Race Report & Week 1 Standings

RULE INTERPRETATION

Well I'll put my hand up and say it was my fault. It was my fault that
I chose that moment, of cranial weakness, to confuse GMT and EST. The
resulting loophole in my carefully constructed rules and regulations
meant that anyone who wished to wait until after qualifying to submit
their final driver line-up could do so.

Of course, this being motorsport, after a fashion, there were a number
of you who chose to do precisely that and submit teams after the final
laps had been run on Friday night. You know who you are and you should
hang your heads in shame. Yes, you obeyed the rules but the spirit of
those rules was the living breathing idea of sportsmanship and fair play
prior to your machiavellian submissions.

The key of course to this subterfuge was the choice of Scott Dixon, the
pole sitter. The potentially enormous haul of points was clearly too much
to resist for some. I also wonder if any of these players would have chosen
Ed Carpenter or AJ Foyt the IV other any other circumstances?

More to the point however, many and voluminous plaudits must go to Michael
Gathman currently in second place with his "Weekend Warriors" squad comprising of:
- Dan Wheldon
- Marco Andretti
- Ernesto Viso
- Jay Howard
- Ed Carpenter

66% of the Harbey family have created an exclusive club by both
picking teams with 4 scoring drivers.

David Harbey's "no Ferrari Influence Apparent" comprises of:
- Dan Wheldon
- Marco Andretti
- Darren Manning
- Mario Moraes
- Franck Perera

"Should We Stay or Should We Split Now?", Andrew Harbey's squad, is not
troubling the upper reaches of the leader board but four of the squad
below all bagged points:
- Dan Wheldon
- Justin Wilson
- Darren Manning
- Enrique Bernoldi
- Buddy Rice

You can see how the rest of the scores have panned out below. I will be
publishing the full list of teams, driver line-ups and and team logos as
soon as I have them.


Points Standings

1st
245 - Doug Werner - "Drivers who weigh more than Danica"
[Scott Dixon, Hideki Mutoh, AJ Foyt IV, Marty Roth, Ed Carpenter]

2nd
220 - Michael Gathman - "Weekend Warriors"
[Dan Wheldon, Marco Andretti, Ernesto Viso, Jay Howard, Ed Carpenter]

3rd
215 - "I Hate Tony George" - Jim Casey
[Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Marty Roth, Milka Duno, Ed Carpenter]

4th
205 - "3.2 Million Bricks" - Michael Rennick
[Scott Dixon, Vitor Meira, Ernesto Viso, Jay Howard, Ryan Hunter Reay]

5th
185 - "no Ferrari Influence Apparent" - David Harbey
[Dan Wheldon, Marco Andretti, Darren Manning, Mario Moraes, Franck Perera]


6th
170 - "Milk-n-Donuts" - Jason Kwok
[Dan Wheldon, Ryan Briscoe, Danica Patrick, Mario Moraes, Ed Carpenter]
Dan Wheldon

7th
165 - "Team Bigger USA" - Jon Bigger
[Marco Andretti, Ryan Briscoe, Danica Patrick, Milka Duno, Vitor Meira]

7th
165 - "RPH Racing" - Julie Werner
[Dan Wheldon, Hideki Mutoh, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ed Carpenter, Marty Roth]

9th
145 - "Tony George stole my Series" - Emiliyan Stoykov
[Helio Castro Neves, Dan Wheldon, Jay Howard, Townsend Bell, Franck Perera]

10th
140 - "Super Duper Best Friends" - Andy Blackmore
[Helio Castro Neves, Dan Wheldon, Ernesto Viso, Marty Roth, Milka Duno]


11th
125 - "Why do we keep turning Left on our way to the merger?" - Nick Daman
[Dan Wheldon, Hideki Mutoh, Danica Patrick, Jay Howard, Franck Perera]

11th
125 - "Sideways Sam's Sideways Tings" - Sam Collins
[Dan Wheldon, Hideki Mutoh, Danica Patrick, Jay Howard, Franck Perera]

13th
120 - "Chip, your name doesn't mean you have to eat Chips" - Matthew Hyndman
[Dan Wheldon, Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter Reay, Franck Perera, Jay Howard]

14th
115 - "Opposite Lock Motorsports" - Louis Berlan
[Dan Wheldon, Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter Reay, Jay Howard, Franck Perera]

14th
115 - "Joe Blob & the Spoonerisms" - James Murphy
[Marco Andretti, Ryan Briscoe, Hideki Mutoh, Mario Moraes, Buddy Rice]


16th
110 - "Team IndyCart" - Robert Duffield
[Helio Castroneves, Hideki Mutoh, Ryan Hunter Reay, Mario Moreas, Franck Perera]

16th
110 - "Jerry Forsythe's 'Play your cars right'" - Declan Brennan
[Helio Castroneves, Hideki Mutoh, Ryan Hunter Reay, Jay Howard, Franck Perera]


18th
107 - "Should We Stay or Should We Split Now?" - Andrew Harbey
[Dan Wheldon, Justin Wilson, Darren Manning, Enrique Bernoldi, Buddy Rice]


19th
105 - "I am Hindy" - John Hindhaugh
[Marco Andretti, Hideki Mutoh, Bruno Junquiera, Ernesto Viso, Darren Manning]


20th
100 - "Come back to Rockingham" - John Harbey
[Dan Wheldon, Ryan Briscoe, Enrique Bernoldi, Jay Howard, Vitor Meira]


20th
100 - "Month of Mayhem" - Adrian Bourne
[Helio Castro Neves, Vitor Meira, Bruno Junquiera, Townsend Bell, Darren Manning]

22nd
45 - "Team IROC - Indignantly Racing Our Crapwagons" - Simon Speichert
[Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter Reay, Hideki Mutoh, Bruno Junquiera, Franck Perera]

23rd
35 - "Danika Wheldon Crash Team" - Chris Vince
[Oriol Servia, Ryan Briscoe, Hideki Mutoh, Marty Roth, Buddy Rice]

Qualifying report. Rookie Status Reminder

So qualifying is in the books. I'm not precisely what sort of books they would be in fairness. Possibly a set of Wodehouse short stories perhaps? That would be the easiest way to explain the appearance of 'Special' Ed Carpenter on the front row and AJ Foyt IV on the inside of row 2.

Vision Racing dangled the prospect of competitiveness in front of us in early season testing, but that was dismissed rapidly on account of it being precisely that, early season testing.

So their outright speed tonight has come as a shock to just about everybody, including Foyt himself who had no rational explanation as to how he ended up ahead of everyone bar his team mate and Scott Dixon.

Wheldon's error serves to indicate the strength of the big teams in the series as he will have a fresh and very speedy back up car ready for the race tomorrow night and will no doubt provide the early fireworks as he attempts to negotiate his way through a fog of slower cars, mainly from the world of Champ Car.

Franck Perera has once again given us evidence of the abundance of talent he has under his helmet, by qualifying as top Champ Car virgin.

Speaking of rookies. The drivers marked (R) below are not the official Indy Car rookies but the guys that qualify for the Fantasy League 'Rookie Bonus'.

So Race 1 is nearly upon us and Scott Dixon has the chance to grab the first pole and race win bonus of the season. All of you who have him in your squads have already notched up 15 points. :)

Finally, I'm amazed to see that not one single player has picked Tony Kanaan at $24M.
Many of you will have spotted the fact that picking TK meant almost certainly having to also choose Milka Duno.

Finally, Hindhaugh wins a special award for his team name and accompanying logo (see above). I expect you all to respond very quickly.

So well done all of you and let the games begin.



1 - Scott Dixon, 213.341 - 15 Point Pole Bonus

2 - Ed Carpenter, 213.311
3 - A.J. Foyt IV, 212.211
4 - Danica Patrick, 212.129
5 - Ryan Briscoe, 212.108
6 - Marco Andretti, 211.838
7 - Helio Castroneves, 211.581
8 - Tony Kanaan, 211.580
9 – ® Hideki Mutoh, 211.508
10 - Marty Roth, 211.458
11 - Ryan Hunter-Reay, 210.744
12 - Vitor Meira, 210.315
13 - Buddy Rice, 209.486
14 - Darren Manning, 209.319
15 – ® Franck Perera, 209.230
16 - Oriol Servia, 209.021
17 – Justin Wilson, 208.757
18 - Milka Duno, 208.308
19 – ® Enrique Bernoldi, 208.130
20 – ® Ernesto Viso, 208.101
21 – Will Power, 208.029
22 - Bruno Junqueira, 207.434
23 – ® Mario Moraes, 207.067
24 - Dan Wheldon, No Time No Speed
25 – ® Jay Howard, No Time No Speed

Homestead: First Official Practice

Well it was pretty much business as usual after the first official practice session this afternoon. The 8 cars from the top three teams filled the first eight places on the time sheet - fancy that!

1 - Dan Wheldon 25.0037
2 - Scott Dixon 25.0211
3 - Ryan Briscoe 25.1100
4 - Helio Castroneves 25.1202
5 - Marco Andretti 25.1379
6 - Hideki Mutoh 25.1729
7 - Tony Kanaan 25.1947
8 - Danica Patrick 25.2236
9 - AJ Foyt 25.2298
10 - Ed Carpenter 25.2504
11 - Vitor Meira 25.3317
12 - Darren Manning 25.3749
13 - Jay Howard 25.3963
14 - Ryan Hunter-Reay 25.4354
15 - Marty Roth 25.4616
16 - Justin Wilson 25.5098
17 - Franck Perera 25.5485
18 - Buddy Rice 25.5509
19 - Will Power 25.5704
20 - Milka Duno 25.6054
21 - Oriol Servia 25.6163
22 - Enrique Bernoldi 25.6606
23 - Ernesto Viso 25.7520
24 - Bruno Junqueira 25.8475
25 - Mario Moraes 26.3722


So as of first practice, it's fair to say that we weren't too far off with our predictions on the show this week. It really 'plus ca change', as Franck Perera would say, with none of the interlopers from Champ Car looking likely to trouble the scorers this weekend.

Hideki Mutoh's speed is notable although not entirely unexpected and Tony Kanaan has done sterling work setting up the cars taking up places 5 to 8.

More to follow......