Some clips on which to ponder.

A lap of Long Beach with Midweek Motorsport's own John Hindhaugh




A trip down memory lane and an indicator that course knowledge could be crucial, at least during qualifying this weekend. One of our players, Conor Daly, may recognise one of the front row occupants.

A quick Long Beach Preview with a chubby lad.

I'm not sure where they got their 'expert' but he makes some good points, on his brief stop between the cake shop and the pie shop, and hopefully he will refresh your memory with regards to who is hot and who is not in the Firestone Indy Lights Series.

I would suggest that a sleeper for Long Beach is Raphael Matos who has relatively recent experience on the streets there.

So make sure to get your amended teams, if you are planning to shuffle them, to me by Midnight EST on Friday.

Don't forget, I will have all of the weekend's coverage including the Indy Lights race right here on your favourite shabbily constructed blog.

Enjoy.

The Commish

Week 1 - Standings

1. Simon Speichert - 440pts
Felony Pursuit
Power, Hunter-Reay, Rahal, Wilson & Summerton

2. Jason Kwok - 360pts
Eco Challenged
Dixon, Briscoe, Carpenter, Wilson & Summerton

3. Mike Draize - 345pts
IRL the feeder series to ALMS
Franchitti, Briscoe, Hunter-Reay, Barrett & Beatriz

T4. John Harbey - 340pts
JWH Racing
Franchitti, Briscoe, Doornbos, Barrett & Hinchcliffe

T4. Peter Dempsey - 340pts
Dempsey's Irish Cowboys
Kanaan, Briscoe, Matos, Wilson & Hildebrand

T6. Chris Vince - 330pts
And Round We Go!
Kanaan, Rahal, Hunter-Reay, Meira & Hinchcliffe

T6. Jeff Ianucci - 330pts
MyNameisIRL
Kanaan, Briscoe, Wilson, Viso & Beatriz

8. Robert Duffield - 322pts
Team IndyCART
Power, Briscoe, Mutoh, Matos & Hinchcliffe

T9. Doug Werner(II) - 310pts
Team Penske and Friends
Power, Briscoe, Doornbos, Barrett & Hildebrand

T9. Ben Harris - 310pts
IRS Racing: Presented By Helio Castroneves
Power, Rahal, Wheldon, Wilson & Howard

T9. TJ Halsema - 310pts
Ray Harroun's Ghost
Briscoe, Hunter-Reay, Doornbos, Conway & Saavedra

12. Paul Menard - 305pts
13. Jimmy Magnnusson - 300pts
14. Julie Werner(II) - 295pts
T15. Robert Melvin - 275pts
T15. Chris Buccola - 275pts
17. Mike Gathman - 267pts
18. James Broomhead - 265pts
T19 James Murphy - 260pts
T19 Julie Werner(I) - 2670pts

T21. Eddie Lynch - 255pts
T21. Paul Boggan - 255pts
23. Austin Hollobaugh -250pts
24. Declan Brennan - 240pts
25. Brian Wright - 235pts
26. Conor Daly - 225pts
27. Jennifer Gaal - 225pts
T28. Doug Werner (I) - 220pts
T28. Matthew Hyndman - 220pts
30. Ryan Ligon - 205pts

31. Emilyan Stoykov - 197pts
32. Philip Moreton - 190pts
33. Andrew Harbey - 180pts
34. Jeremy Scott - 175pts
35. Dan Fay - 167pts
36. Nick Daman - 145pts
37. Morwenna Cross - 140pts
38. Jeff Fuller - 135pts
39. Martin Wilz - 122pts
T40. Mike Brooks - 120pts
T40 Michael Rennick - 120pts

42. Simon Green - 115pts
43. Dan Enfinger - 65pts

Free practice pointers and deductions

The IndyCar Series and the Firestone Indy Lights Series both ran in free practice this morning. I am afraid the rain probably didn't give any of you late Fantasy League entrants much, if any, useful intelligence with regards to the performance of the teams and drivers in either category.

The Indy Lights got the brunt of the rain and the early part of the session was run in fully wet conditions. Rookies Duncan Tappy and Richard Phillipe were the class of field when the track was at it's worst and as the track gradually dried out it became impossible to get a real handle on the relative speed of the field. If the rains continue, I will be picking Tappy for my free pick this weekend. Anyone who saw his performance in dreadful conditions at Zolder in Superleague Formula will know that rain will not cause him any undue stress.

The lack of car/barrier interface situations was a pleasant surprise with only Pippa Mann in her Panther car hitting the tyres. So, in truth, we will have to wait and hope for a dry session later on this afternoon so that we can get a clearer picture of the real pace setters in the Lights category.

The drying track also meant that we were offered an uneven and almost entirely false picture of the IndyCar field (just think of a landscape drawn by the man whose Museum is in St Petersburg - Salvador Dali). The track had only one drying line for most of the session and only really invited more committed lappery towards it's conclusion. Although nobody was particularly surprised that the Target Chip Ganassi cars topped the time sheets.


1 10 Dario Franchitti 1:04.5032
2 9 Scott Dixon 01:05.1481
3 19 Justin Wilson 01:05.1836
4 6 Ryan Briscoe 01:05.2055
5 4 Dan Wheldon 01:05.3390
6 13 E.J. Viso 01:05.3966
7 26 Marco Andretti 01:05.6370
8 3 Will Power 01:05.6496 7
9 5 Mario Moraes 01:05.7412
10 02 Granham Rahal 01:05.8199
11 06 Robert Doornbos 01:06.0882
12 14 Vitor Meira 01:06.2692
13 2 Raphael Matos 01:06.3043
14 34 Alex Tagliani 01:06.3868
15 21 Ryan Hunter-Reay 01:06.4209
16 24 Mike Conway 01:06.5339
17 27 Hideki Mutoh 01:06.7729
18 7 Danica Patrick 01:07.3126
19 20 Ed Carpenter 01:08.5418
20 23 Darren Manning 01:08.6726
21 98 Stanton Barrett 01:10.6443


Tony Kanaan decided not to venture out at all. Maybe he knew something we didn't? I suspect more hands will be revealed in the afternoon sessions. It will be the last chance you chaps have to adjust your teams before the Midnight EST deadline.

- The Commish

We're off!.............................................................almost

Hello all,

The IndyCar Fantasy League and blog is back. So just to help you don those thinking caps, here is a brief preview of the series from a fantasy players point of view.

First of all remember this is a squad based game with only your four active players scoring at each race. The weekly wild card pick from the Firestone Indy Lights field could be critical in terms of finding an edge from week to week.

So what should you look out for when it comes to picking your full squad? How should I know, I ran the thing and I couldn't even work out how to win last season!


A quick look at the rookie class and Mike Conway's mildly peculiar hair.

The revised system this season should eliminate the 'I'll just pick Scott Dixon and put my feet up' school of thought. The supporting cast who accompany your inevitable superstar choices are going to be the key. I'm not going to tell anyone who to chose but the slightly dubious rookie status of Robert Doornbos (he is an IndyCar rookie) should set alarm bells ringing in the minds of many players. His rookie bonus points could well be the difference come the end of the season.

Robert Doornbos laughing at his slightly ludicrous rookie status, yesterday

The late additions of some rather experienced pilots, namely Darren Manning, Alex Tagliani and Tomas Scheckter (from Long Beach onwards) provides some tasty low rent pickup opportunities. Good road racers in bad cars (I'd throw Justin Wilson into that category) could pay off especially on the technically challenging street circuits which kick the season off.

So please think carefully and take as much time as you need to come up with your selections, the deadline is Friday Midnight EST and there will have been two full practice sessions to absorb before you have to commit to anything.

As for your Commish? I have got no clue as to how I'm going to go with my selections, I may just wait and see what Mr Duffield does.

Enjoy and the very best of luck.


- The Commish

Pre season thoughts from our Fantasy League members.

Simon Speichert is a happy man North of the border in Canada and he wants to tell everyone:

There’s a lot of positive news coming out of the IndyCar Series in the run-up to the season. It’s been announced that Darren Manning and Tomas Scheckter have drives, and Milka Duno doesn’t.

But seriously, folks, this season is going to be crucial for the series to continue building momentum – interest needs to increase before VW comes into the series in 2011 or 2012 and the new Dallara chassis is run. Things are looking good, with activated sponsorship from IZOD, a diecast deal with Hot Wheels and, most crucially, lots of well-promoted TV time on Versus.

The field is extremely strong this year. There are 10 IndyCar race winners, two more (Power and Doornbos) with wins in Champ Car, and a rookie who manages to win in every kind of car he drives (Matos). Dan Wheldon will be a shot in the arm for Panther Racing, who haven’t won in quite some time, and the driving abilities of Vitor Meira and Justin Wilson should bolster the teams they’re driving for. Rookie of the Year, while not as strongly contested this year, should go down to the wire between Doornbos and Matos.

Even the minor leagues are benefiting. This year’s Firestone Indy Lights driver lineup is arguably the most talented junior formula series in the world this year. Jonathan Summerton, Charlie Kimball, Ana Beatriz, James Hinchcliffe, Duncan Tappy, Stefan Wilson, Richard Phillippe, J.R. Hildebrand and Jan Heylen are just some of the names, along with two former champions (unfortunately) in Jay Howard and Wade Cunningham. Better yet, IndyCar Series teams have incentive for testing Indy Lights drivers – they’ll be awarded additional testing miles for their IndyCar drivers. And Indy Lights will be shown on Versus as well.

What’s not to love? Talented teams and drivers in the series, and more interested in it as time goes on. A comprehensive TV package that will include more than 2 minutes of airtime after the conclusion of a race. American open-wheel racing is looking better equipped to make gains as the goliath that is NASCAR begins to sputter.

Their Winter of Discontent

March shouldn’t be like this should it? I look out my window upon a beautiful blanket of virgin snow the aesthetic qualities of which are in inverse proportion to the trouble it takes to get rid of it, even digging my way to the snow blower could see me lost for possibly weeks!

This winter has taught me much, mainly that it may never end, but it has revealed more about some of the current icons of American racing that could reasonably be expected in a whole season.

William Shakespeare’s shorter comedies seldom enter my thoughts while watching motorsport, well okay, maybe when Milka Duno or Reed Sorenson is trying to qualify on a road course, but that would normally be ‘A comedy of errors’. The last few months of activity, on and off the track have had me reaching for my copy of ‘Twelfth Night’.

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them”

The Midweek Motorsport, no expense spared, but rights free, reconstruction of the 'Junior incident' at Daytona

There are three drivers who loosely fit into those categories above, all iconic figures whose stock has taken quite the beating over this winter. There is a whole other thesis to be written on the abuse of the word ‘great’ in sports writing and broadcasting, but we must leave that for another day.

In 1882, scientists at John Hopkins University slowly boiled a frog in water in order to provide me with an appropriate analogy 127 years later. Dale Junior has been in slowly boiling since the day he was born. The only difference between ‘Little E’ and that lab frog is that he is finally noticing how uncomfortable the temperature is getting. Take his alarming performance on his sport’s biggest stage, the Daytona 500. Not just the act of wiping out half the field on the back stretch but the lack of awareness of the location of his pit box and his inability to get the whole car into it once he had finally discovered it. His subsequent barking into any microphone that was placed in front of him smacked of a man who realizes that it’s year two in the best team in the sport and he has one very fortunate win under his belt.

Dale Earnhardt Junior, yesterday

So that alone would not a crumbling ego make, but the subsequent interview with Darrell Waltrip told us more about where his head is than anything that happened a week earlier. The inflated sense of entitlement could not be kept in check as his frustration flowed like toxic lava.

‘Most of the guys that have known me since I was a kid and know who I am, respect me, most of the guys that haven’t known me who have come into the sport in the last couple of years, that are younger than me, probably don’t’…….’because the popularity and the results don’t match up, they have a problem with a guy having that much popularity and not being able to have the same kind of results’

Junior manages to reveal a refreshing self awareness about his shortcomings in one breath while effectively demanding respect (mainly from Kyle Busch) with the next despite achieving little to warrant it besides competing every week with a famous name. He still fails to realize that racing with his father’s name on the car simply isn’t enough.

One has to wonder if the same can be said for Marco Andretti. What was he thinking when he blasted out of the pits in Kyalami during his mandatory stop in the A1GP feature race? What was going through his mind as he was first passed by the home town favorites, South Africa then Germany and finally by those leviathans of racing, Lebanon and Indonesia?

The World Cup of Motorsports has been anything but rich pickings for Marco and Andretti Green Racing through the darkest months. The race in South Africa was the fourth outing for the 21 year old and the fifth for the team with a fortunate third place as their only result of note so far. The lack of speed from the team and the seeming inability of Marco to work around set up issues have done nothing to promote the idea that Marco has a future at the highest levels of global open wheel racing. This is even more puzzling considering his performances for AGR outside the realm of open wheel racing in 2008. John Hindhaugh of the American Le Mans Series Radio Network for one has seen glimpses of his potential:

‘Standing on the outside of turn one at Sebring - I mean it's not like I hadn't seen seriously fast cars through there before, McNish, Brabham, even Kristensen were always impressive through there but the word had gone around the paddock that Marco HAD to be seen. So I dutifully pottered over on the ALMS Radio Network golf cart pulled up and waited... not for long ...as the distinctive howl of the Acura down the back straight told me the boy Andretti was on his way. There it was out of Sunset (turn 17) and on the way toward me, headlights ablaze. Then it was gone! No really just like that, almost before I could take it in.’

Andretti had taken the daunting turn one completely flat out, showing and a commitment and raw speed rarely, if ever, seen at the storied venue.

A further chat with the ALMS safety crew positioned nearby revealed that Marco had ‘been doing that since his first flying lap’. He continued to display this astonishing speed and skill throughout practice and most of the race.

Maybe this is the Marco that grandfather Mario, was talking about during his cameo at the USF1 launch last week. Mario may have assumed that being on TV so early in the day must have meant he was involved in an infomercial. That is the only plausible explanation for the sales job that followed.

‘I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again and I’ll back it up, if I were to design a Formula One driver today, I would design Marco. He learns quickly. He’s very much of a free spirit … the travel and all of the aspect does not phase him in the least.’

I fully expected Mario to conclude by saying that ‘if you call now we will add in a year of GP2 free, operators are standing by’. This was the broadcasting equivalent of your Grandfather telling all his friends that you hade made the varsity squad when in reality you were the mascot’s understudy. And was the final line above, a thinly veiled jab at his own son’s refusal to base himself in Europe during his stint with McLaren?

The USF1 launch also impacted on the final character in this sub Shakespearean tragedy, Danica. Her winter started with as comical a final act as anyone could have wished for as she left a uniquely shambolic imprint on the streets of Surfer’s Paradise. Her real value may have been uncovered in the run up to the televised press launch of USF1 last week. Ken Anderson’s statement that ‘She's great’ and ‘She gets a lot of press’, spoke volumes about her obvious commercial value while never addressing the key issues in terms of actual testing, set up and racing abilities on the road courses of Europe and elsewhere.

Peter Windsor is an astute media operative and he is well aware that there is no complex endorsement contract to be written or royalty structure to develop by simply allowing his team to be associated with a hugely high profile figure like Patrick. He literally gets hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars of free and increased publicity by even vaguely associating her with his project. During the launch itself, Windsor mentioned six names, including three teenagers (one of which was 15 year old, Columbian born, Gaby Chaves) and a stock car driver with no open wheel experience, Kyle Busch, before he remembered to mention Danica.

In this case she was the thirty dollar, 52 inch flat screen TV that gets advertised in the run up to black Friday, the same one that is never there when you get to the store.

An exclusive list of Peter Windsor's notes as used at the USF1 (USGPE) launch

If her new found position as retail ‘door buster’ wasn’t bad enough she would have been further chastened by the discovery of her new neighbors at the first oval test for the Indy Car Series at Homestead last week. Danica finished 15th on the time sheets one place ahead of her UCF (Ultimate Cat Fighting) partner, Milka Duno.

So the question is can these three look past the ides of March and make this a glorious summer? I’m looking forward to viewing the unfolding drama from my box seat.