Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers could be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embrace a query usually tend to be printed. Questions acquired after 3pm ET every Monday can be saved for the next week.
Q: I’d must think about that O’Ward’s chef have to be cooking up crow 3 ways for Mr. Miles after seeing him fill malls and stadiums at a race he’s not even racing in…
Laz, Independence, MO
MARSHALL PRUETT: That and McLaren boss Zak Brown sporting his Pato Who? hat on the Mexico Metropolis GP.
After not contacting O’Ward for fairly a while after stepping on his appendage together with his feedback in August, Mr. Miles did certainly not too long ago join with Pato to try to clear the air, which O’Ward instructed me final week previous to the GP. Let’s see how lengthy it takes for that peace treaty to be damaged.
Q: I’d wish to throw out a thought for somebody to be a part of the Indy 500 race day: Pat McAfee. I used to be watching GameDay, and he threw out the Indy 500 in his introduction about Indiana. The man can speak. He lives in Indiana, was a member of the Colts, has his personal present and will get the phrase to these individuals who aren’t already watching. He may have drivers on his present all through the month of Might. Let him setup his present on the observe. Looks like an enormous win to me.
Chris, Michigan
MP: You’re one in every of many to have the identical thought, and sure, McAfee, who was concerned with Conor Daly and the five hundred a few decade in the past with a t-shirt sale marketing campaign, could be an ideal bro-age match for Indy. Solely concern is IndyCar and the five hundred are actually solely on FOX, and McAfee is among the many largest names related to ABC/ESPN. I raised the identical level earlier within the 12 months when a reader made the identical suggestion when NBC was the only broadcaster, and if there’s a manner for FOX to welcome one of many major characters from one in every of its largest rivals into its largest IndyCar race, I’m certain it can occur. However I simply don’t know the way.
Q: I vaguely keep in mind from final season there being a scarcity of sim time all through the sector. I particularly keep in mind Agustin Canapino going into some weekends with out having any on observe time within the sim.
Why don’t the IndyCar groups, or at the least the highest groups, have their very own sims? Is it a query of finances, or simply that each Honda and Chevrolet have already got one, so there isn’t a must have your personal sim?
Leo, Stockholm, Sweden
MP: IndyCar groups depend on the large driver-in-the-loop simulators at Chevy, Honda, and Dallara to show these sim laps as a result of they’re prohibitively costly. It’s 100% a query of finances. And when you’ve got a dozen-plus drivers to try to accommodate and a finite quantity of sim time to supply, you’ll see the contenders get precedence over the non-contenders.
The producer simulators are in excessive demand year-round. On this case, Honda drivers bought an early digital have a look at the Nashville avenue course earlier than racing there for the primary time in 2021. Picture through Honda
Q: So usually we hear {that a} observe is tough to move on, with no overtaking alternatives. What makes a observe ‘satisfactory’? And are there any?
Shawn, MD
MP: There’s 5 kinds of tracks utilized in IndyCar, so we received’t spend hundreds of phrases on the subject right here, but when it’s an oval and it historically has a single lane that can be utilized within the corners because of a scarcity of grip within the higher lane or too many marbles being thrown into that lane, that’s one instance.
However greater than something, it’s the vehicles in so a lot of at present’s sequence that make passing extraordinarily laborious as a result of they’re both spec vehicles, or near being spec. Passing on the identical tracks which have been in use for many years wasn’t as a lot of a difficulty when CART groups with a Chevy A motor from Ilmor stumbled on a driver with a Cosworth DFX, which lacked energy and torque in comparison with the Chevy A. Or when a Firestone-shod Reynard was chasing a Goodyear-shod Reynard within the second half of the Nineteen Nineties.
When everybody’s utilizing Dallara DW12s, on Firestones, and the Chevy and Honda motors are practically an identical of their outputs, passing ought to be rattling close to not possible.
Q: Sebring introduced it’s switching to Ticketmaster and had the gall to say that it’s going to enhance the fan expertise. WTF!?
Indignant Kyle
MP: Thanks for the replace, Kyle.
Q: A rumor has been making the rounds that Simon Pagenaud could possibly be pairing with Ryan Hunter-Reay for Dreyer & Reinbold/Cusick Motorsports in subsequent Might’s Indy 500. Have you ever heard this? It might be nice to see Simon again in IndyCar, and his teaming up with RHR would make one heck of a staff! Two former winners.
Dan Michaelian., Destin, FL
MP: I like that notion, and I’m certain Simon would soar on the alternative if and when he’s prepared to show laps in an IndyCar. So much would wish to occur in his restoration earlier than that might occur. Right here, on the finish of October, it feels extremely optimistic.
Q: After studying this week’s mailbag I needed to write in. IndyCar could not have licensed any Lego units, however they’ve licensed a extremely candy scale mannequin equipment made by Salvinos JR Fashions. I not too long ago bought the 1:20 scale mannequin of Pato O’Ward’s 2024 Dallara and I’m impressed.
This equipment is each bit pretty much as good because the F1 kits made by Tamiya, and many others. on this scale. For these of us who wish to construct museum-quality race automotive fashions (and never simply purchase a die-cast) this equipment is unbelievable. It has lots of of elements and contains each Chevrolet and Honda engines. The decal sheets are in depth and even present markings for the carbon fiber parts with its attribute weave. The equipment is presently obtainable in variations for Pato, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Kyle Larson, and Takuma Sato. I’m certain that makers of aftermarket decal sheets will quickly provide others. Fireplace up your airbrush!
Invoice Gilman, Rochester, NY
MP: That’s superior, Invoice; I had no concept. If solely they have been available on the Walmarts and Costcos and Targets and different huge shops the place children and households alike would see and purchase them like Legos and Sizzling Wheels.
