Comments on: Random Thoughts On Motegi

By: JohnMc

JohnMc — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:21:03 +0000

George, the beautiful mountains and hills that surround the track make for a wonderful backdrop and I like the track. Enjoyed the race and I didn’t mind staying up to watch it.

By: Brian McKay

Brian McKay — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:57:04 +0000

I would very much like to see Oriol employed, employed by a competitive team and employed by a team for more than one consecutive year. He is a talented, skilled, personable, fan-friendly and sponsor-friendly racer who, like Tony Kanaan, may be a useful ‘mentor’ for a young gun.

By: AZZO45

AZZO45 — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:41:10 +0000

Ryan just handed Dixon the 2009 IRL Chanpionship with his Motegi Pit-Lane Blooper (or should I say Looper? )

I have Comcast so my VERSUS HD was not pulled… Jack Arute’s Mario interview was lame… Why does Jack have to pull this crapola? IMO, it instantly cancels out the many good things he does. Hopefully the VS. broadcast production team reads these blogs & passes on the “CUT IT OUT JACKIE” message along (before the next MM interview).

BTW, Jack almost had Danica doing the on camera tears too (with him doing the Barbara WaWa “feelings” line of questioning…) Both work for ABC… contractual requirement ?

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:36:02 +0000

Wheldon pitted just before the Hunter-Reay crash occurred (and before several others had pitted). Dixon and Franchitti were not hurt by the crash because they had pitted before and remained on the lead lap (why everybody hyped this up as a lucky break for them I didn’t know since they were 1-2 before that), but Wheldon was so far behind the Ganassi cars that he lost a lap when he pitted, and those that hadn’t pitted yet, such as Rahal, Servia, Moraes, Danica, and Marco were able to pit under yellow and remain on the lead lap. Wheldon was waved around but because he had to pit under green and lost a lap, he fell behind all those other cars that pitted under yellow and couldn’t end up passing any of them.

I agree with you that Servia should be there next year, as a mentor to Rahal to Lloyd. I questioned whether the two Newman-Haas cars were equal when Rahal was crushing Doornbos for the first half of the season, but with Servia going in there and pretty much matching Rahal race-for-race, it appears that the struggles were on Doornbos rather than the #06 team. Lloyd deserves a ride but it’s disappointing that a consistent and proven veteran is going to lose out again to an unproven kid with potential and money…

By: JamesO

JamesO — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:41:57 +0000

I have DirecTV so I didn’t see it. I watched it on the live Indycar feed with the IMS radio audio. The video wasn’t much–I heard all about MM’s pit incident but no video at all. And it seemed the video and audio were at least a minute out of sync: I saw Mike Conway in the wall and wondered if anyone was ever going to mention it at all. Ultimately I just settled into an easy chair and listened to the audio only, and then drifted off to sleep just after Ryan did the victory lap with the cone. I didn’t find out who won until this morning.

The best comment I’ve seen comes from My Name is IRL’s LiveBlog: “If you’d take the first two cars off the track this would be a heck of a race.”

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:21:36 +0000

I don’t understand while some people think it’s a big deal if the Champion is crowned outside the States. No one is watching, it makes the scroll on ESPN, and Sportscenter shows 30 seconds of highlights. With the late start time is it really any different then the Chicago race? I remember 30 years a go watching the Indy 500 on tape delay after listening to it on the radio and I used to love this sport and still do but I firmly believe there is no momentum.