IndyCar Series

[PlatinumZealot]

So the living legend won again. Totally unexpected when I saw the headline!

[flynfrog]

What,s that!

Oooh Rossi.

Starship. About the last one flying

[gshevlin]

What,s that!

Oooh Rossi.

It is a Beech Starship. Designed by Burt Rutan. That may be the only flying example left. Beech bought back the whole fleet a few years ago when they retired the plane,except for one plane whose owner refused to sell. It was supposed to be their replacement for the King Air, but the King Air is still in production. It's a long story.

[JordanFiveOh]

What,s that!

Oooh Rossi.

It is a Beech Starship. Designed by Burt Rutan. That may be the only flying example left. Beech bought back the whole fleet a few years ago when they retired the plane,except for one plane whose owner refused to sell. It was supposed to be their replacement for the King Air, but the King Air is still in production. It's a long story.

We have a few here in north Texas.

N723SC - S/N NC-50

A few photos I took:





N903SC - listed as an RNC Enterprise. Not sure of the original serial number.

Both should still be airworthy.

[gshevlin]

There are at least 5 flying examples in the USA. Bob Scherer basically bought the entire Starship parts inventory from Beech, plus 4 decommissioned airframes. He is now Mr Starship Spares man, and despite Beech walking away from the plane, the few flying examples should be able to fly for decades more.
https://www.aspendailynews.com/news/one ... 988c1.html

[gshevlin]

Back to regularly scheduled programming...
I do not think that the unsafe release penalty for Alexander Rossi was an applicable or fair penalty. Rossi did nothing wrong, he left his pit box when signalled to go. The team waved him out at the wrong moment, so they should get the penalty. Moving a driver back 20-something places like that is just...not right.
In F1, the team gets fined for an unsafe release. I have yet to see a driver penalized for leaving the pit box into the path of another car in pit lane.If the car is stationary, the team is responsible.

[DChemTech]

Back to regularly scheduled programming...
I do not think that the unsafe release penalty for Alexander Rossi was an applicable or fair penalty. Rossi did nothing wrong, he left his pit box when signalled to go. The team waved him out at the wrong moment, so they should get the penalty. Moving a driver back 20-something places like that is just...not right.
In F1, the team gets fined for an unsafe release. I have yet to see a driver penalized for leaving the pit box into the path of another car in pit lane.If the car is stationary, the team is responsible.

Not entirely - only when no incidents happen. When Max bumped into Bottas in Monaco, he also got a time penalty. In this case, there was contact too.

[djos]

I finally got around to watching the 500, it was weird seeing the empty stands but a very good race. The Chevy-powered cars seemed to have a significant power deficit and it was weird seeing Penske cars so uncompetitive.

It was cool to see Sato win, he really played a smart race letting Dixon and others race at the front till it counted. Dixon just had no answer for his speed once he got out front and even the backmarkers couldn't spoil his race.

[gshevlin]

Back to regularly scheduled programming...
I do not think that the unsafe release penalty for Alexander Rossi was an applicable or fair penalty. Rossi did nothing wrong, he left his pit box when signalled to go. The team waved him out at the wrong moment, so they should get the penalty. Moving a driver back 20-something places like that is just...not right.
In F1, the team gets fined for an unsafe release. I have yet to see a driver penalized for leaving the pit box into the path of another car in pit lane.If the car is stationary, the team is responsible.

Not entirely - only when no incidents happen. When Max bumped into Bottas in Monaco, he also got a time penalty. In this case, there was contact too.

There is still a problem with the reality of the punishments. In the Monaco instance, Verstappen, possibly unsighted, squeezed Bottas into the wall,which broke Bottas' wheel and forced him to make another pit stop. He got a 5 second time penalty. It cost him 1 place in the final standings.
Rossi bumped the winner of the race, causing no damage, in a pit lane that only has 1 lane for entering and leaving cars. He got the equivalent of a 30 second time penalty which cost him 20+ places on the restart.
That's not right.

[ENGINE TUNER]

Back to regularly scheduled programming...
I do not think that the unsafe release penalty for Alexander Rossi was an applicable or fair penalty. Rossi did nothing wrong, he left his pit box when signalled to go. The team waved him out at the wrong moment, so they should get the penalty. Moving a driver back 20-something places like that is just...not right.
In F1, the team gets fined for an unsafe release. I have yet to see a driver penalized for leaving the pit box into the path of another car in pit lane.If the car is stationary, the team is responsible.

Not entirely - only when no incidents happen. When Max bumped into Bottas in Monaco, he also got a time penalty. In this case, there was contact too.

There is still a problem with the reality of the punishments. In the Monaco instance, Verstappen, possibly unsighted, squeezed Bottas into the wall,which broke Bottas' wheel and forced him to make another pit stop. He got a 5 second time penalty. It cost him 1 place in the final standings.
Rossi bumped the winner of the race, causing no damage, in a pit lane that only has 1 lane for entering and leaving cars. He got the equivalent of a 30 second time penalty which cost him 20+ places on the restart.
That's not right.

Rossi went past the "slow lane" and into the fast lane and caused a collision. There are 2 lanes in the indy pit lane and they have defined rules for when drivers can use them. Penalty deserved.

Verstappen was given a penalty for causing a collision, he knew Bottas was close since Bottas WAS AHEAD OF HIM going into the pits. Verstappen was next to Bottas for several seconds before turning into him. Verstappen was given the penalty and not red bull because it was not an unsafe release. Penalty deserved.

[ENGINE TUNER]

Back to regularly scheduled programming...
I do not think that the unsafe release penalty for Alexander Rossi was an applicable or fair penalty. Rossi did nothing wrong, he left his pit box when signalled to go. The team waved him out at the wrong moment, so they should get the penalty. Moving a driver back 20-something places like that is just...not right.
In F1, the team gets fined for an unsafe release. I have yet to see a driver penalized for leaving the pit box into the path of another car in pit lane.If the car is stationary, the team is responsible.

It wasn't an unsafe release, it was bad driving, he went directly from the pit stall and put part of his car into the "fast lane"( the right most lane) without first establishing himself in the "slow lane"( the left of the 2 lanes). Rossi made a driving error which caused a collision in the pit lane, he absolutely deserved a penalty. I'm not sure of what that penalty should be though.

[djos]

Back to regularly scheduled programming...
I do not think that the unsafe release penalty for Alexander Rossi was an applicable or fair penalty. Rossi did nothing wrong, he left his pit box when signalled to go. The team waved him out at the wrong moment, so they should get the penalty. Moving a driver back 20-something places like that is just...not right.
In F1, the team gets fined for an unsafe release. I have yet to see a driver penalized for leaving the pit box into the path of another car in pit lane.If the car is stationary, the team is responsible.

It wasn't an unsafe release, it was bad driving, he went directly from the pit stall and put part of his car into the "fast lane"( the right most lane) without first establishing himself in the "slow lane"( the left of the 2 lanes). Rossi made a driving error which caused a collision in the pit lane, he absolutely deserved a penalty. I'm not sure of what that penalty should be though.

That's how I saw it too, it was absolutely an open and shut case. He needed to stay in the slow lane for at least a brief period but chose to swerve across directly into another competitor. I get that he was concerned he might tangle with another car exiting their pit box, but he was still in the wrong.

[DChemTech]

Back to regularly scheduled programming...
I do not think that the unsafe release penalty for Alexander Rossi was an applicable or fair penalty. Rossi did nothing wrong, he left his pit box when signalled to go. The team waved him out at the wrong moment, so they should get the penalty. Moving a driver back 20-something places like that is just...not right.
In F1, the team gets fined for an unsafe release. I have yet to see a driver penalized for leaving the pit box into the path of another car in pit lane.If the car is stationary, the team is responsible.

Not entirely - only when no incidents happen. When Max bumped into Bottas in Monaco, he also got a time penalty. In this case, there was contact too.

There is still a problem with the reality of the punishments. In the Monaco instance, Verstappen, possibly unsighted, squeezed Bottas into the wall,which broke Bottas' wheel and forced him to make another pit stop. He got a 5 second time penalty. It cost him 1 place in the final standings.
Rossi bumped the winner of the race, causing no damage, in a pit lane that only has 1 lane for entering and leaving cars. He got the equivalent of a 30 second time penalty which cost him 20+ places on the restart.
That's not right.

At the moment Rossi made the move, he did not know whether or not Sato would be damaged by it. It turned out fine, but it might just as well not have. By moving into the fast lane prematurely, Rossi potentially jeopardized another driver's race, and hence, deserves a penalty. And penalties in Indy being what they are, the repercussions for his own race were indeed more serious than a 5s time penalty in F1 would be.

[Morteza]

[MrMuffins]

IndyCar engine manufacturers Honda and Chevrolet have announced an extension of their supply deals to the end of the decade and that the change of engine specs from 2.2L twin turbo V6 to 2.4L twin turbo V6 with KERS will happen for the 2023 season.

https://www.indycar.com/News/2020/10/10 ... nouncement