Off to Indy

[wadespeed1]

Despite my better judgement, the car is packed and I'm off to Indy. Some would say the ghosts are calling. I think the long timers know what I mean. If not, this may help.

http://home.flash.net/~dralstin/

 

[DickieAttwood]

Bookmarked!

I'll get back to that later

D.A.

[chop456]

Have fun.  Too bad the race has been destroyed from within.  Like you said - some people seem to understand.  I have hopes that it will get back to being the great race it once was.

INDY 500

Still a 2nd-rate race, by George
The Speedway boss is to blame for the long open-wheel racing rift, writes Ed Hinton

By Ed Hinton

May 26, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS -- What is billed as "the 90th Indianapolis 500" will be run Sunday. I'm still waiting for the 80th.

The last world-renowned one was the 79th in 1995, which Jacques Villeneuve won just before he set off to Europe to become a world champion in Formula One.

Every running since then has been makeshift.

That is the truth, regardless of the marketing and public relations spin of the hirelings of the capricious crown prince of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony George, who bosses this American institution with no credentials other than inheritance.

Simply put, he has muffed it, monumentally, for precisely a decade now.

After 10 annual charades, the 80th great one, the 80th flurry of news bulletins flashed around the world, could come as early as Sunday.

Third-generation Andretti, 19-year-old Marco, could dry his family's nearly 40-year trail of tears here. His father, Michael, making a comeback, could heal his personal 14 heart-wounds here.

Or Danica Patrick could become the first female winner, fulfilling the electric preview she gave the nation last year.

But none of that is likely.

Marco is a rookie, not yet prepared for all the horrific eventualities that arrive by the split second in this race. Michael, as always in his past, still has to beat both his life-long nemeses: first the immaculate cars of Team Penske and then the fates of this place.

"Danica Mania" has ebbed. She is in a lame-duck type of car this time, and so she is starting 10th. Last year she started fourth. The consensus is that she must be luckier, and even gutsier, than last year to do even as well as that fourth-place finish.

So, all told, the malaise of the past decade's titanic foolishness has settled again onto what was the most hallowed ground in motor racing.

The latest hopeful rumors of rebirth have fallen as flat as all the rest.

There is no chance--none--that the Indy Racing League and the rival Champ Car series (the carcass of once-mighty CART) will announce any sort of reunification this week.

A few die-hard optimists among Indy aficionados still cling to a notion of reconciliation sometime this year. You'll pardon me if I've heard all this before, and if I can't clear my mind of a refrain: "The years creep slowly by, Lorena," from a sad old song of both sides in the American Civil War.

The civil war in American open-wheel racing, 10 years after its own kind of Gettysburg, drags on. And on.

A decade ago this week, it surely seemed at the time, the decisive battle raged.

CART boycotted Indy, taking the best and brightest of the 500 away to Michigan for a rebellious race, the one and only U.S. 500. CART had no choice. The rules George imposed on it were outrageous.

By the end of that Memorial Day weekend, both sides were so devastated that nobody thought either side could hold out for long.

Just for openers, NASCAR's Daytona 500 became, by default, America's premier automobile race. It remains so.

And considering the popularity of NASCAR's Brickyard 400 here each August, the Indy 500, once the biggest race in the world, was no longer even the biggest race in town.

Enter Formula One with the U.S. Grand Prix, and by 2001 the Indy 500 was the third-rate race of Marion County, Ind. That is, unless you worshipped the sprint car races down at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, in which case the 500 ranked as the fourth-biggest race locally.

Only the U.S. Grand Prix debacle of last year, when 14 of 20 F1 cars pulled out before the race started, in an internal dispute, raised the 500 back to second-rate.

You would think the crown prince and his bourgeois opponents in CART, now Champ Car, would have learned. They didn't. It all remains a matter of royalty vs. capitalism: Tony George, who inherited this place from his grandfather, vs. (fill in the blank), the latest self-made millionaire to think he could reason with the crown prince.

First you filled the blank with Roger Penske and Pat Patrick, then Bobby Rahal, then the various CEOs of CART, and now Kevin Kalkhoven, the Australian multimillionaire who is the latest to gamble a fortune on the Champ Car series.

Tony and Kevin have become fast friends, until they talk business. Then it's over, as always.

The bottom line is that many a CART/Champ Car magnate has come calling, pleading, all but begging, virtually on his knees, and the crown prince has said no, just for the sake of the royal privilege of saying no.

Tony George may own this real estate known as Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But he does not own the Indianapolis 500. That is solely the property of the American public, and the world--the many millions of people who made this race, and who now have turned away from it in disgust.

Until and unless the Andrettis or Danica Patrick roar forth to save his skin, Tony George still owes the world 10 great Indy 500s. I'm betting it will be 11 by Sunday night.

Indy 500 lineup

Sunday at noon (WLS-Ch. 7)

Lap length: 2.5 miles

Car number in parentheses; r-rookie


ROW 1 1. (6) Sam Hornish Jr. Dallara 228.985 2. (3) Helio Castroneves Dallara 228.008 3. (10) Dan Wheldon Dallara 227.338 ROW 2 4. (9) Scott Dixon Dallara 226.921 5. (11) Tony Kanaan Dallara 226.776 6. (4) Vitor Meira Dallara 226.156 ROW 3 7. (55) Kosuke Matsuura Dallara 225.503 8. ( Scott Sharp Dallara 225.321 9. (26) r-Marco Andretti Dallara 224.918 ROW 4 10. (16T) Danica Patrick Panoz 224.674 11. (2) Tomas Scheckter Dallara 224.659 12. (20) Ed Carpenter Dallara 224.548 ROW 5 13. (1) Michael Andretti Dallara 224.508 14. (15) Buddy Rice Panoz 224.393 15. (90) r-Townsend Bell Dallara 224.374 ROW 6 16. (7) Bryan Herta Dallara 224.179 17. (27) Dario Franchitti Dallara 223.345 18. (52) Max Papis Dallara 222.058 ROW 7 19. (51) Eddie Cheever Dallara 222.028 20. (91) r-P.J. Chesson Dallara 221.576 21. (14) Felipe Giaffone Dallara 221.542 ROW 8 22. (92) Jeff Bucknum Dallara 221.461 23. (41) Larry Foyt Dallara 221.332 24. (21) Jaques Lazier Panoz 221.151 ROW 9 25. (5) Buddy Lazier Dallara 220.922 26. (17) Jeff Simmons Panoz 220.347 27. (31) Al Unser Jr. Dallara 219.388 ROW 10 28. (12) Roger Yasukawa Panoz 218.793 29. (88) Airton Dare Panoz 218.170 30. (97) Stephan Gregoire Panoz 217.428 ROW 11 31. (61) r-Arie Luyendyk Jr. Panoz 216.352 32. (98) P.J. Jones Panoz 215.816 33. (18) r-Thiago Medeiros Panoz 215.729 ---------- ehinton@tribune.com

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

[Dirk3D_NL]

nice piece of writing

[chop456]

Smack.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/motorsports/14691252.htm

Double smack.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1148854212239&call_pageid=968867503640&col=970081593064&t=TS_Home

And the knockout.

http://www.nwherald.com/SportsSection/304206281257329.php

Sad, really.

Hope you had a good time and were able to find some shade, Wade.  It looked like a hot one.

[wadespeed1]

I think I prefer the old days of motor racing when it was largely ignored by the stick and ball Sports Illustrated media types. Based on their opinions, anything non NASCAR should cease to operate. Remember the Tampa Tribune Seb--ng hatchet job? Thankfully it didn't stop me from going and I, along with thousands of others, had a good time. It is my opinion that the writers are simply being lazy or even worse being subsidized to wirite according to the Tony George is evil template.The 90th running of the Indy 500 was as good as they come.

 I think Indy and Lemans are similar in the fact that all of the changes/trends are a mere blip on the timeline. Maybe we need to adopt the attitiude of the CA crowd. Indy, as well as Lemans, will continue to evolve. Why let the changes get in the way of a good party. Keep in mind that a writer somewhere was probably miffed when riding mechanics were phased out.

 I'm sad to report that I was not able to make it to Indy as two of my three children were Ill Saturday morning. I watched it on television and, as is tradition, cried when Taps was played.

P.S. I agree with the part about Rusty having to go. bring on Bob Jenkins.

 

[Fax]

Watched the last half of the race.  I wouldn't even rate it as a second rate race, third rate at best.  Two-thirds of that field shouldn't have even been near a racing car.  I was told from a insider that there were still 30,000 seats still available by race morning and there were some big empty gaps in the stands.  Shame, fifteen years ago it was one of the toughest tickets in sports, now you can pick up tickets if you buy a pack of Marlboro's.  Agree completely about the stick & ball media types.  That twat Jim Rome was babbling on about Dannica Patrick after last years race saying how she should go to F1 or NASCAR...Huh?  Perhaps she should actually win a race of some kind first..any kind.  Shitty race but glad to see a Ohio boy scoop the dosh.
Fax

[Dave H]

I continue to see a trend in threads that all current motor racing is crap and that the good old days of people burning in their belts was the way to go.  I think it's hard to argue with the excitement of the finish of the 500 on Sunday!  If that's not what motor racing is about, what is?

[Fax]

With all due respect Dave its easy to have close finishes when you have a caution with a few laps to go and set up a four or five lap sprint, NASCAR does it all the time.  Not quite sure what the burning in their belts bit was about, I was going back to the early ninties.  Sorry Dave, thought the race was compete crap.  Montoya thought a IRL car was like like driving a big heavy F3000 car and the fact that a ninteen year rookie was battling for the lead in the final laps with his Old Man who hasn't been in a car for a year and a half tells me alot about the challenge of a spec formula rev-limited Indy Car.
fax

[Fran]

Lets face it - some people are never happier than when they are moaning! 

See the Top Gear/Fifth Gear thread, Le Mans building works thread, F1 threads (which appear after every race!!), Shuey cheating thread, *bay threads, even the buying/selling ticket threads etc etc.   

I fear it is all part of the human condition  

I just thank god I am from Mars (or is it Venus?) 

(I also have a  theory about people trying to appear discerning by griping on about how crap everything is - but thats just my personal view and has not been the subject of any scientific assessment yet)

P.S.  My cajun chicken wrap had no filling in the last 2 inches today - all sandwiches are rubbish these days.... wasnt like that in the British Rail era, and dont even get me started on the railways.............. 

P.P.S.  BTW Mr Zarse - Is Young Vic Meldrew coming to LM again this year for his annual disappiontment?!

[Fax]

Nah Fran,
Just a matter of calling something sh*t when confronted with stinking pooh.  ALMS races or Moto GP gives me a hard-on the size of the Empire State building.  I don't buy into hype, because Bernie says F1 is the pinnacle of the sport or Indy bills itself as THE GREATEST SPECTACLE IN RACING doesn't mean squat to me.  Back it up with something.
Fax

[Fran]

I  kinda meant generally fax - just happened to put it on this thread though it could equally be on any of the others mentioned!!!

I gotta say - I watched some NASCAR the other night (admittedly at something like 2 a.m. but sober!)... I really cant quite see the point of that! Just going round n round (not even any wiggly bits) till another car comes out and slows em down then they go round n round again........  errrm - was I missing something??? 

(Must confess I did turn the sound off after a couple of laps)

[Rob]

i must admit to watching the end of the highlights for the coca cola 600 last nite, and dare i say, it was pretty good. ok so it was cars just going round in circles, but at least there was some competitiveness between the drivers and an interesting scrap for the front few positions. also the fact that there were 40+ different drivers that had lead at some point in the race shows the need of driver skill as the cars are on a more level plane than of some other motoracing events

[Andy Zarse]

P.P.S.  BTW Mr Zarse - Is Young Vic Meldrew coming to LM again this year for his annual disappiontment?!

Yes of course. He's looking forward to seeing useless England get knocked out of the world cup by Trinidad 

He has just recommended this book to me, it's terrific!

[Doris]

It is terrific isn't it Andy!

Oooh.  Just found their website...   

http://www.iseverythingshit.co.uk/