Long Beach

[terrydale]

The Long Beach weekend is coming up next week. IndyCar, a 35 car ALMS Race, Indy Lights, SCCA's Speed Challenge, the Toyota Celebrity Race and 'Drifting'.

The ALMS race is a 2 hour deal that runs from 4:30 to 6:30 Saturday night. Hopefully it will be an easy one from the steward's perspective compared to the Sebring 12 Hour. While there were no really big issues arising out of that one, the post-race tech took until 1:30 AM plus the 30 minutes of wait time after the posting of the results until the stewards were finally free to go. From the flag marshal meeting at 7:00 AM to early the next morning makes for a fairly long day!

At Long Beach, my plan is to be in Race Control for IndyCar's third race of the season under the guidance of the ex-ALMS Race Director - Beaux Barfield. So far he has had 2 really good races that have been exciting to watch and that have been pretty much run out on the track as opposed to being run in Race Control as happened too often in times past.

Also hoping to finally get to take a look at the Queen Mary anchored in sight of the track as well. Have never had the time to do so in the past but hopefully this year, I'll be able to take a couple of hours and take the tour.

Heading out at Oh Dark 30 Wednesday morning - should be an interesting week!!

[terrydale]

Holy Cow!!!

Gas prices are $4.35/gallon out here on the west coast!!!

[Trackside]

Terry can you bring some back with you please

3.79 liters = 1 US gallon

$1.31/L x 3.79 = 4.96 Cdn a US gallon

Maybe if you sneak some in your carryon baggage

[terrydale]

Originally Posted by Trackside

Maybe if you sneak some in your carryon baggage

No problem - I would expect to be out in 5 to 10 and will deliver it directly to your house!!!

The bad news is that they are calling for serious rain tomorrow. We are first on-track at 7:15 AM for 2 hours and back for qualifying from 5:05 to 6:20 PM.

Saturday is the start of a multi-day sunny and warm period!

[terrydale]

Started this morning's practice session at 7:15 AM in pouring rain. The drains under the concrete blocks plugged up so we had at least 6" of water in Turns 1 and 11 (the hairpin). It stopped raining about halfway through and all cars and drivers were able to get some track time in - although not at any great speed.

Qualifying this afternoon - first time at speed, should be interesting!!!

[terrydale]

Well, Red Flag halfway through the Qualifying session due to rain so today's starting grid is set by Championship points (from Sebring). I attended the 6:00 AM Flagger's Meeting this morning - lots of Canadians there! Now its sit and wait until this afternoon's race at 4:30PM!! Oh, joy.

[terrydale]

Well, we pulled off a pretty good race this afternoon. Full Course Yellow about halfway for a minor incident and then right through to the checker wit Greg Picket's #6 Muscle Milk P1 car winning overall!!

Tech cleared, no yelling or screaming and all is well!!

As you probably know, there were several IndyCars put back 10 spots by the rules because of an engine change. That has left a very interesting front row to start Sunday's race with newcomer Newgarden sitting beside Franchitti on the front row! Should be lots of fun to watch!!

[paule]

It is too bad for you that they moved the Spruce Goose to it's own museum from beside the Queen Mary as it was more interesting to visit that the ship.Six times the size of any aircraft of its time and built to take troops so as to avoid Uboats and entirely made of wood due to war restrictions on metal.
Designed and built by Howard Hughes.It flew once and then Hughes got in a snit with the military and he put the plane in a climate control warehouse for decades until after his death when it was located in a huge bubble building in Long Beach

[terrydale]

I agree. That is on my bucket list for sure!!

Next time I am in Seattle, it will move right up to the top of it but not sure if and when that will happen.

Last night was a thrash as everything ALMS had in the paddock had to be struck and taken away. That means cars, haulers, tech set-up - completely cleared out to make room for today's expected crowds. Late night for some.

Some of IMSA's trucks are moving down to Carmel where they will be left until we get there for the May 11-13 event at Laguna Seca. However, three of them will instead be headed over to Miller Motorsport Park near Salt Lake City where the GT3 Cup and Lites programs will be in two weeks April 27-29.

After Miller, its back to CTMP for the Victoria Day event May 18-20 with the GT3 Cup Canada Series and then I am off to Mt Tremblant the next weekend for the inaugural Formula Libre Series Event. Its going to be a busy year!!!

[inoverdrive]

Terry,
It's too bad we didn't get to see the race on TV

[Trackside]

SportsNet 1 carried it on tape delay Saturday night.

The broadcast was a bit jumbled because of switching issues with the ESPN and ESPN3 feeds. It started with the US broadcast crew then switched to the international crew.

It did include one driver interview who had some not nice words for the volunteers on the corners. The TV coverage was not conclusive to his complaints.

[terrydale]

All of the 2012 ALMS races are carried on ESPN3. ABC carries four of them:- Sebring, Mid Ohio, Baltimore and Petit LeMans. ESPN2 carries the rest. Thanx for looking for them.

I haven't seen the coverage. What was the issue raised, and by whom, regarding the corner volunteers?

[Trackside]

I do not remember the drivers name, but he was released from the pitlane on the start and promptly drove into a Lotus parked sideways on the track. Apparently the corners were still waving the green flags for the start of the race.

As I said the camera angles were inconclusive as to a yellow being displayed at all as he was approaching the incident, but he did feel that the people were idiots for releasing him into the mess and not warning him of it as he approached.

[terrydale]

OK, so the backgrounder to that is that his car was held in pit lane because he missed the 10 minute pit lane open period for the recon laps and was held there during the 2 pace laps. Once the green flag was displayed he was then released behind the field and encountered a clusterectromy in the 90 degree Turn 3 after the fountain. He was carrying extra speed as he came up to the turn on his own and didn't get a true sense of eveybody slowing for the above-named cluster coming onto it at the added speed that he carried. While I can't say whether the yellow was or was not out, everyone else managed to survive and continue(granted with some body damage). I do know that the call went out over the team radio net about the incident almost immediately as it happened which could have allowed the team to radio their driver about it - possibly. One of those first lap, first couple of corners incident with a driver who was last in line due to his team mismanaging the pit open program and wanting to blame anyone other than himself for it happening. Flags are information. The person who actually makes the difference is the one pushing the pedals and turning the steering wheel. And I say that as a race driver not as an official!

[Adam Lipcsey]

Sportsnet will carry the ALMS races, likely on delay, but same weekend coverage.

The LB race showed how irrelevant this genre has become. It was a race between two cars, that's all I can conclude. The Honda-Wirth-Pickett prototype and the Dyson #16. The rest was there to fill the field.

I was surprised to see the Level 5 cars as it was contrary to the pre-race discussions whether this "organization" is wound up by federal authorities. I guess registering the sponsor behind native indian rights works magic.