Jacques

Like him or not, Jacques Villeneuve still commands a lot of attention in Canada. He’s in Montreal this week for Sunday’s GP of Canada and the cameras follow him everywhere. Even though he hasn’t done a thing since 97, the man is a world champion that’s what it takes to be forever remembered as a legend. Sure, his mouth runs him into trouble, but some also call that a breath of fresh air. He’s cocky, he’s rich and he comes to Canada maybe 2 twice a year (GP and that skiing charity thing he does), but he’s still our boy!

Saw a good interview with him last night where he was asked about winning Canadian athlete of the year in 1997 over Larry Walker who had an absolutely phenomenal baseball season. Walker was quite upset at not winning the award and basically told the press “I lost to a machine”. Naturally Villeneuve was quick to rebut that, talking about the physicality and the talent it takes. Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting that even back then, Formula One still had to fight the notion that all they are, are computers on wheels. I don’t necessarily agree with that. I do believe that Michael Shumacher is the most talented driver in the world. But he’s also had the biggest budget for many years. Toyota, who spent a nickel the last several years have all of sudden ballooned their budget, rivaling Ferrari and all of a sudden they are on the podium this year. And if you know DaMatta as a driver, you know how good he is and would be exactly where the team is today if he was still with Toyota. It makes you think of how important the driver really is. And if you say “well, Shumacher isn’t doing well this year”, let’s not forget the rule changes which were implanted to stop Ferrari and only Ferrari.

Back to Jacques. He’s known as a bit of a jerk around the race world, being unfriendly to the media and having a lackluster approach to the fans. I don’t know Jacques personally, but I did get a chance to interview him a couple of years ago when he visited the race in Miami. It still ranks as one of my biggest and most thrilling one on one interview. He was very nice to me, very courteous and, as always, not one to bite his tongue. You folks may remember his comments about the IRL and how it killed open-wheel racing in America and ruined the Indy500. It was very nerve racking asking Jacques these questions with all the people surrounding him and surrounding us, taking pictures and filming. But he let loose and the interview turned out great. I remember seeing it on ESPN and Speed.
Of course, he was on vacation before the US GP, so you couldn’t expect him to be formally dressed. But for a guy who was making 14 million dollars a year at the time, you may have expected his shirt and jeans not to have holes in them. Ahh these racecar drivers are truly a brand of their own!

quick note

for those of you wondering where are the features that we did in Milwaukee, including the latest Overheard, remember that fan club members get them first. Sort of an exclusive look. And its free to sign up this year and you get all sorts of great stuff. So, do it. sign up. You'd be doing me a big favor. More people join, more chances of me joining the series during their Far East trip later this year. because then they could justify the expense of bringing me in order to provide features on Champcar.ws

so, help a brother out would you?
:)

Gordon vs Stewart or "here we go again" or "been there done that"

You know what I used to love about NASCAR? The rivalries between the drivers. It was fun and made their product all the more exciting. Not to mention the NASCAR video game, where the computer’s AI remembers past incidents. They are the modern cowboys, the cars are their horses, the track is the old west and NASCAR’s the sheriff, who keeps quiet until something serious comes up. So when two drivers yap through the media about one another, it was like two gunslingers declaring a duel at the OKAY CORRAL. I figured it was part of NASCAR’s phenomenal rise to the top of sports in America. It was fresh, it was exciting and with the lack of “Tyson’s” in boxing and the WWE seemingly imploding, it was the only game in town that featured genuine one to one rivalries! It is/was clearly the new West.

But after the incident on Sunday between Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, I was less than thrilled with the words afterwards. Hearing Jeff Gordon threaten Stewart publicly left me rolling my eyes and saying “here we go again”. Maybe NASCAR has endured too many of these “rivalries” and “threats” the last few years. Especially since they all seem to involve Stewart in one way or another, the whole thing seems played. Of course, when you have 42 cars on the Monster Mile, things are going to get a little bumpy and teams will get ‘ticked’ at one another. But leave it on the track. Yap and complain all you want, just don’t do it through the media. This “threat” handed by Gordon doesn’t really impress me anymore. Not to mention that threatening to hit or bump someone when going to speeds of 200mph isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for the product.

I certainly don’t mind when a driver questions another driver. I’m all for rivalries. When you interview so and so and he/she says “I don’t know what the 49 was doing out there today. Someone get that guy driving lessons”, that’s funny and makes a point. When Gordon basically says “I’m going to attempt to hit him going at 200mhp, if he lives, I’ll do it again” isn’t as funny. And, like mentioned earlier, its becoming a little played.

I think NASCAR knows this also. Naturally they won’t kill the horse they rode on, but I don’t think they encourage the same amount of ‘yapping’ through the media. Drivers and teams are getting fined more frequently. NASCAR has a great product, great fans and a solid foundation. These empty threats by the drivers really aren’t significant or needed anymore. And, more importantly, are starting to wear real thin. NASCAR has a great crop of young drivers who represent the future of the sport. Hopefully they won’t turn back into the old NASCAR.

Sunday, even though its Monday today.

Quick shout out to Kelly who helped me film and took great pictures this weekend. see you in Cleveland dear!

Saturday night in Milwaukee I went down to the hotel bar to have a drink and watch a little basketball at the bar. Ended up spending time with three guys who had come in from the Chicago area to watch the race. We had some drinks and talked racing for a couple of hours. Good times. Nice to see diehards who go out of their way to attend races as well as educate non-fans on the product. They called themselves ambassadors to the sport, and I couldn’t agree more!

Spent some time on crapwagon.com Sunday and boy there is a strong negative vibe to that site right now. Sure, the race wasn’t the best, the attendance was fairly low and there was a lot of grumbling about Servia jumping ship to Newman/Haas. Still, its only one event where a bunch of things happened at the same time. Nobody was talking like this after Long Beach or Monterrey and I venture to say nobody will be talking like this after Portland. I think we are all uneasy right now because of the momentum that the IRL garnered following the Indy500 or the Danica500, whatever you want to call it. They have a little momentum, and we are experiencing a temporary setback after this weekend. Nothing to worry about. The pendulum will swing back our way. I don’t think that they can turn an entire series around based on one particular female driver. And let’s not forget that we have our own female driver waiting in the wings and with an already better track record than Miss Patrick (i.e., a race winner in atlantics). Kalkoven is a businessman, he knows what he’s doing. The company is a little over a year old and Kalkoven has proven that he is willing to spend whatever it takes to maintain a healthy series. That, in itself, will attract potential sponsors. It won’t be an overnight process. Mr. Kalkoven didn’t become a millionaire overnight. No true business can be turned around in a year. It takes time, patience, momentary setbacks and strong determination. Things will be fine folks. Just be patient. We have ridden the lowest of the lows together about 2-3 years ago and we will rise again to prominence together.
For the time moment, PAPER you continue to bring that positive energy like only you can!

hey, here's a handful of pics from Milwaukee

http://www.albumtown.com/showalbum.php?uuid=19860&aid=32817