TBK-Light.com

I also like Indycars on fast pace ovals like Michigan but they need to improve driving standards before racing there again

now with the cars safer than ever derpness will reach high levels

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Motorsports trend for 2024: climate change ruining races everywhere

Its just fascinating why the new aero package wasn't developed with the quality of racing on ovals in mind. It's a god damn spec series. They literally got the opportunity to design a race car while they didn't have to worry about its performance at all whatsoever. The only job the designer of a spec car has to do is to ensure it creates good racing. They did a good job for the twisties, but really not ovals.
Slap a small handford device on them ans see what happens!

Well, I mean they did design the IR-18 aero package with ovals in mind, but strictly from the "avoid pack racing at all costs" mentality, so I guess it was a successful design from that standpoint... The thing I believe made a big difference in what they expected vs the actual on-track product on ovals -- and this is purely my speculation, no real facts here -- is that they underestimated the effects of dirty air. It's really difficult to simulate the airflow involved in a multi-car situation. That's true in general, but particularly when you're the fourth or fifth car in line as opposed to the first car behind another one. So I think IndyCar kind of painted itself into a box where they can't really remedy this without a significant enough redesign that it would go beyond just some small, affordable aero pieces they have been trying so far. Speaking of which...


I actually don't think this would be the cure-all that people assume it would be. We all remember the insanity of the Handford races at Michigan and Fontana. However, we also forget that Michigan and Fontana have a big difference from Indianapolis, Texas, or Gateway: multiple grooves. The Handford punched a massive hole in the air, which made the draft incredibly strong, but any time you do that, you are also making the dirty air in the corners worse. When you watch those CART races at the big ovals, the drivers never really followed one another in the corners. The trailing car always had to take a different line to find some clean air. That's not really an option at Indy, Gateway, or PJ1'd Texas. I would imagine there's a good chance that the strength of the draft wouldn't outweigh the loss of downforce the trailing car would have in the corners.

Sigh, yes, you probably have a point. I'd love to see them trying though. It doesn't have to be a giant CART handford. Just like... a third of its size? I'd love to see what it would do. The 2013 spec cars raced amazing with big holes in the air.

I think they intended it to be a good design for oval racing, they just missed it the first year & then factors outside of their control came to play. The addition of the aeroscreen also messed up the balance - so they are trying to adjust for that (while during a global pandemic that has caused parts shortages in the racing industry & limitations on testing / budget)

Also have to remember that alot of the superspeedways has repaved with newer/polymer-modified mixes of asphalt that has much less wear on the track surface over time - thus leading to single groove racing at most of these venues (i.e. Charlotte, Kentucky, Michigan, Texas), that's why certain tracks (i.e. Texas - even pre-PJ1, which even if the pavement was worn in it would still be shit because of the re-configuration of turn 1) are going to be worse off than for say Fontana or Iowa.

Ultimately, IndyCar is between a rock & a hard place in regards to ovals. Not enough independently owned tracks to go to, tracks that are suitable either don't have a promoter (Iowa, Milwaukee) or has deed restrictions (Pikes Peak), NASCAR owned tracks (including road courses like Watkins Glen) always DOA due to lack of promotion, and SMI tracks are a tricky situation (either doesn't work out financially, bad past (Charlotte, Vegas), or is unsuitable).

Nashville's pole award will honor Bryan Clauson
[tweet]https://twitter.com/JennaFryer/status/1395010838172471296[/tweet]

Somebody war bored

Some good news about the future with NTT staying on.

https://racer.com/2021/05/20/ntt-extend ... onsorship/

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Andre Ribeiro passed away

https://racer.com/2021/05/23/cart-race- ... ies-at-55/

Grosjean has persuaded the wife that Gateway is safe.

https://www.autohebdo.fr/monoplace/indy ... 17755.html

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

On the F1 podcast, he said he felt really weird knowing the entire indycar paddock was racing at Texas and he wasn't....

I sense he'll be doing the entire season next year

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Here's a segment from the Today Show about Sam Schmidt and the exoskeleton he had on at Indy that allowed him to stand and walk again.
https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/13 ... 0366413824

I don't know what camera they use at Indycar but some drivers have pretty weird faces compared to real life

https://www.indycar.com/Drivers

Yes seems the upper and the lower third of the image is stretched, while the middle is smaller.

Roger wants more ovals
[tweet]https://twitter.com/jeff_gluck/status/1398281444108247052[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/nateryan/status/1398293215002890240[/tweet]

HELL YES!
(Just in time for me to move out of state )

Sent from my SM-G781U1 using Tapatalk

RLLR could be on their way to a permanent third car - Ferrucci will be back for Detroit, again with HyVee (and Cheetos instead of Mountain Dew).

https://racer.com/2021/06/07/ferrucci-c ... bleheader/

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Good. Liking every single driver in the series isn't optimal.