It was Sunday afternoon, May 30, 1999 and John Hollansworth, Jr. had his hands full. Early in the 83rd running of the Indianapolis 500, his Oldsmobile-powered Dallara picked up a massive understeer condition. A car passed him on the inside. Caught up in the dirty air, Hollansworth's mishandling car brushed the wall hard in Turn 3.
Imagine you’re in a McDonald’s restaurant. You order a Big Mac. The cashier plops your sandwich on the counter and says, “That’ll be six hundred and twelve dollars, sir.”
83-year-old Formula 1 legend Stirling Moss has once again spoken with conviction and said what he really believes to a world that has no convictions and doesn’t know what to believe. And the reaction has been as predictable as sunrise.
So I’m sitting here browsing articles and I run across a piece that attempts to name the “worst drivers in Indycar history,” as if such a determination was possible. I figured it was a waste of time, so I passed.
National Football League teams have a long-standing tradition. Whenever a franchise wants a new stadium, they simply threaten to move to another town. City officials, terrified at the thought of losing the bread and circuses they promised to Doofus Joe Sixpack, duly pass a new tax on millions of victims who don't give a rat's rump about football and force them to fund a new stadium. Presto. Works every time.
For weeks I’ve been listening to every media pundit and armchair racer debate what Indycar should do next. Their TV ratings are in the tank, they just fired a semi-popular CEO without cause, they literally can’t give away tickets to a short oval race and they’re hemorrhaging cash at an appalling rate.
Sunday's Indycar race at Sonoma was enjoyable to watch and the series is still making forward strides. It was nice to see Rubens Barrichello get a top five finish (you're not in Kansas anymore, Rubens). It's good to have the series revisiting some legendary venues.
After rediscovering authentic competition via deregulation at Iowa Speedway last month, the Honda Indy Toronto event showed just how far Indycar's vastly over-regulated series has yet to go.
