I’m not really a race car fan, but a few of my friends are, and since I didn’t have anything else better to do (my back was still hurting so I couldn’t ride my bike), I decided I would watch the Indy 500.
I was also somewhat interested because Danica Patrick was in the race, and I was rooting for her to win.
Anywaze, I can’t remember being so disappointed in anything in my life, except maybe for our trip to Italy in ’06.
The race was just a total bore. There were 8 caution flags, with 69 laps run under caution. So while this is dubbed as a 500 mile car race, only 328 miles was actually run under race conditions.
What kind of test of machine and driver is that, if over a third of the race isn’t really a race?
And then during all the cautions, there’s a mad dash to the pits for needed tire changes, fuel, minor adjustments etc. giving an advantage to those, who were lucky enough to wait for such an opportunity, or unlucky enough, i.e. Danica Patrick, to crash coming out of the pits due to all the resulting mayhem.
Now I realize there is a safety concern, and for obvious reasons, you can’t allow the race to continue while trying to clear the track after a crash, but what’s the problem with just stopping the race at that point?
That would be the ultimate in safety, and would eliminate the advantage gained by some racers fortunate enough to pit under a caution flag. Then the race would actually be a 500 mile race, and a true test of driver, machine, pit crew and team tactics over that distance.
In my opinion, this race was not such a test, and was a complete disappointment.
Hopefully next year I won’t have a reason to watch it.
