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and from the very banner flying over this thread....err.....you guys were all saying what???
Quote:
Danica Patrick Honda Film
Watch now to discover the upside of failure through Danica Patrick.
www.honda.com
SEE THE WROLD SPINNING ROUND ROUND AND ROUND
I think it would have only been worse without her, because there was nothing else....everybody else done gone nascar. Mind you all, I don't like it, but just tellin it as it is....Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
and see the media can even put its own spin on it..."discover the upside of failure"......spinnin round and round, where she goes nobody knows...hey now, discover the upside of having your brains all sucked out your nostril....
Well, considering how they make up how she is competitive in situations where she clearly isn't, I am sure they could have plucked someone, say Scott Dixon and made him a media darling or something. Someone with wins....that would have been really novel don't you think?Quote:
Originally Posted by markabilly
Who?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
Is this Dixon female?
Did Dixon "almost win" Indy as a female?
Does Dixon look good laying on a car, nearly naked?
How many SI swimsuit editions has this Dixon appeared, nearly naked?
ever seen one banner with Dixon on this forum?
...or a godaddy commercial?
Not even a good name, like DAN-ne-KA
Maybe if he or she ever wins a race or two, then moves to Nascar for real superstadom....Dixie and Dixon, there is a combo in that
If I were nascar and heard DANneKA was coming, I would change out the locks and hide the keys.....
Nope, not at all. One of the life lessons I have learned it that time marches on. You can't turn back the clock. I have also learned that hindsight almost always distorts the truth. We remember the good things and skip the bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by markabilly
I had an advantage growing up of knowing a bit more of the inside of racing that some fans. My grandfather was a huge race fan and personally knew a lot of the people in the sport. He was a good friend of Tom McCahill, so he got to meet some interesting people like Smokey Yunick (who rebuilt his new Chrysler 300's front suspension in the middle of speed weeks between working on race cars). Back in the day wasn't all that great. Right after I got married, our next door neighbor was an admitted pit bunny and dated Bill Simpson and Steve Krisiloff, so we got to hear a lot about open wheel as well. It wasn't as glamorous as nostalgia would suggest. I was also involved in various competition and racing scenes for many years and lived the gypsy life.
IMHO, the real heritage of the past involves a bunch of speed junkies who lived like poor gypsies (because most were) and risked life and limb because they loved racing and mainly beating the other guy (or lady). Yes women have been in racing a long time. Did you know that in 1988-89 there were 4 women racing AMA Pro Superbike, a couple on a regular basis? Another would show up once in a while and is still racing cars today. All of them make Danica look like a whiny wimp. Racing wasn't glamorous, TV coverage wasn't much except for "major" events, and very few racers earned a living at it.
All of that heritage is why I have little respect for Danica. She didn't earn her status in racing by working her way up with racing sucesses. She latched onto a couple sugar daddies (ok mentors), chucked her clothes to play the sex card, and parlayed her meager assets into fame and fortune. She didn't earn her way to the top, she bought her way to the top with those assets. She has just enough driving talent to hang onto her status, as long as she has the backers to keep her there
As for the implication that "the split" destroyed open wheel, some "fans" haven't been around long enough to have seen the battles between other sanctioning bodies and the rise and fall of great racing series. What we have today is the survival of the fittest, a sort of morphing between F5000, European style racing, and the more traditional Indy car oval racing.
Heritage may be nice to reminisce about, built it is just a building block along the way. Today we have probably one of the most competitive periods in open wheel - ever. On any given weekend, the competition is very tight. The spread across the field is very small. Sure, the best teams dominate - they always have. But even the small teams in the back still have a chance to run well and get a good result. It isn't perfect, but racing has never been perfect. That why they run the races.
I may be "old" in your eyes, but i don't live in the past.
Age is a number, old is an attitude.
Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
But acting like a 12 year old is just immature. You sure have some strange attitudes about women. I guess you have never spent much time around one who is competitive, driven, and tough. (or married to one like I have been for a long time). They seem to be just sex objects to you. Sad.
??Quote:
Originally Posted by beachbum
"great racing series" has never included the IRL, despite the presence of Indy, which for that reason alone, permitted it to linger on as a series, rather than just one race at Indy.
Just temporary survival of the least mortally wounded who is slowly bleeding out with its one small bandage about to jump ship.
But i guess it is not much to be joyful about when Daneka playing her sex card (upon THAT i can agree) is all you got left with the IRL after some great OW racing from a number of years ago before the split became so wide :(
Indy 500 is the only race that helped keep it afloat but like the Titanic , seems to have some leaking problems. But not too worry, there is always the Brickyard 400, motogp and even a return of F1
I take it that you were on the "other" side of the split. That war is over - move on.Quote:
Originally Posted by markabilly
That is 2x you've said this. What the bleep are you talking about? What female "almost" won Indy?Quote:
Originally Posted by markabilly
Actually not. I was mad at both sides, and thought for sure they would work out some sort of reasonable accomodation, but like it or not, was convinced that whoever had Indy would win.Quote:
Originally Posted by beachbum
Never thought it would go on for so long.
Then the tobacco money was finally stopped, something that really funded some great teams and series over the years, esp before the split and was what kept CC alive, things started getting dark but nobody noticed..
So I think the general interest, esp with OW racing, began to evaporate as by themselves, neither series offered all that much before the drought and CC offered zero, once their funding dried up.
Then along come Danica, and the novelty of a sex kitten as a "racer". Poor substitute for the tobacco money and with people like Tony Stewart headed for "greener" (money) pastures, well....But it was more than CC had......Unfortunately as PT barum once said, one will never go broke underestimating the taste of the american public....
Even JPM turned his nose up at OW racing when he could do nascar, as have a number of OW racers who have tried to jump.
Yet, in 1993, Nigel Mansell, two times WDC, winner of 31 F1 races (4th overall behind MS, Prost, Senna), still in his prime from his WDC of the year before, came to Indy and the series....
if the IRL does not make some radical changes, to provide something more than stock car racing with open wheels......like the thrill, acceleration and scream of a F1 car (or the cars before the IRL version came along) when it leaves pit lane....not even indy 500 will save it. :(
and I will add, that i do not think the vision and financial strenght necessary to support such changes, is present anymore within indy or the irl....that just leaves novelty acts like Danica and at the later date when she finally goes, whoever/whatever "sex object" or "sidebar novelty acts", if any, can be found to replace her--hence my satire about dixon.
(BTW as to living in the past, as some have said, those who fail to learn the lessons of history, are doomed to repeat its mistakes....or as Einstein once said, the definition of an idiot, is one who keeps doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result each time)