As it appears that airspace in the UK might be closing down again soon and perhaps even a new volcano may erupt and cause even greater disturbance than the first did, I thought I’d share some positives to my recent experience with being stranded in the UK.

Now what the hell do I do?

1. You can talk to just about anybody about F1 - In the U.S. I consume racing news throughout all my waking hours and can only discuss on this blog and via email with friends who have an interest. Unfortunately for my wife from time to time I must vent my opinions and she is nice enough to listen (or least make an attempt at pretending she’s listening). But in Europe I could bring up complex questions related to rules, drivers, or Bernie’s plans for the future to any random dude on the street and they’d have an opinion and time to talk about it. You can’t beat that with a stick!

2. Racing is on TV - Not just on some random motorsports channel but its on regular TV. Sky News covers the results from Practice and Qualifying and shows race highlights. Sky Sports, well they cover more. Can you imagine CNN reporting race results? Even NASCAR doesn’t get coverage unless Cousin Carl hits the fence at Talledega and nearly kills himself and a fan or two. They cover more than just race results too. I couldn’t sleep one night so I flipped through the channels to find a documentary about Aston Martin’s most recent attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. I almost forgot I was stranded for an hour while I was completely sucked into this show.

3. Top Gear – That’s almost all I need to say. It’s on an it’s on all the time.

4. Top Gear – Yup, I’m putting it on twice.

5. Merchandise in Department Stores - SpeedGear is a great shop. Online and at the track they are the go to spot in the states for getting your Non-NASCAR motorsports stuff. Love ‘em! But, they’re pretty much it. So one of the days I was stranded I went shopping thinking I’d get something for my family back home that was feeling the effects of my absence just as much as I was. When you go shopping somewhere else you realize quickly that the world is a very small place. I wanted something uniquely London without going to the extremes of a shirt with Big Ben on it or that said, “My Husband Got Stuck in London and All I Got was this Lousy T Shirt”. This is a taller order than I thought. The shelves and racks of a department store are interchangeable pretty much no matter where you are (in the developed world as least). But what did I come across much to my suprise? The motorsports section on the SportsWear floor! Yup, right there they had kids-sized McLaren Fire Suits, Ferrari Helmet Key Chains, Aston Martin Racing hats. It was like standing in the middle of an inappropriate teen age race fan’s dream, except I was competely clothed and not surrounding by random people from my past.

Reports from around the web are stating that the operations of the fledgling USF1 team have ground to a halt. The brainchild of Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson which had the backing of YouTube Founder Chad Hurley apparently has informed their recently signed driver that they are going to miss at least the first 3 races of this season and as a result will not make the remaining races either.

Rumors now abound that Hurley has pulled his support for the team due to lack of progress and may likely be taking his money elsewhere to a more established team and even that the US team’s entry in the 2010 championship may be taken over by the Serbian based team Stefan GP.

So this is what the web is saying. Here’s to hoping that its all a bunch of crap and that they really will be pulling things together and all will be well. There have been many skeptics since the beginning. At this point I’m going to stay on the happy train and not necessarily go with what a European News Paper is saying. At this point it appears they are the only ones reporting it directly and everyone else is just using them as their source. It seems like an awful lot of work and money has been thrown into this to have it all fall apart this close to the start of the season. Now saying that this stuff happens in racing all the time. My fingers are crossed that it’s all bullshit. Perhaps its just a well timed publicity stunt to make their debut that much cooler.

Signed,
Delusional USF1 Fan

Tony George doesn’t run the IRL anymore, he’s not on the Board of the Hulman-George Companies, and he’s shuddered Vision Racing. Newman-Haas-Lanigan appears to be a ride buying prep shop for 2010 which leaves Graham Rahal in the dirt (A recent Tweet from Graham mentioned that he was still working out regularly in case an opportunity were to arise). Penske and Ganassi are still around with their powerhouse drivers. Penske is actually expanding to a three car effort with Will Power which is excellent news. Danica is staying with AGR as is ever popular Tony Kanaan. So there is some good with the bad.

Overall though I’m having a hard time not just staring straight at the bad. Tony G has been ousted or removed himself from all contacts to the series and The Speedway. This appears to be directly related to his family getting tired of how much money he’s spent propping up the IRL since 1996. So now if he’s gone and the family members left in charge aren’t interested in pumping money into the series any longer what is going to happen? I’m going out on a limb here and saying, Nothing Good!

No one has made any specific statements of course and no public goals have been set for the series but it seems that unification in itself didn’t heal the wounds of open wheel racing in America. Many of us were naive enough to think that two series with more than 10 or so teams would merge to result in a series with 20 teams and 30+ cars for each event. That didn’t happen.

We also thought that merging the two groups together would allow for sponsors to finally see a single series that was more easily recognizable by the American public. That doesn’t really appear to have happened either.

What about new and interested folks wanting to start IndyCar teams? Not so much. Although some new teams pop up hear and there they usually fade into the woodwork pretty quickly.

I love Indy Car and will continue to watch. I’ll go to races and recommend others do as well, but you gotta be concerned at the state of affairs as we await the start of the 2010 Indy Car season.

Brawn GP (Photo Credit: lipjin)

In what continues to be an interesting off-season in Formula One, Mercedes announced Monday they are going to purchase a 75.1 percent share of Brawn GP.  The team will be operated as a works team starting in 2010.  Mercedes went on to say that they will sell their 40 percent stake in McLaren over the next three years.  The Brawn GP purchasing group includes Aabar Investments along with Mercedes.  Aabar is an Abu Dhabi owned investment firm that holds nine percent of Mercedes parent Daimler.  Mercedes will continue to supply engines to McLaren in the future.

McLaren put out a press release putting a very positive spin on the separation:

http://www.mclaren.com/latestnews/mclaren-news.php?article=380

  It appears Ross Brawn parlayed his magical season of 2009 into a significant payday.  He will retain his role as team principal and manager, all while collecting a handsome reward for his work.  That investment in Honda’s operation paid off.  Should be interesting to see which manufacturer makes the next move.

Vintage Izod (Photo Credit: SwanDiamondRose)

Indycar just announced their first title sponsor since 2002, and it is none other than…Izod.  Yep, the aged clothing brand of Phillips Van-Heusen more associated with golf than motorsports.  Most everyone in tune with the sport, figured this is where things were headed with the title sponsor announcement, but it is just such a letdown now that it is official.  Believe me I hope this column makes me look foolish one day and it is a successful partnership.  I love Indycars as much as I love being right, but this is just another example of horrible marketing by the Indianapolis based series.  It is going to flame out for both the sponsor and the series. 

I agree Izod is probably better than nothing, but is that what they were faced with, nothing?  Supposedly the series is excited that it isn’t an oil, tire, fuel, or automotive company because those companies would not expand the fan base.  Plans are for Izod to market the speed of the cars.  Good, they should, and they should market the interesting non-cookie cutter driver personalities as well.  I just don’t the see the marketing power.  Indycar isn’t strong enough to renew the Izod brand, and Izod brand isn’t strong to draw an audience to TV or track turnstiles.  They will just collaborate on some hip commercials that no one is going to see.  They will also crank out some clothing designs that are not as racing redneck chic as NASCAR, and that is a very good thing.  They were doing that already though. 

Fashion is too fickle to produce a title sponsor.  Especially considering the 10 million per year for five year figure that is being tossed around for the deal.  To quote Heidi Klum, errr…Heidi Samuel now, “in fashion, one day you’re in, and the other, YOU’RE OUT!”  Yeah, I log some Project Runway time, what of it?  I think the only fashion brand that is pop culture enough to pull this off would be Levi’s.  Otherwise, you maintain quiet steady sales with a respectable brand, or you go Bugle Boy, Jordache, and Z. Cavaricci.  It just isn’t a good fit.

Obviously I can preach from a blog, and the marketing folks certainly knocked on all the Pepsi, Coke, and McDonald’s of the world’s doors.  It is just sad that after they did all that, they still only came up with a marginal clothing brand.  Indycar needs to figure this out quick and get a decent marketing strategy.  They need accentuate the differences between their form of racing and NASCAR.  The personalities in the Indycar garage are far less corporate and far more entertaining than in NASCAR.  Remind people that Indycars are waaayyyy faster than those shoeboxes.  Let people know that there is a lot more technology in Indycar than NASCAR.  Fuel injection, carbon fiber, aluminum, computers, engine management systems, female drivers, even ethanol; these are selling points.  I can see getting away from automotive companies for sponsors, but it needs to be a pop culture or technology tie in.  It’s about the kids.  You need to hook the 16 to 30 year olds.  I would have personally been very happy with an Xbox 360 Indycar Series.

The only thing I know for certain is the locks in Indy better have been changed so Gene Simmons never gets in again, and they need to develop some homegrown driving talent.  Plus while we’re at it they need a new car a.s.a.p.  The current car is so dated and more engine manufacturers would help too.  All of that in the current economy is a pretty tall order, but that is what they are faced with.  One weekend in May doesn’t pay all the bills for the entire year anymore, and neither does a title sponsor.  Just hunch but I think we’ll be able to address that title sponsor issue in less than five years.

I’m callin’ it TacoGate!

For those of you that live under a rock I’ll cover the basics of this story first.  During last Saturday’s ESPN coverage of the Ohio State – Minnesota game Chris Spielman asked Bob Griese “where Montoya was?” a reference to his position in The Chase.  Griese doing his best impersonation of a completely uninformed xenophobe responded, “He’s out having a taco.”

OK, now that we’re all caught up we can move on to all the reasons this incident and the coverage of it piss me off.  After that we’ll get to the part that reaffirms why Juan Pablo is so friggin’ awesome in my book.

So this isn’t the first time a sportscaster has said something stupid, it definitely won’t be the last.  It should also be noted that this probably isn’t the worse offense ever committed by someone in this position.  I think the worst was probably Jimmy The Greek, but that’s just my opinion.  Immediately after the broadcast where Griese committed the offense he issued and apology.  I think he’s issued a bunch more since.  Who hasn’t said something completely stupid before?  We all have.  Who hasn’t offended someone with said stupid remark?  Yep, same group.  I think I  may have more than most.  (Don’t think so?  Keep reading dumb ass!)  The problem with this is that it had obvious ethnic overtones and what made it even more worse was that the ethnic overtones were completely wrong.

That’s what makes the whole thing so ridiculously drop on the flow, get a cramp in your gut, piss your pants funny.  It’s like Griese told a Jewish joke with a Polish Joke punch line.  It’s too bad that the rest of America seems to be equally uninformed because they all quickly picked up on it as offensive.

I guess I don’t have much more to say about this one.  Just same random angry ramblings.  I’ll close with two points.

Come on America, we can do better than this.  Our time on the top of the heap is limited so we’d better get off our asses and not only drop our prejudices about other cultures but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to learn a thing or two about them.  For Christ’s sake there is a guy from Colombia gunning for the 2009 Sprint Cup Championship, if that doesn’t tell you things are changing I don’t know what will.

And finally, throw up some devil horns for JPM.  When asked for a comment on the matter earlier in the week JPM simply stated that he had no comment and that, “I don’t even know who he is” of Griese.  Bad ass!  Add to that the tweet that he sent out around lunch time today, “Guess what I’m having for lunch…..TACOS!!!!!….and I’m serious about it!!!!”

Touche JPM, Touche!

The staff at Angryracefan.com took a road trip over the weekend to find some live racing action. In the quick becoming frozen tundra of the Midwest, there aren’t many options this time of year. Luckily in Grand Rapids, Michigan, they have one of only three arena racing leagues in the United States. The off season void is exactly what the Arena Racing folks look to fill. So we took in the season opener at the Grand Rapids Deltaplex.

Photo Credit: Angry Race Fan

 

As I made the trek cross-state to the Deltaplex Arena, I was really hoping this wasn’t going to be a complete waste of time. The drive was going to take longer than the evening’s event. Plus, let’s be honest, these are ½ scale “cars” with 13 hp engines. They bill the cars ½ the size of a Sprint Cup series car. What they are is full bodied go karts with Honda lawnmower engines in the back. They have more in common with Indycars than they do NASCAR buggies (insomuch as the Honda powerplant in the back). So I’m assuming it is a novelty and I just hope it worth seeing. On the flip side, Joe Gibbs, who is no slouch in the professional sports, racing, or the business world, bought into this concept. I’ve also read positive comments on the racing from Tony Stewart, J.J. Yeley, Denny Hamlin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. So it must have its merits, right?

Well it does have merit. However, it is also a novelty. The strangest thing you notice right off the bat, is that the track straights are flat and the turns are relatively high banked. Unfortunately this all occurs within the confines of a typical hockey rink sized area. Even at half scale, not enough room for much transition. This results in huge bumps going in and coming out of the turns. I don’t know how these cars don’t get airborne. When you have lap times under 10 seconds while going around in circles basically jumping two sets of railroad tracks while turning, there is a lot going on in those small confines. The track action is a follow the leader parade until lap traffic is encountered. Most short tracks I’ve seen lately are exactly that though. It does create a lot of fender to fender, and fender to wall action.

Photo Credit: Angry Race Fan

The evening does drag a bit. There is only one class of cars, 18 in total. They split the cars into a couple heats, a semi-feature, followed by a 50 lap “Top Dog” race. Time is given between the races for crews to work the cars and the downtime is filled with ¼ scale radio control car races, country music on the speaker system, and the obligatory t-shirt cannon. Speaking of that loudspeaker system; it was the worst set-up I’ve ever heard at a commercial event. Cheap wedding DJs would think the equipment and acoustics were horrible. I couldn’t make out one word of the track announcer all night.   (Since publishing this we were contacted by the Arena Racing facility and series mangement.  The audio issues were due to electrical problems they had incurred earlier in the day.  Understandably they were unable to remedy the problem before the race, but the show must go on.  In the future, the speaker system should not be an issue, and we were glad to hear it was a one time blip.)  To make the downtime more enjoyable, the facility does offer all the usual racetrack fare. Not to mention the Coors Light was cold and reasonably priced. Still they could shave a half hour off the nearly three hour show, and I don’t think anyone would complain.

The races have double file starts and restarts. As stated earlier, once they sort out in a lap or two it pretty much a parade until lap traffic is encountered. Then things start to heat up. You can tell the drivers feel pretty brave in these little cars. They aren’t afraid to move the other guy out of the way, but they also take it serious enough not to make it a demolition derby. The race we watched was won by Dave Sensiba. I don’t know how old Dave is these days, but I do remember that I used to watch him run ASA back in ASA’s heyday. So there is a definite mix of drivers, from 14 year old kids, to established late model touring drivers. I think the mix leans towards the hopefully up and coming drivers.

While the racing was rather entertaining, the facility of the Deltaplex is rather utilitarian. It has space, seats, walls, and a roof. That’s about it. There isn’t a whole lot of character with this building. It’s pretty similar to an empty big box store. Which now that I think about it wouldn’t be a bad use for a few of these empty retail buildings dotting the landscape.

All in all, I would say it was worth the drive. They have 15 dates this season, and I may catch another one if the opportunity of a free evening presents itself. Hopefully the series does well and finds a sustainable niche audience over on the west side of Michigan.

It might be a hassle some times but memories are made at the track. Photo Credit: TequilaMike

I was presented with a dilemma recently.  I received my annual renewal for my Nationwide and Sprint Cup tickets for the August Michigan race.  My family has had four tickets together for both races and we have attended for at least 10 years now.  As time goes by interest wanes with all parties involved; everybody seems so busy these days.  Michigan isn’t exactly an excitement track like Bristol either.  Plus it really is a chore to go to a NASCAR race.  All the traffic, the people, the long walks, and 90+ degree humid Michigan summer day, just doesn’t appeal anymore.  The tickets are getting ridiculously priced too.  So we are reluctantly going to let them go.  Nationwide in the shadow of the pressbox, and turn 1 grandstand aisle seats for Sprint Cup.  Even selling our extra tickets if someone doesn’t want to go hasn’t been possible for the last couple years given my region’s economy.  It just wasn’t worth it.  Or is it? 

Why do we go to races?  It’s easier, cheaper, and you seemingly get to see more up close action with today’s television coverage.  I can even listen to Dale Jr.’s radio through the computer at home better than I can on my old Radio Shack scanner in the stands.   Why do we go?  Yeah, we aren’t down on the track like we all wish we were.  But we have skin in the game when we are at the track.  Well at least sunburnt skin, and lots of sweat.  We are invested in the sport we love.  We are connected to the point we think we are participants.  You don’t get that through the TV.  Not even in hi-def.  You can’t smell or hear the cars. 

Seriously! How awesome is this shot! We took this picture! Photo Credit: Angry Race Fan

I go to races so that when I’m BSing with my buddies, I can say, “yeah, but I was in Cleveland when Danica and AJ were running Barber Dodge cars.”  Some of the races you remember clear as day.  Some are forgettable, either because they are boring (MIS stock car), or because you drank so many oil cans of Fosters at an F1 race at Indy and you don’t even remember getting home six hours away (I wasn’t driving).  It is the most fun when you can stay on site for the weekend.  Jimmy Vasser played football with his buddies next to our camp site at Road America.  Paul Newman practically drove through said campsite on his scooter staring at the sky. 

I feel as though I was truly a part of the IRL/CART split. I sat in the stands at the US500; people with portable black and white TVs sitting behind us were watching Indy and giving us updates.  I watched a buddy almost get killed by Chip Ganassi driving like an idiot on his scooter, or same friend almost run down by AJ Foyt on a golf cart.  Since we don’t have the talent to drive side by side with Juan Pablo, and we can’t call a race like Tim Cindric; we accept our role as fans.  As a race fan, you truly need to put your butt in the seat at a racetrack as often as you can.  That is where you truly connect with the sport.  It also makes watching those races on TV more enjoyable.  You subconsciously recall it all, and you truly know what it would be like if you were there. 

OK, so I’ve waxed ecstatic and gotten a little too romantic.  You still need to vote with your wallet first and foremost.    Babies still need shoes, and you need to take your lady or man out for dinner.  Those dance class and gymnastics for the kids don’t pay for themselves.  Whenever you can pull it off though; take in a race.  It’s worth it. 

Now I hope I didn’t already recycle that ticket renewal slip.

Photo Credit: cliff1066

Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, appears to be buying into Richard Petty Motorsports.  Reports say they are going to build a “NASCAR style” track and establish a Richard Petty Racing Experience driving school somewhere in the Saudi desert.  NASCAR industry insiders are also speculating that al-Saud will also purchase Gillette’s considerable share in RPM.

I’m curious how the Richard Petty faithful are accepting that possibility.  Personally I’m all for it.  My biggest problem with the report, is that oval tracks are now internationally considered “NASCAR style” tracks?  They are ovals.  NASCAR is a stock car sanctioning body.  NASCAR holds races overwhelmingly on ovals.  I will volunteer to fly to Saudi Arabia and explain this if need be, because NASCAR dominates the stock car scenery so much, we need to reestablish the distinction.  That and I love middle-eastern food, but we can’t stay too long.  I don’t want my liver getting spoiled by the lack of alcohol. 

There is nothing wrong with sending another little sliver of Americana to a rather conservative, traditional, and lets face it, oppressive region of the world.  There would be nothing better than to see a bunch of Saudi men gathered around playing backgammon with cowboy hats that have dead fowl strapped to the front. 

As for Richard Petty, he needs to find a new role in the sport.  Perhaps it is simply being an ambassador and doing things like the Goodwood Festival as he has done in the past.  Also continue with the involvement in the Victory Junction Camp.  That would be a proper display for his legacy.  It is just sad to see him chasing the unobtainable as he has the last 15 years.  I think his name needs to come off the team, but the marketing people at the new Yates-Petty-al-Saud (or whatever they call it) would surely disagree.  I just don’t want to see Petty associated as much with being an also-ran as it is with winning.  A little injection of oil money certainly won’t hurt.