Barber Test Results - Live Timing

[TURN3]

I like the new live timing screen but seems they have some bugs to work out. Almost an hour into the 2nd session so I'm sure we haven't seen the muscles getting flexed quite yet but the usual suspects have been near the top.

Good to see Danica her standard 1.5 seconds off the top times but there is lots of time for her to fall further behind. It is a roadcourse afterall.

[TURN3]

J-Dub breaking up the Penske Trio at the top in the D&R machine at this point. Ganassi guys right there. Very surprising that AA apparently made no gains in the offseason. TK not far off the pace but Marco and RHR are among the slowest. Danica alert, she's 2nd slowest, only out pacing Sarah whom is not the road course ace of the series. Yes, that means Simona in a D&R is waxing the best driver according to press coverage in the league.

[Scotty G.]

I have a headache even trying to read that timing-and-scoring page.

Andretti's new team looks slow, so far (I think).

[SUBARUTEAM]

i can't stand the timing screen - i had to turn it off it was so bad

[TURN3]

i can't stand the timing screen - i had to turn it off it was so bad

According to Indycar on Twitter they'll have it fixed for tomorrow. I think it is an improvement over previous years...once fixed that is.

[DanicaFan]

Practice Session 2 Results..

Rank / Car # & Driver / Lap Time / Speed / Best Lap / Total Laps

1. #6 Ryan Briscoe / 01:10.5052 / 117.438 / 19 / 52
2. #3 Helio Castroneves / 01:10.7146 / 117.090 / 11 / 40
3. #22 Justin Wilson / 01:10.7397 / 117.049 / 26 / 32
4. #12 Will Power / 01:10.7637 / 117.009 / 14 / 30
5. #9 Scott Dixon / 01:10.8927 / 116.796 / 23 / 42
6. #8 EJ Viso / 01:10.9186 / 116.754 / 57 / 58
7. #5 Takuma Sato / 01:11.1138 / 116.433 / 15 / 48
8. #11 Tony Kanaan / 01:11.1433 / 116.385 / 32 / 45
9. #10 Dario Franchitti / 01:11.1825 / 116.321 / 29 / 30
10. #06 Hideki Mutoh / 01:11.2212 / 116.258 / 28 / 47
11. #26 Marco Andretti / 01:11.3557 / 116.038 / 19 / 42
12. #34 Mario Romancini / 01:11.4567 / 115.874 / 21 / 51
13. #32 James Rossiter / 01:11.7759 / 115.359 / 28 / 38
14. #14 Vitor Meira / 01:11.9171 / 115.133 / 30 / 48
15. #2 Raphael Matos / 01:11.9924 / 115.012 / 20 / 26
16. #37 Ryan Hunter-Reay / 01:12.1369 / 114.782 / 31 / 37
17. #24 Mike Conway / 01:12.1963 / 114.687 / 17 / 34
18. #7 Danica Patrick / 01:12.5369 / 114.149 / 32 / 36
19. #78 Simona de Silvestro / 01:12.8124 / 113.717 / 36 / 47
20. #67 Sarah Fisher / 01:16.0138 / 108.928 / 13 / 44

[electron]

Sato-san's first time in an Indycar. I expect some more to come from him. looks good off the mark and not like a field filler to me. great to have him.

[garyshell]

Sato-san's first time in an Indycar. I expect some more to come from him. looks good off the mark and not like a field filler to me. great to have him.


I think you may be right, but don't loose sight of the fact that these are tests not qualifying runs. Witness this tweet from Justin Wilson after the session today:


JustinWilson22: Thanks for the support. Im sure tomorrow will go well. We still have a lot of things on our list to try.

Gary

[DanicaFan]

Sato-san's first time in an Indycar. I expect some more to come from him. looks good off the mark and not like a field filler to me. great to have him.

He might do well on the road courses but he has no oval experience.

[I am evil Homer]

So kinda the anti-Danica then. I think Sato will do well - could be in the mix for a win on road courses but will struggle on ovals to start with.

[beachbum]

One thing stands out after day 1. While the car and team can make a difference, many drivers have switched teams, yet the order of the drivers on list looks very much like it did last year. Wilson and Viso near the top, Mutoh in the middle. Has parity resulted in the driver making the difference, at least on road courses? Perhaps the reason Penske and Ganassi run up front is that they have the best drivers?

If there are any minor surprises, they are the speeds of Sato and Rossiter. I may be their first time in an Indy car and their first time at Barber, but the talent shows.

[Mark in Oshawa]

He might do well on the road courses but he has no oval experience.

DanicaFan....go fast turn left is the first rule. He will figure that out...how long did it take for JPM to figure out IMS? ONE RACE. Kenny Brack was great on ovals...and he grew up on road courses. Hate to burst your bubble, but oval racing isn't that hard to get a grip on if you understand how to set up the car and understand the nuances...

I think Sato will figure it out...

[Chamoo]

DanicaFan....go fast turn left is the first rule. He will figure that out...how long did it take for JPM to figure out IMS? ONE RACE. Kenny Brack was great on ovals...and he grew up on road courses. Hate to burst your bubble, but oval racing isn't that hard to get a grip on if you understand how to set up the car and understand the nuances...

I think Sato will figure it out...

Exactly. It is much easier for an road course veteran to pick up oval racing then for an oval track veteran to pick up road racing. Sato will be fine.

[bblocker68]

Hey guys, is there an HTML version of Timing and Scoring? I did not see it offered yesterday. I have a couple of ports blocked at work, so it's keeping me from seeing the Flash version.

[JTK]

Practice Session 2 Results..

Rank / Car # & Driver / Lap Time / Speed / Best Lap / Total Laps

1. #6 Ryan Briscoe / 01:10.5052 / 117.438 / 19 / 52
2. #3 Helio Castroneves / 01:10.7146 / 117.090 / 11 / 40
3. #22 Justin Wilson / 01:10.7397 / 117.049 / 26 / 32
4. #12 Will Power / 01:10.7637 / 117.009 / 14 / 30
5. #9 Scott Dixon / 01:10.8927 / 116.796 / 23 / 42
6. #8 EJ Viso / 01:10.9186 / 116.754 / 57 / 58
7. #5 Takuma Sato / 01:11.1138 / 116.433 / 15 / 48
8. #11 Tony Kanaan / 01:11.1433 / 116.385 / 32 / 45
9. #10 Dario Franchitti / 01:11.1825 / 116.321 / 29 / 30
10. #06 Hideki Mutoh / 01:11.2212 / 116.258 / 28 / 47
11. #26 Marco Andretti / 01:11.3557 / 116.038 / 19 / 42
12. #34 Mario Romancini / 01:11.4567 / 115.874 / 21 / 51
13. #32 James Rossiter / 01:11.7759 / 115.359 / 28 / 38
14. #14 Vitor Meira / 01:11.9171 / 115.133 / 30 / 48
15. #2 Raphael Matos / 01:11.9924 / 115.012 / 20 / 26
16. #37 Ryan Hunter-Reay / 01:12.1369 / 114.782 / 31 / 37
17. #24 Mike Conway / 01:12.1963 / 114.687 / 17 / 34
18. #7 Danica Patrick / 01:12.5369 / 114.149 / 32 / 36
19. #78 Simona de Silvestro / 01:12.8124 / 113.717 / 36 / 47
20. #67 Sarah Fisher / 01:16.0138 / 108.928 / 13 / 44

See that Simona de Silvestro has come across from the Atlantic Series. What is happening to Ana Beatriz who did pretty well in Indy Lights?

[beachbum]

See that Simona de Silvestro has come across from the Atlantic Series. What is happening to Ana Beatriz who did pretty well in Indy Lights?Bia is running for Dreyer Reinbold in Sao Paolo and will be testing at Sebring today or tomorrow. She also has a rumor on her twitter site that Coyne will be running Alex Lloyd and Milka Duno in Brazil.

[bblocker68]

Hey guys, is there an HTML version of Timing and Scoring? I did not see it offered yesterday. I have a couple of ports blocked at work, so it's keeping me from seeing the Flash version.


NM, they have an HTML page now.

[Scotty G.]

1. How long did it take for JPM to figure out IMS? ONE RACE. Kenny Brack was great on ovals...and he grew up on road courses.

2. Hate to burst your bubble, but oval racing isn't that hard to get a grip on if you understand how to set up the car and understand the nuances...




1. Juan Pablo and Kenny were pretty damned good RACE DRIVERS. Good RACE DRIVERS, from any genre, will figure out how to go fast.

2. Yep, until they meet the wall. That can change the perspective, on how "easy" that oval racing is. Not many gravel traps in oval racing, when you make a boner. Plus, RACING on a oval ain't easy; especially at a place like Indy.

If Sato is like most of these road racers with no oval experience that have come into the IRL recently, he will be wild and tear up a lot of cars, while he learns what the hell he is doing.

[TURN3]

With nothing interesting for me at the front of the pack these days, my favorite part of racing is looking at how awful Danica is. Again today she finds herself in a familiar position right at the back and waaaay off the pace. Looks like it'll be another long year at AA although TK and Marco are relatively competitive...as compared to their under talented teammate anyway. It isn't just race after race or series after series with this hack, it is year after year after year. With her poised to fail with disaster in NASCAR this year, on top of another typical season of back marking on skill required tracks, my prediction of imminent career impolsion by end of next season is looking more and more likely.

On a more uplifting note, good to see the 06, 32, & 34 in the ballpark. I'd say these guys have shown they might be worth some quick times throughout the year.

[Scotty G.]

With nothing interesting for me at the front of the pack these days, my favorite part of racing is looking at how awful Danica is. Again today she finds herself in a familiar position right at the back and waaaay off the pace.


Hey, cut her some slack. She was able to outpace the two drivers who crashed and Jay Howard, who is with a team who has never been on a road course before.

Plus, she was 14 places better then where she finished last weekend at Fontana. :D

She is probably still down from running in the back the past 2 weekends. She is used to "running up front", you know. :rolleyes:

[speeddurango]

All of a sudden we have 5 female drivers joining the series, bwahahahaha. No, but Simona de Silvestro has an excellent resumé in the atlantics, I'm interested in her following days performance.

[TURN3]

Hey, cut her some slack. She was able to outpace the two drivers who crashed and Jay Howard, who is with a team who has never been on a road course before.

Yep, right up near the front where she is used to running alright! When she said that last week after her Saturday drive through the park I about lost it.

Danica as compared to mathematical science:

From wikipedia:

In mathematics, a theorem is a statement which has been proved on the basis of previously established statements, such as other theorems, and previously accepted statements, such as axioms. The derivation of a theorem is often interpreted as a proof of the truth of the resulting expression, but different deductive systems can yield other interpretations, depending on the meanings of the derivation rules. The proofs of theorems have two components, called the hypotheses and the conclusions. The proof of a mathematical theorem is a logical argument demonstrating that the conclusions are a necessary consequence of the hypotheses, in the sense that if the hypotheses are true then the conclusions must also be true, without any further assumptions. The concept of a theorem is therefore fundamentally deductive, in contrast to the notion of a scientific theory, which is empirical.

In other words, the theorem known as Danica sucks is what we have here.

[DanicaFan]

Give Danica a break. She has been driving a stock car for the past month and then climbs back into the indycar. She will do just fine this year. Like I said earlier, expect her as a top contender for the IndyCar Championship. :)

[DanicaFan]

Well, the testing is over at Barber. Dario had a crash in turn 12 after running only a couple laps so that is why he finishes so low on the chart. Im sure he would of been in the top 10.

Here are the results of the 3rd practice session..

Rank / Car# & Driver / Lap Time / Speed / Best Lap / Total Laps

1. #12 Will Power / 01:09.8724 / 118.502 / 43 / 54
2. #3 Helio Castroneves / 01:10.0084 / 118.272 / 36 / 56
3. #6 Ryan Briscoe / 01:10.0459 / 118.208 / 48 / 58
4. #9 Scott Dixon / 01:10.0594 / 118.185 / 47 / 60
5. #22 Justin Wilson / 01:10.0869 / 118.139 / 43 / 43
6. #5 Takuma Sato / 01:10.2070 / 117.937 / 45 / 71
7. #24 Mike Conway / 01:10.2497 / 117.865 / 23 / 35
8. #26 Marco Andretti / 01:10.3956 / 117.621 / 55 / 55
9. #06 Hideki Mutoh / 01:10.4451 / 117.538 / 22 / 48
10. #34 Mario Romancini / 01:10.5487 / 117.366 / 20 / 62
11. #32 James Rossiter / 01:10.5700 / 117.330 / 42 / 69
12. #11 Tony Kanaan / 01:10.6704 / 117.164 / 14 / 72
13. #14 Vitor Meira / 01:10.6963 / 117.121 / 32 / 60
14. #37 Ryan Hunter-Reay / 01:10.7123 / 117.094 / 45 / 52
15. #8 EJ Viso / 01:11.3140 / 116.106 / 5 / 18
16. #78 Simona de Silvestro / 01:11.3351 / 116.072 / 56 / 58
17. #7 Danica Patrick / 01:11.5112 / 115.786 / 17 / 58
18. #2 Raphael Matos / 01:11.5484 / 115.726 / 19 / 20
19. #10 Dario Franchitti / 01:12.9810 / 113.454 / 2 / 3
20. #67 Jay Howard / 01:14.1883 / 111.608 / 32 / 37

[Easy Drifter]

Sorry DF but top racers jump from one type of car to another and adapt in a lap or two.
I guess you can use that as an excuse the other way at Vegas.

[TURN3]

Give Danica a break. She has been driving a stock car for the past month and then climbs back into the indycar. She will do just fine this year. Like I said earlier, expect her as a top contender for the IndyCar Championship. :)

Just out of curiosity, what was the excuse after last years testing when she was in the exact same position...relative to last?

[I am evil Homer]

Give Danica a break. She has been driving a stock car for the past month and then climbs back into the indycar. She will do just fine this year. Like I said earlier, expect her as a top contender for the IndyCar Championship. :)

Whereas Sato hasn't driven anything apart from a road car and yet finished 1.3 seconds faster. That 'explanation' doesn't cut it. More likely she sucks on road courses.

[harvick#1]

theres one good thing to come out of this, Sato is not afraid to make crazy passes on road courses. and seeng that it looks likes hes getting up to speed fast in the car is a good sign

Versus better pay attention to this

[beachbum]

Give Danica a break. She has been driving a stock car for the past month and then climbs back into the indycar. She will do just fine this year. Like I said earlier, expect her as a top contender for the IndyCar Championship. :) Your optimism can not be denied. But I wonder if some of the fire has faded now that she has reached one of her major career goals. She has been trying to move up to the big bucks and celebrity of NASCAR for years. Now she is there (for the moment).

IMHO, most (if not all) of her success on track came not from skill, but the ability to just hold the throttle down and hang on. That "bravery" fades a bit as you get older, and that style won't work in stock cars where you have to brake, hit your marks, be precise, and run very close to other cars. She "succeeded" when she had the best equipment and the competition wasn't as stiff as it is now.

That bright light you see as a comet may just be a meteor crashing back to earth. Welcome to reality. It is going to be much harder for her this year, both in the IRL and NASCAR.

[beachgirl]

Just out of curiosity, what was the excuse after last years testing when she was in the exact same position...relative to last?

It's looooooossse. The back end isn't planted. They wouldn't listen to me. Pick one.

[NickFalzone]

Lots of excuses here. Not doing well in NASCAR because it's outdated technology she's unfamiliar with. Not doing well in IRL testing because she's been busy with NASCAR (though this is the first IRL test of the season... right? and she even did a private test at Sebring that many other drivers did not do):

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15810

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Just like watching Robin Meade weekday mornings on HLN with a java bracer back at her home in Scottsdale, Ariz., Danica Patrick was in her comfort zone at Barber Motorsports Park this week.

Her No. 7 car didn't rise to the top of the infield scoring tower, but the Open Test on the 2.38-mile circuit that will play host to the IZOD IndyCar Series in April for the first time wasn't all about fast times in unseasonably chilly Alabama.

"It was good to get back into the Go Daddy car and get working again with my teammates," she said. "I'm disappointed with our times, but we were able to gather a lot of data that I think will be beneficial for the season. I'm looking forward to starting the season in a couple weeks."

Patrick totaled 94 laps and was 18th on the combined timing and scoring sheet for the three sessions with a best lap of 1 minute, 11.5112 seconds.

"She's only been in the car twice this whole winter (the other during an Andretti Autosport private test at Sebring International Raceway in January)," team general manager Kyle Moyer said. "She's driven an IndyCar so long, it's not really going to change the way she drives it or anything like that. It's just the time in the seat lost because she was in NASCAR. Then because it wasn't warm so we didn't get a lot of laps in, so that was a double whammy."

On Feb. 27 at Las Vegas Speedway, Patrick will compete in her final Nationwide Series race until June and return home that night to rest and prepare for the IZOD IndyCar Series opener March 14 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Probably tune in to "Morning Express with Robin Meade," too.

"Being in an Indy car is definitely my comfort zone right now," Patrick said. "I understand the car and the technical changes we need to make it better. The stock car doesn't do much very well. It's very simple. It's got '70s chassis technology and it's just old."

During a Q&A with area business leaders and elected/appointed officials at the picturesque Barber Motorsports Park, Patrick was asked about what it's like to start the Indianapolis 500. Now that's her comfort zone.

"I get goose bumps watching it," she said. "I'm sure a lot of other people do. It's a very special event. It's the best race in the world."

[px400r]

1. Juan Pablo and Kenny were pretty damned good RACE DRIVERS. Good RACE DRIVERS, from any genre, will figure out how to go fast.

2. Yep, until they meet the wall. That can change the perspective, on how "easy" that oval racing is. Not many gravel traps in oval racing, when you make a boner. Plus, RACING on a oval ain't easy; especially at a place like Indy.

If Sato is like most of these road racers with no oval experience that have come into the IRL recently, he will be wild and tear up a lot of cars, while he learns what the hell he is doing.

There are many road racers who adapted very quickly to the ovals- Dixon, Franchitti, Castroneves, etc. The huge advantage is being on the right team. Having a good engineer is essential.

There were also oval racers who weren't competitive on ovals when they started- e.g., Carpenter and Foyt IV. But they weren't with the top teams. Carpenter and Vision started to improve their pace when they instituted development programs.

My point here is that successful Indy Car oval racing requires good engineering. Don't be surprised to see Sato running better than more established oval racers like Fisher. KV improved their oval program last year and made Moraes competitive outside of the Penske and Ganassi drivers.

[harvick#1]

I believe Sato is gonna run like Viso has, Sato is not afraid to go after and make passes, he showed that time and time again in F1.