GP of Houston

Breaking News!

 

 Houston we have a problem...

 

That was probably heard by a lot of teams this weekend as 2 crazy indycar races took place on the streets of Houston.

 

The GP races 1 and 2 held lots of chaos, finger pointing and exciting racing. 
Saturday's Race 1 got off to an interesting start in the rain. taking out drivers like Mike Conway, Simon Pagenaud, Takuma Sato and Mikael Aleshin. 
Josef Newgarden slammed the wall halfway, as did many others when their tires hit a wet spot or two.  We interviewed one of his biggest fans, Alex in Pa, and she was not happy. 
 

The really interesting part of the race was when the rookie Carlos Heurtas won. 
He was the first Indycar driver to win in his rookie year since Marco Andretti in Sonoma in 2006.
 Juan Montoya finished 2nd, and Carlos Munoz, another rookie finishing 3rd,
which made for a Columbian podium sweep,
the first in Indycar History.






Race 2 was just as exciting and crazy, despite no rain.

Race 2 began with a rolling start, and all was pretty status quo until the mid-way point when perhaps the intense heat and humidity started to affect the drivers and crews.
 

Lots of contact and wild racing ensued including pole sitter Helio Castroneves who crashed while running in second.  Josef Newgarden had a wheel come off after his final pit stop, Sebastian Bourdais ran the last twenty laps with a broken front wing (and still finished 5th) and points leader Will Power finished 11th after a problem with just a lap and a half left.
 

The winner?

 Simon Pagenaud, for the second time this year, and
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports who had there first one two finish ever
with rookie Mikael Aleshin finishing second.
The podium was rounded out with another rookie, Jack Hawksworth( Who had a great battle with Juan Montoya) finishing third.

So if you're keeping tabs,

All four (full season) Indycar rookies finished on the podium this weekend! 
Wow!








 

 

 

The top ten:

 

Race 1:

* 7 Hondas and 3 Chevys
* 3 Rookies

* 5 teams
* All the Andretti Autosport cars

 * A Columbian Podium Sweep

 

* Carlos Heurtas

* Juan Montoya

* Carlos Munoz

* Sebastien Bourdais

* James Hinchcliffe

* Jack Hawksworth

* Ryan Hunter-Reay

* Marco Andretti

* Helio Castroneves

* Justin Wilson

Fun Facts:

* 7 drivers had DNF's
* Marco Andretti got penalized for holding up Takuma Sato
* 5 different drivers led
* There were 6 lead changes

 

 

 

Race 2:

* 8 Hondas and 2 Chevys
* 2 Rookies
* 6 teams


* Simon Pagenaud

* Mikael Aleshin

* Jack Hawksworth

* Charlie Kimball

* Sebastien Bourdais
* Ryan Hunter-Reay
* Juan Pablo Montoya
* Ryan Briscoe
* Marco Andretti
* Tony Kanaan

Fun Facts:

* 5 drivers had DNF's
* 2 different drivers led
* There were 3 lead changes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GP of Houston 2014

The Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston is here!!

One weekend, 2 days, 2 races!

 

Thanks to NBCSN and Verizon

Practice for the Houston

and all other races this season

will be live on Indycar.com,

and are announced by Paul Page!

(so cool to watch the coverage live and hear Paul Page's commentary!)

 

 

 

Helio, Scott Dixon and Will Power preview the races.

 

Catch both races on NBCSN
Saturday & Sunday, June 28 & 29 at 3:00 EST

Saturday's qualifying will be tape delayed
at 2:00 EST on NBCSN.


 

Josef Recap Texas 600 +

We're behind again.  Indycar has two weekends off and here it is just before the double header weekend in Houston and we're just doing our Josef update post from Texas.
And Alex even forgot to remind us (given she is the reason we do 'Josef' posts in the first place), but she was busy planning and having her Josef (and kitty cat) themed 7th birthday party.

So on to the update.

Josef finished 11th in the Firestone Texas 600!

After starting second, he stayed in the top ten most of the race,
but got passed by Charlie Kimball on the last lap.

Alex was super excited he started on the front row, especially since it was in his super shiny, 'spacey' Strike car.  But as Josef gradually dropped back all race her mood was not so good.

Honda Recap of Firestone 600 at Texas.

(Josef's interview is at the 2:12 mark.)

 

 

 

 

On the off weekend of June 14th,

Josef participated in the Outrun the Sun Charity race in Indianapolis.



 

He was starter of the kids race...and seemed to have a very good time.


And in helping another charity, that we love
(& our mom's been a member for over 20 years)
Best Friends Animal Society 
Josef recently did an ad for their shelter campaign.

Can't wait to see how Josef does this weekend in Houston
in his 'spacey' Strike car again!




 

Grand Prix of Houston

 

We Went camping at Assateauge Island for a few days, but

even that didn't keep us away from Indycar. 

Luckily we could get twitter feeds on our phone and followed the races that way.

 

As soon as we got back yesterday we watched the races on dvr. 

Here's what we thought.

 

*  Super scary crash for Dario.  Glad that he will be ok and the fans were ok too. 

*  Good to see the championship get close on Saturday, but felt bad for Helio Sunday with another terrible day.  Hopefully he makes it's a close finish in Fontana.

*  Really cool that Simona got her first podium in Race 1.  She was so excited and Tony Kanaan seemed just as happy for her.

*  Need we mention that Alex was excited Josef finished 5th on Saturday.  She was not nearly as happy Sunday after he had to do a drive thru penalty with a few laps to go.

Indycar Happenings sept 30

 

Five more days till they go back racing
at the Grand Prix of Houston  
but lots of other stuff going lately!
 

 

* Woo-Hoo!! Indycar will be racing on the Indy road course next May! 
Any suggestions on how we get our parents to take us out there for the whole month of May?  (It's a 10 hour trip so there's no driving back and forth.)

* Rumor has it that 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan is going to be racing for Chip Ganassi Racing next year, though no official announcement has been made yet.

*  The Texas Motor Speedway race will be bigger and better next year with an extra 20 laps for the June 7, 2014 event.

*  George Bignotti, a really great race mechanic when our mom was growing up died this week at age 97.  He had 85 Indycar wins and his cars won the Indy 500 7 times with five different drivers including 4 time winners A.J. Foyt and Al Unser, Sr.



George Bignotti with Wally Dallenbach
1973 California 500.