Posted by Howard Kveck on September 14, 2008, 11:28 pm
I've never seen a race conducted under such horrible weather conditions as
this.
Wow. It wasn't just the rain - there were leaves and trash blowing all over the
place. I hope this is an anomaly for this year. I think it was a good call to
end it
when they did.
As for the race, it was pretty damn good. Rossi worked on Hayden for a long
time,
made some moves and got repassed but eventually made it stick. It did look like
Hayden had a good speed advantage at the end of the front straight but Rossi got
next
to him going up the straight and dove in past him for the lead. Then he sort of
eased
away. Anyway, Hayden rode the best race I've seen him do in a long time.
Dovisioso
looked pretty tough too. It was nice to see him lead a few of the early laps.
Spies
rode a great race to hang with Stoner and Dovi. He looked very good out there. I
hope
people who matter take note of that. That was the first time Lorenzo ever
finished on
the podium in a wet race in his entire career.
I wasn't super impressed with the coverage but it wasn't the worst I've seen.
The
course looked pretty decent, though, particularly for an infield thing (which
usually
suck).
--
tanx,
Howard
I'll take the case!
remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?
Posted by Mark N on September 15, 2008, 8:11 am
Howard Kveck wrote:
> I've never seen a race conducted under such horrible weather conditions as
this.
> Wow. It wasn't just the rain - there were leaves and trash blowing all over the
> place. I hope this is an anomaly for this year. I think it was a good call to
end it
> when they did.
The wind was blowing VERY hard from where I sat, at the top of the
turn four (oval) stands, but I didn't see anything get on the track
there and I don't know how hard ot was blowing at track level, and it
wasn't raining hard, although it started to drizzle over the last six
or so before they called it. It was definitely getting dark in that
midwestern storm kind of way.
What I didn't agree with was calling the 250 race so quickly. It
wassupposed to go off at 4:15 and the weather was much better by 4:30,
much brighter, no more rain, wind reduced to a breeze. Hate to put it
in those terms, but the (old) AMA would've gotten it in. The called it
pretty quickly, because I couls see the cornerworkers packing it in
long before they announced it.
> As for the race, it was pretty damn good. Rossi worked on Hayden for a long
time,
> made some moves and got repassed but eventually made it stick. It did look like
> Hayden had a good speed advantage at the end of the front straight but Rossi
got next
> to him going up the straight and dove in past him for the lead.
Rossi's pass for the lead was at the end of the infield straight, not
the front straight. Nick hung for quitw a while after that, but then
you could see he just wasn't getting any grip on the left side, he
just wasn't driving off the corners as hard. The track was very mixed
most of the race, some spots with standing or running water but a lot
of it damp but not really wet, it hadn't really rained in some time.
It seemed likely that tire wear would be impacted, and Nick's soft
choice bit him in the end. But Rossi was pretty clearly the fastest
guy on thw track, although it took him some time to get by both
Lorenzo and Hayden.
Posted by Carl Sundquist on September 15, 2008, 12:45 pm
> Howard Kveck wrote:
>> I've never seen a race conducted under such horrible weather conditions
>> as this.
>> Wow. It wasn't just the rain - there were leaves and trash blowing all
>> over the
>> place. I hope this is an anomaly for this year. I think it was a good
>> call to end it
>> when they did.
> The wind was blowing VERY hard from where I sat, at the top of the
> turn four (oval) stands, but I didn't see anything get on the track
> there and I don't know how hard ot was blowing at track level, and it
> wasn't raining hard, although it started to drizzle over the last six
> or so before they called it. It was definitely getting dark in that
> midwestern storm kind of way.
This was not a midwestern storn. A midwestern storm would have blown over in
about 15 minutes.
I was watching the weather radar all morning and during the race. You could
see the storm was moving very quickly.
NWS wind info:
Noon: 22 mph out of the south with gusts to 31
1 pm: 16 mph SE gusts to 31
2 pm: 22 S / gusts 28
3pm: 25 SW / gusts 41
4pm: 33 NW / gusts 59
5pm: 26 W / gusts 37
About 70 miles south of Indy there was a wind speed recorded at 81
> What I didn't agree with was calling the 250 race so quickly. It
> wassupposed to go off at 4:15 and the weather was much better by 4:30,
> much brighter, no more rain, wind reduced to a breeze. Hate to put it
> in those terms, but the (old) AMA would've gotten it in. The called it
> pretty quickly, because I couls see the cornerworkers packing it in
> long before they announced it.
I suspect that a big part of the reason that they cancelled the 250 race was
because they missed their live TV broadcast window.
>> As for the race, it was pretty damn good. Rossi worked on Hayden for a
>> long time,
>> made some moves and got repassed but eventually made it stick. It did
>> look like
>> Hayden had a good speed advantage at the end of the front straight but
>> Rossi got next
>> to him going up the straight and dove in past him for the lead.
> Rossi's pass for the lead was at the end of the infield straight, not
> the front straight. Nick hung for quitw a while after that, but then
> you could see he just wasn't getting any grip on the left side, he
> just wasn't driving off the corners as hard. The track was very mixed
> most of the race, some spots with standing or running water but a lot
> of it damp but not really wet, it hadn't really rained in some time.
> It seemed likely that tire wear would be impacted, and Nick's soft
> choice bit him in the end. But Rossi was pretty clearly the fastest
> guy on thw track, although it took him some time to get by both
> Lorenzo and Hayden.
Posted by Mark N on September 15, 2008, 2:47 pm
Carl Sundquist wrote:
> "Mark N" wrote
> > It was definitely getting dark in that
> > midwestern storm kind of way.
> This was not a midwestern storn.
Didn't say it was.
A midwestern storm would have blown over in
> about 15 minutes.
> I was watching the weather radar all morning and during the race. You could
> see the storm was moving very quickly.
Exactly. Particular conditions didn't hang around very long all day -
the classic "don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes and it'll change"
thing - very much unlike Friday, which was more typical weather.
> > What I didn't agree with was calling the 250 race so quickly. It
> > wassupposed to go off at 4:15 and the weather was much better by 4:30,
> > much brighter, no more rain, wind reduced to a breeze. Hate to put it
> > in those terms, but the (old) AMA would've gotten it in. Theycalled it
> > pretty quickly, because I couls see the cornerworkers packing it in
> > long before they announced it.
> I suspect that a big part of the reason that they cancelled the 250 race was
> because they missed their live TV broadcast window.
I think the real reason was that they called the MotoGP race without
a restart, due to conditions (and probably the refusal of certain key
individuals to go out again), and could hardly send the 250s out then.
Remember that rescheduling the 250 race already put it out of its
window.
Posted by Mark N on September 15, 2008, 2:54 pm
Carl Sundquist wrote:
> "Mark N" wrote
> > It was definitely getting dark in that
> > midwestern storm kind of way.
> This was not a midwestern storn.
Didn't say it was.
A midwestern storm would have blown over in
> about 15 minutes.
> I was watching the weather radar all morning and during the race. You could
> see the storm was moving very quickly.
Exactly. Particular conditions didn't hang around very long all day -
the classic "don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes and it'll change"
thing - very much unlike Friday, which was more typical weather.
> > What I didn't agree with was calling the 250 race so quickly. It
> > wassupposed to go off at 4:15 and the weather was much better by 4:30,
> > much brighter, no more rain, wind reduced to a breeze. Hate to put it
> > in those terms, but the (old) AMA would've gotten it in. Theycalled it
> > pretty quickly, because I couls see the cornerworkers packing it in
> > long before they announced it.
> I suspect that a big part of the reason that they cancelled the 250 race was
> because they missed their live TV broadcast window.
I think the real reason was that they called the MotoGP race without
a restart, due to conditions (and probably the refusal of certain key
individuals to go out again), and could hardly send the 250s out then.
Remember that rescheduling the 250 race already put it out of its
window.
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