Chevy Indy - Dual In Detroit Race Thread

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RACE #1


Race - Chevrolet Indy -Dual In Detroit presented by Quicken Loans

Location - The Raceway at Belle Isle, Belle Isle, Michigan

Date - Saturday, June 1st

Time & TV Schedule - Pre-Race Show - 3:30 PM Eastern , Green Flag - Approx. 3:50 PM Eastern- ABC

Course Type - 2.3 Mile Road Course

Distance - 70 Laps / 161 Miles

Practice Sessions -

Friday, May 31st -11:00 AM -12:25 PM Eastern

Qualifications - Friday, May 31st -3:00 PM -4:10 PM Eastern


RACE #2

Chevrolet Indy -Dual In Detroit presented by Quicken Loans

Location - The Raceway at Belle Isle, Belle Isle, Michigan

Date - June 2nd

TV & Time Schedule -Pre-Race -3:30 PM , Green Flag- Approx. 3:50 PM Eastern - ABC

Course Type - 2.3 Mile Road Course

Distance - 70 Laps / 161 Miles

Qualifications - Saturday, June 1st - 9:15 AM

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2012 Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix Race Information

Race Winner - #9 Scott Dixon
Pole Sitter - #9 Scott Dixon - 105.978 mph
Length of Race - 1 hour, 27 minutes, 40 seconds (90 lap race)
Average Speed - 85.012 mph
Number Of Cautions - 4 for 12 laps
Lead Changes - 0
Margin Of Victory - 1.963 seconds

Rules For Race #2 Qualifications...

The qualifications for this second race will be split into 2 groups.

All cars will be in one of 2 groups for 12 minute sessions with 5 minutes of guaranteed green flag time.

The qualifying groups will be determined by the practice times from Friday.

Group 1 will consist of odd numbered positions in practice, Group 2 will be even numbered positions.

The starting grid positions will be determined by the best time among both groups combined from fastest to slowest. The fastest qualifier will be the pole sitter.

Race #2 qualifications will start at 9:15 AM on Saturday, June 1st.

**Note - Race #1 will follow the regular 3 round format with the Firestone Fast 6

DanicaFan,Thanks and Welcome back!!! I'm looking forward to this race weekend!

Wow, DanicaFan, I was preparing my self to create the race thread this evening about an hour or so, but I see you made your comeback with another good race thread. Thank you and welcome back!

Thanks for the kind words everyone. This one was different due to the dual races so it took me a little while longer...lol

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ckSijpIn8

Highlights from first practice.

Gary

Practice is about to start and will be covered online. (To what extent I can't say.)

IZOD IndyCar Series Race Control - Live Timing & Scoring

Gary

Congratulations to Dario Franchitti on winning the pole, despite he has to start 11th due to a 10-place grid penalty. Also thumbs up for Viso for qualifying on the front row and to START from pole position for the first time of his career. And man... There should be a team taking Mike Conway aboard for full road/street course seasons in the future, especially on the street courses, man he's so quick on them and believe me, both Rahal Letterman Racing where he drove for in Long Beach and Dale Coyne Racing aren't absolutely the best teams to drive for..

Full Qualifying Results of Race #1 at Detroit

I have a question but i do not know where to address it on this forum, but does anyone know when was the deadline for the Pickems for the Race #1 for this race??

It will be fun watching Tony climb through the field in this race.

Wow, Mike Conway has the pole for race #2, great job by him!

Pretty good racing today but from the few shots of the stands pretty bad attendance.
I say pretty good racing because I do count the battles back in the field.

Great job in Detroit. Track looked really nice on tv, Espn camera position on the track showing cars closer is much better than nbc. Race was very good, and congrats to Coyne. I have to say abc tv commentators must go, I mean for the good of Indycar and the fans they need to replace these people. One of those things that doesn't cost nothing to improve Indycar ratings is to put in place enthusiastic tv crew that knows what they doing ,please stop the torcher. Good call from the race control not to yellow the end of the race.
I think I like these double races.

This was ok race. I do have to admit I hate seeing IndyCars bouncing like kangaroos on the uneven pavement. Tight venues and walls result in frequent crashes and yellows. Typical IndyCar street race. Too bad there are so many. There was again this discussion about how bringing some crazy new cars and engines will cure IndyCar issues, but as far as TV audience goes, I think getting IndyCar racing on better race tracks should be a priority. I'd say get Indycars racing more on venues like Laguna Seca or Watkins Glen or build some cheap knock offs of Tilke's better projects.

Lol, 'Dinger puts himself out of the race on lap 1 for the second consecutive day. Don't they teach that you don't win races on the first lap in racing school anymore?

Yes!!! We had a big one today. Only thing left is to implement green/white/checkered finishes for manufactured outcome and ratings will be through the roof.
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Both races were interesting, I still dislike the way the cars look (which is subjective), I still dislike how low tech and slow they are (also a very personal opinion, not everyone needs high tech, or high speeds most can't even tell live or on tv), but they were very interesting.

My biggest problem is that many races (like the last 2, specially the one today) look like amateur hour, many mistakes, way to many yellow flags, street circuits don't help (I still prefer them over ovals).

Yesterday I dvred the race, today I saw the live broadcast, IRL is surely something you need to record before watching, watching the safety car is not my definition of fun.

An interesting race weekend where pretty much all of front-running teams failed to capitalize while the "outsiders" like Conway, Wilson, Pagenaud, and Jakes had their share of fame. Will Power's season goes from bad to worse, with some bad luck. Conway and Pagenaud are probably the heroes of the weekend. Conway's form was impressive right after his break and its nice to see a fresh promising driver like Pagenaud finally win a race.

In principle, the race track is fantastic with lots of overtaking areas. In practice, the walls in the turns get on the way a lot. Can't they move the walls away a little to create a little bit of run off areas? The concrete pavement doesn't help the matters either.

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Originally Posted by zako85

In principle, the race track is fantastic with lots of overtaking areas. In practice, the walls in the turns get on the way a lot. Can't they move the walls away a little to create a little bit of run off areas? The concrete pavement doesn't help the matters either.

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The problem is that it is a public park 362 days a year, with lots of trees etc. that would cause a huge outcry if cut down.

As I said earlier, I watched today's race live, which means I got to hear the interviews, which are interesting, but I would rather not have yellow flags and see racing instead of an interview.

I know he was angry, but Will Power's comment about Bourdais that "once he was a champ, now he is a chump" is a little bit ridiculous if you consider that he has never been a champion, unless you count Formula Australia(Formua Holden) which no one does. He didn't win any championships while racing in Champ Car, no championships while racing in IndyCar, British F3 or the World Series by Renault.

Bourdais made a very stupid mistake today, but unlike Power, he has championships, I will not count his local French Formula Three championship, I don't count local series, but he has a Formula 3000 championship when F 3000 was what GP2 is today, 4 Champ Car championships, and he was a F1 driver.

I understand Power's frustration, but if you are going to insult someone, you need to at least be close to the achievements of that driver, Power came close 3 years in a row in IC, but close is not the same as being a champion, and that he is not.

And now is one important question.. is the dual race format good or bad for IndyCar?

In my personal opinion, for TV the audience coping with two long TV races on the same weekend can be a bit daunting. That's five hours in one weekend. I am willing to make the effort watch ALL IndyCar races as long as they're reasonably spaced away from each other. Even finding the time to watch races that are a whole week apart can still be challenging as that can be quite a commitment depending on one's life style, not to mention clashes with other sports (F1, etc).

Of course, dual race format may be a better idea for drawing a larger crowd. Personally, I'd prefer to attend a race on Saturday. Others may prefer Sunday. The costs of the teams are minimal, since they don't incur the travel and some other costs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zako85

And now is one important question.. is the dual race format good or bad for IndyCar?

In my personal opinion, for TV the audience coping with two long TV races on the same weekend can be a bit daunting. That's five hours in one weekend. I am willing to make the effort watch ALL IndyCar races as long as they're reasonably spaced away from each other. Even finding the time to watch races that are a whole week apart can still be challenging as that can be quite a commitment depending on one's life style, not to mention clashes with other sports (F1, etc).

Of course, dual race format may be a better idea for drawing a larger crowd. Personally, I'd prefer to attend a race on Saturday. Others may prefer Sunday. The costs of the teams are minimal, since they don't incur the travel and some other costs.

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I recorded the races and watched later the same day. That way I could skip the commercials and fast forward some of the follow the leader parts. It made two days of watching a lot easier, plus I was able to spend my late afternoon doing something else.

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Originally Posted by jarrambide

As I said earlier, I watched today's race live, which means I got to hear the interviews, which are interesting, but I would rather not have yellow flags and see racing instead of an interview.

I know he was angry, but Will Power's comment about Bourdais that "once he was a champ, now he is a chump" is a little bit ridiculous if you consider that he has never been a champion, unless you count Formula Australia(Formua Holden) which no one does. He didn't win any championships while racing in Champ Car, no championships while racing in IndyCar, British F3 or the World Series by Renault.

Bourdais made a very stupid mistake today, but unlike Power, he has championships, I will not count his local French Formula Three championship, I don't count local series, but he has a Formula 3000 championship when F 3000 was what GP2 is today, 4 Champ Car championships, and he was a F1 driver.

I understand Power's frustration, but if you are going to insult someone, you need to at least be close to the achievements of that driver, Power came close 3 years in a row in IC, but close is not the same as being a champion, and that he is not.

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Agree, and I'm Power fan. Racing with a team of that caliber he blew three good years of winning championship and why did he put himself in the position of being on the back of the grid next to underperforming teams in the first place. They all looked like amateur clowns in 2nd race. Embarrassing.

I think these double headers is not bad idea. More tv the better, even if not perfect, but man do I miss Paul Page in events like this.

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Originally Posted by FIAT1

Agree, and I'm Power fan. Racing with a team of that caliber he blew three good years of winning championship and why did he put himself in the position of being on the back of the grid next to underperforming teams in the first place. They all looked like amateur clowns in 2nd race. Embarrassing.

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Will Power is having a bad season. I think Will snapped as he sees another chance to win a championship slip away. Normally, he is quite respectful, even after accidents.

The most respectful moment was Saturday when Dinger took blame for his accident. It was very classy, and unlike what many others normally do.

Gary

I didn't like the double header, but not because of the time commitment, as Starter said, that is why Apollo invented the DVR, I love watching live events, but life happens, even when I watch live, I record the race, just in case something comes up.

I loved the fact that I was able to watch a race Saturday night, (we had a very busy Saturday), and a race Sunday afternoon (we had a busy morning, so I actually had to watch the beginning using the DVR, after, but after a couple of yellow flags I was already watching live).

I would not have a problem watching F1 every week, as a matter of fact, once the season starts, I hate to wait 2 weeks to watch the next race.

My problem with a double header is that I get an amateur vibe to it, not to mention the deja vu feeling you get of watching the same track with the same cars the next day, add to that all the silly mistakes we had Sunday because of drivers being mentally and physically tired.

No to double headers unless you are a ladder series like GP2 with short races.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by garyshell

The most respectful moment was Saturday when Dinger took blame for his accident. It was very classy, and unlike what many others normally do.

Gary

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He is good at that when he is caught with his pants down. If there wasn't a video he would have denied any culpability and blamed everyone else.