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JoeBob
12-23-02, 05:48 PM
Here's the CART Press Release:
CART Franchise Board Approves 2003 Rules

INDIANAPOLIS--A Championship Auto Racing Teams Franchise Board meeting at CART's Indianapolis headquarters Tuesday resulted in a number of positive rule changes for 2003, and also established the members of the 2003 Technical Advisory and Safety Advisory committees.
"As has been the case with all of our Franchise Board meetings in 2002, Tuesday's meeting was another productive outing for everybody involved," said CART Vice President of Racing Operations John Lopes. "We were able to agree on many changes that will enhance our race weekends throughout the 2003 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season, and we are confident that these changes will lead to better competition for our fans to enjoy in the coming year."

The rule changes will take effect at the start of the 2003 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season. Perhaps the most notable rule changes empowered the CART stewards with more flexibility in regard to penalties.

Specifically, the pit rules regarding the pit lane speed limit and race car placement in the pit box have been changed to allow officials to alter the severity of penalties to better fit the infraction. The rule regarding right of way for race cars entering and exiting pit boxes has been clarified in an effort to prevent one car from interfering with another and having a detrimental affect on the competition.

Also, competitors will not assume the lead of a race on pit lane solely based on the location of their pit box. Lead changes will only occur on the race track or upon exiting the pits.

In the event of extreme circumstances, CART stewards will now have the option of declaring a race official before half of the scheduled distance has been run. However, only 50 percent of the championship points will be awarded if a race is concluded with fewer than 50 percent of the race laps run.

The format of Champ Car race weekends was also addressed in the Franchise Board meeting, with a handful of alterations from previous years. The first Champ Car practice session at all races will be 50 minutes in length and will be followed by 50 minutes of down time, during which no support race events will be allowed on track. Teams will be allowed to continue working on their cars in their pits during the down time, which will be followed by an additional 50-minute practice session.

Road and street course qualifying will continue to be held on Fridays and Saturdays of race weekends, but the road course qualifying format has been modified to guarantee only 25 minutes of green flag time, down from 30 minutes at the end of the 2002 season. This will encourage early session participation and will aid in maintaining the time certain schedule.

In another effort to adhere to the time certain schedule, the rule covering the restart of the session clock following a red flag during qualifying has also been modified. When qualifying resumes after a red flag with two minutes or fewer remaining in the session, the clock will be started when the first competitor crosses the main timing line on the race track. Under extreme circumstances when guaranteed green time has been fulfilled, the Chief Steward may elect to end the session.

Other race weekend format rule changes include a simplification of the oval qualifying order and the start of the race-day morning warm-up session. On ovals, the qualifying order will be established by the inverse of practice times if 60 minutes or more of practice time was completed. If fewer than 60 minutes was available, the order will be determined by championship point standings. The rule regarding the scheduling of the race-day morning warm-up has been amended to allow the warm-up to take place earlier than 9 a.m. in an effort to accommodate television start times on occasion.

The 2003 aerodynamic rules were also established in Tuesday's meeting. On short ovals in 2003, the aerodynamic package that will be used will be identical to the 2002 road course package. On superspeedways, the aerodynamic package will be virtually identical to the package used on short ovals in 2002, with some modifications to the Gurney Flap on the rear wing to achieve the desired amount of drag.

Testing rules for 2003 have also been modified. The total test day allocation for 2003 will be 11 days per team entrant, with three days being allocated to CART-sanctioned open tests and the remaining eight days to be used at the team's discretion. No test days will be allowed prior to January 4, 2003, and five of the days must be used during non-blackout periods prior to May 1, 2003. The remaining three days may be used during any non-blackout period during the season.

CART will organize three test days open to all Champ Car entrants, and may organize other special test days open to all entrants should extraordinary conditions exist. Any of the three mandated open test days that are cancelled by CART, as well as days not scheduled by CART, will be added to each team's test day allocation, and appearance at CART Spring Training is mandatory.

Each entrant with a licensed rookie driver that is entered to drive in the current Champ Car season may be allotted additional test days at the sole discretion of the Chief Steward. Drivers who have not yet driven a race for a team, are replacing another driver mid-season, or have been absent for medical reasons may be allotted no more than two evaluation days per team by the CART Director of Technology and Competition. However, these evaluation tests may not be conducted at race tracks where CART Champ Car races are yet to be contested during the 2003 season.

Each team will receive an allotment of 12 dry type tires per each test day used before May 1, 2003. Additionally, each team will receive a total allotment of 24 dry type tires for use during the three testing days available after May 1. Among the items discussed in Tuesday's meeting was a proposal to eliminate the mandatory pit stop window that was introduced in 2003, but was voted down by the Franchise Board.

The 2003 Technical Advisory Committee was named, and will consist of CART Director of Technology and Competition Lee Dykstra, CART Senior Manager of Electronics Kevin Vander Laan, CART Senior Manager of Technology Jim Robinson, Herdez Competition Co-Owner and Managing Director Keith Wiggins, Team Rahal Technical Coordinator Ray Leto, Newman/Haas Racing Chief Engineer Peter Gibbons and Player's/Forsythe Racing Technical Director Bruce Ashmore.

Additionally, the 2003 Safety Advisory Committee was named and will consist of Dykstra, Vander Laan, CART Chief Orthopedic Consultant Dr. Terry Trammell, CART Senior Manager of Safety Lon Bromley, and Craig Wiggins of Lola Cars. A representative of Reynard Motorsport and a driver representative of the CART Drivers Association will also be included in the Safety Advisory Committee, and will be announced at a later time.

RaceGrrl
12-23-02, 05:59 PM
Originally posted by JoeBob
Among the items discussed in Tuesday's meeting was a proposal to eliminate the mandatory pit stop window that was introduced in 2003, but was voted down by the Franchise Board.

Am I interepreting this correctly if I assume that we will STILL have mandatory pit stop windows? Can this issue be revisited before the start of the season? I hope it changes, because the mandatory stops were awful. Glad to see the changes to the wing package though.

JoeBob
12-23-02, 06:13 PM
Thats what it looks like to me.

Hopefully, they'll take another look at that. Or, wait until teams get announced, and hand out franchises until they have enough votes to overturn it. :D

WickerBill
12-23-02, 06:26 PM
I dunno, I think they're fond of the window vs. Adrian driving slow and almost winning a championship.

WB

mnkywrch
12-23-02, 08:02 PM
I'll give them credit for trying the mandatory pit windows.

But if the 2003 cars won't have the ability to "turn down" the boost, what's the point of them?

WickerBill
12-23-02, 08:04 PM
Originally posted by mnkywrch

But if the 2003 cars won't have the ability to "turn down" the boost, what's the point of them?

Is this confirmed? I guess I assumed they'd still have "the knob" (and I don't mean Chris Kniefel)

WB

JoeBob
12-23-02, 09:56 PM
IIRC, the cars have a bunch of (5?) fuel mapping/torque settings that they can use. I don't think they change from track to track, so you could adjust the settings, but I doubt the "Fontana" mapping would be of much use at Road America.

mnkywrch
12-23-02, 10:23 PM
I'd just as soon they drop the pit windows and restrict things on the motor end.

I know what they're looking to prevent, but I don't see any evidence that mandatory pit windows helped the racing at all, outside of perhaps Fontana.

JoeBob
12-24-02, 01:15 PM
I agree. Even if the franchise board didn't eliminate them, I wonder if they could make the rule basically useless by setting the pit window to be significantly longer. (For a 100 lap race, make the pit window 51 laps)

nrc
12-26-02, 09:43 PM
I'm distrubed by the failure to drop the pit windows. Fans need to start lobbying against this if they really intend to go forward with it.

Who voted on this, anyway? Only franchise teams commited to next year?

mnkywrch
12-27-02, 03:59 PM
Originally posted by JoeBob
I agree. Even if the franchise board didn't eliminate them, I wonder if they could make the rule basically useless by setting the pit window to be significantly longer. (For a 100 lap race, make the pit window 51 laps)

Then you've still got a bad rule buried in your rulebook that could bite you at a bad time.

May as well just get rid of it.

Napoleon
12-28-02, 02:05 PM
I actually was in favor of the pit windows but with the engine package they have there is no longer any point

WickerBill
12-28-02, 11:06 PM
I hate to make myself the "new fan protector", but getting rid of that rule would sure help me in explaining the race to a casual or non fan. At least three times last year I would be saying "He has to pit on lap XX", and the person watching with me would say "uhhhh... why?"

WB

mnkywrch
12-29-02, 10:42 PM
Originally posted by WickerBill
I hate to make myself the "new fan protector", but getting rid of that rule would sure help me in explaining the race to a casual or non fan. At least three times last year I would be saying "He has to pit on lap XX", and the person watching with me would say "uhhhh... why?"

Another good point...

Mandated pit windows just seem so much like mandated wing angles and mandated rev limits and so on...

The less restrictions, the better.

Warlock!
12-30-02, 08:03 AM
I dunno yet. The only reason I disliked the mandated pit-stop last year was because the traction control screwed up the rest of the racing. With all of the different engine maps available it sounds like Adrian Fernandez could once again be in victory circle by driving slowly. I was fully in favor of them before last year, but now I'm torn. I think I'd like to see how the rule works with the new engines/rules, but I'm not gonna be too pissed off if they repeal it.

Winter Warlock!

Ziggy
12-30-02, 12:07 PM
I agree with Warlock on this one. I think the widow program might have worked better if some of the other rules had been omitted. (Like traction control) yet with enduring this past 2002 season, I would like the entire slate cleaned and start over.

The mandated pit windows were a bit silly, and I was a big proponant of no pit windows or manditory pit stops. Nothing cooks my goose more than watching a race car driver conserve fuel

Ziggy

mnkywrch
12-30-02, 12:14 PM
Originally posted by Ziggy
Nothing cooks my goose more than watching a race car driver conserve fuel

I don't mind them doing it, I just think they should do it with their right foot.

Ziggy
12-30-02, 12:34 PM
Thats what I was talking about monkeywrench. In the future, I will clarify all aspects of my post to hold up to your intense scrutiny. I think it ridiculous for a driver and engineer to be talking about dialing fuel back on extended pacelaps prior to the start of a race. So I agree. Racing should be about the fastest car with other variables thrown into place. Fuel Milage should come down to using your alloted amount as seen fit.

is too
is not

Ziggy

patm
12-31-02, 04:54 PM
You know this new aerosol Teflon goes on pretty easy....

Personally I didn't see too much of an issue with the mandatory pit stops. I guess I would of preferred no pit stops but I did notice more flat out racing and not the conservation runs of previous years.

One of the more memorable races of recent years as far as excitement for me was Gil Deferrans balls out drive knowing he'd need a splash at the end. Was his lead enough? To me he earned that win and those putzing around on conservation mode were left to question their statedgy.

Actually I'd be for a big fuel tank and no pit stops unless you wanted to for fresh rubber especially on the road coarses. To me the pit stop is a sort of manufactured aspect of the race that has little or nothing to do with the driver. Will Billybob bobble the wheel nut, will the clutch engage with the fueler still attached. I say do away with it for all but the 500 milers.

patm

JLMannin
01-06-03, 12:37 PM
Also, competitors will not assume the lead of a race on pit lane solely based on the location of their pit box. Lead changes will only occur on the race track or upon exiting the pits.

Sorry to ask a potentailly stupid question, but what does this mean, exactly?

Thanks,

John

Regarding pit stop windows: In my mind, the jury is still out on this subject. It definately neutralized the advantage of the fuel conservation run (the Jim McGee strategy), but it does make following the race difficult for a novice.

mnkywrch
01-06-03, 12:48 PM
Originally posted by JLMannin
Sorry to ask a potentailly stupid question, but what does this mean, exactly?


I think it means that you can't take the lead when you're coming into the pits.

WickerBill
01-06-03, 12:50 PM
Originally posted by JLMannin
Sorry to ask a potentailly stupid question, but what does this mean, exactly?




If Driver A has his pits before start/finish and driver B, who was behind Driver A on the track, has his pits past start/finish, Driver B must actually beat Driver A back to the racing surface before he is considered the leader.

I think that's what was meant...

WB

JoeBob
01-06-03, 12:53 PM
Originally posted by JLMannin
Sorry to ask a potentailly stupid question, but what does this mean, exactly?

Thanks,

John

Regarding pit stop windows: In my mind, the jury is still out on this subject. It definately neutralized the advantage of the fuel conservation run (the Jim McGee strategy), but it does make following the race difficult for a novice.

Here's the race situation. The track is yellow, and we're behind the pace car, getting ready to pit. I'm in first place, you're in second. My pit is before start/finish, and yours is after start/finish. My pit stop is a bit quicker than yours, and I beat you out of the pits.

On the track, there was no change in position, as I was in first before pit stops, and I was in first after pit stops. However, under the old rules, you would have been credited with leading a lap, as you crossed the start/finish line before I did. Under the new rules, you do not get credit for leading the lap, as in the pit lane, you get counted as the leader of the race only at the end of pit lane.

Make sense?

mnkywrch
01-06-03, 01:38 PM
So, basically, the S/F line in the pits is now at the end of pit lane?

JoeBob
01-06-03, 02:03 PM
Thats a good one line summary, mnky.

mnkywrch
01-06-03, 02:24 PM
Originally posted by JoeBob
Thats a good one line summary, mnky.

It's a simple concept... but they're going to have to explain it to Joe Fan.

(They've got JoeBob covered.)

JLMannin
01-06-03, 05:53 PM
Thanks for your clarification, guys. After I thought about it for a minute or two, that was what I thought it was.