My 2009 Racing Recap

My NASCAR Stories of the year...

• Stewart Haas Racings first year results in Smoke leading the Championship at the end of the regular season - I think NASCAR is a better place with Smoke doing well. He is a racer, he loves racing, he drives, owns race teams, owns a race track, and he speaks his mind.
• Earnhardt Jr finally finds his feet and shows the world that he does deserve the hype - or not.
• Mark Martin showing the world that if you've got it, you've got it - regardless of age.
• Montoya finding his feet and showing the world that he does deserve to be there.
• NASCARs last lap restrictor plate wrecks and how to keep the Cup cars on the ground.
• NASCAR broadcasters and journalists constantly complaining.
• Oh.. and 4 in a row for JJ, assuming he clinches it at Homestead.

My other racing stories of 2009...

F1 - New aero rules in F1 work to promote racing, nay overtaking no less... in F1 no less... until the FIA let the teams have multi layer rear diffusers, and in doing so give the cars back a lot of the aero downforce and aero dependency the new rules were supposed to eliminate.  Still better racing than F1 has had for a long time but not as good as earlier in the year. Jenson Button wins the World Championship, by not only having the best car for the first half of the season but by driving the wheels off it too!

Sarah Moore wins the Ginetta Junior Championship. The Juniors showed that no aero, road tyres, H-pattern gearboxes, only 100 bhp and rear wheel drive, all it takes to create good racing. So on the back of a good year Ginetta announce they are bringing in a new car for 2010?!? Please Ginetta, make them look more modern if you must, but don't mess with the basics. If it isn't broken...

V8 Supercars, the last "touring car" championship using H-pattern gearboxes swap to sequential 'boxes - what a shame. I understand that I am old fashioned in thinking that part of the art of driving is in the gear change. I may also be in the minority in believing that while your average road car (Fiesta / Focus / Mondeo / etc) has an H-pattern 'box then so should a "touring car" (Falcon in Australia to carry the car link on). Only NASCAR now races on a road course with an H-pattern box, and long may they continue. Even the Ginetta Juniors are going to a sequential 'box I think.

The IRL finds its long lost oval racing mojo. By letting the teams use aero devices that had once been banned for cost containment purposes the IRL reintroduced the style of 2x2, nose to tail oval racing that its fans have been craving since Sam Hornish left for NASCAR. Thank god for that, the oval races have been dire for a quite a while now.

Dull 'Dega?

NASCAR has two issues with the restrictor plate races - racing and safety.

First (non) issue; the racing.

Jeff Gordon has said that these cars suck up to each other... sounds good.

With the restrictor plate from earlier in the year one car could overtake another without being pushed as the last laps of the races showed... sounds good.

A lot has been said about the dull single file facing at last weeks race, the end result of the drivers not knowing what they can do in the pack after NASCARs message in the drivers meeting. Where was this dull racing? Not at Talladega if you ask me. Sure the drivers took it easy for the first 100 laps, but remember this was a 500 mile, 190 mph, game of chess. The first 150 laps are all about getting yourself in a position to race for the win at the end, no more. Learn what your car can do, get some friends to work with you, avoid any wrecks, and then go racing for the win. This is what I saw at 'Dega. At the end the drivers raced as best they could without beating each other up in the turns... sounds good.

Second issue; safety.

NASCAR has to know that they need to go into the wind tunnel and understand why these cars are getting so airborne when they are turned around. I don't know if the answer is to put some holes in the bottom of the car to let the air flow through the rear, and roof flaps in the trunk lid to let the air out of the back of the car, or if more is needed, but we have to believe that NASCAR is burning the midnight oil getting their heads around this issue.

Otherwise in terms of safety, the current Cup car has lived up to its expectations and nobody can argue with that.

So again, I don't think this package is as broken as most are making out.

If my last name was Helton, or France I would put the bigger plate from earlier in the year back on the cars as it gave the drivers the ability to pass one on one. I would stick to my guns with the yellow line and no bump drafting in the turns, and I would spend the next few weeks in the wind tunnel trying to keep these cars on the ground.

This might give us good old fashioned plate racing, minus the airborne stunts, with less beatin' and bangin' in the turns but with the ability to draft one on one, and slingshot for the win... sounds good?