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KZS, nastavak:

 

 

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Kompletna trka:

 

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Fotke:

 

Brajan Herta i ja - jednog od ovih dana cu da naucim kako se rade selfiji. Lekcija 1, iskljuci blic idiote!

 

 

Pitlajn tokom vormapa:

 

 

 

Podijum Indi Lajt trke - pobednik Kajl Kajzer:

 

 

 

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Indikar padok, pripreme za trku:

 

Pazeno:

 

 

Kapetan Rodzer (retko je videti ga u interakciji sa fanovima):

 

 

 

Predstavljanje vozaca:

 

 

 

Atmosfera pred start:

 

 

Start:

 

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Podijum:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Padok posle trke:

 

 

 

 

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- Andreti pregovara sa Sevroletom za motore od naredne sezone. Navodno Sevi nudi velike pare nakon sto ih je Ganasi napustio i presao na Hondu. Ako dodje do dogovora to bi znacilo da je Sato opet izvisio i da mora traziti novi tim.

 

- Feliks Rozenkvist dobio poziv od Ganasija da testira za njih na Mid-Ohaju.

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Numbers to note following the Honda Indy Toronto at the 1.786 -mile Streets of Toronto’s Exhibition Place - the 12th race of the 2017 Verizon Indy Car Series season:

1 – Position gained by Simon Pagenaud (6th to 5th), Graham Rahal (10th to 9th) and Scott Dixon (11th to 10th) in the final 9 laps of the race.

1.96 – Average running position for winner Josef Newgarden during the 85 laps of racing in Toronto.

3 – Points separating Dixon from second-place Helio Castroneves in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings after the Honda Indy Toronto.

5 – Indy car wins for Newgarden, two of which have come in the last three years at Toronto...Consecutive races led by Newgarden.

8 – Races that Castroneves has led this season.

10 – Positions gained by Ryan Hunter-Reay, most of any driver…Indy car poles for Simon Pagenaud, who tied Johnny Thomson, Dan Gurney, Teo Fabi, Alex Zanardi, Nigel Mansell, Bryan Herta and Sam Hornish Jr. for 30th all-time.

19 – Laps in which Charlie Kimball improved his position, most of any driver.

23 – Points separating Dixon from fourth-place Newgarden in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings after the Honda Indy Toronto.

27 – Average age of podium finishers at Toronto. (Newgarden is 26, second-place finisher Alexander Rossi is 25 and third-place finisher James Hinchcliffe is 30)

219 – Consecutive starts by Dixon, the second-longest streak in Indy car history.

277 – Consecutive starts by Tony Kanaan, extending his all-time record.

339 – Indy car starts for Castroneves which is third on the all-time list. Kanaan is fourth on the list with his 338 starts.

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MILLER: 2018's most wanted
Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Robin Miller / Images by IMS


James Hinchcliffe is a prized free agent. Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi are Honda guys whose current team may be donning a bow tie next season. Max Chilton appears to have a couple of good options in the IndyCar paddock. Charlie Kimball is hoping to keep his great sponsor and stay a full-timer. Spencer Pigot has shown he's worthy of a full-time drive. Tony Kanaan ain't ready to quit, while A.J. Foyt isn't sold on his new lineup.

"I think there's going to be a lot of driver changes in 2018," said Kimball during a lull in last weekend's Hondy Indy of Toronto.

As Silly Season starts, Hinch sits atop the Most Wanted list. At 30 the popular Canadian is a winner, a good qualifier and sponsor's dream. He's in his third season with Schmidt/Peterson Motorsports and it's his team, so to speak, if he wants it to be.

"I like it here and I'd love to stay but nothing is done [contractually]," he said last Saturday. "So mark me down as TBD (to be determined)."

Schmidt says he's got a couple of immediate goals if sponsor Arrow gives the green light for two fully-funded cars. "I'd like to keep James and then hire a driver of his caliber as his teammate," said the longtime owner, whose team has been selected by Honda to test the new-for-2018 universal bodywork.

It also possible that SPM could field three cars if Mikhail Aleshin returns or another paid driver surfaces.

The obvious question is, where would Hinch go if he didn't re-up with SPM?

If Michael Andretti is persuaded by Chevrolet's checkbook to switch engine manufacturers, there will likely be two seats opening up because Sato and Honda are attached at the hip, and Honda is a big fan of Rossi. Hinch had his breakout season with Andretti and Chevy in 2013 – winning three times – and that would seem a sensible landing spot. But The Mayor could also be in play for Chip Ganassi, who would want a strong teammate for Scott Dixon.



The last two Indianapolis 500 winners seem to like their home at Andretti, but Sato's career in IndyCar iowes everything to Honda, and Rossi's loyalty to Honda is also thought to be very strong. So it's almost for "certain sure" that if Andretti goes to Chevy they would both be placed with another Honda team, and Rossi to Ganassi or SPM sounds logical. About the only sure thing for CGR in 2018 is that Dixon will be back, and will likely have NTT Data as his sponsor.

Chilton, whose Gallagher sponsorship landed him on one of the best teams in the paddock in 2016, has been re-invigorated since leading 50 laps at Indy and finishing fourth. Max keeps getting more comfortable at CGR, but there remains a chance he could help Trevor Carlin launch his IndyCar effort since his father, Grahame Chilton (CEO of Gallagher Insurance) is also the majority investor in Carlin Racing.

"I haven't made a decision yet so I'll start planning what I'm doing after the wedding," said the 26-year-old Brit who will be married during IndyCar's three-week break in early August. "I suppose any driver would like to have a team built around him, but Chip's team is one of the best, so maybe it's a good time to just stay put. I enjoy IndyCar racing and I'm not a big fan of ovals, but I love Indianapolis."

Kimball is in his seventh season with Ganassi and has enjoyed a fantastic partnership, on and off the track, with his sponsor, Novo Nordisk, a multinational pharmaceutical company.

"I'm a free agent and I hope to continue my relationship with Novo Nordisk and continue as a full-time IndyCar driver in 2018," he said. "I'd love to stay with Chip if that opportunity presents itself, but I'm not sure what the opportunities look like yet."



If Novo Nordisk returns, another possible scenario could be for Kimball to become teammates with Chilton and elevate Carlin into the Verizon IndyCar series as a two-car team.

Pigot, who again last Sunday demonstrated his overtaking skills at Toronto after narrowly missing the Fast 12 in qualifying, should be in demand considering his age (23) and potential if owners are paying attention. Ed Carpenter could face a tough decision on whether to make him full-time, but the kid obviously feels some loyalty to Carpenter for giving him an opportunity – he just needs to start getting oval-track experience.

A.J. Foyt Enterprises's new beginning with Carlos Munoz and Conor Daly has become the same old story as the ABC Supply team struggles for pace and performance. There have been several mechanical issues, a few crashes and lots of frustration as the four-time Indy-winning team only has a seventh to show from each driver.

"Right now we're thinking about what we need to do, because this is embarrassing," said Foyt, who tried to hook up with Tony Kanaan – another driver thought to be on the brink of free agency – a year ago.

The next few weeks should be interesting. Andretti Autosport is the big domino, followed by Hinch, Chilton, Kimball and Kanaan. From there you get all kinds of possibilities, including Mike Shank, Ricardo Juncos or Carlin starting full-time teams, or a second seat at Mike Harding or RLL, and all those musical chairs that always keep us entertained as we head for Mid-Ohio.

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Newgarden has shown he can win anywhere - Cindric
Friday, 21 July 2017
By Marshall Pruett / Images by Geoffrey Miller/LAT, Scott Lepage/LAT & Pruett


If first impressions matter in motor racing, Josef Newgarden has made a lasting one with his new bosses at Team Penske.

The young Tennessee native has become a two-time winner for Penske this season, and thanks to his consistency, which includes five podium visits in the No. 2 Chevy, Newgarden holds a close fourth in the championship.

Twenty points behind teammate Helio Castroneves in second, four points behind teammate and defending series champion Simon Pagenaud in third, and 41 points clear of Penske's 2014 series champion Will Power, Newgarden has erased any doubts about his ability to rise to the lofty level set by Roger Penske and team president Tim Cindric.

"We saw he was a championship contender last year and didn't see why he wouldn't be one this year," Cindric (pictured above, with Newgarden) told RACER. "Every track we've gone to, he's shown speed, he's shown potential, and I really feel like there have been missed opportunities at some of the tracks we've been to. He has shown he can win anywhere."



Coming off a win last weekend in Toronto, which added to his April victory at Barber Motorsports Park, Newgarden and Cindric have relied on brains and big speed to deliver results. Advantageous timing of a Toronto caution period for an incident involving Chip Ganassi Racing's Tony Kanaan was initially credited for handing Newgarden the chance to win, but his race strategist begs to differ.

"Some people think we took advantage of the situation with Kanaan and dove into the pits, but we'd already committed to the pits before Tony went into the tires," Cindric said. "We'd called him in just before that because we wanted to get out of line and try something different. It felt like our best play.

"We had two team cars running up front, and if we were all on the same strategy and got caught with a yellow, then none of them would win. So we made that decision with Josef before it all transpired, and he had the speed to contend for the win."

It's hard to ignore how differently Newgarden's Penske debut has gone compared to Pagenaud's team introduction in 2015. A distant 11th in the final standings, the Frenchman and his longtime engineer Ben Bretzman needed a year to digest all the changes they encountered at Team Penske.



For Newgarden, who parted ways with his engineer Jeremy Milless to join Penske, getting to know Brian Campe (pictured above, with Newgarden), Juan Montoya's Indy 500-winning engineer with the No. 2 Chevy, was a significant process of its own. With all the other adjustments the 26-year-old had to make in leaving the smaller Ed Carpenter Racing team for Penske's giant operation, Newgarden's 2017 could have easily followed Pagenaud's script.

According to Cindric, no one inside the Penske program is surprised by the fast start recorded by its newest member of the team

"It was a calculated decision on our end," he said. "Last year, he showed how tough he was after getting busted up and not missing a race after Texas. He's been polished outside the car and he's been polished inside the car. The only question is how the chemistry would be with new teammates. He's taken all that in stride.

"He's humble enough to raise his hand when he could have done something better, and he's a team player who understands we win and lose together when the team drops the ball. He's a very level-headed kid, solid across the board, and think we can continue to build with him."

That's high praise from a steely figure like Cindric.

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Radi se i na novom univerzalnom aero-paketu za dogodine:
 

IndyCar on track for cockpit safety device test
Thursday, 20 July 2017
By Marshall Pruett / Images by IMS Photo, JEP/LAT


Following Wednesday's confirmation that Formula 1's "halo" cockpit protection device will become mandatory in 2018, IndyCar competition president Jay Frye provided an update on where the American open-wheel series stands with the shield-like device it's preparing for the Dallara DW12 chassis.

"We've been quietly working on applications for the last year and a half, and feel good at where we're at with progress," Frye told RACER. "We're also happy with the options we'll present and will have something on a car to test between now and the end of the year."

The device, which is meant to reduce the likelihood of a flying object striking a driver's helmet, will continue down a path and introduction timeline that Frye feels is best for the 106-year-old championship. Unlike F1's halo, IndyCar has not committed to a definitive launch date for its cockpit piece.

"We're full-speed ahead and hoping we'll have something to show people sooner rather than later, but the main thing we're aiming for is once we're ready to show it, it will be ready to go," Frye said. "It will have been tested, proven, and ready for use before it comes out. We've already tested it on simulators, and the next stage is to test and prove it in the field."

Compared to the sizeable, wrap-around shield tested by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel last weekend at the British Grand Prix, IndyCar's version has been described as modest in size while blending into the cockpit opening. Frye's development team has also been working to avoid the dizziness issue Vettel reported after looking through the shield while lapping in his Ferrari SF70H.



"Some of the issues we saw last weekend with distortion is something we've been cognizant of for a while now," he added. "It's something we've been working on so it isn't an issue."

Having read the steady flow of criticism aimed at the halo's limited visual appeal, Frye says IndyCar has done its best to create a piece that serves its safety purpose without disrupting the new, flowing bodywork that will be to be introduced in 2018.

"Aesthetics is something that has been important to us," he said. "We did some bodywork testing last fall, chose a new direction for our 2018 universal bodywork that will start testing next week, and this protection project is something we've always been conscious of as being an integrated part of the car. The best thing you can have is where it's on the car, does what it's supposed to do, and it's blended in and people don't notice it very much. That's' been our approach all along."

 

New in-car cameras part of IndyCar's 2018 kit
Friday, 21 July 2017
By Marshall Pruett


Part of IndyCar's 2018 universal bodywork package will include an increase in on-board camera positions for use by the series' broadcasters and digital promotions team.

IMS Productions will outfit each car with a new nose and rear attenuator camera to complement the current overhead and rearview mirror cameras that have been in use since 2012.
 
Along with the upcoming testing regimen for the new bodywork, IndyCar and IMSP will work on finding the best nose and attenuator camera positions before locking them into place prior to widescale body panel production begins.

"We're putting them in the nose and at the back next year, so can you imagine what it's going to look like with a closing shot of a car coming into view behind the one it's going to pass and then cut to the nose when it goes by?" IMSP president Robby Greene told RACER. "And we're going to keep the camera on the roll hoop and the side view the mirror, so it should be spectacular."

Part of IndyCar's 2018 overhaul for the Dallara DW12 will include new electronics and wiring looms. Within those looms, connections leading to the nose and attenuator cameras have been designed into the new systems teams will use to retrofit their cars during the off-season. It's unclear whether IndyCar or its teams would cover the cost for damaged cameras in a nose- or attenuator-first crash.

Another advancement Greene has in mind for 2018, but might take a little while to implement, is the use of the new HD helmet camera with every driver in the field. At present, the live helmet cameras that debuted during May's Indy 500 have been reserved for a small driver rotation while the units undergo development.

"What I'm working on now, and whether it's available next year, I wouldn't bet on it at this moment, but we want the helmet cams on every driver," Greene added. "We want to get to a point where every time a car is on track, we have all of the camera views available, not just on the six or eight cars like we have now."

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Hinchcliffe’s surgeon is a true angel in disguise

By Norris McDonald

Special to the Star
Sat., July 22, 2017

 

 

The surgeon who saved Canadian racing driver James Hinchcliffe’s life at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway two years ago was walking through the Enercare Centre at Exhibition Place last Sunday, shortly before the start of this year’s Honda Indy Toronto, when he was ambushed by a guy with a tape recorder.

Me.

Is it true, I asked, that everything fell into place when the accident happened, that the rescue went as smoothly as oil through an engine, that it was almost choreographed, like a ballet, that it was almost as if everyone had rehearsed for just such an emergency?

“Uh, no, actually,” said Dr. Timothy Pohlman, senior staff trauma surgeon at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, who had been walking with the driver’s father, Jeremy Hinchcliffe of Oakville, when I stuck out my hand to introduce myself.

“There was a lot of indecision; there was a lot of confusion.”

Tell me about it, I said.

Now, to recap — in case anybody reading this is not familiar with the details of what has to be one of the most incredible comebacks in the history of sport, in which a race driver nearly loses his life while practising for the world’s most famous race, survives, and then goes on to win the pole position for that race a year later.

It was May 18, 2015, and Hinchcliffe was in his fifth season of racing in the Verizon IndyCar Series. He’d just signed a new contract to drive for Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports (half owned by Ric Peterson, a Calgary businessman) and had won a race in New Orleans a month earlier. Life was good.

He was practising for that year’s Indianapolis 500 and was heading toward the third turn of the 2.5-mile-long race track. At approximately 230 miles an hour, part of the car’s suspension broke and Hinchcliffe couldn’t steer it. The car hit the wall and a connecting rod pierced the tub of the car, went through the seat, passed through his upper right thigh and pelvis, continued through his left hip and jammed itself into the other side of the cockpit.

James Hinchcliffe, 28 years old at the time, immediately started to bleed to death.

After reviewing the circumstances that made him part of the story, and while standing in the middle of a concourse at the Enercare Centre, surrounded by racing fans either heading for their seats or walking through it to cool off in the air-conditioned air, Pohlman picked up the story:

“I’m assigned to the track by Methodist Hospital, and I’m on duty throughout the month of May. I’m usually at the infield medical centre. We have a fully stocked and staffed emergency department — we have everything we need to save lives in cases of emergency. We think we offer a unique capability.

“My job out there is hours and hours of boredom. The more bored I am, the better I feel. If I’m not needed, that’s a good thing. They’re (the drivers) so well protected now. We all saw Scott Dixon’s accident in the race this year (in which he crashed, big time). I thought for sure he’d be a patient. But he was fine.

“We see everything that happens on the track via closed-circuit TV. We saw the hit (Hinchcliffe’s crash); usually we ask them (the drivers) to flip up their visors to let us know if things are OK and he didn’t. He just bobbed his head.

“Mike Yates (IndyCar’s manager of track safety operations and the man in charge of the Holmatro Safety Team) got to James and couldn’t get him out of the car. He said he put his hand in the tub and it felt like there was a little pool of oil, and when he brought his hand out, he saw that it was blood. So, he knew he (Hinchcliffe) was bleeding badly already.

“They didn’t know why he was trapped; they didn’t know why they couldn’t get him out. They thought the tub had been compressed to the point where he was just stuck. They didn’t pull on him or yank him in any way — then. They got the tub apart (with Jaws of Life), and they saw that he had been impaled through his pelvis by a part of the suspension.”

It is now two years since this happened. There is not the sensitivity surrounding this story like there once was. Language used to describe methodology was once sympathetic, but All’s well that ends well, and Dr. Pohlman, a tall, strong man, doesn’t look like the kind to beat around the bush about anything.

So, he continued.

“Generally, they’re (the safety team) taught to leave impaling things in but he was starting to be in bad shape and he was losing a lot of blood so they just pulled him off like a piece of shish kebab. And then they put him in the back of the ambulance.”

It was at this point that confusion and second-guessing kicked in.

“They radioed in — they said afterward that everything went very smoothly, but it didn’t; there was a lot of confusion and radio traffic — and Mike said, ‘We’re going straight to Methodist.’ Dr. (Michael) Olinger (IndyCar’s director of medical services) came by and said, ‘No, stop by the medical centre and pick up Dr. Pohlman, he’s coming with you,’ and they said, ‘No, we don’t need a surgeon; we’re going straight to Methodist,’ and Olinger said: ‘No, get the @&*%$ over here and pick up Pohlman.’

“We got to Methodist Hospital, which is not far from the speedway, thank goodness, and along the way, I’d been adding up the amount of blood he was losing — roughly — and by the time we got there, he was down way over 50 per cent.

“The first place we take him is what we call the shock room, where there’s an evaluation. I said if I can just transfuse him, he’ll be OK. So, I roll him over and there’s another pool of blood and that’s when I said we’re going right to the OR (operating room).

“From our shock room, where we first came in, to the operating room, is down a hallway and up an elevator. I kept a finger on his pulse as we were doing this, and just as we came off the elevator, I lost his pulse. He still had a rhythm on the monitor — his heart was still trying to pump blood but he had no blood left — and my experience was that whenever that happens, you’ve got about two minutes before the heart stops.

“So, we ran to an operating room — we always have an OR on standby, ready to go — we made a run for that room, put him on the operating table, splashed some anesthetic on his abdomen, opened him up, and I went down and tried to find the bleeder (which was his superior gluteal artery). I got my hand around it and controlled it — that was the artery that had been severed — and it was in his pelvis and then I just stopped and waited.

“I waited for the anesthesia to get caught up, and I started giving him blood and by about that time we’d given him 24 pints of blood. From the time he hit the emergency department to the shock room to the time I got my hand on the artery, he’d gotten about 24 pints. We calculated it out and he lost well over 60 per cent of what was supposed to be in him.

“You or I and most people could only lose 55 or 60 per cent before we’re dead. He lost well over that. Well past death. I get a lot of pats on the back for what happened that day, but I tell James that he saved himself because he was in such great physical condition, that he could sustain a blood loss that you or I could not have sustained.

“He gave me the two minutes I needed to get in there and stop the bleeding.”

Most times, the story ends there — but there’s more.

“The real story is his comeback,” Pohlman said. “He got back in the gym and his trainer would call me because the guy pushes himself to exhaustion. ‘We can’t stop him,’ the trainer would say. ‘If I say no, he’s just going to go somewhere else.’

“I stayed as his doctor. I didn’t leave him afterward. He had a bit of up and down. For the amount of injury he had, the seriousness of it, this was not unexpected. They said he was up walking in no time and discharged in a week, and that’s true, but I also had to readmit him to the hospital a couple of times, which not many people know.

“The nurses just adopted him and he’d go up on the floor, or I’d take him up there, and Shelley Lucas was his nurse, and he’d come by and she’d look at me and glare and say, ‘Just get out of the way, will you?’ Hinch and I became good friends after that.”

Pohlman didn’t start out to be a life-saving surgeon at a speedway in Indiana.

“I went to medical school in Chicago, and I was a resident at the University of Wisconsin. I did a fellowship in trauma at the University of Washington in Seattle. I stayed on the faculty there and was promoted up to professor. I was there for close to 20 years before I was recruited to Indiana University in 2008.

“I knew a little bit about racing — I grew up in Illinois. But (when I joined Methodist Hospital) my chairman called me in and said, ‘You’re going to the race track.’ That’s how I got into it.

“And I love racing today. It’s a fantastic sport.”

 

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Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 23 July 2017 - 00:03.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Sampionat se nastavlja sledeceg vikenda trkom na Mid-Ohaju:

 

 

Jedan od klasicnih americkih autodroma sa dugom i bogatom istorijom, u senci slavnijih Elkart Lejka i Votkins Glena ali ne i manje atraktivan sa puno brzih krivina i velikim visinskim razlikama, Mid-Ohajo je otvoren davne 1962. godine i originalno je bio popriste trka sporskih prototipova i F5000. Pocetkom 1980-tih i Indikar pocinje da se takmici ovde sto uz par godina pauze cini do danas. U neposrednoj blizini Leksingtona u Ohaju, ovo je domaca staza Reholovih koji stanuju u blizini. Tata Bobi je ovde pobedjivao dvaput, sin Grem jednom. Rekorder po broju pobeda ovde je Skot Dikson sa 5, a pobedu brani proslogodisnji sampion Simon Pazeno.

 

Trka je na programu u nedelju 30. jula sa pocetkom u 3:30 popodne (9:30 uvece po srednjeevropskom).

 

[Rad-oh-yeah?]