Commentaries From The Paddock

[Julian Mayo]

with a compressed schedule like that, teams are going to suffer if the y have to do major rebuilds. Hope they have a lot of spare tubs, body parts etc.

[mlittle]

I hope so, too. I suspect, though, that this may help some of the smaller, under-funded teams(Vision, Dreyer & Reinbold, Red Bull/Cheever, etc.) save some needed money. It might also allow some of the top-end teams(Penske, Rahal) to run some ALMS or Rolex Sports Car events outside of the IRL schedule, such as the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Rolex 24 Hrs. of Daytona, or the Petit Le Mans @ Road Atlanta.

[mlittle]

Since this is an off-week for the IRL IndyCar Series, I thought I'd jump into a few topics that need clarification, explanations and a few slaps upside the heads of....well, just read along.

1}Scapegoat? The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to realize that former Target/Ganassi Racing driver Darren Manning's sudden firing by the team was nothing more than an effort to hid one simple fact...that the team is in a free fall, and isn't getting out of it easily. But why Manning? After all, he was the team's top performer, and he wasn't wrecking the car and driving too aggressively, like Dixon and Briscoe. But the IRL's loss might be ChampCar's benefit, for Manning was seen in San Jose talking to some teams, including Walker Racing/Team Australia, for whom he drove for in 2003 as a CCWS-rookie. Chalk this story in the silly season listings, 'cause Manning might get a ride later this year(from who & where is the ?).

2}Autograph-Gate. For those who aren't familiar w/this, here's what happened at Milwaukee a few wks. ago. In what had to be the most pathetic, unprofessional display in recent history, reminiscent of A.J. Foyt slapping Arie Luyendyk across the back of the head at Texas in June '97(ask me about that sometime!), Andretti-Green Racing pulled its' drivers out of IRL-mandated driver autograph session. Why? Because, in order to accomodate all the fans who wanted an autograph from series rookie and fan-favorite Danica Patrick, series officails corralled all those fans into one specific line while corralling everyone else into a line for the other lines. Now, thre are two reasons why their actions were unprofessional and pathetic. 1--Unless you've been adrift at sea for about 2 mths. or so, it should be clear who the fans are watching, both on TV and at the track, and 2--Apparently, the pullout came from co-owner Kevin Savoree, the team's "bean-counter". You know, he could've asked the other two co-owners, Kim Green and Michael Andretti, if it was a good idea. End result...this gives AGR a well-deserved black eye and allows the rest of the open-wheel paddock an excuse to laugh at 'em.

3}Fair officiating. For years, I've thought IRL race control was either blind, dumb, or both. This year, they've finally figured out that the best way to officiate was to make decisions quickly, w/out hesitation and towards everyone involved. Just look at all the black flags issued to slow-running cars at Indy this year. They're also enforcing the pit-road speed violations rule...just ask Tomas Scheckter about that one. He's been caught speeding three times this year, including at Michigan. They're also enforcing what's known as the "white-line" rule, which is this: if you attempt to make a pass during the race and you go under the white-line at the bottom of the racetrack, you'll either get a drive-through penalty or you must relinquish the spot taken. Just ask Sam Hornish, Jr. and Danica Patrick about that rule sometime. In Hornish's case, it cost him a shot to win the race; he finished 5th. However, Patrick's was a bit more serious. Here's what happened...as the cars began their restart on lap 129, Patrick, who was a lap behind leader Bryan Herta, made what looked like a banzai-pass below Herta, dropping below the white-line to complete the pass. The ensuing chaos behind her caused Herta to lose the lead briefly and made several cars check-up to avoid hitting him. Result....race control told her team to tell her to drop behind Herta, who was now 5th, or they would give her a drive-through penalty instead. Normally, I'd attribute a pass like that to rookie inattention, but Patrick's too good a driver to make such a banzai-type pass. Race control was right to call the pass illegal(one can only imagine what AGR would've said if they didn't call it).

[mlittle]

When the IndyCar Series travels to Infineon Raceway for the Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix later this month, one of the support events that weekend will feature a bit of racing history, as Rahal-Letterman Racing co-owner Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indy 500 winner and 3-time CART champion, will participate in the Moly Shield Oil Historic Grand Prix, which will feature over 2 dozen historic Formula 1 cars from the mid-1960's to the early 1980's. The event is an off-shoot of the legendary Monterey Historic Grand Prix, held at Laguna Seca, featuring not just classic F1 cars but classic sports car and vintage racers from racing's past.

For this event, Rahal will be piloting the Brabham BT-44 that F1 racer Carlos Reutimann drove to victory in the 1974 U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Besides the Brabham, five other classic F1 cars will be on the track as well:1}Sir Jackie Stewart's 71-72 Tyrrell, 2}James Hunt's 76' McLaren, 3}Niki Lauda's 1977 Ferrari, 4}Mario Andretti's 1978 Lotus, and 5}Alan Jones's 1980 Williams. If this race is anything like the Monterey races, this should be an interesting sidebar to the race weekend.

[Julian Mayo]

who is driving the other cars, Mfer?

[mlittle]

They haven't said, julian. Chances are it'll be the same ones who race em' at Monterey every August...which reminds me, unless they've got the date wrong, I do believe that the Historic Monterey races are later this month(the week before Infineon), and if they do like last year, Speed Channel will broadcast the Monterey races later this year.

[mlittle]

During the running of the Amber Alert Portal Indy 300 Sunday, both Dan Wheldon and Scott Sharp joined the 1,000-laps club, consisting of those drivers who have led over 1,000 laps in IRL competition. Here are the members of this club....

1}Sam Hornish, Jr. 2,443(#)
2}Tony Stewart 1,515
3}(tie)Helio Castroneves 1,513(#)
Tony Kanaan 1,513(#)
5}Tomas Scheckter 1,213(#)
6}Greg Ray 1,193
7}Dan Wheldon 1,049(#)
8}Scott Sharp 1,043(#)
9}Gil de Ferran 1,036
10}Buddy Lazier 1,027(#)

NOTE--(#) denotes current series driver

[mlittle]

In an earlier posting, on 22 July, I talked about a potential IRL schedule for 2006. Even though there hasn't been an official(meaning that this is pure conjecture ), here is my guess as to next year's schedule....

2 or 9 April--St. Petersburg(street circuit)
9 or 16 April--Homestead(long-oval)
30 April--Twin Ring Motegi, Japan(long-oval)
28 May--90th Indy 500(superspeedway)
4 June--Kansas(long-oval)
10 June--Texas(long-oval/nightrace)
17 June--Richmond(short-oval/nightrace)
25 June--Fontana(long-oval)
15 July--Nashville(short-oval/nightrace)
23 July--Milwaukee(short-oval)
30 July--Michigan(long-oval)
6 August--Kentucky(long-oval)
13 August--Pikes Peak(short-oval)
20 August--Infineon(road course)
27 August--Watkins Glen(road course)
10 or 17 Sept.--Chicagoland(long-oval)

[mlittle]

After 4 seemingly tortuous, ineffectual years with Cheever Racing, Red Bull/Cheever Racing might be no more at the end of 2005. Why?

Reason 1--How can you build an effective team when you're constantly rotating drivers in/out each year? Since 2002, these are the drivers who've worn the Red Bull colors:(2002-Eddie Cheever, Tomas Scheckter, Buddy Rice), (2003-split between Buddy Rice and Alex Barron), (2004-Ed Carpenter and Alex Barron), and (2005-Patrick Carpentier and Alex Barron). Let's see, that 6 drivers in 4 yrs. No wonder they sometimes refer to RBCR as "Team Psychotic"...you would be too if you drove for them. I feel sorry for Barron; he's been there the longest, and on occasion looks as though a little' bit too long.

Reason 2--How about the visit to ChampCar's Denver GP by Red Bull's Dr. Helmut Marko, ex-F1 racer and current senior Red Bull official. If what he said about Red Bull's plans in NA motorsports ring true, then expect at least two things from them, a sponsorship deal w/a CCWS team, or a NA version of their F1 driver search program. Another possibly is this...right now there looks to be too many young drivers in their F1 program for the current number of F1 seats. If they've got their "thinking caps" on, they might want to shunt some of them over to this side of the pond and get them either CCWS/IRL rides until those F1 seats open up.

Reason 3--Driver sponsorships. Right now, Red Bull has associate sponsorships in both ChampCar(w/RuSport's A.J. Allmendinger) and the IRL(w/Rahal-Letterman's Buddy Rice). Best case for them might be this...boost those associate sponsorships to primary ones, bring Rice's RLR teammate Danica Patrick onboard w/an associate sponsorship, and put the Red Bull colors on both Rice and "Flattop"(Allmendinger's) respective cars.

Reason 4--While there are two primary sponsors for the ChampCar World Series(The long name for ChampCar is...Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford), there right now isn't a primary sponsor lined up for the Atlantic Championship after Toyota bails. Could Red Bull step up and become a title sponsor?

All-in-all...somebody probably should start telling Mr. Cheever to find a new team sponsor, 'cause I doubt Red Bull will stay with them after 2005.

[Julian Mayo]

Add to that Scott Spped ia attempting to sever his ties with Red Bull as he believes there are too many rebull endorsed young drivers ahead of him in the Queue. He is reportedly trying to find another way into F1.

[mlittle]

That's correct, julian. My question to that would be....which team could he be headed to?

[Julian Mayo]

That's correct, julian. My question to that would be....which team could he be headed to?

as a test driver??....as a race driver....??? Mfer, my head hurts when I even start to think about seats next season...IE... Webber keeps saying " Renault..no way.." but he is owned by Flavio, and Fisi is gaawwwwn!
Sir Frank Says " I own Button... will $15mil change his mind...if it does...an Aussie is a part owner of Willsworth....will Danica partner Mark who stays at Willsworth because of KK on the engineering side.....but wait, ....looking down the road at 2007, 2008, will Sir Frank grab Legge for the obvious sponsorship dollars...English team, english female driver...sustainability of the team etc....and anybody who thinks this alliance tween Cosworth and Williams is a stopgap til 2007.......is possibly smarter than me....they are developing the whole package together....electronics, engine, chassis....for 1 year?????
......................................bang!whimper

[mlittle]

Now you know how silly season usually goes here in NA motorsports...its' sorta of a cross btwn. "Survival of the Fittest", "Musical Chairs", and "Last Man Standing". No one really knows what'll happen until the first race weekend of the year.

[Julian Mayo]

F1 Racing has a news item stating that Red Bull is going to announce the appointment of Scott Speed as official test driver for 06 as early as next week

[mlittle]

Now, I got the idea for this commentary from reading a Speedtv.com article on the recent round(s) of F1 testing at Monza this week, and it reminded me of the good ole' days of NA motorsports, when a team could test and test and...well, you get the idea. Ever since both CART(now ChampCar) and the IRL instituted "draconian" limits on testing a few years backs, it seems as though no one ever thought of that basic rule known as the "law of unintended consequences". Case in point....just look at the season that IRL series rookie Ryan Briscoe's had so far. The Target/Ganassi Racing driver(and former Toyota-F1 tester) has had five DNF's this year(plus a 6th at Milwaukee in a practice session) and seems to have hit every piece of SAFER-protected concrete from Pikes Peak to Indy, plus the tirewalls at St. Pete. Under the old rules, its' a sure bet that TGR would've had him at Phoenix(PIR) or at Orlando, doing hundreds of laps in order to gain oval proficiency prior to the season-opener at Homestead. But this is only one of the problems of the current limits on testing.

Another "unintended consequence" is the lengths some teams, especially in the IRL, will go to "skirt" the rules. Case in point....recently, Team Penske spent two days earlier this year at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Complex, getting their two drivers, Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish, Jr. , reacclimated with road-course racing. Now, under IRL regs, this kind of private testing is supposed to be illegal....if they had been using their IndyCars to test with. But, as with Ferrari's "tire boxes" earlier in the F1 season, they found a way to skirt the rules. They simply used 2001-spec Honda-Reynards to do their testing with. Ironically, they weren't the only team to do so, as a few weeks later, Rahal-Letterman Racing did the same thing, this time using 2003-spec Honda-Lolas for their test sessions.

The last "unintended consequence" of the current testing rules is almost self-fulfilling. Ask yourself this...say you're a ChampCar or IndyCar series team owner. You have a choice in front of you--you can either hire a rookie driver who may/may not make the usual "rookie" mistakes, or you can hire a veteran journeyman driver who, while they may just be as "green" as the rookie, won't make, in all likelihood, the same mistakes. The result....it's the reason that drivers like Thiago Medieros, Jeff Simmons, Jon Fogarty, Ryan Dalziel, Mike McDowell and Michael Valiente are still unable to secure rides in either ChampCar or the IRL. If the racing gods were fair(and when are they ever ), these guys would've had rides by now, even if those rides were w/backmarker teams like Hemelgarn, Vision, Dale Coyne or MiJack-Conquest.

So, what should they do? Well, they shouldn't just eliminate the limits. Do that, and its' a good bet that the mid-pack teams in both series(Panther, HVM, Rocketsports) would suffer immensely while the big-budget teams(Andretti-Green, Penske, Rahal-Letterman, Newman-Haas, Forsythe) would benefit by the same amount. Instead, here's a possible solution.
Each series already has a couple of designated testing periods, typically prior to the season openers' in each series. In addition, all rookie drivers in both series receive additional testing on top of the designated periods. The solution....give each team additional testing time during the season, equal to the number of races on the schedule for the year. In essence, the testing days become valuable currency, to spend as needed. Also, if the teams are going to do any testing, it should be in the racecars they'll actually race in, not older or non-series racecars.

Anyway, that's my say....what's yours? Remember, feel free to comment, just keep the comments clean, okay.