Personal experience of Marco Andretti:
I was working at "Andretti SpeedLab", an indoor go kart track. He comes in one night that I am working with a group of his friends. He was in town since he was in the support race for Petit one year, in a Star Mazda race. He comes in, bragging the entire time the he was "consulted" for the track design and how he knew it well. He comes up to the timing stand where all of us "track crew" were standing. He boldly asks "who is the fastest person here"? Everyone points to me. He says "pull the two best karts, remove the governors and set the tire pressures so both are equal. I said "you're the boss" and did as I was told.
We set up a 10 minute race, just us two. We get the green and he sets off in front of me. I followed him for 2 or 3 laps, watching his line and where he is strong and weak. I finally dive bomb him going into the last hairpin and proceed to lap until the 10 minute heat is up. When I got out and looked at the heat race screen, it showed my best lap was almost a full second quicker and got a print out of our lap times.
I walked over to shake his and said "it was an honor to race you" since I considered him a cool kid since he is my age and is a pro driver. He completely blew me off, didn't make eye contact with me or anything. Complete little jackass. Very arrogant and a very sore loser.
From that moment on, I have completely loathed him. He does not deserve a seat. It's only because of "Daddy" that he even has a ride. Daddy wouldn't dare fire his son.
Maybe we should ask what Ashley thinks about him.
Complain all you want about Ashley but atleast when she was on tv you didn't have to look at the cars. I'd hate to see the designs they turned down.
My opinion of all the Andretti's is that they are all whiney poutey Bob Costas
DukeOfUndersteer wrote: Personal experience of Marco Andretti:
great story.
Wally wrote: Complain all you want about Ashley but atleast when she was on tv you didn't have to look at the cars. I'd hate to see the designs they turned down.
still easy on the eyes
However, according to son Marco, the McLaren team Andretti drove for "sabotaged" his chances at being competitive in order to replace him with Finnish driver Mika Häkkinen, who would require a smaller salary. "The reality of it was, they had Mika Häkkinen ready to come in for a lot less than what my dad was getting paid, and that's all it was. Right then and there, they had to make him look [bad]," claimed Marco in 2008. "They would make the car do weird things in the corner electronically, stuff out of his control.'"
That is one way to try and get into Formula One Marco, bad mouth everyone.
And i'm pretty sure he is his own author of his Wiki page
I'm just watching it now and I can't believe how mellow AJ has become. The old AJ would have beaten Mike Conway to death with a steering wheel.
Maroon92 wrote:iceracer wrote:Maroon92 wrote:In his defense, he wasn't in the position he was if it hadn't been for the pit calls.iceracer wrote: In Marco's defense. His "pit boss" made some bad decisions, Cost him a lot of positions.Cost him a lot fewer positions than a spin into the wall did. Marco lost because of Marco. He'll place blame wherever he can find a scapegoat, but it falls on his shoulders.
The "hey, let's be fair" part of my brain says someone could make a similar montage for almost any racer.
OTOH, the part of my brain that lives in the real world needs to know how to get beer out of a keyboard.
In reply to DukeOfUndersteer:
Great story!
racerfink wrote: Or that I was making fun of people that didn't realize Ashley Judd knows more about racing than they do.
Or that. Casual fans not knowing the Stewart connection beyond both being Scots is reasonable.
Ashley would do well to demonstrate that knowledge rather than waxing hyperbolic about her husband. 
Regarding the new cars, went to Carb Day, and they look better in-person from certain angles (and sound great compared to the old Honda V8s).
Front three-quarter, not too bad:
Side profile, whoa, that snout is looooong:
Rear, hey, what's the LMPC car doing in Gasoline Alley...?
Overall, I wish the concession go-kart rear bumpers were toned down or eliminated, and that the sidepods didn't look like '80's kart bodywork. Curious to see how they look in-person with the road course bits.
DukeOfUndersteer wrote: Personal experience of Marco Andretti: I was working at "Andretti SpeedLab", an indoor go kart track. He comes in one night that I am working with a group of his friends. He was in town since he was in the support race for Petit one year, in a Star Mazda race. He comes in, bragging the entire time the he was "consulted" for the track design and how he knew it well. He comes up to the timing stand where all of us "track crew" were standing. He boldly asks "who is the fastest person here"? Everyone points to me. He says "pull the two best karts, remove the governors and set the tire pressures so both are equal. I said "you're the boss" and did as I was told. We set up a 10 minute race, just us two. We get the green and he sets off in front of me. I followed him for 2 or 3 laps, watching his line and where he is strong and weak. I finally dive bomb him going into the last hairpin and proceed to lap until the 10 minute heat is up. When I got out and looked at the heat race screen, it showed my best lap was almost a full second quicker and got a print out of our lap times. I walked over to shake his and said "it was an honor to race you" since I considered him a cool kid since he is my age and is a pro driver. He completely blew me off, didn't make eye contact with me or anything. Complete little jackass. Very arrogant and a very sore loser. From that moment on, I have completely loathed him. He does not deserve a seat. It's only because of "Daddy" that he even has a ride. Daddy wouldn't dare fire his son.
I've often wondered what it would be like to be Mario Andretti's son, or grandson. Must be hard in a way (and really easy in others!). Then I was thinking that maybe it's understandable that he might be arrogant. Of course he's a sore loser because his Dad is.
But then I thought about Graham Rahal. Granted, Bobby maybe didn't have quite the storied career as Mario, but he's still a legend in open wheel racing, and Graham is a completely great person as far as I can tell.
Anti-stance wrote: I am not saying Sato sucks, he just takes some big risks that rarely pay off. I would have much rather seen Sato drinking the milk than Franchitti. I hate seeing a Ganassi car win anywhere.
I can't believe he did that. Unbelievable. I too would rather have seen him win than Dario, although in the beginning of the race I didn't think the Honda's had a chance, and figured another Penske win. I personally would have preferred Rahal win if it had to be a Ganassi car, but I really wanted Kanaan to win.
Back to the race, and more specifically the track.
If I could make one change that I think would make the race better would be to make a real second line. Not an easy line, but a possible line where one could make a spectacular outside pass.
A more realistic change- change the tire compound to negate the need of sweeping the entire track. When a car stalls on the track, it should not result in 5 laps of yellow. Maybe 3- hook them up, drag them in, and should be good to go. It was pretty clear that the exteneded yellows were due to the street sweepers. (IMHO, F1 is a LOT worse about this)
Between the two of those, and the fact that the cars seem to behave pretty well around each other- I think Sato could have made a very specactular outside move to win the race. That would have made a great race epic.
alfadriver wrote: If I could make one change that I think would make the race better would be to use the infield road course and put a big chicane in the back straight.
FTFY
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:alfadriver wrote: If I could make one change that I think would make the race better would be to use the infield road course and put a big chicane in the back straight.FTFY
LOLZ Troof.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:alfadriver wrote: If I could make one change that I think would make the race better would be to use the infield road course and put a big chicane in the back straight.FTFY
Not sure how that would actually help. The road course at the track isn't exactly interesting. And being that Indy cars is a mix of street, road, and oval tracks, well.... Why try to mess with a track that's already 100 years old?
alfadriver wrote: If I could make one change that I think would make the race better would be to make a real second line. Not an easy line, but a possible line where one could make a spectacular outside pass.
They had that (at least were cars could safely run two-wide consistently) with the wide aprons that were replaced (sometime in the '90's?) by the access lanes separate from the track surface. They had over a carwidth beneath the white lines, which really opened up the corners.
alfadriver wrote:Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:Not sure how that would actually help. The road course at the track isn't exactly interesting. And being that Indy cars is a mix of street, road, and oval tracks, well.... Why try to mess with a track that's already 100 years old?alfadriver wrote: If I could make one change that I think would make the race better would be to use the infield road course and put a big chicane in the back straight.FTFY
It would have more than one line, opportunity for overtaking on the brakes, and greatly reduce the likelyhood of anyone wrecking at 230mph. It would make taking care of the tires matter. Perhaps it would spark a little chatter or provide a reason to watch the middle 450 miles instead of just tuning in for the start and finish. They can still chug milk out on itty-bitty patch of bricks that represent all that remains of 100yrs ago.
Why mess with it at all? Because it has become irrelevant but if you ever have a chance to see IndyCar at Watkins Glen... fantastic racing. Open wheel cars need to be changing direction and speed a lot.
In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:
How has a series that runs 3 different kinds of tracks made one of those three irrelevant when they ran WG? I seriously don't get that. Ovals, and particularly Indy, is PART of the series. Open wheel cars have been running ovals for over double of my lifetime, so I don't see the "need" for them to constantly being changing speed and direction.
As for the infield, having seen plenty of Indy road course races that have no passing what so ever, I also miss how that makes the racing any more interesting in the middle of the race. Or seeing how the debris really messes up the line at Barber will reduce tire wear so that the lines start to dissappear. There's one decent line around the road course just like there is for the oval.
Seriously, your suggestion does not make any sense to me at all.
As for the safety, people get hurt crashing at road courses, too- so if you don't want to see wrecks, don't watch racing. It happens.
alfadriver wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: Seriously, your suggestion does not make any sense to me at all.
I see that. I see IndyCar as broken. The fix is to make it more like the things I prefer to watch. IndyCar at the Glen is awesome. IndyCar at Indy is a yawn.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:alfadriver wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: Seriously, your suggestion does not make any sense to me at all.I see that. I see IndyCar as broken. The fix is to make it more like the things I prefer to watch. IndyCar at the Glen is awesome. IndyCar at Indy is a yawn.
And probably 5-8x as many people go to the Brickyard as they do to the Glen. Let alone watch it on TV. Considering that IndyCar isn't at the Glen anymore, it appears that few agree with your assesment of that race and track.
How many passes for the lead have been at any road course? There were 30 of them Sunday at Indy. No idea of the passes that happened back in the field. And that's an event where the crew plays as much role as the driver, as seen by a few slow pit stops.
alfadriver wrote: words
You are right once again. IndyCar is perfectly healthy. Nothing needs to change. Afterall - more people watch it than tuned in to watch Emeril try to sell cooking products on QVC.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:alfadriver wrote: wordsYou are right once again. IndyCar is perfectly healthy. Nothing needs to change. Afterall - more people watch it than tuned in to watch Emeril try to sell cooking products on QVC.
Wow, great reading comprehension. I didn't say that IndyCar is healthy, all I have said is that your solution doesn't make sense.
It was healthy back in the 80's and 90's when they ran just as many ovals, so I suspect that it has little do to with more road racing. Back then there were multiple cars and engines that could be run- perhaps there's more to that than the tracks they run on.
How abandoning the core track that makes the whole series is a good thing escapes me.
alfadriver wrote: How abandoning the core track that makes the whole series is a good thing escapes me.
Speaking of reading comprehension - I didn't say abandon the track. I said use the infield road course and add a chicane.
Exactly like they do at the Daytona 24 (and for almost every other race held at Daytona except for NASCAR's 500). Cars having to do something besides draft each other for 500 miles is more interesting to watch IMO. Obviously you do not feel the same.
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