Danica

[tcfjr]

There's an article today on ESPN.com that compares Danica Patric to Anna Kournikova. Danica comes off pretty well in the article.

 

[radman]

I just read that Richard Petty likes hostess cupcakes.

Without racin wimmins on 'em....

 

[FJRJeff]

She wants you guys. I can tell from the way she's looking at me.

 

[Dallara]

No *set-up* coming, Radman... Not at all.

Just curious. I was heavily involved in automobile racing in both the CART and IRL series for over 10 years, and I feel much the same way you do. Maybe for slightly different reasons, as I don't care much whether Danica Patrick's pic is on Hostess cupcakes any more than I care Jeff Gordon is on a box of Wheaties. But auto racing has definitely lost its luster for me... So much so I walked away from the sport partly in 2002, and completely in 2003.

Cookie cutter cars in most of the premier circuit racing series now, and that even includes F-1 with its ludicrous 2.4 liter everybody-runs-a-V-8 rules, etc. Who would have ever imagined that F-1 cars would have to run multiple races with the same engine or be penalized? Geez, it's supposed to be the pinnacle of engineering innovation, not durability testing! The Indy 500 freefalling like a lead parachute in motorsports stature, and with essentially everyone running the same car (Dallara's), same engine (Honda's), and same tire (Firestone's), with the rules so tight that you can't hardly change a wickerbill...

NASCAR now running pure "template" cars, with the only difference in brand nameplates being the goofy decals that represent grills and headlights... Yep, them thar' are shor' 'nuff lots of them 2-door Ford Fusion's out thar' on the road today, ain't thar', boys? :blink:

And I am going to open up a real can of worms here, but... The *powers that be* are screwing up royally in making racing *too* safe. One of the things that used to draw spectators to racing and elicit their awe was that the guys out there doing it *COULD* easily be killed. A race driver was a bigger than life hero because he was taking such an enormous risk. Now guys hit the fence at 220 MPH and walk back to the pits. Before they had to tread a fine line to keep 'em on the circuit, but now they can throw them away with abandon because they figure they won't be hurt. But now that just makes 'em guys that crash cars, not heroes. I'm all for making the race tracks as safe as you can make 'em, but emasculating the race cars isn't the way to make racing safer, or better. Make the cars so fast that they are hard as hell to drive, and then we'll find out who the really good drivers are.

No wonder sponsors, spectators in attendance, and TV viewing audiences are leaving in droves... No heroes left, and all the drivers speak on TV like they have been to same PR school. Slower and slower cars, with more and more goofy rules to confuse the fan. Less innovation on race cars than on street cars...

It's all bad...

And never again will you hear during Indy 500 qualifying those famous words from Tom Carnegie - "And it's a new track record..."

Last driver to earn that was Arie Luyendyk in 1996, but never again will they let cars lap Indy at over 239 MPH... At least not in my lifetime.

Just my two cents...

Dallara

ps - you wouldn't have wanted to see Janet Guthrie in hotpants... She was one *UGLY* woman!

 

[radman]

The reason I started this was to lament the lack of "racing" coverage and emphasis, and the encroachment of sex and "Idol" cultism that seems to infect everything more and more. Shirley and Janet may not have been approached by Playboy, but what they lacked in looks was more than made up for in moxie, now if ya look good on camera and can drive half ass, you're in and then some, and the media just fawns over you. Maybe thats why The King hates women in racing-he may have a crystal ball we didn't know about, and saw the inevitable long before it was even on anyone elses radar. Fischer Price no doubt wants a Danica or Paris for their advertising portfolio, and it just grosses me out that this is what has become of so many aspects of life in America. No wonder we are so hated in so many places. This borders on politics, and I don't give a damn.... Good post Dallara.

 

[fjrchik]

jeez, i had to go get the cupcakes i just bought last night and there she is. guess i was more interested in the cupcakes. Leilani looks better in this shot IMO.

we got ho-ho's too. she's not on those though.

 

[Woodstock]

I stopped watching Indy when they wouldn't let the turbines in anymore.

 

[fjrchik]

i just had a cuppycake. mmmmm! so good. :wub:

 

[ScrapeApe]

No *set-up* coming, Radman... Not at all.
Just curious. I was heavily involved in automobile racing in both the CART and IRL series for over 10 years, and I feel much the same way you do. Maybe for slightly different reasons, as I don't care much whether Danica Patrick's pic is on Hostess cupcakes any more than I care Jeff Gordon is on a box of Wheaties. But auto racing has definitely lost its luster for me... So much so I walked away from the sport partly in 2002, and completely in 2003.

Cookie cutter cars in most of the premier circuit racing series now, and that even includes F-1 with its ludicrous 2.4 liter everybody-runs-a-V-8 rules, etc. Who would have ever imagined that F-1 cars would have to run multiple races with the same engine or be penalized? Geez, it's supposed to be the pinnacle of engineering innovation, not durability testing! The Indy 500 freefalling like a lead parachute in motorsports stature, and with essentially everyone running the same car (Dallara's), same engine (Honda's), and same tire (Firestone's), with the rules so tight that you can't hardly change a wickerbill...

NASCAR now running pure "template" cars, with the only difference in brand nameplates being the goofy decals that represent grills and headlights... Yep, them thar' are shor' 'nuff lots of them 2-door Ford Fusion's out thar' on the road today, ain't thar', boys? :blink:

And I am going to open up a real can of worms here, but... The *powers that be* are screwing up royally in making racing *too* safe. One of the things that used to draw spectators to racing and elicit their awe was that the guys out there doing it *COULD* easily be killed. A race driver was a bigger than life hero because he was taking such an enormous risk. Now guys hit the fence at 220 MPH and walk back to the pits. Before they had to tread a fine line to keep 'em on the circuit, but now they can throw them away with abandon because they figure they won't be hurt. But now that just makes 'em guys that crash cars, not heroes. I'm all for making the race tracks as safe as you can make 'em, but emasculating the race cars isn't the way to make racing safer, or better. Make the cars so fast that they are hard as hell to drive, and then we'll find out who the really good drivers are.

No wonder sponsors, spectators in attendance, and TV viewing audiences are leaving in droves... No heroes left, and all the drivers speak on TV like they have been to same PR school. Slower and slower cars, with more and more goofy rules to confuse the fan. Less innovation on race cars than on street cars...

It's all bad...

And never again will you hear during Indy 500 qualifying those famous words from Tom Carnegie - "And it's a new track record..."

Last driver to earn that was Arie Luyendyk in 1996, but never again will they let cars lap Indy at over 239 MPH... At least not in my lifetime.

Just my two cents...

Dallara

ps - you wouldn't have wanted to see Janet Guthrie in hotpants... She was one *UGLY* woman!

There's always DTM and ALMS - Audi Motorsports now have a diesel car (that wins) to interest the good 'ol boys from NEKCAR...and those Grand Am cars are even getting more like NASCAR every year....I believe sports car racing is much better than open wheel or NASCAR - you just have to know more about the sport to make it enjoyable.

 

[exskibum]

Good posts from Dallara (VERY interesting read) and from Rad, the latter of whom is dead-on about it bordering on politics. It's not just racing, though. This whole F#&%ing country is consumed by MARKETING and its effects. Doesn't anyone give a shit about substance anymore? Is that all this country is anymore, or all it's becoming? Sad to have seen it when we led the world in nearly everything and now be treated to MARKETING as substance. Get out of college with an engineering degree, and good luck getting a job unless you move to India. Get out of college with a marketing degree, though . . .

 

[tcfjr]

There's always DTM and ALMS - Audi Motorsports now have a diesel car (that wins) to interest the good 'ol boys from NEKCAR...and those Grand Am cars are even getting more like NASCAR every year....I believe sports car racing is much better than open wheel or NASCAR - you just have to know more about the sport to make it enjoyable.

I've ridden my FJR up to Laguna Seca in October for the last two years to watch the ALMS race with my brother-in-law. They run four hours, starting in the late afternoon and ending after dark, and put on a great show. You get a wide mix of cars - Aston's, 'Vette's, lots of Porsche's, the odd Ferrari, Panoz, plus all the prototypes. Definitely not the Nascar/F1 cookie cutter race.

 

[RTSR1/FJR]

"

FUNHOUSE: What's on tap

Jeff Gordon gets you ready for another busy weekend in sports, which is as good a weekend as any for proud gearheads"

What the MSN Sports page shows. Nothing to do with D, but there she is. Front page of the Mpls Tribune Sports mentions Indy, but is there a pic of an Indy car? A methanol motor? The track? Nope, it's Miz Indy herself. IMHO she's doing nothing for the sport or her genders future in it by playing up the open wheel sex kitten angle. What would be the buzz if she looked like Shirley Chisolm?

There's no such thing as bad publicity! Anything that brings attention to motorsports, whether it's scantily clad women (which I like alot!) or whatever brings it, I'm all for it! Now, if we could just find a Hottie to do this for bikes! lol

 

[Dallara]

Good posts from Dallara (VERY interesting read) and from Rad, the latter of whom is dead-on about it bordering on politics. It's not just racing, though. This whole F#&%ing country is consumed by MARKETING and its effects. Doesn't anyone give a shit about substance anymore? Is that all this country is anymore, or all it's becoming? Sad to have seen it when we led the world in nearly everything and now be treated to MARKETING as substance. Get out of college with an engineering degree, and good luck getting a job unless you move to India. Get out of college with a marketing degree, though . . .

Amen, Exskibum! Amen!

And it's not now just that the *Fluff* has become more important than the substance, or product, as it were... It's also that the USA has become much more of a *service economy* than a *production economy*. But more on that in a minute...

Auto racing has slowly but surely become more about the *presentation* and the *show* than it is about the product - i.e. the racing itself. If you look at the two premier open-wheel series in the USA - IRL and Champcar - you can easily see it is the product that is badly flawed. Open-wheel racing in the USA used to eclipse NASCAR, and was on its way to remain the more prestigious of the two, but then the wheels fell off, and too many people got greedy and started considering the series itself a commodity to be sold rather than remembering what bought to the party in the first place - racing each other. Their was a dire time in CART where the team owners, who owed the series, stopped thinking like team owners and racers and started considering themselves competitors to F-1. Next thing ya' know you got Tony George who has a good idea on how to get back on track, but has absolutely no long term plan fo execution, and so the IRL ends up making the exact same mistakes CART did and literally ending up in the same place - clueless as to what the public actually wants.

And it's not just in the US, either. One only needs ot look at F-1 for a classic example of greed and self-idolatry destroying the sport. It has gotten so bad there, particularly due to Max "Moron" Mosley, that the very engine manufacturers in F-1 are just a c*nt hair away from forming their own World Championship Premier F-1-style series... How could anyone be so stupid as to have let that happen?

I don't want to skate tooooooo close to politics here, but... :blink:

Can you imagine what would have happened in World War II if the United States' economy had been more wrapped up with producing lawyers, accountants, doctors, and marketing/advertising executives than engineers and production specialists? It was the USA's incredible production might that enabled us to crank out the materials necessary to successfully fight a world-level conflict on two distant fronts - not the number of lawyers we had.

But look at us now... Two of our major auto manufacturers are all but bankrupt, while the other is literally owned by Germans. The most cash rich auto maker int he world today is Japanese. The USA still holds a lead in computer technology, but yet it offshore sources literally every single component - right to the processors being made in places like Malaysia. Our biggest motorcycle manufacturer builds designs basically hatched in the 1950's, and only have had evolutionary changes (no wonder they call them EVO's! ). One of our two largest tire companies is now owned by the Japanese...

Really the only bright spots for US industry are aviation and aerospace industries.

Have you also noticed how none of th ekids today wants to be an automobile mechanic, or motorcycle mechanic, as a trade? In my day all my friends wanted to try to be a mechanic... Maybe that's why I became one for so many years. It was a badge of honor to be able to bust a motor apart, massage it into being better, and put it back together. Now that is becoming a dying art...

Did you know that there are as many law students in college today as there are lawyers out practicing?

That's a scary thought...

Dallara

 

[radman]

There's no such thing as bad publicity! Anything that brings attention to motorsports, whether it's scantily clad women (which I like alot!) or whatever brings it, I'm all for it! Now, if we could just find a Hottie to do this for bikes! lol

Why just scantily clad? Why not full on nudes, or porn posing, or WHO'S DANICA GONNA DO TONIGHT? GORDON OR STEWART? WATCH THE DEATH MATCH WITH HOT FUCKING BY THE VICTOR TO FOLLOW TONIGHT ON FOX!!! While I like the hotties as much as anyone, we've gotten to the point where it intrudes into every facet of our lives. Publicity at any cost by any means possible is not neccesarily a good thing, as evidenced by the decline of Pro Football, the NBA, Baseball, the Music Industry, and the kids that emulate the people involved. This discussion has evolved into something more than I at first intended, but it all applies. I'm a crappy wordsmith, but I think you all know what I mean.

 

[Groo]

Really the only bright spots for US industry are aviation and aerospace industries.

Petroleum exploration, medical instrumentation, drug development, telecom, IC electronics, and military also don't suck too bad (you could catch a big chunk of military with Lockheed Martin in aviation and aerospace)...

 

[Geezer]

Really the only bright spots for US industry are aviation and aerospace industries.

Petroleum exploration, medical instrumentation, drug development, telecom, IC electronics, and military also don't suck too bad (you could catch a big chunk of military with Lockheed Martin in aviation and aerospace)...

Don't forget IT, data security, encryption, just about all the major server technology is invented in the USA.

 

[fjrchik]

hey, i said the cupcakes were good!

 

[twowheelnut]

hey, i said the cupcakes were good!

Don't forget cheese. Cheese is good, too!

By the way, WRC. Real man's racing. Dem boy's can whup up on anyone.

Alas, I must admit to being a die hard NASCAR fan. Been so since Donny (and Bobby) tried to put the smack down on Cale, back in '79. Yeah, I know, was different back then, but still...

 

[airboss]

jeez, i had to go get the cupcakes i just bought last night and there she is. guess i was more interested in the cupcakes. Leilani looks better in this shot IMO.
we got ho-ho's too. she's not on those though.

Twinkies, ya forgot the Twinkies. No junk food pig-out can be complete without the twinkies.

 

[fjrchik]

ok, marketing 101. who primarily buys groceries? women. Hostess, for whatever reason, has decided to do racing sponsorships. So doesn't it make sense to put the female racers on their packaging, if that's where they are putting their advertisng dollars? The title is Hostess Race Divas and the 3 ladies are wearing the race suits so they are leaning toward "girl power" way more than "sex sells". While NASCAR is the largest sport in America, there is a definate lack of female racers. So if they have to dip into Indy or NHRA, they will because they know their target audience.

In this case, while I don't need to see Danica on my cupcakes box, it is refreshing to see her do something less provocative.