Late Night Ramblings

Owners bitching, drivers bitching, fans bitching. How about a nice warm glass of SHUT THE HELL UP! Owners complaining about the costs associated with owning a professional race car team. Um, yeah, no shit, its expensive. Any time a person or group of people are owners in the realm of professional sports, its gonna cost some major dough. In fact, I would be willing to bet most professional sports team owners actually LOSE money with the teams they own, which should not be a surprise to anyone with a brain. Owners don’t get rich by running a sports team, they are already rich through their previous business endeavours. A main reason someone becomes an owner is 1) they love they sport or 2) becoming an owner of a sports team raises their social status. They sure don’t turn a profit on it. If owning a sports team was so profitable, why are so many sports teams sold every few years?

Aerokits. Let me first say, I am not a gearhead. I am a newer fan to the Indycar series. The only thing I understand about aerokits is they will make the cars look differently. If the manufacturers (Honda, Chevy, whoever else) want to make and produce aerokits, let them. No one is forcing the owners to purchase new aerokits. If a team owner wants to buy a new aerokits & it helps his team perform better, let him. Isn’t that what competition is all about, beating the other guys by any means necessary?

On a more personal note, I get so frustrated reading Robin Miller’s D-Bags, I mean, Mailbag and comments made by “Indycar” fans in regards to Indycar articles. Thankfully I do not read Track Forum, because if I did, I think my head would literally explode. Comments I see the most or “We needs more ovals” and “We need more chassis manufacturers”. Would I love to see more ovals on the schedule? Well yes of course I would. There will be more ovals on the schedule when they become more profitable for the series. You want more ovals you say? Then GO TO THE RACE! Buy tickets, bring a friend, just show up! Can’t go to the ovals in person? WATCH IT ON TV THEN!!!! In fact, watching it on tv is probably better than attending the race in person since sponsors & potential sponsors totally dig tv ratings more than attendance figures. We need more chassis manufactures. Huh? This argument makes no sense to me. How is that going to bring down costs? I guess these fans have never heard of buying products in bulk. Simply analogy, if I buy 24 individual cans of Coke, it will cost me, let’s just say for the sake of argument, $1 per can. That makes the 24 individual cans of Coke $24. If I buy a whole case of Coke it will be $7. Hmmm which is the better buy? If the owners are already bitching about chassis’ costs now, how would they react if there were two chassis suppliers, since it would cost more for one chassis from either supplier than what it would be if there were only one supplier. I have an even better idea for the owner(s) who are bitching about costs, Randy Bernard, Turbogate or whatever pissed in their Wheaties this week…….just leave. No one is forcing you to compete in the series. I have to believe their are other potential owners who would love to be involved in the Indycar series.

Drivers bitching……shut up & drive please. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the hell out of what these drivers do. There is no way I could do it. But as a fan, which is short for fanatic, I get sick of hearing the drivers complaining. Do I want to see a driver get seriously hurt or even killed? Of course not, I get sick of hearing NASCAR fans complain about not enough crashes! Automobile racing, especially open wheel racing, is an extremely dangerous sport. And the bitching about the placement of the posts, fencing, wires, etc? I respect the drivers opinions on it since they are driving and not me, but personally I am over it. Not to sound to crass (but it will sound that way) but if a car gets airborne and the tub or driver hits the fence post, its not gonna matter whether the post is on the inside or outside of the fencing, the driver is going to be seriously injured.

Okay, I think I am done now. These are just some comments I wanted to get off my chest. I LOVE the Indycar series. I love what Randy Bernard has done. At least he is making an effort to improve all aspects of the series. He is not going to be able to fix 30+ years of mismangement in 3 years. I love the availability & fan friendliness of the drivers. I love the speed. I love the precision it takes to drive the cars. I love the passion from other Indycar fans I have met this year. I truly believe this series is on the right track if everyone keeps their eyes on the big picture. Thanks for reading.