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Thanks, nem. Excellent post and excellent points. i tend to look at what is going on out of the track and i miss alot of the sublties like hot dog sales and motel reservations. Of course, it isn't so subtle when it is your job that depends on the speedway putting fans in the seats.
And there is just no argument that this is the finest year of Indycar competition we have ever seen. We had CART give us some great road and street races and that dazzling Michigan 500. But they also had a few stinklers too. They had some races that were run so badly that the SCCA should have stepped in, but to be fair, some of that was due to atrocious weather. Equally fair, they made a real mess of the Road America race that should have never been started until the problem was fixed. Portland was just stupid driving and maybe the fact that Firestone has always had a crappy rain tire. After investing two hours of my time in the Vancouver race, it was utterly ruined by completely inept officiating. The european races were plagued by rain and CART did a good job just to get them in the books, but i can't remember that last full distance road race that CART had. I don't consider that to be a good value. And Laguna? errrrrr........
Conversely, the IRL had one rip roaring well run spectacle after the other. Atlanta saw a massive pile up caused by a blown engine and oil on the track and it was the worst race of the year for them. Texas 1 was a smoker, but Davey's accident took the joy out of it. And we were worried about Robbie McGehee as well, but he hardly missed a race. Guts seems to be a real requirement to be an IRL driver. But wait until Zanardi straps in again if you want to see guts.
Aside from those two disappointments, the IRL guys ran three abreast nearly everwhere they went. Most of the races weren't decided until the checkered was in the air. There was plenty of wheel banging, passing, and hair raising action, and that was just Jacques lazier!
Yeah, the IRL was the skankiest racing series the world had ever seen right up until this year, but something funny happened. They got it together and gave me personally the damndest racing I've seen in 40 years as a student of the sport. I was hard to convince and every race i said to myself "Yeah, yeah. so what? They went three races without making fools of themselves." But it went five, six, seven races, an entire season of world class 220mph+ ****s to the walls mega thrilling action. So i began the season convinced that the IRL was low rent and second class, but you can tell that i have been converted.
Of course CART has the teams with the best resourses. They have the sponsors and that pays for the best of everything from drivers, engines, wind tunnel programs and right down to who has the softest toilet paper in their Newell motor home. No surprise that they dominated Indy. disappointing, sure. Surprising? David got the drop on Golliath once. Once. Jacques will be the next to get the drop.
But the IRL teams have upped their game since then. It may not be enough to make most teams competitive with the really big dogs, but no one will bet their house right now against Jacques Lazier. He is on a team with funding to match most, if not all, CART teams. He is on fire and only the fools will take him lightly.
But we have gotten way off track and it is certainly my fault. i feel that Hietzler was the worst thing that could have ever happened to CART. Sure, he inherited some problems, but others, like the pop off snafu, he mishandled to the point that Honda expressed serious doubt over CART's integrity. Integrity! You have to really muck it up to get that kind of insult from your most loyal engine company and sponsor. Integrity. What do you have when you lose that?
So now we can all breathe alot easier that he won't have the reins much longer. I am sure that Elmer Fudd would be a more credible and honest talking guy than Joe. CART took a hell of alot of unnecessary hits because of Joe and they would be better off to give him his golden parachute and bounce him out into the street. Anyone they get will be better. Just get someone who speaks real, clean, straight and plain English and i will probably like him. And the series will do better too.
So, please pardon me for indulging in a rant about how good the on track action was this year. I made myself famous elsewhere by my signature that read;
"We are in the promised land, baby!!! 35 a**kicking races. backs to the walls, wheel to wheel and flat footed. It has never been this good and it will never be again. Baby, let the good times roll."
Dr. Michael Austin, 2001
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