A walk through the crowd Sunday during the Long Beach Grand Prix in an effort to take the event’s temperature, and thinking about any Mercury rising.
It was a good crowd. But it was different.
Fans of racing in general, meanwhile, were geeked to see Danica Patrick, the diminutive driver obviously a favorite of both genders and both types of attendees, those there for the racing and those there for the party.
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The age of the fans also reflect the age change among the racers.
The Next Generation is here. For every veteran like Dario Franchitti - not exactly elderly at 35 - there’s two hot young drivers like Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal.
Car aesthetics means different things to different people.
These are not exactly good-looking vehicles. They’re actually kind of homely. The rear wing reminds me of something I might have seen on a slot car, and the rear in general looks like someone shaved a foot off the car, creating something of a snub-end.
Not exactly a testimonial.
The one thing all drivers agree on is that street races are very physically draining because of the turns and the tightness of the steering. Less power puts more stress on a driver’s handling skills.
There are four dominant teams in Target Ganassi (Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon), Team Penske (Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Ryan Brisco), Andretti Green (Tony Kanaan, Patrick, Marco Andretti, Hideki Mutoh) and Newman/Haas/Lanigan (Graham Rahal, Robert Doorbos). They represent almost half of the current field.
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Will Power showed some incredible
class this weekend in the way he handled Castroneves returning to take his ride and then being handed a car he had never driven and taking second in the race.
Goals for next year:
The return of Rahal/Letterman racing.
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