2007 IRL Rd. 6--ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225....................

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Who will win the ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225?

Poll ended at Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:34 pm

Tony Kanaan
1
50%
Sam Hornish, Jr.
0
No votes
Dario Franchitti
0
No votes
Sam Hornish, Jr.
0
No votes
Danica Patrick
1
50%
none of the above
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 2

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2007 IRL Rd. 6--ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225....................

Post by mlittle » Mon May 28, 2007 12:34 pm

With the excitement of the 91st running of "the Greatest Spectacle in Racing" in the rearviews, the stars of the IndyCar Series now head for, after the Brickyard, what is arguably one of the toughest tracks in NA open-wheel racing, The Milwaukee Mile @ the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds. From 1947-1995(with rare exception), these two tracks went back-to-back on the Indycar calendar; this year, a new chapter in Indy history begins...........

Here is the event schedule for the weekend..............
(note....all time listed are local times[U.S. CDT/-1 EDT, -5 GMT])
Practice Session #1.............9:10 am-11:10 am, 2 June 2007
Practice Session #2.............12:30 pm-2:30 pm, 2 June 2007
Qualifying Session...............3:45 pm-4:45 pm, 2 June 2007
ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225, 4 pm, 3 June 2007
--TV, 4 pm, ABC Sports
--domestic AM courtesy of the IMS Radio Network
--satellite radio, XM Satellite Radio, Ch. 145--IndyCar Racing
--international shortwave radio courtesy of the United States Armed Force Network
Last edited by mlittle on Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:56 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Winning the Indy-Milwaukee double.......

Post by mlittle » Mon May 28, 2007 2:38 pm

On the face of it, the two tracks, Indy and Milwaukee, couldn't be more opposite.........Indy's 2.5 miles of central Indiana blacktop, crowned with a yard of bricks, while the Mile's just over 1 mile of billiard-smooth concrete; yet some drivers in the history of NA motorsports have been able to tame the two disparate tracks............

1956--Pat Flaherty
1964--A.J. Foyt, Jr.
1971--Al Unser, Sr.
1974--Johnny Rutherford
1982--Gordon Johncock
1983--Tom Sneva
1984--Rick Mears
1994--Al Unser, Jr.
2000--Juan Pablo Montoya
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Mid-Week News and Notes.........

Post by mlittle » Thu May 31, 2007 10:04 am

--Events} (IndyCar Series) ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225, (Indy Pro Series) Road Runner 100
--Where} The Milwaukee Mile @ the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds, West Allis, Wisc.
--When} (IndyCar Series) 4 pm, 3 June 2007, (Indy Pro Series) 6:15 pm, 2 June 2007
--Distance} (ICS) 225 miles/225 laps; (IPS) 100 miles/100 laps
--Previous winners, 2004-2006) (ICS) Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish, Jr. and Tony Kanaan; (IPS) Paul Dana, Jeff Simmons, Jaime Camara

--Track basics..........
Frontstretch is 1,265 feet w/2.5 degrees banking
Backstretch is 1,265 feet w/2.5 degrees banking
Turns are banked at 9.25 degrees

IndyCar Series entry list..........
note...all drivers using Dallara/Honda racecars..........
Tomas Scheckter, #2 Indy Vision on Joost
Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske
Vitor Meira, #4 Delphi
Sarah Fisher, #5 AAMCO Transmissions
Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Team Penske
Danica Patrick, #7 Motorola
Scott Sharp, #8 Patron Tequila
Scott Dixon, #9 Target
Dan Wheldon, #10 Fujifilm
Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11
Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co.
Buddy Rice, #15 A1 Team USA
Jeff Simmons, #17 Ethanol
Ed Carpenter, #20 Hitachi Power Tools
A.J. Foyt, IV, #22 Indy Vision on Joost
Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group
Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club/Argent
Kosuke Matsuura, #55 Panasonic/ARTA
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Post by mlittle » Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:35 am

Milwaukee Practice Session #1 top-5....................
--18 drivers participated in the session, completing a total of 989 incident-free laps

1st} Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing...........................21.741 sec/168.067 mph
2nd} Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing............................21.752 sec/167.981 mph
3rd} Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing.............................21.816 sec/167.496 mph
4th} Tomas Scheckter, Vision Racing....................................21.851 sec/167.224 mph
5th} Kosuke Matsuura, Aguri-Panther Racing.........................21.998 sec/166.104 mph
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Post by mlittle » Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:39 am

Milwaukee Practice Session #2 top-5.................
--18 drivers participated in the session, completing a total of 1329 incident-free laps

1st} Helio Castroneves, Team Penske....................................21.284 sec/171.675 mph
2nd} Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing..............................21.544 sec/169.609 mph
3rd} Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing................................21.569 sec/169.412 mph
4th} Sam Hornish, Jr., Team Penske......................................21.682 sec/168.530 mph*
5th} Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing..............................21.682 sec/168.526 mph*
*--times are rounded to the thousandth; IRL timing/scoring rounds to the 10/thousandth(the unrounded times for each were 21.6816 sec and 21.6821 sec)
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Post by mlittle » Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:55 am

ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225 Starting Grid.............

1st} Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske................................21.360 sec/171.071 mph
2nd} Scott Dixon, #9 Target...................................................21.587 sec/169.266 mph

3rd} Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11.........................................21.601 sec/169.158 mph
4th} Dan Wheldon, #10 Fujifilm..............................................21.609 sec/169.097 mph

5th} Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Team Penske..................................21.717 sec/168.258 mph
6th} Kosuke Matsuura, #55 Panasonic/ARTA............................21.820 sec/167.462 mph

7th} Buddy Rice, #15 A1 Team USA........................................21.821 sec/167.456 mph
8th} Ed Carpenter, #20 Hitachi Power Tools.............................21.872 sec/167.006 mph

9th} Vitor Meira, #4 Delphi.....................................................21.883 sec/166.981 mph
10th} Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club/Argent.....................21.895 sec/166.890 mph

11th} Scott Sharp, #8 Patron Tequila.......................................21.915 sec/166.735 mph
12th} A.J. Foyt, IV, #22 Indy Vision on Joost............................21.969 sec/166.325 mph

13th} Tomas Scheckter, #2 Indy Vision on Joost.......................21.975 sec/166.288 mph
14th} Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group.....................................22.011 sec/166.009 mph

15th} Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co..............................22.176 sec/164.774 mph
16th} Sarah Fisher, #5 AAMCO Transmissions..........................22.289 sec/163.937 mph

17th} Danica Patrick, #7 Motorola...........................................22.340 sec/163.566 mph
18th} Jeff Simmons, #17 Ethanol..............................................no posted time
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Saturday's Observations...........

Post by mlittle » Sun Jun 03, 2007 11:55 am

Let's see; where is everyone...........well, T-K's flying the Cessna plider around Lake Michigan(w/Julian supposedly riding shotgun...... :shock2: :shock2: :lol: ), jacfan and some of the others are stuck on the I-65 btwn. Milwaukee and Chicago(..... :drive: :drive: :shock: ).....oh, and I'm sitting in a beach chair enjoying some beer and brats, watching teams work on car setups in preparations for tomorrow's race(ain't life fun.... :lol: :lol: :shock: ). Before I continue, I just want to say that it is great to be back at the Mile the week after "the Greatest Specacle in Racing".....

Anyway, here are some of today's notes from the historic Milwaukee Mile..........

~~Well, it worked at Indy, didn't it? One major change from years past was the end of unrestricted fuel settings.......at last week's 500, drivers only had two fuel settings, a full rich setting for green-flag racing and a full-lean setting for yellow-flag periods. Well, Honda liked it so d--- much(... :oops: ...) they brought it to the Mile. On the flip side, at least their engines are bulletproof, unlike engines, say in......Formula 1? :lol: :lol: :shock:

~~Funny resemblance, hmmm.... During some downtime btwn. activivties today, track officials ran their annual Milwaukee Sausage Race, involving life-size costumes of a chorizo sausage, a kielbasa, a smoked sausage, and several different types of brats. I thought one of them looked familiar and sure enough, thought, that looks like Franchitti.....Sure enough, you put the picture of the Polish Sausage and the Scotsman together and, yep, there's an uncanny resemblance.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

~~Strategies, strategies...... One thing that I noticed almost from the start of practice was the fact that it seems every team's experimenting with different setups and downforce levels, trying to eek every bit of speed that they can. The best setup it seems, as Spiderman showed today in qualifying, is high downforce combined with as high a line as possible through the turns(essentially trading off a mile or two of straightaway speed for cornering speed, which allows you to carry the car through the corners easier). Some teams, like Castroneves', figured it out easy.....others, such as Patrick's and Marco's, are gonna have to burn the midnight oil if they want to do well Sunday.
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Saturday's Photos from the Mile.............

Post by mlittle » Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:27 pm

1} http://www.motorsport.com/photos/popup. ... m-0002.jpg
(new paint scheme for Wheldon in Milwaukee this weekend....)

2} http://www.motorsport.com/photos/popup. ... m-0018.jpg
(this year's 500 champion ponders about how qualifying will turn out....)

3} http://www.motorsport.com/photos/popup. ... m-0004.jpg
(could a victory tomorrow be in her sights......?)
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Brief Update from the Mile.......

Post by mlittle » Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:03 am

In one of the more interesting visits to the Milwaukee Mile, it was Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti giving AGR a 1-2 finish in today's running of the ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225..........

More to follow later this evening...........
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Post by mlittle » Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:40 pm

Come to think of it, maybe the racing gods owed Tony Kanaan a victory.......after all, if last week's Indy 500 had been called after the first rain delay, TK would've won the race and.....we'll never really know. Instead, he notched his second consecutive win at the Milwaukee in a race that saw some bizarre occurances, to tempers flaring to some really good racing.........

~~Okay, one rear wing fails.........but both? And on a Team Penske entry? Sometimes the weirdest things do happen.......first, Helio Castroneves, after leading comfortably late, spins into the inside wall on the frontstretch after the rear wing folds up exiting turn 4; then teammate Sam Hornish, Jr. nearly loses it when his rear wing begins to fail through turns 3 and 4......... :shock: :shock: :shock:

~~From the "I'm p-----" department(....... :oops: .........) For Andretti-Green's Danica Patrick, it was an up and down afternoon, beginning with the start, courtesy of a 17th-place start(the previous day her team gambled on a race-setup in qualifying and got burned, thinking it would rain Saturday....it didn't.... :shock: :shock: ). After dropping to dead-last at the start, Patrick calmly and smoothly passed car-after-car, working her way up to 5th.....until lap 88. Heading down the frontrstretch, she sets up a pass on teammate Dario Franchitti, which she would've pulled off had Target/Ganassi's Dan Wheldon, who she had passed moments before, not decided to try to push her down into the corner in 1 and 2......they touch wheels, and Patrick nearly spins it into the inside wall, while Wheldon goes on his merry way... :evil: :shock: making things worse, the incident damaged a suspension piece on patrick's car; the resulting repair puts her a lap down, ending a golden opportunity at her first win. Later during the race, she says the following over the open pit channel about what she'd like to do to Wheldon......
I'd like to brake-check Wheldon and just wreck him right now.
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :evil: :evil:

And to think......aren't we headed to Texas next? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

~~Gambling, aren't we? Several teams gambled during the race, with mixed results........first up was Dreyer & Reinbold's Buddy Rice, who led for the first time since Watkins Glen in 2006 when his team decided not to pit him on the first round of stops; eventually, he had to pit and would not be a factor the rest of the day. Two other gambles were those of Wheldon and Aguri-Panther Racing's Vitor Meira, whose teams decided to double-stint their tires, instead only pitting for fuel........neither of their gambled worked out, although Wheldon finished third and Meira finished 5th.

As for the schedule........next week the teams travel to the Texas Supercollider, a/k/a Texas Motor Speedway for the Bombardier Learjet 550k, then after a week off, they'll begin a five-week stretch of races starting in Iowa and going to Richmond, Watkins Glen, Nashville and Mid-Ohio(2 short ovals, a superspeedway and 2 road courses..... :shock: :shock: :shock: ). With the championship fight now fully engaged, whoever comes out on top after Mid-Ohio should be in great position for the stretch run(Michigan, Kentucky, Infineon, Belle Isle and Chicagoland; 1 long oval, 2 superspeedways, a road course and a street circuit).
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Post by mlittle » Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:34 pm

ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225 top-10................

1st} #11 Tony Kanaan....................................225 laps
2nd} #27 Dario Franchitti................................-2.571 sec
3rd} #10 Dan Wheldon...................................-3.115 sec
4th} #9 Scott Dixon........................................-3.403 sec
5th} #4 Vitor Meira.........................................-5.286 sec
6th} #8 Scott Sharp........................................-6.836 sec
7th} #20 Ed Carpenter....................................-7.036 sec
8th} #7 Danica Patrick....................................-8.021 sec
9th} #6 Sam Hornish, Jr..................................-1 lap
10th} #17 Jeff Simmons..................................-1 lap
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