Barber Is A Plus

With the announcement that Barber is in the plans for 2010, everyone seems to have an opinion on the situation. Lots of people are talking positively and negatively about various aspects of the track and it's position on the schedule.

Personally, I'm very happy to see the track on the schedule. It's going to be a good part of the country to hold a race, and even though that might be Nascab country. I think with the decline in Nascab popularity the last year or so, however slight it might be, that holding a race in Alabama might be a good opportunity for the ICS to possibly grab a couple of their fans and atleast expose them to open wheel racing off of an oval.

On top of that, it adds another road course to the schedule. And the teams must like it and it will lower any crash damage they might endure. If it does end up between St. Petersburg and Long Beach on the schedule, it breaks up the east coast to west coast trip the teams have to make. Atleast it is a stop along the way.

Barber will need to work on a couple of issues to upgrade the track and add passing zones, however, I think it will work out alright even if they don't add passing zones for the first year. Rumors from multiple sources say that the track will be worked on for the second year of a three year contract.

So, we'll see what other surprises will pop up on the schedule, if any, come this sunday if everything comes together the way it should. Hopefully, in my opinion, we'll see Cleveland on there as well.

I Don't Like Danica Patrick

I went on Twitter today and asked for some advice about what to write. I was told that there is always something new with Danica Patrick, which spurred my creative juices. So I figured, "Hell, I can write a rant about Danica Patrick, and enjoy myself while doing so".

I don't like the fact that Danica gets paraded around as the IRL show girl. Luckily, it has declined a bit this year, but, I still find it terribly annoying that a driver who won 1 race in 5 years (74 starts) is the face of the IRL. Unfortunately, we seem to be stuck with this situation as she is the biggest name we have, since we can't seem to produce stars to carry the series. I guess we need multiple American Women to get even more popularity for our drivers.

The fact that she is creating headlines simply by showing up in Nascab shops is annoying as hell, and the fact she is eating it up in the media by waiting it out until the end of the season to announce her future plans.

I have nothing against women in racing, in fact I think it's a positive to see both men and women competing together, but it bothers me when I see Danica being treated differently then the rest of the boys. She keeps saying she just wants to be one of the boys, and just be another driver, but then she throws herself on the cover of Sports Illustrated in less clothes then Pamela Anderson usually wears.

Problem is, if she leaves, the IRL is relatively screwed. If ratings drop, which they most likely will unfortunately, if she leaves, it will be twice as hard to grow and develop new faces for American fans to grab a hold of as their own. To grow stars, we need people watching when Ryan Hunter-Reay beats the big dogs again and steps on top of the podium, or when Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson battle it out in the late laps in a historic Indycar race. If no one is watching, then no one cares how great these battles and drivers are.

Unfortunately, as much as I dislike Danica, I realize the need we have for her in the league. I guess if people hate Paul Tracy while agreeing he would be an asset, Danica could be put in the same boat unfortunately. Maybe Danica pushes some of the same buttons PT pushes with fans, some people love them, some people don't, but either way, they are both huge news makers when they are driving, or talking about driving, or pushing someone on TV in pitlane.

If Danica leaves, it's a huge blow, but that won't stop me from hating seeing her do well. I guess I know how all these PT hater's feel.

FIL & ICS Together?

With the weekend off in the Indycar series, I know alot of Indycar fans were searching hard for something fast to watch. I know alot of the bloggers and fans on Twitter were watching the ALMS race at Lime Rock on Sunday, we even had a blogger attend the event who produced some nice news on the ALMS teams to ICS for 2010 in guest writer for MyNameIsIRL, Declan Brennan.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to talk about IRL news and notes, rumors, and to discuss major topics Indycar fans were talking about. And this past weekend, one of the things I saw alot of people discuss on Twitter and some forums was running the Firestone Indy Lights and Indycar Series together during races, a la ALMS. So now, I shall provide my opinion on this subject for you lucky readers.

First of all, this would provide a high level of excitement, just as it does in the ALMS. It would provide plenty of passing between classes, and would add some slower traffic to create dramatic passing opportunities. Watching two prototypes in the ALMS battling for the lead coming up on a couple of GT2 cars adds a little suspense to the race. That could of course translate to excitement and drama in the IRL as well.

On top of all of that, with the decent ICS car count, but a diminishing FIL car count, it would definately fill the track up and put about 40 cars on track. It would give the appearance that the fields are much larger and would give the fans at the track action all the time. That can't be a negative, even if the track gets a little crowded.

Running the FIL cars with the IRL cars would add the sponsorship value for the Lights as they would get a hell of a lot more exposure for the races. Running with the big boys can only help the exposure and bring in more money through sponsorship and butts in the seats.

Of course, this could only work on the road and street courses as the speeds on the ovals would just be too different. I wouldn't want Mario Moraes trying to get three wide with 2 Indy Lights cars at Kentucky Speedway. I love Mario, but I don't trust him to run 2 wide with another IRL car (ask Marco about that) and the rate of closing speed on an oval would be way too high.

Even in the ALMS, some of the prototype drivers complain about the skill level of the GT guys and their ability to get out of the way. They also think the rate of closing is too great even on road courses. Think about it in the IRL. The FIL is a development series for the ICS, where as the GT categories in ALMS are not a development series. The talent gap between FIL and ICS must be much greater then the gap between the prototypes and GT cars. Add to that, the fact that the ALMS runs fenders and closed wheels, if an inexperienced GT driver happens to get into the side of a prototype, it may cost the P1/P2 car a bit of time a bit of damage, but that is it. If you get an inexperienced FIL driver locking wheels with Scott Dixon, you have the potential for an airborn Dallara and a high risk of injury. Sure, racing is dangerous, but, we do the best we can to lower the danger, and FIL with ICS isn't a good idea for safety.

On top of all that, the FIL cars would have to be redesigned to either accept a much larger fuel cell or to accept in-race refueling, which would mean adding a bunch of members to the team, adding salaries which would boost up the budget for a FIL team. That would defeat the purpose of a low cost training grounds for a bunch of young guns trying to move up the ICS. And if you want to do pitstops for the FIL cars, you have to find a hell of a lot more pit boxes.

Take away the FIL race, and you're searching for another support race. We are hurting for support races in the first place at most tracks, and losing the FIL race would hurt the race weekends even more.

Basically, I can't see how this would work. I think it would be very exciting to watch, but, the safety would overrule any positives we could pull out of it. I doubt there is any talk at all from the IRL's perspective of doing this anyway. Just the pure danger of touching wheels and getting airborn is what will shoot this idea down if anyone ever brings it up.

For those who brought it up, on paper it looks good, but once we get to the details, it just doesn't work out. Atleast people are thinking of ways to improve the product though, which we can't stop doing. It's our job to push the IRL to think and try new things which will increase the excitement and fun on race weekends.

Bartender Rumors #5

Well, last night I made a quick trip to the Gryphon and The Other Side's favorite bartender was working. No beers for me last night, but, plenty of rumors. He was quite upset with me not showing up for a while. Said he didn't have anyone to talk Indycars with and joked that he thought the blog went under. Anyways, he sent along some juicy ones this week. Here we go.

• To back up all the rumors about ALMS teams coming over to the IRL next season, he said de Ferran is already a done deal. Says it will be Pagenaud and a second driver, most likely F1 veteran Takuma Sato.
• On top of de Ferran, he says all the Acura teams are likely to bolt to the IRL if the Prototype classes don't grow. This goes right along with various rumors, summed up well by Mr. Estrada over at IRR.
• He says he can't figure out which other team Marco would drive for next year, unless it's one of the new ALMS teams that come over. He says he expects Marco to stay at AGR because there just aren't any other seats open that Marco would consider, unless, Panther is able to find sponsorship for a second car.
• Apparently one of his old teams is already planning for two Brazil races next year even though nothing has been announced.
• He says Milwaukee won't be on the schedule when it is released in a couple of weeks.

Well, that's what I got out of him last night. He said he was at the Toronto race and was not pleased with the off-track atmosphere and lack of ammenities compared to usual. He said that it was so far off of what it used to be that he was embarrassed about his home race.

Anyways, that is it. I'll make a trip back out there soon, and probably stay a bit longer for a drink or two.

Oh, let me know what you guys think about his stuff on the comment section.

What A Miserable Week It's Been

In a year where it's been pretty constant between between good news, bad news, and any news, this past week has seen none of the above. The Indycars put on a good show this past Sunday in Toronto, and that was after a nice race at Watkins Glen a week earlier. That's two good non-ovals in a row. Hell, if that isn't momentum for the series, I don't know what is. Just the fact that neither of these two races were ovals and provided more passing then most of the ovals so far this season says alot, and it is something good for the series to run with right now.

There were plenty of feel good stories dating back to Watkins Glen including Justin Wilson and Dale Coyne (finally) winning, the slight hiccup of the Penske/Ganassi domination, PT getting into a car for 3 races in a row, Will Power getting back into a car at Toronto and Edmonton, and add another Canadian in Tags for the Toronto and Edmonton. Fans were happy to see these things happen. I was so happy to see Dale Coyne get his first 'W', I haven't been so excited for a long time watching an IC race. Then you follow that up seeing a nice field in Toronto with strong showings from the Canadian boys, and just an overall excellent race with a little controversy involving PT (who would had thought?), and you've got two good weeks of Indycar racing heading into the second half of the season.

Of course, there were still some negatives like Milwaukee and the lack of passing that could or could not be fixed right now, how do we know? Throw in diminishing Indy Lights car counts and you've got yourself some news.

Basically, the point I'm trying to make is that it hasn't been all rosy the last couple of weeks, but atleast there has been news about the league and things to talk about. It seems like the IRL PR department took their summer vacation this week as all we really have of newsworthiness is Brian Barnhart talking about the radical new cars on Indycar.com. That wasn't even really that big a deal because he hardly even talked about it.

Come on, give us something to talk about. Give us a hint about the schedule so we have something to overtalk about. Or do an episode of 'Up to Speed' with E.J. Viso or Mario Moraes and get some dirt on them for the demolition derby they had after the Toronto race, get that mini-feud heated up a bit. Imagine Mario Moraes calling Viso a snake or Viso calling Moraes a... umm... he already called him a "Monkey with a bag full of money", so think of something else he could call him. Hell, put out a sex tape with the AGR drivers, it should get some news, and don't worry, they won't see eachother often after this season so it won't be too awkward.

Point is this, the IRL had a boatload of momentum with these last two races on ABC which had decent ratings (in comparison with the rest of the season) and this week, they are laying dormant and doing nothing to maintain that momentum. They have to do something to stay in the minds of the fans. Take a look at the blog roll, even us bloggers are having difficulty finding things to talk about. This silence from the league isn't going to help grow the league back to where it should be, it's only going to hurt.

I guess somethings might never change though.

Let's talk about Bourdais

Alright, Sebastien Bourdais is officially done at the Red Bull baby team of Toro Rosso in F1. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind for all of us IRL fans is, what happens to our favorite whining, snobby, fast, frenchman?

Of course, the top joke is that Sebastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy will both end up at KVRT in 2010, making for a wonderful circus on the Indycar circuit. Call up the camera's and have Versus shoot a reality show following this team around for 2010 and watch the IRL ratings sky rocket.

I've seen a bunch of people asking how long it will take for Newman/Haas/Lanigan to dump Robert Doornbos and replace him with Seabass. I think it's safe to say we can squash that rumor since Doorknobs is paying his own way to run for one of American Open Wheel Racing's most historic team. Unless NHLR finds some funds (which they supposedly had done prior to the season to run Seabass before he re-upped with Toro Rosso), or Bourdais brings some Red Bull money with him as part of being let go, he won't be running in the Indycar's until atleast 2010. Doornbos is here to stay until either his money runs out, or atleast the end of 2009.

Other options or rumors have Bourdais running for AGR in '10 since they have 3 drivers out of contract after 2009. A team of Tony Kanaan and Sebastien Bourdais (if Marco and Hideki move elsewhere) would rival, on paper anyways, Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Throw in a third car at AGR for someone like J.R. Hildebrand or Marco Andretti, and you just think that AGR is much improved over 2009. There are so many open seats at AGR that this is a decent possibility, and a team with all the aero parts needed on ovals, that Bourdais could be a strong competitor right out of the gate.

Other options are Graham Rahal and Bourdais at NHLR in 2010 to reunite the 2008 team that finished 5th and 1st in the final year of the Champ Car World Series. NHLR has a sweet spot for Bourdais after he won them 4 drivers titles in a row, and they worked hard to find him the money to run for them in 2009.

Non-IRL options include driving full time for Peugeot in the Le Mans Series in Europe. His wife enjoys living in Europe and he already has a contract signed with them for the 24 hours of Le Mans. It's a good option for someone who has already made decent money in his career and might want to quiet down with his family. He can also try and hop on with one of the new F1 teams starting in 2010 or look for a seat to open up at the french Renault team. There are atleast 6 seats available for 2010 in F1 and he has experience which could help him land one of the rides.

Yours truly would love to see Bourdais land in the States with Newman/Haas/Lanigan first, and any other IRL team second. But I think seeing Bourdais running in the Indycar series for 2010 is a positive for the depth and talent of the series if someone can run him full time. Problem is, he probably doesn't bring any money which is an issue in these times. Hopefully the economy picks up a tad bit before the end of the year.

We have to wait and see what happens. Rumors will spiral out of control and I'm sure Bourdais to Ferrari will show up, and Bourdais to Penske will show up. For now though, let's watch Bourdais and Wilson running in the rain at Mexico City in '06.