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So who'll ride the IndyCar Ferris-wheel to the
championship's top step this year? (DOB images)
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'Whale, I hate to say I-T, as it's been a
very entertaining year's battle over who'll decide to be the next contestant to
step-up and become this year's Indy Car Series Champion, as the points leader's
position has swapped round 'N round multiple times this season; hence the Ferris-wheel
photo caption above; Hooah! (Taken at the Milwaukee Mile this year by 'CARPETS)
As Me thinks that Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay and
Will Power have all taken turns leading the way...
Yet unfortunately for Mwah, I found myself
more miffed over the STUPENDOUS Off-track machinations dumped upon us by 'Dem
Fine Folks at Starship HC', nee Hulman & Company, namely in their ever more
Corporate "In-your-Face" how can we line our coffers deeper
mentality! For the majority of the season, from May onwards...
As I fell outta favour with duh Boyz in the
stuffed shirts 'Wayback in the "Month of May," upon suffering thru
that ridiculous 2hr "Extended" Infomercial Mother Speedway qualifying
coverage; BARF! Which I scribbled' my thoughts upon this greedy cash grab in;
TORONTO
Won't even try recounting this epic; Err
sorrid rain soaked Hydrofest' Up North Eh! Which I endured watching nearly
A-L-L 43hrs of, 'Whale it kinda felt like it was that long, due to Saturday's miserably
wet deluge 'O wet stuff that precipitated multiple attempts to start the race,
along with the bizarre image of the Pace-car slipping 'N sliding precariously
on-track! Other than I found myself somewhat ironically defending IndyCar's
Derrick Walker and the officials, which I scribbled 'bout in;
Although I-T was strange 'N stranger to find
myself rootin' for le 'Hamburgular, aka my past Champ Car villain Sebastain
Bourdais, who triumphantly romped to victory
in the day's first race; his first Open Wheel victory in some six-plus
years, as SeaBass kept proclaiming it'd been six years, but my math screamed
seven, since he hadn't won since 2007, right Sebastain?
But I was
more enthused over the day's second race, albeit my Numero Uno IndyCar
Hombre Justin 'B-I-G UNIT Wilson's gamble to remain on rain tyres backfired
mightily whilst leading the race, being
overhauled by eventual race
winner Mike "Ice-Ice, Baby!" Conway, before futiley falling to sixth
place
Thus, my current day Villain, the Brazilian
Hat Dance Boy 'HULIO, nee Helio Castroneves clung to his fast disappearing
points lead after the day's prior miraculous repair work performed upon
team-mate 'DJ WillyP's (Will Power) racecar, ultimately seeing the "Toowoomba
Toranadoe" dodge a massive points tally gaff and
depart Oh 'KanaDuh only 13-points behind Castroneves.
Meanwhile, previous point leader RHR endured another
tough weekend's outing 'N stumbled his
way over the day's two races to keep his third place, albeit "Symone
Pagenoe" (Simon Pagenaud) is nipping at his heels, then just a scant two points adrift of his last season's final
standing third place position, while 'MAC Montoya remained mathematically alive
in the championship hunt in P5, as uncharacteristically, 'Cheep's quartet 'O Hired Guns were on the outside looking in
upon the title fight...
IndyCar Point Standings
(Following
Toronto's Double Header)
1) Helio Castroneves 533
2) Will Power 520
3) Ryan Hunter-Reay 464
4) Simon Pagenaud 462
5) Juan Pablo Montoya 428
With the Ganassi Boyz' falling in at: 6th) Scott
Dixon, (387-points) 8th: Tony Kanaan, 11th: Ryan Briscoe and 13th: Charlie
Kimbal...
MID-OHIO
Double your Trouble; Uh, double your fuel
mileage? As Scott Dixon did the unthinkable by coming from dead stone last
(P22) to winning the race before running out of fuel just a few hundred yards
past the stripe - after he and Mike Hull completed some cagey race strategy to vault the Kiwi' into
first place; as we'll never know if Joseph 'STUD! Newgarden could have forced
Dixon into running out of fuel en route to the Nashvillian's debutant IndyCar
win?
Yet my day was completely made upon
Castroneves electrical maladies during the race's start saw the Brazilian fall
four laps behind before Team Penske coaxed the Chebbie' into
"full-chat" mode, with Power soldiering home in P6 to overhaul the Brazilian's point lead.
As although there's still five drivers with a legitimate shot at the title, I
like most pundits tend to think Montoya's on the outside looking in, leaving us
with just four contenders...
(Rd 15) Points Standings
Following
Mid-Ohio
1) Will Power 548
2) Helio Castroneves 544
3) Ryan Hunter-Reay 485
4) Simon Pagenaud 484
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(5th) Juan Pablo
Montoya 447
(6th) Scott Dixon 440
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| Will Power's "John Hancock" obtained at this year's penultimate round of the championship; Sonoma. (The Tomaso Collection) |
MILWAUKEE
WOW! What a weekend's performance by Will Power, who
came, saw and conquered! First winning the Pole with a scorching 169mph-plus
average, the 'Aussie's 35th career pole, just five shy of the esteemed 'HULIO's
40. Then Power simply put on a good 'Ol
fashioned WHOOPING! By leading 229 of the race's 250-laps, holding off first
Tony Kanaan and then Juan Pablo Montoya en route to his 24th career win - first
on a short Oval... Firmly establishing his grip upon the title chase by taking
a 39-point lead over Castroneves, who had a pretty lackluster day, finishing
P11.
And while Ryan Hunter-Reay & Co. made
public his contract extension, there was little to celebrate about race-wise,
having to work his way forward, first from his poor qualifying result, then
from repeated bad Pit-stop's before enduring another broken rear suspension, causing
him to finish 21st.
And while Simon Pagenaud revealed his dislike
of Oval's, nevertheless the Frenchman
motored home to a solid seventh-place finish, thus vaulting ahead of RHR in the
title fight, with long shots Montoya
finishing runner-up and Scott Dixon fourth; I'd say there's now realistically
just three drivers left in the championship fight, as we'll see how the protagonists
fare at Sonoma...
(Rd 16) Points Standings
Following
Milwaukee
1) Will Power 602
2) Helio Castroneves 563
3) Simon Pagenaud 510
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(4th) Ryan
Hunter-Rey 494
(5th) Juan Pablo
Montoya 488
(6th) Scott Dixon 472
SONOMA
And Y'all know how KURR-RAZY of a race Sonoma
was this year, as surprisingly I found myself attending this race on a whim -
and even more bizarre rootin' feebly for thee "Grahamcracker" (G.
Rahal) to win the race after apparently Will Power dozed off momentarily due to
his potential lack 'O sleep due to the
earthquake? While leading handedly.
Yet I secretly wanted ECR's Mike "Ice-Ice, Baby!" Conway
to win, whilst apparently Scotty "Iceman 2.0" Dixon and RHR (Ryan
Hunter-Reay) were crusin' serenely behind in formation, albeit RHR was setting
quickest lap times in his pursuit of leapfrogging the trio ahead of him!
Yet first Graham Rahal's race went array when
running low on fuel with 4-laps remaining and then Conway ran out of fuel on
the last lap after having used one last "P2P" (Push-to-Pass) to try
avoid being overtaken by Dixon to no avail, as the 'Kiwi did his magic again,
notching his second win of the season - and tying him with "Uncle
Bobby's" 35-career wins tally with Hunter-Reay second and Simon Pagenaud
third, while Power managed to work his
way up to P10 after passing Justin Wilson for ninth under yellow. With
Castroneves waffling his way home in a lowly 18th! And then there was just one
race left...
(Rd 17) Points Standings
Following
Sonoma
1) Will Power 626
2) Helio Castroneves 575
3) Simon Pagenaud 545
4) Ryan Hunter-Rey 534
------------------
(5th) Scott Dixon 523
(6th) Juan Pablo
Montoya 519
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| Will Power leading the way at Milwaukee earlier this year hopes to repeat the feat at Fontana where he's the defending race winner. (DOB images) |
FONTANA - SEASON
FINALE
In what's becoming Indy Cars latest tradition,
the ex-Roger Penske owned Fontana Oval-track built upon an ex-Alcoa aluminum
smelter and now owned by ISC, has become IndyCar's new season finale home, with
this being the third season ending race to date, albeit also being held upon
its third different date.
Having first been held in September, then moving to October last
year, it's now been pushed forward to an
unseemly August date, A-L-L just to make
way for 'RASSCAR; Err, I forgot,
not running opposite the NFL; yeah, that's the ticket!
From 2010-12, I agonizingly held my Will
Power champion flag aloft, only to be severely Gutted' three years in-a-row,
before switching allegiances to his country's nemesis (New Zealand last year, for
which I happily enjoyed watching Scott Dixon notch his third) series
championship title from the cozy confines 'O Carpets' Manor appropriately in
Indianapolis last October, which I previewed in;
And while I do wish for Will Power to finally
break his proverbial Championship Duck,
nonetheless, I'm pretty sure I won't be overly
ecstatic about this, as the
'Aussie tweaked my fandom for him with that BONEHEADED BLOCK he threw
upon none other than team-mate and title protagonist 'HULIO at Pocono; as Yuhs
just can't be doing STUPID SHIT like
that at over 200mph, Will!
While I'll be even more PEEVED at IndyCar if the insanely STUPID addition of Double Points in ANY way
effects the eventual series winner outcome; Crikeys Mates! What a croc' of SHIT!
As I'm NOT even gonna try writing A-L-L of
the championship point permeations other than 104-points is the cutoff for the
drivers still mathematically alive chasin' Will Power, as I like how Scott
Dixon likened Pagenaud & RHR needing a meteorite to land upon Power to win
the title, as it seemingly is a duel for best 'O show; Err team honours at
Penske this year where Power leads Castroneves by 51-points...
As Y'all can watch the season finale on NBCSN
starting at 6PM PACIFIC Saturday night, August 30th, albeit I'll be skipping
the majority of the overly elongated 'N stupendous Pre-race Pre-amble 'N tunin'
in sometime 'round 6:45PM Pacific instead...
GO WILL POWER!
(Photos Courtesy of No Fenders ‘Offical
Photographer ‘CARPETS)