Motegi Weekend Thread

[Tim Northcutt]

After two practice sessions Danica Patrick topped the charts with Kosuke Matsuura second.

Kanaan was fastest in the first session, but his top time wasn't as quick as Danica's in the second session.

Vitor Meira hit the wall in turn 2 in the first session and went to his backup car for session 2....he was far down the charts.

Go to www.indycar.com and look at the results link to see how others fared...

[rustyfan]

Let's hope Patrick can keep the pace up throughout the weekend and score a good finish.

[drdisque]

Also remember that you can watch live qualifying coverage tonight (Americas)/this morning (europe) on IndyCar.com

[rustyfan]

Helio Castroneves will start from pole at Motegi, with Dan Wheldon joining him on the front row. AGR team mates Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick, keeping her speed up from practice, will share the second row.

SpeedTV.com has a report & the line-up.

[Charlies]

Looks like Patrick's best chance of a win in a while, but I can't see AGR beating Penske and Ganassi over a race distance. Pity Manning has gone from the high of St. Pete to bringing up the rear, but at least there are more road courses this season.

[deejay]

Wll, I'll be cheering for Danica. Would be great to see her get that bogey off her back so people will stop talking about it. Would also be a boost for the media attention on the series obviously.

If she gets in a final lap duel with a Wheldon or Hornish though she probably won't stand much chance...

[rustyfan]

Not sure if the race was aired live in the US or not, so do not scroll down if you want to avoid race spoilers!










































Congratulations to Tony Kanaan on winning the Indy Japan 300 at Motegi ahead of Dan Wheldon!

One of the better races at Motegi and while there weren't that many passes for the lead there were plenty of dicing for position in the top-10.

Danica Patrick has to be disappointed with her run, losing several spots right from the start and never really getting back up to speed, hovering around the 9th-10th position all day. Her disappointment is probably nothing to that of Matsuura though - losing it on your own and crashing on the very first lap in front of your home crowd, now that has to hurt.

Roll on Kansas, where we might see Milka Duno make her debut if she gets the ok to race.

[Knowlesy]

If that is the case, please do not roll on Kansas!

[drdisque]

With Kosuke's spin, I think we can all give a hearty hello to Hideki Mutoh driving the #55 in the IndyCar series next year.

[stradlin21]

if i'm honest I can see Mutoh being in the car before next season

from the race, good strategy from Rahal Letterman gave their two drivers their first decent finishes of the season

Sharp finishing 6th and Jeff Simmons releaving some of the pressure on him by finishing 8th

[stradlin21]

and if Duno, Barron and Roth all make the trip to Kansas then there could well be 21 cars on the grid

[deejay]

I failed to get inspired by this race and spent most it watching the v8supercars on a different channel.

One trend that is interesting, Hornish doesn't seem to have turned up to race this year. Looked very unthreatening on both ovals. Will he get form back in time to defend Indy?

Meanwhile Kanaan is emerging as a genuine threat for the title, especially with is good ability on the road courses. Don't think it will be a "red" wash this year.

[stradlin21]

i said on a season preview I did on another forum that you can never count out Tony Kanaan

and after three races he has shown that he has serious intentions to win the championship this season

I've never been that keen on the Motegi race but I thought this one was ok. it was pretty static at the front but behind them it was quite fierce at times

back to the real deal next week at Kansas and then we have all the build up to the 500

btw, the Indycar official website has live streaming of all practice and qualifying sessions for free

and I think the race aswell but only on in car camera

but we can just watch that on the tv!

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by deejay

One trend that is interesting, Hornish doesn't seem to have turned up to race this year. Looked very unthreatening on both ovals. Will he get form back in time to defend Indy?

Nah....he's too busy hitting everything in NASCAR Busch Series to bother with Indycar races this year.

[Charlies]

Wasn't a great race, being decided on strategy rather than on the track, but at least there was a different winner, and evidence the other AGR cars might also be able to challenge. Seems a long way to go for pretty dull races, but I guess if your engine supplier wants a home race, you can't really argue.

Only a week to wait for Kansas. What kind of racing can we expect?

[Chaos81]

Originally Posted by Charlies

Only a week to wait for Kansas. What kind of racing can we expect?

The track has the second and sixth closest finishes in IRL history, as well as the second closest one-two-three. The second closest was .0051 seconds, sixth was .0120 seconds, and the one-two-three was .0242 seconds.

Also can't forget the Indy Lights finish back in 2001, when the top three finished .001 seconds apart. If I remember correctly, they said in the news after that race, the only reason the finish wasn't any closer then that, is because the timing software wasn't recording any lower. From what I remember, at the track, everyone was just kind of looking at each other, because nobody knew who won, or even finished in third.

I was at every one of those races and will be there this weekend as well. I can't wait.

That give you an idea of what to expect? Can't promise it'll be that close this weekend, but it should show you what's possible. Going to be
a bit different then it has been, as the weather is going to be about 30 degrees or more cooler then what it normally is.