Lundgard has looked great - the rest has looked like a small step ahead of Foyt. They are just missing something fundamentally across the board - the cars look stuck, flat easy to drive. But like they are dragging a chute behind them. They look just like Enerson/Top Gun did last year - but that was lacking the gofast bits and prep. RLL shouldn’t have that issue.
Yeah totally on Sato - my opinion (and a couple hundred thousand others) of him changed 180 the minute he sent that down the inside. That was the most Paul Tracy thing we’ve seen since Paul Tracy.
Daly, Kirkwood, and Pedersen have my helmets on. And I technically did the livery for Enerson’s car too, as it’s the same as their Indy Lights livery I designed.
No difference in helmet number since the aeroscreen. Bell still sponsors their pros with 3-5 helmets per year.
Fun qualifying session there, no major incidents at all this year so far which is surprising. Absolutely thrilling to see the fight for the final starting spot and then Palou laid down that monster opening lap to take pole.
It was a great show on both ends! Palou is just so legit… Love Rinus too - his attitude is infectious and the kid absolutely shines at Indy. Four different teams in the top four - that’s pretty badass.
On the flip side, what a dreadful day for the whole Rahal team. Only refreshing thing was to see just how gutted Graham was. I didn’t know if it still meant as much to him but it clearly does.
How does Harvey go two and a half laps before using his bars only after he was reminded he hadn’t touched them?!? I get the nerves and all but you have to be on your A game and that was a rookie level mistake. That said - what a consistent set of laps - performed when it counted.
I just watched the final qualy for the Indy 500, was rooting for my countryman Jack Harvey:) Still can’t see the excitement of oval racing personally even at 230mph. I will watch the 500 but will record it and ff a lot of it. I’m a big F1 fan but this weekends Monaco race will be just as uninteresting as the 500 unfortunately. Qualy should be good though. Side note I did one of those Nascar track days at Fontana Speedway a few years ago and it confirmed my feelings about ovals. At first the cars were limited to 125mph and if you showed that you were capable they increased it to 155. I got to 155 pretty quick but kept getting in trouble for getting too close to the cars in front, karters instinct
I never understood it until I started racing it in USF2000 in iRacing and also spending time behind the (virtual) wheel of the iRacing monster sprint car on paved short oval.
I went from thinking it seemed not very interesting to go round and round to really, really loving it. There’s something about oval racing on pavement in the USF that is really different from sprint.
I did really well (relatively) in my races on the smaller paved ovals in USF. And I also got 4,99 SR while doing it. Something about the experience clicked for me, and I would love to do it IRL.
I find oval racing to be good in limited quantities. IndyCar has a good mix; the Indy 500 obviously, but also a short track oval in Gateway, and Texas is usually really exciting as well. Indy is partially a strategy race, especially in the middle 100 laps or so. I usually end up taking a nap until about 80 to go, but it gets interesting as you see the strategies play out and it gets tight at the end.
At the minimum, it makes for good racing. Ovals aren’t necessarily a pace-race like road racing is, but it’s exciting in a different way.
Starting my trip to Indy for the 500 in a few minutes. Gonna drive through Asheville (stop for a coffee and maybe some yoga), hit Knoxville for some work calls and a bite, and then onto Louisville for the evening and to sample some of the savory local bourbons. It is my first time driving this route and hitting all these places. Any karting or racing pit stops I should make along the way?
Saturday I head up to Indy and to check in on @Muskabeatz and make sure his HMG KZ shifter is in good shape . Sunday over to Daredevil Brewing for a pre-race brew. Anyone up for a meet up?
Any activities at the Speedway on Sunday I should be certain to hit?
Yes it was easy flat, well at least for me and a couple of others there that day!
I should have worded my comment a little different, Indy looks easy but I know it really isn’t I understand that the cars are on the limit and it must take a lot of skill and nerve to do what they do
. Sunday over to 