Saturday AM: Compare and contrast
The quirk of the IndyCar calendar that sees the Champ Car converts racing in Long Beach while their IRL counterparts travel to Japan not only means complications for series officials, but also means that the California-bounds teams and drivers have to to re-adapt to the Panoz DP01 after two races in the IRL Dallara.
Oriol Servia said that the Panoz is a great car, a newer car, and different from the Indycar, with more power, more downforce and lighter.
"As drivers, we always want more," the Catalan admitted.
Graham Rahal may not have won in a Champ Car, but took top spot in his first ever IndyCar event at St Petersburg a forntight ago. However, the 19-year old admitted that he liked what he saw in both machines.
"I obviously like the power and speed of [the DP01], but there is something from each that would go into my ideal open-wheel car," he revealed.
Saturday AM: Indy moves
While not directly relevant to the Long Beach experience, it cannot be ignored that the race is now a part of the unified IndyCar Series, so it would be remiss not to mention a couple of stories relating to the biggest race of the season, the Indianapolis 500.
According to
ESPN, veteran Davey Hamilton will be back in the field this year, but former winner Sam Hornish Jr and reigning 500/IRL champion Dario Franchitti will not.
Hamilton has apparently signed with Kingdom Racing - not one of the teams listed on the original entry list published the other week - as he continues his comeback from serious injury which required some 21 operations and two years of rehab to get im back to racing fit. He finished ninth at Indy last year.
Hornish and Franchitti, meanwhile, have attempted to quell speculation that they may step aside from their respective NASCAR rides to contest the blue riband event.
