Mid-Ohio Saturday Notebook

UPDATE #4 We mentioned below that the IndyCars were pathetically slow around Mid-Ohio compared to the Champ Cars. In this SPEEDTV.com article, Robin Miller writes, The IRL cars must be given 150-200 more horsepower for road races. They look dog slow at places like Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen and Sonoma and a Champ Car test in the Panoz in 2007 at Mid-Ohio was FIVE SECONDS a lap faster than Helio Castroneves’ pole speed with NO RUBBER on the track. Indy cars should dazzle spectators when they blast by, not make them doze off.

07/20/08 Here is the video of the Patrick/Duno confrontation. The F-word Danica used is edited out. Another video.

07/19/08 To complete the story on the argument between Patrick and Duno, After getting out of her car, Patrick quickly walked to where Duno was pitted and confronted her about getting in her way several times during the practice.

The confrontation lasted about a minute, but witnesses said it grew heated and that Duno flung a towel in Patrick's direction at one point as the two exchanged words. Milka said, "You like the show. There is no problem here, and you are not welcome here. Go away." Patrick eventually walked away.

Patrick, who appears to have a real hot-head, has previously confronted fellow drivers Dan Wheldon and Ryan Briscoe after racing incidents, downplayed the argument, saying, "I just wanted to know if she saw me out there."

On a video shot by a friend of Duno’s and shown to The Indy Star, Duno told Patrick on several occasions to “go away." When Patrick didn’t leave immediately, Duno threw a towel in Patrick’s direction, prompting Patrick to direct foul language at Duno before the minute-long incident ended.

“She came to my team and our pit box in a very bad way with bad words," Duno said. “If you come in a nice way, perfect, we can talk. If you come in a bad way, you are going to find my bad side.

“I don’t like drama, and I told her ‘go away, you are not welcome.’."

Patrick said she didn’t regret her action.

“I wanted to know if she saw me (on the track) ….. it’s hard to locate people once they get away from their car," she said. “I stayed behind the wall. I just wanted to ask what happened.

“Unfortunately, things involving me tend to evolve. I’m on the hot seat when I do something and when others do something (connected to me). It’s kind of the line that I walk because I’m popular."

Duno acknowledged she was struggling in her first Indy-car event at the track, but she issued a warning to Patrick, who has confronted Dan Wheldon and attempted to confront Ryan Briscoe in separate incidents during the past two seasons.

“I don’t like the show she likes in every race weekend," Duno said. “She can push the guys because they cannot do anything to her, but she cannot push me. We meet on equal condition (as women), and I know what kind of character I have.

“I know if somebody pushes me and finds my bad side they are going to get a problem."

07/19/08 Retraction: The quote below from Milka Duno to Danica Patrick is not correct as we got it second hand. The team told us she did not use the word b&%$#. We are going to get an exact quote from the tape of the incident, so stay tuned…….

07/19/08 Seems there was some sort of hissy fit between Danica Patrick and Milka Duno after Indy Car practice this morning. Word is that Danica Patrick stormed down to Milka's pit box (The "I can't do not wrong" Patrick is always storming somewhere. One of these days another driver is going to deck the miniscule driver and lay her right out) after the session and said to Milka "Do you even know what you are doing out there?" To which Milka supposedly threw down the rag she was wiping her face with and said "Look b&%$#, you may be able to push the boys around in this series but you are not going to push me around." Ouch, fighting words……..Bruno Junqueira was 6th in the 2nd practice group this morning and told us he is much happier with the car now. He is hoping for an overall top-10 in qualifying……..Spotted ex-Champ Car technical honcho Scot Elkins now working for IMSA's technical team and Champ Car's ex-director of technology Steve Sewell working for X-Trac transmissions. In fact between the IRL and ALMS paddocks you can find almost all the old Champ Car guys……..Ex-Forsythe team manager old-timer Phil LePan (was with the team from 1992 through 2007) was walking around the Mid-Ohio paddock looking for work in the IndyCar Series after his Grand-Am team fell apart……..The lap times for the ALMS cars and the IndyCars are again virtually identical at 1m7.7 seconds or so. By comparison Simon Pagenaud ran a 1m3s flat lap in testing at Mid-Ohio last year in his Champ Car with no rubber on the track. Mark C. reporting from Mid-Ohio