Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Christian Lundgaard earned his first career victory in IndyCar while Álex Palou continues to be bulletproof. Mother Nature keeps having her way with the motorsports world. She shortened an SRX race for the first time ever, lingered around Toronto long enough to shake up some Road to Indy races, pushed the NASCAR Cup race to Monday afternoon and washed out the entire Saturday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was dry in Rome and the championship was flipped upset down in the second race of that weekend, allowing a Brit to put one hand on the championship trophy with only a London doubleheader remaining. There was a fairytale winner in Misano, but we do not live in a fairytale world.
Digital Existentialism
This has nothing to do with motorsports, but rather with this space, how it exists and its future existence.
A few weeks ago, while trying to check on the start of the Mid-Ohio IndyCar weekend, I was stopped in my tracks and left rather lost with the only explanation being "Rate Limit Exceeded."
I wasn't alone, and many experienced this on Twitter as the social media platform changed how much non-subscribers could see and engage with on the platform with no warning of the change.
Social media has never been my cup of tea, at least not in its excessive nature. It can be useful, but most of it is junk for the sake of junk. People making noise because they cannot stand silence, believing whatever is in their head must be made public to prove existence in this world. The truth is we need more listen more.
Twitter has been a great distributor. It has allowed writing and stories to be easily shared and given people profiles they otherwise would not have. It has allowed information to easily be shared and keep people informed. There is also the counter to that where it has allowed many to deceive others, but when used with good intention it is a pubic square, a global bulletin board of the digital age.
I am not somebody of great prestige. I do this for fun. I do this as a hobby and a way to share my passion and excitement for IndyCar and motorsports. It is a sandbox for my ideas and I get to share it with anyone who is interested. I am grateful for those who do read and take something away from my words, and without Twitter, you are likely no reading this.
Over a decade ago, in the public square, I started making noise, just hoping somebody would notice and follow along. It has been a modest crowd, but one I am thankful to have. It has all because of Twitter, the one platform I could grasp. A special shoutout should be given to all those who have shared my worked, spread it to others and has offered extended platforms beyond social media, most notably Kevin Lee and Curt Cavin through the Trackside program.
The world is changing, or more specifically, Twitter is changing. It isn't getting better. For someone so passionate about free speech, he sure knows how to put a price on it.
Business aside, the rate limit exceeded experience wasn't the most convenient one, and it goes to show you should never take for granted what you have. It has been a long time since I wasn't able to keep up on track activities on a near minute-by-minute basis. Come to think of it, before this hyper-connected time, where every junior series is streamed (even if all the cameras are locked down and the production budget is zero), and timing and scoring is regularly accessible, the only thing that matter was the race window.
Before we knew every session was available to watch or listen to, all that matter was when the race was coming on. I didn't bother trying to scope out practice or qualifying in real time. I knew at the end of Friday and the end of Saturday I could read a report on the day. Find out who was fast and who was in trouble, and that was enough. The good ole days. Life was much different then. A race weekend wasn't an obsession like we see now. It was a more causal experience that dipped into your life and didn't steer it.
After over 15 years working this way, it is hard to go back. It is hard to trade the knowledge you did have. But, when you are getting nothing, it is easy to move on and focus on the moment. That weekend, I could only accept it wasn't working and focus on what I could control, problems be damn. The best I could do was looking up the schedule for the day and know what time to tune in on Peacock for practice and qualifying.
I knew there were things I was missing, but they were things I missed previously in my lifetime. The world wasn't always this way, especially an IndyCar race weekend. There was so much we didn't know because it could not be shared. We didn't go into a Saturday practice knowing who had dinner with whom the night before, which young driver was hanging out on what pit stand and whether the restrooms had been renovated at a facility. We only knew what we could glean from a few trackside reports and whatever the race broadcast covered. The rest was lost to time, becoming anecdotal stories shared years or perhaps decades later and now leave digital fingerprints in the 21st century.
As I endured the rate lite exceeded experience, I wondered what it meant for me. The juice isn't worth the squeeze for Twitter's subscription, but it is all I have. I have written before about my place in this world where I am a mere speck of dust. I participate less on Twitter than I once did. I think it has helped my writing.
Considering the downgrade in Twitter's quality over the last year, I wouldn't be missing much if I left. There is more garbage out there. More spam. More smut. Remember when you could go on Twitter and not have an explicit post randomly appear in a search or as a bot response? I guess civility was too much to ask for.
This is almost the experience of a beach town that let seedy motel pop up along the promenade and now fewer people visit because it is not enticing to be in that area. We are all managing, but are not pleased. The problem is we are too used to this place, building our own followings to leave. We aren't sure if any alternative is worth it.
I could stop on Twitter and just continue writing. That wouldn't upset me, but I know no one would read this. Some would, but much fewer. Frankly, it the public square is rather cluttered now, and it requires much more noise. I am not raising my voice that much higher anymore.
I am not someone who can generate an audience all on my own. I don't command that kind of attention. Whatever readers I do have are because of the public square we are all standing in. Moving to the outskirts of town may be the humble thing to do but it is isolating.
I joined Threads as a fallback, waiting to see if Twitter collapses in on itself. I am too old for a new social media platform. I am back to zero and there is no reason to think even the meager levels reached on Twitter will be duplicate there. We will wait and see how the landscape changes.
The coincidental thing is nearly a year ago, I wrote about change and this outlet. I guess it is becoming a July tradition. Let's see where we are a year for now.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Christian Lundgaard, but did you know...
Mitch Evans and Jake Dennis split theRome ePrix.
John Hunter Nemechek won the NASCAR Grand National Series race, his fourth victory of the season, and his second consecutive victory.
The #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson of James Allen, Alex Lynn and Kyffin Simpson won the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. The #31 Racing Spirit of Léman Ligier-Nissan of Antoine Doquin, Jacques Wolff and Jean-Ludovic Foubert won in LMP3. The #77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried, Giammarco Levorato and Julien Andlauer won in GTE.
Liam Lawson won the Super Formula race from Fuji, his third victory of the season.
Álvaro Bautista (race one) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (SuperPole race and race two) split the World Superbike races from Imola. Stefano Mazni swept theWorld Supersport races.
Michael d'Orlando and Myles Rowe split the USF Pro 2000 races from Toronto. Simon Sikes and Nico Christodoulou split the U.S. F2000 races.
Denny Hamlin won the SRX season opener at Stafford after weather ended the race prematurely with 58 of the 75 scheduled laps completed.
The #88 AKKodis ASP Team Mercedes-AMG of Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy and the #46 Team WRT BMW of Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi split the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup races from Misano.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar keeps going with its Iowa doubleheader.
Formula One sees the return of Daniel Ricciardo in Hungary.
IMSA has its first of two GT-only rounds, which takes place at Lime Rock Park.
NASCAR is a little further south at Pocono.
SRX remains at Stafford as flooding in Vermont forced the Thunder Road International SpeedBowl round to be moved.
World Rally is in Estonia.
