2014 Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational

For the first time in the history of IMS, a vintage racing event was held at the facility.  The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association boasted 700+ cars in about a dozen different classes.  For someone like myself, who loves the historical aspect of our sport, it was an incredible event.  Even I have to admit that my self proclaimed vast knowledge of motorsport was stumped often throughout the weekend.  I saw cars that I never knew existed on track.

Many people are question vintage racing.  There are two extremes; one group wonders why people should risk damaging cars that are of huge historical importance.  The other extreme dislikes vintage racing because in their mind, it's not racing.  They feel that its just a big parade with no real "racing".

From my experience this past weekend, the drivers on track raced hard and clean.  It seemed that most all drivers were respectful of the machines and drivers, however they were not out there for a Sunday drive.  A good balance in my opinion.

Enjoy some of my favorite pictures...

Ryan Hunter-Reay: 2014 Indianapolis 500 Champion

Ryan Hunter-Reay manged to slice his way up from 19th starting position to win the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500.  This year's edition of the 500 ended up being a classic thanks to a monstrous stretch of 150 green flag laps, a red flag, and the lead being traded between Helio and RHR over each of the last 4 laps.  Here are a few thought on one of the greatest 500's in recent memory.

The opening laps of the race were a lot calmer than was anticipated.  This could be contributed to a couple of different things.  First, the drivers learned an awful lot last year.  They did not want to be out front burning extra fuel, and if they were out front, they would be a sitting duck.  The DW12 punches quite the large hole in the air, making passing a lot easier compared to the past.  Second, race day ended up being one of the hottest of the month.  Carb day was warm, but not to the extent of race day.  The warmer ambient and track temperatures meant the cars were much more on edge when compared to last year.  Were drivers more content to sit back and pound out the laps because of all of this?  Possibly.

It was pretty remarkable to watch the laps fly by so quickly.  At around lap 100, you really started to wonder if the whole thing could go green!  A great benefit of the vast green flag stretch was that all pit stops were completed under green flag conditions.  This meant that all of the front runners, except Montoya, were on the same fuel strategy.  Any pit stop, let alone one under green, has the opportunity to ruin someones race.  It was extremely impressive to see how few pit stops were marred with a fuel hose that wouldn't engage, or tire that wont slide on the hub.  Thinking back over the race, only one somewhat slow stop from Helio and Munoz hitting a tire on his way into the pit box were the only hiccups for the leaders.

When Kimball spun and brought out the first caution of the day, you knew the old adage of "cautions breed cautions" would come into effect.  Thankfully, periods of caution laps allowed for all the key players to pit and get on the same sequence, which prevented the race from becoming a fuel millage contest.  I personally appreciate the ability to save fuel, and stretch out the stops for a possible advantage at the end of a race.  Montoya did an unbelievable job of saving fuel and could have been a factor had he not received the penalty for speeding down pit lane.  With that said, there's nothing better than seeing a balls out run to the finish for all the lead cars.

Dixon had a very uncharacteristic incident to bring out the next caution.  Has Dixon EVER hit the wall at Indy, either in practice or in the race?  I cannot recall any incident.  If you the reader can, please comment at the end of this post!  His incident speaks volumes for how on edge the cars were on Sunday.  Again, the heat really made for a slick track.

Continuing with the cautions breed cautions theme, on the restart after Dixon's accident, the hotly debated clash between Hinch, Carpenter and Bell occurred.  My take?  The blame can be split between Hinch and Bell.  Bell moved down on Ed, thinking he would move down as well, without realizing that Hinch was inside of both of them.  Hinch made very optimistic move to go inside of the other two.  Three really good cars got taken out of the race because of this.  Ed was running with RHR for most of the afternoon.  Could he have been a factor at the end??  We unfortunately will never know.

Bell's hit on lap 192 was BIG, and it's good to see he was generally OK afterwards.  This brings us to the first red flag at Indy for a crash in 35+ years.  Had IndyCar not thrown the red, the race would have surely ended under yellow.  If sitting in the stands is any indication of the public's opinion of this move, it was a great call!  When they announced over the PA that the red flag was coming out, the crowd cheered about as loud as they did all day.  I'm pretty traditional when it comes to this sort of thing (i.e. I HATE the concept of a green-white-checkered finish) but I was OK with the red flag.  If RHR did not win, I may have a different attitude.  That happens at any other 500 in history and RHR wins under yellow.  As long as IndyCar is consistent with red flags in the future, then I'm OK with the concept.  Let us know your thoughts on the red flag in the comments below.

So in the end, Ryan Hunter-Reay wins an incredible 6 lap dash to the finish.  RHR and Helio had an epic, but relatively clean fight to the second closest finish in Indy 500 history.

RHR is the first American champion since Sam Hornish in 2006.  He is a well spoken all American guy and will be a great Champion and representative for IndyCar.  Congratulations!

Pole Day: Speed Matters

It was a great qualification weekend at IMS for the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500.  A few thoughts looking back.

Overall, the new qualifying format was fairly well received.  The drivers said they like it, fans seem as pleased, and ABC got decent ratings numbers for both Saturday and Sunday.   ABC is finally doing the right thing by showing live qualifying.  The product produced by ABC is another conversation, but having Dario in the booth was FANTASTIC.  His ability to explain the minute details of what’s going on in the car is fascinating. 

Ed Carpenter did another great job qualifying.  It's cool to see a local guy up front, and the crowd was loving it on Sunday.  ECR has become quite the little team over the last couple of years.  With the combination of Ed and Mike Conway, they can win any race.  

It was also great to see Hinch up front as well.  It's hard to imagine he only ran a handful of practice laps before having to qualify.  A good finish to a pretty up and down week.

Personally I’m not sold on the new qualifying format, but it’s a function of only have 33 cars vying for the 33 starting spots.  I would like to see the “fast 9” given another couple of runs, would could create some drama with cars being withdrawn and such.  I also was not a fan of the on track action ending at 3:00 on Sunday.  I feel like fans at the track got shorted a couple hours of cars running on track.

A would like to preference this next part with a little background information on my personal experience with the 500.  I have watched the 500 for as long as I can remember.  It was like Super Bowl Sunday in my house growing up.  However, the first race I attended was in 1999 long after the split and the downturn it caused.  I’m not trying to get political, but I missed the glory days of the 500 in person.

With that said, this past Sunday Pole Day was the most exciting non race day I’ve experienced.  It was probably the biggest qualifying crowd I’ve seen since I’ve started attending.  At the end of the day, the crowd stood on their feet and cheered for Ed Carpenter’s pole run.  People were excited, and this is something I’ve never seen at a qualifying day before.  

My final thought on qualifying is this;  SPEED MATTERS!  When the first lap of 230+ was turned in the first group of qualifying, people cheered.  When the JPM rattled off the first 231+ lap, the crowd went crazy!  People are excited that the speeds are improving, and I think this is the reason behind the good crowd at the track, and the good TV numbers.  IndyCar needs to continue with their goal of increasing the speeds and breaking the track record.  There may never be 300,000 people in the stands for Pole Day again, but I guarantee interest will increase. 

A few shots from Sunday...

Nostalgia: Penske 1999

Here is some recommended reading on a very wet and rainy Fast Friday.  For those of you that aren't aware, UK's Autosport Magazine has a great Nostalgia web forum.  There are some incredible threads on there talking about all sorts of motorsport, even going way back to the beginnings of the sport.

Today's recommended thread is a discussion on Penske's 1999 CART season.  It was a year of struggle and loss for the team.  Insight is provided by Nigel Beresford (a former Penske engineer) as well as Patrick Morgan (the son of Ilmor co founder Paul Morgan).  Included in this thread is a heavy dose of tech talk, focusing both on the last Penske built Indy Car, and the Mercedes Ilmore engines.  CART cars of the time were nipping the heels of F1 in terms of technology.  Enjoy!

Nostalgia Forum: Penske 1999

Flashback: FIA WEC/ALMS COTA 2013

A quick look back at the FIA WEC and ALMS double header at COTA in the fall of 2013.  A cool event but a pretty dismal crowd.  Let's hope this year's race is an improvement.  The TUSCC race and FIA WEC event will now both be on Saturday, with the WEC race starting late afternoon and continuing into the darkness.

Thoughts on the Inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis

I've had a couple days to sit back and digest the newest event at IMS, and here are a couple random thoughts...

- The biggest question everyone had coming into the GP of Indy was how would it be received by the paying public.  I believe everyone can agree it was a hit.  Mark Miles said in a post race interview that they were hoping for 40,000 people and that they were happy with the turnout.  I'd say the number of 40,000 was spot on.  The newly modified spectator mounds were packed, and from my vantage point in stand H (exit of oval turn 4) the reserved stands were impressively full.  I will say that earlier in the day during the Mazda Road to Indy races, the crowd was fairly thin, only filling up right before the start of the IndyCar race.  This brings me to my next thought...

- IndyCar needs to step it up and really start promoting the ladder series to the big cars.  The struggles of Indy Lights are well documented, and I'm hopeful that that series will start a dramatic turn around once their new chassis gets introduced next year.  However USF 2000 and Pro Mazda series are COMPLETELY off the radar for all but the most dedicated open wheel racing fans, however the on track product they both produce is outstanding.  People at the track got treated to six(!) additional races over Friday and Saturday, but I would venture to say that less than half of the ticket holders could correctly identify what they were watching.  If these young drivers are supposed to be the stars of the future, should we not become familiar with the names and faces so that we can follow their path to IndyCar and the Indy 500?  What about title sponsor Mazda?  Should they be doing more to help promote the three feeder series?  I think so.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for all Mazda does for the Road to Indy.  Without them, it would probably be a very different situation.  However, I find it hard to believe they're getting much of a return on their investment.

- Unfortunately, the big start line accident received the bulk of the main stream media coverage from the weekend, which is no surprise.  It was a scary wreck and all involved were lucky to walk away.  Standing starts have been a hot topic since being introduced last year.  I am personally in favor of them.  I think it something different and exciting.  However, if the cars (and drivers?) are not capable of making them work, then they just need to be dropped.  I commend IndyCar for trying to differentiate the Grand Prix and the 500.  Are the cars not capable of preforming the standing starts?  A non racing fan coworker of mine made an interesting observation today.  "How is a standing start different than continuing after a pit stop?" he asked.  I didn't have a very good answer to that question...

- Not counting the start, I think the on track product was pretty good.  Yes, it did come down to fuel millage at the end, but there was some good passing through the field.  Hawksworth made some new fans for sure on Saturday.  His running up front and pass on RHR were all impressive.  I think people questioned Herta's decision to go with Hawksworth this year, but early on in the season, it's looking to pay off.

Grand Prix of Indianapolis - Day 2

It was a full day of on track action at IMS today, for IndyCar qualifying and race one for all of the Road to Indy series.  The rain ended up not being as bad as the forecast was calling for, although it did make for an interesting IndyCar qualifying session!

It was a day of firsts as Matthew Brabham won his first Indy Lights series race, and Sebastian Saavedra earned his first IndyCar pole position.  Jack Hawksworth continued his impressive rookie form today with a solid performance to fill out the front row.  The only major incident in the session involved Barber race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay.  He shares the vary rare honor of hitting the turn 1 wall going backwards with Ralf Schumacher....

A few shots from today:

Salut Gilles

Gilles Villeneuve.  Who better to dedicate the first post on the blog?  To me, Gilles was the best.  Sure there are many others that were better overall drivers.  People who could nurse cars home to a 5th place finish, with the bigger picture of a championship in mind.  But where's the drama in that?  I believe Gilles was the fastest person to ever sit in a car, and that's the reason we all loved him.  It's been 32 years since he left us.  Let's remember him like he was in the picture above.  110%!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Center Of Pressure.  My name is Bill, and this blog is a place for me to gather all my random thoughts and musings on all things motorsport.  On here, you will see everything from IndyCar, to Formula 1, FIA WEC, TUSCC, PWC, and anything in between.  I'm an engineer by trade and have always had a fascination with the technical side of motorsports.  Center Of Pressure is an aerodynamic term, which I thought was a fitting title.

Enjoy!