Before viewing this blog read up on my first one to get an idea of where I'm coming from.
 
So the 2009 IndyCar Series season has concluded, the second one since reunification and let me tell you, it was yet again a disappointment. But, first let me congratulate Scotsman Dario Franchitti for winning, well deserved. The 2009 IndyCar season was very dull. Save for two or three races, out of the seventeen. The same three guys were winning all the races, Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon. These drivers were part of the two powerhouse IndyCar teams, Penske Racing and Target Chip Ganassi Racing. There were very little passing even on the ovals, two races at ovals were the exemption. The rest of the field were at the mercy at the two powerhouses. Sure, the Championship lead changed 14 times over the course of the season, but it was the same three guys. The last race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway had the three title contenders lapping the entire field multiple times.
 
Have no idea what I'm talking about? Why should you? The Indy Racing League has done a piss poor job at marketing. This ranged from signing a major TV contract with VERSUS (0.3 Nielson Ratings average) to putting up billboards that said "IndyCar, Sexier than NASCAR" because we have a female driver in the series. They have also failed to sign on the bigger name drivers onto race teams. Paul Tracy only made 6 starts because he was on a transitional team that raced in the Champ Car World Series. They need guys like Paul Tracy in the series to generate enough buzz to increase their stagnant revenue. For the 2010 season, they have broken their promise of a 50/50 oval/road course schedule. The new chassis and engine package has been delayed to 2012, meaning that we are stuck with the ugly, under-performing crapwagons that have been used since 2001. It seems inevitable that the top open-wheel racing series in America is doomed. But I still have hope, if they still keep their word that they will return to 199o's era CART World Series format, they can still save themselves.
 
I will now show you the golden era of racing in America, back when cars were beautiful, fast and competitive.
 

 
  As an aviation enthusiast, this docudrama caught my attention. Mayday or as its known outside of Canada, Air Crash Investigation, reenacts history's numerous aviation mishaps. This show is 60 mins of length and takes one real life accident and examines it in detail. A reenactment based on actual cockpit voice recordings and eye witness accounts is played out. The show then shows and explains the investigation of the crash in detail and eventually comes to a conclusion of why it happened, how it has been fixed and what should be done in the future to prevent it from happening again. The acting is generally convincing, and the CG effects are usually well done. I encourage you all to watch this show and learn a little something about how your flights are being micromanaged. It airs on the Discovery Channel in Canada and on National Geographic everywhere outside of Canada.

So, today was my birthday and to celebrate, I went out to buy a PSN prepaid $50 card. I drove to my local EB Games and they were sold out. No problem , I'll just go to the next closest one. Turns out they were out as well. Fortunately, there was a Best Buy in the same shopping centre and they had a whole stack of them. So after wasting some amount of gas on an errand that was supposed to take 15 minutes but instead took an hour and a half, I finally got the card. But that's not the worse of the day yet.
 
I got home, got the $50 into my PSN "wallet" and started buying and downloading the games. I bought the obvious two games for me; Battlefield 1943 and Fat Princess. This left me with $16 or so left. I wanted to go buy Outrun Online Arcade (Sega), but I couldn't find it in the Playstation Store. I was confused because I read that it had come out on PSN and XBLA. A little internet search revealed that it had been released on both PSN and XBLA, but the PSN version was available in Europe only, while the XBLA version was available everywhere. This means that Outrun Online Arcade is exclusive to XBLA in North America. What the hell? Regional exclusivity? Who is responsible for this? But most importantly, WHY?
 
I was really looking forward to getting this game too, for sentimental reasons. When I was growing up, the only game game I played in the arcades was the original Outrun. Sure, the game came out in 1986, but it was really ahead of its time. It brought alive fantasies of owning a Ferrari and having a beautiful woman sitting next to you as you just drive by breathtaking vistas. I sunk in many quarters into that machine, and for that reason I will always have the song Splash Wave and Passing Breeze etched into my memory. I really wanted to see how Sega approached the 20 year-old gameplay mechanic in this one.  Ah well, at least there are other quality PSN games to spend my $16 on. Problem is, I can't identify them.
 
Yay Nostalgia! Best Game soundtrack of the 80's I say.
 

I've been a race fan for a very long time now, so it saddens me to see what has happened to racing in North America. Let's put this into perspective, the only popular racing series in the USA is NASCAR. Don't get me wrong, I think NASCAR is a great series, but the racing sort of gets stale. Nowadays those stock cars only experience close racing on two of the 30-something speedways. My gripe is with the state of American open-wheel racing. The most exciting racing existed in the 1990's in what was known as the CART Indycar World Series.
 
CART at the time was the biggest racing series in America, yes, even bigger than NASCAR. This series had everything; a mix of both oval and road/street course racing; all the big name sponsors; multiple chassis and engines; and some of the best names in racing. It was so popular that some said that had the series continue as is, it would have eclipsed Formula 1 as the world's most popular racing series. Names like Paul Tracy, Jacques Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell, the Fittipaldis, the Andrettis, the Unsers, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, among countless others. Of course the "main event" every year was the Indianapolis 500. That's where the trouble begins. Tony George is the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, heir of the founder, his grandfather. CART canned him from the board of directors because he was causing a ruckus. George was concerned that the series had become too international, that the series wasn't "grass roots" enough. So the spiteful man formed the Indy Racing League, an inferior ovals only series. It took the Indy 500 along with it.
 
The IRL emphasized an American only, spec series. The first season in 1996 only had three races on the schedule and used the leftover chassis and engine from CART's previous season. From than on, open-wheel race fans were split along two lines, all the while NASCAR gained popularity. Even though CART was the superior series in terms of racing quality, the IRL always had their trump card, the Indy 500. Soon enough the top teams from CART defected into the IRL. The CART racers were turbo-charged and could reach top speeds of 240 mph. While the IRL racers were ugly, slow and naturally aspirated. This meant that racing in the IRL was cheaper, thus why the teams shifted. The two series both lost popularity and revenue. In 2003 CART was rebranded as the Champ Car World Series and established itself as road/street course only. Both series in 2008 realised that a merger was necessary.
 

Unfortunately, the IRL took control from there, still utilising the IRL's uncompetitive chassis and engine. Over the next year, the former Champ Car team got used to the new series, the IndyCar Series. But unless some changes are made, this reunited series will never succeed and we may never see exciting racing ever again. All the big name drivers have since retired or gone on to other series, with the exception of few. The series are using the same Dallara chassis which since the early 2000's have not received drastic changes. Champ Car's last season featured a new redesigned Panoz chassis, unfortunately this beautiful chassis has not been tested on ovals and are now sitting in warehouses. The current series have for now returned to a 50/50 oval and road course schedule. But, since a new chassis and engine is not coming to fruition until 2012. They have made slight changes to the current chassis but this is just a quick fix. Also the series have signed a contract with TV network Versus to show a majority of the IndyCar races. Unfortunately many people do not have Versus and can't watch races. This year the average Nielson Rating was 0.2, which equates to about 200.000 households compared to NASCAR's 1.8s. Also many stands sit empty during these races. For now the series can only hope to rebuild it's fanbase and return to the status of North America's great motorsport achievement.
 
I now end this blog with a few CART tribute videos that showcased real racing and why it had been so popular.
 
   
   
  What are your thoughts on racing in America? Have I tried to hit it spot on or am I completely wrong? Please share your thoughts.