Hey guys, Wallio again, still at the world's longest drivers meeting, and still bored to the point of physical pain. In order to stave off insanity, I'm going to post again. I thought I would give my thoughts on this weekends racing activities.
This weekend we had the Foster's Australian Grix Prix in F1, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Indycar, and the AAA Auto Club 400 in NASCAR. This was really the first full day of racing all year, and I watched it all.
Rebel and I, as well as The Steve and Hollywood, stayed up too damned late to watch the F1 race. With the start at 2:05am and the last lap ending at roughly 5:00am, it was an adventure. Many people ask why I put myself through this to watch the race. The simple answer is that I love F1. I love it because it is the only racing swries left in the world where everyone builds their own car. The cars are different, but built to the same rules. Run what you brung and pray you brung enough. The race itself was pretty much as expected. Red Bull ran away with the race, Mclaren has no doubt cheated there way to second fastest, the new Lotus/Renault partnership looks competitive, and Ferrari is continuing their ongoing slump from 2005. HRT couldn't even qualify (probably will DNQ a lot more). The real surprise were Mercedes, the Silver Arrows looking absolutely awful. They need to step up, to justify the millions that MB have invested.
The Indycar race made me mad. As usual we had constant Danica Patrick updates despite her being in the bottom third throughout the race. Also the four accidents she caused "weren't her fault" according to commentators despite the fact she just kept running into the back of people. Ok I can deal with that. I used to it. But the kicker was that Simona De Silvestra, another woman (one with talent) was running as high as 2nd, finished 4th and would easily have had 3rd if TK didn't keep blocking her. But the commentators critisized her, for "not using the Power 2 Pass enough". Uh, guys? She almost won the bloody thing! Meanwhile Danica in 14th 2 laps down (and most of the cars that finished behind her were cars she took out) ran "a solid race" WTF are you talking about? WTF are you watching? A no talent skank who poses mostly nude and can't drive gets more favorable coverage that a younger, more skilled woman who almost won? I don't get this country. Oh by the way Dario Francitti won. That's about how much coverage he got too. Dammit, now I'm just as bad......
Anyway, lastly we have the AAA Auto Club 400. I must admit up until this year, I never watched NASCAR, except for Daytona. The cars were all the same, the tracks nearly all ovals (I don't mind ovals, but I prefer a 50/50 split of ovals and twisties, like Indycar) and wrecking someone often is regarded as strategy. But Anne saw Days of Thunder over the winter, and started watching NASCAR. She became hooked, so I started watching and much to my dismay, I've seen every race so far this year. And as much as it kills me to admit it, I'm hooked too. The reasons why are surprising deep.
Compare NASCAR to F1, my favorite sport. F1 is cold, calulating, and razor sharp, while being bonkers all in one. Its like the skill and precision of a brain surgeon....but he uses a sawzall. It costs 65 million dollars just to field a last place team of two cars (so 32.5 million a car) which will barely qualify (cough, VIRGIN, cough) and it is a truly worldly sport, with drivers from over a dozen countries and 4 continents. It is a gentlman's sport, no banging wheels, no cussing, and certainly no fighting. Just show up in a suit, race for two hours, then jump on the chopper back to Monte Carlo. Lewis Hamilton caused quite a stir when he referred to Red Bull as "just a drinks company" how insulting! Nevermind, the fact that its true. And the cars, 900bhp beasts, that spin to a limited 18,000rpm and pull 6.5gs in the corners. The cars are so high tech, F1 teams steal NASA engineers to go racing. It truly is the pinnacle of motorsport.
Then you have NASCAR, its polar opposite. A barely qualifying car will cost a mere $200,000 (a mere 165th of its counterpart) and can be bought off the shelf, not needing to be built. Unlike F1, NASCAR cars are identical, save for the stickers, and half to be by rule. This leads to some insanely close racing (unlike F1, which can, and has, have one driver lead unchalledged for multiple races straight) and gives basically anyone a shot. NASCAR has a huge 43 car field (only Le Mans at 56 is bigger, and that track is 8.5 miles), versus F1 max of 24. So why is NASCAR going on me?
Because in a messed up way, NASCAR is America. Huge fields, even cars, and low cost of racing give even the underdog a shot, and the drivers, save one, are all Americans, so we see ourselves in them. Detroit still races in NASCAR, and despite sales figures, Americans still deep down love the Big 3, even if they won't admit it. But for me, its the over-the-top sense of drama. NASCAR is like pro wrestling in that each driver has a carefully crafted PR persona (good or bad) that they follow and embelish. You simply don't have this in any other racing series on earth. This driver hates that driver, that one is a momma's boy, etc. NASCAR feeds into our love of gossip (which is why I think Anne likes it) and the artifically close racing only adds to that. NASCAR is just like two American guys running their mouths, who go outside to settle it. And that is why NASCAR is my new dirty little secret.
More later I'm sure, as this jury duty is never going to end. Ever.
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