Grand Prix Of Indianapolis- May 10

Yep.

Fist official test session running todsay as well. Tony K, first official Indycar lap on the road course.

Juan Pablo M testing well today in top 5. His comments:

Apr.30 (GMM) Mercedes may now be at the front, but little has changed in Formula One.

That is the view of former driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who left the paddock half-way through the 2006 season to begin his foray in the American series Nascar.

Now 38, the Colombian has switched to Indycar, where between his races at Long Beach and Alabama he sat down to watch the Chinese Grand Prix on television.

"I watched for five laps and then switched it off," the winner of 7 Grands Prix told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

Montoya said he did not find the Shanghai spectacle "exciting" enough, adding that part of the problem is the loss of the high-revving, screaming engines of the past.

But the main issue, he explained, is that Indycar is simply better racing.

"This has nothing to do with the rule changes in Formula One," said the former Williams and McLaren driver. "Formula one has always been very technical.

"As a driver you are so dependent on the car. Do you really think Alonso and Vettel have forgotten how to drive? It's just bad luck for everyone who is not in a Mercedes.

"And that's not going to change much this year," Montoya warned.

He was also quoted recently as being heavily critical of the DRS overtaking system in F1, saying the sight of a great driver passing a rival just because his rear wing is wide open is "like giving photoshop to Picasso".

Montoya explains: "As a driver I don't like it because it makes overtaking too easy. You just have to get within one second of the guy in front, press the wing button and drive past.

"For the spectators it's great," he added. "What do you want in sport? A good show, and DRS makes the show better, no question."

 

We may be heading down for it, but for sure will be at the 500

 

The question for Montoya, now, must be what does Indy Car's "Push to Pass" do?

Is that an aspect that adds to the sport or is that show business?

BHW

 

I totally forgot about that, good call. I liked Montoya when he was young and won his CART championship but now he is such a huge "prima donna" I lost any respect I still had for him. Any way I am looking forward to this race simply because it is on the road course.

 

I'm wondering where all of Montoya's sudden condemnation of F-1 is coming from?

BHW

 

I think it is just his way of feeding his ego as it is easier to talk negatively than it is to look for something positive. Just my outsiders opinion.

 

Pippa Mann reveals her new Susan G. Komen sponsored pink car today. This ride should be popular with the fans this month.

 

Nasty accident with Saavedra stalling on the front row...

 

Nice race and very enjoyable. Fortunately no one was injured at the start. Strange incident with Hinch, hope he's okay. Pulled off the track for no apparent reason and sat with his hands off the wheel. Not sure if he suffered a blackout or ? He left the track on a stretcher.

 

What channel is it on?

 

hit in the head by a piece of debris. apparently suffered a minor concussion; not sure if he'll be out of the 500 (or any of the practice/qualy) yet. released from hospital so that's a good sign.

 

I only caught the end of the race. Did all the fans leave early? The stands were empty.

 

Indycar couldn't sell out a race if they offered free hookers and blow.

 

Sell out?
Looked like there was a tornado warning. Stands seemed utterly empty save those at start/finish.

Made the China GP seem crowded.

 

I was there today with seats in GP turn 1 - where Stands J and H were close to being full. As we walked around the circuit for the other races before the Indycars, the plaza/pagoda areas were packed with people and the viewing mounds were full, especially turn 1. I imagine they exceeded their goal of 50,000 for this first race. Keep in mind that quite a few of the oval stands are closed for road races at Indy so the TV view can be deceptive.

So GuyIncognito, I'd be interested to know what racing series does sell out? I've been to them all, Indy, F1, WC, WEC, Nascar,etc - never seen a sellout at any of those in the US. So what's your point?

 

Thanks.
Perhaps if I had seen more of the race that would have been evident.

 

I've seen sellouts in the US for Indycar, F1 (first indy USGP), and many NASCAR races. all are hurting now, but none to the degree of indycar. The 500 used to be a packed house for qualifying, let alone the race...

the difference is NASCAR expanded too fast and has overcapacity; indycar is just a damaged and dying brand.

 

I was also curious about all the empty seats/stands and in my opinion this only hurts attendance/sales numbers. First road course race for INDY so I expected some flaws and overall I enjoyed the race.

 

You just contradicted yourself saying that you have seen sellouts for Indycar in the US. Granted it was years ago (which can also be said for other series) but you also agree that no series is selling out races now. So I find your comment that "Indycar couldn't sell out a race offering free hookers and a blow" to be totally inappropriate and distasteful.

Further, I could not disagree more that Indycar is a dying brand. From what I have seen this past week (especially today), as with last year, there is a lot of positive energy in the garages and the stands.

Sounds to me that for some reason you want Indycar to be a dying brand. . . . .

Time to move on.

 

thanks for putting words in my mouth. I'm sure living in Carmel IN you're completely unbiased and of course you have no idea who I am or other things I've said, repeatedly, on this site in favor of Indycar (or at least my desire for it to return to its former glory). nope, just take one sentence said in jest and attack out of ignorance.

go look at historical ratings or attendance, compare Indy to NASCAR over the last, say, 20 years, and get back to me

 

Oh, man - that's uninformed. GI has been a trooper for Indy. He'd love for 'em to get their act together.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Having lived in the Chicago area mostly and being transferred to Indiana (I am not an Indiana native) and having a history of driving school, corner worker/fire and rescue at Road America and Blackhawk Farms I do consider myself to be a fairly unbiased judge of racing quality. I simply took exception to your choice of words as they appeared to be pretty negative toward Indycar. When you post something, you cannot always assume everyone is reading everything you ever posted.

No doubt Indycar has struggled. But as I said, I do not see it as a dying brand.

So evidently, I need to go back and read other postings you have had regarding Indycar as apparently you have been an Indycar advocate. So after all is said and done we are allies.

I was not trying to start a war on this thread. I just took exception to your comment after I felt I had a great experience at IMS today with Indycar and the other series.

 

LOL!

BHW

 

Here is an a-typical Indy Car experience of late.

I had only remembered that the race was yesterday (Saturday) after dropping in on the
F-Chat racing forums. Then, I went to check what network was carrying the Indy GP.

A good source of that might just be Indy Car's own website schedule, right? Clicking on that,
there was the date of the race and how to buy tickets but no mention what-so-ever of
what network was broadcasting the race live but the rest of the schedule clearly indicated
ABC, ESPN or NBCS or whomever else is televising their races because lately, we never
seem to know just which network is carrying their races live.

Then clicked through Indy Car's website and found something about "Live Streaming" Clicked
on that and got a window stating "Not available". So, now it's becoming a laborious task
to find out what network is broadcasting the race. F-it, turn on the TV and run through
the search menu.

Going through the entire search menu, no mention of Indy Car at all. The local ABC affiliate
listed "Paid Programming" (infomercials), nothing on ESPN or NBCS. Decided to plunk on the
local ABC channel anyway, low & behold there it was and only missed the first 10 or 12
laps.

The race was interesting especially how all the different strategies played out in the end. The
revised track looked great, high marks there as the facility looks fantastic and the new road
course layout isn't as Mickey Mouse as the original F-1 layout.

We had to know that there weren't going to be 400K spectators attending and it looked as
though spectators were limited to certain areas. But, when the average person tuning in
see that enormous grandstand down the pit straight virtually empty, it's easy to say no one
was there and wonder why that is.

Glad the event worked out as there was a lot of skepticism when it was originally announced.
It definitely looks as though it is something they can build on.

As for the restart procedure, why is Indy Car trying to emulate NASCAR by bottling up the
field like that right up to the green flag? They must realize that Indy Cars accelerate like
rockets by comparison to NASCAR which take half a mile to change up to second gear.

BHW