Portland: ups and downs

[oddlycalm]

:thumbup: Anytime you can run a race without breaking the momentum with full course cautions and also have all the cars running at the end it's going to help tremendously. This race could not have happened at a better time for the series or for the event in Portland. Attendance was up according to most of the local pundits and those that were there saw an exciting race, at least those that could tell what was going on in front of them....

:thumdown: Where were the electronic leaderboards from years past? Victim to cost cutting? How is the average person that paid for a ticket in the grand stands supposed to know what is going on? Realistically, there's no way to hear the announcers over the cars so unless you have a scanner or other electronic means of following the race you are SOL, and that's what average person was.

:thumbup: To their credit CCWS has addressed a great many issues that were troubling races in previous seasons and the recent driver shakeup, orchestrated or not, resolved a glaring issue in a most welcome manner.

:thumdown: Am I the only one that expects a field of professional drivers and an experienced flag man to pull off a successful rolling start? The starts really need to get fixed. While I happened to like the result this weekend, and even enjoyed the whining of the NH drivers to a degree, it's a lingering problem that came up again this week.


oc

[Insomniac]

Can you really fault the starter when Bruno made the mistake. On TV, they even said they checked the S/F line timing and Bruno was ahead. The second time they were actually aligned right it seemed, although the TV coverage was terrible. They didn't show any replays of the start until the halfway point, and even then they didn't do it to take a look/analyze, but part of a race recap. Cars would pit and switch positions on track and we'd never know. Dan Clarke passed PT on the last lap without any P2P and they never showed it.

[DagoFast]

Gotta agree on the starts. I grew up watching midgets on little tiny bullrings and those guys always had perfectly formed rows. Hell they always went 4 abreast for a parade lap before the main event.

I'm not sure what to think of the current crop of ChampCar drivers when a group of local racers had more professionalism and disipline 40 years ago. After the US 500 in '96 it seems like there is some sort of mental phobia in ChampCars on starts.

Maybe I'm just getting old and crochety.....

As far as TV coverage, I think they might wanna consider doing a taped delay if it means they would actually use the extra time to make it a coherent broadcast and make sure all the passes were included and correct the shortcomings of a live broadcast.

Look no further than MotoGP. A whole lot packed in to an hour show.

[RaceGrrl]

Bruno hosed the start all on his own. After the race, DaMatta was asked what he saw and he said both Bruno and Sebastien lifted before the start finish line. (No doubt to get another wave off.) Boo-hoo for them. :cry:

[rabbit]

Wasn't it Portland about four or five years ago when one of the front row starters kept jumping the start to bring out the yellow and extend the fuel window a few laps so they could try for a two-stop strategy?

[racer2c]

I'd rather see a flag man with the cahones to abort a start than to see bothched starts get the green.

Yes, you would think that the some of the worlds best can form a decent start but these guys are taking any advantage they can get. To me it falls to the race control and a fair but strong handed director.

[Tifosi24]

The two starts at Milwaukee looked to be the best in years from my perspective, so it is clear that these guys are able to form into rows. I missed the start this weekend, so I can't comment on how crappy it was or wasn't, but Portland seems to be notorious for terrible starts. I agree with the local track comparison, whenever you go to a local dirt track, even the n00bs driving in the beginner categories are able to form near perfect two abrest rows. If this is the case then top-flight drivers should have no trouble doing the same. I know they are trying to find an advantage, but if this keeps up you have to wonder if they will think about standing starts. I know people hate this argument, but if you can't get a fair start that is a way to solve it. I have also wondered if there could be a way to have all the cars on the pit lane limiter of something until the green flag, (I am aware they need to warm up the tyres, but I think most people know what I am getting at.)

[devilmaster]

but if this keeps up you have to wonder if they will think about standing starts.

I thought it was reported over this past winter that standing starts would begin to be phased in starting at cleveland......

Personally, I like rolling starts. But if they cannot police people to do them properly, then standing starts it must be.

I would hope that they could go back to the old days..... The pace car stays in front of them and at proper speed till the final entrance to pit lane.... then let them go. But both series got into the bad habit of having the pace car leave the field with about half a lap to go (or worse for the IRL, the pace car leaves 1 whole lap before green) and the leader is left to control the field.... giving us some stupid 'cat and mouse' brake checking crap and they are usually up to race speed by the time they hit the last corner sometimes.

I suppose they could try a nascar thing... where they have a cone or line setup before the S/F line. You cannot accelerate before that line. If you do, you get penalized.

Thats my rant. http://www.sportsinferno.com/forums/images/smilies/MHZrant.gif

[KLang]

I thought it was reported over this past winter that standing starts would begin to be phased in starting at cleveland......


The Atlantics are going to try it in Cleveland. I don't think they announced any specific plans to do it with Champ Cars yet.

Don't the starts in Portland pretty much always look that way due to the width of the front straight?

[rabbit]

I would hope that they could go back to the old days..... The pace car stays in front of them and at proper speed till the final entrance to pit lane.... then let them go. But both series got into the bad habit of having the pace car leave the field with about half a lap to go (or worse for the IRL, the pace car leaves 1 whole lap before green) and the leader is left to control the field.... giving us some stupid 'cat and mouse' brake checking crap and they are usually up to race speed by the time they hit the last corner sometimes.That all started after the Scott Goodyear fiasco at Indy in '95.

[Andrew Longman]

The Atlantics are going to try it in Cleveland. I don't think they announced any specific plans to do it with Champ Cars yet.

Don't the starts in Portland pretty much always look that way due to the width of the front straight?

Perhaps the solution is to start them on the backstretch as they used to do at MO.

[oddlycalm]

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree that Bruno hosed himself and Bourdais on the start but that still didn't make it a very good start. There's a difference between legal and well done.

Just came back from lunch with the Anteaters and we agreed that this was the best event here in Portland for several years. CCWS, the business round table and Global Events all did a great job by increasing attendance, increasing sponsorship and making it a good event. Now bring back the leaderboards and I'll shut up.... :p

oc

PS - it was Brack that kept screwing up the start per instructions from Ganassi until race control told them he was going to be black flagged if he did it again. He managed to stay in front of da Matta until the pit crew blew it on one of the wheel nuts. Poetic justice I thought at the time.

[G.]

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree that Bruno hosed himself and Bourdais on the start but that still didn't make it a very good start. There's a difference between legal and well done.

Just came back from lunch with the Anteaters and we agreed that this was the best event here in Portland for several years. CCWS, the business round table and Global Events all did a great job by increasing attendance, increasing sponsorship and making it a good event. Now bring back the leaderboards and I'll shut up.... :p

oc

Glad that you had a good time at the track. :thumbup:

[Insomniac]

Wasn't it Portland about four or five years ago when one of the front row starters kept jumping the start to bring out the yellow and extend the fuel window a few laps so they could try for a two-stop strategy?

da Matta and Brack. That was terrible. da Matta would let up Brack would try to go under him. It was 3 laps in a row. Finally they threatened to black flag and it was done right.

[datachicane]

Great weekend. Attendance was definitely up, even Friday seemed stronger. They lost the old UBEW leaderboard when they refabbed the bridge a year or so back- the board was getting pretty sketchy anyway, and on the plus side there aren't any dryrotted steps or holes in the bridge deck to watch out for anymore :eek: .

Absolutely electric race from start to finish from our seats in C3. There were a bunch of us joking about Dangerous Dan prior to the start, but he did a very nice late-brake on PT on the last lap and would have had an even better day without that cut tire. The crowd went nuts every time AJ came by the last few laps...

[NismoZ]

My inexpert opinion for the kudos? Natural terrain ROAD COURSE, thankyou very much. :thumbup:

[Anteater]

This was my third Portland race weekend, and it was by far the best! :thumbup: There were many racefans on the MAX that I rode to the track, and the crowd was noticeably larger. I'm in the process of watching a recording of the race, and am noticing that the TV audience was deprived of seeing some excellent jockeying for position in the Festival Curves (esp. da Matta vs. Tracy). It was a fine race, bungled start notwithstanding. I like my foreign CC drivers, but it was refreshing to hear the Star-Spangled banner for a change (I hadn't heard it since Jimmy won Fontana in '02). I don't quite approve of people chanting "USA! USA!" at the winner's circle, but I guess they were pretty excited.

Nice lunch with oc, too. :)