Tears at the Birthday Party

WARNING: Explicit language and extreme racing opinions ahead!!!

I have a ton to talk about today, but I'm going to start with the IRL. Yesterday another driver was killed in an IRL car in the morning practice session. From what I read, it happened within the first two minutes, and the two cars involved are two drivers who have rides simply to fill out the field: Ed Carpenter (TFG's stepson – good job, fucker, kill your wife's kid) and Paul Dana. IMHO, Paul Dana was just the latest driver sacrificed to TFG's "vision" of an "All-Oval, All American" racing series, which is neither of those things and has never been All-American. It started in 1996 with Scott Brayton (RIP Scotty), continued with Kenny Bräck's accident in Texas two and a half years ago. Thank God, Kenny didn't die, but he was a complete mess. Next was a real promising driver (Paul Dana was 30 years old and a journalist with no real experience considering he started racing in 1998 in Barber Dodge – when it takes you 8 years to move from Barber Dodge to a "Premier" series, and that "premier" series is the IRL, you aren't really all that promising) Tony Renna. Tony died during his first stint in the car at a practice session at Indy. And it has continued through yesterday. And if Mario Andretti weren't exceptionally lucky, I'd be adding him to the list.

The IRL "cars" have a tendency to fly into the air with little or no provocation. The only one of the aforementioned accidents that didn't fly into the air was Scotty Brayton and that's because he was in old CART equipment. I firmly blame TFG for his death, because there was no reason for Scott to be out running at that speed on Carburetion Day. He already had the damn pole for the friggin' race. He had been sent out to get the speed title for the month, because CART was racing at Michigan and our pole speed had been faster than the IRL's. Scott was sacrificed on the altar to Tony's ego.

And now that his precious lame-ass bloody stupid "All-Oval, All-American" series is on its last legs, he wants to merge. I hope KK is simply stringing the little fucker along like he did to us three years ago when we were the ones in trouble. He pretended to be interested in a deal that would reunited open-wheel racing in this country and then at the last minute he said, "No, I don't think so."

The latest rumors have KK (Kevin Kalkhoven) and TFG (Tony "Fucking" George) discussing a merger where supposedly they're going to come up with a compromise on chassis and engines. I will be pissed. First off, Champ Car has always always always raced with turbo-charged engines and it is what the fans love. I don't want normally aspirated fucking Honda engines. I want my beloved Ford-Cosworths which are damn near bullet proof! Secondly, I've already discussed briefly the faulty aerodynamics of the IRL chassis, but to continue, they've been designed for ovals (at which they've failed miserably if you consider the number of cars that have done cartwheels down the backstraight of various racetracks), and their two forays into road courses last year weren't exactly a ripping success. We have a great package in Champ Car and I see no reason to compromise our vision just when it's looking up for us, and down for "them." I say tell TFG to take his fucking series and to go fuck himself. And if the compromise also includes the Texas Motor Speedway I'd really tell him to go to Hell. I don't want the drivers I love to go anywhere near that deathtrap of a race track!

And on that note, I'm going home and trying to calm my blood pressure. ;-)