So it was a pretty entertaining Sunday morning of jumping between two races with the emphasis on the Champ Car race and the IRL as commercial filler…
Having not watched a Champ Car race via TV in two months, I’d forgotten how annoying Rick “Insert $ponsor Here” Benjamin was! As Benjamin made up for my switching during commercial breaks with his NON stop sponsor-fest of every driver’s car speeding thru the frame.
And I’ll leave you to guess who won the Ricky-Boy name a sponsor sweepstakes, as I thought for sure it would be Mr. Benjamin’s personal favourite Wallmart.
With the Hamburgalur once again on pole, I was afraid it would be another boring race. Yet the Team Aussie duo actually kept Sea Bass firmly in their sites thru the entire event, with Will Power running an extra lap over Bourdais to take the lead. And I found Jon Beekhuis’s comments to be as brilliant as always. At one point noting that the Mac Dougal’s car was the meat of a Team Aussie sandwich. Err paddy! To which I would have said was a Bitamite sandwich.
And what more can you say about Sugar Ray Tracy? Using the Chrome Horn not once, but twice in the opening laps. Causing the Forsythe team to have to change nose cones on two successive pit stops. As first PT tangled with Graham Rahal and then punted Bruno Junqueira. Making me wonder if Forsythe would need to start using Tracy’s teammate Oriel Servia’s noses?
And perhaps it’s not wise to have Mr. Rick call out your car’s sponsor too many times as Dan “Speedy Dry” Clarke finally managed to throw it off track after running up front for the majority of the race. Oh well, at least Clarke’s #4 Oz Jet/Ticketmaster won the sponsor-fest race with a total of seven “shout-outs.” With RSports either coming in second or tying Team Minardi USA…
And speaking of RSports, Beekhuis made a very interesting comment towards Justin Wilson. As you may know the lanky Brit is the tallest driver in Champ Car. And apparently Justin’s size is causing his car to be 15lbs heavier than the competition.
Yet for the foreseeable future Champ Car has mandated that all teams remove their onboard starters which way 17lbs. Since some of the identical units aren’t functioning correctly. Yet Beekhuis claimed that Wilson was still +14lbs, which in a spec series apparently makes a big difference.
And every time I flipped over to the Corn 250, it seemed like they were under yellow for another incident. As I managed to tune-in during the big Princess cry fest in pit lane after she’d caused a 7 car pile-up.
And then back to Cleveland where there’s “Whiny Bags” commenting on how PT gave him the Chrome Horn… Yet you have to feel a little bit sorry for “Junky,” whose Open Wheel career seems to be fading fast.
And then I started screaming gleefully as the motor had gone quiet on Bourdais’s car, ultimately leading to his retirement in 12th place. Then everything seemed to come down to fuel strategy. With question marks over the top 5 cars, with guess who leading? Yep it was Paul Tracy followed by Graham Rahal, Robert Doornbos, Neil Jani and the Team Aussie duo. And although Rahal had to pit for methanol, the rest gave chase to PT. Who incredibly held off Doornbos to take his first victory in two years! While Jani scored his maiden podium finish in Champ Car. Scoring PKV Racing’s first third place finish of the seson.
Tracy seemed quite speechless, which is a rare sight to see, since he seemed very surprised to have finally won! Saying it wasn’t pretty, but he’d take it.
Meanwhile in Iowa, Dario “REO Speedwagon” had marched his way to the front with younger teammate Marco Andretti running second. With Franchitti holding Marco at bay to claim his second victory of the season. While Scott Sharp claimed his first podium of the year. Taking third place for Rahal/Letterman Racing’s Corn sponsored team
And Thank God for TV Remotes… As I immediately reached for the MUTE button upon the start of an overly too long jabber with Judd Ashley, err Ashley “My Husband Won” Judd. As I don’t know ‘bout you, but I really don’t know what Dario’s dog running away for 24 hours has to do with racing?
Interestingly Marco alluded to Dario’s car’s having swept the top two spots, saying he made an awesome set-up on my car.
Hey that's kinda funny having the two Ex-Team KOOL Green drivers winning the two Open Wheel races!
