Road to Reason
10/12/2009Here's something I've learned:
The more I think I know, the more I realize I don't know.
Take last Saturday's motorsports calendar, for example.
Down in south Florida, at Homestead-Miami Speedway, both the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and the Indy Car Series called it a wrap on their seasons and championships. On the other coast, in northern California, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the American Le Mans Series decided that was enough for this year.
(Meanwhile, within hype distance of Hollywood, NASCAR's Nationwide Series was the warm-up act for Sprint Cup at Auto Club -- read that: California -- Speedway.
Let me see if I've got this straight: It's insane enough that there are two competing U.S. sports car tours. My calculations are, combined, there's enough sponsorship and support for maybe three-quarters of one healthy, legitimate circuit. They share drivers. Yet, somehow, both had to end their campaigns on the same day?
Yeah, THAT made a lot of sense! Roger Edmondson and Scott Atherton, please explain to me how either of your businesses benefitted from this pretzel-twisted bit of planning. Is it any wonder either is lucky to get a sentence or two of results in any newspaper outside the race sites?
Honestly, is it too much for sports car enthusiasts, like me, to ask G-A and ALMS to show us a little respect? Baseball fans love a doubleheader, but this was ridiculous.
Also at Homestead, the IRL title was determined on a Saturday night. From a news coverage standpoint, that played like Glenn Beck at the Met. Based on the ratings, I'm wondering if there were more eyeballs in the grandstands than in the national TV audience. From a series-building standpoint, did it really matter who came out as champ? I think not. The season ended without an American driver having visited victory lane.
Over at the NHRA, the Countdown continues. When the Full Throttle season began in February at Pomona, everyone understood the points would be reset following the U.S. Nationals. But, just to throw a greasy wrench into the mix, at the last-minute NHRA decided to add bonus points for each qualifying round. To most crew chiefs, that was like having to run the bad-traction right lane at the Texas Motorplex.
As I understand it, NHRA wanted to encourage better action for the spectators during qualifying passes, because with severe testing restrictions, many teams were using Saturday passes for this purpose. Too many up-in-smoke runs for those in the control tower, I guess. But once they were in the Countdown, I wonder how many - if any - tuners would have been using those laps to experiment given the importance of lane choice.
NHRA just might well have handed the Pro Stock championship to Mike Edwards, who has enjoyed the best engine program. Cheers for Edwards, but I prefer the crown to be earned in final eliminations racing, not during qualifying. I bet most who cheer for the straight-line sport would agree with me.
Sometimes, this stuff does not add up.
But, hey, what do I know?
[ Next column: October 26 ]
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(I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.)
BackAbout I.N. Sider
I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.