Mid-Ohio Futility

[SurfaceUnits]

The Indycar series is going it alone this year. But that's grate, because the place was too crowded when ALMS was there too. So now we have our usual wide open spaces to choose from.


Since the Izod IndyCar Series debuted at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2007, it was tethered to the American Le Mans Series.

With major league open-wheel racing sharing the bill with top-level sports car racing, it made for a spectacle. But it also made the weekend suffocating.

The double main event always felt like 30 gallons of fuel were being poured into a 15-gallon tank. It was too much.

For 2013, that won’t be a problem

[SurfaceUnits]

INDYCAR issued a fresh engine update on Tuesday, prior to this weekend’s Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Grid penalties will be enforced for teams that surpass the five engine limit, and as you can see below, some are coming dangerously close to that mark. Grid penalties are also enforced for teams that change out their engines before hitting the enforced mileage limit of 2,000 miles.



Here is the status of all 24 cars, as issued by INDYCAR, below.
Note the No. 98 is an official TBD, but earmarked for Italian rookie
Luca Filippi to make his series debut at Mid-Ohio this weekend after testing on Wednesday.

CAR ENTRANT DRIVER ENGINE STATUS
No. 1 Andretti Autosport Ryan Hunter-Reay On Engine #4
No. 3 Team Penske Helio Castroneves On Engine #4
No. 4 Panther Racing Oriol Servia On Engine #3
No. 5 Team Venezuela-Andretti-HVM E.J. Viso On Engine #4
No. 6 Dragon Racing Sebastian Saavedra On Engine #3
No. 7 Dragon Racing Sebastien Bourdais On Engine #3
No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Scott Dixon On Engine #4
No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dario Franchitti On Engine #5
No. 11 KV Racing Technology Tony Kanaan On Engine #4
No. 12 Team Penske Will Power On Engine #4
No. 14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Takuma Sato On Engine #4
No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Graham Rahal On Engine #5
No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing James Jakes On Engine #5
No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing James Davison On Engine #6
No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Justin Wilson On Engine #4
No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Ed Carpenter On Engine #4
No. 25 Andretti Autosport Marco Andretti On Engine #4
No. 27 Andretti Autosport James Hinchcliffe On Engine #4
No. 55 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Tristan Vautier On Engine #4
No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Josef Newgarden On Engine #5
No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports Simon Pagenaud On Engine #4
No. 78 KV Racing Technology Simona De Silvestro On Engine #4
No. 83 Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Charlie Kimball On Engine #4
No. 98 Barracuda Racing TBD On Engine #4


Does that #5 have a pic of Papa Hugo on it? Real IRL fans would never have let that happen.
They would have been burning up their mostly unread blogs in protest of them commanists

[Trevor Longman]

RHR on pole. I should point out, and I'm not sure I can quite believe this, but the Pole from this year was only .004 off of the all time record set by both Dario and De Ferran in 1999 and 2000. With 250 less HP I'm not sure how thats possible but I thought it was impressive.

That being said, I've always held the opinion that speed isn't just judged by numbers alone. Its about the way it goes about achieving it. Its why WRC rally footage is so exciting to watch. Its sideways and looks incredibly fast even though they only ever go 130mph or so at a few select spots. They're usually under 100 for most of the rally. Its the little sideways moments that made CART so impressive compared to the Indycars of today. Indycars still get sideways when you really push but looking at old onboard footage from places like detroit or cleveland and every corner looked like it catch them out. The walls looked closer, the speeds looked higher, and the talent on display was shown off more clearly.

Sound is the other part that plays into it. Sure, low revving engines are more fuel efficient and relatable to the street, but they're boring as hell. They put you to sleep and they don't sound as exciting. Who cares if they aren't similar to the engine in your Accord? Who wants that? They could put a V10 or a Turbo V8 in there and as long as it has a Honda badge on it I'm sure the marketing value would be equal to the current V6's if not higher.

The current formula doesn't need to be faster, it just needs to seem faster. Bring the excitement back and improve the product and the fans will return. Until then, its still just a slightly faster crapwagon.

[Chief]

Don Adams, from the old Get Smart tv series used to say..."hmmmm, missed it by >< that much".

Of course, he would utter such a phrase after nearly blowing himself up or shooting himself in the foot. Don't take much for me to see parallels here.

506

[SurfaceUnits]

Foyt says he went to the shop to see the team and told them "Surprised you guys are back already considering how slow you were at Mid-Ohio."

[Andrew Longman]

With 250 less HP I'm not sure how thats possible...How is that possible? :confused:

But to your point climbing into a 2000 Lola was a whole lot scarier and demanding that climbing into today's indycar.

[cameraman]

They paved the entire track in 2006 and removed all the concrete apexes. That probably sped things up quite a bit.

[Ed_Severson]

How is that possible? :confused:

Horsepower is only part of the puzzle. Sure, the engines now make quite a bit less power, but torque delivery and boost response are better, the carbon brakes help a bit, the aero is a bit more efficient thanks to the massive undertray, the track's been resurfaced in some spots, some curbs have been reduced in profile, etc.

I imagine if you overlaid a speed trace from de Ferran and Hunter-Reay, you'd see some substantial differences.

[SteveH]

Better tires?

[Ed_Severson]

Better tires?

Hard to definitively say yes or no on that one, in my opinion. Both Franchitti and de Ferran set those lap times in an era of tire competition, when softer was better. Not so today ... It's probably fair to say that Firestone has improved their construction some in the last 10+ years, so the current tire is almost certainly better in that respect, but I'm not sure the compound would be better than in 1999. More durable, perhaps, but maybe no better for an optimal single-lap scenario.

[SurfaceUnits]

Nobody reporting MO TV #. Serious case of NoYB

[Dvdb]

P-dog, in a possibly beer-provoked tweet, said .01. And I doubt he is reporting his BA level this Friday night.

[SurfaceUnits]

P-dog, in a possibly beer-provoked tweet, said .01. And I doubt he is reporting his BA level this Friday night.

Actually it's a little better

Bill Zahren ‏@pressdog 2h
Ok. Seriously. 0.1??? Welcome to Mars Sports Network. Warned you about alcohol-affected tweets.

Amagione if that Turbo movie hadn't comed out, it could have been horrible

'Muricans just don't liek strret racin

[SurfaceUnits]

BTW, that wasn't ackshully a ratings report from pdog, just his observation of inet chatter. The real number has been hidden and not reported by the two usual outlets.

[SteveH]

http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?174387-2013-IndyCar-Ratings-Thread&p=3408789&viewfull=1#post3408789

.01 195K households

[Dvdb]

I'll stand with my original Pressdog comment.....why pick nits over a few household views?

[SurfaceUnits]

http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?174387-2013-IndyCar-Ratings-Thread&p=3408789&viewfull=1#post3408789

.01 195K households
0.1 195k viewers ~130K households nielsen figures 1.4 - 1.5 viewers per household watching any show at a given time

as long as the irl is one of the top shows on NBCSN, everthing is grate -- The Dispsicle of Indycars