Okay Deputy

[BarryBobPosthole]

I’m all set to watch the St Pete Indy car race tomorrow. Its a test! To get ready I’ e been power watching the Drive to Survive: Formula 1 Racing series on Netflix. I realize its not the same circuit but isn’t it pretty much the same?
One thing that turns me off about F1 is the drivers are pretty much like the F1 driver in Talladegha Nights: Slicky boys to a person.

I do like the competition between shops though.

So I will let you know! Qualifying starts here in a bit. I’ll watch a bit of that.

What driver should I root for?

BkB

[Thumper]

Reminds me of a Thump story.

I'll try not to name names here or go into too much detail, but I have a VERY close buddy who was in bed with Ford for many years (still is). We're still good friends and have been for the past 35 years. In fact, he just called last week to tell me he may be moving to Florida sometime this year. Anyway, he and the crew were here for the St. Pete Grand Prix years ago and had a very well known driver driving for them. Of course, they were campaigning a Ford and blew an engine during practice the day before the race. They contacted Ford and they wanted the engine back to see what went wrong with it. At that time, my buddy also told them it appeared the Fords were under powered compared to the competition. Ford told them they'd get an engine to them that same night (they flew it in) and we spent a good portion of the night waiting at the airport. The engine made it there late that night and the crew spent the rest of the night (or I should say morning) making the swap. They were informed by Ford the engine was "special" and not even CLOSE to legal. The minute the race ended, they were to snatch the engine out and return it immediately as the plane would be waiting there to bring it back! Now, I have no idea how the tech system works, but I know in NASCAR they'd have been busted, but they pulled it off! They were doing extremely well in the race when another vehicle put them into a barrier and knocked them out of the race. They had that engine out and on the way back to Ford before the race was even finished! After the race, the crew came to my house for 3-4 days for a bit of R&R. Now, I happen to live on a very tight cul-de-sac and you should have seen them backing down the street and squeezing that transporter into my driveway! Ahhh, the good ol' days!

[BarryBobPosthole]

So splain to me the difference between F1 and Indy cars? And the series I’m watching talks about the f1 teams pouring $300 million on their entries. Those are theMcLarens and Renaults of the world. The poor teams only spend $100 million.
BKB

[DeputyDog]

Sorry for the delay. Been on the road. Bought my father-in-law tickets to an IU basketball game and headed to Bloomington for the weekend.

There are a lot of really good drivers.

They are nothing like the formula 1 drivers who are all prima donnas. The Indy car drivers are extremely fan friendly and there fan access is over the top.

The main difference between F1 and Indycar is the technology and the money. A very competitive Indycar program runs 8-10 million for a season. A backmarker in F1 would be 10 times that. Indycar doesn’t have all the driver aids like traction control or even power steering. Indycar alss runs on the biggest variety of tracks, street courses, permanent road courses, small ovals, and super speedways. The cars are pretty much spec so the driver makes a big difference in performance unlike F1 where there are only a couple of teams that have cars capable of winning.

Has far as drivers, Scott Dixon is an all-time great. The only drivers with more wins are AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti, and the only one with more championships is AJ.

James Hinchcliffe and Josef Newgarden are great personalities. Alexander Rossi is a stud too. Ryan Hunter-Reay is a threat at any race.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

A guy named Will Power, no shit, won the poll today in qualifying. I’m gonna pull for him just because of his name.

BKb

[BarryBobPosthole]

F1 remindsme of Mario Kart.

[DeputyDog]

Will Power is his real name. He is an absolute beast especially in qualifying. There isn’t any driver in the field I’d put above him when it came to needing that one quick lap. He is a past Indycar champ and is the defending Indy 500 champ too.

So what did you think? Sometimes some of the street or road course races can be a bit boring but give it a chance.

The majority of the field is within a few tenths of a second in their qualifying times so just about anyone in the field is capable of winning.

Colton Herta is a 18 year old kid whose dad was an Indycar driver in the 90’s. He is going to be something special.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

It was pretty cool to watch. I lived in St Pete when I was in the Air Force so I know the area well where that course is laid out. there was no race there when I lived there but there was talk of one. I was there 76-79.

I’m gonna watchtomorrow and we’ll see. There was a penalty called today for somethng I could not find fault with. So the rules are different. And picayune, or at least that one was. The driver had no issue with it though.

BkB

[DeputyDog]

In qualifying with the limited time in the knockout sessions if you impede another driver on a “hot” lap or cause a yellow or red flag, you lose your fastest timed lap.

They implemented this because someone could turn in a flyer then block their closest competitors so they don’t have the chance to have a clear lap.

This is only on the road and street courses where they run in groups. They still run single cars at a time to qualify on ovals.


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[DeputyDog]

Here is a story about the qualifying and the penalties.

https://racer.com/2019/03/09/power-l...ep-at-st-pete/


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[airbud7]

I'm gonna watch! ....

[BarryBobPosthole]

I’m gonna give it a whirl too, AB. And the second a driver kisses another driver, I’m out like Ricky Bobby.

BKB

[BarryBobPosthole]

Somebody splain ‘Push to Pass’. An easy button?

BKB

[BarryBobPosthole]

A good race! I’ll watch the next one.

BKB

[DeputyDog]

Somebody splain ‘Push to Pass’. An easy button?

BKB

They use push to pass on the road and street courses where it is harder to pass normally. What it does is give an additional 60 HP when the button on the steering wheel is pushed. Each driver is given, I think, 120 seconds to use.

In the past each push was for a set period of time no matter if they hold the button or push it multiple times. Now it is engaged for however long the button is held.

They do this to increase the passing to hopefully make the race more exciting. In some cases, especially in F1, the guy who started on the pole will stay in front the entire race unless he screws up because of the limited passing zones on road and street courses.



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[BarryBobPosthole]

^^^what NASCAR needs for plate races.

BKB