OT: Racing 2010 (Spoiler Alert)

[pk500]

I was that dude working the season finale at Homestead. What a great race. Had a bit of everything. Championship drama, Power scraping the fence and Penske's frantic but eventually futile attempt to repair a car, Milka nearly taking out Dario, a record number of lead changes for an IndyCar show at Homestead, Danica's duel with TK, etc.

Dario is the best IndyCar driver of Generation X and Y. Period. Three championships in his last three years in the series -- remember, he raced in 2008 solely in NASCAR -- and two Indianapolis 500 victories since 2007. Forget Bourdais -- he had no Indy 500 victories, and his four consecutive Champ Car titles came against a weakened field. Dario has beaten the best since 2007.

Need more proof that Dario walks among the legends? How about being just the fifth driver EVER to win the Indy 500 and the series championship in the same season at least twice during his career, joining A.J. Foyt, Louis Meyer, Wilbur Shaw and Rodger Ward in that very exclusive club.

As for TK, I expect him to stay at AA. There's no room for him at Penske, and Graham Rahal probably will bring his lucrative, new National Tire sponsorship to a third Ganassi car. There's no other team in the series with equipment and a pay packet worthy of TK. Maybe Panther, but I doubt it.

TK and Danica can't stand each other, but they can tough it out for one more year before she's gone to the land of taxicabs forever. Plus TK and Ryan Hunter-Reay formed a really tight relationship this year. They are the present and future flag-bearers at AA.

[Dave]

The TK-Danica scrap at the end of the race was awesome, one of the most intense battles I can remember this season.

PK, you think AA keeps TK even though the 7-Eleven sponsorship is morphing into a small associate deal (for Danica, no less).

I'm glad Graham found a sponsor, sounds like he's been pounding the pavement all year and already had one deal fall apart.

[pk500]

Dave:

I think TK's future with AA depends on sponsorship. If the team lands a deal, TK stays. If not, he goes.

AA is one of the better teams at finding funding in the series, so that's why I think TK will end up staying there. But TK immediately supersedes Rahal as the most attractive free agent on the market.

Rahal is barely a free agent, anyways. It's looking more and more likely he'll go to a third team at Ganassi. The Chipster always has said he would consider a third team if a sponsor funded it as well as Target does for each of the team's two existing cars. Graham's deal is quite strong.

Coveted free agent No. 2 probably would be Justin Wilson. The guy is very Power-esque in that he's a stone-cold killer on road courses and could develop into a strong oval driver on a good team with a lot of oval experience. He's also one of the nicest, most genuine dudes in the garage.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Justin go to Panther. National Guard had no problem working with Brit Wheldon -- hell, the Guard really liked Dan -- so I bet it would be thrilled to work with Justin. Panther always is strong on ovals, so Wilson could emerge next season as a true all-arounder to challenge for race wins and a top-five or six finish in the points.

[Dave]

Does Z-Line follow Wilson?

I never thought this is a line I'd write...but I hope Carpenter can get a Panther seat for the oval races.

Should be an interesting off-season, that's for sure. Hope the drivers bringing only talent, and not a check, can find rides. What happens to the KV demolition crew?

And just because, a couple of my favorite Chip quotes that fit after \another championship. I've surely mangled and misremembered these over the years, but I believe both come from Jimmy Vasser.

There is no 'I' in team, but there is in Chip.

Chip couldn't be more full of himself if he'd eaten his arm


Simo, is the blog coming back?
Chip

[DChaps]

Dario is the best IndyCar driver of Generation X and Y. Period. Three championships in his last three years in the series -- remember, he raced in 2008 solely in NASCAR -- and two Indianapolis 500 victories since 2007. Forget Bourdais -- he had no Indy 500 victories, and his four consecutive Champ Car titles came against a weakened field. Dario has beaten the best since 2007.

Need more proof that Dario walks among the legends? How about being just the fifth driver EVER to win the Indy 500 and the series championship in the same season at least twice during his career, joining A.J. Foyt, Louis Meyer, Wilbur Shaw and Rodger Ward in that very exclusive club.

Not to mention he tied Montoya for first in points for the 1999 CART Championship when it was still pretty loaded with talent. I believe it was won by Montoya based on more wins. If Team Green had given team orders and let Dario take first from Paul Tracy, the championship would have been his (not that I am for team orders).

I believe another funny quote about Chip from that same race was Paul Tracy saying Chip missed communicating a yellow to Montoya because he was looking at his own reflection in the monitor (something like that).

[GB_Simo]

Simo, is the blog coming back?

Probably.

All of the hosting is looked after by a man in Indiana - the words are all mine, I'm involved in the layout and that's pretty much where my input ends - and the information I was given when the blog went down was that the host was changing, and it'd take no more than 3 weeks. That was 5 or 6 weeks ago. The latest update is that it'll be back on the 15th of this month.

I write letters and emails for a living, on behalf of a major domestic gas and electricity supplier, so my weekly word count is already reasonably high without the blog. As a consequence, I think I rather lost my mojo through the last few months. Certainly, the few blog posts of which I'm really proud were published in 2009, and I took on my current role at the end of that year so the subsequent loss of form is probably more than coincidental. If it returns, it'll probably updated sporadically for the foreseeable future, as has been the case since the early part of the year - I'm not all about the money by any means, but Petrolhead Blog has generated not one penny for either of the people involved and it's become harder for me to justify letting it take up very much of my leisure time.

[fletcher21]

Thoughts on Korean circuit?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIp258UMo5s

[pk500]

Thoughts on Korean circuit?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIp258UMo5s

A joke. Eighteen turns with two, maybe three, passing areas. Way too many low-speed sections. Way too many corners with no flow. Typical fiddly Tilke bullshit. It looks like the bastard offspring of Shanghai and the Hungoraring.

Not to mention that the final layer of asphalt was laid just yesterday, and the race is in two weeks. Nothing like giving the surface a few months to cure.

F1 isn't going to tracks like Imola, Magny-Cours and the A-1 Ring and instead going to banana republics with sh*t Tilkedromes like this.

A joke.

Want to see a real racetrack? Watch the Japanese Grand Prix in three hours from Suzuka. That's a John Hugenholtz masterpiece. Tilke couldn't even carry Hugenholtz's scratch pad.

[GB_Simo]

I hope Kamui Kobyashi doesn't ever change. His first move on Alguersuari was particularly nuts.

I wonder if he might also have put a nail in Jonathan Legard's coffin at the BBC. Rumours are swirling, as they often do at this time of year, that the main commentator is for the chop, and the brief spell mid-race when the TV sound went down and BBC switched to the 5 Live commentary highlighted why. Legard had been at his usual level, talking far too much about things of no relevance while apparently ignoring at least half of what happened on screen, when suddenly we cut to David Croft suggesting that Kobayashi had been shouting "LEEEEROOOOOOY JENKINNNNNNNNNS!" as he carved past Nick Heidfeld. There was more life in 90 seconds of Crofty and Ant Davidson than in the entire Legard/Brundle commentary, despite MB's best efforts.

This championship battle is starting to warm up very nicely, isn't it?

[Rodster]

Some have mentioned that just because you present yourself well on Radio might not translate well on TV. I don't know if that's true but I enjoy listening to Croft on the Internet.

[GB_Simo]

Some have mentioned that just because you present yourself well on Radio might not translate well on TV. I don't know if that's true but I enjoy listening to Croft on the Internet.

I did that a couple of years back, when he was delivering some fairly ordinary, slightly try-hard GP2 commentary. His more recent TV performances have been rather better. I'd give him a shot, though there's a strong rumour that Leigh Diffey, currently of Speed, is the favourite. I used to enjoy his Superbike commentaries when he did the British series, and later his V8 Supercars work was very good, but I've not heard him for a while.

[Rodster]

Leigh Diffey also did race commentary for CART or Champ Car I should say back around 2003. He does a good job and he has a good style for calling a race. He also did commentary for EA Sports suberbike series back in 2000 if i'm not mistaken.

[JRod]

I hope Kamui Kobyashi doesn't ever change. His first move on Alguersuari was particularly nuts.

I wonder if he might also have put a nail in Jonathan Legard's coffin at the BBC. Rumours are swirling, as they often do at this time of year, that the main commentator is for the chop, and the brief spell mid-race when the TV sound went down and BBC switched to the 5 Live commentary highlighted why. Legard had been at his usual level, talking far too much about things of no relevance while apparently ignoring at least half of what happened on screen, when suddenly we cut to David Croft suggesting that Kobayashi had been shouting "LEEEEROOOOOOY JENKINNNNNNNNNS!" as he carved past Nick Heidfeld. There was more life in 90 seconds of Crofty and Ant Davidson than in the entire Legard/Brundle commentary, despite MB's best efforts.

This championship battle is starting to warm up very nicely, isn't it?

I enjoyed Kobyashi. He was driving like a mad man out there. But it was in front of his home crowd and I guess he's about to get the axe too.

[GB_Simo]

I enjoyed Kobyashi. He was driving like a mad man out there. But it was in front of his home crowd and I guess he's about to get the axe too.

His 2011 deal to remain with Sauber was signed over a month ago, so if he's for the axe he'll be taken by surprise. Frankly, Peter Sauber would have to be mental to get rid of him anyway, though perhaps he is.

While the home crowd factor may well have helped, yesterday's effort was a fine demonstration of how Kobayashi always drives a racing car. It's probably not going to win him any world titles (when he threw a move down the inside of Schumacher in Singapore a couple of weeks ago, coming from so far back he may as well have been in Alabama, all it won him was an audience with the side of a Mercedes) but the man's going to be a lot of fun to watch in the coming seasons.

[pk500]

Some have mentioned that just because you present yourself well on Radio might not translate well on TV. I don't know if that's true but I enjoy listening to Croft on the Internet.

Croft is superb on "The Chequered Flag" podcast offered by the BBC after every F1 race.

[JRod]

Some have mentioned that just because you present yourself well on Radio might not translate well on TV. I don't know if that's true but I enjoy listening to Croft on the Internet.

Croft is superb on "The Chequered Flag" podcast offered by the BBC after every F1 race.

With only 3 more races to go, I wish I had known about this earlier. Thanks Paul.

[pk500]

No problem, John. Enjoy it!

I also strongly recommend "An Aside With Joe," the F1 podcast with veteran journalist Joe Saward. Joe knows EVERYONE in the paddock, as he has covered nearly every F1 race on site for the last 25 years. He was editor of Autosport and now is freelance.

http://sidepodcast.com/2009/10/09/an-as ... ite-a-lot/

Joe is a real character with cheeky British humor, great insight and knowledge, plenty of good rumors and scoops and an opinion on everything. I really enjoyed getting to know him when the USGP was at Indy for eight races.

Joe also writes an excellent F1 blog:

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

[GB_Simo]

Rod, I happened upon this little compare/contrast piece on YouTube. Legard first, Croft second:



I'd be quite happy if Crofty switched to the main TV role and just called sessions like that, frankly. No need to change, adapt or translate his style to television. It just works. Oh, and there's this too, of course:

[pk500]

That video is brilliant. There gaping gaps of passion and knowledge between Croft and Legard.

[Rodster]

Here's my take Adam on the comparison between Legard and Crofty. Croft has a high energy delivery much like one of my favorite commentators here in the US, Howard David. In order for the high energy delivery to work you have to compliment that person with the right side-kick, what I refer to as a drive by. IOW after the commentator pauses the analyst makes his point real quick, shuts up and allows for the high energy commentator to pick up where he left off. IOW you have a #1 and #2 team much like at Ferrari except they refuse to admit it.

Martin Brundle is a Star in his own right and he commands as much attention and air time as does Legard or his predecessor James Allen. Also the co-delivery needs to compliment and keep up with someone like Croft. If you put Croft and Brundle in the same booth you'd have the combination of espresso coffee with a dose of a sleep-aid. The two deliveries would be off on the cadence.

Maybe i'm wrong, I have zero experience in the trade other than listening to it. So what I said is to be taken with a pinch of salt. Now if you moved Croft and Anthony Davidson to the TV booth then that could work. But tell the Beeb to offload their star Martin Brundle. I don't see it happening.

[GB_Simo]

Brundle can keep up when he needs to, Rod - it was he who called the Mika-Michael pass at Spa in 2000 and Kimi's pass on Fisi at Suzuka in 2005 among others. Murray and Martin worked very well, and there was no better partnership than the high-octane Walker and the drunk, stoned, practically comatose public school tones of James Hunt, so the styles of Croft and Brundle needn't necessarily clash. In those partnerships, both men knew when to talk and when to shut up, which appears not to be the case with MB and Legard. Whether that's because it's ingrained in Legard's mind that he has to be talking at all times or because Brundle has steadily wombled closer and closer to being a main commentator himself over the last 13 years, I'm not sure.

Now if you moved Croft and Anthony Davidson to the TV booth then that could work. But tell the Beeb to offload their star Martin Brundle. I don't see it happening.

I have it from someone who hasn't let me down before that the BBC are only paying 30% or so of Brundle's salary. ITV are apparently still making up the rest, but only until the end of 2010. The Beeb are in the middle of a pretty serious cost-cutting drive, Brundle is an astute businessman who is fully aware of his own value, and Ant Davidson is a sight cheaper than him...

I don't think it'll happen either, to be honest. If it did, though, it wouldn't be that strange.

[Rodster]

You could be right about Brundle and I have noticed he has slowed his delivery down, maybe because he realizes his own star power and doesn't have to keep up with anyone else but himself. He is very knowledgeable and always offers valuable insight to modern F1 while at times bringing the sport back to when he drove, I enjoy that. And as you said Legard's problem really is he never shuts up, talks nonsense almost as if he feels threatened by Martin's presence in the booth.

James Allen had a similar delivery to Legard's style. Between the two call me crazy but Allen did a better job but that's just me.

[pk500]

My dream BBC F1 announcing team: Hammond, Clarkson and May.

[Jimmydeicide]

Please god nooooo!!!

[EZSnappin]

I'm with PK; Formula 1 has been missing teeth whitening jokes.