Indy Car

[Smollet]

williamp said:

This. Usually great racing...

maybe saying it was an experiemnt which failed. But these things are worth trying every now and again, Remember the F1 quali changes which were dropped very quickly?

Still, back to a a "proper" race next time. And Palou was still hugely impressiuve. It was like he was in a Red Bull, not a standard chassis with stock engine. Maybe he will be partner Max next season

I think, like the cricket 100 tournament, it was something designed for TV that didn't work and now no one will want it but could easily resurrect itself because the powers that be refuse to admit they've made a mistake. I still think the current Indy series is a shadow of its heydays but does at time produce close racing however this was just plain bloody awful and should never see the light of day again.

[Castellet]

You’re right, it wasn’t a huge success, but I found it mildly entertaining on a Sun evening.

However, did think that the headline $1m wasn’t particularly ‘big bucks’ by US standards, when spread across the field.

I’m easy about viewing different aspects and formats of motorsport without being too critical - sometimes even watch Extreme-E.
Makes a change from the formulaic, self-important F1.

[Dal3D]

Looked like a "Million $ challenge" was more about how much advertising Thermal could get in for their million $ than the racing.

[Racespannermonkey]

I was there it was st, wished we’d raced in Texas. Was sandy and windy as hell the last 2 days. Loads of teams awnings got damaged. No one made money out of this non points event. Hope we never go back still finding sand in my ears two days later

[Muzzer79]

Racespannermonkey said:

I was there it was st, wished we’d raced in Texas. Was sandy and windy as hell the last 2 days. Loads of teams awnings got damaged. No one made money out of this non points event. Hope we never go back still finding sand in my ears two days later

Safe to say you're not a fan of the format then?

[scrw.]

Penske found to be cheating forgetting to remove new software, St Pete result has changed now
https://www.indycar.com/news/2024/04/04-24-stpete-...

Edited by scrw. on Wednesday 24th April 15:38

[Sandpit Steve]

scrw. said:

Penske found to be cheating forgetting to remove new software, St Pete result has changed now
https://www.indycar.com/news/2024/04/04-24-stpete-...

Edited by scrw. on Wednesday 24th April 15:38

That’s 1970s NASCAR level of cheating!

Oh sorry, we didnt know we had changed the software so that P2P was enabled on restarts, and our drivers definitely didn’t know they weren’t allowed to use it on restarts.

In F1 they now have an ECU version checksum on a common ECU, which the scrutineers can (and do!) easily check on every car at the end of each session, after one-too-many incidents involving dodgy software.

[GlobalRacer]

To be fair they were one of the teams testing hybrid in those chassis and the software was changed for that. The fact that not all of their drivers pushed the button despite all having the same software makes me think that it was a legit mistake. The two that did push it say they did it purely out of habit which I can well believe. After McLaughlin still pushes on the steering wheel in the same spot that his drinks button used to be in his SuperCar every time he gets onto a straight.

[clubracing]

https://racer.com/2024/04/24/how-team-penske-took-...

Good article on it from Marshall Pruett. Difficult to see how it could have been anything other than deliberate from Penske.

[freedman]

clubracing said:

https://racer.com/2024/04/24/how-team-penske-took-...

Good article on it from Marshall Pruett. Difficult to see how it could have been anything other than deliberate from Penske.

Very informative article

Unless there's something I'm not seeing, this appears to be a clear case of deliberate cheating

As asked in the article, when did it start?

[scrw.]

A historical data trawl will be interesting, wonder if previous results were impacted and if Indy has the balls to call it out...

[GlobalRacer]

scrw. said:

A historical data trawl will be interesting, wonder if previous results were impacted and if Indy has the balls to call it out...

They did. It was discovered in the third race and drivers DQ'ed from the first race.

Still think it's not as cut and dried as some are trying to make it though. Why wouldn't all the drivers use it for starters? Why didn't it show up in other tests? Why would Penske release a statement about hybrid testing if that was a total lie and dig an even bigger hole?

[freedman]

GlobalRacer said:

They did. It was discovered in the third race and drivers DQ'ed from the first race.

Still think it's not as cut and dried as some are trying to make it though. Why wouldn't all the drivers use it for starters? Why didn't it show up in other tests? Why would Penske release a statement about hybrid testing if that was a total lie and dig an even bigger hole?

I’m pretty sure he’s referring to historical stuff prior to this season, which hasn’t been gone 8th, yet. At least according to the article linked earlier.

Also McLoughlin came out and said he only hit the button once for 1. Something 1. Something seconds. etc Even if that is true, then he and the team knew at that moment that P2P was active when it shouldn’t have been. Why did they not report it there and then?

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Because nobody immediately admits to cheating (intentionally or not) without checking on the how and why. And then they work out if they will be caught out followed by if they are, what the sanction will be.

Only when it's going to come out do they go into damage limitation mode.