Indycar - Long Beach

[DooberRoni]

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk279/DooberRoni/IndyLongBeach.png
© images & logos property of their respective owners - graphic composition © DooberVille.com

Can you believe 35th? How fitting that our top Doober, LittleAlguy's namesake Al Unser Jr. and six time winner of the Long Beach Grand Prix will be the event's Grand Marshall and on his birthday, no less. How cool is that?

Slight editorial here or maybe it's just a brain cramp? Although we love our road racing best, why does Indycar start out the season with two street course races in a row? Those that aren't diehard fans tire of the long cautions that are just a part of street circuits and may think all Indycar racing is like that. They should run a street circuit, an exciting oval, a natural terrain road course and then another big oval at the start of the season to give the full flavor of what is present day Indycar. People might think it's just like the Cart good o'l days?

Did anyone catch Robin Miller on Wind Tunnel Sunday night? The question was what tracks he would like to see back on the circuit and he mentioned "the mile at Phoenix"! :winky:

More later, just wanted to get the ball rolling. As always, check back home at DooberVille (http://www.dooberville.com) for the latest racing news!

[ÜberDoober]

I like the haircut/no haircut deal between Franchitti and Kanaan. That should be fun? Hope one of them wins so we can see what happens.

[ÜberDoober]

CASTRONEVES ACQUITTED!!

Man, I thought he was gonna fry! Acquitted on all tax evasion charges and a mistrial on the charge of conspiracy.

MIAMI (AP) — Brazilian race car driver and Dancing With The Stars champ Helio Castroneves was acquitted Friday of most charges that he worked with his sister and lawyer to evade more than $2.3 million in U.S. income taxes.

A federal jury acquitted Castroneves on six counts of tax evasion but hung on one count of conspiracy. The jury also acquitted Katiucia Castroneves, 35, who is her 33-year-old brother's business manager, on the tax evasion counts but also hung on the conspiracy. Michigan motorsports attorney Alan Miller, 71, was acquitted on all three counts of tax evasion and one count of conspiracy. The jury deliberated six days after a six-week trial.

Castroneves, speaking in his native Portuguese, expressed profound relief.

"I just want to thank God, and my fans, and all of the people who prayed for me," he said outside the courtroom, still fingering a rosary.

"It has been a very difficult place to be in," he said, but added that his faith had seen him through. He said he planned to leave Friday night for Los Angeles.

[LittleAlguy]

I'm more relieved than happy. That said, I look forward to seeing him back in a car.

In other news, PT is officially in the 500 with KVRT. What a coincidence that PT and HCN would share the day's spotlight! Davey Hamilton also announced another go at Indy. Also, Little Al being the grand marshal is awesome. Hopefully, he'll show why he's King of the Beach during the Celeb/Pro race. :coolshades:

P1 results: http://www.imscdn.com/pdfs/timing_scoring/2009/reports/indycarseries/longbeach/indycar-results-p1.pdf

As far as the schedule, I do agree that they should have an oval either during the first or second race of the year.

Btw, Rafa Matos's paint scheme is looking sharp! It's kind of reminds me of the Mackenzie Financial paint scheme that Walker Racing had with Scott Goodyear.

[ÜberDoober]

I slept in this morning but while gradually trying wake up, I tuned into indycar.com to see what was going on just in time to catch practice 3 and see Mutoh destroy his car. :ack2:

Although fuzzy I think my brain is seeing live qual at 5:00pm EST and the show on VS at 6:00 EST? Don't know if I am going to watch live or catch the show on Versus? I will say the video on indycar.com is excellent today.

Dixon
Rahal
Kanaan
Castroneves
Matos

[ÜberDoober]

After moving to the top of the time sheet right after my last post, Dario parks it in the tire wall.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/EKron/dariocrash.jpg

[LittleAlguy]

Mutoh crunched his car pretty badly in the first practice group. It's pretty unlikely that he'll get out there for qualifying.

[ÜberDoober]

Very odd. I put up the live feed on Indycar.com and it looks like they have gone to a widescreen format? Oh wait, maybe it is just a static image?. It's 2:10 here and I feel like taking a nap. Still haven't decided to watch live or on VS.

Not sure what is going on with indycar.com's video? Cars just went on track and they're still showing one picture. I'll try closing and re-loading it. If it is only the IMS radio guys and no live video. I'm going to wait to see what happens and watch it on VS.

Oh Cool! That fixed it. Got video now. :) Ah poo! It is still the wide aspect ratio and things are distorted.

And with the regular video up, not the Race Control thing, they don't have a link for the live timing. You gotta hump through hoops to get both up.

[ÜberDoober]

I switched to full screen and am impressed with the quality. Unfortunately, the aspect ratio is still off. Here's a full screen grab, reduced to 800px wide.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/EKron/fullscreen.jpg

[ÜberDoober]

Damn, I really go want to go lay on the couch and watch the show on VS in half an hour but I don't want to miss the radio guy's commentary. Grrr! I'll move the tv back in here tomorrow for the race so I can watch on VS live.

Think that's what I'm gonna do? I'm bailing out for a horizontal position. Didjya see my NASCAR thread and pics? It's in the "racing other" forum.

[LittleAlguy]

I hope Penske keeps that 3rd car for Will throughout the season.

edit: Well, sans Kansas. Forgot that the crew for his car has to be at VIR for Grand-Am

[LittleAlguy]

Yeah, it seemed as though the reds and blacks in Champ Car had vastly different performance thresholds. The reds went off pretty quickly.

Helio: fastest driver on a single lap.

[LittleAlguy]

Wait, wouldn't Franchitti be on the bubble? Matos is outside the bubble.

[LittleAlguy]

That's a pretty hard hit. :eek:

[LittleAlguy]

Visa?

Great run from Matos.

[LittleAlguy]

Interesting. Two degrees of separation in the compounds for the weekend.

edit: Will Power takes the pole. Franchitti joins him on the front row

[ÜberDoober]

Well, here we go! It's SHOWTIME!

:goRacing:

[LittleAlguy]

Cool, Helio does get to race today.

[ÜberDoober]

Enjoying the production but let's go racin'!

[LittleAlguy]

Yes, I want to see some (current) cars going fast. :coolshades:

[LittleAlguy]

Yay, Power got started. Don't scare us like that.

[ÜberDoober]

Heartstopper for Power. :ack2:

[LittleAlguy]

Fine start from Matos. Poor start from Franchitti.

[ÜberDoober]

Nice and clean first few laps. Power is gonna check out?

[ÜberDoober]

Nice pass, Dario! :thumbup1:

[ÜberDoober]

You know what? I haven't heard a mention of Danica? (or how bad AGR is sucking)

[LittleAlguy]

That can't be good. Power is having communication trouble with the crew. They'll have to use the signboard.

[LittleAlguy]

You know what? I haven't heard a mention of Danica? (or how bad AGR is sucking)

Jon mentioned something about Mikey trying to bring them in later so they could make up a few spots through alternate strategy.

Hmm, that's more like it.

[ÜberDoober]

First caution! Conway into the tires.

They've done a good job keeping it green so far.

[LittleAlguy]

Conway face first into the T1 tire barrier.

Dario with an early stop.

[ÜberDoober]

Wow! Insanity prevails!

[LittleAlguy]

Hmm, what happened there?

Poor stop by Coyne's crew.

[ÜberDoober]

OH NOES! Carnage! Moraes, Mutoh, Wilson, Wheldon, Manning. Damn!

[LittleAlguy]

Tough luck for Wilson. :(

Back to green.

[LittleAlguy]

Danica keeping pretty decent pace with Dario although I think I heard that Dario is saving some fuel.

[ÜberDoober]

We're sure seeing a lot of green flag laps in the "non-stop" window. They have done a good job so far of keeping the yellows to a minimum.

[LittleAlguy]

34 laps on fuel? That's really pushing it even with a decent length yellow.

[LittleAlguy]

Conway again in the tires. Franchitti gets another break on the fuel stops and FCYs.

[ÜberDoober]

It will be interesting to see how things sort out now.

[ÜberDoober]

Disaster for Rahal in the pits. :ack2: That could have been really bad.

[LittleAlguy]

Franchitti is looking good right now.

edit: first time today that the FCY hurts him

[ÜberDoober]

FCY with laps winding down. :ack2: Moraes seriously stuffed into the tires.

[LittleAlguy]

Dixon and Briscoe? WTF?

[ÜberDoober]

Brain fart by Briscoe. What the hell?

[LittleAlguy]

Speaking of brain farts, Marco had one and was fortunate to get away with that without much damage.

[ÜberDoober]

Come on, Marco. There's still a few more laps for you to crash. You can do it, son.

[LittleAlguy]

Franchitti takes the win.

Ashley interview! :ack2:

[ÜberDoober]

Congrats Dario!

Looks like AGR's strategy paid off very well for them? Good race - looked good on TV. Can't wait for Kansas next week!

[ÜberDoober]

Thanks for making it today again, LittleAlguy. As always, it has been a pleasure. There's so much action next weekend it isn't funny. Formula 1, MotoGP AND more Indycar. Man, I'm in heaven!

Take care, pal. See ya soon. :thumbup1: