[IndyCar] 2011 Season - RIP Dan Wheldon

[JR90]

Schedule

Rnd Date Race name Track Location Time (ET) TV
1 March 27 United States Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida 12:30 p.m. ABC
2 April 10 United States Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by Legacy Credit Union Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama 3:00 p.m. Versus
3 April 17 United States Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California 3:30 p.m. Versus
4 May 1 Brazil Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestlé Streets of São Paulo São Paulo, Brazil 12:00 p.m. Versus
5 May 29 United States 95th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana 12:00 p.m. ABC
6 June 11 United States Firestone Twin 275s Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas 8:00 p.m. Versus
7 June 19 United States The Milwaukee 225 Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin 3:30 p.m. ABC
8 June 25 United States Iowa Corn Indy 250 Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa 8:00 p.m. Versus
9 July 10 Canada Honda Indy Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario 2:00 p.m. Versus
10 July 24 Canada Honda Indy Edmonton Edmonton City Centre Airport Edmonton, Alberta 2:00 p.m. Versus
11 August 7 United States Honda Indy 200 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio 2:00 p.m. Versus
12 August 14 United States IZOD IndyCar 225 New Hampshire Motor Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire 3:30 p.m. ABC
13 August 28 United States Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma Infineon Raceway Sonoma, California 4:00 p.m. Versus
14 September 4 United States Baltimore Grand Prix Streets of Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland 2:00 p.m. Versus
15 September 18 Japan Indy Japan 300 Twin Ring Motegi Motegi, Japan 11:00 p.m. Versus
16 October 2 United States Kentucky Indy 300 Kentucky Speedway Sparta, Kentucky 2:00 p.m. Versus
17 October 16 United States IZOD IndyCar World Championship Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada 3:30 p.m. ABC

2011 Confirmed Drivers

#3 Helio Castroneves
#4 JR Hildebrand
#5 Takuma Sato
#6 Ryan Briscoe
#7 Danica Patrick
#8 E.J. Viso
#9 Scott Dixon
#10 Dario Franchitti
#12 Will Power
#14 Vitor Meira
#22 Justin Wilson
#24 Ana Beatriz
#26 Marco Andretti
#27 Mike Conway
#28 Ryan Hunter-Reay
#38 Graham Rahal
#67 Ed Carpenter
#77 Alex Tagliani
#78 Simona de Silvestro
#83 Charlie Kimball

[kals]

Thanks for starting the thread.

An announcement that came out today is that ALL events will use double-file restarts this season, not just ovals. That should be interesting.

What channel covers Indycar here in America?

[JR90]

ABC and Versus.

IndyCar is also rumored to have the lucky dog rule in 2011 like NASCAR.

[SBan83]

Bet the self-appointed purists of open wheel racing are having fits over Indycar following NASCAR's lead and actually doing something to improve the show for once. But I'm glad they did it. It was pathetic to watch the leader restart with a series of lapped cars between him and second place. Any details on how they'll be lined up on the restarts? Lapped cars to the back or waved around hopefully?

[JR90]

Wait and see... I don't think INDYCAR even knows.

Sounds like Tony Kanaan will be in a 3rd KV Racing car.

[kals]

Great news for TK. Now we just need to get Wheldon in a car.

[kals]

Sounds like Tony Kanaan will be in a 3rd KV Racing car.

Now confirmed

Kanaan seals KV IndyCar seat

By Matt Beer Monday, March 21st 2011, 13:45 GMT


Tony Kanaan has secured a last-minute 2011 IndyCar seat with confirmation that he will drive KV Racing Technology's third car this season.

The 2004 champion parted company with Andretti Autosport at the end of last year, and then lost his planned 2011 drive with De Ferran Dragon Racing when a sponsorship shortfall caused Gil de Ferran's squad to close.

But he will now join Takuma Sato and EJ Viso in a third Group Lotus-backed car at KV.

Team boss Jimmy Vasser said: "I think Tony is a great addition to our team. He, along with Taku and EJ gives KVRT - Lotus a very strong driver line-up and one I am sure can compete for podium finishes and race wins. Tony's knowledge and experience will be extremely valuable to our team."

Kanaan revealed that he had talked to KV before signing for De Ferran Dragon last winter.

"Jimmy and I started talking about joining forces at the end of last season, but the timing was not ideal and I ended up signing with Gil," he said. "When I became a free agent in mid-February, calling Vasser seemed like a natural thing to do since KVRT was one of the top teams still looking for a driver.

"Jimmy and I go back a long way, we were rivals during the CART days, but more than that, we have always been good friends, which helped a lot with our negotiations."

The Brazilian is not concerned that the deal came together too late to allow him to test with KV before this weekend's season-opener in St Petersburg.

"I've spent the last six months looking for sponsorship and not thinking about racing so I missed all the pre-season testing, but I really can't complain," said Kanaan.

"With a group of guys like Vasser and his team backing me, plus the help of my new team-mates, Takuma Sato and EJ Viso, the only thing I can say is that I'm ready to do what I do best, drive a racecar and push hard to give KVRT - Lotus their first IndyCar win."

[strad]

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced Monday that Paul Tracy will drive an additional Dallara-Honda for the team at the Indianapolis 500 this year, with backing from WIX Filters. WIX will also serve as an associate sponsor on the No. 22 car of Justin Wilson for the 2011 season.

"Obviously, it feels great to be back with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing," said Tracy, who drove for the team three times last season. "It's been a chaotic winter, but it's good to have the deal stowed away with a competitive program lined up with WIX Filters and DRR for the Indianapolis 500.

"I'm really happy to have signed a deal with Dennis [Reinbold] and Robbie [Buhl]. It's great to be with a team like DRR – they have quality equipment and a solid engineering group with Larry Curry. It's a relief to have this deal done from that standpoint. I'm super-excited, and want to thank WIX Filters for placing confidence in me as their brand ambassador at the Indy 500."

Team co-owner Robbie Buhl said, "Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is extremely happy to welcome WIX Filters to the team for the Indianapolis 500 and for the 2011 season. We have worked hard to maintain a strong relationship with our sponsors and to build new ones. We couldn't be happier to have WIX Filters on board with us and we look forward to growing with them in the future. We are also very excited to have Paul drive the WIX Filters car. He's a great personality and driver and we believe he will be very competitive during the Indy 500."

WIX designs, manufactures and distributes products for automotive, diesel, agricultural, industrial and specialty filter markets. Its product line includes oil, air, cabin interior, fuel, coolant, transmission and hydraulic filters for automobiles, trucks and off-road equipment.

"WIX has a strong history of racing excellence, from dirt tracks and drag strips to super speedways, and it is with great anticipation that we join forces with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for our first expedition into IndyCar racing," said Jeff Blocher, vp of sales for WIX Filters. "With this year marking the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, there could be no better time for WIX to make its debut into this exciting competition. We look forward to sharing the WIX brand with the millions of IndyCar Series fans around the globe."

Tracy joins full-time drivers Justin Wilson and Ana Beatriz in Dreyer & Reinbold's Indy 500 lineup. Although he failed to qualify with KV last year, Tracy finished ninth in the 2009 event and came very close to winning in 2002, when he was officially listed as second to Helio Castroneves after a controversial late yellow flag call that Tracy felt unfairly deprived him of victory.

[Cheeveer]

Meh, I did an Indycar thread before this one. Search first, create thread later.

[kals]

Hmmm, I don't think I was the only one that missed that one. Looking back at all the threads on page one it took me a while to find, and when I did find it I thought it was purely on the end of season $5m bounty race. The 2011 was a little lost in the thread title.

I'll merge the threads later.

[kals]

Oriel Servia has been confirmed as Newman Haas' sole driver for this weekend's race at St Pete.

[JR90]

25 cars on the Entry List: http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/ ... rylist.pdf

[JR90]

Meh, I did an Indycar thread before this one. Search first, create thread later.

You posted the Las Vegas challenge. Didn't realize you meant it as the season thread.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=12023

[kals]

25 cars on the Entry List: http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/ ... rylist.pdf

Link doesn't work, but then I went on Indycar.com and the link on there didn't work either. Good old Indycar.com...

[kals]

Dale Coyne has confirmed that James Jakes and Seb Bourdais will drive for his team in 2011.