Congratulations to the kid. He deserves whatever success he comes across because, first and foremost, he’s a good person. He hasn’t let a lavish upbringing spoil him and I am sure his parents are the reason for that. He continues to be humble and appreciative of his environment. He was quick to thank his teammates following his win and continued to do so during different interviews. Not many people thought he would be a race winner when he became the youngest driver to ever start a champ car race. Now nobody is going to doubt that he has many more wins to come. I know it was a pretty crazy race and unpredictable to say the least, but those are often the races where you can separate the men from the boys and your skills come into play even more. Good for Nelson. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes next year. I hope he stay with HVM, that team deserves to have him at least one more year where they can continue to grow as an outfit and pull out even more wins next year when everybody is on the same playing field.

Of course, the big story was Sebastian Bourdais capturing his 3rd consecutive Vanderbilt Cup. It must be awkward winning a championship but not winning a race. He was clearly frustrated at the end of the race and therefore could hardly enjoy the significance of his accomplishments on television. Nonetheless, what he has done is incredible. You cannot say enough about his skills as a driver and while many will wonder ‘what if A.J. had started the year at Forsythe?’, the fact remains that Bourdais answered the call when challenged and when A.J was winning all those races, Bourdais was right there on the podium with him. Bourdais will be remembered as one of the best champ car drivers ever. And he’s instantly (if he wasn’t already) put in the same category as all the great, legendary drivers that have come and gone in this great sport of ours.

I feel bad for Will Power. As much credit as we gave to Philippe after that race, as much credit needs to go to Will. He demonstrated calm and composure despite constantly being rundown by the better drivers in the series. It could have very well been a Will Power weekend, but it wasn’t meant to be. He’ll have his moment in the sun.

I sat back on Sunday and got ready to watch the broadcast. Prior to the start of the show, the F1 race was wrapping up with a very nice tribute to Schumacher. It wasn’t until I saw it that I realized that I am going to miss that guy a lot. He’s a phenomenal driver and miles ahead of anybody in that field, despite the fact that he didn’t win the championship. I am sure Alonso is a good driver, but F1 has been the Michael Schumacher show for the last 9 years. I will certainly miss him.

Now, on to the broadcast at hand. I had been looking forward to this because I read your critiques and criticisms on the web and looked forward to seeing (and hearing) it myself. I wanted to be fair in my assessment since I consider Rick Benjamin a friend and, like him or hate him; Derek is a pro in the world of racing. I also understand the difficulties of calling a race from 3000 miles away. This is actually, my first complaint. Throughout the broadcast I kept saying “just fly them there”. Their throws to Jon were awkward and the whole pre-show wasn’t very good because it was all Jon all the time. I also reminded myself that “they must be exhausted cause its 2 in the morning and they are probably stuck in a dark booth”, because at one time Derek yelled twice what I think was “AWK” and Rick was shocked that a driver had attempted a pass. Truly shocked! How could he?
So I gave them the benefit of the doubt going in. I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy race to call. Here are some thoughts of mine.

Derek calling Tracy a moron or idiot was uncalled for. If he has called the move idiotic, that would have been fine. You can have a colorful, opinioned color-commentator, but Derek just seems to genuinely hate PT and is airing out his laundry during the broadcast. Not professional. Then I felt that HE genuinely felt bad for Tracy when he had to give up that spot at the end, which was quite a contrast from his earlier rant. But it still didn’t make up the fact that his vendetta against Tracy was obvious. I don’t like when color commentators are too friendly with drivers, but it certainly goes the other way too.

There is no traction control in Champ Car. Its one of my favorite aspects of our series, the fact that its man DRIVING machine with little help from an onboard computer. It’s what separates us from Formula One. If I am a new viewer watching that race, I am now under the impression that Champ Cars have traction control. They do not. BIG mistake in my opinion.

I like Derek’s enthusiasm, I will admit that. The guy does seem to genuinely love Champ Car and while he does make some mistakes, I think his passion over rides it. Granted, I still have problems understanding him at times, but again, he seems to really like being there. As for Rick, well, again, I blame the fact that it was 3am in their booth and he was probably tired. But I have nothing particularly bad to say about Rick. I can understand some complaints that he may be a little dry. It’s his way. It’s his demeanor. You take it or leave it.

My main concern and it has been with every broadcast I have seen (which may not count, since I tend to watch the races away from Canada and the States) is that there always looks like there is a filter on the screen. The screen looks a little dirty, it’s never clear. Now, I understand this was all the way in Australia, but I watch Formula One races from all over and they seem clear. I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s like a small, light filter put in front of the camera that makes the screen look dirty. And despite my television background, I have no idea what causes that. I guess that’s why I failed that part of school.

I certainly appreciate the suggestions that some of you are making on Champ Car Fanatics that yours truly be part of the broadcast booth next season. I am not sure where the future lies right now, but if there WAS an opening next year in the booth, I would LOVE to be considered for that spot. Que sera, sera.