Anyone out there interested in Indy Car racing? Or auto racing at all, for that matter?

First race of the unified series is tonight at Homestead!

I would usually go to the Toronto Grand Prix - which was always one of the most successful Indy Car and then Champ Car or Cart or whatever it was called - race. But with the late merger of the two series Toronto got bumped for this year but almost certainly will be on the schedule next year. Apparently Michael Andretti has bought the rights to the race here. (I think he won it about 4 times). So I'll have to wait until 2009 I guess.

I watch F1 every week it's on and the occasional IRL race only for (admittedly) Danica Patrick. I'll give it another shot this year to see how things have changed because of the merger.

I think most of the true effects of the merger will be more evident in 2009. Things happened so fast this year that everything is going to be pretty chaotic. Everyone's scrambling for cars, the ex-Champ drivers are still learning ovals, the schedule is ad-hoc... Next year everyone should be more on the same page.

Either way, I can't wait for this year's Indy 500! Is it May yet?

Not a racing fan but I see Danica Patrick finally won her first race yesterday. You know some of those guys must be wicked pissed!

I just saw the sports highlights--first woman to win an Indy race. Congrats to her! Interesting though, how some of the reports seem to qualify her victory. From ESPN.com:



I think it's sweet that it seems like she was trying to 'be a man' and not cry. Heck, if I was the first somebody to win something, I'd cry too.

So far, this year has been great if you ask me. From the excitement at Homestead surrounding the former Champ Car teams' arrival to Graham's win at St. Pete to Danica's win in Japan. OK, Long Beach was a bit of a snooze (aside from the historical nature of being the last Champ Car race), but I can't wait for May. I'll be there Pole Day...

I watched an awesome rainy Monaco GP instead, but it sounds like Scott Dixon was the class of the Indy 500 today. All three women failed to finish, though two of them were taken out by other cars. Milko Duno spun out but has actually started to run quite respectably.

Open-wheel racing in the US is finally on the right track. They provide a better product and a better viewing experience than the bloated, corporate-soaked NASCAR, and it will only get better as the Champ Car guys get acclimated. Franchitti and Hornish are probably wishing they stayed in the IRL.

A few years ago I was watching Formula 1 and Champ cars. Formula 1 became too boring to get up early Sunday morning to watch. Champ car slowly desintegrated. The IRL-champ merge may be good for open wheels in a couple of years. Not good this year for Canadian interest though. There are no Canadian drivers in the Indy series and we lost our races.

So I've migrated to Nascar since a couple of years. I'm even following qualifying on my computer because there is a local driver now in Sprint Cup.

You'll probably get your races back in 2009. A lot of the Champ Car races couldn't be crammed into the 2008 schedule at the last minute, but are expected to be back in 2009.

And, Marty Roth is Canadian (although not exactly a threat to win most of the time...)

The final race of the IRL season takes place in Miami this afternoon, with the championship still up for grabs between Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, and Ryan Briscoe. Briscoe made a bizarre Coulthard-esque error in the year's penultimate race that could go down as one of the dumbest moves in the history of American racing if he fails to make up ground on Dixon today.

An interesting discussion about gay Formula 1 driver Mike Beuttler, who was active in the early '70s and died of AIDS in 1988:
http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showtopic=45865

A final race with a championship still to be decided between three drivers is stress filled. Drivers can't make any big mistake, cross fingers nothing mechanical breaks.

I've searched for tv broadcast, found it's on versus but I don't have that channel and none of the canadian sports channel seem to have it (live anyway).