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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Kanaan qualifies as Tracy misses out

By Matt Beer Sunday, May 23rd 2010, 22:06 GMT

Tony Kanaan, Andretti, Indy qualifyingTony Kanaan and Takuma Sato made it into the Indianapolis 500 field but Paul Tracy failed to qualify after withdrawing his speed and then failing to improve on a highly dramatic Bump Day.

Kanaan's pair of accidents this weekend and Sato's big crash yesterday had left both on the outside going into today's six-hour session to decide the final nine spots in the field.

As both made it in, Tracy eventually ended up on the bubble in 33rd, having also started today outside the cut as he had failed to muster sufficient speed on Pole Day.

Confident he could improve his pace, he withdrew his time with 10 minutes to go but effectively knocked himself out of the race as his new attempt was slower than his existing speed. When Sarah Fisher Racing's Jay Howard did likewise minutes later, rookie team and driver combination Sebastian Saavedra and Bryan Herta Autosport were elevated back into the field despite having crashed during a practice run an hour earlier.

The initial qualifying runs at the start of the afternoon saw Fazzt's Bruno Junqueira, Dale Coyne's Alex Lloyd, Andretti Autosport's John Andretti, owner/driver Sarah Fisher and Foyt driver Vitor Meira qualify comfortably, with Tracy (KV), Howard, Mario Romancini (Conquest) and Saavedra those left feeling vulnerable.

Milka Duno in the second Coyne car, Sato in the KV car repaired after his massive Saturday morning practice crash and Foyt Racing's late substitute Jaques Lazier - who replaced AJ Foyt IV just hours ago - were all too slow to make the top 33 on their first runs, while Kanaan was still sat in the Andretti garage as his crew worked frantically to get his #11T car back in shape.

As the crucial final hour approached, Saavedra's hopes of making the field seemed to be dashed when he crashed heavily at Turn 1 - leaving him unable to respond if any of the non-qualified drivers beat his speed.

Kanaan was first to try, and although his practice laps in the repaired car had been disappointing, his four-lap average of 224.072mph was good enough to get him into the field in 30th and knock Saavedra out.

That left Romancini on the bubble in 33rd. Keen to avoid a repeat of last year's heartbreak - when driver Alex Tagliani was bumped and unable to respond, so had to commandeer team-mate Junqueira's car to make the race - Conquest withdrew Romancini's time and sent him out again. He duly produced a 224.641mph average to elevate himself to a safe 27th place and leave Howard on the edge.

Lazier and Duno's next attempts were still too slow, but Sato managed a massive improvement over his tentative earlier effort and grabbed 31st, pushing Howard out and Tracy down to 33rd.

Although Howard's immediate retaliation was not quite quick enough, Tracy and KV still decided to withdraw their speed of 223.892mph with just 10 minutes to go and try for a safer position - but the gamble backfired. A big slide on his first lap cost Tracy speed and he waved off the attempt, allowing Howard back in.

Howard responded by withdrawing his time too only to also go slower than he had previously, which allowed Saavedra - who had moved back onto the bubble because he had been bumped rather than withdrawing his time - to take 33rd place after all, giving former driver Herta's new team its IndyCar debut in the most incredible circumstances. With no more time left to respond, Tracy, Howard, Duno and Lazier ended up as the four non-qualifiers - Tracy and Howard kicking themselves for having voluntarily scrubbed times that would have got them on the grid.

The huge drama of the final half hour overshadowed the incredible achievement of Junqueira, the fastest qualifier of the day, who had just nine practice laps in Fazzt's second car before the Bump Day session, a sponsorship issued having sidelined him for all of practice and Pole Day. Despite his non-existent preparation, Junqueira immediately turned in a speed that would have got him into the top 10 alongside team-mate Alex Tagliani had he run yesterday.

Penske's Helio Castroneves and Will Power will start first and second, with Ganassi's Dario Franchitti completing the front row.

Pos Driver Team Speed
1. Helio Castroneves Penske 227.970mph
2. Will Power Penske 227.578mph
3. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 226.990mph
4. Ryan Briscoe Penske 226.554mph
5. Alex Tagliani Fazzt 226.390mph
6. Scott Dixon Ganassi 226.223mph
7. Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman 225.519mph
8. Ed Carpenter Panther/Vision 224.507mph
9. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas 223.487mph
10. Townsend Bell Ganassi/Schmidt 225.097mph
11. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 225.050mph
12. Raphael Matos de Ferran Dragon 225.029mph
13. Mario Moraes KV 224.888mph
14. Davey Hamilton de Ferran Dragon 224.852mph
15. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 224.583mph
16. Marco Andretti Andretti 224.575mph
17. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 224.548mph
18. Dan Wheldon Panther 224.465mph
19. EJ Viso KV 224.380mph
20. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold 224.261mph
21. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 224.243mph
22. Simona de Silvestro HVM 224.228mph
23. Danica Patrick Andretti 224.219mph
24. Bertrand Baguette Conquest 224.189mph
25. Bruno Junqueira Fazzt 225.662mph
26. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 224.783mph
27. Mario Romancini Conquest 224.641mph
28. John Andretti Andretti 224.518mph
29. Sarah Fisher Sarah Fisher 224.434mph
30. Vitor Meira Foyt 224.388mph
31. Takuma Sato KV 224.178mph
32. Tony Kanaan Andretti 224.072mph
33. Sebastian Saavedra Herta 223.634mph

Did not qualify:

Jay Howard Sarah Fisher
Paul Tracy KV
Jaques Lazier Foyt
Milka Duno Dale Coyne