Stand By Your Man

Ford says it's in Formula One to stay. And that it's not in for short term marketing goals. OK, let's see an excerpt from a Ford F1 racing's review board report

F1 continues to provide a very good return on investment in terms of technological, personnel and marketing development.

The reassuring statements in the Ford report shall be in effect until such time as Ford sees fit to cease it's racing program. In other words,  Ford could still pull out of F1 at any time.

Formula One's American Idol

Red Bull is sponsoring a Formula One talent contest.

Conspiracy to Kill CART?

In an excellent article, autosports writer Robin Miller says Tony George didn't act alone to cripple, or perhaps kill, CART. He says F1's Bernie Eccelstone and NASCAR's Bill France Jr. may have helped.

Miller points out the growing TV audience for CART in 1995 and how France might have been a bit threatened by that. He says Eccelstone was furious that F1 champion Nigel Mansel went to CART in 1993.

Now, there's no way to prove that France and Ecclestone encouraged George to start the IRL, but it sure is easy to see how they've both benefited from this country 's open wheel civil war the past seven years. 

While IRL and CART divided their fans, sponsors and teams, NASCAR circled like a vulture and steadily feasted on their carcass. Phoenix, Milwaukee and Michigan became Cup crowds while IRL and CART began playing to more and more empty seats on ovals.

Ecclestone extracted some revenge (not to mention a sweetheart financial deal with George) when he resurrected the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis in  2000. Its attendance goes down every year but Ecclestone couldn't care if there were 25,000 people in the grandstands -- that's about the only revenue he doesn't get.

I think Miller overestimates CART's appeal in 1995 and underestimates NASCAR's lack of appeal, but for the most part he seems to be on target. Go read the whole article,

50 for Button

If Jenson Button starts this weekend's United States Grand Prix he will be the youngest driver, at 22 years old, to reach 50 GP starts.

Here is a picture of me and Jenson Button.

History of the Brickyard

F1-Live has an interesting short history of the Indianapolis track.

I have some pictures of my trip to the inaugural United States Grand Prix in 2000.

Bernie's Not Quaking Yet

It appears that the major Formula One manufacturers are still planning to start their own series.

The members of the Grand Prix Championship series met in Paris recently. They want to get the series on the road by 2008.

Bernie Eccelstone's domination of Formula One racing may be coming to an end. Everyone wants a bigger piece of the pie.

Montoya Does Letterman

Williams star Juan-Pablo Montoya will make an appearance on tonight's Late Show with David Letterman on CBS at 11:30 pm eastern time.

Montoya is also the youngest champion in the history of CART.

Couthard Disses Women as Drivers

McLaren driver David Couthard says women don't have a chance of competing against men in Formula One.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a question of genetics,” he was quoted as saying in the Record. “Look at it this way, you buy little boys a tractor to play with and little girls a doll. Try it the other way and it just doesn't work."

IRL driver Sarah Fisher will complete a demonstration run at this weekend's United States Grand Prix.

McRae to Leave Ford

Ford WRC star Colin McRae may be going to Citroen.

It's been rumored that Ford would like to cut costs and channel more money into car development. With two money drivers like McRae and Carlos Seinz, Ford has to slash payroll, that means a driver has to go. It looks like it's going to be McRae.

If McRae goes to Citroen, someone will be out of a job there. Who will it be?

Is the News Really Worth It?

I've just finished a monumental struggle to get my web log on my web site's home page. Well, not so monumental, but a struggle nonetheless.

I had to reformat the page and swap the navigation from the right to the left (where it should have been all along). I had to get the archives straightened out. Make sure the Blogger link remains! I just installed a slick comments system, Snorcomments V2.0.

After every step my news headlines from Moreover.com would mysteriously disappear. I had not altered the code in any way, but poof! Gone. Sometimes the headlines would just mysteriously re-appear.

After installing the comments system, the headlines seem to be gone for good. I'm tempted to just remove them altogether. I just think it's pretty cool to have the latest news on the front page of my web site. And to have them for free, well, it's just the American Way.

I'll make one last attempt at restoring my news headlines. If I can't get them to work. They will be evicted!

Comments Anyone?

I have just installed the easiest comment system in the world (i think). Snorcomments V2.0 is made up of a few perl\nscripts and a cgi file It seems to be working and it looks halfway decent. It took me a little over an hour to install and configure. I'm still working out a few minor bugs, but all seems to be working fine.

Comments

I'm attempting to install a comments system. Here goes! 

I've just installed and configured Snorcomments V2.0. I haven't even looked at my page yet. Let's see if it fouled my page up completely!

He's Back

Heinz-Harald Frentzen will drive for Sauber in the US Grand Prix September 29. He will replace Felipe Massa who has been penalized ten starting places.