This weekend see’s the start of the newly unified IndyCar series starting at Homestead Miami Speedway.

26 were entered for the race with 9 of those coming from ex Champ Car teams but Graham Rahal of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing has had to withdraw.

Dan Wheldon won this race for the last three seasons and Target Chip Ganassi have tested well in pre season and look like the team to beat.

There will be short tribute on Saturday evening for Paul Dana who was killed in a practice session for this race two years ago

Qualifying will take place tonight at 10.30pm UK time and the race can be seen live on Sky Sports at 11.55pm on Saturday night.

I've just found out that ESPN are showing this race live here <yahoo>
Maybe I will watch it <think>
It starts at 5.30 am on Sunday morning, my time <yikes> <no>
Theres a repeat at 13.30 in the afternoon though <thumbsup>
Both times intrude on my <sleep> <hitwall>
Maybe I will watch the end in the morning and the beginning in the afternoon <dunce>

Oh and btw, if the seasons schedule is out, could some kind soul add it to the Calendar?
It might manage to invoke the interest of other ignorants like me :)

http://www.indycar.com/schedule/schedule.php
Date Track TV Time/Network
Sat 29-Mar Homestead-Miami Speedway 8 p.m./ESPN2
Sun 6-Apr Streets of St. Petersburg 2:30 p.m./ESPN
Sat 19-Apr Twin Ring Motegi Noon/ESPN
Sun 27-Apr Kansas Speedway 5 p.m./ESPN2
Sun 25-May 92nd Indianapolis 500 Noon/ABC
Sun 1-Jun The Milwaukee Mile 4 p.m./ABC
Sat 7-Jun Texas Motor Speedway 10 p.m./ESPN2
Sun 22-Jun Iowa Speedway 1 p.m./ABC
Sat 28-Jun Richmond International Raceway 8 p.m./ESPN2
Sun 6-Jul Watkins Glen International 3:30 p.m./ABC
Sat 12-Jul Nashville Superspeedway 8 p.m./ESPN2
Sun 20-Jul Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course 1:30 p.m./ABC
Sat 9-Aug Kentucky Speedway 6:30 p.m./ESPN2
Sun 24-Aug Infineon Raceway 5:30 p.m./ESPN2
Sun 31-Aug The Raceway at Belle Isle Park 3:30 p.m./ABC
Sun 7-Sep Chicagoland Speedway 3:30 p.m./ABC


All times GMT -5, your station may vary.

Looks like a good schedule though. Nice mix of road and ovals.

dont thy go to long beach anymore? I loved that track.

Long Beach is going ahead as a send off to Champ Car so only the Champ Car teams will be doing it, the main IRL field will be in Japan.

Long Beach will be a proper IRL round next year.

The practice times:

Pos Driver Team Time Speed
1. Dan Wheldon Ganassi 25.0037 213.808
2. Scott Dixon Ganassi 25.0211 213.660
3. Ryan Briscoe Penske 25.1100 212.903
4. Helio Castroneves Penske 25.1202 212.817
5. Marco Andretti Andretti-Green 25.1379 212.667
6. Hideki Mutoh Andretti-Green 25.1729 212.371
7. Tony Kanaan Andretti-Green 25.1947 212.187
8. Danica Patrick Andretti-Green 25.2236 211.944
9. AJ Foyt IV Vision 25.2298 211.892
10. Ed Carpenter Vision 25.2504 211.719
11. Vitor Meira Panther 25.3317 211.040
12. Darren Manning Foyt 25.3749 210.681
13. Jay Howard Roth 25.3963 210.503
14. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal-Letterman 25.4354 210.180
15. Marty Roth Roth 25.4616 209.963
16. Justin Wilson Newman Haas Lanigan 25.5098 209.567
17. Franck Perera Conquest 25.5485 209.249
18. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 25.5509 209.229
19. Will Power KV 25.5704 209.070
20. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold 25.6054 208.784
21. Oriol Servia KV 25.6163 208.695
22. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest 25.6606 208.335
23. Ernesto Viso HVM 25.7520 207.596
24. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 25.8475 206.829
25. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 26.3722 202.713

It's a bit 2 by 2 by 2 though isn't it?

I didn't see it on there. No idea. Where's Stradlin when you need him? <vanish>

Qualification is over and there was some big shocks

just watch quali and no surprise that my tip Scott Dixon is on the pole but Vision Racing take the 2nd and 3rd spots with the incredible Ed Carpenter and AJ Foyt IV sending out a HUGE message to Penske and AGR

i can not honestly believe that Vision will line up 2nd and 3rd, that there best qualifying by a mile

Marty Roth, who has started no better than 17th (in a 18 car field) will start 10th of out 25

Dan Wheldon and Jay Howard both had heavy crashes and Howard injured his knee and may not race

Yorkshireman Darren Manning will therefore be England's best placed driver on the grid

The Grid

Row 1
Scott Dixon (Ganassi)
Ed Carpenter (Vision)

Row 2
AJ Foyt IV (Vision)
Danica Patrick (AGR)

Row 3
Ryan Briscoe (Penske)
Marco Andretti (AGR)

Row 4
Helio Castroneves (Penske)
Tony Kanaan (AGR)

Row 5
Hideki Mutoh (AGR)
Marty Roth (Roth) WTF?!

Row 6
Ryan Hunter Raey (RLR)
Vitor Meira (Panther)

Row 7
Buddy Rice (DRR)
Darren Manning (Foyt)

Row 8
Franck Perera (Conquest)
Oriol Servia (PKRT)

Row 9
Justin Wilson (NHL)
Milka Duno (DRR)

Row 10
Enrique Bernoldi (Conquest)
Ernesto Viso (HVM)

Row 11
Will Power (PKRT)
Bruno Junquiera (Coyne)

Row 12
Mario Moraes (Coyne)
Jay Howard (Roth) crashed and injured, may not race

Row 13
Dan Wheldon (Ganassi) Crashed, will race

perhaps the sudden turn of speed for Vision Racing can be explained

Both cars have failed a techincal inspection and have been dropped to the back of the grid

This promotes Danica Patrick to the front row

In the other news, Marty Roth will now start 8th and the even better news for his team is that Jay Howard has been cleared to drive and will start in 23rd position

Patrick Dempsey, Tony George, AJ Foyt IV, Ed Carpenter and IRL president Brian Barhardt have all declined to comment on the current situation at Vision Racing this evening

There is about 2 and a half hours before Sky Sports coverage starts and everyone within IndyCar is still reeling from the news that Vision Racing have been found to be running illegal cars and have had their qualifying times scrubbed off

They will now start the race down in 24th and 25th but according to Curt Cavin could face further penalties after the race

The team is owned by IndyCar owner Tony George, Laura George, actor Patrick Dempsey and driver Ed Carpenter

I figure i'll be only one staying up to watch this but sure people can read this thread when they wake up tomorrow!

As is normal, a few drivers have been seen at Homestead looking for potential drives, the most notable of those are Robert Doornbos and Paul Tracy

PJ Chesson was seen in long discussions with HVM owner Keith Wiggins

mentally, I am staying up. Tell me those skys are clear, cos if its rained off i'll be proper angry....

it was glorious sunshine for the Indy Lights race earlier

let's hope it stays


just remembered that this is actually a night race

just an hour to go

what can i do for an hour?

other than make a cuppa?

the main man, TG, giving us some words of wisdom pre race

Dan Wheldon and Ed Carpenter have already reached the top 10

Mario Moraes is stuck in the pits and has fallen off the lead laps

Jay Howard and Hideki Mutoh have also hit problems

well, 126 laps without a crash but then Ryan Briscoe gets involved with a lapped Milka Duno

both are out

bad for Briscoe and Penske

it appeared that Duno spun up the track and Briscoe just clipped the rear wing although at this speed plenty of damage was still done

marco andretti leads

top 10 is

Andretti
Wheldon
Dixon
Kanaan
Castroneves
Hunter Raey
Foyt IV
Patrick
Carpenter
Meira


60 to go

and after dominating the 2nd half of the race, an incredible incident

Viso spins and Kanaan JUST gets into him and damages the front wheel

there is only 6 laps left and alot of debries everywhere and kanaan is still running in 1st

will they get this race restarted in time before the laps run down, if they don't then Kanaan will win with a broken car

they've been given the 1 to go so there will be 4 laps left

Kanaan will lose the lead but this could get dangerous

Dixon takes the lead

and Dixon takes it! i tipped him to win and he did

Marco Andretti came in 2nd with Dan Wheldon was 3rd, Castroneves 4th and Ed Carpenter 5th

rounding out the top 10 was Danica Patrick, Ryan Hunter Raey, Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt IV and Vitor Meira

the best champ car driver was Oriol Servia in 12th

good race, nice opener to this season

great win for Dixon, great drive though the field from Wheldon and Carpenter

The champcar boys did well, but overall i was a bit dissapointed. If the top 4 that broke away had run a bit closer, swapped the lead a bit, it might have been more interesting. Wheldon seemed to just give up when he got to second, he'd driven brilliantly until then.
Overall... I'll be watching next week

It proved to be a tough day at the office for Australian IndyCar drivers Will Power and Ryan Briscoe as both drivers exited today’s opening round of the series during the early stages.

With just a handful of former Champ Car drivers making the switch to the newly-unified series it was Kiwi Scott Dixon, driving for the Ganassi outfit, who took the chequered flag some 0.58 seconds ahead of Marco Andretti.

Brazilian Tony Kanaan had the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway race all but won, until the unlucky Andretti-Green driver became the innocent victim of an Ernesto Viso spin just seven laps from the end when he sustained right front suspension damage as he clipped Viso’s stricken car.

The late race incident brought about the third and final caution period of the twilight-staged event, and although able to continue Kanaan lost the lead as the race resumed with just three laps remaining. Kanaan’s badly damaged suspension was deemed to be unsafe by the stewards and was subsequently black-flagged dropping the 1997 Indy Lights champion to an eventual eighth place finish.

Link

Was watching from ESPN HD until about lap 110 when the file got corrupted :(

Fantastic drive from Wheldon from what I saw. Also funny to see DP making her way back through the field.

Looking forward to this weekend's race