In Baltimore, INDYCAR couldn’t win
IndyCar, IndyCar commentary — By Steph Wallcraft on August 31, 2012 8:31 pmI take flack here and there for being an INDYCAR apologist.
On the contrary, I prefer to believe that I’m simply capable of looking at things with unbiased objectivity.
For example, there are plenty of people throwing INDYCAR under the bus today because of the errors of judgment that have led to the chicane being reinserted into the front straight at Baltimore. Many of these people are doing so simply because they are opportunists — they’ll take any chance to drag INDYCAR through the mud and run with it because of old vendettas, etc.
Far be it from me to claim that INDYCAR is never wrong. But in this case, I’m able to take a step back and see that there was simply no way for the Series to come out ahead in this situation.
After last year, the decision was made to take the chicane out because it was slowing the cars needlessly when they could have handled the bump over the tracks perfectly fine.
This year, the Series decided to go into the event with the chicane removed. Unfortunately, they failed to take into account that this year’s car is faster and lighter, and mayhem ensued.
However, had INDYCAR gone into the event with the chicane installed, there’s not a person on Earth who can convince me that the complaints wouldn’t have been just as loud. “Why are they being so conservative?!”, the detractors would have cried. “We want to see speed! We want to see risk!” Et cetera, et cetera.
The only way this situation could have been handled better, in my estimation, would have been to install the chicane for Friday with the very vocally expressed intention to remove it for Saturday if the drivers felt it was doable after testing the front straight with the new car. That would have given everyone a chance to feel things out more gently and consult under better circumstances.
But since that wasn’t done, there really isn’t anything anyone could have done to better handle the situation that was handed to them today. It’s a street course, after all — it’s not like there’s a way to test these things ahead of time. And the event is only in its second year. If we’re still having these issues in year three then there are more serious problems, but the hand-wringing over this is highly unjustified given the circumstances.
And if your response to this situation is “burn all the street courses”… enough. Relax, take a big-picture pill, and come join the thousands more people who attend street course events than ovals as we work toward establishing a long-term future for INDYCAR.
Tags: Baltimore, Verizon IndyCar Series - Technical
As an IndyCar fan from Baltimore, I pray that road street courses stay in IndyCar’s future forever. This race is huge for the city, if you ignore all the crybabies re: Downtown traffic. I was there today and I was shocked that the cars were getting so much air, and I hated the chicane last year. But you hit this nail on head, Steph. You really did. I actually felt sorry for IndyCar as I stared at Michael Andretti shaking his head as the road crew struggled to fill in the rail tracks…
Anyway, Baltimore is going to be awesome and for a long time. I’m so proud to have this in my backyard! Now let’s hope that Ryan sows up the championship here and pray for great weather!
Sometimes the best friend is the one who tells the out of control drunk that he’s an out of control drunk.
To be honest, the whole chicane thing hasn’t bothered me. They tried to accomodate the drivers’ request for no chicane, it didn’t work, so they’ve put it back. I’m glad they tried; it shows they’re trying to be responsive. I hold no ill feelings toward IndyCar, NZR Consulting, or the GP of Baltimore.
Thank you, Steph, for your opinion here and for taking to task those who are using this situation for their own ends-which will happen in any circumstance. I have roundly criticized you in the past for certain things, but in this case, you are spot on. It’s good to see that there are intelligent INDYCAR fans out there.
Alex Lloyd’s take on things…
http://jalopnik.com/5939818/why-einstein-should-have-designed-racetracks
…written after he tweeted: “Here’s an idea – lets run over a railway road that caused an issue last year and hope for a different result this time around.” and “I hope someone in the media has the balls to say it how it is and stop printing all this bs politically correct crap.”
When I suggested to him that this was done because Dario and Will tested it last year and said the chicane wasn’t needed, Alex replied “don’t buy it. We knew just driving over it in a road car (or by foot) that it wouldn’t work.” He elaborates on those observations in the jalopnik link above.
Given the results, it’s clear that Alex’s judgment about the situation was correct, while Cotman’s was not.
On top of it all, IndyCar started practice 1 without making any changes after numerous Star Mazda cars sustained substantial damage from going airborne over the crossing.
So, my take is that yes, there was something that IndyCar could have done, and it’s very simple: Have people with better judgment (a group of drivers, perhaps?) evaluate all aspects of the track before sending the cars out…and take heed of their opinions.
I was there, and the chicane caused the restarts to be free-for-all’s, which the fans loved there. Many I talked to chose to sit/watch near the chicane, they actually liked them.