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No real change of the blocking rule, but a change in the interpretation.....which is pleasing.

Philosophical shift on blocking

Hopefully this should prevent the disaster that was Toronto (i think :shrug from last year happening again
Why no one post this?

Quote :From Indycar.com

Practice sessions will take on an entirely new dimension at IZOD IndyCar Series oval event June 22 at Iowa Speedway. That’s when heat races will replace single-car qualifications to set the starting grid for the Iowa Corn Indy 250.

INDYCAR, the sanctioning body of the IZOD IndyCar Series, announced that three heat races of 30 laps each would follow practice earlier in the day. Three groups would be determined by practice times: One group for the top 10 that would set starting positions 1-10, another for odd-numbered practice positions that would set starting positions 11, 13, 15, etc., and a third for even-numbered practice positions that would set starting positions 12, 14, 16, etc.

Beaux Barfield, INDYCAR President of Competition and the IZOD IndyCar Series Race Director, also said that double-file restarts introduced in 2011 will remain part of races except at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Auto Club Speedway (the high-speed ovals on the 16-race schedule). He also noted that standing starts could be implemented at a few events later in the season.

"I've spent the past five weeks writing rules and I have to write a lot more rules for standing starts," Barfield said. "There's a lot of equipment necessary to get and put into place, and most importantly there's so much development going on with the teams and the cars that I want to be respectful of before I throw a lot of new things at them."

The new oval qualifying procedure will complement the three rounds of qualifications held on road/street courses, culminating in the exciting Firestone Fast Six.

“In the same vein of implementing double-file restarts, we looked at heat races as something that could add excitement to our races and just improve the product,” said Barfield, who added that 2013 oval events could be a mix of heat races and sigle-car qualifications. “This is the first of a few concepts we’re considering. The build-up we presently have for the Firestone Fast Six has that excitement and we wanted to do something similar for the oval events.

"It's going back to the heritage of short-track races.”

Iowa Speedway, at 0.875 miles, is the shortest oval on the schedule.

“With the addition of three, 30-lap heat races for qualifying, fans who attend the Iowa Corn Indy 250 weekend will get INDYCAR racing on both days – enhancing the overall experience they get at Iowa Speedway,” Iowa Speedway President Stan Clement said. “Our fans already understand this style of qualifying, so we know they will really enjoy it.”

The season finale Sept. 15 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., is the only oval event to follow Iowa Speedway on the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule and will continue with single-car qualifications with cumulative time of two timed laps setting the grid. Also, single-car qualifications will continue to set the starting grid at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile. Qualifications for the Indianapolis 500 are four timed laps.

And standing starts, but I think that was already said here?
Quote from PMD9409 :Why no one post this?



And standing starts, but I think that was already said here?

Because noone really cares about Iowa?
Quote :Rubens Barrichello will test for KV Racing again next week as he closes in on an IndyCar seat with the squad.

The 39-year-old Brazilian, who lost his Williams F1 seat to Bruno Senna for the coming season after a grand prix career that spanned a record 322 races, is scheduled to spend two days with the team at Sears Point on February 25-26.

This follows the three days of testing that he completed at Sebring earlier this month.

KV Racing co-owner Jimmy Vasser said that a race deal for the Brazilian is close to being signed off.

"We're good to go - well, sooner or later we will be," he told speed.com.

Quote from Yuri Laszlo :Because noone really cares about Iowa?

Iowa is the best oval of the season actionwise though.
Quote from Mustafur :Iowa is the best oval of the season actionwise though.

It is, and I personally love it because TK always do well there. But I can understand why news about it would fly under the radar.
Iowa is good and all, but I was meaning the fact of adding heat races.

Nubs!
Quote from PMD9409 :Iowa is good and all, but I was meaning the fact of adding heat races.

Nubs!

But they're only adding the heat race at Iowa!
IndyCar-Tests:
Barber Motorsports Park (20./21.02.):

Scott Dixon - Ganassi-Honda
Dario Franchitti - Ganassi-Honda
Graham Rahal - Ganassi-Honda
Charlie Kimball - Ganassi-Honda
Mike Conway - Foyt-Honda
Takuma Sato - Rahal-Honda
James Jakes - Dale-Coyne-Honda
Justin Wilson - Dale-Coyne-Honda
Simon Pagenaud - Sam-Schmidt-Honda
Helio Castroneves - Penske-Chevrolet
Will Power - Penske-Chevrolet


Texas Motor Speedway (21.02.):

Tony Kanaan - KV-Chevrolet
Ryan Briscoe - Penske-Chevrolet
Alex Tagliani - Herta-Lotus


Phoenix International Raceway (21./22.02.):

J.R. Hildebrand - Panther-Chevrolet (only 22.02.)
Marco Andretti - Andretti-Chevrolet


Sebring International Raceway (23./24.02.):

Scott Dixon - Ganassi-Honda
Dario Franchitti - Ganassi-Honda
Graham Rahal - Ganassi-Honda
Charlie Kimball - Ganassi-Honda
Mike Conway - Foyt-Honda
Takuma Sato - Rahal-Honda
Simon Pagenaud - Sam-Schmidt-Honda
Oriol Servia - Dreyer-and-Reinbold-Lotus
Simona de Silvestro - HVM-Lotus


Infineon Raceway (25./26.02.):

Ryan Briscoe - Penske-Chevrolet
Will Power - Penske-Chevrolet
J.R. Hildebrand - Panther-Chevrolet
Ryan Hunter-Reay - Andretti-Chevrolet
Ernesto Viso - KV-Chevrolet
Rubens Barrichello - KV-Chevrolet
I hope they get this engine situation sorted out before St Pete. The last thing that New Indy Car needs is a fiasco to start the season.
Quote from Storm_Cloud :I hope they get this engine situation sorted out before St Pete. The last thing that New Indy Car needs is a fiasco to start the season.

They won't be able to get it sorted up completely. Bachelart said he has no chance to get any engine before Indy, so that's at least 1 team screwed up(if Conquest bothers to show up this season of course, which is still not entirely sure considering that he still has no driver and no sponsors, and is busy with his ALMS program).

Then there's Sarah Fisher, which is a much bigger potential PR nightmare(last winning team in date, only female owner, reigning Indy Lights champ as driver).

Whether teams are left cold at St Pete of not I think the whole engine saga will still remain a bit of a fiasco IMO. It wasn't very pleasant to see people with no engine deal for so long, when Lotus wasn't reachable. Then you had the small teams getting stuck with Lotus, while they obviously didn't want it - how to screw the have nots even more than they were before, in fact. Then you had those with Honda/Chevy getting a head start while the Lotus teams are waiting to get engines(Dragon and MSR are still waiting). Then we found out there was more potential entries than engines. Not very pretty stuff.












I wonder if they'll have a F1-style aero turbulence problem with those massive wings
Infineon Raceway looks wrong with green grass instead of the dirt/dead grass look.
That wing is like a wall, its massive.
Quote from Mackie The Staggie :Infineon Raceway looks wrong with green grass instead of the dirt/dead grass look.

Oh my god that's Infineon?!?! Yes you're right
What do you expect? It is winter xD Somewhere the dead grass has to come from Otherwise it would have decayed to dust.
funny, most places have grass in the summer and dead grass in the winter

I didn't recognize it either
Quote from RiseAgainstMe! :I wonder if they'll have a F1-style aero turbulence problem with those massive wings

One driver said there was no major turbulence problems on road courses, and that it wasn't that hard to follow someone closely in fast corners. Can't recall who it was though.
I would imagine the shaping of the bodywork around the wheels helps a lot in that instance.

Once they start building their own aero kits then no doubt they will follow F1 and if they can design in a bit of extra wake turbulence then all the better.
There's talk of a driver boycott at Texas (according to Wind Tunnel at least)

2012 IndyCar Series
(957 posts, started )
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