There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of news around at the moment, racing news, though the Autosport.com Paddock Life for Hungary noted that a lot of the non-specialist racing press (i.e. the newspaper people) were heading out to China for the Olympics rather than show up in Hungary. Can’t say I blame them given Hungary’s reputation for tedious races. OTOH there’s the big buildup and expectation for the Olympics only to get there and realise that most of the events are completely boring, too, since most of us only give a crap about the track events. Maybe that’s the just the racing fan in me but I don’t think so.
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Oh, one completely off topic note:
I’m writing this with the aid of a pint of Carlsberg (it’ll be red wine in a minute), dimmed lights, and the band Yndi Halda, particularly the song Dash And Blast which is nearly 17 minutes long with no words and contains maybe the greatest riff/hook/whatever you call it I’ve heard. Go to the second link there and hit the big play button in the flash player on the right, wait for the long quiet intro, then carry on reading with ears open. Hopefully it’ll carry on playing into the 2nd track.
BTW these are links to Last.fm. I’ll probably link there often as it is the best site on the internet, you can see my profile by clicking the appropriate bit in the red box to the right.
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Okay back to it.
So the specialist F1 press has continued albeit seemingly quieter than usual, apart from the big Mosely interview on Autosport.com (and in the mag) which I’ll read later because it is fucking long.
All the news at the mo seems to be in IndyCar with the apparent bluff/double bluff of Kanaan playing Ganassi via Robin Miller, so that he (Kanaan, not Miller) secures better terms with AGR.
Clever him. It brings into light the fact that perhaps we don’t always know what the hell is going on behind the scenes, how people manipulate the press to get the result they want.
Also around is the ’09 IRL schedule, which is fine, not spectacular but fine. The longterm Champ Car fanatics love the addition of more road/street tracks – although not necessarily the good ones. The longterm IRL fanatics hate that fact and want to return to the roots of the IRL – all ovals, or 80-90% ovals minimum. Hopefully these idiots on both sides will die out soon, or at least shut the hell up.
The more reasonable fans appreciate good racing wherever it is. They also recognise that Homestead and Belle Isle are shite and should be dropped forthwith. I really hope the IRL isn’t taking or keeping some venues purely to fill an oval/road quota or ratio because that would truly suck especially with some excellent venues currently missing out.
Elkhart Lake, Mont Tremblant, the Michigan oval. I don’t really care for street tracks so let’s not go the Champ Car route, just have three solid street events and leave that there.
And it looks like by the time of this year’s race or just after, Surfers Paradise will get announced as an A1GP event for ’09. They dropped Eastern Creek near Sydney for the upcoming season. All of which is great for A1GP who will be in the 2nd year of their relaunch by then and will be bigger than now, but that ought to be an Indy race.
The other thing around is the US TV deal to move from ESPN to Versus, a smaller channel. At first this looked bad. Then people on other blogs started commenting that the focus Versus will give might actually help. Seems to be helping NHL, they say. I have no idea about that. I just hope it works, and I hope they get the international deals right whether that means staying with current deals or moving on.
That’s all for now, more in a day or two. I’m disappearing for a bit to avoid the news and blog sites spoiling the IndyCar Kentucky race which I think is happening right now, and which I won’t get to see until midweek. If I get the chance I’ll write some test notes on GP2 as a prep for the upcoming IRL and F1 races.
You’re probably at the bit where they go “lalala” near the end. I told you they were good.
I Watch Too Much Racing 