“Booogity, Booogity, Booogity, lets go racing boys” as they say in NASCAR. And they did. American racing has roared back into life over the last few weeks and this weekend Indy Car was all “Go” under the lights of the Texas Motor Speedway. Motorcycle racing too has saddled up as Moto America ran their first round at Road America last weekend with no fans and some strict safety protocols.
So, there’s no turning back now, but the question is, ‘Has the green waved too soon or should we really still be under a caution yellow?’ Only time will tell.
As race fans, we all tuned in gleefully to finally see some ‘real’ racing from Darlington. In my opinion it was seamless. The protocols were met. the racing was good and really, I didn’t miss seeing or hearing the fans especially during the night races.
Industry finance and economic expert Tim Frost, has put a positive spin on the grand experiment to return to racing.
“We are taking the green flag, but it still has a little yellow in it. The sport has taken a very measured and methodical approach about how they are progressively entering week by week and it is paying huge dividends.
“And by the time the premier league soccer comes back on June 17th with baseball and NBA not expected until mid-July, American racing will have a six-week head start with no competition for the eyeballs.”
NASCAR is all in. Darlington, Charlotte, and Bristol have given us five races three and a half weeks. Typically, it was Nascar being very bold and confident in their community. Frankly, I believe it was brilliantly executed by organisers and TV companies alike. Then again, in this troubled time, I don’t think 2020 will be remembered for Kevin Harvick Real Heroes 400 win or the subsequent victories for Hamlin and Keselowski.
It will be remembered for how the sport sprang back into life and became a potential model for other motor racing categories and other sports for that matter to get themselves back in the game.
The reason my flag is still half yellow is that there is so much going on in America right now that we are from out of the woods with Covid 19.
At last look, 18 states were still on the rise with over 100,000 deaths and the States largely left to deal with it themselves. The USA is really left with a patchwork quilt of response to this deadly disease with each State at different levels of infection and response protocols of dealing with it.
40 million working class Americans in the last month have lost their jobs and the number is rising. Add the traditional “let’s party” it’s Memorial Weekend, followed by massive civil unrest over the death of George Floyd where over 380 American cities have organised protests and largely ignored any form of social distancing. Standing side by side and marching to show their support for “Black Lives Matter”, it’s very uncertain what the effect of all this will have on American society and the increasingly complicated task of curbing the spread of the virus and trying to stop it in its tracks.
The next few weeks will inform us where we are at and whether we are facing spikes and a potential second wave from all this activity. Scary times and one where sport is really immaterial.
Or is it?
NASCAR’s responsible model is working and they have done their homework as to how to do it well.
Other motor racing and sports are taking note. We are all learning tips and tricks to make it possible to go racing as safely as possible. Reduced numbers at events, no fans, limited media, one day events, masks and PPE supplied to everyone.
I think the single biggest achievement NASCAR pulled off was packing their schedule to have races Sunday and Wednesday nights to really have the impact of being back in full swing. They also cleverly cut their travel costs to a minimum by racing in and around NASCAR’s main hub of Charlotte ,North Carolina.
Twice in less than a week, Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski has expressed the sentiment that NASCAR has hit gold with its current racing format.
“The limited practice, show up and race, and the time window that benefits both the East and West Coast,” said Keselowski. “No qualifying. Inversion from the week before is really good, because it mixes the field up and creates some good storylines there, and I think it’s fair.
“It’s compelling, and it’s a time when quite frankly, even if it wasn’t for COVID, having midweek races in the summer, when you’re generally not having a lot of competition, is in a time period where everybody is hungry for content.”
Over the weekend Scott Dixon and Indy Car got their turn to take centre stage under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway.
Saturday’s Genesys 300 IndyCar Series round is the first of 15 races scheduled from June to October, which will see the season will conclude where it originally planned to start – the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The season was suddenly halted March 13, hours before the first practice session at St. Petersburg, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly three months later, 24 drivers who will compete in the 200-lap race Saturday night are eager to be unleashed on the high-banked, 1.5-mile oval.
Leading up to the opening round, Indy Car driver Charlie Kimball explained how he and his team at AJ Foyt Racing, had been preparing to come back to racing in IndyCar (Podcast Saturday: Jonathan Green talks with IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball).
“We’ve been doing a lot digitally on zoom – with a lot of set up work on the computer, commented driver Charlie Kimball on Speed City Radio. To minimize the exposure risk, we are doing a one-day show in Texas. Personally I’m flying in Saturday morning early, doing the whole day practice, qualifying and the 200 mile race and then flying out to be home early Sunday morning.
“Talking to my engineer, we are going to roll off the hauler and just polish it as we don’t want to start messing with setup as we won’t have the time to dial things out – We are due to make five pit stops and that’s is the only real time we have to adjust the car. Every stop we make will be important all night long to keep making the car better.
“The more we go into the night, the track temperature along with the air temp will drop while the track will rubber up.”
“We know the risk, but wild horses couldn’t keep me out of the race car on Saturday and even my wife is happy about me getting out of the house as my mood has improved dramatically since I found out we were going racing again.
Fellow racer Alexander Rossi agreed.
“I think it’s a testament to the effort that’s been put in by everyone at IndyCar, Texas Motor Speedway and the state of Texas to allow us to go racing. It’s really cool, really exciting. I think the world needs sports, it needs entertainment and positivity, so, yeah, I’m excited to get out there and not only put on a show for people, but also get our season started and pick up where we left off at the end of last year.”
So with NASCAR in full flow coupled with Indy now underway, mainstream motorsport is well and truly back and has stolen a march on many other major sports in the USA.
We shouldn’t really be too surprised that it was first to figure out how to do it. Safety, innovation and adaptability to the conditions within which you race are the building blocks of successful motor sport and is what it has always been about.
Also, the racing community has shown, especially here in the States, that it is very much on the same page and agenda as the organisers and business people in the sport. The drivers and teams know the bottom line of the business and are more than willing to work together to make it happen so that the return to racing is safe and an example to the watching world.
The calendar is a balance of risk versus reward. Everyone needs a certain amount of races to both stay afloat and keep the series financially viable. So get-going early with caution, that combo green/yellow flag is the right approach that can keep creating the checker finish and therefore keep the TV money and in turn, the business going.
There will be casualties along the way and many sponsors may not be forking out as much and as quickly as they fight to un-furlough their own workforce and keep themselves in business.
While both NASCAR and IndyCar restarts juggle different levels of lockdown in different states, F1 and MotoGP have the same issue in Europe but with greater travel complexities thrown into the mix.
That said, there is much that it is going to be able to learn from both American series, and F1 is actively engaging with its NASCAR counterparts to try and ensure a smooth restart.
All the work done behind the scenes in the last two months could also benefit the sport in the future and especially for 2021.
Better connection with the fans when they aren’t at a race. Shorter event strategies will save money and, in many ways, could potentially make the racing more exciting and unpredictable as shown by the recent NASCAR events.
Race tracks will have adapted their facilities to accommodate COVID-19 safety. Venues will be cleaner. Events will be more convenient and thought out and in many ways, it is giving a lot of the traditional race meeting standards a well needed facelift.
The irony could be that the industry not only survives the COVID-19 pandemic, but it uses the crisis as time to strengthen its value for fans.
So, Saturday under the lights of Texas was the perfect way for IndyCar to make its return. The key, this season, will be how each driver and engineer work together to get most out of their cars in such a short space of time.
It’s certainly going to be an interesting series for Alex Palau the Super Formula rookie of the 2019 season. He has never raced on an oval in his life. The three rookies, plus Patricio O’Ward who has no Texas Motor Speedway experience beyond last February’s test, got an extra half hour of running before ‘practice proper’ on Saturday afternoon.
Talk about “survival of the fittest”, Darwin would set sail again in the HMS Beagle if he knew.
Talking of Charles, Darwin’s famous expression of “survival of the fittest” is very appropriate. By “fittest” Darwin is is quoted in the Origins of Species as defining “fittest” as those “better adapted for the immediate, local environment”.
And that is where Motorsport is right now so let’s go racing boys and girls, but proceed with caution.
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