In a nutshell, and to make this brief:
Danica was criticized for being flash and flesh, appearance over substance, and someone who was bandied around as something/someone glorious because she was a woman challenging in what "is traditionally" (I'd go so far as to say is, period) a man's sport. Seriously, it is; take one look at the upper-body strength demanded of a Formula One racing driver, to name merely one series, and one can see that it is more difficult for females than males to succeed; anyone wanting to gainsay can take a course in human biology. In any case, she was accused of being Anna Kournikova for the sport.
UNTIL...she won that race at Motegi. No longer can she be knocked for not winning, as she was before. Except...
The new accusation is how she won.
Danica won at Motegi, as mentioned earlier in these writings, due to the strategy of her crew chief, Kyle Moyer (former crew chief of Marco Andretti, going back to his highly successful...read: winning at Sonoma in the same way...2006 days). She could stretch the fuel longer, and it was only because of that that she was able to defeat the Dixons and Kanaans and Wheldons of the bunch. In a real racing battle, head to head (Close Quarters Combat, as I militantly term it)...she can't win, is the new knock. All car capabilities being equal, in other words, she is not good enough to win...that is what is being said.
Now, the reality:
They are, and are not, correct, at the same time. Danica did win. Strategy, as has been said by very many, very often of late, is just as good a method of winning as utter domination of the field from start of the race to finish. In the end, working by whatever means allowed for the best possible finish is the name of the game; succeed...and you've succeeded.
What the critics are pointing out, to whatever degree of calmness, bitterness, or any other emotion in question, is that in aggressive situations, Danica has historically not performed as aggressively, or as well, as the male drivers around her. And in this, they are right: literally. In the concluding laps of the Texas Motor Speedway Indycar race, 2007, Sam Hornish, Jr. led, teammate Tony Kanaan was second, and Danica was third. Danica had actually caught up with the two other leaders...but then she stayed behind Kanaan, trying to "push him by," for the "team finish." On this point, it might be conceded that Kanaan just had a better car, and even that, in turn, wasn't enough to beat Hornish...one of the best battle-to-the-flag finishers in early 21st century motor racing...that day. Granted.
But at Michigan last year, after the massive Dario-flip crash that also succeeded in taking out half the field, she easily had a stronger car than her two higher-running teammates, Kanaan or Marco Andretti. She caught them, after losing half a second gap, three separate times: huge runs on them, ready and waiting to overtake into the lead...and each time, she pulled up on the outside, and let the momentum bleed off, to stay in single-file. Not putting it in the dangerous spot, not stepping out with the better car.
On this point, it might be conceded...might...that they all had team orders to wait for the last laps (inside five to go) to really fight it out. That Danica's tire went down before then, relegating her to finishing one lap back, makes the matter mostly academic. But in the end, the stinging accusation could, meanwhile, stand: she had had the best car left that day, with a certainty: running laps 2+ mph faster than the leaders, and closing up on them, is the proverbial "It." All the cards were on the table to take the lead, if not the win, long before the tire went down.
And she did not. Her first win was by strategy, not by "battle." And in this, I both criticize, and do not criticize, Danica: if this is the way that is best-suited for her to win, she and the Motorola Andretti-Green team should do everything within their power to create situations like it in the future. Her winning by fuel strategy DOES NOT, under any circumstances, detract from her victory; what would is everyone (she and her team included) not caring about the dynamics of the sport enough to realize how they need to think, if the process of winning is to be repeated.
Do not get me wrong: I don't dislike the fact that Danica has won a race: what I dislike is a lot of people throwing bargeloads of sexual (and often liberalized) politics into the Dreadful, Wonderful Sport that doesn't need any of that shit to be fascinating; people (like a certain asshole "journalist" who writes for a Kansas City newspaper) claiming that if Danica doesn't win, "[he's] not being entertained, and will abandon the sport that is so desperate for his viewership"; massively less focus on many very deserving, very talented (usually male) drivers, due to the fact that a female one of them is pretty universally regarded as attractive and a good cover spread. Those kinds of things, I truly hate. And if someone out there says that basically means I hate modern society and the way things just are, they'd be dead on.
All the more why I love The Talk of Gasoline Alley, and everything else right with the universe. Hurrah for the men of the cast-iron chariots.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Just cause someone set me off
"I can turn a car that's shaped like a cross between a taxi and a tank to the LEFT, with the help of a track that's shaped like A BOWL. I am the GREATEST DRIVER of ALL TIME!!!"
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The reality behind Danica's win
So, she "finally" did it, as she so eloquently put it. She finally got the monkey off her back, and a woman has won a race in the top tier. It has been accomplished.
And it was done, I would like to scream to high heaven, by brains.
I am not a Danica fan; I am not anti-Danica, either. If she can accomplish it, she can; if she can't, she can't. It may sound boring, but those are truly my beliefs: she is a racing driver, no more, no less.
Did I doubt Danica would ever win a race? Absolutely. Was I a critic? Hopefully in the constructive sense, but yes. Constructive, as opposed to un-, by pointed commentary about what both her strengths and weaknesses are, and how to go about capitalizing or minimizing them. Granted, I'm not a crew chief myself...but strategy is strategy.
Danica Patrick has never accomplished some mind-numbing, nerve-shattering move when the chips are down to win a race, in her career, as of the morning of the day the last CART race will be run, April 20, 2008. The Hornish moves in the final 2 laps of the 2006 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race have not been her forte, let alone the finish of the 1989 500. In head-to-head combat in this very race, she was not only not the fastest car, she wasn't the fifth fastest car. She was top ten, at best.
But that, gloriously, does not matter. What matters is that she and her crew chief played it smart. If you can't outrun them, outlast them; simple as that. When seeing an opportunity, adapt to it. That caution offered one, and they took it. And good on them: welcome to the world of Sun Tzu, where it does not go to the fastest or the strongest, but the best...based on what best means.
If this sounds all philosophical, it is: I love open-wheel motorsports because it allows philosophy in ways that Certain Other Forms of the Sport (COFS) haven't, since about February 25, 2001, one week after. Instead of people bitching that such and such was a "boring race run on fuel mileage," in open-wheel they ADMIRE such forethought. That it happened to be by the team of a woman who's been spread in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, useful gravy for marketing.
The reality behind Danica's win is that they won through what is her strength: her ability to hit the marks time after time, smooth as ice. The numbing outside-bomb runs like Michael Andretti and Rick Mears pulled off in 1991, not likely (yet, anyway). The pulverizing domination of Mario Andretti in 1987, likewise...especially not in such a hopefully-fading-in-favor-of-innovation era of clone cars. Repetition, smoothness, calm; that's Danica at her best. And they hit the fuel mark exactly, and it paid off.
Do I think Danica is destined to garner a bunch of wins throughout her career? No, actually. I think the competition at the highest levels is only going to intensify, and I think it microscopically telling that the race she wins is the last divided race, between two fields. Put an oval-experienced Justin Wilson, Will Power, Graham Rahal or Oriol Servia in there with the Castroneveses, Kanaans, Dixons and Wheldons (and Andretti's, as soon as Marco reestablishes the form that saw him take second at Homestead)? I think the sheer weight of it makes the demand that either Danica raise her game (which was not raised with this win, btw)...or never win again. In this brave new world, I think wins, not just for Danica but for anyone, are going to become a lot more rare, precious, and if one entry continually wins time after time, it'll be because of the car side of the 50/50 equation. Like F1, in other words.
But this one time, they did it right: they played to her strength, downplayed her weakness. And she succeeded...which is a boon to anyone who has gotten tired of hearing about the drama of when she'll ever win, and would like everyone to be treated as what they are: competitors.
On to Long Beach, and the final end to the bloody Split. Here's to "...a better world, with better people living in it."
Hurrah for the men of the cast-iron chariots.
And it was done, I would like to scream to high heaven, by brains.
I am not a Danica fan; I am not anti-Danica, either. If she can accomplish it, she can; if she can't, she can't. It may sound boring, but those are truly my beliefs: she is a racing driver, no more, no less.
Did I doubt Danica would ever win a race? Absolutely. Was I a critic? Hopefully in the constructive sense, but yes. Constructive, as opposed to un-, by pointed commentary about what both her strengths and weaknesses are, and how to go about capitalizing or minimizing them. Granted, I'm not a crew chief myself...but strategy is strategy.
Danica Patrick has never accomplished some mind-numbing, nerve-shattering move when the chips are down to win a race, in her career, as of the morning of the day the last CART race will be run, April 20, 2008. The Hornish moves in the final 2 laps of the 2006 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race have not been her forte, let alone the finish of the 1989 500. In head-to-head combat in this very race, she was not only not the fastest car, she wasn't the fifth fastest car. She was top ten, at best.
But that, gloriously, does not matter. What matters is that she and her crew chief played it smart. If you can't outrun them, outlast them; simple as that. When seeing an opportunity, adapt to it. That caution offered one, and they took it. And good on them: welcome to the world of Sun Tzu, where it does not go to the fastest or the strongest, but the best...based on what best means.
If this sounds all philosophical, it is: I love open-wheel motorsports because it allows philosophy in ways that Certain Other Forms of the Sport (COFS) haven't, since about February 25, 2001, one week after. Instead of people bitching that such and such was a "boring race run on fuel mileage," in open-wheel they ADMIRE such forethought. That it happened to be by the team of a woman who's been spread in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, useful gravy for marketing.
The reality behind Danica's win is that they won through what is her strength: her ability to hit the marks time after time, smooth as ice. The numbing outside-bomb runs like Michael Andretti and Rick Mears pulled off in 1991, not likely (yet, anyway). The pulverizing domination of Mario Andretti in 1987, likewise...especially not in such a hopefully-fading-in-favor-of-innovation era of clone cars. Repetition, smoothness, calm; that's Danica at her best. And they hit the fuel mark exactly, and it paid off.
Do I think Danica is destined to garner a bunch of wins throughout her career? No, actually. I think the competition at the highest levels is only going to intensify, and I think it microscopically telling that the race she wins is the last divided race, between two fields. Put an oval-experienced Justin Wilson, Will Power, Graham Rahal or Oriol Servia in there with the Castroneveses, Kanaans, Dixons and Wheldons (and Andretti's, as soon as Marco reestablishes the form that saw him take second at Homestead)? I think the sheer weight of it makes the demand that either Danica raise her game (which was not raised with this win, btw)...or never win again. In this brave new world, I think wins, not just for Danica but for anyone, are going to become a lot more rare, precious, and if one entry continually wins time after time, it'll be because of the car side of the 50/50 equation. Like F1, in other words.
But this one time, they did it right: they played to her strength, downplayed her weakness. And she succeeded...which is a boon to anyone who has gotten tired of hearing about the drama of when she'll ever win, and would like everyone to be treated as what they are: competitors.
On to Long Beach, and the final end to the bloody Split. Here's to "...a better world, with better people living in it."
Hurrah for the men of the cast-iron chariots.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Memphis, Kansas, and auto racing
In the aftermath of what http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=3332081&sportCat=ncb describes as a NCAA Men's Final Four in need of saving this Monday night, I thought long and hard about what it is that might really need saving in the 21st century sports world that we inhabit. Fast breaks, legendary deep passes, impossible points and veritable gamut of explosions aside...for all the entertainment qualities that sports can provide, I had to ask myself, while reading that article, one very simple question.
So?
There are two definitions of the word Sport in modern American English. People believe in one or the other, but never both; if they give you lip service to the contrary, it means they're either lying to you, believe in the first of the two I will name (most likely this one), or simply don't understand the vital differences between the two. Either way, there are two.
1) Sport: action undertaken for fun and leisure.
2) Sport: rule-regulated competition.
Simple as that. It cannot be both.
Sports cars provide a good lense through which to view this. The commercials attempting to sell sports car can and will advertise the former, always. Taking a high-octane, never-mind-the-fuel-mileage machine out to turn fast speeds in the wild plains or wilderness of the Great American West or, now, the concrete jungle highways of one of the Gigantic Supercities...living a life free of responsibility, free of worry...all of that makes it into sports car commercials. It sells.
On the other hand, sports cars are raced, as well. The "prototype" inventions of such teams as Audi, in the American Le Mans Series, provide a suitably exotic appearance to catch the eye of even the most jaded viewers. With just how ALIEN some of those machines look, while still being SPORTS cars, it places the definition of the term Sport securely in the latter of those two above. They are built the way they are to win: sport...rule-regulated competition.
I myself believe, to a religious degree, in the latter. People who want to play fast and loose with rules, who want to just make shit up as they go, will find not only no sympathy from me, they will find only derision. Or, better said, if two men named Mr. Barnum & Mr. Bailey believed in just doing whatever is necessary to attract the crowds to sell those tickets and make some money...the same mindset used so often in the ancient Roman Colosseum, al la Bread & Circuses...then here's wishing I could've been there to personally assassinate either of them, and by all means, Bring On The Barbarians.
Sport should be governed by rules. Changing rules to suit need for entertainment is only valid (not to say it doesn't happen, mind you) when it means making a better GAME: a better competition. Doing it in order to sell more seats is the path to the madness of relativism...and to all you people out there who have EVER seen or competed in a baseball game in your life, I'll put it this way: imagine a world where all stats have become meaningless.
That's the future of a world where everyone pines for the next exciting thing, and who gives a damn about the rules in the process. That's the NASCAR future, among other things: a future of emptiness. I for one don't want that future. I for one don't want to tell others "meh, it's just my thing that I like." I'd prefer to say "Here's why it matters. Here's why Ted Williams was one of the most astounding hitters in the history of major league. Here's why the legends of Bill Vukovich and Frank Lockhart are so incredible. Here's meaning."
The Memphis Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks played better, in their blowouts of UCLA and North Carolina, respectively. They will face each other for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 2008 Division I-A Men's Basketball Championship Monday night. I do not care who wins, as regards this post. The fact that by the rules of the game, they played accurately, aggressively, and good enough to both blow away their opponents is the point: as it should be in automobile racing. Both are sports; may the best participant, be they the best by outright talent (driver skill or technology, in racing) or by strategic moves, win. Period. If either Memphis or Kansas destroy the other in the Monday night game, the moral is this: one team was that much better, this year. Next year will be different, either a little or a lot. Just like in racing.
Let the fools have nonstop excitement. I'll take real, with a dash of meaning, thank you.
So?
There are two definitions of the word Sport in modern American English. People believe in one or the other, but never both; if they give you lip service to the contrary, it means they're either lying to you, believe in the first of the two I will name (most likely this one), or simply don't understand the vital differences between the two. Either way, there are two.
1) Sport: action undertaken for fun and leisure.
2) Sport: rule-regulated competition.
Simple as that. It cannot be both.
Sports cars provide a good lense through which to view this. The commercials attempting to sell sports car can and will advertise the former, always. Taking a high-octane, never-mind-the-fuel-mileage machine out to turn fast speeds in the wild plains or wilderness of the Great American West or, now, the concrete jungle highways of one of the Gigantic Supercities...living a life free of responsibility, free of worry...all of that makes it into sports car commercials. It sells.
On the other hand, sports cars are raced, as well. The "prototype" inventions of such teams as Audi, in the American Le Mans Series, provide a suitably exotic appearance to catch the eye of even the most jaded viewers. With just how ALIEN some of those machines look, while still being SPORTS cars, it places the definition of the term Sport securely in the latter of those two above. They are built the way they are to win: sport...rule-regulated competition.
I myself believe, to a religious degree, in the latter. People who want to play fast and loose with rules, who want to just make shit up as they go, will find not only no sympathy from me, they will find only derision. Or, better said, if two men named Mr. Barnum & Mr. Bailey believed in just doing whatever is necessary to attract the crowds to sell those tickets and make some money...the same mindset used so often in the ancient Roman Colosseum, al la Bread & Circuses...then here's wishing I could've been there to personally assassinate either of them, and by all means, Bring On The Barbarians.
Sport should be governed by rules. Changing rules to suit need for entertainment is only valid (not to say it doesn't happen, mind you) when it means making a better GAME: a better competition. Doing it in order to sell more seats is the path to the madness of relativism...and to all you people out there who have EVER seen or competed in a baseball game in your life, I'll put it this way: imagine a world where all stats have become meaningless.
That's the future of a world where everyone pines for the next exciting thing, and who gives a damn about the rules in the process. That's the NASCAR future, among other things: a future of emptiness. I for one don't want that future. I for one don't want to tell others "meh, it's just my thing that I like." I'd prefer to say "Here's why it matters. Here's why Ted Williams was one of the most astounding hitters in the history of major league. Here's why the legends of Bill Vukovich and Frank Lockhart are so incredible. Here's meaning."
The Memphis Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks played better, in their blowouts of UCLA and North Carolina, respectively. They will face each other for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 2008 Division I-A Men's Basketball Championship Monday night. I do not care who wins, as regards this post. The fact that by the rules of the game, they played accurately, aggressively, and good enough to both blow away their opponents is the point: as it should be in automobile racing. Both are sports; may the best participant, be they the best by outright talent (driver skill or technology, in racing) or by strategic moves, win. Period. If either Memphis or Kansas destroy the other in the Monday night game, the moral is this: one team was that much better, this year. Next year will be different, either a little or a lot. Just like in racing.
Let the fools have nonstop excitement. I'll take real, with a dash of meaning, thank you.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Homestead-Miami, 2008
I don't listen to the ESPN broadcasts of American open-wheel racing much. The images, love 'em. The talking heads? They try to make the broadcast a non-stop barrage of infotainment: first emphasis, on the unification, is not about explaining the matter to potential new fans...as to why it occurred, who did what, who believed what, who said what, and who behaved how (granted, that could take 30 minutes, but that would be a pre-race show actually worth a crap for once...we could call it, "What Has Gone Before")...but rather the simplistic reality of the drivers from both series now UNIFIED, and TAKING the GREEN, TOGETHER!
Second emphasis, anyone can call it before they see it. DANICA...and Helio first, technically. The Hot Racing Cover-Chick (both a legitimate May-June 2005 Sports Illustrated issue, lest anyone forget, as well as the recent swimsuit) and the Dancing Master...pop-culture references first, automobile racing prowess second; or third; or something. Sometimes you wonder if ESPN even knows what non-WWE automobile racing is. Or cares.
So, I don't listen to ESPN much at all...the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network is the way to go. Granted, I live in Indy, so 1070 WFNI (still weird to say that) automatically allows me to hear it, but even if it didn't, looking it up online at http://www.indycar.com/ is well worth it: they're just a more interesting call of the race. Not as good as they used to be...before they all got drunk on the call of the 1982 500 and tried to make every steady five car-length lead inside the last 20 laps of a race sound like Emmo vs. Al touching wheels in '89...but still better than the all-too-often Danicafanicamanicadivadepressiva stints we tend to get elsewhere. Sid Collins, where art thou...
Leading into this race, things are SET as they have never been before, in modern (post-civil war) IndyCar. Of course, this is the first race when there hasn't been an American open-wheel civil war, so it stands to reason.
THE WAR IS OVER!!! I remember a month ago, when I first heard this. My reaction was pretty boring, all told, compared to some: I calmly got up, walked over to my CD collection, and played the Hallelujah Chorus for three full sets, pumping fists in the air and rejoicing like a total nut; at 3:30 in the morning. Since then, I have calmed my reaction by some 75%, but it's still...and will always remain...a heady feeling. Question is whether this turns out to be the end of World War II...or World War I. Knowing our luck...
The opening information of interest was the disqualification, to the back of the field, of the Vision Racing cars of Ed Carpenter (#20) and A.J. Foyt IV (#2), for failing tech-inspection after qualifying, somewhat shockingly, in the second and third positions. I was personally curious (like many) as to what exactly it was...and radio mentioned improper wing-settings. How you can have improper wing-settings on a high-banked oval is beyond me, but there you go.
Going into this race, EVERYONE was talking about the theoretical danger posed to the veteren drivers by the (FORMER!) ChampCar drivers, some of whom probably have never even set foot on the grounds of an oval course, much less driven one. Would they begin spinning and crashing left and right, creating mayhem and Damn Good Television? Qualifications seemed to beg the question even more, with Graham Rahal crashing out in practice...and there not being enough friggin' spare parts around to repair it in time, for the love of God...but then, Dan Wheldon, the winner of the last three races in a row, crashed in quals. Rookie; veteren. In the end, who was to know which way it would be?
I love this sport. I LOVE it. Every moment, every second...despite all the idiotic, NFL- and NBA-worshipping television media I/we have to put up with so often, the counterpunch is worth it, that you can't REALLY script it. Even NASCAR's blatant cheating-to-excite-it-up is done with the constant background danger of it all blowing up in those scripters' faces with one bad twist of a wheel, one spare part loose on the track causing a tire to explode. NAS uses that reality, mind you, to call caution periods for very often non-existent debris on the course...in order to Enhance Everyone's Safety by shoving all the cars close together after they've gotten strung out...but still, the idea of single a moment of CHAOS changing EVERYTHING (translate: usually, the lead car of the race) is a draw I will never tire of. Get a big enough lead in football, and it is insurmountable; get a full lap on the field in motorsport (not to be confused with NASCAR, which has literally outlawed that happening again before the next ice age), and you might become a byword, at least for a week, for frickin' rotten luck.
Anyway: everyone's supposedly afraid of ChampCar Chaos. Not; afraid of chaos REIGNING, sure. No chaos at all means little screen time on the sports news infotainment segments.
Coming up to the green flag, I was impressed with one thing, immediately...and ironically: they called it off. The field was straggled and rather pathetic in the back rows, and they actually CALLED A START OFF. Holy ****. Is this the impact of Tony Cotman, already? If so, they need to put him in charge of the start at Indianapolis; in ten years, we've only had one start that was legitimately worth a crap, and not half-single-file down the line. In recent years, Mr. Brian Barnhart, Cotman's direct superior as president of competition (aka "Dumbass", according to my brother) has stressed the need for Safety At The Start, year after year; to this I reply, "Make 7-...Up Yours." If they can't handle that first turn without crashing, either put ground effect tech back in the chassis so they can control it on the high side...or let 'em crash. INDY---three; friggin'; wide.
The second start was decent. Scott Dixon (#9), who started on pole position, took the lead, and looked very strong from the get. Danica (#7), of aforementioned modeling fame, and slotted up to second on the grid with the rearing of the Vision cars, began dropping back immediately. Go figure. Tony Kanaan (#11) roared like gangbusters after Dixon in roughly two seconds, and we had a race on our hands at the front...
...and at the rear, soon midpack, as Wheldon (#10) started kicking ass, and ripped 8 spots on the field in five, five more laps and he's a top ten. This, after car owner Chip Ganassi told him to take it easy in those opening laps. At that pace, I'd hate, and love, to see him in a bar fight drunk.
The ChampCar Chaos never materialized. If a car was so bad they couldn't work with it, several of them (notably Bruno Junqueira, one of the guys who was not classified as an IRL rookie), they parked it; like...a sportsman would. Most of the other ones, running at comparatively slow pace, kept their lines and didn't block throughout the night. Granted, they weren't fighting for anything, so no real reason to block, but...holy ****...we may have excellent drivers coming in, here.
The dominant drivers of previous years move to the front quickly. Kanaan closes on Dixon pretty quick, and moves to the lead, but loses it again through the first round of pitstops. The Players are Dixon (Ganassi), Kanaan (Andretti-Green Racing/AGR), Castroneves (#3; Team Penske), Marco Andretti (#26; son of Michael, son of Mario; AGR), Wheldon (Ganassi), Ryan Briscoe (#6; just in from the America Le Mans Series, as replacement for some other guy; Penske), Danica (AGR). Seeing a pattern? Others fill out the top ten...Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17; Rahal-Letterman Racing), A.J. Foyt IV (Vision), and Vitor Meira (#4; Panther Racing) at lap 50...but those are also-runners, with the exception of maybe Rahal, via Hunter-Reay, getting the old days back soon. The Big Three Teams are UBER-dominant, and will remain so throughout the night.
On Lap 74 we had the most exciting move of the new season, as Dixon became so loose as to fully fishtail the backend, and Marco Andretti, coming up outside, came within about...oh, his hair...of scraping/SLAMMING the wall, to avoid, even while working to make the pass. He succeeded. Had he not, everyone would've been wondering about just how strong Marco truly was, given how he checked out on the field for the next half of the race, 1/4 to about 3/4 of the way through.
The running order was Andretti and Dixon at the front for a long while, Marco slowly building a comfortable lead, Dixon losing ground...until a yellow came out on lap 127, bunching the field, after Wheldon had brought it all the way up to second, passing his teammate, and slowly closing on Andretti. The yellow made it so that if Marco was going to win, he was going to have to outrun them, head-to-head and close.
He did. For awhile.
Clearing the pack quickly, it took Wheldon, Dixon and suddenly Kanaan as well, one or two laps to clear the backmarker lap cars between; then it was an inch-by-inch show, as the three began reeling in each one in front of them. Wheldon on Andretti, Dixon on Wheldon, Kanaan on Dixon. Kanaan was thus the fastest, and inside twenty laps of the restart, he ripped by each in turn, finally using a pick-move, via lap car Mario Morales, to get AGR teammate Marco. With 40 to go, it started looking better and better for Kanaan, who stretched it out to about 3 seconds. Past the final pitstops, it STILL looked great for Kanaan, for, despite losing ground to Dixon who had improved his car in the stop and moved back past Wheldon and then Andretti, seemed to have enough of a gap on him in the eight remaining laps to grind it home.
And then everything went to hell. Closing up fast (he couldn't not do so) on Ernesto Viso (#33; HVM Racing), Kanaan was suddenly hit in the right-front tire, knocking it loose, by Viso's equally-suddenly spinning car. Kanaan ALMOST SAVED IT...but no. Just a tap, and that was all it took.
On the subsequent yellow, leading down to the final restart with four to go, Kanaan stayed out; whether or not he shouldn't been allowed to take the green flag as leader, a controversial subject; as someone who's seen enough open-wheel racing, I could've guaranteed then (and can now) that he couldn't run with Dixon; just can't be done, on three good wheels and one bad. Should it be a black flag, forcing him to come in?
American open-wheel fans have very bad memories of the conclusion of the 1995 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, where leader Scott Goodyear was black flagged for passing the pace car before it came into the pits on the final restart. Problem with this was, for anyone with the eyes and brains to see it, that the pace car driver himself was at fault, and Goodyear was getting a normal run at the start of the north short chute, not somewhere down the line, at the top of the mainstretch off of turn four, like a NASCAR restart. The driver, and perhaps race control, was trying to force the 500 field to restart like a NASCAR start; and it went to hell, then. They penalized Goodyear, took away his then strongly-leading position, and gave it to Jacques Villeneuve, who had previously been the victim of an equally idiotically-PERMITTED infraction, involving the pace car (had to be a frelling D/CK in the Pace, that year) waving him by twice, then getting penalized for obeying the wave-by, and not slowing up behind the car which he had been told to go past.
I.e., rip off a guy by stupid antics, and give it to a guy who got ripped off earlier from his rightful lead. Dishwater aftertaste, anyone??
So. No one wants to black flag the leader near the end of a race. NO ONE: God Himself might have mentioned it somewhere as being extremely bad form. The closest they've come without creating huge controversy is a ChampCar race a few years ago where they told the leader to let second place go by into the lead, as penalty for blatantly blocking him. No black flag, in other words; ignore the command to let the car behind take the lead, and then the black would've rightfully come.
So, all the way back to the point, do you show it to Kanaan?
I say no. Simple and straightforward, I say the fact that you cannot know how bad the damage is on Kanaan's car, and whether he can still keep race pace, even though the odds are 99.5% in favor of the field blowing by him, means you can't flag him as hazard. The moment they do a single lap and Kanaan's 100 mph off the pace, then you can; not before. Them's the breaks for the field, AND the leader.
They didn't flag him; he didn't pull in. He also didn't keep in the pack, bombing down through it on the mainstretch restart. Fate...but the right choice here. Keep high while he's low and things will remain fine. Kanaan pulled in with three to go, one full lap around. Dixon had it, and Marco was his only challenger...
But not enough time. Despite gaining a few car lengths, the cars are too evenly matched. Dixon wins, Marco second, Wheldon third...for the podium that they have started setting up after races, at every place but Indy and Texas (Texas owner says he's sticking to the AMERICAN concept of Victory Lane...which harkens back to the old days when the winner mattered, and podiums wouldn't be thought of for motorsport until the late 1960s, in F1; damn straight). The top five is the Dancing Master, last car on the lead lap, fourth, Ed Carpenter, for Vision, one back in fifth. Danica and Hunter-Reay one back, Kanaan and Foyt IV two back, and Meira three, for top ten. Past that, and you can look it up on Wikiproject:American Open-Wheel Racing on Wikipedia.
All in all: I thought it was great. Only four cars on the lead lap is something several people are complaining about: I say if you've got it, show it. If you don't, get better or leave. This shouldn't be damn NASCAR, as you the reader well-know by now. Once upon a time, back in the 1920s...the leader could sometimes win by four laps (rookie George Souders, 1927 at Indianapolis). This is racing. This is open-wheel.
Things to watch for next race: the ChampCar boys. If they were this decent their first time out with practically no car to work with...the Danica fans are going to get antsy as soon as they watch the F(Former)CCers roar forward, to dice it up on the lead with the best of the IC boys. If this sounds slightly sexist, it is, in the sense that Danica is a woman...and I'll write up something scientific about this in a future post. Until then, what readers may be out there...
Hurrah for the men of the cast-iron chariots.
Second emphasis, anyone can call it before they see it. DANICA...and Helio first, technically. The Hot Racing Cover-Chick (both a legitimate May-June 2005 Sports Illustrated issue, lest anyone forget, as well as the recent swimsuit) and the Dancing Master...pop-culture references first, automobile racing prowess second; or third; or something. Sometimes you wonder if ESPN even knows what non-WWE automobile racing is. Or cares.
So, I don't listen to ESPN much at all...the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network is the way to go. Granted, I live in Indy, so 1070 WFNI (still weird to say that) automatically allows me to hear it, but even if it didn't, looking it up online at http://www.indycar.com/ is well worth it: they're just a more interesting call of the race. Not as good as they used to be...before they all got drunk on the call of the 1982 500 and tried to make every steady five car-length lead inside the last 20 laps of a race sound like Emmo vs. Al touching wheels in '89...but still better than the all-too-often Danicafanicamanicadivadepressiva stints we tend to get elsewhere. Sid Collins, where art thou...
Leading into this race, things are SET as they have never been before, in modern (post-civil war) IndyCar. Of course, this is the first race when there hasn't been an American open-wheel civil war, so it stands to reason.
THE WAR IS OVER!!! I remember a month ago, when I first heard this. My reaction was pretty boring, all told, compared to some: I calmly got up, walked over to my CD collection, and played the Hallelujah Chorus for three full sets, pumping fists in the air and rejoicing like a total nut; at 3:30 in the morning. Since then, I have calmed my reaction by some 75%, but it's still...and will always remain...a heady feeling. Question is whether this turns out to be the end of World War II...or World War I. Knowing our luck...
The opening information of interest was the disqualification, to the back of the field, of the Vision Racing cars of Ed Carpenter (#20) and A.J. Foyt IV (#2), for failing tech-inspection after qualifying, somewhat shockingly, in the second and third positions. I was personally curious (like many) as to what exactly it was...and radio mentioned improper wing-settings. How you can have improper wing-settings on a high-banked oval is beyond me, but there you go.
Going into this race, EVERYONE was talking about the theoretical danger posed to the veteren drivers by the (FORMER!) ChampCar drivers, some of whom probably have never even set foot on the grounds of an oval course, much less driven one. Would they begin spinning and crashing left and right, creating mayhem and Damn Good Television? Qualifications seemed to beg the question even more, with Graham Rahal crashing out in practice...and there not being enough friggin' spare parts around to repair it in time, for the love of God...but then, Dan Wheldon, the winner of the last three races in a row, crashed in quals. Rookie; veteren. In the end, who was to know which way it would be?
I love this sport. I LOVE it. Every moment, every second...despite all the idiotic, NFL- and NBA-worshipping television media I/we have to put up with so often, the counterpunch is worth it, that you can't REALLY script it. Even NASCAR's blatant cheating-to-excite-it-up is done with the constant background danger of it all blowing up in those scripters' faces with one bad twist of a wheel, one spare part loose on the track causing a tire to explode. NAS uses that reality, mind you, to call caution periods for very often non-existent debris on the course...in order to Enhance Everyone's Safety by shoving all the cars close together after they've gotten strung out...but still, the idea of single a moment of CHAOS changing EVERYTHING (translate: usually, the lead car of the race) is a draw I will never tire of. Get a big enough lead in football, and it is insurmountable; get a full lap on the field in motorsport (not to be confused with NASCAR, which has literally outlawed that happening again before the next ice age), and you might become a byword, at least for a week, for frickin' rotten luck.
Anyway: everyone's supposedly afraid of ChampCar Chaos. Not; afraid of chaos REIGNING, sure. No chaos at all means little screen time on the sports news infotainment segments.
Coming up to the green flag, I was impressed with one thing, immediately...and ironically: they called it off. The field was straggled and rather pathetic in the back rows, and they actually CALLED A START OFF. Holy ****. Is this the impact of Tony Cotman, already? If so, they need to put him in charge of the start at Indianapolis; in ten years, we've only had one start that was legitimately worth a crap, and not half-single-file down the line. In recent years, Mr. Brian Barnhart, Cotman's direct superior as president of competition (aka "Dumbass", according to my brother) has stressed the need for Safety At The Start, year after year; to this I reply, "Make 7-...Up Yours." If they can't handle that first turn without crashing, either put ground effect tech back in the chassis so they can control it on the high side...or let 'em crash. INDY---three; friggin'; wide.
The second start was decent. Scott Dixon (#9), who started on pole position, took the lead, and looked very strong from the get. Danica (#7), of aforementioned modeling fame, and slotted up to second on the grid with the rearing of the Vision cars, began dropping back immediately. Go figure. Tony Kanaan (#11) roared like gangbusters after Dixon in roughly two seconds, and we had a race on our hands at the front...
...and at the rear, soon midpack, as Wheldon (#10) started kicking ass, and ripped 8 spots on the field in five, five more laps and he's a top ten. This, after car owner Chip Ganassi told him to take it easy in those opening laps. At that pace, I'd hate, and love, to see him in a bar fight drunk.
The ChampCar Chaos never materialized. If a car was so bad they couldn't work with it, several of them (notably Bruno Junqueira, one of the guys who was not classified as an IRL rookie), they parked it; like...a sportsman would. Most of the other ones, running at comparatively slow pace, kept their lines and didn't block throughout the night. Granted, they weren't fighting for anything, so no real reason to block, but...holy ****...we may have excellent drivers coming in, here.
The dominant drivers of previous years move to the front quickly. Kanaan closes on Dixon pretty quick, and moves to the lead, but loses it again through the first round of pitstops. The Players are Dixon (Ganassi), Kanaan (Andretti-Green Racing/AGR), Castroneves (#3; Team Penske), Marco Andretti (#26; son of Michael, son of Mario; AGR), Wheldon (Ganassi), Ryan Briscoe (#6; just in from the America Le Mans Series, as replacement for some other guy; Penske), Danica (AGR). Seeing a pattern? Others fill out the top ten...Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17; Rahal-Letterman Racing), A.J. Foyt IV (Vision), and Vitor Meira (#4; Panther Racing) at lap 50...but those are also-runners, with the exception of maybe Rahal, via Hunter-Reay, getting the old days back soon. The Big Three Teams are UBER-dominant, and will remain so throughout the night.
On Lap 74 we had the most exciting move of the new season, as Dixon became so loose as to fully fishtail the backend, and Marco Andretti, coming up outside, came within about...oh, his hair...of scraping/SLAMMING the wall, to avoid, even while working to make the pass. He succeeded. Had he not, everyone would've been wondering about just how strong Marco truly was, given how he checked out on the field for the next half of the race, 1/4 to about 3/4 of the way through.
The running order was Andretti and Dixon at the front for a long while, Marco slowly building a comfortable lead, Dixon losing ground...until a yellow came out on lap 127, bunching the field, after Wheldon had brought it all the way up to second, passing his teammate, and slowly closing on Andretti. The yellow made it so that if Marco was going to win, he was going to have to outrun them, head-to-head and close.
He did. For awhile.
Clearing the pack quickly, it took Wheldon, Dixon and suddenly Kanaan as well, one or two laps to clear the backmarker lap cars between; then it was an inch-by-inch show, as the three began reeling in each one in front of them. Wheldon on Andretti, Dixon on Wheldon, Kanaan on Dixon. Kanaan was thus the fastest, and inside twenty laps of the restart, he ripped by each in turn, finally using a pick-move, via lap car Mario Morales, to get AGR teammate Marco. With 40 to go, it started looking better and better for Kanaan, who stretched it out to about 3 seconds. Past the final pitstops, it STILL looked great for Kanaan, for, despite losing ground to Dixon who had improved his car in the stop and moved back past Wheldon and then Andretti, seemed to have enough of a gap on him in the eight remaining laps to grind it home.
And then everything went to hell. Closing up fast (he couldn't not do so) on Ernesto Viso (#33; HVM Racing), Kanaan was suddenly hit in the right-front tire, knocking it loose, by Viso's equally-suddenly spinning car. Kanaan ALMOST SAVED IT...but no. Just a tap, and that was all it took.
On the subsequent yellow, leading down to the final restart with four to go, Kanaan stayed out; whether or not he shouldn't been allowed to take the green flag as leader, a controversial subject; as someone who's seen enough open-wheel racing, I could've guaranteed then (and can now) that he couldn't run with Dixon; just can't be done, on three good wheels and one bad. Should it be a black flag, forcing him to come in?
American open-wheel fans have very bad memories of the conclusion of the 1995 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, where leader Scott Goodyear was black flagged for passing the pace car before it came into the pits on the final restart. Problem with this was, for anyone with the eyes and brains to see it, that the pace car driver himself was at fault, and Goodyear was getting a normal run at the start of the north short chute, not somewhere down the line, at the top of the mainstretch off of turn four, like a NASCAR restart. The driver, and perhaps race control, was trying to force the 500 field to restart like a NASCAR start; and it went to hell, then. They penalized Goodyear, took away his then strongly-leading position, and gave it to Jacques Villeneuve, who had previously been the victim of an equally idiotically-PERMITTED infraction, involving the pace car (had to be a frelling D/CK in the Pace, that year) waving him by twice, then getting penalized for obeying the wave-by, and not slowing up behind the car which he had been told to go past.
I.e., rip off a guy by stupid antics, and give it to a guy who got ripped off earlier from his rightful lead. Dishwater aftertaste, anyone??
So. No one wants to black flag the leader near the end of a race. NO ONE: God Himself might have mentioned it somewhere as being extremely bad form. The closest they've come without creating huge controversy is a ChampCar race a few years ago where they told the leader to let second place go by into the lead, as penalty for blatantly blocking him. No black flag, in other words; ignore the command to let the car behind take the lead, and then the black would've rightfully come.
So, all the way back to the point, do you show it to Kanaan?
I say no. Simple and straightforward, I say the fact that you cannot know how bad the damage is on Kanaan's car, and whether he can still keep race pace, even though the odds are 99.5% in favor of the field blowing by him, means you can't flag him as hazard. The moment they do a single lap and Kanaan's 100 mph off the pace, then you can; not before. Them's the breaks for the field, AND the leader.
They didn't flag him; he didn't pull in. He also didn't keep in the pack, bombing down through it on the mainstretch restart. Fate...but the right choice here. Keep high while he's low and things will remain fine. Kanaan pulled in with three to go, one full lap around. Dixon had it, and Marco was his only challenger...
But not enough time. Despite gaining a few car lengths, the cars are too evenly matched. Dixon wins, Marco second, Wheldon third...for the podium that they have started setting up after races, at every place but Indy and Texas (Texas owner says he's sticking to the AMERICAN concept of Victory Lane...which harkens back to the old days when the winner mattered, and podiums wouldn't be thought of for motorsport until the late 1960s, in F1; damn straight). The top five is the Dancing Master, last car on the lead lap, fourth, Ed Carpenter, for Vision, one back in fifth. Danica and Hunter-Reay one back, Kanaan and Foyt IV two back, and Meira three, for top ten. Past that, and you can look it up on Wikiproject:American Open-Wheel Racing on Wikipedia.
All in all: I thought it was great. Only four cars on the lead lap is something several people are complaining about: I say if you've got it, show it. If you don't, get better or leave. This shouldn't be damn NASCAR, as you the reader well-know by now. Once upon a time, back in the 1920s...the leader could sometimes win by four laps (rookie George Souders, 1927 at Indianapolis). This is racing. This is open-wheel.
Things to watch for next race: the ChampCar boys. If they were this decent their first time out with practically no car to work with...the Danica fans are going to get antsy as soon as they watch the F(Former)CCers roar forward, to dice it up on the lead with the best of the IC boys. If this sounds slightly sexist, it is, in the sense that Danica is a woman...and I'll write up something scientific about this in a future post. Until then, what readers may be out there...
Hurrah for the men of the cast-iron chariots.
Mad Kings, Religious Fanatics, and the Brave New World
Well, the first race in the United Factions of American Open-Wheel has been completed. The results are either awesome, decent, mixed, sad, contemptible or unimportant, depending on who you ask. Since this is my blog, I'll say all of the above.
Greetings to whomever reads this, in days and/or years to come.
I am called either
1) Firefox, deranged, sociopathic advocate of universal freedom of speech on all fronts (be it either hate speech, love speech, mad speech or a blank stare);
2) Wraith, young whippersnapper who claims to know entirely too much about motorsports for the meager number of years I have attained (24), or
3)...Chris, one-time semi-temporary columnist for the great, lamented ("shut down by its owners for God knows why") motorsports website racingnewsonline.com of yesteryear, the one who wrote the weird piece "The Way You Move to the Killer Groove," among others.
You can call me any of the three you wish when commenting, or nothing at all and ignore me; I don't really care. I have created this blog for the primary purpose, straight up, of commenting upon the world of American Open-Wheel Racing (AOWR)...IndyCars, for those not yet enlightened as to the particularities of the style, or those having the...unfortunate...notion of such subject having anything to do with the world of NAStyCAR and its Barnum&Bailey circus bullshit. Far too many people have the idea that NAS is synonymous with racing in America, just as the term Wrestling has all too often been considered as completely co-opted by a man who sees it as synonymous with chairs flying all over the room and heavy metal rock blasting at 30,000 decibals, all surrounding men who enter a ring without knowing the rules of real wrestling if it came up and busted their face with a two-by-four and shouted "Here's you; here's a clue! Get a clue!"
Sorry; my tangents can get out of hand sometimes. Open-Wheel of all types, be it AOWR, Formula One, sprints, midgets, classical open-wheel machines of decades past, whatever; sports car racing also catches my interest, as does racing that has nothing at all to do with automotive prowess: thoroughbred horses, especially the neverending search for that most glorious of crowns...Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes in a single year. In a word, what I love is RACING...which precludes, immediately, any reference to NASCAR that does not involve contempt of some form. You simply will not find it here, so if that is what you are looking for, here is pleading with you to go elsewhere.
Anyway. Later today, I will begin commenting about the race that was held down in Miami last night, the meaning of everything that American open-wheel racing in general is going through...and the meaning of open-wheel itself, on the larger scale of the 20th and 21st centuries. Here's hoping I can attract one or two listeners, through it all, and make a few people think some things they may have never thought before.
Hurrah for the men of the cast-iron chariots.
Greetings to whomever reads this, in days and/or years to come.
I am called either
1) Firefox, deranged, sociopathic advocate of universal freedom of speech on all fronts (be it either hate speech, love speech, mad speech or a blank stare);
2) Wraith, young whippersnapper who claims to know entirely too much about motorsports for the meager number of years I have attained (24), or
3)...Chris, one-time semi-temporary columnist for the great, lamented ("shut down by its owners for God knows why") motorsports website racingnewsonline.com of yesteryear, the one who wrote the weird piece "The Way You Move to the Killer Groove," among others.
You can call me any of the three you wish when commenting, or nothing at all and ignore me; I don't really care. I have created this blog for the primary purpose, straight up, of commenting upon the world of American Open-Wheel Racing (AOWR)...IndyCars, for those not yet enlightened as to the particularities of the style, or those having the...unfortunate...notion of such subject having anything to do with the world of NAStyCAR and its Barnum&Bailey circus bullshit. Far too many people have the idea that NAS is synonymous with racing in America, just as the term Wrestling has all too often been considered as completely co-opted by a man who sees it as synonymous with chairs flying all over the room and heavy metal rock blasting at 30,000 decibals, all surrounding men who enter a ring without knowing the rules of real wrestling if it came up and busted their face with a two-by-four and shouted "Here's you; here's a clue! Get a clue!"
Sorry; my tangents can get out of hand sometimes. Open-Wheel of all types, be it AOWR, Formula One, sprints, midgets, classical open-wheel machines of decades past, whatever; sports car racing also catches my interest, as does racing that has nothing at all to do with automotive prowess: thoroughbred horses, especially the neverending search for that most glorious of crowns...Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes in a single year. In a word, what I love is RACING...which precludes, immediately, any reference to NASCAR that does not involve contempt of some form. You simply will not find it here, so if that is what you are looking for, here is pleading with you to go elsewhere.
Anyway. Later today, I will begin commenting about the race that was held down in Miami last night, the meaning of everything that American open-wheel racing in general is going through...and the meaning of open-wheel itself, on the larger scale of the 20th and 21st centuries. Here's hoping I can attract one or two listeners, through it all, and make a few people think some things they may have never thought before.
Hurrah for the men of the cast-iron chariots.
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