PT on Windtunnel 02/03

“twinkle toes Castroneves danced out of the room with my trophy”

hehe… that’s my boy

Well Paul was certainly way more diplomatic than I would have been. (and will not be in about two paragraphs) Not that I expected anything less. He may do the smack talk shit at the track to stir the story when needed, but when it counts, he bangs it out of the park with class. Good on you Paul. You make us all proud.

“I’m under contract and he’s prepared to keep me under contract”

With that line he confirmed what I already knew; That his only hope of driving in the unified series this year, other than the sham that will be Long Beach, is if Jerry changes his diaper er… mind and brings the team over or if someone antes up a ridiculous fucking amount of money to buy him out of his contract.

Since I’m currently not looking for a ride, I’m not going to be as diplomatic. (get the children out of the room… ) Here’s my homage to Dave Despain’s My Take:

I think it’s fucking disgusting to even entertain the thought of sitting Paul out for a season. It’s petty, it’s spiteful, it oozes disrespect and it’s a kick in the nads not only to Paul, but to all of us who have supported Forsythe and Paul over the years.

This guy stuck it out when all the other guys followed the paycheck. This guy put up with bullshit calls and bullshit fines and still stepped up & spoke out on behalf of the series whenever called upon. What a fucking disrespectful way to treat the winningest current open wheel driver and the man who worked his ass off to bring you the championship when it counted most.

At a time when he should be enjoying the twilight years of his open wheel career, and going out in a blaze of glory, he is virtually being held hostage and fucked over because of some ego driven grudge match. GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELF JERRY! You don’t want to play? fine. Just let Paul do what he does. What he’s been doing for YOU for the last 5 yrs! Fuck. I’m so fucking pissed off I could spit nails.

FURTHERMORE…to all of the delusional fuckwits out there in interwebfuckinglalaland who think that GF is doing this out because of some strong sense of principle or as some noble act towards the fans, or to protect PT from harm (that one made me LAUGH OUT FUCKING LOUD) put down the fucking crack pipe!!

This is spite. Pure and simple. This is a petulant child scooping up his tonka truck and stomping out of the sandbox because he didn’t get his way.

It just goes to show that you can have all the money in the world but you still can’t buy the things that matter most. How the owner of a racing team could have so little understanding and respect for the mind and heart of a racer is absolutely gobsmacking.

Furthermore AGAIN… how any “fan” of a driver would prefer that said driver retire or go to some other form of racing out of some sense of loyalty to some fanatic ideal… again… get over it. I’m glad that slurry Dave from Cali asked the stoopid question. Now I just hope that the real fans actually listened to the answer. Paul Tracy is an open wheel racer. At the present time, in order to do WHAT HE DOES and WHAT HE LOVES he has no choice. To hold him to something he said half a dozen years ago when the situation was entirely different is ridiculously myopic and self serving.

I really hope that someone comes to their senses and fixes this situation.

Again, I’m absolutely gutted for Paul. This is so unthinkably unfair.

*going to stop typing now… and breathe deeply for a few minutes…*

boogity, boogity, boogity…

So in an attempt to branch out and open my mind and heart to other genres of racing, I had a Nascar day yesterday.

First of all, let me just say that as an open wheel fan I was impressed and admittedly jealous of the coverage. Are you kidding me?? HOURS of mindnumbingly boring albeit LIVE coverage of practice, qualifying, magazine type interview shows and of course the race, split across 2 networks! Granted, I wouldn’t have played along had Patreek not made it to the show. Not only is he in todays race, but he hopped on the “claim jumper” bandwagon. (gah… let me tell you, I could go a lifetime without hearing that term and explanation again…)

As a Carpentier fan, it was a very good day. He was a last minute replacement for the fluish Kasey Kahne, and qualified well for the Nationwide race. I got to watch him practice for the Sprint race, which he impressively locked himself into during the “go or go home” qualifying, (bumping Wallmandinger *snicker*) then change into his “Wisk” nomex and run across the paddock with a plate of food while being interviewed on his way to driver intros for the Nationwide race.

I love seeing Pat again. Oh how I’ve missed him. (he was “my guy” until he put the nail in his open wheel coffin by jumping the fence to Cheever in the IRL) I love that the good ol’ boys seem to have embraced him over the other open-wheelers. Not surprised by that. He is a great guy and a great interview which they seem to have figured out.

The race:

His lack of seat time and rookie “greenness” shone brightly unfortunately as he missed his pit box completely then got dinged with a speeding infraction and ended up at the back of the pack. Thinking back to all the years I spent listening to him on the scanner I giggled imagining the pitch of his voice getting higher and higher as he got more frustrated! My friend Steven and I showed our own “greenness” as we cheered his apparent 21 spot gain coming out of the pits! LOL! (now that would be a fucking impressive pit stop!!)

Despite the miscue and do-over, our boy kept his nose clean and his ass off the wall and pulled off an 8th place finish! Awesome!!

Here’s the kicker though… IT WAS BORING AS HELL!!

20 laps, wreck, 20 laps, wreck… a record breaking number of yellows… zzzzzzzzzz. I wasn’t even so much watching as I was listening to the race. (actually I’m “watching” the Sprint race right now… while writing, reading, etc… etc…) Polar opposite to watching a champ car race. I barely look away from the screen for that. There is an adrenaline rush that just doesn’t seem to be there in stock cars, at least until the last 8 or so laps when you’re wondering if they can keep it off the wall long enough to take the checkers.

I’m sure it’s partially a lack of understanding of the dynamics of this form of racing (if it’s any consolation to the Nascar aficionados I also find ALMS a snoozefest too) not to mention I am really not a fan of ovals (in any genre of racing), but hey, I’m giving it a chance. I’ve decided I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired of the martyrdom, ignorance and snootiness that has gone along with my racing choices over the years. I’ve allowed myself to be influenced by group speak and politics. Enough! I’m going to broaden my horizons, and open myself and my mind to new experiences. I’m not saying I’m going to be tuning into Nascar every weekend. Admittedly, I will likely only tune in if Pat is running. (for instance, I’m tuned in now, watching the poor boy drop like a stone through the field…) While not a fan of the racing itself, I am fascinated by the culture of it and the phenomenal marketing machine that it is. Hell, without even watching a race, I could name 20-30 Nascar drivers and their primary sponsors just based on commercials and print ads! If I can learn more about that and somehow parlay it into helping some of the up and coming open wheelers, then it’s worth it.

Anyhoo… that’s what was on my mind… now, back to the race. Go Patreek Go!