SO as you've no doubt seen, a whole lot of nothing on Furious Wedge for a good while, it seems as though both myself and Ron have been taken down by a little something called "day jobs." No need for details, but lets just say we've both been real busy. Luckily if you follow me on Twitter you've noticed I'm very much alive and chatting about racing, Olympics and more.
But in that time something important has happened for IndyCar racing; for me it started with seeing the new Versus promos for the season. For you who don't understand just how awesome it is; all you need to do is think about previous promos during the latter ABC years... (before, not now, because currently they're letting IZOD help them make good promos). ABC used to give the series 15 second promos that went "Danica, Danica Danica.. oh and Danica this Saturday on ESPN the Ocho"
Versus puts some serious quality and effort into their spots, not only is this new IndyCar one full of good footage, but the music behind it is great, just like in Versus overall channel piece from the previous year. Neither of those pieces will annoy anyone, there's nothing trendy about it, its just good, informative and visually and audibly grabbing. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, check the videos above and below.
So you take that plus the other commercials IZOD is throwing around, and if you ignore the crazy people on the messageboards (and Robin Miller) who only try to find things to complain and whine about; you realize.. holy crap its racing season. Sure blogathon usually is the overall racing season kickoff, but personally it goes dull between then and the start of IndyCar for obvious reasons of boredom that come out other racing.
Then Brazil turns out to be one of the most entertaining race weekends in a long time, and surely one of the best track premieres. While I've been twittering like crazy about all of this (follow me, link on right) if you haven't already, search you tube and the internets and you can find all kinds of great videos from fans who never left the stands, cheered mightily for Vitor... and gave a golf clap for winner Will Power. The only thing the race was missing was half naked women dancing in the streets (which it may very well have had, but just never made it to TV).
We had the most diverse set of teams and drivers in our Top 10 for not only qualifications, but race results as well. Sure Penske won the race, but if you can't find a way to be happy about Will Power winning who just months ago broke his back, you may have problems.Vitor made the podium, there was tons of passing, Simona de Silvestro led legitimately and kept it during some green flag laps, we got rain, we got dust, we got hail, we got slipping and sliding, and we got all kinds of good strategy, none of which involved a fuel knob...
To make matters better, Indycar.com's Race Control actually worked for the majority of us. I could flawlessly see in-car shots of many drivers, and track cams, and see it right next to timing and scoring... last year I said they should copy or steal from A1GP; and while they didn't do it directly, they definitely seemed to take a cue from how well A1GP's stuff worked. Sure there's some kinks to work out, but at this point, it definitely looks like kinks, not system wide failure that was had in the past 2 years.
So now the season is officially underway, IZOD is putting giant banners in Times Square, we're seeing TV commercials everywhere from IZOD, ABC and VERSUS all, the ratings are going up, the on-track action is great, and DirecTV and Versus have made up... seriously people, if you aren't happy about racing season... you're probably a communist.
