short musings

With all the glowing good news these past few weeks about the Champ Car World Series, its very difficult not to get excited about Long Beach and the rest of the season. I truly believe this will be a revolutionary year for all involved and our patience and dedication will be paid off, if they haven’t already. Thanks to all the hard work put in by every one at Champ Car, it looks like this season is going to rock on and off the track.

On a personal note, I am a little excited myself, as it looks like the plans to develop and produce Overheard at the Track are all but finalized and only some details are left to be worked out. If everything goes according to plan, the skits should be up and running shortly following the event. I also hope to gather enough content to ‘ease’ the 5 weeks between Long Beach and Monterrey. Dropping a new piece every week or so. We shall see. Long Beach is going to be the test to how feasible this project will be. PA duties are first and foremost. The rest is gravy. Still, I hope to be able to produce at least one Overheard and one other skit/interview-type feature per event I attend.

Saw Carpentier finish with another top 10 last week at Phoenix. Good for him. I hope he’s enjoying his time in that league and I’m sure he was excited when he was officially entered in the Indy 500. I just hope for his sake that the Toyota he’s driving can get up to speed, because right now, the team cannot be happy despite the two top 10’s. He escaped the huge crash in Homestead and therefore was awarded a top 10, then finished a lap down in Phoenix. Granted he did have to start at the back of the pack, but so did Tony Kanaan, and he was in the top 5 before entering turn three I think! It was ridiculous and must have been extremely frustrating for the other drivers to see him so easily pass them. I take nothing away from Kanaan and his driving, but come on!! It simply looked bad. No matter what league, no matter what the rules, a driver who starts at the back of the pack should not be in the top 5 within a couple of laps. If he climbed his way up to the front through patient driving, good pit stops and overall strategy and was at the top of the pack in the closing moments of the race, that’s another story. But to accomplish that feat 3.5 minutes into the race is not right and proves that whatever Honda is doing at AGR, nobody else in the paddock is doing anywhere near as much as they are. It was nice to see Penske steal one, but how many times is that going to happen this year? I’m betting not too often.

Read that Haas wants to enter Bourdais and Junky at the Brickyard. Given a proper powerplant and chassis, can anybody come close to beating Bourdais in that league? I honestly don’t think so. Even if Bourdais is not fond of ovals, he can dominate them like few others can. If I was Tony, Chip, Micheal and the rest of the IRL personnel, I would not be pleased knowing that Bourdais is in the line up.

Champ Car baby! Champ Car for life!