So the 2011 season of the premier North American single seater league has just kicked-off yesterday.

• Schedule
  
• Entry List
  
• Standings
  

Anyone watching? Round 1 was quite interresting already. That brand new double-file restart rule seems to be a true drama maker, will be interresting to see how it goes next rounds.

Once they learn how to not **** up double file restart I think we're in for some interesting races

Marco's flip on lap 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... ature=channel_video_title

Spectator vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIEImZJp98I

I thought the race was really boring yesterday. There isn't a big enough difference between the red and the black tires it seemed, the only person who seemed legitimately slower on the black tires was Simona. I have no idea what she was doing saving all her "push to pass" things for like 5 laps to go, I wanted to see her get 3rd but by the time she really started pushing she kept getting screwed by lapped cars. I was disgusted by the move EJ Viso(think it was him) pulled letting Kanaan by and then slowing De Silvestro down.

I'm trying to give IndyCar a chance this year but the first race wasn't really all that entertaining. I remarked to my friends after the race, "did we see a single pass all race?".

Dario with another nice convincing win, it's all good . Although I think the driver of the race falls to the lassie in 4th place, Simona de Silvestro, who was quick enough to not use any of her 'Push To Pass' until the final 7/8 laps.

I actually prefer the look of the Dallara Indy Car to the F1 cars, especially TK's and Sato's Lotus colour scheme, suits the car imo. The big one (Indy 500) is at the end of May, will be booking the following Monday off no doubt.

Quote from UncleBenny :

I thought the race was really boring yesterday. There isn't a big enough difference between the red and the black tires it seemed, the only person who seemed legitimately slower on the black tires was Simona. I have no idea what she was doing saving all her "push to pass" things for like 5 laps to go, I wanted to see her get 3rd but by the time she really started pushing she kept getting screwed by lapped cars. I was disgusted by the move EJ Viso(think it was him) pulled letting Kanaan by and then slowing De Silvestro down.

I'm trying to give IndyCar a chance this year but the first race wasn't really all that entertaining. I remarked to my friends after the race, "did we see a single pass all race?".

Obviously they did not want to take the risk of losing a nice top 5, considering their current situation. And quite honestly, after having another look at the point system, I quite understand them. Is it really worth to risk loosing 18ish points just to try to gain 3?

And yes, Viso, that was him... Ridiculous move:thumbsdow

Tyres wise, I more or less agree.

Overtaking wise, you're right I belive, cannot recall of many apart from those directly occuring after restarts. Well, there was Kimball diving on Hildebrand at T1(or was it the contrary) somewhere around half-way... but that must be about all. I did not mind so much about it though, but I guess that's because of me being an Euro and being too much used to F1. The restarts were crazy enough anyway, Simona basically climbed from 17th to 2nd on track, with the 3 first restarts... that was quite impressive. Not a big fan of those double file restarts, but they will obviously bring some action this season.

I miss Champ Car... that was some more or less entertaining racing. Shame the series' had to merge, I always hated IRL. I was more hoping IRL would just go away.

I didn't even know IZOD started up already, I haven't been paying attention to North American Motorsports at all.

[EDIT] 9 of 17 rounds are road courses... That's a big improvement over the first season or two after the merger IIRC... good sign. They should bring back Mont Tremblant, though.

Double file restarts have proved to be fun in Stok Car racing, but in open wheel it's a whole lot more likey to create issues. Sounds exciting though

I wanted to watch, but I never found it on the channels I looked for it on

It was on ABC here in the US.

Quote from Cornys :

I wanted to watch, but I never found it on the channels I looked for it on

Looks like some races are on ABC, some others on Versus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2 ... 1_IndyCar_series_schedule

Oh, I'd not expected it to be on the networks until the 500 this year. I should have looked online I guess, but I was busy at that time anyways.

Great to see plenty of Irish on the Road to Indy Paddy McKenna, pipped myself and n-murray to the Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year worth €50,000 last season and he is racing in the Star Mazda, Peter Dempsey is out in the Indy Lights, lead the race from the start and finished third, and former F1 driver Derek Daly who lived in my area, his son Conor Daly doing very well for himself lately!

Quote from MAGGOT :

I miss Champ Car... that was some more or less entertaining racing. Shame the series' had to merge, I always hated IRL. I was more hoping IRL would just go away.

Honestly ChampCar in mid 2000 was one of the most talentless and boring series I've ever seen. I'm not saying Indy in mid 2000 was better because Indy in mid 2000 was basically 100% oval and that was horribly boring.

CART was the best and Indy's getting closer and closer to CART and that's what I'm seeing. Honestly? I'm loving it. It certainly has drawn me away from nascar

Quote from MAGGOT :

[EDIT] 9 of 17 rounds are road courses... That's a big improvement over the first season or two after the merger IIRC... good sign. They should bring back Mont Tremblant, though.

Ummm.... they've actually been that way since 2009... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2 ... 9_IndyCar_Series_schedule) so... sounds like you just started bashing IRL before you actually know about what's been going on since the merger? Typical ChampCar fanboy tbh

Quote from lizardfolk :

Honestly ChampCar in mid 2000 was one of the most talentless and boring series I've ever seen. I'm not saying Indy in mid 2000 was better because Indy in mid 2000 was basically 100% oval and that was horribly boring.

CART was the best and Indy's getting closer and closer to CART and that's what I'm seeing. Honestly? I'm loving it. It certainly has drawn me away from nascar

Like I said, it's looking more promising. The 100% oval is what put me off IRL in the first place, and I recalled the first post-merger season to be mostly oval.

Quote :

Ummm.... they've actually been that way since 2009... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2 ... 9_IndyCar_Series_schedule) so... sounds like you just started bashing IRL before you actually know about what's been going on since the merger? Typical ChampCar fanboy tbh

I'm not a ChampCar fanboy at all, actually. I watched a few races a season, and have only attended one Indycar race in person (which, perhaps Ironically, was actually the 2010 IZOD series race in Toronto). My beef is with IRL and my recollection was that the first year after the merger saw nearly every ChampCar round cut from the schedule - my memory may be incorrect, however, and from looking at that season's schedule (2008 was it?) it seems it was, with 8 road/street course rounds.

As far as I'm concerned, IRL bashing is perfectly acceptable. From my point of view, they ruined open wheel racing in North America. Post-merger it seems some more of it has been straightened and the series, in principle, looks better on paper.

Pretty much just killing time until the 2012 season, but there was some promising stuff in the first race. Power didn't dominate, for one. For another, Simona looked really damn good. Nice to see Kimball make a good comeback, too.

On Maggots topic, Champcar (or CART) was my favourite motorsport series. I feel it was full of talent with Zanardi, Moore, Montoya, Dario, Andretti, Kanaan etc. The cars sounded beautiful and looked it too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdtKTlJxRj8

What happened to Bourdais? Did he not start?

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

What happened to Bourdais? Did he not start?

He destroyed his car in warm-up and Dale Coyne didn't have enough spares for both cars (James Jakes crashed in warm-up as well).

Jakes is doing the whole season so I guess he got the spares and Bourdais didn't

Junqueira and Baguette get Indy 500 drives.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90446
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90468

Tracy gets a 4 races deal with Dragon Racing, and will take part in the 500 aswell:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90449

Bumped up like a Castroneves love tap from behind.

Anyone watch the race last night? The Double File restart is not working, it has to be enforced more by having the cars wait a regulated speed before waving the green flag.

As for the race, quite happy to see Conway take the win. He suffered a huge crash at the Indy 500 and it good to see him back racing.

How come Helio didn't get a penalty for bumping Wilson but PT got one for doing exactly the same thing to, um, I think it was one of the girls?

Great drive by Conway.

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

How come Helio didn't get a penalty for bumping Wilson but PT got one for doing exactly the same thing to, um, I think it was one of the girls?

It was to Simona De Silvestro. But yeah IDK why indy didnt penalize Helio for it especially since he did the same thing to Power later.

But indycar probably felt Helio's punt was a racing incident or something while they probably thought PT was being reckless. IDK it's a judgment call and I didnt see the incident with PT. I did see Helio lock his wheels up though which signifies that Helio did attempt to slow down.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Great drive by Conway.

Yeah I was so surprised to see him that good especially since he was mired at the back from a bad pitstop. Also, I would like to say that Oriol Servia did a fantastic job missing Power, then feeding back quickly and without any incidents. That was a great recovery by Servia too

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Anyone watch the race last night? The Double File restart is not working, it has to be enforced more by having the cars wait a regulated speed before waving the green flag.

It worked perfectly at St Pete and Barber. It didn't at Long Beach, but this is mainly because of the very slow section before the pit straight and because the green flag is given relatively early on the straight.

I don't exactly know why they didn't double up before the hairpin anyway, but I guess that's just asking for trouble considering how narrow this section is.

It will never work on street circuits, just not enough room. When they get to more open tracks, the double file restarts will be more successful.

might be worth indy fans listening to this

http://www.motorsportmagazine. ... st-with-dario-franchitti/