Category Archives: Formula One
Formula One in Bahrain:A Story of Appeasement and Collaboration
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is infamous for his policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany in the lead up to World War Two. Philippe Petain is infamous for surrendering France to Germany and then collaborating with Nazi Germany during World War Two. These names live on in infamy as symbols for people who failed to stand up against tyranny and who took the easy way out rather than stand up for what was right. Bernie Eccolstone and Jean Toldt’s decision to race in Bahrain despite the protests, human rights issues, and safety concerns put’s Ecclestone and Toldt as the racing equivalent to Chamberlain and Petain. Not only is Formula One racing in Bahrain, which is bad enough, but rather than remain “neutral” in politics as they claim, they are in fact actively supporting the repressive regime. Collaboration and Appeasement, it’s policy of Todt and Eccolstone.
Todt and Ecclestone's Role Model?
Another role model for Bernie and Jean?
Worse than just racing in Bahrain is that Formula One appears to be actively supporting the government of Bahrain. One of the main justification of racing in Bahrain is that they want to stay apolitical. That is an understandable desire. However Formula One’s involvement in Bahrain is a very political decision and is being used that way by the current regime in Bahrain. Read these quotes by the Crown Prince of Bahrain. He obviously sees nothing political in running F1 in his country, right? There’s absolutely nothing political about the government of Bahrain’s UniF1ed propaganda, is there? Ecclestone’s quotes also show a political bias toward the current regime as well as suggesting he is as in touch with reality as Czar Nicholas II and Marie Antoinette were. We’re talking about a guy who tried to make excuses for Hitler so that tells us some things about him.
Wise words
Formula One in Bahrain is political. The question is should we, the fans, accept it? No, we shouldn’t. I urge everyone who reads this to ignore the F1 race at Bahrain. Don’t write or tweet about it except in derision. Maybe make-up a nickname like the Race That Shall Not Be Named or something. Certainly, do not watch it and give your ratings support towards F1. If you really want to make an impact then boycott F1 beyond just this race. I barely watch any F1 already so I can’t really help on this one. Really, European fans are the ones who can do the most here. F1 is tiny in America and so whether we watch or not, whether we protest against it or not, doesn’t matter a lot. However fans in Europe can do something. Write to your members of Parliament. Send angry letters and emails to Formula One and the FIA. The ball is in your court. Definitely, do not watch this race.
Time for a Declaration of Independence from F1 and the FIA?
Formula One is practicing a policy of appeasement and collaboration in how they’re handling the Bahrain debacle. Strictly speaking Fromula One’s policy is closer to the collaboration of Vichy France rather than the United Kingdom’s appeasement. Still, Ecclestone’s out of touch comments would make the man who declared “Peace for Our Time!” proud. If Eccolstone and Todt were a bit younger I would seriously wonder if they were the reincarnation of Chamberlain and Petain. As it is, however, Todt and Ecclestone are too old to be the reincarnation of those two. Last time a British and French leader showed this type of leadership, disaster followed. What will Formula One reap from the seeds they’ve sown following the policies of Appeasement and Collaboration?
Things We Learned On An Airport Runway In Central Florida
Ahhh, Sebring, the 2nd race of the triple crown of endurance racing. It taught us some things this week. One obviously how brutal it can be. Just before the start the Luxury Racing Pro-AM 458, driven by former ESM driver Dominic Farenbacher got together with the #45 Flying Lizard 911 GT3 RSR of Joerg Bergmeister. Who knew that would set the tone for the 60th 12 hours of Sebring. During morning warm-up the Falken Tire 911 had thier race motor go up in flames. The crew worked like mad to get the car back on track. They would start from pit lane.
Audi jumped out to a commanding lead with the next two spots taken up by the other two Audis. This though wasn’t a surprise. The surprise was actually sitting in the 4 th spot with the Team Cytosport Muscle Milk HPD ARX-03a of Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr, and probably the fastest guy in a non Audi prototype Simon Pagenaud.
As the race wore on, Audi 2 of McNish, Capello, and Mr. Lemans Tom Kristensen were going to be the ones to beat. The race would see several lengthy yellow flag safety car sessions through out the race. Including one that had the Dempsey Racing PC (formely LMPC) getting airbourne, into the catch fence going into the hairpin. The Audi’s proved that under the Florida sun and pounding race course that they weren’t invincible. The pole sitting car of 2011 lemans champs Lotterer, Tréluyer, and Fässler had shifting issues half way through the race. After repairs were made they finished 16th overall 15 laps down.
The ALMS favorite Muscle Milk Honda, were poised to be the spolier of the Audi party. Due to a speeding penalty, replacing body work on the back, and a rare issue with the fuel buckeye late in the race. They tumbled all the way back to 28 from 3rd. Absolutely heartbreaking for Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr, and Simon Pagenaud, after a hard fought race to were they kept the mighty Audi’s at bay till the last hour.
With Muscle milks issues that propeled the Starworks Motorsport entry, yes that Starworks that finished second at Daytona with Mcnish, Ryan Dalziel, Lucas Luhr, and Enzo Potolicchio. Into third overall. Former Peugoet driver Stéphane Sarrazin, with Dalziel, and Potolicchio, put the brand new HPD ARX-03b on the podium. Neat factoid this is the 2nd year in a row a HPD that showed up the week of the race has made the podium. Last year Highcroft almost ran down the Oreca-Matmut Peugeot 908HDi-FAp.
In GT it came down to the wire with the sleeper of the week Joey Hand and the Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan BMW taking top honors. But it wasn’t without some controversy. On the last lap Gimmi Bruni moved into the inside of Hand going into 5, nearly spinning Hand. Behind that Olivier Beretta who was in 2 nd place at the time, also spun to avoid the sliding BMW. That put the #71 AF Corse 458 into third and the #03 Corvette into 2nd. Coming into 17 Hand caught up to what was thought to Beretta. Hand out brakes him in the ever so bumpy last turn. It actually ends up that Hand has got back up with Bruni! Joey Hand, who is doing a full season of ALMS and DTM, wins the GT Class in a wild finish.
PC was won by the Core Autosport Oreca FLM of E.J. Viso, Alex Popow, and Bury Friselle. GTC was won by Alex Job Racing with Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler, and Dion Von Moltke. What a momentum builder for AJR as they step up to GTE with the Lotus Evora starting at Long Beach.
Some notes and stuff.
John Dagys reported that the FIA/ACO’s intention was to not have a combined event ALMS/WEC, when the WEC was formed. So what does this mean? The same that it did for the Petit Lemans. Is it a downer yes. But if I was a betting man a 6 hours of Austin doesn’t seem to far off. When the 2 Audis and the Rebellion crashed in night practice, I predicted that, that would be the nail in the coffin for the WEC at Sebring. Do I want it to happen? Eff no I’m planning my honeymoon around the 2013 12 hours of Sebring. I want to see some WEC cars. But, if it does happen Sebring will be just fine. They went from the 70′s till 2011 without a world championship.
Do I think a 6 hour race in Austin would be successful? Who knows. All depends on promotion. Sebring has tradition to help it, Austin is new. From the little I’ve seen of the track it looks like a neat track. I kicked around the idea of Road America getting a WEC date, but that’s because I’m very biased. We’ll see though I’m sure.
Ecoboost isn’t just a sponsor on a stock car hood anymore. Libra racing will debut thier Radical-Ford at Long Beach or Laguna. The power plant is a turbocharged V6 built by some guy in Nascar country named Roush-Yates. Word on the street is they make some wicked Ford engines for them roundy round cars.
Dempsey Racing on the heels of there high-flying ALMS debut in PC. Announced they will be running a Lola-Mazda starting at Laguna Seca. John Dagys also tweeted he’s not the only Grand-am owner wanting to join ALMS and a deal could be done in a couple weeks.
Derek Bell was on Wind Tunnel discussing how thier should be only ONE sports car series in the USA. Do you hear that you two, fans want it, legendary drivers want it….let’s make it happen.
Still Not Into F1
Last year I caused great controversy by saying I had no interest in F1. For those interested my lack of interest continues into this year. Maybe if Kimi starts to win, and certainly if the on track product starts to improve tenfold I would start paying attention again. It would also help to have cars that look a little better than the new, horrific, noses. Until then I’m happy to not care about the largest and least interesting form of racing in the world. Besides I’m sure I’ll get enough open wheel races with very little passing out of Indycar this year to more than satisfy my need for that.
Triple League Racing Podcast #3
James and I recorded another podcast this week. Focus is Formula One and NASCAR. There is some Indycar discussion about Fisher’s team (out of date) and the potential of a Texas track boycott (which I know is unlikely). The track boycott discussion was sparked by talking about Bahrain. Also includes making fun of Micheal Waltrip and suggestions for improving the NASCAR TV Broadcasts. This one is a bit shorter than the first two, coming in at under an hour and a half. Should be a good pre-Daytona listen.
What Do You Value?
Values are a tricky and controversial subject. The 2012 Presidential Election is a perfect example. This is a racing blog not a political site which is probably a good thing; I don’t need to alienate any more readers than I already have. There is a point to talking about values, however. In racing terms values are what a fan looks for in racing. Do they value parity and close racing or do they value purity and innovation? Should the cars be the stars or should it be the drivers? These types of questions and views are seen in every form of racing from NASCAR to MotoGP, but nowhere in the racing world are conflicting values seen more clearly than in the Izod Indycar series. From the Sarah Fisher engine controversy to the future direction of the schedule conflicting values among fans are crystal clear.
Engines for Sarah. Just saying.
The reason for Indycar’s value conflict is obvious. Indycar attracts interest from a diverse group of people that includes NASCAR, USAC, Indy 500, F1, and ALMS/24 Hours of Le Mans fans. American and international race fans are brought together in a way that often pits them head to head. Overall fans from Europe tend to want to see a Formula One style series, or maybe a 24 Hours of Le Mans style series. American Champcar fans and ALMS fans also side with them. On the other hand American’s generally prefer a NASCAR/USAC style series. Do you want American Indy Lights Champion Joseph Newgarden or Formula One Reject and GP2 winner Luca Filippe to get an engine and thus a ride instead?
Values in racing themselves can generally be broken down like this: Parity vs. Purity. That’s the crux of the debate. The other auxiliary issues all come down to the idea of parity and purity. Multiple winning teams vs. watching the “best team win” is a classic example. Innovation vs. close racing. In Indycar it’s American drivers vs. having the “best of the best” (or, as some would argue, random F1 rejects). The oval/road course debate comes down to parity/purity as many so called “purists” turn their nose up at Texas and Kentucky. The engine debate is another perfect example of the conflicting viewpoints. Parity supporters want to see Fisher get an engine while Purity supporter want the “market” to determine who get’s what engines.
Analogy
In fact parity vs. purity parallel politics perfectly. The debate over a stronger or weaker government sounds an awful lot like the debate over a more pure or equal racing series. Think about it; racing fans from the purity standpoint want less rules while parity fans generally support stronger sanctioning bodies with bigger rule-books and more regulations. One interesting anecdote I’ve noticed is many fans who are more Conservative dislike the idea of TEAM Money or revenue sharing because it seems like “socialism.”
Of course it’s not an all or nothing issue. There are level’s of parity or purity that each fan wants to see out of their racing. It’s pretty obvious that I stand on the parity side, but I”m not as far down that side as Eddie Gossange of Texas Motor Speedway. Most racing purists want to see at least some rules and regulations so that races are won by 10 laps. I may be a racing parity supporter but that doesn’t mean I want to see competition cautions or things like the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
A Parity based series
Neither side is 100% right or wrong; however I do think the parity side is more appealing to more people. Especially in the United States. Looking at other sports series in the US, both racing (NASCAR) and stick and ball (NFL,NHL,NBA,NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball, MLB) generally stick towards the parity side. Look at the salary caps and revenue sharing. Overall fans in America have shown a lot more love and support for parity series than purity based series. Not only is a parity based series what I would prefer; it’s also what, in my editorial opinion, is going to sell better to fans in America. Something to think about when discussing Indycar.
All of that said I think some mid ground is possible. Moderation and compromise and all of that. The World Superbike Series shows that a racing series can have purity (no caution flags, multiple manufacturer with distinct equipment) yet also manages to have fairly large fields with a fair amount of competitive riders. If only we could bottle it’s magic and give a little injection into every other racing series. Indycar is somewhat tricky because of how distinct the viewpoints are. Compromise should be possible as long as a 50-50 balance is maintained. Considering the demise of Champcar that should be self-evident but it’s not. Improving the quality of road courses would help immensely. As my WSBK love indicates I’m not against all road racing, just boring road racing. A lot more people would be open to the road and street courses if it didn’t result in horrifically boring races where the top five at the start of the race are the same top five at the end. Back on topic…
Parity and Purity Meet in the World Superbike Series
The debate over what direction racing series should take come up all the time. It all comes down to what people want to see out of their racing. Why someone watches racing in the first place? Do you want to see unpredictability or see perfection? I’ll be honest I desire and demand unpredictability. I have zero interest in watching a race where I know with 99% certainty who’s going to win and I have no shame in admitting that. Not everyone feels that way and that’s fine. There is a mid ground and the goal of the sanctioning bodies should be to try and find that. Both sides have their positive and negative aspects. Too much purity can become boring while too much parity can turn a racing series into WWE on wheels. Obviously fans aren’t going to watch a series that goes too far away from what they value in racing. They’ll get nothing out of it. Coming back to Indycar I really believe finding the moderate position is vital. I don’t see how a series too focused on Purity is going to survive in the United States as anything more than a niche racing series with .3 ratings. Taking a broader approach the middle ground makes sense for all racing series. The “biggest tent” brings the most fans in and thus makes the series more attractive to sponsors and manufacturer. Any series that can appeal to both purists and parity fans will draw a lot more fans than a series that draws only one or the other.
Triple League Racing Podcast #2
After a long delay the Triple League Racing Podcast is back with episode #2. This episode was recorded a couple weeks ago so some information (Tracy/Shank, Milwaukee, ect.) might be out of date. This show focus’s on Indycar and Grand Am. It’s a bit long and maybe a little rough in spots because it’s my first attempt at editing my own podcast. As time goes on we’ll improve. Episode 3 should follow shortly. Start downloading and put this on your Ipod! Eventually I’ll get this podcast onto Itunes. Also, if you missed episode 1 with John Hall from LiveFastRacing go download it here.
What Will NBC Sports Mean For Racing?
It has finally happened. Versus been officially renamed and re-branded as NBC Sports. Indycar fans hope that this move will finally produce some real results out of the partnership between Indycar and Versus which has struggled to get ratings above .5. NBC Sports doesn’t just affect Indycar. The goal of NBC Sports is clearly to create an alternative to the sports giant ESPN. Which any reasonable sports fan should be excited about. NASCAR’s TV contracts come up soon. Could we be seeing the Sprint Cup back on NBC? NBC Sports already does the Dakar Rally as well as the Tour De France. With SpeedTV potentially moving away from racing NBC Sports could become the alternative. Versus was at one time interested in the American Le Mans Series. Should the ALMS finally abandon the Non TV Deal could this be the alternative?
Indycar on Versus had a lot of potential. Even before the Comcast/NBC merger it appeared Comcast had big plans for the channel. The Tour De France and NHL do well on Versus. As do cage fighting and PBR. Sure the rest of the programing was a mixed bag of outdoor shows and random other programming but that just meant there was less competition Indycar had to deal with for attention. Everything appeared to be great. The first race was fairly well done. Then the TV ratings for the first race came out. Two years latter and the ratings weren’t a whole lot better. A few bright moments in the 2011 season (two of which came right after the Tour De France) couldn’t make up for the fact that 3 years of Versus has added up to ratings that are significantly down from the 2008 season when Indycar was on ESPN.
NBC Sports represents the last, best chance to turn the Versus/Indycar partnership around. Otherwise it will go down as the biggest failure this side of the Champcar/Spike TV partnership. At least Champcar was able to abandon Spike; Indycar is on Versus with a long term contract. With NBC and Comcast working to build NBC Sports into a major channel the household distribution should improve. Increasing viewers and new properties also give Indycar a chance to advertise to more fans who’re watching other properties. I expect ratings to rise next season. That doesn’t vindicate the 2012 Indycar schedule; what it means is that with more people watching the channel Indycar is going to pick up some residual benefit. In fact, 2012 is the worst time to risk having boring racing because it’s got the chance to show people Indycar for the first time. Do you really want their first experience with Indycar being a parade around China or Belle Isle?
Ratings on Versus Haven't Improved Much since 09
There are some reasons to be concerned. Since Versus and ABC have been splitting the TV schedule there have been 17 races. Versus took 12 and ABC took 5. Now there’s only 16 races and that’s if the Baltimore issues are resolved and the TBA is announced. How will this affect how NBC Sports and ABC feel about Indycar? What happens if there are just 14 races? Just as problematic is the lack of a 2012 TV schedule. People have complained NBC Sports and ABC/ESPN don’t promote Indycar enough, but, how are they suppose to promote Indycar when they don’t know which races they will have? Oh, and what happens if NBC Sports get’s stuck with the boring races and ABC get’s all the good ones (season opener, 500, Texas, season finale)? Indycar already re-upped with ABC as the exclusive network broadcast partner for Indycar until both contracts are up at the end of this decade. Could it be that NBC Sports will get tired of Indycar and either buy it out or just stop trying? If they can’t have the “good races” then what’s the motivation to try? The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. If NBC Sports becomes the next ESPN then Indycar might get treated just like they were on ESPN.
NBC Sports doesn’t just affect Indycar. NASCAR’s TV contract’s end after the 2014 season. They are going to have to start negotiation’s soon. The problem is the last round of contracts where signed when NASCAR was going up and up and up. During the current television contracts ratings were in free fall until the 2011 season when they started to regain some lost ground. The question is will the same companies still be interested in NASCAR next time? NBC left NASCAR in the last contract. Before that they partnered with TNT to broadcast the Sprint Cup series. Should NBC want back in the goal most likely will be to get races on NBC itself. Comcast and NBC may want races on NBC Sports to give their channel more leverage over broadcasters. From NASCAR’s perspective any races on NBC Sports is a risk. Just ask Indycar. From Indycar’s perspective a NASCAR addition could be a repeat of NASCAR’s return to ESPN. All of that said if NBC Sports does start to turn into ESPN then moving to that channel could work out.
AMA Pro Racing Would Likely Benefit from a Move to NBC Sports
NBC Sports also is a potential home for any of the other series NASCAR owns. AMA Pro Racing, Grand AM, and Camping World Trucks are on SpeedTV while Nationwide is on ESPN. Should they lose the ability to use those channels NBC Sports could be the alternative. Whether that happens or not will likely depend on what is going on at SpeedTV right now. There are some interesting rumors and idea’s out there about what may happen and whether or not SpeedTV will continue to focus on racing. In theory AMA Pro racing, or any motorcycle road racing series, could work well on NBC Sports as it could be tied in with the Tour De France and other cycle racing that are already on the channel. That makes so much sense it’s probably not going to happen.
The ALMS was at one time pursued by Versus. Instead they went with the Non TV Deal on ESPN 3. Ask Risi Ferrari how well that went (too bad they had to remove that blog post; thankfully the comment section of the article I linked has a copy). Should ALMS ever admit defeat on ESPN3 then NBC Sports is the best (and possibly only) option. A move to NBC Sports would also be bring Indycar and ALMS closer together which in my (controversial) opinion is a good thing but which many disagree with.
Promised Much and Delivered Little
NBC Sports is a potential partner for any racing series out there. Whenever the contract’s are up even F1 and MotoGP may want to consider it. Whether the NBC Sports thing ultimately works out or not for Indycar is still up in the air. For Indycar’s sake it needs to work out. No, it has to work out. They don’t have any other options and it’s a long term contract. It’s make or break time for Indycar to get better ratings. I don’t know whether or not they will succeed but I’m guessing ratings will improve some next year. With more households and more exposure (and a bar set so low) it will be hard not to improve some; no matter how poor the racing may be. NBC Sports also has the potential to be a destination for NASCAR if the current situation doesn’t work out. NBC Sports is being built as a competitor to ESPN. How that develops will have long term affects on all racing series broadcast in the US. For better or for worse.
2011: A Year’s Worth of Racing In Review
It’s a cliché but the 2011 racing season featured the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. The year featured shocking upset wins by Regan Smith, Trevor Bayne, Dan Wheldon, and Ed Carpenter. At the same time it featured the twin tragedies of Marco Simoncelli and Dan Wheldon’s deaths. 2011 featured the continuation of Dario Franchitti’s Reign of Luck as fortunate race control rulings and random lucky breaks (RE: Beatriz taking Power out on pit road) led to another year of a NASCAR reject winning in Indycar. NASCAR was more fortunate with Jimmie Johnson’s Reign of Terror being stopped dead in it’s tracks by Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards whose battle went down to the last lap. Grand Prix Racing (Both in the MotoGP and F1 sense) was fairly dull. Carlos Checa led his Ducati to the WSBK title despite Ducati’s factory pullout. AMA Pro racing saw some stability return while Grand Am continued to be Grand Am (as in irrelevant to 99% of fans).ALMS/WEC/ILMC/24 Hours of Le Mans featured continued Audi/Peugeot domination.
Indycar and NASCAR both featured surprise winners. NASCAR kicked off the season with Trevor Bayne winning the Daytona 500. Bayne’s win brought the Wood Brothers back into victory lane. Latter Regan Smith won Darlington with Furniture Row racing. Smith’s win was especially impressive as he had to hold off Carl Edwards on old tires at Darlington. Marcos Ambrose finally won his road race. Last and least Paul Menard won the Brickyard 400 on fuel. Indycar featured two islands of unpredictability in a sea of Red cars and Andretti domination. The entire Month of May was a feast for fans of the underdogs. Sam Schmitt Motorsports (and its partner teams that were not Dragon) broke into the Fast 9 qualifying along with Sarah Fisher Racing’s Ed Carpenter. Tagliani won the pole. During the race it appeared JR Hildebrand was about to win the 500 until he crashed. Dan Wheldon managed to clear the wreck and reach the finish line winning for Bryan Herta. It should be remembered that Sebastian Saadevra left Herta last year for Conquest because Herta didn’t give him enough of a chance to win races. Fast forward to Kentucky where Ed Carpenter beat Dario Franchitti to get his first career win. Kentucky has been good to Carpenter and its loss next year will be felt by fans who want to see underdog wins and non processional racing.
NASCAR was generally unpredictable. Besides the aforementioned underdog wins we also saw the rise of a new star with Brad Keselowski winning 3 races and proving himself as a worthy successor to the Penske #2. This is even more significant since he’s going to have to help lead the team with Kurt Busch’s departure. Keselowski also had to pay a secret fine to the NASCAR Police State because he dared to say EFI was not relevant, green, and amazing technology. At least he wasn’t a Busch brother. They had a rough year with extra helpings of controversy. In the end they’re the most hated drivers in NASCAR. This is great as long as it doesn’t cost them their rides. NASCAR would be much poorer for their loss.
Going into 2011 Jimmie Johnson had won 5 Chase’s in a row. Thankfully he was stopped this year by a team of drivers including Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. All of whom deserve credit for helping to end the reign of terror. Stewart and Edwards took the title fight all the way to Homestead. In the end Tony Stewart passed over half the field on his way to winning the race. Carl Edwards finished 2nd and in fact tied Stewart in the points. Stewart won on a tiebreaker as he had 5 wins versus Edward’s 1.
In contrast to that the two Grand Prix series (F1 and MotoGP) were fairly dull. MotoGP featured Casey Stoner Domination while Ducati struggled and Pedrossa, Lorenzo, and Spies injured themselves. A few good races did appear including Valencia and Mugello to break up the monotony. Although it wasn’t a good race Ben Spies dominated Assen to get his first career win. F1 could be summed up with one statistic: 2011 featured a record low of drivers to finish on the podium (7). The 2011 season saw the return of KERS and the addition of DRS but they failed to improve the racing. Instead we saw the Red Bull parade become even more processional as Webber rarely challenged Vettel (likely by design). Fans of “technical” racing, “pure” racing, or boring racing enjoyed it and that’s great for them. For anyone else 2011 Formula One was hard to watch.
The American Le Mans Series fell off a cliff with no prototypes and no TV. It was a pretty sad drop off after a fairly interesting 2010 season. While there are some defenders of the ESPN3 deal including ALMS’s CEO, and Triple League Racing co-writer Ross; for many more casual viewers (myself included) the combination of no TV and no prototypes spelled the end for our interest in the ALMS. With the ALMS no longer on SpeedTV the coverage on SpeedTV.com thankfully continued. However they were more focused on the Grand Sham then ALMS. The World Endurance Championship continues to hurt them. Worse the Petit Le Mans is not even on the calendar! Which means Petit will most likely not see Audi, Toyota, Aston Martin, or Peugeot show up.
WSBK continued to produce exciting racing and featured the resurgence of Ducati despite the official pullout of the factory Ducati team. Carlos Checa was the only Ducati to win a race. He also won the most races this year and the title. Max Biaggi’s destructive personality returned and hurt his title chances. A late season injury ended it. Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty were winners with Yamaha. Sadly the announcement that Yamaha would pull out at the end of this year put a damper on that. Kawasaki also got a win in the rain! BMW continues to attempt to win a race and have announced Melandri as a replacement for Troy Corser. Over in America Josh Hayes won the title against Blake Young. Young won more races however. For Hayes 2011 was slightly disappointing as his goal after winning last year was to win the most races and dominate in a Mladin esque fashion. There is always next year.
In some surprising news Lotus Cars continued to exist throughout the year. They bought into Renault F1 and expanded that partnership heading into 2012. The Lotus engine program in Indycar continued. They signed a few teams and are expected to sign more next year. While an engine has been built they have not been put into a car and will not be seen on track until January. Lotus also has some GT car programs and a strange track day F1 style car for track days (if you have multiple millions of dollars). They made it through this year but will they be here next year?
Austin GP continued in turmoil. Austin has bounced on and off the schedule while constriction continues to start and stop. The announcement of the New Jersey Grand Prix for 2013 was another cause for concern. On the plus side Austin announced a slate of races including a Australian Touring Car race in 2012 and the third US MotoGP in 2013. Will Austin in the end happen? We still don’t know. At least they got the date moved back until November 2012 so that they have more time. It also means the fans that go to the track won’t get backed by the summer heat in Texas.
Sponsorship struggles plagued all series. The pullout of Suzuki from MotoGP, Yamaha from WSBK, and the continued withdraw of Renault in F1 (they continue to build engines but sold the team to Lotus) were the most obvious. NASCAR also saw major sponsorship issues despite strong TV ratings and good attendance. Their problems appear to be threefold. NASCAR sponsorships that were made (or renewed) in the 05-07 timeframe were sold at a high priced based on the idea of NASCAR’s continued growth. Since NASCAR has shrunk in the last few years and only started to right the ship this year that cannot be helpful in getting new deals worked out. NASCAR struggles demographically with younger fans, minority fans, and fans outside the Mid West/South East/Pennsylvania regions and that limits many sponsors (RE: Red Bull). Finally some of the cannibalization of sponsors as well as smaller deals and Official Sponsorship Of NASCAR may have devalued the market. The combination of these issues has led to contraction at Roush and Childress as well as the complete pullout of Red Bull Racing. It’s also prevented expansion of teams like Waltrip, Gibbs, and Stewart/Haas.
MotoGP’s struggles were just as worrying. There were only 17 bikes this year. Teams high and low cannot sign sponsorship deals. The Yamaha team went the entire year without a title sponsor and late breaking news is that Petronas left them. The shocking thing is MotoGP is the 2nd most watched form of racing (behind F1) yet cannot get sponsorship deals as good as what NASCAR and even Indycar teams manage to sign. A major push to sign sponsors is a must for next year or else they could be back to just 17 bikes before too long. CRT’s will help bike count some but without funding they will be horribly uncompetitive. WSBK has many of the same issues although they have a few more sponsors and factories. It’s not even worth talking about AMA.
Indycar is doing well with sponsorship considering they get .3 ratings. Still when Newman Haas cannot get sponsorship things are not good. There are still too many ride buyers and too few real, activating, sponsors. Track title sponsorship is an especially troubling issue and one of the reasons for the horrific 2012 schedule. On the other side of open wheel F1 continues to do okay although more and more ride buyers are creeping in. ALMS is not doing very well. Without TV what do you expect? Factory support remains in GT2 and that is vital for them. Most sponsors in ALMS right now are brought by the driver or the team owner’s business (RE: Muscle Milk).
The leadership in racing continued to make questionable decisions. Bernie Eccolstone and the FIA’s love of Middle Eastern dictators backfired with the protests in Bahrain. Despite this they are obsessed with racing in that nation and have scheduled a return in 2012 and nearly went through with a race in 2011. Randy Bernard opened 2011 with big promises and big idea’s only to end it with the worst schedule in years and a growing number of problems. Brian France continued to say what he wanted to be true rather than what was true. Dorna’s CEO (owners of MotoGP) recognized what was wrong in GP (only 2 winning teams, 17 bikes). The problem is his war on the factory teams could make things much worse. If the factory Ducati, Honda, and Yamaha teams pull out who will pay for the USGP’s and SpeedTV deal?
Sadly a wrap up of 2011 is not complete without discussing the tragedy that struck towards the end of the year. Dan Wheldon’s death at Vegas shocked the racing community both in America and worldwide. In the wake of this tragedy Graham Rahal organized the Dan Wheldon Charity Auction for Wheldon’s kid’s and wife. The amount of participation among drivers worldwide was impressive. It brought together people from F1, NASCAR, Indycar, and even a few MotoGP riders put stuff into the auction. The tragedy created some controversy with many people wanting to find someone or something to blame. Car count, “inexperienced drivers,” ovals, or the Vegas 5 Million Dollar Challenge were popular scapegoats. In reality his death was due to, as the Vegas accident report said, a “perfect storm” of events. Still it motivated a group of oval haters that are a combination of F1 and Champcar fans, drivers, and journalists. Just a week after Wheldon’s death at Vegas another tragedy struck the MotoGP in Malaysia. Marco Simoncelli was killed after crashing his bike and being hit by oncoming traffic. Coming so close after Wheldon’s death was especially shocking. The MotoGP community held a massive celebration of Simoncelli’s life at Valencia which included a “moment of noise” from the Moto2 bikes as a fitting tribute to the “Mad Fro Man.” In the MotoGP community there was a lot less effort to look for someone to blame and more acceptance of the “perfect storm” view.
As long as there’s not a second economic collapse 2012 is looking like a better year for racing. Assuming NASCAR is able to figure out the sponsorship crisis 2012 should build on 2011 and prepare for the “new” new car in 2013 that will hopefully produce better racing on the 1.5 mile ovals. F1 is still boring but maybe revised rules will help? WSBK should continue along as it is and be some of the best racing in the world. However MotoGP, Indycar, and ALMS are in a lot more peril. GP will live and die by what goes on with the CRT’s and factory teams. Should the factories pull out then who will pay for races and television? If the CRT’s are awful will anyone want to sponsor them in 2013? Indycar has a horrific 2012 schedule that has only 15 confirmed races (one of which may disappear). Indycar will not have a star driver in 2012 with Danica’s move to NASCAR. What driver does Indycar have that will attract casual fans? I’m pretty sure 99% of American’s could care less about Dixon or Dario. The 2012 car is not turning out as expected either. Hope seems to rest on the potential for Ford or Fiat/Ferrari/Alfa Romeo entering in 2013. As for ALMS much will depend on who really shows up next year. Does Robertson’s Ford GT and Risi’s Ferrari return? Will Newman Haas and Level 5 show up in LMP2? And will there be more than 3 LMP1 cars?
Triple League Racing Podcast #1 With John Hall of LiveFastRacing.com!
It has finally arrived. The Triple League Racing Podcast is now live! We have a very special guest interview with John Hall from LiveFastRacing.com and the LiveFastRacing podcast. His podcast ran from 2007-2009 and was one of the top racing podcasts around with an eclectic mix of racing series that included NASCAR, Indycar, ALMS, AMA Pro Racing, MotoGP, and World Superbikes. Personally it was my favorite racing podcast and a major influence on my blogging. I managed to find John and drag him out of “retirement” and get him back into the podcasting business for my inaugural show. John may have been out of the game for longer than this blog has been around but he was still on his A game. As it was my first time podcasting I have a few area’s I need to work on. So you’ll need to give me that. I think I was okay but hopefully when we do future podcasts I’ll do better.
I hope that readers, whether you like what I say and think or not, give this show a listen. Especially for fans of the LFR podcast. It’s nice to get John back out here. I’m incredibly grateful that John was willing to spend the time over his Thanksgiving break to cut a show with me. Yes, it was a few weeks ago but most of the information is still relevant. Due to being awhile ago we didn’t (thankfully) talk about the Kurt Busch incident, so those of you who are angry with me about that should still listen. Also no mention of the end of Newman Haas or any other recent (since Thanksgiving) news stories.
Topics covered included NASCAR, Indycar, ALMS, AMA Pro Racing, MotoGP and a little WSBK. Hopefully you guys enjoy it! I also need to thank Eric Hall (No relation) of Another Indycar Blog for helping edit the show. Make sure to read his blog and follow him on twitter. Eric will be a regular co-host on our show although he couldn’t make this one. We’re also planning to get John back sometime right before the season starts next spring and do a “pre-season breakdown” show. With a little luck this will be the first of many podcasts out of us! Thanks again to John Hall for coming on and getting us off to a good start. We’ll try and get onto Itunes within the next two weeks. And with luck, a new show next week.
Kimi Riakkonen Returns to Lotus/Renault!
The Iceman is back! While I really wanted to see him in either NASCAR or Indycar, Kimi has returned “home” to F1. It’s always a plus to have recent champions in a ride so this is a good thing. Hopefully he can help turn the Lotus/Renault (now just Lotus) into something successful, or at least more so than it was this year.
