Firestone Firehawk 600 Puns

Date: April 29 2001

If there were ever a weekend which highlighted, in two different ways, the perils of open wheel racing on a high banked oval, this is it. CART headed to TMS for the first time and almost immediately hit problems. The IRL visited Atlanta, where pack racing Indycar style had its first Big One.

CART:

FORT WORTH, Texas--Championship Auto Racing Teams announced Sunday that it was postponing the Firestone Firehawk 600 Presented by Pioneer at Texas Motor Speedway due to extensive concerns over the unprecedented physical demands being placed upon its drivers.

This weekend's event would have marked CART's first-ever appearance on the 1.5-mile, 24-degree banked oval located in Fort Worth. The event has not been rescheduled at this time.

"We are postponing the Firestone Firehawk 600 Presented by Pioneer due to concerns over the physical demands placed on our drivers when traveling at speeds of more than 235 miles per hour on this 1.5-mile oval," CART President/CEO Joseph Heitzler said. "We offer our sincerest apologies to the fans and our associates at Texas Motor Speedway, but I will tell you that as CART's President and CEO, I am confident that we have exhausted every available option to find a suitable resolution to these concerns at this time."

The concerns became magnified following Saturday morning's practice session, after which several drivers reported lightheadedness or dizziness when spending stints of 20 or more laps in the cockpit. The morning's fastest practice speed was recorded by Max Papis (Miller Lite Ford-Cosworth/Lola) of Team Rahal, at 236.9 miles per hour.

That was over three miles per hour faster than the fastest practice speed registered by Kenny Brack (Shell Ford-Cosworth/Lola) on Friday afternoon (233.785 mph), and some 20 miles per hour faster than the unofficial speeds posted by Brack during an evaluation test at the speedway in December. Brack earned the pole position Saturday at an average speed of 233.447 mph.

With the increased speeds came an attendant increase in the amount of gravitational force, both lateral and vertical, experienced by the drivers while in the cockpit. On the 1.5-mile oval, drivers sustained loads of up to 5½ Gs for 18 of the 22 seconds it took to complete a single lap.

Twenty-one of the 25 drivers in the starting field reported disorientation as a result, and given the potential for a driver "grey out," or loss of consciousness, according to Dr. Steve Olvey, CART Director of Medi

Points at Motegi Are a Necessity

Even though it's early in the season, there is plenty of pressure on all but Tracy and Vasser to score well this weekend

By Marc Sproule (via the Wayback Machine archive of cart.com)

MOTEGI, Japan -- This weekend's Firestone Firehawk 500 at Motegi will be a pivotal one for any of a number of drivers in the run for this year's FedEx Championship.

Defending series champion Juan Montoya (Target Chip Ganassi Racing Toyota/Lola) has scored only one point this season -- his pole position point in snow-postponed Nazareth -- and has not finished any of the three races. If only for his frustrated psyche, it's imperative that Montoya finish, and finish high, in the order this weekend. He simply can't afford to come away from here with no points if he is to have any realistic chance at repeating his championship.

Dario Franchitti (Team KOOL Green Honda/Reynard) tied Montoya in the points last season but lost the series crown in a tiebreaker -- Montoya had more victories. So far this season, Franchitti has four times as many points as Montoya -- four. His points have come at Rio and Homestead. He too needs some serious points this weekend if he is to become a realistic contender for the title again this season.

Michael Andretti (Big Kmart Texaco/Havoline Newman/Haas Ford/Lola) was a very strong preseason pick to win this season's title. He and Franchitti are tied with four points. If Andretti leaves Japan without having scored at least in the double digits -- a 5th place or better -- he will be facing a strenuously uphill battle to fulfill the promise that the prognosticators saw.

Kenny Brack (Shell Team Rahal Ford/Reynard) was a strong preseason pick for Rookie of the Year honors with a not totally unreasonable shot at the series title, too. He has scored one less point than Andretti. He trails leading rookie point scorer Alexandre Tagliani by 15. His need for points should be evident, too.

Marlboro Team Penske Honda/Reynard teammates Gil de Ferran and Helio Castro-Neves sit 7th and 8th in the points, respectively. With only 18 points, de Ferran trails series leader Paul Tracy (Team KOOL Green Honda/Reynard) by 30, a large number of points to make up if de Ferran doesn't start soon. Castro-Neves (16 points) trails Tracy by 32, only a slightly less enviable position. Between the two of them, de Ferran's pole and 6th-place finish at Homestead are the only oval points the Penske pair has scored so far.

Like his teammate And

Hey. I am getting new tires for my mk4 Jetta. I have narrowed it down to either nitto neogen or Firestone forehand Indy 500. Has anyone used either of these or know which set would be better. Thanks.

So I’m putting my summer wheels on right now and i notice there isn’t a arrow showing proper rolling direction. Going by thread pattern looks like the dealer installed one side of the car with the pattern facing one direction and on the other side rolling opposite.

Anyone eles run these tires? Does it matter which way they run?

I’m going to have to get them changed. It’ll kill my ocd..

I am not at all a professional car driver/reviewer however after reading online about these tires I couldn't find one bad review about these tires. So I pulled the trigger and bought a set of these tires...and boy am I impressed. I felt the difference immediately in terms of grip and also road noise ( of which I was most presently surprised). Had a couple rainy days and I can say I have never experienced tires that can grip so well in the rain. I used have the falken ziex tires which were terrible in comparison, with just a bit of rain I would easily start fish tailing when putting down some power on a turn. These tires however I never had an issue in terms of grip they just love to hug the road and make the car feel so planted.

Another point in which I was was thoroughly impressed was road noise. One of my friends has the Super Sport 4s and I would have to say that these might actually be quieter than those sets of tires.

I have driven about 2000km on them and they still look fresh so I don't know how well they are in terms of wear but they look great so far. ALSO the tread pattern looks amazing on these tires I had a couple of friends complement me on how good these tires actually look.

If your on the fence about getting some summer UHP tires I would consider looking at these tires. They are simply amazing for the price that they are currently offered for. They are around 500 dollars cheaper than the pilot super sport 4s.

Can anybody attest to the experience of these tires?

Looking for a responsive grippy tire that does ok in the rain, I have a LOT of curvy back roads on my usual work routes 😁

Also considering the OEM equipment: Continental ContiProContact 's

Thinking of putting these on my 981 Cayman. If I search on tiredirect/others using the vehicle filter they don't show up. Any reason why they are not compatible with a Porsche? I have 265 40/19 on my base Cayman.

After my stock rubber wore down I decided to look into other (cheaper) options for this summer. I landed on getting a set of Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 205/40/17 tires and have been on them for about a week now in both rain and dry.

The TLDR of this would be buy these tires!

The longer version of it is that these tires to me at least feel much more comfortable than the stock tires both in terms of ride comfort and road noise. On top of that the grip in the wet is impressive to say the least! I got a lot of rain here in Oregon so wet performance was really important to me. On the stock tires I always left my TC on and was careful going around turns especially as the tires wore down further and further. These Indy 500 just keep on gripping in the wet and I haven't had any problems at all. The first day I had them out in the dry I would have sworn my car was actually faster accelerating! Probably because there was less wheel hopping or it simply just grabbed the road better. I haven't tried a launch on them yet but hope to do some auto-crossing and such in the Spring.

If you have any questions about these things fire away.

I am looking at getting these to replace my eagle F1's the Indy 500's have much better ratings on tire rack, but the thing that worries me is the tread width, the section width is the same, but theres almost an inch less in the tread width. im full stage three, and like to go around the turns, i want to run up to the dragon in may and dont want to trade too much traction for longevity. just looking for some input from you guys. thanks, also i will edit this after i get some and develop an opinion of them.

Looking for some 245/45/17 tires for my mustang and it seems like these are my top 3. The Nittos and BF Goodriches are around the same price and the firehawks are about $100 less for the set. I'm hoping to get some street/autox tires and these seem like good options. Any recommendations/feedback on these tires would be appreciated.

Date: May 19, 2001

CHAMPIONSHIP RACE TIGHT AS FedEx CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES HEADS TO JAPAN FOR FIRESTONE FIREHAWK 500 AT TWIN RING MOTEGI

DETROIT--The past two seasons have produced two of the most memorable title races in FedEx Championship Series history, and based upon the early returns, another appears imminent as the series heads offshore for the first time in 2001 for Saturday's Firestone Firehawk 500 at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan (1 p.m. ET Saturday, tape delay, ABC-TV).

Through three events, there are three ties among the top six drivers in the championship, all of whom are separated by a mere 11 points. Thus far, this year's championship battle echoes those of the recent past, particularly 1999, when Juan Montoya and Dario Franchitti finished the season tied at the top of the points standings before Montoya claimed the title based on his seven race victories to Franchitti's three.

Last year's championship race was a multi-driver shootout as five drivers entered the season finale at California Speedway with a mathematical chance at the title. Ultimately, Gil de Ferran of Marlboro Team Penske prevailed, bringing the storied Penske team its eighth CART championship and 10th Champ Car title overall.

De Ferran is off to a fast start in defense of that crown as he stands third in the title race heading into the weekend. At the moment, the pace is being set by Cristiano da Matta (Texaco/Havoline/Kmart Toyota/Lola) of Newman/Haas Racing and Paul Tracy (KOOL Honda/Reynard) of Team KOOL Green, who are knotted at the top of the championship standings with 40 points each.

Da Matta, in his first season with the Newman/Haas team, owns a victory at Mexico and a runner-up result at Long Beach among his three points-paying finishes. Tracy has been the series' most consistent driver in the early going, with third-place finishes at Mexico and Nazareth sandwiched around a fourth-place effort at Long Beach.

De Ferran (Marlboro Honda Reynard) is one of two drivers tied at 30 points, 10 off the lead. Like da Matta, he finished on the podium in his first two events, with a runner-up performance at Mexico followed by a third at Long Beach. He shares third place with 1996 series champion Jimmy Vasser (Patrick Racing Toyota/Reynard) of Patrick Racing, who has improved steadily through each of the season's first three events, with finishes of sixth at Mexico, fifth at Long Beach and fourth at Nazareth.

Paired only a point behind de Ferran and Vasser are Helio Castroneves (M

Welcome to the /r/INDYCAR race thread for the Firestone 600 at the Texas Motor Speedway

WHEN/WHERE TO WATCH

CIRCUIT INFORMATION: Texas Motor Speedway

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Because where there’s a wheel there’s a way.

Anyone have experience with these tires on a Mazda3?

Does anyone know if these tires are actually good? Not many reviews for them.

Thinking of getting these tires in 275/40/20. Was wondering who has had experience with these and what experience you had.

Welcome to the /r/INDYCAR race thread for the Firestone 600 at the Texas Motor Speedway

WHEN/WHERE TO WATCH

COURSE INFORMATION: Texas Motor Speedway

STARTING GRID

Welcome to the /r/INDYCAR race thread for the Firestone 600 at the Texas Motor Speedway

WHEN/WHERE TO WATCH

COURSE INFORMATION: Texas Motor Speedway

STARTING GRID