2013 Indycar championship

Good race, RHR drove a smart race to win over Dixon by 0.6 sec. Dixon finished 2nd for the 4th time in a row. Andretti Autosport win first two races and hold 3rd - 5th place in the championship..

Off to Long Beach now, it's the first race of the season from the old CART/Champ Car calendar. I'm looking forward to seeing how these new cars, after a years running, compare with the Champ Car of 2007, after seeing the big drop in time at Barber this year.

Barber 2011 Pole: 1:11.4546 (Dallara IR07)
Barber 2012 Pole: 1:10.4768 (Dallara DW12)
Barber 2013 Pole: 1:07.0871 ''

And, because I'm sad like that:

2002 Pole: 1:07.742 (Lola B02/00)
2003 Pole: 1:08.177 ''
2006 Pole: 1:06.886 (Lola B03/00)
2007 Pole: 1:07.920 (Panoz DP01)
2008 Pole: 1:06.902 ''
2009 Pole: 1:09.7107 (Dallara IR07)
2010 Pole: 1:09.3185 ''
2011 Pole: 1:09.0649 ''
2012 Pole: 1:08.6089 (Dallara DW12)

So, who's betting we'll see the Dallara DW12 post a time faster than Champ Car's ''new car'' of 2007?

They worked well at the end of the St Petes race, yellows bred yellows, the first half was a Will Powerthon.

I would ask for more laptimes, however Long Beach has had more alterations than michael jackson.

The big drop at Barber was attributed to the track resurfacing and the tires, and some also going to the development of the car..

I don't think they have a chance to beat the LB record lap time from 2006. The record belongs to the old Lola Ford-Cosworth, not the Panoz. Although the 2008 pole was only 0.1 slower.
From the data I found the track hasn't change since 2006 record.

Lap record - 1:06.886 (Sébastien Bourdais, Lola B02/00-Cosworth, 2006, CCWS) - Length 1.968 mi

2012 DW12 Pole - Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 1:08.6089 Length 1.968 mi

Note: A. J. Allmendinger qualified 4th in the 2006 race.

As there is no Drifting thread:



JR Hildebrand's drift livery designed by Andy Blackmore

AMR Garage wrote:They worked well at the end of the St Petes race, yellows bred yellows, the first half was a Will Powerthon.

I would ask for more laptimes, however Long Beach has had more alterations than michael jackson.

I took this into consideration. I couldn't find 1999, 2000 or 2001, which are the three earliest dates of this configuration, and strangely I couldn't find anything between 2003 and 2006. Perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough.

Although the general feeling I get is that the B03/00 was a few seconds faster than they were at the beginning of the 00s. The DP01 with it's more road course orientated design managed to go even further.

AMR Garage wrote:http://throughtheturbulence.com/2013/04/10/firestone-indycar-tire-test-at-pocono-raceway-41013/

How could I forget! Awesome stuff. Should make for good racing.

They should bring back Trenton. Oval circuits need more right handers.

27 cars enter for the 39th GPLB this weekend. Including one car for A.J. Allmendinger and one for Mike Conway (2011 winner). Supporting races include the ALMS. The is the best street race in the world, 2nd only to Monaco.

Probably going to have to record this race so I can run the Radical Cup.

RHR is 1st after P2, but the shocker is Mike Conway who is 2nd, running his first laps of the year.

Vautier penalized after contact with Dixon.

Saavedra crashes to bring out the caution.

Kimball overshoots and collects Tagliani to bring out the second caution. Tagliani seems pretty pissed at Kimball.

Hinchcliffe tries to get by Kanaan in Turn 1 on the restart, but gets clipped into the wall and collects Viso.

Hunter-Reay tries to pass Beatriz, but hits the tire wall.

Vautier and Power make contact on pit road.

Allmendinger off the track.

Kanaan and Servia make contact with two laps to go and Kanaan's car is disabled against the wall. Servia continues.

Sato wins at Long Beach! Rahal and Wilson round off the podium. This is A.J. Foyt Enterprise's first IndyCar win since 2002 at Kansas with Airton Dare.

Great race by Sato.

But it seems like most of the "stars" of the sport looked rather amateur.

up to lap 18, been a pretty decent race so far

Hinchcliffe definitely made an amateur move when he tried to out-brake Kanaan into Turn 1 on a restart from two car lengths back.

For sure some passing attempts going into turn 1 where never going to work, but that's racing.
Good to see the top 3 on the podium from the smaller teams. Interesting they got within 0.3 sec of the CCWS car lap record. Mike Conway did an amazing job qualifying after being away for so long.

HINCHTOWN DOES IT AGAIN!!!

OH CANADA!

A couple bits of news and info:

Lucas Luhr to race an Indycar at Sonoma :
http://www.indycar.com/News/2013/07/7-26-Luhr-to-make-series-debut-at-Sonoma

Panther Racing to sports cars in 2014:
http://www.racer.com/panther-racing-set-to-expand-to-sports-cars/article/304807/