Click on the title link to hear what Jimmy had to say about the P2P penalties that Tony handed out or simply to hear a noticeably tired ME ramble on and make little sense. Okay, maybe its not that bad, but I was definitely tired and couldn't seem to put a thought together. I blame the time change and while you'd think I'd be used to it by now, I am still going to bed at 8pm every night. If you want to hear stories about the wild parties in Oz, don't come to me unfortunately. While I assure you they are there, I am just not the one to provide you with some great anecdotes about all night parties.
But, I can tell you some ontrack stuff going on, as I am wide awake for those. :)
The qualifying session on Friday was messy, no question about it. But it also did provide a little bit of everything. some crashes, some drama and some last minute excitment. It was a lot of fun to watch. Servia is very popular in these parts and could be the driver everybody is cheering for, other than Will of course. I am lobbying hard on the mic to get Bruno some supporters. Maybe I was able to convert one or two 'blokes'.
I have often said that the best way to cure any doom and gloom is to stage a champ car race and this weekend is perfect evidence of that. The teams, the workers, the drivers, everybody thrives during a race weekend. Its a chance to put the politics aside and do what they do best. but I will say this, the mood is a lot more positive than it was in Europe. There is definitely this positive vibe which is heavily overshadowing the doom and gloom.
The good thing about Friday's ontrack action was that everybody seemed happy with their cars. With the red flags during qualifying, it made it difficult for the session to have any real flow. Naturally the drivers pointed that out as the reasons they couldn't do any better, but they will usually tell you if there is something that isn't working on the car and you didn't get that sense on Friday. Only Tagliani had real troubles with his day. Others, like Martinez, were more victims of their circumstances. I want to see David get out there today and throw some flyers. There is pressure on him, especially since he looks over his shoulders and sees Oriol, the driver he replaced, capture the provisional pole.
I spoke of this on the podcast, but the most interesting aspect is the fact that some of the media felt they put too much pressure on Will Power last year and that it wasn't fair. You don't hear that kind of remorse very often from the media. Having said that, he is still bracing every cover of every newspaper and magazines in the gold coast, as he should. He's the man around here and if he's on the track and look up at the stands and the Condo balconies that hover over the track, he'll see thousands of "Power on" green and yellow signs. Its very very cool. I know Tracy gets in Canada, Doornbos in Holland. But (and maybe its because there is more people here) it seems that his supporters outnumber Tracy's or Bobby D's supporters.
Speaking of Bobby D I finally went public yesterday and announced that I coined the term Bobby D. The announcers were talking about the term and how Rick and Jon created it. I was going to bite my tongue, but couldn't and the truth had to come out. I told them, as well as the rest of the listeners, that it was I who created it. I have a knack with nicknames. :)
