On the first days testing for the champ car teams all but one of the cars made an appearance and we saw the Newman/Haas/Lanigan cars for the first time. The Champ Car teams were joined by Roth Racing who did not compete in the test in February so were allowed to compete in this one. It did however give an insight to where the champ car teams need to be on speed to be able to competitive.
Marty Roth is well known for his slow laps and is often last on the timesheets but he wound up the day comfortably quickest of all, even quicker than teammate Jay Howard and much quicker then the cream of the champ car field.
As it was, Roth’s laps were actually fairly decent, it would have put him 10th of 17 cars in the February test but more importantly he was over 2mph quicker than the fastest Champ Car driver Will Power. I’m not sure whether it was a good showing from Roth or just proof that the champ car teams have a long road ahead, I lean towards the latter.
Taking into account the February test Power would have been 5mph slower then the fastest driver, Ryan Briscoe

Bruno Junqueira was the only driver not to make an appearance as his car was damaged at Sebring and the team only received extra spares on Sunday evening

The test will conclude tonight with another 6 hour session, it will be interesting to see if Roth can keep up the improvements

<think>

Sounds like the Champ Car teams have a lot of work to do, then. Presumably as they get used to the new chassis they will find some speed, but it might take a while.

I'm hoping the Indy 500 will be like the last time there were drivers from several series in there.... Montoya won it after leading something like 167 laps, Tony Stewart was there too, and Greg Ray was make to look like prat after crashing trying to keep up with JPM, getting the car fixed, and them crashing again. I think the highest placed IRL regualr was fourth or fifth.....!

Greg Ray was on the pole and did overtake JPM but crashed

JPM won the 500 but you are quite wrong when you say the nearest IRL driver was 4th of 5th

Buddy Lazier ran JPM very close and finished 2nd

I should point out that JPM’s team, Ganassi Racing were operating on ten times the budget of Hemelgarn Racing, who Lazier was driving for

Plus the fact that Ganassi had two engine lease programmes for JPM and Vasser and Hemelgarn were just a one car show it was a feat in itself that Lazier was able to run JPM so close

There is lots of myths about the race from the champ car crew but you need to be clear on the facts

I have it on good authority that CART had spent in excess of $20 million on that race to beat the IRL

And they didn’t even do it that convincingly

To put that into perspective, Hemelgarn Racing’s entire SEASON’s budget was around $3 million

The only fact that I remember was that JPM made the rest look stupid! I didn't recall that Lazier finished second, but I do recall that I don't remember being vaguely worried that Lazier would beat JPM. He won by over seven seconds. Interestingly enough, his 167 laps lead is a record for a rookie, and appears to be the most laps lead for a driver only competing in a single 500. Not to mention that it was the first and only track he raced an IRL car at, so the chassis and engine were entirely foreign to the team. Most of the IRL guys had nothing nice to say about JPM before the race, then he whipped their arses. So much for the early crash that Al Coholic Junior predicted....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Indianapolis_500

there's the result

there is also a video on Youtube of the race with Lazier inches from getting past JPM but he faded

hardly suprising seen as that car was running 500 miles on about $200,000 whearas the Ganassi team were operating on ten times that amounts with a HUGE team, much much bigger then what Ron Hemelgarn had

i'll post it when i get home

it's little wonder Ganassi won the race, they had access to resources that IRL teams could only dream about

i firmly believe that this race was ONE of the contributing factors to CART going bankrupt because they spent so much money on it just to beat the IRL

but really, who had the last laugh?

NASCAR.

yeah, can't argue with that actually

Now that Tony has finally got control over the open wheel scene, he may realise how he's totally ruined it's place in the order with 10 years hardship being suffered by both series in turn over the ever rising fortunes of NASCAR. Still, as your sig says, what goes round comes round.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1uJzgoQj8U

They don't show the cross of the finish, but it didn't look like JPM was to bothered.

Not wanting to start a Champ Car vs. IRL because it really doesn't matter. JPM won as a rookie at the Indy 500. He was best on the day.

This season will be lopsided as the Champ Car teams get up to speed. It will be the 1-4 years after that where we will see who has the goods and who doesn't.

how could you tell he wasn't bothered? he had a crash helmet on

JPM may have been rookie but like i've said a million times, the race was so bent

compare Ferrari to Minardi and multiply that gap by a 100 and you'll get near the difference between Ganassi and Hemelgarn

and look how the crowd and the commentator are pulling for the REAL underdog!

i was referring to something else with that but it takes two to tango and with CART imploding it was proof that George was correct about somethings

If anyone thinks the split was soley the fault of George then they are grossly wrong

the correct people are now running open wheel racing

Evidence?

it was mentioned on wind tunnel on Speedtv and even by JPM himself!

someone who i know that works within the series has also backed it up

Robin Miller i think has spoken about it as well

A link would be nice.

1 Marty Roth (25) --.--- 25.1320 211.637
2 Jay Howard (24) 0.053 25.3850 210.597
3 Will Power (8) 0.210 25.5420 209.302
4 Graham Rahal (06) 0.336 25.6680
5 Enrique Bernoldi (36) 0.355 25.6870
6 Oriol Servia (5) 0.360 25.6920 208.080
7 Franck Perera (34) 0.430 25.7620 207.515
8 Justin Wilson (02) 0.534 25.8660 206.681
9 Ernesto Viso (33) 0.661 25.9930 205.671
10 Mario Moraes (19) 1.471 26.8030 199.455

these are yesterdays times

couple of points, this is the first time Jay Howard has driven an IndyCar on an oval and the first time Roth Racing have tested the #24 car as they expand to a two car team

Bruno Junquiera didn't test yesterday but will test today, he already has oval experience however but not with the Dallara

Mario Moraes reported his car to be badly loose and Junqueira could actually test this car and set it up properly

HVM Racing have brought both their chassis to Homestead and team officials were seen talking to unemployed drivers about a possible race by race drive

Curt Cavin suggested that HVM could have their 2nd car on the track by Kansas

I wasn't going by facial expressions.... from the video it looked like Lazier wasn't close enough to make JPM worry to much. I could be wrong JPM may have shit himself. But in the end again JPM won. And don't start with the budget crap, there have been a number of minnows to win at Indy, or guys to win in less than optimal machinery. Consider 69, Mario Andrretti's car was not the car he showed up to the track with, but one he had to borrow. Arie Luyendyk's win in 1990, Doug Shierson Racing was not exactly the cream of the crop that year. In 1987 Al Unser jumped in the car as a sub for Danny Ongius (or however it is spelled) and won his 4th. In 82 Gordon Johncock was in a mid field car, and still won. Indy is a strange track, and odd stuff happens there. Budget isn't everything, at all (see Toyota F1), this seems to especially ring true at Indy.

The 2000 500 wasn't an attack on the IRL, it was just that JPM and Gnassi were the top dogs that day.

yawn!

you sound like the typical champ car fan we have a laugh about on Track Forums

trying to cling on to some manufactured victory which was a big contributor to the death of CART

very bitter about things that have happened without looking into why they happened

King Tony is now head of the show and with the right people around him the same mistakes that CART made won't be made again

KV racing are making full use of the test, Power and Servia are out of track already

they are already doing draft practice, possibly an attempt to beat Roth's time?

I am looking into it, I've tried many combinations of Ganassi, $20 million and Indy 500 2000.

Not getting anything.

And you're carrying on like a typical IRL lover <doh> (not that I have met that many). It goes both ways. So what if Gnassi had a $100 million budget for the 2000 Indy 500, his driver won. Plus I didn't see Tony fighting to keep Gnassi out of the IRL, so he couldn't have been that put off by the result.

Besides if Champ Car was doing so poorly (and by 2000 they were) how in the hell could they afford to throw $20 million in for one race?

go to speedtv and watch all the episodes of wind tunnel

it was mentioned on there

of course he wasn't

i mean, imagine the publicity the IRL got, all publicity is good publicity

and those teams came running to Tony soon after as well

champ car didn't exist in 2000

it was still CART and they would do anything to defeat the IRL

when CART was throwing away silly money and going through many many management changes, IRL was going about their business and slowly and building themselves up

CART was simply badly misguided

Exactly, so if Tony wasn't that offneded by it why are you?

because i'm so bored of hearing the same champ car fans go on about the same things!

the most pessimistic, depressing bunch of misrables i've never known!

lets talk about the here and now which is ex champ car teams and Roth Racing testing at Homestead in preparation for the new season

which starts on sunday at 0.00am

Have you ever met a pre-2004 Boston Red Sox fan?

Sounds good. <thumbsup>

BTY when are they going to do something about those high sidepods, makes the car look like it is always shrugging.

i don't know what the Boston Red Sox are

must be baseball or American Football

i've tried my best to get into both but they aren't for me

can't wait for the start of the season

26 cars for Homestead any possibly more at Kansas

Will Power just turned a 209.261mph lap to jump ahead of Oriol Servia and easily get the fastest lap of the session

but Marty Roth puts in a 210.896mph lap to go to the top of timesheets

so far in the session Will Power has completed the most laps with 44 and Marty Roth has done the least with 16

However, we are still waiting on both drivers from NHL and Dale Coyne to do laps

On the 2nd day’s testing it was once again Marty Roth who set the fastest time with a lap of 212.816mph, fairly impressive

Teammate Jay Howard was next up but was over 1mph slower with a 211.668

The best ex champ car drivers were Oriol Servia and surprisingly Enrique Bernoldi who both did 210mph but were the best part of 3mph slower than Roth

Most laps in the session was 145 by Will Power and least laps in the session was 35 by Graham Rahal

Which tunnel was the wind coming out of....?

<peek>

Yeah, I'll just sit here and watch episode after episode of a programme that I'm not that interested in.

<doh> that was constructive

<roflmao> <roflmao>


the same tunnel of man who gained god like status from the champ car fans

Robin "I hate Tony George, the IRL and everything to do with the IRL, pass me my slippers" Miller

Well would YOU?

Not all of them, I think Robin Miller is a total wank.

Garbage in Garbage out. Repeat.