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JJLehto 
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 05 2006
Location: Tallahassee, FL
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Points: 34550
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 Posted: August 05 2015 at 00:16 |
 sleeper wrote:
It's amazing how well Rahal is doing this year, I've seen more than a few comments along the lines of "Who is this person and what has he done with Graham Rahal?", it's certainly caught everyone by surprise.
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Seriously! Total shocker. And after I proclaimed Newgarden was gunna be the next American Indy Hero. But yeah, cool stuff. Always been a fan of Letterman so guess, silly as it is, have a natural softspot for the Rahal Letterman team too.
MillsLayne wrote:
Should we even talk about the possibility of a BS spin by Karam? Where he did it is suspect, along with him being a teammate to Dixon.
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Again, I didnt see the race so can't comment, but I'll try to find video. What was the situation, like before hand and what it would've meant to spin on purpose. We know it happens, so it's always possible!
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MillsLayne
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 14 2010
Location: East Bay, CA
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Points: 2504
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Posted: August 05 2015 at 04:28 |
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Basically, we were about 20 or so laps from the finish and JPM was leading with an upcoming pitstop. He would've eventually cycled back out to the lead, except Karam spun as Dixon had either just pitted or was on pit road (Graham just happened to be on pit road, too) and as Montoya put it, he had heard that the spin was "dodgy". No one other than Sage and probably knows whether it was purpose or not, but I guess Indycar is or has looked into with probably nothing happening, although, like you said, it does happen. I just think back to Richmond in Cup in 2013 when Michael Waltrip Racing had the big controversy surrounding one of it's cars supposedly causing a yellow on purpose to help Truex, only for NASCAR to boot Truex from the Chase and gift Jeff Gordon a spot. Weird stuff.
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MillsLayne
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 14 2010
Location: East Bay, CA
Status: Offline
Points: 2504
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Posted: August 14 2015 at 22:13 |
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Well, Fontana has been dropped from the 2016 Indycar schedule. It sounded like ACS wanted the season finale, but they couldn't come to an agreement, so it's gone, at least for now. One good thing is that we might be getting Phoenix back.
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Man With Hat
Collaborator
Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team
Joined: March 12 2005
Location: Neurotica
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Points: 166178
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Posted: August 14 2015 at 22:34 |
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Jesus...what is Indycar going to be next year...10 races!?
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.
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MillsLayne
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 14 2010
Location: East Bay, CA
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Points: 2504
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Posted: August 14 2015 at 23:16 |
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No, they're expanding out and they'll also end the season later in the year, as opposed to the crap they've been doing for the past couple of seasons. It still isn't that long of a schedule, though. Also, nothing is finalized yet with it, so it could change for the better or worse.
Edited by MillsLayne - August 14 2015 at 23:17
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Man With Hat
Collaborator
Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team
Joined: March 12 2005
Location: Neurotica
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Points: 166178
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Posted: August 15 2015 at 01:25 |
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Well that's good. I guess I'm just used to Nascar's (and now F1's) late stretching schedule. Indycar feels so short and anticlimactic of late.
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.
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sleeper
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 09 2005
Location: Entropia
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Points: 16449
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Posted: August 15 2015 at 06:04 |
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Well, Road America is finally back on the schedule for next year and there'll be a race in Boston as well, though it looks like we're going to loose NOLA after only one year (the promotore Andretti are suing the the owners regarding non payments).
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MillsLayne
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 14 2010
Location: East Bay, CA
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Posted: August 15 2015 at 22:35 |
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RA back and NOLA gone isn't a bad thing at all. If we get Phoenix back, that will somewhat make up for Fontana not returning. Oh, and I found out last night that I'm going to the season finale in Sonoma in a couple of weeks! I hope to be celebrating a JPM championship at the end of the day, too!
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sleeper
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Posted: August 16 2015 at 06:06 |
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Phoenix should be interesting, I gather they've widened the track since Indycar was last there. Fontana seems to be a victim of TV scheduling, in that they couldn't find one outside of the current summer slot which wasn't wanted anymore, and that it might be a bit too close to Long Beach.
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sleeper
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Joined: October 09 2005
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Posted: August 20 2015 at 15:14 |
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Spa this weekend, the holiday is finally over. Ferrari have anounced this week that Raikkonen will be staying on for 2016, if the rumours of them being after Verstappen for 17 are true then it makes sense to keep him on for a year rather than find a stop-gap driver. Honda are bringing a big update for their engines this weekend, which judging by the run of power tracks before Hungary I'd say they desperatley need. Does mean they'll be volantarily taking engine penalties though, at least 5 places for Jenson and 10 for Alonso, maybe more depending on whether any of the other parts of the PU get changed as well. At least they be taking penalties in the races as well now, that silly rule has thankfully been gotten rid of following Austria.
Pocono this weekend as well for Indycars.
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MillsLayne
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Posted: August 20 2015 at 20:56 |
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This weekend in motorsport: Bristol, Pocono, Spa. Three great places with a lot of history and that also offer great racing in general. Should be good!
And McLaren ARE in fact going to be taking a hit on the grid this weekend. Even with the updates, they'll still be off by a bit. It'd be nice for them to just look towards 2016 to get both the speed and reliability up from this year to get them back towards the front.
With Indycar headed to Pocono this weekend, I'm hoping JPM can get his speed back. He's been incredibly unlucky the past couple of races with both Iowa and Mid Ohio not working in his favor, but his record in open wheeled 500 milers is impeccable. I think he's run in 10 or so 500 mile Indycar races, won 4 of them and has an average finish of like just above 3 or something crazy like that. That ability to outlast his opponents should help him this weekend if everything mechanically holds up.
Edited by MillsLayne - August 20 2015 at 21:00
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 11 2014
Location: Kyiv In Spirit
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Points: 20523
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Posted: August 21 2015 at 12:20 |
Spa and Bristol! What a contrast! Can't wait! 
Edited by SteveG - August 24 2015 at 16:24
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sleeper
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Joined: October 09 2005
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 09:19 |
Qualifying from Spa. Kimi always seems to get the most problems at Ferrari this year, should be interesting to see him come through the field. The fight for 3rd looks like it's going to be epic with Force India and Lotus getting right in there with Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull. The McLarens, Verstappen and Grosjean all take penalties, at least in Grosjeans case he'll still start in the top 10 since he qualified an excellent 4th. | Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
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| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m47.197s | - | | 2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m47.655s | 0.458s | | 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m48.537s | 1.340s | | 4 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Mercedes | 1m48.561s | 1.364s | | 5 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m48.599s | 1.402s | | 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m48.639s | 1.442s | | 7 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m48.685s | 1.488s | | 8 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus/Mercedes | 1m48.754s | 1.557s | | 9 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m48.825s | 1.628s | | 10 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m49.771s | 2.574s | | 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 1m49.121s | - | | 12 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull/Renault | 1m49.228s | - | | 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m49.586s | - | | 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | - | - | | 15 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m49.952s | - | | 16 | Will Stevens | Marussia/Ferrari | 1m52.948s | - | | 17 | Roberto Merhi | Marussia/Ferrari | 1m53.099s | - | | 18 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso/Renault | - | - | | 19 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m50.978s | - | | 20 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 1m51.420s | - |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 11 2014
Location: Kyiv In Spirit
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 09:55 |
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What is the deal mid season with McLaren? I've seen a lot of S**t boxes in my time that were improved to the point of race winners at mid season like the Lotus 77 "adjustacar" from 1976 which was made a race winner after extensive suspension redesigns from Tony Southgate, who was grabbed away from Shadow. This mid season showing from a mega team like McLaren is absolutely bizarre. I don't believe that the car's lack of performance can only be blamed on the Honda engine, the chassis seems to be a dog too.
Edited by SteveG - August 24 2015 at 16:25
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sleeper
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 19:32 |
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The chassis seems to be pretty good, arguably the best in slow corners and on traction (which is why it was excellent at Monaco and Hungry), though the team admit it's got a lot of drag to it and suffers in high speed corners. The problem really is Honda, reports seem to put the engine anywhere up to 120hp down on the Mercs, which is huge, and worst of all is that the ERS system, particularly the MGU-H, is badly inefficent to the point where they can't even use it over a full lap as it discharges all it's energy and can't charge back as much as it needs to.
Unfortunately Canada through Monza, with the exception of the Hungaroring, are the real power circuits of F1 (Monza, Spa, Silverstone, Red Bull Ring and Montreal are without doubt the fastest tracks in F1 and are all back to back with only Suzuka having as fast an average lap speed) and it's really hurt them, especially since they can't do much in the way of major development in season under current rules.
In the end it seems like Honda were just a year too early, maybe more, in their comback and it's really hurting them.
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MillsLayne
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Joined: September 14 2010
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 21:21 |
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While I'm irritated at the apparent lack of progress that Honda and McLaren have made this year, I kind of figured it would be an off year. If they're still in this state by the beginning of next year, I'll be in a panic state.
And on the NASCAR front, Bristol Motor Speedway has named one of it's grandstand sections after Jeff Gordon, called the Jeff Gordon Terrace, so that's cool.
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Man With Hat
Collaborator
Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team
Joined: March 12 2005
Location: Neurotica
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Points: 166178
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 22:07 |
MillsLayne wrote:
While I'm irritated at the apparent lack of progress that Honda and McLaren have made this year, I kind of figured it would be an off year. If they're still in this state by the beginning of next year, I'll be in a panic state.
And on the NASCAR front, Bristol Motor Speedway has named one of it's grandstand sections after Jeff Gordon, called the Jeff Gordon Terrace, so that's cool.
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Gordon looked sweet in the ol' rainbow colored car.
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.
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MillsLayne
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 14 2010
Location: East Bay, CA
Status: Offline
Points: 2504
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 23:09 |
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He did, until two separate tire/wheel issues under green sent him three laps down to a 20th place finish. This is definitely one of the most frustrating years to be a Gordon fan. He easily could've finished in the top 5 tonight.
Edited by MillsLayne - August 22 2015 at 23:09
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Man With Hat
Collaborator
Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team
Joined: March 12 2005
Location: Neurotica
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Points: 166178
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Posted: August 22 2015 at 23:20 |
Well I meant actually looked nice. I miss that paint scheme. Andyes... that was terrible to see. I'm hoping he at least gets a win in his final season.
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.
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sleeper
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 09 2005
Location: Entropia
Status: Offline
Points: 16449
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Posted: August 24 2015 at 16:19 |
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Best wishes to Justin Wilson, who remains in a coma after being hit by a large piece of debris after Sage Karam's crash in the Pocono race yesterday.
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Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005
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The Motorsport Thread 2015
