IndyCar Series, Go Uri! Opciones

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Luego de varios años de desavenencias que provocaron la división de el más importante campeonato de monoplazas estadounidense, finalmente se llegó a un acuerdo para fusionar este año la Champ Car a la Indy Racing League (IRL), acuerdo en el que sin duda se beneficiaran los aficionados a estos bólidos.


Los dirigentes de las series de automovilismo de monoplazas estadounidenses Indy Racing League (IRL) y Champ Car anunciaron un acuerdo para fusionar ambos circuitos con vistas a la temporada 2008, 12 años después de haberse separado.


Video: Rueda de prensa de la unificación 27/02/08

El acuerdo se encamina a incorporar tres carreras de la Champ Car al itinerario original de la IRL, que contaba con 16 pruebas, con los grandes premios de Long Beach en California, Surfers Paradise en Australia y Edmonton en Canadá. El resto del calendario de Champ Car fue cancelado. A comienzos de la década de 1990, la serie CART, que luego cambió de nombre a Champ Car, era un destino habitual para pilotos europeos y sudamericanos, y tenía gran respaldo de los aficionados.

La CART fue fundada en noviembre de 1978 por Roger Penske, Pat Patrick, Dan Gurney y otra serie de dueños de escuderías.

La IRL comenzó a operar en 1996, con intención de dar espacio a los jóvenes pilotos estadounidenses, y CART tomó su propio rumbo hasta que se declaró en bancarrota en enero de 2004.

George realizó la mejor oferta por las acciones de CART, pero un juez se las otorgó a Kalkhoven, Forsythe y Paul Gentilozzi porque el comprador había mostrado intenciones de clausurar la serie, lo que hubiera dejado a muchas personas desempleadas.



Monoplaza.

Los coches de las series IndyCar son monoplazas de al menos 1525 libras de peso y 192 pulgadas de longitud, con chasis monocasco y construidos con fibra de carbono y composite. Son coches con cambio de 6 velocidades secuanciales por palanca (no por levas) y sin dirección asistida.
Los equipos pueden elegir entre 2 modelos de distintos fabricantes, bien sean los italianos Dallara o los americanos Panoz.





El Motor de 3.5 litros V8 turboalimentados desarrollados por Honda (y construidos por Ilmor Engineering, compañía constructora de los motores Mercedes-Benz en F1 hasta 2005), capaces de transmitir más de 650 CV usando como combustible Etanol-Metanol.







Los neumáticos son gomas son slick, con una grosor de la goma como el deaproximadamente 2.5 milímetros de espesor. Las dimensiones son 25.8 las delanteras pudiendo llegar hasta las 28 en las ruedas traseras. Los anchos: 28 centímetros alante y 38 atrás.

Cada piloto dispone segun el tipo de circuitode 8 sets para Urbano/permanente y 7 sets para Ovales. En Indy 500 dispone de 35 sets.



Street Tire / Race Tire



Hay dos tipos de Frenos dependiendo de si corren en un óvalo o en un circuito urbano. En el caso del óvalo, los frenos son de carbono con cuatro pistones, y son más bien pequeños. En el caso del circuito urbano, los discos son de acero, más grandes y de 6 pistones.









IndyCar Series. Puntuación.

1st - 50
2nd - 40
3rd - 35
4th - 32
5th - 30
6th - 28
7th - 26
8th - 24
9th - 22
10th - 20
11th - 19
12th - 18
13th - 17
14th - 16
15th - 15
16th - 14
17th - 13
18th>24th - 12
25th>33th - 10


Se otorgan 3 puntos extras a aquel piloto que consiga el mayor número de vueltas en cabeza durante la carrera.


Repostajes.



Las paradas en boxes son también obligatorias en las IndyCar Series. Sin embargo, no se podrán realizar cuando la condición de la pista esté en "peligro", es decir, haya banderas amarillas y un coche de seguridad en el circuito, salvo que el dirigente de la carrera de la orden de "Pits Open". Todo aquel que haga una parada en esta situación será penalizado.

En una parada de boxes podemos encontrar a 11 mecánicos. 4 se encargarán de sustituir las ruedas, 2 de ayudarles, uno sujetará el "chupete" o cartel de indicación de estado, 1 del respostaje junto a su ayudante y 1 mecánico se encargará de elevar el coche.
El último, quizás el más curioso, es el que hace de "apagafuegos". Tras un respotaje, una vez retirada la manguera, él inyectará un chorro de agua sobre la boca del depósito para aplacar las posibles llamas. Recordemos que el metanol se apaga con agua y su llama es completamente invisible (de ahí que se realice siempre este procedimiento, tanto si hay llama o no).


El Volante

1. OVERTAKE BUTTON: Changes the fuel map to 100 percent rich for a set amount of time, allowing the engine to produce the extra power needed to complete a pass or hold off another driver.

2. PI DASH: Displays warning lights and information the driver needs during the race. That information includes lap times, oil, water and gearbox temperatures and fuel mileage.

3. RPM SHIFT LIGHTS: LED lights that go from green to red and indicate engine RPM. When the red lights are on the driver shifts gears.

4. PIT LANE SPEED LIMITER: Used on pit lane by the driver to activate the engine control program limiting the cars speed to the pit lane speed limit, which is usually 60 miles per hour.

5. PULL-TO-TALK (BEHIND THE CARBON): Activates the microphone in the drivers helmet so he can communicate over the radio.

6. RESET: Used during the race. During a pit stop the driver pushes this button to reset the fuel reading on his display.

7. FUEL MAP SWITCH: Allows the driver to adjust the fuel mapping of the engine to increase fuel mileage or to increase power. There are a number of settings available including full rich, where the engine produces maximum power but uses more fuel. There is also a lean setting which uses less fuel but produces less power. During caution periods the drivers will switch to the leanest mixture to increase fuel economy.

8. DASH SCROLL: Allows the driver to scroll through the different pages available on the dash board, including the race page, qualifying page and practice page.

9. WEIGHT JACKER: Adjusts the cross weight on the car from left to right. The weight jacker allows the driver to make fine-tuning adjustments as the car begins to handle differently during the race.

10. DRINK (BEHIND THE CARBON): Allows the driver to get a drink of water during the race. It activates a pump connected to a water bottle on the car which pumps water through a hose installed in the drivers helmet.

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Oriol el mas rapido entre los ex-ccws






HOMESTEAD, Fla. Ernesto Viso thought a phone call from his manager March 19 was to extend 23rd birthday greetings. That was an afterthought actually as the call to Barcelona, Spain, was to invite the driver to the IndyCar Series.
"It was a good present," Viso said after completing two days of testing on the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval in preparation for the March 29 season opener.
Eleven drivers, including nine who are transitioning to the IndyCar Series from the Champ Car World Series, recorded 1,069 laps during five available hours on the 1.5-mile oval with a persistent and brisk westerly breeze (the two-day total reached 1,167). KV Racing Technology (Oriol Servia, Will Power), Conquest Racing (Enrique Bernoldi, Franck Perera), Dale Coyne Racing (Bruno Junqueira, Mario Moraes) and Newman/Haas/Laningan Racing (Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson) made use of every minute. Marty Roth and Jay Howard of Roth Racing also were granted track time because they did not participate in the full IndyCar Series oval Open Test in February.
Servia topped the speed chart of the migrating drivers at 25.4360 seconds (210.175 mph). Roth led the field at 25.1200 (212.818 mph). Dan Wheldon's 25.0619 (213.312 mph) was the quickest lap of 17 cars at the Feb. 27-28 Open Test.
The lone on-track incident over the sessions involved Rahal, whose No. 06 car made contact with the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier with two hours left. He was checked in the infield care center and cleared to drive.
"The car felt really good," said Rahal, who had a quick lap of 25.4920 seconds (209.713 mph) among his 35. "I caught Oriol and overtook him in Turn 1 and was almost past him. I was on a higher line than I had been taking and that was a lot bumpier with a little less grip up there. The rear stepped out on me and I caught it and then it did it a second time and I couldn't catch it and crashed it."
The next time out (March 28 practice and qualifying) for all drivers, it will be with considerably more traffic on the high-banked oval, at higher speeds and will determine their starting position for the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300.
Viso, who totaled xxx laps in the No. 33 HVM Racing car over the two days, acknowledged being "a little dizzy" initially on the track, which is analogous to the whirlwind since learning where he would be racing this year.
"Everything was quick," said Viso, who last year competed in the GP2 Series. "The 20th I was in Indy with a lot of jet lag. The 21st we were doing the seat fitting. The 22nd we flew here and rested (March 23). We started testing (March 24).
"At the start I was very tired because I was not breathing in the corners. Everything was like a video game. Once I did more and more laps, I got used to it. I'm still learning and will be learning in the coming races."
Even for a veteran with 27 oval starts, there's a learning curve.
"It would be tough even if we would have made the move in October," KV Racing Technology's Oriol Servia said. "There's nothing really to compare with the old Homestead (6 degrees of banking). In my head, (the 18- to 20-degree variably-banked track) feels more like Fontana and Michigan high banking, lot of speed, full throttle when you have new tires. We're learning so much with the car, but the race weekend is here soon. We don't have much time."
Time is a luxury since teams committed to the unified series competing under the IndyCar Series banner.
"Time is important; it is more than gold in racing," Viso said. "Time is also what we need outside the car. The guys did a perfect job to prepare the car in four days. They started from scratch."
Some crew members were scratching their heads during the testing days, waiting for delivery of parts and spares. And a 6-foot-3 driver just sought some comfort.
"We just have a few more bits to do inside the cockpit to make me feel more comfortable," Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's Justin Wilson said. "Fitting in these cars is not a straight-forward thing."





Laps: 1071

Track Status:

Pos Driver Start Pos Diff Gap Last Time Last Speed Last Lap Best Time Best Speed Best Lap Sec Best Time Sec Best Speed Sec Best Lap Last Pt LSP Pits C/E/T Status
1 Marty Roth (25) 6 --.--- --.--- 27.2610 196.104 60 25.1200 212.818 49 25.1240 212.785 50 51 9 8 D/H/F Pit
2 Jay Howard (24) 5 0.136 0.136 55.5250 96.281 101 25.2560 211.672 58 25.2760 211.505 63 101 0 12 D/H/F Pit
3 Oriol Servia (5) 2 0.316 0.180 25.7060 207.967 95 25.4360 210.175 48 25.4700 209.894 49 85 10 13 D/H/F Pit
4 Enrique Bernoldi (36) 3 0.327 0.011 25.7210 207.846 132 25.4470 210.084 116 25.5550 209.196 119 120 12 20 D/H/F Pit
5 Will Power (8) 1 0.364 0.037 26.4180 202.362 145 25.4840 209.779 114 25.4970 209.672 113 143 2 17 D/H/F Pit
6 Graham Rahal (06) 9 0.372 0.008 25.5390 209.327 35 25.4920 209.713 26 25.4980 209.664 25 27 8 4 D/H/F
7 Justin Wilson (02) 7 0.373 0.001 25.8760 206.601 99 25.4930 209.705 76 25.5090 209.573 75 82 17 8 D/H/F Pit
8 Franck Perera (34) 8 0.436 0.063 25.6360 208.535 93 25.5560 209.188 57 25.5630 209.130 59 87 6 14 D/H/F Pit
9 Ernesto Viso (33) 4 0.448 0.012 25.7760 207.402 100 25.5680 209.089 96 25.5680 209.089 97 91 9 14 D/H/F Pit
10 Bruno Junqueira (18) 11 0.503 0.055 25.6350 208.543 82 25.6230 208.641 72 25.6300 208.584 70 77 5 9 D/H/F Pit
11 Mario Moraes (19) 10 0.722 0.219 27.3060 195.781 129 25.8420 206.873 56 25.8470 206.833 55 123 6 13 D/H/F Pit


EL problema esque combinado con los pasados tests al menos le falta tres o cuatro decimas. Aunque oriol comenta que los tiempos no se pueden comparar por la diferencia de temperatura.


01. Dan Wheldon (Ganassi) - 25,0619 (213,312 mph) - 136 Rdn.
02. Scott Dixon (Ganassi) - 25,0660 (213,277) - 136
03. Marty Roth (Roth Racing) - 25,1200 (212,818)
04. Helio Castroneves (Penske) - 25,1211 (212,809) - 148
05. Tony Kanaan (Andretti/Green) - 25,1227 (212,796) - 94
06. Ryan Briscoe (Penske) - 25,2127 (212,036) - 160
07. A.J. Foyt IV (Vision) - 25,2179 (211,992) - 103
08. Marco Andretti (Andretti/Green) - 25,2465 (211,752) - 119
09. Hideki Mutoh (Andretti/Green) - 25,2476 (211,743) - 114
10. Jay Howard (Roth Racing) - 25,2560 (211,672)
11. Ed Carpenter (Vision) - 25,2691 (211,563) - 68
12. Buddy Rice (Dreyer & Reinbold) - 25,3716 (210,708) - 104
13. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal/Letterman) - 25,3934 (210,527) - 102
14. Vitor Meira (Panther) - 25,3987 (210,483) - 93
15. Oriol Servià (KV technology) - 25,4360 (210.175)
16. Bernoldi
17. Power
18. Rahal
19. Wilson
20. Perera
21. Viso
22. Junqueira
23. Milka Duno (Dreyer & Reinbold) - 25,6276 (208,603) - 68
24. Darren Manning (A.J. Foyt) - 25,6369 (208,528) - 85
25. Moraes

Homestead Report - 26th Mar 08, 04:40
Homestead Musings Part "Duh"


Cold (By South Florida standards) and windy. Cross-winds through the corners.

Very tense atmosphere. Teams are not happy. Not happy about the merger. Not happy about the rush to get ready for the race. And some not happy about the chassis they have acquired.

One Mechanic told me that the car that they received bends like a skateboard. A crew chief told me that there just wasn't enough time to get ready.

Was told that ticket sales are slower than last years, Yep. Merger is reaping benefits already.

Was weird to see the N/H/L McDonalds colors on a Dallara.

The Coyne People were still rushing to get Bruno's car together. Was finally finished until after the dinner break. Then he couldn't find a gear when the final session began.
Once the car was fixed Bruno quickly became smooth out there.

Interesting to see so many cars with noses and other parts that have pain schemes that are obviously from other teams.

Servia really impressed me. He was fast.

Wilson looked tentative.

Did you know that Bondo fixes Carbon Fiber on a Dallara?

I am really beginning to hate Oval racing for formula cars. We were on the roof of the Speedway when Graham backed into turn 2. For a second I was really worried but he emerged unscathed.
We got the whole thing on tape. Jeff, my main man, has a knack at following the car that will do something interesting. He was following Graham around for a few laps leading up to the crash and got it all on tape.
We took it to the N/H/L hauler and sat with Graham and his crew chief and went over the tape. He got loose in turn one passing Servia. When he corrected the car also bottomed out and lost grip which caused him to back into the wall in turn to. Pretty cool comparing the telemetry to the video.

The N/H/L guys will be working all tomorrow trying to put Graham's car back together for this weekend. Biggest problem.No Spare Parts.