Fun times at the ol’ Speedway today. I’ll leave it to my F1 afficianado friends to discuss the “shameful day in the history of Formula One racing”, as one commentator repeatedly put it, as 14 of 20 drivers bailed at the starting line, boycotting the US Grand Prix for safety reasons. Personally, I think two things:
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\nA) It was a really crappy way to reintroduce “the premier open wheel racing circuit in the world” to the American public. Sure, this is the sixth year they’ve held the USGP in Indianapolis, and a hundred or so thousand people traditionally head out to watch it, but when something is so new and (pardon the pun) foreign, you should always be putting your best foot forward to put on a show and educate potential new fans. As a new resident of Indy, and a moderate fan of open wheel racing (especially on road courses), I was kind of interested to see what it was about. All I found out is that the drivers talk funny, and the president of the federation is a flying bag of crap. <\/p>\n
First he equates women with toaster ovens<\/a>, then today, while he might not have been the one to pull the plug on the USGP, he certainly had his hand on the cord, he royally f’s up a marquis event for his circuit, and ducks off into his private helicopter with 14 laps to go. If ever there was a case to revive public stonings, this guy might be it, at least in the eyes of the F1 community.<\/p>\n B) I realized how much better it would be if ALL races at Indy only had a third of the field. While we would have had to look for a different champion this past May (milk drinker Dan Wheldon started 16th), having only 11 drivers on the track would virtually eliminate any brand of Foyt offspring from competition. Right there, the race wins many times over.<\/p>\n **** While its true that the two HR’s did<\/em> come off of Reds’ pitching, and Franco did<\/em> reportedly later go 0-4 with two strikeouts against a batting tee, dude’s still 46 and change and yanking the ball all over the park. And its a good thing Andy Allanson didn’t take growth hormones, we might still be subject to a mediocre .225-hitting catcher.<\/p>\n **** (World Record alert: That is officially the longest, most disjointed route anyone has ever taken to make a bad “Disco Demolition Night” joke. Now if Jeff Burroughs was only driving F1 cars nowadays…..)<\/p>\n **** Fun times at the ol’ Speedway today. I’ll leave it to my F1 afficianado friends to discuss the “shameful day in the history of Formula One racing”, as one commentator repeatedly put it, as 14 of 20 drivers bailed at the starting line, boycotting the US Grand Prix for safety reasons. Personally, I think two … Continue reading you call that a riot?<\/span>
\nBack on the Julio Franco kick that was quickly shot down early this morning… <\/p>\n
\nBack to the F1, I’m still disappointed in the relative lack of violence exhibited — the “rioting” was limited to boos and a couple beers tossed on the track — certainly fans could have found a way to flood the track with debris or at least blown up a few cases of old Donna Summer LP’s in the infield, right?<\/p>\n
\nI made a couple changes to my links list over yonder ( < --- ). Some people haven't written for months, others have recently called a press conference to announce that they need their privacy, after years of soaking in web-related adolation like a sponge in the Pacific.\n\nOthers remain, and will always remain, mostly because I still can't believe this crap.<\/a> Give the man credit, he’s one funny mofo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"