Long Beach

[terrydale]

The Long Beach weekend is coming up next week. IndyCar, a 35 car ALMS Race, Indy Lights, SCA'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!!

[oblio125]

While the reviews from some corners have been mixed, I thought both of the first
two races were pretty good. Beaux seems to have been able to calm the herd down
a bit. They've done away with the first corner pile ups and gone pretty much
incident free for the length of the race ( there was a single car tire wall stuff at
St Pete) The new cars, while being a little wide in the hip, are no where near as
ugly as the new F1's. So on to Long Beach, fingers crossed on final corner, hairpin
thingy. Watch for Kermit to keep showing them how it's done!

[terrydale]

Beaux has an almost whole new group in Race Control to back him up including Ari Luyendyk and Johnny Unser to watch for on-track activity. He also added a couple of stewards which is something he grew into, and became comfortable with, in ALMS. The stewards act as a safety net and can offer opinions or do incident reviews while the race in underway instead of the Race Director having to try to keep an eye on the race plus deal with the hundred plus other issues that come up. At the end of the day, the Race Director makes the final call and is totally responsible for it but he now arrives at that decision after having had the benefit of some valuable input and discussion first. That is 180 degrees different from the previous IndyCar Race Director who did it all with minimal or no input. That plan is simply doomed to failure as there is just too much going on to be aware and on top of it all plus making well-informed calls under the pressure and time constraints of a schedule and TV.

That change alone - plus the hundreds of rule changes Beaux has made to better define the rules and the ramifications of not following them - are in and of themselves huge leaps forwards. The driver reaction has been very receptive as they now know exactly what they are being judged on and what happens if they fall outside the bounds.

[gkierst]

I really enjoyed the second Indycar race, with far more passing than I expected in that one. I'm amazed how clean they've been in both the races so far. Night and day difference to recent years. It should be a great season.

Greg

[terrydale]

Ok, I got off the plane at LAX an hour ago and it was raining. What's up with that???

Apparently they are calling for rain Friday (ALMS Qualifying at 5:05 - 6:20PM) and possibly none on Saturday (2 hour race starts at 4:30PM). Fingers are crossed!

Have booked into the Crown Plaza in San Pedro and am off to do some sight-seeing.

Over to the track tomorrow.

[terrydale]

Holy Cow!!

Gas prices are at $4.35/gallon out here on the Left Coast!!!

The paddock is really jam-packed here. Not much room to move around!!! ALMS is on the outside which is sort of good because otherwise you're trapped until the end of the day if you want to get out.

Team Manager meeting this afternoon at 4:30 PM and then we are first on track tomorrow at 7:15 AM for a 2 hour practice.

[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, it is rainin', thunderin' and lightninin' like crazy out here this afternoon. No body has elected to take to the track for the last couple of hours. Three more hours till we head out for Qualifying - maybe!!!

[terrydale]

Well, Red Flag halfway through the Qualifying session due to rain so today's starting grid is set by the Team Championship points (from Sebring). I attended the 6:00 AM Flagger's Meeting - 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 ALMS race this afternoon. Full Course Yellow at about halfway for a minor incident and then right through to the checker with 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!!

[terrydale]

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!!!