<![CDATA[Jalopnik: belle isle]]> http://tags.jalopnik.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jalopnik.com.png <![CDATA[Jalopnik: belle isle]]> http://jalopnik.com/tag/belleisle http://jalopnik.com/tag/belleisle <![CDATA[Detroit's 2008 Belle Isle Grand Prix: IRL Race Result Tainted By Controversy, Prickish Fans]]> Last weekend saw the second iteration of the reborn Belle Isle Grand Prix and we were right there, enjoying the spectacle played out in weather so perfect Roger Penske couldn't have paid for better. Aside from a couple spin outs, Sunday's Indy Racing League run was largely unremarkable until lap 72, when things got very interesting. Helio Castroneves had been leading Justin Wilson and Tony Kanaan for the bulk of the race, but officials ordered Castroneves to yield to Wilson after aggressive blocking across the entire track. Helio gave way and Wilson eventually pulled away, opening up a lead and taking the checkered flag. Normally this would be a non-issue, as Helio was clearly blocking, but that he was issued no warning first, as is customary, has many of his fans rubbed the wrong way — as you can tell from the video.

Indeed, on the victory lap, Wilson decided he'd do a victory donut right in front of the Corvette Racing chalet, but humorously stalled it. We missed the stall, but we caught tail end of the resulting drunken tirade from a nameless Castroneves fan as Wilson was pushed to the corner for a start. We have no idea why she was screaming about transvestites and McDonalds — she's probably got a problem with their refusal to discriminate against them, but whatever.

In any case, the sentiment was shared as there were strong boos on the awards stand from the crowd in one of the saddest displays of fan assholery we've seen in a long time. We're fine with the sentiment that it was a questionable call, but Helio had 17 laps to get ahead of Wilson and couldn't manage. Too bad, that's racing. Booing the winner is just bad form.

In any case, here are the full results, and we'd like you to chime in on this controversy: Tell us what you think about the blocking, the penalty, and the fans' reaction.

[IndyCar] Partial photo credit to Alex Conley

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5044548&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Jalopnik Does The Detroit Grand Prix At Belle Isle]]> Racing's returned to Belle Isle in Detroit and we'll be there to cover all of the ALMS and IndyCar action live. Keep your eyes on our Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix tag throughout the weekend for all the hot racing action.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295733&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[And in other non-Detroit Grand Prix racing...]]> And in other non-Detroit Grand Prix racing news — anyone watching the Nascar race in Cali tonight? [Jayski]

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295899&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick Go First, Second In Crash-Filled Finish To Detroit Grand Prix IndyCar Race]]> Tony Kanaan wins the IndyCar race here at the Detroit Grand Prix, and Danica Patrick took second place in her best ever finish after a shocking last lap and a half. Just before the white flag came up a number of drivers were involved in some "contact" that included "the wall" and "other drivers." Oh and Dan Wheldon came in third despite thrashing his car today earlier in practice— who woulda thunk it? We'll have more shortly — full results below the jump.

1 Tony Kanaan (11) ... 1:13.8906 100.852 47 1:55.5276 64.504 89 D/H/F Pit
2 Danica Patrick (7) 0.4865 1:14.9125 99.476 65 1:49.0264 68.350 89 D/H/F Pit
3 Dan Wheldon (10) 1.2207 1:15.5578 98.626 62 1:46.8565 69.738 89 D/H/F Pit
4 Darren Manning (14) 1.9217 1:15.7840 98.332 8 1:46.6266 69.889 89 D/H/F Pit
5 Kosuke Matsuura (55) 1 lap 1:16.8399 96.981 24 1:25.4777 87.181 88 D/H/F Pit
6 Dario Franchitti (27) 26.7568 1:13.5110 101.373 65 3:46.3920 32.916 88 D/H/F Pit
7 Buddy Rice (15) 2 laps 1:14.9325 99.450 66 1:17.2492 96.467 87 D/H/F Down
8 Scott Dixon (9) 0.3174 1:13.9671 100.747 47 1:17.0664 96.696 87 D/H/F Down
9 AJ Foyt IV (22) 5.8999 1:15.9727 98.088 84 1:15.9865 98.070 87 D/H/F Down
10 Ed Carpenter (20) 3:22.0789 1:16.5793 97.311 15 1:25.3308 87.331 87 D/H/F Pit
11 Scott Sharp (8) 7 laps 1:16.6533 97.217 45 1:29.9598 82.837 82 D/H/F Pit
12 Sam Hornish Jr (6) 14 laps 1:15.9201 98.156 20 1:46.2941 70.107 75 D/H/F Pit
13 Tomas Scheckter (2) 22 laps 1:15.0292 99.321 64 1:16.0919 97.934 67 D/H/F Accident
14 Helio Castroneves (3) 0.1228 1:14.0702 100.607 46 1:15.9849 98.072 67 D/H/F Accident
15 Vitor Meira (4) 58 laps 1:16.2266 97.761 13 1:59.8095 62.199 31 D/H/F Accident
16 Sarah Fisher (5) 60 laps 1:19.4239 93.826 21 2:02.6506 60.758 29 D/H/F Accident
17 Marco Andretti (26) 62 laps 1:15.0482 99.296 24 1:46.7042 69.838 27 D/H/F Mechanical
18 Ryan Hunter-Reay (17) 65 laps 1:15.2302 99.056 20 1:25.5628 87.094 24 D/H/F Mechanical

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295874&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[OMG! Is that really Danica in the lead?!?...]]> OMG! Is that really Danica in the lead?!? Oh wait, no — she just hasn't pitted in a while.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295869&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Sarah Fisher is down and out — and...]]> Sarah Fisher is down and out — and yup, it was in the first turn. Who knew? Oh wait...we did. We're totally winning fifty bucks or whatever.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295865&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Dan Wheldon Has The Best In-Car Chatter Of The Detroit Grand Prix So Far]]> Best in-car chatter so far was Dan Wheldon and his crew chief right before the green flag came up:

Dan Wheldon:

"Do the obvious things right, do the obvious things right, that's what I forgot this morning — do the obvious things right."

Pit Chief: "
No shit, sherlock"
]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295860&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[The Detroit Grand Prix Indy Car Race Is Go!]]> Green flag is out here on Belle Isle as we're ready to get this IndyCar action at the Detroit Grand Prix up and running...and we're off!

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295859&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Mini Scooters: The Official Paddock Transport Of Danica Patrick And All Of IndyCar]]> First it was Marco Andretti on his li'l scooter and now we've caught Danica Patrick on one just outside of the paddock here on Belle Isle at the Detroit Grand Prix. Which got us noticing there's a lot of these things out here today. Here's our gallery of the little Paddock cruisin' moped-looking things. We're going to walk on over to the grandstand now for the start of the race — we'll bring you an update shortly.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295856&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[IndyCar Fans At The Detroit Grand Prix Are Like Vultures, Clawing At The Flesh Of Marco Andretti]]> I'm telling you, the IndyCar fans here at the Detroit Grand Prix — they're like vultures, hungry for the flesh of young drivers. Maybe they're not as bad as Nascar fans, but certainly worse than the countless dozens of fans in the paddock yesterday for ALMS racing. We happened to be walking through the paddock when IndyCar driver Marco Andretti, speeding through on his little scooter from one trailer to another, gets greeted with a "Marco!" Unfortunately, young Marco's not yet old enough to know he's not supposed to stop and yell "Polo!" So as he stops the scooter to turn and figure out if the name-caller is someone he should be stopping for, within less than the time necessary to yell "Fish out of water," he's been mobbed by dozens of flesh-hungry adoring signature-seeking fans. We give the kid credit for stopping and signing a few, although it became...

...clear after a few swipes of the pen he'd maybe found himself in a situation where he'd be too busy signing autographs to, you know, race and stuff. Plus we're fairly certain the vultures would have stripped his flesh neatly from his bones in order to sell little Andretti flesh-strips on eBay and finance new rolls of indoor-outdoor carpeting. He almost had to push people out of his way with his scooter tire to get the li'l bike through and himself out of harms way. We're telling ya, this racing stuff's more dangerous than we thought. Keep following the rest of our flesh-hungry coverage of the return of racing to Detroit at our Detroit Grand Prix tag.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295840&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[How Did Dan Wheldon Already Crash His IndyCar At The Detroit Grand Prix?]]> IndyCar warm-up just finished, and the only news of note was Dan Wheldon in the #10 Target car. Wheldon managed to get himself into a bit of a dustup with a wall (Ben thinks it was another car, but neither of us is really 100% certain — the point is he dirtied up his car) in one of the later practice laps. We're assuming it's not a race-ending automotive injury — despite the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team having to tow the Honda-powered IndyCar back through the paddock to the team trailer. Never you mind the detachment of that there rear spoiler, we're pretty sure it'll buff out. Oh yeah and Team Penske's Helio Castroneves made contact with Scott Dixon, sending the Indy Racing League points leader went tail-first into the tires in turn three, crumpling the left rear portion of the rear wing.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295831&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Five Questions For Today's Detroit Grand Prix IndyCar Race]]> We're up and runnin' today from the Corvette chalet here in the middle of the Detroit River to finish off our Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix coverage with some hot IndyCar racing action. So whether you're coming to the race today, watching it on ABC at 3:30 or reading our live-blog here (hint-hint) here's five questions we've got for the race today that maybe you can help us to answer:

1.) Can Detroit native Roger Penske make the Detroit Grand Prix a one-two punch with a win today by Helio Castroneves after Penske Racing's Romain Dumas piloted his Porsche RS Spyder to the win in yesterday's ALMS? No pressure Helio.

2.) We've got to ask it, mostly 'cause she's sitting in seventh in overall points — can Danica Patrick win her first IndyCar race?

3.) Who'll be the first driver to take a car into a concrete barrier today?

4.) Given you've now answered the last question, here's one that's just as important — which concrete barrier will take the first hit today? Will it be in turn one? Turn two?

5.) Will Tony Kanaan take down Target Chip Ganassi racer Scott Dixon today in a fit of protective rage over Dario Franchitti?

Racing starts today at 3:45, but we'll have coverage throughout the entire day, so keep your eyes on our Detroit Grand Prix tag for the hottest in racing action.]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295817&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Spoiler Alert! Penske Racing's Romain Dumas Wins In Last Second Stunner!]]> The home town boy's team made it happen when it counted here at the Detroit Grand Prix — at the very last second. On the 106th lap, Romain Dumas took his Porsche RS Spyder to the checkered flag here on Belle Isle, propelling Penske Racing to the win, and making Detroit native and Penske Racing owner, Roger Penske, a very happy man. More to come shortly. Take a look back through the ALMS fun we've been having here on Belle Isle in our Detroit Grand Prix tag — and keep checking it for more through tomorrow's IndyCar action.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295808&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Looking for live timing and scoring of the...]]> Looking for live timing and scoring of the ALMS race at the Detroit Grand Prix? [IMSA]

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295802&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Helio's Still The Man, Snags The Big Pole For Detroit Grand Prix IndyCar Race]]> Yup, Helio's still the man — mostly because now he's sitting atop the pole for tomorrow's IndyCar race with a speed of 103.401 mph for Team Penske. That's almost as hot as the two lovely ladies he had with him last year at Indy. [Detroit News]

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295799&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[First report in - #22 Esperante loses brakes...]]> First report in - #22 Esperante loses brakes but all is well, some rubbing between an LMP and a Porsche and one showing of the pace car. Early leaders: LMP1- MkNish (Audi), LMP2 - Briscoe (Porsche), GT1 - Magnussen (Corvette), GT2 - Salo (Ferrari)

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295793&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[The Penske Porsches Are Coming! The Penske Porsches Are Coming!]]> The Corvettes aren't the only ones heading out the paddock. With the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix ALMS race just 45 minutes away, the Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyders have up, revved and run their 480 horsepower engines out of the paddock just the same as their yellow brethren. These are the same Penske Porsches that seem to be running rather well this morning during the practice sessions.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295783&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[The ALMS Race Is About To Start, Here Come The Corvettes]]> The Corvettes are leaving the paddock and heading over to the track. Enjoy the bright yellow beauty, or as Nick Hogan would call it — bright yellow P***y magnetism. Watch out for the dropping panties.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295779&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Ben's down at the autograph session for...]]> Ben's down at the autograph session for the ALMS drivers. He should be back shortly to show us his pics. Yup, any minute now. Where the #$%@ is he?!?!

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295765&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[The Corvette C6.R Comes Out To Play — Err — Practice]]> With IndyCar's Saturday practice session over here at the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix it's time for the ALMS cars to get a chance to burn up some rubber and turn a tire or two into little rubber pellets for collection in the corners of the Belle Isle track. Ben caught one of the Corvette C6.R's as it gets ready to rub that rubber off courtesy of the big 7.0-liter 560 HP engine. Keep your eyes on our Detroit Grand Prix tag — we'll have more of our live coverage from Belle Isle coming throughout the weekend.

]]>
http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=295763&view=rss&microfeed=true