Indy's Magic 33, con't

Shuffle up and deal.
As the game for qualifications at Indy tightens, so does the focus on the 'who, what, when, how...'

Entries will be shuffled and changed, and deals made almost daily in the run-up to Indy and I'll attempt to keep you abreast of the changes by modifying the original IMS entry list and part of my original post as reference (and also to score my predictions for those twists and turns to Indy driver seats). My predictions from the original entry post of April 20 are shown below and those that have come to fruition will be highlighted in bold italics.

INDY 500 ENTRY LIST: DRIVER TALLY = 31, TBA ENTRIES = 10
Entry# Team - Driver
#2/2t Luczo Dragon - Raphael Matos
#3/3t Penske - Helio Castroneves
#4/4t Panther - Dan Wheldon
#5/5t KV - Mario Moraes
#6/6t Penske - Ryan Briscoe
#7/7t AGR - Danica Patrick
#8/8t KV - tba
#9/9t TCGR - Scott Dixon
#10/10t TCGR - Dario Franchitti
#11/11t AGR - Tony Kanaan
#12/12t Penske - Will Power
#13 - HVM - EJ Viso (13t to HVM #31 - 4/27)
#14/14t Foyt - Vitor Meira
#15/15t KV - Paul Tracy
#16/16t Panther - Scott Sharp
#17/17t RLR - tba
#18/18t Coyne - Justin Wilson
#19/19t Coyne - tba
#20/20t Vision - Ed Carpenter
#21/21t Vision - Ryan Hunter-Reay
#22/22t Vision/Herta - tba
#23/23t Dreyer/Reinbold - tba (Milka Duno - 4/22)
#24/24t Dreyer/Reinbold - Mike Conway
#25/25t Roth - tba
#26/26t AGR - Marco Andretti
#27/27t AGR - Hideki Mutoh
#31 HVM - Nelson Phillipe (confirmed 4-27, from #13t entry)
#34/34t Conquest - tba
#36/36t Conquest - tba
#41/41t Foyt - AJ Foyt IV
#43/43t Dreyer/Reinbold/Petty - John Andretti
#44/44t Dreyer/Reinbold/Kingdom - Davey Hamilton
#48/48t Foyt - tba
#52/52t Roth - tba
#67/67t Fisher - Sarah Fisher
#68 Fisher - tba
#91 Hemelgarn - tba (Buddy Lazier - 4/27)
#98/98t Curb/Agajanian/3G - Stanton Barrett
#99 Sam Schmidt/TCGR - Alex Lloyd
#02/02t NHLR - Graham Rahal
#06/06t NHLR - Robert Doornbos

Highly Likely Group:
(confirmed 4-22-09 - #23/23t Dreyer and Reinbold - There's an experienced engineer already listed for this entry with no driver. My guess = Milka Duno or Buddy Rice.)
#22/22t Vision - We're just short of the magic 33 and I'm sure if we're within one or two drivers, this will be filled. My Guess = Townsend Bell or Tomas Scheckter
#34/34t Conquest - They're showing nobody in a seat yet, but they're surely not totally missing the biggest race of the year. My guess = Alex Tagliani
~~~~~BUMP LINE~~~~~

Likely Group, below bump line:
(confirmed 4-27-09 - #91 Hemelgarn - Ol' Ron will try it one more time with Buddy Lazier, but the magic won't be there as it was last year.)
#19/19t Dale Coyne - There are a group of very good and Indy-experienced drivers around during May and if all goes to plan with Wilson (no damaged chassis for the main entry or backup), this car will get a Sonny's BBQ sponsorship on Bump Day and make into the last two rows of the field. My guess = Roger Yasukawa.
#36/36t Conquest - See previous, fill-in-the-blank sponsor. My guess = Max Papis.
#25/25t Roth - Guy has 4 chassis just sitting around? He loves this race and will try to run if he can get some sponsors. If not, I still doubt he'll let them all sit idle. My guess = Marty Roth.

Unlikely Group:
#8/8t KV Racing - Maybe, if some big money falls out of the sky and lands in Vasser's lap.
#17/17t Rahal Letterman - How long will this go on? The 1986 winner and the Indy native are owners with no money to race Indy? This reminds me of 1993 when Rahal got bumped with a weak Honda oops, Judd motor.
#48/48t Foyt - Only if a Luyendyk is on the bubble or there are 32 cars in the field on Bump Day. My guess = Jeff Simmons.

Very Unlikely Group:
#52/52t Roth - Nah. No chance.
#68 Fisher - This is an insurance entry only. Only a worst-case, last-ditch scenario for Sarah will see this chassis out of the garage.

My assumptions are that all of the 28 original entries will make the field. One caveat may be that Stanton Barrett won't make the field, bumped by one of the few below cut line. Also, if Alex Lloyd can't keep his lone chassis off the wall for the entire month, he too may fail to qualify.

Pole Speed 228.165
Bump Speed 219.855

Milka's Back! (as is her front, and the rest :)

Milka Duno, whom I'll describe as Venezuelan Indycar hotness (and also oft dubbed 'moving chicane'), has been inserted into the #23/23t Dreyer and Reinbold entry for the Kansas race and quite likely Indy 500. Not much of a surprise really, but I will accept a half-point for getting this one right in my previous predictions.

Milka is known off the track for her abbreviated past in sports-car racing, multiple Masters degrees including engineering, connections to CITGO - the Venezuelan government's oil company, and for her... uh, invitingly ample physical attributes which often make hetero-males quickly take notice. On the track, many would consider her under-qualified, useless eye-candy, and even dangerous to others' (ahem) equipment.

I can only let history judge at this point and I'd have to say that the numbers show that no matter the shape of the terrain (road or oval course), she's off the 'race pace' by a noticable margin. I cannot attribute this to lesser equipment or team as other drivers who've filled in on the road/street tracks in the #23 have been more competitive in the same chassis.

I understand that a significant part of this autosport business is entertainment, meaning only a part is racing in its purest form. I don't mind her being part of the Indycar equation because I don't subscribe to the illusion that any major form of autosport in the world today is more about the racing and less about the entertainment. The ALMS is far closer in my opinion than even Formula 1. I see the ALMS as the closest thing we have to racing laboratories that will actually be translated into modern passenger cars, but that is a subject (read - argument) for another time.

Milka's participation in Indycar can be boiled down into a binary decision as a 'Yes' because I believe that to date, her positives outweigh her negatives. Positives being; a personality that brings fans from sources that were not interested in Indycar before, a sexy facade that garners attention and conversation, a racing pedigree that creates conversation amongst longtime fans of Indycar, and the almighty sponsor dollar into a team and sport that can use every bit of cash it can. Her negatives; subpar racing skills, semi-present on-track 'influence' (see moving chicane) of racing product (although it can be argued quite well that she is no different than many, many other slower drivers of the past).

On the whole, I'd rather she be here than not. I assume her colleagues would disagree, and thus ever shall be the dichotomy between pure racing and racing as entertainment. As a fan and race-watcher, I'll settle for the current condition of racing as entertainment.


PS Based on some of the images found for this post (like the one seen above), I wonder if something like this Indycar styling may be closer to truth in advertising...

'til next time...

Indy's Magic 33 Ball

No, not Mattel's latest prognostication toy, but the annual gala racing event which highlights my year, The Indy 500. The Magic 33 refers to the number of drivers on the starting grid each year (save for a few oddities like 1911 through 1933, 1979, and 1997).

The timing of the 2009 entry list release was perfect yesterday as I could print it, take it with me to lunch, and pour over. To date there are 28 drivers listed with their chassis entries, and no less than 12 available entries to be filled with drivers for a minimum total of potential entries to 40. During my nice, quiet lunch, I did a quick rundown and here's my (purely speculative, somewhat informed) analysis of the open entries/seats which I break down into 4 groups; Highly Likely, Likely, Unlikely, Very Unlikely,

Highly Likely group brings total to 31.
#22/22t Vision - We're 5 short of the magic 33 and I'm sure if we're within one or two drivers, this will be filled. My Guess = Townsend Bell or Tomas Scheckter
#34/34t Conquest - They're showing nobody in a seat yet, but they're surely not totally missing the biggest race of the year. My guess = Alex Tagliani
#23/23t Dreyer and Reinbold - There's an experienced engineer already listed for this entry with no driver. My guess = Milka Duno or Buddy Rice.

Likely group brings total to 35.
#19/19t Dale Coyne - There are a group of very good and Indy-experienced drivers around during May and if all goes to plan with Wilson (no damaged chassis for the main entry or backup), this car will get a Sonny's BBQ sponsorship on Bump Day and make into the last two rows of the field. My guess = Roger Yasukawa.
#36/36t Conquest - See previous entry, fill-in-the-blank with sponsor. My guess = Max Papis.
BUMP LINE
#25/25t Roth - Guy has 4 chassis just sitting around? He loves this race and will drive if he can. If not, I doubt he'll let them all sit idle. My guess = Marty Roth.
#91 Hemelgarn - Ol' Ron will try it one more time with Buddy Lazier, but the magic won't be there as it was last year.

Unlikely group.
#8/8t KV Racing - Maybe, if some big money falls out of the sky and lands in Vasser's lap.
#17/17t Rahal Letterman - How long will this go on? The 1986 winner and the Indy native with no money to race Indy? This reminds me of 1993 when Rahal got bumped with a weak Honda oops, Judd motor.
#48/48t Foyt - Only if a Luyendyk in on the bubble or there are 32 cars in the field on Bump Day. My guess = Jeff Simmons.

Very Unlikely group.
#52/52t Roth - Nah. No chance.
#68 Fisher - This is an insurance entry only. Only a worst-case, last-ditch scenario for Sarah will see this chassis out of the garage.

My assumptions are that all of the 28 entries will make the field. One caveat may be that Stanton Barrett won't make the field, bumped by one of the few below cut line. Also, if Alex Lloyd can't keep his lone chassis off the wall for the entire month, he may fail to qualify.

Can't wait to see how this all develops. It's not just the race for fans like myself, it's truly a month-long drama I enjoy every year and Bump Day will have it's share of drama.

Pole Speed 228.165
Bump Speed 219.855

Getting it right.

In a TV interview, I once heard Jerry Lee Lewis speak of the very entertaining movie about his life, (Great Balls of Fire) saying in his Memphian-southern drawl, "the only thing they got right was gettin' it wrong". I've always loved that quote and thought about it again when I read the headline for this CNN Columbine follow-up story. My concerns become elevated when time reveals truth more accurately where early speculation and rumor become accepted as fact. The 'facts' surrounding the invasion of Iraq, or the bombing of Oklahoma City are other potent examples.

Being married to a photojournalist, I met and moved within other journalists and have gained some insight into the journalistic world. Journalism at it's best and most pure is quite different than what all too frequently passes for it today. In my opinion, reportage should be neutral, concise, timely but above ALL else, accurate. Accuracy, to me, is the key to the finest in journalism.

The older I get, the less time I have for conjecture and rumor. I border on abhorrence of heresay. It all too often 'gets it wrong' and at its worst I believe, creates the ability for seeds of injustice to grow. There are numerous examples of reportage getting it wrong in the rush for 'the scoop' or headline or to satisfy 'the masses'. Such is that business nowadays, but they are all too eagerly serving the whims of a 'now'-centered culture.

My father always consulted that, in construction, doing it right the first time is always the fastest way because to not, one must then undo the incorrect way, and then do it again, the correct way. Such as it is with a great many things in life and journalism is no different. What concerns me is that nearly two full generations of 'me-mine-now' may not understand this and especially with reportage in the technological age.

Things like Blogging, Texting, and Twittering, as I see them, are set to irreversibly change the world of journalism. Every one of us with a mobile phone or device may all become journalists to a degree. Twitter is fine example of it. To pull from an aggregate of information coming from 100 people at one event rather than 1 has the potential for more broad and, I'd argue better, coverage. Unfortunately the limitations are equally expounded depending on the ability of the submitter of information.

My hope would be that even if 40% of those 100 fictional people are so biased, skewed, or set to report opinion rather than fact, we still gain the greater and clearer picture of the remaining 60 people, provided we can sift the information accurately. My arguement supporting this model would state that with more eyes reporting the events, we can more quickly sift because of the numerous vantage points for reporting and identifying the commonalities found in all of the stories. This is where I see the current news sources fit in. The sifters of immediate and expansive information sources.

Where one traditional reporting model may have a reporter speak to 4 to 10 people and form a story based on that information, in this age of instant communications, the influx of information can be greatly expanded, allowing for a more broad and accurate picture from the start. I hope this is what we'll see. It is my opinion that the news agencies who don't see this potential and use it will do so at their own peril.

The Challenger Within

Easter Sunday.

Masters Sunday.

Having played golf since the age of 8, I typically pause on a day like Masters Sunday to think of how much sports, and in particular golf, has meant to me. The sport of golf and my participation in it is as close to a second nature as there is for me. I've been golfing so long, I barely remember a time when I didn't. Masters Sunday typically gives me a chance to recount great moments and players of Masters past and also allows a moment to reflect on my own fleeting moments of brightness and gloom. This one was no different.

One thing that I find fascinating is that no matter the era, location, sport, or circumstance, the result will always, always be determined not by the best physically or most lucky, but by the one who can overcome the battle within their own mind. To overcome self-doubt and ignore the demons, to belay insecurity and the question of worth. To calm the mind and exhibit the greatness that lies within. There are very few places this is more apparent for a golfer than on Sunday at the Masters.

One of the most coveted championships for generations in all of sports, there are few equal events with the richness of history, legend, recognition and circumstance than the Masters. That greatness is also what provides the gristmill heft that can grind so deeply a contenders' psyche.

In life, we dare, we risk, we desire, we fail. We rise again and again and again to best our greatest foe - the challenger within. It seems no one can challenge us as capably or directly as we challenge ourselves, for no one knows us as well as we know ourselves. Such it is with me and golf and life.

Golf has taught me more about desire, effort, failure, and success than I've found anywhere else. It is one place for me where memories live, for better or worse, and keep adding to the color of my life. Many have said that golf is one of the greatest metaphors for life. I find also that life is a great metaphor for golf. Golf is and life is. What we do is up to us. Along failures we'll find successes. Moments of great agony will reveal the depth of our character time and time again. Golf has plenty of them as does life.

Let our response to these all too frequent moments reveal the best in our character. Let our innate goodness outshine the gloom of failures and misfortune. Let us be human and, in our humanness, find the divine.

Best Beer Ads now and forever.

This is a companion post to one I've made other places that celebrates the terrific TV ad series by documentarian Errol Morris for Miller Beer circa 1998-2005. Simply enjoyable and very effective ads that combine artistic cinematography with excellent copy and voice-over. Below is a fairly representative sample of the 80-odd ads done. If you weren't a Miller beer fan before, you may find it hard to not find yourself wanting one just little bit...



Cheers, DZ