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March 2002 |
Team
Goon / Sk8Shop.com Network |
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| On Saturday we gave our PR/Media manager Brad the day off so that he could go hook up with some of his old friends that are part of the premier racing series in the United States, The Indy Racing League. He headed up to the California Speedway in Fontana California, not far from the new ripping Fontana Skate Park. He found some great connections with the skate scene and Indy Racing. Vert master Sandro Dias and 1998 Indy 500 winner Eddie Cheever both share a common connection with top flight sponsor - Red Bull Energy Drink. | ||
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While Sandro was not there, a bunch of his fellow countymen from Brazil were there qualifying for Sunday's Yamaha Indy 400, like Gil de Ferran, Helio Castroneves and Airton Dare. The cars of the Indy Racing League reach speeds over 220 mph around the smooth oval track here at Fontana. With high speeds and cars weaving in and out of traffic and a level of risk associated with every turn makes Indy Racing a perfect compliment to every skaters need for action sports. |
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These 200 mile an hour projectiles are transported to the track in decked out trailers that are works of art that give props to the team's sponsors as they travel all over the country. Each trailer has a full work shop below it so that they can prepare the specialized parts for these machines with a small slip above it that can fit two fully prepared race cars. These transporters are packed with state of the art computers and serve as a mobile version of the shops they work out of in Indianapolis. |
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The 32-valve DOHC V8 Infiniti Indy engine that is found in Eddie Cheever's car is capable of producing 450 horsepower and can propell the car at speeds over 220 mph. These engines from what we are told cost major cash and every team owns a supply of them to get them through a race weekend. The high pitched roar of these engines flying around the track is pretty bitchin to hear in person, the sound over TV is just not the same as being there. The crew can put a new race engine in the car in less than 2 hours which is way faster than the jokers at the local repair shop, |
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| Each car comes in 3 parts, the "tub" - where the driver sits, the engine, and the rear where the transmission and rear wing is located. The team will take them apart after each session to inspect the parts to insure peak performance and driver safety. Fans are able to walk around the garage area and watch the crews take apart and work on the cars - there are just a ton of parts to these machines. While you are in the garage area you can get a glimpse at the drivers instructing their engineers on changes that need to be made to the car to make them go even faster. |
| After all the changes that were made to the cars in was time to qualify the cars for the the race. Each car is is given 2 laps to lay down some fast laps. They then take the best of two laps. The times and speeds are calculated using a traveling distance of 2 miles around the track, which corresponds with data registered by the computers in the car. They take the fastest car to the front of the field to the slowest and this determines which are will start the race first. Today we saw Red Bull driver, Eddie Cheever drive faster than everyone else at a speed of 221.422 mph - airplanes take off not much faster than that. |
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Once
qualifying was over they take the car back to the garage to take it apart
again and get it ready for the race. |
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