[OT] Hammelj's Racing Roundup 3rd-4th and 11th-12th of march
This weekend saw the start of the touring car season in Australia and the Clipsal 500. Next weekend the WRC will be on to its 3rd round this year in Mexico at Rally Guanajuato MĂ©xico and the open wheel year starts in St Petersburg-Florida with the IndyCar opener
I will in future move this back to Tuesdays so there is a bit less of a rush, especially on weekends with a lot of racing especially US racing
#Review
#Australian Supercars-Clipsal 500 (round 1 of 13)
Going into** race 1** Van Gisbergen had pole position ahead of Coulthard, Chaz Mostert started alongside Courtney to make up row 2. McLoughlin in 6th would have liked to be higher but failed to get the lap right in the top 10 shoot out. Whincup didn’t have a great time either only in 7th despite being the most successful driver in Adelaide. Last year’s winner Nick Percat missed out on the top 10. De Silvestro, the only non-Antipodean did well to adapt to her first time in touring cars and started in 24th ahead of Taz Douglas, who as drafted in late on. In last Alex Rullo who became the youngest ever Supercar driver at 16.
Turn 1 was 3 wide as Van Gisbergen was between Coulthard on the inside and Courtney on the outside. Going up to turn 8 though Coulthard got on the inside and then into the lead. Will Davison meanwhile had damage to his left front wheel after going into the wall while 3 wide at turn 8.. Jamie Whincup came in on lap 1 to take his first part of the required fuel to be out of the traffic. The top 3 broke away quickly. Until lap 17 Coulthard held Shane Van Gisebergen with much greater straight line speed but Van Gisbergen was clearly faster through the corners and in breaking. That ended when Coulthard and Courtney pitted, they came out just ahead of Whincup and McLoughlin. Lap 20 saw Tim Slade being stuck in the tyre barrier after his teammate , Nick Percat, tagged him. He was able to free himself but the safety car was still deployed for debris. That then brought in the people who had not stopped yet.
After the safety car, the order was Coulthard, Courtney, Whincup, Van Gisbergen and McLoughlin. It took 3 laps before any changes of position up front though as the 888 pair of Van Gisbergen and Whincup swapped places. Lap 30 saw McLaughlin hit by a drive trough for weaving. That elevated Winterbottom to 5th lap 41 saw the start of the stops that saw Van Gisbergen leapfrog Coulthard and Courtney. For 6th Whincup was right behind Winterbottom on his out lap and trying to pass he tagged the rear wheel spinning him and delaying Whincup enough that Lowndes got past. 4th and 5th went to Waters and Rick Kelly respectively.
Taz Douglas retired on lap 50 as his cool suit failed. After he stopped making sense on the radio the team called him in for his safety. A couple of laps later Dale Wood limped his car in after a gearbox failure. Meanwhile, Shane Van Gisbergen broke the lap record with a 1:21.966 on the way to a commanding win.
**Race 2** saw Van Gisbergen ahead of the 2 DJR team Penske cars, these 2 teams appear already to be the front runners. Chaz Mostert made it an all ford 2nd row, Race 1 3rd place finisher James Courtney was 5th ahead of last year’s Clipsal champion, Nick Percat. Van Gisbergen’s teammate was down in 10th. Off the line Coulthard had a monster start jumping ahead of Van Gisbergen on the run down to turn 1. Mcloughlin out-break Van Gisbergen round the outside and took second as well making it a DJR 1-2. Through turn 8 Nick Percat got wide and had a big hit on the wall which saw him drop out.
The early stops saw Courtney in a lap before McLaughlin and then Mark Winterbottom in next. While this was happening Whincup took Caruso for 6th on the road. Mclaughlin was very much going for the undercut with Courtney setting a 1:20.421 and going a full second faster than his leading teammate. His team mate though was slower than Van Gisbergen who was looking close to an overtake. He tried into turn 9 on lap 12 which didn’t work but 2 laps later it worked putting him into 1st just after Chaz Mostert behind him came in with a long stop. Lap 17 saw Coulthard in, when he came out he had to battle with Waters but importantly behind his team mate and Courtney. Van Gisbergen came in next and ended up behind Cam Waters making his effective position 5th.
Lap 24 saw Van Gisbergen be let by to 6th by Waters and 29 then him past Coulthard again. He was now up to 3rd, 2 cars ahead having made their first stops, and much faster than other cars at the time. Next up was James Courtney who put a really strong defence. Shane did get the past, though, after 4 laps of trying into turn 9 and out of the last corner, he slipped by into 5. He now needed to cover 9 seconds to catch up to McLaughlin in 1st.
Around lap 41 the second stops started, Coulthard and Waters both battled. Van Gisbergen came out just ahead of Chaz Mostert who tried but failed to get ahead. 5.6 seconds was the gap 2nd to first after the leaders made their stop. James Courtney Spun Simona De Silvestro but was not penalised. Jamie Whincup passed Winterbottom to move up to 7th.
10 laps to go saw Van Gisbergen haveing to quickly catch McLaughlin’s 3-second gap. Mostert was in a safe 3rd, Courtney was 4th ahead of Coulthard. 6th place Waters was desperately holding off Whincup which proved to be in vain as 6 laps to go he got past into turn 9. It proved to be a bit of a grandstand finish as 5 laps from the end the gap was down to 1 second. The next lap though McLaughlin locked the breaks into turn 9, ran wide and allowed Van Gisbergen through. This gave Van Gisbergen 2 wins from 2 this year and makes him Clipsal 500 champion for the second time.
[Full results for all sessions here](http://www.supercars.com/championship/2017-virgin-australia-supercars-championship-results/)
#Preview
#Indycar-St Petersberg (race 1 of 17)
Indycar once again come to its opener in Florida. The Track is half airport half street track. The start finish is on the runway, turn 1 off the runway, is not that slow for an about 135^o corner. The track then snakes on to a 400m straight. 4 and 5 are a 90^o left and right before a chicane then on to 2 90^o rights. Following on is a fast run, a kink half way through. Turn 10 is not much slower and is easy to get wrong. 11 and 12 are a second 90 left right chicane and then a hairpin onto the runway and start finish.
The people to watch are
* Last year's champion Simon Pagenaud is still the man to beat with 5 wins lat year and he is still with the team to beat in Penske.
* Will Power is the most likely to beat him I would say finishing in second lat year to go with his hat trick of them 2010 to 2012 and 2014 championship win. Another thing in his favour here is he is a bit of a street track specialist.
* Joseph Newgarten Is 100% up there after being best of the non-Penskes he now can’t win that having moved up to them so expect him to improve on his 4th in the championship last year and his one win
* Helio Castroneves is one of the elder statesmen of the sport now having been racing in America for over 20 years but with age comes experience. In his case that is the experience of 3 indy 500 wins and 4 championship second places.
* Scott Dixon is still with Chip Ganassi but now have moved from Chevrolet to Honda, we will have to wait and see if this pays off. Honda has looked like the lesser car since Chevrolet were allowed to join but that may in part be due to the 2 major teams both going to Chevrolet. Now is when we find out and if anyone can win here it is Dixon with his 4 championships.
* Tony Kannan is Ganassi’s second bullet in the gun but with just the 1 win since joining Ganassi 4 years ago he is an outside shot at best
* Ex F1 driver Max Chilton must hope that he gets a result now he is with a top team but as with F1 there are huge doubts about him being more than a pay driver
* Rahal will want to continue his impressive run as top Honda and add as much as he can to his 4 wins or possibly even fight for the championship
* Alexander Rossi was rookie of the year however it is worth noting this is almost entirely due to his Indy 500 win. On the other hand, though he is and Indy 500 winner and Ex F1 driver
* Bourdais is an odd one, he is a 4 time Champ car champion but in Indycar, he has only 4 wins, he is an outsider for sure but he has the talent
* James Hinchliffe has had 3 podiums so may add one more here
* Ryan Hunter-Reay may be a former champion so absolutely can not be ruled out although Andretti have been off the pace in recent years
#WRC- Mexico (round 3 of 13)
Toyota’s Jari-Matti Latvala will hope to continue the successes so far. 2nd in Monte Carlo and a win in Sweden so far. However, Sebastian Ogier will be breathing down his neck with a win and 3rd in the more experienced M-sport Ford. Ott Tanak, in the other ford, could very well be looking for win no1. Thierry Neuville and Kris Meeke must just want a finish this year as the pace isn’t an issue, especially Neuville who has a huge amount of pace so far. Breen, Evans and Paddon have proven to be just off the podium in finishes and a bit further from it in terms of pace but don’t rule them out. Dani Sordo is right in the hunt as well, 2 4ths so far speak to that.