Round 6: The 101st Indianapolis 500, 15th-28th May.

[fergus_r]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Yeah lol. We miss a pass for the lead and they come back to the race and pretend it wasn't a major deal.

Well, at that stage of the race it wasn't a major deal. Indy is won or lost in the last 10 laps.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by fergus_r

Well, at that stage of the race it wasn't a major deal. Indy is won or lost in the last 10 laps.

If we looked at it like that then they might as well not show the first 190 lol. They did their best to miss most things. At one point during the red they had side by side (of a red flag), but when we were green they several times went to full screen ads. That's spectacularly bad direcring/editing/planning. American TV is actively hostile to the viewer.

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by fergus_r

Well, at that stage of the race it wasn't a major deal. Indy is won or lost in the last 10 laps.

Yes the "level the playing field" BS that's contagious in racing is doing it in. 'Becoming like watching basketball. Why bother with the first 95% when it's the last 5 that matters.

[gert]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

If we looked at it like that then they might as well not show the first 190 lol. They did their best to miss most things. At one point during the red they had side by side (of a red flag), but when we were green they several times went to full screen ads. That's spectacularly bad direcring/editing/planning. American TV is actively hostile to the viewer.

Problem is - I think - that all American TV stations are doing it that way and people get used to it, because no one is doing a better job - or would do a better job.

Over here in Belgium, I get mad when an event I follow is uninterrupted by commercials on one of our commercial stations. Luckily we still have some public channels that never interrupt anything (just some 'anouncements' between programs)

It still annoys me when the commercial channels interrupt a movie, but I notice that most have stopped bothering about it. At least, the movie goes on from the point were it stopped, where in racing you missed 3 or 4 laps.


Funny thing how a football match never gets interrupted for commercials.

[fergus_r]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

If we looked at it like that then they might as well not show the first 190 lol. They did their best to miss most things. At one point during the red they had side by side (of a red flag), but when we were green they several times went to full screen ads. That's spectacularly bad direcring/editing/planning. American TV is actively hostile to the viewer.

Not saying they shouldn't show it- it's just the nature of the racing, same thing with the Daytona 500 for example. It all comes down to the last few laps.

I agree about American TV, and it seemed BT Sport were trying their best to impersonate it with their ad breaks too.

[ebber]

Hi All, my 1st live indy 500, great race and my father was having palpatations with the driving antics, agree with: And on a local note, and in contrast to the race, what utterly dreadful TV coverage by BT Sport, missed the start of the race when bt sport went into "waffle" mode, but still worth the wait. all the best T

[Adam43]

BT Sport added no value. Suzi seemed like she was bored and that brought out nothing from Mike and, er, the other person.

They had an opportunity to grab some new viewers there. I suspect they failed. I am a previous regular Indycar viewer from the Eurosport days and they failed to get me to want to tune in for Detroit. Their advertisers will be annoyed, I went out and bought a Husqvarna lawn mower back in the nineties and Eurosport couldn't even be bother to put it on when they advertised back then.

[S griffin]

Shame for Fred, but well done Takuma. Proves he can win it, despite his presumed over the limit style

[Paradise City]

Perry is a presenter who can stand in front of a microphone and introduce something. Anything that demands more creativity - such as a roundtable discussion - she's at a loss.

I presume the BT Sport adverts were an attempt to cash in on the Alonso factor thinking they can take their Alonsomaniac viewers for granted. Still given the sheer anarchy ABC was up to on the commercial front, I won't complain too much.

[Nikki Katz]

What was up with bt sport today? Their coverage is usually better than the us commentators. Now there's adverts during the racing and some fairly uninformed commentary? Hope they get the usual lot back for next week. Anyway, congratulations to sato, glad Dixon's ok

[bjohnsonsmith]

Result:

Maiden were excellent as ever but it sounds like I missed the rest of a very good race. I'll have to catch up on IndyCar's YouTube channel.

Congrats to Sato, he can put 2012 behind him and commiserations to Alonso. Clark didn't win it first time out, so hopefully Alonso's back next year.

Of what I did see, I thought BT Sport's coverage was dreadful. Usually it's very good, especially when they get David Hobbs on board.

1 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 3h13m03.3584s
2 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 0.2011s
3 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 0.5278s
4 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1.1365s
5 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1.6472s
6 Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1.7154s
7 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 2.4222s
8 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 2.5410s
9 Gabby Chaves, Harding Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 3.8311s
10 Carlos Munoz, A.J. Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 4.5319s
11 Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 4.6228s
12 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 5.0310s
13 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 5.6993s
14 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 6.0513s
15 Sebastian Saavedra, Juncos Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 12.6668s
16 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 33.2191s
17 Pippa Mann, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1 Lap
18 Spencer Pigot, Juncos Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 6 Laps
19 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 14 Laps
20 James Davison, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. Contact
21 Oriol Servia, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. Contact
22 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. Contact
23 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. Contact
24 Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda-Andretti. Dallara/Honda. Mechanical
25 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. Mechanical
26 Zach Veach, A.J. Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. Mechanical
27 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. Mechanical
28 Sage Karam, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. Mechanical
29 Buddy Lazier, Lazier Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. Contact
30 Conor Daly, A.J. Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. Contact
31 Jack Harvey, Michael Shank Racing. Dallara/Honda. Contact
32 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. Contact
33 Jay Howard, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. Contact
- Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. Withdrawn

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

it sounds like I missed the rest of a very good race. I'll have to catch up on IndyCar's YouTube channel.

Not really. The usual (of recent), leveled playing field coin toss.

I had fun calling the Honda kablammos,; 'specially Alonso's. Nothing against him but'weiry of the hype and the rants by both sides claiming he would/wouldn't win. I knew all along he'd get it done but not dominate. 'Too bad about the blowup but he still wouldn't have won, I don't think. He's a great driver but so are many others and the one make, two engine crap, just turns the 500 into more luck than skill by the top teams and drivers. Thus my term coin toss.

[Adam43]

Well yes, that's all obvious. It's Indycar. Even the relative performance of the engines was exactly as expected, with one quicker for the ovals, but potential to grenade.

I still enjoyed it.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by jimclark

Not really. The usual (of recent), leveled playing field coin toss.

I had fun calling the Honda kablammos,; 'specially Alonso's. Nothing against him but'weiry of the hype and the rants by both sides claiming he would/wouldn't win. I knew all along he'd get it done but not dominate. 'Too bad about the blowup but he still wouldn't have won, I don't think. He's a great driver but so are many others and the one make, two engine crap, just turns the 500 into more luck than skill by the top teams and drivers. Thus my term coin toss.

I haven't seen all of it yet, so I will reserve my judgement until I do.

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I haven't seen all of it yet, so I will reserve my judgement until I do.

Absolutely. As you should.

[fieldodreams79]

The recent package is what it is: a bit of pack racing and strategy. It's the same for everyone and that's not great but it is what it is.

Andretti were the best all day and Taku kept it clean, stayed up front and out of trouble, didn't cause trouble and made some bonkers passes at the most bonkers of places to race on earth (along with THE ring and THE Isle).

If you can't enjoy the actual racing that happened today, stop watching.

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

The recent package is what it is: a bit of pack racing and strategy. It's the same for everyone and that's not great but it is what it is.
If you can't enjoy the actual racing that happened today, stop watching.

'Appreciate the suggestion, but no thanks. I catch a little IndyCar here and there but don't prefer it. The 500 I'll always watch ('til they go remote or virtual) as it was what got me into racing when I first saw it when I was five or 6 years old, 60ish years ago.
Because you can handle high speed "showroom stock" (in essence, 'what it is. think about it; actually less so...you only have two choices) racing as what pro-racing should be doesn't mean I'm not allowed my opinion.

[Peat]

What's more galling about the BT production is that it's history repeating. The first year they had it, they tried to make a studio production out of it and there was a backlash from the viewers (albeit, there are only about 7 of us) as it was equally as dreadful. Uninformed, inane chatter and totally neglecting to show off what makes Indy the event it is. The traditions, the pageantry etc.

It's a sad old world when you pay through the teeth for coverage, then you have to resort to finding a hooky online stream because the one you paid for is rubbish.

[Paradise City]

It was a fine race. And it certainly was a race. It took effort to pass and positions were hard to win. And if you don't think that was racing, then I just don't know what will satisfy you.

[Gingers4Justice]

Almost every person watching the Indy 500 for the first time said they loved it. I watched it with a mate who's a casual F1 fan, and he was blown away. Seems it's only the seasoned fans who immediately want to jump in and say how much better the old days were. Can't you just wait until the excitement's died down a bit before doing that?

Happens on every spectator banking, grandstand, corner of the internet and social media platform in every single discipline of the sport. A great race or event is followed by fans saying they didn't enjoy it because it wasn't like how it was 20, 30, 40 years ago.

In the past two to three years, I've seen some truly spectacular motorsport moments both live and on screen. Last year's Indy and Le Mans 24 hours between them were two all-time jaw-dropping racing moments, there was a literal photo finish at the Daytona 24 hours last year, there are two drivers in different machines fighting for the world Championship in F1, Bernie's gone, drivers like Hulkenberg and Alonso are re-starting the magic of drivers switching disciplines - I could go on.

Sometimes wish the moaners would clear off and watch historic racing instead. Although, to be fair, I've heard it's not as good as it used to be...

[Aysedasi]

Very well said........

[Peat]

In my haste to spit bile at BT, I negated to say:

Great race. Always my favorite. Only 11 months until practice starts for the 102nd!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Peat

In my haste to spit bile at BT, I negated to say:

Great race. Always my favorite. Only 11 months until practice starts for the 102nd!

And with the universal body kit.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

And with the universal body kit.

And hopefully a full time Fernando. In my dreams.

[EERO]

It was a fitting cap to the High Holy Days of Racing. I enjoyed it thoroughly, was hoping 'Nando would pull it off. He was gracious about the engine failure. I think Sato was a popular and deserving winner. He's well liked and drives with passion. His was a well-run race. He kept his nose clean and worked his way to a serious of ballsy passes. I was glad to see him win.