2008 IRL Rd. 3A--Bridgestone Indy Japan 300

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Event: Bridgestone Indy Japan 300
Where: Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi, Japan
When: 1pm, 19 April 2008(local time)**
**--to be broadcast live on ESPN at midnight, 19 April 2008
**--same-day tape at noon, 19 April 2008

Broadcast Locations.............................
~~domestic TV, ESPN
~~domestic AM radio, IMS Radio Network
~~satellite radio, XM Satellite Radio Chs. 143 and 144
~~Internet simulcast via. indycar.com
~~international shortwave/TV through the United States Armed Forces Network


Past Winners..................................
Adrian Fernandez, 1998-1999
Michael Andretti, 2000
Kenny Brack, 2001
Bruno Junquiera, 2002
Scott Sharp, 2003
Dan Wheldon, 2004-2005
Helio Castroneves, 2006
Tony Kanaan, 2007

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Bridgestone Indy Japan 300 Entry List..................


A.J. Foyt, IV, #2 Joost/Indy Vision
Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske
Vitor Meira, #4 National Guard/Delphi
Ryan Briscoe, #6 Team Penske
Danica Patrick, #7 Motorola
Scott Dixon, #9 Target
Dan Wheldon, #10 Target
Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11
Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co.
Buddy Rice, #15 RollCoater/Bitburger
Ryan Hunter-Reay, #17 Ethanol
Ed Carpenter, #20 Menards/DirecTV
Townsend Bell, #23 WilliamRast
(R)Jay Howard, #24 Cirrus Aircraft
Marty Roth, #25 Cirrus Aircraft
Marco Andretti, #26 Alpine
(R)Hideki Mutoh, #27 Honda Formula Dream
Roger Yasukawa, #77 Interush/PHYTTER

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....................Remember, its' packed by weight, not volume!!

Following last week's Honda Grand Prix of St. Pete, teams traveling to Motegi for this week's Bridgestone Indy Japan 300 were on a tight timeline--3 days from returning to their shops(either Indy for most teams; Houston, TX for A.J. Foyt Racing; Mooresville, NC for Team Penske and Hilliard, OH for Rahal-Letterman Racing), before they all had to bring their haulers to Indianapolis for loading onto two Nippon Cargo Air 747-400B cargo aircraft for the thirteen-plus hour flight to Narita International Airport in Tokyo(the time includes a brief layover in Anchorage, Alaska).

While the total haulage isn't the heaviest(350,000 lbs. on each plane; max. weight for each is 450,000 lbs), it is, according to NCA officials, one of the heaviest loads they carry all year based on volume, and, according to NCA's asst. manager of air freight services, Suad Arifovic, it helps that they have done this for the series for years

(because) every year we get more experience, which helps because every year it gets tighter because of timing. It is crucial in our business to make sure we have weight distribution properly. Every pallet (onboard) has a name and position ahead of time.

Of course, the flip side of timing is true; when IndyCar Series teams that made the trip to Motegi return to Indy, they have an even shorter turnaround, as they only have three days to prepare for the next race after this weekend's twin-bill, the RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway.

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~~Event: Bridgestone Indy Japan 300, round 3A of 18 in the 2008 IRL IndyCar Series season
~~Where: Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi, Japan

~~Track Dynamics....................
Although all four turns are banked at 10 degrees, turns 1 and 2 are longer than turns 3 and 4, giving the track its' distinctive oblong, Darlington-style appearance(to race the track, drivers run flat-out exiting 4 and around all the way to turn 3, where they tap the brakes, downshift from 5th to 4th and travel to 4.........)

~~Three Indy 500 winners are entered in the Bridgestone Indy Japan 300(Castroneves, 2001-2002; Rice, 2004 and Wheldon, 2005)
~~Three IndyCar Series champions are entered in the Bridgestone Indy Japan 300(Dixon, 2003; Kanaan, 2004; Wheldon, 2005)
~~Seven drivers entered in the Bridgestone Indy Japan 300 have led laps at Twin Ring Motegi(Dan Wheldon--354, Helio Castroneves--231, Tony Kanaan--101, Scott Dixon--52, Danica Patrick--32, Darren Manning--2 and Vitor Meira--2)
~~Combined, drivers competing at Motegi have 52 IndyCar Series wins, 57 IndyCar Series starts and 821 starts

~~Milestones............................................
~~Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves can either set or extend up to three different milestones this weekend............
--by starting in Saturday's race, he will notch his 97th consecutive start(with his 3 starts in 2001, he currently has 100 IndyCar starts)
--by winning the PEAK Motor Oil Pole Award, he will extend his series-record streak of consecutive seasons with at least one pole to 7
--by winning Saturday's Bridgestone Indy Japan 300, he can take over the series-record for consecutive seasons with 8 seasons(he currently is tied with Scott Sharp with 7 seasons)
~~On the flip side, should Panther Racing's Vitor Meira not win at Motegi, he will extend his streak of futility to 77 races, the longest of any driver in the IndyCar Series at present

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Greetings from Twin Ring Motegi!

We're about halfway through the first of three practice sessions at Motegi; 5 cars on-track at the moment.............top-5 at the moment are:
--Scott Dixon, 199.393 mph/27.443 sec
--Marco Andretti, 197.596 mph/27.693 sec
--(R)Hideki Mutoh, 194.691 mph/28.106 sec
--Ryan Briscoe, 192.396 mph/28.441 sec
--Ryan Hunter-Reay, 191.812 mph/28.528 sec

Most drivers, it seems, are playing a "wait-n'-see" approach as to when to go out for the first session; 6 cars now out on-track

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Drivers now starting to draft off one another; rookies Jay Howard and Hideki Mutoh spent the better part of a lap drafting one another

No one's yet cracked 200mph yet, but two have made the 199mph mark as AGR's Marco Andretti just set a 199.165 mph lap


Top-5 at the moment
Dixon, Andretti, Mutoh, Wheldon, Castroneves

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Watching the video monitors, it seems Bridgestone is pulling out all the stops for this year's race; not only do they have most of the outside SAFER barrier in turn 2 covered w/the Bridgestone logo, but track officials inlaid the Bridgestone lettering along both sides of the start/finish line!

Three drivers now over 199 as TGR's Dan Wheldon now has the fastest lap of the session at a 199.408mph lap(27.441 sec)

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Reminder that this is an "all-skate" or all cars session; the next two sessions will be split sessions, with half the cars running for the first half of the session and the second half running the other half of the session

Looking around the area, its' your typical cloud-enshrouded Motegi day(people tend to forget this track[both the oval AND the road course] are essentially built into the side of the mountain here in the Motegi area; weather forecasts are indicating rain during the latter half of the second practice session


Watching the drivers move through each end of the track, it seems everyone is running right along the bottom in 1-2 and at least 1 groove higher in 3-4

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A little bulletin here.......series officials have changed the practice schedule; session #2 will also be an "all-skate" or all-cars session(they musta' seen the weather forecasts as well, hmm?..... )

Top-5 at the moment,
Wheldon, Kanaan, Dixon, Andretti and Manning

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Finally! Someone cracks the 200mph mark; TGR's Scott Dixon resets fast lap in the practice session at 200.184 mph(27.335 sec)

If there is a concern in the IndyCar paddock, its' not here but at Long Beach as some of the former ChampCar drivers competing there have expressed a few worries that some of the one-off drivers racing there may jeopardize the series regulars' points opportunities(both Motegi and Long Beach are playing the same points this weekend)

Top-5 with about 20 minutes remaining in the session......................
Dixon, Wheldon, Kanaan, Andretti and Patrick

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Watching the Roth Racing entries of Marty Roth and Jay Howard, its' interesting to notice the different ways the team's primary sponsor, Cirrus Aircraft, is presented; on Roth's car its' yellow lettering on black, while Howard's is tarheel blue on white

Another interesting item of interest is that, unlike a lot of oval events in the U.S. where, if there's a Friday practice, the stands are practically empty, there's a lot of people in the stands(which are all on the front stretch at Motegi for the oval) for Friday practice

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15 minutes remaining in the session...............


Another unique thing about the oval here at Twin Ring Motegi is all of the sponsor logos everywhere on-track; there's six or seven logos on the front stretch w/Bridgestone having three sets of logos, one for their corporate logo(the one on either side of the start/finish line and a second w/the Potenza brand of tire along the pitwall facing the front stretch) and the second being part of the event logo; another sponsor w/extensive numbers of logos is Kirin, a Japanese beer brand(you can see their logos form entrance of turn 3 to the midpoint btwn. 3 and 4)

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Track is currently yellow for reports of debris in turn 1; both Helio Castroneves and A.J. Foyt, IV reported cut tires, which prompted the yellow..................

7-8 minutes remaining in the session...........

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Probably the most unique thing about Twin Ring Motegi is the fact that both the oval and the road course is built into the facility; as you watch the race on the oval, you can see parts and portions of the road course.......

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......and session #1 is in the books!

Motegi Practice Session #1 top-5...............................
1} Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing......................27.335 sec/200.184 mph
2} Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing....................27.379 sec/199.863 mph
3} Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing.....................27.407 sec/199.661 mph
4} Marco Andretti, Andretti-Green Racing...................27.475 sec/199.165 mph
5} Helio Castroneves, Team Penske..........................27.564 sec/198.521 mph