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.

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.

I think Indy Car could learn something from the success of the Daytona Prototype class. Photo Credit: Wartermarked Photography

On the About Us page of the Grand Am website they refer to the Daytona Prototypes (DPs) as an “extremely raceable and relatively affordable format”.  DPs cost between $400,000 and $500,000 and are available from five separate constructors and have approved power plants from seven different manufacturers (both import and domestic).  Each of these seven engines can fit into any of the 5 approved chassis, so that gives you the possibility of 35 different chassis / engine combinations just within the current rules.  From an engine perspective Grand Am also states that, “manufacturers are welcome to submit any production-based engine for approval in the series, but turbos and superchargers are not permitted”.

 With this Grand Am has created an environment where the rulebook is very structured and strict on how cars can be designed and then parity is built into the rulebook by managing the homologation of engines into the series.  Seems reasonable enough, sound familiar at all?

Now let’s turn our attention to Indy Car, that bastion of engineering ingenuity where anybody with the desire, money, and brains to do it can build a car to the rulebook and may a go at the Indy 500.  Err, well, wait a minute.  The series that was once the epitome of motorsports creativity, the race that in 1967 saw Parnelli Jones race a gas turbine powered car, now is made up of a single chassis and a spec engine.  I won’t mention tires because after the debacle at the US Grand Prix in 2004 I don’t so much mind having a single tire manufacturer (Tony Stewart may disagree with me on this, but I’d argue it with him over some beer and what would probably be a ton of chicken wings and I’d win).

The IRL seems to believe that a single manufacturer for both cars and engines will bring down the costs for the teams. 

Seems like a little variety could do Indy Car some good. Don't you think? Photo Credit: cmakin

 Yet, I don’t see the Grand Am teams complaining about costs.  I also don’t see the Grand Am fans complaining about snooze-fest fuel mileage races or 200 MPH parades.  I know some recent rule changes have made an impact on those problems from earlier this season but seriously why can’t the Grand Am DP model be transferred over to Indy Car?

Now understood that Grand Am is in cahoots with NASCAR and many of the engines used are very similar to NASCAR engines.  This doesn’t really account for Porsche, BMW, Infiniti, Honda, and Lexus though, does it?  The IRL had their manufacturers’ summits recently and although they did get more interest than I expected it wasn’t nearly enough.  Why can’t they draw Chevrolet, Porsche, Ford, BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, or Honda like Grand Am did?  Well what’s in it for them?  Perhaps they should worry less about the manufacturers and more about the engine builders.

Roush-Yates is building Ford engines for Grand Am. Why, you say?  Because someone is paying them to build them!  Teams buy engines from engine builders or they build there own engines.  They don’t have to lease them from the manufacturers.  I’m not sure if the IRL has noticed but the vast majority of their teams already have machine shops in their facilities.

So, lets bring this back around to something useful and not just me ranting on and on about this.  Here is what I believe Indy Car needs to do to bring more attention to their fine version of motorsport:

• Create a proposed set of specifications for the next generation of Indy Car chassis.
• Open the submission process for designs to be approved by the IRL.  Look to specific manufacturers if necessary such as Lola, Dallara, Panoz, Riley, Swift, etc.
• Look for production based engine packages that could be built with the necessary horsepower, durability and size and solicit current manufacturers / engine builders to participate in the homologation process.
• If possible, look to include both import and domestic engine manufacturers 

Will this be easy?  NO.

Will it put more burden on the league to update and enforce the rule book?  YES.

Will it bring better competition?  YES.

Will it bring more attention through a more diverse set of manufacturers and constructors?  YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT WILL!!!

Now that’s just my 2 cents but Grand Am just tested at Indy a couple weeks ago and you can bet you’re ass if they run a 12 hours there that I will be the loudest shirtless guy standing on an ugly bus right in the middle of that hot mess! 

Keep it up Grand Am and get on the stick Indy Car!

Oh wait, the Managing Director just quit after their ex-driver alleged that the former asked him to CRASH ON PURPOSE!   Why would a multi-national financial institution have issues with that?

The official release from ING stated that they made their decision, “in light of the verdict of the World Motor Sport Council of 21 September 2009 concerning the events that occurred at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix”.  They also stated that they were “disappointed”.

Earlier today Mutua Madrilena a Spanish Insurance backer also ended their sponsorship relationship with the team.  Two high level folks are out, marquee sponsors are gone, seems like this story might be about over.

Hey ING!  Your logo prettys up a car real nice.  You have any interest in winning a few races?  I know just the guy you should talk to. 

So at the time of this posting first practice for the Singapore GP is in just under 6 hours.  What are the cars and crew for Renault F1 going to look like tomorrow?  They just going to wear Dickies work shirts?  Dig up some old Mild Seven garb?  (I think SpeedGear still has some of that stuff on clearance).

Well I’m signing off and setting my alarm for bright and early so I can see first hand.  If you Renault guys are reading this I vote for plane white unis that say “Crew” and a plane white car that says “Chassis”.  Just a thought.

Is Pruett Leaving Ganassi or pulling double duty? Photo Credit: ScrapNancy

According to AutoWeek Scott Pruett will not be assisting the the test of the new RSR (formerly RocketSports) Jaguar XKR this weekend at Petit Le Mans as was originally planned.  This is most likely due to the fact that it was originally to occur on Friday during practice and is now looking like it will be more of a parade lap or two on Saturday.  Scott will need to be in Miami at this time taking care of business with his Ganassi team mates

(Hi to Scott’s family at home.)

Although they originally thought they may debut the car at Mid Ohio earlier this year it had later been pushed to Petit Le Mans @ Road Atlanta this coming weekend.  That too was later changed to be a practice session and now has been  back further and has been referred to as “some demonstration laps”.  RSR does plan to have the new XKR’s race debut at the ALMS season finale at Laguna Seca on Oct 11th.  Marc Goossens and Paul Gentilozzi (RSR Team Owner) are slated to drive at that event.

Another big point of interest from the AutoWeek article was the mention that Scott Pruett would not be driving for RSR this weekend but is scheduled to drive the XKR in GT2 next year.

Huh?  Could that be?  Is Scott going to leave the Ganassi boys?  This one came as a shocker to me.  Now in theory he could run partial seasons in bothseries.  I don’t think the 2010 schedules are out yet for either series so there probably is no way to commit doing running both or partial schedules at this point.  Seems that a fellow would have to pick one.  Especially Pruett who said in a 2008 interview with Crash.net that where he was quoted as saying, “He likes the Grand-Am schedule, which allows him lots of time with his wife and three children”. 

After considering it for a bit it does make some sense though.  Scott has been in Grand Am running that Lexus DP for some time now.  He’s proved that he is a damn good driver by winning multiple Rolex 24s and Daytona Prototype championships.  I haven’t seen if RSR is planning on taking the RSR to Le Mans next year but if that is the case this would give Pruett a shot at a another class win there (he previously had two wins in class).

Well however it ends up working out its all interesting to me.  It’s good to see Jaguar back in sports car  racing, good to

RSR unveiled their new GTS XKR at Road Atlanta this week. Bad Ass!

see Michigan-based RSR back in competition, and whether Scott stays in Grand Am or moves to ALMS you can bet he’ll be saying hi to his family at home.

(And I’m going to throw this in too.  There aren’t nearly enough children’s books related to motorsports and Pruett has written a few good ones.  Honestly can’t say I’ve bought them but I have flipped through them.  You can see and buy them here.  Start the kids out early!)

Exactly what NASCAR needs! Photo Credit: SPYDERMAN360

First off, the views expressed within this blog are solely the views of the blogger, and angryracefan.com is not responsible for them.  OK, after recently watching some of the coverage from recent Indycar, F1, and even motorcycle races, I figured out what NASCAR needs to do to gain in popularity:  Grid Girls, Umbrella Girls.  Whatever you want to call them, NASCAR needs them.  The “aw shucks”, southern boy mentality needs to go.  I mean get over it.  You built your sport runnin’ ‘shine right?  Then you were sponsored by a cigarette company and had a Winston Girl.  You want to catch the younger demographic, back a truck up to the next NOPI nationals and just start running herd.  With today’s MTV culture, as wrong as it is, young people expect this sort of stuff.  The official mouthpiece of NASCAR, SPEED TV, even showcases this sort of thing on their website.  How about “Hooters Girls, The Official Pit Lane Eye Candy of NASCAR?”  I think we’d have a winner.

Who are you going to alienate?  Doubtful it would be the 50-60 year old guy that has been following for years, perhaps that guy’s wife?  They probably have one of these Gen “Y”ers at home.  They’re used to it.  NASCAR is a sport.  Sports have cheerleaders, except for baseball and the Detroit Lions (thank you Mr. Ford).   It is the same sort of thing.  Don’t tell me the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders from “America’s team” are any less offensive to the mainstream than the grid girls at almost all professional racing events outside of NASCAR. 

This may sound like it is coming from a sexist point of view.  Really it isn’t.  Run out some Grid Boys for your feminine participants (like Kyle Busch or Danica if she makes a poor choice and jumps ship).  Be ahead of the curve on that one NASCAR.  So let’s get to it and get with the times.

Another note:

Didn’t Mark Martin retire four or ten years ago?  I’m not sure if I’m impressed or annoyed by his run this year.  Maybe it is a NASCAR conspiracy to bring in the AARP crowd, the antithesis of what I endorsed earlier.  Mark Martin may very well finally get his elusive championship.  Obviously he can still drive.  I’ll just always remember him as the guy that would back down from Dale Earnhardt every time they got close to each other on the track.  I also remember hearing stories of how arrogant he was on his trips to Howe Racing back when he ran ASA in the early 80’s.  Seriously, you’re inside the shop Mark, take the Ray-Bans off.  To be the best, you have to beat the best, and he is doing it this year.  So while some may say he is simply in the best equipment, there are five other guys in the same Hendrick machinery and not one of them is a slouch.  One might be a slouch now, but that will be another topic one day.

So I’ve never been a fan, but I’ll give Mark a tip of the hat if he brings home the hardware at season’s end.  Then will he really retire?

So this is in fact my first blog. Making me a blogger I suppose. Great, another person narcissistic enough to think their opinion is more important than everyone else’s and even worse, that someone wants, no needs, to read it. Steven Colbert said, “a blogger is a person with a laptop, an axe to grind … and their virginity.” Well, I don’t have a laptop yet. Amazingly enough I am a father. However, I do have a dull axe, and the people at this site have graciously given me a place to put an edge on it.

Up there in the address bar says it all. Angry Race Fan. Believe me, I’m more angry than I am content when it comes to racing and its media coverage. The various series consistently make poor choices in marketing and competition regulation. NASCAR TV, errr, Speed, constantly evolves from what was once a great channel to the mouthpiece of NASCAR. Still in my first post on an “angry” site, I have to take skip through the daisies.

The timing is strange as NASCAR’s Sprint series postseason and college football kicks off about the same. One sport has a playoff and one doesn’t. College football needs one, but it NASCAR’s premier series that has it. Why not? It isn’t a perfect system, but what is? Sure it is driven by a TV contract. However it does add some excitement to a series that has become stagnant in its growth and has more than enough races on the docket to support it.

They still need to tweak their point distribution all season long, pre and post Chase. Come on, why would you get points for less than a 35th place finish? It is ridiculous. I’m not saying you should stop paying out prize money past that position. I wouldn’t want to put an end to the field fillers and start and park entries, which are a necessary element. You should just get more points for winning as well as points falling off more than they do after the top ten. I won’t even start on the other changes like only 36 cars at Bristol and Martinsville (other than that start right there).

Regardless of how it turns it, it should be one of the most competitive Chase series to date. With Kyle Busch’s four wins, he should have been in it, but I know most fans won’t miss him. Matt Kenseth absence is also noticeable. However, everyone races the same points system, just like they race the same car design. No matter how much they complain about it. There is certainly plenty to complain about with NASCAR, but they have leveled the playing field about as much as possible with this near spec series.

So grab your beer and pretzels, sit back on Sunday and let it all play out. When your guy bites it early in the Chase and you start to complain, just think of how much better you have it than that college football fan come December and January. At least he was given the opportunity to be a champion.