what was that?

I always find it bizarre when news stories are able to get away with “an unnamed source” or “I have it on good authority”. Name your source!! If they are so confident with their statements, come out and show your face!! Okay, that may be a little extreme. There are many reasons why they want to remain anonymous, often for security or safety reasons. Fair enough. But now the reporters use that sentence as a tool. I have nothing against speculating, but no good report should have its source as “a little birdy told me”.

Why am I bringing this up anyway? There’s nothing new in what I’m saying. Its no big secret that some outlets pander to a demographic and write whatever they can to keep that demo. But recently, it caused a genuine, albeit brief, concern in the world of Champ Car when some reports came out that Gentilozzi unceremoniously dumped Alex Tagliani in order to acquire German racer Timo Glock. Initials report had Gentilozzi as the bad guy and Tag as the victim. Initial reports had them fighting, had screaming matches. Tagliani was shocked!! The fans were hugely critical of Gentilozzi. All of a sudden, there was this frenzy in the wonderful world of Champ Car. Some called for Gentilozzi’s head!

A few days later, tag landed a ride at Walker and admitted to never have spoken to the reporter who had first published the story. In fact, nobody had. So, despite this reporter being correct in the departure of Tagliani from Rocketsports, its malicious connotations and implications were what stood out. Had the reporter mentioned any real sources, then someone could have been held accountable for blowing this story way out of proportion. But, nobody is ever accountable anymore and the reporter can brag that he was correct in this “scoop”.

Its happening again this week in Toronto with NASCAR being in town to visit potential sites for a race as early as 2007. Trust me, I love the idea of the good ol’ boys coming up to Canada. I will be the first one to attend, no question about it. But everybody’s talking like it’s a done deal and now talk of ‘replacing’ the Indy in Toronto or Norman Legault (Montreal track-guy) dumping Champ Car to hold a Nextel Cup race. Again, this is all hearsay and speculations without a trace of evidence beyond a NASCAR official saying something like “we’d love to come and race in Canada. Our market is always expanding and there is lots of potential…blah blah blah”. From that: “NASCAR REPLACING INDY”. After the success of the Busch race in Mexico City, all of a sudden NASCAR is expanding all across North America and its going to happen next year!! Hey, they only have 36 races on their schedule, why not easily just add three more (Mexico and two in Canada! What the hell!). logistically it would be so easy to pull off!!

Coming off a seemingly successful Busch race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the word I read from the media (hee hee. actually it was crew chiefs and managers) was that they still needed to pull off a few more Busch races over the next couple of years before sending down the boys of Nextel Cup racing. And this is on one of the nicest and better tracks in North America. They are talking about Mosport as a possibility now. If you’ve been to Mosport, you love it. It’s a great, fun track. But how many Busch races would need to be hosted there before Nextel came to town?? If the track in Mexico needs more ‘prep’ time with the Busch series, then Mosport would certainly need as many if not more ‘prep’ time. Don’t get me started on the Molson Indy Toronto track. Cause that thing can be built in a day or two!! Plenty of testing available there! And let’s not forget that we don’t have the weather that Mexico has!

I know I’m sure some NASCAR people told reporters that it was feasible, blah blah blah and reporters naturally jumped on it. And why not? Its big news. Nextel Cup Racing in Toronto in 2007! Problem is, its not news. Its speculation. Vague speculation at that!

And I won’t even bother with all the IRL-Molson Indy Toronto gossip!