IndyCar 2018

TheChrisD

Wickens on pole! Race starts in about 15 minutes; BT ESPN is already live with pre-race news and coverage.

Ghost Train

Might watch the start at least
Open cockpit is nice to watch

Ghost Train

Frustrating amount of full course yellows but a fair amount of action too

Missed the start, cars look a ridiculous handful, especially on colder tyres.

Charlie-Bravo

They've less downforce this year. Nice to see that they're burning up both primary black and alternative red tyres.

Fair play to Wickens with the pole and leading for a good bit of this race. Good to see Boudais back at the wheel and up front, but Wickens I have for this win. Let's see how this pans out...

****in Chilton. :P

Rossi IRL

****ing Rossi

Holy ****!
Rossi won't be popular tonight!

Charlie-Bravo

That was a dick move by Rossi.

Ghost Train

That sucks

Infoanon

Peeved that it was put down to a racing incident.

Added complication that Indycar messed up on the final restart with the lights left turned on on the safety car.

Robert Wickens would have been a deserving winner - Rossi made a mistake that cost Wickens and himself the victory

TheChrisD

Yea, I'm pissed Rossi didn't get dinged for avoidable contact after that. Wickens left enough room on the inside as if he'd closed the door any more then he would've been done for blocking himself; and the way they were going into T1, he'd have kept the lead going through T2.

Wickens was stellar today, and very humble in defeat... but Rossi's not doing himself any favours saying stuff like this: https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/unrepentant-rossi-blames-wickens-for-controversial-st-pete-clash-1013753/

acquiescefc

pretty average race last night except for the last 10 laps, short speedways are never really that great
Rossi was incredible though after his early incident.

so happy NBCSN showed it as there wasn't a single ad break on ESPN player

Infoanon

acquiescefc wrote: »

pretty average race last night except for the last 10 laps, short speedways are never really that great
Rossi was incredible though after his early incident.

so happy NBCSN showed it as there wasn't a single ad break on ESPN player

Robert Wickens is certainly making an impact - surprise of the season so far for me

acquiescefc

Infoanon wrote: »

Robert Wickens is certainly making an impact - surprise of the season so far for me

agreed, he should be champ leader at this stage. no luck involved either with yellows/pits hes racing up front.

Charlie-Bravo

Long Beach - Drivers start your engines.

NASCAR is a bit of a washout, but this is better racing and should be a good show.

Sky go and Eir both letting me down. All the money I'm paying and I have to source a dodgy stream :rolleyes:

Hoping for another good race to finish the weekend

Charlie-Bravo

It's great that less downforce is causing more track action this year.

What did I miss that ruined Wickens' race?

Charlie-Bravo

Dunno, missed what happened myself.

Charlie-Bravo

Wow, Seb Bourdais passed 3 cars threading a needle. I know they were back markers, but wow.

Charlie-Bravo

Rookie mistake, yes, a rookie made a mistake. Jordan King going to got into the back of Bourdais. That's ruined Bourdais' race.

Anywhere here showing qualifying by any chance?

Parade laps underway.

Charlie-Bravo

Wet wet wet. Don't think we'll get to see much racing today. Coverage until 11pm on Eir so maybe get to that hour mark to call the race result.

Charlie-Bravo

Race was rained off. Will commence at 11:30ET today, Monday, which is 4.30pm Irish Summer Time.

I'm wondering if BT ESPN will show it.

TheChrisD

astrofluff wrote: »

I'm wondering if BT ESPN will show it.

A producer has confirmed on Twitter that the scheduling peeps will be looking at it first thing in the morning.
That said, it seems a relatively simple shuffle around: they already had a race replay in from 1.30-4; so if they push that back to 4.30, move the baseball game up to 1.30, and the baseball news show to after the race it should all be peachy.

acquiescefc

Just an FYI. ESPN player is 50 euro for the IndyCar season. Coverage is great for NBCSN races, not so for ABC but they’ll be gone next year.
I cant get BT on UPC so this has to do me.

Frank Bullitt

...good god. Stunner.

Ghost Train

Only thing I would change is to have the rear wheels more open and visible

TheChrisD

Indy 500 bump day qualifying is go!

But not for us because it's only on WatchESPN in the states. We get nothing until 9pm on BT2.

Ghost Train

Rain delayed at the moment

On hold until 14.30 EST (19.30)

donspeekinglesh

Holy crap. Hinch is out.
And gutted for Mann. Not the quickest driver out there, but a great ambassador for the race.

Missed it, what happened?

Charlie-Bravo

35 entries and only 33 for qualification. Pippa Mann just didn't have the speed and Hinch had a vibration so aborted his last effort. He didn't have time to go again. The speed wasn't really there for Hinch TBH in previous attempts.

All that effort and two cars/drivers don't get to race the Indy 500.

TheChrisD

Last row - #64 Servia (225.007), #17 Daly (224.874), #33 Davison (224.798)
Bumped - #63 Mann (223.343), #5 Hinchcliffe (224.784 - withdrawn)

Such fine margins at the end of the field. Pippa's first run was her fastest but only 224.360.

And now the circlejerk will roll on for the next week and a bit wondering things like: should SPM have pulled Hinch's time to put him in the fast lane earlier, did ABC forcing quali to end at 5:50 screw the pooch, will he take another SPM or Honda ride or just tough it out since they're only points after all?

Infoanon

I would expect Hinch to replace one of his teammates as Indy is a double points race - at Indy it's the car not the driver that is qualified.

Faugheen

Yeah, I'd be surprised if Hinch isn't in the race as a full-time driver in the series itself.

Ghost Train

Looks like a different sort of race than usual with the current aerodynamics, very spread out. Hopefully will be close fight at the end but seems unlikely

Ghost Train

More of a challenge with the cars more unstable. Sato and Danica both out

H3llR4iser

Mmm...the "faster means worse racing" mantra seems to be striking once again. Very odd to see Indycars being unable to follow each other into corners, not to mention DOWNSHIFTS TO 4TH in the middle of the corners!

Ghost Train

Pity to see Boardais out. Just lost it behind a car

Not sure if these cars are any safer than the pack racing last year. Feels like there are more crashes

Probably more about car performance and fuel saving this year

Charlie-Bravo

These cars are completely on the aero limit. Once they go over it, good luck with trying to recover it.

Ghost Train

Debate on btsport whether he has a mechanical problem or just lost it coming out of the corner

Looked like it was just lack of down force from car in front

I think maybe just taking more downforce off during the pit stop and went too far to try and compete for the win

Ghost Train

Another crash, probably won't be the last

Lucky he didn't hit end of pit wall

Charlie-Bravo

Pretty mad, real lack of aero grip through the corners.

Ghost Train

I suppose they're all pushing the limit

donspeekinglesh

Other than Sato/Davison every accident has been a car losing out on its own.

Charlie-Bravo

So tyres got a bit dirty off line in previous corner for Castro.

Shaping up to be an interesting finish. I'm wondering if Rossi has saved plenty of fuel and can now challenge for the win.

Charlie-Bravo

Another one lost into the wall.

Rossi backed out of that corner cause he could see trouble ahead. He dropped a place due to it. Sensible.

Ghost Train

Rossi has been very impressive but very risky, hopefully he finishes

The three and four wide racing looks scary