GAINSCO Indy 300-Season Opener-*live blog*

OK… here we go kids. Strap in for a night of *cough* “exciting” *cough* racing.

Not the most exciting opening bumper I’ve seen for a race…

Vision Racing cars bumped to back due to an unexplained technical infraction… (apparently they do not divulge the infractions) That bumps Princess Permapout to the front row. (how convenient)

Once they got the obligatory pimping of Danica in a bikini and Helio doing the mambo out of the way, they got back to talking about racing.

Marty Reid is horrifyingly awful. OMG. Make him stop.
Scott Goodyear… bland.

The whole production is bland. Bland bland bland.

There are a few folks in the stands. (thank god… cause from what I was hearing at around 6:30pm there weren’t that many people there)

Edit: Well, they are on track for the warm up laps. Just showed Graham up in the press box with his dad.

I’m feeling queazy… with nerves… and not in a good way. God, I hope I don’t feel this tense for every race this season.
First run at the green waved off.
here we go… green green green…

Edit: Wheldon is cutting through the field like a hot knife through butter.
What the fuck is up with the sparks!? Holy shit.

Edit: OMG… make that noise stop!!
Princess Permapout is driving backwards.

Edit: The one thing that they do get right is keeping the on track action in view during commercials. Oh and Marty Reid butchers the first of the Champ Car drivers names. (Mario Moraes)

Edit: First yellow. Rice loses a mirror. Kanaan had just gotten around Dixon for the lead. The field bunches up and hits the pits. (Lap 19) Dixon wins the pitlane drag race and regains the lead. Hideki UhOh stalls on pitlane.. oops. Wheldon is up to 9th

Edit: J-Wil and Will Power may have hit on the restart.

Edit: J-Wil had a flat tire. Power is out. No reason given yet.

Edit: bent front suspension for Will.

Edit: Bruno out. (not surprised… he was 5 laps down for chrissake) Bruno: Car got really loose. Stopped to make a change, but it’s still too loose. Car was barely drivable, he was becoming more of a hazard to the other drivers. Decided to pull the car off the track.

Edit: the poor flag stand dude! His arm is gonna be sore tomorrow waving the blue flag so much… LOL!

Edit: Oriol in 12th, Perera in 13th, both on the lead lap. Good boys! (boy, Franck is the real deal huh?)

Edit: jeezus… that was close. Apparently Andretti-the-lesser grew some stones in the off season.

Edit: Danican’t is all over the track.

Edit: Jeemy… too funny. It’s not that bad dude. Cookie boy’s a couple of laps down but he’s doing well.

Edit: it’s very weird watching a race on a Saturday night… just sayin is all…

Edit: nice tire mark on the side pod of Helio…

Edit: Milk&Donuts loses it and spins into the back of Briscoe, snapping his rear suspension and ripping the wing off ending his night. WTF is the deal with these cars going ass end towards the wall? Both drivers out and ok. Track is dirty now though.

Edit: Briscoe is very complimentary of the transitioning teams saying they are all driving well and sticking to their lines making it easier for the faster drivers to get by. Yay, Kudos to our boys :thumsup:

Edit: Jack Arute needs to go away too…

Edit: one of the tools in the booth just welcomed us back to the “XM 300″… fucktard. :rollseyes:
Andretti the lesser made the wrong choice there and hands the lead to Tony Kanaan.

Edit: seriously… can they not fix the microphone levels on the pit lane?? The production value of this broadcast is fucking horrible.

Edit: Oops. Viso loses it and takes out the race leader Kanaan with a handful of laps to go. Well HVM will be working hard this week to fix what is left of his car.

Edit: Dixon, Andretti-the-lesser, Wheldon.
Geesh… No victory lap. No donuts. Nice celebration. :rollseyes:

Edit: Servia 12th, Perera 14th, Wilson 15th, Moraes 16th. (all still running)

wrap up: Well, guess that was my first official IRL race… :vomit: I will never use the term IRL again. IndyCar is more palatable.

I don’t feel like I’ve watched a race to be truthful. I mean, I’ve watched some Champ Car snoozefests, don’t get me wrong, but this was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally boring. On the bright side, no one flew. No one was injured. Only one of the transitioning teams cars was heavily damaged.

Ok… off to write my official race report.

2 more sleeps and the anticipation is…

barely registering actually…

It is hard to believe that we are 2.5 days away from the season opener of the reunification of American Open Wheel racing.

Despite the best efforts of the many spin doctors, the general consensus on both sides of the now fallen fence is “whoopdee fucking do…”

While I agree in principle that the unification had to happen sooner rather than later, and am in the same camp as those who believe both sides would have come to a demoralizing end mid to late season, this…? Well, this is just a mess.

Open wheel racing has been gutted, and the underbelly is exposed and oozing ugly, petty, sinister stories. I think that is the part that is bothering me the most at this point.

No, I’m not that naive. Over the years the closer and closer to the inside I got, the more aware I became of the dark side of the sport. At times I became disillusioned, but for the most part there was enough “good” to allow me to overlook the bad and just enjoy.

Right now? Not much good going on.

Those of us who are forging forward, be it on teams, at events, in the series, in the media… we’re exhausted. Mentally, physically, emotionally, drained. Instead of properly and thoroughly preparing for the season ahead, we are throwing it together in a “make due” sort of way, hoping it will all sort itself out somehow once the season is underway. We’re swimming upstream, against the tide.

To make matters worse we’re not all pulling in the same direction.

The series, while unified, is still divided. In a “best case” scenario, all of the Champ Car teams would have made the transition. But, for reasons which we may never get full understanding of or truthful answers about, that did not happen. And judging by the lawsuits and in some cases silence, it likely never will.

The fanbase is as fractured as ever, but now instead of two sides there are 3 or 4 or more! The dyed in the wool IRListas, the fanatic Champ Car fans, the fans of the split & discord itself, the casual followers who likely have no idea what is going on, the “wait & see’rs”, & it seems the most hated of all, the ones like myself, that are willing to give it a chance and accept what has happened for better or worse and try to find the silver lining. (really, other than just walking away, what choice do we have at this point?)

Hell, even the the website I write for is split. All three teams (N.American, Dutch & German) have had editors drop out. The ones that remain are in a “work to rule” state of mind. (“I’ll write about it but I won’t enjoy it damnit!”)
This has left the three managing editors (a role I recently had to take over on the N. American side) working triple overtime to pick up the slack. (too bad there is no compensation cause I’d certainly be making some nice coin with the hours I’m putting in!) This wouldn’t be a big issue except for the fact that we were essentially a Champ Car only website which now requires a major overhaul to cover the unified series. We (the 3 sites) released our “mission statements” simultaneously tonight, announcing our intentions to embrace the unified series, and pleading for patience while we get the site up to speed. It will be a work in progress, much like the unified series I guess. Perhaps once we’re into the season, the rest of the team will find their “happy place” again and jump back in with vigor.

For me personally, I’m sort of numb.
The legit site is sucking the writing life out of me right now in preparation for the season, so I haven’t really had too much time to sit and stew creatively and unabashedly here in blogland. My spare time (and not so spare time) has been spent sifting through articles and press releases and driver/team websites to update our site, and keep ahead of the constant barrage of news filing in.
Gotta hand it to the IndyCar folk I must say. The cars may suck and the tracks may suck and the engines may suck but the PR/Marketing dept is way ahead of the curve. That’s one of the things that Champ Car never quite mastered unfortunately.
Control the message, get ahead of the story. So simple a concept, and yet so elusive in it’s execution.

Mainly, when it comes right down to it, I guess… I’m sad.
I’m sad that I’m not beside myself with anticipation for this weekends race.
I’m sad that so many friends have lost their jobs, or their motivation, or their ‘fandom’.
I’m sad that people I have championed and supported have disappointed me so.
I’m sad for the loss of adrenaline pumped racing conversation I so enjoy.
Mostly though, I’m desperately sad for Paul (Tracy).

My heart breaks for him this weekend. To have your livelihood… your passion, held hostage out of pettiness. Disgraceful. It saddens and angers me in ways I can’t even find words for.
If anyone should be in a car this weekend, it is him.

The irony of course is that I get to watch the Season opener live on TSN. To my knowledge I wasn’t going to get to watch any races in Canada prior to the merge… Shallow victory that.

and with that… I close the lid on my laptop for a few hours and think happy thoughts

this stuff writes itself…

Seriously… are his PR people that naive or out of touch with popular culture?

well now… things just got a little more interesting…

Andretti Green Promotions Signs Letter of Intent to Purchase Grand Prix of Toronto Assets

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (March 18, 2008) – Andretti Green Promotions, LLC announced today it has signed a letter of intent to purchase the assets of the Grand Prix Association of Toronto Corp.

The letter, which is dated March 14, 2008, runs through a period ending on April 30, 2008. Andretti Green Promotions, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Andretti Green Racing, will begin a process of due diligence immediately to determine if it will proceed to the next step, which would be to enter into a purchase agreement with the Grand Prix Association of Toronto.

The terms of the letter of intent will not be disclosed.

The Grand Prix Association of Toronto owns and operates the Grand Prix of Toronto, which has been a mainstay in the North American Indy racing landscape since 1986 and also saw events in 1977 and 1978.
Andretti, who also co-owns Andretti Green Racing with Kim Green and Kevin Savoree, ended his driving career following last year’s Indianapolis 500, but not before winning 42 races – seven of which came in Toronto. Team Green, the predecessor to Andretti Green Racing, captured two Toronto wins, one with driver Dario Franchitti in 1999 and another with Andretti behind the wheel in 2001.

Andretti Green Promotions has been operating since 2004 when it announced it would stage the Indy Racing League’s first non-oval event ever on April 3, 2005. Since then, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has become a cornerstone of the IndyCar Series, Indy Pro Series and American Le Mans Series schedules.

The fourth-annual Honda Grand Prix will take place April 4-6, 2008, and will again feature two Indy Pro Series races, the Acura Sports Car Challenge ALMS race and the Honda Indy St. Pete IndyCar Series event.

Andretti Green Racing, based in Indianapolis, Ind., was founded in 2002 and stands as the winningest team in IndyCar Series history. The team has 32 IndyCar Series wins, four Indy Pro Series victories and three IndyCar Series championships to its credit (2004, 2005 and 2007). Andretti Green has won the Indianapolis 500 twice, as well, in 2005 and 2007. In addition to its Indy Racing League program, Andretti Green expanded into the American Le Mans Series with Acura in 2007 with and made an immediate impact, capturing an historic class win at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Michael Andretti, chairman, Andretti Green Racing:
“Toronto is a place that I have always loved. It’s a great racetrack and a great venue. Racing there was always the highlight of my year and it’s exciting to think that we’re exploring the possibility of owning the event. I was fortunate enough to win there seven times as a driver and all of those wins were special. If we were able to put a deal together to own and operate an event in Toronto, I would certainly count that as another win there, for sure.”

Kevin Savoree, president and chief operating officer, Andretti Green Racing;
managing director, Andretti Green Promotions:
“This is an exciting first step in the process. Having the letter of intent in place allows Andretti Green Promotions a chance to look at all the opportunities that exist in Toronto and evaluate its future. There is a great deal of due diligence to complete and a lot of hours in front of us, but we’re looking forward to getting started. Toronto has always been one of the true signature events in Indy racing and Mike, Kim and I are looking forward to exploring our options there.”

Charlie Johnstone, president & ceo, Grand Prix of Toronto:
“The expressed interest by Andretti Green Promotions to own the Grand Prix of Toronto speaks volumes to the stature this event maintains in open wheel racing in North America. We look forward to working with Michael, Kim, Kevin and their team over the course of the next several weeks to pull this off.”

*Keeps fingers crossed for resurrection of home event*

A1GP Mexican Feature race *live* – March 16/08

They certainly do do a lot of things right. (they being A1GP)
The website, the email alerts, the live timing and live video (FREE and cross platform compatible) Oh and I love that the tear aways on their visors have the date and location of the next race. How smart is that?!

Great crowd in Mexico today! (very sad that our boys aren’t going to be racing there this year… *sigh*)

The starting lights malfunctioned during the first attempt at the start so they shut the cars down, allowed them to cool down and decided that they will instead “drop the flag” .

Nice start!!! Go Robbie!

*side thought, I wonder how confident everyone is with Ferrari taking over the engines next year after last nights F1 debacle…*

Edit: All 22 cars still cleanly through the course and still running after 3 laps. Good boys!

Edit: ooh Robbie! a little Kubica off roading there

Edit: nice piece of driving by Jani there. Probably smart of Robbie to let him go. (mathematically Canada is out of the Championship run, so jeopardizing Jani’s run wouldn’t be prudent) Jani clearly has the faster car as well. (he’s really pulled away)

Edit: Switzerland and Canada in the pits. clean and out.

Edit: shit… stellar pit by Ireland got them out infront of Robbie to snag 2nd spot. Come on Robbie! Hang in there!

Edit: fuck! Robbie drops another spot. (nice pass by Great Britain that!)

Edit: geesh! here comes Germany now. (and this guy does not race clean) Robbie’s car is just falling away…

Edit: holy crap! talk about edge of your seat dicing. *whew* … OK… yellow flag… Yikes. This could get dicey on the restart though. (wow, they sure go fast behind the pace car! )

Edit: here we go… clean restart! *whew* but USA is all over the back of Robbie.

Edit: 16 to go or 20 mins… USA got around Robbie

Edit: Ouch! contact with Germany and Canada. Robbie is away clean. Germany to the pits.

Edit: final pit window open… here we go kids…

Edit: Wooohoo! Ireland takes the lead. Happy St. Patty’s day weekend for them!

Edit: wow! Drive through penalty for Jani! (racing on pitlane) with only 5 laps to go. Dang! go Ireland go!

Edit: So New Zealand and Switzerland are out of the points! OUCH! (Jani is lucky that Reid had brain fade)

Edit: AWESOME RACING!!! Holy Crap! Good clean race boys! beautiful dicing for the last 2 laps with GB & USA. Ireland wins! Green beer for everyone!! (they are the sister team for our Canadian team, so we can celebrate too!!) As an Irish-Canadian myself, I may have to join in the celebration tonight!

1. Ireland (first ever win!!)
2. Great Britain
3. USA

*5. Canada (good on ya Robbie for hanging in there and fighting off the wolves!)

Edit: another A+ to A1GP for continuing the feed throughout the podium ceremony. Seriously high marks all around today.

Edit: Holy schnicky! That’s a big ass trophy!!

Edit: oh Neel… don’t be a poor sport… serve your penalty like a man. (fuck I hate whiners)

Edit: another thing they do right… top 3 interviews out on the podium, in public.

Enjoyable afternoon of racing! Thanks boys!