Edmonton Indy!!

[jimispeed]

Watched the practice highlights. Pagenaud is my new favorite, he's got the goods!! Just a matter of time folks!!

2012 Edmonton IICS Practice 2 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7pFC1AmAmc&feature=player_embedded)#!

[FIAT1]

Watched the practice highlights. Pagenaud is my new favorite, he's got the goods!! Just a matter of time folks!!

2012 Edmonton IICS Practice 2 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7pFC1AmAmc&feature=player_embedded)#!

I think that Pegenaud and Bourdais should have much better rides. Looking forward to the race

[00steven]

Really like this layout. Should be a good one.

[heliocastroneves#3]

Hélio, yeah! Congratulations Castroneves! :)

[FIAT1]

Congrats Helio. Cars need more hp. Race was ok. No yellow,nice surprise.

[Nikki Katz]

Yeah congratulations Castroneves. Was quite a good race. Jay Howard's really boring tho.

[00steven]

Great passing all day long. Will Power's drive from 17th to 3rd is some very impressive stuff.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Really like this layout. Should be a good one. Quite possibly the best layout going.....three passing zones, technical bits and still 180 plus on the straight...

[Mark in Oshawa]

Great driving by Helio for today...

[anthonyvop]

Congrats Helio. Cars need more hp. Race was ok. No yellow,nice surprise.


OK?

It was the best ICS race of the season so far by a large margin.

[I am evil Homer]

I thought it was a very decent race overall and easily the best this season. Congrats to Sato on the 2nd place with a tidy and controlled drive - more of that please Taku!

[FIAT1]

OK?

It was the best ICS race of the season so far by a large margin.

Ok. That is your opinion, not interested, I like mine better.

[Anubis]

I thought it was a very decent race overall and easily the best this season. Congrats to Sato on the 2nd place with a tidy and controlled drive - more of that please Taku!

Congrats to Helio on a great drive. Knowing you have Taku bearing down on you must be rather unsettling! Shame they weren't more evenly matched with the P2P, as I'd have loved to see Sato mount a proper challenge for the win. He was absolutely flying at the end and I was watching through my fingers at times. Indeed, when the commentators said "Helio is going to have Sato right on top of him in a minute", I did rather chuckle and think to myself "probably literally", so nice to see him being hard but controlled. More of that and the win can't be far away.

[wedge]

Great drive by Taku. Clinical passing and for once - a mature finish.

[Jag_Warrior]

I watched a DVR of the F1 race followed by a DVR of the ICS race. I agree with those who said that this ICS race was one of the best of the season thus far. There was a fair amount of action and really, I thought there was a good amount of strategy that the teams played out (as there were no yellows to introduce luck). IMO, the weakness continues to be with the announce team though. Compared to the F1 broadcast, the ICS announcers seem almost completely unable to watch the race and build any sort of drama. They typically just sit there and state the obvious. And as much as I continue to say how much I like Jan Beekhuis (as a person), since it's his job to be the "data guy", I'm hardest on him because I think he does a horrible job of actually sharing data that we can't see ourselves. Or even worse, he states things in completely general terms and can't/won't be specific. The ICS guys have access to the same sort of timing & scoring that the F1 guys have (I assume). Other than Will Buxton, the F1 guys are all just sitting in a studio in Charlotte, watching a slightly more enhanced version of the same F1 feed that we're seeing. Yet, they tend to knock it out of the park. But Jan (especially) throws out phrases like "he's faster", "he's catching him", "he's slower", "he's losing time", "that was a fast pit stop", etc. Jan, buddy, once again, if you are unable to give us specific numbers and data, exactly why are you in the booth??? I know Jan can do better. So I guess that's why I keep picking on him. Maybe he could never get to Steve Matchett's level, but he could do a sight better than he tends to do week in and week out. I don't even understand why they need all three of them in the booth. What are their roles supposed to be???

If these ICS guys could give us specific pit stop times, the bogey time for pit road, sector/split times, comparative lap times, etc., they could take even a boring race and find ways to tell a story and build some drama. But they're like three yobs that are just sitting there watching a race, like the rest of us. IMO, they add almost nothing to a broadcast. Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett are a big part of why I'll keep watching even the most boring F1 race from start to finish. If I hadn't watched the ICS race on Tivo, I would have just turned the sound off and kept my eye on the online timing & scoring feed (I guess that works now).

Good race. Good action. Extremely mediocre broadcast presentation. And I agree with Wedge: I think that was one of the best drives of Sato's career (here or in F1).

[Jag_Warrior]

If I understand correctly, and I have never personally seen the whole world feed, the data available far exceeds any that Indycar has. I also don't know if the commentators have all the camera feeds where they are. (Unlike race control and the director which have twenty some different views.) It may be that Jan just doesn't have that info at hand. Still, it's an issue for the broadcast team to address.

That may be true. I was just thinking that since the ICS commentators are actually at each event (or most of them) and the F1 commentators are sitting in a studio, they should have access to roughly similar data. So I may be wrong there. But on the question of split/sector times, Jan continually makes reference to the various sectors/splits, yet he seldom if ever tells us what the splits actually are - I notice that with each and every qualifying session, and it drives me completely nuts. That's something I've grown used to hearing about during F1 (and even GP2) broadcasts because it tells the viewer who is gaining time, who is losing time and where that is occurring. That really helps build a sense of drama, IMO. Notice how Matchett begins losing his mind once someone gains a tenth and all it takes is that tenth to get pole? Or let's say there are 10 laps left and a guy is 5 seconds behind... and the following driver is gaining half a second a lap. I instantly go to the edge of my seat. Speed has much less influence (more like none, I'd say) over what they get from the F1 world feed. If NBC Sports can't get basic data and info feeds from ICS, I just think that's a piece of low hanging fruit to be picked. Why are the ratings still so low? IMO, one reason is, the broadcasts are just a tad more exciting than watching paint dry.

CART's old Quokka system showed most of the stuff I'm talking about. If the one that ICS uses now (and provides to NBC Sports and ESPN) doesn't, then that's just another sad sign that they're still about a decade behind the times.

[anthonyvop]

Ok. That is your opinion, not interested, I like mine better.


A lot of people are calling this the best race so far this season.

Out of curiosity which race this year was better in your opinion.

[Anubis]

A lot of people are calling this the best race so far this season.

Out of curiosity which race this year was better in your opinion.

Can't answer for FIAT1, but for me, Indy was better. Depends on your criteria for "better" of course. A lot of people (maybe the same ones, maybe not) were calling Indy the best 500 for many a year. That could be faint praise of course, depending on how low you think the Indy 500 has sunk in recent history, but it could also be genuine sentiment. If the season contains an exceptional 500, any other race is going to have to be really good to beat it, but again it all depends on the terms. Does drama make a better race, or are we looking at it from a more purist standpoint? Edmonton was good, but I don't think it was that good. Still a big chunk of fuel mileage running going on, and a lot of the racing was cat and mouse rather than constant wheel to wheel battling. The former can be gripping of course (I was willing Sato on at the end), but only if you have an interest. A casual fan with no interest in either Helio or Sato probably wouldn't have found the closing stages anything like as interesting as I did, as nothing really happened. It threatened to, which can be engaging, but it never quite delivered.

[zako85]

Finally a race without safety cars. This was a great race because of the close competition for the top 3-5 spots the whole time. Nice track. Toronto though was one of my least favorite races this and last year: cars bounced like crazy, little overtaking, little run off areas, too many crashes and too many full course yellows.

[FIAT1]

Can't answer for FIAT1, but for me, Indy was better. Depends on your criteria for "better" of course. A lot of people (maybe the same ones, maybe not) were calling Indy the best 500 for many a year. That could be faint praise of course, depending on how low you think the Indy 500 has sunk in recent history, but it could also be genuine sentiment. If the season contains an exceptional 500, any other race is going to have to be really good to beat it, but again it all depends on the terms. Does drama make a better race, or are we looking at it from a more purist standpoint? Edmonton was good, but I don't think it was that good. Still a big chunk of fuel mileage running going on, and a lot of the racing was cat and mouse rather than constant wheel to wheel battling. The former can be gripping of course (I was willing Sato on at the end), but only if you have an interest. A casual fan with no interest in either Helio or Sato probably wouldn't have found the closing stages anything like as interesting as I did, as nothing really happened. It threatened to, which can be engaging, but it never quite delivered.

Very good post, I like the race and Power was superb, but I did not see nothing extraordinary to keep me on the edge. Push to pass should be eliminated and more hp is very much needed. However for those deprived of sleep and are twitching at night in anticipation of my answer , Indy,Texas and Barber was much better racing.

[anthonyvop]

Very good post, I like the race and Power was superb, but I did not see nothing extraordinary to keep me on the edge. Push to pass should be eliminated and more hp is very much needed. However for those deprived of sleep and are twitching at night in anticipation of my answer , Indy,Texas and Barber was much better racing.


To each their own.


Oval races for me never come into consideration. Especially Large Ovals like Indy and Tex.