Weekend racing Preview

There is no Formula One this weekend, but there is IRL racing in Nashville and MotoGP in Germany to speak of. I will start with the Indy Cars and they will be back on another oval track, this one with a concrete surface, making it more difficult to drive. There will only be 24 cars taking the green flag this weekend as Mario Dominguez's Pacific Coast team has not shown up, EJ Viso has contracted the mumps, yes the mumps, and in such short notice HVM will not field a replacement driver while Marty Roth's antics continue as he has decided not to field a second car for Jay Howard or John Andretti and he will be the only driver for his team. Assuming he crashes sometime in practice, the odds he will start the race are low and we may only see 23 cars at the start of the race as opposed to the 26 we have seen in the last few races. Roth's antics have really made an ass out of himself and his team. He has been black flagged for dangerous driving, he has been painfully slow, and he has crashed numerous times. Three DNS's from 9 races he entered due to accidents is simply unacceptable if the IRL wants to be taken seriously and although the best efforts of Brian Barnhart, the chief steward of the IRL, to sit him down, he is still allowed to race due to the fact that he has an IRL license. The problem facing the IRL is that they want to have as many entries as possible and if they revoke Mad Dog Marty's license he will probably take his toys and go home (aka close down his team) and the IRL does not want to lose an extra entries. Marty's midlife crisis of racing in the IRL appears only to be stoppable by a serious injury to Marty or the death of a fellow competitor due to an accident caused by his bad driving, which is a black mark against the lead (fancy how his car is all black). Roth has the business sense and racing experience to run a succesful race team without him driving, but his arrogance and desire to "live the dream" will hold ROth racing back. I would be surprised if we see much more of this team in the future and would be surprised to see them on the grid full time in 2009, although we may see him at Indy again next year. Let's just hope he doesn't qualify. On the track in Nashville I don't expect to see many surprises up front with Ganassi, Penske, and Andretti-Green taking the top few positions. One of the small teams like Rahal-Letterman, Panther, or Newman/Haas/Lanigan may get a top five, but with the big three so strong on the ovals I would be surprised. After a disastrous race at Watkin's Glen I tip the Ganassi boys, Dixon and Wheldon, to win this week, although the perenially strong, but unlucky Helio Castroneves could contend, not to mention Kanaan and Marco Adretti at Andretti-Green who could be right there.

On two wheels the MotoGP riders will be challenging the hills of the Sachensring in Germany. The humerously named Casey Stoner arrives with the momentum of having won the last two races but still trails championship leader Dani Pedrosa by 29 points, who has been on the podium in 8 of the 9 races this year, and in the other race he was fourth. Gazillion-times world Champion Valentino Rossi is second in the standings only four points behind Pedrosa and the "old man" of motorcycle racing (old being relative as he is 29) has plenty of experience and can never be counted out. He hasn't won a title since 2005, an epic drought in Rossi terms, and he will be Jonesing to get the number 1 back on his bike and after having finished a season worst 11th at Assen two weeks ago he will be hard charging to get his championship lead back. The race should come down to those three men, although rookie Jorge Lorenzo could pull a surprise, should be interesting.

In Indycar news and notes it appears that Paul Tracy is all but confirmed to race for Vision racing in a car run by Derrick Walker. The car is ready, sponsorship is there, PT just has to put pen to paper on the deal. The stumbling block appears to be money and Paul's ego (surprise, surprise), but the deal is expected to be done very soon. Another Canadian, Alex Tagliani, also appears to be close to making a return to open wheel racing. The Champ Car veteran has been in the motor racing purgatory of the NASCAR Canadian tire series and has been linked with a move to Conquest racing to replace the perenially useless Enrique Bernoldi. Team Owner Eric Bachelart is apparantly unimpressed with the ex Arrows-F1 man's performances and his attitude. Tag also claimed he had recieved offers from two teams. although it is unknown if one of those two was the Vision deal or if it was from someone else. We will see how this plays out, but the Edmonton organizers will want a big name Canadian driver, with all offence intended to Marty Roth.

Oh, and there is a NASCAR race somewhere in the US, I think Chicago.