Nov. 26, 2007 - Things To Do While Missing PRI

The Performance Racing Industries show is just a few days away (running Dec. 6-8 in Orlando), and for the first time in many years I’ll miss the show.

It was a simple decision, really. I don’t have any official business to tend to in Orlando, although walking the PRI floor and networking is always quite worthwhile. But without a pressing need to be there, I decided a couple of months ago that I’d skip this year’s show. Already I’m feeling out of sorts with my decision, because it feels strange to be looking at the first of December and not scrambling around to get ready for PRI.

But it feels nice to get a few sustained weeks at home. With each passing year, I find that I value my home time more and more, and look forward to the “off season” to unwind and catch up on things. For example, one of my interests is old movies, and the past couple of weeks I have enjoyed quiet evenings watching b/w flicks on Turner Classic Movies (I’ve also become a loyal Netflix subscriber). My favorites are classic dramas, mystery films, and crime noir movies, such as The Asphalt Jungle, Kansas City Confidential, and The Naked City. Of course, I also enjoy legendary titles such as The African Queen, From Here to Eternity, and Dracula (the 1931 version with Bela Lugosi), to name a few.

It’s funny what a small world we live in. A week ago I discovered on TCM a neat batch of films from the 1930s and ‘40s called the Lone Wolf Series, featuring reformed safecracker Michael Lanyard, who has become quite a detective. It’s a fun series of maybe a dozen movies that two weeks ago I didn’t even know existed. The twist? Earlier this year I authored a book with sprint-car great Doug Wolfgang, which we called “Lone Wolf.” When that title popped into my head while eating pizza with my wife, I did some due diligence to make sure nobody else had already used the title, and found nothing. Lo and behold, I later discover that an entire series of movies had been filmed using such a title, done decades before I was born. Since the subjects are about as far apart as you could imagine — can you imagine Wolfgang as a smooth, suave detective? — it’s not a big deal, but it’s interesting to realize that something so simple as the phrase “Lone Wolf” has been a part of our dialect for centuries.

Anyway, back to the matter of PRI. Chris Economaki will be there, signing copies of our book, “Let 'Em All Go!” at the NSSN booth. If you’re there, make sure to stop by and say hello to Chris.

I remember the first PRI show I attended in Cincinnati, almost 20 years ago. I was amazed at that time how large the show was, and it’s grown a bunch since then. Each year it offers a stunning number of displays and exhibits, so many that it’s impossible to see everything. PRI chief Steve Lewis and his folks do a great job organizing the event, making sure the PRI experience is pleasant and productive for all involved. Since moving the show to Florida a couple of years ago, they even offer an open wheel race at Orlando Speedworld on Thursday and Friday night. Bravo!

If you’re making the PRI trip, hope you have a great time. Like always, wear comfortable shoes and start early each day. Just remember ‘ol Dave, stuck at home, with the b/w movies flickering on the screen. Bogart and Bacall, anyone?

Nov. 19, 2007 - Good Luck, Helio - From Afar

Have you been following along with Helio Castroneves on Dancing with the Stars? I’ll confess: I haven’t seen Helio in his dancing shoes yet. My wife watches the show, but somehow the concept of watching couples dancing on television doesn’t quite appeal.

I suppose I’d watch it if there were more curiosity involved. See, I think Helio is probably a fine dancer, and a great personality. He’s handsome and telegenic, and seems smooth and graceful enough. So when I think about him dancing on television, that seems like something perfectly natural for Helio to do. No big deal.

The show would certainly be more compelling if we were to pick somebody else from racing, somebody a little less likely. For example, what if they invited Steve Kinser? Can’t you imagine the grim, unflinching face of the King, as he accidentally slings his partner into the fourth row? I’d make it a point to watch that show.

Another idea would be Jimmy Spencer. Or Ken Schrader. Or maybe Scott Bloomquist. Or, if we go back just a few years, how about Foyt? Or Parnelli?

The idea of a race driver dancing on national television is probably amazing to those from a previous generation. I suppose that means our sport is much more suitable for mixed company these days, but I’m not sure I like it. I think I liked it better when you could find more characters—unsavory or otherwise—in our sport. Guys with a scar on their face, and crooked teeth, and an evil, bellowing, contagious laugh. Those are the guys who are usually the most fun to hang out with. Suitable for mixed company? Hardly ... but fun, nonetheless."

Even then, I’m not sure I’d watch those guys dancing on television. I find myself watching less and less TV as time goes by, for a variety of reasons. The main reason is lack of time. Between my writing, my family, home maintenance, finances, paperwork, travel, and so forth, there isn’t much free time left. What little idle time I have, I’m not really interested in just sitting in front of the tube.

For the most part, television isn’t nearly as good as it used to be. That’s my view, anyways. My favorite TV show of all time is probably The Rockford Files, and I don’t think anything on contemporary television is as entertaining as watching Jimbo, Rocky, Beth, and Angel Martin each week. Today’s shows have great special effects, but frankly I don’t think the writing is as strong as it used to be. They rely too much on the shock value of profanity, and titillating sexual innuendo. Myself, I’m looking for intriguing plot, strong characters, and great dialogue.

I don’t even watch much racing on TV any more. I’ve found that I’d much prefer being there in person, anyways. I’m still interested in watching short track racing, but today’s airwaves have too much NASCAR and not enough local racing, as far as I’m concerned. Somehow, the idea of watching Nextel Cup practice at Dover is enough to make my eyes glaze over.

Anyways, I hope Helio wins the dancing competition. Let me know how he does, would you?

Nov. 12, 2007 — So Long, Sam

So it’s official now, with Sam Hornish, Jr. leaving the IndyCar series to compete in NASCAR, where he’ll join open wheel expatriates Dario Franchitti, Jacques Villeneuve, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Patrick Carpentier.

I can’t help but feel a sense of sadness with their transition, particularly in the case of Hornish. Not because I have anything against NASCAR; on the contrary, it’s interesting to see drivers take a shot at a different form of motorsports. No, the sadness comes because it’s a reminder that the economic formulas have become so completely stilted toward NASCAR that it has created an unhealthy situation for motorsports. It’s simply not good for the American racing landscape to have all its eggs in one basket.

Hornish has insisted that part of his motivation is that he feels he’s done everything he can do in Indy cars, and he relishes a new challenge. That’s plausible, but you have to believe that money is also a significant element here. And in no way, shape or form can you hold that against Sam — who among us doesn’t consider our own financial welfare as paramount? It isn’t like he’s taking a loathsome job just for the money; it’s a good opportunity to race a lot more weekends, for a whole lot more money.

It’s hard not to get down in the dumps when you look at modern Indy-car racing. I’m an Indiana native, but quite frankly Indy-car racing began to leave me cold back in the 1980s when its roster steadily featured fewer and fewer Americans, while the series padded its schedule with street races. Hey, street races are a happening, an event, and some people love them; but don’t try to convince oval fans that the racing is anywhere near as good. Regardless, a fair number of people simply lost interest in Indy cars during that period and the two decades that have followed, and you could write a book on all the reasons why.

In a strange sort of irony, a similar scenario may well be shaping up in NASCAR. The cost of competition has gone from ridiculous to insane over the past few years, and now, with sagging television ratings and a skittish economy looming, money is going to get tighter. Yet the sport—like Indy car racing before them—has become addicted to the notion of gold-plated racing, with a culture that can’t fathom the concept of cost reductions and downsizing. Too many people in NASCAR today believe—really in their heart believe—that they can’t possibly race a stock car on 34 weekends a year for less than tens of millions of dollars. It’s not difficult to see the folly of circa-1980s Indy car racing shaping up to be repeated.

But no matter. Sam and the gang will move away now, and another group of drivers will filter into open wheel racing to take their place. Will they be from America? Will they be up-on-the-wheel racers who can capture the imagination of the domestic race fan? Or will they simply bring a checkbook, another anonymous, come-and-go “star” that will lead more and more lifelong open-wheel fans to turn their attention and affection elsewhere.

Nov. 5, 2007 - Racing Stays On Radar

Here in Indiana, leaves are falling at a rapid pace, and frost covers the ground each morning. You can see your breath when you walk outside, and it’s dark around 5 p.m. It isn’t winter yet, but you can definitely feel it coming on.

There was once a time when racing would have been only a memory at this point. After all, our area short tracks all concluded their season weeks ago, and are now silent. Late fall days were focused on “normal” stuff, things outside racing. Other than the arrival of the Speed Sport each week, racing had pretty much fallen off the radar screen.

That’s all changed. NASCAR’s Nextel Cup season still has a couple of races to go, while NHRA wrapped up their season this past weekend at Pomona. The World of Outlaws sprint car and late model seasons also concluded with the World Finals at the short track at Lowes Motor Speedway. USAC still has several important sprint car and midget races, all contested out west.

Maybe it hasn’t changed all that much; maybe it only SEEMS like it’s changed. In other words, 25 years ago there were probably a smattering of events scheduled for November, just like now; but what has changed dramatically is the year-round interest in—and coverage of—racing. Motorsports is now a year-round enterprise, particular the ways in which fans are engaged in the sport.

Only racers themselves had such a schedule in the past. As they finished one season, they immediately began preparing for the next. But most fans found something else to occupy their time, counting the days until next spring. There was little racing discussion in the local newspaper, and even less on television.

Today, television coverage of racing rolls through the wintertime. The Internet boasts a vast amount of racing information, and even the daily newspaper now manages to offer some wintertime news.

Another element that keeps us engaged in racing are the many wintertime gatherings. For example, off the top of my head I can list the Thanksgiving Weekend Racers Auction & Trade Show in Indianapolis; the Performance Racing Industries meeting next month in Orlando; the Motorsports 2008 show in Atlantic City and the Hoosier Racers Swap Meet in Indianapolis, both in January; and the Speedway Expo show in Massachusetts in March. That’s just the tip of the iceberg; there are dozens of such events across the country in the coming months.

Plus, indoor racing is still going strong, highlighted by the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa in early January.

Just as our society has become one of 24/7 coverage, it’s almost the same story for motorsports. These days, there is no stopping to catch your breath, not even for a moment. Whew!