Open Wheel Wednesday

At IMS yesterday, the field was let loose for the first full practice. Topping the charts at 226.599 mph was Marco Andretti sporting the Indiana Jones livery (pretty sharp I must say). His speed was somewhat exaggerated as he had a draft from Castroneves. Rounding out the top five were Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Dan Wheldon. My early pick for a 500 winner has to be Scott Dixon.

Crowd favorite, and sexpot, Danica Patrick was 9^th at 224.095.

How about the newbies? Will Power made the biggest splash by breaking the top 11 with a 223.550. Other notable first timers were Justin Wilson (12^th), EJ Viso (15^th), and Graham Rahal (19^th).

Davey Hamilton, who has been out of the car for a while came in at 22^nd. He’s part of a new team called Kingdom Racing, which is a Christian focused team hoping to spread the word through trackside events.

Formula 1 will be preparing to invade the streets of the principality of Monaco on the 25^th. It is THE place to be see and be seen in F1. It’s quite a rinky-dink course for today’s F1 cars but the setting is unbelievable.

Monday Morning Musings

- I didn’t know a Chihuahua could make a 8 x 10 carpet smell so bad

- A power washer can be used to clean said carpet

- I can pull off a surprise party like nobody can

- A full box of Arm & Hammer laundry detergent falling off a washing machine sounds like a clumsy cat

- Baked fried chicken can taste just as good as pan fried chicken

- Ferrari is king again in Formula 1(after losing 41% percent of the field to attrition)

- An Indy Car race at Kansas Speedway is still just as boring with a unified series

- A pond can be green and cloudy with neglect and the fish( 47 cent goldfish) can still be alive through winter

- Work still sucks

Open Wheel Wednesday

In just under two weeks the Indy Car Series will roll into the Kansas Speedway full of momentum. So far this year we’ve seen Graham Rahal become the youngest driver to win in the Series and last week saw Danica Patrick become the first woman to win at Motegi.

All eyes will be upon Kansas instead of Talledega?? That’s right, the bigger story right now is open wheel racing and I’m all for it. The only problem is that there couldn’t be a more boring place to have a follow up race than the Kansas track. I’ve seen one IRL event there in the past and I have to say it was a snooze-fest. These 1.5 mile tracks just don’t cut it for me; I’d rather see them turning right as well as left. But all eyes will be on Danica now that she has captured her elusive first win.

The rumor mill is starting to heat up. Reported on Autoracing1.com is a story out of a German publication that F1 driver Rubens Barichello has been approached about a possible swap from the F1 Honda team to the AGR ride while Marco Andretti, who has tested in F1, would take the Honda seat. We’ll have to see if this rumor gains any legs.

And I guess Hans-Joachim Stuck is quoted as saying that Danica Patrick would be a good fit in F1 in order for the sometimes elitist series to gain market share in the United States. I definitely see this as a marketing possibility but don’t see her ever making it into an F1 ride based on talent.

Open Wheel Wednesday

It's double your pleasure weekend in the IRL. The former Champcar Series drivers will bid adeiu to Long Beach in their final race this Sunday, while the IRL regulars will be racing in Japan. Both races will be televised. You can catch the IRL race Saturday night at midnight and the Long Beach Grand Prix will be seen on Sunday. And it is a points paying race for those teams that made the move to the IRL.

Let's see if Paul Tracy can put on a good performance to help land him a ride. Open wheel racing needs this guy. He's the boss applesauce.

Open Wheel Wednesday

I saw some early photos of the Sebring test for the newly ‘merged’ IRL teams, on Autoracing1.com; and I’m as “giddy as a school guhl”.

The photos just reinforce my beliefs of how aesthetically lacking the Dallara is. At least I can’t hear it…

Open Wheel Wednesday

I haven’t had the opportunity to see if there was any fender-less cars racing up until this point, but there is a big one this weekend.

The Formula 1 series kicks off its 2008 campaign from Melbourne, Australia on Saturday night, 11:00pm CST. It’s time to see if Lewis Hamilton is the real deal; he is a fabulous racer and now we’ll see if he can follow through with his #1 status at McLaren. Or will Kimi Raikkonen make it back to back championships at Ferrari. My big deal is to see if Renault has got what it takes to put Fernando Alonso back in the winners circle. He hasn’t been at the top of the chart in pre-season testing, so is the car off or are they sandbagging? It remains to be seen.

Regardless of what you think of F1, whether it is that they are all prima donna ride buyers, or there is too much whine with their cheese, this is high tech on the edge and I can’t wait to watch.

Open Wheel Wednesday

How does a guy in the middle of roundy-round country become a fanatical open wheel racing fan? Well, in my case it was the exposure I got growing up with a Dad that always turned on the Indy 500 every May. We're talking about the late 70's through the 80's. When it was a BIG deal; you know the names: Unser, Foyt, Rutherford, Andretti and a slew of others. But I can also remember watching the Long Beach Grand Prix when it was televised; or Laguna Seca and the famous corkscrew. But it all pales in comparison to actually being at an event.

Ironically, my first event happened to be the(gasp) 1995 Indy 500. Yes, you're right, the first post split 500. As a staunch CART and Champcar supporter it was a tough pill to swallow. You see, my Dad was widowed for several years and re-married a woman who still had family in Indianapolis. So the invitation was extended to travel to her family's and go with her brother on his season tickets to the 500. Part of their tradition was to pick two drivers out of the starting line-up as 'your picks' for the race. My first thought was, 'Who in the heck are these guys?' and shortly followed up with, 'Can we be back in time to watch the US 500?'. I think I picked Eliseo Salazar and Davey Jones(shows you how much I can remember of the field). The seats could not be any better. Here I was at my first race an I'm sitting about 40 yards shy of the start finish line at IMS. And looking to my right and to my left, into Turn 1 and Turn 4 respectively was breathtaking. And the mass of people; I have never seen so many in one place at one time.

But what really got me was the first few seconds after the famous words of "Gentlemen, start your engines". The subtle and somewhat sweet smell of burning methanol as it poured from the exhaust of the turbo v-8s of every car on the grid(yes, the first year post-split was run with CART chassis and engines). It sent goosebumps down my spine. And that feeling hits me every time I hear an engine warming up at the track or get a whiff of the methanol.

As history goes, Buddy Lazier, a journeyman racer, ended up winning and Eliseo Salazar wrecked coming out of Turn 4 on the last lap. Most of the names in that field would soon be forgotten.

I've since been to the track in Gateway, IL only to see Michael Andretti blow an engine(much to the delight of a majority of the crowd) as he pulled away from the field. Jaun Pablo Montoya won that one with Patrick Carpentier coming from a lap down, only to run out of race laps to catch him.

I've been to all but one of the recent run of Denver Grand Prixs. I've seen Paul Tracy punt Dario Franchitti when they ran for Kim & Barry Green. I've seen Paul Tracy lose his concentration and put his car in the wall while running away with the race. I've seen Sebastien Bourdais dominate and come through the field, carving it up like a surgeon.

I was at Texas Motor Speedway as CART pulled the plug on the morning of the race due to vertigo from high G's on the high banks.

I saw Gil de Ferran win in Houston while we snuck in a pit straight corporate booth because all we had were garage passes.

I was at the 1999 500 in Fontana, CA when Greg Moore lost his life. I miss that guy.

One summer I even went to Hallett Raceway, here in Oklahoma, because Marco Andretti was running in the Skip Barber Dodge Pro Series(he finished second).

I've seen a few IRL races; and now I'll probably be seeing more IRL races.

But that is how I became an open wheel fanatic.