A Road Course Lights Our Darkest Hour
It has been a really tough week to be a fan. Tony George was ousted, leaving a deep haze of uncertainty over the league. Richmond was a bore, further exaggerating the deep and inherent problems with the current evolution of the aged Dallara.
Things were bad.
We needed a good weekend, from many fronts.
Well, yesterday, Two-Step Terry Angstadt and B-Boy Brian Barnhart held a State of the Union with team owners first, then with the media, to help thin the haze. At some level (and I don’t mean this disrespectfully), they are talking heads. Even if things are as bad as they felt, it’s their job to keep the calm.
Well, in addition to abating some of the fears running about, they released a couple interesting points. First, Double B said that there is still interest from the Honda, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Fiat. I think the middle three are all fairly connected, but in any event, it’s good to hear that they are still in touch. It’s been long said that Honda wants a V6 and Audi wants an I4. Well, I’d think that a 4 cylinder makes more sense in terms of marketing, because I think there are a lot of Turbo I4s out there in production (I own one).
Second, and more interesting, is that there are apparently two different chassis manufacturers competing for the rights to the 2011/2012 car. Apparently, they are actually radically different, but the details were fairly vague. Dallara is one, but the second wasn’t named. Panoz/Elan? Lola? Swift? It’s interesting, but the main point Barnhart made was that the goal is to keep costs down.
Then there was the race.
We had a pass for the lead on track, even if it was during a commercial.
There weren’t a ton of passes for the lead, but there were great battles on track.
In the end, there could have been no passes whatsoever, and it’d still feel great.
Justin Wilson took the checkers for Dale Coyne Racing. While I don’t think you can consider JW an underdog as a driver, I don’t think you could ever have convinced me that the DCR team would be so strong on the roadies this year. Bill Pappas and Justin Wilson have proven themselves. At some level, I hope that they stick with the team, because maybe, just maybe, this momentum can be used to make DCR a strong team. Bruno was brutal on the team last year, railing them publicly many times. Justin has been pure class. Few drivers come across as classy. They’ve had nothing on the ovals, but man. Today was the unthinkable.
There are even a lot of post-race factoids! Paul Tracy, Jimmy Vasser, and Paul Tracy’s Mom are on a road trip to Toronto from The Glen, and you can follow their adventure on Twitter. Speaking of PT’s Mom, Meesh reported this tidbit via twitter pre-race. It may not have worked out for PT today, but it’s always good to have him in the field. Apparently it’s always good to have his mom around too. Vision Racing reports via their Twitter that Emma Dixon is about to have a baby! Good luck, Emma!
It was a good day for the league, and it feels fantastic.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I’ll have to go back and read the transcript, but I thought BB said that Dallara was designing 2 different chassis and they were deciding between the 2??
July 5th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Also (sorry about double post) Martin reported that the next engine summit/meeting is this Friday (10th), so I imagine there should be new info coming on that front soon.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I took it that Dallara designed two very different chassis and they were testing for the best in terms of money and safety.
I read somewhere–can’t remember, sorry, that Honda wants to remain the sole supplier of engines. Supposedly because they don’t want to give up the 6 cylinder? Can’t vouch for the story, but I hope it’s not true.
July 5th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Now Vision Racing has reported that Scott and Emma had a healthy baby girl. Congrats to them.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Congrats to Dale Coyne Racing and to the Dixon clan! Good weekend all around.
July 7th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
With all due respect, I’d bet a fairly sizable chunk of money that there are more V6s on the road than I4 turbos. So would your opinion change if I turned out to be right about that? Personally, I’d rather see turbos back on the cars (whether a 4 or 6, inline or V) but just wanted to erect a fact check here.
July 7th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
If you’re saying NA V6 than Turbo I4s, you’d probably be right. The point I was putting across, though, was Turbo V6s vs. Turbo I4s. I may be wrong, but I would think that there are more Turbocharged I4s, with the whole sport subcompact tuner market, than Turbo V6s. In fact, I’m having a hard time coming up with one Turbo V6 that is in production right now. VW is practically built around the Turbo I4. Honda has one in their arsenal (an Acura SUV), and I’ve yet to figure out why they haven’t dropped it in the Civic Si.
July 7th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Yup-I was saying NA V6s. I thought that might be what Honda was arguing. I wasn’t sure that everyone was on the turbo bandwagon (besides us fans, that is). From a marketing perspective, a NA V6 would likely be the best for them, assuming that you want something that allegedly resembles what comes in our cars. But, yes, I’d agree with you if you’re going to restrict yourself to production turbo engines. That still can’t be but a small fraction of the autos on the road, though, no?