Indy 500 The greatest spectacle in racing
- Thread starter ATLskier
- Start date
quixotic
Active member
I don't watch racing on TV or follow it or anything, but back in 98 my family took a trip to go see it. It was pretty cool, and I saw a guy get run over in the pits right in front of me. It was fucking gnarly, blood every where. The race got put off for a long time while they carted him off the track and cleaned up huge puddles of blood. This was back before wearing a helmet in the pits was required, I'm pretty sure that they made that rule because of that accident.
F1 is kilometers better.
i.am.a.skier.
Active member
ill have to agree, my favorite though would have to be world rally racing, like on dirt roads its intense
Thenowhereman42
Active member
I like when they do the stock cars on the f1 tracks
ATLskier
Active member
f1 drivers have said that turn 1 at indy is the most harrowing turn in the entire racing world.
the f1 series used to include the indy 500 back in the day. (I am not confusing this with the US grand prix).
F1 is good, but the Indy Racing League is a far superior racing series. The cars go faster. There is a more diverse racing schedule (street courses, road courses, short ovals, long ovals, indy). In f1, the cars have so many driver aids. In the IRL the concentration is on the racing with each driver. F1 concentrates on the teams developing the cars, making it so only a few teams usually win.
if you watch it might seem repetitive. If you are there it is not. If you sit in the right places, there is always passing happening, many close calls, and crashes in turn 2 and 4. I sat at turn 1 and there was a crash with vitor meira and matos right in front of me. Miera hit the wall head on at 220 m/h. We were showered with ash and carbon. Even during the yellow flags, you can watch the action in the pits. It is a lot more interesting if you have a favorite driver or a bunch of favorites. You care about the race a lot more.
the f1 series used to include the indy 500 back in the day. (I am not confusing this with the US grand prix).
F1 is good, but the Indy Racing League is a far superior racing series. The cars go faster. There is a more diverse racing schedule (street courses, road courses, short ovals, long ovals, indy). In f1, the cars have so many driver aids. In the IRL the concentration is on the racing with each driver. F1 concentrates on the teams developing the cars, making it so only a few teams usually win.
if you watch it might seem repetitive. If you are there it is not. If you sit in the right places, there is always passing happening, many close calls, and crashes in turn 2 and 4. I sat at turn 1 and there was a crash with vitor meira and matos right in front of me. Miera hit the wall head on at 220 m/h. We were showered with ash and carbon. Even during the yellow flags, you can watch the action in the pits. It is a lot more interesting if you have a favorite driver or a bunch of favorites. You care about the race a lot more.
Hack.The.Pow.
Active member
ditto. i especially don't understand how you can stand out there in the burning sun for that long and watch something like that
Phill.
Active member
is the indy 500 still the greatest thing in racing? i mean for example tom brady was on the cover of the latest SI issue... the first time it wasnt the indy 500 winner... and his sport isnt even close to being in season....
i live in indiana and i still havent actually witnissed the indy 500... ive been to the trials but not the actual thing...
i live in indiana and i still havent actually witnissed the indy 500... ive been to the trials but not the actual thing...
steezemeister
Active member
yes
i really don't see the point in Nascar. (Left. Straight. Left. Straight. Left. Straight. Left.)x500=Suckfest
i really don't see the point in Nascar. (Left. Straight. Left. Straight. Left. Straight. Left.)x500=Suckfest
ONTerriible
Active member
but would you call Sam Hornish jr, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier, AJ Allmendinger, and Scott Speed all rednecks. all of them transferred from various open wheeled auto racing leagues to nascar because in my opinion the racing is better
MidWestGaper
Member
i would say 24 hours of le mans in france is better because they have sicker cars and the race is really hard core. has anyone else ever heard of this race?
Santa-Cruz
Active member
i dont get nascar its just people going in a big left turn the entire time
lukasdudd
Member
Le Mans is prolly the most intense race in the world and the Le Mans Series is clearly the best racing in the world followed by F1 and Moto GP since they share many of the same tracks. I challenge any NASCAR driver to finish in the top 20 at Le Mans. And NASCAR is about as redneck as possible and Indy isn't very redneck... Andretti Green Racing is about as not redneck as you can get.
I have a high degree if respect for the drivers of oval racing, because it really is demanding physically and mentally and takes a great deal of skill.
I personally cannot get into watching oval racing as I do not find it entertaining in the least. Road course racing or rally is where it's at.
I personally cannot get into watching oval racing as I do not find it entertaining in the least. Road course racing or rally is where it's at.
wskibum176
Active member
might i suggest adding Baja racing in trophy trucks to this list. over 100 mph on very bumpy and diverse roads, turns, jumps, etc is VERY entertaining and exceptionally hard to do.
ATLskier
Active member
Wow You're fucking retarded. I know youre saying nascar. But everyone in this thread thinks that indy is nascar. It is not. A.J. Foyt, who spent most of his time with indy, won le mans, indy, and the daytona 500, amoung pretty much everything else. He won indy 4 times.
andretti green redneck, at least in indy, although I dont like andretti green all that much, danica, hideki mutou, marco andretti and tony kanaan are not even close to rednecks. 1 is from japan, another is from brazil. not even close.
To the girl supporting indy. You didnt get owned. All of those drivers switched to nascar to get more money, even though the irl is far superior. nascar only goes to 180, and it isnt open wheel. In indy you touch another car they can fly into the walls at 220 m/h. I saw it happen right infront of me. In nascar, they can hit each other with less consequences.
Also, tony stewart and dario francitti came from indy to nascar (although francitti is back now that target chip ganassi offered him a spot).
As for oval racing vs road races. I love road racing too, but there isnt much passing. In ovals, the races are a lot more exciting and its a lot closer. Most of my favorite drivers are better at road courses than ovals. lack of road courses is also what makes nascar suck a lot more (1 or 2 doesnt cut it)
andretti green redneck, at least in indy, although I dont like andretti green all that much, danica, hideki mutou, marco andretti and tony kanaan are not even close to rednecks. 1 is from japan, another is from brazil. not even close.
To the girl supporting indy. You didnt get owned. All of those drivers switched to nascar to get more money, even though the irl is far superior. nascar only goes to 180, and it isnt open wheel. In indy you touch another car they can fly into the walls at 220 m/h. I saw it happen right infront of me. In nascar, they can hit each other with less consequences.
Also, tony stewart and dario francitti came from indy to nascar (although francitti is back now that target chip ganassi offered him a spot).
As for oval racing vs road races. I love road racing too, but there isnt much passing. In ovals, the races are a lot more exciting and its a lot closer. Most of my favorite drivers are better at road courses than ovals. lack of road courses is also what makes nascar suck a lot more (1 or 2 doesnt cut it)
ATLskier
Active member
yeah, I sat at turn 1.
Yeah, I was going for rahal. exact same thing. I went last year too. Poor ryan hunter reay. I didnt expect a whole lot, but it sucks he was out early. I was happy will power did well, unhappy he had a bad pit stop cause he could have at least replaced danica at third and maybe have won. Paul tracy was doing well until kanaan's crash messed up his car. I saw vitors crash right in front of me. It was scary. vitor is one of my favorites.
Yeah, I was going for rahal. exact same thing. I went last year too. Poor ryan hunter reay. I didnt expect a whole lot, but it sucks he was out early. I was happy will power did well, unhappy he had a bad pit stop cause he could have at least replaced danica at third and maybe have won. Paul tracy was doing well until kanaan's crash messed up his car. I saw vitors crash right in front of me. It was scary. vitor is one of my favorites.
fujarome
Active member
atl-i think he meant to pluck up some random driver and put them in Le Mans, not a driver who previously won le mans switching to NASCAR
I gotta have respect for all the racing drivers because it is pretty damn intense. Sure some of the nascar drivers are a bit....redneck? But it's really the fans that give nascar that label. Most of the drivers aren't too bad, but the majority of the fans seem to be
I gotta have respect for all the racing drivers because it is pretty damn intense. Sure some of the nascar drivers are a bit....redneck? But it's really the fans that give nascar that label. Most of the drivers aren't too bad, but the majority of the fans seem to be
BravoWhiskey5280
Active member
on the other hand top-fuel drag racing is cool for like one run. then its just annoying loud as fuck after that
i have a huge respect for oval racing, even for NASCAR drivers, it may be boring to watch on tv, but yeah in real life its pretty damn intense. it being an oval with 4 turns does make it much much easier to learn the track, but all that means is people can push harder and harder and do the corners extremely well. plus there is so much strategy with drafting and everything.
BUT, i still respect road racing more, its just takes more overall driver skill, there is much much more hard braking, downshifting, passing under braking, so many more lines, and still plenty of drafting.the indy 500 is up there, but definatly not the greatest spectacle in racing.
anybody who sees a big race for their first time is going to think its the best thing in the world, all that power and speed and intensity blows your mind, go to a local track and watch a little scca or nasa event, and you will have an extremely fun time.
IMO the 24 hours of nurburgring is the "greatest". a 20 corner race track is usually pretty high up there in size, most tracks vary by about 10 or so, the difference in size between a 10 corner track and a 20 corner track is pretty huge, its takes much longer to learn the 20 corners and 10 corners isnt exactly small to begin with. the nurburgring has 73. it takes a good racing driver 50 or 60 laps to learn the corners. twice that to lean the line, and hundreds of laps to be any good at it, and you will still be making mistake after mistake each lap. in a good day of practice you might get 10 laps or less in. plus there is an insane amount of elevation change in every part of the track, you dont realize it in video's or video games, but some of those hills are crazy steep. elevation change can make what would be the easiest corners, extremely hard, IMO its the most challenging part to any race track.i talked to a guy who races the 24 hours or nurburgring, he's done 10 or so races there, and over 100 endurance races. and he told me all about it, he said one of the scariest parts is racing at night when people have campfires, first of all its night and your constantly doing well over 100, but you will be coming around already blind corers into slower traffic, go through campfire smoke making most of the corner completely blind, you have to trust that you remember every little detail of that 1 out of 73 corner right when you come into it at 140+. it takes an insane amount of skill, smoothness, and consistancy to do even an easy 12 hour endurance, a 24 hour race on the ring is just crazy. he had a good friend die just because he got his corners mixed up, he went into a corner about twice as fast as he should have, and there being no runoff, smacked into the wall at 140. about 80 drivers and bikers die there per YEAR!
BUT, i still respect road racing more, its just takes more overall driver skill, there is much much more hard braking, downshifting, passing under braking, so many more lines, and still plenty of drafting.the indy 500 is up there, but definatly not the greatest spectacle in racing.
anybody who sees a big race for their first time is going to think its the best thing in the world, all that power and speed and intensity blows your mind, go to a local track and watch a little scca or nasa event, and you will have an extremely fun time.
IMO the 24 hours of nurburgring is the "greatest". a 20 corner race track is usually pretty high up there in size, most tracks vary by about 10 or so, the difference in size between a 10 corner track and a 20 corner track is pretty huge, its takes much longer to learn the 20 corners and 10 corners isnt exactly small to begin with. the nurburgring has 73. it takes a good racing driver 50 or 60 laps to learn the corners. twice that to lean the line, and hundreds of laps to be any good at it, and you will still be making mistake after mistake each lap. in a good day of practice you might get 10 laps or less in. plus there is an insane amount of elevation change in every part of the track, you dont realize it in video's or video games, but some of those hills are crazy steep. elevation change can make what would be the easiest corners, extremely hard, IMO its the most challenging part to any race track.i talked to a guy who races the 24 hours or nurburgring, he's done 10 or so races there, and over 100 endurance races. and he told me all about it, he said one of the scariest parts is racing at night when people have campfires, first of all its night and your constantly doing well over 100, but you will be coming around already blind corers into slower traffic, go through campfire smoke making most of the corner completely blind, you have to trust that you remember every little detail of that 1 out of 73 corner right when you come into it at 140+. it takes an insane amount of skill, smoothness, and consistancy to do even an easy 12 hour endurance, a 24 hour race on the ring is just crazy. he had a good friend die just because he got his corners mixed up, he went into a corner about twice as fast as he should have, and there being no runoff, smacked into the wall at 140. about 80 drivers and bikers die there per YEAR!
fragglemuffin
Active member
i prefer 24 hours at le mans
andrewmeehan
Member
Danica Patrick ruined Indy racing
C-Burg
Active member
The problem with Indy Cars is that they dont have enough downforce right now because of the aero package dallara has. It isnt a matter of going fast or not. After the 500 this year I was talking with Dan Wheldon's sponsor and he said that with not enough downforce the cars cant stay side by side in the turns they have to lift and you can pass you can only really get kind of close to the car in front of you. That is why the 500 this year was boring because the only passing that happened was on restarts and pit stops
ogfeez
Active member
"To dumb for opera, but too smart for Nascar"yeah they sell those shirts at Le Mans Series Races
BTW I was at Indy (2nd year). J Bleachers (turn 4) the wrecks were the shit. Got to see my boy Helio take it, but wished I got to see Danika blow up on Briscoe again, hahahahahaha
BTW I was at Indy (2nd year). J Bleachers (turn 4) the wrecks were the shit. Got to see my boy Helio take it, but wished I got to see Danika blow up on Briscoe again, hahahahahaha
