I am on my way to Montreal, where I think I’ll go right to the track before going to the hotel. It should be a great weekend for everybody as Montreal is a very nice town and the track seems to fit the drivers. I was thinking about the advantage that Bjorn and Timo may have over the others, but it occurred to me that besides Ricordo, I think everybody actually has circuit Gilles Villeneuve experience. And I could be wrong with Ricordo anyway. I hope things work out for Bjorn naturally, but I’m afraid the edge he thinks he has is only on himself and not the competition. Not that that’s a bad thing, he can spend Friday finding the right line and set up instead of memorizing the track. It would be nice if he got himself a very solid result. After leading twice this year, he has shown that he’s more than a lucky victim of circumstances and that he can lay the hammer down.

I think a lot of people are confident going into this weekend as they feel that the Montreal track suits their driving style. Long straight aways which will be very fast and some corners which aren’t particularly fast. FYI the Power to Pass button has been increased to 75 seconds this weekend on account of these long straight aways.

Unfortunately given the track layout, I don’t know that I will be able to film too much this weekend. Now that champcarworldseries.com has put up my videos at rapid speed I feel bad. But logistically it’s going to be very hard. Oh well, I’ll figure something out.

Have a good weekend everyone if I don’t get a chance to write again. I have no idea if my hotel has internet or whatever. I do hope though, to have a couple of audio interviews. And hopefully next year, this whole blog could be on the main webpage, since it includes video, written material and audio interviews. We’ll see.

I have to go and figure out where Zwolsman needs to finish to remain champion and where Kasamets needs to finish to get the title and how many spots ahead and what happens if…I hate math.
Quick shout out to Andreas Wirth. He hurt himself in the morning session at Road America where he was set to start second and had jumped to second in points following his first win Denver. It would have definitely been a three-way fight to the finish this weekend had the young German been cleared to race. Next year buddy. Recover quickly.

The stage is set: Montreal, Quebec. Kasamets versus Zwolsman. One race to determine the championship. What a show it’s going to be this weekend! Bessette, Legge, Wirth, all worthy competitors this year in what was one of the best Atlantic seasons is recent memory. But now it comes down to the number 6 and the number 11. the winner celebrates his championship that evening at the banquet and pretty much until Mexico City where he gets to strut his stuff with the big boys. Both have such different personalities. Kasamets: outgoing, proud, loud, aggressive. The doer instead of the thinker. Zwolsman: unassuming, cerebral, consistent.
It all comes down to one race with so much on the line.

I watched the IRL race in its entirety yesterday and though nobody’s fault, it turned out to be a pretty uneventful event. Wheldon won by 15 seconds or something and the great battle for 2nd never took place, as Hornish was able to get away from Kanaan. Here’s my take on Todd Harris: he has probably been told to, I don’t know what the IRL or ABC’s MO is, but the guy has to Curb his enthusiasm a little. It’s not that it sounds phony. It does sound genuine. It’s just too much. Give the viewer some credit. This isn’t the Xgames where everything is unbelievable every time! When a driver is a couple of laps down and struggling with the handling, its okay to point that out. The team and sponsors know that their driver isn’t going to be great every race and the car will sometimes not perform. Don’t insult my intelligent by trying to convince me that so and so in 13th place is doing well.

I am never going to be in favor of timed event. I know it’s a reality with Champ Car this year for television purpose. You want the entire event broadcasted on television. But yesterday at the IRL race, it was an example of WAY too much television time. Granted, a short oval with those drivers, you expect yellow after yellow and that didn’t happen. They ran clean for the most part. But the broadcast had 1 full hour of off-track stuff, 20 minutes before and 40 minutes after. It was kind of funny to watch ABC and the crew struggle to find things to talk about. That interview with Jimmy Kite was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. If you had just tuned in, you could have swore he won the race. The interviewer and Jimmy were so happy. Then the graphic comes up and he finished 17th. You know you have way to much airtime when you are interviewing the driver who finished 17th of 20 cars.

By the way, its stupid for the IRL to have two road courses in the final 4 races. Since it’s the first time they have road courses, they should have had them at the beginning and middle of the season. Now these races are so critical to the championship and its not fair to guys like Hornish who has been running ovals his whole life. They should have been throw away races at the start and middle of the season. Not make or break events. Just my opinion.

It’s official, GM is pulling out at the end of the year from the IRL program. That’s a shame for the series, since it had hoped to change GM’s mind, with Roger willing to switch to their engines if they stayed. But alas, they are keeping their word and pulling out at season’s end, at least according to the Indy Star. Now the rumbling at the IRL is ‘plan B’ which nobody seems to really know what that plan is exactly. Chip Ganassi is calling for unification! Here we go again…
I get to watch the IRL race this afternoon, something that I rarely get to do. I think I’ll probably watch the start, see where my buddy Pat goes (he’s starting 17th I think) off the start, then tune in at the end. Having said that, I have barely had a chance to hear much of this Todd Harris character. All I ever read about him is negative comments on the web. Can the guy be that bad? I’ll let you know.
Short oval racing is fun and the IRL will likely put on a good show this afternoon. I should check my listings before I talk, make sure the race is up here.
I WISH I could watch the Atlantic race. Kasamets has the pole and said he’s the only driver that can beat himself. Charles was 6th or 7th on the grid. I really really hope the championship takes one more race to be determined. Season finale in Montreal with everything on the line..that sounds like a good sell to me. Charles needs to walk away from Road America with 35 or more points ahead of his competitors, but judging by how he’s been driving thus far in the weekend, that is going to be very hard to accomplish. I can’t wait to read the report on it and call it next weekend in Montreal.

Speaking of the Molson Indy Montreal, I am perfecting my French skills, as they will be called upon for that event. I assured the powers that be that my French goes beyond simply impersonating Boomhower. I hope I wasn’t lying.