Two Weeks
Monday, May 24, 2010 at 10:25AM
It does not seem possible that I have been doing this for two weeks now! I enjoy it and hope you do too. I want to thank Eddie Oliver for his informative comments. I know that among the other people reading this that there a lot of clever and knowledgeable individuals who can respond or add to my thoughts, so please feel free.
Not always been easy to find issues to write about. Something has to catch my attention, so in an endeavor to find it I have watched more of Indy than I have for a long time. I am no great fan of the modern era, but a couple of things struck me. Seeing Paul Tracy miss the cut did not bring a tear to my eye, not a fan, but why do companies like Geico sponsor a Paul Tracy when I would have thought there were better drivers and teams available? Perhaps they were looking for exposure in Canada, or just wanted to highlight their accident insurance?
What on earth is Bertrand Baguette doing in the Indy 500? last I heard he was racing in Europe and doing OK, did he take a wrong (left) turn and is his career now going around in circles?
Then there was the struggle of Tony Kanaan to qualify. Here is a guy who has led this race, always qualified in like the top six, and is now down to the last fifteen minutes on bump day to try and make the field in a car run by Andretti Autosport. It made for at least a few minutes of interest, but raises the question to me of how does that happen? The team has four cars, presumably very similar, and could draw on the set ups of the other drivers. I know drivers differ in what they like in a car, but come on, this is four corners all roughly the same, so how different can it be. And yes, I know someone will say the track changes etc, but how does a top team and driver get itself in this mess? Is it all a mind game after his two crashes?
Many years ago I had a dear friend who got behind on his reading. It was at the time of Nixon and he read Newsweek. He was six months behind, but doggedly refused to jump up to date and continued to read them in order. He said it was great to read what Nixon said six months ago and then go home from work and watch the six o'clock news about what was happening now. Thanks to the Icelandic volcano I have a similar situation. My weekly fix of motorsport news and views, Autosport, is now weeks late in getting to me here in the US. So it is fascinating to read the pre-race opinions of the experts and match it to the reality. They are not only wrong most of the time they are often way wide of the mark. It is interesting that there is no mention of any of that when the race report comes around. Bit like weathermen.
Not always been easy to find issues to write about. Something has to catch my attention, so in an endeavor to find it I have watched more of Indy than I have for a long time. I am no great fan of the modern era, but a couple of things struck me. Seeing Paul Tracy miss the cut did not bring a tear to my eye, not a fan, but why do companies like Geico sponsor a Paul Tracy when I would have thought there were better drivers and teams available? Perhaps they were looking for exposure in Canada, or just wanted to highlight their accident insurance?
What on earth is Bertrand Baguette doing in the Indy 500? last I heard he was racing in Europe and doing OK, did he take a wrong (left) turn and is his career now going around in circles?
Then there was the struggle of Tony Kanaan to qualify. Here is a guy who has led this race, always qualified in like the top six, and is now down to the last fifteen minutes on bump day to try and make the field in a car run by Andretti Autosport. It made for at least a few minutes of interest, but raises the question to me of how does that happen? The team has four cars, presumably very similar, and could draw on the set ups of the other drivers. I know drivers differ in what they like in a car, but come on, this is four corners all roughly the same, so how different can it be. And yes, I know someone will say the track changes etc, but how does a top team and driver get itself in this mess? Is it all a mind game after his two crashes?
Many years ago I had a dear friend who got behind on his reading. It was at the time of Nixon and he read Newsweek. He was six months behind, but doggedly refused to jump up to date and continued to read them in order. He said it was great to read what Nixon said six months ago and then go home from work and watch the six o'clock news about what was happening now. Thanks to the Icelandic volcano I have a similar situation. My weekly fix of motorsport news and views, Autosport, is now weeks late in getting to me here in the US. So it is fascinating to read the pre-race opinions of the experts and match it to the reality. They are not only wrong most of the time they are often way wide of the mark. It is interesting that there is no mention of any of that when the race report comes around. Bit like weathermen.
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