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[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Poster za Indi 500 2018. izdanje. LINK službenog sajta sa svim informacijama i prodavnicom karata.

 

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

- Kao jedan od glavnih kandidata za upraznjeno mesto u ekipi Kojn javlja se ruki Zek Klaman Demelo, Indi Lajt vozac koji je prosle sezone u Sonomi debitovao u Indikaru. Demelo ima sponzorstvo, sto je bitan uslov za Kojna (Derek Dejli je logican izbor, ali nema novaca), i ako se ova saradnja ostvari to bi znacilo trojica Kanadjana na gridu...

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Ovo je veliki ustupak Penskiju:
 

IndyCar dampers to remain open for development
Friday, 03 November 2017
By Marshall Pruett (words & images)



 
IndyCar competition president Jay Frye and his team have tabled a plan that would have changed the series' stance on dampers development starting in 2018.

As one of the only components on the Dallara DW12 chassis that is not spec, teams continue to invest extraordinary sums in evolving damper technology through lightweight materials and trick internal components that have a surprisingly large influence in lap time. And with the continual reduction in track testing permitted by IndyCar, damper R&D and off-track tuning has become an area of significant expenditure, which led some teams to ask the series to consider introducing a spec solution next season.

"We had a year-end team manager meeting a few weeks ago, gave them some pre-meeting homework to complete and compiled it all for the meeting, and in it, we went through 50 topics," Frye told RACER. "We asked for their input, and from that homework, we looked at a lot of things coming out of the current season and next season, and one of the items was that there will be no changes to the dampers in 2018."

The meeting did, however, produce a timeline for when IndyCar's open-damper policy could change.

"There's nothing concrete, but we did discuss dampers staying as they are in 2018, again probably in 2019, and then possibly the first time we would make changes would be in '20," he added.



Of the most popular damper solutions on pit lane, the Swedish Ohlins brand and Penske Racing Shocks are found on most cars, and to purchase an off-the-shelf set from Ohlins, with the inerter included, a check for $31,600 is needed. With most teams well-versed in having multiple sets prepared for each session – each with slight differences in how they react to compression and rebound – it's not uncommon to have at least three sets assigned to each driver, which raises the one-time investment to almost $100,000. It's also worth noting the customer Penske shocks are not the same as used on Team Penske's car; those are custom, and exclusive to its drivers.

With the sets in hand, putting a price on R&D is impossible due to each team's respective budget and willingness to commit funding toward the project. Some teams will go as far as designing and machining their own dampers, which requires the hiring or contracting of a design engineer and the material costs to produce however many sets prior to an extensive R&D program. Damper engineers command low six-figure salaries, and then there's the cost of seven-post shaker rig testing – wealthier teams have purchased their own while others pay $5000-$7000 per day to use one at a facility that rents time on their unit.

The use of damper simulation software has also become standard fare, with a single license costing approximately $50,000 per year.

Where IndyCar will face a challenge if it wants to reduce costs in the area of dampers and the associated R&D is separating the price of the physical components and the sums being spent on off-track testing. As history has shown, as tighter regulations are implemented by the series, teams spend more money to overcome those restrictions through computer simulation tools, wind tunnel testing, shaker rig time, and any other method that can provide performance improvements away from the racetrack.

Forcing teams to use spec dampers would save money for some teams, but it won't address the unregulated off-track development costs that will only increase in reaction to the possible rule change in 2020.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

IndyCar tire allotment changes being considered
Monday, 06 November 2017
By Marshall Pruett / Images by Gavin Baker/LAT



 
A significant change to tire allocation rules is under consideration by the Verizon IndyCar Series. If it's approved by IndyCar's competition department, rookie drivers and those outside the top 10 in points could receive an extra set of Firestones to use at their discretion.

"We're looking at it and think it would be helpful for rookies," competition president Jay Frye told RACER. "I'm still a little bit mixed on it for drivers outside the top 10, and it wouldn't start right away for them. It wouldn't start at Race 2 or Race 3; you might have some people who've had a bad race and that's the only reason they're not in the top 10, so what we're discussing is maybe starting after the Indy 500 for that program.

"But I think for the rookies, who we always hear are needing more track time and have to conserve their sets of tires [in practice] which holds them back, this could be a good way around that problem for them."



Frye is also conscious of the fact that with most teams restricting their on-track running during practice sessions to save fresh tires for the race, fans are often treated to practice outings where only a few cars are running at the same time (above: Spencer Pigot cools his heels while waiting for seat time). If the extra-set rule is ratified for the 10-12 drivers outside the top 10, it could come with an expectation for that set to be consumed prior to qualifying.

"The first part of the rule has merit for the rookies because they will benefit from putting more laps in the books," Frye continued. "And with the second part of the rule, it gives each race promoter more opportunities to have more drivers out and practicing.

"We just need to make sure that if it's implemented, it's done in a way, and at a point in the season, where drivers who aren't in the top 10 are outside for real reasons, and would also benefit from extra time to improve wherever they're coming up short. The last thing to say is those who are inside and outside the top 10 have been pretty consistent."

A meeting with Firestone is planned for later this month, at which IndyCar will determine whether the extra-set rule can be accommodated by its official tire partner.

"We're going to go through the tire quantities for events, and see if we did this after Indy, how it would affect their ability to support it," he said. "Firestone's been great to work with, and I'd venture to say that with the new universal body kit next year, there will be some changes to their tires to suit those changes, so there will be a lot for everyone to learn. That's another factor that's gone into this rule change we're looking at."

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- Dil izmedju investitora iz Francuske i SPM tima za ucesce Tristana Gomendija na Indi 500 se izgleda raspao. Kako stvari trenutno stoje, SPM bolid #77 je otvoren za sve zainteresovane - mozda Montoja?

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MILLER: The dividing line
Tuesday, 07 November 2017
By Robin Miller / Images by J. Bloxham/LAT; S. Bloxham/LAT; Coates/LAT; Abbott/LAT; Levitt/LAT; LePage/LAT



 
A decade ago, Josef Newgarden and Conor Daly were chasing each other around Mark Dismore's go-kart track in New Castle, Indiana, taking turns beating each other but, more importantly, whipping up on the competition before moving their battles to Skip Barber. They headed for England with Team USA in 2008, where Josef won the Formula Ford Festival and Daly won the Walter Hayes Trophy.

If Formula 1 wasn't beckoning, at least it was part of the nightly conversation around the two dinner tables, and Derek Daly's past relationships in F1 and attention to detail seemed to give his son a leg up.

Yet initially it was Newgarden who stuck it out in Europe the longest, suiting up with Carlin for the inaugural GP3 season in 2010. Daly, meanwhile, jumped into Star Mazda, winning races as a rookie in 2009 and then the championship with Juncos in 2010. But by 2011, the pair were teammates at Sam Schmidt in Indy Lights.

Newgarden won the championship, while Daly captured Long Beach but then headed off for a four-year jaunt in GP2 [below, in 2014] and GP3 and a taste of testing at Force India, which undoubtedly set him back over here in the States.



And today they find themselves at opposite ends of the IndyCar spectrum.

In his first season with Roger Penske, Newgarden vanquished his more experienced competition with an aggressive style that netted him the IndyCar championship. It was a great story, well-deserved run and the 26-year-old (27 in December) is now perched atop the Team Penske flagship for what promises to be many years of victories and titles as he leads North America's most successful racing team.

Daly, recently released from A.J. Foyt's team after one year, is scrambling to try and find enough sponsorship to land at Dale Coyne with his former engineer Mike Cannon so he can continue as a full-timer.

So how did these two evenly-matched kids get so separated? Is it because Josef has clearly lapped Daly and owns a sizeable edge in talent, or is it through having people that believe in your ability and giving you a chance to develop and show what you've got?

Clearly, it's the latter, and before all you experts weigh in with your theories, do me a favor and just read along for a few minutes.

The idea that Daly had his chance and didn't capitalize on it is as ludicrous as saying Sage Karam is out of his depth and belongs in sports cars because he also flamed out. Really? Daly has made 39 starts over four very scrambled years, while Karam has a whopping 13 IndyCar races under his 22-year-old belt in what amounts to less than one full season spread over three years.

What's infuriating is the lack of time an IndyCar driver is given to try and make it in 2017 compared to drivers just a few years ago in F1, or the old guard in IndyCar.

So for argument's sake let's simply look at some stone-cold stats across the board that illustrate how much patience used to be in place.



Jenson Button made 113 starts before he scored his initial F1 win [ED: at Hungary in 2006, above] and went on to become the 2009 champion.

Nico Rosberg made 111 starts before his first win and finally won the 2016 F1 title.

Miki Hakkinen took 96 starting lights before winning and then became a two-time world champion.

Nigel Mansell went 72 races before tasting champagne and Rubens Barrichello amassed 123 starts prior to win No. 1.

Now let's look at American open-wheel racing's greatest story of perseverance, pluck and second chances. Johnny Rutherford was a brave sprint car warrior who came to Indy in 1963 and won his first IndyCar race in 1965 at Atlanta in his 33rd start.

Lone Star J.R.'s next trip to Victory Lane came eight years and 98 races later in 1973 at Ontario with McLaren, which resurrected his career and vaulted him into legend status with three Indy 500 wins. Eight years between wins, and he still got rides because he was fast, brave and, more importantly, there were lots of cars and opportunities in those lethal days of the '60s and '70s.

Hell, it took the incomparable A.J. Foyt 34 races to earn his initial Champ Car win, 36 starts for Michael Andretti to see his first checkered flag and 41 green flags for Bobby Unser, another three-time Indy king, to triumph.

Helio Castroneves answered the bell 46 times before climbing the fence in Detroit [in 2000, below]. Oh, did I forget to mention all the tire testing and test days in the USAC/CART era?



How about Takuma Sato? This year's Indy 500 winner made 91 F1 starts and 52 IndyCar starts before scoring win No. 1 at Long Beach in 2013, but going zero-for-143 and still having a job was only thanks to Honda's endearing loyalty. And good for Sato, as gracious and appreciative as any man on the Borg-Warner Trophy before him, but who gets that kind of time anymore?

Thankfully, Newgarden did. Not 10 years like Sato, but the right amount of nurturing, support and track time to learn his craft, his car and his limits.

Winning the Lights crown got him $1 million and his foot in the IndyCar door in 2012 but if Sarah Fisher, Wink Hartman and Ed Carpenter hadn't stepped up and kept JoNew in a competitive, full-time environment he'd likely be a sports car driver today like Dane Cameron, Jonathan Bomarito, John Edwards and so many other talented open-wheel kids that realized early that IndyCar was a dead-end without millions.

Think not? Even though it was very apparent to some of us that Newgarden was Penske Perfect material a few years ago, The Captain and Tim Cindric didn't really see it like that when they first interviewed him back at 21. But I think it all clicked after watching this kid fight off the pain of his Texas crash in 2016 and kick everyone's ass at Iowa.

It took Newgarden 55 starts to score his initial win at Barber in 2015 in the beginning of his fourth full-time season, and his relationship with savvy engineer Jeremy Milles blossomed into a confident collaboration that expected results.

It's impossible to put a price on stability, structure and confidence – three things Daly desperately needs but has never received in his travails with five engineers and four teams – the polar opposite of a Team Penske environment.



Ditto for Karam, who went from the back to the front at Indy as a teenage rookie twice during the 2014 Indy 500 before finishing ninth. Chip Ganassi gave him a partial drive in 2015, where he earned a podium, was about to win the pole in a monsoon in Detroit before getting a bogus red flag and showed me the kind of aggression that you can back down but not teach. He's Paul Tracy II and just the kind of young, edgy racer that IndyCar covets but nobody seems to notice. He won at every level in the Mazda ladder, yet now he's an Indy-only driver at age 22 because nobody wants to take a chance?

I'm one of Ed Jones' biggest fans and his shocking ascension to Ganassi as Scott Dixon's teammate was a nice reward for a great rookie season – but is he that much better than Daly or Karam? I think not but Chip thinks so, because since Jimmy Vasser departed he hasn't believed American drivers can get the job done. And that's his prerogative.

Yet Newgarden's entrée to the throne room should have told a lot of these owners to look around and open their eyes. I'm thrilled Ed Carpenter is keeping Spencer Pigot, below, because he's another young Yankee with a bright future, given the time.



And it's not fair to just blame the owners for the lack of development. The cars are too expensive, the tires are too expensive, the purses are paltry, the engine manufacturers dictate way too much policy and control, while drivers are simply expected to bring or find money.

It pisses me off that A.J. sent Daly packing, especially after his strong close to the year, and having Super Tex invest and develop a young American seemed perfect – and one more storyline IndyCar needs.

But don't tell me that Daly and Karam aren't good enough or they've had their chances, because that's a load of s***. What neither has had yet is a gestation period to shine with a top team geared toward them, where they're not looking over their shoulder or worried about budgets or losing their rides to somebody with money.

I don't know if either can salvage a career out of IndyCar. But if they can't, it won't be because they're not good enough.

It will be because they weren't given the time.

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Koliko je ovo vest uopste - u svakom slucaju nije iznenadjenje, no Junkos Rejsing Indi Lajt tim koji nakon debija na proslogodisnjem Indi 500 za ovu godinu najavljuju ucesce na 4 Indikar trke sa aktuelnim Lajt sampionom Kajlom Kajzerom za volanom kazu da im je prioritet zatvaranje finansijske konstrukcije i pronalazenje sponzora i za ostatak Indikar sezone 2018. Rikardo Junkos na raspolaganju ima dve DW12 sasije koje je kupio od pokojnog KVSH tima, ali kaze da namerava da u dolazecoj sezoni koristi drugi bolid samo ako je obezbedio ucesce sa prvim bolidom na svim trkama sezone.

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- prema pisanju medija u Brazilu, doskorasnji Indi Lajt vozac Mateus Lajst treba svakog casa da bude zvanicno potvrdjen kod Fojta. On bi tako postao timski kolega Tonija Kanana za kompletnu brazilsku postavu u Fojtu.

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Newgarden, Carpenter duo test aero kit at Texas
Wednesday, 15 November 2017
By Mark Glendenning



 
Reigning IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden and ECR duo Ed Carpenter and Spencer Pigot were the latest to sample the new-for-2018 universal aero kit in a one-day Chevrolet test at Texas Motor Speedway on Wednesday.

It was the second such test in less than a month at the 1.5-miler, following on from the Honda test featuring Scott Dixon and James Hinchcliffe in late October.

"It feels different [to the 2017 car]; I wouldn't say drastically different from a feel standpoint," said Newgarden. "This type of an oval will be less [of a] change than some of the other tracks with aero configurations. There's a small difference just running alone.

"Everything getting lower, the sidepods getting pushed forward – those are the big aesthetic differences we really wanted. There is more crash structure in the way of the driver with the sidepods coming forward, but it looks more like an open-wheel car. The shaping of the sidepod looks like a proper open-wheel car. The engine coming lower, having a blow-through roll hoop signifying that's a turbocharged car... those little things I think make it look really, really good."

Pigot's sole oval appearance last year came with Juncos at the Indy 500, and he said that the test was a good refresher in the art of turning left as he prepares to move from road/street course duties in ECR's No.20 to running full time in the No.21 next year.

"I'm excited to go oval racing again," he said. "It's been awhile since I've consistently driven on ovals. I think it will only help that I will be in the car throughout the whole season rather than here and there.

"This is something I've never really been a part of before; developing a somewhat new car with the team. On the road course side of things, it's been all my feedback. Hopefully, it is a good thing and not a bad thing when we get to the first race. It's a cool experience to step up into a full-season role and also step up in a development way as well. It's nice to be here on the ovals and have Ed driving the car a lot. He's got a ton of experience, someone I can ask questions to and relate to a lot more than when we've been doing road-course testing so far."

IndyCar is scheduled to race at Texas on June 9.

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- U ostalim vestima, pregovori o eventualnoj buducoj ulicnoj trci u Nesvilu su propali jer lokalne vlasti odbijaju da daju potrebne dozvole organizatorima.

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- Kako je najavljivano ovih dana, Lajst potvrdjen kod Fojta:

 

 

A.J. Foyt Racing has confirmed that 19-year-old Brazilian Matheus Leist will drive its No. 4 ABC Supply Dallara-Chevrolet in the Verizon IndyCar Series next year, alongside veteran teammate Tony Kanaan.

 

Tako smo posle Tim Kanada kod SPM dobili i Tim Brazil kod Fojta.

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Kad vec spomenuh Tim Kanada:

 

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Tony Donohue @TonyD1070

 

Our good friend Robin Miller has a treatable form of bone cancer. He will undergo stem cell in a few weeks. Good news/bad news.

 

Robin Miler je onaj brkajlo sto pise za Racer.com i ima video-blog koji prenosim ovde. Ne daj se matori!!!

 

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Carpenter: “The way you sense feedback is different” on 2018 IndyCar
 


By: David Malsher, US Editor
Yesterday at 9:42pm


Following Chevrolet testing at Texas Motor Speedway, Ed Carpenter says the behavior of the 2018 aerokit-equipped car provides the driver with a different feeling.

IndyCar's only owner/driver was sharing Chevy’s testing duties with fulltime Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Spencer Pigot and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, the first time they had tried the new superspeedway package. Last month the ECR pair and Penske’s Will Power tested the short-oval aerokit at Phoenix.

Carpenter, who won at TMS in 2014, told IndyCar.com: “There’s obviously a lot that’s changed since we were here before, still figuring out [the new car], to be honest.

“Compared to Phoenix, it’s not as different here, but it’s definitely still different. It has a different feel. Like, the way you drove it at Phoenix was probably a little more different than here, but it makes downforce in such a different way that the way that you sense the feedback and stuff from the car, to me, is a little different.”

Reigning IndyCar champion Newgarden, who will carry #1 next year but was still testing as #2, stated: “I wouldn’t say it feels drastically different from a feel standpoint. I think this type of oval will be less of a change than some of the other tracks with the aero configurations, but there’s small differences just running by ourselves. I’m sure I’ll have more of a feeling difference when I get to run in traffic.

“We’re just working through different aero sweeps,” Newgarden continued. “Understanding what it does with where we were last year and where we’re probably going to go as a series next year, as far as downforce levels and were the series is going to want us at.”

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Danika Patrik najavila odlazak u penziju, dogodine vozi samo Dejtonu i Indi 500:
 

Danica Patrick’s driving career is not quite over, as she confirmed Friday that she will run the 2018 Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500.

In a tearful exit, Patrick confirmed that 2017 would be her final full-time season as a NASCAR competitor.

“I feel like I should be doing this. Sometimes we just get kind of nudged there. Sometimes we get big nudges and sometimes it's little,” she said. “I’ve never had sponsor issues. It made me think about things. I’m excited about the next phase, trust me.”

Patrick said she will compete in the Daytona 500 as well as the Indianapolis 500 next season.

Patrick said nothing was finalized as far as teams for those two races next season.

"After Indy, that's the end," she declared.

 

Jos nema reci o timu za koji bi vozila Indi.