Indy Car Series

[ibd77]

Since McLaughlin's & Penske's departure, my interest in the Australian Supercars series has somewhat waned. Especially with the loss of the Adelaide 500 event and the dominance of Triple 8 Engineering with no real worthy competition. So I thought I would begin following the Indycar series once again. Not since the days of CART with drivers of Montoya & Zanardi have I considered watching Indycar's again but now with McLaughlin featuring in the series, I am keen see how he progresses during the 2021 season.

So far we are 2 races into the season and McLaughlin has had a reasonable but not a spectacular start to his Indycar career with an 14th place finish at Alabama Road Course, then a 11th place finish at St.Petersburg Street Circuit. Next race is a double header event at Texas Motor Speedway Oval on the 1st & 2nd of May. This will be his first Oval race experience and will be interesting how he handles the car and the racing.

2024 Schedule

2024 Schedule

www.indycar.com

 

[BomberFan355]

Been watching on Foxtel and following the practice sessions online. They have live commentary online with live timing, it's pretty good.

 

[ibd77]

Been watching on Foxtel and following the practice sessions online. They have live commentary online with live timing, it's pretty good.

Liking some of their road courses and close racing without the aero wash issues that has plagued F1 since forever. Not much into oval racing but will be interested to see how SM goes.

 

[BomberFan355]

Liking some of their road courses and close racing without the aero wash issues that has plagued F1 since forever. Not much into oval racing but will be interested to see how SM goes.

Open wheel and oval, will be a big learning curve this weekend.

Interesting to see how JJ goes this week, been well off the pace so far, might be better on the ovals though you'd think.

 

[ibd77]

Just woke up to watch the final 25% of the race & McLaughlin is running in strong second place & threatening the leader. Awesome debut on an oval track for a rookie.

 

[ibd77]

Just woke up to watch the final 25% of the race & McLaughlin is running in strong second place & threatening the leader. Awesome debut on an oval track for a rookie.

Spoiler

Finished 2nd, great result.

 

[BomberFan355]

Didn’t get to watch the race, good result though. Was 15th at the start.

 

[BomberFan355]

Jimmy Johnson and Sebastian Grosjean are not running the ovals this season.

 

[ibd77]

Jimmy Johnson and Sebastian Grosjean are not running the ovals this season.

From my understanding, they were too scared to run these cars at high speed at close proximity, so chose to avoid the ovals but they would run in the Indy 500, surely?

 

[Admiral Byng]

Been watching the replays of Indy during thew week, thanks to Kayo.

Jesus * they have a lot of commercial breaks. It's like come back from a commercial break, commentators recap what happened while we were away, watch 2 minutes of live racing, "we'll be back after this short break"... rinse; repeat.

 

[FR0GGY]

Jimmy Johnson and Sebastian Grosjean are not running the ovals this season.

Can they pick and choose races?

 

[Bradesmaen]

Can they pick and choose races?

Pretty sure Dale Coyne said he wouldn't let him run the ovals. Or something to that affect. Or even him saying thanks but no thanks after Bahrain

 

[hey shorty]

Not as good as yesterday but another top 10 for McGlaughlin this morning. 6th in the standings.

Honestly can't believe he nicked a podium and very nearly a win yesterday. Amazing result.

 

[BomberFan355]

From my understanding, they were too scared to run these cars at high speed at close proximity, so chose to avoid the ovals but they would run in the Indy 500, surely?

Can they pick and choose races?

Pretty sure Dale Coyne said he wouldn't let him run the ovals. Or something to that affect. Or even him saying thanks but no thanks after Bahrain

I only know from hearing it on the coverage, it’s strange that they wouldn’t be allowed if that’s the case as SM has never raced an oval and done 3 open wheel races, while JJ has raced ovals his whole career and has one less open wheel race than SM.

 

[tandino]

JJ has been skittish about Indycar on ovals since Dan Wheldon died, if not before, so that's not much of a surprise. There are only 4 oval races anyway on the calendar this year so it's not much of a big deal.

 

[BomberFan355]

SM starting fifth for the Indy road course race.

 

[ibd77]

Solid top 10 result for Scotty overnight, still hasn't grasped race craft in this series so not attacking other cars in front of him yet. Solely relying on qualifying and pitstop strategy for positions.

 

[NSWCROW]

Our man starts the 500 from the middle of the 6th row in 17th.

Scott Dixon on pole.
Will Power 2nd last.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

Gone 10 years without an Indycar thread despite Will Power's breakthrough results for Australians in this culture/industry of racing.

But goldenboy McLaughlin has a go, and this thread is born?

Even though he's an NZer, McLaughlin is more of a reflection of Australian racing than Power is.

 

[tandino]

Will Power lucky to make the show, gave the wall a good whack half way through his run. Something has definitely gone wrong there this week for him.

 

[BomberFan355]

SM quickest of the Penske cars I'm pretty sure.

 

[ibd77]

Gone 10 years without an Indycar thread despite Will Power's breakthrough results for Australians in this culture/industry of racing.

But goldenboy McLaughlin has a go, and this thread is born?

Even though he's an NZer, McLaughlin is more of a reflection of Australian racing than Power is.

Unfortunately for Power, he hasn't had much opportunity to represent himself in Australia under the Indy Car brand. Irony would suggest that the Indy Cars may return to Australia one day just as he considers retirement.

 

[tandino]

Hard to make a case against Dixon but if I was to pick anyone else it would be Herta. Dark horse for the win would be Rahal, I think the Honda's have the package this year.

Scott will be thereabouts all day, top 5 wouldn't surprise me. Power's coming from a long way back but in race trim seems to have good pace, long shot but wouldn't totally shock me.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

Race to start 2:45 to finish about 6:15?

 

[BomberFan355]

Race to start 2:45 to finish about 6:15?

Would depend on how many and length of cautions. Weather is good so no rain delays.