balance sheet. One very key comment from Princess Lesa:
“Our primary focus is on ensuring that the millions of fans who attend our events receive great entertainment value coupled with an unforgettable at-track experience,” ISC Chief Executive Officer Lesa France Kennedy said in a statement.
Great entertainment value? I thought the whole thing was supposed to be about racing? Or at least it was up until Bill Jr. stepped down as the Grand Poobah. The fans I know and hear from go to a race track to see racing, not entertainment. If I wanted to see entertainment, I’d be watching Faux King Brian trying to walk a straight line on a Friday or Saturday night after he’s had some “sodas” at the Chart House. If the I$C financial figures are looking this bad, you can only wonder just how bad the NA$CAR financial figures will be.
Since it doesn’t involve NA$CAR‘S newest marketing craze, we naturally haven’t heard about it, but Milka Duno is on the entry list for the Daytona ARCA race in the #90 car. Several other female drivers are listed such as Alli Owens, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Leilani Munter, and Amber Cope. But because it’s not the QoH, we’re not hearing about it. Somehow I get the feeling that ARCA is trying to ride NA$CAR’s coattails on promoting the QoH and not spending a lot of money on their own promotional efforts. From what I saw of Alli Owens efforts last season, she had a pretty decent season finishing in the Top 20, which was 2 spots higher than one of my old favorites, Ken Schrader. Alli was the top finishing female in ARCA last season.
Frank, a fellow race fan, had a good chuckle over the Magical Media Tour, especially over the Green Initiatives and the advanced technology Faux King Brian and his merry band of misfits were touting. The Rolex Series, which is owned by NA$CAR, uses fuel injection and some of the engines are built by Cup teams. So why the big deal about it taking so long to switch over? The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) runs fuel injection, turbo, and diesel engines. That’s not only green but also uses technology much more advanced that what His Majesty is spouting. And how about the E-85 program the Corvettes in the ALMS have been using without any problems? That’s very green indeed and uses advanced technology. Frank also brought up the crate engines for the Truck Series. Remember how last year Robin Pemberton said that crate engines would not be cost effective? So why are they implementing a crate engine program in the Truck Series if it‘s more expensive than the current engine program? And just who is building these crate engines? Ford? Dodge? Chevy? Or NA$CAR itself? Could this be what Gary Nelson went to do after he quit his job at the super secret R&D center? Thanks Frank for your insights.
Anyone interested in buying a Camry of Today? How about a hauler? How about some pit equipment? There’s an auction coming up on February 16th . If you’re interested, here’s a partial listing and photos of some of what’s available. More items may be added:
I wonder if I’ve got enough in my piggy bank to get me one of those plastic front fascias to put on the Little Brown Truck?
Apparently Doug Reichert’s move from RGM to KUM (Keyed Up Motorsports) had to do with some promises, money, and a stake in owning a part of the team. Doug was originally slated to work with Team Hummer through the Dakar Rally but a little added greasing of the palm came into play so Doug moved. I can think of several out of work crew chiefs who would’ve liked to have had the deal Doug had at RGM and being able to work and draw a paycheck year round. After reading the “specs” on his replacement, Iain Watts, maybe Robby got him a better crew chief.
And in some related news, Robby Gordon probably won’t be racing in May in any Cup events. He’s going to be very busy with his off-road racing, open wheel racing, rally racing and getting into the world of Monster Trucks. Right now, from what I’m hearing, he’ll have a substitute for at least one of the May races, probably the World 600. (15 drivers have applied?) He’s looking into running at the Indy 500, so that explains that. I’m also hearing that Robby may not run the full schedule. The deal he has with BAM Racing is one that if the sponsorship is there for both cars, they’ll both run. If it’s only there for one car, then they run one car. Depending on Robby’s schedule with the other racing he’s doing will determine whether or not he runs in Cup. Robby wants to race competitively and not the start and park deal, so if they don’t have the sponsorship to run a race, they won’t be at the track. Robby plans to be running in the Top 10 or Top 5 with the races they have sponsorship for. Sounds like he’s doing something similar to the Wood Brothers only with two teams instead of one.
After Robby gave his interview on Sirius radio, he had an interesting voicemail. It said “It’s about time you came to your senses”. Now who would leave a voicemail like that? None other than the 2nd Greatest Driver of the 20th Century. AJ Foyt.
I want to thank Bill the Mechanic out in California for this news regarding the Fontana facility:
San Bernardino County is proposing to continue its sponsorship activities at the Auto Club speedway in Fontana, but at a reduced rate. The Board of Supervisors, today will consider an almost three year agreement at $350,000 per year to market the county.
The previous 3 year agreement, which expired in 2009, was for $956,000 per year. This included sponsoring a race, which they will no longer do.
Bill asked an interesting question to go along with it:
Think they'll raise their prices to help make up $600,000 shortage? Or steal one of the team’s sponsors? They can't fill up the place now, won't they need to make up the deficit? How's NA$CRAP going to spin this to make it look good?
They can’t afford to raise ticket prices. They
gouged the season ticket buyers there for
several years and that didn’t work out so well for
the Gilligan and the rest of the crew of the SS
Minnow, I mean Otto Klubb Speedway. That
means they’ll either have to find a sponsor, steal
a sponsor, jack up the parking fees, or stick it to
the folks who camp in the infield. Faux King
Brian and the rest of his hapless henchmen
won’t be able to spin this and make it look good.
Odds are, they won’t address this issue at all.
They’ll do their usual ostrich routine when they
want to avoid an issue.
I wonder if this happens to Mr. Happy when he stops into one of his sponsor’s gas stations?
While the Soviets got a little upset with us using the U-2 back in the days of the Cold War, it’s currently being used as part of the relief effort in Haiti. The U-2 Dragon Lady from Beale AFB, California is being used to photograph large areas of the island so that photos from satellites don’t have to be patched together to assess the damage. By using the U-2, they can get some time-sensitive photos taken and processed a lot quicker than by having to reposition satellites to do the same job. And this isn’t the first time either. The U-2 was used for Hurricane Katrina and the California wildfires to help assess the damage from both those events. It’s pretty amazing the efforts our military goes through to help out in a major disaster. So to the folks at Beale AFB and Robins AFB who are providing support to the U-2 missions, a job well done.
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