2021 motor racing thread
- Thread starter ralphc1
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Was there something about the track or layout or is it just the NASCAR approach? Demolition derby is par for the course when it comes to NASCAR road racing.
And what do you mean with regards to Indycar? That was clean race, only 2 late safety cars and no retirements due to damage.
Nashville was the farcical wreckfest.
And what do you mean with regards to Indycar? That was clean race, only 2 late safety cars and no retirements due to damage.
Nashville was the farcical wreckfest.
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yea, IMO Indy Car does pretty well on dedicated road courses, city circuits not so good.
Nashville was way too narrow and bumpy.
but Nascan always shits the bed on road courses since 3/4 of the drivers have zero experience on them.
completely different discipline.
that's why drivers like AJ succeed, until some moonshiner spins him on the last lap as has happened before.
great win for him btw.
met him a long time ago, good dude.
Nashville was way too narrow and bumpy.
but Nascan always shits the bed on road courses since 3/4 of the drivers have zero experience on them.
completely different discipline.
that's why drivers like AJ succeed, until some moonshiner spins him on the last lap as has happened before.
great win for him btw.
met him a long time ago, good dude.
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Actually it was Denny Hamlin's race until Chase Briscoe cut a corner to catch him and pushed Hamlin to spin him.
Many of the problems with NASCAR on road courses are caused by the double file restarts on tracks where they can't go through corners at speed side by side. It bunches up the cars. Also the way the pit stops work can lead to slower cars being in the front on restarts. They have the races split into 3 stages with points awarded to the top ten finishers for the first two stages. Since a pit stop on a road course doesn't cause a car to lose a lap on a pit stop those further back than 10th place can stop for fuel and tires with two laps or more left in the stage. When the stage ends, there is a caution flag which allows the cars that made a pit stop to catch up with the field. When the cars in front of them pit under the caution before the next stage starts, the cars that were in the back and stopped early end up in the front on the restart so the faster cars have to try to pass them.
Some teams play the strategy to be in front at the start of the final stage which was what Hamlin's and Briscoe's teams did.
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NASCAR (and American racing in general) has some major issues with how the run races, stemming directly from the way they view / use cautions. An oval might be one thing, but taking the same officiating response to a road course often turns to disaster. There are few things in racing that bother me more than watching American road course racing and seeing the race order shuffled because the officials don't know what to do when a yellow comes out during a pit cycle.
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NASCAR closes the pit until all cars are caught up behind the pace car while other series don't which allows the cars further back an opportunity to pit before the leaders if a caution comes out after the leader has passed the pit entrance while the leaders have to go all the way around the track at reduced speed. NASCAR's stage racing sets up a case where the field knows where two yellow flags will be used so they can choose to pit prior to the yellow. To prevent gaining an advantage, NASCAR closes the pit when the leader of a stage has two laps remaining in the stage. On slower longer tracks like the road course, the two lap margin doesn't put a driver a lap down so they are on the same lap and able to catch the field under caution. The leading cars have the same opportunity to do it but they know that if they do, others will stay out to get the stage points.
Look at the Formula One race where Hamilton stayed out and everyone else pitted. If Hamilton had pitted, many cars may have stayed out, if not all of them, which would have put Hamilton at the back of the field anyway.
Many races in many series have been won because a team got off the pit sequence either by planning or they had a problem that got them off sequence and they got lucky with the cautions.
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Yep, that. I'm familiar with it and how it works - and I think it's rubbish.
HOWEVER - the stage racing is still an improvement on the phantom debris cautions that were an absolute stain on the series in the late 2000's/early 2010's. At least with stage racing the entertainment cautions are the same for everyone.
HOWEVER - the stage racing is still an improvement on the phantom debris cautions that were an absolute stain on the series in the late 2000's/early 2010's. At least with stage racing the entertainment cautions are the same for everyone.
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My problem with NASCAR's use of cautions is the way they will delay one when it comes at a critical pit strategy moment.
I also thought that they shouldn't close the pits before the stage ends to allow teams to use strategy to mix up the order.
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Absolutely agree with that first point. If you a yellow is needed, it's needed now - not later. Deliberately holding off so as to manipulate the circumstances of the race in a certain way is downright offensive to me.
The Japanese Grand Prix has been cancelled. No Suzuka for 2021. There had also been talks of a second race at COTA to make up for the loss of the Australian Grand Prix, that has now been confirmed as not happening. So we have two races to be filled. The talk is that Qatar will likely be one of them, with either Bahrain or Dubai being the other. I'm excited by the idea of races at different circuits so would be really interested to see a Qatar GP, same goes for Dubai, though I wouldn't be mad if they went back to the Bahrain oval this year.
Romain Grosjean has been posting really good looks at his Indycar weekends, with lots of onboards and behind the scenes style footage. I really enjoy this kind of perspective and appreciate seeing all the interactions with crew and officials.
Gateway this weekend, last oval of the year.
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I think Formula One has some reserve tracks to switch to. I see Nathalie Maillett, the woman who was the CEO of the Spa track was killed by her husband along with another woman in a murder suicide. Seems the other woman was her mistress.
https://au.sports.yahoo.com/new-mis...lleged-murder-nathalie-maillet-015342268.html
https://au.sports.yahoo.com/new-mis...lleged-murder-nathalie-maillet-015342268.html
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LM24 this weekend. Live TV coverage in my country has unfortunately been dropped for this year but I'll still be keeping an eye on things.
There's much to look forward to in that space, with new additions to the Hypercar class and the alignment between WEC and the new LMDh class in IMSA. Also news is the phasing out of GTE in favour of GT3, which depending on implementation, should bring more manufacturers due to the popularity of the GT3 ruleset.
There's much to look forward to in that space, with new additions to the Hypercar class and the alignment between WEC and the new LMDh class in IMSA. Also news is the phasing out of GTE in favour of GT3, which depending on implementation, should bring more manufacturers due to the popularity of the GT3 ruleset.
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They are starting under rain with cars spinning everywhere.
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This is a rather strange LM24. So many cars were going off track. I can't find a website with the live scoring and the television coverage is bad. There used to be a website that tracked all of the cars, including laps since their last pit stop and who was driving but I don't find that this time. There is a website that says live timing that seems to just have a clock showing how much time is left. It's difficult to tell if cars are on a scheduled service or if they are having to short pit with problems.
They haven't lit the track very well at night. Do they know it's 2021?
They haven't lit the track very well at night. Do they know it's 2021?
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Proper live timing is one of the best ways to watch a race IMO - there seem to have been changes around TV rights etc for this years race, so it will be a shame if that feature has been lost in the mixup.
So the Hypercar era begins with a Toyota 1-2, not exactly surprising, but perhaps encouraging is that all the Hypercar runners completed the race without any major reliability issues. And the gap wasn't all that big in the grand scheme of things. I'll be watching on with interest when the Peugeot entry arrives.
Gateway was a fun showing for Indycar, as their short oval races usually are (always good news over the weekend was the return of Iowa with a double header in 2022).
The first 30 odd laps were frustrating and at times a bit of a joke due to.....more problems with safety car rules etc.........but once the race got going it was a good show as expected.
The title fight has now been blown wide open with only 3 races to go.
So the Hypercar era begins with a Toyota 1-2, not exactly surprising, but perhaps encouraging is that all the Hypercar runners completed the race without any major reliability issues. And the gap wasn't all that big in the grand scheme of things. I'll be watching on with interest when the Peugeot entry arrives.
Gateway was a fun showing for Indycar, as their short oval races usually are (always good news over the weekend was the return of Iowa with a double header in 2022).
The first 30 odd laps were frustrating and at times a bit of a joke due to.....more problems with safety car rules etc.........but once the race got going it was a good show as expected.
The title fight has now been blown wide open with only 3 races to go.
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Unless the television coverage keeps up, there is no way to tell what's going on without live timing and scoring.
The Toyotas were having their problems in the race, especially the 8 car as it spent a lot of time off track but they were able to keep replacing parts.
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I wonder if this effects the race at spa this weekend. Thats grisly
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Everything appears to be going as scheduled. They could have some type of memorial or they might not even mention it.
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Hopefully so, I'm looking forward to it. I like spa and fuji the most. Looks like we're not getting fuji this year
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