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
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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.

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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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