http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CszWe0LXsWM


neither series is spared by RM.


He calls it like it is...

Dave-E wrote:
Indeed he does. Amen.

--
forty

“To embrace an extreme, one must first let go of reason.”

"Dave-E" <davegto67 (AT) aol (DOT) com> wrote

That hypercritical son of a bitch seems to hate everybody and everything in
open wheel racing. At least he got the part right about the unknown drivers
with funny names dragging Champ Car down. I have been saying that for
years.

I am not quite sure how anybody, regardless of origin or gender or
sponsorship or anything else can get any experience in fast cars if they
cannot get into fast cars because they have no experience in fast cars. If
you follow this guy's reasoning they may as well just shut it all down in
the interest of safety. And then he would cry about that. What a loser. He
never could get a real job in racing in thirty years and he gets fired from
every little piddling job he has ever had. That is his experience in open
wheel racing. They way I talk about him is no different than the way he
talks about Champ Car and Indy Car.

"RickyBobby" <nascar42 (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote

How can anyone talk about American open wheel racing without being critical
of it? There's not a lot to be positive about in either series.

And I said it before, Milka Dunno is just Danica Part II. She's an
attractive driver whose sole purpose is to attract media attention.

armpit wrote:
Amen and Amen

--
forty

“To embrace an extreme, one must first let go of reason.”

On Apr 6, 6:04 am, "RickyBobby" <nasca... (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote:
First of all Robin has held jobs in racing likely longer than most of
the readers here have been alive. He's raced. He understands what it
means to strap into a race car. Getting fired sometimes is a sign of
courage rather than being willing to just go along with the crowd. Do
I always agree with him? No way. I don't agree with him that the
nationality of a driver has one bit of an effect on a real race fans
acceptance of a driver. Last time I checked Alex Zanardi was Italian,
yet I can't think of anyone more liked in Champ Car's recent history.
Some Nascar driver ran Cart a while back as well as F1. Seems JPM had
a few fans in the US as well. Being the next star should have more to
do with talent than whether your last name is Rahal or Andretti. It
isn't how easy the last name is to pronouce, unless its Bobby Unser in
the booth then it won't matter anyway. I know this is likely to be an
analogy that is a bit of a stretch for you, but if you put my bad
singing voice on the stage of the Met, I am still going to stink and
the Met will still be just a stage. Its not the location of the stage
that matters but the quality of the performance you place upon it that
makes it special. Enter a plow mule in the Kentucky Derby and you
still have a plow mule not a race horse.

Now for his position on Milka, he has valid reasons. There was a
reason for the ladder system developing. You gradually increase
speeds and horsepower throughout the ladder. She has run in sportcars
with nothing like the top speeds she will see in an IRL car. The
speed jump is going to be stunning. She has no experience in aero
cars. No time in Atlantics to learn the craft and art of racing. No
time in the Indy Pro Series to build a skill set that would at least
attempt to prepare her for the challenges ahead. Remember when the
IRL was formed and all those "heros of the short tracks" were running?
They were jumping from cars maybe doing 130 or so on the straights, to
230+ and that kind of speed difference is way too big of a step to
expect any driver to make without a step in between. Jimmy Kite alone
kept the concrete business in that area growing for a number of
years. Others were just so slow they put not only their necks but the
necks of their fellow racers at risk. Dr. Jack Miller comes to mind.
Others, like Foyt IV are pushed along so fast they are unable to keep
up with what is going around them and others pay the price. Ask Bruno
about that one.

Milka is not only putting herself at risk. Every other driver on that
track is counting on her to be at least of a professional level. If
she isn't, the life that could be lost might be theirs and they know
it. Milka is skipping the steps in between and history has shown that
usually isn't a path to success. Hopefully the only thing that
happens is another moving chiccane in the back of the field to get in
the way of the leaders.

On 6 Apr 2007 20:42:34 -0700, "Mark" <mblackwell1958 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

[snip]

Who was that? The last NASCAR stars I remember running Indy cars did
it well before CART.


Yep. Look for her to run in the back and have some nasty incidents.
Maybe bring back nostalgic memories of Pat Bedard.


At least those guys had been running open wheel cars where things
happened quickly, And they had power to weight ratios comparable to
(or greater than) Indy cars. And they understood oval racing. The
shortcoming tended to be in technical knowledge of the cars.

Yet some of them did quite well. Tony Stewart jumped right from USAC
to IRL and was the top of the heap from the start. Jack Hewitt did
really well in his shot at the 500.

Ken Plotkin

On Apr 8, 5:29 pm, Ken Plotkin <kplot... (AT) nospam-cox (DOT) net> wrote:

Well it was one Juan Pablo Montoya. Did ok in all of it too. Cart
title, IRL 500 winner in his rookie year, winner of 8 Grand Prixs I
think and already won a Busch race.
Almost none of them did very well and many of them wound up in
Methodist. Stewart was the rare exception. Jack Hewitt ran ok, but
against a greatly watered down field against the likes of Dr. Jack
Miller and Racin Gardner. I could have run well in that field. Hewitt
was way past the sell date when he got the chance, but there was a
reason he didn't get a chance. Power to weight ratios mean
esstentially nothing when you are flat out all the time. With the
current IRL car most don't lift at all. Things happen quickly at any
racing series, but 130 on a half mile you would have to agree is
nothing like 230 at Indy. Understanding oval racing?? I don't think
they do either. Spridgets don't make pitstops. They don't make
adjustments to the car during a race. They don't have to be concerned
with aero.

The road racers used to 160-180 are much better able to adapt, even if
they don't turn right on an oval. Lots of examples of great road
racers becoming great on ovals. Rare is the driver that was great on
an oval do well on a road course.