CC Teams to have two 3-day IRL tests

[Hoss Ghoul]

Details from Phillips article on SpeedTV regarding open testing for CC's new IRL teams:

"Eric Bachelart told me over the weekend he expects to have two Dallaras in his shop by week’s end (by which time of course, the IndyCar regulars will have finished up a couple of days running at Spring Training). Conquest will then spend the next two weeks prepping its new Dallara-Hondas, then head to Florida for what amounts to an IndyCar Series crash course (no pun intended) with three days of road course testing at Sebring March 19-21, followed by three days of oval track testing at Homestead (March 23-25) . . . followed in short order by the 2008 IndyCar Series season opener at Homestead on March 29 and Round Two in the streets of St. Petersburg on April 6."

That should go a long way towards making sure teams are fairly well prepped, along with the technical partnerships with existing IRL teams(mentioned in article).

Full article discusses some of the pitfalls and hurdles ahead, mostly rehash stuff that we'll know more about on Wed. http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/phillips-at-least-one-good-answer/

[Dr. Krogshöj]

[quote="David Phillips"]

By all accounts, Australia&#8217]

Umm, the IRL? :)

[mikiec]

I liked his bit at the end about not having to explain the split. I was talking to my brother the other day and I was about to tell him about the re-unification, but then thought about having to explain the split in order to put it into context and I knew his eyes would start to glaze over after two minutes, so I just didn't even bother. Looking forward to not having to explain it in the future. :)

[Hoss Ghoul]

I liked his bit at the end about not having to explain the split. I was talking to my brother the other day and I was about to tell him about the re-unification, but then thought about having to explain the split in order to put it into context and I knew his eyes would start to glaze over after two minutes, so I just didn't even bother. Looking forward to not having to explain it in the future. :)

Absolutely. The split and its bad feelings will mostly pass with time.

Put it this way, here in the U.S. when we talk about the NFL and the Super Bowl, the fact that the AFL and NFL were once seperate leagues is mostly common knowledge, not essential, and mostly part of a great story(Jets upset in SB III). It is not the narrative that frames talk of the season or the big game.

IndyCar racing will feel/be discussed from this perspective in the years to come. This year of course that will not be the case, but after the 2009 schedule is finalized, talked about, and internalized...things will start to really change-my .02 and crystal ball look at things.

[infoxicated]

Last night I stuck IndyCar Series 2005 on the PlayStation for a quick run around homestead and I got to thinking why there hasn't been an IndyCar game in years (that game came out in 2004).

I reckon the split was a big factor - I can just see EA Sports Danica Patrick's IndyCar Series 2009 on the shelves now that it's all over! ;)

[Claus Hansen]

Why dont they cancel this weekend open test, and wait for the CC teams date, so everybody is together at the same time...

[nigelred5]

My guess is the track rental is already paid for, reservations have been made, airline tickets, etc paid for. The hard thing for the new teams to the IRL is they won't have a daily benchmark against teams like AGR and Penske even at their two test sessions in March. The meeting says they are to be given data and baseline setups from an existing team, but you can bet it won't be from the front runners. At least they have two ovals and a month of track time with the cars before Indy. I'm still not understanding why they are going to revert to the DP01 at Long Beach unless they are going to have teams present that aren't going to make the switch there to fill the field.