All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

I hope Indycar does get and keep it together. The track at Barber's here hosts an Indycar race once a year, and is two exits down the freeway from me. I can get there running the backroads with virtually zero traffic, as opposed to the insanity that is Talladega race traffic. It's a beautiful course, with easy access for spectators and even trams you can catch if you tire of where you are. Just move on around the track a bit and find a different vantage point and carry on. I'm not big on going to the track for races but this one is close to painless and extremely enjoyable as a spectator without any special access at all other than a simple gate ticket.

 

Barber is beautiful and worth the drive from anywhere. Reminds me of the old Sears Point, where you could pull out a blanket or a lawn chair on the hillside of Turn 2 and see multiple turns, plus cars exiting the pits. (SMI realized that and stuck a grandstand and luxury boxes there.)

Barber is really technical and requires real skill, which is precisely why it's awesome to watch the drivers work the brakes and throttle. Cannot imagine there's much of a crosover between 'Dega fans, to be honest.

Was planning and doing St. Pete and Barber this year. IndyCar had the haulers arriving for the season opener when everything shut down in March while we were in Palmetto, and they just ran the race today while I was watching from my couch. So 2020.

 

In 2020 there’s only one way to run the Nordschleife. #vanlife

 

Gimme a holler if you come over for Barbers. I know a couple of excellent spots where you can see several curves and the back straight from the same place. I might know a decent BBQ joint or two, as well...

Have you ever done the museum at Barber's? If there is one facility in this town that is absolutely no-shit World Class, Barber's is it. He's got hundreds of rare and exotic motorcycles plus the biggest collection of Lotuses outside of the factory museum. It's flat amazing, and anyone who gets down this way and has any interest whatsoever owes it to himself to check it out.

 

Pfft, try this one. Sabine's a racer - and her day job is to drive a BMW M5 "taxi" around the 'Ring scaring the hell out of people who pay to ride it. She's run it ten to fifteen thousand times to her reckoning.

 

Takeaways from the second video:

1. She absolutely gobbled up cars in the other class on the start, especially since she started 99th or something.
2. What the hell? Three cars backwards three corners in?
3. Once she got to the cars in her class, she was even more impressive, particularly deftly setting up one car for an inside curve.
4. Not sure what the German word for "one finger salute" is, but she gave the one guy a deserved raised fist!

 

Note that there was a bit of rain all through the second one. The idea of running the Ring with just a touch of rain to make things slicker... yeesh.

 

92nd win for Hamilton. What an impressive feat. Really a fun race yesterday. I loved the circuit there in Portugal. Lots of action, a lot of overtakes.

 

You wonder how far he will put that number out of reach when he finally decides to retire. Compared to those he is racing against now, 92 wins is a Gretzky-like number, so far ahead of the rest of his peers that it is hard to fathom.

First few laps in Portugal were as entertaining as any we have seen in a while.

 

They really were.

It's amazing to see them doing 150-170 mph and pulling 5g around Turn 1. Then turns 2 into 3 and 4 provided some great racing as the drivers would trade leads across all three.

 

This was a fun watch.