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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INDYCAR: Servia One Of Many Hoping To Fill Final Seats
Next weeks official IZOD IndyCar Series test at Barber Motorsports Park is expected to provide answers on how the final 2011 IndyCar grid will shape up.

Next weeks official IZOD IndyCar Series test at Barber Motorsports Park is expected to provide a number of confirmations regarding who will fill the remaining seats on the 2011 IndyCar grid.

Deals are believed to be in place between Conquest Racing, Colombian driver Sebastien Saavedra and Englands Pippa Mann, while Dale Coyne has Sebastien Bourdais, Milka Duno and Alex Lloyd in the mix.

KV Racing appears to have Tony Kanaan ready to join the team and Jay Penske is also known to be working hard to keep Dragon Racing on track for the March 27th season opener in St. Petersburg.

Newman Haas Racing also looks like its close to securing Canadas James Hinchcliffe and open-wheel veteran Oriol Servia to lead its two-car campaign in 2011.

PHOTOS: Sebring IndyCar Test

With another test scheduled with NHR at Barber, Servia says negotiations are headed in the right direction and hopes for some positive news to emerge next week from Alabama.

Lets say I feel a lot stronger on the possibility [of joining NHR] than the last time we spoke. Things are looking good. Thats all I can say right now.


Servia has struggledlike many of the veteran drivers who lost their rides when Champ Car foldedto find solid footing in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

The Catalonian campaigned the full 2008 IndyCar season with KV Racing, but his services have been sorely underutilized over the last two years.

Joining NHR for the first time in 2005, Servia earned one win and seven podiums on the way to finishing second in the championship behind his teammate, Sebastien Bourdais.

With Robert Doornbos out of the picture at NHR towards the end of the 2009 season, Servia got the call to deputize for the Dutchman, quickly producing the best results of the year in the No. 06 car.

With the need for a funded driver in 2010, Hideki Mutoh and the No. 06 spent much of the year in the wilderness as the team dropped down to a single entry.

Graham Rahals return in the latter half of the championship produced five top 10s from six starts, but by all accounts, it was an atypical season for the eight-time open-wheel champions.

Knowing how hungry the team has become to return to its former glory, bringing Servia back for a third stint could provide the ingredient theyve been missing.

These are the same guys today that I won with before and have so many championships. I know what they are capable of doing. I think any serious driver wants to be with a team like Newman Haas.

While Servia waits to hear if hell be on the grid with NHR at St. Petersburg in two weeks, he knows exactly where hell be on March 19th.

If everything comes together as planned, Servia will add 17 IndyCar rounds to a calendar that already includes three American Le Mans Series endurance events as a pilot for Paul Gentilozzis factory Jaguar RSR program.

This will be a lot of fun. Its driving with my friends from Champ Car and for Paul, who Ive known for a long time. I didnt get to race last year, which was very, very strange. I think this will get things going in a good direction.

As revealed on the ALMS entry list for the 12 Hours of Sebring a few weeks ago, Servia will partner with the Brazilian duo of Junqy and Shorty, better known as eight-time Champ Car race winner Bruno Junqueira and 2002 Champ Car champion Cristiano da Matta.

Sharing a Jaguar XKR in the popular GT class with his open-wheel friends will be a nice change of pace, according to Servia, and while hes only expected to drive in the long races at Sebring, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Petit Le Mans, he says he wouldnt turn down the opportunity to do more sports car racing in the future.

Ive raced in Champ Car, in the IndyCar Series and Ive also done GRAND-AM, but this will be my first time in the ALMS. Ive tested at Sebring a lot, but this is also my first race at the 12 hours. I like sports cars, although I have not done a lot of that type of racing. I know they are very motivated and they have done a lot to the [Jaguar] since last year, so there is a lot of optimism for everyone. I hope we can have fun and give good results in our races together, and I wouldnt mind doing more sports car racing to go with the IndyCar races. Staying busy is my goal.

With as many as 20 races on his plate this year, Servia just might get his wish.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ind...ll-final-seats/