2011 IZOD IndyCar Series - Kentucky Indy 300 [Full race]

[KoenSmit91]

Okay, I never watched this kind of racing, but I wondered what it was after all commotion on Dan Wheldon's death. Could anybody explain to me why this is cool? It looks like NASCAR with very fast cars to me (not to much difficult corners, or other ways to differ in technique). And this little screen with 'overtakes left', what does that mean? Thanks.

[hcram]

I'm no expert, I prefer road racing, V8 Supercars, F1, the Indycars on road courses, but as far as I'm aware, although as a spectator oval racing (in my opinion at least) is rather boring, it takes incredible amounts of skill to do. The drivers are going ridiculously fast, nose to tail, crowded tracks, picking which lines to pick. Although the corners aren't particularly sharp, when traveling at these speeds on ovals (hitting speeds of around 225 mph, or 360 kph) , they're fighting understeer,

[hcram]

@hcram and oversteer the cars are incredibly twitchy, as you could see with the crash that took Dan Wheldon's life. There's also various strategies that come into play on top of regular fuel and tyre management etc, that all types of motorsport have to deal with, but they have a large amount of drafting strategy to employ. Normal road racing you have drafting, but not to the same extent as oval racing where when you spend so much time behind other racers it becomes

[hcram]

@hcram a vital part of your race strategy. There's a lot more going on than just "hold the acellerator, turn left." It's much like soccer, not overly exciting to watch, but requiring incredible amounts of skill to perform. Hope that explains a little bit. haha.

[quasiphatpaul]

@KoenSmit91 Overtakes left is like KERS in F1. They get to press the button like 20 times a race to get an extra 20-50 HP for ten seconds.

[quasiphatpaul]

@quasiphatpaul Don't trust my added hp figure. It's most likely wrong.