ERIK'S EXPOSÉ
The Pits- The Exposé makes yet another return following another long hiatus, seems like we have a running theme here. ::) All things being equal we'd like to have something new every week, but given that life sometimes steps in the way of what one would like to do, we'll just have to take what we can get. The "Big Three" motorsport seasons have ended and three champions have been crowned. Mika Hakkinen repeated as Formula One Driver's Champ, Dale Jarrett won the Winston Cup title and Juan Pablo Montoya took the CART championship as a rookie amidst the tragedy of Greg Moore's terrible accident at California Motorspeedway. What does this leave us to talk about? Well, quite a bit really. As the millennium turns and all the world quakes in the wake of Y2K, motorsport itself stands at a seeming crossroads. As time goes by, our favorite brand of sport seems to move further and further away from its core audience. Technology has made the sport relatively inaccessible to anyone without a PhD or Bill Gates' bank account. Big wings, narrow tires, grooves and tamed tracks have made Formula One even more boring to watch than was previously thought possible. Winston Cup racing may lead the world in side-by-side combat, but these "stock" cars are about as similar to street machines as the F-117 Stealth Fighter is to your buddy's gyrocopter. CART ChampCars are supposedly the safest in the world, but this season saw two drivers killed, albeit in freak accidents, but clearly something is in need of a good looking at. I love CART and watch Formula One religiously, but these series are incredibly difficult to enter and have an arrogance about them that is a bit dissatisfying. Winston Cup racing offers greater viewer-friendliness, but the races are becoming the TV equivalent of counting sheep. Countless times this season I found myself getting up to run errands or just plain nodding off while trying to watch Jarrett/Martin/Labonte/Gordon and the bunch run around in rapid succession. These guys rarely bump or jostle each other at all anymore and when they do, the entire NASCAR world raises up its arms. I've got news for you folks, bumping and grinding is a part of the stockcar tradition, aggressive racing is what makes NASCAR competition such great fun to watch. Sure the door-to-door racing is thrilling, but how often do we really see it anymore? More often than not we're witness to the utter rapture of one driver "taking the air off" another driver's spoiler, thereby loosening him up and easily slipping by. When the opporuntiy to fight does come early in a race, drivers find it easier to let the faster car through. After all, there's a LOT of race left to run, but I'll save that rant for another time. Back to CART. It is my opinion that, among the three major motorsport brands, their racing is the overall best. CART racers regularly bang wheels, jostle for position and generally battle from flag to flag. Watching Franchitti, Montoya and Tracy flying around the streets of Houston was fantastic. I would go so far as to say that ChampCars are in a league all their own where roadcourse racing is concerned. No one matches speed, driveability and competitive racing better on a road circuit than CART. That being said, they also provide a fairly exciting show on the ovals as well. The matter of speed and its possible dangers is an aspect of the sport every series must face and CART has given safety great consideration, but this type of work is never done. Longer run-offs and tire barriers should become standard everywhere a car-to-wall contact might occur. I don't want to see track layouts altered and sterilized as was done in Formula One, but higher degrees of protection around the circuits might save lives/careers in the future. I want to re-emphasize that driver safety has always been paramount in the CART series, but this season's tragedies show that more can be done. If I hadn't already filled the page, I would share my thoughts on Formula One, but that's another page in and of itself, so I'll put away the keyboard for now and save something for next time. Hope you've enjoyed this edition of The Exposé. Come back from time to time and see what's new. Also, feel free to share your thoughts via the email link below.
Happy Racing! |
