End of a Season

Thanksgiving – it’s about as good a time as any to compose a proper recap of the year just past, the people met, the places visited and the memories made.

Admittedly and apologetically I’ve neglected an update on this web space since the end of the last crazy, spring into summer blur from May through July. Since then, trips to Chicago, Mid-Ohio, Elkhart Lake (twice), Sonoma, Baltimore, Austin (twice), Houston, Fontana/LA/San Diego and Las Vegas have followed between the end of July and now a week ago here in November. I may have missed one spot in that point as it’s been a rather surreal stretch, mostly involving airports, security checks, hotel rooms and media centers.

Through it all I think this year I found a greater appreciation for each event I visited, rather than simply going through the motions. In January and February this year I didn’t know if I’d still be able to live my dream of covering motorsports and traveling the country to see it. By November, I’d had the most diverse year of my career, working with the greatest number of clients and the highest number of trips and races.

To recap, on site this year I covered Formula One, IndyCar, Pirelli World Challenge, NASCAR Nationwide, American Le Mans Series, GRAND-AM Rolex Series, countless support series and also squeezed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Media Day in Chicago (with what was, I have to say, my personal “drive of the year” to get to Navy Pier in record time via back roads with less traffic. George Costanza would be proud). All told, 20 race weekends, three tests, the Chase Media Day and the SEMA Show in November made up the calendar.

What started as a surreal email in my inbox in Feburary, asking “if I’d be interested in writing for NBC Sports,” has borne greater fruit than I could have ever imagined. My MotorSportsTalk colleagues – Chris Estrada, Luke Smith and Keith Collantine – have helped to grow the site from day one to more than 8 million total page views as of this writing. And for them, they’ve grown as writers as well with this incredible opportunity. It’s been a privilege to work with them this year as we push ahead to 2014. It’s been awesome to see the support from our readers, too. To each and every one of you, I give thanks.

That’s also provided the invaluable opportunity to work with the NBC Sports TV and production teams. There’s a special bond shared by the people that make TV, and I can tell you from all the events I was at this year, a tireless dedication put in by each and every member of the team, from all the on-air talent to the production staff.

The second “new family” I joined and was so thankful to work with was the Pirelli World Challenge series. PWC features limitless potential and an incredible array of manufacturers that compete within the series’ GT and Touring Car classes. The racing is off the hook and like NBC, the PWC staff is a great family as well. I joined the team in midseason at Lime Rock and look forward to the series’ 25th anniversary season in 2014.

Add up the rest – the PR “baptism by fire” with the revolutionary DeltaWing team through May, the other PR races working with Adam Saal and his clients, a one-off with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dave Kallmann in June, and still occasional contributions to RACER Magazine, the ALMS website and Motorsport Illustrated News – and it was a whirlwind season where half the time I needed to tweet or Facebook what it was I was doing or who I was working with just to keep track!

Some places I visited really stole my heart for a few days. Austin, in particular, was amazing on two separate occasions. Having the opportunity to recapture the magic of being a fan, with my dad, for the ALMS/FIA World Endurance Championship weekend in September, was something I will cherish for years. The city itself, with the great food, great music and great atmosphere just drew me in to where I could not wait to go back for F1 in November.

And indeed, covering a Formula One race on site was the fulfillment of one of my last major unchecked items on my racing checklist. The big word of difference is “exclusivity” – you have to scan your pass in to the zones you have access to. Some spots are off limits! So it becomes a bit of a cat-and-mouse game to see where you can go… but you have to be careful so as not to piss off the overlords from FOM. That said, working in the TV compound was a unique, different and intriguing experience that I was fortunate to enjoy.

Toronto and Baltimore were probably my other favorite stops this year on the racing calendar, for the mix of on-track activity, people I got to see and food I ate. Honorable mention goes to the week in Southern California for Fontana, LA and San Diego… and the Ontario hotel was probably my best value pick of the year.

The least favorite? Without a question, it was Houston. It was a trying weekend for IndyCar with track and schedule issues in the early part of the weekend, then rain on Sunday that threw another monkey wrench into things. Dario Franchitti’s awful accident - which eventually led to his forced retirement - was just the icing on the cake. Add in the bad traffic and it was a place that left a less-than-satisfactory first impression.

Quite honestly this year was one to forget though from the injuries and deaths standpoint. It seemed every month there was another shock death that just jolted the racing community. There was Dick Trickle’s suicide, Jason Leffler in a sprint car accident, Allen Simonsen at Le Mans, Maria de Villota due to complications from her testing accident in 2012, and lastly, Sean Edwards in a private coaching accident in Australia.  October just sucks for the racing community with the latter two fatalities joining Dan Wheldon, Greg Moore, Marco Simoncelli, Rick Huseman and “Iron Man Mike” Wanser for losses during the tenth month of the year.

The Edwards and Simonsen deaths hit me the most. Simonsen’s was entirely preventable as he went off at a section of the track where there was just a guardrail with trees behind the catch fencing; in modern day racing, such a safety vulnerability is unacceptable. Edwards’ loss is about the sports car equivalent of Moore’s death in 1999; a massively talented, young rising star who was destined for greatness but never had the chance to achieve it.

Lastly in this look back, there’s the people. I mentioned it with two of the specific “work families,” but this is a fraternity of travelers that do this for a living. We bond, share drinks, dinners, form memories and hopefully, try to enjoy the fact we’re outside soaking up sunshine, blowing out our eardrums and avoiding the daily grind of cubicle life.

For all the ways racing can get you down – the long hours, frequent travel, constant politics, the confusion of “which class, which drivers, which series,” the endless negativity from perpetually miserable onlookers – it still kicks ass most of the time.

Time to load up on the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, pass out from the tryptophan and wine and give thanks to a mostly awesome year just passed. Cheers.  

When two months feels like two weeks

It's been a while since I posted anything on here. Getting back home Monday from Canada marked the end of a manic two-month stretch where I spent nine of 10 weekends either working and/or traveling. Here’s a recap, in bullet points:

·      

May 7-13, Monterey, CA, DeltaWing PR

o   Positives: Team’s first podium, good media outreach, great to work with Katherine Legge, Andy Meyrick (drivers) and team led by David Price. A successful sign-off for me, because it made sense for both of us to move in other directions after my first two races.

o   Negatives: We broke with 20 minutes remaining of four-hour race while trying to hit 70 percent mark for points, which led to a flurry of backlash on social media. Also, missed my connecting flight in DTW from SFO and spent night in an airport Holiday Inn Express “In the D.”

·    

May 17-18, Minneapolis, MN, road trip with Mom to a convention of hers

o   Positives: New city, got to experience the Mall of America for the first time.

o   Negatives: It pissed like hell for the entire five-six hour drive there, and the hotel didn’t have NBCSN for Indy 500 qualifying. Luckily, NBC Sports Live Extra streaming, Twitter, and INDYCAR 13 app came to the rescue.

·       

May 22-30, Indianapolis, Indy 500 for NBC Sports

o   Positives: It’s Indy. The race and its record lead changes. Monday morning pic with winner Tony Kanaan. First Mug ‘N Bun experience. Coffee with Alex Lloyd where we solved the world’s problems.

o   Negatives: I guess I made it rain at the Night Before the 500 at LORP, and I forgot what a shitshow Broad Ripple is.

·       

May 31-June 4, Detroit and Indy again, NBC Sports

o   Positives: Holy cow does Roger Penske put on a first-class event. Conway and Pagenaud winning, Jakes starring. Absolutely loved this race weekend. And how can you beat IHOP for dinner near our hotel? Coffee back in Indy with Martin Plowman, who went onto win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2 with Bertrand Baguette and Ricardo Gonzalez a couple weeks later. Gotta love the positive juju.

o   Negatives: Not many if I’m honest, but I will say there are definitely certain parts of Detroit you don’t want to be in at the wrong time of day.

      June 12-15, Milwaukee IndyFest, NBC Sports

o   Positives: Great race advances (lunches, celebrity bartending, go-karting, Street Fest) by Andretti Sports Marketing. Sitting in the Turn 1 grandstands for the race. Will Buxton’s fever for the city, the race, and his epic goldenrod pants.

o   Negatives: Anytime you’re sat next to “Chinzilla” in the media center, you do everything you can to spend as little time there as possible.

·       

June 22, Road America Nationwide, Journal Sentinel

o   Positives: Getting the opportunity to work with Dave Kallmann, AJ Allmendinger scoring a popular win and Billy Johnson’s post-race quotes to me. I have yet to get a sound bite better than his bit about growing up in LA traffic and using it to his advantage to slice through the field. Oh, and SJB stand, double brats and Spotted Cows.

o   Negatives: Deadlines! Man do I have a lot of gained respect for NASCAR print and other deadline writers. The race wrapped at 7:30 p.m. and our deadline was 8:45. I haven’t had such a mad rush to get quotes to make a deadline since my Marquette Tribune days.

·       

 June 27-July 3, July 7, Cousin’s wedding, New Jersey

o   Positives: All of it. Food, family, ambience, location, music, ceremony, reception. Just perfect in every aspect. Oh, and surviving my first trip to the Jersey Shore was also a bonus.

o   Negatives: Trenton-Mercer Airport. Literally, there is just one gate. It is hotter than Hades in there. There’s no air conditioning, no bathrooms past security and just one airline, Frontier. The parking lot is twice as big as the terminal. It might be in the running for the worst airport in America. That said, it was cheap and convenient, so I’ll cross it off my airport bucket list.

·       

July 3-July 6, Lime Rock Park, Pirelli World Challenge

o   Positives: New work opportunity and fun dinners, great series car and driver content and seeing the sports car paddock once again.

o   Negatives: Zero cell service, long drive to/from hotel, cramped paddock space. Oh, and Thursday with eight on-track sessions for my first day. Here’s your baptism by fire, Batman.

·      

July 11-15, Toronto, NBC Sports and PWC

o   Positives: Where do I start? My first trip ever to Canada more than lived up to expectations: the downtown, the public transportation, the food, the drinks, Porter Airlines and arriving into Billy Bishop Airport, the track, the hospitality, Timbits and a double-double, were all phenomenal. Seeing Turbo and following it up with Chipotle with Josef Newgarden on Thursday wasn’t bad either.

o   Negatives: The time in T.O. ended too soon, and I didn’t get outside the media centre very much. Also, it took a little longer than anticipated to enter the country to pass border security, but all was well at the end of the day.

Oh, and that doesn't even factor in seeing Sir Paul McCartney on Tuesday. But in a word, wow. At least one home weekend this weekend and possibly back on the road for another three in a row next week. As for now, I’m out. Cheers. 

Racing: There's still room for appreciation

View from the stands - among fans - during the ALMS race in Long Beach

For most racing fans, racing is an escape – a divergence from the normal monotony of day-to-day life in the office. You know, doing things like TPS reports and cover letters, all while dealing with memos coming from corporate.

For those of us fortunate enough to work in the sport, we don’t spend near enough time appreciating the quality of what’s offered. The grind of writing, working on the car, chasing sponsorship to compete, or trying to drum up interest for your entity can totally wear you down.

But at the end of the day, whether it’s as a fan, a driver, a team member, a media member, a sponsor or other affiliated interest, a day at the track beats the hell out of most days in the office.

It’s now the month of May. I wrote a post for NBC’s MotorSportsTalk the other day about all the awesomeness that is on display this month. 

It’s easy to bitch, moan and complain about the micro details of racing. We all do.

The macro, though, is that there’s something that drew us to this sport once. It got us hooked. It kept us hooked. Even, hopefully, through the political morass and bullshit that so frequently tries to interrupt.

There’s still something to this thing called racing. Take some time this month to reflect on what drew you in. Enjoy the moments. The smell. The camaraderie. The variety of cars. The pomp and pageantry on race mornings.

The call to start engines and begin the run, however long it is. The checkered flag after a long day’s work.

This post is definitely guilty of being overly positive. There’s too much good, still, in this sport to have it be drowned out by the negativity. At least I feel that way.

That’s what I’m working on forcing myself to do this month. It’s all about embracing the opportunities and giving thanks for all this sport has given to me.

The next few months may be turbulent through all the changes that are to come in the racing landscape, across several series, but the power of the racing family should push everyone through. I hope it can. 

March Madness: TDZ edition

Earlier this week I tried an attempt at humor; today I figured I’d post something that’s actually serious. How I have the gusto to put another few hundred words together after the last month is beyond me. But, I digress, here’s why the last month has been as crazy as it has.

On the work front

Napleton Racing's Porsche Cayman

Essentially, a month ago, I stood at the crossroads of wondering what it would be like to not be in racing after a one-off PR assignment at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. That went well and one of our cars won in class, a  Napleton Racing-entered Porsche Cayman in the GX class.

The daily grind to find a “real job” is not for the faint of heart. You may think you know what you’re doing in the search process, but in many respects, you have no idea. It’s a tough market out there.

The biggest thing I could advise any soon-to-be graduate entering the market in May, once Easter break is through, is to make and maximize your connections, because you never know what may spring up. That’s what’s now led to going from having one bi-weekly commitment to that plus two major new opportunities.

My name was tossed in the ring for a new blog NBC was launching to complement its Formula 1 and IndyCar coverage, and that launched in late February. MotorSports Talk can be found online as part of NBC’s SportsTalk blog network at motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com.

Additionally, with a few changes happening behind the scenes in terms of equipment and personnel, I have also joined up with the fascinating, innovative and revolutionary DeltaWing project (right) as its PR representative.

The first month has been both exciting and challenging as we thrashed to get to and through the 12 Hours of Sebring. The frustrating element was having such an early engine failure in the race, but we learned a lot as a team, and I certainly learned a lot from my first full week as the lead PR rep for a team. The cliff notes version is that team PR is much harder than it looks. IndyCar blogger Bill Zahren, better known as Pressdog, wrote a good blog post on that topic here. 

On the travel front

What those commitments all meant was a month from February 27 through March 25 where I was home exactly three full days.

I’ve now been to Atlanta as many times in the last month (twice) as in the rest of my life prior to that. That discounts the countless times of actually flying through Atlanta, but with four trips in the bank, it’s now a city I think I know fairly well.

After Atlanta, we road tripped as a team down to Sebring, which was fun. The funny part of the place I stayed in Sebring – a very nice condo/villa that had been rented out for the week – is that the view was gorgeous, the channel lineup was plentiful (it had both NBC Sports Network and SPEED), but it didn’t have Internet! That little wrinkle made it even harder to get all the work done, as it needed to be finished at the track. On the upside, that ensured once I was back to the villa, it was time to put down the laptop and open up a beer.

Post-Sebring I was able to, for the first time, do the Florida double of Sebring, then St. Petersburg for IndyCar and Pirelli World Challenge.

The interim meant a few days up in Tampa, and with that, a chance to take in a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game with a friend. That might have been one of the most fun nights I’ve had in a while; I’d love to bottle that up and take it forward. Otherwise, a restful few days with work done from the hotel room.

I was pleasantly surprised by St. Pete. The city’s nice without being flashy, the track is fairly compact so you can get to most of it quickly, and the racing was pretty solid across all the divisions going on. Great food and drinks with the “racing family” enhanced the experience; it was a very fun weekend.

Josef Newgarden's car on the grid.

IndyCar can’t catch a break

Three of the drivers I’ve been lucky to “grow up with” in my motorsports writing career, as they have progressed up the ladder, all made headlines in St. Pete – two of them for very good reasons. James Hinchcliffe scored a popular and well-judged first win, Simona de Silvestro starred all weekend and was unlucky to finish sixth despite podium pace, and JR Hildebrand… has made better moves in his career.

It was one of the better curtain-raisers in recent years and yet no more than a couple hours after the race, NASCAR was making all the headlines with its last lap contretemps at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin were crashing, Logano and Tony Stewart were fighting, and Hamlin was sitting in his car, shaken and stirred. Suddenly another IndyCar race, where the pure racing was the star, took a backseat to the entertainment in NASCAR… and come Monday, it was the NASCAR race that made the rounds on the talking heads shows. This never surprises me but it never ceases to frustrate me, either.

Marquette’s magical run

Until its dud this Saturday against Syracuse, when all the magic ran out, it has been a remarkable ride for my Marquette Golden Eagles this year.

This was a team picked to finish seventh in the Big East, with an obvious lack of talent compared to the Big East big dogs and two major departures in 2012 BEAST POY Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom, “DJO.”

Buzz Williams did everything and more with this bunch, where Vander Blue emerged as a breakout star after two lackluster seasons and the rest of the team all seemed to improve in one or more areas. Some games were heartbreakers, notably Rotnei Clarke’s miracle three for Butler in Maui.

But more often than not, Marquette pulled it out – from Junior Cadougan’s prayer to send the UConn game into overtime, the Georgetown miss on the third free throw, Jake Thomas (!) and his four-point play against Syracuse, a road-and-home sweep of Pitt and Vander’s buzzer beater to beat St. John’s and clinch a share of the regular season Big East, ensured this was a magical season.

This team had no business playing as well as it did and going as far as it did. But what a ride and what a testament to Buzz and his staff’s coaching effort. I was so happy to be back in Milwaukee from late December to witness it.

LINKED IN CHAINS - TDZ AND RAPPER JOIN FORCES FOR 2013 RACING MEDIA TOUR

LONG BEACH, CALIF. (April 1, 2013) – As part of an innovative, collaborative effort, racing writer Tony DiZinno and rapper 2 Chainz will attempt to fuse rap and racing for the remainder of the 2013 season.

At future racing events where the artist now known simply as “TDZ” attends, he’ll be wearing a massively large, oversized gold chain around his neck. He has modeled it here to give an idea of what he’ll be wearing in media centers around the country.

“I mean, you need to figure out a way to stand out in a crowded media coverage market,” TDZ said. “Wearing a big ass gold chain is one way to do so. This is clearly different than what other reporters would do. I’m excited about this partnership and look forward to rocking this chain at the races I’m attending later this year.”

2 Chainz is using racing as a new means of expression beyond his rap career, which in recent years has included his name change and his debut studio album, “Based on a T.R.U. Story.”

“It’s a great way for me to keep getting my name out there, the fact that I could roll with a guy who would actually wear this type of gold chain,” said 2 Chainz. “The racing world is fast-paced. These racing guys are dropping lap times faster than I’m dropping beats. It’s a natural partnership.”

TDZ dismissed suggestions the gold chain will impact the writing he plans to do at the remaining events he’ll cover this year.

“Anyone that’s seen me type knows very few things can interrupt my furious, mad, typing skills,” he said. “A massive, ridiculous, oversize, gold link chain will be no different.”

TDZ won’t be at the next IndyCar race at Barber, but plans to premiere the chain on the mean streets of the LBC – or the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, for those not keen on acronyms.

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

Jakes (sunglasses, next to Justin Wilson) and Saavedra (red and yellow suit) make the 2013 grid, while TrueCar appears to have turned its back on Katherine Legge. 

What’s happened this offseason isn’t new, but instead the latest chapter in a vicious cycle that seems to play itself out every year in IndyCar.

The business model needed to put together a viable operation requires millions upon millions on an annual basis, and every year catches a handful of decent, above average drivers out. Those who have mastered the game have rides more often than not; it’s to their credit that they’ve figured it out consistently year-on-year.

Most have to bring some amount of money, either via a personal services contract, personal sponsor, manufacturer support or B2B deal to an operation. Rare are the days a driver can be hired solely on his or her talent alone without the need of any financial assistance.

Since sports car racing allows for two or more drivers per car, the story is slightly different. There, a gentleman driver can bring the majority of the budget to a sports car team and allow for a pro co-driver; it’s part of the sport and has been for decades, and particularly in recent years since sports car categories around the world have implemented pro-am driver lineups in certain classes. Many open-wheel drivers have tended to migrate to the sports car ranks in recent years to continue their careers, and some have thrived.

With IndyCar, the same need for the driver to bring a portion of the budget to the operation has arisen. It was never particularly prevalent outside of a handful of drivers until the infamous open-wheel split of 1996, but slowly but surely each year, from Dennis Vitolo’s SmithKline Beecham rides, to the Herdez years of Michel Jourdain Jr. and Mario Dominguez, to the last CART year of 2003 when teams were supported by the series, to the gluttony of seemingly fly-by-night sponsors and drivers that appeared throughout the Champ Car World Series years from 2004 to 2007, the number has grown. There’s countless more in that same time frame but those are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head at the moment.

It’s now the case, even since IndyCar’s unification in 2008, where the definition has shifted from “pay-driver” to “bringing money.” A “pay-driver” is generally bemoaned as someone only racing on the grounds of their money (think Milka Duno), where “bringing money” is more often accepted as a relatively talented shoe adding some commercial value to a program that might not otherwise exist (say, either of the two at Chip Ganassi Racing’s satellite team the last two years, Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball).

So it appears E.J. Viso, Sebastian Saavedra and James Jakes will have rides this year, and barring any late changes Ryan Briscoe, Rubens Barrichello and Katherine Legge will not. On talent alone that’s unfortunate, but also speaks to the reality of their situations.

Viso enters his sixth season in IndyCar, in each having been backed by the Venezuelan company PDVSA (and its CITGO brand last year), but has made significant strides year-on-year. Originally an exciting but crash-filled driver, Viso matured thanks to tutelage and race strategy called by Jimmy Vasser a year ago, and had a solid turn of speed at the start. The hope is he grows further at Andretti Autosport this year, reunited with some former HVM staff including his then-engineer Michael Cannon.

Beyond his native country’s support, Viso’s also invested in the future of the series by establishing “Team Viso Venezuela” as a way to create awareness and opportunities for his younger countrymen. Bruno Palli and Diego Ferreira are the first two in this program, each having run full Star Mazda seasons in 2012 with Palli stepping up to Indy Lights for the season finale.

Saavedra, say what you will about a lack of results, but has also grown thanks to a step down to Indy Lights after coming up to race with Conquest a year earlier. That level-headedness and renewed relationship with mentor and team principal Gary Peterson provided him another chance to regain confidence and further track time. He made three IndyCar starts and punched above his weight in each, a last-minute day one qualifying attempt to make the field at Indianapolis followed by a respectable practice and qualifying weekend in Sonoma.

Jakes – persistent and reliable if not particularly quick – finds himself in a similar situation to other drivers with sponsorship that have advanced into Bobby Rahal’s team from a lesser squad. If he can emulate a Jourdain, a guy who was not thought of highly in his formative years at Coyne but morphed into a race-winner and potential championship threat, he would be less maligned than simply being known as the guy with Acorn Stairlifts support.

Legge appears to have gotten the short end of the stick more than the others – Briscoe’s status has been impacted by Roger Penske shuttering his third car full-time while Barrichello had one of his 2012 backers pull out, thus prompting a trip back home to Brazil. Legge’s TrueCar program activated and made her the front person of its six-driver “Women Empowered” campaign in 2012, but the deal was through her Dragon Racing team rather than her personally, it so appeared. The late decision to take her out may have shuttered her last best big chance.

Are any of these three future champions? Most likely not. They could be potential race winners or podium finishers if they play their cards right. Where they have succeeded is in mastering the game as it exists now, and it’s a message to those who want to stay involved that a mix of talent, backing and figuring out how to lock in deals is required for further series participation. 

Post-Tryptophan Thoughts

The tryptophan from the turkey and other blissful Thanksgiving food items have finally worn off after two days. I’ll be feeling the urge to post a longer entry in the coming days as my time in California is coming to a conclusion. In the meantime, a few items on which I’d like to opine…

***

The first is Notre Dame’s win over USC this evening in a game that was decided nearly equally by Notre Dame’s great defense and USC’s anemic play calling and time and score management. I couldn’t believe my eyes as after USC chucked a 50-plus yard bomb down to the 1-yard line, and then failed to crack the end zone on several different attempts.

They were mostly run plays even though they never had a chance against the vaunted Notre Dame D, and then, as USC was down nine points and needing two scores, USC head coach Lane Kiffin inexplicably failed to take three points for a field goal attempt.

Congrats to Notre Dame. Unlike people who are vehemently on one side or another, I’ve always been fairly neutral on the Fighting Irish and feel great for their fan base and alumni that they’ll have the chance to play for a national championship. It will be fascinating to see what Alabama or Georgia will offer against the buzz saw of a defense, led by Heisman Trophy contender LB Manti Te’o.

***

This weekend, after the Thanksgiving Day festivities featuring football, family and food, marks the end of the 2012 Formula 1 season, and for that matter, the 2012 racing season. The Brazilian Grand Prix finale has the potential to be a barnburner, with Fernando Alonso 13 points back of Sebastian Vettel as each seeks their third World Championship.

I’m not a huge fan of either but Alonso’s been nothing short of a miracle worker in maximizing points out of a vastly inferior Ferrari, compared to Vettel’s usually bulletproof (save for alternator issues) and all-conquering Red Bull as perfected by master aerodynamicist Adrian Newey. With Red Bull having the Constructor’s title in hand, I’d love to see my driver of the year overhaul the gap to Vettel to score the title.

***

The other note from Brazil beyond the title chase is that it marks the end of a few eras. Notably, Michael Schumacher signs off again, and this time it’s likely to stick at age 43, after his comeback has yielded little in the way of results but allowed him three more years to compete against the new wave of F1 talent. Much respect for the seven-time World Champion, and if the projected rain delivers on Sunday, there could be one more heroic drive left in him.

HRT, too, appears set to fold with no buyer likely to acquire to its assets after Sunday’s race. Although they have failed to attract the same level of “minnow fan support” as the standard-bearing Minardi team did, they did make it onto an F1 grid in difficult economic times for three years, and provide dozens of jobs and a place for three drivers (Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna, Daniel Ricciardo) to make their debuts. You never want to see a team fold and the impact it has is always deeper than the loss of just two cars on the grid.

Their departure, which would impact Pedro de la Rosa, would have a two-pronged effect on the changing status of the grid. Schumacher’s retirement and de la Rosa’s leaving takes away the last two drivers on the grid who raced in the 1990s – Jenson Button’s 2000 debut would be the earliest among current drivers. Schumacher, too, is the last driver born in the 1960s likely to start an F1 race.

SPEED, too, is set to air its final Grand Prix after nearly 16 years. David Hobbs and Steve Matchett are set to move to NBC but Bob Varsha is not, a shame as Varsha has long been considered the American voice of the sport. Leigh Diffey should perform well as his replacement, though, and has the rare pedigree of being both young and experienced, with unquestionable enthusiasm to match. A big thanks to all involved on SPEED’s broadcasts for their efforts in making F1 one of the few truly watchable programs on the network…

It’s going to be difficult to sleep just with having as much anticipation as I do for Sunday’s Brazilian GP. But it’ll be worth a shot.