2007 IRL Rd. 10--Camping World Indy Grand Prix

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Set amongst the Finger lakes of upstate New York, Watkins Glen International Raceway has seen lots of open-wheel action through the years, from Formula 1 to CART to the IRL IndyCar Series and with the dust from the yawn-fest at Richmond settling in the background, the IndyCar Series moves from two consecutive short-ovals to the 3.34-mile road course at Watkins Glen..........the prevailing question is, will Target/Ganassi's Scott Dixon win his third consecutive race at the Glen, or will someone take the victory next Sunday?

Here is the event schedule for the Camping World Indy Grand Prix........
Practice Session #1.........................10:15 am-12:15 pm, 6 July 2007
Practice Session #2.........................3:30-4:35 pm, 6 July 2007
Practice Session #3.........................9:45-10:50 am, 7 July 2007
Single-Car Qualifying Session...........1:30 pm, 7 July 2007
Firestone Pole Shootout....................10 min. session following SCQ(7/7/07)
Final Practice...................................9:45-10:15 am, 8 July 2007
Race...............................................3:30 pm, 8 July 2007
--live on ABC Sports(television), IMS Radio Network(domestic AM radio), XM Satellite Radio, Ch. 144 "XM Sports Nation" and Ch. 145, "IndyCar Racing" and international simulcast courtesy of the United States Armed Forces Network

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Event: Camping World Indy Grand Prix
Where: Watkins Glen International Raceway, Chemung, NY
When: 3:30 pm, 8 July 2007, ABC Sports

Race Distance: 60 laps, 204 miles
Track Distance: 3.34 miles
Track width: 38 feet constant
Main straight: 2150 feet*
Back straight: 2600 feet**
*--pit straight
**--from the end of the Esses to the BusStop chicane

Previous winners: Scott Dixon(2005, 2006)

Watkins Glen Entry List............................................
Tomas Scheckter, #2 Indy Vision on Joost
Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske
Vitor Meira, #4 Delphi/Skyfi
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 Target
Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11
Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co./EverGuard
Buddy Rice, #15 RollCoater/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
Kosuke Matsuura, #55 Panasonic/TPR

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Firestone Preview................

~~Firestone has supplied a total of 794 dry-condition racing slicks; each team receives 8 sets(32 tires total)..........those who qualify for the Firestone Pole Shootout will receive 1 additional set of Firehawks

~~Firestone has also supplied a total of 320 grooved wet-condition tires; each team will receive 4 sets(16 tires total)

~~the tire compounds for each condition of tire are as follows.......
(Dry)same compound as was used at the Glen in 2005 and 2006
(Wet)compound was used at St. Pete in 2007

~~Firestone Performance Award......at every race the IndyCar Series has run, the leader at a specific point in the race receives $10,000 from Firestone; although this weekend's race at the Glen is the 144th in series history, the race distance is only 60 laps, so whoever is leading at the end of lap 43(a/k/a 144 race miles) will receive the award

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Watkins Glen Practice Session #1 top-5...............

1st} Buddy Rice, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing........................1:30.258 sec/134.415 mph
2nd} Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing.......................1:30.311 sec/134.336 mph
3rd} Sam Hornish, Jr., Team Penske..................................1:30.372 sec/134.245 mph
4th} Helio Castroneves, Team Penske................................1:30.495 sec/134.062 mph
5th} Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing.............................1:30.573 sec/133.947 mph

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Watkins Glen Practice Session #2 top-5..................

1st} Helio Castroneves, Team Penske............................1:30.119 sec/134.622 mph*
2nd} Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing........................1:30.159 sec/134.563 mph
3rd} Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing.......................1:30.439 sec/134.156 mph
4th} Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing....................1:30.702 sec/133.757 mph
5th} Kosuke Matsuura, Aguri-Panther Racing...................1:30.865 sec/133.517 mph

*--fastest on the combined practice charts

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Here are some of the goings' on at the Glen today..............

~~Some new faces in the IPS paddock........thank heavens' for the media guides; they can hold some surprises.......there were a couple of new faces in the Indy Pro Series paddock, notably former IndyCar Series driver Scott Mayer and former ChampCar Atlantic competitor Richard Heistand. Also present(and looking for rides) were Marc Williams, who was scheduled to race for Michael Crawford Mtrspts. this weekend(but won't due to sponsorship woes....... ) and 2006 IPS champion Jay Howard, who's run a partial 2007 schedule w/SpeedWorks(before his sponsorships went away....... ).

~~Slip-slidin' away................whenever I get to the track for either a ChampCar or IRL event, I always make sure to pick up a portable scanner; you never know what you'll hear..... Case in point......listening to radio traffic btwn. DRR's Sarah Fisher and her spotters; you could tell she's never been to the Glen, as they were "walking" here through every corner....it helped, too; she picked up several seconds but at the end of the day she was about 5-6 seconds off of Helio Castroneves' fast time on the combined charts(meaning in all likelihood Fisher'll be the first out in single-car qualifying tomorrow........ )

~~Everything's backwards on pit road......most all the teams practiced pitstops at the Glen, which is important; the Glen is a "right-side" pit track, meaning that every position in each team's "over-the-wall" gang is reversed(meaning that, during the race, it will be the left-front tire changer who'll give the driver the command to leave the pitstall).

~~Seeing the sights............Watkins Glen reminds me of Road America in one major way; it is one of the few tracks that you can go to and there's not a bad seat in the house, whether it's along the pitstraight, watching from a photog's booth along the Esses or the Carousel or just walking around the track interior. I've noticed also that there are a lot of RV's and campers in the infield(a lot more than in previous years...... )..........make no mistake, this track will remain on the IndyCar schedule for a long, long time.

~~So it has been comfirmed.......during the day's activities, there was a bit of news from Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials. Reading from the press release:

Historic announcement to be made July 16 at IMS. Please join us Monday, July 16 as motorsports history is made during an announcement at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Various racing officials, local dignitaries and celebrities will be a part of this special presentation and will be available for interviews.

According to the Indianapolis Star's Curt Cavin, this means one thing......that both MotoGP will be coming to the Brickyard in 2008 and that Formula 1 will be returning to the Brickyard as well.

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Watkins Glen Practice Session #3 top-5....................

1st} Helio Castroneves, Team Penske.................................1:29.536 sec/135.499 mph
2nd} Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing........................1:29.766 sec/135.151 mph
3rd} Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing.............................1:29.956 sec/134.867 mph
4th} Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing...........................1:30.294 sec/134.362 mph
5th} Sam Hornish, Jr., Team Penske...................................1:30.304 sec/134.346 mph

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Camping World Indy Grand Prix Starting Grid...................
note.......positions 1-6 times were set during the Firestone Pole Shootout; positions 7-18 were set in single-car qualifying

1st} Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske.........................1:29.192 sec/136.021 mph
2nd} Scott Dixon, #9 Target...........................................1:29.569 sec/135.449 mph

3rd} Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club.........................1:29.676 sec/135.286 mph
4th} Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11..................................1:29.784 sec/135.124 mph

5th} Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Team Penske...........................1:29.968 sec/134.849 mph
6th} Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group...............................1:30.138 sec/134.594 mph

7th} Buddy Rice, #15 RollCoater/A1 Team USA.................1:31.073 sec/133.211 mph
8th} Vitor Meira, #4 Delphi/Skyfi......................................1:31.165 sec/133.077 mph

9th} Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co./EverGuard.......1:31.755 sec/132.222 mph
10th} Dan Wheldon, #10 Target.......................................1:31.774 sec/132.195 mph

11th} Kosuke Matsuura, #55 Panasonic/TPR......................1:31.964 sec/131.921 mph
12th} Jeff Simmons, #17 Ethanol......................................1:32.001 sec/131.869 mph

13th} Tomas Scheckter, #2 Indy Vision on Joost................1:32.051 sec/131.797 mph
14th} Scott Sharp, #8 Patron Tequila................................1:32.141 sec/131.668 mph

15th} Danica Patrick, #7 Motorola.....................................1:32.746 sec/130.809 mph
16th} A.J. Foyt, IV, #22 Indy Vision on Joost......................1:32.953 sec/130.519 mph

17th} Ed Carpenter, #20 Hitachi Power Tools......................1:34.023 sec/129.033 mph
18th} Sarah Fisher, #5 AAMCO Transmissions....................no time posted

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What's that saying again........I went to a race and a fight broke out?

In a sense, I feel sorry for Target/Ganassi's Scott Dixon; the Kiwi ran an outstanding race, winning his third consecutive Watkins Glen race only to be overshadowed by the post-race fracas btwn. members of the Penske and AGR team(more on that later........)

However, for the first third of the race, Dixon wasn't the dominant driver....it was Team Penske and Helio Castroneves who led from the drop of the green flag for the first 20 laps......until Spiderman loses it exiting the final turn and smacks the outside tirewalls, ending his race early, although as Dixon put it in post-race interviews, "If he hadn't messed up there, I think we would've got him sooner or later."

For the remainder of the race, Dixon was in control, and at the end of the race beat out Team Penske's Sam Hornish, Jr. by about 7 seconds to win his third consecutive IndyCar Series race at the Glen. But, as I mentioned earlier, Dixon's celebrations wer unfortunately overshadowed by the post-race fracas involving members of the Penske and AGR teams, and part of it involved Hornish.........

During the race, Hornish and AGR's Tony Kanaan had been fighting for position when Hornish made a diving move for position, knocking Kanaan out of the way(and probably angering the Brazilian..... ). Everything seemed okay......until TK did IMO one of the stupidest things you can do in a racecar--he got up alongside Hornish on the inlap following the checkers and dove for pitlane at the absolute last second, chopping in front of Hornish. That apparently set Hornish off, for he got out of his car and charged over to Kanaan. They exchanged some words and it seemed everything was okay......until Sam Sr.(Jr.'s dad...... ) tried to get his son out of the way. Things seemed to did down.....until TK boneheadly said something to Hornish; Sr. then walks over and gives Kanaan a shove; then things got ugly. An unidentified individual(some reports ID'ed him as AGR's Indy Pro Series driver, Jaime Camara...... ) threw Hornish, Sr. to the ground hard, then he got thrown down hard by a Penske crewman and IRL steward; several others got involved trying to keep things from getting even more out of hand(case in point; AGR's Marco Andretti pushed his father, AGR co-owner Michael Andretti out of the area and TGR's Dan Wheldon could be seen dragging Kanaan away from the area). All in all, it's being described as "an embarrassing incident for the series". [Mod's note.....expect fines and penalties to be handed out this week prior to the race in Nashville; also, expect the pitlane to be a bit emptier as I suspect several hard cards to be permanently pulled from some people.....]

Top-10 from the Camping World Indy Grand Prix...............
1st} #9 Scott Dixon............................................60 laps
2nd} #6 Sam Hornish, Jr.....................................-6.259 sec
3rd} #27 Dario Franchitti....................................-9.749 sec
4th} #11 Tony Kanaan.......................................-14.483 sec
5th} #26 Marco Andretti.....................................-15.475 sec
6th} #15 Buddy Rice..........................................-26.917 sec
7th} #10 Dan Wheldon.......................................-35.352 sec
8th} #55 Kosuke Matsuura.................................-40.704 sec
9th} #14 Darren Manning...................................-47.689 sec
10th} #17 Jeff Simmons.....................................-54.890 sec

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IRL officials issued several penalties and fines in the aftermath of the post-race brawl immediately following the Camping World Indy Grand Prix this past Sunday..............

~~Team Penske and Andretti-Green Racing were both fined $25,000 each for unsportsmanlike conduct as cars were entering pitlane following the end of the race
~~Anthony Fedele, an AGR public relations official, was suspended indefintely from pitlane and Sam Hornish, Sr., father of driver Sam Hornish, Jr. was suspended from pitlane for the next race at Nashville
~~In addition, drivers Sam Hornish, Jr. and Tony Kanaan were placed on probation through Dec. 31, 2007 and fined an unspecified amount of money

According to series officials, all parties involved have the right to appeal; however, penalties can either increase, decrease or remain as they are following said appeals