It's weird but this weekend was only the second one this summer since my junior year of classes got done that I haven't either been covering a race or traveling. Every other one but the first in June, I've either been at a track, on the road, or covering a race from home.
So much of work is done during the week so the whole notion of always working weekends, in a different location but with the same sets of players, is highly opposite of most regular weekly warriors. I love it.
I'm not the office type and not having had a "normal" or "by the book" job during my high school and college summers, the nomadic lifestyle is a fun one - so much that a weekend like this having done nothing at all was hard to come to grips with. Being on the go so much, I almost feel guilty having a few days of just relaxing...
Some other weekend thoughts:
I NEED to get to Toronto at some point. Twice before (in 1998 and last year) I had opportunities to go but circumstances wound up prohibiting me from attending. Everything about Canada, particularly emphasized this year with the Winter Olympics in Vancouver plus the gosh-darn kindness of the Canadians I've met in my racing travels, has drawn me to getting there but so far it hasn't happened. That has to change.
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Sunday marked the end of ABC's five-race run of inferior TV coverage of the IZOD IndyCar Series. They weren't nearly as off-the-ball at Toronto as two weeks ago in Watkins Glen but the few folks that tuned in I'm sure will appreciate the treatment from Versus the rest of the way.
Toronto's ratings won't receive the standard British Open bump either since it wasn't on ABC as a lead-in but rather on ESPN. I'm wondering if those will be lower since Louis Oosthuizen turned the "birthplace of golf," St. Andrews, into his personal playland and sucked the life out of the tournament. Not his fault, as Louis seemed a pleasant enough chap who was a deserving winner, but a rout of the field does not compelling TV make (in fairness, not a lot of ESPN's programming these days is).
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So last Wednesday IndyCar unveiled the "new car strategy" for 2012. A few positives are of course, the huge cost reductions on the new tub and new jobs created in Indiana. The negatives are a lack of a rolling tub or physical proof to showcase at the announcement beyond the holograms and 3D mockups of what the new spec IndyCar Safety Cell looks like.
That's one damning thing - that it's still spec. For all the talk about open competition, I'm not sure what manufacturers will be lining up to build the aero kits on the safety cell. Why would a company like Swift, Lola (which has now been spit on twice in two years losing an F1 entry and now the new IndyCar which could have served a dual purpose for IndyCar and Indy Lights) or BAT want to dole out kits and only be able to sell at a $70K price point? Especially after they've basically been spat on by the ICONIC committee? The R.O.I. is still too small for major manufacturers, chassis and engine providers alike, to sink more money in a tight economy.
I also can't help but think if this keeps the series stagnant in its Indy-centric mantra where everything revolves around the Speedway. Picking Dallara largely on the basis of its promise to build a new facility mere miles from the track alienates the series from expanding beyond its borders. And for what, 80 jobs?
The rollbacks of $150K on the tub to Indianapolis-based teams affects Penske, Newman/Haas, Dale Coyne and A.J. Foyt's operations, the four which are not based there. Penske will be fine of course but the other three still operate on relatively smaller budgets in comparison - and say what you will about Tony George but he would have never left Foyt's team in a compromised position in the early days of the IndyCar Series.
It's a weird direction to be going because at present, the new IndyCar is going to be a glorified kit car if it gets several other manufacturers. At worst, as others have said, it's 33 kit Dallara-Hondas - again - at Indianapolis come 2012. For all the hoopla surrounding the Centennial, the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, it will still be 33 of the same next year and a still cloudy outlook for what will be racing there the year after.
Too much of IndyCar's mantra and attitude has been big buildups and not huge, but somewhat resounding thuds, for major announcements such as this one. It's unfortunate and of course it's still more than 18 months before the 2012 opener, but hopefully manufacturers get interested in what is still an unfinished product.
It's back on the road Thursday to Lime Rock Park for the next ALMS race. Out for now, cheers.
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