Race observations?

[drewdawg727]

Has anyone noticed that lately, the races have been pretty mellow and boring for the first half...but at the end they seem to gain some more action and craziness? Why do you think that is?

And, Macdaddy, please check your PM, thanks

[enemy-ace]

Initially I think a lot of guys are in fuel conservation mode and just play follow the leader. Once the pit windows open up you get a lot of strategies come into play; ie. short fueling to get track position. Then there is the yellow flag factor, that always shakes things up.

[Snrub]

So at Edmonton before the first pit stop we had:
PT pass Wilson, AJ
Bourdais pass Glock, Dominguez, Tag, Vasser
Tag pass CDM
Glock pass Dominguez
Philippe pass Wirdhiem
RHR pass R Sperafico and Wirdhiem
R Sperafico pass Wirdhiem
Wirdheim pass RHR
Bremer pass R Sperafico

I think there were a couple more, but I can't bother to figure them out. One might be tempted to suggest that most of those were at the very start, but that's not necessarly the case. Edmonton was a barn burner. The problem was that the coverage at the start was awfull and throughout the race not much better. Looking at the lap chart I surprised myself, I didn't realize how many passes there were. Gobs of action was going on while we watched Ranger sit in the pits. It was quiet obvious that the picture we saw was never at the right spot. I think a lot of people think that people like myself are big complainers, but I hope the above outline can set the record straight.

[Jordi]

This is the good things about having deleted the bloody pit windows - we now have different strategies, cars short-fueling to try to get an advantage...

[Cowboy]

Sit in the stands for a race, there is nothing boring about it. The race in Edmonton made you watch every car and not focus on just one. As Snrub pointed out, there was tons of passing. I am not sure what was shown on TV, but in the stands I sat on the edge of my seat for 2 whole hours, there was nothing boring about it.

[Omega99]

There was a great battle for about 12th place that developed after the first yellow and there were tons of passes and close racing that I think you folks at home missed. Turn 1 always had some action developing at it. Same for turns 11 and 12, I believe, but I couldn't see it too well from where I was.

[Electrocuted]

During the first half of the races, the timing chart along the top of the tv show the cars are spread out from 5 seconds up to 18 seconds between them. That's a "strung out parade" with a single car passing by every 5 to 18 seconds. Not much interesting to watch or to keep a channel surfer or an accidental tv viewer watching.

Throughout the race the teams make a few adjustments that help a little, the last pit stop made and they have plenty of fuel for the end, and a yellow comes out which bunch them up. Then they are a little closer on speed, they dont have to save fuel, they get a little more racey.