Two of the hottest days of my life. But I enjoyed it just the same. The big cluster fuck at the beginning happened right in front of me. Did I mention that it was hot? :crazy:

wow....wish I could have gone...the big wreck was to bad,1/3 of field out at first corner....glad Shuey won,hope he can do it some more(?) to make it interesting!!..xoxoxoo

Good that you had a "real" race to watch this year. Michelin "de-tuned" their tires to ensure what happened last year didn't reoccur. Feel sorry for Raikkonen...out on the the first lap. Not the greatest race to watch on TV, wish I was there instead. Did you get to walk out onto the track?

^ No, I'm not sure you can get on the track. Was there Sat. as well. Been to every USGP at IMS. I really wish it were moved back to Sept. Better weather, the heat was brutal. I'm old. :D

This was the last race under the current contract at Indy. I'd hate to see it leave since I'm only 2+ hours away. But the track does suck. The 'Mickey Mouse' turns before the track re-enters the oval are ridiculous. They add nothing to the track, needs to be redesigned for better racing.

BTW - stood at pit out at the beginning of qualifications - about 15-20 feet from the cars as the blast out of the speed restricted portion of the pits. Damn! Ear protection is a must. Even with that, the sound is amazing, although not quite as loud as it was with the V-10s.

I hear you about the hot weather. I've been to the Canadian GP (held this time of year) and its been in the mid 80s every time. I think it rained for about 15 minutes one year which was a relief. The track surface reflects the sun and of course the cars put out tons of heat. Something tells me the "bowl" enclosure shape of Indy would hold the heat in even more. Hey, you only live once though. :) F1 is one of the greatest sporting events in the world to see live. Watching on TV doesn't even come close, eh?

Cool that you got to watch so close to the cars. I've stood in front of the garages before watching the mechanics work on the cars, and it's loud enough when they rev them while they're motionless on blocks. I can't imagine standing that close to a car racing by without ear protection.

anyone watch the german grand prix? it was nice to see a mclaren towards the top again with the ferraris... and poor redbull!

Shuey and the red cars are making it interesting...thought the frog cars were going to run away with the season,but now we have a real fight....hope it gets tighter and tighter as the season wears on...off to eastern europe now and a no pass track....watch qualifing and the pit work !!! xoxoxoo

LOL

As much as I dislike Shuey, he really is having a phenomenal 2nd half of the season. 3 in a row, 5 overall for the year, and in the hunt for title #8 is more than I ever expected him capable of at this point in his career. Determination - thy name is Michael Schumacher.

Former Toyota driver Christiano daMatta was severely injured today at Road America at Elkhart Lake, WI. Champ Car was holding a two day test session there and a CdM hit a deer going into turn 6. He was airlifted to a trauma center and had surgery for a subdural hematoma. He is being observed in ICU.

Here's a video of him in 2002 during the then CART race at RA. Ironically it shows him climbing the hill to T6. Its heavily wooded, I assume the deer entered the track on the outside of T6. Its a slow corner, but the hit may have occured before the corner itself, even before the bridge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9VJqJqi7K8

Updates will be provided here as they become available.

C'mon Shorty, win this one!

I was just reading about daMatta, goodness what are the odds of that happening!? At the local short track there are always rabbits running around the infield and some of us joke about if we'll ever see a rabbit getting runover, but a deer? Hopefully daMatta will pull through.

Congrats to Button! One hell of a race. Flood all the tracks for the rest of the season. This one rocked. :thumbsup:

Great win for Button...fun race to watch, I agree. Happy to see de la Rosa up there too. I can't believe that Liuzzi slowed down *that* much for Raikkonen to drive right over his car like that...the McLaren's tire looked like it almost hit Liuzzi in the head. Raikkonen's fault. Wet races are great.

The safety car was the great equalizer once again. If that accident hadn't happened, I doubt the race would've been anywhere near as exciting as it ended up being.

Schumi really should've come in to change onto slicks when he had the chance though.

Hindsight = 20/20.

Looks like Jacques left BMW-Sauber, hope he finds himself another ride, the man has too much talent not to be behind the wheel of an F1 car, or maybe even the R8 at Lemans

Someone mentioned JV signed with a NASCAR team. Can anyone confirm?

I can't decide if that's fascinating or sad. I mean, giving an F1 seat to an American makes some sense to draw Americans into F1. But is putting a Canadian with big family Euro racing history into NASCAR going to draw anyone to NASCAR? I can only picture a small, loyal Villeneuve fanbase paying attention.

All I can find is this article. It says Tag may be heading to NASCAR as well. I'm very saddened by this news, in my opinion it is a waste of talent as both JV and Tag are great drivers.
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17279.html

I highly doubt it will draw a lot of people to NASCAR, most that I know are disappointed that JV decided to take that route, I would have rather seen him in the American Lemans Series or something along those lines, hopefully he decides to do the 24 Hours of Lemans.

I totally agree crynel, it will just be a small but loyal JV fanbase that follows his progress. I won't be watching the races but I reckon I'll read his results, just to see how he is doing.

I think its pretty cool to see roadcourse guys heading to nascar. Better to see them racing somewhere, than not racing at all. I would be much more willing to watch a nascar race with JV, Montoya, Tagliani and any of the top roadracers.

Same thing happened when Nigel Mansell was one of the very first F1 guys to race in IndyCars. People when nuts when Mansell won the championship in his first year. Imagine the chaos in the nascar stands if JV started winning races on a regular basis!!

Show em who the real racers are. :D

WOW that was an intense race, i didn't think micheal could get it, he was moving up, then BAM!!!! alonso gone! wow just when you think ferrari got it... the friggin breaks!!

Don't have the link but the JV to NASCAR story was denied.

JV's too old to completely change his style to compete in NASCAR. Would take a couple of years to get acclimated and accepted. What JPM, it won't be pretty. Restrictor races and F1 are worlds apart. JPM has to learn how to pace himself and not strike everytime he sees an opening. He's ran ovals in CART and the Indy 500 but that's more in his element since it was open wheel. It won't be easy. And it has nothing to do with talent.

:thumbsup: :love: :thumbsup: .China......what a race,the wet really separates the good from the best...ferrari did a job on the frogs.......now the race is on....!!!! :thumbsup: xoxoxoo:thumbsup:

wow, nail-biter! i didn't think he was going to get it... but he did!!

What's the story w/ Renault today? Stupid strategy or was their mechanical issues?

No one loves to win like Micheal. Pure joy.

I think the Renault team let poor Alonso down yesterday with poor decision-making and screwup in the pits.

But as much as I feel sorry for the lad, you can't help but get the feeling that Schumi might just pull of an 8th championship.

:thumbsup: :D

An extremely rare Ferrari blow up. Just when you think its over, its not. Brazil will be interesting, however had Alonso finished second to Michael, not nearly as interesting as that.

At least it will be a mid-day race for me. :yawn:

that was a bummer...... i wanted to see a race, not a blow-out....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ra107hiuf3.jpg

http://www.hondaracingf1.com/images/...y/4736_800.jpg

http://www.hondaracingf1.com/images/...y/4731_800.jpg

http://www.hondaracingf1.com/images/...y/4716_800.jpg

http://www.hondaracingf1.com/images/...y/4706_800.jpg

http://www.hondaracingf1.com/images/...y/4707_800.jpg



Points for originality I guess. This is Honda, after all. Maybe its a gimmick, maybe not...wouldn't be the first time in F1 for gimmicks.

It's interesting... I had a look at the ITV-F1 website and James Allen had some insightful comments.

The gimmick I'm waiting for is JB to get his second win.

I can see my house!