Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT

[heliocastroneves#3]

http://digbza2f4g9qo.cloudfront.net/~/media/IndyCar/Schedules/2012/Race-Logos/Baltimore-SRT-NoShip.png?mw=210&vs=1&d=20130711T124952

Race 16 of 19

Race - Grand Prix of Baltimore Presented by SRT

Location - Streets of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland

Date - Sunday, September 1st

Time & TV Schedule - Green Flag (Approx. 02:30 PM) - NBC Sports Network

Course Type - 2.04 Mile Street Course

Distance - 75 Laps / 153 Miles

Practice Sessions -

Friday, August 30th - 10:10 AM (Practice 1) and 02:30 PM (Practice 2)
Saturday, August 31st - 09:05 AM (Practice 3)
Sunday, September 1st - 10:15 AM (Warmup)

Qualifications - Saturday, September 1st - 12:00 PM

2012 Baltimore Grand Prix Race Information

Race Winner - #28 Ryan Hunter-Reay
Race Pole Sitter - #12 Will Power - 94.184 mph
Time Of Race - 2 Hours, 9 Minutes and 3 Seconds
Average Speed- 71.136 mph
Cautions - 9 for 24 laps
Margin Of Victory - 1.439 seconds
Lead Changes - 12

Baltimore Street Circuit Information

Length - 2.04 Miles
Turns - 12

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee236/DanicaRules/baltimoremap.jpg

Entrant list

#1 - Ryan Hunter-Reay - Andretti Autosport
#3 - Helio Castroneves - Penske Racing
#4 - Oriol Servia - Panther Racing
#5 - E.J. Viso - Andretti Autosport & HVM Racing
#6 - Sebastian Saavedra - Dragon Racing
#7 - Sebastien Bourdais - Dragon Racing
#9 - Scott Dixon - Target Chip Ganassi Racing
#10 - Dario Franchitti - Target Chip Ganassi Racing
#11 - Tony Kanaan - KV Racing Technology
#12 - Will Power - Penske Racing
#14 - Takuma Sato - A.J. Foyt Enterprises
#15 - Graham Rahal - Rahal Letterman Lanigan
#16 - James Jakes - Rahal Letterman Lanigan
#18 - Stefan Wilson (R) - Dale Coyne Racing
#19 - Justin Wilson - Dale Coyne Racing
#20 - Ed Carpenter - Ed Carpenter Racing
#25 - Marco Andretti - Andretti Autosport
#27 - James Hinchcliffe - Andretti Autosport
#55 - Tristan Vautier (R) - Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
#67 - Josef Newgarden - Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing
#77 - Simon Pagenaud - Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
#78 - Simona de Silvestro - KV Racing Technology
#83 - Charlie Kimball - Chip Ganassi Racing
#98 - Luca Filippi (R) - Barracuda Racing

[edv]

For the first time in as long as I can remember...no TV coverage in Canada for an Indycar race. Sigh.

[edv]

OK My Bad
Looks like you can watch it if you've got a channel called SportsNetONE.

[heliocastroneves#3]

I don't know about you guys but I saw an amazing race today, can't wait for the Houston double header about 5 weeks!!

[Keyser Soze]

Embarrassing , that's all I'm going to say.

[jimispeed]

Good race, very exciting ending. Racing incident for Dixon? The jammed up carousel was a little ridiculous, but it's a competitive sport. The cars can take a little more of a beating! Overall, not bad.

[zako85]

I would have considered this a good race if I wasn't so gutted after seeing Dixon slammed into a wall by Power.

[FIAT1]

I can't comment on the race as there was none. Amateur hour demolition derby at best. I was watching with sadness actually and trying to understand what has happened to Indycar. I'm pretty sure these ugly dallaras have allowed people to do dumb stuff. I think these cars took away the craft and skill needed to race open wheel cars. I'm trying very hard not to be negative, but this race was a disaster. There are people here who will disagree and enjoy yellow parades for two hours in return for five minute double restart and half a field in the wall ,I just don't get it. I had pleasant experience watching nice looking cars at Indy lights race afterwards and how people draft ,set up the pass and go side by side with open wheels an inch of each other displaying great skill of clean racing. My post wont make a difference one way or the other in down spiral of Indycar, but they seriously need to exam this product and fix it for the good of everyone who still care for the sport of open wheel formula type of racing. Ridicules indeed!

[zako85]

Great post FIAT1. For the last three years, I try very hard to get myself to like IndyCars, but races like this one are a big letdown. The last race in Sonoma also had too many yellows and crashfest all the way, the race in Detroit too. In fact, nothing has changed. Street course races looked the same even before DW12. I remember the 2011 Toronto street race left me with the same feelings, and I always dreaded watching IndyCars on the streets since then. I don't know what to blame here.. the drivers, the race tracks, the cars, or the organizers? Everything is probably to blame. This race did redeem itself in the eyes of fans with the hard racing in the end, but it was not a good accomplishment overall. This is not a sellable product for the masses. Show this race to someone used to watching F1 racing, and they will ask, why do I need to watch something like this ever again?

The race craft or race tactics of drivers are often to blame. Besides the amateurs taking themselves out, like JR did in one race this year under caution, more experienced drivers regularly do dumb things too. Franchitti takes out Power in Toronto 2011, Hunter Reay spins Sato in Edmonton 2011, then Sato plows into Hunter-Reay in the pit lane in Pocono this year, now Power takes out Dixon.. this never ends.

One idea, since we know the IndyCars are crash happy, can the organizers at least do something to stop the full course cautions to keep the race flow at least on road courses, where the crashed car sits in kitty litter and is not blocking the way of other cars?

[Starter]

I can't comment on the race as there was none. Amateur hour demolition derby at best. I was watching with sadness actually and trying to understand what has happened to Indycar. I'm pretty sure these ugly dallaras have allowed people to do dumb stuff. I think these cars took away the craft and skill needed to race open wheel cars. I'm trying very hard not to be negative, but this race was a disaster. There are people here who will disagree and enjoy yellow parades for two hours in return for five minute double restart and half a field in the wall ,I just don't get it. I had pleasant experience watching nice looking cars at Indy lights race afterwards and how people draft ,set up the pass and go side by side with open wheels an inch of each other displaying great skill of clean racing. My post wont make a difference one way or the other in down spiral of Indycar, but they seriously need to exam this product and fix it for the good of everyone who still care for the sport of open wheel formula type of racing. Ridicules indeed!
No, the amateur hour demolition derby was Saturday in the ALMS race. The IndyCar race didn't quite live up to that.

[FIAT1]

No, the amateur hour demolition derby was Saturday in the ALMS race. The IndyCar race didn't quite live up to that.

Agree on that one, but I figure this is Indycar forum so I focused on that. I suppose you where there and I would really like to hear in your honest opinion more on the race, crowd and their reaction etc. How about next year? Heard anything?

[drewdawg727]

Baltimore was the best race of the season for me, a lot of passion and determination by a lot of new faces that wanted to show themselves strong at the front of the grid. Shame for all the yellows, but that just means a bunch of hungry people wanting to win! Indycar is at the top of their game at the moment and races like these - especially in the last 10 laps - are what keep me going. Was a great race and a great finish, I'm sorry to everyone who chooses to be negative about it but I want to see action instead of cars wimping out and not going for it.

[jarrambide]

Baltimore was the best race of the season for me, a lot of passion and determination by a lot of new faces that wanted to show themselves strong at the front of the grid. Shame for all the yellows, but that just means a bunch of hungry people wanting to win! Indycar is at the top of their game at the moment and races like these - especially in the last 10 laps - are what keep me going. Was a great race and a great finish, I'm sorry to everyone who chooses to be negative about it but I want to see action instead of cars wimping out and not going for it.

Isn't running half of the race under yellow taking away action?, Last time I checked, drivers couldn't pass other cars under yellow.

The problem is not drivers trying to overtake, we all love overtaking (except F1 stewards when the overtaking is not fabricated by the use of drs, if you try to do it old school, you get a penalty, sad thing is that fabricated overtaking in F1 still looks better than the current Indycar), the problem is "tracks" like Baltimore.

Many temporary courses like Baltimore have but a couple of spots where you can try to overtake, walls are so near that any small mistake when overtaking will have a big chance of ending in a crash, you don't even need a mistake, small contacts (which are or should be common place when people actually try to overtake) can end in a crash easily, you lose control of the car, you crash, you need to take evasive actions, no space to do it, you crash.

zako85 thinks that "One idea, since we know the IndyCars are crash happy, can the organizers at least do something to stop the full course cautions to keep the race flow at least on road courses, where the crashed car sits in kitty litter and is not blocking the way of other cars? "

There is an easy solution to achieve that zako, it is called a racing track, we don't have those, which is why we race on streets, problems with streets is that you don't have space, which means most crashes will end in a full course yellow, truth is that we end up turning a big chunk of our calendar into Monaco, I dislike the use of amateur hour, most of the drivers are qualified professionals, there are a few that are not, but most are talented, the problem is the tracks.

drewdawg727, we don't choose to be negative, just like I don't choose to dislike beets, I just don't like beets and can't pretend I like beets, many of us don't like to see so many laps under yellow flag, many of us don't like to see so many cars not finishing races, many of them with the best drivers the series has, the choosing to be negative gave me flashbacks from the Champ Car vs IRL days of the forum.

Even tough most street races will create the same problems, not every temporary course will have them, a few temporary courses come to mind, Albert Park in Melbourne for F1, Fundidora Park in Monterrey for Champ Car, any of the races staged on airports, all of them offered the space you can't get running in most courses that use the actual streets of a city.

[Starter]

Agree on that one, but I figure this is Indycar forum so I focused on that. I suppose you where there and I would really like to hear in your honest opinion more on the race, crowd and their reaction etc. How about next year? Heard anything?
1) I thought the race was OK, given the excessive crashes causing yellows. All street races have the potential for that though. It was nice to see a couple people have good finishes who normally aren't up front.

The people who complain about the front straight chicane obviously haven't seen the cars up close through there. Most were very twitchy over the light rail tracks WITH the chicane. Without the chicane the cars would be getting big air there. There's no cure for it though. Because of where they are, it's not possible to pave over them so they are what they are.

The 10 car Indy Lights race was boooring. They need to either find a way to build this series or dump it.

2) The crowd was, IM(very unscientific)O, about the same size or perhaps a little smaller than last year. I never heard the gate. Everyone I spoke to and saw seemed to be having a good time. This year there also seemed to be as many or more people watching the Indy race as the ALMS - the opposite of the last two years. All the previous could be wrong. I walked the track several times through the weekend, but had to take care of other business so didn't see all the parts during either ALMS or IndyCar. The crowd WAS amazingly patient during the extended ALMS red flag. (You should have seen the zoo in Race Control!)

3) No word, official or unofficial, on next year. It will NOT be Labor Day weekend. There is a previously booked major event at the stadium which uses part of it's parking lots for paddock space. All the official word is that it will still happen, but a date is not locked in. The unofficial word (that I was able to hear) is mixed - some say yes and some no - so I guess the real answer is "maybe". There is also the issue of the combined ALMS and GrandAm series and what dates go forward and what dates go away.

[bugeyedgomer]

Embarrassing , that's all I'm going to say.

Scott Dixon: “The No. 15 should have received a penalty [for spinning us] and the
No. 4 car passed us on a yellow. So that restart near the end was a complete bosh.
On the restart I had an overtake advantage on Power, it must have been in fourth-gear,
so they can’t complain about wheel spin. Then I got beside him and he ran me straight
into the wall. Then, they wouldn’t bring the car back. [Race Director] Beaux needs to
be fired. He was a complete idiot today.”

Dixon referred to Power as an "Aussie w****r"

[bugeyedgomer]

A heated Dixon glared at Power as he walked past in pit lane soon after the crash and then exchanged words with an IndyCar official.

"It was funny on the radio when we were scanning them in the situation when Power was sitting in the pits. Cindric was telling him exactly what to say when he gets out of the car. Cindric's a piece of s***, which is quite obvious to a lot of people nowadays."

[zako85]

zako85 thinks that "One idea, since we know the IndyCars are crash happy, can the organizers at least do something to stop the full course cautions to keep the race flow at least on road courses, where the crashed car sits in kitty litter and is not blocking the way of other cars? "


I am talking about the road courses where IndyCars do race. In Sonoma, they could get some cranes nearby and ready to evacuate the cars into a safe area under local yellow, as in F1. As for race tracks, if IndyCar officials wanted, they could add more to the calendar. Last time I checked, they're not racing at Watkins Glen, Road America, Laguna Seca, or The Circuit of Americas. I think IndyCar is afraid of not being able to get enough enthusiasts to come to the road course, so instead they try to bring the race to the spectators onto the city streets.

Besides too many crashes and yellows, an annoying thing is, as I mentioned, that the front running cars in the race or the championship regularly get taken out of race. This makes the championship into a lottery, and reduces the fun. This sort of thing should really be minimized. No one likes this. When Hamilton got taken out by Maldonado and Alonso by Grosjean in F1 races last year, people were fuming of boards for weeks or months, but in IndyCar it just business as usual.

[zako85]

Isn't running half of the race under yellow taking away action?, Last time I checked, drivers couldn't pass other cars under yellow.

Maybe this time of competition is part of the culture in American sports in general. This sort of reminds me the games of American football, where brief moments of brutally fast action are interrupted by long breaks and commercials, which is a complete opposite of the normal football, dominated by long uninterrupted, but slow simmering action resulting in very occasional goals.

[jarrambide]

I am talking about the road courses where IndyCars do race. In Sonoma, they could get some cranes nearby and ready to evacuate the cars into a safe area under local yellow, as in F1. As for race tracks, if IndyCar officials wanted, they could add more to the calendar. Last time I checked, they're not racing at Watkins Glen, Road America, Laguna Seca, or The Circuit of Americas. I think IndyCar is afraid of not being able to get enough enthusiasts to come to the road course, so instead they try to bring the race to the spectators onto the city streets.

Besides too many crashes and yellows, an annoying thing is, as I mentioned, that the front running cars in the race or the championship regularly get taken out of race. This makes the championship into a lottery, and reduces the fun. This sort of thing should really be minimized. No one likes this. When Hamilton got taken out by Maldonado and Alonso by Grosjean in F1 races last year, people were fuming of boards for weeks or months, but in IndyCar it just business as usual.



Even when you race in proper race tracks, having enough space to get only local yellows in most curves is not that easy, you need F1 style tracks, I'm not talking about the cookie cutter feel all the new tracks have, I am talking about the huge run-off are they have, even the straights (except for the main straight) have a grass area that helps drivers, some of the gravel traps are so big they look like deserts.

Some people argue that those tracks are very forgiving of drivers mistakes, that now most mistakes go unpunished, and that is true, but it reduces the number of accidents and it lets you run under local yellow when a car crashes in most parts of the tracks.

The old/classic American road tracks don't have enough space for that, putting cranes nearby is not enough, it is about safety, in F1 it works because the cars usually end up far away from the track, prohibiting takeovers in that part of the track works when the car or cars are far away, if they are close enough, you are just putting everyone in danger. AOWR usually tends to protect their Marshalls and corner workers a lot after the few fatalities they had in 1990 and 1996 in Toronto and Vancouver.

Changing tracks to give them bigger run-off areas would be very expensive.

How old are you zako?, Some of us older fans could write pages and pages about those tracks explaining how great they are and at the same time knowing deep down why it is economically not viable to run on them with the current state of the series, very sad.

IndyCars will never race on The Circuit of the Americas, which is a sad thing, I really liked the race when attending the F1 race last year, people were predicting another Mickey Mouse, cookie cutter track, but it is a great track that lets you race and takeover other cars.

[jarrambide]

Maybe this time of competition is part of the culture in American sports in general. This sort of reminds me the games of American football, where brief moments of brutally fast action are interrupted by long breaks and commercials, which is a complete opposite of the normal football, dominated by long uninterrupted, but slow simmering action resulting in very occasional goals.

TV audiences already get those long breaks and commercials without any yellow flags, besides, those breaks last a couple of minutes, when you get Baltimore style races with 6 loooooong breaks, you are just asking people to change channels.

Fans on the track have it worst, NFL, NBA, and MLB fans get some kind of entertainment during their regular breaks, loud music, big screens, the mascot, the cheerleaders, cheesy activities.

I am used to yellows, have been a fan since the CART presplit days, but most street courses have a big chance of having lots of yellow flags.

[zako85]

How old are you zako?, Some of us older fans could write pages and pages about those tracks explaining how great they are and at the same time knowing deep down why it is economically not viable to run on them with the current state of the series, very sad.

IndyCars will never race on The Circuit of the Americas, which is a sad thing, I really liked the race when attending the F1 race last year, people were predicting another Mickey Mouse, cookie cutter track, but it is a great track that lets you race and takeover other cars.

I am in mid-30s but I didn't follow any American motorsport until 2011 or so. Circuit of the Americas is certainly world class. Why wouldn't IndyCars race on the Circuit of the Americas. Would this make Bernie Ecclestone unhappy?

[garyshell]

I am in mid-30s but I didn't follow any American motorsport until 2011 or so. Circuit of the Americas is certainly world class. Why wouldn't IndyCars race on the Circuit of the Americas. Would this make Bernie Ecclestone unhappy?

Make Bernie unhappy? Just a teensy tiny minuscule little bit. He'd go apoplectic and find a clause somewhere that allowed him to cancel the F1 race post haste.

Gary

[nigelred5]

I am talking about the road courses where IndyCars do race. In Sonoma, they could get some cranes nearby and ready to evacuate the cars into a safe area under local yellow, as in F1. As for race tracks, if IndyCar officials wanted, they could add more to the calendar. Last time I checked, they're not racing at Watkins Glen, Road America, Laguna Seca, or The Circuit of Americas. I think IndyCar is afraid of not being able to get enough enthusiasts to come to the road course, so instead they try to bring the race to the spectators onto the city streets.

Besides too many crashes and yellows, an annoying thing is, as I mentioned, that the front running cars in the race or the championship regularly get taken out of race. This makes the championship into a lottery, and reduces the fun. This sort of thing should really be minimized. No one likes this. When Hamilton got taken out by Maldonado and Alonso by Grosjean in F1 races last year, people were fuming of boards for weeks or months, but in IndyCar it just business as usual.

They aren't racing at Road America, Watkins Glen, COTA, etc... because the races can't afford it on the crowd indycar draws these days unfortunately. Take bernie's ransom and move the decimal two places. ICS tracks still can't cover that in most instances.



Indycar prefers to keep cars in the race as opposed to craning them off the track simply because they stalled or were maybe stuck in the kitty litter. I've always agreed with that. That generally requires series track crews responding to the incident site to free a car or restart one. Again, I'd prefer to continue to see that if the car is safe to race, especially when they were the victim of brainless racing(which is far to often lately). While some tracks like Road America are large enough that a crew could possibly accomplish this, In general, if track workers or track vehicles are required on course, You're gonna see a FCY in American racing. I"ll blame that on safety and liability insurance. Again, in general I agree with siding in favor of OVERALL safety. I'd prefer to never witness a track worker being struck by a car at speed again, even at a slightly reduced one under a local yellow. I'll have to disagree with the F1 vs Indycar championship lottery. F1 has essentially been decided by the time they leave Spa far too often. I'd prefer to see a ten way battle down to the last lap. Cars and drivers are far more equal than F1 has ever been. Don't want to be taken out-stay further out in front. :)

[jarrambide]

Make Bernie unhappy? Just a teensy tiny minuscule little bit. He'd go apoplectic and find a clause somewhere that allowed him to cancel the F1 race post haste.

Gary What he said.

[FormerFF]

I'd really like to see them ditch the double file restarts on both road and street courses, but especially on street courses. There were too many cars piling into that hairpin.

[zako85]

They aren't racing at Road America, Watkins Glen, COTA, etc... because the races can't afford it on the crowd indycar draws these days unfortunately.

Then IndyCar should be looking to change that. You can't become a major league sport if you don't play on major league venues.




Indycar prefers to keep cars in the race as opposed to craning them off the track simply because they stalled or were maybe stuck in the kitty litter. I've always agreed with that. That generally requires series track crews responding to the incident site to free a car or restart one. Again, I'd prefer to continue to see that if the car is safe to race, especially when they were the victim of brainless racing(which is far to often lately). While some tracks like Road America are large enough that a crew could possibly accomplish this, In general, if track workers or track vehicles are required on course, You're gonna see a FCY in American racing. I"ll blame that on safety and liability insurance. Again, in general I agree with siding in favor of OVERALL safety. I'd prefer to never witness a track worker being struck by a car at speed again, even at a slightly reduced one under a local yellow.

Without descending into philosophical considerations about whether its fair to end the race for a car that spun out and stalled, taking it away under a full course caution can result in a duller race. If a 3rd party was involved, then they should be handed a penalty, and next time everyone will be smarter. If anyone speeds or does stupid things under local yellow, they should also be punished.

Besides, I for one don't believe that every car must have the right to continue in the race, specially after being stranded off the track.
Helping stranded cars to make it to pits to be fixed to continue the race makes more sense in endurance racing, but open-wheels should really be run more like sprint races IMO.

It's even shocking to me that right now for some teams it may be worth it to fix a broken car and let it run (slowly) for a few laps to gain some points. IndyCar is giving points away rather easily. I thought it was ridiculous last year when after crashing his car in the final 2012 race, Will Power got his broken car out for a few laps to gain a few points. Earning points should mean something, like say finishing in top 15 or top 20. He was getting points even if car did not complete much of race distance.

[nigelred5]

Indycar has tried to change quite a lot, but the series and it's fans, teams, drivers, venues and eve former fans carry one hell of alot of baggage from a nasty 13 year civil war. Its not so easy to just "change it" when people can't even agree on what actually needs to be changed. Some love road and street course racing, yet a large amount of US racing fans despise it, and the opposite is just as true.
I for one agreed the war needed to end, but I'm not sure that a total reunification was the answer. Personally I would rather have seen one organization run seperate series with the the same car regulations and a limited number of common events.

I'm really missing those additional 16-18 open wheel races we used to have with two series, and next year, It's happening again in us sportscar racing.

[jarrambide]

Then IndyCar should be looking to change that. You can't become a major league sport if you don't play on major league venues.........


You should look at the history of American Open Wheel Racing, USAC, CART, ChampCar, IRL, how CART used to be a major league and how since the late 90s or early 2000s the sport in the US went spiraling down.

Champ Car, IRL, and now IC tried to if not return to the golden years, to improve the current sad state, easier said than done.

[bugeyedgomer]

Big money flying around Izodcarz these daze

race winner Pagenaud earned $35,000 for his victory at Baltimore

[Starter]

Big money flying around Izodcarz these daze

race winner Pagenaud earned $35,000 for his victory at Baltimore

Not too bad. Just out of curiosity how much money did you earn for any given three days of work this year.

[bugeyedgomer]

Not chump change in my profession

What did 23rd place pay--> fitty cents

Start and park in NASCAR earns more than the IRL winner