Jay Vee asked "Where is Jim Watt?"
I was [WAS] in the Maine woods with Robert Bly and friends. No Kidding. I go every year to the conference of the Great Mother and New Father led by the American poet, Robert Bly. It is always in the first week of June and always at a remote location. Some people bring their cell phones (which don't work very well usually) and some bring computers to check on their email.
I don't bring anything but mosquito repellent, beer, a sleeping bag and pen & pencil.
So I suspected that the race would be a good one.
My wife didn't tape the race because it wasn't on the usual [Speed] network. I think it was on Fox or something. So. If anyone knows how I can see the race or race highlights on line, I'd appreciate it!!
Congrats to Lewis (& Snowy, too, who must be now in heaven).
But, believe it or not, I rather like the developing Kimi Raikonnen story. It is hard to judge character when a person is winning. I always loved Michael more when he was struggling than when winning. So now I get to root for BOTH Kimi AND Fernando!
During Practices and Qualys this week, I'll be hanging around (wearing Ferrari gear, of course!) in the Indianapolis Infield on the slight rise where the cars come out of the little curves that follow Turn One and head into the switchbacks that slow them before they swing onto the South Short Chute into the Main Straight. That's where the cars sound and look the best. And where you can really compare driver's styles.
I don't know where I'll be for the race because I haven't bought me ticket yet. I'll probably do that on race morning. Here at Indy you can now usually pay less than face value for a ticket from a scalper an hour or so before the start.
A lot of potential fans were turned off by the Michelin fiasco of '05 and have never come back. Americans, to their credit or not, don't much care for elite types. The NASCAR people make sure their drivers are not only well known by the fans, but accessible to them as well. And everyone, from tyre-changer to team manager to officials and sanctioning agents, does all he can to insure a "good show" for the fans. NASCAR would NEVER have allowed a race to go forward in which three quarters of the teams withdrew. Any team withdrawing would have been withdrawing FOR GOOD. It hardly matters whose fault it was. What F1 showed that day was how little it cares for us fans. It's only because I love the heritage and I love the devotion of people like Frank Williams and (shudder, am I really saying this?!) Ron Dennis and Jean Todt and Fernando and Lewis and Kimi, that I continue to follow the sport. But each night I say a little prayer for someone to come and rescue F1. I even think I might know who that might be. Ah. But that's another post.
In fact, I expect Tony George will let the F1 race die at his venue. There may still be an American G.P., but it will be elsewhere. From Tony's point of view, it makes perfect sense: F1 costs him too much (Bernie is insatiable, as you well know); he has too little control over what happens, and he has two other races that are WAY bigger in terms of money and satisfied fans. Some friends have said he is courting the moto gp people. I think the Indy course would be way cool to watch the bikes on!
Anyway, for about the third or fourth time in my life, F1 is sputtering in the U.S. Indeed open wheel racing is only slowly coming back from the war between IRL and Champ Cars. Some times I almost wish it was like it was when I was a boy. A driver from my little town in So. Oregon, Bob Christie, got himself an offie (that's Offenhauser) and put it on a trailer and hauled the car out to Indy and qualified. I don't know how high he ever placed, but he wasn't the only little guy to race in the famous 500. Now, if you don't have millions of dollars and a consortium of sponsors...
Ah, but what has happened to open-wheel racing in the U.S. is ALMOST as strange as what has happened to it in Europe. Still, at least you'll always have Silverstone and Spa
Sorry this posting turned into the boring musings of some pathetic old geezer over in the corner of the pub, falling asleep over his third guiness and muttering to himself: "Jeez. I don't think I wanna know where my ranking is now. I must be way down in the Five Hundreds!"
Ah well, Cheers race fans
--and thanks for the inquiry Jay Vee.
Jim Watt
My Racing Gods: Fangio, Vukovich; Senna & Mears --all racers all the time; graceful winners & generous in defeat, but never giving up!!
That Fernando outbraked himself 
and then I go and spoil it all by saying I lo' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
