Piquet drives Danika Patrick off track in debut race

[Giblet]

Good ol boys but hardly state of the art technology.
Still those obsolete V8s keep the oil men happy at weekends I suppose.
I wonder if the American F1 attempt has realised the need to go around corners yet.

I am not a huge fan of oval racing, but NASCAR is entertainment that features racing. F1 is racing that happens to be entertainment. But the lack of respect for the work that goes into these series tells me that your posts center around a very a small world.

Here is a list of tracks that are not oval races.

Infineon Raceway
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Watkin's Glen

Either your posts are plainly "ignant", or bitter.

I would hate to think that your posts are more than a bitter ball of sarcasm. I'd also like to invite you to iRacing. I am a pretty competent road racer, but I had trouble being super quick on ovals, much the same that an oval racer coming to the road side of things has trouble being quick. They are different kettles of fish.

I had a guy come in to open practice with a Southern drawl, to try out a few laps in a Solstice at Lime Rock Park, which is an American track with corners of the left and right variety. He said "I don't know how you guys even keep your cars on the track!!".

Guess what, he was intelligent, likes Oval racing, and likes big V8s, because he can relate to it, and even work on one in his garage, that is very similar. I had a chuckle to myself, but more because I can appreciate how hard the ovals are. I was in the legends, felt fast, but was a second off the pace on a 17 second short track.

Respect to the oval racers, it's not easy like you think.

[DaveKillens]

I carefully watched that ARCA race with Patrick, and I was impressed only by the drivers up front. The press coverage and media attention was totally disproportianate to the occasion. It was all about Danica, and much of the race coverage was on her. Sadly,it was at the expense of the drivers up front who were putting on a good show.

A also carefully watched Piquet jr, and honestly, he did OK. Considering his complete lack of experience in this nature of racing, he managed OK. Piquet hooked up with a top team in ARCA, and on a track where the car was 95% of the equation, it was no surprise he qualified near the front. He hung on, but once things got crazy, his lack of experience showed. I do not lay the blame for the crash on Piquet, but neither do I accept Waltrips senile ranting on how well Patrick saved the car. Geez, Waltrip has no pride, he will say whatever he has to in order to sell a package wrapped in pink, bows, and motor oil.

As far as comparing male versus female, please remember that stock cars do run power steering.

In the end, the lack of experience by Patrick and Piquet did affect their race, and considering the nature of the kind of racing, and their complete lack of experience in this, they did not fail, neither did they set the sky on fire, but they just got by.

This was an ARCA race, a series lower down the pecking order in NASCAR. Both Patrick and Piquet are attempting to ease themselves in to a successful NASCAR Cup career, and started out by racing in this race. It was important to them to gain experience and not screw up too much. I think they got through that tough first step.

[ISLAMATRON]

She admitted to taking her hands off the steering wheel (something that open wheel drivers do to avoid breaking their wrists on impact). Therefore I think it was really LUCKY she didn't hit the wall because she did not have control of the car at all.

Yeah, I thought so... that just goes to show you the low level of commenting on those races too... I rarely watch NASCAR but when I do it is clear to see that even the commentators dont know what the hell is going on most of the time. Especially that Waltrip, he is a lost senile old man most of the time.

Danica better get used to anticipating and reacting to contact if she is going to switch to those racing lead sleds.... cuz rubbin is racin.

[autogyro]

Good ol boys but hardly state of the art technology.
Still those obsolete V8s keep the oil men happy at weekends I suppose.
I wonder if the American F1 attempt has realised the need to go around corners yet.

I am not a huge fan of oval racing, but NASCAR is entertainment that features racing. F1 is racing that happens to be entertainment. But the lack of respect for the work that goes into these series tells me that your posts center around a very a small world.

Here is a list of tracks that are not oval races.

Infineon Raceway
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Watkin's Glen

Either your posts are plainly "ignant", or bitter.

I would hate to think that your posts are more than a bitter ball of sarcasm. I'd also like to invite you to iRacing. I am a pretty competent road racer, but I had trouble being super quick on ovals, much the same that an oval racer coming to the road side of things has trouble being quick. They are different kettles of fish.

I had a guy come in to open practice with a Southern drawl, to try out a few laps in a Solstice at Lime Rock Park, which is an American track with corners of the left and right variety. He said "I don't know how you guys even keep your cars on the track!!".

Guess what, he was intelligent, likes Oval racing, and likes big V8s, because he can relate to it, and even work on one in his garage, that is very similar. I had a chuckle to myself, but more because I can appreciate how hard the ovals are. I was in the legends, felt fast, but was a second off the pace on a 17 second short track.

Respect to the oval racers, it's not easy like you think.

I know I raced English Hot rods for five years.
Legends are fun.
It does take a different skill hanging on the wall though.
You certainly need a big heavy car for when you inevitably bounce off it.

[autogyro]

Oh yea and I think Danica ia awesome.

[autogyro]

It is a great pity that Rockingham raceway in the UK has not attracted NASCAR to the British Isles.
I was at the first try out of the ASCAR cars at Donnington.
I have been round Rockingham a few times, does that count?
We also produced a couple of engines for the Eurocar series.
That was interesting going round British circuits in the opposite direction.

[jddh1]

And didn't Piquet Jr only first drive his car on Thursday? So I think he did quite well considering he was brand new to this.

[DaveKillens]

Hey, I gave Piquet a passing grade on his first attempt.

Sadly, we may see Danica migrate over to NASCAR quicker than anyone expects. One thing that stock cars offer is a great camera view of the drivers. Since they can mount a camera right inside the car just a meter from the driver, they deliver close-ups that fans of open-wheel racing cannot enjoy. And Danica is intense, and I have to say that when her in-car camera was on her, it was an interesting sight.

Danica is a hot property in US racing, and how NASCAR exposes her to the cameras and media really works to everyone's advantage. There's an immediacy and exposure that an in-car camera delivers that really works for her, and must surely boost any ratings.

In open-wheel racing, she's just one of many helmets, but in NASCAR, the fans get to see this a lot..



The intense eyes, and obviously female. it's a money-maker.

[Giblet]

Interesting thing to share:

I just got out of a practice session in iRacing, in the Solstice at Lime Rock, and I was talking to a buddy I know there on the headset, and he was practicing on Saturday in a session, and Bobby Labonte came in for the whole period.

Apparently everyone was all quiet, but my friend piped up at the end, asking what he was up to, and he was just doing some road course practice to get ready for Rolex.

I had AJ Allmendinger come in once, but he left right away before turning a lap.

I like that even the pros use their real names.

[Ray]

these huge "racecars"

why would you put 'racecars' in quotes?

because they are as far from being a racecar as a racecar can get.... I think my weekend racer could beat them around the Montreal circuit with 300 less HP... they run around 800hp right?

I'd pay good money to see you get your ass blown in the weeds by one of those cars in your 'weekend racer'. And then I'd love to see you drive one of those 'not racecars' around any track in the world and see how well you do. Just because they are big bodied cars, and don't have massive amounts of downforce doesn't mean they are easy to drive and are slow. They have skinny tires with huge sidewalls, lots of weight high up, relatively small brakes that aren't allowed to have anything other than steel for the rotors, a serious lack of downforce for the weight and speeds they go, and so on and so on. The cars are ugly slab-sided abominations, but that doesn't mean they are racecars underneath. They are hand fabricated pieces of automotive art and are just as much a racecar as any other formula. And this coming from a former NASCAR fan. I can't stand it now, but I know hard work when I see it.

[ISLAMATRON]

I'd pay good money to see you get your ass blown in the weeds by one of those cars in your 'weekend racer'. And then I'd love to see you drive one of those 'not racecars' around any track in the world and see how well you do. Just because they are big bodied cars, and don't have massive amounts of downforce doesn't mean they are easy to drive and are slow. They have skinny tires with huge sidewalls, lots of weight high up, relatively small brakes that aren't allowed to have anything other than steel for the rotors, a serious lack of downforce for the weight and speeds they go, and so on and so on. The cars are ugly slab-sided abominations, but that doesn't mean they are racecars underneath. They are hand fabricated pieces of automotive art and are just as much a racecar as any other formula. And this coming from a former NASCAR fan. I can't stand it now, but I know hard work when I see it.

I'm at about half the weight, with 550hp max, they are 3600lbs and what 800hp? I think I can put down a faster lap then one of them... no doubt their better drivers could squeeze at least a second better than me in my own car but I'd like my chances againt one of them. I never said they are easy to drive, but yes around a tight & twisty road course they are slow. How bout we check some lap times.

2007 Busch series pole was 1:42.086... 95.5 mph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_Gilles_Villeneuve

http://www.grand-am.com/assets/RolexRac ... cial11.pdf
fastest qual lap for a grand am rx-8 1:39.402... 98.13mph

I picked the grand am RX-8 because it is most like my car... biggest difference is that I have turbo and they dont(but they are 3 rotors)... so I have about 100hp more than them but my turbo gives me alot more torque over the entire rev range(which they are rev limited to 8.5K rpm while I rev to 10K), plus i dont know how much they weigh in at.

Gimme their tires and some seat/track time to set her up, and I think I could set a sub 100 sec lap.

of course that is a busch car and not a sprint cup car, but the weight and power is the same for both isnt it?

[Giblet]

Islam, sorry I have to rib you on this one, but is this the same car you said was louder than an F1 engine?

Faster than Nascar, louder than F1, and can outrun a top fuel in the 1/4 mile?

I'm just buggin ya... all in good fun, considering my only car right now is virtual, I shouldn't be talking.

[ISLAMATRON]

Islam, sorry I have to rib you on this one, but is this the same car you said was louder than an F1 engine?

Faster than Nascar, louder than F1, and can outrun a top fuel in the 1/4 mile?

I'm just buggin ya... all in good fun, considering my only car right now is virtual, I shouldn't be talking.

No way on the top fuel... but have you ever put your ear to a rotary? Load as fruck... but probly not louder than F1.

[Giblet]

Every time I put my ear directly to any exhaust I seem to have trouble hearing anything after whatsoever.

[Ray]

Islam, sorry I have to rib you on this one, but is this the same car you said was louder than an F1 engine?

Faster than Nascar, louder than F1, and can outrun a top fuel in the 1/4 mile?

I'm just buggin ya... all in good fun, considering my only car right now is virtual, I shouldn't be talking.

ISLAMATRON is exactly right on this one. The NHRA banned all rotary engines precisely because of how loud they were. I've heard stories from my Dad how those cars with short exhaust would shatter windows just doing a burnout and how loud they were. Those were the only cars that actually caused physical pain is what he told me.


I'd still bet against you winning against a Cup car at Montreal, and maybe even Laguna Seca. You may think you're a hotshoe, and even with a power to weight advantage you're no professional. I think. But just because they weigh 3600lbs and make 800+HP doesn't mean they don't go like stink. Those cars are faster than most people give them credit for, even around a road course. If they were allowed to actually tune the cars versus NASCAR pretty much mandating what they have to run shocks/springs/rollbars/camber/toe-in and out/ride height wise, they'd be even faster. Just letting them actually set a car up to see it's full potential they'd be a whole hell of a lot faster than they are now. Can't remember what well known car mag it was, maybe Road and Track, that took one of those cars to the skidpad years ago, but they were absolutely floored that the car could turn, stop and accelerate as fast as it could given how skinny the tires were and how low the grip was on them, not to mention how heavy they were too. They were also very impressed with the brakes, and how much power they had. From a carb no less.