Hello, Internet. Sorry that this is on Monday, not Friday. I was traveling back and forth from my Hoosier Homeland for a memorial service. Another quick apology, because this post is not the one I wanted to be writing right now. I had hoped to give you Race Scores from that most awesome of all cinder-track bicycle races: the Little 500 at my Alma Mater: Indiana University. I'm still going to do this, but I can't until official results of the race (including laps completed) are posted, and the IU Student Foundation hasn't done that yet. So, some day when you least expect it, there will be college bicycle scores here on a professional auto racing blog.
So, here's what we're going to do instead. I present to you the most and least surprising (to me) score of each race so far. So, let's hop in the Way Back / Florida Machine and get to it:
St. Pete
Most Surprising: Dario Franchitti with a Race Score of -2.91. I REALLY expected Franchitti to come out of the gates better than crashing out on lap 18. You can chalk this up to being a fan. (What can I say? My name's Guido, it seems logical that I should support the guy with the most Italian name in the series.) Objectively, he never (with brief, brief exceptions) really looked like he got a handle on the DW-12 in 2012. I shouldn't have been surprised. But, I was.
Least Surprising: James Hinchcliffe with a Race Score of 67.82. Now hear me out. Remember this was the fourth-best score of the race. And, Hinch won. And, I'm saying that I'm not surprised by that. I knew it would be hard for Hinch to put up a big number starting in P4 (the new formula helps with that somewhat), and I didn't think he had a dominant car in qualifying. So, I wasn't surprised that his winning Race Score didn't crack the top 3.
Barber
Most Surprising: Tristian Vautier with a Race Score of 19.23. I expected Vautier to put up a HUGE number at Barber. I really did. I was smitten with that car after qualifying, and early in the race, I seemed to be validated. But, something went sideways and Vautier finished P10. Losing six spots, and not leading any laps (admittedly, leading is hard to do at Barber) is a recipe for a bad score, and I didn't see it coming for Entrant Number 55.
Least Surprising: Charlie Kimball with a Race Score of 47.87. I'm saying it's least surprising cause I called it in my Twitter predictions. He started fifth. He finished fourth. He had the sixth-best score. Sometimes, I make myself feel smart (only sometimes...)
Long Beach
Most Surprising: Mike Conway with a Race Score of -12.04. I picked him to win. Now, I know that Race Scores don't totally correlate to finish. But, a score of -12.04 should give you a pretty good indication that Conway did not win. Former winner. Competitive car. VERY surprising result. (Honorable mention to Ana Beatriz with a positive surprise scoring a 41.67)
Least Surprising: JR Hildebrand with a Race Score of 55.56. I know what you're saying "What? Was JR even in the race, and if he really did score a 55.56 and finish P5, how are you not surprised by that, Guido?" Here's why. He scored a 67.31 and finished P5 at Long Beach in 2012. JR had a reasonable run at Barber, and coming to California (where he's from) and a track that he seems to have figured out, I wasn't in the least bit shocked to see JR pull down a substantial number.
Upcoming
Sao Paulo stuff starts up this weekend. Look for a preview blog on Friday, as well as Twitter predictions after the grid is set. Then, you know the drill with a recap afterwards in the first part of next week.
Let's go racing! (Put that into Google translate for Portuguese for this week! I'd do it myself, but I didn't)
-- Guido
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