Monday, July 24, 2017

Heaven's New Spotter

Big Dave - or King Dave - Reininger was one heck of a spotter, and one heck of a human being. He's third from left, in the gray shirt with the white mustache. Photo: Bret Kelley/IndyCar 

The spotters at Indianapolis are the unsung heroes that allow the magical moves on the race track to happen.

And few of them were as beloved or as good at what they do as David Reininger, or as he was better known, "King Dave."

A racing lifer, radio host, writer and reporter besides his main job on top of the box, Reininger immediately made an impact on my young career when I started out with a then nascent website called Motorsport.com - you may have heard of it.

It'd been around for almost 15 years in 2008, but as the Internet was starting to take hold and really make an imprint in motorsports, it was one of the founding sites and Big Dave was one of its founding fathers.

Our crew for my first Indy 500 was me, the then-rookie in the field at age 18 (I turned 19 a month later after finishing my freshman year of college), Allan Brewer, Joe Jennings and Big Dave, all under the tutelage and editing of our dear friend Nancy Knapp Schilke, who pushed us all.

Big Dave wasn't in the media center much. Not because he didn't want to, mind you, but because he was busy getting a bird's eye view of the track from a view so few get to scale - high side at either Turn 1 or Turn 3, navigating the way.

He only had a win to defend. Big Dave helped guide Dario Franchitti to the first of his three Indianapolis 500 victories, in the rain-shortened 2007 race. It was a win that completed his own perfect weekend, as he also guided Alex Lloyd to the win in the Indy Lights race, the Freedom 100.

In 2008 I remember his work with another Schmidt Indy Lights driver - James Davison - as he carved through that field and showed the unabashed speed he's had throughout his career. The Australian's amazing aggression on-track was balanced so nicely by Big Dave's calm voice and clear eyes in the skies.

When he was in the media center, Big Dave was there to support us and give us a friendly smile, big laugh or a key edit. We knew when something was going to his motorsport.com email address, it'd get the Big Dave seal of approval on site before going to Nancy to ensure it was all good to post. Me not wanting to make the rookie mistakes, between Nancy's guidance, Allan's advice, Joe's reliability and Big Dave's second set of eyes, we had a good team in play.

Qualifying that year saw Bump Day return in earnest after a few years where there wasn't a major Bump Day of note. The only highlights of the previous five years were Felipe Giaffone's Babies 'R Us-to-Bump 'Em Out run for A.J. Foyt to troll Arie Luyendyk Jr. in a Coyote orange No. 48 car in 2005 and Tony Stewart's occasional tease of a run that never happened.

I'm sitting in the media center on Bump Day when Big Dave came up to me and that smooth, beautiful big voice of his made a suggestion.

"Hey T," he called, preparing for me for what was to come next. "You gotta come downstairs trackside and see this. This is good (stuff)."

The last hour of Bump Day in 2008 was as magical as Big Dave set it up. There were only four drivers really going for one spot, but it was good as advertised. Buddy Lazier hung the wing way back on his Hemelgarn car, and made the show despite having a car that had no business being in the field of 33. Mario Dominguez, Roger Yasukawa and Max Papis were on the outside looking in.

Seeing Lazier's embrace with wife Kara and Ron Hemelgarn, and the rest of that team, was the highlight of my first ever qualifying weekend. I couldn't tell you who else started where beyond the front row that year, but I remember damn well Buddy Lazier qualified 32nd.

That was Big Dave's eyes and foresight helping to make a memory that'd last a lifetime. A spotter's genius, if you will, to know what to look for.

And since I missed the 2011 Bump Day on account of graduating, that'd be the first and only Bump Day I'd get to witness on site. Since I'm not sure if the field will get back to a size bigger than 33 cars attempting to qualify down the road, it might not be topped.

Big Dave didn't just win with Dario. He won with Tony Kanaan in 2013, completing both their journeys back to the top.

For "TK," the 2013 win was 12 years in the making - all the heartache, frustration and angst of the near-misses finally came good.

Someone had to call it when TK went up the middle on that last restart, leaving his old team, Andretti Autosport, high and dry to watch as he passed then-leader Ryan Hunter-Reay and with Carlos Munoz trying to get him back. When Dario crashed in Turn 1, TK had his Indy 500 victory.

The common denominator in the two wins wasn't a manufacturer (Dario's was Honda, TK's Chevrolet) or a team (Dario's was Andretti, TK's was KV). The common denominator in two of Indy's most popular wins was Big Dave.

Countless others who knew Big Dave better will be able to tell a better story about the man he was, but I can offer this up.

Big Dave probably had the biggest heart I've ever met in racing.

He was a Swiss Army knife in motorsports. You don't juggle all the roles he did as well as he did, for as long as he did, with as big a smile as he did, unless you love life and make the most out of each day as he did.

He loved taking time to entertain. His house in the shadow of the Speedway at Indy was always a treat to visit in May, when he wasn't in the Northeast. The collection of cars and stories highlighted a trip over - along with the clientele there, all Indy fans.

And the food? Glorious. This is where the Big Dave moniker cedes to King Dave. Cookouts were as amazing as calls from up top.

Most importantly, he made you feel like a friend... immediately. When I was starting out, it was easy to be skittish, nervous and tense when trying to make it both in the IndyCar media center and in the paddock.

But Big Dave was there to be a voice of calm, and offer up that big 'ol smile from beneath that bushy, trademark white 'stache.

Every interaction was always a, "How you doin', T?" with a big 'ol handshake. We covered each other on stories more times than I can count when I was with Motorsport.com in my first few years trying to make it into the sport. And Big Dave made those first few years so much easier with his calm demeanor, advice and suggestions.

When you're out on a race track, running at 230 mph, you need all the calm you can get from up top. That's what Big Dave brought to the spotter's stand.

Cancer may have taken Big Dave far too soon on Earth.

But heaven just gained King Dave for the rest of time, to call "clear outside" from a different kind of, up top.
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Monday, February 20, 2017

Danny Watts' brave announcement makes the news...

Leventis (left), Watts (center) and Kane (right) at 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans driver parade. Photo courtesy Strakka Racing
They say all good things must come to an end and last June, Strakka Racing’s longtime trio of Jonny Kane, Danny Watts and Nick Leventis drove their final race together at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

One of the rare certainties in sports car racing is that you’d expect a Strakka prototype in the field with that driver lineup intact, always punching above their weight. The group won their class at Le Mans in 2010 and finished fifth overall. In their final race together, they finished fourth with an older car in a deep 23-car LMP2 class.

Watts stepped aside from driving after that race, and hadn’t made a major driving reappearance since.

He’s regarded as a driver with a great smile, genuinely good insight – which I saw on all four of my occasions covering Le Mans on site from 2009 through 2015 – and a plucky persistence behind the wheel which saw either him or Kane the standard pacesetter for the entry. But he was no longer going to be a driver in a Strakka LMP2 car.

So he hadn’t had a reason to be in the news. That was until today, as Watts revealed he’s gay. This meant he had to put on a brave face to overcompensate for it the entirety of his racing career.

I figured this blog would be a better platform for penning some thoughts on the announcement.

Alas, the first thought I have is that Watts’ revelation is that it’s a massively brave decision. Racing has a lot of good people involved, although there are some questionable characters. It can also be bogged down by sexism and provide a feeding ground for machismo – where heterosexual males have fun playing with race cars and living the proverbial dream. The ones who are lucky enough to cover it are the ones just telling the stories. For Watts to have to hide his true identity in a world where being an alpha male isn’t just preferred, it’s almost required, speaks volume of his courage.

The second is that he managed to persist and succeed at his day job regardless of the storm that was boiling beneath the surface. What Watts’ sexual preference is has nothing on his ability to manhandle a prototype, with whatever setup it had, with whatever power it produced, and with whoever he was sharing the car with. Seeing a team have as much stability as Strakka seemed to have, knowing it would be that same trio, spoke volumes of how well that core group worked together.

The third thought, and arguably the most important, is that the fact this is news at all reveals how far motorsport still has to come. Matt Beer wrote it well in his Autosport column, saying: “It's statistically ludicrous to think that only heterosexual white males can be any good at driving fast or that only heterosexual white males would enjoy watching people drive fast.”

He’s right, and in addition, there are those non-heterosexual white males who’ve made an impact in racing. It’s a black driver who’s a multiple-time World Champion and easily F1’s biggest star in Lewis Hamilton. There have been female drivers who have won races and championships in open-wheel and drag racing for decades.

And that’s just on the driving front. Let’s not forget Leena Gade, for instance, who was a pioneer with Audi from an engineering perspective. Ruth Buscombe is a strategy ace from the F1 pit wall who brought debut points to Haas F1 Team and also aided Sauber in scoring a pivotal points-scoring finish last year in Brazil. Andrea Mueller has been named lead engineer for Ryan Blaney in NASCAR this year. The list could go on…

From a personal standpoint, some of my best friends in the industry are female and a more blended, more inclusive environment would be better for the sport longer-term – if it is to grow beyond the niche it is now – rather than maintaining its long-standing identity as the “good ‘ol boys club.”

Success should not be determined based on your ethnicity, your gender, or your sexual preference. It should only be determined by whether or not you can produce in your line of work in the industry.

For the entirety of his career, I never looked at Watts as anything other than an unfailingly polite, dedicated race driver who was part of a team that overachieved in sports car racing more often than not.

And today’s announcement that he has a certain sexual preference does nothing to change that.

The reaction to Watts' announcement has featured a number of positive comments on social media thus far, and that's been great to see.

I admire Watts' courage, I respect his bravery and I'm hopeful this announcement could be one that changes the conversation, and perhaps opens doors for more proper diversity in the motorsport arena. 
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Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015: Many trips, one journey

Not really feeling a major writing spurt but in summing up 2015, I think through all the events attended, my lasting memory from this year will be the people.

There were professional highlights - a second straight year getting to cover both the Indianapolis 500 and 24 Hours of Le Mans in the same year was incredible. Additionally, getting to live out a childhood dream in not only covering a Formula 1 race, but doing so for the U.S. network home of the sport and being there in the post-race press conference to ask a question of the newly crowned World Champion, Lewis Hamilton. Lastly, going to Germany for Porsche's Night of Champions was an amazing way to cap off the year.

But it was the human moments that stood out more. 

 From celebrating my Grandma's 100th birthday to losing but then remembering one of racing's all-time good guys, it's the people who inspire you to do better and be better as a person.

 There's a handful of you who've really helped me and been there for me throughout this year... you know who you are. 

 In looking ahead to 2016, while the at times crazy travel schedule will continue, I'll try to improve, and I'm thankful for all the people around me along for the ride. 

 Happy New Year!

 The schedule of races/racing-related events I attended this year, in my 10th season reporting on motorsports, included:

 January: Roar test, Rolex 24 at Daytona
February: Chicago Auto Show, IndyCar media day
March: COTA PWC, Miami Formula E, Sebring 12, St. Petersburg IndyCar
April: NOLA IndyCar, Long Beach, Barber
May: Monterey IMSA, Indy GP, 99th Indy 500
June: Detroit, 24 Hours of Le Mans, Watkins Glen
July: Milwaukee, Lime Rock
August: Mid-Ohio, Road America IMSA, VIR, Sonoma
September: Monterey PWC/MRTI, COTA WEC/IMSA, Road America test
October: Road Atlanta, COTA F1
November: Las Vegas Red Bull GRC/SEMA, Daytona test, Sebring Lamborghini World Final
December: Stuttgart, Germany, Porsche Night of Champions

Here's a handful of pics from the year:

A photo posted by Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) on

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A photo posted by Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) on
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Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Driver ratings should be downgraded altogether

It’s that most wonderful time of year in the world of sports car racing where teams are trying to put programs together for the following season. The problem is, the economics of putting it all together can be complicated, especially given what could be a drinking term in sports car racing: driver ratings.

If you’re unfamiliar with the process, here’s a brief primer. There’s four such ratings available: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. You might remember earlier this year, each was mentioned in a blog post about how many acronyms there are in sports car racing. 

In theory, this is how they should work. Key words “in theory:”
  • Platinum: Primarily factory drivers and other universally accepted paid professionals
  • Gold: Paid professionals or junior series professionals who are not yet with a factory outfit
  • Silver: Top-level gentlemen drivers who do not derive their sole income from racing cars
  • Bronze: Newer gentlemen drivers who are often lacking in experience


Now do all drivers applicably fit within those categories? It’s a yes-and-no type thing.

There’s several problems with the current formula as it is.

JUNIORS MINTED? 

For one, if say you’re an up-and-coming junior formula driver in North American open-wheel racing, you’re likely classified as a Gold (Matthew Brabham and Stefan Wilson would be two good examples). If you’re an up-and-coming junior driver in sports car racing, you’re likely a Silver (as Sean Rayhall was for 2014, before being bumped up to Gold for 2015).

A strange situation that occurred this year though, was that Porsche Junior drivers Connor De Phillippi and Alex Riberas were ranked differently. "CDP" was a Gold, Riberas a Silver, and thus Riberas held more value given his rating. 

Now in theory, if you’re a junior driver lacking for sports car experience, regardless of whether you’re coming from the open-wheel or sports car world, or another arena altogether, you should be classified the same. It shouldn’t be split down the middle between some being Golds and some being Silvers. Whether the one choice is a Gold or Silver is a matter of opinion.

The gentlemen driver will likely tell you that racing against “fake Silvers” – drivers that have outright talent but are unheralded, unheard of in North America or simply fly under the radar – does them a disservice because they’re not racing against equal competition.

The up-and-coming junior driver will probably argue that because he or she may not be at an equal level of sports car experience compared to an Andre Lotterer or Scott Pruett (diverse examples, but basically two top-level Prototype drivers in either FIA WEC or TUDOR), they shouldn’t be ranked as such, for at least their first full year in the championship.

As it stands now, both types of drivers get screwed. In an arena where an “Am” driver is required, teams may opt to bring in a “fake Silver” – a Pro who for whatever reason doesn’t have one of the two Pro ratings – to optimize the car’s lineup. This is a course of action that you can’t fault teams for, because that is how the system is set up.

This hurts both the Ams and the Pros. The Pros lose out an opportunity by the fact the class isn’t designated to allow for them to have a shot full-time (or even in some endurance races), and some Ams lose out by the fact they have to race against Pros.

So the blurred lines, worldwide, fixate on what makes one driver a Silver and another a Gold, even if he or she have similar resumes.

ONE AM, TWO AMS, FAKE AMS? 

Another problem? The type of lineup. Until a team knows what type of lineup a class requires - i.e. One Silver or Two Silvers, one Bronze, only one Platinum/Gold or whatever - it may not know where it can compete.  

This has the knock-on effect of a team perhaps wanting to run a car in one class but not having the lineup with which to do so. An example this year, albeit an extreme one: Bret Curtis had an accident at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans practice day. The ProSpeed team with which Curtis, a Bronze, was running with Platinum-rated Jeroen Bleekemolen and Silver-rated Cooper MacNeil were scheduled to race in an older Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the GTE-Am class.

As the team sourced a backup car to replace its injured one, they could not source a suitable Bronze-rated driver replacement to replace Curtis, who was ruled out. So this made for the abnormal situation of a two-driver lineup, with the car then moved into the GTE-Pro class (no driver ratings restrictions) in a car that was intended to go for a top result in GTE-Am. As it turned out, Bleekemolen and MacNeil completed an ironman 24-hour stint on their own and ended fifth in GTE-Pro, for a better result than would have been the case in GTE-Am.

But great as that story may be, it's still confusing to the masses unless you're massively engaged in the day-to-day inner workings of how complicated it is to make lineups work, given the rating restrictions. 

SWITCHING IT UP

Then there's another problem - changing driver ratings in-season. Granted, it didn't happen a ton last year, but it happened enough to affect several drivers last year, which prevented possible opportunities. Again, it's a case of if you're going to have them, at least keep them consistent and level for a standard period of time. 

ULTIMATELY, THIS IS A MICRO PROBLEM AFFECTING ON A MACRO LEVEL

The greater problem? The fact that you seemingly need an degree in advanced mathematics or an acute awareness to study formulas for what makes a lineup, a lineup, not only prevents drivers from getting opportunities, but unnecessarily complicates the process on the whole.

In an ideal world, driver ratings should be downgraded to just Pro or Am, if not abolished altogether. It’s unlikely to happen, but it would make things so much simpler.

I can’t tell you how many times this past season I thought or asked, “Wait, is that lineup good to the regulations?” Sebring this past year saw nearly half the GTD teams need to switch their lineups last-minute to comply.

It hurts from an optics standpoint – if you can’t reveal who is driving your car until the last minute, how are you supposed to do advanced promotion of it and thus help grow your car and brand awareness?

It’s confusing from an organizational and statistical standpoint – remembering which drivers are Gold and which ones are Silver can make your head spin. I’ll usually know which drivers are Pros or Ams, but there are definite times where I’ll need to check the list to view the ones that aren’t as straightforward.

Sometimes with the reasoning behind certain drivers is questionable. For instance, if you’re over 50, you can be classified as an FIA Silver – this includes ex-F1 drivers such as Stefan Johansson and Martin Brundle, respectively.

Earl Bamber, through no fault of his own, seems to be the poster child for a rating mismatch as he’s currently listed as a Silver. The New Zealander has won the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, and most recently, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup titles this year. He is a pro, and a badass one at that, but somehow has been misclassified.

This rates him – and the ex-F1 drivers over 50 that are eligible – equal with a majority of tech gurus and other businessmen who typify the words gentlemen racing drivers.

For a comparable NASCAR example, it would be like saying Terry Labonte, a two-time Sprint Cup champion who is now 58, would be the equivalent of a John Potter, the am, team owner, and savvy businessman that runs Magnus Racing. But Labonte wouldn’t be the same rating as longtime Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, even though they’re both series champions. Because that makes sense.

The bottom line is that it’s hard enough for sports car racing to get recognized in this country as it is, beyond the small, core group of media members and slightly bigger, but still small hardcore group of fans.

We spend our days asking “how does this driver fit this lineup” rather than “how can we better promote this driver, knowing he or she will be part of this lineup?”

Driver ratings don’t help the problem. You’re either a Pro or an Am. You need both for endurance sports car racing to be sustainable, but you don’t need to cloud the picture by having questionable ratings for some inadvertently screw the pooch for others.

But is simplicity so much to ask for? Yes, because this is sports car racing, and the word simplicity might as well be from another language.
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Monday, August 11, 2014

Pausing From a Virtual Blur for Real Talk

You don’t realize how fast life moves until it stops – or until you’re forced to deal with something that takes you off your normal groove, your rhythm and your flow.

I write this now, on a random Monday evening, only because the time has come for the fast-paced, frenetic nature of the last several months to pause, properly reflect and attempt to decipher the madness.

From the last weekend of April through the third weekend in June – in total, April 21 to June 21 – I did not have a single day off. Not even a weekend day. There were nine consecutive race weekends – seven on site (Barber, Monterey, Indianapolis twice, Detroit, Le Mans, Road America) and two more I covered remotely from home.

What was meant to be a several-week break at home in June turned into just a one-week break as I got a family health scare, and immediately headed to Phoenix for an indefinite period as I didn’t know how my close family member would be. Mercifully and fortunately, he’s much improved since.

The flow has since returned with trips to Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Road America again… and then Saturday night, while having an enjoyable evening out with friends, a work colleague calls me at 12:30 a.m.

You never want to get a call at 12:30 a.m. under any circumstances.

And this was the first I’d heard of the Tony Stewart news, with his car striking and ultimately taking the life of young Kevin Ward Jr.

What has followed in the two-plus days since has been something that’s been perplexing and difficult to comprehend all at once.

I’d been at Road America on assignment this weekend anyway and the news there – while relevant to the series, media, fans and stakeholders on site – just seemed off on the actual level of importance in the racing world at large. All the while my colleagues on the MST side busted their asses to cover the coverage, and then I came on board for more analysis, reporting and three last-minute radio interviews today.

The perplexing thing is that when a situation like this evolves, you’re kind of boxed into a Catch-22 corner.

The eternally hungry beast that is the Internet thrives and survives only on new content, and frequent new content.

And frankly, amidst the professionalism you see from the racing reporting pros, you also see a ton of shit both in articles and on social media. 

You have respected media members in the NASCAR and racing world who are writing reasoned analysis, with disciplined reporting, and accepted standards. Frankly, our editors would beat the hell out of us if we didn’t – and they should.

And then, as they seemingly always do whenever a tragedy, bad accident or otherwise controversial moment in racing occurs, the passerby national media roll up in their loud, obnoxious Hummer H2 (you get the idea) acting like they run the joint.

Generally speaking, they lack any sort of context, clue, understanding or appreciation but then they opt to not only chime in, but chime in loudly and in full color on your 1080P HDTVs, or whatever the latest trend is in viewing. Or on their websites. Or both, because convergence and new media.

And then there’s the comments section. Oh, the comments section. It’s filled with kings and queens of the basements, many who possess a Bachelor of Arts in Name Calling and a Master’s in Epic Lack of Decorum. Much wow.

I’m usually not in favor of starting wars, but I’d gladly support a unilateral military strike on the comments section.

Anyway, with the Stewart/Ward story, only they know what happened, and we’ll know more only when the full investigation is complete.

What we can gather from the admittedly shaky YouTube clip – if you have had the misfortune of watching it – is that it’s dark, Ward had a dark firesuit, dark helmet, walked onto a hot track and was collected. Also, visibility on the right side of sprint cars? Generally sucks. Anything more than that is not for us to write or for us to attack in the court of public opinion.

I first met Tony Stewart as a then 7-year-old fan at the old IRL “Test in the West” at Phoenix International Raceway in 1997. Stewart and Arie Luyendyk were cracking jokes, going back-and-forth about how they’d handle the new IRL car, and giving this kid a thrill of a lifetime by talking to me, signing autographs and making sure I was back for the race. That year, Stewart nearly won but lost to Jim Guthrie in what was one of the IRL’s greatest ever underdog stories.

I haven’t had the chance to get as close to Stewart other than a brief interview I had with him at the Barrett-Jackson auction in 2007 – my second full year as a reporter. But I know from the sources I’ve spoken to that Stewart, despite the rough edges, occasional bad temper and mistakes he’s made, has a good heart and never in hell would do something like this intentional.

The suggestion that anyone behind the wheel of a race car would do so is asinine, as well. Remember these are professionals, running anywhere from 100-1,000hp beasts and they’ve got to know how to control them. All the while knowing that one mistake could not only affect them, but also their competitors.

The point of the above preamble is that my family got me into auto racing, I’ve been a fan for almost 20 of my 25 years and I’ve been fortunate enough to have made a career writing about it for the last nine.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is from my old mentor at Michelin, John Love, who taught me the phrase “who owns the news.” And in this Stewart/Ward story, that is only the officials investigating this case, nothing more. Our job then is to tell the story purely on facts and not on conjecture and misinformation.

As current media members, we’re slaves to the rhythm. The beast needs feeding, but frankly, sometimes, I wish it didn’t. It’s hard to put your mind to writing quality copy when a driver has lost his life and another one could well be scarred for life. But that’s our job.

There’s the other part about the rhythm of feeding the beast, and that’s what it can do to personal relationships.

I’ve had some family relatives in town off-and-on for nearly a month, and the fractured nature of knowing when news happens and being on call almost 24/7 to cover it – we again refer here to the 12:30 a.m. phone call I received Saturday night – can put a strain on those relationships.

You want to spend as much time with them, appreciating the actual real world relationships instead of being slaves to the virtual world of writing, tweeting, Facebooking, Instagramming and on down the line. Because our real world life can be affected by our virtual numbers – notably the number of likes, shares and retweets.

And it’s moments like this – when you’re dealing with tragedy that it takes your mind off the real focus – family, friends and real world relationships.

This year, the biggest thing I have struggled with is finding that real/virtual balance. It's been severely out of whack. 

The point of this random stream of consciousness, after you’re probably like Steve Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles and you’re thinking, “Hey, DiZinno, have a point – it makes it so much more interesting for the listener!” is this:

In the hierarchy of importance, our real lives must take precedence over our virtual ones. While we, as reporters, must strive to maintain journalistic excellence and do our best on every story we write, we have to let the facts play out as they do and cover when it’s important to do so, not merely just to fill air time or web space.

To close, I can only echo the thoughts of the now late Robin Williams, whose untimely death this evening is another blog post unto itself given his circumstances, in Dead Poets Society:


Carpe, carpe diem.
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