Detroit IRL

I watched it on tv expecting it to be boring too. I really should have attended. There was a lot of local tv coverage after the race which was odd to see. It looked like there were a lot of fans there as well. I plan to attend at least one of the race days next year.

 

I went to their first race at Disneyworld years ago, great race. 75% of IRL races are close, can't say that about most series. Complain all you want about Tony, its a good series.

 

I miss that race a DW.

Fun track to watch.

 

The Championship comes down to the last race of the series. That makes an exciting series. BTW, I think it looked intentional, but you never know. Let's see what happens if they file a protest.

I hope Dario wins next week and it is a moot point.

 

Which one? I think there may have been two intentional or at least unbelievably reckless incidents happening.

Also, what is this BS about waiting until about 10 laps until the end and then foreshortening the race by saying that it will be "run to a time limit"?

I would have been sorely pissed if I had spent good money to watch that sorry parade spectacle of the last laps and the kiddy clown crash in the last corner at practically pace car lap speed.

 

My guess it's becasue of TV. But the cause is the full course cautions. Why cant they just have local yellow? One instance was when someone couldn't make the corner and drove straight onto the runoff area. No need for full course caution in that case but it went full anyway.

 

I agree about the over-cautious cautions, except that on this silly course you simply cannot see anything 20 yards ahead of your nose because of the concrete walls. There is also absolutely nowhere to go if something happens ahead of you.

Also, what is the point of having a fuel strategy (or any other strategy) if you don't really have any idea of how many laps the race is going to be?

 

Formula One limited to 2hrs. ALMS limited to 2 hours 45 minutes or 12 hours or 24 hours. What is new here?

 

I agree 100%, plus they were 1 lap short of going the full distance. What's the point they already went over the time limit and had less time for post race interviews.

 

ALMS can't exceed a race length of 12 hours - which is Sebring - due to ACO/ALMS rules. Shortest ALMS race is just over one hour - Long Beach - definitely not an endurance race - purely a sprint race with mandatory change of drivers.

Michael Andretti showed his true colors at the end of this race. GO GANASSI.

Carol

 

The full course cautions must be in their blood. The first 5 years of the NASCAR Truck Series they ran the road course at Heartland Park. I was Course Marshal and we had a hard time convincing them that we could get incidents cleared with just local yellows in most cases. They were used to using full course cautions, but finally came around and let us do our normal job. It made a lot better live TV by not having the pace truck on track so many times.

 

I meant to ask how everyone likes the new Belle Isle track. I was at Detroit for the last two F-1 races, but never went to Belle Isle. The downtown track was sure handy.

 

here's comments on this thread:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165152

very bumpy track; transition from cement to asphalt; not viewer friendly in some locations; narrow - not much passing; much better ALMS circuits being used

Carol

 

And much worse. In my opinion the experience for a viewer was better than Sebring and much easier than Laguna Seca. St Pete's looked incredibly narrower on tv.

George


"very bumpy track; transition from cement to asphalt; not viewer friendly in some locations; narrow - not much passing; much better ALMS circuits being used"

Carol

 

Maybe we should take the helicopter view more seriously. In all truth, when you attend an event in person, you are not going to see nearly as much as even FOX or SPEED will show on the tube. (I mean in an overall course and race sense of the word...) What is needed nowadays is to provide enough room for the cars to actually run with one another. This one does not have that. Hence the crashes and the cautions.

I really wanted to like this course - I really did - but the fact of the matter is that when you funnel the cars down into what is about the width of a 4 car garage with concrete walls everywhere, you are going to have exactly what we saw in the race last weekend.

Even so, I guess that Danica likes it well enough - bumpy or not!