I realize some forms of motorsports have been racing for several weeks already but for one reason or another those other racing series just don’t cut it for me. Not even close to what Formula 1 and ALMS/Le Mans do for me.F1 starts tonight with quali from Australia and I plan to stay up late tonight to watch it live. Then, tomorrow night, I’ll stay up till the wee hours to catch the race live with my racing buds.I used to watch CART religiously but over the last few years the fields became weaker and Bourdais cleaned house four years running. I lost interest and hadn’t seen a CART race in a few years. Now, CART is dead. Did I do it? Or, did CART do it to themselves? Both, probably.CART’s old guard competition retired or moved to the idiot league with their teams, drove dumbed-down machinery that had the knack of crippling even the best drivers. That left CART with up-and-comers with little experience and absolutely no name recognition. I found AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Hunter-Reay worthy of following, both Americans, both talented, and both looking impressive. For one reason or another they left CART and with them my last bit of interest in watching.The way my life is now it is just so much easier for me to find time to watch F1 religiously as the races are generally on when I’d just be sleeping. And I’m willing to sacrifice sleep for leading edge technology, international intrigue, and road courses any day of the week. CART races, in comparison, were on in the middle of the afternoon. Coincidentally, that’s also when I have to run errands, do chores around the house, etc. Then, to make it even harder to follow CART race broadcasts were flipping from one network to another and many times the broadcast was delayed. Geez, I recall when ABC (I think they were the broadcaster at the time) cut from a great CART race to watch some baseball player (probably on roids) try to hit yet another homerun. Another time, maybe even the same tv network, cut from a CART race to watch some billionaire golfer take a putt! Those are just slap-in-the-face insults to the race fan.
“Here, we know you’re enjoying this thrilling race with risks and high speeds but we think you’re really going to like watching this guy tip toe across the worlds shortest grass and tap a little white ball at a non-moving whole in the grass.”
Gee, thanks guys. At least SPEED doesn’t do that to their F1 broadcasts. Their equivalent is cutting to a commercial and missing the races’ lone pass for the lead that actually took place on the track in the heat of battle and not in the pits. Of course, all those PINKS and NASCAR commercials make me sick to my stomach. Who freakin’ cares? I was invited to the first Brickyard 400 and all I had to do to get there was pay for the ticket and be ready to roll at a moments notice. Easy enough. That was such a boring race. I recall there being a handful of laps behind the pace care for “debris” on the track about every 15 minutes. And this was all during the final 100 miles. It all seemed so orchestrated. So, I’ve got 1 hour until the season premier of F1 qualifying for 2008 and I’m nearly giddy.Catch ya later – Kevin
