Thoughts on the Vs. Indycar Lap for Barber

 

 

Okay, so you probably know that I’m not a fan of the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park.  Particularly in the comments on other blogs, but also here, I’ve taken some heat for that.  Watching the Versus Virtual Lap, I see no reason why I, and others who are concerned about this race, will be proven wrong.

Um…..well…….yeah, lot’s of passing.  The Virtual Lap commentator was trying to hype it, but even within that, there weren’t a whole lot of passing opportunities.  I’ll admit, I was wrong about Sao Paolo, but remember that A. a major criticism was starting a 17 race season outside of the US, and B. that cars could not run properly during the practice lap.  On point A. I wasn’t proved wrong, and on part B. they fixed the track.  The long straight was a major reason for the passing, well guess what?  No long straight here.

I'm sure they'll pass a lot at this corner....

Let’s put it this way.  Mid Ohio is one of the most popular MotorCycle race tracks in America, and has great racing.  Barber, does not.  ALMS passes at Mid Ohio, Grand Am does not pass much at Barber.  Look, I’d love to ”give them a chance” but history is pretty clear, and it doesn’t look good.  Even glowing supporter John Oreovicz worries about the lack of passing zones, which has not been addressed.  Or, as Davey Hamliton said, an IndyLights car could block an Indycar.  But maybe they’ll be able to pass Milka, since she’s slower than a Lights car. 

  I’ll give Barber one thing, and that is that there probably will be decent attendance, although I have read that they will limit attendance to 30,000 fans per day, which is a little strange, and would bother me if I ran Indycar.  But it should still be good on the attendance level, and probably have a ton more people than Homestead, Kansas, or any ISC oval race. 

  That said, the biggest concern has to be anyone who tunes into Vs. and see’s what’s probably going to be a parade.  How can Indycar improve TV ratings when the on track product isn’t compelling?  What probably will happen is almost no passing, and there could be some massive blocking, unless they decide to penalize it.  They have got to park Milka, because she could be quite dangerous if someone rear ends her on one of the blind corners. 

  Actually, I see one possibility of an interesting race.  But by “interesting” I mean in a NASCAR crashfest kind of way.  Potentially, drivers will block and chrome horn each other to the point where there are changes in position, in a NASCAR half the field wrecked sort of way.  And if it rains, who knows?   I’d be interested in watching a touring car race at Barber, but that’s off topic….

  If you want a better opinion on this, from someone who knows more about motorcycle racing, go to LiveFastRacing and listen to Episode 24  , at about the 100 minute mark. 

  Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong, but I really doubt it.  Either it’ll be a parade, or it will be a crashfest, or a strange combination of both.  I’m sure that the people who attend the race will have a good time, and it is a beautiful facility.  But as for those of us watching on TV, well, that’s another story.