Chevy still way behind

[oldtimer]

Apparently having a Chevy only helps if you know how to drive. Rice has a way to go on the learning curve.

Sam can compete with an engine that is still weak, but Ky will tell if the others can. Forget Rice.

Also forget Eddie. He won't be back driving a still-weak engine.

[IndyIRLman]

Re: Chevy still way behind

Originally posted by oldtimer
Apparently having a Chevy only helps if you know how to drive. Rice has a way to go on the learning curve.

Sam can compete with an engine that is still weak, but Ky will tell if the others can. Forget Rice.

Also forget Eddie. He won't be back driving a still-weak engine.

I see. Buddy Rice doesn't know how to drive huh? Maybe they missed the set-up or had other issues.

[oldtimer]

Hornish got beat narrowly last week. Rice got trounced, lapped, zipped. Wait till you see the fiasco next week at Ky. Chevy will be in hiding for the rest of the season.

No wonder Sam is discouraged with the IRL.

[Esquire59]

I disagree. Cheever and Rice have both commented on how greatly the power has increased. Eddie was just interviewed on why Rice is 5 laps down...very, very poor handling car. As Cheever said, you can have the best engine in the world but an ill-handling car goes nowhere.

[mec]

Originally posted by oldtimer

[oldtimer]

Re: Re: Chevy still way behind

Originally posted by IndyIRLman


I see. Buddy Rice doesn't know how to drive huh? Maybe they missed the set-up or had other issues.

Sam is anyone's definition of a driver. I don't know what Rice is, but he is no Sam Hornish. Maybe a Stan Laurel look-alike.

Sam, we're gonna miss you. Buddy,......uh.......we'll see you next year and the year after, and the year after......

Chevy IV made Sam look fair, Rice look pitiful.

Like I say, wait till Ky next week. There are going to be a bunch of Chevy drivers, not named Hornish, who are going to be badly disappointed.

[Truth Detector]

PPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.......

[CamKing]

Re: Re: Re: Chevy still way behind

Originally posted by oldtimer


Chevy IV made Sam look fair, Rice look pitiful.

Ya, being far and away the fastest car, leading almost every lap, and getting beat by a perfectly timed slingshot off his draft. that's what I'd call "looking fair"

[Mackie]

Re: Chevy still way behind

Originally posted by oldtimer
Apparently having a Chevy only helps if you know how to drive. Rice has a way to go on the learning curve.

Sam can compete with an engine that is still weak, but Ky will tell if the others can. Forget Rice.

Also forget Eddie. He won't be back driving a still-weak engine.

You haven't got a clue.

[TxIndyFan]

The verdict is in - it ain't the Chevy

I the first five years of the IRL, Menard, Foyt, and Hemlgarn were the class of the league.

Now, there are four good teams in the IRL - Ganassi, Andretti/Green, Penske and Panther.

I wonder how good Panther would be without Sam Hornish, Jr., but then again, I wonder how good Ganassi would be without Scott Dxion. Ganassi was not all that great last year without Dixon. Like Hornish, Dixon is the real deal.

The old IRL teams - Cheever, Hemelgarn, Menard, Foyt, Kelly, and D&R, stunk up the place today, and only three of those six teams were using the Gen III Chevy. Foyt and Kelly were lousy with Toyota power, and Cheever was awful with the Gen IV Chevy.

I'm sorry folks, but there is no excuse for these professional racing teams, with years of experience and good drivers, to have cars that are so poor that they are 5-6 mph off the pace, even using a Toyota or Gen IV Chevy engines.

Are you saying that with all the years of experience held by AJ Foyt, Eddie Cheever, and Al Unser, Jr, these guys can be excused because their cars were not handling well? Rubbish! If Foyt, Cheever, and Unser can't make their cars handle, then something is serioiusly wrong. It ain't the engine.

Next race, you will see the Gen IV Chevies of Hemelgarn, Cheever, D&R and Menard, along with Foyt and Kelly, finish behind all the ex-CART guys and Panther.

My message to the old IRL teams... get a clue, guys, and get your acts together.

[220mph]

Just more of oldtimers usual bullpoop of late.

Usually he is at least somewhere in the neighborhood on credibility but I'd say the bitterness got the best of him today.

If he'd made ANY effort to look at the facts before he dropped that steaming load he would seen that Rice's lap speeds before the problems were in the 165 mph range. As in qualifying he was typically 2-3mph faster than the other Chevies. That the car was a piece of junk today was clear to all, and confirmed by Eddie Cheever on the telecast.

And no, it ddoesn't atke any special powers to make the silly proclamation about next week either. The struggling teams will still be struggling, even with additional horsepower. It is not a magic bullet that suddenly makes everyone the next Penske team or the re-incarnation of Hornish as a driver.

Buddy Rice and the Cheever team have at times done very well this season, running very competitively - although unless one bothered to look closely they would not see that.

Other like oldtimer don't care or are too lazy to even bother to look. They are only interested in spewing the same bitter and antagonistic drivel that promotes their agenda. At times he has had at least a shred of basis for his comments - today he just looks silly . . .

[oldtimer]

Originally posted by 220mph
Just more of oldtimers usual bullpoop of late.

At times he has had at least a shred of basis for his comments - today he just looks silly . . .

Yeah, maybe I deserve all the rolleyes today. It's just that I had such high hopes for Chevy, and even higher hopes for retaining Sam Hornish. I'd also like to see Unser be a contender, the IRL stay an oval track series, and Indy return to the days of IndyCar only racing.

None of my hopes seemed very promising today.

Next post will be more positive.

[StatMan]

What's up with Buddy and RBTC?? Hopefully that last race was just an anomaly. Buddy finished 2nd and 4th in his first two races last year, driving for a 3-car team and having to face Panther and Penske, why can't he do that against Penske, Ganassi, and Andretti with the Gen IV when the whole team can focus on his setup?

[220mph]

Fair enough OT . . .

I still believe if you look a bit closer you'll see plenty of hints that there is hope -they are small but they ARE there.

Cheever admitted they were out to lunch on setups today. That happens to every team including Penske.

As I've noted before, the Cheever crew, even though the lack of HP didn't show it, has had very good cars at several races this year - a couple they have pretty much not touched the setup during the race and others they've been poor to begin but they worked on the car and Buddy worked on his line etc and ended up with a quick car at the end.

There is a long way to go, and each team is gonna have a dsifferent rate and level of success but it is progress. GM, albeit it too slowly for some, did acknowledge and take extroardinary action to correct the problem. They asked the Series for help and the Series, after careful review and considerable consensus building, agreed to allow the change.

Now it will just take time for the teams to react and take advantage of the new motor.

And that is not as easy as some would believe. A setup that works great when down 40hp is not necessarily gonna work with the additional hp. Sometimes those 2 setups could be dramatically different. As we saw today it would appear. Cheevers team did not suddenly forget what they were doing - I suspect they did find that the things that worked for them before are different now that they have more hp and torque.

[Feed 'em Beans T]

I'm certainly not an IndyCar engineer. So, my analysis of the data is likely overly simplistic. In any case, I appreciate and enjoy the detailed timing reports on indyracing.com.

I found it interesting that despite having an ill-handling car, Buddy Rice posted the second fastest section time on the front straight section from start/finish to the entrance of turn one. The Gen III runners, including Sam, ranked 17 through 21 on this section. Coincidence? I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

See you at Sparta!

Beans