Ducati Monster Forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl6eRQbiwt0

from the guys who made this

http://www.whytheyride.com/

live timing and scoring, too:

http://scoring.indycar.com/2008/?site=ims

if i remember the times correctly from yesterday, ben is the first guy into the 43s.  [thumbsup]

 I showed up in Indy around 1 and stayed for 2.5 hours.  Here are a few pics I grabbed...


Elbowz!  Ben did the most laps (100) and was very fun to watch.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/2629568930_d86d1f545b_b.jpg)

Niccolo Canepa was faster on the Duc at the end of the day.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2629549544_ac87d1abd0_b.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3028/2629552446_d9a90873dd_b.jpg)

Olivier Jacque had some trouble with T2.  He ran very wide on several laps.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/2629563164_9d63c0e5f8_b.jpg)


I was also amazed at exactly how slow the T3/T4 chicane is.  It is crazy!  I'm sure it will be very interesting when a full grid of bikes are hurdling toward it on the first lap.

Did you never watch the F1 race? There is a reason why those turns were called "Mickey Mouse". Makes no difference which direction they are taken or what type of vehicle. #1 reason why I have hated that track since its birth. I don't watch racing to see the vehicles go slowly. I also did not work on race cars to have them go slowly. Even when I could not see them on track I hated slow turns. Rant over. I honestly hope all that attend the test and race have a fantastic time in every way. I'll be riding or drinking.

F1 isn't my bag, so no I never watched it.  I had heard from my buddies who went to the 06' race, that the chicane was particularly slow.  It was another thing completely to actually see the bikes trying to go around it.  The test riders looked visibly upset about it.

I may be reading your rant a little too literally, but if you are only interested in top speed racing, wouldn't NASCAR be more interesting for you?  I'm sure that racing series has some crazy high average lap speed compared to any bike racing.

You are reading too much into it. I never mentioned top speed. I am referring to corner speeds. I have no interest (never have) in seeing racing vehicles putz around at street speeds. I made living for many years working on Indycars. For me there were no worse tracks for those machines than street courses like Houston, Miami (not Homestead), Denver, and the like. Indy, for all the hoopla (and deep pockets) around the place is a sad excuse for a road course. No imagination was expended drawing it up.

As for your nascar suggestion, no thanks. I have about 3,863 better things to do with my time!  [laugh]

Haha... for the record I'll agree with you on the corner speed and Nascar topics  ;D

To bad for Olivier that is wasn't raining ;D

The F-1 racing and IMS was never that great - there was a big drag race to the first turn (granted, seeing them 4- or 5-wide was pretty hairy), but after that there was no place to pass.  The infield was really narrow, and the lack of corner speeds mentioned above made for some real snoozers.

I hope the bikes feel like they have more room to operate, and actually dice it up a little bit.  I'd like to see more than a parade around the track for 24 laps.

Man, Spies looks right at home on the GSV-R, doesn't he?? Should be interesting..  [popcorn]

Can't wait till I get my Indy tixs [popcorn]

Just flew in this afternoon and saw the track off the right-hand side on approach. Man, that banking is steep!

Missed this post, thanks to the OP for posting it.

It looks dangerous, at least from those camera angles.

mitt