WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — It’s a lovely night here in the Finger Lakes Region as I sit on the veranda of the Glen Motor Inn overlooking Lake Seneca.
I’m just hoping the electricity comes back on soon so that either telephone or wireless Internet service returns so I can send this column. It better, because I’m down to 37…oops, make that 36-percent battery charge, and there’s still plenty of work to do tonight.
It was certainly another wacky day in American open-wheel racing. I didn’t see much of the Toronto Champ Car race — oddly enough, it’s hard to find a television showing it in the Indy Racing League paddock. But once again, changing weather conditions helped create an interesting race and an unexpected result.
That’s the last time I’ll turn away after the first round of pit stops assuming Sebastien Bourdais is romping away to another victory.
At least Bourdais was more graceful after his latest dust-up with rookie Robert Doornbos, which ended the three-time series champion’s day. For the first time in who knows how long, the Frenchman has been knocked out of the point lead, which should keep things entertaining throughout the summer.
Hey, we’re 200 words in and still at 34-percent battery!
What can you say about the Watkins Glen IndyCar race? A typically solid tactical drive by Scott Dixon, who has emerged as the IRL’s road-racing ace.
Dixon’s third-consecutive win at The Glen helped him trim Dario Franchitti’s IndyCar Series championship lead from 65 points to 47. Although nine of his 10 race wins in Champ Car came on road or street courses, Dario surprisingly still has yet to be the victor in a non-oval IRL race.
The big talking point at The Glen was the fracas triggered by Tony Kanaan and Sam Hornish, Jr. Kanaan’s attempt to chop or brake-check Hornish as the cars entered the pits after the race was a silly stunt, and Sam was correct to call Kanaan’s conduct unsportsmanlike.
The resulting fight that broke out could have been avoided if Sam Hornish, Sr. would have let his son and his Brazilian rival have what would admittedly been a heated discussion. When the senior Hornish shoved Kanaan, that’s when all hell broke loose.
A bizarre scene unfolded that included Marco Andretti trying to restrain his father, Andretti Green Racing co-owner Michael Andretti, from going after Hornish. Marco was in turn pulled back by his mother, Michael’s ex-wife Sandra, while Dan Wheldon arrived on the scene to whisk Kanaan out of harm’s way.
Meanwhile, an unidentified AGR team member tackled Hornish, Sr., and Team Penske’s Peter Twiddy piled on in his driver’s father’s defense.
It was definitely difficult to sort out the men from the boys. Thank goodness Danica Patrick wasn’t involved.
Down to 30 percent battery. What else is there to talk about?
Well, the village of Watkins Glen is a delight, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Glen Motor Inn, electricity outage notwithstanding.
The Franzese family are gracious hosts, the Montage restaurant has excellent food (and a patient staff that doted on 1-year-old Patrick) and the rooms were clean and comfortable.
We definitely want to come back to the area to spend time on a non-race weekend. There’s Watkins Glen State Park, and I could easily spend a week working in the Motor Racing Research Library.
It’s going on 10 p.m. and there is no sign of lights or phone service yet, so looks like it’s time to head down to the village to try to find a place to e-mail this evening’s efforts to my various clients around the world. A good excuse to grab a late-night ice cream, too.
It’s a tough job being your correspondent, but somebody’s gotta do it.