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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| RACING
SCENE by Tim Kennedy |
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Indy 500 Coverage |
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Los Angeles, CA. - Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton, radio
sports talk show host on XTRA 690 AM from 3:00-7:00 p.m Monday
through Friday, featured 11 newsmaker telephone calls to racing
personalities prior to the 2003 Indianapolis 500. The Tuesday,
May 20 to Friday, May 23 question and answer format interviews
lasted from six to nine minutes each as in prior years. Racing
fan Hamilton asked interesting questions as usual. Even
knowledgeable racing fans could learn interesting facts by listening
to these Hamilton interviews. In order the interviewees were (Tuesday)-driver Alex Barron, car owner Bobby Rahal and driver Billy Boat; (Wednesday)-rookie driver Dan Wheldon and senior Associated Press motor sports writer Mike Harris; (Thursday)-ex-driver and current Speed Channel TV racing analyst Derek Daly, driver Kenny Brack, and RPM2Night/ESPN.com open-wheel racing analyst Robin Miller, and (Friday)-polesitter and two-time defending Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, driver Robby Gordon discussing his IRL Indy 500 and NASCAR Charlotte 600 double duty, and ex-driver/TV analyst Sam Posey. Hamilton was on a first name basis with most of the interviewees from past meetings or conversations with them. The drivers and racing writers/broadcasters were excellent speakers. They all had some interesting insights about the Indy 500 this year. When asked to pick a winner, Daly named Gil deFerran and Miller picked Kenny Brack. Chalk one up for Daly in the Nostradamus department. Winner deFerran seemed to be genuinely awestruck and speechless in victory lane. He seemed to relish the Borg-Warner Trophy, which carries a bas-relief bust of each Indy 500 winner and weighs 92 pounds. Each winner takes home a smaller replica of the trophy. Now deFerran will have his own mini-Borg-Warner Trophy just as his friend and teammate Castroneves has in his trophy collection. TV TIME: Castroneves had a busy, hectic pace during the week leading up to the Sunday, May 25 Indy 500, in which he finished a close second to deFerran. Helio's quest for his unprecedented third consecutive Indy 500 victory fell short of his goal by a mere 0.2990 seconds. On Monday, May 19 Helio flew to Los Angeles and appeared as a guest on a pair of TV talk shows-"The Best Damn Talk Show Period" on FSN at 8:00 p.m PDT and the "Jimmy Kimmel Show" on ABC at 12:05 a.m PDT. Helio was relaxed, affable, informative and humorous on both shows. On Wednesday, May 21 Helio spent 30 minutes as co-host of the ESPN2 show RPM2Night with John Kernan track-side. Helio also got air-time at the Thursday, May 22 Carburetion Day one-hour practice session and pit stop competition, in which his Penske team finished second Buddy Rice's Eddie Cheever Red Bull Team. Helio got more TV air-time at the 500 Festival Parade in downtown Indianapolis at the desk with hosts Bob Jenkins and Jerry Punch. Helio then rode in one of the 33 convertible cars that carried the Indy 500 drivers on the parade route. Helio also showed his affable personality at the 500 Victory Celebration Banquet Monday, May 26 that was televised on ESPN as usual on a one-day tape delayed basis. Winner deFerran was a featured guest on the Late Show with David Letterman CBS telecast Tuesday, May 27. He was polite and surprised by some of Letterman's zany questions or comments. Gil responded twice by saying, "I'll take that as a compliment." Letterman, a co-owner of Team Rahal and an avowed racing fan, said he meant his remarks as compliments. The overnight television ratings for the Indianapolis 500 and Charlotte 600 were solid as usual in Los Angeles. They beat most other televised sports May 25 in the Los Angeles market and nationally. The Indianapolis 500 telecast was down a bit in market share and the Charlotte 600 telecast was up a bit, but Indy again edged Charlotte for most viewers. The "Tradin' Paint-Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya" test laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Formula One 2.66 mile road course was televised live on Speed Channel with Bob Varsha and Ralph Sheheen handling the mikes. The two drivers traded cars and drove unfamiliar cars. The live broadcast from 10:00-11:30 a.m PDT on Wednesday, June 11 was cut to one-hour for the 4:00-5:00 p.m repeat broadcast. Both drivers had their parents present for the historic ride swapping. Montoya ran a 1:37 lap in Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo road course car. Gordon then ran Montoya's 2002 Williams-BMW, which Montoya tested earlier June 11 at 1:17. Juan ran six quick laps in Jeff's Monte Carlo. He said the car was not very forgiving. Gordon ran seven laps and went from 1:20.48 on his first hot lap to 1:18.56, 1:17.29 on his fifth lap, and a best lap of 1:16.46. Montoya only ran the Williams-BMW 1.3 seconds quicker than Gordon on June 11. With the 70% of the pole speed requirement in Formula One, it took a 1:17 to make the 2002 United States Grand Prix on the same IMS road course. The slowest qualifier in the last F-1 race at Indy ran a 1:13.8. However, that time was attained with an aggressive setup and more rubber on the track from a full field of 20 F-1 cars practicing for two days. The track was "green" for Montoya and Gordon on June 11 after recent rain. Montoya qualified fourth in the same car at the 2002 USGP last September with a best lap of 1:11. Veteran F-1 observers, including Montoya's Williams crew, were impressed with Gordon's feedback and racy performance. Clearly, Jeff enjoyed his F-1 "fun-day" at the famed brickyard. If he wanted to pursue a Formula One career Jeff would most likely be a quick learner and a contender in short order. Jeff was intrigued by the F-1 electronically-advanced steering wheel, the launch-control acceleration, traction control and world-class braking. In fact, he said his neck was sore and added that F-1 drivers must have strong neck muscles. Both drivers made some mistakes as expected during their tests in unfamiliar cars. They enjoyed their runs, but said they did not want to compete in each other's series. Gordon said it would be tough getting the additional speed needed to be competitive. He also said he couldn't imagine competing with the other 19 F-1 cars on the track at the same time, and F-1 drivers race in the rain. |
