Naturally, this Cristiano story has affected us all in different ways. Fans of his respect his abilities on the track. Family members know what a big heart he has. Champ Car employees know what he means to the series. No Matter who you are, his accident has hit you hard and its natural to be in a reflective mood, it makes you appreciate what kind of person he actually is.
The one thing you have to say about Cristiano is that he is one of the good guys. There is no other way to put it. Everybody likes him, seriously. You find me one person who doesn’t like him and I will give you a month’s pay. The guy has a great smile and a character to back it up.
I don’t know Cristiano that well. I did one or two quick interview with him in 2002 when he was dominating everything. But, you’ll notice that I have never done a This or that with him. It certainly not because I never wanted too. Our schedules never happen to coordinate. I would LOVE to interview him and it’s going to happen sooner or later. You can run Cristiano, but you can’t hide. :)

my thoughts and prayers are with Cristiano Da Matta right now. He has sustained serious injury this afternoon at Road America. I don't know the details, I am just reading what you guys are reading online. Let's just hope that such a freakish accident results in a moment we can look back and say "whooof, that was a close one".
Atthe end of the day its the toughest job in the world. I mean that from his perspective and the rest of us who make our living watching these guys be heroes all weekend. I thought Tracy versus Tagliani was difficult to announce. this puts it all in perspective.
safe recovery Cristiano. get back on that horse.

What a week. What an absolute crazy week. Is this fight the best thing to happen to Champ Car? We thought AJ winning some races would generate a buzz, but it’s been nothing compared to the fight. I’ve had phone calls and emails with regards to it, people are talking, this is good. Naturally, like Paul Tracy said himself, its good because they have more or less made up and now the incident can play itself out through the media as it may, but it won’t affect those two competitors. My main concern is how can I make fun of the situation without getting into too much trouble? How far can I push the envelope?

But, I received some bad news with regards to the camera. It’s going to cost north of a grand to fix it and somehow I doubt that Champ Car will authorize me to get it fixed because I’m sure it’s not in the budget. It’s a shame because I was all set to introduce my newest idea in Denver. In line with This or That, it’s potentially another fun way of getting to know the person behind the helmet. But alas, right now it may not happen for a while.

Naturally, the story behind the fight is that TAGS and Walker have little in terms of equipment and that now they have put themselves in a position of safe, cautionary driving is priority number one. That’s a shame and I absolute hate it more than anything. I hate that Ranger has to be careful and I hate it that the whole Team Australia has to be careful. Having said that, they did bring it upon themselves. Andrew Ranger destroyed a bunch of cars last year and Team Australia has suffered something like 5 crashes in the last month. Its never a position that you want a team to be in, but nobody talks of Dale Coyne having these issues because Mario and Heylen have been able to keep their nose clean. My point is that, as Robin Miller’s article from a couple of weeks back eluded too, there are 4 teams that have plenty of tubs and the rest are all hoping that the drivers don’t crash. Tags and Will have crashed. Now they must pay for it.

As for the penalties levied to Tags and Tracy, pretty much what you expected. Tracy loses points for his on-track behavior and put on probation. Both drivers are handed fines. They’re both going to be in Denver!

its the one thing I wanted to do at the unveiling. Hug the new Panoz. Thanks Peter for taking the pic!

sunday

Way to go Marty Roth! Danica suffers mechanical problems, leaves the race and she still finishes ahead of you! Good job!

So by now we all know the storylines that happened today and that we will be following intently in the next couple of weeks. First and foremost is, of course Tag-Tracy. I was shocked when I saw it happen; jaw dropped and was held speechless for a moment, which as an announcer is not the way to go. Luckily my broadcast partners were there fore it! The whole incident is really simple to break down; it was Tracy’s fault for the on-track incident and Tag for the off-track. My question is where the hell was champ Car officials or any type of security?? Tagliani walks out of his pit box, helmet on, but everything else (gloves, Hans) off. He furiously walks in one direction. At one point Tracy is about 40 feet away walking towards him. Doesn’t anybody notice anything??? My main man Joe had to stop the fight. It’s not Joe’s job to do so, but he’s a firefighter from Jersey, so he’s been through his share of trouble. Tracy wanted nothing to do with Tag, but Tag wouldn’t let up. Naturally it went too far, but you know what? It had been a while since we had seen one of those and its sure going to make my job easier for a while! And as for NBC cutting away from it, that’s a tough call. You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Having said that, it didn’t take a genius to see that at most, they would only wrestle for a bit until they were separated or, as happened, one would fall and then be separated. Tag knows he can’t beat Tracy physically and Tracy knew that Tag had a helmet, so couldn’t really do much. Still, it’s hard to put blame on the director of the broadcast and his decision making skills. But yes, fights equal ratings and national exposure and that’s certainly not going to hurt the series!!

The other big ontrack incident involved poor Andrew Ranger versus Katherine Legge. As if the action around wasn’t heated enough, you had Ranger yelling at Katherine as she went by. I don’t blame him one bit. He truly could do nothing of the incident. It was a clean ‘pass’ on a driver several laps down and he should be ticked off. I was ticked off calling it. Katherine is nice and all that, but being driving several laps down is totally different than on the lead lap. I’m happy for Ranger’s teammate Charles Swolsman finishing in the top ten and battling Bourdais. This is the kind of experience that a rookie needs to get under his belt. He held him off nicely for a while. Tough not to feel heartbroken for Dan Clarke though. Really is. However, you have to be impressed with Will Power. That avoidable contact penalty was a crapshoot. A call that could have gone either way. He bounced back nicely and I continue to be impressed with this Australian and hope that he is around for a few years in order to develop.

Oh, and if anybody doubts AJ, its the reason they went one yellow lap longer, Tony Cotman wanted to make sure he made the right call because he understood the severity of the penalty. The data and the recordings prove that Tony made the right decision. Of course, AJ’s reaction when he came in also speaks volume. He was overheard on the radio saying “why didn’t anybody else come in”. That is accidental omission of guilt right there. A rare mistake on AJ’s part. After what he has done with Forsythe thus far, he’s allowed one or two more.

I’ll write later about Bourdais’ super drive and Raphael Matos answering the critics. But I am tired (just from all of today’s action) and need to get some rest.