Firestone Twin 275s at Texas Review and Reaction

Well I have had some time to think about it and “cool off” if you will but my thoughts on the draw are the same.  I said I would not like it and I didn’t.  The two worse case scenarios I was afraid of BOTH happened (slow or wrecked car in front with Wade Cunningham, and a fast car up front with the other fast cars in the back).  So if you look at it that was it wasn’t too bad as Wade did not cause a huge crash but you have to ask if this keeps happening is this the rule or the exception?  Will was able to “get gone” which did make for a fairly boring race number two but it was not a bad as I feared it would be either.  The two solutions put out there by drivers were: 1) Invert the field and 2) offer passing points.  Well if you offer passing points, the maximum number of points available is still based on a blind draw, which would still be extremely unfair and therefore solves nothing!  A full inversion of the field guaranties the slowest cars in the front of the field, which is a worse case scenario.  Again I give Wade Cunningham huge credit for jumping into a new (road course) car for the first time on the out side of row one and not causing a big wreck.  However, if you make that the standard and you well have a big wreck sooner rather then later.  Therefore, a full inversion also solves nothing!  If you are going to have a twin race format (which I wish they would just do away with) there are only two ways to set the field for the second race.  First, there is the "old way" which set on finishing position of the first race.  That makes it more of a competition red flag where you reset and put everyone back on the lead lap but other then that nothing changes.  Or what I think is the best idea, would be to use race one not only as a points paying race but also as a group qualifying for race two.  Therefore, the fastest lap time turned in race one would get the pole and so on.  This would still shake up the field some but would still be a legitimate way to set a grid; it is the best of both worlds!  This would have been the grid for race two if they used this system:

Just look at that and think “Oh what might have been.”  We can only hope that they put some real thought into how to reformat this race for next year.

Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle Review and Reaction

My main concern going into the Sao Paulo race was the track surface.  Not knowing that they have already done exactly what I wish they would do.  Which is repaving the track with FIA approved pavement and they repaved it with the same formula of pavement that surfaces the Interlagos Circuit (The Formula One track in Brazil); which makes me love this circuit even more.  There were still reports of bumps but they were inconsistent some drivers saying that it was still very bumpy and Will Power saying it is the smoothest street circuit they go to all year.  The answer I do not know I was not there but there was a huge noticeable bump right in the middle of the braking zone for turn one that needs to be fixed for next year.  Other then that, it is the perfect circuit!  If we could just catch a dry weekend, we would see just how great this circuit is.

As for my predictions Power got the pole but that is as good as I got as Helio was stuffed in the wall and James was stuck on the outside of a spinning car.  The story of the race other then the rain I would say is Sato.  Yeah he ended up eighth but had a much better race then that, whoever made the call to stay out under the yellow better hope he has good job security.  As that was just a really bad call!  I predicted Vitor to be the story but he had a brake line failure so he was unable to back up his podium from last year.  The “Legend in His Own Mind” award I picked EJ oh how wrong I was on that one as he a great race, until he was called for blocking (which by the IndyCar rules he with out question did.)  I will go on record as saying I hate that rule but that is the rule.  He went off the prefer line to prevent from being passed.  I think as the car in front he has earned the right to choose his line and as long as he stay in that line then he is not blocking but if you want to play in IndyCar you have to play by IndyCar rules which says you have to stay in the preferred line.

Over all I would say this weekend was a disappointment.  There is no blame to pass out as it was the weathers fault but as weather is a part of road / street racing lets look to see if there is any room for improvement.  I say yes, there is.  First and I said this on Saturday, painting the run-off areas looks cool but a run off area is there to help run-a-way cars stop and in the wet (when you are likely to have more need of such areas) paint is as bad a ice.  There are ways around this, see the Singapore F1 circuit, but it is just easier not to paint the whole thing.  Have nice defined lines but then let the cars brake on a surface that well help the car stop.  Somewhere else where IndyCar could use some improvement is on the rain tires.  If you really look at these tires you would see that they are not even as good as the Formula 1 intermediate tyre.  If you want to keep the current tire in IndyCar then fine but call that an intermediate rain tire (which IndyCar currently doesn’t have) and then make a real rain tire which would allow them to run in real rain!  I know IndyCar has no control over the weather but I believe IndyCar has a duty to the fans to be as best prepared as possible and limiting the painted areas around a track as much as possible and having a better rain tire would be a huge step in the right direction.