2024 NC: Culture Club Millionaires Bash

[MonteCristo]

So next up we're going to *checks notes* "The Thermal Club".

So some richers are putting up $1 million for the winner of a race on their own private race track in their backyard.



The layout is a bit ... shit. So unless people are willing to bring out the chrome horn, it'll probably be a procession.

I, personally, hope to regularly see the chrome horn. Honk honk.

Race is on 24 March.

[Everso Biggyballies]

So next up we're going to *checks notes* "The Thermal Club".

So some richers are putting up $1 million for the winner of a race on their own private race track in their backyard.



The layout is a bit ... shit. So unless people are willing to bring out the chrome horn, it'll probably be a procession.

I, personally, hope to regularly see the chrome horn. Honk honk.

Race is on 24 March.

Oh and admission is from US$2000 a pop. Its for VIPs only. Rif Raf and real race fans not welcome.

VIP Experience - Three-day pass includes daily lunch, beer and wine, parking, and pit access!!

Seating area with a Premium view of the track, getting the full experience of the raw horsepower while the race passes in your view lap after lap.

Daily lunch included, featuring many of the best food trucks in the area as well as other onsite food options including beer & wine.

Access to the Paddock, featuring closeup and intimate views of all the action in pit lane.

Parking included, just a short distance from your seat.

[Everso Biggyballies]

The NTT INDYCAR SERIES heads to The Thermal Club for a unique, made-for-TV racing exhibition. The special event from sunny Southern California will offer a $1 million prize to the winner and will receive a network broadcast showcase on NBC.

The weekend format will include a qualifying session and two heat races, with the top six from each heat advancing to an All-Star showcase. While championship points will not be on the line, the event will feature a multimillion-dollar purse.

Established in 2012, The Thermal Club in Thermal, California, just outside of Palm Springs, is a private motorsport country club surrounding one of the longest and most distinct racing circuits in North America. Members have access to three racetracks, kart track, autocross, skid pad, tuning shop, garage, detail shop, club house and spa. One of the defining attributes of The Thermal Club are the luxury villa-homes that overlook the facility.

The Twin Palms layout at the Thermal Club is a 3-mile (4.82-km) Raceway which includes most of that South Palm circuit and adds a highly demanding trajectory on top to get to a total of 19 turns. The layout consists of sweepers, tight corners, long straightaways, and elevation changes, providing a proper driving and engineering challenge to teams.

https://www.indycar.com/Schedule/2024/I ... es/Thermal






The extended vertical bit with the loop at the top (the desert course) of the track map above is not in play for the Thermal Indycar race. Just the bit shown in the separate line drawing above the more detailed map.... the North and South courses.

What thy are using looks to have been designed by Mr M. Mouse.



Here is a link to "The Thermal Club" website: https://www.thermal.cc/

[Everso Biggyballies]

ILOTT TO STAY IN ARROW MCLAREN SEAT FOR TEST & THERMAL EVENT

Callum Ilott will continue to substitute for the injured David Malukas for Arrow McLaren at a test Monday, March 18 at Barber Motorsports Park and The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge on March 22-24.

Ilott will drive the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet as Malukas continues to recover from hand and wrist surgery to repair injuries suffered last month in a mountain biking accident. Ilott joins full-time drivers Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi in the Arrow McLaren lineup for both events.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Oh and admission is from US$2000 a pop. Its for VIPs only. Rif Raf and real race fans not welcome.

VIP Experience - Three-day pass includes daily lunch, beer and wine, parking, and pit access!!

Seating area with a Premium view of the track, getting the full experience of the raw horsepower while the race passes in your view lap after lap.

Daily lunch included, featuring many of the best food trucks in the area as well as other onsite food options including beer & wine.

Access to the Paddock, featuring closeup and intimate views of all the action in pit lane.

Parking included, just a short distance from your seat.

It seems they havent sold many tickets and have reduced the price.....

[MonteCristo]

Format:

The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge Qualifying

The Thursday, March 21 draw party also will include a random draw to divide the field into two groups. Each group for qualifying, which starts at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, March 23, receives a 12-minute qualifying session on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile layout to determine the starting order of their respective heat race the following day.

For the first time in a NTT IndyCar Series qualifying session, push-to-pass will be available to the drivers, with each driver receiving 40 seconds.

Timing of the session begins at the declaration of the green flag, with timing stopping at the first red flag condition for each group but not for subsequent red conditions.

The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge Heat Races

Two IndyCar Series heat races at 12:30pm ET Sunday, March 24 will determine the 12-car field for The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge. It is the first time since 2013 (Iowa Speedway) that heat racing has been featured in the IndyCar Series.

Each heat race will consist of 10 laps or be timed at 20 minutes. Laps under full course yellow will not count; however, the race clock will continue. A lap is deemed complete when the leader crosses the start-finish line. The cars’ position on track will be determined by the last timeline crossed on track at the moment of the full course yellow condition.

A new set of Firestone Firehawk tires will be allotted for the heat races. Pit stops for emergency service only will be allowed. Tires used during qualifying will be the only approved replacement tire(s) and must be approved by IndyCar. A car making an adjustment not deemed emergency in nature will be disqualified.

As in qualifying, cars will receive 40 seconds of push-to-pass in each race.

The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge

The top six advancing cars from each heat race will make up the 12-car field for The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge. The pole position and odd number starting positions are determined by the heat race winner, with the fastest time from qualifications occupying the pole and the remainder of that heat race line up in positions 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11.

The final will consist of 20 laps divided into two 10-lap sprint segments with a 10-minute “halftime” break following the completion of lap 10.

During the break, all cars will return to their pit boxes and only allowed to:

Add Shell 100% Renewable Race Fuel
Adjust front and rear wing angles and wickers
Adjust tire pressure
Attend to the driver
All rules from the heat races will apply except:

A time limit shall not apply.
40 seconds of push-to-pass will be reset after the “halftime” break.
During the second 10-lap segment, should a full course yellow occur, the cars’ actual position on track will determine the restart lineup.
Tires used during the heat race will be the replacement tire for the final, if needed and approved by IndyCar.

https://racer.com/2024/03/14/indycar-se ... ce-format/

*scratches head* Ok.

[MonteCristo]

"Open test" highlights - 29 minutes!

[Everso Biggyballies]

The two qualifying groups have been set.....

A random draw on Thursday determined which drivers are set to take part in which qualifying sessions on Saturday night.

These two qualifying sessions are set to solidify the starting lineups for the two 10-lap (or 20-minute) heat races, from which the top six drivers advance to the main 20-lap event.

The qualifying groups are effectively the groups for the heat races as well.


IndyCar at Thermal: Qualifying groups

Group 1
Josef Newgarden - No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet

Scott McLaughlin - No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet

Scott Dixon - No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Will Power - No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet

Santino Ferrucci - No. 14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet

Nolan Siegel - No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda

Rinus VeeKay - No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

Colton Herta - No. 26 Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian Honda

Kyle Kirkwood - No. 27 Andretti Global Honda

Sting Ray Robb - No. 41 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet

Christian Lundgaard - No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Felix Rosenqvist - No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda

Romain Grosjean - No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

Agustin Canapino - No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet






Group 2
Kyffin Simpson - No. 4 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Pato O'Ward - No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Callum Ilott - No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Alexander Rossi - No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Linus Lundqvist - No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Alex Palou - No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Marcus Armstrong - No. 11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Graham Rahal - No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Christian Rasmussen - No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

Marcus Ericsson - No. 28 Andretti Global Honda

Pietro Fittipaldi - No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Colin Braun - No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda

Tom Blomqvist - No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda


The heat race winner with the faster qualifying time is set to start the main event, which is split up until two 10-lap sprints and a halftime break, on the pole position, while the other race winner is set to lineup alongside him on the front row in second place.

The remaining odd positions (third through 11th place) are set to be filled from the polesitter's heat, while the remaining even positions (fourth through 12th) are set to be filled from the other.

[MonteCristo]

Qualifying Group 1:

Rank Car Driver Name C/E/T Time Speed Diff Gap Best Lap Laps
1 60 Rosenqvist, Felix D/H/F 01:38.5831 111.999 --.---- --.---- 3 3
2 3 McLaughlin, Scott D/C/F 01:38.6068 111.972 0.0237 0.0237 2 2
3 21 VeeKay, Rinus D/C/F 01:38.6283 111.948 0.0452 0.0215 2 2
4 45 Lundgaard, Christian D/H/F 01:38.6394 111.935 0.0563 0.0111 2 2
5 2 Newgarden, Josef D/C/F 01:38.7926 111.761 0.2095 0.1532 2 2
6 12 Power, Will D/C/F 01:38.8056 111.747 0.2225 0.0130 3 3
7 77 Grosjean, Romain D/C/F 01:38.8774 111.666 0.2943 0.0718 3 3
8 78 Canapino, Agustin D/C/F 01:39.5994 110.856 1.0163 0.7220 3 4
9 9 Dixon, Scott D/H/F 01:39.7074 110.736 1.1243 0.1080 2 3
10 14 Ferrucci, Santino D/C/F 01:39.7400 110.700 1.1569 0.0326 3 3
11 26 Herta, Colton D/H/F 01:39.8331 110.597 1.2500 0.0931 3 3
12 18 Siegel, Nolan (R) D/H/F 01:40.1218 110.278 1.5387 0.2887 2 3
13 27 Kirkwood, Kyle D/H/F 01:40.1268 110.272 1.5437 0.0050 3 3
14 41 Robb, Sting Ray D/C/F 01:41.5352 108.743 2.9521 1.4084 3 3

Group 2:

Rank Car Driver Name C/E/T Time Speed Diff Gap Best Lap Laps
1 10 Palou, Alex D/H/F 01:38.5675 112.017 --.---- --.---- 5 5
2 11 Armstrong, Marcus D/H/F 01:38.7575 111.801 0.1900 0.1900 5 5
3 15 Rahal, Graham D/H/F 01:38.9723 111.558 0.4048 0.2148 5 5
4 8 Lundqvist, Linus (R) D/H/F 01:39.0685 111.450 0.5010 0.0962 5 5
5 66 Blomqvist, Tom (R) D/H/F 01:39.0820 111.435 0.5145 0.0135 5 5
6 30 Fittipaldi, Pietro D/H/F 01:39.1117 111.402 0.5442 0.0297 5 5
7 7 Rossi, Alexander D/C/F 01:39.1140 111.399 0.5465 0.0023 5 5
8 6 Ilott, Callum D/C/F 01:39.2575 111.238 0.6900 0.1435 2 2
9 5 O'Ward, Pato D/C/F 01:39.4293 111.046 0.8618 0.1718 2 2
10 4 Simpson, Kyffin (R) D/H/F 01:39.9502 110.467 1.3827 0.5209 5 5
11 20 Rasmussen, Christian (R) D/C/F 01:40.2820 110.102 1.7145 0.3318 4 4
12 51 Braun, Colin (R) D/H/F 01:40.7843 109.553 2.2168 0.5023 2 5
13 28 Ericsson, Marcus D/H/F No Time No Speed 0.0000 0.0000 0 2

Report: https://racer.com/2024/03/23/rosenqvist ... mal-heats/

[John]

FFFRROOOONTTT RRROOOOWWW FFFRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[John]

Veekay and RoGro wrecks out.

FFROOOO leads.

[John]

FROOOOOO wins heat 1.

[Michkov]

Why do I feel like I'm watching an infomercial with racing during the breaks?

[Picci]

These first 10 laps are so ridiculous it’s not even funny

[Picci]

And all that tyre saving was for nothing because the right man won in the end.