Pacers Brawl

The cold reality of what happened Friday night in Detroit has hit me. For the record, Ron Artest has been suspended for the balance of the season, Jermaine was hit with a 25 game suspension, Stephen Jackson got 30 games and Anthony Johnson got 6. Reggie got one game for coming out onto the court. Detroits’ Ben Wallace was hit with a paltry 6 game suspension. What a fucking joke!

Okay, I get the Pacer suspensions. I really do. Sure I think they are harsh, but these guys have to know better. What galls me is that the Pistons are basically off the hook for this. Wallace knew damn well what he was doing and yet he is given a lousy 6 gamer. That thug provoked RA just trying to get a rise out of him. When he didn’t he got mad and continued his provocation. This incited the crowd and the near-riot situation that ensued.

Before I go any further let me say that I do not condone, in any way, shape or form, what Ron did. He is supposed to be a professional and he should know better than to go into the stands. Especially knowing his history. But the reality is that anyone would have probably done the same thing if they had just been hit by a beer and a bottle.

Where does this organization go from here? The season is essentially over. RA has proven time and time again that he simply can not be counted on. I won’t go so far as to label him a cancer, but he just seems to lose his mind at the most inopportune times. I don’t know what the rules are, but I wish RA would just go away.

As for the Pistons, I just can’t believe how easy they are getting off on this. They had no security, they have out of control players and yet they get basically a slap on the wrist. If I was a conspiracy theorist I’d be all over this fiasco. Anyway it should be easy to get Pacer tickets, cheap for a while.
I am a little embarrassed by the Pacer’s actions the other night. Again, I think anyone would have done what RA did, but this organization has always carried itself with a degree of class and dignity. That all went away Friday night. And while I appreciate the contributions of Stephen Jackson, I doubt if he is going to turn into the player we embrace here in Indy.

Sponsor Woes

GM announced today that they would stop their support of the IRL as an engine manufacturer at the end of the 2005 season. GM, who is one of the original engine providers with the Aurora, is citing a lack of interest in the series as their main reason to get out. GM, along with Cosworth who was brought on board last season, has made this decision after looking at race attendance and TV ratings and simply do not see the IRL being a good enough product to support. Also today MBNA, title sponsor of the MBNA Pole Award, announced it will only sponsor the pole award at Indianapolis starting next season. Sponsors come and go. Probably more so in auto racing than any other sport. But, is the loss of an engine supplier and one of the biggest race weekend prize providers anything but the bad sign it appears to be? My "friends" over on the message boards have tried to spin this in a positive light. They say that each achieved what they wanted with the IRL and that they have decided to move on. Face it assholes, the IRL is a corporate joke and FTRG is a fool. This series had failed over and over trying to get legitimate sponsorship for a series that boasts great racing. It's product is sound, its management is garbage. I find it beyond belief how anyone can say the IRL is a success and that the moves announced today are positives. Lost sponsors, lost teams, engine leases, road courses and a diminished Indianapolis 500 have just about killed it all for me. I used to love Indy. Now it has been reduced. It is no longer the marquee event. It is just a race and soon to be a race with one less engine. Wake up people! FTRG is leading you down the primrose path and you are all going to have to drink the kool-aid. I predict the end of the IRL within 2 years.

2004 F1 Wrap

Well the 2004 F1 World Championship is in the books. Yesterday in Sao Paulo, Brazil the season unceremoniously ended. JPM finally got a victory for Williams. Their first since the summer of 2003 and in JPM’s last race for the Grove team before moving to McLaren next season. The event was notable for Ferrari’s lack of success. The Sandwich finished 3rd after starting on the pole and Michael finished 7th after starting 18th. Here is the final constructor and driver championship points: CONSTRUCTOR 1 Ferrari 262 2 BAR-Honda 119 3 Renault 105 4 Williams-BMW 88 5 McLaren-Mercedes 69 6 Sauber-Petronas 34 7 Jaguar-Cosworth 10 8 Toyota 9 9 Jordan-Ford 5 10 Minardi-Cosworth 1 DRIVER Pos Driver Nationality Team Points 1 Michael Schumacher German Ferrari 148 2 Rubens Barrichello Brazilian Ferrari 114 3 Jenson Button British BAR-Honda 85 4 Fernando Alonso Spanish Renault 59 5 Juan Pablo Montoya Colombian Williams-BMW 58 6 Jarno Trulli Italian Renault 46 7 Kimi Räikkönen Finnish McLaren-Mercedes 45 8 Takuma Sato Japanese BAR-Honda 34 9 Ralf Schumacher German Williams-BMW 24 10 David Coulthard British McLaren-Mercedes 24 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Italian Sauber-Petronas 22 12 Felipe Massa Brazilian Sauber-Petronas 12 13 Mark Webber Australian Jaguar-Cosworth 7 14 Olivier Panis French Toyota 6 15 Antonio Pizzonia Brazilian Williams-BMW 6 16 Christian Klien Austrian Jaguar-Cosworth 3 17 Cristiano da Matta Brazilian Toyota 3 18 Nick Heidfeld German Jordan-Ford 3 19 Timo Glock German Jordan-Ford 2 20 Zsolt Baumgartner Hungarian Minardi-Cosworth 1 Of course there were no real surprises with the standings down the stretch. Fernando Alonso did manage to hold of JPM for fourth in the championship. Ralfie was able to catch David Coulthard and actually pass Giancarlo Fisichella for ninth in the standings. BAR finished the season strong and was able to claim second place in the Constructors championship plus they retain the services of Jensen Buttons next year after last weeks Contract Board ruling. Of course, who knows what kind of ramifications that decision will have on the team. No, what really happened yesterday was just the start of an offseason that will prove to be quite interesting and have far reaching effects on the future of the sport. Right now there are 19 races on next years schedule. At least one of those is going to go. France, San Marino and Great Britain seem to be on the chopping block. It seems ridiculous to think the GBGP would go away but that is what Bernie is hinting at. And when it all comes down to it, it is all money that is the underlying reason. Bernie can make more and fuck everyone else if it means tradition gets trampled. Those of us in Indy know the feeling. Besides those races the Jaguar team has ceased its operation and unless a suitable buyer can be found it will be lost. Cosworth is involved with Ford’s decision to get out of F1 racing, but it appears the Cosworth brand will be sold and continued. This helps Minardi and Jordan remain on the track. But with the demise of Jaguar, there is but 18 cars expected on the grid at Melbourne next March. Sure there has been some rumblings about some new blood coming in, but with the state of affairs at the FIA office who would come in right now? Then of course there is the GPWC that threatened a couple of years ago to start up a rival series. The idea seemed to be dead but today it was brought up again in response to the rules Max and the FIA are proposing in regards to competition and cost controls. There are a few things we do know about next season. Ferrari will be back as the favorites with the same driver combo. In fact here is a look at what is known right now. Ferrari-Michael and the Sandwich BAR-Honda-Buttons and Sato Renault-Alonso Williams-Mark Webber Toyota-Top Knot and Ralfie Minardi Jordan McLaren-Kimi and JPM Sauber-Jacques and Massa Anthony Pizzonia is most likely to get the Williams seat next to Webber. Minardi and Jordan never keep the same guys so I wouldn’t want to speculate on who gets those “choice” rides for next year. This offseason will prove to be quite enlightening. Thanks for reading all season long and keep it here for more breaking news and opinion!

2004 IRL Wrap

Well the season is over and Tony Kanaan did complete every lap of competition this season. A new record in open wheel racing. What a season for Tony, Andretti Green Racing and Honda. My hat is off to them! The season came to a close Sunday at Texas as Julio finally got off the schneid and won for the first time since 2002. Julio’s struggles have been well documented, but this season can be tied to what can only be labeled as an underpowered Toyota engine. With the exception of Homestead and Texas, it was a Honda sweep this season. On the track it was another great season for the IRL. Besides Julio the winners included Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice, season opener winner Sam Hornish Jr., IRL champion Kanaan, runner-up Dan Wheldon, three time winner Adrian Fernandez and Dario Franchitti. While these were the only drivers to win, several others made life interesting in their pursuit for wins. Vitor Meira and Tomas Wreckter both had several good runs, but were ultimately denied winners circle for various reasons. By far the biggest disappointment had to be Scott Dixon. Scotty D was the defending IRL champion and basically disappeared from the points chase by Indy. Most of his problems could be traced to the Toyota powerplant, but I still maintain that his poor test at Barcelona for Williams F1 was his undoing. I honestly believe Scott thought he was going to get the ride and I did too. He had a great test in France, but just a so-so in Spain. Apparently Sir Frank didn’t like what he saw and let the whole project go. I think Scotty D was so devastated by the experience that he never recovered. I hope he can come back next year with a renewed focus and drive. Another disappointment was Sarah. She only ran at Indy and as a third Kelley car. For whatever reason, the most popular driver in the IRL just can’t land a ride. Did I mention she had the best tits in the IRL? Unfortunately she spent the last month of the season running NASCAR West series races. Before that she spent most of the season driving the two-seater at IRL events. Sad! The biggest surprise had to be split between two factions. One was Buddy Rice’s rise from interim driver to Indy 500 champion and title contender. Last year Rice was a sub on Eddie Cheever’s team. This year he remained in the hunt for the IRL title until the second to last race. He suffered an ugly crash at Chicagoland, but nonetheless had a great season filling in for Kenny Brack. He will be back next year for Rahal/Letterman Racing. The other surprise had to be Adrian Fernandez. AF came to the IRL just after the season opener. His early efforts at Phoenix and Twin Ring Motegi were pitiful. At Indy he started to show some Honda muscle and ran well all month. Finally at Kentucky he broke through with a solid win. He followed it up with two more wins and seemed genuinely thrilled to be in the IRL and racing with the best. So like I said, it was a great year on the track. Unfortunately, off the track the league still faces issues that if left unresolved will ultimately kill it. While attendance was up at most events, it was down at Indy. Television ratings also stayed in the toilet. No one seems to know the answer. I’m not going to get into the whole FTRG thing here today, but suffice it to say the IRL was poorly conceived and it really hurt to get off to a bad start. The fans are coming to the tracks, but until TV ratings pick up, the money for the purses necessary will not come. Here is my assessment of the teams and what to expect in 2005: Andretti Green Racing – “One big happy family” seems to be the mantra this team has said all season and when it came down to it you have to believe them. The drive was apparent from each of them and the whole team, but it was a team effort. First and second place in the standings for the season. Only Herta failed to crack victory lane. Judd is the only one not signed for next year, but it looks like that is just a matter of getting him and the contracts together. If Honda keeps their competitive edge next year look for more of the same. Rahal/Letterman Racing – They won the big enchilada this year and kept Buddy Rice in contention until he went a sailing at Kansas. Honestly his troubles were already well begun, but it was still an excellent season for an afterthought driver. Next year? Hard to say at this point. It looks like Danica Patrick will get a seat but beyond her and Buddy I’m not sure. And where is Kenny Brack? He was at the Texas race, but is the 1999 Indy 500 winner going to race in the IRL again? I don’t hear much to indicate he will. Still, the team should be strong. Marlboro Team Penske – This season has to be considered a disappointment. Sure Julio and Sammy both won races, but were basically uncompetitive most of the year. Toyota lost at Motegi for the first time and at Indy they sucked. Next year will be better if only because Sam and Julio will be together for a second season. However, unless Toyota can make some strides in the offseason, they will be relegated to the back again. Target Chip Ganassi Racing – What a nightmare! Defending IRL champion Scott Dixon vanished and Darren Manning hit everything but the pace car. This team will remain intact for next season but I have to wonder how long Chip puts up with this type of performance. Two years ago, before the Indy 500 I said Ganassi was the best owner in motorsports. He may well still be, but his driver lineup and Toyota engines had to hurt. This team is a complete enigma going into next year. Fernandez/Super Agouri Racing – With AF and Rookie of the Year Kosuke Matsura on board this team is poised for the top. AF won 3 of the last 5 this year and Matsura was solid if not spectacular all season. They will be a threat next year at every track. Red Bull Eddie Cheever Racing – Ed Carpenter and Alex Baron will not be back it would appear. This team is in disarray and who know what is next. This team has the feel of AJ Foyt Racing in the 90’s which was a revolving door of drivers. That is no way to build consistency or get results. Mo Nunn Racing – Mo wants to put PJ Chesson in the seat but is hesitant. Chesson threw shit on the track to cause a yellow Saturday in Texas. He was fined and docked points and pissed off his owner Mrs. Mo. Takagi is most likely gone. This game may be getting too revved up for ol’ Mo anymore. Mike is also an option. AJ Foyt Enterprises – Well Quatro got a top 10 at Texas Sunday, but that was the best of his career. Underpowered with the Toyota and down in the brains department because of no engineer this team will continue to underproduce. AJ Jr. has to get his head out of his ass and start running the team like a race team in the new millennium. He is stuck at Duquoin circa 1970. Dreyer & Reinbold – Wow, where do you go from here? Can’t go down, so up is the only option, unless of course they stay the same. Robbie Buhl’s May retirement came a s a surprise, but I thought they could get something together with Mike at the wheel. Didn’t happen. I think they would like to go with two cars next year, but they could lose Mike and have to start all over. Lack of funds is hurting this team and unless some major sponsorship can be found expect more of the same next year. Panther Racing – Wreckter looks like he may be back next year. To be fair, his pit crew was more of a problem than anything else. He probably would have won at Kentucky had it not been for a bad pit. Similar problems at Milwaukee and Michigan doomed a pretty good second half of the season. This team will push on and with the Menard money should be able to find someone better than Townsend Bell, who replaced Mark Taylor to drive the second car. Hard to turn down that money though! Patrick Racing – A veritable revolving door of drivers since Little Al hung up his helmet with expected results. Jacques Lazier was probably the best of the bunch, but he had no money and was released. Tomas Enge finished the season. My how the mighty have fallen. U.E. “Pat” Patrick probably should have called it quits himself. Kelley Racing – The Star says Tom Kelley shutting it down. Kelley says he is not. Scott Sharp who brings the Delphi money will probably take it to another team if the team folds. Rumor has it that it will be Ganassi, but I don’t know if Chip wants to run three cars. Thanks for the support Tom, you will be missed if you go. Access Motorsports – What a tough year for Greg Ray. He had the Honda engine package and ran solid in the first three races of the season. Then for some reason he didn’t get on the track until Bump Day at Indy. He ran at Texas and Richmond then took his car to Kansas but never took it off the trailer. It looked like it was over. But then Mark Taylor’s dad stepped in with some money and bought the seat. Ray says he is putting together some things for next year and hopes to run a two car operation. Hope it works out for him. Of course the IRL is always watching OWRS to see if or when it will fail. OWRS has made it through this year so far, but barely. The race in South Korea never materialized and they still have the fiasco from Surfers Paradise of last year to recover from. Newman/Haas will have Bruno at Indy for sure. The three amigos are almost sure to lose a shit load of money this year by being promoter and car owners, and it will be seen how long they can last. Former IRL stalwart Ron Hemelgarn was supposed to go OWRS racing this year for free but that never materialized. He may make another run at Indy next year, if not the whole IRL. I still wonder what happened between him and Bubby. While I may not think much of Bubby, he still won Indy and was the best Hemelgarn had. Next year is crucial. If this league is to flourish it needs to start to flex some muscle and take over. Those fans who refuse to enjoy the wonderful racing can just fuck off. There are a lot of them and some have legit beefs. Obviously there was no problem with the 500 in 1995 and now there is. It is up to FTRG and the rest of his marketing department to get this venture over the hump. He has the product, now it is time to sell it!

Fall Reflections 2004

The Election

The election is over, finally! W is the leader of the free world another 4 years. With a 51-48% margin of victory the people have spoken. Most Republican have been gracious in victory. Of course some still the the war is on. The only war now is the war on terror. A war we must win and bring under control ASAFP.

I have to admit, this was the nastiest campaign I have ever seen. And I don't mean that from the candidate standpoint. The vitriol and venom spewed by supporters on both sides was as heated as I can imagine. Let's face it, the war in Iraq has seriously divided this country. It will take time and real progress to get over the wounds left by this election.

One thing I did find refreshing, well there are several, was that John Kerry actually sacked up and conceded the election when it was clear he had lost. Some claimed he gave in too early, but he knew. That jackass John Edwards probably would have drug it through the courts for months.

The other couple of things I really enjoyed was watching the celebs all take it in the ass on this one. They were all lining up behind Kerry and now they are all losers. Hypocrites were also in store during the campaigns. Our old friend Rush Limbaugh was taken down a peg. The pompous ass of the airwaves got caught being a druggie and a dope dealer. How he still goes on the air every day as if nothing happened is beyond me. Get lost douchebag! And who can forget Dan Rather. Dick!

Sayonara to Howard Dean, Tom Daschle, Al Gore, Bill Clinton. All rendered moot by this election.

Now W has to decide what to do about his cabinet. Frankly I'd like to see Rumsfeld gone. Everyone else can stay as far as I cam concerned. There will be some turnover I am sure.


IRL

FTRG strikes again. GM yesterday announced they will be leaving the IRL after next season. MBNA also announced they will sponsor the pole award only at Indy next year. Some of the IRL lapdogs have claimed such ridiculous bullshit as "the IRL no longer fits their needs" and "new sponsors are on their way and would have shoved them out anyway like Toyota and Honda have done". This is all complete BS and madness.
GM was an original engine provider and is now at the back of the pack. Losing any sponsors or suppliers for the IRL is bad.

This league has just about run its course. There are no fans, Indy is even down, no TV ratings and generally no interest. Don't get me wrong I love the IRL, but it is flawed and FTRG has ruined the Indy 500.

My only question is what kind of cars will be running at Indy in May of 2008 because the IRL will be finished after 2006.


IU v PU

Let this serve notice that I am no longer a fan of Indiana University sports. I still think it's a good school with wonderful academic pursuits. The actions of its athletic departments have hurt me to the point I can no longer support their teams.

Coach Gerry Dinardo seems like a good guy, but he isn't doing anything more this year that he has in the past. He won two games early and now has an upset win over Minnesota. That's it. Sure he only this year has his scholarships back, but there again that is because of the shitty athletic department.

And don't even get me started on that idiot over at Assembly Hall. Those idiots will be lucky to win 10 games this year.

I'm done. I will never root for Purdue in basketball as long as Keady is coach. Not sure how I will feel about Painter, but my full allegiance goes to Joe Tiller and that football program.

Until I see anything different: Fuck you Hoosiers!!

Season Ending Preview

Well the Chase for the Championship is truly on now and the boys in the IRL and F1 are down to their penultimate races this weekend and next respectively. Even OWRS is down to their final two races, but they are a month away and really, who cares? In a way it is always sad to see the end of the racing season, but with the NFL to fill the void, it makes the end so much more palatable. And besides, the taxis still have another two months before they call it a season. It’s been a good season for a few teams and drivers and a tumultuous season for many teams, drivers and a couple of series. Ferrari with Michael Schumacher, the Sandwich, Jean Todt and Ross Brawn put up one of those dream seasons winning 14 of the 16 races so far with Schummi getting 12. In fact he started the season with 5 in a row before Jarno Trulli got him at Monaco. After that Michael rang up 7 in a row. Currently Rubens has won the past two after Kimi won at Spa. Like him or not, and I don’t, Schummi has shown this year how good he is. He just beat everyone to death until they cried uncle and by then it was over. I’ve seen Michael wrap up the title earlier than he did this year, but only because the Sandwich was getting so many second places. Honestly I have never seen anything like it from a driver or a team and that is a lot of racing. Buttons looks like he will finish third in the drivers championship. Fernando Alonso is just 4 points ahead of Trulli and JPM, but Jarno is out for the season before making the move to Toyota next year. JPM seems to have lost interest in driving the Williams, but he may be able to garner enough points to overtake Fernando. On the other hand Alonso will be keen to keep ahead of new, at least for the rest of this season, team mate Jacques Villeneuve. But with all of the good driving and fantastic venues for the F1 crowd there is trouble afoot. Last week Ford Motor Co. announced it was pulling the plug on its Jaguar F1 program and on the Cosworth engine program. Besides the obvious sting of losing two cars on the grid, Ford supplies the Jag as well as the Jordan and the Minardi teams with engines. In fact ripples can be heard here in America where the Cosworth is the only engine in OWRS and is a partner with Chevrolet in their IRL engine program. Now the scuttlebutt is that Cosworth will be sold and kept in business. That is the good news. The bad news is that team principals in F1 agree on only one thing, that costs are too high and must be cut. What gets cut and who agrees on what is a sheer crap shoot. These guys never agree on anything. I reported on here earlier in the summer about the changes proposed by Max Mosley. No one has made any move to approve them. Mosley says the changes are coming, but now the teams are saying the costs of change are too high. Max has lately resorted to using safety as his reasoning for the changes. He says the cars are too fast and corner too quickly. Yet it has been more than 10 years since the last fatality in F1. The older, more dangerous tracks are being replaced by newer, safer and modern racing facilities. Sure everyone will miss the speed of Silverstone, Eau Rouge at Spa and the part oval at Monza, but these tracks were designed at a different time for different cars. Some can be made safe enough. Some can not. The real problem with F1 lies with the FOM and Bernie Ecclestone. They are simply taking too much money from the sport. There, I said it. No one else seems to want to. Bernie is one of the wealthiest men on the planet. I don’t begrudge him his wealth, but F1 is his golden goose and if he kills it then he is the biggest asshole in the world. So this offseason will feature a lot of fighting and discussion over the future of the series. Personally I love it and I don’t want it to go away. I also lover the cars and the technology and know that it costs a shitload of money. Then we have the IRL. God love ‘em! The racing is fantastic regardless of the no brain OWRS fans say, but Tony George just leaves me wondering what he will pull next. He is no better than the owner board of CART that he wanted on. Fuck he had the Indy 500, why did he want to be involved any more than that? The league is coming to a crossroads. Probably not this year or even next, but unless attendance and those all important TV ratings start to go up, there will be no IRL. An honestly, I don’t think they will. For some reason you can have great racing, but so many fans were put off by the split that it will never be the same. Then fucking NASCAR has its snobby fans who think the sun rises and sets on some damn taxi cab. Oh they’re not all snobs, but there are a lot of them and I just don’t see why. The drivers aren’t all that compelling once you get past Jr. Jeffy, Schturt and Busch. The cars are all exactly alike and the rules are a joke. I guess judging by what I have wrote you would wonder if I really am a race fan, but rest assured I am. If I didn’t care I wouldn’t talk about it and this blog would never have been done. We still have a couple months until it is all over, but I just want to say how much fun it’s been and I am already looking forward to Melbourne next March!

Red Letter Week For the Dems

It was another red letter week for what can only be called the beleaguered campaign of John Kerry. They had the reverse Midas touch this week. Everything they touched turned to shit!

Besides the fact that the Senator is running his campaign by grabbing President Bush soundbites and responding to them, this week Kerry called the interim Prime Minister of Iraq, and our ally now, a puppet of the US.

Then to top it all off CBS News was thoroughly humiliated when its report on W's National Guard service was found to be a complete fraud. Of course CBS and the Kerry campaign both claim they were not in concert on this one, but the American public isn't buying it.

Now the first two are related since Kerry has tried to be the exact opposite of what W is. So he takes every speech and quote and tries to say the opposite. Apparently this boob is clueless about this politics game. He looks like a complete moron. He has no platform except to be the opposite of Bush. Frankly I think Bush ought to come out and say something that everyone agrees with and see what Kerry does. People are seeing Kerry as the fraud he is. His act might play well in MA, but on a national stage he is not cutting it.

The CBS thing was a source of great comedy for the Republicans. We watched as that blowhard Dan Rather squirmed on the hot seat. This no talent ass clown had zero credibility in my book before, but with his latest stunt, he lost most of what he had with the rest of the people.

Seems as though some military guy in Texas, bent on the defeat of Bush in November conspired with CBS to create some false documents to show Bush did not complete his National Guard duty. Rather and CBS claim they were duped, but it is amazing that they would run with a story that was debunked practically overnight without thoroughly checking it out. Of course when they saw an opportunity for a W character assassination responsible journalism took a back seat.

CBS ran the story on its midweek edition of 60 minutes. The next day experts pounced on the document that was allegedly written by one of W's commanders in the guard saying he had not completed his duty nor performed satisfactorily. Apparently CBS thought they could get away with it since the man who allegedly wrote it was dead. But, the experts looked at the document and determined that it was written using MS-Word. MS-Word that was not even a product at the time of the document, which was allegedly written on a typewriter.

CBS for their part spent the better part of two weeks defending the document and their decision to go with the story. Like I said, when it comes to character assassination facts are meaningless. At least that is what CBS has taught us this week.

Finally, CBS was forced to admit their error. Dan Rather, looking all sheepish and tired said the document has not been investigated in the normal CBS manner and there were doubts about its authenticity. He apologized to the American public, but of course not to the person they were trying to hurt, President Bush. He also said there were no ties to the democrats but most people find that a hard pill to swallow. Calls for Rathers removal ensued, but CBS says they will support this buffoon. I say great, let's see what he tries next!

The Democrats are dealing with a candidates wife who won't shut up and adds nothing but ridiculous statements to the mix. People say she is a strong woman, but behind that elegant voice is a lady who seems to be rather dim. The party is constantly putting out fires and instead of having issues to campaign on they seem to be sticking a finger in the air to find out which way the breeze is blowing on a given day.

I don't know what Slick Willie is these day, but he must just get up in the morning and read his paper and just shake his head at the way these boobs are running HIS party!

Changes At Indy

Yesterday Speedway president Tony George (herein referred to as FTRG) announced the changes in May schedule. The race will now start at noon instead of 11:00 am. Carb Day will now be on the Friday before the race and in addition to practice and the pit stop competition, the MIPS race will be held. Practice each day will begin at noon rather than 11:00 am. And finally, the big one, qualifying returns to four days with a completely revised system. Each day only the 11 fastest will qualify. However, bumping is allowed and bumped cars will be allowed to retry. In fact, as near as I can tell by the rules as I have seen them, a car will be allowed up to twelve attempts to make the field.

So far, no change of the traditional Sunday opening of the track has been announced and with these changes I don’t expect one.

So what of these changes? First of all, the 11:00 am start time for practice was fine and I see no reason to change it. Seems gratuitous to me. The start time of the race is fine with me. Frankly they can start it at 1 and give everyone an extra hour in the morning. However, for Robby Gordon and anyone else attempting to do “the Double” it will just about kill any possibility of that. With Tony Stewart being a big news story this past year and him saying he would be there this year, one has to wonder if it is still feasible. The Carb Day being moved to Friday may prove to be fun as long as I am still able to get my cadre of pix!

As for qualifying, well I am going to take a wait and see approach to see if it works. It is such a radical change that I am having a tough time even imagining how well or poorly it will work.

While I am going to hold judgment for now I do have some comments about the changes in general. FTRG says he is doing this to help bring more teams in, entice the smaller teams to not wait until the last minute and increase television ratings. Well FTRG, if you wanted higher TV ratings and more money then you should have just kept your mouth shut back in 1994 and forgot about forming the IRL.

Don’t get me wrong the IRL is wonderful and CART was run by a group of owners who couldn’t agree on shit. But the bottom line is that there was nothing wrong with the Indianapolis 500. Now we have crappy TV ratings, barely enough cars to fill the field (and then only if FTRG pays according to some) and a drop in attendance at every event in May with the exception of Carb Day and the Parade.

FTRG, there is but one way to fix what you have done to the 500 and that is to increase the purse to make sure that everyone who qualifies makes money on it. It can’t be some crap shoot that only the top 5 make any money on. What incentive is there to come to Indy anymore. It costs a half a million to try to make the race and for what? A chance to make a couple million sure, but more likely a couple hundred thousand. It just doesn’t add up.

Once again we have a knee jerk reaction and unfortunately a boob who has no clue. Whether or not this pulls the 500 out of its doldrums and moves it back into the limelight it once enjoyed remains to be seen. What is already assured is that the one guy running the IRL is no better than the group of owners who ran CART.

Late Season News

It looks like TK has just about wrapped up the IRL title for the season. The league takes a three week break before heading to California and the penultimate race of the season, but only Dan Wheldon has a chance to catch him and I don’t see that happening given they are team mates and TK penchant for top 5 finishes.
In NASCAR the Chase will begin this week at New Hampshire. How that turd got on the rotation is beyond me. Congrats to Jeremy Mayfield for winning at Richmond Saturday night and getting himself in the mix
Finally, the Sandwich won at Monza as the F1 circus leaves Europe for a couple of races in Asia before finishing the season in Brazil. One item of note is that it looks like Jacques will be in the Renault for the rest of the season while Top Knot sits. Since Renault is set for next year it appears as though JV might end up at Sauber. It also appears as though Ralfie will be back in the car next week at Shanghai. He tested yesterday at Silverstone and seemed to be okay.
Now I come to the real reason of this post. Obviously the posts have tailed off a bit lately and as long as it is football season, they will continue to be spottier. However, the latest news from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway must be addressed.
For the record the changes will be that the race will now start at noon instead of 11:00 am. Carb Day will now be on the Friday before the race and in addition to practice and the pit stop competition, the MIPS race will be held. Practice each day will begin at noon rather than 11:00 am. And finally, the big one, qualifying returns to four days with a completely revised system. Each day only the 11 fastest will qualify. However, bumping is allowed and bumped cars will be allowed to retry. In fact, as near as I can tell by the rules as I have seen them, a car will be allowed up to twelve attempts to make the field.
So far, no change of the traditional Sunday opening of the track has been announced and with these changes I don’t expect one.
So what of these changes? First of all, the 11:00 am start time for practice was fine and I see no reason to change it. Seems gratuitous to me. The start time of the race is fine with me. Frankly they can start it at 1 and give everyone an extra hour in the morning. However, for Robby Gordon and anyone else attempting to do “the Double” it will just about kill any possibility of that. With Tony Stewart being a big news story this past year and him saying he would be there this year, one has to wonder if it is still feasible. The Carb Day being moved to Friday may prove to be fun as long as I am still able to get my cadre of pix!
As for qualifying, well I am going to take a wait and see approach to see if it works. It is such a radical change that I am having a tough time even imagining how well or poorly it will work.
While I am going to hold judgment for now I do have some comments about the changes in general. FTRG says he is doing this to help bring more teams in, entice the smaller teams to not wait until the last minute and increase television ratings. Well FTRG, if you wanted higher TV ratings and more money then you should have just kept your mouth shut back in 1994 and forgot about forming the IRL.
Don’t get me wrong the IRL is wonderful and CART was run by a group of owners who couldn’t agree on shit. But the bottom line is that there was nothing wrong with the Indianapolis 500. Now we have crappy TV ratings, barely enough cars to fill the field (and then only if FTRG pays according to some) and a drop in attendance at every event in May with the exception of Carb Day and the Parade.
FTRG, there is but one way to fix what you have done to the 500 and that is to increase the purse to make sure that everyone who qualifies makes money on it. It can’t be some crap shoot that only the top 5 make any money on. What incentive is there to come to Indy anymore? It costs a half a million to try to make the race and for what? A chance to make a couple million sure, but more likely a couple hundred thousand. It just doesn’t add up.
Once again we have a knee jerk reaction and unfortunately a boob who has no clue. Whether or not this pulls the 500 out of its doldrums and moves it back into the limelight it once enjoyed remains to be seen. What is already assured is that the one guy running the IRL is no better than the group of owners who ran CART.

John Kerry Sucks!

Now that the Democrats and Republicans have had their little parties er, conventions it is time to look forward to Election Day. As of this morning W is holding a sizable 12 point lead over John Kerry. Kerry is of course downplaying this and is asking why everyone thinks W got a bump in ratings from the convention. Alright Senator, if it was even after your convention and it is now not even, what happened? I guess people are just seeing you as the wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed worm you really are.

There is no doubt in my mind that this nation will re-elect W on November 2. Of course there is no doubt in my mind that people like Michael Moore, Ben Affleck and Al Gore will say the election was stolen, but who believes any of those nut cases anyway? No, there are legitimate reasons why people are not lining up to support John Kerry.

Any of you who read this page know I have issues with the war in Iraq and was against it from the get go. That does not mean I am against the President, it means I felt there were options available that didn’t call for a full military response. I was absolutely for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and I knew we would have to intervene to make it happen. However, I still think it could have been done covertly and with minimum bloodshed and loss of collateral.

Where my support for the Prez lies is in the fact that I believe he did what he thought was the right thing to do. And trust me, doing nothing was not an option. And doing what he believes is correct is how he is running the campaign and why he will win.

On the other hand we have John Kerry. Liberal Senator from Massachusetts. Now we all know what the people of the Hub State like when it comes to their politicians. That’s fine, as long as they keep to their selves. Unfortunately they always seem to have someone trying to get in the national limelight. This time around it is Kerry.

Kerry is a three time winner of the Purple Heart from the Vietnam war who then protested the war upon his discharge. Alright, no problem there. After all, regardless of what the conservatives say, you DO have a right to speak your mind in this country even if it does disagree with what they think. Personally I would never burn an American flag, but I would defend to the death someone’s right to do so.

So we have John Kerry who went so far as to oppose the war, then voted for war when W wanted the power to go to Iraq. Still not a problem per se. However, this is where he starts to lose credibility. Once he becomes a candidate for the Democrats he starts to oppose the war. He makes excuses why he voted for it and tries to take the opposite side seemingly just to have a differing position than that of the President and his opposition.

Kerry loses what little face he has left when he goes so far as to trumpet his Vietnam service and his Purple Hearts as one of the major cornerstones of his campaign. His service that he opposed the minute he was discharged. And a war that he now says he would never have voted for. One minute he loves war and what he did (when it suits him) and one minute he hates war and wants nothing to do with it (when his actual record bites him in the ass).

Kerry is a hypocrite and America sees it. Maybe W isn’t the best person to be President, but I certainly feel better with him than the prospect of having Kerry being the leader of the free world.

Like I said, the Americans are growing weary of his flip flopping message and are seeing through his deceit and hypocrisy. Come November 2 America will wake up, go to the polls and do the right thing, re-elect George W. Bush to a second term!

The Dog Days of teh Racing Season

F1
Do I even need to post the results from Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring? Of course not. In reality, many are calling it the most boring race of the season and in fact if passes were worth a dollar, we would have no dollars.
The only noteworthy thing was the results of a team owner meeting Sunday morning. Allegedly the owners were unable to agree on anything. This puts Mosely’s changes in jeopardy unless he uses his power to force them. If he does that he will have opened a can of worms that could theoretically spell the end of F1 as we know it as teams may well bail on the series.
I have said on here before that I was not for the changes, If I want to watch cost conscious racing with specs then I can watch IRL, NASCAR or OWRS.
IRL
What a day at the Kentucky Speedway! The racing was fast and furious. There was only one wall tagging incident and the weather was perfect. Adrian Fernandez got his first IRL win by holding off pole sitter Buddy Rice. Series leader was Tony Kanaan was fifth as Honda once again showed its dominance. In fact they wrapped up their first IRL manufacturer championship.
Tomas Scheckter was especially strong in his Panther Chevy, but a broken clutch caused him problems in the pits and his day was ruined.
Kentucky is an awesome track and Sunday there was an excellent crowd on hand. The track reported 61,000. That is nearly double of a couple years ago. Maybe this thing will catch on. I know I will continue to go.
The IRL goes into its stretch run now beginning with KY and this weekend at Pikes Peak. TK has a 50 point lead over Buddy Rice. That is a lot to make up, but Rice and the Rahal Letterman team has been strong all year.
NASCAR
Junior finished 5th at the Glen on Sunday which is good. Points leader Jimmie Johnson had another DNF and asshole won the race.
One thing of note from the stockers is that Jeff Gordon was not fined for his failure to go to victory lane at the Speedway the previous week. Gordon claimed he was just being spontaneous in stopping at the yard of bricks after the win. BS. I don’t really care what these guys do to celebrate the win, but don’t lie about it. With the feud that has been brewing between Pepsi and Coke and NASCAR’s ridiculous alignment with one the teams are going to try to devise ways around advertising the competitor’s product. The genius Mike Helton each week seems to be telling the driver what they can’t do. If he would just tell them what they HAVE to do after the race there won’t be any of this crap.

Brickyard 2004 Weekend

NASCAR
Well another Brickyard 400 is behind us and congrats are in order for Jeff Gordon. He simply dominated the field to win his fourth Brickyard and his fifth race of the season. I’m sure he cheated, but until the investigation is complete I will just say congrats.
Junior held up pretty well and completed the race. He had trouble on one of his pit stops that really cost them but in all honesty he had a 6th to 8th place car at best. Finally though a blown tire and crash caused him to finish 27th. He remains third in the points and in fact the top 10 did not change. However, Mayfield dropped a position to 12th and Kasey Kahne moved up to 11th and neither are that far out of the top 10.
The race was sloppy as hell. 13 yellow flags caused the speed to drop to just over 115 mph. It was a pretty good weekend. The weather was perfect and the crowds were good. There was even more dicing than ever before during the race. I attribute that to the fact that the older guys are now so much more adept at running at Indy and the younger guys don’t know any better.
F1
The big bombshell was in the F1 ranks this weekend. Jensen Buttons surprisingly has signed on with Williams for the 2005 season. In a completely unexpected move, a loophole in Buttons’ BAR contract apparently has allowed the Brit to move to the Grove team. There has been speculation that bonuses agreed upon for Buttons have not been paid. What seemed like a cohesive team may have been a boiling cauldron all along.
Of course now speculation runs rampant on who will replace Buttons. There is already talk of releasing him now and bring up test driver Anthony Davidson for complete the balance of the season. Some reporters think this is a bad idea since Davidson has not raced in a couple of years. This argument is ridiculous unless the intention was to keep him as a test driver forever. If Buttons is as unhappy as it sounds, then cut his ass now.
Jarno Trulli’s name has been bandied about as has Jacques Villeneuve’s.
As for Williams I guess this will put to rest my prediction that Jeff Gordon will be in the other BMW seat. I don’t see Jeffy in the Honda and frankly I think he took out his frustrations on the rest of the field yesterday at IMS.

August Racing

It’s Brickyard week here in Indy and you know what that means. The snobbiest, rudest and most misinformed of all race fans will converge on Indy for the next 3 or 4 days. Oh don’t get me wrong, there are many good NASCAR fans out there, but the snobby ones who think their little taxi cab racing is the do all end all of racing are pitiful.
NASCAR itself has become so overblown and ostentatious that they are squabbling over such trivialities as knocking over other sponsors ads in victory lane. Couple that with the ridiculous points system for this season and NASCAR has really lost all of my respect. But be that as it may, their circus does roll into town this week and for the city and the league it is a big deal.
Hopefully Jr. will be able to run the whole race and have a good result. Also it would be nice if Jeff Gordon was a DNF and Tony Stewart crashed….hard. Just kidding about that. I don’t want anyone hurt, even Tony.
If you are heading out, look for me at “The Spot” on Friday and probably up in the E Penthouse on Saturday.
F1
The three week holiday is always nice at this time of the season. Normally it heralds the final third of the season and the final push for the championship. Of course this year the championship is a foregone conclusion. It also normally brings out the start of silly season, but that started weeks ago if not last year when JPM said he would be in the Williams for only one more season.
The latest however has Christiano not making any more appearances in the Toyota. As reported here over the past few weeks, Christiano was upset that he was not privy to the teams plans for next year. Now that it appears Jarno Trulli will take over the ride daMatta wants out and it looks like the Cologne team will oblige.
For his part Christiano says he has other F1 offers he is considering and has made it known that he isn’t interested in going back to CART.
Well we have another week off until Hungary so enjoy the break!
IRL
The 2005 season schedule is out. Here it is, of course, subject to change.
2005 IRL schedule

March 6: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Fla., 1 1/2-mile oval
March 19*: Phoenix International Raceway, Phoenix, 1-mile oval
April 30*: Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi, Japan, 1 1/2-mile oval
May 29: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, 2 1/2-mile oval
June 11*: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas, 1 1/2-mile oval
June 25*: Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, Va., 3/4-mile oval
July 3: Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, Kan., 1 1/2-mile tri-oval
July 16*: Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn., 1 1/3-mile oval
July 24: The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, Wis., 1-mile oval
July 31: Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Mich., 2-mile oval
Aug. 14: Kentucky Speedway, Sparta, Ky., 1 1/2-mile oval
Aug. 21: Pikes Peak International Raceway, Fountain, Colo., 1-mile oval
Aug. 28: Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, Calif., 10-turn, 1.99-mile road course
Sept. 11: Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet, Ill., 1 1/2-mile D-shaped tri-oval
Sept. 25: Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, N.Y., 11-turn, 3.4-mile road course
Oct. 16: California Speedway, Fontana, Calif., 2-mile D-shaped oval
Noticeably missing is of course the second Texas race and the Nazareth race. Nazareth is shutting down after this year and NASCAR fucked up the last IRL race of the season at Texas. The Glen and Infineon have been added. There also remains a wide open slot between the middle of March and the end of April. Speculation is that a street race will take place in St. Petersburg, FL. That sucks.
But you want to know what really sucks? There is speculation that the schedule for May 2005 will once again be altered. The track would open on Wednesday with practice on WE, TR and FR. Pole day Saturday and quals on Sunday. Then the schedule would play out as it has recently. Just more and more taken away. I’m not going to rant and rave too much until I see it officially, but I am not happy.
Finally, I have to comment on Sunday’s race at Michigan. Congrats to Buddy Rice who passed TK with just 11 laps to go to win. But what was appalling was the crowd. Sure by IRL standards it wasn’t bad. Estimates run between 40,000 and 60,000. Unfortunately the track holds 136,000. Now I ma not so naïve to think that the IRL should have filled the joint this week. But I do not understand how many of my fellow posters on Indystar.com and Trackforum.com can claim this as a victory. They claim it was a bigger crowd than last year (whoopee shit), bigger than CART was getting (whoopee shit) and that the ‘business plan’ would call that a success and that this was probably their goal. Well that is BS. If it is the goal of the IRL to continue on with crappy attendance and nonexistent TV ratings then how long is this thing going to last?
I will be going out the track this weekend and it will just break my heart to see the crowds. Saturday will look like Pole Days of the past and race day you are crammed in like sardines. Oh I am not one to live in the past. It does no good, but I can’t help but be reminded of the days when Indy was king. Fucking Tony George is an idiot and a loser and his idea of fixing what was allegedly wrong with open wheel racing is a joke.

The 2/3 Pole

As unbelievable as it may seem we are just about to the last third of the racing season. Sure NASCAR still has 17 to go so they are really just past halfway. But when F1 heads to Budapest for its next race it will be at the one third to go mark. They have already run 12 races. At the completion of the race Sunday at Michigan there will be but 6 of their 16 races remaining.
On one hand it seems so long ago since Daytona, Melbourne and Homestead, but again, it seems like it was just yesterday that the 500 was run and the real meat of the season was just getting ready. It has been 8 weeks since then. Two months. Since then we have had the USGP, several Tony Stewart meltdowns, Junior trying to kill himself in a Corvette and the FIA president threatening to step down only to change his mind.
Silly season has been underway in F1 for nearly a month now. Frankly, for Ralfie and Toyota it has been longer than that. The IRL has seen two drivers sacked with one of them buying his way back in during the past month and NASCAR just keeps rolling along to their new “shootout”. I guess OWRS has been running but I have only caught some of the first race at Long Beach. Funny, their races are on at the same time every week they race and I still manage to miss them. To be fair they have dropped their plans for Korea and they appear to be ready to bid adieu to Portland. So it’s not like they aren’t trying to make the news.
To be perfectly honest the entire racing season tends to drone on a little long. I would really like to see it end by the end of September. That way I can focus on football. On the other hand the beginning of the football season and the end of the racing season tend to bring an end to the summer and the descent into winter.
With that I bring you the latest news and rumblings from the motorsports world.
F1
Jarno Trulli’s days at Renault are numbered. After winning the race at Monaco, ol’ Top Knot has been seriously lackluster. While his team mate Fernando Alonso continues to push ahead with the still not quite at the top Renault, Trulli has crashed badly and in the ultimate display of disdain, allowed the Sandwich to pass him at the last corner in France. Allegedly this enraged Suave Flav and it seemed to be the beginning of the end. Right now it looks like Trulli will move to the Toyota team giving the Cologne effort two new drivers. Again.
That pretty much leaves Olivier Panis and Christiano out in the cold. I feel bad for Christiano because I don’t think he got a fair shake at Toyota. Instead it looks as though he will probably return to the Newman Haas team in Champ Car next season or, hopefully by me, the IRL. As for Panis he may be out period. I can’t see him stepping down to F3 or F3000, I doubt if he wants to come to America to race and I don’t think he will take a test driver position.
As for Renault it appears now that Giancarlo Fischella will take over the seat opposite Alonso. This would put Fish in a better situation than if he stayed at Sauber or went to Toyota. I like Fish but I didn’t see what he is going to be able to do with the still underdeveloped Toyota. Like I have said here before, teams that change drivers all the time never get it right. Every part of building a winning race car is a compromise. Building something good always is. You always have tradeoffs. Speed versus handling. Engine temperature versus horsepower. There are so many variables to the process it is mind boggling. One of the biggest variables is the driver. These are human beings and as such are subject to the failings of humans. To continually insert different variables into the equation is ludicrous if you want real answers. Toyota has not shown me in 3 years they are ready to be serious. This is not Minardi folks. This is a team with as big of a budget as any team in racing bar none. I know winning takes time, but Toyota is way behind where they should be.
So far this is what I see for next year…
Ferrari: Michael and the Sandwich
BAR: Buttons and Taku
McLaren: JPM and Kimi
Renault: Alonso and Fish
Toyota: Ralfie and Trulli
Williams: Webber
That is 11 out of 20 race day seats filled. I am going to stand by my thoughts that Jeff Gordon will be in the Williams next year. That is 12 and frankly what else is there” Minardi will likely have two new drivers. They always do and from the sound of things Gianmaria Brunni hasnot impressed the sponsors. Baumgartner has been pitiful all year. And don’t look for Christiano to head down the food chain.
Jaguar will lose Webber but they may be keen to keep Klien simply because of the Red Bull money he brings so let’s say he stays and that leaves 7 seats open. Two at Sauber, 2 at Minardi, 1 at Jag and 2 at Jordan. As for Jordan anything can happen. I think Eddie Jordan is a putz and is only in it for the show biz. Peter Sauber I think would like to sell his team to an American and go in as partners, but he has to love the Ferrari technology coming down to him.
Technically I would expect Fellipe Massa to stay at Sauber. That is 14 filled, four that will be up in the air and Jordan. I would expect Nick Heidfeld to stay with the team, but Giorgio Pantano is another story. He missed the Canadian race due to contractual problems and in his absence Timo Glock got a point. Of course when it comes down to it, do Minardi or Jordan even matter.
Finally there are a couple of test drivers who seem to be ready to make the next step. Anthony Davidson is fast every week in the BAR. Pizzonia is as well but I don’t see it after his miserable 2003 season at Jaguar. Davidson will surely get some looks, but with what is remaining he may opt to test another year.
So to recap
Ferrari: Michael and the Sandwich
BAR: Buttons and Taku
McLaren: JPM and Kimi
Renault: Alonso and Fish
Toyota: Ralfie and Trulli
Williams: Webber and Gordon
Jordan: Heidfeld and ??
Minardi: ?? and ??
Jaguar: Klien and ??
Sauber: Massa and ??
And finally, what about Coulthard. He has said he isn’t ready to retire, but it is hard to imagine him taking a backmarker seat. I look for him and Davidson to vie for that last Jaguar seat.
IRL
Rumors abound in the league at this point. It was thought that there would be two road course races next season. One at Watkins Glen and one at Infineon. Now there is talk that the league has entered into negotiations to race at Portland. One Texas race is already gone thanks to the 800 pound gorilla.
Driver rumors have been slow. Like I said earlier some changes were already made. There has been talk of Danica Patrick coming into the league and what is happening with Kenny? And the leagues most popular driver still remains without a ride. Hopefully more will come out as the next couple of weeks unfold. With races at Michigan this week and Kentucky in two weeks the cream should rise to the top.

Rights? You Don't Need No Stinkin' Rights!

This morning as I sit here writing this I wonder what direction the USA is going to take in the next few months. Do we go down the path of the neo-conservative which seems to have taken control of the Republican Party? Will the radical liberal mentality that seems to pervade the Democrats be the way of the future? What ever happened to “moderates” and what did that really mean? And will any of the above make Americans safer at home and abroad?

Below are my comments on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. A lot has been written about the film and both sides have weighed the validity of Moore 's statements ad nauseam so I won't really comment on the film itself. Much of what Moore tried to express in the film has been discredited, but honestly I don't think he meant it as a cerebral piece. I think he simply and, for its purpose, effective anti-Bush propaganda film. I do feel that 75% of the people who see the film will either believe all of it or believe none of it. 25% will actually take what was said and do their own research. I have tried to do some, but time constraints make it difficult so I am forced to rely on sources I find credible to help. What bothers me more is the 75% of the people who will readily believe completely or disbelieve completely.

Regardless of what side of the fence anyone sits on, and granted, there are many who simply refuse to see it, the film has become quite a flash point. Maybe not the film itself, but rather the polarizing effect it is having.
There is a story circulating today about Linda Ronstadt and her performances at the Aladdin Casino and Resort. Apparently Ronstadt who has always been a Democratic supporter was praising F9/11 and even dedicating a song to Moore . For her efforts Ronstadt was booed off stage, had cocktails tossed at her and had her engagement cancelled by Aladdin management. So what you say. Here is what. First of all I am neither a big fan, nor a protagonist of Ronstadt. I feel her inclusion of the F9/11 material is probably not what I would want to see if I was to take in one of her shows. That being said, how can any American condone the actions of the Aladdin? After all, Ronstadt is demonstrating one of our greatest assets as a country, the freedom of speech.

The Aladdin claimed they had hired her to entertain, not to espouse her political views. This excuse is so completely lame that I probably would not step foot in the Aladdin again. Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with Ronstadts message, but by God I would defend until death her right to say it. Of course the neo-conservatives will praise the Aladdin and say they are doing the right thing. Of course they are wrong. For one thing, the line between entertainment and politics has become so blurred that it is barely distinguishable at all. A company like the Aladdin should know that. They should also know something about who they are hiring. I haven't seen the contract between the two, but if the Aladdin didn't want that kind of message delivered during her shows then that should have been spelled out on the napkin.

Here we are, less than four months from what will probably be one of the closest elections in our nation's history and both sides are polarizing even more. I find myself basically without a political party that represents ME. The Republicans under W have become the party of Hitler. God forbid you speak out against the President you un-American asshole. God help you if you think the war in Iraq was a complete waste of military resources and of human lives. The conservatives will tell you you don't know shit if you don't believe every word W says.

And on the other side, we have the liberals. All the peace, love and pay the bill crap in the world won't cure what is wrong. But what really galls me is the absolute lack of any decorum these boneheads have. It seems like these goofball celebrities can go see a film like F9/11 and since it came from their milieu then it must be true. Nevermind the fact that Michael Moore has plenty of contempt for Hollywood . Sure Whoopi Goldberg is practicing her right of freedom of speech, but if her contract is up, and the other party doesn't like her message then it is their right to fire her. I really have to question these foreigners who want to weigh in on the issue. Who the fuck cares what you think Bono?

This country is headed in a dangerous direction and the threat is not limited to one side. I will vote for W in the fall, but only because I do not believe the alternative offers any improvement. Maybe Whoopi Goldberg or Linda Ronstadt can afford socialism, but I can't and I don't intend to let it happen. But the thought of W running the country for four more isn't much better. As a person I think he is doing what he feels is the right thing to do, as a President I think he is a buffoon.

July Racing 2004

IRL After a one race break Mark Taylor will return to the IRL in the Access Motorsports G-Force Honda at Saturday’s race in Nashville. Taylor, who hit everything in sight, was released by Panther Racing two weeks ago. This is a curious move to be sure. Access Motorsports raced in the first five races of the season. However, at Indianapolis it was apparent that team owner and at the time, driver, Greg Ray had no money. He didn’t get on the track until the last day of qualifying. Unfortunately for Ray his day ended when Darren Manning knocked him and Sammy into the wall. That left Ray with a badly damaged car, little money and only tow weeks before the Texas race. Somehow Ray made the show at Texas and managed a very respectable 7th place finish. However, Ray did not make the trip to Richmond and the word is that he took the car to Kansas, went through tech and then put the car back in the hauler and went home. So now we get word that Mark Taylor will become the driver for the balance of the season. Of course there is all kind of speculation that Taylor’s dad bought the ride for him. I don’t know how valid that is, but Taylor is, like I said, a curious choice. Taylor has only made it through the Phoenix race without crashing. For a team that has little money it would seem that Greg Ray would want someone with a little better track record. Of course his crashing could be an inherent part of life as the second driver at Panther Racing. Taylor won the IPS championship last year and was a good solid racer. For Greg Ray, Taylor’s and Access Motorsport I hope he is able to return to those roots! F1 Silly season is in full swing in F1. A couple of weeks ago I said that I thought Jeff Gordon would end up in the second Williams car alongside Mark Webber. On Sunday, Peter Windsor reported that Giancarlo Fisichella would end up in that ride. That would leave the Sauber seat open for Jacques Villeneuve. Although I just don’t see that happening. With the improved performance of the Mercedes McLaren this past weekend, JPM has to be feeling better about his upcoming move to the Woking team. Christiano demanded Toyota tell him what their plans for 2005 were. Right now it looks like it will probably be Ralfie and Olivier Panis in the Toys. Look for Christiano to be back in OWRS next season unless he takes a spot at Jordan or Minardi. The teams are off this weekend before the German Grand Prix. Rumors will continue to swirl, especially regarding the Toyota and Williams teams as they will probably get theirs before the rest of the picture comes into focus. NASCAR I don’t defend that asshole Tony Stewart very often but I am today. Sunday, Stewart got behind Kasey Kahne on a restart. For some reason Kahne did not come up to speed as quick as Stewart. Now we can split hairs and say Tony has to be in control of his car, but it was just a tap and in my eyes nothing more than a racing incident. For the first time this season, or so it would seem, NASCAR saw it the right way. Of course Kahnes team didn’t see it that way. Half of his crew went to Stewarts pit after the incident and a shoving match ensued. Team owner Ray Evernham said Stewart needed to be suspended. He’s right of course, but not over this incident. In this case Kahne’s pit boys need to be fined. Is Stewart a menace? Of course. He’s shitty driver who can only win by pushing you out of the way, but in this case he could hardly be held responsible.

Jeffy to F1?

F1/IRL/NASCAR It was an interesting weekend of racing here in America and one that may have a bearing on what happens in Formula 1 next season. As I wrote yesterday, Scott Dixon is having problems at Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Yes the Toyota is underpowered, but his performances this year have been abysmal. Yesterday I pointed out some of those reasons. Jeff Gordon on the other hand had another great weekend. He won both the pole and the race at Daytona Beach. Gordon continued his string of excellent performances as he seems to be at the very top of his game. Sure the Dupont/Pepsi team is great, but at the end of the day it is Gordon who has to get the car to the end. So what does Jeff Gordon’s performance have to do with F1? Well last week I predicted he would be in the Williams next season. With his performance Saturday I think the deal is sealed. Scotty D. got the test and apparently failed to impress. He seems to have lost his edge because of it. F1 wants an American and Jeff Gordon has expressed interest especially when it was suggested he was too old to start an F1 career. He is confident and that confidence will ultimately land him that seat. IRL Congrats to Buddy Rice who won the race at Kansas yesterday. His victory over Vitor Meira was the second closest 1-2 finish in IRL history. The last 15 laps were a trophy dash between the two. Rice took the inside line and held it for the entire time. Meira managed to lead at the stripe a couple of times just barely lost out at the end. It was an exciting finish to say the least. Unfortunately only 21 took the green flag. Greg Ray allegedly took his car through tech, then loaded it back on the hauler and took it home. I wish things would turn around for Ray. The IRL needs him. F1 Schumacher! What can you say? Yesterday he won the French Grand Prix for this 8th win in 9 races this year and he did it using an almost unheard of 4 pit stop strategy. Fernando Alonso started the race from the pole and lead the first 12 laps before pitting. Normally this season Schummi has been the last of the leaders to pit, clicking off fast laps while the leader is in the pits. Didn’t happen that way yesterday. What did happen was this. Schumacher, leading by just over 10 seconds knew he needed a splash and go to get to the finish. He also knew he needed to be in the lead by 20 second to be able to pit and come back out in the lead as there would not be enough time to make a pass if he was in second. What did he do? Well in the course of 6 laps he increased his lead to 22 seconds. When he pitted he came out a full 7 seconds ahead of Alonso. Say what you will about Schumacher, and if you can’t tell by reading this blog, I don’t like him, he is simply the best. His performance in France yesterday certainly proved that to me!

War In Iraq

A new poll is out today saying that 54% of Americans think that we should have never sent troops to Iraq. In a CNN-USA Today Gallup poll of 1005 people taken between June 21-23 also says that more than half surveyed feel the US is less safe now from terrorism than before. This has me scratching my head.

If you have been following my articles you know I am against this war. I felt the ouster of Saddam Hussein could have been handled covertly with minimal expense of life and assets. It certainly does not mean that I feel Iraq was no threat at all. While I have my misgivings about their WMD's I can't help but feel that as much as Hussein stonewalled inspectors, he did have something to hide. What bothers me is that we just don't seem to be "winning" the war.

It is obvious that there are as many people over there who want us out as want us in. But that is another story. First of all, I believe in my heart that the President acted in a way he felt was appropriate. I do not think for one second that he did this as a "follow-up" to his fathers Iraqi foray 10 years prior. Second, how can respondents to the poll feel less secure now than before? We haven't had another terror attack on our soil since 9-11. So why do they feel so much more threatened now? It really makes me wonder who is getting polled by these companies. I know I have never been polled for a political opinion. I don't know of anyone who has.

Again, I don't agree with the war, and have been downright against it for months. I support our President, I support our troops and if asked I would serve. You see in this country, you can disagree with one side or the other. That is America! But watch as the news of these polls hit the national media today and see how they get spun. Listen to liberals and conservatives and see how much hatred there is on both sides. This poll smacks of nothing more than a liberal side attack of the President. Next week his approval rating will be up and it will sound just like a conservative attack. Me, I have my own opinion which is not hidden from anyone, and I will choose accordingly.

Fahrenheit 9/11

I went and saw Fahrenheit 9/11 the other night. As far as films go it was good. As far as documentaries go it was about what one would expect from Michael Moore. This guy is making it his mission to see that George W. Bush is not reelected in November. Frankly I think he is wasting his time, but it is his time.

A lot of people on the right have really pooh-poohed this thing. They are claiming lies and falsehoods, but the footage speaks for itself. Of course the way Moore lays out the footage and his “witty” and timely dialogue steer the picture. I feel I could take the same footage, present it in a way conducive to my arguments and add my comments and it would make Bush look like a great President. Well great might be a tad strong.

What really galls me is the fact that Moore and the rest of the liberals in Hollywood are getting rich off of big business. Yet they are constantly trying to get the Republicans voted out. I guess when you have so much, then sharing your wealth is no biggie. To me though, I want less of my money going to the government, not more. Liberals will tax us to death. Like I said, if I had millions it might be a different story. Of course I have long held that these Hollywood types feel they should give back since they make so much. That's fine. It's called charity people. Give till it hurts, but don't force me to give.

Moore 's movie picks on the oil industry, which is an easy target. He has targeted gun control and GM in other films. All big business that allows us all freedoms to be able to make movies, drive, vote etc. Moore also picks on the military. He pretends to love America and Americans, but spends 2 hours telling us how evil the military is.

W is not the best person for the job, but he has to be better than John Kerry and frankly, anyone who is really best suited for the job isn't going to take the hassle of the job for the pay. Honestly, I feel W has done what he has done, not out of the chance to get rich, but out of what he felt was right for America . Has he made mistakes? Absolutely! I would even agree with Moore that the war in Iraq should not be happening. Read the article on your right. But he felt the threat was there so he proceeded as he felt best.
In the film we are told that basically there is no threat. That W and his cronies manufactured the threat and raise and lower the security levels to keep us scared and buying into what they are selling us. Mr. Moore I have a question. What happens when some militant terrorist strikes at us as a nation again? Will you admit the threat is real? And what happens if no strike occurs? Will you just continue to say there was no threat or will you admit that what the Executive branch of the government is doing is the right thing?

Tumultuous Month For the IRL

IRL Big day for the IRL. AL " Little Al" Unser Jr. announced his retirement from racing today effective immediately. Jeff Simmons was named to replace him at least for the race at Kansas City this weekend. Also, Panther Racing announced that Mark Taylor was being let go immediately, but no replacement was announced. It was thought that Simmons might get that ride, but Buddy Lazier may be able to swoop in there now although Townsend Bell is a possibility. Little Al's career spanned more than 20 years. He was a two time winner of the Indianapolis 500, a two-time CART champion and he retires with 31 CART wins and 3 IRL wins, his last being a year ago at Texas. Little Al came to Indy in 1983 and was immediately in the center of controversy. In that race, it appeared as though he was blocking for his father before eventual winner Tom Sneva got past him. In the post race interview he admitted as much, but changed his tune as the year went on. Unser and Scott Goodyear outdueled to the closest finish in the history of the 500 in 1992 after Michael Andretti went out after dominating the race. Little Al was the first major CART defection in 2001 opening the floodgates for several other teams to come to the upstart league. Recently Al has been know more for his off track antics. In 2002 a drunk Unser left his girlfriend stranded on the highway. When the police escorted her home he claimed he didn't know her and was arrested. Al went into rehab and emerged to finish the 2003 season. I never liked this guy and am not sorry to see him go, but he does have a lot of fans and I hope they stay with the league.

A Merger Afoot?

IRL/OWRS So Roger wants a truce, a reunification, a merger if you will, with the boys over at OWRS. What’s the matter Roger, haven’t won since the first race of the season so you have to go trolling for other competition? The day before the Indy 500 Penske wrote an op/ed piece in the NY Times saying basically that there needed to be a reunification of the warring open wheel racing factions in this country. To that end Roger orchestrated a meeting between himself and the three powers that be in OWRS, Kevin Kalkoven, Paul Gentilozzi and Jerry Forsythe in Michigan. Apparently Roger left the meeting with a “framework” on how this can happen. I won’t bore you with all of the details of the Autoweek article, but here is my opinion on a couple of items. First of all it appears as though the two sides should both have an equal stake in the venture. In other words, each side would contribute an equal amount of assets. Well that is great, so let’s see, no one puts in anything, is that it? OWRS has no assets and certainly nothing that the IRL can not have if it just waits a year. They are broke, the three powers are subsidizing half the field and attendance is slipping. Why would FTRG ever agree to an outlandish agreement like that? I have no respect for FTRG, but I know he is not stupid enough to sign on to that. Well….. Tony George has the Indy 500. His power grab was no different than what CART did 24 years ago, except their grab was against an inefficient and awful USAC. Other than the fact that CART had gone almost exclusively road course racing, there wasn’t anything really wrong with open wheel racing. Of course some still say the owners running the show was bad, but what makes the owner of the biggest race any more qualified to run open wheel? It doesn’t and no matter what people will tell you, the IRL is a joke. Sure the racing is good, but as a business it sucks. No attendance and horrible TV ratings. How long can THEY sustain? I’ve said it before, the 500 is taking the second biggest hit here, us fans the biggest. The simple solution to all of it is to kill OWRS once and for all, but that is proving to be harder than FTRG thought. If the moron would just raise the purse for the 500 to $30 million and make it so even the bottom third of the teams could make some money on it he would have people beating the doors down to get in. Instead he has made it a race that only the top 5 make any money and anyone on the fence has to make those tough decisions to get in, and lately have chose not to get in. Plus, if he does make it so everyone wants to be at Indy and can logistically afford to do it, OWRS will die a natural death. Marketing FTRG, marketing! If the OWRS triumvirate knows nothing else, they do know how to talk up their game. The second thing that really bothered me was “a combination of schedules.” What the fuck is that? That is what the article says. The only thing OWRS has that I would want is Long Beach, Cleveland, Road America and maybe Mexico (Monterrey). Toronto? Fuck no; Portland, no; Mid Ohio, no; Denver, Vancouver, no, no; Europe, no, and for the love of God, leave the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to the F1 boys. IRL already has Milwaukee, OWRS abandoned California. If we could get (in no particular order) Indy Texas Milwaukee Michigan California Long Beach Cleveland Road America Motegi Mexico (Monterrey) Kentucky (purely selfish reasons on my part) Richmond Las Vegas Phoenix Chicagoland Homestead Then maybe I would throw them a bone and add Mexico City and we keep one of Nashville, Pikes Peak or Kansas. Short of that I don't see where they need to run any more than 4 out of 16 or 5 out of 18 races on road courses. FTRG, the Stooges and Penske are all to blame for this mess and let’s face it, these egos are too big to ever come to an agreement. FTRG has the trump card with the 500, but that is all he has. Penske has the name and that is all he has. OWRS doesn’t have anything that anyone will be able to pick up for a song at next years bankruptcy hearing.

2004 USGP

Another USGP down and the results were of no real surprise. Schummi was first, the Sandwich second and Takuma Sato came home third. It was a great weekend though and there were some interesting things about the race. First of all there were as many incidents as I have seen this year. Four cars were out before turn 2, Fernando Alonso lost a wheel and smacked the wall hard and Ralfie hit the turn 13 wall a ton. In fact, Ralfie is still in the hospital here in Indy and his status for the French Grand Prix is in question. The move of the day had to be Schummi’s pit stop when Ralfie crashed on lap 10. He was in perfect position to enter the pits. When he did, he was able to get service and get back out in second position as the field slowed for debris. The Sandwich who might have been able to pit first had to wait another lap to wait for the crew. From there Schummi was dominating. I will say this though, I am getting a little sick of Schummi's blocking move at the start of the race. Yesterday he just about took Sato into the wall. The fucker does it every week. Now I will say this especially to all of you Rubens fans. Last week you may have had a bitch about "Team Orders" but this week, you just weren't as fast as the winner. JPM added to another forgettable day at Indianapolis for the Williams BMW team. Juan’s car wouldn’t fire for the formation lap and he was forced to sprint back to the garage for the backup car. Apparently the car had not been inspected by tech though. 58 laps after starting from pit lane and getting up to third, JPM was disqualified. When it was all said and done only 8 drivers were still on the track. Zsolt Baumgartner got his first points ever and Minardi’s first points in two years. What a weekend though. From the very cool pit walkthrough to Friday’s practice sessions to a very comfortable qualifying and race day the weather was perfect. The fans as always were courteous and knowledgeable. Something you won’t see much of in 6 weeks at the Brickyard. Finally, on a very positive note, a contract extension for two years was signed and Bernie himself went on TV to say how he thought it would eventually become a long term deal.

2004 Midseason F1 Report

We have reached the halfway point of the season and as we turn towards the home stretch some things have become apparent. So to cover these items and to look forward to the rest of the season here is my midyear report. Obviously Ferrari has had a superb season so far. Michael Schumacher has dominated the competition. He has won 8 of the 9 races and has taken pole position at 5 of the races. Although his rush to the pole has been slowed since San Marino, the only real trouble he had in qualifying has been at Monaco where grid position is so important. By starting 5th he probably cost himself a chance to win the race even though he blames JPM. Schummi is only 18 points ahead of Rubens, but he might as well be a million. There is no way Ferrari allows Rubens to catch AND beat Schummi. Frankly Rubens has looked pretty ordinary until the past couple of weeks. He took pole at Indy and was racy. I don’t think he had the car, but he was solid. On the other hand it appeared he did have a faster car at Montreal the previous week and the general consensus is that team orders prevented a pass. With the Sandwich as his tail gunner, Schummi is a lock to win yet another championship. Behind Ferrari there has been some good racing. BAR has absolutely been as good as advertised. They have been fast at every track just as they were fast in preseason testing. The scuttlebutt prior to the season was that the numbers BAR was putting out were inflated or just plain lies, but Buttons and Takuma have been nothing short of spectacular some weeks, as has test driver Anthony Davidson. Currently Buttons stands third in the Driver Championship with 44 points. Sato only has 14 and is back in 7th place. Unfortunately for the hard charging Japanese driver he has suffered through engine problems. While BAR is definitely a better team without Jacques, they are still struggling trying to field 2 cars. For what it is worth they do sit third in the Constructor championship with 58 points. Only 8 back from Renault, but 84 behind Ferrari. Renault definitely has had their shit together this year. Jarno Trulli scored his first ever win at Monaco in May and is currently 4th in the title chase. Team mate Fernando Alonso who suffered a hard crash yesterday at Indy is 5th just 16 points back from Trulli with 25 points. As for success, that is just about the extent of it for this season so far. Every other team would have to consider the season a failure. Sure Minardi got a point for the first time in two years yesterday, but they have consistently been 4+ seconds off the pole time and usually post 2 DNF’s. Of course this is to be expected from Minardi’s under funded effort. What was not expected was the performance of the Williams and McLaren teams. They have been pitiful. JPM is 6th in the points, but he has not looked good. His finishes, 5, 10, 13, 3, retired, 4, 8, DQ and DQ tell the story of his season. Only in Spain has he started from the front row and he is looking like a guy running out the string with Williams. I thought this might happen, but he has insisted he is still working hard. One thing for sure is that BMW has lost any horsepower advantage they may have enjoyed the past couple of seasons. I am sure they detuned the engine in an effort to make it last but the results have not been good. Then there is Ralfie. Thought to be going to Toyota Ralfie boy sits 8th in points with 12. Miraculously he did grab the pole in Canada, but Indy proved to be the usual bad stop on the tour for the team. Ralfie crashed and JPM’s car wouldn’t start on the grid. Also disappointing is the McLaren effort. Currently 5th behind Williams, this team has just been awful this year. Kimi Raikkonen is back in 11th spot in the chase after losing the championship by a point last year. David Coulthard has not been any better. He is in 10th position and, like Montoya, seems to be running out the string for the team. Mercedes did detune their engine this offseason to get better reliability over the course of an F1 weekend and the results have been disastrous. They have suffered one engine failure after another. Obviously the Mercedes V-10 needs the torque to survive and they should rethink their engineering program. At this point it would have to be said that McLaren is the biggest disappointment in the paddock. BAR and Renault have to be the biggest surprises and of course Ferrari the best team. Jaguar and Toyota are both struggling with poor results. Jag driver Mark Webber may be tanking so he can get that Williams ride next season, but Christian Klien has actually been more consistent. Webber had a great start to the season, but a couple of poor starts to those races killed his hopes for a good season. Toyota looks like they are ready to give Christiano deMatta the heave ho after the season. It’s a shame for Christiano. Toyota just hasn’t produced since they have been in and don’t seem on the verge of it now by signing Ralfie boy for next season. Jordan is Jordan and that isn’t good. Eddie may be a fun guy, but his team sucks and poor Minardi just can’t catch a break. Sauber sits sixth in the Constructor championship and has a pretty nondescript season. So what is in store for the rest of the season? Most likely more of the same. While McLaren might reverse their engine woes the Coulthard issue will drone on and they are too far back now to chase down the Ferrari’s. Pretty much the same with Williams. BAR and Renault look poised to battle it out for number 2. I like the BAR drivers better. Sato is fearless, and a little reckless, and will probably win a race before the season is out. Buttons has showed a lot of promise since Jacques ran his mouth last year. Trulli has one win, but I get the feeling he will be one of those drivers who retire with one total. Alonso has shown some flashes but he seems content as well. Therefore I think BAR will bring home the 2nd place bacon with Renault 3rd. Beyond that I don’t see any real changes. We get some semblance of the old qualifying session style back in a couple weeks at Silverstone which will be nice. Love the new date for Indy, that was awesome, but I feel for the folks down in Brazil who now get a race that will essentially decide nothing. It’s too bad that it works out like that some years, but until someone is ready to challenge the Prancing Horse, that will be the rule rather than the exception.

Mid June Racing

IRL Congrats to the winner of the Bombardier 500 Tony Kanaan. As predicted here last week! Kanaan held off team mate Dario Franchitti for the win, his second of the season, AGR’s third of the season and Honda’s fourth in a row. Alex Baron finished third in a fine drive with the Chevrolet engine. Toyota grabbed fourth with Sam. A couple of disturbing things did take place in the race. Once again, Scotty D failed to finish. This time he was a victim of being hit by Adrian Fernandez who was exiting his pit box. Also, Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice was driving all over the place. In fact, Kanaan was disturbed by Rice’s driving and actually passed him to keep himself out of harms way. With 20 laps remaining, Rice tangled with Darren Manning. Rice claims he never knew he was there. Also disturbing was Mark Taylor hitting the wall again and AJIV once again finishing dead last. AJ Foyt Jr. said that IV was getting to aggressive when the car was loose. Hey AJ, how about giving him a car that isn’t loose. Overall the racing was as good as usual. There were some concerns because of the smaller engine capacity, but those fears were laid to rest early. Now it is on to Richmond in a couple of weeks. A good track for these guys. This week a lot of the teams are going to Milwaukee for testing. Other than that this really hasn’t been much of a season for rumors. Maybe things will pick up in the summer! F1 Another race another…well you know the drill. Schummi wins his 7th race of the season at Canada. It is also his 7th in the Canadian Grand Prix. Schumacher who started 6th used a 2 pit stop race strategy to beat his competition who were mainly on 3 stop strategies. One of the biggest surprises had to be the fact that Williams, followed by Toyota were both disqualified from the final results due to improper brakes. Williams was first DQ’ed then complained that Toyota was running the same setup. When the officials checked, they too were DQ’ed. BAR managed to get Buttons home in third behind the Sandwich, but Takuma Sato once again had engine failure. This had a lot of the pundits talking that Sato is not given the same opportunity that Buttons has. A lot of fans seem to think this team is just incapable of running a tow car team. Personally I would like to see Sato get a chance. There was quite a bit of slamming on Ferrari as well. Along about the middle of the race, Rubens seemed to have a car that was quicker than Schummi’s. Yet the Sandwich stayed tucked in behind the 1 car. Now I don’t know if there are still team orders, contract stipulations or just unwritten laws, but if F1 is to thrive in the new markets it seeks, especially here in the US, this type of thing has to end now. We get enough manufactured racing in NASCAR. This week is Indy and the USGP. I hope to see all of you out there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. At least this year, if it rains, it won’t be cold! NASCAR Allegedly the taxicabs went a racing this weekend at Pocono and Jimmie Johnson won. I mean does anyone really care about this crap anymore?

Indy Hangover 2004

F1 It’s been a slow couple of weeks since the back to back weekends of Monaco and the European Grands Prix. Most of the teams spent last week testing and now are winging their way to North America for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix followed a week later by the US Grand Prix. Despite the slow schedule and the “drudgery” that comes with the middle of the season, especially one where one guy has won all but one race, there never seems to be a shortage of rumors. First of all the highly anticipated new McLaren will apparently not be ready for the track this week which probably means it won’t make its debut until the French Grand Prix a fortnight after Indy. Second, the Jacques Villeneuve thing just keeps hanging around. Williams for their part isn’t saying anything. Villeneuve’s camp seems to be floating rumors of a Williams test, although they do say nothing has been confirmed. I still think that the teams passing on Scott Dixon opens the seat up for the 1995 Indy 500 winner and 1997 World Champion. Mika Hakkinen also got into the mix last week. Rumors of his return were squashed Friday though as the Finn decided not to leave retirement. IRL Look for 24 cars to take the green flag this week at Texas in what has become one of the most competitive and exciting races on the schedule. Roger Penske has sent an editorial to the NY Times expressing his desire to see the IRL and OWRS back together. Odd that Roger would want that. Is it because the IRL needs more teams and he feels there are strengths on the other side, or is he just trying to be benevolent and offer them a chance at survival. Either way, unless FTRG gets his way there will be no changes. I still believe there will be 4 road course races next year on the schedule. Four is an okay number by me. Long Beach, Watkins Glen, Road America and another real race track would be fine but no street races. No Toronto, Denver, Belle Isle, Vancouver or St. Pete. For OWRS part, they seem willing to negotiate, but then why wouldn’t they? I just would hate to see what all they try to push through. I welcome a few road courses. For the drivers they have to be more fun, but for the fans they aren’t as exciting. This whole thing will probably get a lot uglier before it gets better. Indy was down on ratings again this year and there were noticeable empty sections in the North Vista. OWRS for what its worth drew a paltry 20K to its race in Milwaukee. I seriously doubt if the two groups ever get together, but the rumors and innuendo that should permeate the next few weeks should be fun! NASCAR Congrats to Mark Martin who won the crashfest on Sunday at Dover. Martin who hadn’t won since 2001 was able to hold off Tony Stewart and a charging Jr. and avoid the mishaps that took out half the field to win. The race was marked by two big accidents that took out the leaders and a host of other cars. The first one was on a restart. Kasey Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield were the leaders but were back in the pack due to pits stops when Mayfield was spun and took out 11 cars including himself. Later with Kahne leading the race, he slipped in some oil laid down by Casey Mears car and hit the wall. Martin and Stewart were able to see what was happening and stay out of harms way, but the crash collected another 8 cars. Earlier in the race NASCAR kept a yellow flag out to try to determine where Newman was supposed to be after a penalty, but I don’t think they got it right. Dover is a good track for those boys. It is almost always a good show and Sunday didn’t disappoint.

All Is Not Fair In Love And War!

A few minutes ago I watched the Eric Berg video. For those of you who have been under a rock, Berg was the American who was in Iraq building communication towers when he was kidnapped last month. In the Berg video his captors are seen denouncing the US and its treatement of Iraqi prisoners. Finally, in the last couple of minutes of the 5+ minute video Berg is beheaded and his head is shown to the camera and then set on his body.

The video is not so much gory as it is disturbing when you think of what is happening and see the expression on Berg's face. I won't link to it but if you must see it it is out there on the Internet. But what disturbs me more than seeing a human being being decapitated is the reaction to it and the reaction to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

A couple of weeks ago pictures of Amercian soldiers putting Iraqi prisoners in compromising positions came out. You would have thought we had committed the greatest atrocity to the world since Hitler. Okay, I don't think it was the right thing to do by these American soldiers, but look at what the Iraqi captors do.

There is all this talk of the Geneva Convention and of ousting Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, but why? Did Rumsfeld parade a bunch of Iraqi prisoners around naked? Hell no. And make no mistake about it, I do not like Rumsfeld and I am against this entire war.

We have a bunch of soldiers over in Iraq who can't be feeling all that welcome. These people are shot at, killed and maimed and terrorized daily. Doesn't it just stand to reason that the frustration they are feeling would manifest itself in some unusual fashion? These liberals who are calling for Rumsfelds head are just playing politics. In fact, that dickhead John Kerry has gone so far as to name a list of people he thinks should replace Rumsfeld. Not surprising that Bill Clinton's Sec. of Defense Cohen was on there, or that John "Am I a Republican or a Democrat?" McCain is on the list. (See my article on McCain in a previous post.)

The knee jerk reaction to every little thing is just maddening. And politicians aren't alone. Dumbasses I know jump to conclusions knowing none of the facts, be it about this subject or some other. Like I said, I don't condone what our people did to some Iraqi prisoners, but how do you discipline them after seeing the Berg video? And if they see the video, how do you expect them, as human beings to not carry out a bit of their own brand of justice? And finally, why are we honoring the Geneva Convention rules when it is clear our enemy is not?

2004 Indy 500 Wrap

Congrats to Buddy Rice, the winner of the 88th Indianapolis 500. Rice’s Rahal/Letterman team takes home more than $1.7 million of the $10 + million purse. The 1.7 isn’t bad, but the total purse really needs to be raised to garner more interest by teams and drivers to compete in the 500. But that is another argument and we have been over that before and will cover it again I am sure. Kosuke Matsuura was named Rookie of the Year. When they finally did go racing it was a good one. Rice really did seem to have the fastest car of the day although Vitor Meira actually turned the fastest lap. Rice took off like a shot from the green flag and really pulled away from Tony Kanaan and Dan Weldon who seemed to be the only other two in his zip code most of the day. Of course strategy played a part and Rice was shuffled back on a couple of pit stops, but he was able to get through. On his last stop his team demonstrated why he won the Carb Day pit stop competition with a fantastic stop that kept him ahead of TK and The Gentleman. There was intrigue at the end as Bruno was leading at lap 150 because he had gotten out of sequence with the leaders on pit stops. Had it rained 10 minutes earlier, he or possibly Bryan Herta would have won. Herta too was out of sequence. All in all it was a good day of racing, but a long day nonetheless. We got on the road from my place about 8:15. By 9:15 the next set of rains came and came hard. That delayed the start of the race by a little more than an hour. After just 27 laps the rains came again. Not as hard so we stayed in our seats as most everyone else bolted for the exits. They did allow pass outs so a lot of people left the grounds. Miraculously they were only down about an hour and a half before resuming the race. As I am sure you know the race was called at lap 180 and shortly thereafter, the skies opened up. I took my time getting back to the car as I was rain geared up. We eventually left Speedway at 7. It was a long day, but I am glad we got it in on Sunday. As much as I love that place, I just didn’t want to do it all over on Monday!