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!

2004 Indy Preview

Tomorrow is the 88th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Who will win, who won’t and what is going to happen from the drop of the green flag until the checkers wave? It’s one of the most wide open races in some time, but I’ll try to make some sense of what may occur. Here’s what we do know. Buddy Rice in a G-Force/Honda is on the pole. The Rahal/Letterman entry pulled it all together on Pole Day to surprise most everyone and grab the top spot. We also know that Honda dominated qualifying and really most of the month as far as he speed charts go. Julio is the top qualifying Toyota. As far as chassis are concerned both G-Force and Dallara were about even with each placing 3 in the top 6 and 4 in the top 8. Carb Day failed to produce any revelations. Some people think that Toyota is setting up for the race, but I believe Honda is just ahead of them right now. Seems like they were a little embarrassed last year and have come out this year with a vengeance. For what it is worth, Tomas Scheckter is the top qualifying Chevrolet engine in 10th. The bow tie just isn’t able to compete with the Japanese. All of that aside there are about 13 or 14 drivers who could win the race. First of all Buddy Rice is a good driver and he does get that first shot at the lead in turn 1. Dario Franchitti and Dan Weldon will both be giving hard chase. Of course the other Andretti Green guys have a solid shot to win. Tony Kanaan is just so solid and Bryan Herta is a good one too. Penske drivers Julio and Horny both know how to win and Penske is always ready for Indy; well except for 1995. But they have been a bit down on speed after leading the way in the April open test. Don’t count them out though. Probably the biggest disappointment in qualifying was Target Chip Ganassi. Drivers Scott Dixon and Darren Manning start 13th and 15th respectively. I still like their chances in the long race though. Bruno Junqueira from the Newman Haas team qualified a solid 4th and will be a real threat to win. Also Adrian Fernandez seems to have reconciled his IRL existence and has been very fast this month. Further back in the pack there are a couple of drivers who could surprise. Lot of people really like Robby Gordon’s chances, but I don’t think he is smart enough to win it. Greg Ray didn’t get much track time, but he knows his way around the track and has a very fast car. So with these guys having chance to win, who will? I think it will be one of the Andretti Green guys and in fact I look for Tony Kanaan to win it. Let’s just hope we have a good race and get it in before the weather turns ugly!

IRL and F1 Stuff

IRL
Tomorrow is Carb Day. Other than race day itself probably the most fun day of all. The weather doesn’t look like it is going to cooperate, but it should still be fun. Try to make it out if you can. There will be a full prerace analysis Friday.

F1
The short week after Monaco didn’t really leave any time for testing as the teams head to Germany for the European Grand Prix Sunday. It does not mean that the news doesn’t come fast and furious. Kiwi Scott Dixon who had practiced in France and Spain for the Williams team signed a new contract with the Target Chip Ganassi IRL team virtually squashing any chance Scott will be in the FW whatever next year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but probably includes an out if the Grove team comes a calling in the future, especially in light of the relationship the two teams have had in the past.

Williams really had no comment on their driver situation for the coming year when it is universally thought they will have two different drivers. Mark Webber is a solid shot for one of the seats, but his contract may prevent that from happening. That left the other seat open ostensibly for Dixon. Now that Dixon seems to be out of the mix the door is open. But for who? Williams who is not in the habit of paying big contracts for drivers may do just that. In fact, I think this opens the door for Jacques Villenueve’s return to F1. Villeneuve was sniffing around the scene last week at Monaco and at Imola. He is desperate to get back in a car, and doesn’t want to be in a back marker.

Of course, Williams performance this year is far from top notch. But what kind of money will Jacques require? When he left BAR he was the second highest paid driver behind Michael Schumacher. Speculation has been that Villeneuve could be paid on a per point basis thereby costing the team little unless they are successful. It’s probably too early to tell what will happen. I am sure each team thinks the door is open now that Schummi has lost a race, but they will probably be brought back to earth Sunday. As for the rumors and my thoughts, wait and see what happens!

IRL
The field is set for the 88th running of the Indianapolis 500. The field was filled on a breezy, cloudy day that held really very little drama. Greg Ray was the fastest qualifier of the session while Robbie McGehee was slowest on the day and in the field. Jacques Lazier had turned some laps in Foyt’s 14T car on Friday and was well over the slowest speeds but the deal apparently fell through and he never took the track after Friday.

Brian Barnhart told the potential qualifiers that a “respectable” speed was all it took to get in. Speculation was that 210+ would be considered respectable. The fact that Lazier never got in the car smacks of politics to me. I really have to wonder if he would have made an attempt had Marty Roth been the slowest qualifier. I have said it before and I will say it again. If you raise the purse of the race to $25-30 million then you will have no problem getting 50 cars to attempt to qualify. As it stands, it just isn’t cost effective to run unless you have big sponsor money or you can get a top 5 finish.

FTRG was also in the paper yesterday talking about shortening the month. Again, if you raise the purse, that kind of problem goes away.

F1
Congrats to Jarno Trulli who won the Grand Prix de Monaco yesterday and in the process ended Michael Schumachers bid for his 6th consecutive win to start the season. Trulli, who started on the pole, lead all the way in this one. Down the stretch he was chased by Jensen Buttons, but his lead was never really in doubt.

Trulli was a wildly popular champion, but to be honest anyone NOT in a Ferrari would have been a welcome change of pace. The irony is that Schumacher pretty much did himself in that he was screwing around behind the safety car and locked up his brakes forcing Juan Montoya to hit him and send him into the guard rail. Schumacher took the low road and claimed the incident was Montoyas fault, but anyone who saw it knows otherwise.

F1 and IRL

F1
Interesting stories during the non practice off week coming from the various team camps. First of all Ferrari seems confident that they will retain the Marlboro sponsorship past the 2006 deadline. All this tells me is that the persistent rumors of the demise of F1 in Europe will come to fruition. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with this one.

More speculation out of Williams regarding their 2005 driver situation. Now it is looking more and more like Mark Webber will get one of the seats. The team would love to have Buttons, but his contract with BAR will probably not allow him to leave. Besides, given the current state of affairs with the teams, why would he want to leave BAR for Williams. Rumors persist about the other seat, but according to sources, Jeff Gordon’s name is being bandied about as someone who deserves a test. Gordon was in Spain for last weekends race, but only said he was a guest of Williams. He also has stated many reasons why he would not go to F1, but then also has expressed that he is not too old to go F1 racing. He feels an F1 ride would be more for US sponsor dollars coveted by F1, but he seems curious.

IRL
Rain washed out a portion of yesterday’s track activity, and when it was all said and done Julio was on top with a lap of 220.3. Julio, first on the track Monday becomes the first driver of the month over 220. Dixon was second at 219.5. Yellows were out for a spin by Marty Roth and for Robby Gordon. Gordon became the first driver to tag the wall this month, but damage on the car was reportedly minor.

500 Qualifying

IRL
Qualifying is done for the first weekend at Indianapolis. Honda was dominating on a cold and cloudy Saturday afternoon. They took the top seven slots. Julio was the top Toyota and will start 8th.

22 qualified Saturday and another 4 went Sunday. At this point only Greg Ray has a car that everyone assumes will make an attempt. His team was in tech on Sunday, but he didn’t practice. Word is that he is attempting to get some sponsorship.

Buddy Rice driving for the Rahal/Letterman team took the pole with Dan Weldon second and Dario Judd third. Rice’s speed average of 222.024 was slower than the 223.7 that Tony Kanaan put up in the practice session Saturday, but higher than Rice had been all month. He seemed to be the only one who did not lose speed. So now we have 26 cars in the field.

Larry Foyt is slowest at 213.277. That leaves 7 spots to fill. With Ray making 27 that leaves 6. Drivers wandering about the pits looking for rides include 1996 winner Buddy Lazier, his brother Jacques. 1999 ROY Robbie McGeehee, and P.J. Jones (who looks to be penciled in as the Beck Motorsports driver).

The defunct PDM team is reporting it is close to making a driver deal. Dreyer and Reinbold, Panther and Mo Nunn have all expressed interest in trying to qualify another car for the race. And the 66 Penske G-Force was out again Sunday opening speculation that a deal similar to last year could be in the works.

Honestly it looks like they will get to 33, but at what cost? If they get to 34 are they going to allow a Foyt car to get bumped? What about Mary Roth. He looped it twice last week and still isn’t up to speed, but he is still trying. Practice resumes Wednesday and runs until Sunday when the last day of qualifying takes place.

NASCAR
Junior wins again! And now Jeffy is all pissed off at the dumbass Tony Stewart for slamming him into the wall. Maybe one of these days NASCAR will figure it out and suspend that moron!

F1 and IRL Early May

F1
Michael Schumacher wins his fifth straight race this season and ties Nigel Mansell for that distinction. The Sandwich was second and Jarno Trulli was third. JPM was a DNF and Fernando Alonso was fourth in front of the home crowd. Sorry but that is about all the excitement I can muster for the Spanish Grand Prix.

One thing of note was the Bernie saying he wasn’t making qualifying changes ASAFP. His proposal is two 30 minute sessions where you must complete a minimum of 6 laps with the fastest being the counted lap. Failure to complete the prescribed number of laps would result in the car being moved to the back of the starting grid.

I like the change proposed as it brings back the more traditional style of qualifying.

IRL

Practice is underway for the 88th running of the Indianapolis 500. On a warm and breezy Mothers Day 33 cars were on the track. For the record Scott Dixon in the 10 car was the fastest at 219.7. Julio was second and Adrian Fernandez was third. Sammy was sick and could not come out to practice. Sarah was the first one out at approximately 1:09 when her mother waved the green flag to start the session. I heard AJIV went out but I never saw his car. I saw him heading back to the garage. I got up to get a Fosters and I guess I missed him.

We were right behind their pits but I never even saw the car come out. The cars seem ready to start attacking the 220 mark today and probably by the time I get out there Friday will be assaulting the 225 mark. With the wind and heat yesterday I thought 219 was pretty good.

I was a little disappointed with Mike. He was only able to muster a 216.763 for 13th best. Guess they still have some work to do.

When we got there I thought the crowd was going to be pathetic. We drove in had a parking spot that indicated there were not many fans there. It was early, but still I expected more. As we neared the pagoda however it appeared as though there were quite a few fans present. The autograph lines were deep and there were a lot of fans milling around. When we came around to the stands I was surprised to see as many as I did. It was an hour before practice and the stands had as many people as were at most practice days combined last year. Again though the weather was great.

IRL

IRL

A couple of days ago I wrote that I thought Ron Hemelgarn would be good for a car or two in the 500. Apparently I was mistaken. Hemelgarn announced late Tuesday that he would not only be skipping the 500, but would most likely go to the rival OWRS.

As you might imagine over on Speednet there is quite a lively debate about this announcement. IRL haters are talking about how TG has turned his back on the little guy in lieu of Penske and AGR. Mind you, some of these are the same people who mocked a small budget operation like Hemelgarn. The IRL fans are making excuses why Hemelgarn is not making it in the IRL. Mainly they use the economy and walk lock step with TG over the issue. But I think there is more to it.

I admit, I don’t know a lot about Ron Hemelgarn, but he has always been at Indy and has usually found enough to run more than one car. Before the split the team usually ran one car in the CART series, but not always. They were always down on the food chain though. Then when the IRL started it seemed like a perfect fit for a guy like Hemelgarn. Capped costs were just the beginning. When the league struggled early Hemelgarn was most likely, and by all accounts, given subsidies by TG to increase his IRL and Indy 500 presence.

Fast forward to 2003. Instead of the Aurora and Infiniti engines, the Aurora is reborn the Chevrolet and Honda and Toyota come on board. TG basically tells the teams that his subsidies will end. After all, the league is entering its 8th year and the teams should be stable. What is really happening though is the influx of former CART teams who are stable and bring big sponsorship money. Along with this the Toyota and Honda engine programs are lease programs and they are quite costly. Naturally chassis costs rise as well. To further exacerbate the situation, the lower cost Chevrolet engine is a downright dog. Not even Sammy is able to do anything with it.

So you have a Ron Hemelgarn at the crossroads. His driver brings some Coors money, but not like Miller and Budweiser bring. The team’s main sponsor, Delta Faucet, is a small outfit located in Westfield, IN. Good company, fine fixtures, but not a lot of money for a race team. Hemelgarn really has no choice but to run the Chevy engine and thus is uncompetitive. In fact they are one of the last teams to get the updated “Chevworth” engines later in the season.

Now it is 2004. Hemelgarn seemingly wanted to run the IRL, but he just doesn’t have the money. The Chevworth package is as much as the Toyota or Honda, plus the fact that by Indy, a $100k upgrade package will be needed to convert the 3.4L engine to a 3.0L. The team has no driver bringing in money after canning Bubby last year and Delta’s money is nowhere near enough to run Indy, let alone the IRL season.

Hemelgarn waits, and probably asks TG for assistance (I don’t know this, just that it makes sense if you look at the timing of everything). When no assistance is forthcoming Hemelgarn has serious choices to make. He has entered 2 cars in the 88th 500, but again he has not signed an engine deal, nor does he have a driver. At this point it will cost about $600k for just a car and engine. That is no crew or any other expenses. He need a driver that can bring at least that much money, but who in their right mind would do that. Buddy would probably come back, but he doesn’t bring enough. Hemelgarn knows he is unlikely to make more than $300k on the race. You do the math.

So, Tuesday’s announcement comes as no real shocker to the world. What is the shocker is what team manager Lee Kunzman says next. Not only will the team not be in the 500, but they are working on a deal to go OWRS racing. On the surface this seems ridiculous. In fact my friend Scott wondered about it.

Well it is simple. You see, the Three Stooges aka, Kalkhoven, Gentilozzi and Forsythe (sorry if I misspelled them but I don’t care enough about them to check) are now subsidizing cars to keep OWRS afloat. The rumor is that Forsythe has offered to lease 2 cars to Hemelgarn for $1. Yes that is ONE DOLLAR! Now Hemelgarn would be an idiot not to take the offer and run with it. By doing this he really doesn’t have to sign a money driver, but can take a chance on a young talented driver who has shown some skills. He still will have the Delta money which he can use to travel from event to event and pick up some prize money along the way. Plus, if his cars are out on the track he just might pick up some added sponsorship money.

I certainly do not blame Hemelgarn for doing this. I doubt if the press or other teams will be very receptive to him, but if he can make it financially I doubt if he cares. What gets me goes back to the message boards. The subsidizing of teams by TG was wrong according to the CARTers, but what the Stooges are doing goes unchallenged. What gets me is that these are team owners who are running the show. This is ultimately what did CART in, but these boobs don’t see it. From the IRL standpoint, fans are calling Hemelgarn a sellout, but they loved him when he was getting those same subsidies.

I for one wish Hemelgarn good luck. I don’t see any future in OWRS, but when they fold hopefully there will be a spot for a guy who seems to just love racing.

F1

One thing is certain, these new proposals will certainly generate a lot of talk about how F1 is becoming yet another spec or cookie cutter series ala NASCAR. I don't think you would see a great deal of increase in spending on R & D.

For one thing, and I agree and applaud them for actually thinking more than one race season in advance, when that tobacco money goes away in a couple of years ALL of the teams will have to tighten their belts. Right now there are what, 5 teams who have tobacco as their main sponsors. That is a lot of money. Without it I think you will see the smaller teams really suffer as their sponsors fill the void with teams like Ferrari, McLaren, BAR and Renault because of the potential for greater exposure. That puts the guys currently at the back of the grid in a position of having to find new sponsors. And if reports are correct, new sponsors aren't exactly lining up to get in.

The Bernie even called Stoddardt a beggar for the way he courted potential sponsors in the paddock last season. Ferrari can probably keep their advantage because of their personnel and because they are so far ahead of everyone. But for how long? When the Marlboro money is gone how will a car company that sells what, 3000 cars a year be able to afford the testing they do now? If I was them, and I am sure this has already been considered, I wouldn't count on FIAT making up the difference. I just think there is going to be less money to go around in the very near future.

Bottom line, IMO, is that the teams, and especially engine manufacturers, know new rules are coming. They have a couple of years before new engine rules take effect, so they have a couple of years where I think you will see some MAJOR investment into R & D, but after a couple of years it will drop dramatically. Will it turn into just another spec series? I certainly hope not. I have nothing against the notion of throwing everyone into equal cars and letting the drivers hash out who is best, but we already have enough of that and F1 is supposed to be about drivers AND cars. Or so I had been told!

F1

F1

Well the boys all got together today and decided to create a dream come true....oh wait a minute.

Well yes, the F1 clan did all meet today in Monaco with FIA president Max Mosley. The biggest surprise is that most of the matters put forth last week by the Max were met with open arms.

The engine configuration of the current V-10 or changing to a V-8 still has to be hashed out. On one hand, keeping the current config would allow teams to keep their current engines thereby cutting costs. On the other hand, if those engines are kept teams are going to be expected to make them last 4 or more race weekends. It looks like if the engine is changed to a V-8 it will be limited to 2 race weekends.

One interesting thing is that a separate championship for engine manufacturers could become a reality. I thing that would be an awesome addition to the series.

One of the big obstacles of getting these changes in place before 2008 is the Concorde Agreement. The official governing rules of F1 also allows King Bernie to rake in a whopping 70% of F1 profits. Certainly Bernie has to be credited with the explosive growth of F1 all over the world over the past 20 years, but one must wonder when too much is simply too much.

With the Concorde Agreement not set to expire until 2007, don't expect any changes until then unless Bernie is willing to take a smaller slice of the pie. Yeah right! Also, we will have to wait and see how the majority really feels when it comes to voting on new rules and configs. Everyone seemed happy today. I mean shit, who couldn't be happy at a fancy F1 bean feast and meeting? Who knows how these guys will act in the future. Their track record is that they will never agree on anything!

F1 and IRL

F1

Tomorrow the big “Monaco Summit” starts for the F1 boys. Team owners are expected to meet to discuss the future of Formula One racing and Max Mosley’s proposed changes. I chronicled them in a previous article so I won’t list them again. But, what are they really going to accomplish at this meeting?

This is a group of people who will never agree on anything. As I understand it, the Concorde Agreement requires full approval by ALL owners before a change can be implemented. Under Mosley’s plan, only a majority would have to agree.

To be honest the owners really do need to address the future. As we are down to 10 teams, with no new teams seemingly showing interest and the loss of several teams over the past few years, it is incumbent upon the current owners to promote and save their own series.

The series needs new sponsors with the loss of all tobacco money in 2006 and it needs younger team owners who will become the stewards of the series. The old guys now in aren’t getting any younger and there seems to be no one to take their place or start new teams.

F1 is at a crossroads. Tracks like Imola, Austria and even Silverstone are taking heat for not being up to quality standards. Some like Belgium have felt the sting of losing races. Spa is back this year, but Austria is not. Places like China and the Middle East are being courted as the new hotbeds of F1 racing. Sure there is money in the oil rich OPEC nations, but China? Turkey and Russia also want in. Where does that leave some of the European markets? And what of the USGP? Frankly I think TG and the Bernie’s relationship is strong and the race will continue, but it is no secret Bernie wants to be on the west coast too.

Canada damn near lost their race this year. Without sponsor dollars to replace those lost when tobacco money goes away there will be less cars, not more. On the surface Ferrari would appear to have the world in the palm of its hands, but they are such a small part of FIAT that they can not be self sustaining without the Marlboro money. No government can or should be expected to run race teams. Renault is in the same boat. McLaren, BAR and Jordan all rely on tobacco money. What is their future? When it comes right down to it, only Williams, Minardi, Jaguar, Toyota and Sauber aren’t sponsored primarily by tobacco companies.

And of those teams, only Toyota seems to be on unquestionable solid footing. Williams is probably looking to hire a young driver so they can pay less for him, Minardi has the support of Ferrari but for how long, Sauber has good money with Petronas and Red Bull but there has been scuttlebutt regarding Ford’s commitment to the Jaguar program.

The bottom line is this. These owners are going to have to face a future without tobacco money and that future will be bleak if they decide not to do anything about it. Costs are spiraling despite efforts such as the one engine per weekend rule, but this if F1. Costs are supposed to be high. For the owners, they will have to decide how high is too high and they will have to show some profit to entice new money, owners and sponsors to the series.


IRL

The open test completed last week showed that Penske was still king at Indy. Sammy led all sessions with Julio right behind him. Dixon was consistently third. Some good news for the 24 car of Dreyer and Reinbold was that Mike was fast right away. Generally he was fourth fastest in every session. Honda struggled, but Tony Kanaan did not take part in the test. He was allegedly tire testing in Kentucky.

The track opens for practice Sunday. As it stands today, temps are supposed to be in the 80’s and of course there is a chance of rain.


Someone on the message boards started a thread about Snakepit memories. I added this gem…

Letsgocolts
Member
Registered: Aug 2002
Location: Indy
Posts: 792
Man oh man those were the days.

I don't remember the year, but Q95 was sponsoring Tim Richmond and they were having banner contest for some $1000 stereo, which at the time was a lot. All you had to do was have a banner that had Tim Richmond's name and Q95 on it.

We snagged three sheets from my buddies mom on the Friday night before Pole Day and sewed them together and spray painted "Show us your t*ts for Q95 and Tim Richmond".

Well as you may or may not remember, Richmond tried to knock the wall down in the morning practice. Q95 postponed the banner contest a week if I remember right, but it didn't stop us from proudly displaying our banner stretched across three cars.

It was a rainy and muddy day and the infield was a mess, but we had what seemed like a thousand people around our banner and any females that happened by were "encouraged" to heed the advice of the banner by all the people around.

For the most part it was all good, muddy fun, but there were a few who would jump on or in cars that would try to drive by with girls in them.

I had an old Torino that at one point I counted 20 people standing on. The truck which was the other end of the banner had a cap on it and one of the corners was caved in, but the guy who owned it just stood back and laughed about it!

That went on for about 5 hours. I don't think I ever saw a race car that day, but I was young and stupid and it was all about the party. What a day!

F1 and IRL

F1

So Jacques Villeneuve wants another shot at F1 eh? Well good luck you turd. Just look at how good BAR is doing this season without your sorry, albatross ass at the wheel! And don’t tell me it is because of the Michelins, or because they have a new engineer or because Honda all of the sudden decided to turn up the wick. No JV you just sucked.

Back in 1995 JV won the Indy 500. He was young, aggressive and human. He then made the leap to F1 where two seasons later he was World Champion in the Williams. Now he has made himself available again to that Williams team. So far there has been no response from Sir Frank.

Villeneuve’s manager Craig Pollock has been campaigning for JV’s return to the big stage, but he has also claimed that Jacques will not be taking a seat so as to hang around at the back of the pack. He wants to compete with Schumacher. He must be stoned.

I used to like JV, then he became this overblown, self-important, me me me turd of a human being who’s greatest line came before last season when he tried to run down Jensen Button-his team mate-by saying he would not respect Button if he could not keep up with him. Button not only kept up with him, he outqualified and outraced him on a consistent basis.

JV, maybe you ought to go back to CART and see if they can help you. Pollock has said money is not an issue. I assume that is because of JV’s fleecing of BAR over the past few years. Well if money is not an issue, then CART/OWRS should love to have you back!

IRL

Practice for the 88th Indianapolis 500 begins Sunday. Currently there are 25 confirmed car/driver combinations, but there are 9 more entries, some with two cars listed. The question will remain, however until the end of qualifying: Will there be 33 starters? Of course according to TG, 33 is just a number.

Unfortunately PDM who had two cars entered closed shop on Friday and unless a driver with money steps in it looks like they are out.

The problem with the other 9 entries is almost the same. With the engine lease being $350k and $100k for the upgrade kit a driver is going to have to bring a half a million dollars in sponsor money to get a ride. Then the owner still has to have a chassis and crew members. All told it will cost about a million dollars to run Indy. Of course some of these costs can be deferred if teams will joint the IRL circus, but travel does add to expenses as well.

Here is a breakdown of who or what may happen between now and Bump Day. At least from a perspective 5 days away.

First of all, one of the 9 entries is for the Newman Haas team. They have already named Bruno to drive their car so that puts us up to 26. The remaining teams with extra cars are, Team Rahal (2), Nunn Racing (1), Dreyer & Reinbold Racing(1), AJ Foyt Enterprises (2), Panther Racing (2), Beck Motorsports (2), Marlboro Team Penske (2) and Hemelgarn Racing (2).

Let’s take these in logical order. First of all AJ will try to stick another car in the field. Personally I would like to see Airton Dare get the nod. He and AJ seemed to get along well enough and Dare was fast in inferior equipment. The downside is that Mo Nunn probably had Mike picked before he signed on with Dreyer and Reinbold. Nunn may do the right thing and give Dare the ride. That’s 27. Hemelgarn wants to be at Indianapolis. Could your 1996 winner (hack) Buddy Lazier be in the wings. Buddy worked for Hemelgarn for years. A lot of speculation has been floating around that Beck will hire Jimmy Kite. That would be 29.

Now there is the last 4 spots in the field. Being local I think Panther will give someone a chance. That could also be Kite. Penske most likely lease his car out. I kow Robbie says he is retired, but is he going to be able to resist one more shot at the big money if Mike gets in safely on Pole day? The only one who probably won’t field another car is Rahal.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. A lot could happen with T cars after the first weekend. Stay tuned for more!

F1, IRL and NASCAR

F1

Yesterday I wrote about the changes FIA president Max Mosley has introduced for the future of F1. I was a tad remiss in that I did not write that Mosley's plans are an effort to drastically cut costs in F1 racing. Certainly his intentions are noble and frankly, necessary for the long term health of the sport. If you look around at the team owners and principals you notice it is not a group of young men. Rather it is older guys who may be nearing retirement age. And look at the companies involved with F1 racing. Ferrari, BMW, Daimler-Chrysler (Mercedes), Ford, Renault and Cosworth. These are companies with deep pockets, but in a world economy that is still coming out of the 90's hangover, these guys are not really willing to up their ante's any more than what they are currently.

Ferrari has a reputation in the world beyond F1, but since they limit the number of cars they sell they are limited on budget even though they are part of the Italian government. Daimler-Chrysler is under extreme pressure from stockholders to turn a profit and pouring more and more money into racing at this level is not cost effective. And go right down the line and the story is the same.

Next week the teams are meeting in Monaco to discuss the future. One thing is for sure, unless changes are made the circus may get shut down.

And people think IRL has problems.

IRL

Day one of ROP is over. Larry Foyt was just as happy as a clam when he was finished. I'm going to try to go out tomorrow during lunch if anyone is interested. The IRL is conducting an open practice Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday, Foyt, Ed Carpenter, Mark Taylor, Kosuke Matsuura, Luis Diaz, Marty Roth and Jeff Simmons also took part in the ROP yesterday. Simmons and Roth will still need to complete their programs when the track opens May 9th.

Local boob Robin Miller floated what he called a "rumor" in his online column on Friday that TG was going to cut the 500 down to a one weekend event because he wanted to have another IRL race in May. Miller is filled with so much hate towards the Speedway it just clouds his vision.

First of all, no one would ever let RM in on any secret. Ever. Second, if he did hear it, it was because someone wanted to make him look bad. But as usual, he does have his faithful followers who eat up his word as if it were the Gospel truth.

That radio show him, Dave Scoggins and Jay Baker do is just pathetic. Piss poor attempts at humor, constant stabs at the IRL while trying to make it sound as though they are sympathetic to the open wheel cause and a lot of F1 news that is both untimely and usually inaccurate. Keep trying boys, maybe OWRS will actually finish the season.

NASCAR

In what is one of the biggest surprises to me is that NASCAR is NOT contemplating fining Junior for the fans reaction to Jeff Gordon's win on Sunday.

Tony Stewart, however has been squarely in NASCAR's sights since Sunday. The moron of the year was involved in two accidents on the track for which he took no responsibility. But NASCAR is considering disciplinary action against the blockhead for an incident after the race. Stewart, slowed with the rest of the pack as they took the checkered flag under the caution, decided to turn left directly onto pit lane (the wrong direction) instead of taking the usual lap around. Of course the boob claimed it was because of the debris being tossed onto the course after the race. Stewart rammed into Terry Labonte demolishing his car. Stewart, no stranger to idiocy, will probably be fined and put on probation. This turd needs to be suspended for a season until he proves he is fit to live among human beings.

Buhl Retires

Robbie Buhl announced Friday that he was retiring effective immediately from his position as driver of the Dreyer and Reinbold #24 Purex IRL Indy car. Thank you Robbie!

Those of you who know me, know that I have always rooted for Robbie. I always thought he was a pretty good driver, seemed like a good guy, one who always seemed to have time for autographs, yet time to driver the car.
Unfortunately Robbie fell into the trap so many drivers fall in to. One of car ownership. I'm not knocking owners, but I have maintained forever that you simply cannot both drive and own the car. It just puts too much of a strain on a persons time.

As an owner your time is spent with sponsors and trying to attract new sponsors for your program. You are dealing with team personnel issues as well as trying to strike a balance between being competitive and profitable, lest we forget this is a business. Throwing driver responsibilities on top of all that and it is a recipe for failure. One of the major jobs is going to be neglected. Be it driver or owner side, if you are not 100% on all jobs then there will be no success. Something Robbie has to have seen over the past couple of years.

I don't want to sound like I am picking on Buhl, better drivers than he have failed. Dale Earnhardt found much less success at the wheel once he started DEI and especially when DEI was fielding Cup cars. DW never found any success, Eddie Cheever had very limited success (although an Indy win is a big deal, it was still when the IRL had a bunch of hacks), Adrian Fernandez and even A.J Foyt have had limited success since 1980 being both owner and driver. In fact Foyt is the last one to have any sustained success as a driver owner and that was back in the 70's.

I salute Robbie's decision and hope this will help the team attract new sponsors, generate more money and become competitive. I see today that he has signed Mike to drive for the team. I like this a first step to get back to where the team was when they started. Of course they are still saddled with the Chevy engine, but maybe they can concentrate on more testing as well.

Racing

IRL

The teams are all heading for Japan this week for the 2nd Bridgestone Japan Indy 300 at the Twin Motegi track. This race marks the end of the 3.4 liter engine as the rules make a change to the 3.0 liter engine beginning with the Indy 500 in May. This was done as a response to the speeds achieved, coupled with the crashes of Kenny Brack at Texas and Tony Renna’s fatal crash at Indy last year. Hopefully this is not just a knee jerk reaction to a couple of bad crashes and the changes made will greatly enhance the safety of the cars.

So far in testing, the new configuration has been safe and effective. Speeds will probably be down, but as I know from experience, when changes are made it is only a matter of time before they are back up. Good luck to all at Japan.

But the IRL has got to do something about the lapse of time between races. It has been nearly a month since Phoenix and it will be more than a month before Indy. This series is on thin ice as it is. It needs to get some momentum going and keep it. If you only race every month, any excitement from the previous race is long gone. TG has the money, unfortunately his brains are bad news. OWRS will be lucky to make it to raceday. Take advantage of them and build your series the right way. You have to forget about the diehard CART fans. They will never be back. But for us fans who are craving Indy Car racing, waiting a month between races is just too much.

One other note about Indy and the IRL. Someone started a thread last week asking what changes people would make if they owned the Speedway and there were no IRL or OWRS. I found it amazing the boobery of many posters. Many wanted to see the Silver Crown cars out there. Some wanted Trans Am races. All I could say as I read the responses was “Thank God these people do not own the track”.

F1

This is one of those rare times in the F1 season that the teams have three weeks between races. This gives everyone a chance to extend their testing sessions. Couple that with the next race being in Europe and this becomes a real chance to gain some ground on Ferrari. Last week the teams were at Barcelona. BAR was your big winner garnering fastest time in almost every days practice. Of note was Scott Dixon’s return to testing. Scott was fast, just a tick off the veterans, most of the sessions. But Thursday’s rain showed Scott has a long way to go on the rain tyres. Friday brought decent results, but mechanical problems slowed his progress. I still expect him to be in the Williams next year, but I think his stock may have fallen just a bit.

This week the teams are at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. Dixon of course will be in Japan so I don’t think he will run. F1 also announced that new safety regulations could be initiated this season. Allegedly the cars are ‘cornering’ too fast and there are safety concerns. Now depending on who you ask, this is nothing more than a move to slow Ferrari down. When it comes down to it, the owners will never agree on any single plan to “increase safety” in the cars. So the FIA will step in and make a rule.

I do not like rule changes in the middle of the season. I am not happy about Ferrari’s dominance, but that is because I am not a Ferrari fan. I certainly admire the fact that they have come out of the gate as strong as they have and have just killed the competition. More on this later.

Americans

News reports today indicate fighting in the "Sunni Triangle" in Iraq is intense. Once again the reports are that more Americans are dying as a result of the insurgent Shiite resistance. When is enough, enough?
Every day over the course of the past 6 months we hear more reports of our troops dying. And for what? For the freedom of some stone age country that may or may not have had enough rocks to throw at Israel?
I am too young to really remember Vietnam and what brought about our escalated involvement in what was their civil war. But from what I have seen since the fall of Baghdad a year ago, there are just too many similarities.

I would agree that Saddam Hussein had to be taken down. He was a ruthless, killing dictator who ruled with an iron fist with the brutal help of his two sons. What I do not now agree with, nor did a year ago was the method.

First of all, we went in on the basis of eradicating the country of Hussein AND his weapons of mass destruction. As the months rolled by some evidence was found that may have been linked to WMD's, but in fact nothing of any substance has been found.

If we wanted to take down the leader we should have done it covertly using special forces and CIA ops to take care of the problem. But, dumbass Bill Clinton had the CIA and Special Forces so depleted and strung out around the world that I am not sure we could have pulled it off.

Instead, W uses the 911 terrorist attacks to go after Osama bin Laden. Then, after committing all of those troops to Afghanistan, we decide to fry the Iraq fish.

This war is a failure. The only thing I have had proven to me is that the Iraqi people seem split on Hussein. So why are we forcing him out when we have no good reasons other than we don't like him or his human rights record?

It is so obvious that those people do not want us there, and equally obvious that most Americans do not want us there. We lost. There is no shame. I have to believe that W did what he thought was best based on his feelings and intelligence. But there comes a time when the human price becomes too high. That time is now.

How 'Bout Them Pacers?

Congratulations to YOUR Indiana Pacers! 2003-2004 NBA Central Division Champs! I haven't had too much to say about the team this year. It's not because I don't care, it has just gone so smoothly compared to the last couple of seasons under Zeke.

Right now the Pacers have an opportunity to also win 60 games for the first time in franchise history AND can wrap up home court advantage throughout the playoffs with a few more wins.

While this team has battled a few nagging injuries, most have been minor and have not been a major problem. The team, and I am knocking on wood, has not lost three games in a row all season. They have weathered a point guard rotation, games without superstar JO and primadonna extraordinaire Al Harrington and Jonathon Bender as well as a new coaching regime that extended into the front office.

Once again, Donnie Walsh looks like a genius. Well okay, he looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but that is beside the point. He and Larry Legend have put their stamp on this team and while I doubted coach Rick Carlisle's ability, he has been the captain that has kept this crew focused and winning. Something the previous coach could not do.

How will the Pacers do in the playoffs? Who knows. Most national pundits feel they are the only team in the east that can challenge for the championship. Detroit will be tough, Milwaukee , until last night owned us this season. We have no answer for Baron Davis and New Orleans and the Knicks are much improved despite Isaiah Thomas. But bottom line is this team can do it.

Stay tuned as this one could have us wearing the headphones out at the track this May listening to playoff games!