The Month of meh…

*warning… Margarita’s, a patio and wifi. Meesh has a belly/mind full of tequila on this holiday Monday here in Canada, so spelling and grammar and “sense” don’t count* *complete thoughts and sentences not guarenteed*

If Pole day was shockingly disappointing, then Bump day was soul crushing.

I still don’t really have the words today to express myself fully. Maybe because real life intervened and I was on an 18hr photo shoot that prevented me from being tethered to my computer to watch this nightmare play out. It still feels like a cruel joke, like someone is punking all of us that live and breath racing and Paul Tracy.

He is in 2003 race trim!! do ANY of you know… can any of you GRASP how hard this man has worked to get to this place?? When I hung out with him in January, I quietly, silently, questioned whether he still had the fire in his belly. He seemed defeated, and a little flubby at the time. Almost complacent about racing and his future. Then it was like someone lit a fire under him.

How cruel the universe that would see fit to exclude Paul from this race, after he devoted himself heart and soul to being championship ready and worthy.

How cruel the universe that sees fit to see him sitting on the sidelines instead of driving fulltime.

How cruel the universe.

Paul showed heartbreaking honesty and class in his Racermag Blog in the aftermath. Jimmy showed culpability in his apology to Paul’s fans for not getting him in the show. Winning as a team. Losing as a team. I get that. I appreciate that.

I’ll appreciate it more if they can take the Geico money and put Paul in a car at the Glen as a precursor to Toronto… *hint hint*

That said, I can’t help but wonder if KV tech bit off a little more than they were capable of chewing. 3 fulltime wrecking balls er drivers,  a likely very over worked crew. Not enough frankencars to cover the damage… I have to wonder outloud if Paul would have been better off with a one-off single car team effort (a la RLR) where the focus would have been solely on him and getting that car in the show.

“what if’s” don’t amount to a hill o’beans after the fact.

I can tell ya that the bitter pill of not being able to make it to Indy this year, was definitely easier to swallow this morning. Watching races containing a Paul Tracy-less field… not so much exciting or interesting to me. I definitely felt that at St. Pete’s. I will however been cheering for Simona and Bia. I’m tickled pink for Bruno and Sebastien, and will be over the moon if Justin can quietly make his way into the hunt.

My focus is now on the month of July. (my personal month of May)

Kicking off with the Glen, then the party comes to my town, (the banners are up now, causing me to squee just a little in the pit of my belly when I see them on the lamp posts) then I hop on a plane to Edmonton. That’s right. I’m all booked! It became officially official on Friday when my bosses surprised me and booked my plane tickets for Edmonton. It was their way of saying thank you for essentially putting my life on hold since April to keep the business up and running. So at least now I am guaranteed to see both of Paul’s remaining races this season.

I really feel sort of disconnected right now from the circus. I didn’t get to watch one minute of racing this month until Saturday due to work. From that I saw that it was basically status quo. Penske/Ganassi dominating, with a few underdogs scratching their way in.  Andretti Autosport is struggling again. Gotta feel for them as they seemed to have some momentum in the early races.

I did see that Princess Sparkle Pony stopped barfing up bunny fur and burping rainbows, and got her widdle feewings hurt… awwww…

GMAFB.

Sucks for her and her entourage of sharks and sucker fish that the reality of her skillset is becoming apparent  to not only real racing fans, but the general public now that she is no longer the novelty act, but rather one of several women in the field, all of which actually put their ON TRACK careers first, and spend their time and resources bettering themselves as race car drivers, rather than building and maintaining their ‘brand’. Nothing shines a light on your own irrelevance, than someone doing the same thing as you, only better.

Bottomline is, sometimes you’re the hero, sometimes you’re the villain. You gotta take the jeers with the same conviction as the cheers. Suck it up buttercup. This is racing, not a fucking cotillion. Somebody boo’s you, or doesn’t like you? Big fucking deal.

There are a lot of drivers out there that people love to hate! Do they curl up in a ball and whine about it to the media? hell no! They wear the black hat! They revel in their villain ways! Best example of that was Paul in Montreal. The weekend spent with “Capt Quebec” will go down as one of my favorite racing memories. The boos from the crowd drowned out the sound of his car for most of that weekend. But he took it all in stride, and even played it up a little. By the end of the weekend, he was a hero again. It’s all in the attitude my friends.

Hell, a lot of people hate MY fucking guts. Do I give a shit? HELL no.

I do what I do, I believe in myself, I do it for me. If there are people are on my bandwagon taking the journey with me, great! If not? whatever.  There’s the door.

I don’t write this blog, or do any of my other race writing and photography ventures to win some internet popularity contest. The surest way to become irrelevant is to try to become relevant. It’s forced, it’s contrived, and it rings about as true as, well as true as… an example I could think of if I was more sober. *shrug*

Personally I think Danican’t is having an identity crisis now that she is being shown up by a pretty, personable, fast and GENUINELY nice female driver who’s life isn’t “scripted” by a team of reps who see a product and dollar signs, rather than a race car driver. Hell, I’m sure she herself doesn’t know where Danica the driver begins and Dancia the Brand ends.

Apparently how the handle “Boos” wasn’t part of her marketing strategy script as the hearts and flowers stepford wife-like media automaton that they unleashed last year as part of the “get Danica a big cheque, er Nascar ride” production.

I almost feel sorry for her. Almost. But you know what? You make your bed, you gotta lay in it. Lumps and all…

And with that, I’m going to shut the lid and perhaps have one more drink to salvage what’s left of my 1 day weekend (the other 2 days of my long weekend were spent working… boo!!!) before kicking back into work mode tomorrow.

Honda Indy 200 – Mid-Ohio *live* race blog

Hello kids! It’s race day! While the skies opened here in Toronto, dropping hail, water, thunder and lightening in biblical proportions, the weather is much more pleasant in Mid-Ohio. Light winds but 20 degrees warmer than yesterday, sunny and good crowd.

It is pre-race time, so the radio folk are making the rounds. I’m finishing up some other stuff and making sure I’m all set for race day… be back in a bit.

I must say, nothing puts a smile on my face quicker than hearing a PT pre-race interview!

Alright… let’s start these cars and get some racing done!

Cars fired! Installation laps in progress. Have Versus on one screen and the leader cam on another. Great overhead shot! Crowd looks amazing.

Ugh… Jack is back on Versus. Trying way too hard as usual.

Here we go…. lining up for the start.

that is not a good start at all!! WTF! Dixon was all voer the ass of the leaders, not even remotely lined up .

Briscoe out front, Wilson holds off

TK goes for a drive through the country on the tail end of lap one in the key hole. Oops. Dropping him to the back of the field. Not the start he was hoping for.

Wilson all over the ass of Briscoe on Lap 2. Used the button but couldn’t get it done.

Wilson gets around Briscoe for the lead on lap 6 in Turn 11 and pulls the fuck away baby! Holy crap! Look at him go!

Lap 7: Conway, Antinucci andKanaan all pit for tires and fuel. Conway and Antinucci go for the reds

Lap 8 – Wilson is already 3 seconds ahead! Zoinks! Could we see a second Dale Coyne Victory in one season?!?!

Dixon smells blood in the water and is on the hunt for Briscoe, followed closely by Franchitti.

They are pretty spread out at this point. Though Franchitti is all over Dixon, PT is gaining on Viso, Matos is all over Patrick.

Lap 13: Wilson is about to Lap Milka Duno for the first time of many this afternoon I’m sure.

Lap 15: It’s a parade past Duno. See ya, See ya, See ya, See ya!

I love that the leader cam is actually following Briscoe…

Lap 18: commercial (love that I don’t actually see them!! nothing but action baby) *unmutes radio feed* Damn, they’re on commercial too…

Wilson is now 5.2 seconds ahead of the next pack with 8 complete.

Wilson around Duno again as we come back from commercial… LOL

Briscoe and Dixon get around the Milka-hazard, followed by the rest of that lead pack.

They are predicting pit stops to start in about 2/3 laps.

Reports from the track say that Carpenter is all over the back of Doornbos… ?!!?

Pit stops have begun.
Servia in and out on lap 23

The princess looks to be next. Reds off, blacks on, in and out clean.

LOL! the princess hits the button to hold off TK whah whah whah… that backfired.

Lap 27. Wilson now 7.4 seconds ahead as the pit window opens.

*stomach in knots…* PT all over the back of E.J. Good thing they changed the camera shot as the pass happened

Lap 28, Wilson in and out clean.

Lap 30, Briscoe and Franchitti in together. This oughta be good!

Sweeet! Wilson blows by Briscoe on his out lap!! (Briscoe got out before Dario btw)

Dixon in the pits Lap 32…. Get’s back out, again Wilson blows by, but manages to come out in second ahead of Briscoe & Franchitti.

Lap 33, everyone on commercial.

Replay of the pit stops of PT and Viso: nice burnouts and drag race off pit road.

Lap 35: Wilson unable to pull out the same lead on Dixon as he did on Briscoe. In fact Dixon is all over Wilson’s ass as they approach the Milka-hazard.

Lap 36: Dixon takes advantage of the traffic and gets around Wilson, but still gets stuck behind Duno for a bit.

Lap 40: Castroneves loses his ass end and spins off into the kitty litter in Turn 9 bringing out the FCY (why??) even though he keeps it going and gets back on track quickly and unassisted.

Well I guess this will set up for some potential passing on the restart.

Lap 41: pits are open… Castroneves, Andretti, Carpenter and Wheldon pit.

Lap 42: Green Green Green!

Status quo at the front. Franchitti tries to get by Briscoe, can’t make it stick, then Rahal gets the better of him.

FYI, PT is up to 7th. 🙂

Oooopsie….Yellows bread Yellow theory tested yet again…. Conway comes in way too hot down the inside and punts the Princess into the kitty litter. She, unlike her teammate is unable to keep it fired and moving and requires the assistance of the safety crew to get back in action.

Lap 45: Pits are open, but no one in so far.

Geesh, I’m getting motion sickness from the incar cameras as the drivers warm their tires… :vomit:

Lap 48: Green Green Green!

No overtaking, but Conway gets a drive thru for avoidable contact.

Bobby D bringin da heat on TK for 12th.

Marco gets a lot wiiiiiiiiiiide but keeps it pointed in the right direction.

Lap 52: commercial.

Lap 55: 30 to go, Dixon, Wilson, Briscoe, Rahal, Franchitti top five.

Lap 56: Matos in, Castroneves in, and I think Servia is in.

Lap 59: PT in and out clean on reds.

Lap 60: Rahal in for final stop and scuffed reds. Followed by Wheldon (who is not exactly setting the world on fire this season)

Lap 63: Wilson on fumes coming into the pits. OH man!! stalled in the pits!! 30 second stop. Burn… That was not good. Threw away at least a podium, possibly the win. Plummets to 15th.

Dixon in and out cleanly and back in the lead by over 8 seconds over second place Andretti… (?!!?!?)

Lap 65: 20 laps to go, Dixon out front by a bazillion seconds.

Barring an airstrike (™pressdog) a red cars will win, place and show. Thanks for coming out.

*sidenote* apparently PT and team decided that today wasn’t the time or place for him to battle with “PT like” fervor, considering the circumstances of his ride…

Lap 71: Rahal goes off in T2 but manages to get back on track, but is inhaled by Tracy. Drops from 5th to 8th.

and YET AGAIN, we are robbed of an on camera pass by PT. oh, but we get a minute and a half of the princess’ feet… Come ON VERSUS! gimme a fucking break…

Lap 75: 10 to go, Dixon by almost 10 seconds (ya, lets just say he’s gonna win this thing)

There is a battle for second between Briscoe & Franchitti who are within a second of each other, and Hunter-Reay & Mutoh who are also in a battle for 4th. From the T&S it looks like there may be a battle for 7th with Tracy & Rahal.

5 to go, status quo… now, if Briscoe & Franchitti and RHR & Mutoh take each other out, PT on the podium!! (LOL! stranger things have happened…. )

Dixon wins. Goes for a shower and a smoke while we wait for the rest of the podium to finish.

PT comes across a clean and honourable 7th in honour of Mario.

ok… off to write this up. back to chat in a bit.

so now we regroup…

After that stimulating, ridiculously exciting weekend… zzzzzzzzz….

I’ve already made my feelings known as to what I think of the drawn out qualifying process, and the engine lease program, and, and, and… Not much that can be done about it at this point, so… we deal and move on.

Mulling about some other talking points, but since my lunch is already half over, I will save those for another day.

I’ll leave the afternoon’s reading material up to my buddy Paul. His blogs have been hilarious and honest and interesting, and if you haven’t had a chance to read them, here is your opportunity:

PT Blog May 7th
PT Blog May 8th
PT Blog May 9th
PT Blog May 10th

Pole Day 09…

or how VERSUS learned to fill 6hrs of tv time with only 2hrs of on track action.

Good morning peeps. Eating some breakfast, preparing for my day, and realized I never wrote about Pole Day. So… here goes…

Good lord! What was the point of all of that yesterday? Why draw a list of drivers and publish said list, when 2/3 of that list isn’t going to even suit up?? Perfectly qualified drivers spent the day in their motorhomes watching on TV. Why set the month up in such a financially precarious way that drivers who might of had a legitimate shot to challenge for the front rows can’t risk it for fear of running out of tires on race day or running too many miles on their engine lease? If you want this to be the “greatest spectacle in racing” you gotta fix this, cause right now, not so much spectacular. It’s a battle of the haves and have nots. What if all of those drivers who will fill those grid positions up to 33 decided it’s just a big waste of time and effort? what then? Indy becomes just another race on the circuit.

That said, Kudos to VERSUS for their coverage! and for the kind souls who streamed the broadcast for us poor souls not privy to coverage. That is until the VERSUS peeps sent their watchdogs around the internet to shut down said streams. Hey VERSUS… here’s a suggestion, take it or leave it.

This is your first year doing this. You should WANT as many eyes on what you’re providing. If people care enough to A) watch & B) stream it so others can watch it , LET THEM!! Most of the people watching the stream I was watching yesterday were from Europe or Canada, of which neither market have any other recourse but streams to watch your coverage. If you’re not going to allow us to watch via your own website, then let others do you the favour!

If we can’t see it, we can’t talk about, if we can’t talk about it, then we can’t promote it. Viewers watching and talking about it is FREE PROMOTION for your network. Maybe some of those watching the streams (which are mostly of shitty quality truthfully) are on the fence about ponying up the cash for the extra channel on their provider? Maybe watching will prompt them to ante up for a clear tv stream of their own, or contact their provider and request the channel be added.

Once again, biting the hand that feeds you, not smart.

Anyway, until the stream was shut down, I was thoroughly enjoying the coverage being provided. Great interviews at the track. Great technical features by Jan Beekus as usual. And of course the two part interview with PT.

Take away the over the top production (it looked like a scene from Casablanca, I kept waiting for one of them to light up a smoke) and the rattlesnake soundtrack (really? rattlesnakes?), and that was a pretty awesome interview.

Some people are of the opinion that it perpetuates the continued bitterness over the split. I don’t agree. I think if they don’t talk about it (2002), it’s ignoring the Gorilla in the room. Not to mention there would be no story for this year’s race other than “which former winner in a red driver suit on which over funded super team will drink the milk this year?”

I think Paul himself basically told everyone to “get the fuck over it and move on!”

There were two poignant moments during the segment which made this tough as nails “brassy” Canuckdian tear up a little.

When he said “I just want to finish my career the way I feel I deserve” I felt little catch in my gut. That has always been my point of contention. He’s not looking for a multi-year uber contract. He wants a good, steady ride, with a good, steady team, where he can have one more legit kick at the can while he is still fully capable and willing to leave it all out there on the track.

Then when Arute set up the question: “Winning the Indy 500 would mean…”
and he answered “redemption”

I don’t think it’s necessarily redemption for 2002. I think it’s redemption for the shitty way his career was derailed in 2008.

Anyway… He is one of the fully capable but underfunded one’s who will have to settle for qualifying today and and race his way to the front 2 weeks from now.

oh ya, Pole Day results? Red suit, red suit, red suit, *thinks about it* ha! red suit ironically (not surprising though as they were one of the “big three” in CC) and… red suit.

It continues today. I am working this afternoon, but will be following the “action” via twitter and mobile timing. 0

“Mister Bluebird’s on my shoulder…”

“…it’s the truth, it’s actual, everything is satisfactual”

ok, for those of you not as old as dirt like I am, that opening diddy will have made no sense… for those that are :highfive: for figuring it out, and enjoy having that tune in your brain all day… but I digress…

So… that little bluebird I’m referring to is the familiar Twitter bird… and what’s being tweeted about today caught the eye of my colleague “da newtch” over at MyNameIsIRL, and in turn moi!

From the twittersphere today: (via @rubinconraceteam)

Rubicon Race Team is now Rubicon Sports Agency. Stay tuned for exciting announcements about our involvement in Indy Car racing.

Rubicon Sports Agency partnering with Conquest Racing. More news to follow in a few days.

Well now… isn’t that interesting…

So lets throw a few things at the wall and see what sticks shall we?

Will this be a joint effort for the entire season, or is this a Long Beach/Indy sort of deal?

• They were always preparing for at least Indy.
• they are celebrity driven and La La land based, so Long Beach is also a given, especially given the timing of floating this publicly.
• I’m guessing if they are renaming and joining together, it will be for the whole season.

Will there be a second car involved? (assuming that Tags is in for the season of course on the Conquest side) if so, who drives? and for how many races?

• Buddy Rice is the obvious choice, but his profile is playing hide n’ go seek on the Rubicon website now.
• based on their history, Mad Max is another choice, but he is well ensconced in his NASCAR efforts of late.
• My out on a limb lets throw something at the wall guess: COOKIE BOY!! He is a proven hot shoe who is rideless. This would make it three (4?) years running that he didn’t have a ride for the first race of the season, but got “the call” for race two. If I’m given my pick, I’m throwing Servia in the car

Holy mergification batman! That would make 3, 3, 3 teams in one!! (I’m on a role with my pop culture references today! LOL)

PACIFICRUBICONQUEST! for the win!

Ok… that’s all the time I have for the moment! (I’m a working girl now, so I have to wait until breaks/lunch/afterwork to play here!)

Will put some feelers out and see what comes up, but I doubt anyone of any “official capacity” will be able to confirm anything at this time.

Ok kids!! talk more later!