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Indy Car’s new three-tiered championship a good move but is no magic pill

The talk amongst Indy Car fans today was the announcement by the IRL that they will be adding two new championship titles to the series. The head honcho, Randy Bernard, declared that the series will be adding a “road course” championship and an “oval” championship to the agenda for 2010. That means this weekend’s race in Kansas will be the inaugural race for the yet to be named “oval” championship. Additional, they say that these two new titles will be named by the fans, although they haven’t announced how that will happen yet. Perhaps the oval championship trophy might be named “The Foyt Cup”, or the “Harroun Trophy” (and while this fan involvement is great, I think a better idea would be to find title sponsors for each cup).
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MotoGP Notes - Volcanos, semi-production bikes and FIAT’s pushing of Rossi to Ferrari F1

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MotoGP finds itself in an off week, but not because of an empty weekend in the 2010 calendar, but due to the fallout of volcano Eyjafjallajökull. Who could have predicted this? An ash cloud the size of Valentino Rossi’s trophy case disrupted air traffic so much that MotoGP had no choice but to postpone the Japan round scheduled for this weekend. But this turn of events hardly leaves us without anything to talk about.

The buzz lately in MotoGP revolves around the push by FIAT to see Valentino Rossi in an F1 car next year. The thinking behind this crazy idea is that Ferrari will somehow lobby F1 to allow a third car, because current regulations require 2-car teams in the constructors’ championship. I can’t see the FIA bending the rules for this situation in a manner that would fit FIAT’s wishes.
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Jeff Gordon vs. Jimmy Johnson - Here’s hoping for a sequel

During Monday’s Last rain-postponed Texas race a gimpy Denny Hamlin scampered off with the ol’ cowboy hat and his first win of 2010, a remarkable feat for a guy who went under the knife for knee surgery only three weeks prior. But the other bit of news that developed during the Texas 500 was a little tiff between Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson that was sparked by a turn 4 incident in the middle of the race.

If you didn’t see it, Gordon and Johnson were battling wheel to wheel with 94 laps to go, and Gordon made an aggressive move on the low side of Johnson. Coming onto the flat part of the race track the two got together resulting in a crushed left front fender on Johnson’s Impala that eventually caused his left front tire to fail a number of laps later.

It looked to me like Johnson didn’t leave Gordon much racing room, and pinched the 24 down a little bit. And Gordon wasn’t giving up any room either. And in radio exchanges that followed, Jeff wasn’t thrilled about the situation. He keyed up and said, “He must want to be treated differently than everybody else.” Whoa, harsh words from the usually polished Gordon.
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Long Beach Diary - Notes from the beach

Every year in mid-April those of us in southern California head out to the beach for the three day festival of speed at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.  This year was the second year that Indy Car returned to the crown-jewel of street races, and the weekend was full of action including a first time win for a budding star in the Indy Lights ranks, a win by an American in Indy Car, and a fantastic American Le Mans sprint race on Saturday afternoon.

I journaled on the fly via a tired old smartphone about the action at the track, and below is a diary of my weekend at the beach.
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China GP: Another Wet ‘N Wild Race

Once again Jenson Button and McLaren parlayed the correct tire choice at the right time into a
victory at today’s rain influenced Chinese Grand Prix.; Hamilton Second and Mercedes’ Nico Rosburg third.

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