of Pine, Plastic, & Far Flung Places

This summer's travels took us west to Bear's Lodge and east of Wooster.

One week after our trip west to South Dakota and Wyoming we made a spur of the moment decision to head to Mid-Ohio for the ALMS race.

I should have known that the intersection of US HWY 30 and I-69 might not have been the best place to stop for sleep at 1:30am with my 3 boys. I was getting tired & I promised myself that I'd stop at the next truck stop or McDonald's for a nice well lit parking lot to sleep in for an hour or so before we drove on. When I got to the first Fort Wayne exit and it featured a truck stop and a McDonald's I gave thanks to St Christopher and pulled off the road. I'm not sure what I saw what transacting in the McD's parking lot across from the TWO gentlemans clubs, but I was positive that it would not look good to have a story in the news about me, Brandy's, & a car load of kids. It turns out that Good Chris would have to carry me a bit farther down the road. He did. We slept for a few hours in a clean Ohio rest area.

Partially rested we spent the day at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course watching IndyCar qualifying and the ALMS race. Fabulous track! It is a beautiful facility. I took something like 2400 pictures, turned a bright hue of red, and we had a BLAST. I would definitely return.

Our 8th annual pinewood derby and summer picnic was held. There were 12 kids entries, 6 adults, 4 entires for Formula Unlimited, and 1 flame juggler. Brats, sunshine, little pine race cars, I don't think it could have been a better day. Oh but it could get better. The after-party included pizza, a Hannah Montana dance off, & Slots of Fun.



Speaking of slot cars, I finished my Speed Racer Mach 5 as an SCXd car. It has probably been 6 years since my boys gave me that snap together model as a gift. After a combination of procrastination and planning she has finally taken to the track.
SCI
SCX WorldWide

What a great summer.

Indy Predictions

OK - The 2002 Indy 500 winner did not make the race so now I'll have to come up with something else.

The winner - Will Power. You can't bet against Penske at Indy and Will Power is the driver to beat this season.

I am cheering for Dario Franchitti. He has been racing hard all season and is due for a win. GO Dario GO.

Surprise feel good story - Sarah Fisher. If she finishes ahead of Danica there will be no surprise. But look for Sarah Fisher Racing to get he car into the - top 10? No. Top 5. Wouldn't it be great she broke through and won?

If you are an Arrested Development fan you will be rooting for Ana Beatriz. Steve Holt!

Indy Is Back!

Indy Qualifying
Wow. Seriously. Wow. The new format works.

Part of me misses the whole Month-Of-May build up, the tradition. But most of that was gone years ago. There are still some that miss the front engine roadsteers. We need to move on. When I first heard that the top 24 would be locked in on Pole Day and that the top 9 would then have another Race For The Pole. I thought, "NO!!!!!" But I settled down and thought for about 5 minutes and realized SOMETHING needed to change and heck if IndyCar found sponsor for this format all the better.

There was still all the drama of Pole Day. There were teams posting times. Waiting in line only to decide to keep their time and get back in line. There were teams that crashed during practice. There were teams that had a car safely in the race that decided to withdraw their time and try again. Sometimes that worked - Helio Castroneves. Sometimes it was a ticket to Sunday's Bump Day - Paul Tracy.

The Top 9 Race To The Pole was dramatic with Chip Gannasi declaring on live TV that Penske's stall tactics were "Bull shit and you know it!" Once a car is in the top 9 the team can continuously re-try for a better time without the worry of giving up the already scored fast time. This allowed Penske's pole sitting Castroneves to run absurdly slow warmup laps before his retry. This was eating up time for the other pole wanna-bes. The only rule preventing this was a mushy directive that if they were short on time and the next in line was already on the pole the pole sitter would not be allowed to retry. Huh? What is "short on time"? Why should the pole sitter be denied an attempt at a better time?

There was an obvious hole in the rules and Penske drove a truck through that hole. Don't tell me that Chip wouldn't have done the same with his drivers. In the end Penske's move didn't matter. How do we patch the hole for 2011? The pole sitter must be allowed to defend the pole by being allowed to run faster and faster just like everyone else. I would allow the current Race To The Pole rules for the first part but then for the last 30 minutes (or 15 minutes - I'm flexible) a team would have to withdraw that car's time to re-qualify. Withdrawing would mean that the car is now in 9th position, not out of the race, until a new time is posted and the car is positioned accordingly.

Bump Day provided us with some real excitement. There was a very real chance that Tony Kannan was not going to make the race. Did those crashes get in his head? Was there something wrong with the car? KV Racing's Paul Tracy was in the race - again - but continued to fall closer and closer to the bubble. Time was running out but the KV Racing took a chance and decided to withdraw PT's car. He sat in line as time for his Indy return ticked away.

There is still a lot of room to improve in IndyCar. But, Indy is back!