Mike Conway chickens out

[Anteater]

Scared of the ovals, and won't drive them anymore:
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-wade-cunningham-to-drive-in-place-of-conway-at-fontana/

[TKGAngel]

It takes a pretty big set to tell AJ that you're not driving the car.

And if Viso's Twitter is to be believed, he may not get in the car unless they're given more downforce. I thought they took the downforce away so that the cars will be safer?

[Trevor Longman]

Looking at the footage from practice 1 they appear to be all over the place in the corners. Some guys are running right up near the wall just to open up the radius avoid spinning. They're slowing down enough that the pole is at just 216. Not exactly the 240+ the De Ferran did 12 years ago... :rolleyes:

[Ed_Severson]

The track is in considerably worse shape than it was last time open-wheel cars ran here, for starters. Beyond that, the aero rules are borderline insane for the conditions.

I don't say this lightly at all ... I'll be surprised if nobody gets hurt tomorrow night.

[Gnam]

After years of questioning why a driver would race in a Dallara-plane when the risks were so obvious, I don't fault him at all for walking away. Let someone else crash test the new car.

"I choose not to run."
-Jerry Seinfeld :p

[Methanolandbrats]

Good for Conway. Go home and open a fish n chips shop. **** the Earl and Sammich. :thumbup:

[Winston Wolfe]

chickens out ? or "Wisens Up" ????
look at the crashes he has had at Lord Sagamore 500.
TwIRLing has almost killed him twice and we are approaching the date for the senseless death of another Englishman, and two time Earl 500 Champ, who also had hellacious wrecks in a Dull-ara...
I say, KUDOS to Conway for having half a brain to just say NO to this nonsense.
Taking a 500 mile risk around a asphalt covered toliet bowl in front of no one who cares on TV, or in person, to see if you can avoid getting "walled" seems like a pretty good call to me.
Like M&B said, open a fish & chips shop, lad...
and dont serve any chicken :thumbup:

[SteveH]

Viso might be next.

[Chief]

Great thread title. Geez, I thought this car was the cat's meow on ohvals?

Personally, I don't want to hear one peep out of the drivers...you race in the Indy Car series you accept the consequences. Car don't fly, catchfences and fenceposts do their job, and anticipate possible serious injury or death....that's the official Indy Car mantra.

So, get someone in that car...shut your yaps and race. Or better yet...a total boycott by drivers and owners regarding safety and overcharging for parts. That'll teach 'em.

[Don Quixote]

Maybe AJ should jam himself into the car and drive it himself.

[SteveH]

It is ironic that Conway drives for Foyt for whom the highly vaunted oval championship trophy was named after.

[Chief]

Evil furriner conspiracy! You need to know where yer tewls are from...

[Indy]

The track is in considerably worse shape than it was last time open-wheel cars ran here, for starters. Beyond that, the aero rules are borderline insane for the conditions.

I don't say this lightly at all ... I'll be surprised if nobody gets hurt tomorrow night.

So what is the answer? Too much downforce and you get pack racing, too little and you get 200 mph oversteer. Is there an in between point that makes sense for safety but makes for good racing? I ask this as a critic who nevertheless thought the racing at Texas was outstandingly good because the lack of downforce separated the men from the boys.

[stroker]

So what is the answer? Too much downforce and you get pack racing, too little and you get 200 mph oversteer. Is there an in between point that makes sense for safety but makes for good racing? I ask this as a critic who nevertheless thought the racing at Texas was outstandingly good because the lack of downforce separated the men from the boys.

The correct answer is NO downforce. All it does is create an arms race of ever escalating hp and tire wear to compensate for drag and increased cornering forces. Mechanical grip only.

[Racing Truth]

The correct answer is NO downforce. All it does is create an arms race of ever escalating hp and tire wear to compensate for drag and increased cornering forces. Mechanical grip only.

:rofl::shakehead FFS, it's not 1950 anymore! You're going 200+ mph, you better have SOME df.

To the extent it was an issue (it really wasn't, IMHO), 100+ more hp, with a bit more df to compensate might have helped. Other than that, man up, fellas.

[Methanolandbrats]

The answer is **** ovals.

[Racing Truth]

The answer is **** ovals.

:shakehead:shakehead:shakehead:shakehead:shakehead

You're realllllllllllllly not gonna like the 500-miler at Pocono next yr.;)

[Ed_Severson]

So what is the answer? Too much downforce and you get pack racing, too little and you get 200 mph oversteer. Is there an in between point that makes sense for safety but makes for good racing? I ask this as a critic who nevertheless thought the racing at Texas was outstandingly good because the lack of downforce separated the men from the boys.

There is a pretty wide gulf between pack racing and where we were this weekend at Fontana. In my opinion, there were two good options, and choosing either one of them would have been fine.

I think the easiest solution would have been to have the strakes fitted to the car, which would have given us around 270 pounds more downforce. That's not nearly enough to have made the cars easy flat, but it would have made them a lot less scary in the conditions we had Wednesday and Friday.

The second option would have been to give us more freedom on the rear wing. The whole pack racing phenomenon started because the IRL instituted a minimum rear wing mainplane angle. This weekend, we had a maximum mainplane angle of 0, and were not allowed to run wickers at all. To me, that's just as wrong as the minimum angle requirement.

Basically, IndyCar ran this event with the Texas aero configuration on the Texas tire. There's only one problem with that philosophy -- Fontana isn't Texas. You don't have the same amount of banking to help turn the car there, so you have to find some help somewhere else. You aren't going to get it from that tire -- especially when the track temperature is 150 degrees -- so it's got to come from aero. Nobody asked for a ton more downforce, but calls for strakes or relaxing the maximum rear wing angle came from several places to no avail.

As it turns out, last night wasn't too bad once the sun went away and temperatures came down to a reasonable range. Wednesday and Friday in the extreme heat, on the other hand, were downright scary. Marco ended up on pole, and his first lap and second lap were 4 mph apart -- that's how quickly that tire was giving up at those temperatures. And I can tell you from watching the line of cars roll down pitlane, aside from Marco (-3, I think) and a couple others at -1, everybody qualified with the rear wing at 0 degrees. When 90% of the field qualifies on an oval in their race aero trim, something's wrong.

The list of guys who crashed at Fontana isn't exactly a collection of talentless drivers -- Hunter-Reay, Wilson, Kanaan, Power, Briscoe, Hildebrand, Sato, Hinchcliffe, and Viso all hit the wall, most of them completely alone. Conway got out of the car Wednesday -- and admittedly, the Foyt car looked worse than most at the test -- and he told the team he feared for his life and literally walked away from the timing stand. Viso told his team on Friday after qualifying that he was done, and regardless of how you assess his talent level, there's no question that he's not gunshy about taking risks. Kanaan got into a shouting match with Will Phillips about the strakes. Pagenaud basically told his team to **** off when they asked him to pick up the pace and try to find traffic in warmup Friday evening.

I think the race last night was alright, but I definitely feel like IndyCar got lucky this week. The way they handled the aero configuration for Texas was great, but trying to run Fontana exactly the same way was an atrocious idea. If they want to do that in November it might be a different story, but to do it when it's 105 degrees ambient was poor judgement.

[SteveH]

Nobody cares, Ed.

Attendance and ratings will back me up on that.

[stroker]

:rofl::shakehead FFS, it's not 1950 anymore! You're going 200+ mph, you better have SOME df.

To the extent it was an issue (it really wasn't, IMHO), 100+ more hp, with a bit more df to compensate might have helped. Other than that, man up, fellas.

They won't be doing 200mph with no wings or tunnels. I think you maybe sorta missed my point.

[Rocketdoc]

Stroker "nailed it".
It's about time we got rid of the artificial construct, "down force".
Allow only enough (top side only and a maximum small plan area) wings to be able to balance pitch.
Make them use their brakes in corners and watch real racing again.

[G.]

Nobody cares, Ed.

Attendance and ratings will back me up on that.

I dunno, Steve. That's just about the most interesting thing I've read about earl that didn't have a punchline (intentional or not).

[Methanolandbrats]

:shakehead:shakehead:shakehead:shakehead:shakehead

You're realllllllllllllly not gonna like the 500-miler at Pocono next yr.;)

PokeHerNow is a road course.

[Gnam]

Pagenaud basically told his team to **** off when they asked him to pick up the pace and try to find traffic in warmup Friday evening.

Pagenaud keeping the pimp hand strong. :thumbup:

[cameraman]

I dunno, Steve. That's just about the most interesting thing I've read about earl that didn't have a punchline (intentional or not).

Yep. Not at all happy with the series but a little bit of solid information about it is welcome.

[Indy]

Nobody cares, Ed.

Attendance and ratings will back me up on that.

I cared enough to ask, and I am pretty indifferent overall. I just realized that says something about what works for me. Discussions about the technical aspects of the racing interest me and always have. In Tony George's IRL there was nothing to interest me, in CART there was more than enough, and now, maybe, they are starting to catch my eye again. At least there is something there to follow, and the controversies have to do with the finer points of the competition, not the outrageous idiocy of the series. So maybe I will pay attention. Just a little bit. :gomer:

Besides, I know "Ed," and he knows WTF he is talking about.

[SteveH]

I wasn't taking a shot at Ed, sorry if it came off this way. It's just that no one cares anymore. I just saw pictures of the grandstands from Saturday night compared to when CART ran there in 1998. No one cares anymore.

[Chief]

Discussions about the technical aspects of the racing interest me and always have.....and now, maybe, they are starting to catch my eye again. At least there is something there to follow, and the controversies have to do with the finer points of the competition, not the outrageous idiocy of the series. So maybe I will pay attention. Just a little bit. :gomer:

Yep, I found Ed's post interesting too. Interesting from the aspect that because what little effort the ICS put into preparing for this race, they STILL increased the overall risk for the drivers. After all we've learned in the modern era of AOW racing, it's clear that the powers that be continue to be utterly clueless. That's the point that ALWAYS catches my eye with this gang that can't shoot straight.

[TravelGal]

Yep. Not at all happy with the series but a little bit of solid information about it is welcome.

:thumbup:

[Agip27]

I believe Conway backed off big time in Vegas last year fearing that something was going to happen. He qualified up front and was well behind of the victims of the crash on lap 11. He was actually thinking of coming into the pits when the crash happened. When you consider Indy 2010, his crash at Indy this year as well and Vegas 2011; the guy had quite a few scares on ovals....:saywhat:

A lot of GP2 drivers and and ex-open wheel guys that are now in sports car don't want to do IRL because of the ovals. Conway isn't the only driver to turn his back on ovals; he's just the only one to back out straight before a race he was scheduled to do.

[NismoZ]

Thankyou for that response, Agip. I really appreciate when someone else can say what I believe better than I could say it myself!:thumbup:

[Rogue Leader]

I believe Conway backed off big time in Vegas last year fearing that something was going to happen. He qualified up front and was well behind of the victims of the crash on lap 11. He was actually thinking of coming into the pits when the crash happened. When you consider Indy 2010, his crash at Indy this year as well and Vegas 2011; the guy had quite a few scares on ovals....:saywhat:

A lot of GP2 drivers and and ex-open wheel guys that are now in sports car don't want to do IRL because of the ovals. Conway isn't the only driver to turn his back on ovals; he's just the only one to back out straight before a race he was scheduled to do.

Barrichello's main concern was driving on Ovals (guess someone convinced him otherwise). Schumacher had said straight out he would never do the Oval races. Although I imagine his choppiness would probably kill a lot of people on an oval.

[NismoZ]

Spence, Piquet, Zampedri...there are GOOD reasons for guys not brought up in the "American" form of racing to have second thoughts...and it isn't just Wheldon.