IRL Preview: 2009 Indianapolis 500

IRL IndyCar Series
- 93rd Indianapolis 500 Mile Race (4/17)
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- Speedway, Indiana, Indianapolis, United States
- 200 laps
- www.indycar.com and www.indy500.com (check both)

Event History
The second of the two great events occurring today, though perhaps only in terms of scheduling. I’ll leave the Monaco vs Indy debate for others and of course readers of this blog must surely agree the N-Word thing happening later isn’t even in the reckoning.

The 500 is one of the longest-standing events in the world if not the longest, it having started way back in 1911. As you can imagine, there is a lot of history and tradition here, right from retaining the yard of bricks at the line, to releasing the balloons before race start, to the three-wide start.

There have also been some very tight finishes!

1992:

2006:

Circuit
On the face of it the track is just a couple of very long straights connected by 90-degree corners, like a rounded rectangle, and while this is somewhat true it very much hides some interesting nuances.

- The banking isn’t very steep for an oval, especially not an oval of this speed, so it requires some balls-out commitment to head into turn one when all you see in front of you is a concrete wall. It is a little bit better now they have the SAFER barrier – but you still don’t want to hit it.

- Unlike many ovals, each turn is unique and has its own characteristics. Dan Wheldon in this week’s Autosport magazine says turns 1 and 2 are tricky and often have crosswinds, while 3 and 4 are easier and allow you to set up a run on someone along the main straight.

The bigger issues at Indy are the traffic, the fuel mileage and the other drivers!

Check out this video of Helio Castroneves on a restart two years ago, if you’ve never seen this you won’t believe how close he gets to the pit retaining wall, and neither did he…

Form
The Penske and Ganassi teams are largely unbeatable on the ovals, yet Indy is the place the smaller teams hope to score an upset because anything can happen. You’ve got to say it is between Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon though, and anyone else is an outside bet!

What to Watch For
- The warm-up lap. Seriously! This is the only oval race I feel the pre-start tension in the same way I do with F1, and it really kicks in on the final warm-up lap as the cars come off of turn 2 and form up in the classic 3x3 formation, which they hold until turn 4. Goosebumps.
- A fast and furious opening section, a long middle section, and a fast and furious closing section.

UK TV
R: Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports 3 HD will air the Race live at 6pm

US TV
R: As usual, ABC (in HD) will air the Race live at Midday.
US viewers should remember to switch to Versus when the ABC coverage is over for an extended post-race show!

Enjoy the race!

Bits and bobs

Just a few things you can expect from me in the next few weeks:

F1
Race notes on the remaining F1 races this year, starting with the Italian GP this weekend. If I think about it tomorrow or Friday I'll do a race preview but it won't be as good as the Belgian one. I liked that preview. I guess I could gloat about having been to Monza.. Nobody likes a show-off, least of all me, but everyone likes to show off.... so that sounds like a plan. Consider it done.

Then there's Singapore, Japan, China and Brazil. I think that's the right order. I haven't been to any of those so the previews would probably be a bit rubbish.

MotoGP Indy
A little after the Italian GP this Sunday is the MotoGP race at Indianapolis. If last Sunday's IndyCar madfest at Chicago and F1 craziness in Belgium didn't get you going, then how about back-to-backs at two of racing's most storied venues? Shit if these 8 days don't do it for you, you don't like racing, and if you don't like racing what are you doing reading this? Go away!

GP2
I keep promising to watch (and post about) some GP2 - and then I end up doing something else entirely. I'm not watching the races and ignoring the blog updates, I really haven't seen the races yet. Basically this means I'm like 8 weeks behind on GP2. So yeah I need catch up with that, now the IndyCars are done I should have an extra couple of hours a week for doing that. Any bets on when I'll *actually* watch the things?

A1GP
I said I'd do a series preview for A1GP. Their first race of the new season was due ten days from now but it got postponed, apparently indefinitely. I think there's a clear weekend in there somewhere so I'll see if I get time to knock something up but I'm not promising anything.

I've just realised I have no clue why I'm posting this, yet I'm going to hit Publish anyway. Does this mean I've become a Blogaholic? Is that a word? Help!

By the way, on the whole Lewis vs Kimi thing:
Both put in great drives and I'd have been happy for either to win - ON THE RACETRACK. Post-race decisions disappoint me, especially ones which make no sense at all.
Glock got the same penalty as Hamilton but I understand that, he passed under yellows, that's a No-No. Fine. Yet Hamilton backed off enough that Raikkonen was ahead by a nose. The position was returned in accordance with accepted precedent.
Hamilton was faster on the straight because he had been faster for the whole of the previous lap. The McLaren is just better in the rain on this type of track.
What about all of this did the FIA stewards miss? Even Charlie Whiting of the FIA told McLaren it was safe - twice! The stewards are independent of Whiting..
The FIA's structures are too rigid and old-fashioned, and they always have been. Time for a rethink.