Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma *live* blog

Happy Sunday kids! Time to get up from your nap to have another nap while watching the SNOREnoma Grand Prix. Although Will Power and Nelson Philippe will tell you this weekend has been anything but boring… *more on that later*

I had another post that I uploaded and then forgot to go live… :rolleyes: I guess I’ll go back and edit that and see if there is anything worth even posting.

I’ve reached maximum velocity this summer as far as my time, patience, skillset is concerned. I’ve been working for a month straight now, between my 9-5 day job (or 8:30 – 6…7pm… “depending on the day” job), the wedding photographer gig, (we are in our busy season now) and the waning part of the racing season. I work and sleep, and when I can find the time and opportunity, I eat in there somewhere. I was going to fly to Chicago next weekend, but have opted to cover the junior open wheel formulas arriving in my hometown instead, and watching Chicago via computer.

Just a handful of races to go and a uber tight points battle which will likely go right to the final checkered flag. Our newest writer over at OWW did a little points battle scenario article last week, if you haven’t done so already, give it a look-see…

So… here we are, Snorenoma… The last of the road courses. The last of the opportunities for anyone other than a red car to make some noise. I would have put my money on Will Power but he is sitting in a hospital right now concussed, tooth chipped and back broken, somewhere down the hall from the equally concussed with two busted up legs Nelson Philippe. Frightening looking crash, which believe it or not could have been so much worse had either E.J or Will hit a few inches either way. My heart breaks for both of them. This is not the way for anyone to end the season, but especially for these two who’s future season (2010) is now in jeopardy. I wish them both a speedy recovery. According to IMS radio, Nelson could be released later today, while Will is still undergoing some tests and being fitted with a back brace.

What else is in the news.. ah yes, Danica. Not unlike any other race weekend, it’s been all about the Princess this weekend. Apparently she is staying put. And staying at AGR. (what is it with the AGR drivers using Ganassi as a bargaining tool?) Apparently she thinks just as highly of Kevin Savoree as I do (I just choked a little at the fact that Danica and I share a commonality…) (besides being bitches… ) and with him stepping away from the running of the team, she has decided (allegedly) to stick around.

ok… going to make sure all of my windows are working…

water-bottle filled, coffee hot and sugary, ass cams loaded. (ok, they are only ass-cams when the drivers get in their cars on the grid, but still… it’s a fun viewing moment) Timing and scoring loaded. I’ve got Justin Wilson, Robert Doornbos, Oriol Servia and Dario FROchitti as my incar choices.

START YOUR ENGINES! (nice job Stacy somebody who plays basketball I think)

Viewing enhancements so far, E.J’s snake putting the squeeze on Jack Arute, much to E.J’s amusement.

Installation laps have begun… clean safe race boys and gals! It’s been a weird weekend in my world so far, so I could use some “happy” today.

Wow… lined up nicely. Good job kids!

Green Green Green!!
Yellow Yellow Yellow!!

Holy Clusterfuck batman!

Andretti into Rahal, into Patrick?
Dixon into Kanaan, into Viso

Servia manages to thread the needle and miss everyone, as does Mario Moraes.

commercial for repairs.

*did you hear how dejected Arute sounded when reporting that Danica was in for repairs… LOL!…*

Rahal toast. Thanks for coming out. (not from crash damage, but rather he broke his drive shaft)

EJ behind the wall. (unlucky bastard)
Dixon manages somehow not to go down a lap, despite sitting limp in the middle of the track for an eternity, and is not dead fucking last (lucky bastard)

Restart on Lap 3. Briscoe all over Franchitti like a fat kid on a smartee.

Lap 7, Wilson in for sticker reds, and running his own little off-sequence race. (not like he has anything to lose at this point)

*commercial*

Montagny complaining about the car. replaced the nose cone, but something still not right.

Doornbos chrome horns Hunter-Reay

Notice how humble and calm Rahal becomes when it’s “his” mistake that takes him out of the race?

Mutoh bringing the heat on Helio… Go get him Hideki!!

*commercial – Lap 13*

Mutoh takes a peek. Nope.
Moraes takes a peek on Wheldon. Yes! gets it done for P5 (picked up 7 spots on lap 1)

Back on Lap 15.

nothing really happened… I caught up on twitter….

*commercial Lap 18*

Two by Two battles according to timing and scoring: Mutoh on Helio, RHR on BobbyD, Antinucci on Matos, Conway on Carpenter, Montagny on Dixon

Back from commercial Lap 21

Everytime I see Montagny’s car, I think I’m watching the Lights race… (he is all over Dixon btw)

*another commerical Lap 23* (thankfully I’m watching a nonstop feed so I dont’ see any of them)

Mutoh keeps poking his nose in there, but can’t get it done on Twinkletoes.

Back from commercial Lap 23, Dixon in for pitstop and alternates. That’s one way to get the other drivers off your ass.

Andretti the Least in as well for fuel and alternates.

Ooooh, almost collects Dixon on his outlap! dang. that was close.

Wheldon in Lap 26th.

Rahal getting strapped into his car again on lap 27 to get back in the race. (oh btw… EJ’s car is unrepairable, so he will not be back in the race today)

eeek… lots of close calls on pitlane.

RHR sticks his nose in where it doesn’t belong, and gets it taken off by Oriol Servia. Comes in for a new nose and back out.

I’m so confused by all of these pit stops! Ahhhh!!

Holy battle between Wilson and Dixon on Wilson’s outlap. Antinucci got him as well.

I’ll wait until T&S cycles through to see where everyone is…

The Princess is getting inhaled by everyone, ON camera! woot! Thanks for coming out.

back from commercial Lap 34…

This has actually been an interesting race. These kids are feeling racy out there today. (lots of button bushing me thinks)

Kanaan just got around Doornbos for 10th. (on camera no less!)

Dixon takes a look on BobbyD, but can’t get it done!

LOL! Ganassi “not paying attention to the 9″ nice.

Castroneves is all over Briscoe. Apparently there are no team orders to help push his teammate closer to the championship….

*commercial Lap 38* (halfway point)

I’ve decided, definitively, that I don’t like Castroneves.

oops… we came back a while ago… playing on twitter again.

Montagny and Antinucci made contact on lap 41, Montagny into the pits on lap 44. (left suspension damage)

*commercial Lap 45*
Franchitti still out front, with Briscoe and Castroneves but a whisper behind.

Mutoh & Moraes still holding their own battling 4th & 5th

Twinkletoes is going to take Briscoe out. I can feel it in my gut…

We are on lap 49 now… much off roading and locking up throughout the field.

Moraes locks it up through the runoff, Kanaan locks it up, goes off roading in turn 9 and loses several positions.

Wilson bringing the heat on Matos. Matos hit’s the button too funny.

Final pit stops happening.

Nice! Wilson gets around Castroneves, clean. Kanaan on the other hand does not make the clean pass and gets into Twinkletoes, who now has damage… or not… hard to tell.

*commercial Lap 56*

Franchitti got in and out very quickly. Pulled off a 6 second lead but now Briscoe is reeling him back in very quickly.

Mutoh reeling in Castroneves again.

Back from commercial lap 59…

Franchitti out front with 17 to go. Briscoe only a second and a bit back, Twinkletoes not a factor 9 secs back, but Mutoh just made mincemeat of him! Sweet pass!

So, there is a huge chunk of debris on track… no yellow… someone hints at debris at other races, and we have 10 laps of yellow… Race control is weird!

Moraes around Twinkletoes now! Woot!
so glad I have two feeds going! I’m seeing all the passes that Versus is missing until later… LOL!

*commercial lap 64, with 13 to go*

Conway now on the hunt on the ass end of the injured Castroneves

back with 10 to go.
Wilson is stalking Servia now for 7th. (great drive by him today after starting dead fucking last)

Twinkletoes is beached in the middle of nowhere land and Hunter-Reay is dead stick on the track.

Full course caution

Castroneves right front suspension problems, went for a hard bumpy right. Day’s done. Thanks for coming out.
Hunter-Reay’s engine just died. Caput. Day done. Thanks for coming out.

*back from commercial, still yellow*
6 to go…

Gonna be a 5 lap shoot out.
Green next time by
The 5 cars behind the leaders have nothing to lose, so look for insanity on the restart!! (Mutoh, Moraes, Conway, Servia, Wilson)

Franchitti shot from a cannon, Briscoe had no chance. Everyone else on the button, and dicing.

Dixon has decided to get racy all of a sudden.

Conway around Moraes, around Mutoh! Moraes around Mutoh! Wilson does some drifting, stalling, burnouts! sweet!

who cares about the leaders! There is some racing going on behind them!

Conway no more juice in his button! This could be bad news for him!
Maybe not, Moraes isn’t anywhere close!

Wow, Conway on the podium!

Dixon runs out of talent and drops to 14th on the last lap! ooooh… strike that… Andretti the Least ran out of talent and spun Dixon. Suckage there.

Boy Howdy! That was a fun race! Glad I watched.

Ok… off to write this puppy up.

Honda Indy 200 – Mid-Ohio *live* race blog

Hello kids! It’s race day! While the skies opened here in Toronto, dropping hail, water, thunder and lightening in biblical proportions, the weather is much more pleasant in Mid-Ohio. Light winds but 20 degrees warmer than yesterday, sunny and good crowd.

It is pre-race time, so the radio folk are making the rounds. I’m finishing up some other stuff and making sure I’m all set for race day… be back in a bit.

I must say, nothing puts a smile on my face quicker than hearing a PT pre-race interview!

Alright… let’s start these cars and get some racing done!

Cars fired! Installation laps in progress. Have Versus on one screen and the leader cam on another. Great overhead shot! Crowd looks amazing.

Ugh… Jack is back on Versus. Trying way too hard as usual.

Here we go…. lining up for the start.

that is not a good start at all!! WTF! Dixon was all voer the ass of the leaders, not even remotely lined up .

Briscoe out front, Wilson holds off

TK goes for a drive through the country on the tail end of lap one in the key hole. Oops. Dropping him to the back of the field. Not the start he was hoping for.

Wilson all over the ass of Briscoe on Lap 2. Used the button but couldn’t get it done.

Wilson gets around Briscoe for the lead on lap 6 in Turn 11 and pulls the fuck away baby! Holy crap! Look at him go!

Lap 7: Conway, Antinucci andKanaan all pit for tires and fuel. Conway and Antinucci go for the reds

Lap 8 – Wilson is already 3 seconds ahead! Zoinks! Could we see a second Dale Coyne Victory in one season?!?!

Dixon smells blood in the water and is on the hunt for Briscoe, followed closely by Franchitti.

They are pretty spread out at this point. Though Franchitti is all over Dixon, PT is gaining on Viso, Matos is all over Patrick.

Lap 13: Wilson is about to Lap Milka Duno for the first time of many this afternoon I’m sure.

Lap 15: It’s a parade past Duno. See ya, See ya, See ya, See ya!

I love that the leader cam is actually following Briscoe…

Lap 18: commercial (love that I don’t actually see them!! nothing but action baby) *unmutes radio feed* Damn, they’re on commercial too…

Wilson is now 5.2 seconds ahead of the next pack with 8 complete.

Wilson around Duno again as we come back from commercial… LOL

Briscoe and Dixon get around the Milka-hazard, followed by the rest of that lead pack.

They are predicting pit stops to start in about 2/3 laps.

Reports from the track say that Carpenter is all over the back of Doornbos… ?!!?

Pit stops have begun.
Servia in and out on lap 23

The princess looks to be next. Reds off, blacks on, in and out clean.

LOL! the princess hits the button to hold off TK whah whah whah… that backfired.

Lap 27. Wilson now 7.4 seconds ahead as the pit window opens.

*stomach in knots…* PT all over the back of E.J. Good thing they changed the camera shot as the pass happened

Lap 28, Wilson in and out clean.

Lap 30, Briscoe and Franchitti in together. This oughta be good!

Sweeet! Wilson blows by Briscoe on his out lap!! (Briscoe got out before Dario btw)

Dixon in the pits Lap 32…. Get’s back out, again Wilson blows by, but manages to come out in second ahead of Briscoe & Franchitti.

Lap 33, everyone on commercial.

Replay of the pit stops of PT and Viso: nice burnouts and drag race off pit road.

Lap 35: Wilson unable to pull out the same lead on Dixon as he did on Briscoe. In fact Dixon is all over Wilson’s ass as they approach the Milka-hazard.

Lap 36: Dixon takes advantage of the traffic and gets around Wilson, but still gets stuck behind Duno for a bit.

Lap 40: Castroneves loses his ass end and spins off into the kitty litter in Turn 9 bringing out the FCY (why??) even though he keeps it going and gets back on track quickly and unassisted.

Well I guess this will set up for some potential passing on the restart.

Lap 41: pits are open… Castroneves, Andretti, Carpenter and Wheldon pit.

Lap 42: Green Green Green!

Status quo at the front. Franchitti tries to get by Briscoe, can’t make it stick, then Rahal gets the better of him.

FYI, PT is up to 7th.

Oooopsie….Yellows bread Yellow theory tested yet again…. Conway comes in way too hot down the inside and punts the Princess into the kitty litter. She, unlike her teammate is unable to keep it fired and moving and requires the assistance of the safety crew to get back in action.

Lap 45: Pits are open, but no one in so far.

Geesh, I’m getting motion sickness from the incar cameras as the drivers warm their tires… :vomit:

Lap 48: Green Green Green!

No overtaking, but Conway gets a drive thru for avoidable contact.

Bobby D bringin da heat on TK for 12th.

Marco gets a lot wiiiiiiiiiiide but keeps it pointed in the right direction.

Lap 52: commercial.

Lap 55: 30 to go, Dixon, Wilson, Briscoe, Rahal, Franchitti top five.

Lap 56: Matos in, Castroneves in, and I think Servia is in.

Lap 59: PT in and out clean on reds.

Lap 60: Rahal in for final stop and scuffed reds. Followed by Wheldon (who is not exactly setting the world on fire this season)

Lap 63: Wilson on fumes coming into the pits. OH man!! stalled in the pits!! 30 second stop. Burn… That was not good. Threw away at least a podium, possibly the win. Plummets to 15th.

Dixon in and out cleanly and back in the lead by over 8 seconds over second place Andretti… (?!!?!?)

Lap 65: 20 laps to go, Dixon out front by a bazillion seconds.

Barring an airstrike (™pressdog) a red cars will win, place and show. Thanks for coming out.

*sidenote* apparently PT and team decided that today wasn’t the time or place for him to battle with “PT like” fervor, considering the circumstances of his ride…

Lap 71: Rahal goes off in T2 but manages to get back on track, but is inhaled by Tracy. Drops from 5th to 8th.

and YET AGAIN, we are robbed of an on camera pass by PT. oh, but we get a minute and a half of the princess’ feet… Come ON VERSUS! gimme a fucking break…

Lap 75: 10 to go, Dixon by almost 10 seconds (ya, lets just say he’s gonna win this thing)

There is a battle for second between Briscoe & Franchitti who are within a second of each other, and Hunter-Reay & Mutoh who are also in a battle for 4th. From the T&S it looks like there may be a battle for 7th with Tracy & Rahal.

5 to go, status quo… now, if Briscoe & Franchitti and RHR & Mutoh take each other out, PT on the podium!! (LOL! stranger things have happened…. )

Dixon wins. Goes for a shower and a smoke while we wait for the rest of the podium to finish.

PT comes across a clean and honourable 7th in honour of Mario.

ok… off to write this up. back to chat in a bit.

Milwaukee Mile *live race blog*

Ok… so I’ve got visual. TV at the bar tuned in. Unfortunately the volume is at a whisper, and I’m in the back with two loud gay men who know nothing about racing. (is this Nascar?) who are playing a rather rambunctious game of backgammon. (I kid you not) On top of that of course is the loud pool game and the awful country music. :bangs head on table:

Time to re-up and get cable again me thinks. Or a boyfriend with a big… TV.

hmm… nice looking little crowd.

Princess cookie maker gets her airtime. Actually it’s been all Penske, AGR so far.
Marco showing better judgment in this interview than last weekend.

Brief mention of Vitor, showed the crash,
commercial break

AJ Foyt: re Vitor: “Racing goes on”
re PT: “we kinda screwed him up in qualifying” LOL!

and now the Ganassi interviews. what? no interviews???
Wow… whodda thunk that Foyt racing would ever get airtime before the big three??
(well, come to think of it, it is “his” race)

“Drivers start your engines!” I think…
nice mic not turned on there… geesh.

what is with the 976 babe voice on the radio broadcast? LOL!! That kills me!

and there they go! engines fired, cars on track for installation laps.

are you fucking kidding me? the on boards are on both Vision cars? GMFB!
spread the love!! (I personally think it should be one per team) (or actually, they should all have a damn camera!)

Lets see if we can line up like professionals this week…

Green green green!!!

Graham around for the lead!
Wait! Kanaan threads the needle gets around both Briscoe and Rahal!
Rahal down to third.

Andretti dropping like a stone! something is broken on that car.

Franchitti on the move!
Tracy up to 14th

Nice dicing by Scheckter and the Princess!

side by side commercial break

Helio not carving his way through the field like he usually does.

That Boost commercial is nasty… is there anyway I can un-see that???

we’re back – lap 18

PT is dropping like a stone. Duking it out with Carpenter. They are about to be lapped by the leaders. WTF?!

Tracy DFL. (heart breaks a little)

Leaderboard:
Kanaan, Brisco, Dixon, Rahal, Franchitti, Moraes

Briscoe around Kanaan in lap 26, Dixon takes advantage of the open door and gets around as well.

Rahal all over the back of TK now.

commercial (not side by side) Apparently I don’t need to know what is going on. *switch to radio*

Briscoe & Dixon around Carpenter. Stalking Helio.
Graham reporting problems with oversteer (or understeer?)
PT is reporting the car is loose. (that’s code for it’s a piece of shit!)

We’re back from commerical:
Briscoe coming up behind Helio. hmmm… team orders? yes no?
Fyi… we’re on lap 41

Kanaan down to 9th.
oooh Briscoe throws a block party for Dixon!

Doornbos is the cog in the wheel, holding up Twinkletoes, who is holding up Briscoe.

Woah, Twinkletoes not playing nice with his teammate. Apparently he has a short memory of last week when his teammate helped him win. Selfish fuck.

Commerical (side by side) lap 49. Naked Marco. My eyes have officially melted out of my skull.

PT is a moving chicane out there. (I’m silently weeping)

we’re back at lap 55 Briscoe is still out front, Dixon right on his ass. If he losses the lead, it is ALL on Castroneves.

Conway into the wall in turn 4. :mocks surprise here:

I love how the radio is describing all of this amazing dicing, yet the tv is showing Kanaan doing shit fuck all, while answering viewer email. Fucking horrible coverage.

Festival of pitting,(™ Pressdog)
Briscoe gets out in front, followed by Dixon & Franchitti
ha! Twinkletoes stalls it. Instant karma. my viewing is enhanced. (™ Pressdog)

Viso has gearbox issues, still on pitlane. Poor bastard. That car is a pig. They need some new equipment for that kid. He had a really good run going.

Tracy pitted twice. No idea why… Nothing to lose at this point I guess

back to commercial (not side by side) Ironically the quiet music plays during commercial. But when the race is on, I can’t hear shit.

oh, update, the loud gay couple are playing scrabble. Not backgammon.

Green green green! (the radio feed is so far off the tv feed. gah.

Look at Mutoh up to 5th! wow.
Tracy is 2 laps down.
Kanaan gets around Carpenter. Wheldon follows suit.

Viso back out 12 laps down.

replay of Tracy’s pit: good lord! they cranked on Paul’s front wing like it was a music box. That car is not right.

commercial at lap 83 (side by side) vile Boost commerical again…

This is not an exciting race. Why can’t these cars pass properly and make it stick?

we’re back: lap 89
Briscoe, Dixon, Franchitti, Rahal, Mutoh, Matoes, Patrick, Moraes

Briscoe about to lap RHR. at least that’s the plan. Atta boy!
Now he will be behind Helio again. Let’s see if he plays nice this time.

Marco and TK battling mid pack. Be smart Marco.

TK slingshots around PT, Helio throwing a block party on Brisco. What a prick.

commerical lap 107 surprise suprise another Danica commercial. Fuck me.

Finally Briscoe gets around Twinkletoes. Gets around Scheckter as well. About to put PT another lap down. *sigh*

120 laps complete:
Briscoe, Dixon, Franchitti, Rahal, Mutoh,
Briscoe has lead 94 laps
11 cars on the lead lap.

Rahal coming up on Doornbos. lets see if these teammates play well together…

Green flag pit stops starting. Wheldon in and out in a heart beat! Nice.

woah, that’s a crazy vibration on Marco’s car.

Kanaan in and out clean.
Marco in and out clean.
Mutoh in and out clean a little slow.
someone raced him off pitlane. Probably PT LOL! (could have been Wheldon… too many red/blue cars)

Briscoe coming in, get’s held up behind Wilson.
Briscoe out, Dixon out.

Kanaan on fire! Oh bless! the poor bastard can’t move very fast to get out. Strong crewman hoists him out. That had to hurt. Will also hurt in the championship. Will finish no better than 14th today.

commercial lap 140. (not side by side) I love that the fucking commercials are twice as loud as the race broadcast. fuck.

Townsend Bell won the Tire-iffic move of the race for Indy. Sweet! Go T-Bell! Too bad you’re not actually racing. :rolleyes, shakes head:

Back from commercial (lap 149) on board with E.J who looks like he’s out there all by himself.

ooh Marco up behind Moraes… this could get interesting… Mario gets the hell out of dodge, gets around Doornbos.

Oh Briscoe gets around Franchitti for the lead!! woot! Dixon and Dario dicing it out side by side! that was close. Briscoe fighting his way through traffic! Good time to go to a taped bumper with the Princess… then commercial of course, it’s not like we have tuned in to watch the racing or anything…

Nice big Geico commercial. Too bad they’re not “racing” this weekend.

I see the yellow flags, but because the whole fucking world is on commercial I have no idea why.

Debris… riiiiiiight….

Festival of pitting…(™ Pressdog)
ooh Briscoe got a little sideways, but holds on to it.
No change at the front.
Twinkletoes stays out.

The giant track zamboni cleaning up the marbles, with the hopes that this will lead to a final full stint of green flag racing.

Lap 172 Green… yellow… nevermind…

173 Green green green!

Hey Paul isn’t DFL anymore! woot! Come on, just for one race, give him the Princess’ car. Just for fun. huh? pretty please??

Briscoe pulling away. Patrick slingshoting around lapped traffic. ABC making a big deal of it. :mocks surprise:

Commercial. lap 179 Boost again. Barf.

We’re back 186, Looks like Briscoe got by Castroneves again while we were on break. Marco and Danica battling it out for 5th. not so much. Marco pulled away big time.

Viso slowing. Might have hit the wall. No yellow. He moves to the bottom of the track and into the pits.

PT is a moving chicane again…Dixon looked to take advantage, but no dice. Briscoe around cleanly.

Commercial lap ? no side by side.

HVM calls it a day. Viso’s day is done.

Sounds like Patrick and Matos got around Marco. Must have hit traffic.

Dixon gets around Briscoe for the lead. ugh.

Back from commercial, We see the replay. Briscoe got caught up with Scheckter, Dixon slingshots around like he’s being propelled by a giant elastic band!

19 laps to go…

Dixon is gone… a totally different timezone…
Briscoe trying to hold on to second. Franchitti is all over him like a fat kid on a smartee.

8 to go…
Dixon is flying. Good lord. I’m amazed he (Briscoe) didn’t get passed earlier.
Franchitti has Briscoe in his sights…
Rahal still holding on in 4th! good job buddy.

white flag…
Dixon’s to lose…
Franchitti all over Brisoe

checkers!
Dixon wins
Briscoe
Franchitti
Rahal
Patrick
Matos
Andretti
Mutoh

Not the most exciting race ever…

ok… gotta write this up properly… back later to discuss.

Edit: so I stayed put after the race as it was just easier to keep the thoughts flowing without packing up, walking home, booting up again, etc…
I need to find an A) cheaper B) more accommodating technically place to watch the races. Although, once we’re back on VERSUS (please God, soon!!) I’ll be back to watching via the super secret underground password protected lair which I cannot reveal.

I had one beer, an iced tea, a coffee and a chicken caesar salad. $30. WTF?!?!

For that price I should be rolling on the floor drunk off my ass and too full to eat until Tuesday.

Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 *Live* race blog

“I’ll get you my pretty…and your little dog too!”

We’re live from from Kansas. (well, I’m not, but the series is)

I’m tuned into a horrible stream of the Versus broadcast. (better than nothing) as the race airs here in Canada at the following timeslots:
3am & 6am Monday.

Yup, you read that right. Fuck TSN. Moving on…

Penske spinning the Power situation. Love how he brought Rick Mears in as a prop. LOL…

So… here’s what we know…
Two of the big three guys got sent to the back… Helio was dead last in Chicago and won the race… don’t count FROchitti or Twinkletoes out just yet.

Most are calling for Dixon to win and Doornbos for the first timer. (with a nod to Wheldon and Carpenter)

Ok…. gotta get everything running… brb…

Drivers start your engines!

Strategy with Arute:
Get to the half way mark (150 miles)
Fuel strategy (blech)
plan for cautions
Watch the radar

Here we go kids! Green green green

Rahal shot out of a canon!
Bobby D dropping like a stone
Dixon by Bobby D for 2nd

The AGR cars not playing nice… Patrick throwing block parties all over the place.

EJ. carving his wa throught the field with the more experienced Helio and Dashley. All three are up several positions.

Dixon inhales Rahal.
“Thanks for warming up the track little buddy! See ya!”

Bobby D holding strong in 3rd

CAUTION Lap 14!
Vitor and Helio get into each other. Vitor lifts BIGTIME and Helio slams into the back of him. Major damage to Twinkletoes schnozzola. E.J caught up too. Front wing damage.

Festival of pitting! Entire field to the pits.
Bobby D out first!
The entire Netherlands breaks out into spontaneous happy dancing!
He may have hit something coming out of the pits however (rahals tire I believe) (hard to tell, I’m watching a grainy 4×4 inch box)

OH, Iron Hand of Justice! Doornbos sent to the back. The dancing comes to an abrubt end.

Restart lap ? (can’t read it)

Poor E.J. he’s a lap down now after making up all that ground. Stoopid Meira.

back from commercial, E.J in the pits again. fucking stream froze. No idea why EJ was in pits again.

feed back…

Vitor crying big crocodile tears. What a fucking baby. Suck it up man, christ. Is it EVER your fault?

commercial

I’m actually surprised (pleasantly) that Rahal is holding his own out there.
(she types as he gets inhaled by Tony Kanaan… LOL) (I’ll shut up now as Bricoe creeps up on the son of the stache)

Apparenly E.J. had gear box issues?

Bobby D now being lapped. Welcome to the roundy rounds Bob. Sucks doesn’t it?
and now about to be lapped by his teammate. Play nice boys.

commercial
Pitstops happening druing the commercial break…
Dixon (leader) in now. Made great fuel.
Castroneves in now.

Jack Arute: Weatherman! …

hmmm… ovals…
not really anything to talk about I’ve realized. LOL!

Apparently there was a 2nd “big one” in the Talledaga race which is also running right now. That got the chat beside the video box all fired up.
and … commercial. oooh, not even a side by side.

and we’re back. (really wish I could read what lap we are on) If I boot up the t&s I’m convinced it will crash my browser.

Briscoe and Kanaan battling it out for 2nd spot. Briscoe FTW!

Matos kisses the wall, brings out the caution. Bitten by the Turn 4 wall that snapped up all those kids in the lights race.
“wiggle wiggle chase it up the track”
Thanks for repeating that twice Robbie… LOL

Festival of pitting!
Briscoe wins the race off pit lane! Briscoe, Kanaan, Rahal.
What the fuck happened to Dixon?

commercial… *yawn*
Apparently there was another crash at Dega. Pretty scary.

and we’re back. And still driving around under yellow for no apparent reason.

Green green green
Dixon up to second. Everyone getting racy and three wide. Trying to get up into that lead pack before the rains come.

Getting dicy between Helio, Rahal, Patrick

Arute using props to describe the “egg under your foot” theory…. as P-Dog would say, my viewing is enhanced. (not really, but we’ll go with that)

Commercial Lap 115/200! I can actually read the numbers!

back from commercial… I actually just zoned out for a minute. No idea what they were talking about, but they gave kudos to the spotter.

TG gets air.

BWAHAHAHA… Marco and Mario “battling” for 10th. The rear view from Moraes car, you can barely see Marco! hardly a battle.

more driving in circles…. and commercials…

we’re back. Recapping all of the “action” in this race. Beekus doing a great job of forcing the enthusiasm. I’m almost convinced it’s been exciting to watch….

LOL… we are talking about how great Ana Beatriz is in the chat room. Talking about another series driver during a live race is never a good sign.

Sarah Fisher finally gets air! (with 54 laps to go) Shout out to the sponsor!

Jack “weatherman” Arute, updates us on the impending rain and then we go to a plethora of Danican’t commercials.

back:
Briscoe coming into the pits just as FROchitti slams hard into the wall. Shit luck for Briscoe who was pitting from the lead. He drives thru, to cycle back in with the field. (power karma tickles Penskes ass…)

Replay shows Rahal and Franchitti coming into the pits, Dashley’s car will NOT stop, locks it up, barely misses slamming into the back of Rahal. Holy crap! Evasive maneuvers STAT!! slides up the track into the wall. Out and ok. That could have been nasty.

commercial for clean up….

We’re back with 157/200 complete. A little IZOD Indy 500 package while we clean….

back to green with 41 to go!
Full rich, balls to the wall, petal to the metal! Go go go!

nothing much happening… so we’ll go to commercial again. No side by side. Apparently we don’t deserve these last laps… :shrug:

we’re back and everyone is actually racing now.

We are giving a shout out to Hideki Mutoh. I don’t know why, but there ya go.

Wind speed has died down, making it a little easier for the drivers in the waning laps.

woah! Graham and Hideki split high/low around Roth 2.0. For the first time this entire race, I got excited and made an audible “woah” sound.

commerical….

back… Lot’s of chit chat in the booth…. it just feels like we are waiting it out.

ooh… the brats could make this interesting… battling for 5th. Marco got squirrelly, lost air, couldn’t make the move on the Princess.

Final lap…. Looks like Dixon has finally shaken the bad mojo monkey off his back.

LOL at Emma! “he’s been grumpy for 3 weeks”

Commercials… (just how many commercials is the Princess in? geesh)

Interview with Dixon, who is now up to 4th in the standings as he goes into Indy to defend. “of course I was grumpy, I wasn’t winning!”

Commercial….

Twinkletoes came across in second. See… never count him out even starting from the back. Wow… replay on the Meira incident. Nice control from Helio keeping it off the wall.

Kanaan across in third. Now the points leader by one over Briscoe.

commercial…

wow… I just realized there was not one comment today. Maybe it is time to hang it up…

Interview with the Princess (finished 5th) Guess 4th place doesn’t count…

Rahal gets some air. Talks about the sandwich maneuver. The Versus interview is barely over and Bruce sweeps in with this digi recorder! LOL! That man is everywhere!

commercial…

recap of the race…
There we go, Briscoe finally gets some air.
Ed Carpenter gets air! nice!

and that’s it… we’re done.
Thanks for playing… or not as the case was.

ciao for now…

Grand Prix of Long Beach *live* race blog

woohoo! It’s race day Kids!

Started off with a little history throw back… then of course the Helio story… now on to Will Power, the saddest pole sitter ever…

Briscoe… always the “cool” one…

Aww sweet, PLN’s friends and family are at the track this weekend…

I still think they should make those car/transformers from the animated opening…

*back from commerical*

still doing driver intros…
and now on to the Indy 500 one off driver announcements…

PT!!! He looks fine! to the dude who texted me from the track on Friday to tell me that Paul was fat, you’re full of crap.

LOL! Dario FROchitti smack talks Andretti during Leno feature! A little more mention of the silly bet with TK… reiterates the importance of the first turn.

*commercial*

back… IZOD feature… Graham, RHR, and Al Unser Jr
and the predicted Princess feature…
wow… I didn’t realize that Michael won his first and last race at LB

*commercial*
Back with Dixon and his brutal start to the season…
(I love how both Scott and Dashley are holding the Pepsi cans. Like they are drinking a carbonated pop before the race!)

Picking the winners: Franchitti is the favorite, with Power the fave as the first timer… :bites tongue on that one:
I’m joining Jenkins on the Viso first timer

*commercial*
back… it’s race time kids!!!! woooot!!

DRIVERS START YOUR ENGINES!!!
Oh burn! Power isn’t firing!!
Nevermind… he is running and catching up to his rightful spot.

Robbie Thackston… LOL… oops!

Damn… now Will has no radio? geesh…

Track temp is smokin hot!

Here we go….

Green green green!! Will gets a huge jump on the field! Matos up to second, and Wilson up to 3rd!

let’s forget for a minute who the drivers are, but look at the two teams fighting for 2nd/3rd… Luczo Dragon & Dale Coyne…. oh how times have changed…

FROchitti gets around Wilson…
What is it with IndyCar and it’s revisionist history?? only the second time Power has lead laps? um he was on pole and lead for most of OZ! oh ya… OZ didn’t count right? just like LB 08 didn’t count… I call bullshit…

*commercial*

wow.. that overhead of the start was awesome! Nice jump by Power!
(lots of aluminum though…)

“Alex Moraes”… *sigh* Now I remember why we didn’t like Jenkins in the booth… he screws up the names!!!

Having Jan in the booth adds soooo much to the commentary! A++

*commercial*

Back…

rear tires are going away (12 laps in) No surprise… as the track temp is so hot. The reds must be turning into goo….
Dashley around Matos. Nice pass.

Oops! Conway into the tires.
“trouble Robbie for one of your cars” LOL!

Dashley in for a pit? What? why? did he think there was a caution?

Woah… Power slows… bunches up the field. Dixon takes out EJ… wtf?!
Gong show! Clown cars! mayhem!!

Festival of pitting…

Long stop for Wilson… gah! Power still with no communication with the crew.

And now we’re all fubared as far as who is leading. It’s off sequence pit strategies for about 3 different groups now. Ick.

What? another pass??? on camera???

Poor E.J!! My sweet boy. You are so right. Totally not your fault sweetie!

WHAT THE FUCK! Holy crap! Looks like tetris out there!

Moraes into Tags, stacking up Wilson, Wheldon, Manning, Mutoh
LOL… bad day for red, white and blue cars!

Interesting detour provision… that’s cool!

*commercial*

Wilson done for the day.

LOL! You know that we are on weird strategies when the order is Parko Andretti, Frochitti, Carpenter, Patrick…

Apparently the Penske back up car wasn’t quite race ready…

LOL! Dashely is just sitting pretty…

Poor Justin. That bad pit stop put him in the middle of that mess…

*commercial*

Dashley is leading. I guess Parko and Ed pitted. Will… get around the Princess dude! Japanica cannot podium!!

Barrett in the run off *mocks suprise* local yellows… blah blah blah… a look at the Celebrity race…

and commercial again… random…

back…
Ed Carpenter into the tires… repeat of St. Petes, but this time he gets going.

and we’re green again (Lap 42/85)

Geesh… Helio is right up Will’s gearbox!

2 laps back to commercial…

back…
Fuel strategy race… gah… I hate that…
Wow.. Mikey… a little unresolved bitterness towards Dario?

and back to commercial… ?????
Guess they are expecting some big action at the end, so they want to run them all now.

Back:
Power and Patrick in the Pits. What? She is sketchy out there like crazy. Power just needs to push her a little and she’s toast

Yes!! Go Will! He’s around the Princess

Dashley in…. where is Will?

woah… FCY again… Conway.. again… What a mess

WOAH!! Bad call for NHL! crew gave him the go sign!

WOAH!! fueling issue for Tags too!

*commercial*
back to green lap 59/85

Carpenter is a moving chicane today…
Woah! Doornbos gives Ed the chrome horn!! (wonder how you say that in dutch?)

Graham in for his drive through.

*commercial*

back… 66/85
talking about fuel… can they make it to the end…
2 laps and back to commercial… geezus…

and we’re back 71/85

Franchitti given the green light on fuel
Power has been told to conserve, as have Kanaan and Danica.

so much for the fuel strategy conversation. Moraes deep into the tires! (shoulda put Paul in the car guys!!) and Ed pulls a Danica and gets stuck between the safety car and the wall… No temper tantrum though…

*commercial*

back… they cleared Ed during the commercial. LOL!
Moraes out from the tires…
10 laps to go… still under yellow…

*back to commercial*

Back…. WOAH!! Stopped and facing the wrong way. Replay: Watkin’s Glen redux in reverse!! Briscoe into Dixon! Briscoe damaged front wing. Fixed and back out.

Green green green!
8 to go, full rich! Come on Will! Bring it home clean to the podium.

Briscoe apparently has a drive thru for that bonehead move…

Come on Will….
Marco! what the hell? Wrong place to make a pass dude! Cripes!!

*commercial*

back with 3 to go… 4 second lead for Dashley… Looks like Kanaan is growing his hair….

wow! nice driving by RHR there. Tags totally had him but RHR held him off…
WOAH! Tags gets him back!

Dashley gets the win!
Will gets on the podium!!
Kanaan gets a podium and a new do!

Hey Penske, you might want to rethink that deal with Will…. your key players screwed the pooch today…

Ashley is still as annoying as ever….

Will! NO telemetry and no radio! Poor bastard. He seems just gutted knowing that his

Arute just has a big ol luv affair with Danica. What the fuck is she whining about. Blend line?

LOL Dixon shows class in his interview regarding Briscoe. (mentions Watkin’s)

Helio… he’s just gonna be all happy and teary all season isn’t he?
everything is FUNtastic! LOL!

So Will is second in the championship, and sidelined… crazy…

Ok… gonna check comments and make the rounds..