As I’m watching this IRL race from Twin Ring Motegi, I can’t help but wonder what lies next for the Indy Racing League as they embark on their biggest race of the year, the Indy 500 in May. Regardless of how you look at the race, it’s still a big spectacle in racing. Sure, it’s a mere shadow of its former self. But as long as it remains the Indy 500, it’ll continue to be a big race.

See, the reason I wonder about the Indy 500 isn’t because I think that Buddy can defend, but is going to have some good competition from AGR and even perhaps a frustrated Chip Ganassi squad will find the right formula in time. Its not because I look forward to seeing wheel-to-wheel action at some 220mph. no, the reason I’m intrigued is because everything in the IRL happens accordingly. Sure, it’s a bit on the conspiracy side, but I now look forward to watching (or mostly reading) the Irl because of how things shape out. A Toyota usually wins a Toyota-sponsored event and a Honda usually wins a Honda-sponsored event. Everything works out accordingly. Somehow I don’t think it would be possible for a Toyota to win at Motegi. Sure, give ‘em the pole, but not the win.

This works out the rest of the year because nobody really cares. Nobody questions the fact that AGR dominate every race. But in May, people start looking a little closer, notice things they otherwise might not. It isn’t an easy decision for Tony George and Barnhart (or however you spell his name) when it comes to the Indy 500. Who do you give the race too this year?

Last year, it made perfect sense that a Honda powered by someone not named Kanaan win The Indy 500. And, in a difficult time for the series in terms of popularity and revenue, why not give the win to an American, who happens to drive for a very popular late night talk show host. So Buddy does countless appearances on the show, does his Top 10, all in all, very good exposure for the IRL.

This year is interesting. Honda continues to dominate, which cannot make Toyota happy and essentially gives them all the more reasons to leave the series and focus entirely on NASCAR. So…why not give them a win and entice them to stay? Maybe Hornish? An American, driving for Penske (remember Roger put out that full page add last year in the New York Times asking for re-unification following the Indy 500) and powered by a Toyota. Roger probably wouldn’t be quick on the reunification front if he won the Indy 500 again.

Hmm, the IRL, according to what I see anyway, is very good at short-term solution. They don’t have (pardon the pun) vision. They’ll be rumblings within the world of Open-wheel racing focused on the IRL and they will pull something out of a hat and say “see, we were right all along”. Which brings me to Danica Patrick. I think she is the front runner for this year’s 500. Forget that she’s a rookie, experiencing her biggest race for the first time, forget that she’s never run a 500 mile race. She is the short-term solution the IRL so desperately seeks. She’s a woman, she’s American, she’s powered by Honda, she drives for Letterman AND, most importantly, she beats Katherine Legg in the battle for top women in the sport of open-wheel racing. It’s a win-win for the IRL. But it’s a short term fix.
I wouldn’t be surprised is a Chip Ganassi driver ended up drinking the milk. Why not? He’s clearly upset with his operation and he’s coming off a very solid run in the Nextel Cup race where (correct me if I’m wrong) he put 3 cars in the top 5. With those kinds of results, he knows he isn’t far from competing with Roush and Hendrick on a regular basis. Why not throw all your eggs in that giant basket? Why continue to fund three foreign drivers (albeit nice guys) with a power plant that simply can’t compete against the other? Throwing him a bone in the form of an Indy 500 win might make good old Chip reconsider his future plans.

What about Sheckter? Or, well forget Sheckter specifically, but a Chevy powered car winning the Indy 500? Sure, they announced they are leaving and currently only power one measly team. But an Indy 500 team might persuade them to stick around for a while longer, giving the IRL that American powerplant they so proudly founded their entire league on the premise of having!

Would it be possible for Honda to give Newman/Haas an engine on the same playing field as AGR? I know that Haas obviously has a good relationship with Honda, they’ve continued to supply engines for Junquiera during the last couple of years at Indy. But, somewhere along the line, there must be some resentment towards Haas for not switching to the IRL and effectively killing CART (at the time). And would it make sense for Honda to want a Champ Car driver to win when they could achieve the exact exposure if AGR or Rahal took the checkered?

Obviously this article is a little tongue in cheek. I want to believe that the most deserving driver will win at the Brickyard. But the IRL has also become a fun game to play. What works out best for the series in the short-term? One thing for sure: I can tell you that it’s not Junquiera or Bourdais drinking the milk. The very guys we’ll all be cheering for!

Champ Car baby! Champ Car for Life!

Well, I just booked my flight for Milwaukee for the Champ Car test session next week. Should be a good time to get some good, candid footage of the teams and drivers. Anybody wanna come with me and be my cameraperson (looking at you Kelly)? I have a multitude of ideas, all of which will be very difficult to achieve by myself. Oh well, I like a challenge. Hopefully I’ll bring back some good footage. Especially since I am footing the bill.

I went to Sebring a few years ago where Paul Tracy was testing for the first time with Team Players. There were a few other teams too, but naturally this was the unveiling of Tracy in the Blue and White uniform. It was my cameraman Claude and myself. It was probably in the top 5 race trips I have ever taken. There something about testing that makes it completely different from anything else these guys do on the track. It’s hard to explain. They are very relaxed and cheery, yet very serious and fast. When you read interviews from drivers post-testing session, they are usually happy. They usually have positive things to say about their day. Maybe its because nothing is on the line. Or, if there’s a problem, they have time to fix it. I’ve seen drivers get ticked off during test sessions with regards to blocking. But its forgotten by the next turn (assuming he let him pass). There’s a general positive atmosphere in the air. There are also few media and few distractions. It’s all about the testing. There’s this sense of intimacy with the teams. If anybody gets the opportunity to go to Milwaukee or to any other test session this season, I urge you to go. It’s a completely different experience from a race weekend. I look forward to this session and I hope I don’t bite off more than I can chew in terms of filming.
Anybody know any good, cheap hotels where I can stay at? I wonder if I can stay in PT’s bus?

Champ Car baby! Champ Car for life!

Boy am I under the weather. I don’t know why, probably something I ate, but I have been throwing up all night. In fact….there, I just threw up again. Of course, drinking coffee isn’t helping right now, but it tastes so good. Especially that burning sensation as it goes down my esophagus. Hmm, burning esophaguses…

The good news that I am not a professional athlete, and there is no urgency for me to get better, other then the fact that I look forward to feeling better. Pro athletes don’t have time to get sick. And when they do, then need to nip it in the bud before the next contest. Most sports, a player can get away with feeling a bit queasy. He can take some medication and play 50 percent. If he feels terrible during the game, he calls it quits and is replaced by a teammate. Okay, its not that simple, but you get what I mean.

Slightly different for racecar drivers, isn’t it? If they have a bad meal or catch some sort of bug, they can’t be easily replaced. And if they do get replaced (by having a driver standby), it has a lot more serious consequences. They don’t get the points, the prize money, etc. Kurt Busch was feeling ill two weeks ago prior to the race in Texas and had a replacement driver ready to go. I remember a couple of years back in Monterrey, Mexico, both Tracy and Carpentier were very ill all weekend. I remember they even brought in Max Papis as a possible replacement for Carpentier. Despite their illness, they jumped in the car, not wanting to waste a race, since every race is key in the hunt for the championship. But where do you draw the line?

This isn’t an ordinary sport. These drivers put their lives on the line every time they hit the track. Not only that, they put the other drivers’ lives on the line too. One lap in concentration can have disastrous results. Imagine feeling queasy while battling opponents at 200 mph.

Champ Car drivers and Formula One drivers are especially vulnerable to illness, simply because of the exotic locations of the race events. Constant climax changes, foreign foods, its difficult on the human body. But how sick is too sick? When does it become a supplemental danger? Of course, every series has a medical team who can put their foot down and prevent a driver from participating. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, a driver has to make that decision. It must be the toughest decision for them. Damn human body! Perhaps it’s psychological too. We hear of people having super strength during extreme circumstances. Maybe a driver can put physical pain out of their minds, drive the hell out of their car, then collapse when its all said and done.

That’s what Paul Tracy did in Monterrey anyway. He stepped in his car, won the race, stepped out and immediately threw up. I had to interview him right after the race so we could get the tape back to Canada in time for the evening sports news. Poor Paul, he literally couldn’t give an interview without throwing up and, well you know…the other thing. He demonstrated a superhuman ability that day. It’s probably something that we mere mortals couldn’t understand. Maybe at 200mph the body doesn’t feel pain. The mind is elevated to a Zen-like status, putting everything else out of the way. Maybe I’m just still feeling sick from last night. Speaking of which…I gotta go throw up.

Champ Car baby! Champ Car for Life!

well, I just saw the first installment of Overheard at the Track on the website. Its right in the middle of the front page, underneath the Justin Wilson Onboard video.
Its a little weird seeing it there on its own. We're going to create a little page eventually with a link to this blog and the videos in their own section. I think anyway. They don't tell me too much. Once they have the videos in their hands, I am strictly on a need-to-know-basis.
I'm joking of course, but they do have the authority to do what they want with it.
hope you enjoy it.

Overheard:

Formula One is turning in Survivor, the tv show. How so? In order to spice up the product, they need to invent new rules every race. You tune in expecting something familiar, but instead get these convoluted rule changes, which seem to be ‘made-up’ as they go along. And the races usually take place at exotic locations, just like Survivor…okay enough.

Jacques Villeneuve was recently randomly chosen by the FIA to take a drug test. Although it’s a mandatory procedure that they randomly select drivers every few months, its widely speculated that they suspect that Villeneuve is on marijuana, because nobody drives that slow on their own. ( I know, he finished 6th at Imola. now its worth celebrating a 6th place finish?)

Kurt Busch won the Subway Fresh 500 on Saturday night in Phoenix. Immediately following his win, he stepped out of the car and took a big bite out of a footlong meatball sub.Made fresh, of course.

Call me suspicious, but during the interviews with the top 3 drivers, all of them conveniently took a long sip of their 2 liter coke bottles right before answering the first question. 2 liters?? Who needs that much coca-cola after a race? If I mention Coca-Cola one more time, I expect them to send me free stuff this week.

Loved the emphasis at the end of the NASCAR broadcast when promoting the next race in Talladega. Paraphrasing: lots of crashes. Lots and lots of crashes at Talladega. Many many many crashes. Next Sunday on Fox. Did I mention crashes?

Now the rumbling is that Toyota and Honda will pull out as soon as possible of the IRL. If so, then things are all of a sudden looking pretty good over at Panther racing.

Speaking of the IRL, anybody hear from my friend Patrick Carpentier? Talk about falling into oblivion. I don’t feel sorry for him at all, but the guy could use some press. Any press! Hey Pat, call me, we’ll do an interview for this blog. And I promise I will mention the Indy 500.

My favorite thing about the revamped Champ Car website is the in-car ride with the driver. Onboard camera with the narration coming directly from the driver as he’s (in this case) taking it to the streets of Long Beach. Amazing how calm they can be. Justin Wilson sounds animated enough to put an infant to sleep.

I’ve actually been considering getting a Champ Car tattoo. Seriously. I think it would be cool and since Kevin Kalkoven was quoted as saying he has enough money to run the series forever, then I have no fear that the tattoo will become obsolete.

The website looks good. I give a lot of credit to whoever is in charge. Its fresh, it’s easily accessible and gives viewers their fix. Kind of like Subway sandwiches!


Champ Car baby! Champ Car for Life!