Ed Carpenter won his third Indianapolis 500 pole position. NASCAR held an exhibition race. Rain and fog delayed Saturday at Mosport for Pirelli World Challenge. There was a championship lead in the World Rally Championship! Jenson Button finished second again in Super GT and he and Naoki Yamamoto lead the championship! Nissan announced it was withdrawing from the Supercars series and then went out and won the first race after said announcement. In other lame duck seasons for manufactures, Mercedes-Benz continues to win in Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. Formula E was also in Germany. Moto3 had a jaw-dropping final lap and the winner wasn't even decided until after the final lap. Kudos to Jakub Kornfeil for jumping another bike and nailing the landing in a gravel trap. World Touring Car Cup will race twice on Monday. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
I Don't Know What I Am Writing
The title says it all. I don't know where I am going with it but last week while watching the World Touring Car Cup and 24 Hours of Nürburgring run the Nordschleife and then turning on the Formula One race from Barcelona got me thinking what the hell is going on. The Nordschleife is a marvel. Barcelona is boring.
Formula One had spectacular racetracks. There were few bores on the schedule. Besides the Nordschleife you had Spa-Francorchamps and the original Hockenheimring and going way back you had Reims. Full-throttle circuits. Circuits that pushed the cars to the limits. Barcelona doesn't do that. The new Hockenheim doesn't do that. Neither does the Hungaroring. This is part of the problem with Formula One and many racing series. The racetracks are dull. Half you can't tell from the others. It is as many corners as possible jammed into three miles of asphalt.
To be fair to Formula One, there are still some good circuits. Spa-Francorchamps is still a breath-taking circuit in its shorter form. Monza is magnificent. Montreal always puts on a good race. Baku is 40% dull but the other 60% is great.
I was trying to think of a better circuit in Spain for Formula One to go to but Spain has a dozen circuits and all are worse than the other for automobile racing. They are all great for motorcycles but my goodness they are dull for cars.
We need circuits that put everyone on edge. Imagine if Formula One ran the Nordschleife and Bathurst. Formula One is looking to race in Miami. That's nice but how many times have we had a Formula One street circuit in United States in hopes to spark an inferno of Formula One fans? The answer is five and none of them made it more than a decade and three of them didn't even make it to year four. We are seeing crowds shrink and part of the reason is because we know what type of race certain tracks will produce. We know what a race at Barcelona is going to look like. We know how Monaco, Hungary, Germany and Singapore are going to play out. A place like the Nordschleife and Bathurst are so unpredictable that speed is great but it can bite a driver out. You have to massively fuck up at a modern racetrack for it to cost you a race. A minor overcorrection at the Nordschleife or Bathurst can end your day.
Ten years ago I would have never thought NASCAR would add restrictor plate races to the schedule but after this weekend's All-Star Race it seems like everyone wants restrictor plate races on mile-and-a-half racetracks now. What once was a safety measure has now become a leash to reign in all the teams and knowing NASCAR we will have restrictor plates at every non-short track in 2019. What is the point of that? What is the point of building race cars that can exceed 200 MPH when you are going to limit them to 160 MPH on intermediate ovals and have every driver never have to lift off the gas? It seems like there is a smarter and more affordable way to do this.
It also has me wondering can we as race fans appreciate anything other than 75 million passes? Does the lead have to be constantly changing? Does anyone really care about the skill it takes to drive a race car?
We talk about what it takes to get people interested in racing and the various series of the world. I feel like we get lost in the bullshit. Just be exciting. Leave people saying, "Wow!" If you aren't do that then what is the point? Are bursts of speeds on city streets enough before a 90º right-hander enough? Every dickhead thinks he can stand on the gas before slamming on the brakes and making a right turn. Just because the car is going 175 MPH doesn't make it impressive. It only makes it fast.
In a month will be the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. That is impressive. Screaming up a mountain with no runoff. It is bonkers but something the everyday outsider would see and know he couldn't do. The problem is these thrilling event have been relegated to the periphery of motorsports. Instead of holding a prominent place for people to see, these events are kept aside for only cult followings. Meanwhile, the series with all the money continue to go to boring venues and hope luxury items in fan areas and playing with downforce levels will do the trick.
And on top of all that there has to be a balance of being something people need to see in person and people want to watch at home. A race needs to get people within driving distance out of their homes because they have to see it in person and for those unable to travel to the venue it has to be something they have to watch immediately. There isn't a motorsports series currently doing that.
Like I said, I don't know what I am writing. It is a compilation of thoughts that have occurred over the last week. Things feel different. This May has flown by and it seems like the Indianapolis 500 shouldn't be here already. When there were two weekends of qualifying and two weeks of practice every day was exciting. You would think with everything being condensed to one week of practice, one weekend of qualifying and the return of Bump Day I should be satisfied but something is missing. I have followed along to every practice session and invested heavily in qualifying weekend. I have listened to Donald Davidson, done ridiculous independent research in my spare time for odd Indianapolis 500 facts and read everything and watched everything I could surrounding this year's race. I have done the same things each May for as long as I can remember and yet I feel different.
The Indianapolis 500 feels more like an event we are hurrying to get through and not enjoying. Maybe that is just the times we live in. I can live with this current schedule and there is no good argument as to why two weeks of practice and two qualifying weekends should return but I feel unfulfilled.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Ed Carpenter but did you know....
Marc Márquez won the French Grand Prix, his third consecutive victory. Francesco Bagnaia won in Moto2, his third victory of the season. Albert Arenas won in Moto3, his first career victory.
Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR All-Star Race. Johnny Sauter won the Truck race.
Daniel Abt won the Berlin ePrix, his second victory of the season.
Daniel Morad and Álvaro Parente split the Pirelli World Challenge GT races at Mosport. Lawson Aschenbach swept the weekend in GTS.
Rick Kelly and Fabian Coulthard split the Supercars races at Winton Motor Raceway.
Edoardo Mortara and Gary Paffett split the DTM races from Lausitzring.
The #8 ARTA Honda of Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa won the Super GT race at Suzuka. The #96 K-Tunes Racing LM Corsa Lexus of Yuichi Nakayama and Morio Nitta won in GT300.
Thierry Neuville won Rally de Portugal and took the World Rally Championship lead from Sébastien Ogier.
The #76 R-Motorsport Aston Martin of Jake Dennis, Nicki Thiim and Matthieu Vaxivière won the Blancpain Endurance Series 3 Hours of Silverstone.
Yann Ehrlacher won the first World Touring Car Cup race from Zandvoort. Two races will be held today.
Coming Up This Weekend
The 102nd Indianapolis 500.
The 76th Monaco Grand Prix.
The 59th Coca-Cola 600.
The 16th Freedom 100. Pro Mazda and U.S. F2000 will be at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Pirelli World Challenge will be at Lime Rock Park.
Donington Park hosts World Superbikes.
Super Formula will be at Sportsland SUGO.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
