Well, thanks to the streamer of my stream who was switching to NBA with 10 to go I rejoined with some Japanese stream for the final 5 laps.
I must say it was the best decision to do. I mean ABC already had to leave the coverage on the East Coast during the Red Flag and then also had to leave the West Coast after the second caution of post-red flag periode. (In ChampCar they wouldn't have restarted it due to their time limits back then) To force the teams to change on new tyres of the same type was also a very reasonable move to avoid unexpected punctures.
The rest of the race was like a WTCC race at Marakech just without Chevy dominating
Honda won. Does that mean RB gets fired now? Chevy might be pissed of shortening the race. Ego games.
Did they ever say on TV exactly why the race was shortened? We were kept in the dark about all that at the track, and the announcers were massive idiots. (OMG, rain!!! how will this affect the race???? .... C'mon now. There were all of 3 drops, and the cars weren't even going for at least an hour after that.)
The only thing I could think of is the patch could only withstand 15 laps.
Fairly disappointing to be stuck there for all of that Feel bad for those who had good drives screwed by incredibly bad luck. Some ended up with results they didn't really seem to deserve, while others who deserved great results were caught out.
Pretty sure it had to do with the available TV time. Barfield mentioned when they interviewed him during the red flag period that they'd be weighing that heavily when deciding how long the race would go once it got restarted.
Hopefully the surface gets fixed up, i just hope it doesn't get smoothed out though, it will destroy the character of the track.
Alot of people got hurt massively championship wise by this unfortunetly the people that capitalised are the ones that are likely to break away in the point standings, with the Ovals coming Franchitti is in a good position to get back to the top same with Dixon.
I love when the live race action that I paid for, and spent all weekend supporting, then waited around for almost 2 hours, is cut short by TV coverage. Wonderful.
Even if they smooth the track out, it will be bumpy again in 2 years. The climate here is awful on the roads. Not like the City of Detroit has any money to throw around either. Any repairs will likely come out of Roger Penske's pocket.
Rahal had everyone in turn 1 cheering him on half-way through the race. He pulled the bravest move I saw all weekend there, and made it stick. Then he did it again. Fantastic to watch.
When he couldn't fire back up, everybody groaned, then he got standing applause when he got under way again.
Yeah I didn't quite get that - they'd run out of time on whatever channel it was broadcast on for the West Coast before the race even restarted and on the East Coast just after that, so don't quite know why they couldn't just keep it on ESPN News (channel they moved it to) for the rest of the race
They didn't think the epoxy would hold up. Quite a few drivers stated that on air. TK (him and Will went on track to inspect it) was the one talking about it the most. He said it looked like it would last 15 laps, and anymore would be too risky. He was hit in the helmet by a chunk of it earlier in the race so he just kept talking about "safety" his entire interview.
Sucks, but oh well. Notice directly after the race finished it started to pour down in rain, so I wanted it to go the rest of the way.
The Track Fell apart just before the Race was Official Leading to a 2hour break to repair it. Just for a 15lap Sprint for the Cash, which Saw two more Full Course yellows
I was in grandstand 1, right behind pit lane, and we had discovered on Saturday that you could walk in front of it right next to pit lane if you went all the way to the end and around two corners. Didn't require a Pit Lane pass at all, but those people were like three feet closer than us, for a lot more money So we spent a lot of the break time wandering around, basically on pit road, watching the drivers interact. Tony Kanaan was really animated for a while before they went out and inspected the track, and we followed him up and down pit lane, talking to drivers and officials, until he finally grabbed Will and they kicked the Pace Car driver out.
We were also down there before the race, and it was really interesting to see the crew members and drivers before the race. The crew members were out there an hour before the race, and they seemed nervous. They kept adjusting tires by an inch, or moving a wrench from one place to another, and then back again. The drivers walked in 30 minutes or so before the start, and if you stand by the porta-johns, you can see them all feet away We discovered this by accident, as we happened to be standing there minutes before the national anthem. There was a line of them waiting to pee before they had to get in the cockpit at one point. Only one I didn't see up close was Rubens, he was too far down
The rain certainly would have made things interesting. Was about 5 minutes after the end of the race, and it only lasted 5 minutes or so. But it was fairly hard. It might have been just enough to force the off slicks for a few laps, before changing back.
Anyone has an idea what the "Plan B" could be RB talks about, should Qingdao fall through? Elkhart Lake (ALMS on the same weekend) was denied, so was Indy Road Course. Since Fontana is not gueranteed the season finale that plan b can happen after it though.
NASCAR's Montreal race is also on the Qingdao weekend. It would be a WOW! If that is the Plan B, but I doubt it.