Hi all
After a hectic couple of weeks when I have been run ragged by life I now have some quiet(ish) time coming up so I can concentrate on blogging again. Both the IRL and F1 are racing this weekend at Sonoma and Valencia respectively and I will be previewing those events. The F1 race at Valencia will be held on a cracking street circuit that promises to provide some excitement, whoever designed the track really knows how to design street circuits, someone should hire him over here to redesign some of the street circuits used in the IRL, as most bar Long Beach and Surfers paradise are absolute shite (see Belle Isle Park). My good friend and co-operator in the blogging business Pete DaSilva has a great first post about the street circuit on his new blog here: http://formulaoneamerica.blogspot.com/.
In news and notes, it appears that things aren't going so hot (or perhaps too hot) for Penske racing in the IRL as their transporter carrying their race cars and pit equipment for the Sonoma race caught fire last night en route to the race. Team manager Tim Cindric estimates that the losses will be a few million dollars, which will hurt the team. Penske has no shortage of money do to their Marlboro connections (they are essentially still Marlboro Team Penske they way that in F1 Ferrari are still essentially Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro), but with the championship push still technically on, this is a really unfortunate disaster for them. They do have backup cars that they can fly in from their base in North Carolina but apparantly they are Oval configured cars for the twisty sonoma track. If Penske get a significant result this weekend it will be a great performance from their drivers.
In other IRL notes, the entry list for the Sonoma race has been released with sadly no Paul Tracy, but with the return of the fast but accident prone (not another one!) Tomas Scheckter for Luczo Dragon Racing and with Mario Dominguez racing because it is a road course. Unfortunately Marty Roth is still entered as the driver for his own team, so there is one extra hazard on the track this weekend. If the IRL wants to be taken seriously, this dingus and his ego have to go, they can't keep letting Mad Dog Marty putz around getting in the way and expect people, especially Europeans, to take the league seriously. Marty's presence just makes the league look amateur and unsophisticated at the same time that Tony George is trying to make people believe that the IRL is a major motorsports series. If revoking Roth's racing license means having one less car each weekend then it is a risk that Tony should be willing to take because he no longer needs these lousy backmarkers to make up the field. Right now there is a solid 20-something serious entries per race with talented drivers in the cars, but Roth and sometimes Milka Duno are still there miles off the pace bringing the whole series down. In 1992 F1 banned the Andrea Moda team for bringing the sport into disrepute and maybe it is time that the IRL do the same to Marty Roth.
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2 comments:
It is one of the things that has bothered me about the IRL; quality of some of the drivers. AJ Foyt IV was one of them. For a large part of his career he did not need to be there. His complete lack of skills basically destroyed Bruno Junquiera's career when he tangled with Foyt at the Indy 500. He has shaped up a bit, but he did not need to be there. I suppose the same with Roth. Another example would be the late Paul Dana. :(
I was hoping that with the reunification these clowns would be off the track, but maybe we will have to wait until next year when we have the first truly unified season. It is sad that Roth and Duno are still there while Talented drivers like Paul Tracy, Alex Tagliani, Sarah Fisher, Buddy Lazier, and Tomas Scheckter are either out or have to run part time schedules.
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