Indy 500

Coming up this Sunday. Can't wait. Not many races I ever watch, but the Indy I watch religiously every year (though I missed the last two years).

Anyone else looking forward to the upcoming race? Any guesses on the winner?

That's really fucking stupid. There are only three truly important races each year. The Indianapolis 500 The Monaco Grand Prix The 24 Heures Du Mans

Having two of em on the same weekend is just wrong.

I'll have to investigate to see if it's on UK telly.

Holy crap, I had no idea the Grand Prix was this Sunday as well... WTF!!???

Guess that's what the dvr is for eh?

In my case the other way around naturally. Will be watching the F1 live, then downloading the 500, because it's on paytv here, and I don't pay it (it's like 5 million quid a month for constant football and boxing with about 8 A1GP races and the 500 all year).

Working tonight so there is no way I will catch any of the Indy Qually......brain will be fucked apres Monaco Qually though.....it may be a bollox place for overtaking and top speed, but if you wanna see what an F1 car is really about, the true awesomeness of the machines, that's the place, and Q1 and Q2 are the time.

Is my boy entered at the Brickyard? (Juan Pablo Montoya, the most interesting racing driver ever, and the only F1 driver with a human wife....a lovely lady is Connie, really, well, real) His first attempt went like this...... He's driving for Chip Ganassi in CART. Chip decides to enter two IRL cars at Indy. Chip asks JPM if he fancies it. Never having driven and IRL car before, being an oval rookie, and the cars being totally unlike either F1 or CART, he says "nnnnnnnnn OK" (like Mark E Smith's ah's at-ah the-ah end-ah of-ah every-ah word-ah, all Montoya statements are preceded by a nnnnyaaannnayyann kind of a noise). JPM arrives at Indy JPM stuff lap record in first session. JPM qualifies on Pole. In the race he loses nearly a lap, yet wins by a massive margin, setting a new race-lap record (not THAT big a deal at Indy actually, they get faster and faster all the time). After race they ask him how it was. He replies "nnnyyyhnnnnn They should just velcro down the gas pedal and leave us to turn left all day". The man is a racing GOD!

I don't Thisk he is there, but we do have a few lookers driving (though Milka is mainly publicity stunt):

Not seen Miss Fisher drive yet. Not seen Danica since British F3 (or F-Renault, can't remember).

Pisses me off though, this idea that lady racers need to get 'em out. It just encourages things like the Force India calendar.

There's a few photosets of Kimbot getting gay for the cameras too. Very poor.

Well we got through Monaco without a 13 car clusterfuck, how'd Indy go? (will have to download it or wait for highlights (yuk) )

With the exception of Meira's antics (first pulling away with the gas nozzle still inserted, causing his car to go into flames; they put it out and he joined the race. then he and Matos hit tires, causing Meira to hit the retaining wall, sliding on his side and in reverse at the 125th lap or so), it was a bit lack luster. Helio Castroneves won, again for a third time (don't care for that guy). No real fighting for first, though it traded places, nothing that interesting. Add to it that all the crashes were around the exact time for pitstops, so everyone entered the all pitstops during a yellow flag, making the strategy portion of the 500 less interesting. And most of the position changes were during these mass pitstops, rarely on the track. But hottie Danica was in third.

Other than Meira's stuff I already mentioned, even all the other crashes were lack luster, starting off with a rookie hitting Marco Andretti on the first turn of the first lap. It knocked off a portion of Andretti's front wing, taking him out the race... really piss poor.

About all other 500s were better than this one... and this was the centential year. :\ohwell:

I tried finding the Grand Prix, but I can't get it anywhere on tv here.

GP wasn't much better TBH, Monaco not noted as a great overtaking track. Best bit was Jenson having to sprint from parc ferme all the way down the pit straight to meet Prince Albert and get the silverware. After the thick end of two hours round Monte Carlo, I doubt most humans could still stand (those who hadn't died of the strain), but this guy knocks in a respectable 400m :D

I'm surprised to hear Steve say that the 500 is anything other than utter crap. Not much driving talent on display as far as I could see. Mind you I turned it off after the second safety car period, which I didn't notice until it ended.

Diamond 383 wrote: I'm surprised to hear Steve say that the 500 is anything other than utter crap. Not much driving talent on display as far as I could see. Mind you I turned it off after the second safety car period, which I didn't notice until it ended.

This wasn't the best year to check out the 500. Too many yellow flags (for pointless sideswiping of walls) to make it interesting; especially with the mass pitstops. It was pretty boring this year... and I will have to agree, this year had little to do with driving ability as it did with fast pit crews.

But not all years are like this. Most require quite a bit of driving talent. Driving at 225+mph for four hours takes a drain on any driver.

But its not the Grand Prix... its circle track racing, and the best circle track race in the world, not to mention the history behind it.

Another downer for me this year was finding out ALL the engines in every car were Honda engines. Half the fun was seeing which brand engine would be superior that year. Not only that, but its a classic American race without a single American engine... a disappointment to say the least.

Diamond 383 wrote: I'm surprised to hear Steve say that the 500 is anything other than utter crap. Not much driving talent on display as far as I could see. Mind you I turned it off after the second safety car period, which I didn't notice until it ended.

I'm no fan of left-only racing that is true, but the 500 is an important race, the toughest of all in the circle racing world.....and used to count towards the F1 championship, hence so many big European racers going over and thrashing the yanks in the 60's. The start of the 1968 (I think, though it may have been 66) was even better than Spa 98 in terms of carnage.....pretty handy as it was being filmed for the Paul Newman film "Winning" which is a great story if you're in to US racing (tourers on circuits through to Indy).

One other thing....though I rarely watch oval racing, it's more fun to DO it in a sim, there is a kind of Zen peace, a pleasant haze of concentration that descends on you when racing ovals, particularly an Indycar at Indy, where you do not lift the gas except to enter pit-road. Of course I fucking suck at it, and in Iracing I find the good ole boys a bit much to deal with. Did get roundly thrashed by Dale Jnr though :D

Turkey for F1 next, an amazing track, all the more so because it's one of the new breed, yet has hills and great corners. Then it's The Race, the 24 hours, and then the last ever British GP the following weekend.

So Doc, are all the F1s in the European circuit racing with Honda engines as well? or is it just a US thing?