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Old 14 Sep 2017, 17:54 (Ref:3766875)   #1
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Round 17: GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma. Sonoma, CA. September, 15 - 17.

Round 17: GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma. Sonoma, CA. September, 15 - 17.

So here we are again, as we go into the final round of the 2017 season, which has produced some excellent racing and a good season overall.

Originally known as Sears Point Raceway, the track was built in 1968 by attorney Robert Marshall Jr. and land developer Jim Coleman. The first official race, an SCCA event, was held on Dec. 1, that year. It was sold in 1969 to Filmways Corp., a Los Angeles based entertainment company. In April 1970, Sears Point hosted the 2nd round of the USAC Championship Car season, the Golden Gate 150, which was won by Dan Gurney in his AAR Eagle-Ford. This would be the first and last AOWR/IndyCar race for 35 years. With losses of $300,000 the venue closed in May 1970 and Filmways Corp., used it as a tax shelter. The track re-opened in 1973 and in 1974, it was leased to Bob Bondurant, owner of the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving and eventually bought by Black Mountain Inc., which included Bondurant.

In 1981, When Black Mountain Inc., defaulted on payments, the track was bought back by Filmways Corp., and then subsequently sold at auction to a business group that included the 1964 NHRA top-fuel drag racing champion, Jack Williams. The track came under the control of Brenda Raceway Corp., when business partners Dr. Frank N. Scott Jr. and Harvey "Skip" Berg came on board. It was sold in 1996 to current owners Speedway Motorsports, Inc.

In 2002, Infineon bought the naming rights in a 10 year deal, renaming the track Infineon Raceway. When the deal expired, the new name of Sonoma Raceway was chosen.

AOWR/IndyCar returned on August 28, 2005, after a 35 year absence, with Tony Kanaan wining the IRL's inaugural race at the venue, the Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix, for Andretti Green Racing in a Dallara IR05-Honda HI5R. Since then the race has been an IndyCar perennial and last year hosted the series finale for the first time.

-

At the start of last year's race, pole sitter Pagenaud took the lead ahead of team mate Castroneves. There was contact between Kanaan and Aleshin at Turn 7, causing Aleshin to spin and Kanaan to stall. However, both drivers got going again before the field came around, so there was no full course caution.

The first round of pit stops took place between laps 10-15, during which Power leapfrogged Castroneves, putting him second place. However, Pagenaud continued to increase his lead. On lap 29, Castroneves pitted again in an attempt to opt for an alternate strategy.

On lap 36, a malfunctioning clutch, prevented Power from shifting gears, eventually forcing him into neutral and causing his car to grind to a halt, just before the pit entrance. He was eventually able to continue but with 8 laps down, his bid for the championship was over. This incident brought out the only caution of the race. Prior to that Pagenaud had pitted, allowing him to maintain his lead when the race resumed on lap 41, with Rahal and Kimble now second and third.

Pagenaud and Rahal made their final stops on lap 61. Castroneves, who was on the alternate strategy took the lead. However, he was on the alternative strategy and needed one more stop. By lap 67, Rahal had closed on Pagenaud to just over half a second and on lap 69, Castroneves came in for his final stop, giving the lead back to Pagenaud. Having saved enough of his push-to-passes, Pagenaud was able to pull ahead of Rahal to win the race and the IndyCar Series title in his second season with Team Penske. Penske also took the top three driver positions in the championship.

-

Some trivia:
The driver with the most wins, 3, Scott Dixon, 2007, 2014, 2015. 3, Will Power: 2010, 2011, 2013.
The team with most wins, 6 Team Penske: 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016.

Track Layout:
The full length road course, is 2.523 miles (4.060 km), with 12-turns and 160 feet change in elevation. It also has a quarter mile (402 m) dragstrip, which was originally part of the start/finish line straight. In 2001, the race track was separated from the drag strip. The venue also hosts rounds for other series, including AMA Superbikes, NASCAR Sprint Cup, NHRA Championship Drag Racing, SCCA and WTCC, as well as IndyCar and can accomodate different layouts for each series.

Since 2005 the IndyCar track layout has changed. From 2005 to 2007, IndyCar raced on a modified version of the 2.320 miles (3.733 km) layout used by the AMA. This layout was further revised, with the approach to Turn 7 straightened, which was then used from 2008 to 2011. The most notable change though, was in 2012. The section from Turn 10 to Turn 11 was extended by 200 feet, with the hairpin now at Turn 11B, increasing the track length to 2.385 miles (3.838 km) and giving drivers more space to out-brake each other and set up a passing opportunity, before going into Turn 12. The exit off Turn 9, the Bus Stop, was widened by 10 feet on the driver’s left, giving additional width to what was already a passing zone and Turn 7 became a u-turn similar to Turn 11B.

Original full circuit:


2005 - 2007 IndyCar circuit:


2008 - 2011 IndyCar circuit:


Current IndyCar circuit:


Length: 2.385 Miles (3.838 km)
Turns: 12

Lap record:
Simon Pagenaud, September 17, 2016. 01:16.2530, 112.599 mph (181.210 km/h). Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6. Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last year's winner:
Simon Pagenaud
Team Penske
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6

Laps: 85
Distance: 195.755 Miles (315.010 km)
Race Time: 2:00:13
Average Speed: 101.181 mph (162.835 kmh)

Cautions:
1, laps 3.

TV Coverage:

NBCSN, 6:30pm EST.
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Old 14 Sep 2017, 20:55 (Ref:3766913)   #2
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Looks good.

The one note I have is that, I just checked the 2005 broadcast, and no, the 2005-07 layout IndyCar used did not use the "Budweiser Bottleneck" at the exit of Turn 7.

The other info looks good; I can't remember if I originally thought I saw the number for the extension of Turn 11 being 250 ft, but whatever.

In any case, I just wish they'd find a way to run the 2.520-mile course, because that's about the only way they're going to really improve the racing here. Short of that, they could at least reinstate the wider approach to Turn 7, like they used in 2005-07.
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Old 14 Sep 2017, 21:04 (Ref:3766915)   #3
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Looks good.

The one note I have is that, I just checked the 2005 broadcast, and no, the 2005-07 layout IndyCar used did not use the "Budweiser Bottleneck" at the exit of Turn 7.

The other info looks good; I can't remember if I originally thought I saw the number for the extension of Turn 11 being 250 ft, but whatever.

In any case, I just wish they'd find a way to run the 2.520-mile course, because that's about the only way they're going to really improve the racing here. Short of that, they could at least reinstate the wider approach to Turn 7, like they used in 2005-07.
Cheers. Btw, where do you get your race track info from? It's always detailed and highly informative.
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Old 15 Sep 2017, 02:45 (Ref:3766951)   #4
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One of the places is the same, I suspect, as where you checked: racingcircuits.info. I also have links to the back-ups of the old racingcircuits.net. There's the Italian site, with much of the material in English too, known as "CIRCUITI", which although updates stopped a couple years ago, is still quite thorough, and largely up to date.

Beyond that, as I noted, I check full-race videos for a range of series.

And then I have a variety of print sources on hand. I have an encyclopedia of F1 circuits covering up through Sochi. There's a general book on (mostly) top-level racing circuits from 1999. I have a general motorsport encyclopedia done in conjunction with RACER from 2003, and one that's good for older stuff, published in 1971.

Here and there, I'll consult one of the two or three main race results databases online.

That covers the major bases.
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Old 16 Sep 2017, 14:40 (Ref:3767405)   #5
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I dunno. Despite the Penske muscle, something strange tells me Dixon is gonna win it. A late career championship for him possibly.

I don't like the double points malarky of course. But I'm looking forward to a good race.
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Old 16 Sep 2017, 15:24 (Ref:3767426)   #6
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I'm a Penske fan, but I have a strong feeling that they will mess it up and Dixon will take the championship.
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Old 17 Sep 2017, 00:45 (Ref:3767709)   #7
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One of the places is the same, I suspect, as where you checked: racingcircuits.info. I also have links to the back-ups of the old racingcircuits.net. There's the Italian site, with much of the material in English too, known as "CIRCUITI", which although updates stopped a couple years ago, is still quite thorough, and largely up to date.

Beyond that, as I noted, I check full-race videos for a range of series.

And then I have a variety of print sources on hand. I have an encyclopedia of F1 circuits covering up through Sochi. There's a general book on (mostly) top-level racing circuits from 1999. I have a general motorsport encyclopedia done in conjunction with RACER from 2003, and one that's good for older stuff, published in 1971.

Here and there, I'll consult one of the two or three main race results databases online.

That covers the major bases.
Thanks.
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Old 17 Sep 2017, 01:07 (Ref:3767713)   #8
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Qualifying:

A Penske lockout but watch out for Dixon.

Personally, I'd like to see Newgarden win it.

1 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m15.5205s
2 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m15.5556s, 0.0351s
3 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m15.6356s, 0.1151s
4 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m15.8032s, 0.2827s
5 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.2208s, 0.7003s
6 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.3978s, 0.8773s
7 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.1815s, 0.6610s
8 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.1934s, 0.6729s
9 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.1968s, 0.6763s
10 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.5811s, 1.0606s
11 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.8221s, 1.3016s
12 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.9718s, 1.4513s
13 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m17.1016s, 1.5811s
14 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.7581s, 1.2376s
15 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m17.1417s, 1.6212s
16 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1m16.9539s, 1.4334s
17 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m17.2662s, 1.7457s
18 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda 1m17.0231s. 1.5026s
19 Jack Harvey, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1m17.2722s, 1.7517s
20 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m17.1602s, 1.6397s
21 Zachary Claman, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1m17.2814s, 1.7609s
22 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m17.2507s, 1.7302s
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Old 17 Sep 2017, 13:30 (Ref:3767940)   #9
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D.R.T. should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridD.R.T. should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
Close between Josef and Power
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Old 17 Sep 2017, 22:51 (Ref:3768096)   #10
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A very clean start.

There is some debris on Turn 9 but that was sometime after the start.
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Old 17 Sep 2017, 23:01 (Ref:3768097)   #11
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That was impressive, Sato managed to get the car back to the pits, with a flat right rear and not destroy the body work.
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 00:48 (Ref:3768117)   #12
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Congrats to Josef Newgarden, a thoroughly deserving champion. Congrats to Pagenaud on winning and also to Penske on taking all three steps on the podium.
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 03:13 (Ref:3768142)   #13
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Result:

The race was obviously dominated by Penske and Chevrolet but Honda made up half of the top 10 places. Good to see Bourdais also up in the top 10.

1 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 1h55m52.6840s
2 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 1.0986s
3 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 1.6139s
4 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 85. 12.0870s
5 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 22.5022s
6 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 85. 23.5289s
7 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 85. 23.9788s
8 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 85. 24.5140s
9 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 85. 49.9911s
10 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 55.6650s
11 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 85. 1m21.0203s
12 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 85. 1m24.5038s
13 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 84. 1 Lap
14 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 84. 1 Lap
15 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 84. 1 Lap
16 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 84, 1 Lap
17 Zachary Claman, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 84. 1 Lap
18 Jack Harvey, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 84. 1 Lap
19 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 69. Spun off
20 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 62. Spun off
21 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 60. 25 Laps
22 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 52. Electrical
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 12:25 (Ref:3768254)   #14
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Finished this one late last night. Great job Josef! Pretty impressive how quickly he gelled with his team and put it on top!

The race had some decent interest and had some decent overtaking but it was a pretty mellow event to round off the year.

Now the nearly 6 month wait til the next one...
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 12:53 (Ref:3768263)   #15
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I'm a Dixon fan, but I have to say Newgarden is the one who deserved the championship most. Congrats, kid!

It's a pity the race itself was rather boring. There wasn't much action on track. It was almost as dull as a F1 race.
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 13:36 (Ref:3768275)   #16
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I found the race be pretty entertaining. Watching pagenaud pull off the four stop strategy was fun. He may not have won the championship but he showed he is a worthy champion. I hope he gets another one or two. I've been a fan of his since his p2 Acura days.

Newgarden is gonna be a force. I especially enjoy his honesty in interviews. He will admit to thinking about things others will pretend not to, like the championship instead of "100% focused on the race" blandness. It looked cheesy when he came out with the American flag, and I thought it was great that he apologized for it and basically told us it was a marketing thing, and that they handed it to him backstage. Makes him more real or something. Him and pagenaud trading titles for a while works for me.

Also good to see there wasn't any bad blood from the chicagoland incident.
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 14:06 (Ref:3768283)   #17
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It wasn't the most scintillating race and last year's wasn't much different. It's a bit of a shame considering it was the season finale and several drivers were in contention for the championship. Hopefully the IR-15 will produce even better, closer racing.

Overall, I thought it was a very good season and an eventful one. If there was an outstanding moment, I think it was seeing Alonso during the Rookie Orientation Program.

Now we have the long off season. I personally think Mark Miles shouldn't be so scared of the NFL and try and extend the season into October and start the season at the beginning of March. However, this year the teams will be busy as they receive their IR-15s and I'm really looking forward to seeing it race next season.
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 14:23 (Ref:3768290)   #18
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Newgarden proved me wrong, and had a clean race to win the championship. Congratulations!
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 14:32 (Ref:3768292)   #19
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I found the race be pretty entertaining. Watching pagenaud pull off the four stop strategy was fun. He may not have won the championship but he showed he is a worthy champion. I hope he gets another one or two. I've been a fan of his since his p2 Acura days.

Newgarden is gonna be a force. I especially enjoy his honesty in interviews. He will admit to thinking about things others will pretend not to, like the championship instead of "100% focused on the race" blandness. It looked cheesy when he came out with the American flag, and I thought it was great that he apologized for it and basically told us it was a marketing thing, and that they handed it to him backstage. Makes him more real or something. Him and pagenaud trading titles for a while works for me.

Also good to see there wasn't any bad blood from the chicagoland incident.
I've liked Simon from his P2 days as well;took me some time to warm to him for I hope an obvious reason...he's been one of my favs for some time now and I'd hoped to see him at PLM.

Agreed, his strategy made for a bit more interesting race, but I'm fine with American Flags, unless it's Brad Keso

And I think you meant Gateway rather than Chicago.

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It wasn't the most scintillating race and last year's wasn't much different. It's a bit of a shame considering it was the season finale and several drivers were in contention for the championship. Hopefully the IR-15 will produce even better, closer racing.
The last race should be on an oval, imho.

And this is the kind of track Sonoma is. It's quick, hard to pass, but usually has it's fair share of incidents. I like clean races, for the most, but other than the championship element, there were few talking points.
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 16:00 (Ref:3768322)   #20
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Well done Newgarden. Only have Freeview, so haven't really been able to keep up with this season's Indycar, but no doubt he deserves it
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 16:08 (Ref:3768325)   #21
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The race kind of ran like a mini Le Mans (Petit Le Mans? Hmm, I wonder if that's been taken), the wheel to wheel action wasn't there from start to finish as some IndyCar fans are crying for in a finale... but the strategy race was thoroughly entertaining, and even as I flipped back and forth between that and an utterly depressing Cowboys game, I enjoyed the fight that played out between Pags and Newy.

The best part of Sonoma for me, was knowing that new bodywork will be on the cars at the next race.

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Old 18 Sep 2017, 16:12 (Ref:3768328)   #22
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It wasn't the most scintillating race and last year's wasn't much different. It's a bit of a shame considering it was the season finale and several drivers were in contention for the championship. Hopefully the IR-15 will produce even better, closer racing.

Overall, I thought it was a very good season and an eventful one. If there was an outstanding moment, I think it was seeing Alonso during the Rookie Orientation Program.

Now we have the long off season. I personally think Mark Miles shouldn't be so scared of the NFL and try and extend the season into October and start the season at the beginning of March. However, this year the teams will be busy as they receive their IR-15s and I'm really looking forward to seeing it race next season.

I think a better strategy than extending the season into fall is to open it in January or early February. Could make that a "fly away" section of the schedule if the events and finances work. Racing is dead in January and early February and everyone is jonesing for their fix, and Indycar could be the biggest series running at that timeframe.
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 16:44 (Ref:3768337)   #23
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I think a better strategy than extending the season into fall is to open it in January or early February. Could make that a "fly away" section of the schedule if the events and finances work. Racing is dead in January and early February and everyone is jonesing for their fix, and Indycar could be the biggest series running at that timeframe.
The problem with January or February is the NFL. That's when the play offs and Super Bowl take place. Maybe from the middle of February on wards, with a fly away but who would host it?
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Old 18 Sep 2017, 18:22 (Ref:3768352)   #24
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The problem with January or February is the NFL. That's when the play offs and Super Bowl take place. Maybe from the middle of February on wards, with a fly away but who would host it?
Australia, so long as they're willing to forgive us having taking away a well sponsored, well promoted, well attended race.

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Old 18 Sep 2017, 18:56 (Ref:3768365)   #25
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It's the NFL, but also, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which several IndyCar drivers/teams take part in.

Sonoma isn't that quick for a road course. Pole was in the 113-mph bracket. Road America and Watkins Glen are over 140 mph. Next quickest permanent road course in IndyCar is Barber, with a record in the 124-mph bracket. Next quickest road course/temporary circuit, is Belle Isle. (Yes, Belle Isle is faster than the layout of Sears Point that IndyCar currenty uses; I'll just let that sink in for you.)

If they ran the 2.520-mile layout at Sears Point, I'd expect the Pole to be not in the 1:15s, but in the 1:09s. The wider entry to Turn 7 would aid overtaking there, and they'd actually have a long enough run into Turn 11 to do something there. With a more open Turn 7 and 11, cars would stay closer together on the subsequent high-speed sections, allowing more overtaking at Turns 11 and 2.

I think a good road course could reasonably hold the season finale, but Sears Point, in the form they're using it in now, is not that course. If they're going to do an oval finale, it needs to be in October, at Fontana, when sunset is early enough that they actually get some night running in before midnight on the East Coast.

And I'm concerned that the racing may get worse at Barber and Sears Point with the new aero. Being able to maintain high speeds with that downforce reduces the expansions in the physical gaps between cars. Now, in some cases, it will also reduce the shrinkage in the physcial gaps as well, but going into a really slow corner, if you're right up the leader's tail, you're going to have to give up time to not run into him, so the gap coming off that corner will grow even more.

Now, I think Road America and Watkins Glen will be fine. It might help overtaking in some places at Mid Ohio, though it might hinder overtaking there at some less conventional spots. The main place it might help, I think, are the street circuits.

As for ovals, watching the CART races at Phoenix or Nazareth, unless you have guys running 10+ mph off the pace, you won't get the disparities in traffic that lead to those wild passes for position we used to see. And let's face it, a team that is running that slow isn't going to last for very long.

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