February 18, 2008
Open Wheel Unification - Just a Footnote
AUTO-RACING - REPORT: Champ Car/IndyCar Deal Done - SPEEDtv.com
SPEEDtv.com has learned that the Indy Racing League and Champ Car have officially, and mercifully, agreed to become one entity. A press conference could come as early as Wednesday if Kevin Kalkhoven is back from England in time.
Now that open wheel racing in the United States is dead the Champ Car World Series and the IRL have gotten back together. What a disaster this was, all because some spoiled brat wanted his way. There wasn't much left of Champ Car anyway but they had some things still worth saving and I hope they make their way into the IRL; great looking cars, turbo charged engines and races in Long Beach, Mexico City, Cleveland and some great Canadian races. Those are well worth keeping and if the IRL wants to suceed then they need to look at some of these items.
March 23, 2007
Eric Medlin: 1973-2007
NHRA News: Eric Medlen succumbs to injuries suffered in recent testing accident (3/23/2007)
I hate this part of racing. Eric Medlin (mentioned the other day here, died from his injuries today.
March 21, 2007
Prayers for Eric Medlin
The guy on the left (Eric Medlin) suffered an extremely big accident on Monday and is in critical condition. When we took this picture both Medlin and Robert Hight (the guy on the right) were really cool to my son. Good guy who needs some prayer.
January 21, 2007
Tony Stewart - Hot Head, Good Guy
SPEEDtv.com | MILLER: If You Knew Stew
Check the link above about race car driver Tony Stewart. I like to highlight folks who are big hearted and Tony Stewart (known as a hot head) is one of them.
November 25, 2006
SI - Zanardi Tests An F1 Car
SI.com - Racing - Double amputee returns to F1 with test drive - Saturday November 25, 2006 10:58AM
Alex Zanardi, who lost both legs in a crash five years ago, completed his return to Formula One on Saturday by becoming the first double amputee to test drive an F1 car.
Alex Zanardi is an absolute hero. To see his courage recovering from a near fatal crash that took both of his legs is inspiring.
November 25, 2005
Indy 500 Drops Farther and Farther
IRL might struggle to fill 2006 field | IndyStar.com
As the Indy 500 falls farther and farther away from American tradition the situation keeps getting worse. It looks like they will struggle to even get 33 cars for the field this year. The history of why this happened is tracked pretty well here but it still comes down to one man who's truly responsible for this mess and his name is Tony George. Many people have tried to fix the problems but one man stands in the way. His focus seems to be marketing his pretty woman driver and exploit her looks as much as possible. Sad.
August 30, 2005
Miller: Zanardi Conquers the World
SPEEDTV.com - Miller: Zanardi Conquers the World - There is not a better story in motorsports than the resurrection of Alex Zanardi. It was almost 4 years ago when Zanardi was given last rites after losing his legs and 70% of his blood in a crash. Now, he wins. Awesome!
June 22, 2005
Right Back at You Indy
David Phillips - Lessons from the USGP
At the risk of kicking the Speedway when it's down, right now several million disenfranchised fans of American open-wheel racing are probably thinking, if not saying aloud, "How does it feel?"
After all, a fair number of them probably felt "victimized" when they showed up at Phoenix and Indianapolis in 1996 expecting to see Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr. and Bobby Rahal race, and, instead, found they'd paid good money to watch Paul Durant, Fermin Velez and Jim Guthrie do battle in quest of the inaugural Indy Racing League title.
Phillips goes on to smack around everyone in open wheel racing in America but the above is not something I'd thought about. I was actually starting to feel sorry for the folks at IMS but not anymore. I still feel horrible for people that made the treck to IMS for the USGP, including a friend at work, but this should be a great lesson for the IRL folks and a great taste of the medicine they dished out. Egos and pride have destroyed open wheel racing in America. Let's see if this hard lesson will help fix the problem.
June 19, 2005
A Disaster at the US Grand Prix
ESPN.com - F1 - Tire flap reduces United States GP field to six - Basically what happened is that Michelin came unprepared to race, F-1 has really stupid rules about changing tires and US fans got screwed. F-1 has spent so much time trying to find ways to beat Ferrari and now those stupid rules have come back to bite them in the butt. I was hoping to go to next year's race but if this is what might happen then I need to rethink going.
May 30, 2005
Who Won The Indy 500?
Nice news coverage by the media of the Indy 500. I barely saw any of it but to Dan Wheldon, the actual winner, it's a big deal. Everyone else lost. Congratulations Dan, now come over to Champ Car.
May 29, 2005
Indy 500 Prediction
This post is not an endorsement of the Indy 500. To learn why go here.
The big story coming out if Indianapolis is a young lady named Danica Patrick. She's the real deal, even though she's still very young and inexperienced. She has paid her dues and it is smart to promote her. I predict that if she keeps her nose clean she'll do just fine. I just wish she was running in the Champ Car World Series where she got a lot of training in their ladder system.
This is a very dangerous race and I pray for safety for all. I'll probably watch some of it but it is no longer a priority for me.
April 25, 2005
Zanardi Back In An F-1 Car
SPEEDTV.com - Zanardi Set for Williams Demo Run - One of my heros is Alex Zanardi, a great race driver who lost both of his legs in a horrible fluke accident in 2001. To watch his battle is inspiring. Now, he gets a chance to do some laps in an F-1 car. A jus reward for sure.
March 06, 2005
NASCAR Busch Guys In Mexico City
We just got back from church (great day that I'll blog about later) and am able to catch a bit of the NASCAR Busch Series racing in Mexico City. The track in Mexico City is also run by the Champ Car World Series and is beautiful. Looks like some of the good ol' boys are doing pretty good against some of the road racing specialists but it's always a trip watching the NASCAR regulars having to turn right. I've only seen caution laps since I've been watching. Beautiful track, lousy race (at least from what I've seen).
UPDATE: Race results on ESPN
March 05, 2005
Formula 1 - New Tyre Policy
(Written on my PDA at 6:20 PM, but posting now):
The bosses at F1 have decided to allow only one set of tires from qualiying until the end of the race. This sounds very strange and maybe even dangerous. My biggest concern in racing is always safety. The first race of the season starts in a few minutes so we'll see what happens.
(Back to real time):
The race completed and it was pretty interesting. Michael Shumacher (the man who donated $10 million for the Tsunami victims) had a horrible race and retired late in the race after a little incident.
The idea of almost any F1 rule changes seems to be to try and lower the effectivity of the Ferrari teams. They have been so dominant but I enjoy watching greatness. I hate the dumbing down to try and bring "competition". In the end it brings mediocrity and almost contrived racing.
February 21, 2005
Daytona 500 - 2005 Recap
The Daytona 500 can be summed up in one word, "caution". There were 11 yellow flags including a quite a few during the last few laps. Obviously, the drivers were not in mid-season form. Unlike the casual racing fan I hate the wrecks in any form of racing. There was some good slicing and dicing near the end but the racing kept getting interupted by accidents which really spoiled the end. I'm glad there weren't any major injuries.
February 20, 2005
Spotlight - Daytona 500
In a few minutes the "Great American Race" (I hate that term) will start. The pre-race show is a disaster as they have washed-up performers singing (poor Brian Wilson) with silly dancers. The race is still interesting, and I will watch, but there is something missing. With the death of Dale Earnhardt four years ago, the good old boy attitude seems to be missing. I guess with growth has to come change. NASCAR is now mainstream. I pray for a safe race.
February 10, 2005
Nobody Does It Worse
The above article describes how a selfish and spoiled rich kid took years of tradition and flushed it down the toilet for a "vision" of how he though open-wheel racing in America should be. People followed him only because he owns and runs the Indianapolic Motor Speedway. Most people don't even care about the Indy 500 and it falls at the feet of Tony George AKA "The Idiot Grandson".
December 11, 2004
Watching "3"
I just got done watching the ESPN movie, "3" about Dale Earnhardt. At the end I was still hoping the end was going to be different. One of my favorite all-time sports moments was watching Dale Earnhardt win the Daytona 500 while the worst moment in sports history happened almost 3 years later when he was killed on the final lap in 2001. There aren't many figures in recent American history that have people have a torrid affection towards him. He was quite unique and he's still missed. I still can't stop watching a NASCAR race without looking for the black 3.
November 12, 2004
ESPN - 3
I'm becoming increasingly excited about the ESPN movie '3'. Dale Earnhardt was an American legend who made NASCAR what it is today. In all honestly, when he got killed my interest in NASCAR went down a lot and it has not come back. He brought so much character to the sport that has now become so generic. He's still missed.
July 28, 2004
Welcome Crappies
To all my Crappy bretheren, thanks for visiting. Keep the true faith.
July 19, 2004
This Could Change My Vote
ESPN.com - IRL - Rice visits White House, meets with president
Ugh. A crapwagon goes to the White House.
June 27, 2004
Darrell Russell - RIP
ESPN.com - NHRA - NHRA driver Russell dies after car breaks up
This hurts. I really enjoy auto racing but when this happens I always question why I watch this sport. I always tell my kids that they can do just about anything in racing except to drive. My prayers go out to the family and friends of Darrell Russell.
May 28, 2004
Just Ignore the Indy 500
MSNBC - Indy 500 is quickly running out of gas
What used to be a great American tradition has now turned to crap. This man is mainly responsible:
Just because he didn't get his way he decided to go create his own racing "league". The shame of it all is that too many Americans think NASCAR drivers are all that exist. From a racing fan perspective that is just sad. NASCAR has 2 races where the drivers have to actually turn right and anywhere from 7-10 drivers who know how to turn right are brought in just for those 2 races. Sure NASCAR has some darn good drivers but even the worst NASCAR driver (see Jimmy Spencer) is more known than the best open wheel drivers.
Want to see some real racing this weekend then watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe. I'll probably catch a bit of the NASCAR race on Sunday night also.
February 24, 2004
US Army and NHRA
The US Army is a big-time sponsor of motorsports including a top fuel dragster. Although the event was rained out myself and my youngest son got to take a picture next to the US Army dragster. Kudos to the complete US Army racing team, especially the folks manning the booths and the driver, Tony Schumacher who was kind enough for a couple of autographs and a great attitude.
February 02, 2004
NASCAR's Village Idiot Speaks
rpm.espn.com: Spencer: They bombed Pearl Harbor
One of the most reckless and unsafe drivers in NASCAR has his typical thoughtless reaction to Toyota running in the truck series.
They "bombed Pearl Harbor, don't forget," the San Antonio Express-News quoted the 46-year-old driver as saying during media day at Texas Motor Speedway.
Like I said, villiage idiot.
January 21, 2004
Recreating History
My oldest friend from childhood has a labor of love. He's in the process of recreating some drag racing history.
January 20, 2004
NASCAR Jumps The Shark
Yahoo! News - NASCAR Changes Its Scoring System
This is a real dumb idea IMHO. If you want a good points system then look at the old F-1 system (10,6,4,3,2,1) or the Champ Cars. The main incentive should always be to reward the actual winner. Drivers being happy with a top-25 finish means something is broke and having cars with their hoods off running for points is also silly. There's a reason some of us call it NASCRAP.
December 10, 2003
Alex Zanardi - He's Back
Alex Zanardi will be racing full-time next season in the European Touring Car championship. Just check out his story if you are not familiar with it. He's a man of incredible courage and fortitude.
December 02, 2003
November 20, 2003
Worth Watching - Speed Racer
Check out what's on Speed Channel.
October 23, 2003
A Racing Tragedy
Regretfully, the doom and gloom I spoke of just over a week ago has struck again. This time, it was fatal. Tony Renna, 26, was killed during a tire test and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His car got airborne, went over the wall and caught the catch fence at almost 218 miles per hour. This is the 5th incident this year where a IRL car got airborne. This time, luck ran out.
October 20, 2003
Great Man of Courage
There are few men like Alex Zanardi. Even if you are not a racing fan (few are) take a look at his latest accomplishment.
October 14, 2003
More On The Big Crash
Robin Miller speaks much truth in this article on the great fear and injuries of the drivers in the evil IRL (pronounced EARL) series. Here is also an update on Kenny Brack.
October 13, 2003
That Racing Wreck
If you haven't seen it here's the horrific accident that almost killed Kenny Brack. Kenny is in pretty bad shape and needs prayers.
What makes me upset is how dangerous these "cars" are and how unsafe the "league" that these drivers are racing in. In terms of injuries, these drivers get injured way more than almost any other type of driver. These "cars" are basically designed to just run on oval tracks where the driver can just push the gas all the way to the floor (not all races but most) and the driver drives like it's a video game. It's basically, who has the most guts to dare to risk life and limb, who will challenge for the victory.
I love speed but this "league" is always pushing the odds. Heck, Mario Andretti did a test drive of one of these crapwagons and caught some big air. Fortunately, he landed right side up or he'd have died. It seems in the name of "wheel to wheel" racing that the racers just aren't that important. This league is appealing to our worse instincts because they know that there will be a big crash almost every race. They'll probably promote the heck out of this crash if Brack survives.
The only reason this "league" was started was because some rich kid, who never worked a day in his life (and is really a taco short of a combo plate) wanted more power. The problem is, that guy is in charge of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
September 17, 2003
A Man of Courage
A little bit more than 2 years ago, on September 15, 2001, in Germany, Alex Zanardi lost both of his legs in a horrible accident that almost took his life. In fact, he was given last rites. Now, Alex has recovered and will be entering a race in Europe next month.
When the accident occured, Alex was leading the race with 13 laps to go. A few months ago he got into a ChampCar, at the same German track, that had the throttle and clutch on the steering wheel. He used his artificial legs for the brakes. Alex finished those 13 laps and ran at such a speed that he would have qualified for 4th or 5th in the race.
God bless Alex Zanardi.
June 20, 2003
Champ Car Fever
Check out the Champ Cars as they race in Portland this Sunday. These drivers have amazing skill and are worth watching. Come on, give it a shot :).
