Well, we are moments away from Qualifying and the feed has been switched from the highly entertaining and informative Aussie coverage to the dulcet tones of Scott Goodsnooze and Bob Jenkins. Immediately I want to put my head on my desk and sleep. UGH… NOOOOOOO! Go back to the Aussies!!!
Instead of laughter and facts we are getting sniffling and throat clearing. Kill me now.
OK… we’re live. ESPN coverage. Blech.
Well Session 1 – Group 1 is on track. And there is rain. Apparently they are going through with qualies. This should get interesting kids.
… and Danica runs out of talent barely one lap in. (not that she had much to begin with…)
Apparently tire choice is at the discretion of the teams. It’s lightly raining. (nothing like the deluge from earlier)
And now we have the “recap of shame”…
Ok… track is green. Timing has begun. According to Will the focus will be put up a decent time, keep it off the wall, and get in the top six.
ugh… this could be really ugly. (how many spares did the teams bring?)
Sunny on some parts of the track and pissing down with rain on others.. Yikes. Serious pooling of water in some sections.
look at the times! LOL! yuck. Won’t be breaking any track records today.
Jon Beekus! (*fingers crossed for his participation for the full season next year)
Dixon says they are going to stick to their dry set up. (although I would guess on wet tires)
Ed Carpenter has run out of talent in turn 8. He’ll get turned around and push started. No FCY.
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Graham goes for a spin. Keeps it off the wall.
(good job)
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee RHR goes for a spin. Keeps it off the wall.
(good job)
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Danican’t goes for a spin, slams the wall and stalls it.
(bwahahahaha)
FCY
Rain is stopping (according to Jan) and the track will start to dry.
Track is green again. 2.5mins to go. Cars peel away.
Looks like Danican’t will start DFL tomorrow.
Checkers have waved, final laps last chance.
woah! Moraes the human chicane! Tags must be squealing like a little girl!
Session 1 moving on:
1. Ryan Hunter-Reay
2. Alex Tagliani
3. Vitor Meira
4. E.J Viso
5. Mario Moraes
6. Ryan Briscoe
Disaster for Servia, Junqueira & Rahal
And Session 1 – Group 2 is on track.
Conditions are a bit better. Oops… spoke too soon. Wheldon and Power get into a bit of a scrum and take to the run off. Apparently ESPN hasn’t updated their graphics either as Wheldon is being shown as Meira.
Helio has found some speed. He’s bumped up just behind RHR. Woah! Dixon is just hanging it out there.
AJ Foyt IV is off, Helio is off, Wilson is off… zoinks! All are going again. hmm… maybe not as there is a FCY.
Wow! The least has figured something out, he’s up to 3rd.
Hey Tag!!! LOL… he’s so funny.
AJ is a sitting duck in the middle of the track. FCY while they get him out of the way.
Kannan, Franchitti, Andretti , Dixon, Castroneves & Wilson (Power is 7th)
Track is green again… off they go. LOL… apparently the Ganassi boys took issue with something as they all turned and pointed.
Rahal… disappointed but gracious. (damn, he’s been working out or something… look at his neck!)
is it just me, or does everyone else just tune out Goodyear when he speaks? :wall:
6 mins to go and we’re FCY again apparently.
and Power finally gets some speed.
Good lord… Foyt is the Figge of IndyCar.
Back to green, just under 3 mins to go. Dixon and others on slicks. Power still on wets.
Dixon is a wildman! Taking a gamble as he is in 9th currently.
Checkers are out, final laps in progress. Top spot changes hands several times, but in the end it’s Power at the top!
and moving on to the second session are:
1. Power
2. Kanaan
3. Wilson
4. Dixon
5. Franchitti
6. Castroneves
no surprises there. Glad Kanaan finally showed some speed.
Preparation begins for Session 2 – 15mins, 12 drivers, top 6 movee on to the shoot out.
1 minute to the green.
Cars firing up! This is probably going to be the toughest shoot out this season.
Track is green, green, green!
again, some are on wets, some are on slicks.
wow. the sawing action of the arms is crazy out there this weekend. Briscoe kisses the wall, comes back to the pits for a looksie.
Have to agree with Snotty that Dario has been impressive this weekend. Seems it’s just like riding a bike.
Onboard with Helio now.
Times are dropping nicely. Track must be improving. Everyone is either on or going on slicks.
*whew* hold it together there Will!
Half way point in the session: Power, Franchitti, Meira (?!), Wilson, Tagliani, Kanaan.
oops… Moraes runs out of talent in an awkward place coming to a stop and bringing out the FCY with 5mins to go.
Green Green Green with 3mins to go. Everyone hits the track! (except for RHR)
Come on Briscoe! Don’t spoil your Firestone Six record!!
RHR gets fired and heads out.
Holy traffic batman!
Checkers are out, final laps in progress… Holy shoot out batman! Power and RHR could to nothing but watch as they got bumped by the top four getting an extra lap at the line.
Firestone Fast 6 are:
1. Dixon
2. Castroneves
3. Franchitti
4. Briscoe *woohoo! record in tact*
5. Power
6. Hunter-Reay
Wow… all three local boys are in the fast six. Nice for the fans for sure.
10 mins, new tires, 6 drivers, fastest gets the glory and the big check!
1 min to go…
Cars fired, Green green green!
Blah, blah, blah… John Andretti in Italy… WHO CARES! Gimme my Aussie broadcast team back damnit!
Wait… I just noticed something… there is no on-board camera on Power’s car. Are you fucking kidding me? Both Ganasty cars, Both Penske cars and Fucking Danican’t, but the local favorite doesn’t have a camera??? Ridiculous. I’m beginning to think maybe Gore has a point…
LOL @ Jenkins… “Firestone Fast 5!” um… it’s 6 Bob….
Just over 3 mins to go… Maybe if Will doesn’t get the pole, he’ll actually finish (maybe win) the race.
Woah! RHR gets some serious air! (literally!) Corner worker plays dodge the cars to return the tires to their position.
1 min to go… checkers wave. Franchitti is done. Power jumps to P1 but Dixon is still on a tear. Briscoe is also still on track.
Woah! Dixon couldn’t do it!
POWER ON POLE!! Good on ya mate!!
Will 3rd time be the charm??
Aww… nice big smile from Jeemy. Gore and Kalkhoven are happy campers too.
On “planet power” … hehe…
an Aussie and a Kiwi on the front row.
LOL @ Dixon. “I Hit the wall a few times” Nice of him to give Will his props.
I wonder if they will go back to the Aussie feed now… I want to hear their reaction!!
*waits patiently*
Great back to the boring guys off air with their mics keyed…
Well, looks like we’re not going to get the feed back… so I guess I’ll go write up my session report and head to bed!
See ya’ll for warm up!
So... here's what I'm thinking... 
Plastic surgery? A new nose for Danican’t, who takes herself into the wall on her out lap? HAR!
And there she goes again. It reminds me of Massa at Silverstone.
I miss Davison already. 😦
Hopefully we’ll have the Aussie feed for the race.
Okay, Boob and Scooter, enough about Daniker…she’s slow, she’s miserable, she’s run out of skill…
Bummer…the Oriol didn’t make it through the wet session. Oh, pooh.
No…it’s not just you. It reminds me of the teacher in the old Charlie Brown tv cartoons. Sorry ’bout the misspelling of Jenkins first name up there…that was supposed to be Blob.
I think slicks are still a bit of a risk.
Top 6 in group 2 is absolutely a good representation of the best one’s in the group.
And Dixon shows me why he won the title. Now Power shows that he can put in a veritable lap of the gods.
Man, I thought Tags could have gotten in. Still a fantastic job by them so far this weekend.
indeed! I think if he’d had another lap he may have bumped RHR.
Funny how all of the “road course drama” they showed did not involve a single SUCCESSFUL pass.
Oh, and I should add CLEAN.
and a lot of Viso hate! bastards!
Woo Hoo…a “transitional driver” on the pole. That’s pretty cool. Plus three guys from downundah starting in the top three. They must be all atwitter at this point.
Yeah, it stinks that they gave no love for Will. I remember watching his laps on-board last year. Those were fantastic things to watch. Nothing against seeing Dixon do it, but this is the MAN!
that would be like not putting a camera on PT’s car in Toronto… Stupid.
I think Justin Wilson has it right, from the quotes on OWW:
“Anything can happen in this race especially with a rolling start here. It’s going to chaos at Turn 1.”
Could be messy, hope it isn’t.
I’m sure Cotman or Barnhart will be very clear in the drivers meeting about not trying to win on the first lap in the first corner.
Rows 4-8 could be interesting to see who if any will give away.
The weather is supposed to be clear, so it will driver error and the poor handling car at blame.
Hey Meesh! Thanks for keeping me informed of the happenings down under this weekend!
Hey Joe!! My pleasure!