Are you sure of that...? When you think of the crazy amount of money involved in feeder series, surely you could always find a few drivers desperate enough to put a few bucks on the table - just to get a sniff at F1.
Age is not the issue here. Schumi is chasing F1 podiums at 44. John Andretti and Jean Alesi made their latest Indy 500 start at 48.
Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], .
:thumbsdow
Hardly a good news. God knows for how long the privateers will afford going racing, with a calendar that has become so international.
Granted, 2013 suddently becomes the most open season in years, with no clear favorite, and a few top-class drivers on the markets. However, who will be afford to hire Muller, Huff and Menu in the current field. They might aswell hang up their helmet, or go race elsewhere. Hardly a positive sight, when this so called "world championship" is filled with gentlemen drivers.
WTCC might become the rich man's BTCC, minus the great car diversity. The idea might have sounded interresting on the paper at first, but with the drivers standards, potential car counts, and turn over issues BTCC is facing, is it the way to go, really?
This site is a true gold mine.
OK, it treats of pre-WWII racing only. And there aren't a lot of pictures. But you will find plenty of public road circuits names on it.
OK, it treats of pre-WWII racing only. And there aren't a lot of pictures. But you will find plenty of public road circuits names on it.
I'm pretty sure there are still a few demo drag servers around.
Not that much have changed in 2 years. The devs have released a couple of patches featuring minor updates. The highlight is the introduction of the open config tracks, but you'll need to unlock S2 for this.
Warning: long rant ahead.
A few days ago, Curt Kavin from the Indianapolis Star made a mid-season review and gave grades to each team. He gave KV Racing an "F", stating that the teams' results were relatively poor, considering its huge ressources. Kavin then received some critics from mail and Twitter for his negative comments.
Then, later, in his "Trackside" radio show(brilliant stuff, if I may add), he apologised, saying something like(paraphrasing): "I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Sometimes when you write things, it is hard to match your thoughts exactly. You only realise that when you re-read yourself. I didn't mean to write such negative comments. If I had to do it again, I would have given KV a better grade, and turned things into a more positive way".
The reason why I took this example is, I thought this was a brilliant quote, and I belive it applies to this thread very well.
I'm sure all of us in this thread would approve of the new managements' actions, overall. I'm sure that all of us think the series is going the right way since the reunification. And last thing - I'm sure everyone would agree that since March 2012, we have witnessed some of the finest American Open Wheel races for a long while, and one of the best Indy 500 of recent history.
The thing is, as race fans, we are perfectionists. We tend to take the things that are going well as "granted", and focus instead on the things that could be improved.
As race fans, we are also traditionalists. Most of us think that at least some aspects of yesterday's racing was better... And are affraid of changes that could drive today's racing even further than what it was yesterday.
When you think about it... Many mainstream sports such as soccer, basketball or else, have had a similar ruleset for decades, and very few changes since then. In motorsports, especially in Indy-style racing, mostly due to the changes in terms of technology, aswell as different standards in terms of safety and "entertainment", we are changing rules year after year. Sometimes, even race by race.
When it is introduced in order to kill a bad and well known problem, this kind of sudden rule changes are perceived relatively well(ie: aero fixes before the latest Texas race, in order to kill the potential risks of "pack racing").
On the other hand, when it comes when many feel like there is no problem to cure, this kind of rule change can become unpopular.
Maybe bringing back push to pass was a good idea. Maybe it wasn't. Time will tell.
Now thing is, the street and road course racing product has arguably never been this good under IRL/IndyCar sanctionning, since the first ever IRL street course - St Pete 2005. In those conditions, is the "gamble" of messing with the racing product worth it? Is the very slight decrease in terms of power worth to take - while drivers and fans alike want to go the other way and have a lot more power?
But you're right Jack. Those things are just mere details, and don't influence IndyCar's situation in the big picture. From one's point of vue, the reaction they created could be perceived as "over-the-top".
Now, I don't think the fans are annoyed by the (re-)introduction of push to pass itself. In fact, they are mostly getting tired by the endless rule changes - sometimes with arguable, and "unknown" motivations behind them. And those are hurting the sports' stability.
And, while it's still recovering from the wounds of a terrible, destructing 12 years long split, this is one of the things American Open Wheel Racing needs the most: stability. It is one of the most important elements it needs to get, if it wants to get its former credibility back.
Sorry for the long post
A few days ago, Curt Kavin from the Indianapolis Star made a mid-season review and gave grades to each team. He gave KV Racing an "F", stating that the teams' results were relatively poor, considering its huge ressources. Kavin then received some critics from mail and Twitter for his negative comments.
Then, later, in his "Trackside" radio show(brilliant stuff, if I may add), he apologised, saying something like(paraphrasing): "I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Sometimes when you write things, it is hard to match your thoughts exactly. You only realise that when you re-read yourself. I didn't mean to write such negative comments. If I had to do it again, I would have given KV a better grade, and turned things into a more positive way".
The reason why I took this example is, I thought this was a brilliant quote, and I belive it applies to this thread very well.
I'm sure all of us in this thread would approve of the new managements' actions, overall. I'm sure that all of us think the series is going the right way since the reunification. And last thing - I'm sure everyone would agree that since March 2012, we have witnessed some of the finest American Open Wheel races for a long while, and one of the best Indy 500 of recent history.
The thing is, as race fans, we are perfectionists. We tend to take the things that are going well as "granted", and focus instead on the things that could be improved.
As race fans, we are also traditionalists. Most of us think that at least some aspects of yesterday's racing was better... And are affraid of changes that could drive today's racing even further than what it was yesterday.
When you think about it... Many mainstream sports such as soccer, basketball or else, have had a similar ruleset for decades, and very few changes since then. In motorsports, especially in Indy-style racing, mostly due to the changes in terms of technology, aswell as different standards in terms of safety and "entertainment", we are changing rules year after year. Sometimes, even race by race.
When it is introduced in order to kill a bad and well known problem, this kind of sudden rule changes are perceived relatively well(ie: aero fixes before the latest Texas race, in order to kill the potential risks of "pack racing").
On the other hand, when it comes when many feel like there is no problem to cure, this kind of rule change can become unpopular.
Maybe bringing back push to pass was a good idea. Maybe it wasn't. Time will tell.
Now thing is, the street and road course racing product has arguably never been this good under IRL/IndyCar sanctionning, since the first ever IRL street course - St Pete 2005. In those conditions, is the "gamble" of messing with the racing product worth it? Is the very slight decrease in terms of power worth to take - while drivers and fans alike want to go the other way and have a lot more power?
But you're right Jack. Those things are just mere details, and don't influence IndyCar's situation in the big picture. From one's point of vue, the reaction they created could be perceived as "over-the-top".
Now, I don't think the fans are annoyed by the (re-)introduction of push to pass itself. In fact, they are mostly getting tired by the endless rule changes - sometimes with arguable, and "unknown" motivations behind them. And those are hurting the sports' stability.
And, while it's still recovering from the wounds of a terrible, destructing 12 years long split, this is one of the things American Open Wheel Racing needs the most: stability. It is one of the most important elements it needs to get, if it wants to get its former credibility back.
Sorry for the long post
Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], .
Exactly. The street/road course racing product has been pretty strong so far this year. Much better than what it was with the IR07. So why try to fix something that was working fine?
But oh well. Life goes on.
Yea, this is what the cynical side of me thinks, too.
Plus, less boost = less power for everyone = less power deficit for Lotus.
No, I'm pretty sure I got it right.
Too bad you feel that way then. But I feel like you set your "bitching" standards in a over-sensitive way.
You want true bitching? Do yourself a favour, and have a look at what's going on at Trackforum(especially the uncensored controversy section), Miller's Mailbag on SpeedTV.com, or even (*gasp*) good old Crapwagon.com.
Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], .
And this is exactly what they are doing.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100778
I'm pretty sure PMD and Mustafur were just offering wild speculation with their boost leveling theory. Unless they know something we don't know of.
Wrong place for this mate. Try here instead.
Well, afterall, Miss Legge got an "F"...
Corruption in F1? OMG. I would have never have thought.
Hello, AOWR vs F1 can of worms:rolleyes:
I don't know, really... I don't like "driver ratings" and this kind of things so much, personally. Each driver have his or her own personnal story, career, and background. Reducting each individual to one single mere grade is not very informative.
One thing that strikes me in particular in your ratings, is the case of Rubens Barrichello and Ed Carpenter. On one side, the 19 years F1 veteran, 40 year old oval newbie Rubens Barrichello. On the other, 2000s IRL golden boy, oval specialist, pack racing lover, driver/owner Ed Carpenter. You can't do much different than the two of them. Yet, nevermind their borderline hyperbolic contrasts, both driver's career, achievements and talents are summed up with the same grade - D.
It's like comparing the climber and the sprinter in cycling. Both still compete against each other, but their difference in terms of background and speciality make any kind of comparison between the two of them almost irrelevant.
But anyway, speaking of grades, here are Robin Miller's and Curt Kavin's takes at mid-season reports.
Speaking about the Andrettis, here is a pretty good interview with Michael: http://pressdog.typepad.com/do ... mazda-road-to-indy-1.html
Includes bits about Marco, Andretti Autosport as a whole, his efforts as a race promoter, etc.
Includes bits about Marco, Andretti Autosport as a whole, his efforts as a race promoter, etc.
The analogy with Graham Rahal is tempting, isn't it? Didn't go the "easy way" of racing for dad, but instead, earned his rides the hard way, with sponsor hunting and results. And, although he has his own moments too, he seems to be a more stable, and mature individual than Marco.
Maybe working for another, less fancy team, for someone else than Michael, would help Marco to wake up, indeed...
Well, the first thing you have to ask yourself is, "Why do I want this server?". Is it to fullfill a personal dream? Or, to provide a service to the community? Or, to get an experimentation ground(for insims, or else).
The thing is, there are a lot more servers than players. Right now, as I type, there are 612 servers for "only" 692 online players. 540 of them are empty, which represents approximately 88%.
I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but if you don't have a very solid plan behind this, your server will join those 88% straight away. And you don't want to waste your time and your money, do you?
If you want to be successful, you need to find THE thing that will make drivers join your server instead of others. Because, they litterally have hundreds of other servers to go racing for free, and they won't go at yours just for sympathy.
And, let's not forget, building successful servers out of no strong community is an almost impossible task. You could come up with the perfect idea, the perfect insim, and the perfect adminning system, and still end up missing the most important thing: the drivers. You need to have a devoted "fanbase" racing on your server as often as possible, to keep it as high as possible on the server list, so you can make the server attractive to average Joe's like me.
There are plenty of servers that ended being "one hit wonders", because for whatever reason, they couldn't attract the racers for more than a few days or a few weeks. I recall in particular of EQ Worry's project, which sounded perfectly fine on the paper, but ended up being a monumental flop.
________
But anyway, to answer your question... I would be pretty interrested in having a sort of revival of the "CTRA Bump and Jump" server, with the old layouts. It could be an interresting idea to consider, as there are no active servers offering autocross racing at the moment. But would there be enough interrest to keep the server populated on long term? Here's the question.
Something single seaters would be nice - either MRT/FBM/FOX/FO8, or multiclass with all of them - but then there is FOX Junkies and cargame.nl's OW server and they are pretty much empty all the time, so I guess there is not enough interrest for that stuff right now.
BTW, I might be in the minority, but I'm not a big fans of servers where you have to get "experience points" or whatever you call them, in order to unlock the more powerful cars. When I fire up LFS I just want to goddamn race, not cruise for meaningless points. Keeping the unexperienced away from the dangerous cars is a necessary evil, OK, but you can just filter them with Airio's !ex index.
The thing is, there are a lot more servers than players. Right now, as I type, there are 612 servers for "only" 692 online players. 540 of them are empty, which represents approximately 88%.
I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but if you don't have a very solid plan behind this, your server will join those 88% straight away. And you don't want to waste your time and your money, do you?
If you want to be successful, you need to find THE thing that will make drivers join your server instead of others. Because, they litterally have hundreds of other servers to go racing for free, and they won't go at yours just for sympathy.
And, let's not forget, building successful servers out of no strong community is an almost impossible task. You could come up with the perfect idea, the perfect insim, and the perfect adminning system, and still end up missing the most important thing: the drivers. You need to have a devoted "fanbase" racing on your server as often as possible, to keep it as high as possible on the server list, so you can make the server attractive to average Joe's like me.
There are plenty of servers that ended being "one hit wonders", because for whatever reason, they couldn't attract the racers for more than a few days or a few weeks. I recall in particular of EQ Worry's project, which sounded perfectly fine on the paper, but ended up being a monumental flop.
________
But anyway, to answer your question... I would be pretty interrested in having a sort of revival of the "CTRA Bump and Jump" server, with the old layouts. It could be an interresting idea to consider, as there are no active servers offering autocross racing at the moment. But would there be enough interrest to keep the server populated on long term? Here's the question.
Something single seaters would be nice - either MRT/FBM/FOX/FO8, or multiclass with all of them - but then there is FOX Junkies and cargame.nl's OW server and they are pretty much empty all the time, so I guess there is not enough interrest for that stuff right now.
BTW, I might be in the minority, but I'm not a big fans of servers where you have to get "experience points" or whatever you call them, in order to unlock the more powerful cars. When I fire up LFS I just want to goddamn race, not cruise for meaningless points. Keeping the unexperienced away from the dangerous cars is a necessary evil, OK, but you can just filter them with Airio's !ex index.
True. And let's not forget that, unlike Ganassi, Penske and KV, they have no former champion, and no former championship contender in their driver roster.
Sprint Car racing is some of the best fun I've had on iRacing.
Not only the cars are tough and challenging beasts, but the people racing in that series are great. Very sensible, very clean and respectuous. Totally different from the iR oval racing stereotypes.
Good point for Marco on Iowa 2011.
Although I really disagree on AA being off the pace on road and street courses. Just look at sophomore Hinch's performances in the first 4 races: 4 "fast 6" in quali, and 4 top 6 in the race. He was in the hunt at Barber, but messed up a restart or two.
And remember, RHR was the only man able to challenge Will Power at Sao Paolo.
No. But there are plenty of opportunities to get laps back, with cautions. If every lead lap car between you and the pace car pits, you can get your lap back. Then you can pit before the caution ends, and still keep the lap you "gained".
We might see more of this kind of situations nowadays, as track position is arguably less valuable with the DW12, than it was with the IR03/07. So taking the gamble to pit under yellow is less risky. And more lead lap cars into pitlane under caution ultimately means, more chances for lapped cars to get a lap back.
But anyway, big shout out to Ed Carpenter, who got a lap back twice in a row, at Milwaukee and Iowa! And he didn't need any lucky cautions or lucky dog-style gimmicks - he did it the hard way, by passing the leader at a restart.
The picture is even more appropriate, when you think that Alex "wanker!" Tagliani will be at Montreal too
I'm more of a road course guy, but I have to say that Iowa is currently the second best facility of the schedule, behind Indy. Fantastic racing yesterday(or 2 days ago, if you live on the other side of the pond)
I don't like Marco much, but I don't think he was "pissed" yesterday. He just seems to be a very shy and self-centred individual, who has trouble with showing emotions outside the car. The only times he manages to show (negative) emotions is when he gets "aggressed"(ie: he gets passed on track, or strategy doesn't go his way), then he just ends up raging.
Being somewhat similar to him personally, I kinda feel for him. It really sucks when people think you're endlessly pissed, when you just aren't the kind of people to go crazy-happy all the time like Helio.
Now it's just my own analysis as someone who just knows the "on record" side of him, maybe he's a different person off the record?
But nevertheless you can't argue that he's far from being the ideal PR person. In those times when PR and sponsor hunting matter more than actual performances, Marco can be very grateful for he can make up for both with his last name! Without it, he wouldn't have the top ride he has right now.
BTW, the more time passes, the more the similarities between Marco and his former female team-mate are shockingly obvious! Just look at that, both are:
I feel for poor old Michael Andretti, who had to cope with both of them for so long. If you're looking for why AA lost so much ground on the "big 2" in the late 2000s, you have probably one of the answers right here.
I don't like Marco much, but I don't think he was "pissed" yesterday. He just seems to be a very shy and self-centred individual, who has trouble with showing emotions outside the car. The only times he manages to show (negative) emotions is when he gets "aggressed"(ie: he gets passed on track, or strategy doesn't go his way), then he just ends up raging.
Being somewhat similar to him personally, I kinda feel for him. It really sucks when people think you're endlessly pissed, when you just aren't the kind of people to go crazy-happy all the time like Helio.
Now it's just my own analysis as someone who just knows the "on record" side of him, maybe he's a different person off the record?
But nevertheless you can't argue that he's far from being the ideal PR person. In those times when PR and sponsor hunting matter more than actual performances, Marco can be very grateful for he can make up for both with his last name! Without it, he wouldn't have the top ride he has right now.
BTW, the more time passes, the more the similarities between Marco and his former female team-mate are shockingly obvious! Just look at that, both are:
- Pretty damn good at Indy, and above average on high banked ovals...
- ... but way below average on road and street courses.
- Not good at setups
- In desperate need of anger management, they shout in the radio all the time(OK, it's an impression that is enhanced by the fact that their radio communications get in public more often than the others)
- Not comfortable in close racing situations
- Not a very good team player
- Massively overhyped(one more the other, though!
)
I feel for poor old Michael Andretti, who had to cope with both of them for so long. If you're looking for why AA lost so much ground on the "big 2" in the late 2000s, you have probably one of the answers right here.
Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], .
Try to contact the seller.
I've been in several cases where the seller did not mention anything about international shipping, not because he was against it, but because he did not expect any interrest from anybody living outside the US(high shipping fees and/or product aimed at the North American "market").
In those cases, it is generally quite easy to find an agreement with the seller.
I've been in several cases where the seller did not mention anything about international shipping, not because he was against it, but because he did not expect any interrest from anybody living outside the US(high shipping fees and/or product aimed at the North American "market").
In those cases, it is generally quite easy to find an agreement with the seller.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG