IndyInsider-Huge in Japan

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Motegi Report--Danica Patrick posts the fastest time of the first day of practice in Japan. Remember that this female driver that tends to be over criticized by the media about her driving ability put her former team on the front row here, led laps and finsihed a career high 4th place.

Hometown boy Kosuke Matsurra was second quick.

NASCAR = HOLLYWOOD of racing

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It's rough being Little E! NASCAR must have a dozen story writers sitting in an office in Hollywood or Daytona! Granted its much easier to come up with story lines with 45 drivers in NASCAR over the 20 or so in IndyCar racing....

I am reporting late on this but what happened in Texas was brilliant. The new latin spice(JP Montoya) causes Tony Stewart to crash. Stewart hints at retirement. Dale Jr. crashes. Kyle Busch crashes again.

In the midst of Jr's contract ending and his request for ownership into DEI the press has created this "Free Agent" like buzz around Little E. Anyway, apparently after the accident Kyle Busch gave up, left the track and was on his way to where ever. In the mean time Hendrick Motorsports was repairing Busch's #5 Chevy and Jr. was reporting to his star duties in the Media center.

... Well once Hendrick Motorsports fails to find their driver Kyle Busch with a fixed car, what do they do? Well, lets go see if Jr. wants to finish the race for us???? WAIT, WHAT! are you kidding me. You would never see an IndyCar, ChampCar, F1 driver ever do that!!! First off in a sport with sponsor contracts that define the type of underwear they wear.

So its ok to mix Frost'n Flakes with Budweiser and not ok for Tony Stewart to jump in an IndyCar at the Indianapolis 500 in a Toyota (a completely different racing series)!!!!!???

...how in the word could that happen!!!! Anyway to make this long story short it was BRILLIANT to have Jr step into the #5 car and finish ahead of his own #8. So what happens now?? More story lines that wrap up the press leading into their next race!


"Stewart may retire"
"Montoya Crashes again"
"Jr. Wants Ownership"
"Will Jr. Get ownership now!
"Jr. to Hendrick"
"Jr. First NASCAR driver to have "Free Agent" Status"
"What kind of rule allows another competitor to finish under a different team?"

Another 10 points to NASCAR!

ChampCar Gets This!

ChampCar understands 1 thing. Race fans and car nuts like hot chicks! If your racing doesn't sell, sex it up!

Sour ChampCar Fans!!!

I love when pictures like this show up. A couple of racing fans that have nothing better to do than to reminice Robin Millers defaming articles from the first 8 years of the CART-now ChampCar/IRL IndyCar split. These fans claim that the IRL doesn't have or get crowds at its races and that ChampCar infact does have crowds at its races. Ok so lets go down the list of what the IRL has and what the ChampCar people wish they had.

Lets just go about it this way. The guys to the left probably even work for ChampCar...

IRL Sponsors

Honda, Ethanol, Firestone, Marlboro, 7-Eleven, Target, Canadian Club, Vonage, Jim Beam, NYSE, Motorola, AAA, AAMCO, GoDaddy.com, KN Filters, RITMO watches, Red Bull, Miller Light, Patron, Delphi, XM Radio, Panasonic, CITGO, Kodak just to name a few...

Vs. ChampCar

Lost Ford, Lost Bridgestone as a presenting sponsor, McDonalds's, Medi-Zone, Pay By Touch, Indeck(what's that), TELMEX, Sonny's BBQ, OZJET(What's that?), PG Canada, 42 Below Vodka, Aussie Vineyards, Roshfrans, Sherwin Williams, Red Bull, CDW

Advantage--IndyCar! IndyCar's sponsors are real consumer products that support competitive teams and rely on drivers with name recognition and understand the importance of drivers that have raced in the IndyCar Series and North America for the past 10 years.

Attendance

All I really have to say is the Indianapolis 500. Seriously if you are going to assume that becuase you have a large crowd at your biggest race that it means that the IndyCar Series doesn't! The Indianapolis 500 month destroys Long Beach. ChampCar does have some nicely attended races but lets put it into perspective. If you count everyone 3 times it doesn't really mean that you had 90 people! Look to the left at some fans that actually have merchandise of their favorite driver and FOLLOW the sport. And guess what...he's from OHIO!

Drivers

IndyCar-

Sam Hornish Jr. (Indy 500 Winner, 3 time IndyCar Champion, Toyota Atlantic), Helio Castroneves (2 time Indy 500 Winner, Indy Lights), Dan Wheldon (Indy 500 Winner, IndyCar Champion, Indy Lights, Toyota Atlantic), Scott Dixon (IndyCar Champion, Indy Lights Champion), Tony Kanaan (IndyCar Champion, Indy Lights), Dario Franchitti (ChampCar runner up in tie breaker with JP Montoya), Marco Andretti (Indy 500 Rookie of the year and Race winner as rookie), Danica Patrick(Best Female driver ever, Marketing machine), Scott Sharp ( 1996 IndyCar Champion, CART, Trans-Am), Jeff Simmons(Indy Lights, Indy Pro Series), Vitor Meira (7 Years in IndyCar), Kosuke Matsura(Indy 500, IndyCar rookie of the Year), AJ Foyt IV (a FOYT!, Indy Pro Series Champion), Tomas Scheckter (7 years of IndyCar, Son of F1 world Champ, Race winner..) Ed Carpenter(USAC driver, Indy Pro Series Win), Sarah Fisher (First Female to really race, Popular with fans), Buddy Rice(Indy 500 Champion, Toyota Atlantic Champion) and the list can go on! Only 2 of those drivers have been racing in North America for less than 10 years. That's call consistency!

ChampCar-

Sebastian Bourdais (3 Time ChampCar Champion), Graham Rahal(We have his Father, Indy 500 Champion), Paul Tracy(ChampCar Champion), Mario Dominguez(Indy Lights Champion), Will Power(Europe), Simon Pagenau(Atlantic Champion), Robert Doornobs(F1 reject), Neel Jani, Tristen Gommendy, Ryan Dalziel, Alex Figge, Mathew Halliday, Katherin(First woman to win at the Atlantic level), Bruno Junquira(Indy 500 pole sitter).

Advantage-IndyCar. Not only are the drivers better known, have more experience but almost half are American!

I am sure this list could get even longer. Just put it this way; ChampCar's fan base is dying with bitter old men and cheese balls with high end sports cars. See those two old men in the photo at the top? Well look at this young group who have just started their life in racing. They aren't going anywhere anytime soon!

WOW! I feel bad for ChampCar

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Not only does it suck to loose a member of your team to a competitor but geez. I could not imagine what people were thinking after this happend. AR1 reports

Funny send-off for Eric Mauk In the press meeting Sunday morning at Long Beach John Oreovicz from ESPN got about 100 photographers to stamp their feet, clap their hands and sing chorus to the tune of Queen's "We Will Rock You" to John's revised lyrics: "I am, I am, Indy". Mauk is moving to the Rahal Letterman IRL team to head up their PR to be closer to his roots in Ohio. Then Michael Levitt from LAT gave Eric an IRL backpack straight off a merchandise rack which reads "I am Indy" and inside a bottle of powdered Kool-Aid, which Eric drank, happily.

This happened at a ChampCar Race, their biggest RACE!!!! Maybe it really is worse than we thought! Notice he drank the "kool-aid"(which was supposed to be condescending) with joy, everyone wants a sugar-buzz and that's what you get at an INDYCAR RACE BABY!!!!!

Sarah Fisher signs AAA

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I never said that I was on the cutting edge of delivering underground information.

Apparently you need to know somebody to get the info! Anyway I pirated this file from Youtube and the info from mynameisirl. Unfortunatly I can't really provide any information about the sponsorship so defer to mynameisirl for the real goods. Here's the clip, enjoy and get pumped up, it appears that unlike ChampCar the IRL can get sponsors.(It just helps being a female...I wonder what Katherin Legge's problem is?? Maybe its because she's a frigg'n Brit!!!!)

33: It is just a number!

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Its just a frigg'n number, it always has been, so shut up and deal with it. A little history lesson for all of those "Haters" that like poke fun at Tony George for his comment "33 is only a number".

In case you are old, grumpy and have nothing else to do and are confused of what "Haters" means---its you! so shut up because the old days are over, just like a 10cent movie ticket! I am sure all of you remember in 1979 (the first year of CART) the Speedway allowed 35 starters and I believe you would consider 1979 as being in the "hey-day".

40 cars started in the inaugural race in 1911, the Contest Board of the American Automobile Association (AAA), the sanctioning body at the time, mandated a formula for limiting the size of a starting field according to the size of the track. It was determined that the safe distance between each car spread equally around a course would be 400 feet, thereby limiting the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway to 33 cars. Speedway President Carl Fisher, however, placed a limit of only 30 cars for the “500” between 1912 and 1914 and did not adopt AAA’s 33 maximum until 1915. Although there had been numerous occasions between 1912 and 1928 when the field was not filled, the allowed number was increased during the Depression years to 40 cars between 1930 and 1932 (only 38 made it in 1930) and further to 42 in 1933. The maximum has been at 33 ever since 1934, although extenuating circumstances expanded the field to 35 starters in 1979 and 1997.(courtesy of Indy500.com)

So if I hear another wise crack about "33 is only a number" I am going to do something frightening like show a clip of Dan Wheldon trying to throw the first pitch at a Mets game!!

I AM INDY vs. DP01

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Which is worse? It appears that ChampCar thinks that a chassis name DP01 will be the savior to ChampCar Racing. Proof is pictured to the right where ChampCar features the DP01 and its specification's on the Pole Winner's flag???? That is odd.

Anyway pay attention because I am going to make fun of both the IndyCar Series and ChampCar for their "tag lines".

Let's start with "I AM INDY". Now I said that I was going to make fun of both IndyCar and ChampCar and I will but the name calling will be much milder with IndyCar. First off, the origin of "I AM INDY" supposedly comes from KISS front-man Gene Simmons who can be caught in a "I AM INDY" hat during is face lift recovery(nice!!). I think that "I AM INDY" came from IndyCar and then Gene Simmons wrote a song about it and everyone assumed that Gene championed the tag. After all Gene has a show to promote and a business to run!

Now DP01! Wow doesn't that just resonate through the stands. Hey everyone look its the DP01 the savior and future of racing!!! Yippy I can't wait to go buy a hat that says DP01. Ok, this future of racing is nothing special. If you want to look at the future of racing why not try the safe energy efficient Dallara(is that a hatchback?? just kidding) Honda(advantage IndyCar). The DP01 is nothing more than a upgrade of the past Lola with a new nose and more horsepower. As proven in Long Beach don't look for this unsafe car to cause any revolutions in US-AutoSport!

Ok, a mild session of name calling but you get the idea. Neither are that great but at least the IndyCar people have some sense to their efforts, even if Gene Simmons is trying to steal the thunder.

Advantage, definitely IndyCar.

Thank God for Long Beach!!!!!!!

Ok, last weekend I gave ChampCar a swift kick to the nutz. Apparently they listened to just about everything I said and put on a decent show in Long Beach. Good News for ChampCar is that after next weekends Houston-night street race ChampCar drivers, teams and officials will have 2 months to figure out any wrinkles that need to be ironed out.

The Good

Oriol Servia makes a great story and hops in to Tracy's car with little practice time and finishes on the podium. Take a look at the photo above. Those are your championship contenders. Its too bad that Servia will be knocked off by Tracy once he returns. If you recall Oriol was the only driver to keep Bourdais honest in 2005. ChampCar put on a decent show. Besides Seabass dominating the field all day long, there was some serious racing going on throughout the field and congrats to NBC for actually showing the "Race" and not the leader all by himself like ESPN!!!!! One last note of honor goes to veteran CART champion Jimmy Vasser for making a smart decision as an owner. Vasser decided to leave his driver(Can't pronounce or spell his name) of sequence to gain some experience leading. He did just that keeping Bourdais behind him until it was time to pit. Not only did he get some face time but Pay By Touch got some TV time. If you can't win at least you can get some face time for your sponsors!

The Bad

NBC still has some work to do but made small improvements in Long Beach. Note, we know that the two Forsythe cars look alike but if you are going to talk about a driver for 2 laps at least follow the right car!!!! And don't look for anyone to honestly challenge Bourdais. Once NHL racing gets a grip on the new car don't look back because you might not find another driver within reach.

The Ugly

Panoz still has plenty of work on their hands to improve the safety. You would think that after 5 + years of IndyCar racing that they could figure out a thing or to about crash safety. Perhaps their long string of injuries in the IndyCar series led to them exiting and looking for a new cheap business venture in ChampCar??

ChampCar will always suffer from a disconnected series in the US with drivers that are unkown and the consumer participation as well as sponsors are thin. Bottom line, IndyCar racing has drivers, teams, sponsors and the Indianapolis 500. Its hard to compete with that unless you are NASCAR

Penske dominates Audi!

Penske's DHL Porsche Spyder's out classed the upper classed more powerful, larger budgeted FACTORY Audi R10's.

For the second time in the past year both Penske Porsches put a good old American whoopass on the German Automaker. Unfortunately the only thing American about the whoopass is Penske him self.

IndyCar Drivers faired moderately at Long Beach. Ryan Briscoe was the highest finishing IndyCar refugee in 2nd, Dario Franchitti in 6th and Adrian Fernandez in 8th.

IndyCar Update: AGR takes Pole tribute to Dario F.

Andretti Green Racing's IndyCar Series driver Dario Franchitti out paced the Porsche's led by Penske Racing's Ryan Briscoe. Both Briscoe and Franchitti will be competeing in the Indianapolis 500 in one month, Franchitti in the Candian Club/Vonage #27 and Brisoce in a car leased from Penske Racing for a new team co-owned by Penske's son.

Both Penske Racing and Andretti Green Racing continue to challenge the upper classed Audi with an unlimited budged each weekend.

"The Back Breaker" by Panoz

Today veteran IndyCar and ChampCar driver Paul Tracy was injured in a frontal impact crash at Long Beach. Oriol Servia will re-place Tracy.

During Panoz's tenure in the IndyCar Series several lower back injuries were attributed to the Panoz chassis with its poor safety record.

Oriol will contend during the second qualification session. If you don't recall Oriol captured his first ChampCar win subbing for injured Bruno Junquiera. Lets see if Servia can repeat the feat.

In other news... Team Austrailia seems to be backing up their "Sin City" speed by placing both cars in the top 3.

\\\Matos Secures Pole

Raphael Matos continues to stay up front in the Sierra Sierra Motorsports Swift Mazda. Matos who won 3 races last year, 2 in the IndyPro Series St. Pete Grand Prix doubleheader and one somtime during the ChampCar season.

With the addition of James Hinchcliffe to Sierra Sierra look for Matos and Hinchcliffe to have a solid grip on the field this year.

Red Bull: not paying the bills at PKV

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AR1 reporting at its best! Read the article below for the back story. Anyway to make things short here is the original comment by an AR1 reader

04/11/07 Although Red Bull appears prominently on the PKV Racing car of Neel Jani, it appears the team is getting no money out of the deal because if they did they would be listed on their website along with their other sponsors."

Now AR1 dismisses the comment rather carelessly in an effort to make PKV and ChampCar appear to be moving in the correct direction....Notice my marks on the comments below.

"Red Bull not paying PKV Racing a dime UPDATE This rumor is downgraded to 'false' today. We are told that Red Bull does not allow their logos on any website but their own and that is the reason Red Bull is not listed as a sponsor of the PKV team on their website. We apologize to the team that this inaccurate 'rumor' was published without a prior verification from the team. It was fed to us by someone who tried to tell us that the sponsorship was just a tradeoff for the Red Bull Toro Rosso F1 team cancelling their Cosworth engine contract early. The person also made the case that the Forsythe team got its Red Bull sponsorship for their Atlantic team the same way because Gerald Forsythe owns Cosworth along with Kevin Kalkhoven. We were told it was just a shuffling of monies from F1 to Champ Car in return for Red Bull getting a release from Cosworth so they could use a competing engine earlier.

If Red Bull doesn't allow their logo on other people's website then why is it on Forsythe Championship Racing's? The original rumor sound pretty accurate to me, at least more accurate than AR1's theory.

My take on Red Bull and PKV...The only think that PKV is getting from Red Bull is a driver and some energy drinks

'Nuff said.

We got your girl!

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This year's Indy 500 will have a girl for every man! Danica, Sarah and Milka--Pick 1 from three or all three depending on how you like'em. So here we go a run down of the talent for the 2007 Indy 500.

Danica Patrick


Perhaps the class of the field. She's one of those fast girls your mother always warned you about. Not only is Danica the best woman driver to ever make it to the upper ranks in racing but she's hot! This small, petite, smart and fast chick is on a top tier team with a long list of supporting sponsors not only making her a racecar driver with deadly looks but a business savvy that lets "her bring in the cheese"...a deadly combination. Check out Danica's stats here>>


Sarah Fisher

The first darling of the Indy Racing League, Sarah has been always been around as the Most Popular driver but when it comes to on track action you can usually find her struggling around the back of the pack. Her flashes of greatness consist of a second place finish(higher than Danica) a Pole at Kentucky and a front row start at Richmond(were she went from 2nd to last on the first lap). Don't count out Fisher in the all female cage match going to Japan her and Danica are 1 to 1 in 2007. Fisher who is running for a revitalized Dreyer and Reinbold racing organization should benefit from 2004 Indianapolis 500 champion teammate Buddy Rice. Check out Sarah's stats here>>




Milka Duno

The camera does love Milka and Milka loves the camera. The least talented of the three but perhaps the most interesting of the group. Several Masters Degrees, speaks 3 languages and her native country is Venezuela. If you like curvy exotic hot tamales with the ability to talk dirty to you in differnt languages, Milka's your girl. Her racing career has been criticized much like the others but perhaps Milka's is well deserved. A vague racing career which began late (29 or something, compared to under 10 with Sarah and Danica) she is going to have a lot to learn when it comes to racing at the most extreme, fast, dangerous and demanding level with the best of the best in the IndyCar Series.
Check Milka's stats here>>

Mikey will not give up...

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Michael Andretti is back at it again. Just like his old man he's still capable of winning races at his age and is out to prove it, although he may have a better shot at winning at a different track than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway(Andretti curse)! This year, in his 2nd return from retirement at the Indianapolis 500 Andretti will be piloting his 5th entry as a team owner in the #39 Motorola/James Beam-Honda-Dallara(who cares) on Firestone Firehawks.

Nice Shades!

Buddy Lazier returns to Indy

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Welcome back Buddy(Pictured right with wife Kara(HOT!!!). I believe it was three years ago when Buddy Lazier stepped into a Panther Racing machine and put a hurting on his full time teammates Tomas Scheckter and Tomas Enge at the Indianapolis 500. Then he continued to show his tenacity and experience in several other oval events throughout the season.

Bottom line after being out of the race car and getting back into a much more competitive IndyCar Series with stunning results Lazier showed that when it comes to high speed ovals, he's one of the best.

What happends in Vegas......

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...stays in Vegas, at least that's what ChampCar officials and Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing are hoping.

As ChampCar began to tout their PR machine during the summer months of the 2006 season many racing fans began to believe in the "business model" that ChampCar had set in place. A new revitalized ChampCar Atlantic Series anchored by a new chassis followed by a new formula for ChampCar. Enter the much anticipated and way over hyped "Future of Racing" DP01. The DP01 was introduced, given public testing displays and instilled hope into several open-wheel racing fans across the world. Not to mention and estimated 24 cars at the 2007 season opener in Las Vegas.

Now lets move on to what really happens. Champcar's new eurotrash style standing starts are a flop, car counts are down, Gelles Racing doesn't become a ChampCar team, Las Vegas crowd is embarrassing, fuel modules create pot luck results to the event, another late addition jump(ChampCar style), dirty race track, nameless drivers and a very poor broadcast. Perhaps the only positive thing about the weekend was that somebody besides Sebastian Bourdais claimed a victory. Will Power is a great story for a revitalized team(Walker Racing or Team Austrailia..you pick) but who cares he was in a race with a bunch of other drivers that are barley recognizable to the public let alone the commentators on NBC.


Next week ChampCar's 3 day festival of speed is off to Long Beach.

GOOD LUCK, it can't get any worse.

Welcome!

Stay tuned... as I get my first blog fired up. indyrant will be a rant, imagine that-of coverage, criticism and theories on motorsports happenings mainly focused on IndyCar Racing and other open-wheeled racing series except for (USAC) because they have sold out to NASCAR(first rant experience). Yes I did specifically name IndyCar Racing because I am slightly partial to it so my rants will most likely sway towards the IndyCar Series but please be aware that I will be painfully honest and accurate in my reporting so don't take this with a grain of salt.

IndyCar drinking games... 2

"Drink when you hear this…” more of a social drinking game...

You and your drinking friends come up with a list of terms, phrases events that happened during and IndyCar broadcast. Good ideas to start with;

1. Draw a driver- Drink 2 if the driver is shown on camera, 1 drink if the drivers car is shown and chug and entire beer if the driver crashes.
2. Every lap that one of your co-drinker's driver leads is a lap that you drink until you cash 2 consecutive beers.
3.. Make a list of terms to drink to as a group. Get creative.
4. Add any additional reasons to drink if necessary.

Another simple game. Brought to you by the great institution----racing + college

IndyCar drinking games....

As if IndyCar racing isn’t exciting enough a few college buddies and I took it to the next level. That’s right we added binge drinking midnight races.

Mynameisirl has an impressive game "My name is Hurl" and his blog inspired the posting of the one that you are currently reading…

I guess I can start with the origin of the game(s). Well on a normal Saturday night in college you can find a strong percentage of coeds having a “few” drinks. What you don’t typically find is an IndyCar race starting at 12:00am. Not unless you are watching the Indy Japan or Surfer’s Paradise races which are located on the opposite side of the world.

Welcome to: IndyCar Bingo and then “Drink when you hear this…”

IndyCar Bingo

1. Designate a bingo board
2. Select phrases for each square. ("side by side racing", yellow flags, green, green green, Jack Arute using props, Rusty saying "Hot Rods" or "These Cats" etc...
3. Place a drink atop each square (Preferably a shot of something)
4. When you hit a square drink your shot.
5. Yell out bingo when you have connected your row and watch everyone else finish their board off in defeat.

Simple game, shots of beer work really well for multiple games.