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.

It appears that the A1GP series has pulled out of their season opener at Surfer’s Paradise this weekend.  A Racer.com article attributes the pull out to “that series ongoing financial problems”.  This is very bad for A1GP but could prove to be excellent for the Australian V8 SuperCars as they are now the headliners.

First CART, then Champ Car, then Indy Car, and now A1GP. V8 Supercars will headline the show at Surfer's this weekend. Photo Credit: kevgibbo

I’ve always liked the Tin Tops from down under.  I really think its what NASCAR should hope to be someday.  Well at least in so much as the cars should resemble actual production based cars and use technology more modern than that of the Cub Cadet in your garage.  I know that ovals are NASCAR’s thing and I’m cool with that to some extent, but to have real cars that represent actual makes and models with production based power plants would be awesome.  But enough about that for now.

Photo Credit: Jon Ovington

The leadership of the V8 Supercar Series and a number of Australians have said for some time that the true draw of the weekend on the Gold Coast were the V8s and not the open wheelers.  It make perfect sense to me.  It is the local series, it is stocked with Australian drivers.  It has been the mainstay at the event while numerous open wheel series came and went. 

Racer.com also quotes John Griffin, IndyCar VP of Public Relations as stating that IndyCar is still interested in Surfer’s but would need to agree with the promoters on schedule (IRL wants to end their championship on home soil) and a reasonable sanctioning fee.  Griffin states in reference to the sanctioning fee that, “…it would take around $20 million for an IndyCar return to be viable, whereas North American-based races can be run for between $3m-$5m.”. 

Don’t get me wrong I love IndyCar and have enjoyed the open wheel races at Surfer’s in the past.  But in my opinion this tight circuit which always seems to have  surprise winner just isn’t cutout for Indy Cars.  I wish the V8s the best of luck this weekend and am throwing out the prediction that the Surfer’s SuperGP will have a long and successful future with Tin Tops getting top billing from this day forward!