• St. Petersburg Indycar race - dirty rotten shame!

    From a425couple@21:1/5 to All on Mon Mar 12 08:36:58 2018
    XPost: rec.autos.sport.indy

    On 3/11/2018 4:11 PM, a425couple wrote:
    St. Petersburg Indycar race -
    In my opinion, there was a dirty rotten shame!

    Knock, knock, anyone here?

    IndyCar Rookie Nearly Won His First Race Until He Got Stuffed Into A Wall

    Bradley Brownell
    Yesterday 5:30pmFiled to: RACING
    53.1K
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    GIF: IndyCar on ABC
    Imagine being Robert Wickens. You’ve taken the pole position for your
    debut IndyCar race, and you’ve lead nearly the entire race with smooth driving and good strategy. You’re taking the restart in the lead with
    just two laps remaining, and all you have to do it make it through the
    first corner and you’re basically home free. Then, Indy 500 champion Alexander Rossi makes a hail Mary move down the inside into the braking
    zone, gets loose, and Forza-Onlines his car directly into your right
    hand side-pod. Spun, in the wall, race over, you lose. You’d be pissed, right?

    Thankfully the Canadian Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver was calm and collected in the aftermath of the incident which cost him the race
    victory. Rossi claims Wickens moved over on him, while Wickens says he
    simply thought Rossi would have treated him better. It was a
    low-percentage move by Rossi, but I can’t exactly fault him for trying
    to make it work.

    St. Petersburg is kind of a terrible race track for, you know, actual
    racing. Like most street circuits, it is tight and doesn’t allow for
    much passing. Unlike others, however, there is a long straight with a
    deep braking zone into a sweeping right hander to a 90 degree left
    hander. It’s really the only place to pass on the whole circuit. With
    just two laps to go, the restart was essentially Rossi’s best shot of
    taking the win. He had to take it, and he had to make that risk. That’s
    what racing is.



    Sadly, the move didn’t pay off for either driver, as Wickens was dumped
    into a spin that saw him stopped in the wall at the outside of turn 1,
    and Rossi lost ground to Sebastien Bourdais and Graham Rahal, ultimately settling back into third. Seconds later, the caution flags are out again
    for the stopped Wickens car, and Bourdais is declared the winner.

    Rossi was not given a penalty, as the series deemed the contact a simple
    racing incident. I feel awful for Wickens, but I also think this was the
    right decision. It was a dumb move, but a move that had to be made.

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    https://jalopnik.com/indycar-rookie-nearly-won-his-first-race-until-he-got-s-1823685762

    comments include
    Robb Holland
    Bradley Brownell
    3/11/18 6:37pm
    Sorry Bradley I disagree that it was a dumb move. 3 laps to go on a
    restart you cover the inside line. It is very difficult for someone to
    go around the outside in turn 1 at St Pete. It can be done but its low percentage move. If someone is going to leave the inside open you are
    going to go for it.

    Rossi was fully along side and Wickens tried to keep him pinned to the
    curbing (which is also why Rossi clipped to curb as he was trying to
    make room for Wickens as he was running tight there) to make Rossi pich
    the corner and lose exits speed and it didn’t work.

    IMHO It was a totally legit move by Rossi.

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    NYankee1927
    Robb Holland
    3/11/18 7:04pm
    Completely agree. We’ve seen this move many times at St. Pete. Usually
    the outside car can give tons of room, they both survive and the outside
    car takes the pass back right in the next corner. It is a very unique
    situation that is a characteristic of only this track

    If Wickens has been a little more flexible he would have still won the
    race while letting Rossi pull whatever move he liked. It happens and I
    look forward to seeing him up front the rest of the year.

    Edit: I’d like to add Rossi was already side by side, he was close to
    have completed the pass. Wickens def needed to give him more room.

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    McFuu
    Robb Holland
    3/11/18 7:28pm
    It wasn’t a dumb move, it was a bad move that led to a comedy of errors. Wickens failed to take a defensive line, Rossi was loose in the braking
    zone and ran over too much curb, Wicken then proceeded on the racing
    line to attempt to limit the space Rossi had, Wickens should have known
    Rossi was too loose, coming in too fast and was going to run out wider
    than a proper passing line.

    Hindsight and all that, if Wickens would have abandoned the racing line
    and left Rossi a bit more space, he would have lost all his speed after
    hitting the curbing. But Wickens decided to stay of the race line, and
    absorbed Rossi’s slide, giving Rossi a better look at the next corner,
    and actually helping him out.

    It was a bad move on Rossi, because it was impossible to hold without
    colliding with Wickens, but it wasn’t dumb because barring a mistake it
    was Rossi’s only chance.

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    Don
    NYankee1927
    3/11/18 7:41pm
    Spot on.

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    BubbleKing
    Robb Holland
    3/11/18 7:55pm
    Totally agree, Wickens unnecessarily pinched Rossi tight to the apex. He could’ve given more room and likely maintained the lead through the next corner.

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    alexgiangreco056
    Bradley Brownell
    3/11/18 5:40pm
    Am I the only one that thinks Rossi was putting it where it shouldn’t
    have been? He was wicked loose for several laps before this incident. He should’ve known he wouldn’t have had the grip to stick that pass, especially when trying to delay the start of the braking zone so late.
    Seemed like a desperation move, one he’s talented enough to avoid.

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    RudyBilt
    alexgiangreco056
    3/11/18 5:52pm
    If you no longer go for a gap that exists.... you probably know the
    rest, so, yeah.

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    PLC
    alexgiangreco056
    3/11/18 5:55pm
    In theory, I don’t fault Rossi for going for the gap. I fault Rossi for sliding sideways out of the gap, into the other driver.

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    OldAlfista
    alexgiangreco056
    3/11/18 5:55pm
    Yes, he was just thrown out.

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    Barbarie
    alexgiangreco056
    3/11/18 5:56pm
    You’re certainly not the only one, but he had to try it. If he hadn’t, everyone would be talking about how Rossi is a wuss for not going for it
    and not a real racer. It sucks that it ended like that, and I’m sure no
    one wishes it didn’t as much as Rossi (except for Wickens, obviously),
    but it wasn’t a crazy out of control move.

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    chaboud
    Bradley Brownell
    3/11/18 6:40pm
    I like Rossi, but that was dumb. He just jammed his car in there with no
    chance of keeping it planted on that line, and it cost him a position.
    In my view, as he caused the incident, it should have cost him more.

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    ShakyPuddin
    chaboud
    3/11/18 8:10pm
    Okay jackass. You keep racing for 2nd place.

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    Grand Muf
    ShakyPuddin
    3/11/18 8:26pm
    Ya you do because 2nd place is worth a lot more in the championship than
    a DNF due to poor decision making

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    SgtFancypants
    ShakyPuddin
    3/11/18 9:45pm
    Ahhh yes, the Ricky Bobby school of racing. If you’re not first, you’re last. Rossi had a right to his line, he had solid overlap at turn in.
    But Rossi also had a responsibility to HOLD his line. Rossi ran out of
    skill and took out the race leader in the process. The move may or may
    not have been dumb, but that depends on if Rossi knew ahead of time what
    the curbing was going to do to his car.

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    ShakyPuddin
    Grand Muf
    3/11/18 10:40pm
    Rossi got 3rd. Soooo...

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    My Kids Have Four...Wheels
    Bradley Brownell
    3/11/18 6:16pm
    Side note, the cars look like they did in the mid-90s and it’s fucking glorious. I might start watching again just based on that.

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    ShakyPuddin
    My Kids Have Four...Wheels
    3/11/18 8:11pm
    Yeah although I’m against spec racing these cars look great. I may even
    hit #TheGlen.

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    Scot Zediker despises all organic meatbags, except the Master of course.
    My Kids Have Four...Wheels
    3/11/18 8:25pm
    And with lower downforce compared to last season, the drivers have to
    drive. Any time they showed the wheel in any of these cars, the drivers
    were almost constantly making small mid-corner adjustments.

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    BlindDude
    ShakyPuddin
    3/11/18 11:00pm
    Watkins Glen is off the schedule this year. Portland is returning and
    taking it’s place.

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    shop-teacher
    ShakyPuddin
    3/12/18 9:14am
    No you won’t. Nobody showed up for two years in a row, and it’s off the schedule.

    Reply

    Sollus
    Bradley Brownell
    3/11/18 10:05pm
    The bigger issue is that ABC totally sucked ass with their coverage
    today. Their shitty broadcasters were boring, they had an absolute
    shitton of commercials, and they forced Bourdais to sit in his car on
    pit lane so ABC could half ass their interview to make sure they got to
    some shitty college basketball pregame show. Zero other post race
    interviews. I’ll find them online but Jesus what a fucking joke.

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    Scot Zediker despises all organic meatbags, except the Master of course.
    Sollus
    3/11/18 10:33pm
    According to Robin Miller, ABC stands for Always Bad Coverage. And
    apparently it wasn’t enough for them to keep Eddie Cheever and Scott
    Goodyear in the broadcast booth - they also had to cheat us out of
    postrace interviews with anyone other than Bourdais, plus there was
    nothing resembling even an attempt at a prerace show.

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    BlindDude
    Sollus
    3/11/18 11:11pm
    This was probably the worst Indycar broadcast I’ve ever seen on ABC.

    ABC’s coverage always sucks, but I don’t remember them ever taking that many commercial breaks during a race before. They basically split the
    time 50/50 between ads and race coverage.

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