Nine Thoughts From The Racing Weekend

1. No SpeedCenter or Wind Tunnel Sunday night and it sucked.

2. MotoGP is returning to Indianapolis for one more year in 2014 but after that, who knows? I really enjoy the event. If that race were not to return in 2015, where else in the United States could the series go? Road Atlanta probably needs some work, as would Road America. Miller Motorsports Park hosted World Superbikes for a few years but don't any more and the track has been trouble keeping events. It put on great ALMS and Grand-Am races but neither has gone to the track since 2010. The track has never done a great job drawing people from Salt Lake City, which is only forty-five minutes away.

Barber is a nice course and was built for motorcycles but I am pretty sure it isn't big enough. Yet again, Indianapolis is only about two-tenths of a mile longer, so you couldn't rule it out. The other problem with Barber is scheduling. It would make sense to run that race back-to-back with Austin but the IndyCar race at Barber was only scheduled two weeks prior to MotoGP at Austin. It would be too warm to run Barber during the summer. The fall would be difficult because MotoGP goes to Pacific and NASCAR goes to Talladega in October. For Barber to end up on the MotoGP calendar there would have to be a few alterations made to either the MotoGP calendar, the Barber calendar or both.

3. NASCAR season is in full swing and we are getting closer to the Chase. The wild card race is interesting with Kasey Kahne, Martin Truex, Jr. and Joey Logano all with at least a victory and all within twenty points of tenth place. And Greg Biffle is on the bubble, with a win. Not to forget mentioning Ryan Newman is lurking with a win to his name. Tony Stewart still has a slim shot. He's got a win and is fifty-nine back of the second wild card. Now I am pretty sure Stewart doesn't return before the Chase, he probably doesn't return in 2013. But imagine him missing next week at Bristol, returning and starting Atlanta and Richmond, being substituted for each and having someone else finish the races and said-substitute pulls off a win in one of the two and gets Stewart into the Chase? Wouldn't that be something?

4. Grand-Am put on a decent show at Kansas Speedway. Who would have thought Saturday night road racing was a good idea? The Daytona Prototype championship picture has been interesting. Alex Popow/Ryan Dalziel lost the points lead to the Alex Gurney/Jon Fogerty pairing who then proceeded to lose the points lead when Gurney got caught up in a three car accident with Sébastien Bourdais and Stéphane Sarrazin. Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli will take a two point lead into Laguna Seca over Christian Fittipaldi after their victory. Popow and Dalziel are three back, Gurney, Fogerty and João Barbosa are four back, Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett are five back. It is anyone's championship. Meanwhile in GT, Alessandro Balzan leads John Potter and Andy Lally by one point and with Balzan's victory Saturday, the top two in the championship have now combined for one victory. Third in the standings John Edwards and Robin Liddell have four wins and are three back.

5. Speaking of Kansas, it wasn't a terrible race for a roval but count me as one who would be disappointed if it ends up on the USCR schedule while Road America, Mosport, Mid-Ohio, heck even Barber and Long Beach do not. I have done some thinking about the USCR calendar and here is an idea: What if there were weekends with all categories at the same track either running one race together or split prototypes, GT races and then a few GT only and Prototype only events?

So the weekends with all classes could be: Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach (split races), Watkins Glen, Lime Rock Park (split races), Indianapolis, Road America, Austin, Laguna Seca and Petit Le Mans.
GT only: Kansas, Barber and Belle Isle.
Prototype only: Mosport, Baltimore and Mid-Ohio.
What would this cover? A. Tracks that currently have a sports car date, get to keep one. B. More races. C. Sports cars season isn't as spread thin over ten months. It's just a thought.

6. Great to see Robert Wickens officially get his first DTM win. The kids is talented enough for Formula One. There is a full grid of drivers out their 31 years old or under who have yet to get a shot at Formula One and deserve one. Wickens is one of them. Throw in Bertrand Baguette, Neel Jani, Adam Carroll, Álvaro Parente, Luca Filippi, Davide Valsecchi, Andy Soucek, Loïc Duval, Filipe Alburquerque, Miguel Molina, Jonathan Summerton, James Rossiter, Nicolas Lapierre, Sam Bird, Edoardo Mortara, Mike Conway, Oliver Turvey and Ryan Briscoe and you have a pretty great array of drivers. Throw some older drivers: Dario Franchitti, Tom Kristensen, Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Gary Paffett and André Lotterer and your set.

7. With DTM having an American series in a couple of years, think about the possible events that could be on their calendar: Austin, Laguna Seca, Road America, Watkins Glen, Road Atlanta, Mid-Ohio, Lime Rock Park, Mosport, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Long Beach, maybe even Daytona and Indianapolis?

8. Speaking of Daytona, seeing as how I am on a crusade for the benefit of motorsport, here is are two crazy ideas that will probably never happen: A combined DTM/ATM/Super GT race the Friday night prior to the 24 Hours of Daytona and an IndyCar doubleheader on the road course the Saturday evening before the shootout (excuse me Sprint Unlimited) and after Daytona 500 pole qualifying the following day. I don't see how either would hurt anyone. Rather help all involved.

9. Have you ever realized how proud Audi is of their accomplishments in motorsports? Find an Audi commercial that doesn't have historic rally footage or an Audi R18. I dare you. They are proud. I am so glad their is an automobile manufacture proud of their motorsports accomplishments. Regardless whether they happened yesterday or thirty years ago. And it seems they don't give a damn if the general public knows exactly what the R18 is or what it won. They are going to show it to you. God forbid Ford, Chevrolet, Honda, Toyota or BMW were to do the same.