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Danica makes History

I preferred Champ Cars (formerly CART- Championship Auto Racing Teams) over the IRL series (Indy Racing League) after their bitter breakup almost a decade ago primarily because Champ Cars ran not only Oval (which is an American racing obsession) but temporary road/street and road courses as well. I think Champ Car was a better package overall because of a number of reasons. Number 1 IRL ran strictly Ovals-- So American... Wait i think i said that already didn't I? The Champ Cars series is far more completive and offer a more broad entertainment value overall because of all the different chassis and engine packages. They had Toyota, Honda, Ford, Chevy, and even Mercedes Benz as the engine manufacturers while Lola, Panoz, Reynard, and Minardi provided the chassis. Any of the teams could use any combination and tweak em' to their liking... And if you know anything about Road-Racing, that aforementioned chassis selection is about as good as they get. Champ Car also developed a world-class turbo-charged package that sounds nothing like any other racing-series cars on the planet. F-1 has their small-displacement V8's that scream a shattering twenty thousand revolutions per minute, but when that Champ Car blow-off valve blew off excess turbo pressure whenever they shifted gears, it was downright frightening.

Despite parting with IRL, Champ Cars became the premier open-wheel racing series in North America. And they always always had an impressive schedule. Sure the IRL has the "Indy 500" dubbed the "Greatest spectacle in Racing", the only problem was the rest of the schedule was really just lackluster. They raced in relatively unknown tracks like in Kansas then to such a hollowed Nascar track like the Texas Motor Speedway, a place they never had been able to fill even close to half its capacity anyway. It's like playing softball in Safeco Field (Seattle) then off to the Polo Grounds for the next game or something... And i no longer subscribe to the motor racing belief that the Indy 500 is the greatest spectacle in racing by the way-- i believe that distinction now belongs to the Daytona 500 (At least in North America). But i digress! Champ cars raced in storied tracks like Long Beach (street circuit), Road America- the scenic 4.08 Mile Road Course in Elkhart Lake Michigan, the incomparable Laguna Seca, Surfers Paradise in Australia (a permanent street circuit in downtown-- how cool is that?), Mid-Ohio in Lexington, and a couple of street circuit races in Canada etc...

Sadly this reunion couldn't have come soon enough. I have had enough of what Champ Cars had become since a few of the star teams (including Kool Green) had crossed over to the IRL- in spite of itself (and mainly because of the Corporate Sponsors wanting to race in the Indy 500). It was basically the only solution to the ever deteriorating sports of Open-Wheel racing in North America. They didn't do well as racing series competitors, co-existing didn't seem to be the answer. Champ Cars had become boring and lacking competition (I mean one engine manufacturer and one single chassis? Forget it!) and while IRL foyered into road racing recently, their complete package (TV, schedule, engine-chassis, drivers and teams) couldn't satisfy the angered and disheartened American Open-Wheel racing fans that screamed "Reunion!". As a result Champ Cars began to lose sponsors and the stupendous TV deals of years past, and me. In fact it got so bad they had to resort to paying the TV networks an exorbitant amount of money to broadcast races. Wow! Plus where the hell did all the American Drivers go? They didn't even race in the California Speedway anymore (My first CART experience), a venue that had become the finale race since the Speedway opened their doors in 1996.

The two parties having agreed to the reunion in late February presented two major problems though. While all the scheduled races of the 2008 Season between the respective racing series were somewhat flexible, the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Firestone 300 in Japan were out of the question. Each of the races were set to run on the same weekend over 5000 miles apart spanning three continents...

I really thought this fateful reunion and all the world-class talent that came along with it would add to the already nightmarish of a time for the only woman in Major League Open-Wheel Racing -Danica Patrick- to try to win that evasive first one (especially with all the road courses in the new combined schedule). She's lived somewhat of a semi-charmed racing life though that girl. Because although she has never won in any level of racing she was plucked out of Formula Ford Festival (in Europe-- where she finished 2nd in the championship) for a ride in the Toyota Atlantic Series in North America and then ultimately to the ultra competitive IRL (I think she won a pole in the Atlantic Series but was never close to a win). I don't think we can ignore the fact that she is a pretty girl in a sport predominantly ruled by men, don't you think? Sometimes i can't help it but perhaps they thought her beauty and raw talent spelled "Good Publicity" for the waining sport. I think getting plucked out of the relatively unknown Formula Ford Festival was not solely based on talent is all i am saying. I mean until the Firestore 300 the only win she has had was the Toyota Celebrity Race in Long Beach. And that hardly counts as a win. But that's the advantage of having promising talent and looks, isn't it?

Of course I could have been wrong by thinking that the Firehawk 300, the would be last race before the marriage with Champ Car as Danica's last good shot at winning a race. I just couldn't help but think that she would be hard-lucked trying to win races against the world class drivers in Champ Cars (and not to mention the already impressive list of drivers in IRL too). But that particular race marked her 50th start in IRL and with the advent of the reunion, i thought it wouldn't be a bad way for to finally break into the winning circle for the frustrated woman racer. I think she was thinking along the sames lines too and i felt she was due. I had a good feeling about it! Of course i watched the race live that Friday evening only for the race to be postponed due to rain. I missed the coverage the next day because i was at the American Lemans Race in Long Beach. And of course she would win it! And in the broad scope of things, this first win by Danica, or better a first by a woman in Motor Sports is a tremendous and historic achievement. Congratulations Danica!

Oh well i still called it...

Oh she drives for team Adretti-Green by the way-- formerly Koolgreen racing... Just thought you should know...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Wednesday, April 23, 2008