Champ Cars at San Jose

Is anyone watching this mess? I'm a big Champ Car fan, but I can't believe they are racing on this track! It is less than nine feet wide in some spots, they jump a railroad track (maybe twice), and there are two chicanes that look absolutely deadly.

They are hitting one of the chicanes at around 150mph while maintaining full throttle. There is absolutely no margin for error as they are pointing straight at a concrete wall with a few tires stacked in front, but no run-off at all. I just saw an on-board view from Bourdais' car on Speed News Saturday and it's insane. I guess everything is OK in practice, but when they start racing it could be a mess. I see a lot of red flags in store for tomorrow.

I miss the good ole days of open wheel racing. Champ Car's new business model makes a lot of sense (Friday's attendance alone was higher than the three-day attendance when they used to race at Laguna Seca), but they shouldn't have to race at "tracks" like this. Not only is it dangerous, but it doesn't look like it will allow any good racing.

I've said it before, it pains me to see what CART/Indycar/Champ Car has turned into. I tried watching this "race", and I just couldn't take it. It's a joke.

Meanwhile the *ahem* IRL race at MIS was fantastic. Of course, it was a bunch of ex-CART racers and teams that made it that way, as usual. But there you go...

Having made my living working on "Indycars" (CART and IRL) for about 10 years, it also pains me to see the whole open wheel fiasco in this country. I did not watch the SJ race but I can picture the silly track layout in my mind - dumb. MOST street courses are just that.

But, I must also disagree with AZ on the MIS race being "fantastic". I never liked big ovals much since there isn't much "driving" going on. Superspeedway drivers do more "guiding" of the car than driving. It is all about staying in the draft, especially now that the IRL cars have so much downforce and so little HP.

Back in 95-97 we (CART) accelerated out of the turns (at MIS) up to about 245mph and had corner speeds around 225. The IRL cars only gain about 5 mph now so the only passing is the result of the draft and to me that is boring beyond words.

Someday there will be one series again, and it will visit superspeedways, small ovals like Phoenix and Milwaukee, REAL road couses (Elkhart, Mid O, Laguna), and very few street courses (Cleveland gets it right as does Montreal). They will do this with more HP and less downforce so that drivers with skill and bravery (remember that trait?) outshine the ones that don't as it was meant to be.

However, I am not holding my breath............

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SP3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Someday there will be one series again, and it will visit superspeedways, small ovals like Phoenix and Milwaukee, REAL road couses (Elkhart, Mid O, Laguna), and very few street courses (Cleveland gets it right as does Montreal). They will do this with more HP and less downforce so that drivers with skill and bravery (remember that trait?) outshine the ones that don't as it was meant to be....</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's what everybody wants to see, but apparently nobody wants to DO.