Saturday October 14th

I gotta be honest with you folks, but I have seldom seen a weirdo time in the world of the Champ Car World Series than what we are experiencing right now. I guess ultimately its just silly season, but man is this season silly. First of, Andreas Wirth gets his wish and will pilot the number 19 in Oz. Good for him and his family. I want to see the top three Atlantic drivers from this year in Champ Car next season. Andreas Wirth is a winner, that’s the bottom line. He may not have had the kind of season this year that he did in 2005, but if you look at his overall Atlantic record, nobody deserves to be in Champ Car more than he does. He’s an aggressive driver whose only downfall right now is how hard he is on himself. I don’t know if it’s a German trait, but he strives perfection and isn’t happy unless he reaches. He’s going to learn, sooner or later, that (quote the Stones) “You can’t always get what you want” and that’s okay. But better to want perfection than settle for anything less. His biggest shortcoming could very well end up being his biggest asset. We’ll see how he pilots in Australia, going from a powerhouse Atlantic team to a small Champ Car team. I wish him the best of luck and hope he lands something full time next year.

The biggest issue, of course, is whether A.J. is leaving Champ Car for good. This story has gotten out of hand. Quotes are coming in everywhere on the forums, “he’s gone” “he’s staying” “he’s blond”. Losing A.J. would be a blow to the series, no doubt about it. He’s proven to be a great driver when given equipment and a team that suits his needs. But, if Red Bull and Toyota throw him a bunch of money, more money than he’s ever dreamed of, what is he going to say? Not just money, but going to NASCAR is pretty lucrative in many ways these days. Not to mention Toyota’s dominance in the Truck Series. If you take all that into consideration and add the fact that he’s 24, where do you think he’ll end up? My concern isn’t with the survival of the series or “losing another American”. We’ll be fine in both of those areas. We basically have two on board already for next season. And more likely to come. No, what concerns me the most is his vocalization about ovals and how much he loathes them. Or so he has stated MANY times in the past. Now he’s potentially going running on them full time. Granted, I believe his sentiment was leaned towards an open-wheel car on an oval, because that’s just plain nuts and dangerous a lot of the time. Driving those big cabs and those lower speeds certainly reduces the fear. I just hope he doesn’t get bored quickly and then question his decision later. Still, I would hate to see A.J. go because he’s a hell of a kid, a really funny guy who seems to have a genuine lust for life. The series will be fine with or without him, but as a person, the series would lose much. The whole story on how he has an agent and has rejected Forsythe’s offer is mind numbing frankly. We can only wait and see what the future holds for this kid. I hope he stays, as I am sure most of you do. One thing for sure, I certainly will not bet on him leaving until I hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. As of right now, I still think he stays in Champ Car for a while.

I want to quickly address David Philips’ recent article because I know it has drawn a lot of irk from a lot of you. I can certainly see why. A journalist paid to attend Champ Car races and write articles about the series is a dream job. A person complaining about his work area appears to be petty. If you don’t know what I am talking about, check this out: http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/33247/ and then come back to this. Was David blowing off some steam? Was he trying to get Champ Car’s attention by doing it publicly instead of privately? We don’t know the answer to those important questions. What I personally think is that David has a deadline, a quota and wrote something for the sake of writing something. Now, why chose that subject? I don’t know. I really don’t. Did he think the public would sympathize? I hope not. I can tell you from personal experience that the facilities vary from race to race, but at the end of the day, it’s a freakin’ champ car race! In Cleveland, where one can see 90 percent of the track with their ticket, my booth happened to be in the in-field, inside a truck with no windows and two television set. Was it ideal? Of course not. Was I at a champ car race? You damn right! Now, in MY case, I had a lot more restraints than David Philips and it was evident when it took TV about 5 minutes to get a replay of the Tracy-Bourdais incident while my broadcast partner Tom Michaels and I only saw the beginning of the first turn incident and we figured it was the only reason for the yellow. You can imagine our surprise when we see on the monitor a car flip over somebody else’s car 5 minutes after everybody were talking too has already seen it. But you know, you make it work. You make it fun and most importantly you deal with it. Sure, it must have sound awkward to the people in the grandstands hearing myself and Tom’s initial reaction of “oh my god, that was HUGE” five minutes after the fact. It was probably comical actually. But it’s the way it is and we dealt with it. My point here is that David’s article was pointless. Completely pointless. It was not worth writing, it was not worth printing. He didn’t even have a good anecdote (like mine. Hee) to make his point worthwhile. I like David Philips and I think he’s been good to the series. But he definitely ruffled some feathers with that article.

Alright, that’s it for now, but rest assured with OZ this week and the silly season continuing along, except MUCH more news coming out of the paddock in the coming days.