In a year where Penske is running two teams with no Sponsors, the long time owner of the IRL doesn’t have a team or job anymore, and Newman-Haas has been relegated to a prep shop for ride buyers we welcome any signs of hope or good news.

Today we got some. Young Rahal will be driving for Rahal Letterman Racing at Indy this May.  I’m sure working for your dad will have the some challenges as it would for anybody but they’re a stellar team and having the two team up for the month of May is sure it make it more interesting to watch.

In honor of this announcement and as I’m sure his tweets will get more interesting as this month unfolds we are now make Graham following Grahams Tweets on our Twitter widget on all pages of ARF.  Enjoy!

The full press release from Rahal’s site can be found here.

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.

Kurt Busch (photo cred: duane.schoon)

Jimmie Johnson is single handedly ruining NASCAR.  You know how I know?  Because I’m writing something positive about Kurt Busch.  A driver that I have hated from the first time I heard him speak.  I actually boycotted Miller Lite when he replaced Rusty Wallace.  That was tough, Miller Lite and I had been through a lot together.  Miller was guilty by association though, and we just couldn’t play together anymore. 

How do these things relate? I want so bad for someone to stop Jimmie Johnson from winning one more race, much less one more consecutive championship, that I have instituted an “anyone but Jimmie” mantra for this year.  Kurt Busch happens to not be Jimmie Johnson.  Therefore, I am now pulling for Kurt, his even more despised brother Kyle, and the 40 other drivers each Sunday that are not Jimmie. 

NASCAR can spin their ratings plateau on the economy.  I’m not buying it.  We all still have TVs and I’m guessing we’re watching them even more now that our discretionary income has dwindled and all we can afford to do is sit on the couch.  Now that may not help put behinds in the stands on race day, but that is only one part of the juggernaut that was NASCAR.  There are three things working against NASCAR on TV.  First is their vanilla, milk-toast four consecutive time champion, Jimmie Johnson.  Followed by the FOX networks hokie coverage.  Lastly is the rise of mixed martial arts(MMA). 

Someday I’ll write my ramblings on Larry Mac, DW, and MMA.  But today is reserved for Kurt Busch.  I still don’t like him.  I still wish I was courtside to see Jimmy Spencer try to punch him through the driver’s window at Michigan.  I was at the race, just not close enough to see the fear in Kurt’s eyes.  My anti-Jimmie tinted spectacles have opened my eyes to the decent qualities of other drivers though. 

Today I caught an interview with Kurt Busch on the Jim Rome Show.  Kurt didn’t mix in some contrived, premeditated analogy as he usually does.  The guy is generally just a total dork in interviews, for lack of a better word.  He just gave a pretty straightforward interview, dropped in his sponsor a couple times, and spoke honestly of Carl Edwards joke of a punishment.  What actually intrigued me about the whole thing, was that during this off weekend for NASCAR Sprint Cup racing, Busch is going NHRA sanctioned drag racing with a buddy in a 1970 Challenger they built.  Maybe there is hope for the guy yet.  He has a dream job, and he is spending his free time just like so many of us say we would, if we were in the same position.  He didn’t make me like him, but he made me want to be him.  And that is something I never would have thought I would ever say about Kurt Busch.  To celebrate I’ll have to go pick up a sixer of Lite.  Now just don’t go back to full goober mode Kurt, and beat Jimmie.

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.

Well she definitely got a lot of attention that is for damned sure!  After the past couple weeks at Daytona I’d say that its now just a matter of time before the girl wonder makes a permanent move from Indy Car to NASCAR.  Obviously she’s not ready to run a full cup schedule tomorrow and obviously it isn’t a given that she’ll do well.  What is a given is that she can bring a whole new group of fans to the sport, more sponsors, etc, etc.  And in through out all that she can make a boat load of dough!

All that aside Danica is a racer.  I don’t think she has much interest in being a showpiece and not a contender.  I also think she has unfinished business in IndyCar that she wants to take care of before going anywhere.  Winning at Motegi last year is great and all but if she wants to win in NASCAR first she must win in Indy Car on a more regular basis.  As Franchitti proved last year one does not easily beget the other.  Montoya is proof positive that switching between disciplines with success is absolutely possible but you have to be a good driver to do so.  She is a good driver but she’s not JPM.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no NASCAR honk.  When I say it’s hard to switch racing disciplines  I mean that in all directions.  I don’t think Jimmie Johnson could switch to Indy Cars and be competitive tomorrow.  It’s just different.  DW was quoted during the elongated coverage of the Daytona 500 as saying that (and I summarize) “racing here will help her when she goes back to Indy Cars.  Look what happened to Dario Franchitti… He went back and he won the championship.”  Now I don’t think for a minute that Dario won the Indy Car championship last year because of his short stint in NASCAR.  He was going to win that anyway.  But does it teach some things to race different types of cars?  I’m sure it does.

Either way you look at it this foray into NASCAR will be interesting to watch.  Fans will watch, nay-sayers will watch, lots of people will watch.  We’ll see what she can pull off.

The Flav @ 66ème Festival du Cinéma de Venise (photo credit: nicogenin)

Flavio Briatore, the alleged mastermind behind the Renault race fixing scandal, has been cleared to return to F1 as his lifetime ban was overturned by a French court.  Briatore’s supposed next step is legal action against Nelson Piquet Jr., who ratted out Flavio for ordering Piquet to intentionally crash his Renault at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix thereby affecting the outcome of the race in favor of teammate Fernando Alonso. 

Being an eighth french I have to share my utter disgust with this ruling.  If this was any other sport besides F1, I would say there is no way any team would bring him on.  However, with the political circus that is F1 it probably makes him even more desirable.  Hopefully I’m wrong.

So the speculation of will she or won’t she is over.  Now we can move onto will she succeed or won’t she.  Although the media outlets have been reporting it for days, it is finally official.  That is if you can believe her own words from her twitter, “I will see you all in indycar and nascar!!!! #7 go daddy car with jr motorsports.”  Talk about a power couple, Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.  As far as marketing power goes anyhow; maybe not so much for on track results though.

As afan of motorsports that transcend NASCAR, I wish she didn’t have to make this move.  However, for the Danica brand, she probably had to.  You have to make hay while the sun shines they say, and in the current state of American motorsports, the sun shines brightest in NASCAR.  There is definitely a risk involved.  She needs to produce at least mediocre results quickly and there is a laundry list of very accomplished open wheel drivers who have not been able to make the transition.

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.

Word came out of Tokyo on November 4th that confirmed what many were expected.  Toyota will be withdrawing from Formula 1 competition.  The Toyota news release cited “… the current severe economic realities” as the reason for their exit from the pinnacle of open wheel motorsports.

Photo Credit: Sumisso

As far as the Japanese automakers future the release also reads, “In motor sports, it will not only race in various categories, but will also actively contribute to further development of motor sports by supporting grassroots races and planning events in which it is easy for people to participate.”  I found this quote very interesting.  To me it basically says that they’re pulling out of the most high profile and expensive form of motorsport world wide but we’re going to stay involved in other series and at the very bottom of the motorsports food chain, grassroots racing.  What an excellent kick to the Formula 1 snobs out there!

The world’s largest automaker is saying it’s going to focus on other series (i.e. NASCAR, Grand Am, NHRA, etc.) and what I consider the heart and soul of motorsports, johnny weekend racer.  They would rather spend their diminishing racing budgets in those places then at the “pinnacle” of motorsport.  That is saying a lot and I think it’s saying exactly the right thing.

Formula 1 is awesome, there is no question about that.  But is it about selling cars?  In the end to an automaker motorsports are about 3 things; marketing to your consumer, beating your competitors, and developing new technologies that can be used in passenger cars in the future.  So, lets break this down.

Marketing:

Are Toyota drivers really in the F1 demographic?  Yes, but it’s more likely Lexus drivers.

Does F1 get much attention in the US?  Not nearly as much as the tin tops.

Beat your competitors:

Was Toyota beating their competitors?  This year they finished 5th in the points having bested BMW Sauber, William – Toyota (not much help), Renault,  Force Inda – Mercedes, and Torro Rosso – Ferrari.  Renault is a competitor in some markets but not one I believe Toyota fears and BMW is a competitor of note for Lexus.  Ok, so a little help here but is spending as much as an estimated $445 Million a year to run a Formula 1 team?  Hello NO!  Hop up a Camry or an IS F10 and go at it with BWM in ALMS GT2.  That would save you, oh I don’t know about $444.5 Million!

 Were they even racing against competitors?  For argument sake lets say they won the constructor’s championship this season.  In addition to the teams above who would they have beaten?  Mercedes, Renault, and Ferrari.  If they were called Panasonic Lexus Racing instead of Toyota I could see Mercedes, but they just aren’t competing with these guys for car sales.

Developing New Technologies

Were new technologies culled from their 8 seasons in F1?  I dunno.  Probably, but couldn’t you do the same thing in ALMS?  If you were running in GT2 you’d even have a chassis that was similar to a production car.  Hell, if it was Koni Challenge you could actual make money by selling race ready cars to teams.  Imagine that?  Whatever they learned must not have been worth the extra cost.

Thanks for humoring me as I ran through that.  I never like to see any OEM pull out of any racing series, but if they truly focus more on grass roots racing (ala Mazda) then I think this is great news for the motorsports community.  If a company the size of Toyota put its might behind a plan to build a ladder system similar to what Mazda has done this could open up doors to many wanna be drivers that never existed before.  You have to appreciate that.

Now, I know I referred to “Formula 1 snobs” earlier in the post.  I want F1 to do well, but I really want them to just get over themselves.  Yep, they race in some of the coolest places in the world (less and less now) and they have some of the premier manufacturers participating, that is all true.  But, the races are high speed parades, the budgets are out of control, and now that Toyota has withdrawn only 1 of the Top 10 automakers (by 2008 production) participated in the series, Fiat (Ferrari).

Seriously?  How can you be the premiere series if the 9 biggest auto makers don’t participate?  Major changes need to be made to preserve the good name and future of F1.  I hope they do it and soon.

You can read Toyota’s full press release here: 

http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota-to-withdraw-from-f1-112039.aspx?ncid=12036