Monday, June 6, 2011

Fuelgate 2011

Feathers are flying on Twitter this afternoon as the link to this article is making the rounds. In short, the article quotes an unnamed team source questioning how J.R. Hildebrand went so many laps before crashing, speculating that the car was outfitted with a larger fuel tank.

@GrahamRahal fired the first shot, saying "Now some of you may understand what I was saying the other night. Word is finally out now!" Within 12 minutes, @PantherRacing fired back "You're a real class act, Rahal. Congrats." Rahal then stressed that it was neither him nor his team that was the source for the article.

The Racemind Take: I doubt very much that Panther wanted to risk the humiliation of a post-race teardown discovery, and a larger fuel tank would definitely be noticed. If there was any shenanigans going on, I would think it would be something that would never be discovered.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Firestone Cuts It Close

The deadline for Firestone to extend it's agreement as official tire supplier to the Indycar Series beyond 2011 has come... and gone. In all likelihood they'll be back for 2012, but so far negotiations have gone flat.

The question that should be getting some traction is this: does it really matter? Fans will enjoy the same level of racing regardless of which white letters appear on the sidewall, and no one wants Firestone in Indycar reluctantly if another supplier is eager to inflate their racing credibility.

Just no Michelin, please. Let's not blow it.