group at large.
Friday:
had a chance to talk for a few minutes with Roberto Moreno
after the practice sessions. The first thing he said was that he was
extemely tired from the higher-than-expected lateral G forces. He
described it as "a very strange sensation to feel all of your internal
organs go from one side of your torso to the other, then start to move
back into position during the straights but never quite getting there
before the next corner pressed them all back into the right side" of
the torso cavity. (note: a lap of TMS at 230 MPH is approximately
22.3 seconds with the front straight only being 3 - 4 seconds long and
the back straight about the same) The drivers knew they had a problem
from the first day they started.
Side notes for the group:
His favorite track is Spa, he doesn't play video games and has
never formally competed at Nurburgring but likes to drive it.
Side note of possible interest:
I also chatted with Scott Pruitt for a while and found out
that he is doing LeMans this year (was racing Cup last year). He was
really pumped about the corvette they were prepping for the 24 hours
this year so I may have to check it out.
Saturday:
Missed my chace to be a panel judge in the car paint scheme
competition due to a prior committment. Also missed qualifying for
same reason. Oh well, the *** Magic 500 (IRL) is only 6 weeks
away.
Sunday:
Got to the Firestone Pavillion about 10:00 and walked over to
the garage. Strangely quiet, only a couple of cars being worked on.
No drivers in sight (later found out that the morning driver meeting
was still going on). Went back and pigged out on beer and prime rib
(life is rough at the races!). About 11:00 the rumors started making
the rounds in the Pavillion so some calls were made. Looked like it
had been called off by that point and some officials wanted to make
the announcement at that time to spare the fans already on the way
from coming all the way to the track. About 11:30 I saw the camera
operator in the boom camera (center of infield, telescoping upright
boom, 360 degree rotation platform) lower the camera so I wandered
over to talk with him (that crew was based in Napa, CA.) He had heard
from California that the network already knew it was a no-go. Went
back to the garage and found out that everyone was being herded out.
At 12:00, the president/CEO of CART made the official announcement.
Went back and drowned my sorrows in some more free beer for a while.
Wandered over and chatted with a couple of the folks on the
Shell/Rahal crews while they were breaking down Kenny Brack and Max
Papis' cars to load them up. I got the impression they were more
upset about CART taking so long to admit there was a problem than
anything else. Mostly we just chatted about the cars.
Late Sunday night I found out that Bruton Smith
(developer/owner of Texas Motor Speedway) was being a real jerk about
postponing the race and demanded that CART officials ignore the CART
Medical Officer and Drivers and start the race. Lawsuits were
threatened if CART didn't run the race as scheduled. I have always
applauded Bruton for bringing a world class facility to my area and
have enjoyed many a race there. However, my respect went down a notch
when I found out about his stance with the CART officials.
I guess that is all for now. Didn't see a race but the rest of the
weekend was definitely a good time (might even say entertaining). I
am very glad that the drivers were unified in their safety concerns
and convinced the CART officials to err on the side of caution. In my
opinion, if Bruton was thinking straight, he would realize that
postponing (or even cancelling) a race is much less of a black eye
than forcing a race with so many accidents (potentially) that it could
possibly affect the entire rest of the CART season. One race does not
a season make, however, one unsafe race might a season break.