The busy motorsports weekend ended on a somber note.
Sir Jack Brabham passed away at his home in Gold Coast, Australia Monday morning. He was 88 years old. Who would have thought midget car champions would lead to trips to the royal box at Monaco and the heights of Grand Prix racing? Something considered near impossible today. Brabham's CV shines with three World Drivers' Championship, two-time World Constructors' Championships and the distinguishing honor of being the first driver to start the Indianapolis 500 in a rear-engined car. He is the only driver to win a Formula One race in three different decades and the only driver to win a World Drivers' Championship in a car he built.
Brabham broke into Formula One when you didn't need a rich daddy or sponsor backing your career from the age of 13 to catch a team's eye. The amount of championship races were in the single-digits and the Indianapolis 500 counted towards the title. The Nürburgring was over fourteen miles long and hay bales were safer barriers.
He made his first Formula One start at the now ancient age of 28 years old in the 1955 British Grand Prix, racing against Juan Manuel Fangio, Sterling Moss, Maurice Trintignant and Mike Hawthorn. The Beatles were five years away from forming, petrol cost 23 cents per gallon in the States, the Brooklyn Dodgers would go on to win their first World Series title with the Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Gil Hodges leading the way with a kid named Koufax making his debut that June.
He survived the most lethal era of motorsports driving everything and anything just like his fellow competitors Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, Jackie Stewart and John Surtees to name a few. His sons followed in his footsteps, continuing to add to the Brabham family dynasty. Geoff is probably the most notable , with wins at Le Mans, Bathurst and Sebring as well as four titles in IMSA GT between the 1980s and 1990s and two top-five finishes in the Indianapolis 500. David and Gary made it to Formula One. Gary drove the first two rounds of the 1990 season for Life Racing Engines. He failed to make pre-qualifying at both events. At the third round of the 1990 season David made his debut with the Brabham team but his father hadn't had involvement with the team for twenty years. Gary would go on to win the 1991 12 Hours of Sebring teaming up with his brother Geoff and Derek Daly. David would drive for Simtek in the 1994 Formula One season. David and Geoff teamed up to win the 1997 Bathurst 1000 and David won in the GT1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2007 and 2008 driving for Aston Martin before winning overall in 2009 with Peugoet.
The Brabham dynasty is long from being only on pages of history books and Wikipedia. Jack's two grandsons, American-born Matthew, son of Geoff and British-born Sam, son of David are adding their own pages and trophies to the Brabham family legacy. Both winners in junior Formula racing as Matthew and Sam look to climb to the top open-wheel racing series in North America and Europe, where their grandfather, fathers and uncle competed.
Sir Jack Brabham was Australia's first great driver on the world stage. Without Brabham, who knows if the door opens for succeeding generations of Australian drivers such as Alan Jones, Mark Webber, Vern Schuppan, Will Power and Daniel Ricciardo.
In the present day of motorsports, if a driver accomplished only one of Jack Brabham's triumphs listed above, they would be considered one of the best in the world. Brabham's legacy reminds us of a time when motorsports was pure. Drivers weren't limited in what or where they competed by contracts. They took advantage of every opportunity they got. The product was not diluted by spectacles in hopes to improve the television ratings or decisions to favor the sponsors interest over that of the fan who works 40-plus hours a week and spends their hard earn money and precious free time traveling and buying tickets to sit at a race track. Championship points were earned with finishes up front and series were laissez-faire when it came to a champion being determined.
Sir Jack Brabham now heads to The Great Race Track in the Sky. We will have to wait to find out whether he decides to hop behind the wheel of a car or crawl under with tools in hand for an adjustment.
In memorial of Sir Jack Brabham, we look back at the events that transpired on the track this past weekend.
Time Trials From The Speedway
I've got to give credit where it is due and say Indianapolis 500 qualifying was exceptional. The weather worked out perfectly. Had it been hotter, maybe we don't see 231 MPH averages. I already suggested limiting the amount of attempts to three. The Fast Nine portion in the middle of the afternoon didn't make it easier for teams to reach top speeds. I would preferred that session be later in the afternoon but hands were tied by putting qualifying on ABC. Part of me would've preferred to see the Indiana Pacers-Miami Heat Eastern Conference Final game one start at 1:00 p.m. and have that lead into the Fast Nine starting at 4:30 p.m. ET but beggars can't be choosers now can they?
I thought the ESPN3 coverage was great. You got to see everything without commercial interruption. Of course you had Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear causing headaches but when the coverage moved to ABC, like a gift from God, Dario Franchitti entered the booth and in less than 13 minutes he had done better than Cheever and Goodyear in their 20 combine years doing color commentary. Franchitti has knowledge of the DW12 chassis and was pointing out moments during laps that Cheever and Goodyear would have never noticed. If it was just him and Bestwick, IndyCar would have it's best booth since the days of Paul Page, Bobby Unser and Sam Posey. One thing Franchitti has to work on: Getting over his Ganassi-bias. If he can do that, he should be ESPN/ABC's IndyCar color commentator starting in 2015.
In the first round of Sunday qualifying, when the first four drivers went out and didn't improve on their position I got nervous the session would end up with everyone ending up in the positions they ended in on Saturday, making the session useless. Fortunately a few drivers did pick up positions. I still think making everyone re-qualify is a little over the top. A suggestion: Fill the field Saturday, set the Fast Nine Saturday, give out points on Saturday. Sunday, open the track at 10 a.m. and have a two hour practice for the Fast Nine teams to work on race set which would give them plenty of time (four and a half hours) to switch over from race setup to qualifying setup. At noon, track opens for four hours for any teams that want to try and bump the slowest qualifier out and for practice for the teams that have already qualified.
Of course additional entries trying to bump in is necessary for this to happen and if I am IndyCar, I'd put some pressure on Chevrolet to match Honda's 18 entries. Those three additional entries could provide as much action and drama as today's round one did. Imagine if we had bumping at 228 MPH? And with Kurt Busch's success this month, who knows who might be lining up to make an attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 (I am being a bit optimistic that Busch's run this year changes anything moving forward).
I think there will be some tweaks to the format for next year but I do not envision the whole system being scrapped after one year.
Let's Try This One Again
Remember the format I proposed for the NASCAR All-Star Race at the end of last week? Forget it because it sucks. After watching and falling asleep during the race Saturday night, I woke up Sunday morning thinking, "what is the point of the segments?" They are meaningless. It's 20 lap, competition caution. Another 20 laps competition caution. It's Bruton Smith's dream race and dumbing down of motorsports to the greatest degree.
New and I swear final proposal: Heat races. Do it for both the Showdown (I preferred it being call the Open) and the All-Star Race and make sure both races are on the same day. Take the cars entered for the Showdown (this year 23) and break them up into two 20-lap heats, winners advances to the All-Star Race with 2nd through 6th advancing to a 10-lap LCQ to make the All-Star Race. Winner of the LCQ advances and the Fan Vote winner must at least make the LCQ. This format would've put an additional in the All-Star Race but adding one car to a 22 car grid isn't the end of the world.
After that do the All-Star Races three-lap with a pit stop qualifying format and break up the field again into two 20-lap heats again. Top four from each advance to the 10-lap feature. The remaining cars that have failed to advance go to the 10-lap LCQ with the top two advancing to the feature. Feature race starts 10 cars for 10 laps, to the victor goes the spoils.
I'd rather see the 20-lap sprints have some drama of cars advancing and some having their nights end early than just be pointless caution for an excessive amount of pit stops to be made. It would give a cookie-cutter mile and a half, a Saturday night short track feel.
Finally, I would make that Saturday a non-stop day for racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Have the Friday be a free practice day for Cup cars and Trucks with Truck qualifying and Showdown qualifying ending the on track action with a giant autograph session with all the drivers for the fans ending the day. Then on Saturday, have the Truck race at 1:00 p.m., Showdown at 4 p.m., All-Star Race qualifying at 6:00 p.m. with the All-Star Race beginning at 8:00 p.m. It would fill Fox Sports 1's schedule with wall-to-wall racing on a Saturday, it would start the All-Star Race at a much earlier time (9:45 p.m. ET is way too damn late for the green flag of an exhibition race) and I think the format changes would still allow for the race to slot in nicely to a two-hour broadcast window.
CBSSN Surprises
To my surprises Sunday evening, I was scrolling through the TV guide and found the Blancpain Sprint Series race from Brand Hatch earlier in the day on CBS Sports Network followed by the DTM from Oschersleben earlier in the day. It was fantastic. I miss Speed, I really do but Speed wouldn't have shown those races for another six months but would've shown hours of Racing Chef or Unique Whips re-runs instead. It's hard to believe the downfall of Speed has lead to a sort of emergence for series on American cable. NBC's Formula One coverage is outstanding. Pirelli World Challenge is on NBCSN with great online broadcasts of the race. Blancpain and DTM races are now shown on the same day they took place and to be honest, with Fox Sports 1 shedding some of these contracts, their MotoGP coverage has improved.
Don't get me wrong, I'd still like a motorsports specific television network that showed FIA World Endurance Championship, ELMS, Blancpain Sprint and Endurance races, DTM, BTCC, V8 Supercars, Road to Indy, Super Formula and Super GT, USAC and more with each night would have it's own bench racing show for open-wheel, motorcycle, sports cars, stock cars, touring cars and a highlights show Sunday nights to wrap up the weekend's action. Of course until that network comes, we will have to make do with what we have.
Of course, now that CBSSN has DTM, their races will no longer be available live on YouTube for those in the United States and Canada. It's one thing if you have the races but if you're not going to show the races live, they should be at least be made available to the people.
Quick Hits
1. Sam Hornish, Jr. is sure making the best of his seven race Nationwide Series schedule with a victory at Iowa. Don't get me wrong, it still disappointing to see he has settled for a seven race Nationwide Series Schedule and wasn't apart of the who's who line up at Indianapolis. I know he has said he has moved on from IndyCar but Montoya and Villeneuve both said the same and look where they are.
1b. Imagine if Hornish, AJ Allmendinger, Buddy Rice and Conor Daly could all find rides for 2015 and the 33 drivers in the race this year all returned as well. How great would that be?
2. Brands Hatch is a phenomenal circuit. It may not be the biggest circuit or feature lights or have cost hundreds of millions of dollars to built but it doesn't get much better than that. I'd love to see DTM, IndyCar and Formula One all return to Brands Hatch. The racing would be fantastic.
3. Kyle Busch moonlighting in the Truck Series is getting old. He has won three of four Truck races in 2014 (the only race he didn't win he didn't start in) and led 130 of 134 laps this past Friday night at Charlotte on his way to victory. What type of sick thrill does he get from this? It's one thing if he was dominating Cup as well and just couldn't be beat but Kyle Busch has become a driver that is unstoppable in the two lower national touring divisions but he's been bipolar in Cup. Wins 8 races one year and finds ways to rack up races with accidents the next. Clearly his success in the Nationwide and Truck Series plays no impact into what he does in the Cup Series. Instead of beating up on the same competition, maybe Kyle should join his brother Kurt at Indianapolis, because beating up on Matt Crafton, Timothy Peters, Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday, Jr. isn't helping in his day job in Cup.
Winners From The Weekend
Marc Márquez is 5-for-5 in 2014 after winning the French Grand Prix from his fifth pole position of the year. Valentino Rossi and Álvaro Bautista rounded out the podium.
Jamie McMurray won the NASCAR All-Star Race.
Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan of Filipe Albuquerque, Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell won the ELMS race at Imola. The SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Sergey Zlobin won in GTE and the Formula Racing Ferrari of Johnny Laursen, Mikkel Mac and Andrea Piccini won in GTC.
The #28 Grasser Racing Lamborghini of Hari Proczyk and Jeroen Bleekemolen swept the Blancpain Sprint Series weekend at Brands Hatch.
Christian Vietoris surprisingly won his first career DTM race at Oschersleben after making the right call to start the race on wet tires.
Scott McLaughlin won Volvo's first championship race in V8 Supercars since returning to the series earlier this year at Perth. He did win a exhibition event held during the Formula One Australian Grand Prix weekend. Craig Lowndes won the second race while Chaz Mostert took the third race, his first career V8SC victory.
João Paulo de Oliveira and André Lotterer split the Super Formula weekend at Fuji Speedway.
Coming up this weekend:
Probably the best weekend of the year for motorsports.
Indianapolis 500.
Monaco Grand Prix.
Coca-Cola 600.
Blancpain Endurance Series at Silverstone.
World Touring Car Championship at Salzburgring.
World Superbikes at Donington Park.
Freedom 100 for Indy Lights on Carb Day at Indianapolis.
Night Before the 500 at Indianapolis Raceway Park with USAC, Pro Mazda and U.S. F2000.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
