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Category: Motorsports

Praise the drivers and pass the ibuprofen

It's been five days and the stiffness is gone, the bruises have faded and the anger whenever I hear someone say race car drivers aren't athletes is as fresh as ever.

All I did was drive a go kart on a tight, little, 40 mile-per-hour top speed, indoor road course. I shared a kart with a friend named Rich in one of Kart2Kart's monthly two-hour endurance races last Thursday.

That means we swapped in and out of the kart for half-hour shifts. After 227 laps, we finished a mediocre eighth out of 13 karts. We watched the winners, Tim Hyland, 45, of Warren, Allison Singer, 23, of Warren, Massimo Porretta, 28, of Macomb Township and Chris Eddy, 25, of Shelby Township, pass us seven times.

Gosh, that sounds easy doesn't it? Yeah, to anybody who's never raced a motor vehicle!

Motor racing is an incredibly physical sport whether it's on four wheels or two, on pavement or dirt, on water or in the air. In all of its forms, motor sports require precision while under physical and mental strain. Try it for two hours at a time in something as simple as a go kart and it makes you marvel at how NASCAR and Indy Racing League drivers can withstand much higher forces for much, much longer periods.

I've been blessed through the years with the opportunity to drive real racing machines on the grass roots level, on ovals, drag strips, road courses, and motocross circuits.

But it's a treat to have a place like Kart2Kart on Van Dyke in Sterling Heights available to get an occasional racing fix at minimal cost.

Managers at K2K have earned a solid reputation over the last eight years by providing go karts that are fast enough to give a real racing feel, while safe enough to keep from losing it all to the liability lawyers. Real race drivers play there alongside regular folks and engineers and designers from the Big Three automakers.

Rich and I weren't the slowest team out there Thursday. Until the closing laps, we had posted the second fastest single lap time. But we did make our share of mistakes.

Racing is so much more than going fast. It's about concentration and consistency. It's about being able to hit your marks, turn-after-turn, lap after lap. Late into a shift, the oxygen-starved, muscle-aching, la-la-land you enter while distance running on foot can result in your most grooved performance or a jumbled mess.

Miss one turn and it throws off the next and ruins a lap -- or worse. I bruised my ribs when I missed the proper line entering a turn Thursday and slapped one of the rubber walls on exit. It was a glancing blow that probably cost half a second, but it tossed me like a rag doll and had me yelling at myself inside my helmet. Amazing how loud your voice can get inside a full-face racing helmet.

These races also give a taste of the challenge faced by those guys (and gals) you watch on TV when it comes to keeping your cool in the heat of competition. We all saw Jamie McMurray tangle with Kyle Bush in the middle of that race at Talladega Sunday. That wasn't an accidental bump. And McMurray isn't the only one upset with the younger Bush's abrupt style on the track.

I've seen some heated arguments at K2K too, and in the past, I've had the fine corner marshals hold me in the pits as a penalty for a less than subtle act of retaliation. That one was worth it though.

On Thursday, I had a spirited race through most of my second half-hour stint with a guy whose kart was faster than mine on the straights, but slower through the turns. I'd pass him in a corner and he'd pass me back on the next straight. I got a lot of enthusiastic and funny hand gestures from my co-driver watching from next to the track. Our karts also bumped often enough to get a warning sign from the marshals.

But, at the end of the race, I made sure that other driver was the first guy I greeted with a smile, a slap on the back and congratulations for being so tenacious. He made the whole race worth while.

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Category: Motorsports

IRL having dream season, but is it helping?

Danica Patrick claimed her first victory last weekend in Japan and the Indy Racing League continues to have a dream reunification season that couldn't have been scripted better by a Hollywood writer.

Looking "maaaavelous" this evening, she strolled on stage for former boss David Letterman's Late Night Show . But, more people probably saw her in that little dress tonight than saw her pass Helio Castroneves in the closing laps in Japan.

Patrick's historic win was squandered as a public relations boost for the series because it happened in the middle of the night with a tiny U.S. television audience watching the event on a track on the other side of the world. The PR visit to Letterman is nice, but how much buzz can you get from race scheduling like that?

far. The needs to grab the spotlight to show the positives that have happened so far.The season opened with anxious Champ Car World Series teams making an early crossover to run the oval at Homestead -- driving the car count to a respectable 25 for the first time in a decade anywhere outside of Indy.

The next week on the street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida, the son of Indy winner Bobby Rahal, Graham Rahal becomes the youngest man to ever win an Indy Car race. He's one of those Champ Car crossovers with a great team -- Newman Haas.

And then Patrick becomes the first woman to win an Indy Car race. NHRA Drag racing lead the way for women 25 years ago, but NASCAR and Formula One can't boast of anything close to gender equality. Still, is anybody noticing?

I am curious about what happens next. The combined series might more than 25 cars on the track this weekend at Kansas. And this time, we will be awake for the ESPN broadcast.

NASCAR profits rise but ticket sales slow

The 2008 season has provided a turnaround for NASCAR on the track and off.

Competition with the new car has been balanced and predicting winners has been -- well, impossible for me so far. My last correct guess was Dale Earnhardt Jr. in one of the Duels at Daytona. I've whiffed every time ever since.

But the big news last week was the announced first quarter profits for the biggest corporations in the sport.

International Speedway Corp.(controlled by NASCAR's founding France family and owners of Daytona, Michigan and other speedways) posted a modest $36.21 million net income, 1.1% higher than last year's first quarter figure. Meanwhile, earnings per share rose 6%.

So what does that mean in English for us regular people?

In the first three months of this year NASCAR's business side generated almost $200 million. Admissions were up slightly to $56.11 million. Track side food, beverage and merchandise revenues increased more than 30 percent to $22.69 million.

Sales of Dale Earnhardt Jr. merchandise, that went into the tank last season after NASCAR's most popular driver announced he was leaving the team founded by his father, then that he also was leaving longtime sponsor Budweiser, have rebounded big time with fans buying merchandise with Earnhardt's new number and colors.

Motorsports Authentics -- the company that operates the big merchandise trailers at the race tracks -- made a profit for the first time since its founding in 2005. The company, owned 50/50 by International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Corp (owners of Lowes, Bristol and other motor speedways), also made cuts this year, consolidating distribution centers and reducing its number of trailers from 51 to 27. Demand for Earnhardt's new gear accounted for half of all first quarter sales.

Not sounding much like a regular race fan, a written release from International Speedway Corp. President Lesa France Kennedy (the late Bill France Jr.'s daughter), tactfully pointed out the real problem on the horizon -- fans caught in the bad economy:

"We are closely monitoring the current macro-economic trends and their potential impact on consumer discretionary spending. Similar to what we experienced in other downturns, it appears consumers are making purchasing decisions closer to race day, which impacts advance ticket sales trends. During these challenging periods, it is important to reinvest in our events and facilities to ensure we offer fans a premium experience so that they will return year-after-year."

It's true that the company is spending millions on improvements at Michigan International Speedway during the off season, but the report also revealed NASCAR is guilty of the same tricks as other big corporations -- burying profits into expensive stock buy-backs. ISC has spent more than $130 million buying 2.8 million shares of it's own stock since last December. And the company has authorized spending another $119 million.

Still no drug testing

I've already said there is no reason for NASCAR to not follow the advice of many of its drivers and start random drug testing. But, NASCAR won't change because it would rather avoid the public embarrassments suffered by other major league sports by continuing to let the teams quietly take out the trash with private testing. NASCAR has only needed to step in six times since 2000 to clean up where the teams let problems fester.

Now, the Charlotte Observer's respected NASCAR beat writer, David Poole, has weighed in on the issue. Poole recently wrote:

"NASCAR says it has zero tolerance for banned substances, but it only tests drivers or crew members based on reasonable suspicion. The idea is that since the folks in NASCAR are around each other so much, they can spot changes in behavior.

"How did that work in (Arron) Fike's case? He was on pain killers and then on heroin, and admits that before his arrest he was injecting heroin daily, including on the days he raced. So he was on the track with heroin in his system. If the system allowed that to happen, it's not working."

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Category: Motorsports

To test or not to test? It shouldn't even be a question

NASCAR says thanks but no thanks to Kevin Harvick and other drivers who stood up and called for random drug testing in their sport after ESPN the Magazine published an interview with a former Craftsman truck series driver who claims he was high on heroin when he finished fifth at Memphis last July.

So Mike Helton says the oddball policy that sprung from the shameful way NASCAR treated Tim Richmond 20 years ago is just fine. Besides, some of the teams themselves have random testing policies so NASCAR doesn't need to worry about it. The sanctioning body can continue to apply its test only on suspicion policy that has snared six offenders since 2000.

I'm wondering where NASCAR's liability lawyers are? Once you've been made aware of a problem and do little or nothing about it, there's a stinker of a lawsuit boiling on your horizon if anything goes wrong. Oh, and Harvick says he knows Aaron Fike isn't the only drug using driver out there.

How about the safety of the rest of the men and woman who risk their lives in the pits? How about the fans?

Of course some have defended NASCAR saying the organization is just protecting individual privacy rights.

NASCAR, the great democratic stalwart, protecting individual privacy rights -- NOT! All NASCAR is doing is protecting its right to cover up the kind of embarrassments other sports have uncovered with drug testing policies. The good old boy way is to ignore problems. If the teams themselves can't quietly take out the garbage, then NASCAR will grudgingly step in and shoulder the expense of weeding out a trouble-maker.

We aren't talking about sense here. We are talking about dollars and cents.

Whaaa whaa baseball

Listen to the stick and ball crowd whine! The Fox national network dumped the rain delayed Yankees versus Red Sox baseball game in favor of the scheduled NASCAR race in Phoenix Saturday night and you'd swear a crime was committed. The blogs are alive with baseball fans angry, no furious to the point of spitting senseless profanities.

Has anyone checked the television viewership surveys for Boston and New York to find out why FOX gave up on a rain delayed game for a nationally televised NASCAR race?

I know the traditional sports crowd isn't going to like this, but Major League Baseball ranks with the NASCAR Nationwide series in overall viewership. NASCAR's Sprint Cup series is way ahead of that -- No. 2, behind only the National Football League.

Who's acting like a redneck now, Bubba?

Hurrah for the new Open wheel hope

Just when open wheel racing needs a new American hope, young Graham Rahal pulls off a David versus Goliath victory for the new unified Indy Racing League contest at St. Petersburg.

This is just what the doctor ordered for the newly unified series.

The son of Indy winner Bobby Rahal, Graham is now the youngest man to ever win an Indy Car race. And the driver from the transferring Champ Car World Series showed how much stronger this combined series is going to be by besting all of the big money, established IRL teams like Penske, Ganassi and Andretti Green.

That's two strong races in a row for IRL. Too bad the champ car drivers won't be in Japan this Saturday. And too bad the IRL won't be in Long Beach on Sunday for the final independent race of that series. Only 18 cars were testing at Twin Ring Motegi while I watched the fun interactive Internet broadcast tonight. Scott Dixon was fastest and the announcer was answering instant messages from the fans.

The IRL race from Japan will be broadcast live from the other side of the world at midnight Eastern time Saturday. The Final Champ Car World Series race from Long Beach will be broadcast at 5 p.m. Sunday -- both on ESPN.

Maybe the series gets another boost soon if the rumors about Sam Hornish returning from NASCAR are true. Ok, so they aren't true, unless it's for Indy only.

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Category: Motorsports

Herr Max must go

The scandals in motor sports are getting as frequent and as interesting as anything the politicians can step in.

Steamy text messaging still is pretty much the exclusive ground of public officials who forget that the use of tax-funded cell phones generate what legal scholars say are public documents.

But, even "Girls Gone Wild" hasn't taught some to behave when a camera is pointed their way. Not even the stuffy Brits.

The British tabloid, News of the World, on Sunday used five pages to tell about five hours of supposedly secretly recorded video of 67-year-old Max Mosley, president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), paying to participate in a Nazi death camp themed S&M role-playing romp with five female prostitutes. Mosley, who oversees sanctioning of the Formula One World Championship series and other forms of auto racing, has admitted that's him all right, playing victim and then tormentor.

It's GRAPHIC. Even this edited and censored version from Jalopnik is fairly racy. You were warned.

He says it's not what it seems and he won't quit, which sounds familiar here in Detroit.

"Regrettably you are now familiar with the results of this covert investigation and I am very sorry if this has embarrassed you or the club," the Associated Press has reported Mosley wrote. "Not content with publicizing highly personal and private activities, which are, to say the least, embarrassing, a British tabloid newspaper published the story with the claim that there was some sort of Nazi connotation to the matter. This is entirely false."

I'm tempted to say Mosley's alleged fetish is his own business -- and his wife's problem. But, as head of a sporting body, where he must call on others to follow rules, Mr. Mosley has lost his credibility.

Jewish groups are outraged. His invitation to this weekend's race also has been withdrawn by Bahrain's crown prince, Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa. Mosley's threat of sanctions against Spanish Grand Prix officials if fans there don't stop racial taunts of the sport's only black driver, Lewis Hamilton, might seem hollow.

The tabloids are one thing, and Mosley has indicated he's going to fight this as a betrayal of his privacy. But, now BMW, Toyota, Honda, and Mercedes-Benz have joined The Times of London in calling for his head.

So who is Max Mosley? Like everyone else in Formula One, he's very rich. He inherited his from daddy -- Sir Oswald Mosley -- a famous British Nazi sympathizer before World War II who got imprisoned by his own country when England joined the fight against Hitler. The Fuhrer had been a guest at Mosley's parents' wedding, in the Berlin home of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

So just maybe we have a hint at the source for this alleged personal kink?

But with degrees in physics and law, Max Mosley earned his own reputation when he went against his father's wishes to enter the world of motor racing. He has been quoted saying that nobody in motor sport knew or cared about his father's background.

As a driver, Mosley worked his way into the highly dangerous Formula 2 ranks before retiring from the Williams Team in 1969. He then co-founded MARCH engineering with Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd. Yes, Mosley was the "M" in the company that went on to build so many cars that would win in the American Indy Car series.

He sold his interest in MARCH in 1977 and worked his way from legal counsel into managing positions in the sanctioning body, with the help of a strong friendship with Bernie Eccelstone, the billionaire who controls the business side of Formula One. Eccelstone has supported his friend in saying there is no need for him to step aside. The blogs are alive with comment on Mosley's indiscretion, and I just can't imagine a NASCAR official even daring to show his face after similar claims.

But, never say never.

Is this the end for Petty Enterprises?

General Mills announced this week that it will join Richard Childress Racing next season sponsoring the long planned fourth car on a team that is poised as one of NASCAR's dominant players.

No driver name was announced, but this was the ride Childress tried to lure Dale Earnhardt Jr. and then Kyle Busch to during the off season. It will be No. 33.

But what about the storied Petty operation, where the search for sponsorship for the famous No. 43 must start, and where Kyle Petty has fallen out of the top 35 gauranteed starting spots and actor Chad McCumbee will try to qualify the No. 45. He played Dale Jr. in the movie "3: The Dale Earnnhardt Story."

Jeff Meendering, a West Michigan native who left Hendrick Motosports to become Bobby Labonte's crew chief this season on the No. 43 says he isn't worried about finding a new sponsor.

But, things are never going to be the same. Petty Enterprises has 268 wins, but none since 1999. The team moved from its fabled home in Randleman to Mooresville to be closer to Charlotte, NASCAR's nerve center and shop-worker talent pool. Although the word is Labonte is more competitive this season, his best finish was 11th at Daytona. It's been worse ever since and his contract expires with Petty at the end of this season. RCR denies Labonte will follow the sponsor.

The question is, which of the famous old NASCAR leaders is going to collapse first under the huge financial burden of staying competitive today -- Petty, Yates Racing or the Woods Brothers?

There's talk of rescue by new financial partners, like the venture capital Medallion Financial Group now circling Petty Enterprises. I suspect all of these new partners are gambling on NASCAR franchising the teams sometime in the future, like in Formula One where every team is guaranteed to start every race -- making sponsors very happy. But it's a formula that never has produced more than a handful of teams that threaten to win.

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Category: Motorsports

Inexperienced drivers determined outcome at IRL opener

The new era of open wheel racing in America has begun and the oval track inexperience of drivers transitioning from the Champ Car World Series into the Indy Racing League made all the difference at the IRL season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

But, was it a good race? Can professional open wheel racing united in this nation for the first time in a dozen years begin to reclaim its place as a major American sport?

It depends on whether the image building and competition can gain momentum with another race coming quickly -- Sunday on a street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida where the former Champ Car World Series drivers might shine.

"There is nothing like an Indy Car race," said Pattrick Yockey, of Lansing, who with his son Forrest, served as our blog correspondents at the track today. "The sound is so amazing."

Saturday's race on the big track southwest of Miami was very fast, with just four cars finishing on the lead lap; winner Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti, Dan Wheldon and Helio Castroneves. It had been a clean race with only two caution periods and a 170 mph pace until the final quarter.

"Having more cars out there than the last Indy Car race I saw (at Michigan International Speedway's final IRL race in July) made a difference," Pattrick said. "It was more impressive at the start, but it was clear from the start that there were like two different groups of on the track."

Then, mistakes by inexperienced drivers decided the outcome.

The first came from Milka Duno, a driver who supposedly got IRL experience last season on the ovals. She spun by herself while running laps down and took out Roger Penske's new driver Ryan Briscoe. To his credit, Briscoe smiled during his TV interview and credited the obviously slower transitioning drivers with doing a good job of adapting quickly -- and staying out of the way.

With 40 laps to go, 21-year-old Marco Andretti's own inexperience lost the race he had led for so many laps. He hesitated as he chose to go high around former Champ Car driver Mario Moraes, and teammate Tony Kanaan flew past them both of them on the low side.

And when victory appeared to belong to Kanaan, former Champ Car driver Ernesto Viso sun by himself and collected Kanaan.

That should have set up a nice green-white-checker, three lap battle between Dixon and Andretti, but this isn't NASCAR. Andretti restarted with slower, lapped cars between him and the leader so there was no closing lap drama.

Would NASCAR have used a single-file restart at this point, or would the lapped cars have been ordered to drop to the inside lane? IRL would be wise to make quick adjustments to rules like restarts to keep from confusing and angering race fans, who are now very accustomed to NASCAR's "give'em a show" style.

But, not everyone sees it my way.

"I really don't see Indy Car even needing to compete with NASCAR. They are just two very different ball games," Pattrick said while driving away from the track toward a some spring break scuba diving with his son in the Florida Keys. "There aren't that many cross-over fans. If the IRL gets better, that's good, but for those of us who like them both, we will just continue to like them both."

Setzer wins M-ville truck race

Dennis Setzer claimed the first Craftsman truck series victory for Dodge since the late Bobby Hamilton's final win in 2005. And Setzer did it in a truck owned by Hamilton's widow, Lori.

The wreck-strewn race on Martinsville's half-mile may have given a hint of what's to come in Sunday's Sprint Cup race. The trucks qualified and practiced in warm weather, but slipped and slid as colder weather set in. Johnny Benson, of Grand Rapids, was headed for a second place finish when Kyle Busch knocked them both out on the final lap and set up a wild scrambled through the wreckage for Matt Crafton and Rick Crawford.

Weather reports for Martinsville, Virginia, call for even colder temperatures Sunday, and rain.

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Category: Motorsports

The new era of American Open wheel racing is underway

After watching support races all day in 84 degree Florida sunshine, our correspondents in the stands at Homestead-Miami Speedway were ready for the opening of the new era of Indy Car racing.

"It's been a long fun race day," said Pattrick Yockey. "We've been baking in the sun all day and getting a tan. The temperature has fallen to about 75 and now, it's time for the main event."

Pattrick and his son Forrest, from the Lansing area, are our eyes in grandstands for important season opening race for the Indy Racing League. They volunteered to call in their observations during their father-son spring break get-away, that switches to scuba diving in the Keys tomorrow.

This is the first race after the unification of American open wheel racing for the first time in more than a decade. With more cars and drivers, will the series rebound and capture the interest of U.S. racing fans who have flocked to NASCAR during the same time two rival open-wheel series committed slow suicide?

"Well, the grandstands are about half-full. People are spread out, but sparse," Pattrick reports. "But this is an amazing place and a fun event so I can see it growing."

They enjoyed a day that included a 3 Doors Down concert, ribs and pulled pork and racing. The support events included an Indy Pro (open wheel developmental series) and Grand Am (prototype sports car) races. This is the new Indy Car format -- to give ticket holders maximum racing for their bucks.

Organizers of Detroit's Belle Isle race on Labor Day weekend last week announced the addition of a sports car race to the lineup on Sunday before the IRL race. This is in addition to the popular American Le Mans series race on the Saturday.

It's going to take a long and agressive image building campaign -- like the Firestone commercial I saw early in the race that emphasized the romantic and historic attachment of Americans and the world to open cockpit race cars and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It's also going to take a superior and exciting product on the track. We are watching. Will more join us?

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Category: Motorsports

Indy season opens at Homestead with our blog fans in the stands

We have two correspondents sitting in the fourth turn ready for tonight's opening of the Indy Car season at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"It's hot, humid and beautiful," said Pattrick Yockey, when he arrived about mid-day with son Forrest. "There's a concert going on and we are ready for the racing season to begin."

Pattrick is a photographer in Lansing and his son is a wrestler, football player and accomplished guitarist soon to graduate from DeWitt High School. Their father-son spring break trip for some scuba diving in The Keys included tickets to today's season-opening Indy Racing League event under the lights. They arrived early to take in the support races too.

Thanks to the unification of Indy Racing League and the rival Champ Car World Series, 25 cars will take the green flag (8 p.m. on ESPN2). Last year, the IRL campaigned 18 cars at many tracks, including the Detroit stop at Belle Isle.

A dozen years of damage has been done by the split in American open-wheel racing, driving down car counts and spectator interest while NASCAR rose. The IRL's new slogan this year is: "One Series. All the Stars."

But who is left?

There were as many Indianapolis 500 winners in NASCAR's Daytona 500 this year as may attempt qualifying at Indy. Sam Hornish, Dario Franchitti, and Juan Pablo Montoya are NASCAR drivers now.

The new IRL is bolstered by cross-over Champ Car series drivers like Franck Perera, Justin Wilson, Enrique Bernoldi, Ernesto Viso, Will Power, Mario Moraes and Graham Rahal. None of them has ever driven an Indy Car on an oval track before. Not exactly a big draw, unless what Dixon expects for excitement is wrecks.

But none of this matters to our correspondents in the Florida sunshine. And I hope it converts to a bright future.

"Danica is here," Pattrick said, pointing out his favorite model from this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue qualified fourth fastest for tonight's race.

The surprise from the new Indy-like four-lap qualifying speeds came from Ed Carpenter and A.J. Foyt IV taking second and third spots on the grid. Turns out they cheated.

They drive for Vision Racing, owned by the controversial and all-powerful Tony George George inherited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and started the split in American open Wheel racing 12 years ago with his invention of the IRL. What he makes of the new series starts tonight.

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Category: Motorsports

Roger Penske wants you to volunteer in Detroit

Like getting close to racing action, drivers and crews? Like the idea of helping a great city that can use an image boost?

Roger Penske is looking to expand his army of volunteers to help at this year's running of the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix. What he's done is recreate some of the magic in this city that produced throngs of smiling volunteers for Super Bowl XL, and gave Detroit a surprising new national brand as one of the friendliest NFL host cities ever.

Along with Thursday's announcement that a Sports Car Club of America Pro Series World Challenge Touring Car and Grand Touring race is being added to the Labor Day weekend Indy Racing League and American Le Mans events on the island park, organizers also put out word that there is a need to push the number of volunteers from 1,000 to 1,200 this year.

More than 100,000 fans came to the revival of racing on a 2-mile street circuit carved into the island in the river between downtown Detroit and Canada. The number was huge, considering the five-year hiatus for racing in Motown.

But, an even larger crowd is expected on Aug. 29 through 31. The Friday practices, Saturday American Le Mans race for sports cars and exotic prototypes, Sunday SCCA warm-up race and featured Indy Car main attraction, along with a continuous festival of music and other activities are expected to fill the island that features buildings, sculptures, and fountains from the 1920s and 1930s rise of the American auto industry and Detroit's industrial might.

"It was amazing to come back," said Mary Kay DeMayo, of Dearborn, who with her husband Rick had been a Detroit Grand Prix volunteer since 1995. "The setting is so beautiful in the sparkling river with the city skyline as a backdrop."

He works as a circuit marshal and she works as one of the many smiling information specialists.

"I wanted to get close enough to feel the power of the cars and see the precision of the drivers. I get to work in those areas where cars are going by at 180 miles per hour, right by me. It's exhilarating," said Rick, whose regular job is in sales consulting with an electronic records archiving firm.

Mary Kay, an occupational therapist at Detroit Medical Center, wanted to work with the guests and impress upon them that Detroit can be a friendly place.

"It's a busy weekend, but I still get to places others can't go. I walk through the pits and see the drivers up close. I walk between the big tow rigs and meet the crews. But, the best part is probably that even if you aren't a big race fan, there is this festival going on everywhere," she said. "It's just a great way to present the city and show the best of what Detroit has to offer."

The volunteers last year made a great impression on me, while I pushed some boundaries scouting and reporting on this blog the best viewing positions all over the island. The yellow-shirt-wearing volunteers on Belle Isle are very different than the yellow shirt-wearing workers that fans have come to dread at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Smiling and friendly here. Surly there.

"There is a camaraderie that builds among the volunteers," said Rick. "There are parties before and after the event and throughout the year to socialize. There is a team spirit about bringing this event to the city."

Friendships forged back before the racing ended on the island after the 2001 season were renewed last Labor Day.

"We actually had people who had moved out of state return to volunteer for the race weekend," Mary Kay said.

Signing up means joining the Belle Isle Grand Prix Association, which costs $15, along with a commitment to work 30 hours in pre-race activities and three shifts of 16 to 30 hours on race weekend. In exchange, you get broad-ranging credentials to attend all three days at the track and discounts on buying spectator tickets and merchandise. You are provided a Belle Isle Grand Prix volunteer's uniform and lapel pin. You also get invited to pre-race and post-race parties for members of the Grand Prix Association.

The association is looking for volunteers to serve as circuit marshals, in credentialing, hospitality, the information center, customer relations, track services, food services, the media center, driving golf cart shuttles and for the transportation/delivery service. Volunteers serve as shuttle guides, ticket takers and ushers. Help is needed in the Grand Prix office, before, during and after the event.

To volunteer, simply fill out an application at the Grand Prix Association web site.

Tickets went on sale for the races on Monday when organizers announced all three of the main sponsors -- Firestone, Bosch and Corvette -- will be back again.

The Belle Isle Grand Prix box office can be reached at 866-464-PRIX (7749). Tickets also can be purchased from Ticketmaster at 248-645-6666.

When buying tickets, remember you can't see all of the wide-spread race course from any one place, but the best sightline seats are at the top of all reserved grandstands -- and the row numbers start at the top, so the lower the row number the higher the seats are in a grandstand.

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Category: Motorsports

All these controversies are golden for NASCAR

Never forget famous circus promoter P.T. Barnum's advice on public relations: "I don't care what they say as long as they spell my name right."

So when Tony Stewart yelps about Goodyear's tires, NASCAR benefits.

When Toyota's racing leader Lee White accuses Jack Roush of being a cheater who deliberately left the oil reservoir lid off to gain down force for Carl Edwards to win at Las Vegas, the Cat in the Hat blasts back.

And when Roush responds to Kyle Busch's historic win in Atlanta with mention of Pearl Harbor, "Secretly, Brian France must be smiling," Bill Center wrote in his column for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

France announced before the season that he wanted to see the return of NASCAR's colorful personalities, and he's getting it.

There's been good old-fashioned bad blood for years between White and Roush, since White worked for Roush in their road racing days. Roush has called White an "ankle-biting Chihuahua." Now that's old-school NASCAR.

And NASCAR is watching its numbers rebound from a three-year slide. Television ratings for Sunday's race in Atlanta rose almost 20 percent over 2007's spring race. Of the four races so far this season, only California's rain-plagued disaster failed to post higher TV numbers than last year.

And waving the flag would help

After the Toyota win I asked for a response from Detroit. I believe we have seen too much resignation after Toyota signed Joe Gibbs Racing and Tony Stewart in September. I'm hoping to see the former Big Three take this first foreign manufacturer win as a challenge and start talking tough about defending American pride.

Before Daytona, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli offered a bounty of $1 million to the Dodge team that could beat the Toyotas. Admitting his first win at Daytona in three decades of trying was more luck and driver skill than superior equipment, Roger Penske has said he will invest that million in trying to catch up.

I got e-mail this week from Kevin Kennedy executive vice president of Dearborn's motor sports marketer PCG Campbell, reminding me of the fightin' words issued by Roush and Ford's director of racing technology, Dan Davis.

"Our philosophy, our mantra, has been that we can't outspend them (Toyota), but we can sure out-think them and use our resources better," Kennedy wrote. "I think you're starting to see the fruits of that labor with Carl Edwards' two wins, and the win he should have had this past weekend without a fluke engine failure. Let's just say our guys are highly motivated."

New season, less expensive controversies

Want to know how glad NASCAR is that 2007 is over? Speedway Motorsports, the six-track empire built by Bruton Smith that includes Lowes and Bristol motor speedways, reported a $20.2 million downturn in profits from the fourth quarter of 2007. The loss came from the company's partnership with International Speedway Corp. (owned by the NASCAR-founding France family) in Motorsports Authentics.

What does that mean? That was the impact of sagging NASCAR merchandise sales between the time Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he would leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. and when he showed off his new car number and sponsor at Rick Hendrick Racing. Junior's merchandise sales before the switch amounted to 40 percent of all NASCAR merchandise sales. Now, the company is predicting big profits this year. Yeah, Junior's that big.

Goodyear can't ignore this one

On Rob Pascoe's "On the Track" NASCAR talk show tonight on WDFN AM 1130, I talked about how NASCAR can bask in the buzz over the new controversies, but Goodyear can't. Having NASCAR's stars badmouth your product isn't good for sales.

Yes, Pascoe is right that Stewart was over the top with his comments as usual. But Smoke is NASCAR's beloved man-child. And, when he suggests other tire companies should step in, he seems to have forgotten the last time Hoosier Racing Tires from South Bend ventured into the outrageously expensive world of providing tires to NASCAR teams. Their tires were very, very fast for a few laps before they tended to blow up like hand grenades.

The solution is Goodyear MUST built separate tires for the Cup, Nationwide and truck series. The effort to cheap out with one tire to fit all three of these very different race cars is foolish. The product is a compromise that doesn't work well on any of them. That's not acceptable for what the American public considers its highest form of motor sports.

I doubt Goodyear is satisfied with one of NASCAR's biggest stars impacting thousands of salesroom decisions this week by saying he's going home to take all the Goodyears off everything he owns?

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Category: Motorsports

Time for Goodyear and NASCAR to listen

The trouble with Goodyear's tires isn't Tony Stewart.

It's the fact that the rubber company is trying to get away with building a one-size-fits-all product to cover NASCAR's weekend needs when the Cup, Nationwide and truck series all run at the same race track.

The result is Goodyear saves money.

And the race teams get a compromise tire that covers the basic needs of three very different race cars -- but doesn't perform particularly well on any of them.

That's what has Stewart steamed. He's competing in the highest level of the most popular form of motor sport in the United States. He deserves to expect his team can obtain a tire that matches the performance they have worked so hard at wringing out of that clumsy new platform.

It isn't like Stewart can simply buy better tires from someone else. NASCAR's exclusive supplier deals don't reflect the kind of free market mentality that most of NASCAR's fans seem to support when they elect politicians.

Goodyear can crank up it's expensive public relations team and call in its defenders, but the truth remains that there is little pressure on them -- other than the kind of public pressure a guy like Stewart can generate -- to build a superior product.

Even soft-spoken Dale Jarrett agrees with some of what Stewart is saying, and has urged Goodyear to listen. Why build a safer race car if you're going to put tires on it that blow up and cause you to knock down a wall? Stewart and his teammate Kyle Busch have paid that price. And although I've seen several quotes saying the tire performed flawlessly at Atlanta -- how come everybody is forgetting the right front that blew out on Kyle Busch's Nationwide car while he was leading the race? It looked like a rerun of his wall-banging blowout in Las Vegas.

Although Greg Biffle says the Atlanta and Vegas tires were so hard that you could crank a ton of camber into them and not hurt them -- truth is, both Busch and Stewart's wrecks probably were due to an overly aggressive lean on the right front to compensate for the low performance of both the tire and the car.

Others have complained too, like Dale Earnhardt Jr.

And some, like Biffle, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman may have badmouthed the tire at first but are now defending Goodyear.

Jimmie Johnson, whose magic seems to have disappeared this season, told Mike Mulhern at the Winston Salem Journal:

"... this tire was a happy-medium for what the Nationwide guys needed vs. the Cup guys. If that is the case, I think we do then need just a Cup tire and a Nationwide tire, not a combination tire.

"The cars are much different. The down force loads are different. They are two totally different animals. But this (new) car - the things we've all been talking about in how the car drives and handles shows up more on a track like Atlanta than anywhere. The high speeds, the abrasive surface, it's the collusion of all the things we don't like about the car coming together and really making for a difficult race for everybody."

Ready for Formula One Sunday

I'm more than ready for the exotic machines of Formula One to start turning again with the season opener Sunday in Australia. The cars are amazing.

Although the series won't make a stop in the U.S. this season, watching the titanic clashing egos of the drivers and the rich people who run this international sport can help fill the void we are all going to feel now that American open wheel racing ended it's 12-year feud.

One of my favorite motor sports writers, Steve Kaminski, offers his insights on the coming season. His prediction that Honda will be the surprise team this year is based on the team's acquisition of one of Ferrari's key people. That's pretty interesting my old friend, considering one of Honda's drivers is saying they will have trouble scoring points -- at least at first.

Ferrari again appears to be the favorite heading into the season, with Lewis Hamilton's McLaren set to challenge. Steve already knows who I've picked as a dark horse. Hamilton's new McLaren teammate, Heikki Kovalainen.

Belle Isle sponsors to be announced

With the prospect of many more cars on the grid for the Labor Day weekend return of Indy Car racing to Belle Isle, new sponsors of the event will be announced in Detroit on Monday. Roger Penske's new driver, Ryan Briscoe and the Pratt & Miller Corvette team's favorite Canadian, Ron Fellows, will be at the Renaissance Center.

Last years race in Detroit was surprisingly entertaining with only 18 cars, but with the unification of the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series, plans are being made to make more room in the pits and paddock for more Indy car haulers. The IRL's web site now lists 25 driver and car pairings.

Still, a cold and cynical reality check from an Indianapolis sports insider indicates that the unified series still has a long ways to go if the goal is to be healthy, let alone compete with NASCAR for a fair share of the public's motor sports attention.