Rounds 17 & 18, 2013 Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston

[bjohnsonsmith]

The Grand Prix of Houston was first held in the 1998 CART season and was won by Dario Franchitti in a Reynard 98i, driving for Team Kool Green. It was held five more times with a hiatus from 2002-05, due to construction work in the city and was briefly reinstated from 2006-07 as part of the Champcar World Series and was won both times by Sebastien Bourdais, driving for Newman/Haas.

Both races are being broadcast by NBCSN.

Race 1 is on the 5th at 3:00pm Eastern Time.

Race 2 is on the 6th at 1:00pm Eastern Time.

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

The Grand Prix of Houston was first held in the 1998 CART season and was won by Dario Franchitti in a Reynard 98i, driving for Team Kool Green.

Mmmmmm. Those were the days.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

Mmmmmm. Those were the days.

They certainly were. You can watch the 1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...be.hzpywyIFaMY

[bjohnsonsmith]

Teams allowed to modify brakes for Houston.

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-233780.html

[NaBUru38]

The old downtown course had the most ridiculously long pitlane exit ever.

Which corners are the best overtaking spots?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The old downtown course had the most ridiculously long pitlane exit ever.

Which corners are the best overtaking spots?

I should have added this layout of the downtown track, to the intro; it was a tad hard to find.

[NaBUru38]

I was asking about the current course.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I was asking about the current course.

The best thing to do is watch the CCWS 2006 & 7 races on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/zN7YMWaKKrA 2006

http://youtu.be/g_7otbiC-4g 2007

[FordCosworthPanoz]

The travelling comedy of error is having yet more track issues at a fantastic street circuit...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

The travelling comedy of error is having yet more track issues at a fantastic street circuit...

Quali was postponed and they added a chicane because of a rather bumpy turn 1.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/110332

[mythoughtsareracing]

http://www.indycar.com/News/2013/10/...yed-at-Houston

A temporary chicane to slow the cars was employed until grinding of the racing surface at Turn 1 could take place overnight.

The temporary chicane was tire barriers, akin to Baltimore. Fortunately, it's temporary.





The directional arrows spray painted on the tire barriers are really kind of sad, though.


(Note: These images are not mine.)

[mythoughtsareracing]

Early Saturday morning update!

Early this morning, we got a heavy rainstorm where I live, which is the north side of Houston, about 30 miles north x northeast of Reliant Park, where the circuit is.
They've posted some photos of cars arriving for this morning's Coffee & Cars event on their Facebook page, and the pavement appears dry. It's very possible we got rain and Reliant got none.

Local weather indicates a chance of rain this afternoon and evening.


As much as I'd like to hang out at Reliant this weekend, I've been away from my family for two consecutive weekends (Austin for the ALMS/WEC race then on-call last weekend) and am skipping the Houston IndyCar race to spend with them.



[UPDATE]
This was posted 7:07am local time (Central) on the event's Facebook page:


Now, this is one of the parking areas, and not the racing surface. (Never mind that it's all in a parking lot!) However, you can clearly see some damp spots, meaning they got some rain at Reliant. I don't know how much, though.

It's clear NOW (7:15am), but that's supposed to change throughout the day.

Also, could there be any residual mud created with the dust from surface grinding and rain? Or would rain help wash the dust away?

[mythoughtsareracing]

http://www.grandprixofhouston.com/ev...tion/schedule/

Updated Schedule as of 5:15pm Friday:

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2013

8:00 Gates Open
8:05-8:35 PRO MAZDA Qualifying
8:45-9:30 Firestone Indy Lights Qualifying
9:40-9:55 USF 2000 Pre-Race
9:55-10:25 USF 2000 Race #1
10:00-10:45 The Miss Grand Prix Autographs at MyPlates.com Stage
10:45-11:15 IZOD IndyCar Series Qualifying #1
11:30-1:30 Celebrity Go-Kart Race benefiting MD Anderson Cancer Center
11:35-12:05 PRO MAZDA Race #1
12:30-1:30 Firestone Indy Lights Race
1:00-2:00 Pirelli World Challenge Autograph Session
2:00-5:00 IZOD IndyCar Series Race #1
5:15-5:40 Pirelli World Challenge TC/TCB Race #1
5:55-6:30 Pirelli World Challenge TC/TCB Race #2
6:50-7:10 Champions Race for Charity Qualifying
7:30-7:50 MX-5 Cup Qualifying


SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2013

8:00 Gates Open
7:45-8:30 PRO MAZDA Race #2
8:45-9:15 IZOD IndyCar Series Qualifying #2
9:30-9:45 USF 2000 Pre-Race
9:45-10:15 USF 2000 Race #2
10:30-10:45 Fan Walk
10:45-11:35 Pirelli World Challenge GT/GTS Race
12:00-3:00 IZOD IndyCar Series Race #2
3:10-3:40 Champions Race for Charity Race
4:00-4:45 MX-5 Cup Race
5:00-5:45 Event Car Rides

[HJJ]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

The best thing to do is watch the CCWS 2006 & 7 races on YouTube.

The same but different (and not for the better).

TAKE ME BACK TO 2007 The first running of the Houston Grand Prix, held from 2006-'07, provided lots of passing opportunities for the Champ Car drivers and a layout that flowed. The 2013 version of the track, held on the same configuration around Reliant Stadium, is a far cry from what some IndyCar drivers had expected.
Gone are the open-radius corners, forcing drivers to make slower entries and exits, according to Team Penske's Will Power, who posted the second-fastest lap of the day.
“They tightened all the corners up too much,” said the Aussie who finished seventh and 11th in two tries on the 1.7-mile circuit. “It will make passing really hard. Maybe you can pass in Turn 1, but they should have left big corner entries to create passing zones.”
Power's former Team Australia teammate Simon Pagenaud, who participated in the 2007 Houston event, offered a similar view of the track.
“It's now a small track; it feels like it is in a parking lot,” said the Schmidt Hamilton Racing driver. “It's definitely a different track to drive than when we were here the last time, but you have to deal with the challenges and make the right changes that suit your car. It's the same for everybody, so we all have to deal with what we're given.”
Event promoter Mike Lanigan confirmed the event will not only return next year as a double-header, but could be held in cooler conditions, provided lighting can be added. “Yes, we're investigating a night race,” said Lanigan, who co-owns the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team.

[Marcus666]

Poor Hinch...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Trying to get a decent feed for the race is not exactly easy.

[bjohnsonsmith]

It's not Helio's race today.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I gave up watching as the feed was so bad, otherwise congrats to Dixon.

[NaBUru38]

BJ, you have to join Ten-Tenths chat, which is the #Motorsport channel at irc.phishy.net.

Dixon totally dominated the race. Simona, Wilson and Pagenaud fought very hard for the podium. Bourdais also overtook lots of cars, but lost at the end.

Power and Filippi were candiddates for runner-up but got two yellow flags in the wrong moment. Hunter-Reay ran well but again had mechanical issues.

Hélio just got too much bad luck today. It's painful to watch him lose so many points for external causes. I hope that he recovers tomorrow, I can't stand him retiring with no IndyCar titles.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Cheers.

[JacobP]

The first race day was unkind to some drivers (Sato, Helio, Hinch, etc), but racing was good and above my expectations after that Baltimore race. Some cars inevitably hit the tire walls, which was inevitable on a street course, but at least we didn't see a multi-car cluster-crash.

[gomick]

Wasnt kind to Will Power either... Glad Dixon cut the points lead, hopefully Dixon & Helio can dnf tomoz & Pagenaud gets a good finish

[mythoughtsareracing]

Sunday morning.
Humidity is lower and temperatures have dropped significantly. Expect ambient temperatures at race time to be 10-12 degrees lower than race time yesterday.

[tux]

So qualifying was wet and got cancelled, good chance the race will be wet so how will the drivers get any wet running?
If its wet in the race they still race so why not for qualifying?
If Indycar want to be taken seriously why not qualify and practice in the wet? Just wanted to set the field with points is how it appears.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by tux

So qualifying was wet and got cancelled, good chance the race will be wet so how will the drivers get any wet running?
If its wet in the race they still race so why not for qualifying?
If Indycar want to be taken seriously why not qualify and practice in the wet? Just wanted to set the field with points is how it appears.

So Helio gets an automatic pole; not really in the spirit of the game, or race in this instant.