Just a few, brief clippings from Barber Motorsports
Park's IndyCar weekend...
For now, I'll refrain from my travails as a
Blind Word Hack' trying to S-E-E; Err guess where to point Thy Mouse to make
the Indycar.com Live Timing & Scoring page work; ergo where the FREAKIN'
Play Button is...
Since although I figured I-T out for the Indy
Lights race, I was none too happy when apparently IndyCar pushed Qualie' ahead
in fear of the impending weather to blindly search 'N search for the mouse to
turn into a "Helping Hand" to click upon the Youtube box; URGH! Only
to hear them in mid-interview with Zach Veach after round one of Qualifying had
finished; ACK!
Enjoyed hearing Stefan Stork' Wilson in the
booth with Mark Graveley' James and Davey Hamilton, as I agree with Davey's assessment
over how the Wilson family's such a Class Act, who truly deserves not only his
2018 Indy 500 ride, but inclusion in this year's field too, if possible.
As IMS Radio Network's Pitlane reporter Rob
"Some Heads Are Gonna roll!" Howden teased us with his speculation
regarding his querying Ricardo Juncos on when they're gonna announce Kyle Kiser
as one of their Indy 500 drivers. To which Juncos reportedly hinted that
probably wouldn't happen...
Thus the intrigue continues ratcheting up,
and listening to Stefan (Wilson) made me think how IndyCar needs to insert him
into one of those seats as a reward for his allowing the biggest story in
racing to happen!
Although I've got
ZERO idea if Stefan's contractually obligated to Honda only driver status or
not?
Quip of The Weekend
Most entertaining
interview of weekend for Mwah, although I cannot do the Russian English accent justice
here; Hya! Comes from The Mad Russian, Mikhail Aleshin who told IMS Radio
Network Newby' Pitlane reporter Ryan Marie(?) just after qualifying seventh
when asked how was his racecar set-up for the race? I Don't Know about Racecar,
I only focus on qualifying so far...
Even better yet was
Aleshin's response in regards to Sunday's possible weather conditions.
"One
report say's Rain. One report say's Cold. We'll have to wake up in morning and
see what weather is..."
Indy Lights Rolls On...
Dan Anderson, the president of Anderson Promotions,
the Overseers of the entire Mazda Road To Indy (MRTI) ladder series not only
was on hand, but gave the command for the field to start the Indy Lights 400th
race.
Winner of the series inaugural race, was
definitely a surprise, when 31 years ago the developmental "ladder"
series was then called ARS, (American Racing Series) and powered by normally
aspirated Buick V-6's with open velocity stack intakes...
For which I'll forever remember being amazed
seeing these March 86 Wildcat chassis Buick's engines sporting bright yellow tennis-balls
in them to prevent foreign objects being ingested!
Witnessing this on more than Juan' occasion
when wandering the Paddock at my Hometrack, nee Portland International Raceway,
(During a different lifetime...) which after nearly
a quarter of a century of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and Champ Car World Series (CCWS) series
events on Father's Day weekend was abandoned; Thanks IndyCar!
Race No. 1, the 1986 Season Opener held on
April 6th was won by Steve Millen at Phoenix International Raceway, where the
Kiwi' had never raced upon an Oval before, winning for Truesports late owner
Jim Trueman, the same year Bobby Rahal won at Indianapolis.
Race #100 winner was "Steady
Eddie," aka Four times GP500 Motorcycle champion Eddie Lawson. Y'all
remember that Lawson was a CART/PPG IndyCar rookie with Galles Racing in '96,
the same year that some Italian Chap named Zanardi arrived in Americre and
drove for Cheep' Ganassi, right?
Some Grandson of 'Ol SuperTex fondly known as
Quattro', aka A.J. Foyt IV won Race #200.
And the Race 300 winner was actually on hand
to present the Race #400 victor a special commemorative race trophy. As thee
Mayor 'O Hinchtown, was his typical witty self in the post race interviews. As
James Hinchcliffe said it makes him feel really old!
He can't believe it's already a hundered
races since he won No. 300 at Long Beach, before they talked to the winner, 17yr old Colton
Herta, son of Bryan "High Speed Hurdles" Herta, co-owner of Andretti
Herta Autosport, the defending Indy 500 winning team.
Crushing Defeat...
What can Yuhs say 'bout Will Power? As the
Aussi' Done Checked Out on the field multiple times at thou Barber's, leading
an astounding 60 of the race's 90 laps from Pole only to suffer the cruelty of
having a rear tyre deflating rapidly, forcing him to pit from the lead!
Not sure why, but I became curious at just
where the "Toowoomba Toranadoe"
stood in the rankings for career Poles after notching his fourth in Alabama,
knowing he's pecking away at his team-Mate Hulio', the Dancin' Fool's
astonishing amount, since I thought I'd heard that Castroneves was P4 for
career Pole positions somewheres', eh?
Thus, by my unofficial reckoning, since the
information seems to be scarce upon this topic, Will Power and Helio
Castroneves are now apparently tied for fourth overall with 46 Poles apiece, albeit
think Power's done I-T in roughly half the races Castroneves contested?
As it appears that SuperMario', aka Mario
Andretti leads this category with 67 career Poles, followed by A.J. Foyt with
53 and then "Uncle Bobby" (Unser) tenuously sits in P3 with 49 career
Poles, which certainly Power will eclipse shortly...
UPDATE
Funny how my "gut Instinct" was
correct, since when I originally pondered how many Poles HULIO' had, I said to
Thyself 48, but couldn't find anythingy' corroborating this. Instead apparently
finding only outdated material.
Yet Castroneves has now tied Uncle Bobby for
third place overall career Poles upon scoring his second of the 2017 season at
Phoenix International Raceway, which I learned via the Indianapolis Star's
"Curty" Cavin replacement, Jim Ayello.
Top-5 Career Pole Positions
1. Mario Andretti 67
2. A.J. Foyt 53
3. Bobby Unser 49
Helio Castroneves 49
5. Will Power 46
