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.
So... here's what I'm thinking... 
RHR takes the #14 to 4th!!! Me thinks Meesh must soften stance on the poor kid…
um… he started 7th… but if it makes you feel better, color me impressed… *oozing sarcasm* 😛
(sorry, just not a fan… )
To be fair to RHR, he’s the winninest active American Open Wheel driver, he’s got three(CART,CHAMPCAR,IRL).
Wow, Danica regressed bad this weekend.
Milka, though, wow, it looked like she was a GT car out there.
What crack are you smoking?!
Paul Tracy is actually the winningest active open wheel driver.
While Danica wasn’t setting the world on fire this weekend, that was a bogus move by Conway. (See tagliani in Toronto)
I’ll give ya Milka though. 😉
No, I meant winninest active American driver, as in born in the USA, not as in winninest American open wheel driver, yeah, that’s PT.
Plus, I didn’t catch Conway spearing her, I saw parts of the race and just read Pressdog’s notes.
Conway needs some more time in a lower series. He’s fast, sometimes, unlike say, Milka, but, he’s a disaster many many times. It can’t be good for D&R to have as many wrecked cars as Milka and Conway give them, even if they bring checks.
Dylan: Very valid point on the number of crashed cars for DRR…I can imagine Robby Buhl asking for Ativan or Temazepam during the commercial breaks as he watched what unfolded with his two “drivers”.
I watched only on Versus today – as they did the onboard shot with JWilson down the front straight and into/through 1, I thought they (Versus) had switched audio to another car as I heard a car slowing/falling off badly…then lo and behold, the chug-chug into the pit stall (the pun wasn’t intended as I typed that, but I’ll take credit now that I see it). It all came clear, but I was actually pretty shocked to see that happen – don’t these cars have some telley to indicate how the fuel level is? Bummed last week for Ed, now this week for Justin. It was looking so good for a while…
Yeah, I supported Ed at Kentucky but, I really feel the drivers who struggle on ovals, and the drivers who struggle on road courses, during the off season need to do something big about it. I think driver school would help. I know, it’s there down time but, it would be great for the FANS, if Danica, Ed, and a couple of the oval specialists got good at Roads, and if Justin, Will, and the road specialist got better at ovals, and Milka, mabye she’d get better too, if she used some of her “money” to learn how to race!
So would Marco, but, first he should go to “charm school”
I know! Dude qualified that car in 7th! That’s a small miracle.
But, OK-fine. Be a hater…I still love you.