Full Throttle

For the last several months the IRL IndyCar series has been meeting with auto manufacturers, and trying to set a direction for a new engine package for the future.

Although not officially announced, it appears that IndyCar officials are at least talking publicly about part of that future… and it is said it will use turbos.

The Indy Star reports that Erik Berkman, Honda Performance Development boss the final issue is whether the new engine will be “four (cylinders) or six.”

IndyCar boss Brian Barnhart added that “both (engine packages) include turbos. One of them includes twin turbos.”

So… I guess Tony G and the rest of the IndyCar brain trust is going back to the future, the Champ Car future that is, CCWS was all about turbo power, now IndyCar will be.

But wait, there’s more: (from the rumor file)

One topic that had quietly gone away was the topic of mufflers on the current IRL IndyCar normally-aspirated engine.

Word is IndyCar continues to test mufflers on their naturally aspirated engine and is scheduled to continue to do so. They also have indicated that “the adoption of the silencer package in 2009 will be a commercial as well as a technical decision as the teams will have to replace all exhaust components and carry out a small body modification for the installation.”

(Shhhh… you’ll wake the neighbors!)

What’s next? The possibility apparently exists the current engine will be muffled until the turbos come online and it already runs on “ecco-friendly” Ethanol (not so much economic friendly, seen the price of corn-based products lately?)

Will a call be going out to Max “The Littlest Perv” Mosley asking for KERS blueprints?

Will the future IndyCar resemble the image above, a wind powered car. It doesn’t get any more ecco-friendly than that.

Team Penske’s preparations for this weekend’s IndyCar Series round at Infineon Raceway has been hit by a truck fire en route to California.

Having earlier this week expressed its confidence at chasing a solid result at Infineon Raceway, Team Penske will have to overcome a major setback to keep Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe on track.

Traveling to California for the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County, the team suffered a fire on Interstate 80 in Wyoming that destroyed a trailer carrying the two drivers’ primary race cars.

While neither of the truck’s two drivers was injured in the incident, the team also lost a lot of equipment to the fire, which broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

“About 0430 Eastern, we had a fire that we think started from a wheel bearing about halfway between Cheyenne and Salt Lake City,” Penske Performance Inc president Tim Cindric told indycar.com, “It’s a pretty barren area without cell phone coverage. The guys tried to put out the fire, but couldn’t do it so they unhooked the tractor from the trailer.”

“We have a destroyed trailer with a lot of burnt contents - we’ve deemed from pictures that the contents aren’t worth taking to California. We’ll stop in Wyoming and drop off four of our employees to sift through the contents and we’ll pick up the two truck drivers and take them to Sonoma with us.”

Cindric confirmed that Penske had dispatched the its test team transporter just after noon with two cars that had been prepared for the season finale at Chicagoland.

“Basically, they’ll be parts cars for the weekend and we’ll take the two cars that are already there and make them into race cars,” Cindric said, referring to the cars already at Infineon following last week’s group test.

“We’re certainly not going to have everything that we’re used to - even the uniforms for the team were in that truck, so we’re bringing all the uniforms we do have.

“Pit equipment is all kind of second-hand or non-existent, but we’ll make the most of it. There shouldn’t be too much that we do without, other than race cars that are prepared in the right way, but we’ll do that at the racetrack.”

Technorati Tags: Team Penske, Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, IRL, IndyCar

Editor’s note: Say hi and welcome to Australia’s Peter G. He has been a long-time commentor at FT and has gotten the “bug,” (read, pissed off) to write this open letter to V8 Supercars boss Tony Cochrane concerning his letter relating to the Gold Coast IndyCar event scheduling.

As a side note, Peter may be my eyes on the ground so to speak as he has tentative plans to attend F1’s first night race in Singapore. With luck he may be filing on scene reports from Lion City.

So without further adieu I give you Peter G.

I apologise in advance if the tone of this open letter from V8 boss, Tony Cochrane, regarding the Gold Coast Indy sounds like American bashing, he really should have used the words Tony George or IRL instead of nationality.

It would appear that TG in his infinite wisdom does not value one of the longest running & best supported races on the calendar. The IRL’s apparent refusal to accept the reasons as to why the date can’t be moved may see the event dropped by the Queensland Government.

I confess that I have broken my vow, to only say nice things about the new merged series, & I’am almost at the stage of saying please don’t bother coming. Why, you ask?

Firstly, it is an insult to not run the event as a points scoring round, no explanation is necessary as to why it has earned its place on the championship. It devalues the event, enough said.

Secondly, to be blunt, the IRL should be grateful that a race with a proud history of hosting a quality product i.e. Lola’s, Reynard’s & Penske’s with drivers like Mario Andretti, Emerson, Nigel, Juan, Alex & Jimmy etc, should feature (in this merged re-building season) a second rate offering. With no disrespect to Mr Dallara, the current chassis/engine road course car is an embarrassment to watch. Nor is this Honda’s fault, as that engine was never meant for this type of racing. The cars don’t hold a candle to other F3000 type series GP2, A1GP or WsbR.

Considering the Gold Coast was prepared to accept this sub standard offering, while the league found it’s feet & a new car to handle the demands of ovals, road course, street & super speedways, it is naïve (if not plain ignorant) to not accommodate the Gold Coast’s wishes regarding dates.

I’m getting the feeling that Tony George does not understand or value this event, or that he is not the only player in the field. The implicit threat of “other” international series can only mean A1GP, or even the high quality GP2ASIA, which feature the exact same teams that compete in the F1/Euro/GP2 & exactly half of the drivers from that series.

If the IRL will not abide by the Gold Coast wishes then I am 90% convinced Tony George should be shown the door, & supplant the “packed to the rafter’s” weekend with the V8’s & A1GP.

Maybe Australia does not feature on the radar of Tony’s vision for the future of American Open Wheel. If so, it was great having the old CART/Champ boys down here since 1991 & we can go our own way & the “new” IRL can go its own. What a pity that the direction of American Open Wheel was passed on to this generation of the Hulman family. Lucky sperm club for one & unlucky race fans for the rest of us.

Peter G.

Cross Posted @ Asian Motor Sports

Technorati Tags: Tony Cochrane, V8 Supercars, IRL, IndyCar, Gold Coast, Gold Coast Indy

Lets be honest up front, IndyCar’s Tony “G” botched the open wheel merger with respect to the Australian event.

The primary reason is the race won’t count towards the season championship. The entire field may as well be sitting on Indy’s finish-line bricks playing tiddly-winks vice a 10,000 mile road trip for all the good it will do them.

The problem has led a couple leading preexisting IndyCar teams to go into near rebellion. While not screaming hell no we won’t go, at least not so much in public, it’s well known some potential outback campers aren’t at all happy.

So there’s that.

Then there’s this, that may effect event attendance in one fashion or another.

Queensland’s Premier Anna Bligh has ordered a crackdown on what she’s calling “sleeze.” (You mean like this? - ed)

Ms Bligh was offended by “lewd” behavior, including women flashing their breasts on highrise balconies (what, she hasn’t seen them before, doesn’t she have her own pair? - ed), during her first visit to Indy as Premier last year and has told organizers to clean up their act.

She issued a “new code of conduct” to cover the owners of highrise units along the race route in hopes it will mitigate the “lewd” displays of, Oh… My God…. actual breasts of race goers! (presumably this covers men’s breasts as well correct Ms. Premier? -ed)

She said while lewd behavior on highrise balconies was difficult to police, “people shouldn’t take any comfort from that”.

“If the police can identify you, they can make a charge,” she said. (I have a solution for that which I’ll get to in a minute. - ed)

“You can have a lot of fun without turning off international visitors and spectators.”

Newflash Ms. Prude Premier, I have it on good authority many traveling home have been heard to sing a variation of an old Bob Hope ditty, “Thanks For the Mammaries,” but maybe my source is a bit shaky. You be the judge.

In addition, as if that weren’t enough, a ban on full-strength drinks sold at bars inside the Indy precinct will also be implemented this year.

Well, that does it for me. That’s strike three.

I’m being asked to pay for tickets to an exhibition race, without the now traditional Gold Coast Sheilas showing their um, equipment, and I have to sip on Mother vice Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale.

No thanks Madam Premier.

On the other hand thanks.

Ya see Madam Premier (Pictured above with her predecessor Peter Beattie) you said yourself identification is nigh on impossible from street level looking up at bare breasts and I plan on making a small fortune because of it.

Any Sheilas planning a traditional Gold Coast exhibition contact me. For a small fee I’ll provide you with a mask in the likeness of Premier Anna Bligh. It should save you from arrest and with luck the local constables will be knocking on Madam Premier’s door with an arrest warrant.

Helio Castroneves was trying everything to squeeze every drop of ethanol out of the No. 3 Team Penske car in the final five laps of the Meijer Indy 300 presented by Pepsi and Edy’s.

Castroneves was working 50-plus laps since his last pit stop, while the string of other contenders had pitted under green between Laps 189-194. That’s how Castroneves inherited the point, and he would have peddled the 1,600-pound car it into Victory Circle for the first time this season if necessary.

“You got to go. You got to go,” race strategist Tim Cindric implored Castroneves over the radio as he saw Scott Dixon close from 6.1403 seconds behind to 2.1338 with two laps remaining.

Dixon, who took a splash of fuel as the leader on Lap 194, cut the gap to 0.6241 of a second as the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car crossed the start/finish line for the white flag lap.

It appeared Castroneves would be able to hang on, but as the car exited Turn 4 it slowed and Dixon went to the outside for the pass and victory by 0.5532 of a second.

In a season of superlatives for Dixon, who tied teammate Dan Wheldon (2005) with his series record-tying sixth victory, this one erased memories of the fateful day last September at Chicagoland Speedway.

“It was nice to get it the way we did,” said Dixon, who took a commanding lead in the championship standings with three points-paying races remaining. “I think about the run that Dario had for the championship last season and it’s nice to be able to be in that position after how we lost it last year.”

Needing to finish ahead of Dario Franchitti to win the series title, Dixon’s No. 9 target Chip Ganassi Racing car ran out of fuel in Turn 3 and he coasted to a runner-up finish in the 200-lap and season-long race.

“What a day,” said Dixon, who takes a 78-point cushion to Infineon Raceway - where he won last year. “I think we tried to play it kind of safe and just be conservative. Even in traffic we really didn’t rush things. The car was fantastic. It was strategy in the end. It was crazy.”

Dixon, the pole sitter, led a field-high 151 laps to surpass 2,000 for his career. He picked up the lead when Marco Andretti pitted on Lap 189 and squeezed 58 laps out of the 22 gallons of ethanol before ducking onto pit lane on Lap 194. Castroneves had pitted under yellow on Lap 143 and, despite trying to conserve fuel with a lower fuel setting and downshifting, looked poised to hold on.

“There was no way we were going to catch him,” Dixon said. “He was half the track ahead of us. I knew our car was probably quicker than his, but not 20 miles per hour faster.”

That’s what Castroneves thought, too.

“It was just 200 yards short,” said Castroneves, who was runner-up for the sixth time. “I have to give this to Cindric. It would be second place or we would be in 10th place (if he pitted late), so right now I have to say that the team did a great job.”

For the 33-year-old Castroneves, it was the seventh second-place finish of the year and third in a row. The last triumph on the race track for the former “Dancing With the Stars” champion came in April 2007 at St. Petersburg.

Marco Andretti finished third, while Vitor Meira was fourth. Tony Kanaan, last year’s winner, was eighth.

Forced to start last in the 26-car field due to a practice-session crash that prevented her from making a qualifying attempt, Danica Patrick finished 11th.

The release of the 2009 IndyCar schedule has clouded the future of the Gold Coast event (Held as a Champ Car event prior to the reunification), and is in grave doubt whether the Gold Coast will return.

A dispute has arisen between the local Queensland State Government and IndyCar officials over the increased sanctioning fees, scheduling conflicts and the Government acknowledging this years event and those in the future will be run under a “memorandum of understanding” vice an iron-clad contract.

Tony G is scheduled to attend this year’s event and the Government, as can be expected, will be all pomp, circumstance and probably a bit of butt-cheek smooching in their effort to save the event for future years. “I don’t think Tony George has ever been to our event,” Queensland Sports Minister Judy Spence said.

“I’m sure once he sees our event and sees how different it is he is going to be excited about sitting down with us and talking about a date for the future.”

“We need a contract to make it iron-clad. But I am very confident that we’ll have a race next year and the year after that and the year after that. I’ve been involved with Indy for 10 years and every year someone says it’s doomed,” said event chairman Terry Mackenroth.

V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane, who just signed a new six year Gold Coast deal, has called the omission of the Gold Coast fron IndyCar’s calender nothing more than “argy bargy” between the IRL and the Queensland organizers of the Gold Coast Indy 300.

“Everyone wants the race to be in October and my firm belief is they (IRL) will be there in late October in 2009,” Cochrane said.

“We would never let the Queensland Government down. We’d step in and help any way we could.”

NOTE to the Queensland Government, it might do you well to give Tony G a taste of Aussie hospitality, it can’t hurt.

Technorati Tags: Gold Coast, IndyCar, IRL, Tony George, Australia

The Indy Racing Series leaving Nashville Superspeedway.

Both sides have failed to negotiate an agreement for a 2009 race. Track officials made the announcement Monday.

The IndyCar Series had raced here the past eight years, including July 12 when Scott Dixon won a rain-shortened race.

The superspeedway is owned by Dover Motorsports, Inc., which had stopped running IRL races at its tracks in Delaware and St. Louis.

Nashville had been the only concrete track on the IRL circuit, and drivers had been unhappy with the difficulty of passing on the 1.33-mile oval.

Ryan Briscoe will start on the pole for Saturday’s Rexall Edmonton Indy after winning a qualifying session Friday that saw Canadian Marty Roth shatter any front-running hopes for fellow Canadian Paul Tracy.

Briscoe, the 26-year-old Aussie racer with Team Penske, recorded the fastest lap time of 1.00:7311 on the 14-turn airport/street course to win his second pole in four weeks.

Teammate Helio Castroneves will start beside him on the front row.

“Wow, I mean we had to work for that one,” said Briscoe.

“It was just unbelievable. We were definitely thrashing for an hour-and-a-half there just trying to keep in there and get to the fast six (final round).

He said he didn’t mind almost being run down by Castroneves.

“As long as it’s Team Penske in the front it’s all good.”

It’s the second straight weekend that Team Penske will be leading the race grid. Briscoe started second at Mid-Ohio last week en route to the checkered flag and his second win of the season.

He also won on the short oval in Milwaukee June 1.

Tracy will start 16th in the 27-driver grid.

The 39-year-old Toronto native was close to making the cut when the first round of qualifying was shut down with a minute to go under a full-course caution flag after Roth, also of Toronto, spun out and stalled in the middle of the track.

Tracy managed to get one more lap in before time ran out, but it wasn’t fast enough and the “Thrill from West Hill” will start in the middle of the pack for Saturday’s 95-lap race at the City Centre Airport track (5 p.m. ET, TSN).

“We’re a little bit frustrated,” said Tracy.

“I went quick enough to advance but the checkered (flag) fell before I got the lap time.”

The qualifying sessions are effectively a three-round knockout. The 27 drivers raced in two groups in the first round. The top 12 then moved to the second round and the top six then raced in the third to determine final positioning.

Fan favourite Danica Patrick was knocked out in the first qualifying session and will start 15th.

It has been a tough weekend for Patrick and many of the IndyCar drivers who were learning the Edmonton course, which was part of the old Champ Car Series.

“I took home about 20 pieces of paper last night with squiggly lines and notes on them,” said Patrick.

“I’m just trying to figure out where it is that we’re off. As a team we have some things we need to improve on for us to go faster.”

It was a hard day for all of the Andretti-Green team.

Besides Patrick, rookie Hideki Mutoh slid into the safety barrier and will start 22nd. Tony Kanaan spun off course in the first round and roared backward on the grass, frying his engine. He’ll start 12th.

Justin Wilson, the former Champ Car driver who won in Edmonton in 2006, managed to make it to the final round with a fast lap even though he lost control fighting understeer going through a corner.

His No. 2 McDonald’s car bounced off a tire barrier and scraped the safety fence and couldn’t compete in the final round.

“I overstepped the mark and it bit me,” he said.

Roth will be on the second-last row at 25th.

It was a hot day, with an ambient temperature of 28 degrees Celsius and a track temperature of 43 degrees.

Townsend Bell, who will run 25th, summed up the struggles for the drivers in the smaller IndyCar teams trying to master a new course in a hurry.

“It’s been a challenge all weekend,” said Bell.

“We’re still trying to figure out what the right (car) set-up should be.”

This Full Throttle “broadcast” is interrupted to bring you the prelude to Sunday’s Mid–Oho 200 IndyCar event — Saturday’s Cat Fight!

We now bring you your regularly scheduled “broadcast”.

Australia’s Briscoe won yesterday’s Indy 200 IndyCar Series race by defeating pole sitter and Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves. It was Penske’s eighth 1-2 finish and its first since March 19, 2005, when Castroneves was the runner-up to Sam Hornish Jr. at Phoenix.

“What a weekend for Team Penske. “It just feels so good to get this win,” Finally, something went our way,” Briscoe said.

Since recording his first victory on June 1 at Milwaukee, Briscoe had experienced some tough luck over the last two months. But Briscoe and Team Penske benefited from a rain storm that soaked the 2.258-mile road course and delayed the start of the race.

The majority of the 26-car field started the race with rain tires while Team Penske waited six laps before having Briscoe pit for tires.

Brazil’s Castroneves, who started on the front row with Briscoe, improved on his third-place finish in this race last year. New Zealand’s Scott Dixon finished third while Australia’s Will Power and Oriol Servia rounded out the top five.

Dixon still leads runner-up Castroneves by 58 points in the overall points standings.

Briscoe started from the pole two weeks ago in Watkins Glen but crashed late in the race and finished twelfth.

The next IndyCar Series race is July 6 in Edmonton, Canada.

Technorati Tags: Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves, IndyCar, IRL, Danica Patrick

Former Champ Car Champion Paul Tracy looks almost certain to return to competitive action with Walker Racing in the forthcoming IndyCar Series outing at Edmonton – his ‘home’ race – and he is hopeful it could lead to a full-time comeback in the category.

The Canadian – for years one of Champ Car’s biggest stars and crowd-pullers – was left out of work following the demise of the series and merger with the Indy Racing League back at the start of 2008. Since then he has competed on just a sole occasion, finishing a delayed eleventh for Forsythe/Pettit Racing in Champ Car’s final hurrah – the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – after clipping the wall early on.

Despite having expressed his keen interest in switching across to the IndyCar Series following Champ Car’s collapse, Tracy’s insistence on only wanting to race with one of the leading teams after Forsythe shut its doors contrived to work against him. Now, however, it seems he may have got his wish.

“I’ll be back in action in the next couple of weeks,” the 39-year-old confirmed, speaking exclusively to Crash.net Radio at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, as he confessed that part of him misses racing and part of him doesn’t. “We’ve got a deal coming together with Derrick Walker to race in Edmonton, and hopefully that will then expand for the rest of the season from there.”

Indy Racing League CEO Tony George has of late made no secret of his desire to get Tracy back into a car again, with suggestions initially that the 2003 Champ Car king was being lined up for a return at both Edmonton and Infineon Raceway weeks later, with George’s own Vision Racing operation.

As to his personal thoughts on the unification of North American open-wheeled racing, the 31-time Champ Car race-winner was confident that it was the right direction for the sport to be heading in – or it will eventually prove to be, at least.

“I think it’s good,” he underlined. “Obviously it all kind of came together at the last minute and has left a lot of casualties – a lot of drivers without rides and teams without an opportunity to go racing – but I think in the long term the series being back together is the way it should be.”

In the meantime, though, Tracy was happy to amuse himself at Goodwood, where he found himself reunited with an old friend – his Penske Racing PC26-97 from eleven years back, a car with which he triumphed on three consecutive occasions early on in the campaign.

“It’s been great!” he enthused of his Goodwood appearance. “I’m having a good time; I’m driving one of the cars I had a lot of success with in 1997, so it’s very exciting.

“The hill is very narrow and I only got up it once on Friday, but again we don’t have road course wings on it like some of the Formula 1 cars here do. It’s really just for demonstration.”

Technorati Tags: Vision Racing, Paul Tracy, IRL, IndyCar, Derrick Walker