Offical IRL/Champ car thread.

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Just thought with team Australia and Ryan Briscoe going so well, we might start following it abit more to support our fellow country men doing well over there.
Add Nascar in here when Ambrose goes over next year.

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Briscoe takes Pole for Ganassi
Infineon Raceway - Qualifying
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Coming good on the road courses

So far, it has been a perfect weekend for Target Chip Ganassi Racing at the hill side 2.26 mile, 12 turn natural-terrain Infineon Raceway as they prepare for Sunday's inaugural Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix.

After sitting atop the combined practice standings on Friday, rookie Ryan Briscoe put the no.33 Target Toyota Pioneer on pole after setting the fastest time in single lap qualifying, then topping it once again in the Firestone Fast Six shoot out with a speed of 108.248 mph (1:16.4913s) against Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Tomas Enge, Sam Hornish Jr. and Buddy Rice.

It is Briscoe's first career IndyCar pole and the first for the team since teammate Scott Dixon's 2003 IndyCar Championship winning season.

"This is fantastic," exclaimed Briscoe. "This is huge for the Target team. It's been a tough year and it's great to see the team's motivation up. The no.33 Target Toyota been working really well and I put in a good clean lap for the first qualifying session."

"We made a slight adjustment to the front wing of the car during the shootout and improved our time. I knew we could do better and I did. The Target team came into this weekend well prepared and when you've got a good car, it makes my job driving a lot easier. We're here with good equipment and competitive equipment. Most of the credit goes to the Target team. This is a hard working crew and a winning team. They've won championships and a whole lot of races on road and street courses. I'd like to add another one to that list. There won't be any room for errors in the race and I hope to put in a good show tomorrow."


var time=new Date();var ordval=(time.getTime());document.write(''); "Obviously we are very happy with Ryan's pole position,"</FONT> said Target team
owner Chip Ganassi who's team has won five championships and 45 races, 26 of which have come on road or street courses. "We needed that pole more than we needed oxygen at this time of season. It been a long and difficult season for this team and this certainly helps but we'll be looking for a race win tomorrow."

While Ganassi and Briscoe enjoy the highlight of their season to date, Helio Castroneves starts a strong second ahead of Tony Kanaan for Andretti Green. Tomas Enge is an impressive fourth on the grid for Panther racing ahead of Sam Hornish Jr with Buddy Rice sixth best for Rahal and Championship leader Dan Wheldon seventh fastest.

Dario Franchitti starts at the back of the field after losing the back end of his Andretti Green Dallara, spinning out in his one lap qualifying run.

Infineon Raceway : Qualifying results

1. (33) Ryan Briscoe, Panoz-Toyota, 108.248
2. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Toyota, 107.664
3. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 107.346
4. (2) Tomas Enge, Dallara-Chevrolet, 106.903
5. (6) Sam Hornish Jr., Dallara-Toyota, 106.669
6. (15) Buddy Rice, Panoz-Honda, 106.594
7. (26) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 106.454
8. (7) Bryan Herta, Dallara-Honda, 106.413
9. (9) Scott Dixon, Panoz-Toyota, 106.365
10. (51) Alex Barron, Dallara-Toyota, 106.334
11. (17) Vitor Meira, Panoz-Honda, 106.190
12. (83) Patrick Carpentier, Dallara-Toyota, 106.069
13. (10) Giorgio Pantano, Panoz-Toyota, 105.548
14. (4) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 105.126
15. (55) Kosuke Matsuura, Panoz-Honda, 104.945
16. (16) Danica Patrick, Panoz-Honda, 104.480
17. (14) Jeff Bucknum, Dallara-Chevrolet, 104.267
18. (24) Roger Yasukawa, Dallara-Honda, 103.718
19. (8) Scott Sharp, Panoz-Honda, 103.612
20. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Toyota, 100.543
21. (27) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, no speed

E.A.
Source Ganassi

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Results:

Kanaan races to first IndyCar road course victory
Infineon Raceway : Race
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Kanaan takes the win at Infineon

Tony Kanaan scored the IndyCar Series first ever road course win in the Argent Mortgage Grand Prix at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Kanaan beat Buddy Rice to the finish line by 1.18 seconds, with Alex Barron, Patrick Carpentier and Tomas Enge rounding out the top five.

Kanaan took the lead when Enge pitted on lap 46 and was never seriously challenged as he scored his second win of the season, while also moving into second position in the championship.

“Another perfect day for us,” said Michael Andretti, whose Andretti Green Racing team has now won nine of the fourteen IndyCar Series races this season. “From (son) Marco (Andretti) winning the Pro Series race to Tony driving a perfect race with great pit stops and great strategy.”

The drivers following Kanaan across the line was a diverse collection who utilized the break from a predominantly oval schedule to significantly mix up the results. Second place finisher Buddy Rice had his best result of the season and just his fourth lead lap finish.

“It's great to finally have a full-blown solid weekend,” said Rice, who was unable to defend his 2004 Indianapolis 500 victory due to injury and has finished outside the top ten in each event since scoring a third place at the April race at Twin Ring Motegi. “Needless to say, we have had some pretty bad luck this year. But, this is a good rebound for us and we are going to two big ovals (Chicagoland and California Speedway), and another road course (Watkins Glen). It has been a long season for the No. 15 crew so I hope I can turn things around for the rest of the year and finish up on a positive note.”

var time=new Date();var ordval=(time.getTime());document.write('');http://irl.logpub.chrono.fr/pub/tag_irl_news200/en/pvues/vide.gif?1125296617796 Behind Rice were the Red Bull Cheever Racing cars driven by Alex Barron and Patrick Carpentier.

Said Barron, “It was excellent. We had a great car all weekend. I could catch Buddy (Rice) and sustain it, but I wasn't able to be offensive. It's our first podium of the season, pretty positive for the team and we'll build upon it for the next race in Chicago.”

Fifth place finisher Tomas Enge looked like a potential race winner until he spun in turn three all by himself. He maintained the lead, but his seven plus second gap to Tony Kanaan would be gone.

Fuel strategy would later cost Enge track position and any chance to contend with the leaders. “We had a different fuel strategy. Unfortunately, we stopped once more than some of the other guys. The beginning of the race was just awesome for me.”

The race got off to a slow start as Hornish brought out the first caution of the race when he spun in turn seven. Eventually diagnosed as a clutch problem, Hornish would return to the track 24 laps down and finish in 17th.

Caution again flew when Ed Carpenter spun and stalled in turn eleven on lap 16. This would set-up the varied pit strategies as Bryan Herta, Scott Dixon, Giorgio Pantano, Tomas Scheckter, and Danica Patrick chose not to pit and moved to the front of the field.

Helio Castroneves was in sixth with early leader Ryan Briscoe in seventh, as they led the group of cars that had pitted.

This would set up the biggest incident of the day. Briscoe missed his braking point into turn seven, took an excursion through the grass, and then returned to the track into the side of Danica's car. She then caromed into Castroneves, resulting in all three drivers out of the race.

“We all wondered what Ryan was going to do in the race,” recalled Danica after the event. “Whether he was going to run away from us, whether he was going to drop back, or whether he was going to do something silly. Well, he did one of them.”

Castroneves, a serious contender for the win, agreed with Danica. “It was a bad move on Ryan's part. You know he had a great car, he was fast. Both of us were fast. Danica was trying, she noticed that we were really fast and she was trying to give us a way. I don't know what the heck he was thinking. He just decided to pass everybody in one corner and he ended up taking everybody out. It's just ridiculous. He's a good driver. He's fast, but there was no patience at all.”

Briscoe would take much of the blame later. “I just got on the brakes a bit late it looks like, had to go to the dirt, and once I got there, there was no stopping the car. I'm just really sorry, because we had a great car. It was really fast, and I'm just sorry for whoever else is out of the race.”

Completing the Ganassi Racing team's horrible luck would be Pantano who had contact with Vitor Meira with a two laps remaining as they ran side by side through turn one, with Pantano ending up in the gravel trap.

The Briscoe and Pantano incidents bring the total number of crashes to 26 for the Ganassi team in 2005.

Infineon Raceway : Final results

1. (3) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 80 laps
2. (6) Buddy Rice, Panoz-Honda, 80 laps
3. (10) Alex Barron, Dallara-Toyota, 80 laps
4. (12) Patrick Carpentier, Dallara-Toyota, 80 laps
5. (4) Tomas Enge, Dallara-Chevrolet, 80 laps
6. (15) Kosuke Matsuura, Panoz-Honda, 80 laps
7. (9) Scott Dixon, Panoz-Toyota, 80 laps
8. (21) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 80 laps
9. (11) Vitor Meira, Panoz-Honda, 80 laps
10. (17) Jeff Bucknum, Dallara-Chevrolet, 80 laps
11. (18) Roger Yasukawa, Dallara-Honda, 80 laps
12. (19) Scott Sharp, Panoz-Honda, 80 laps
13. (8) Bryan Herta, Dallara-Honda, 79 laps
14. (13) Giorgio Pantano, Panoz-Toyota, 78 laps (accident)
15. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Toyota, 77 laps
16. (14) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 57 laps (suspension)
17. (5) Sam Hornish Jr., Dallara-Toyota, 56 laps
18. (7) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 52 laps (fuel pump)
19. (1) Ryan Briscoe, Panoz-Toyota, 20 laps (accident)
20. (16) Danica Patrick, Panoz-Honda, 19 laps (accident)
21. (2) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Toyota, 19 laps (accident)

ORS / CAPSIS International

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CART raced at Montreal on Sunday, at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit.
Same track as F1 from what i read on another forum and Bourdais did a time of 1.19.987 while Friesacher in his Minardi did a time of 1.18.709 in the race.

Fastest lap in F1 is:
Rubens (2004) 1.13.622

Tracey was leading the race, but hit the wall after being too agressive with a back marker (sounds familiar) and Bourdais won again. Go Bourdais, Tracey is a wank!

News on Team Australia

Aussie Vineyards's Alex Tagliani completed his fourth top five and seventh top ten result of the 2005 Champ Car World Series by finishing fifth in his home town in today's Molson Indy Montreal today.

Tagliani started seventh and completed a consistent run throughout the race, holding off Cristiano da Matta at the finish fifth despite the fact his rival had more of the Cosworth "push-to-pass" time which allows drivers extra horsepower for short periods during the race.

The local star had impressed in the damp morning warm-up but suffered from a lack of straight line speed during the race - a problem Ford Cosworth engineers were investigating after the race.

Aussie rookie team-mate Marcus Marshall finished 16th today in his first visit to the home of the Canadian Formula One Grand Prix. Marshall actually shone bright during the morning warm-up when he was seventh fastest, but the damp weather disappeared by the time the race began.

Marshall's race was also hindered by a malfunctioning pit lane speed limiter - forcing the Aussie to monitor his speed manually using the rev counter on his steering wheel to ensure he did not get penalised for speeding in pit lane.

Team Australia will now set its sights on the final US round of the championship in Las Vegas on September 21-24 - the championship's second oval race of the season.

ALEX TAGLIANI - AUSSIE VINEYARDS LOLA #15 FINISH: 5th GAP: + 3.220 seconds "Overall I am pretty happy with the day, but we seemed to suffer a bit with a lack of straight line speed. Our engine is at the end of its lifespan and is due to come out of the car after this race. The Ford Cosworth guys do a great job and I am sure they will take a good look at see if we did have a problem. We had really trimmed the car out to maximise our speed on the long straights here, so we know it wasn't from having too much downforce on the car. Finishing 5th is a not a bad result and has helped us in the points. Our aim is to finish in the top five at the end of the year, that would be a fantastic result for a new team like us running the Lola for the first time. The Aussie Vineyards guys did great stops and I was able to save some of my push-to-pass time at the end to stay ahead of Cristiano (da Matta). Those guys had a little more than me at the end of the race, so it was pleasing to be able to stay ahead of them."

MARCUS MARSHALL - AUSSIE VINEYARDS LOLA #5 POSITION: 16th GAP: + 1 lap "The car was pretty good and I really enjoyed my race with Ronnie Bremer today. I lost a lot of time in the pits because my pit lane speed limiter wasn't working and I had to drive manually under the limit looking at the rev counter. I was trying to make certain I didn't break the pit lane speed limit and get penalised. Coming out of the pits from one of my stops was just incredible - I was pinched in on the outside lane and cars kept leaving their pit box right into my path. It got pretty hairy there at one stage. It was great to be seventh fastest in the rain during the warm-up, the Aussie Vineyards car was very good in the wet and I really enjoyed it out there. I actually could have gone quicker, but I kept getting held up in traffic. I was actually a little disappointed that it dried up for the race. We also tried a new brake combination with the car today which improved the car under braking."

DERRICK WALKER - CO-OWNER, TEAM AUSTRALIA "Throughout the entire weekend we learned a significant amount about the car and were consistently in the top six which is tough on your first run here with the Lola. The race we executed as best we could. The fuel mileage could have been a little better, however, I don't think it would have made a significant difference at the end of the day. Our pitstops were good with both cars and Tag and Marcus drove well to the plan and did a strong job. Tag was a bit unlucky with a lack of straightline speed and Marcus did quite well. It is awful hard to come through from the back and there were so few incidents today were he could pick up positions from other people's misfortune. Marcus did pretty good job in saving fuel in the second half of the race as well."

CRAIG GORE - CO-OWNER, TEAM AUSTRALIA "It was another great run from Tag today and with a bit of luck, we could have ended up on the podium. His consistent performances have been really impressive for the Aussie Vineyards team this year and with all the work that Derrick and the boys have done so far, there is no reason why we will not head down to the Gold Coast in a couple of races time with our sights firmly set on getting another podium. Tag is keen on grabbing a top five result in the championship and more results like this is certainly a step in the right direction. We have only a couple more races before the Lexmark Indy 300 and the strong form of Team Australia will really give everybody on the Gold Coast something to cheer for. The level of support for our team in Australia will be amazing and will really provide our sponsors and partners with an incredible amount of exposure."

That and they just set up and new team in the Atlantis series, which is a feeder into CART. Trying to get more aussie's over there, good on them.

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Just saw Briscoes crash on SBS World Sport, such a stupid mistake but he just went in way to fast and hit Danica Patrick.
Then she had the nerve to slack him out, If only I wasn't a mod :D bitting tounge so bad!