The organizers of the IndyCar Series has announced that the Brazilian city of São Paulo will stage the opening round of the 2010 season. “Scheduled for March 14, the event represents the return of Indy-style racing to Brazil thanks to the partnership between the São Paulo municipality, the Indy Racing League and TV Bandeirantes and BandSports,” says the press release. “São Paulo is already home to the Brazil Formula 1 Grand Prix staged at the Interlagos racetrack. Now the city concentrates two of the most important motorsports events worldwide.” Of course, the big difference from Formula 1 will be that the Indy cars run clean, since they use ethanol, from sugar cane, as opposed to fossil-based gasoline.

 16 Barz by Indy 500

2009 (27 tracks, 44:49)

hip-hop/rap

Ernest Hemingway is rumored to have said: “There are only three sports: car racing; bull fighting and mountain climbing. The rest are mere games.”

This is not a blog about bull fighting or mountain climbing.  Or games.

The first question is “why racing?”.  There is no answer.  Since the automobile first appeared, men have been fascinated with race cars.  For me, it began with a toy model of Emerson Fittipaldi’s Texaco-liveried McLaren ca. 1974.  That white car, with its huge rear tires and massive front wings, was my prized possession (ironically, a toy with cigarette sponsorship).  And somewhere, in the recesses of my brain, I recall the Indy 500, with drivers like Johnny Rutherford, Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti.  Rutherford in the yellow Penzoil car.  Mears in his Gould-sponsored machine.  Mario and his Indy heartbreak.  Open-wheel heroes. NASCAR was a country fair sideshow in those days; no one took it seriously north of Richmond.

On Memorial Day weekend, when the family was at the beach for the traditional opening of summer, I was parked in front of the television, watching Indy.  My mom would ask about “cars going around in circles”, but she didn’t understand.  I couldn’t articulate the awesome power of a driver flat-footing it around the Brickyard.

I don’t know what possessed an eight-year old boy to latch on to ESPN’s SpeedWorld, a weekly highlight show that featured Formula One, IMSA sportscars, and other exotic delights. This was the early days of cable, when ESPN struggled for viewers and gave a home to sports that coulnd’t make it on the network shows.  ABC had the 500, with great commentators like Chris Economacki and Jackie Stewart.  ESPN had Canadian football, and the more obscure forms of international racing.  Through SpeedWorld I learned about F1 legends like Mansell, Piquet, Prost, and later…Senna.  I loved the cartoonish IMSA cars, with their streamlined bodywork and ridiculous power, hoofing it over road courses like Mid-Ohio and Lime Rock.

I drifted away from the sport, but my passion was reignited during a summer following F1 in Europe.  It was the summer that Damon Hill won the world championship, only to find himself out of a drive at Williams at the end of the season.  You would be amazed at what  you can learn about racing from a broadcast in a foreign language.  And when Hill lost his seat at the end of the year, I learned what a fickle business racing can be.

And so it’s come to this.  The retired sportswriter without a venue, starting a blog about racing.  F1, Indy, Nascar, Le Mans – anything that goes fast on four wheels.  This is not about horsepower, or tire pressure, or computers mapping out gear ratios.  It is not about whether the car is too tight through the middle of the corner, or whether it needs a ride height adjustment during the second stop.  Leave that to the techies.

This is about deafening engines, the smell of burning race fuel, and the smile on your face when the green flag comes down.  It’s about the feeling you get watching a driver control his car on the limit of adhesion.  It’s the speed of the field as it blows past your seat, the knife-edge heartbreak.  It’s about the politics and the personalities and the business that drives racers to the limit, pushing against gravity itself in a mortal contest of speed.

Hemingway (if he really said it) was right about one thing: this is no game.  This is life, death, and conquest at 230 mph.  This is about being on the limit.

Let’s buckle up that five-point and go racing.

Full-scale screen used Hero Bumblebee robot from Transformers

From Seibertron.com

You could own the one and the only, Camaro Concept Bumblebee. No, we’re not talking about some one of a kind Legends figure, Deluxe repaint, or Human Alliance redeco. We’re talking about the real deal, the Bumblebee cast that was made for the movies. This full-scale replica of Bumblebee is probably the most impressive on-set item to be sold. As the auction describes;

Full-scale screen-used Hero Bumblebee robot from Transformers. (Paramount, 2007) Standing exactly 16 feet 10 7/8 inches tall and weighing 3200 pounds, this screen-used hero Bumblebee robot is an incredible feat of engineering craftsmanship. Built by renowned special effects company FXperts, Inc. (a.ka. John Frazier Special Effects), Bumblebee was the result of a direct request by Director Michael Bay for a full-size Transformer. He was used prominently in all the critical scenes in the film: when Sam and Mikaela are first introduced to all the Autobots; when Bumblebee is captured by Sector 7 with a helicopter; in the interior of the Hoover Dam; and on the back of a tow truck during the final battle sequences. As a major character in the film, Bumblebee has become one of the most popular and beloved Transformers. Since the opening of the movie, this Bumblebee robot has been on a worldwide tour, to such locations as Japan, Korea, London, Las Vegas, Dallas, Chicago, New York, and Bolton, Mississippi. He was also featured at the Los Angeles premieres, Universal Studios, Cannes Festival, and Indy 500, where he drew as big of a crowd at the Indy cars. With possible arms, Bumblee stands a full 16’ 10 7/8” tall and 13’ 5 13/16” wide when fully assembled. He is currently de-assembled and housed in three large wooden crates.

Click here for the Auction Website

Back in May of this year, we’d only just been April Fool’d by Conficker, the temperatures were still cool and I could still occasionally wear a scarf, the 2007 Pagani was but a twinkle in a winemaker’s eye, Hélio Castroneves had not yet won the 93rd Indy 500, the Community of the People had yet to enact their coup on the Parliament of Greenland, and perhaps most important of all, it was time for the Monte Bello Final Assemblage tasting.

Although of course much of note took place that wild and wooly day (Did I say blisteringly hot? That’s what I meant to say. Not “wild and wooly.” My bad.), one particularly singular opportunity was present in the form of the Vintage Pack. Yes, ’twas true. Guests were able to taste the 1995, 1997, and 1999 Monte Bellos. I remember it as if it were yesterday … (initiate dream sequence)

If the picture of the floating eye doesn’t make the dream real for you all over again, you can also click here to read my original recapment.  A particularly relevant excerpt follows, the relevance of which I hope to make clear shortly:

Summary: Appropriately showing the “youngest” of the three, but highly notable for the depth, concentration, and singularity of the earth and spice components. For my final compare-and-contrast with notable wine writers, we’ll this time turn to Steve Heimoff, who wrote in Wine Enthusiast back in 2005, “Will be very good, but don’t touch it until 2014,” which seems to confirm the youthful character of this fine vintage. And by the way, he then went on to give the wine a 95 point rating!

The excerpt above comes from my notes on the 1999 Monte Bello; notes, it turns out, that would cause certain wine writers to take a certain degree of umbrage, given their feeling that my notes were, or so they seemed to think at the time, apparently wildly inaccurate. An excerpt:

Seriously, you thought the 1999 was showing the *youngest* of the wines?

Well, yes, actually, I did. So much so, in fact, that I “challenged” said wine writers to another tasting. Put another way, I invited the writers up to Monte Bello, to revisit the 1999. I am happy to say that my invitation was accepted.

Sorry, just had to sneak that eye in there again.

So anyway, there we were, August 7th, 2009, in the Monte Bello Tasting Room. So deeply engrossed were we in our endeavor that we were barely aware that Florida Senator Mel Martinez was announcing his resignation, or that Ronnie Biggs, one of the masterminds of The Great Train Robbery, was being freed. No, all we could think about, talk about, LIVE FOR, was the 1999 Monte Bello.

Fast forward to the end of the story. Which is here. Which is where I say, “Suffice it to say …”, which then rather smoothly segues into the moment where I smugly quote from one of the writers, who writes, most writerly:

Still got plenty of life.

About the 1999.

I win.

I jest of course. Or do I?

I do. In truth, I was honored to have these wise gentlemen present, and I was happy that their verdict, in the end, was a positive one as regards the 1999. If you’d like to read what one of the participant’s had to say about our tasting, please click here, and you’ll be directed to a fine blog that goes by the handle Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley Wines. And if you’d like to read what one of the other participants posted at Cellar Tracker, please click here.

Elegant and with years ahead of it.

That’s an excerpt from his notes.

I win.

I mean, I jest. Or do I?

(Thank you to Dave Tong, Richard Jennings, and Wes Barton for your participation!)

DC Streetsblog reported last week news regarding federal contracts for private transportation companies.  Here are the highlights:

Streetsblog Capitol Hill reported yesterday that the U.S. DOT would end a Bush-era mandate to reward new transit projects for using private contractors — but a similar pro-privatization rule for bus service remains in effect, preventing local transit agencies from competing with private charter companies.

…

The rule was intended to shield “private charter operators from unfair competition by federally subsidized public transit agencies,” as the Bush administration wrote in its initial regulatory justification.

As a result, public transit agencies were barred from offering bus services to special events if a private company was able to do the job instead. The rule prompted outcries from the American Public Transportation Association, but it has yet to be overturned by the Obama administration.

The article noted instances where this had reprecussions, like the Minnesota state fair, the Indianappolis 500 and Redskins game.

The Associated Press explained how the rule works:

Under a Federal Transit Administration regulation that took effect May 1, local transit authorities no longer can offer game-day shuttle service to fans if that service is: not part the regular schedule; if the fee is higher than the regular fare; or if a team or other group is involved, and negotiate a special price for the service.

The penalty for failure to comply is stiff – loss of federal transportation funding.

“Basically all federal money is in jeopardy. They don’t mess around,” said Jim McAteer, director of planning for Nashville’s Metropolitan Transit Authority.

I understand the impetus to want to give business to local charter companies.  However, this rule does nothing to help citizens, especially at moments when public transit is needed most.  What makes more sense in Washington, DC, ordering a couple of dozen private buses who are not beholden to anyone for Redskins games or letting the Metro staff extra buses to move fans to and from the game?  That day of busing should be a boon to the public transit system as the buses will be full and the extra fares will helpy buoy murky finances.

The two problems with this rule are lost opportunity for public transportation systems and confusion for the public at the price of more expensive service with an unknown provider.  I realize I am particularly public transit dependent (as I do not own a car), but when I want to get someplace – especially to a large public event – the first thing I do is go to the city’s public transportation website.  For those who do not normally take public transit, this is a fabulous opportunity for a city and its service to orient new customers with how it works: fares, coverage, times and services available.  Moreover, public transportation is accountable to its customers as organizations are public entities.  Private companies hired for one time service are not really accountable to anyone and can provide subpar service at little political or actual cost (and potentially profit).

ROGER PENSKE STEPPED OUT On the balcony before it came on. There were a lot of people in the suite and it was as good a time as any for some fresh air. There were some bigshots from Sun Oil and some diehards from Sears and some of Roger Penske’s friends from his several different lives in several different states. And there was Mark Donohue, Gary Bettenhausen and Bobby Allison.

Donohue sat right next to the set. It was a very bad angle, much too close to watch color television. The picture seemed like it was going to jump out at him. The station ran the tape over and over from every camera angle they had. It got worse each time. The room was silent now and only the faces spoke.

Art Pollard had pulled out of the pits at 9:37 that morning. He started to drive his car through the first turn at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The car was an Eagle, very sleek, very low-slung, the same car Mark Donohue was driving. As the car came out of turn one, at about 180 miles an hour, Art Pollard lost the groove. The car made a quick veer to the right and hit the concrete wall. The right wheels were ripped off. The car bounced off the wall and skidded all the way down to turn two, 1,450 feet away, first onto the grass of the infield and then back on the track, where it started flipping end over end with a lot of the parts breaking off and flying away. It came to rest like a pancake on the last flip to the griddle. Art Pollard, who was 46 years old and had a lot of family and friends, was still in the car. He was as good as dead. When the car blew up, the flames shot back and Pollard swallowed them. You couldn’t see that on television. The flames are invisible and odorless and tasteless.

Nobody in the suite said a word. Mark Donohue took his clenched right fist and banged it on the sofa. His face was very red. Bobby Allison turned away and dropped his head low and said a prayer to himself. Gary Bettenhausen tilted the tip of his Goodyear hat over his eyes so you couldn’t see him crying. Roger Penske walked back in from the balcony, sensing it was all over. The balcony of his suite overlooked the exact spot where Art Pollard died. Penske walked in and looked at his three drivers. There was nothing he could say. It was going to be one of those months.

THERE ARE TWO KINDS of people at Indy. There are Penske’s people and there is everybody else. The other 400,000 drink beer and yell and get very greasy. Penske’s people are different.

Earlier that morning, Gary Bettenhausen stood inside his green and white wooden garage very much alone. It was the first day of time trials, a series of races against the clock to see who would end up where in the descending position order of cars for the start of the race two weeks away. The talk around Gasoline Alley, the legendary name for the garage area, echoed the stories in the papers. This could be the day, the first day in history, that a car and driver would average over 200 miles an hour turning the two-and-a-half­mile oval.

That’s not what Gary Bettenhausen was thinking. Deep inside, he was remembering an anniversary. “It was 12 years ago today,” he said. “My dad died here.”

Gary was only 19 then. He had just started racing modified Go-Karts. His father, Tony Bettenhausen, was 44 and an old pro at Indy. He was a cautious man. He had promised himself and his family he would never ride in a car that wasn’t his, a car he wasn’t sure of. He kept the promise until 12 years ago today. A friend who had helped Tony Bettenhausen build a silo on his Illinois farm the past winter asked him if he’d take his car out on the Indy track on a shakedown run, just to test it out for him. He couldn’t refuse. Anyway, it was only for one lap.

You can buy a good cotter pin for a few pennies at your local hardware store. They say it was a bad cotter pin that began the end to Tony Bettenhausen’s life. An axle broke and the car hit the wall and turned end over end.  

Late this May, Gary Bettenhausen walked out of the garage to go to his car, which was already in the pits. Somebody stopped him to say his friend Art Pollard had just been in an accident and had been taken to the hospital in pretty bad shape.

“What happened?” Bettenhausen asked.

“He hit the wall and turned end over end,” he was told.

Gary Bettenhausen didn’t say another word to anybody. He walked over and got into his car and drove out and turned the fastest qualifying time in the history of Indy. The crowd roared. He drove back into the pits and was interviewed over the public address system with a quarter million people in the stands listening. He sounded very happy, for the first time that day. He finished talking and there were more cheers as he walked away from his car. Then they announced it. Art Pollard had just died in Methodist Hospital. He was the 35th driver killed in the 57 years of the 500. There was total silence in the stands. Gary Bettenhausen broke down and cried.

LAST YEAR, GARY BETTENHAUSEN almost won this race. He led for a very long time. And when his car faltered, Mark Donohue came on to finish first. Either way, Roger Penske was a winner. This year he had added stock car superstar Bobby Allison to his racing stable. The writers were starting to call it the Super Team. They had come a long way in a short time at Indy.

In the beginning, Mark Donohue was a sports car racer. To a large extent he still is. Sports cars like Porches and Lolas are run in road races on roads that turn and twist and do interesting things. The Indianapolis 500 is basically a very stupid race. It’s 33 specially-built cars running counterclockwise around a two-and-a-half-mile oval 200 times. Whoever finishes first and fastest wins. It’s a very dangerous race. Roger Penske, who at 36 is the same age as Mark Donohue, used to be a pretty good race driver himself. But he, too, preferred the sports car circuit, because Indianapolis was too dangerous and too dumb. Penske and Donohue went along thinking like that for a couple of years, making pretty big names for themselves. But they finally realized that if they really wanted to get to the top, they had to go to Indy.

They used to call this course “The Brickyard” because it used to be paved with bricks—over a million of them. That’s changed. Little else has. There’s only one yard of bricks left now, right at the start-finish line. The rest is concrete.

The Indy 500, the world’s longest continuous left hand turn, is probably the most famous race in the world. It’s got a lot of things going for it. It’s got tradition, it’s got danger, but most of all it’s got money. Over a million bucks in the prize purse. The winner now gets about a quarter of that. Not to mention all the prestige, residuals and bargaining power with sponsors.

It’s a very simple race. Thirty-three cars are lined up in 11 rows of three, in the basic order of their qualifying speeds. They zoom and roar and cough and sputter, most trying to win, some just trying to finish. There are always mechanical failures that knock cars out of the race. And there are accidents. Detractors of the sport tend to play up the accidents. They say the crowd is bloodthirsty and the drivers are crazy. Some of that is true. Something will have to be done about the speed. That became very clear this year. Indy just wasn’t built to handle those grounded airplanes on A-frames with the thick, slick tires. It challenges every part of man and machine. And Roger Penske was never one to duck a challenge.

PENSKE IS A QUIET GENIUS. Under pressure, he’s one of the coolest people you’ll ever see. And the pressure is always there. This year, on the day before qualifications, Mark Donohue’s car blew an engine. Forget the $40,000 it costs to replace it. The Penske organization is never one to pinch pennies. They go first class all the way. It was mostly a problem of getting a new engine into the car on time and seeing that it worked right. It was an all-night job that had to be ready first thing in the morning. Anybody else might have panicked. Penske plotted things out and then left it in the hands of his chief engineer, Don Cox, the guy who fixes cars with a slide rule instead of a monkey wrench.

A calm and collected Penske returned to the suite to help his fiancée, Kathy Holbert, a very classy looking brown-haired girl, fill out the envelopes for the over $8,000 in race tickets he’d bought to send to sponsors and friends. Some representatives from those sponsors were in the suite at the time.

One of them cornered Penske the minute he walked in. “Listen, Roger,” he said, “I want you to make sure my kids get seats right in back of the pits. It’s very important to me.”

“And don’t forget those tickets for my nieces and nephews,” another money man said.

Anybody else would have told them to shove it. Certainly any man of nor­mal temper would have politely explained to them that his top driver, the defending champion of the Indy 500, just blew his car’s entire engine, and maybe that was a little more important than making sure somebody’s nephew had a seat for the race.

But Penske kept his cool. He thumbed through the pile of 400 tick­ets and managed to find one for everybody’s niece and nephew and second cousin. “You’ve got to stay cool,” he said later. “You’ve got to be proper.”

Penske likes to be proper about everything. It’s obvious by the way he looks. He’s a handsome, almost perfect-looking man. He’s slender because he doesn’t eat that much. He’s too busy. He eats as a function, and only when his stomach reminds him to. His hair has grayed quickly and distinctively over the past few years. It’s full and always in place. He wears a seemingly endless supply of pastel V-neck sweaters, with either an oxford cloth buttondown or a thin turtleneck underneath. He has a paranoia about cleanliness, about himself, his cars and everybody who works for him. In racing circles, he’s called Mister Clean, while Mark Donohue, his first and foremost employee, is called Captain Nice. The people who work closest with Penske wince when they hear that. There’s a slight role reversal there. Roger Penske is the captain. Make no mistake about that.

PENSKE CAME TO PHILADELPHIA in the mid ’60s. His racing days were just about over and he was looking for a solid investment. He got a piece of McKean Chevrolet in West Philly. He eventually took the place over, and it’s now run by his brother David. Roger went on to bigger and better things. A racing garage in Newtown Square, a whole line of auto products marketed through Sears, more car dealerships, car rental franchises, a tire distribution business, an insurance agency, a truck leasing company, and even his own speedway in Michigan.

Michigan International Speedway is near Penske’s third home in Southfield, near Detroit, where he spends much of his time now. The second home, of course, is Philadelphia, and the first is Shaker Heights, Ohio, where Roger Penske was born.

Shaker Heights is an affluent suburb of Cleveland. Penske always traveled on the right side of the tracks. His father worked his way up to become vice president of a firm that distributes steel. Roger Penske got interested in cars very early. His father brought him to Indy when he was 11. Now Roger brings his father.

Father Penske is a calm, thin man with shock-white hair. He is what Roger Penske will look like in 30 years. He came to Indy this year only for the time trials. He’s been having some heart problems and he didn’t think he could take the excitement of the race. He spent most of his time sitting in the sun of the 30-chair balcony off the suite—technically, room 164 of the Speedway Motel, little more than a living room with half a bath and half a kitchen and a view that costs $10,000 a year.

“Roger used to hang around gas stations all the time,” the elder Penske says. “One summer he got a paying job at one of them. He had his heart set on the old MG sports car parked out behind the station. I promised him if he earned the money, he could buy it. Well, he came up $100 short, but I gave him the difference. It was probably the best investment I ever made. He rebuilt that thing from scratch. And as soon as he fixed it all up, he sold it and traded up to a better car. He must have done that some 30 times before he ended up with his racing Corvette. I don’t know that we were too thrilled about that. It’s not that his mother and I discouraged him from racing. We just felt a lot better every Sunday night when he came walking in the door in one piece.”

From the Corvette, Penske moved up to a Porsche. He still likes that car. His team races it today in the better road races. Of course the car has changed a lot since then. Penske held off on serious racing long enough to graduate from Lehigh, get married and find a job as a sales engineer with an aluminum company in Cleveland. But he just couldn’t take all that sitting still. He quit his job and started racing full time. He became a very hot driver. In the early ’60s Roger Penske was one of the biggest names in road racing.

But he was more than just a race driver. He was a businessman with tremendous ability to package and sell himself. By now, that ability has been honed to an art. Roger Penske probably handles sponsors better than anyone else in the racing business. Penske is the supreme salesman. E. R. Bradley knows that probably better than anyone else.

Bradley, among the most polished brass at Sun Oil, came into what was then McKean-Penske Chevrolet on Chestnut Street to buy a car from Roger Penske. The two of them started talking about racing. Then Penske shifted the charm into high gear. He convinced Bradley that Sun Oil should be sponsoring a racing program. Bradley bounced it off his board and came back with a conditional okay. Sun wanted a team with the cleanest-cut image around. Roger Penske already filled the bill. All he needed now was a driver.

MARK DONOHUE GOT THE RACING bug the year after he got his mechanical engineering degree from Brown. He raced for five years as an amateur. He did very well, but was still very unknown. Donohue was always a very intense and introspectively emotional man. Which means he thought too much for a race driver. In 1966, he thought he would quit. A good friend of his was killed in a crash at LeMans. It was an end and a beginning. Donohue met Penske at the funeral. They had a long talk. Donohue was sold on Penske racing. He was the first employee, soon to become a partner in the corporation.

After a few rough races, the Penske-Donohue team started spending a lot of time in Victory Lane. Donohue drove a lot of different cars in a lot of different races. Camaros in short stock car races, and very exotic Lolas in marathon road races. Mark Donohue was considered one of the top drivers in the country. In 49 states, anyway. He had never been to Indiana. But in 1969 Roger Penske decided he had to go. There was only one race left and it was the big one.

At age 32, Mark Donohue was a rookie in the Indy 500. A promising rookie, but a rookie. To get to Indy, though, you need money. That’s where Penske came in. He managed to get $150,000 out of Goodyear and Sunoco. With lesser amounts thrown in from minor sponsors, they had enough to field one car.

In four years, things have certainly changed. The Penske racing sponsorship commitment is ten times what it was the first year at Indy. Penske has become a master at getting other people’s money and giving them a good promotional return on it. That’s the whole idea behind sponsorship. A company pays for you to use its product and display its trademark on your car. The car then becomes a 190-mile­an-hour billboard. And Roger Penske fields some of the best billboards in the business.

“The main thing,” he says, “is to go to a company and make a sponsorship proposal. But you can’t sign them up for just one year. That’s not long enough for either party because you don’t know if you’re going to have a poor year. If you do, the chances of them continuing are not so good. And if you’ve had a great year, the sponsor gets worried you might jack him up on the price.

“So I’ve got to get three-year commitments from our sponsors on the basis that we would produce for them. We’ve had excellent relations with our big sponsors like Sun Oil and Goodyear and Sears, mostly because of the way we’ve approached the relationship.

“You have to lay the groundwork with the big companies yourself. And I don’t have somebody go and do the groundwork for me. I do it myself. If I go in and there have to be some changes, I can make them on the spot.

“You notice our cars aren’t cluttered with a lot of product decals like the other cars. We’re not interested in the sponsors who’ll give you $5,000 after you’ve done something.

A lot of companies will only offer contingency money. If you happen to win and you’ve got their sticker on the car, they give you some money. To me, it’s not worth the few thousand dollars to junk up the car.

“Our sponsorship involvements this year will total about a million and a half dollars. That’s what we eat off of. If we ever had to worry about prize money to sustain our business, we’d be in serious trouble.

“But the one thing you’ve got to realize is that if I didn’t have any sponsors at all, I’d still be involved in racing, because it’s in my blood. I’d be into it just as far as I could financially afford myself.

“At the present time, we’re running a racing team just like we’d run a business. We try to control costs, which is very difficult, sometimes, when you have a run of bad luck. But we’ve had a profitable racing company for the past four years, and we expect to remain so in the future. It’s the toughest business I’ve been involved in. There’s no plateau in racing. Either you’re on the top or you’re on the bottom. And you can go up so fast and down so fast. Any one of those 33 cars could win at Indy. On the other hand, it can be disastrous, like it was for Pollard.

“Part of our success is picking the right people. All three of our drivers are good, clean-cut guys, which is good from a PR standpoint. When I do something, I want to do it the best we can. When I put a car on the track, I want to put the very best race car out there. From the crew to the drivers right on down to the paint job.”

Penske is a fanatic about that. During practice, every time a Penske car pulled into the pits, there was an extra man on the crew. Besides the regular guys to check the tires and the fuel, there was one man who carried nothing but a can of paste wax and a rag. His job was to polish the car.

Penske prides himself on having the best looking cars on the track. They are shining visions in navy blue and yellow—the Sunoco colors. He uses an epoxy base paint that won’t scratch. It’s cost him as much as $10,000 just to paint a car. He figures it’s worth it because people notice. And when they notice the car, they notice the sponsor stickers. And the sponsors like that. If they’re backing a $100,000 car, it can at least look washed and waxed.

That clean-cut, well-scrubbed look carries through the whole Penske team. Mark Donohue gave up his crew cut a couple of years back. But he still doesn’t fit in with a lot of the other drivers, especially at Indy. His hair isn’t slicked back with axle grease, and he shares Roger Penske’s V-neck sweater collection. He usually looks like he just walked in from an Ivy League fraternity meeting. He speaks very softly in a somewhat high-pitched, very boyish voice. He shrugs his shoulders and dips his head a lot. He’s a bad interview for most of the working press, the guys who are out after that one snappy, colorful quote to carry a story. Every time there’s an accident, the other drivers are always good for one-liners. “Yeah, we’re goin’ too fast” or “Man, we gotta do something about that.” Not Mark Donohue. He thinks too much.

THE NIGHT AFTER Art Pollard died, Donohue was flying back to Philadelphia in Roger Penske’s Lear jet. He was sitting next to Bobby Allison talking about differences and dangers. Allison was a little upset. He’s a proven veteran of the stock car circuit. But stock cars weigh around 4,000 pounds, which makes them look like tanks next to the 1,500-pound winged tubs at Indy. And Allison had been feeling some other pressures. The day before, his wife Judy walked into the Penske suite. It was her first time at Indy, too. She was invited out on the balcony to watch the cars go around. The first car she saw was Art Pollard’s, going around on its back.

Donohue help set Bobby Allison at ease. He went down the list of qualifiers and gave him the book on each man. “This guy takes chances, watch him.” “Don’t try to pass so-and-so on the outside, he’ll drive you into the wall.” But Allison’s main concern was the safety of the cars. He was used to cars that had things like roofs and roll bars and fenders.

“Racing cars today are nowhere near as dangerous as they’ve been in the past,” Donohue told him. “Especially at Indy, where you get the most publicity when someone’s killed or injured. Some years ago, when the old front end roadsters were the cars to run at Indy, the basic design concept there was to have a car that would be very strong in the suspension and not too strong in the chassis. That way they could run into things without achieving too much damage.

But when they crashed very hard into something, the suspension would come back through the chassis and generally injure the driver quite badly. The modern chassis design of the rear-engine cars is exactly the opposite. Any time the car has contact with something very hard, it shears all the wheels off. And with no wheels, the car won’t go very far. It’ll stop very fast.”

There are those who would tell you from all outward appearances that Mark Donohue is really Charlie Brown, still the little round-faced kid who thinks too much. But for Roger Penske, Mark Donohue does more than think. Back in those early days, back when it was a two-man operation out in Newtown Square, Mark Donohue did everything from engineering and putting the cars together to cleaning up afterwards. Now that the Penske race crew has grown to over 40 people and Mark Donohue has made an international name for himself, things really haven’t changed.

He can be found at all hours of the day and night somewhere around the little white bungalow at the intersection of West Chester Pike and Route 252, tinkering around with something. If it’s not one of his cars, it’s his boat. Donohue keeps a nice-size boat there. When he wants to get away from it all, he hitches it to a trailer and rides it up to the North Jersey shore, near his original hometown of Summit. He gets as many kicks out of the boat as he does out of the cars. And it was just a few months ago that the boat almost messed up his racing career.

He was working late at the shop on one of the cars. It was after midnight. He decided to turn in for a few hours. On his way out of the garage, the immaculate garage, the one with no dirt on the floor, the one with everything in its proper place, on the way out of the greaseless garage, he decided to check the hitch on the boat trailer. The boat was sitting a little loose. He tried to fix it. It didn’t work. The whole thing came down on his thumb, smashing it to blood. Donohue screamed like a cat.

Luckily, he wasn’t the only Penske person dedicated enough to be burning the midnight oil. A few yards away, in the little white bungalow, communications director Dan Luginbuhl heard the screams over the pounding of his typewriter. He ran out to help. Luginbuhl, who used to do some race driving himself, set a new world’s land speed record getting Donohue to the hospital, where his thumb was put back together again, minus only a few minor pieces.

THE PENSKE PLACE in Newtown Square has changed a lot since the first solo trip to Indy in 1969. Obviously, there are more people working there. The operation has gotten so big that it will soon be moved to a much larger site near Reading. Besides the Indy car, Donohue is now driving an American Motors Matador in stock car races and a highly-tooled Porsche in road races. They’re also working on something even more sophisticated for Formula 5000 racing.

Gary Bettenhausen was added to the team last year. He’s mostly an Indy car driver. At 31, he already had five 500s to his credit going into this year. Last year, his first driving for Roger Penske, he led the pack for most of the race. And when his car faltered, Mark Donohue came on to win.

And this year they’ve added stock car champion Bobby Allison to the Indy team, to keep the guys in the garage as busy as ever. But there are other machines besides race cars there, and that’s where Don Cox comes in. Cox, also in his early 30s, is director of engineering for Penske. His machine is a computer. He uses it for everything from setting up suspension systems to timing pit stops. Cox feeds in all the variables—the driver, the car, the racetrack—and comes out with a program, what the racing people call the hot setup.

Cox graduated from the General Motors Institute and did a lot of ex­perimental planning work with the Chevrolet racing people before joining Penske. He’s now considered one of the best chassis designers in the business. Some of the older mechanical men for the other race teams scoff at Cox’s slide rule approach. They’d rather stick to common sense and monkey wrenches. What’s the difference, they figure, as long as you win? Don Cox figures there’s a very big difference.

“Of course, our major objective is to win the race,” he says, “but the race is usually the last thing you do. Our initial objective when we get to the track is to show up with a properly prepared car that’s worth the tag, ‘Penske Racing.’ And there’s a good reason for that. Last year we went to Indy with what I thought was a beautifully prepared car. And so for the whole month of May, we got a lot of attention because it was such n attractive car.

“Now this is the kind of thing the sponsors are looking for. They want to win the race too, but they’re looking for attention. That’s why they give us the money. That’s why we’re in the business.

“You have to be organized like that. You know what’s got to be done that day, who’s going to handle what, when to make the pit stops. All that has to be done before the race. The race is just the thing at the end.

“We set our race strategy before­hand and try to stick to it. Each driver is different, each car gets a different setup. There’s no room for confusion. If we go organized and prepared and lose the race, that’s all right. But if we’re not prepared and we lose, it’s inexcusable.”

Penske’s people are always prepared. They’ve got this little seven-P motto: Proper prior planning prevents piss-poor performance. Mark Donohue’s preparation has always paid off. He’s won a lot of road racing championships and he’s done well at Indy. He was Rookie of the Year in 1969, finished seventh. The next year he moved up to second. A bad transmission in 1971 forced him out of the race early. But he made up for it last year, winning it all and automatically becoming the hottest property in racing. On his return to Indy, he was greeted like royalty.

MARK DONOHUE’S PICTURE was pasted all over Indianapolis. You could pull into any Sunoco station in town and buy an official Mark Donohue drinking glass with his picture and car on it. You could buy posters and pictures and blowup toys and T-shirts and just about anything else you could put a man’s name on. It was very impressive, returning as defending champion, impressive to everybody but Mark Donohue.

“We just can’t go out there and throw our press clippings on the ground and expect the other drivers to slide all over them,” Donohue said. “Each year we’re back to zero, just like everyone else.”

And 1973 promised to be the best 500 ever. It promised to be the year that someone would turn the oval at over 200 miles an hour. It probably got a bigger buildup than any 500 before it. The quarter of a million grandstand seats were sold out months in advance. People from all over the Midwest came weeks early just to be first in line for a parking spot in the infield. It was going to be a very big year.

The Penske suite seemed to be the hub of pre-race activity. It was a constant jam of corporate presidents and beautiful people. Linda Vaughn, the Hurst Shifter girl with the big boobs who figured largely in one of the Penn Central executive scandals, was a constant visitor. So were the president and chairman of the hoard of Sun Oil. So were some of the bigger journalists, like Bob Jones from Sports Illustrated, who wears a racing jacket that says BOB JONES, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, just in case you weren’t sure.

Kathy Holbert was constantly answering the phone. There were always requests for interviews and pictures. Penske and his people tried to oblige, but it got kind of unwieldy. They finally had to lock themselves in the garage area to get away from it all.

They would be in Indianapolis over a month, preparing for a race that would probably take about three hours. There were all kinds of tests to run. They had to check the tires and the engines and the chassis and anything else you could think of. Indy is run by a bunch of old men and, because of it, is very much steeped in tradition. There is still something called Carburetion Day, even though none of the cars have carburetors any more. There’s a very simple formula at Indy. If it was good in 1911, it’s got to be good today. There is an outcry for change every year at Indy from the younger folks, but the change never comes. This year a lot of those younger folks were saying, well beforehand, that this year’s cars were too fast for the track, that something had to be done or somebody was going to get very badly hurt. The old men didn’t listen.

The second best-attended sports event in this country is the time trials for the first best-attended sports event in this country, the Indy 500. The time trials consist of one car going out on the track by itself and running four laps, or ten miles, as fast as the driver can push it. At the end of four days of qualifying, the fastest 33 cars are set for the race.

ROGER PENSKE HAD a definite program for time trials. “I want to qualify our three cars in the first four rows,” he said. And his drivers proceeded to go out and do it. Mark Donohue ended up on the outside of row one, Gary Bettenhausen was in the middle of row two and Bobby Allison was on the outside of row four. It was all almost too easy to be true. Mark Donohue even came close to breaking the 200-mile-an-hour mark. Two others came closer, but nobody did. That set up even more anticipation for the race itself.

In the two weeks between the time trials and the 500, everybody had a pretty good time. The Holiday Inn Northwest was the hot spot in town, and on any given night you could find anybody who mattered drinking up and shooting off. Everybody but Penske’s people, that is.

It’s not that Roger requires an oath of abstinence or anything, even though he prefers orange juice to an occasional Manhattan. It’s just that he takes racing seriously. And so do the people who work for him. In Gasoline Alley, the lights hardly ever went out in the Penske garage area. There was always more work to do on these thousand-horsepower monsters.

Meanwhile, Andy Granatelli was going around pasting STP stickers on any blank space left in town. Peter Revson, the Revlon heir and race driver, was passing out free samples of a soon-to-be-marketed product called “Rev-Up,” vitamins for men. There was a picture of Revson on the back of each package with a nifty little quote: “Unlike your car, you can’t trade your body in for a new one.”

The commercialism was everywhere. A driver never talked about his helmet. It was always his Bell Helmet. And as each driver pulled in from a good practice run, he made sure to step up to the public address mike and tell the crowd what gave him that extra little push. “Those Champion spark plugs didn’t miss once and the Goodyear tires really held on the curves,” said veteran Gerry Grant.

But there was always something to balance out a commercial plug. “The Lord rode with me,” Mel Kenyon said. “I came into that last turn and I asked the Lord to give me a little push. And the Lord came through.”

You’ve got to remember, this is Indiana. That’s why most of the couple hundred thousand people who flooded the infield for the race were young. It looked like a Midwestern Woodstock. Could it be that so many young kids were interested in auto racing? No, there’s just nothing else to do in Indiana.

The 500 has always been a circus. The prices just keep getting higher. This year, the good seats went for $20 and $40. It was either that or sit on the top of your car. A lot of people did. The crowd was estimated at well over 400,000. They lined up all through the rainy night before, waiting for the bombs to go off at 5 a.m., signaling the opening of the gates.

While they waited, many of them read newspapers to get the latest dope on the race. A banner headline announced that a poll of racing writers had picked Gary Bettenhausen and Mark Donohue as the two favorites to win the race, and Bobby Allison was predicted for Rookie of the Year. That night the Penske suite was more crowded than ever.

THE 57TH ANNUAL INDIANAPOLIS 500 TAKE ONE—Monday, May 28

It rained like a son of a bitch. This race had only been called off once before because of rain. That was in 1915. The crowd sat this one out. By mid-afternoon, there was a break in the clouds and they got the cars onto the track and ready to run. The celebrities paraded in Cadillac cars. The Purdue band played “The Star Spangled Banner.” Jim Nabors sang “Back Home Again In Indiana.” Thousands of helium balloons were let loose. Tony Hulman, the man who owns the Speedway and half of Indianapolis, cranked his hand into an imaginary starter and cried, “GENTLE­MENNNNN, STAAAAART YOUR ENNNJUNNNS!”

The cars started. The crowd roared. The cars took a parade lap of the course. Then they sped up for a pace lap. They came out of the fourth turn and got the green flag. The race was under way. And before the public address announcer could get those words out, the race was over, some 70 yards later. At 150 miles an hour, there was some bumping in the middle of the field. One car touched wheels with another, one car hit the wall. There was a giant explosion like a bomb dropping. A sky-high ball of orange flame rolled down the course. People in the stands across from the pits were doused with fuel. No one died immediately. Ten cars were involved in the crash. Driver Salt Walther was really messed up badly. He was taken to the hospital with terrible burns and breaks. So were a dozen spectators. Some of them were released. The cleanup operation looked like something out of My Lai. And just when things started to get back into order and it looked like they might start the race again, it poured. It was almost enough to make you believe in God. The race was put off until the next day.

THE 57TH ANNUAL INDIANAPOLIS 500 TAKE TWO—Tuesday, May 29

It was a bright, sunny morning, but the stands were hardly full. A lot of people had to go back home and back to work. Track officials stalled for a little over an hour to let more of the crowd in. As they waited, the clouds moved in. The cars took a parade lap, then a pace lap, then a red flag. The race was stopped before it started. There was rain on the course. The rain never stopped. They waited about three hours and called the race off again. The forecast for the next day said rain. Some of the drivers used the time to bitch. Gary Bettenhausen, an official drivers’ representative, complained that the cars weren’t allowed to have roll bars over the open cockpits. He said that was an easy way to kill people. There was a simple answer to his request. They didn’t have roll bars in 1911. It continued to rain.

THE 57TH ANNUAL INDIANAPOLIS 500 TAKE THREE—Wednesday, May 30

It was a dark and rainy day. What else was new? The people at the weather bureau said there might be a break for a few hours. So they lined the cars up and in mid-afternoon, they sent them off again. It was stupid. Everybody knew they couldn’t get 500 miles in. But under the rules of the race, you only needed one lap over 250 miles to make it official. And that’s what they were aiming for, just to get a race in, any race, just to get the damn thing over with already. It was getting so that nobody cared who won anymore.

Most of the drivers anticipated a short race. Many of their mechanics turned the screw—tightened the engine up to make it go faster over a shorter distance. Now it was a race against the rain.

Roger Penske put on one of his several sets of $10,000 headphones, each tuned to a private radio band to keep in contact with the drivers in the cockpit and with different spotters around the track.

Bobby Allison’s car was late getting to the grid. Some last-minute minor changes in the garage area. A little bit of the old Penske perfectionism that almost backfired. All the other drivers were in their cars when Allison came running, right at the introduction to the national anthem. Being the patriotic Southern gentlemen he is, Allison refused to move while the anthem was being played. Because of that, the car didn’t have a chance to warm up. He went out with a cold engine with the oil pressure building.

On the second lap, Bobby Allison was headed home. It was a catastrophic failure for both him and Penske. A bolt broke and a rod went through the side of the engine block. The thing that hurt the most was that there was no control over it. The engines are built by a firm in California. They do all the building and all the testing. Somehow, Bobby Allison’s defective engine just got past them. Months of work were down the drain in less than a minute.

Allison got out of the car, ripped off his helmet and kicked the ground. “I’m disgusted with the whole thing,” he mumbled. “I didn’t even have a chance.”

Meanwhile, Mark Donohue was running well, in second place, right behind Bobby Unser. His first pit stop went off Penske perfect. At 16 seconds, it was the fastest of the day.

Then things started to cloud up again. A car spun out on the backstretch. The yellow flag was put out. Everyone had to maintain position and go no faster than 80 miles an hour. Roger Penske thought it was a good time to bring Donohue in for another stop. He flashed an “IN” on the signboard and Donohue came in for another fill-up. This time, though, he got caught with his fuel hose dangling. The yellow flag was only momentary. While Donohue was still in the pits, the green flag went out and the race was back on, minus one defending champion. Donohue hurried out, but it was too late to regain his position. Penske didn’t consider it a mistake. He had to bring him in sometime. In the end, it didn’t matter.

The clouds got heavier. Some of the bigger names had already dropped out with engine problems. Revson, Andretti, Ruby, Foyt. Swede Savage, one of the fastest qualifiers, was running as well as anybody. Until the fourth turn. Savage’s car, with a full 75-gallon tank of fuel, had something go wrong. It stopped going forward and started sliding across the track and hit the wall and went up in flames and disintegrated. A wheel shot 100 feet straight up in the air. Pieces of the car were all over the track. It was terrible. Everybody started running to help. In the pits, a running crewman was hit by a speeding rescue truck. He was killed.

They managed to pull Swede Savage out of the wreckage. He was badly burned and broken. They flew him to the hospital in very critical condition. It was just terrible. Even those vultures who paid good money to see blood had had enough. The people in the stands were still. And it started to rain. Somebody said God was crying again. It lasted for about an hour. The race started again, but nobody really cared. It was all anti­climax from here. It was all a disaster.

Mark Donohue’s next pit stop was only a few hundred yards off. That’s where he ran out of gas and had to coast into the pits because a fuel tank lever bent, locking out a half tank. He lost more ground, but the trouble had just begun. His next pit stop was on lap 89. Gas and tires. Only the engine didn’t sound so good. They couldn’t figure out why. They sent him out. He went by again. This time he was really sputtering. “Get the plugs!” Roger Penske yelled.

On lap 91, Donohue was brought in again. The stop took an outrageous two minutes and 23 seconds. They were hoping to solve the problem.
Only they weren’t sure what it was.

Meanwhile, the field was folding. Al Unser went out, then Gerry Grant and Mike Hiss and Joe Leonard. Five laps later, Donohue came in for an inspection. There were no leaks and no obvious problems. But he was still sputtering. Still running slow. The stop lasted a minute and 21 seconds. Two laps later, they brought him in again. He sat in the car for a few laps while they changed the whole ignition system. Then they fired the car up. It sounded terrible. They shut it off. A disgusted Mark Donohue was out of the race. It was a burned exhaust valve. Another engine failure.

“What can I say,” he said as he left the track. “We’ve only got one consolation. The part failed. The guys didn’t.”

The race fell apart in quick order. Bobby Unser went out, Dick Simon, A. J. Foyt in a backup car, David Hobbs, Mike Mosely, fastest qualifier Johnny Rutherford. The only hope left for the Penske team was Gary Bettenhausen, and he just wasn’t running well. He had been reporting steering problems on his two-way radio. He had to run the car slower. He was afraid to go too fast. Afraid he’d lose control and crash. He made two pitstops while his crew inspected the rear end of the car. They found nothing wrong and sent him back out.

The next time he came in, Penske thought he heard some vibrating in the front. He started yelling for somebody to check under the nose of the car. A pit man slid under. A piece of the chassis was rubbing the winged part of the nose. The piece was quickly cut off. ‘Everything was perfect now, but Bettenhausen had lost several laps to the field making the adjustment.

He pulled back on the track and started driving hard. He was running better than anybody out there, picking up a place or two on every lap. There was some excitement in the Penske pits as Bettenhausen moved from fourteenth to tenth to eighth to seventh to fifth and kept standing on it. Then Roger Penske put out his hand to signal. It got wet. It was raining again. By now, they had enough laps in to make it legal. By now they just wanted to get the race over with before another disaster happened. They put out the yellow flag and then the red. They never even bothered to drop the checkered. In what seemed like almost a kangaroo court proceeding they declared Gordon Johncock, the guy who, by attrition, happened to be leading at the time, the winner, gave him the trophy and quickly left. A half hour later the sun was out again, but everybody had gone home.

“It, was just a matter of who was going to break down or crash next,” Gary Bettenhausen said. “It just wasn’t a race. It was a disaster.”

It was an Indy 500 that would be remembered not for its winner, but for all of its losers. A few days later, the United States Auto Club, the group that governs the race, would partially give in to the cry for safety by cutting the fuel loads almost in half and shortening the allowable limit for the cars’ aerodynamic rear wings. But it was too little too late. It should have been a time for celebration, but there was nothing for anybody to celebrate. You couldn’t even call it the Indy 500. The rain made it the Indy 332-1/2.

Mostly everybody packed up and went home, grimly determined to forget the whole thing. Roger Penske stayed. He locked himself in a garage with Don Cox and they started figuring what went wrong and plotting where to go from here, trying to work on how they could avoid things like this. Roger Penske wasn’t waiting until next May to straighten things out. The racing team was, after all, the most visible part of the multi­million dollar conglomerate called Penske Enterprises Inc. And the cap­tain knew he had to run it right. This wasn’t a time to mope. It was a time to plan ahead. Everybody in the organization knew that.

Back in the suite, the only thing that was left of the crowds of the previous days were some broken plastic cups. There were only half a dozen people left there, all Penske people. There was no one breaking the door down for an interview. The phone didn’t ring. It was a lonely defeat.

Dan Luginbuhl got up and walked over to the closet in the corner where he had hid the four cases of champagne for the victory party that never was. He opened one of the cartons and pulled out a bottle.

“We better drink some of this stuff before it goes flat,” he said. He corked a bottle and poured some of the pink stuff into a paper cup. He lifted it high.

“Here’s to next year,” he said. He gulped some bubbles and walked over to the garage area, where the lights stayed on all night.

Never since Indianapolis 500 International Sweepstakes began in 1911, had an image this picture-perfect been captured on film. The car of American Duane C. “Pancho” Carter, Jr. went airborne and flipped upside down during practice for the Indy 500 on May 3rd 1987. In a moment Sports Illustrated called ‘flying start’, his March-Cosworth went airborne after spinning in Turn 3, rolled over, sailed about 100 feet and fell back to the track.

At 5:58 p.m. when Carter had his spectacular crash, the wind was strong and air got underneath his car. Carter found himself sliding down the track for some 600 feet on his head, with the small automobile strapped to his butt. Then, he bounced off a concrete wall and slid another 260 feet. Carter himself was not seriously injured; the next day, he was back on track, with a new car and a new helmet. His old helmet, with three major scrapes from rubbing along the pavement, was sent to Indy Hall of Fame down the road.

The above photo was taken for AP by Bill Stalions. Another less spectacular version can be found here.

]]> http://oc2seattle.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/fine-wine-fried-food-and-fast-cars-im-off-to-the-races/ Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:21:37 +0000 oc2seattle http://oc2seattle.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/fine-wine-fried-food-and-fast-cars-im-off-to-the-races/

For my husband’s birthday this year, I took him to the Indianapolis 500.  Since it was a milestone birthday, we did the races VIP style (I bought the package to the Indy at the Sonoma Paradiso charity auction).  We had pit access the entire weekend up to a few moments before the race began.  We did “hot laps,” which means we were driven 110 mph around the track by 2 time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk.   And we spent the weekend in Mari Hulman George’s suites (owner’s suites) at the track and attending her parties.  My husband being an amateur photo-nut took hundreds of pictures of the cars, the drivers, and the track (the pic below is mine, not his). 

We also had a chance to explore some of the local cuisine, which in addition to the swankier places, included Indianapolis’s oldest drive-in – Mug ‘n Bun.  If you’re from the West Coast, Mug ‘n Bun is a must – a fried food extravaganza the likes of which I doubt the West Coast could or would replicate.  There were the usual fried offerings – onion rings and corn dogs – and then there were the sublime – Macaroni and Cheese wedges – fried triangles filled with ooey, gooey Mac n Cheese yumminess.  Ironically, Mug ‘n Bun was recommended by my vegan Pilates instructor – for the rootbeer (which admittedly is delicious)!

We had an amazing weekend, especially because we met and got to spend time with a lot of really great people.  Fortunately, for us we managed to forge some friendships (something that would never happen so quickly in Seattle – more on that later) and this weekend we are reuniting for the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.  How could we pass up wine country and races?  So, I’m off for a weekend of fine wine, fried food (a suite specialty) and fast cars!

Harvard Rugby Team-Any Future Billionaires?

Top 10 in Billionaires and Many sports-A rarity

A New Way to Rate Colleges: If you visit a university and talk to their alumni, you will often hear them say “we are ranked number such-and-such” or “our widget school is ranked thus-and-so.” More often, they won’t be as specific and simply say that “our widget school is one of the highest ranked.” Almost every time, in my experience, when I have gone to the US News and World Report ranking, the claims are not matched. Several times I’ve been told some great thing and found that particular discipline at that school is ranked somewhere between 100 and 150. I suppose that if you have to tell me that your school is highly ranked in academics, it’s probably won’t live up to the billing.

Not in Top Ten in Football or Billionaires

There are different ways of ranking schools but at least part of the criteria is based on outcome. Many undergraduate programs will encourage their better students to go on to advanced degrees because the more of their students that can attain a Masters or PhD, the better that undergraduate school looks. Beyond academic achievement, another way to grade a school’s performance is the working world performance of its graduates. There is one famous school that one always hears is so great yet I am unaware of any high-profile business successes from that school, but they are famous for football.

Gates-Richest Harvard Dropout

Forbes magazine came out with an interesting way of ranking schools. How many billionaires are products of that academic institution? The Forbes list of billionaires hailing from particular universities is headed up by Harvard with 5% of the world’s billionaires. I’m not sure, but I don’t think that it includes rich guys who dropped out like Bill Gates. New York University made this list, but also sports 5 drop outs that have gone on to great riches. The University of Pennsylvania is on the list and boasts the famous Wharton School of Business and its most famous graduate, Donald Trump.

An interesting note is that the only state schools on the list are ones that are also known for football prowess, or really athletic achievement in general.   The state schools that  round out the top 10 are USC, UCLA and The University of Texas at Austin. These schools all were tied for 9th place with nine billionaires in their ranks. I’ve often wanted to ask a university president if his objective was to entertain the alumni or to produce students who gain a quality education. It’s kinda tough to do both.

On This Date In History: Not all success stories are college graduates or even college drop outs. On this date in 1909, entrepreneur Carl Graham Fisher was looking ahead to a big day. In just a 3 days, he was going to stage the first race at the Indianpolis Motor Speedway . Four days later he was scratching his head because the opening of his Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a three day, 300 mile race didn’t go very well. Drivers were blinded by the dust kicked up from the gravel roadway and 5 people were killed. Fisher abruptly stopped the race. But, he didn’t give up. He had the 2.5 mile oval set with brick and in 1911, the first Indy 500 was held.

Fisher didn’t give up on a lot of things. He was born half blind but didn’t know about it until he was 31. He started a small bicycle business and promoted it by riding a bike across a tightrope. He opened what is thought to be the first auto dealership in America and promoted that business in Indianapolis by floating across the city in a hot-air balloon. Part of the reason he opened the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was that he wanted to try to make Indianapolis the hub of the auto-industry instead of Detroit. He also went into business making auto headlights. He later sold that in 1912 to Union Carbide for $9 million. Perhaps buoyed by the success of making Indianapolis Motor Speedway the “Brickyard”, he conceived of the idea and helped develop the nations first coast to coast highway, the Lincoln Highway, named for his favorite hero. He went a step farther and pushed for the Dixie Highway from Indianapolis to Florida, which John Mellencamp made famous later.

In Florida, he became a real estate mogul and bought an overgrown island off of Miami. He had it cleared of mangroves, filled in the swamps and built a bridge to what is now known as Miami Beach. As part of a promotion, he once used an elephant with a baseball player on its head, which I have no idea how that promotes a real estate development. But, Fisher is considered a genius while that moniker has escaped me. He also began a “Miami of the North”, developing what would become Montauk on the eastern tip of Long Island. At one point he was worth $100 million in 1920’s dollars. But..easy come easy go.

Miami Beach Memorial Honoring Fisher

Before the hype of Global Warming, a number of hurricanes devastated Florida and just hammered the real estate market in Florida. That took a toll on Fisher’s fortune. Then the stock market crash of 1929 wiped him out. He ended up in a small cottage on Miami Beach, but he didn’t stop. He developed the Caribbean Club in Key Largo. He died in 1939 with an estate estimated at just $40,000. But, he is credited with helping to inspire President Eisenhower to develop the interstate highway system. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame and was named one of Florida’s 50 most influential people of the 20th Century.

From rags to riches to rags again….yet he left a legacy of benefit for the entire nation. Ever wonder what you can do if you try?

Monday Evening

Weather Bottom Line: Look for another day near 90…that’s even possible on Monday too. But, the rain chances will begin to increase by Monday afternoon and then stick around for much of the week. A lazy front will sag down our way and maybe not even get through the area, but will get close enough and then lurk around long enough to cause enough of a ruckus to help focus at least scattered storms for much of the week. I suspect that its initial approach on Tuesday will bring the greatest chances. Otherwise, it will be warm and humid for the week ahead

There was an article on CNNSI today that got me thinking.  It was about the sporting events you have to see before you die.  So without delay here’s my Sports Bucket List by sport…

Professional Football:

This is tough because the Super Bowl doesn’t appeal to me unless my team, the NY Giants, is in it. If they are then that’s my must see, but since that is not guaranteed then it’s a game in Lambeau Field, in December.  Lambeau is pro football’s only “shrine” stadium, so going to a game there is a no-brainer.

College Football:

I’ve already accomplished this by going to multiple Ohio State/Michigan games.  It is the greatest rivalry in sports.  Similar to pro football the BCS National Championship Game only appeals to me if my team is in it.  I also love the pageantry of college football rivalry’s, but I would love to go to a Rose Bowl.  Preferably with Ohio State playing, but the pageantry of the Granddaddy makes it special regardless of who is playing.

Baseball:

Another team driven choice.  Game 7 in Citi Field would be choice #1, but outside of that I would pick a game in Fenway Park.  I have already been to a day game sitting in the bleachers at Wrigley Field and Fenway is the last of the old stadiums left other than Wrigley.  I would prefer Opening Day or Patriots Day and those seats on top of the Green Monster would be awesome, but I’m not going to be picky.

Professional Basketball:

Any game the Knicks win.  Sorry had to say it.  Obviously it would be Game 7 or any clincher of the NBA Finals in Madison Square Garden, but if that never happens (and at this rate it probably won’t happen in my lifetime [The Knicks are the only one of my teams never to win a championship in my lifetime]) I would have to say a Lakers/Celtics game in Boston (preferably in the finals).  I am fortunate to have seen Michael Jordan in his prime play in Chicago, so seeing Kobe in a huge rivalry game would be special.

College Basketball:

The Final Four would be great, but again it would be a different experience depending on whether or not my team is in it.  I would go with Duke/North Carolina in Cameron Indoor.  It’s the best rivalry in college basketball and the atmosphere is always electric.

Hockey:

Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals regardless of who’s playing.  The intensity, the emotion, the beards, and seeing the winner skate with the cup…Incredible!

Auto Racing:

I’ve already been to the Indy 500 and that would be #1 so I’ll go with the Daytona 500.  I’ve been to the track, but to see the Great American Race live would be a dream come true.

Golf:

This is a tough one.  I’ve already been to Augusta National so the bucket list is complete for Golf.  My next choice is a close call between the British Open at St. Andrews and going to every session of a Ryder Cup in the United States.  Too tough to call.  I’d be happy with either.

Tennis:

I’ve been to a US Open men’s final (2004, Federer’s first US Open championship).  But regardless it is the Wimbledon gentlemens final.

Horse Racing:

I’ve been to all three triple crown races and have been to the Belmont with a Triple Crown on the line.  So I’m all set.  I would like to do all three in the same year.

Soccer/Futbol:

I’ve been to World Cup games and would love to go to a World Cup final, but I want to see an Arsenal/Manchester United game at Arsenal’s place.

Olympics:

Winter:  The hockey gold medal game

Summer: The men’s 100 meter dash

Other (including the above categories):

• A game at Notre Dame Stadium
• Monaco Grand Prix
• French Open and Australian Open men’s final
• Any World Cup game overseas
• Champions League final
• Any of the great college football rivalry games: Texas/Oklahoma, Alabama/Auburn, The Cocktail Party, and etc.
• Tour de France
• The Downhill at Kitzbuehl
• A great Heavyweight fight, but I’ll settle for Mayweather/Pacquiao

If I think of more I’ll add to the list.  I’d love to hear some of yours…

Follow on Twitter @4thquarterpunts

Duas coisas sobre a Sega que nunca foram segredo pra ninguém: a perícia em fazer jogos de corrida e a perícia em fazer jogos de fliperama. Quando eles resolvem então fazer um jogo de corrida pra fliperama, sai de perto que o que vem pela frente é porrada em milhões de polígonos por segundo.

O meio dos anos 90 foi uma época realmente próspera pra essa combinação Sega + velocidade. Se antes disso teve Out Run, Hang-On e Super Monaco GP, nesse tempo o mundo conheceu os gráficos em 3d e a Sega trouxe ao mundo as família das placas Model 1, 2 e 3 que desde o começo teve jogos que já nasceram clássicos. Um deles, talvez o maior de todos, se chamava Daytona USA e fez tanto sucesso que fez uma sombra monstruosa nos fliperamas e fez vários jogos terem presença garantida aqui nesta seção de jogos obscuros, um deles sua própria sequência (reveja aqui).

Indy 500 foi um desses jogos, acabou obscuro de forma muito injusta, se teve 10 desses aqui no Brasil foi muito e pelo menos metade deles tevem ter ficado no mesmo fliper. O ano era 1995 e este jogo apareceu praticamente do nada, mas trouxe tudo o que daria pra esperar das mãos de quem fez Daytona USA e também tinha acabado de lançar Sega Rally: gráficos detonadores, som no talo e velocidades absurdas. O jogo foi lançado em 3 formatos, o de um jogador sozinho e o de duas máquinas ligadas.

O terceiro tipo foi um exclusivo que acho que deviam vender só por encomenda e cegou a ter uma aqui no Brasil: até 8 telas gigantes interligadas com cockpits de carros para cada jogador com direito a uma tela no alto exclusiva para a transmissão ao vivo da corrida:

Infelizmente, nunca foi lançado para nenhum sistema caseiro fora o portátil Game.com da Tiger, porém já conseguiram fazer que o emulador funcione pra esses jogos 3d da Sega. E já tá também mais do que na hora desses jogos ganharem um lançamento pra download nesses videogames mais novos, ainda mais agora que tem jogo online e essas coisas todas. Outro que entra nessa lista é o antigo Indy 500 pra PC, jogo que todo mundo pegava só mesmo pra fazer acidentes e passar horas vendo o replay:

Os outros jogos de corrida citados estarão você encontra em breve aqui na Old.

Have you ever wondered how certain individuals get certain gigs? I certainly have…This morning, I woke up, grabbed a cup of coffee and turned on one of my all-time favourite programs, Texas Country Reporter. In Dallas, it comes on at 10:00a on Channel 27, and nationally, reruns are aired on RFD TV (‘Rural America’s most important network’) at 10:30a (and other times, too). I have been watching Mr. Phillips when his program started out as 4-Country Reporter, I think, around 1972 or 1973. He travels around Texas to do profiles on various people, events, etc. that are interesting, weird, heart-touching, thoughtful, unusual, or all of the above.

Sorry, I digress…I was watching his show this morning, which featured a guy who restores old license plates, a bait-seller (on the Lake O’ the Pines in East Texas)/poet, a band director who plays songs on a turkey baster (yes, you have read that correctly – a turkey baster) and a couple of other stories…As I was watching, a thought popped into my head – “How did he get a gig like that?” Another thought popped in after that one, “Where does he find these people?” Actually, I have wondered this about Mr. Phillips for a long time. His is quite an interesting job. He has definitely talked to some seriously unusual people!

As I am a big fan of NASCAR, after Texas Country Reporter, I flipped the station to Speed Channel. I had seen on ESPN a day or two ago that qualifying had been rained out, so I was hoping the race at Pocono would not be rained out as well. I love watching John Roberts, Jimmy Spencer, Kenny Wallace, Hermie Sadler and Wendy Venturini on Speed Channel’s NASCAR RaceDay. I have often wondered how Wendy got her gig as pit reporter. Unfortunately, it is still somewhat rare to see a female sportscaster or reporter. Ms. Venturini has been doing an excellent job for the past several years, and man, would I LOVE to trade jobs with her! I have loved car racing since I was old enough to watch the Indy 500 every year. I have been a fan of NASCAR for the past 20 years or so…ever since I watched Dale Earnhardt, Sr. bump and grind his way to all his Cup championships.

I would have loved to have been a sports jounalist/on-air personality like Wendy Venturini, Susie Kolber from ESPN or Jillian Barbieri. How in the world did they end up doing what they do?? I love sports in general, and particular ones, hockey, auto racing, baseball, especially. I like to think that I could have been a good sportscaster even though I am a woman. I also like to think that I could have Bob Phillips’ job in a heartbeat if I could operate a camera…I can certainly talk with people and take notes.

These are only a couple of examples; the world is filled with even more. How do taste-testers get started, or recipe testers? How do you get a gig as a traffic reporter? Who do you have to know to become a sports arena broadcaster? I guess it’s just one of those quirky things that occupy my mind sometimes. Perhaps, one day I will have some answers.

Left turn! Left turn! Are you a race car fanatic? Like those Indy 500 Formula Racing cars? Or how about Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NASCAR? Or do you just love race cars new and old? Then read on for 50+ free printable realistic race car coloring pages! Click here…

Well fans, it all came to a screeching halt on Tuesday, this week.  As much as I hate to say this, Robin Miller actually hit the nail on the head.  I give him his props for scooping that story. How he did it I’ll never know, but boy oh boy, I’d like to find out.

Did he have a “mole” in the meeting room camouflaged to look like a Lamp?  Was he under the meeting table?  That could go in a different direction, but I’ll stay on topic….  Would Tony George himself give the scoop to Robin Miller?  I honestly don’t think Tony would give him a scoop of ice cream.  Was he in the next room with a glass to the wall hanging onto every distorted word being said?  I’ll bet it was the lawyer in the room.   You KNOW you can’t trust a lawyer…..can you?

The family swore that they didn’t talk to anyone outside of that room.  Well then, how did Robin get the story correct, immediately after the post-Indy 500 board meeting and BEFORE this week’s meeting was even held?  I’ll bet I know how he found out…Robin’s got to be secretly having an affair with one of the sisters, and it slipped out during “pillow talk”.  That’s IT, that’s GOT to be IT!  You know, come to think of it…Mari has been known for her work rescuing horses.  (God bless her for doing that, and I really mean it)  She’s quite the animal lover, and we all know that Robin’s been referred to as a “Horses Ass” on numerous occasions (tell me I’m wrong).  Hmmm…Do you see a correlation here?

Bottom line here however is the fact that this meeting/gang tackle of Tony George will make a couple hundred fanatical OWRS/Champ Car fans happy, but the timing of this couldn’t be worse. It may indicate that the Hulman-George family and others don’t believe the Indy Racing League is a “viable investment” going forward.  It also shows that the family lost faith in their boy Tony, and that’s terrible thing to happen at this time.  The Indy Racing League was just starting to come into it’s own, and was FINALLY being showcased/promoted the way the fans felt it should be. Tony had the support of the team owners and had fought for 12 years to bring everyone back together in Open Wheel Racing at a time when AOWR was rapidly circling the drain.

And, let’s not forget that a certain “free agent” has a contract up this year.  The NASTICAR dogs are foaming at the mouth over that one.

And what of all of the work Tony George has done to bring in more engine manufacturers to compete with Honda (who, btw, have been VERY patient and loyal to Tony).  Fiat, Volkswagen, and Audi (iirc) were in the mix.  What of the discussions for an engine formula to race in 2011?  At present, those discussions were with Tony.  However, I doubt if Brian Barnhardt, Kevin Blanch, Les Mactaggart & Roger Bailey were being kept out of the loop, so hopefully, that deal will STILL go through.

If the Hulman-George family is opposed to the direction Tony was headed, it could bring along something that we DEFINITELY don’t want – the “Team Owners” running the series or deciding to form their own series again.  Yeah, that’s an “Oh S#*t!” that this writer wonders if it was thought through.

Bottom line is….Who the hell’s DRIVING this thing?  We’ve not found out from Robin Miller the answer to that very crucial question.  He’s STILL a horse’s ass, but he sure did pull one over on us, didn’t he?

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Irlfannphx ; )

Planejava escrever sobre a prova da DTM, mas hoje à noite a bomba mais que anunciada finalmente explodiu. Tony George – dependendo de quem for a sua fonte o homem mais amado ou odiado entre os fãs de monopostos americanos – foi afastado/demitido do seu posto de presidente do Indianápolis Motor Speedway, da Indycar Racing League e de todos os negócios da família Hullman-George. A partir de hoje George é só o dono da Vision Racing e um membro da mesa diretora dos negócios da família.

Robin Miller, o mais antigo jornalista americano a cobrir monopostos e inimigo declarado de George, havia anunciado que a decapitação de TG estava próxima logo depois das últimas 500 Milhas. Logo depois o IMS contra atacou com um press-release dizendo que George ainda era presidente e a família pedira a ele um plano para o futuro. Para quem está habituado a linguagem dos press-releases era visível que Miller estava no mínimo no caminho certo. Logo depois para dar mais combustível a história todos os donos de equipe assinaram uma declaração de apoio a George durante a etapa de Milwaukee e mais recentemente Ryan Hunter-Reay segundo piloto da Vision foi emprestado a Foyt e circulou a noticia de que a família teria negado 750 mil dólares necessários para manter o seu carro operando (vale apontar que a única razão pela qual a Vision colocara um segundo carro na pista é Hunter-Reay ser garoto propaganda de um dos patrocinadores da liga e estar desempregado).

Segundo as fontes de Miller, as três irmãs de George decidiram por um fim na sua gastança desenfreada para manter a série operando. George teria desde 96 torrado cerca de 600 milhões de dólares na IRL, nem toda esta grana foi perdida, mas cerca de metade certamente nunca retornou a família. Para além das grandes premiações em Indianápolis, George subsidia todas as equipes através do programa TEAM Money (essenciais para as operações das equipes menores) e assume parte das despesas junto aos fornecedores. Em suma, sem o dinheiro da família George provavelmente nós teríamos Penske (Malboro), Ganassi (Target) e AGR (Danica) nas pistas.

Até o momento tudo sugere que a fonte não vai secar. Ao mesmo tempo em que o anuncio saiu, um outro press-release destacava várias mudanças aerodinâmicas para melhorar as provas ovais e a família se comprometeu a seguir investindo na IRL. A verdade é que agora que o clube dos milionários brincando de donos de equipe fechou, a família George está presa a IRL. As 500 Milhas precisam de uma série e não há ninguém mais disposto a financiá-la. Por outro lado a decisão de não apontar um substituto para a IRL (enquanto as outras áreas onde George foi afastado foram cobertas) é muito preocupante.

É certo que com Tony George perdendo poder a disposição para torrar milhões deve diminuir consideravelmente e o aviso de George no final do ano passado de que a IRL precisaria se auto-sustentar até 2013 parece mais assustadora do que nunca. Me parecem existir 5 possíveis cenários para o futuro a médio prazo da série:

a) A IRL finalmente se auto-sustenta e tudo permanece como está.
b) algum milionário entediado resolve brincar de ser salvador dos monopostos americanos e decide pagar as contas da brincadeira (Gerry Forsythe me parece a única pessoa que consideraria a idéia). Champ Car vai a Indy.
c) Penske, Ganassi e Andretti decidem continuar a série por conta própria. Cart 2.0.
d) A família France aproveita a oportunidade e ou compra o espólio da IRL ou monta uma série de monopostos do principio. Grand-Am versão monopostos.
e) A família George lava as mãos, ninguém se apresenta e a organização da Indy 500 reverte para USAC e teremos basicamente um versão glorificada de super modifieds televisionados de forma mais ampla uma vez por ano.

Todos os cenários alternativos são meio assustadores e o último é apocalíptico, mas todos são criveis (especial a alternativa d).

Rocky notes that Legendary Physicist Stephen Hawking reportedly is “up in arms” over a new EU tax on scooters for the disabled.

The new 10% import tax (perhaps to protect the burgeoning domestic scooter industry) was devised by a little known sub-bureaucracy (the “World Customs Organization.”) The WCO places scooters in the same tax classification as Formula 1 race cars.

Previously, the UK exempted equipment for disabled people from tax.

The USA fortunately rejected the World Customs Organization’s absurd analysis — which means that handicappers at the next Indy 500 can expect that race to proceed at Formula 1 speed, and not at the pace of a motorized scooter.

For the full story, click [here].

This is from a post on Reilly’s (not)blog on ESPN. For the record, Reilly hates bloggers, as you’ll see in this piece from Newsday.com and like a billion other places: “I don’t really go on the blogs, because they don’t really like anybody,” he said. “Jesus could do a column and they’d be like, ‘What the hell is with the hair?’ It’ll always be something.” Hmm…I bet Jesus wouldn’t write an article with out-dated pop-culture references, bad puns, and weak metaphors, all slathered with a rich coat of self-importance.

Anyway, the whole 25 Things craze left Facebook awhile ago, and this post is from February, but it’s worth dissecting. So without further ado:

As popularized on Facebook, let me be the 100 millionth American to tell you “25 Random Things About Me.”

(1) I was once on the game show “Scrabble,” hosted by Chuck Woolery. Won $3,000.

Excellent. That’s kind of a cool fact.
 

(2) Reggie Jackson once threatened to throw me out of his private plane over the Hopi Indian Reservation in northwest Arizona. He wasn’t kidding.

When you say he wasn’t kidding in that way, it kind of, sort of implies that he DID throw you out of his private jet. Still, you can’t really blame Mr. October, can you? I just wish Rick would have let us know what he said to Reggie.
 

(3) I’ve holed shots from the fairway six times but never had a hole-in-one.

Haha! Sucker!
 

(4) I’m allergic to dogs, cats, horses, cows, sheep, everything. Covering the Kentucky Derby just about kills me.

Well, I don’t think anyone would mind if you stopped covering the Kentucky Derby.

 
(5) When I was 19, I worked the graveyard shift at Lavito’s All-Night Sandwich Shop in Escondido, Calif., where there was a baseball bat under the cash register in case we got robbed.

Hey, he’s just like us!

(6) I really hate to write. Abhor it. I write at restaurants and bars, so I don’t feel so abjectly alone.

Really?!?! YOU, Mr. 11-Time Sportswiter of the Year, hate to write!?! That’s funny, because I hate that you write, too. We should grab a coffee sometime. Seriously, though, doesn’t this shed some light on the whole Rick-Reilly-sucks-at-writing situation. He hates it, so chances are he is just mailing it in. And he writes all his stuff at bars, so he’s probably trashed half the time. This truly is an epiphany.
(7) I originally tried to be a broadcaster, but the guy said my voice was too nasal.

Somehow this translates to your writing as well.

(8) I’m married to the 1980 Junior Miss California.

That’s a nice little ballet move you’re doing there, Rick. You should have been a dancer.

 
(9) President Gerald Ford once stepped on my foot.

(10) I was once in a car with Charles Barkley when the steering wheel came off in his hands. Yes, he was sober.
(11) Howard Cosell is the biggest jerk I ever met. Nasty, nasty guy.

(12) I can do magic tricks, just enough to annoy people.

Just like you know how to write just enough to annoy people. I’m seeing a trend here.

(13) My brother gives me an amazing amount of good column ideas.

firerickreillysbrother.com is still available.

(14) I’ve never covered the Indy 500, but in 31 years of sportswriting, I guess I’ve covered everything else.

Indy 500, we’d like to extend you an inviation to become a board member of FireRickReilly.

(15) I’ve been a grocery bagger, rental-shop clerk, lawn mower, book packer, 7-Eleven cashier, flower deliverer, bank teller, gas jockey and car washer.

All jobs to which you are more suited than your current occupation. Also, what in the hell is a book packer?

(16) When I first started out at Sports Illustrated at 27, I was so nervous I had to be hospitalized twice with stomach ulcers.

(17) My sons have strawberry hair and my daughter is from Korea. They are much cooler than me.

(18) I was so short in ninth grade that the jocks used to pick on me. Then I grew 10 inches in two and a half years.

 
(19) I won a writing contest in first grade and they put my story up in a bank window.

I’d like to meet his first grade teacher and show her what a monster she created.

(20) The moment North Carolina State upset Houston in Albuquerque in the 1983 NCAA basketball final is the loudest sound I’ve ever heard.

Fun Fact!

(21) Tiger Woods sometimes gooses me when he passes from behind.

This is insanely creepy. From Meriam-Webster:

1.) It’s creepy that Tiger does this.

2.) It’s creepy that Rick apparently doesn’t mind this

3.) It’s creepy that Rick tells us this.

(22) I once drove a 1965 Volvo with a hole in the floorboard so big you could watch the road go by under your feet.

I guess there’s nothing wrong with this, but Rick’s continued attempts to come off as a just a regular guy piss me off. The guy makes $10 mil. to do nothing. He is not a regular guy. Don’t get sucked in.
 

(23) I often wish I’d been Harry Connick, Jr.…Or Bill Gates Jr.

You might be the only person in the world who wishes he was Harry Connick, Jr. Seriously? That’s odd man, real odd.

(24) I’ve been to every state but North Dakota.

Who wants to move to North Dakota?

(25) Person I’d most like to meet: Dave Barry.

Eh…OK. I’ve got no problem with that.

Read Loyal Homer’s argument that Danica should go to NASCAR, and Sports Geek’s that she should go to Formula 1.

• Shelley Long
• David Caruso
• Jesse Ventura
• Deion Sanders
• Danica Patrick???

Notice a trend? As far as the first four names are concerned, each realized success in a particular field, then foolishly attempted a change to a different platform – with abysmal results. I say ‘foolishly’ because they allowed a moderate level of success to fool them each into thinking that they were, for lack of a better term, bigger than they REALLY were.

For example, Shelley Long and David Caruso, after a season each on the hit TV shows Cheers and NYPD Blue, respectively, decided they would walk away from what were surely to be long and successful runs in order to pursue movie careers. Or Jesse Ventura and his transition into politics after making a name for himself in professional wrestling and TRYING to make a name for himself in acting (Predator WAS a cool movie, though). Then there’s “Neon Deion Prime-Time” Sanders, who thought that a guest spot on a Hammer video, combined with talent on the football and baseball fields, qualified him as a musician.

Now speculation exists that Danica Patrick may be considering a similar mistake.

There are two reasons why a switch from Indy to NASCAR would be worthwhile for Danica. The first is if she believed she could successfully compete against the field at Bristol, Daytona, Martinsville, or the Brickyard. Considering the fact that she is only now beginning to actually compete in standings within the IRL, though, it would seem foolish to me that she throw all that away to start anew in NASCAR.

If we’re being completely honest, Danica Patrick is not a racing powerhouse. Despite being in the IRL since 2005, her first (and ONLY) career win did not come until 2008 at the Japan 300. As for her final season standings, she has never finished better than sixth in IRL Championship standings, and is currently only in fifth place for the 2009 season.

In her defense, she has shown signs of promise. She finished third at the Indy 500 this year, and has progressively climbed higher and higher in the season standings with each year. That said, she is in no way considered to be among the elite drivers in the sport.

I think it’s safe to say that her notoriety has come more from her presence in front of a camera (click the link… you’ll thank me for it!) than it has to do with her prowess on the raceway. So, if the proverbial “IT” ain’t broke, then why try to fix it?

Reason number two to jump is if the change in some way advanced her celebrity status, which also seems an unlikely outcome. Despite a lack of consistent success on the track, Danica is still the undisputed point’s leader when it comes to celebrity standings within the league.

Think about the other names in Indy Car racing (if you can). Guys like Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, and Dan Wheldon aren’t exactly showing up on a Wheaties box any time soon. In fact, short of the racing legends that are the Andretti’s (one of which happen to be Danica’s teammates), there’s not another name in the Indy series right now more recognizable than Danica Patrick. She is, regardless of where she finishes on the track, the face of Indy racing.

If she were to make the move to NASCAR she would no longer be the standout face in the crowd. She would instead be in the same league as Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. These aren’t just guys who drive cars. Each of these men (and many others like them in NASCAR) have made millions because of franchising a number! Think of all the number 24’s you see on the highway, or the jackets and ball caps you see with the number 14. The celebrities of NASCAR have built an industry for themselves that Danica Patrick could not even dream of realizing.

It is a fraternity (pardon the expression, Ms. Patrick) that is exclusive only to those who can legitimately drive on racing’s biggest stage – NASCAR. If Danica tries to make that switch, her only accomplishment will be getting lost in the pack.

Pit action at the 1957 Indianapolis 500-- a new dawn in auto racing engine design.

After 12 years of chasing victory at the Indy 500, Sam Hanks finally realized his elusive dream in a screamin’  roadster sporting a near horizontal engine designed by George Salih, chief mechanic on the winning #99 Belanger car of 1951.  The world was introduced to the “lay-down” style with this history-making roadster chassis design– an engine that was tilted 72-degrees to the right, giving the racer a very low profile of just 21 inches off the ground.  Salih found no financial backers for the revolutionary design, so he went it alone and built the innovative engine at his California home.  Engine complete, all that was needed was the perfect driver– 42 year old veteran Sam Hanks, the legendary driver who’d come very close to winning the Indy 500 several times joined on to take a shot at history.  As it turns out, this would be Hank’s last chance to leave a mark on racing history.  The vintage video is rich with amazing sights and sounds that make you feel like you were there– definitely not to be missed.

Sam Hanks at work behind the wheel of the horizontally mounted engine roadster in 1957's Indy 500.

The 1957 Indy 500 race to innovation.

Taking the turn at over 130 mph at the 1957 Indy 500.

Indy 500 1957 pit crew fury

30 second pit stop at the legendary 1957 Indianapolis 500.

The 1957 Indy 500 race for design supremacy.

Sam Hask relishes sweet victory at the Indy 500 after years of coming up short.

1957-- Driver Sam Hask emerges victorious after years of battling for an Indy 500 victory.

Winner of the 1957 Indy 500 Sam Hask and his relieved wife. With this win, Hask retired from racing.

this past memorial day adam dragged me to the indianapolis 500 in speedway.  my friend, katelyn from boston, decided she wanted to go with us, in order to experience this midwest tradition first-hand.  she didn’t really know much about the race at the beginning of the weekend (“so there’s just one race?”) but by the end of the 500 miles kate was a pro – kind of  : )

sunny day for the parade

on the circle enjoying the 500 parade

downtown indy was so crowded!

check out the cars in the background!

katelyn could *not* believe the cars go over 210 mph.  there were so many other things she was initially confused about too (she didn’t think the cars had to stop for gas).  but she was so fun to go with because everything was so surprising to her!  she was loving every minute of the whole weekend, in fact  i think we now have a standing date every memorial day…

it was a great weekend and i’m glad that adam sometimes knows me better than i think  : )

Here we are 5 races into an 18 race season and the Main Stream Media have already got Danica dumping the IRL and heading to NASCAR.  They’re like a bunch of Parrots, just repeating what THEY feel (or the way they write it) KNOW that Danica’s going to NASCAR and that’s it!!

While this is a contract year for Danica and she IS the only woman to win a “Major League Automobile Race”.  She’s probably the biggest household name in the IRL.  She also has “Personal Sponsorships” running out of her “hm-hmm”.  With all of that in her corner, do you believe that she’s really ready to or even WANTS to take her marbles & go play in NASCAR?  I don’t!

Danica’s got a lot going for her, but let’s face it.  The Indy Racing League has done a helluva lot for her already while she’s chasing her DREAM… “The Indy 500″.  Danica’s not even achieved the goals she’s set for herself  to attain at this point in her career.  She’s close to achieving them, but she needs more time to really get there.

Personally, I think NASCAR’s mouthpieces in the media are so desperate for headlines and so incensed that Danica is not in their stable that they have to speculate her jump to NASCAR because they have nothing else to write about.  They know if they put DANICA in the headline, the story will be read.  Really?  Is there nothing else for them to write about?  They’ve got 43 cup drivcrs, 30 or so Nationwide drivers, plus 30 something truck drivers, and they write about Danica Patrick, an IRL driver?

The way it stands now, Danica’s a BIG FISH in a small pond.  If she chooses NASCAR, she’ll be just the opposite and I’m really not sure if her ego could take such a hit.

A NASCAR car weighs at least 3,400 lbs., with all fluids and a 200 lb. driver. An Indy Car weighs approximately 1300 lbs. with all fluids and a driver as well.  Danica however isn’t even close to 200 lbs..  With just the sheer weight differential of the 2 cars, would Danica be anything more than a back-marker?  Right now, she’s competitive and a possible winner most weeks.  Can you imagine her over there for 36 races, stuck in the back, lap after ridiculous lap, her temper boiling and then bam! some idiot decides to take her out and put her into the wall.  Yeah, sure, she really wants to make that jump to NASCAR.

All in all…. Danica just may jump to NASCAR, who knows?  Not this writer, nor any other writer for that matter.

Danica’s got it made in the shade in the Indy Racing League.  She will have more money thrown at her at the end of her contract with Andretti/Green Racing.  However, will all that money be the end all, be all, in negotiating her next contract?  The Indy Racing League’s going to pitch in a lot of $$$ (regardless of the fit the Sisters put up)  to help keep her in the IRL, as well as will Honda, Firestone and several others.  It honestly would be in her best interest to stay in the Indy Racing League.  Again, look at all the publicity she already gives to her sponsors.

She’s also had talks with some of the Open Wheelers that have won the Indy 500 as well as an IRL Championship, that had already  jumped after the money, and didn’t finish higher than the Top 20 in ANY race.  Danica couldn’t take that, because she’s too much of a competitor.  You think her stomping down Pit Road after Briscoe knocked her out at Indy was funny? Wait til she stomps down after Kyle Busch punts her into the wall because she’s just too slow.

NASCAR may be the big money, but in my humble opinion.  Danica wouldn’t be competitive against 42 other drivers, in Cup, 30 some drivers in the Nationwide Series and another 30 some drivers in the truck series.

This author isn’t in any way stating that NASCAR drivers are better than Indy Car drivers in ANY manner.  These are two different disciplines in racing.  Some people grew up driving Late Mods, ARCA cars, etc..  Others spent their young lives racing Go-Karts, Formula Fords, Star Mazda’s, Atlantics and then into the Firestone Indy Lights before attempting Indy Cars.  Another huge difference not factored in by many is the differential in the amount of drivers per race.  NASCAR has 43 Drivers on every grid; Indy Cars have place for only 20 some drivers on the grid, except for the Indy 500.

We hear all of the time how Open Wheel Drivers that go over to NASCAR aren’t very successful.  But what about a NASCAR driver coming to IndyCars and becoming successful in the IRL?  So that argument cuts both ways there.  Look at Juan Pablo Montoya, who was an F-1 World Champion.  Supposedly the BEST Drivers in the WORLD, and he’s not been too successful in his attempt to race out of what his best discipline of racing is.

So Main Stream NASCAR Media….write about something other than your pipe dream of Danica Patrick moving to NASCAR.  You have young drivers in your own Series that you could/should write about.

irlfannphx / Jetdoc

Op het oudste actieve circuit ter wereld, de Milwaukee Mile, maakte Scott Dixon afgelopen weekend duidelijk dat hij maar wat graag zijn IndyCar titel wil verlengen. Voor Dixon was het de tweede zege van het seizoen, voor Chip Ganassi Racing de derde. Met Franchitti en Dixon heeft Ganassi de kampioenen van 2007 en 2008 aan boord, en dat kan nog voor het nodige vuurwerk binnen het team zorgen.

Enkel Penske Racing kan voorlopig gelijke tred houden. Ryan Briscoe schreef de openingsrace op zijn palmares en Helio Castroneves zegevierde in de 500 mijl van Indianapolis. Het derde IndyCar topteam, Andretti Green Racing, laat het dit seizoen flink afweten. Van de vier piloten presteert alleen Danica Patrick op niveau. Op de Brickway en op de Milwaukee Mile heeft zij nogmaals aangetoond dat zij een ijzersterke oval rijder is.

Bij de overige teams staat 2009 vooral in het licht van overleven. Met de economische malaise is het deelnemersveld intussen gedaald naar een povere twintig wagens. Zelfs een machtig team als Newman/Haas/Lanigan moet extra op de centen letten.  En intussen blijven ook de resultaten ondermaats. Robert Doornbos betaalt veel leergeld in zijn eerste IndyCar seizoen en mag zich na zijn optreden in Indianapolis zelfs een volleerd lid van de orde der Wallbangers noemen.