race in a long time, heard about the street race yesterday morning, thought I'd look it up. Instead of using the internet, I searched through the onscreen directory. Let's see, Speed? Nope. One of the ESPN channels? Nope. Well, good for them, they're on a network. Oh. Nope. Went to the Mac - aaaah, there it is, "Versus." Versus? Versus?! Let's see, that would be channel ... 603, right there between TVG, the horse racing channel, and 605, the hunting, shooting and fishing channel. Versus on DirecTV features a paragraph long diatribe against Comcast, displayed continuously against a nice pop music soundtrack. DirecTV announces that they know how important the NHL is to me and apologizes for the inconvenience. The apology is a nice touch but, no worries DirecTV, I don't follow the NHL. I'm not surprised to read that I'm a valued customer, and as such am pleased that DirecTV is "standing firm in the negotiations" with Comcast. I look forward to the day when DirecTV prevails over evil Comcast and I may at last be able to see the fine show new IRL management no doubt puts on! Image Unavailable, Please Login
I keep typing "IRL", but it's "Indycar" - the merger of IRL and CART. And right above The hunt'n, shoot'n and fish'n channel, and the campin' channel, is 607 -- Speed. (On Dish, VS is 151 and Speed is 150) But not to worry: according to DTV, they still carry Indycar .... on ABC. Just as losing Speed would still let you watch F1 ... on Fox. (Well, not exactly like --- F1 is the last thing Speed still carries that I watch. VS also picked up Dakar after Speed dropped it.) ABC carries six of the 17 Indycar events. VS carries the other 11. If you want to "try before you buy", the Long Beach GP will be on ABC on Apr 18th. (And, of course, the Indy 500 on May 30th will be on ABC.) But the race at Watkin's Glen is on VS on July 4th. Indycar -- not just roundy-rounds anymore. (They dropped the Richmond soup bowl this year. It was a bit fun watching the drivers get carsick from driving around that tiny oval. )
I watched to follow Simona and Ana, boring street race otherwise. power to Power at the end, he wasn't sure how to celebrate with no one watching LOL. Good for my neighbors @ Aerodyne, they'll have lots of car repairs coming in. Looking forward to seeing GR in Sarah's car, hope it works for them.
They're used to getting swamped at the car, rather than having the news people wait for the podium celebration. Banana and honey sandwich during the red flag, eh? Thanyouverrmuch. (I guess that's healthier than Kimi's ice cream. ) More action up front than Bahrain, though. (Like the olde days in F1: don't wait for a mistake, pressure 'im into missing the corner.) Too bumpy, but kinda neat to watch the cars zip past the traffic on the parallel highway. (Did you notice the backup on the highway during the downpour?)
"More action up front than Bahrain, though." The only way to have less action than Bahrain would be to run the entire race under a full course caution. Glad to see ABC still gives the Danica Series some air time. And getting rid of Richmond sounds like a good idea to me; I went to a race at Nazareth the year Mansell ran there, and 19 second laps aren't that interesting after the first few. Speed carried BTCC and DTM recently, great racing. I wish the Danica Racing League well, because I know it provides jobs for a lot of racing people in the US. Maybe someday it will recover some of the prestige it once had, and no longer be a feeder series for NASCAR/halfway house for folks who couldn't make it in F1/launch pad for swimsuit models. List of competitors for CART 1992: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_IndyCar_season
I feel you are missing the point, some F1 greats have come to america and left with their tails' between their legs, just as americans have not fared well in F1. It's a different world today. I'd place money that if you take the top 10 drivers in nascar and plunk them down in the top-10 F1 cars that they would do much better than if you were to take the top-10 F1 drivers and plunk them in the top-10 nascar cup stock cars. Me? I can take or leave any series, I have no favorites anymore.
I was hoping to see Loeb come to F1, so we could compare how Loeb did in F1 to how Kimi does in WRC Jr. (Me, I *am* biased. ) (I have to admit to being one of the people "shocked" when Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Colin Edwards put in that surprise ROC Nations Cup win, back in '02 in the Canaries ... including Gordon beating Loeb in a heat in rally cars.)
