I’ve very much enjoyed catching up on the IndyCar series with the Fast Forward highlights.
30 minutes is EXACTLY the right time for highlights of a two hour race. F1 has 7 minute highlights, which is enough for the start, some spins and crashes, a few overtakes, and the end. You don’t get a feel for the race though, like someone dropping back through the pack and then catching back up, or long spells where someone is looking to get past a lapped car or something. Formula E races are just an hour long anyway, and their extended highlights have about 45 minutes of racing, removing just the red and yellow flag periods and things like that.
So even though IndyCar post the entire races to watch later, I’ve preferred the 30 minute highlights.
Also, because IndyCar isn’t in the news and generally in the air, I can watch way later and not know the result already. With Formula 1 the result just randomly turns up on TVs in airports, which is annoying. Also a sponsor of a F1 team advertised to me on Twitter, by reposting the official F1 account for some reason, spoiling the race result (even though I didn’t mind as I was only going to watch the 7 minute highlights). I don’t follow F1 accounts for this very reason… so don’t insert spoilers into my twitter feed!
The MSG network does the same thing. The day after a hockey game they will replay it cut down to 60 minutes. They take out all the time that play is stopped, uninteresting play, etc. It’s good.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the season so far. I’ve been saying this since the switch to the new chasis and engine duel between Honda and Chevy, but to my mind, Indycar has had some of the best on track action going for a long time.
My favorite driver is Will Power, a driver for Team Penske, a long time mainstay of the series, and I’d love for him to win the Indy 500, but I’m actually rooting for a part timer this year. Helio Castroneves is a 20 year veteran of Indycar/CART, and he’s won 3 Indy 500s. This season, he’s focusing on Penske’s entry into IMSA endurance racing driving their Acura LMP2 car, and he’s had good success there, but he’s back in Indycar for the already posted Grand Prix of Indianapolis, where he placed well, and the 500. It would be such a great story to see Helio win one last 500 before he probably retires from the series for good.
The Indy 500 will be held this weekend. I’ve found as much complete race coverage as possible in good shape of every race from 1967 to 2017 with the exceptions of 1972 and 1976 on Youtube and put it all together in one massive playlist. If nothing else, watch the intro for Mario Andretti’s final 500, the 1994 race.
And so, 24 years later, would you agree that the intro tells you who Mario Andretti is, why you should care about him, and gets you excited to see what he can do in his last Indy 500?
So Will ended up winning, which was nice, but this has to have been the worst 500 since 2012. The mix of an unusually warm day mixed with the new chasis having reduced downforce meant a very dull race with almost no passing. It might end up being okay in highlight form, but I would not bother with the full replay.
Even crazier is someone like Chris Frome attacking a downhill section after a summit. He goes so fast that the only way to film him is by helicopter, as it’s way too dangerous to follow with a camera bike or car.
This isn’t one of those descents, but probably one his best known. Clocks 87 kmph. Also you can spot the moment when he wins the stage, right when they reach the summit, the other leaders pause to take drink, and Frome just fucking goes for it:
That spurt was insane! According to Strava, I’ve done ~65kph downhill on a fully-loaded bike, and it was one of the most terrifying things I’ve done. I can’t imagine going that much faster on purpose.
That was with breaks so I didn’t speed too much (I think the speed limit was 55kph) or overtake the automobiles. Hokkaido’s not too hilly, but there are some places where I think I could’ve hit at least ~75kph if I’d given it some mustard.
What doesn’t help is that there is something about my road bike such that it is very good at coasting. It must be better wheels or less friction or something. Other people in front of me will be pedaling downhill, yet when I coast I will start gaining on them very quickly! It’s scary!
Just be careful with it. I had a boss leave for lunch at my midtown broker dealer job and not come back for a year due to a downhill coasting bicycle accident. The ER people genuinely assumed he was on a motorcycle when they saw the extent of the damage. Had a helmet on too or he’d be dead.
For sure. I wouldn’t even consider doing something like that anywhere I’ve been in the US, but I always wore safety gear, and I’ve found that Japanese roads are generally well maintained and drivers give people on bikes (outside of cities) a wide berth.