Celebrate Pi Day!

Celebrate Pi Day - March 14th

Mmmm. Pi Day! The nerdy holiday celebrated by math geeks worldwide. This is the day we gather around to celebrate that amazing little (long) number, pi.

Pi, approximately 3.14159, is the mysterious mathematical constant (number) that represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter.

Pi has its day, appropriately, on March 14 (3/14). Often a Pi Day celebration will have an extra special event set for pi minute (at 1:59pm). In the UK, Pi Approximation Day is often celebrated on July 22 (22/7) as 22 divided by 7 is an approximation for pi.

This day brings more fun to math classes around the world then anything else (second only to Math League). I wish you a very Happy Pi Day 2012!

Happy Leap Day!

Once every four years Leap Year comes…but why? It turns out ancient Egyptians discovered it takes the Earth a little longer than a year to travel around the Sun—365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to be exact.

So, what will you do with the extra day?

Bald Spot Sports Busy with New Dallara IndyCar

Updated: Dec 14, 2011 10:59 PM EST
By Richard Essex - bio

New Indy car means local jobs

INDIANAPOLIS - Travis Cobb is one of the owners of Bald Spot Sports. He also helps load trucks, works the assembly line, operates most of the machinery and does design work.

"Some last minute modifications to some designs," Cobb said. "It will be a late night, so it will be fun and exciting. That is why we are in the business."

Cobb is busy building seats for race cars, Indianapolis-made cars for the IndyCar series with design changes said to be safer for drivers. Cobb's business is one of 70 vendors building parts for the new Dallara cars, a project which is also creating jobs for central Indiana

"We've probably doubled our sales 2 to 3 times," said Cobb.

Race car parts are a staple for the company. The company is also making impact liners for football helmets, several of which are already being used by NFL players. Recently, the company has been asked to help develop a new line of child safety seats.

Bald Spot Sports will Donate a new toy with every Creafoam Seat Kit order!

We're donating a toy with every seat kit order!
In the spirit of giving this holiday season, we’ll be donating a toy to Toys for Tots for every seat kit order placed now through Dec 22nd. Place your order today!

Bald Spot Sports brings IndyCar technology coming to child safety seats

Updated: Nov 24, 2011 8:37 AM EST

By Richard Essex - bio

COLUMBUS -

The safety of an IndyCar could be coming to passenger vehicles.

Eyewitness News was recently granted exclusive access to high speed crash tests. Those tests are leading to some incredible innovations that will keep your children safer.

Tests involving child car seats show what can happen in a crash. The Dorel Juvenile Group, the largest manufacturer of child safety seats in United States, is in Columbus, and they're interested in making sure their youngest customers have the greatest chance of survival in the event of a wreck.

IndyCar fans have no doubt seen crashes where the driver smashes into a wall but gets out virtually unharmed. Dorel is working to bring the safety features that protect the driver to their child car seats.

Dorel found a partner in Bald Spot Sports, the company that supplied most of the drivers' seats in last Indianapolis 500. The secret is the foam along with some proprietary designs.

'We have had race car drivers absolutely go crazy already. They know this is coming and they are saying, 'Hey, you know, I want this for my kid now. I know what it takes to protect me. Get this out for me now,'" said Barry Mahal, Dorel.

That is exactly what is happening - a car seat as safe as an IndyCar driver's seat.

"It is very evident that if we can start to design out seats around some of the most violent crashes in the world then we will have a pretty good ability to keep your child safe," Mahal said.

In a car crash, there is likely to be more than one impact. Most car seats today are tested and designed to hold your child in place for that "one impact." But in reality the car seats need to protect a child against three or four devastating impacts while keeping the spine aligned and their head protected.

"With intrusion you have objects from other vehicles or another vehicle coming in on the occupant so this is all designed to keep that incoming part of the car or automobile away from the child," Mahal explained.

The seats have not gone into production yet. Dorel is anticipating a few "race car safe" child safety seats to be available in spring of 2012. A few prototypes maybe available sooner and there are already race car drivers lining up for those.

We'll keep you posted on the progress and tell you when the new seats are available in stores.

Miller: IndyCar Has 'Dodged Bullets'

updated: 10/24/2011 7:53:25 AM
Miller: IndyCar Has 'Dodged Bullets'

InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report

IndyCar officials and series drivers are slated to meet today in Indianapolis to discuss safety. The session will follow a weekend of services to honor Dan Wheldon, who died after a crash during the season-ending IndyCar event in Las Vegas. Longtime Motorsports Journalist Robin Miller says Indy-style racing has "dodged bullets for 15 years" on high-banked ovals like the venue in Vegas. He believes the series should return to ovals, which are better suited for open-wheel racing. Miller shared his thoughts on Wheldon and where IndyCar goes from here during a conversation with Inside INdiana Sports Contributor Bill Benner.

Today's drivers' meeting is not mandatory. Some will not be able to attend after taking part in the Gold Coast 600 over the weekend in Australia. Sebastien Bourdais won the Dan Wheldon Memorial Trophy as the top international driver in the event.

Wheldon's death is not the only tragedy marring global motorsports this month.

Motorcycle driver Marco Simoncelli died this weekend from injuries suffered in lap two of the Malaysian Grand Prix. SpeedTV.com reports officials ended up canceling the race.

Simoncelli had success at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway winning the 250cc race in 2009. He finished 12th in this year's MotoGP and seventh in the 2010 event.

Source: Inside INdiana Business, SpeedTV.com

October 24, 2011

News Release

A statement from Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Belskus on the death of MotoGP competitor Marco Simoncelli from injuries suffered in the Grand Prix of Malaysia on Sunday, Oct. 23:

�We are deeply saddened at the passing of Marco Simoncelli. He was one of the most charismatic figures in the World Championship and had a fantastic future ahead of him in MotoGP. Marco was one of the most popular riders at the MotoGP event at Indianapolis, as his talent on the motorcycle and his ability to connect with fans both were very special. We extend our sincere sympathies to his family, team and fans.�

Simoncelli, 24, from Italy, competed twice in the MotoGP class at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, finishing seventh in 2010 and 12th in 2011. He won the 250cc race in 2009 at IMS. Simoncelli was the 2008 250cc World Champion.

Source: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Another chance for Cunningham to shine

VOXY.co.nx Thursday, 13 October, 2011 - 11:17

This weekend's 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series final at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the United States will provide Kiwi driver Wade Cunningham with another chance to shine.

The 27-year-old former Firestone Indy Lights series champion finished seventh in only his second complete IndyCar race at the penultimate round of this year's IndyCar series in Kentucky a fortnight ago and heads to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a clear idea of what he would like to do in the final.

"The goals are still pretty simple," he said this week. "The first is to avoid trouble and the second is to finish the race. If we do those two things we know we have the potential for a top five finish because my team, Sam Schmidt Motorsports, has been competitive all year on these types of tracks.

"In terms of myself and the guys running the #17 car we need to improve our pit stops, because to be competitive with Ganassi (who Cunningham's compatriot and former series champion Scott Dixon drives for) and Penske we can't afford to leave anything on the table. But Kentucky was my first weekend working with the car's engineer so we are expecting to build from that and we believe we have all the ingredients to improve on our Kentucky result."

This weekend Cunningham will be flying the flag for sponsors Play Again, Air Ride Pallet, Creatherm, Bald Spot Sports and ALC, the group of backers who have enabled him to make his three round debut in this year's IZOD IndyCar Series.

The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a 2.4km (1.5 mile) D-shaped oval similar in layout to the Kentucky Motor Speedway but with progressive banking up to a maximum of 20 degrees which is considerably more than Kentucky. Cunningham says he is also expecting the track surface to be smoother which he believes will produce more 'pack' racing than was seen at Kentucky.

As befits a season finale the grandly named World Championship presented by Honda meeting has attracted a bumper 34-car field made up of drivers representing 12 different countries.

The usual 20+ strong field has been supplemented this weekend by entries from the likes of former series regulars Tomas Scheckter from South Africa, and both Alex Tagliani and Paul Tracey from Canada