Two for the Road is a hangout for mystery writers Tammy Kaehler and Simon Wood to chat, reminisce, gossip, speculate and argue about all things motorsport.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Racing Interrupted

by Tammy

The big event of the weekend was to have been the Daytona 500. Instead it was rain.

The 500 is being run on Monday, because they were rained out, prompting plenty of sportsracing fans on Facebook to post many variations of the image on the right (I saw prototype and motorcycle pictures also, but of course, this was my favorite). See, sportscars race on road courses and in the rain. That's part of what makes it fun (and I think the drivers would mostly call it that).

I realize that cars can't race in the rain on ovals. I'm not saying they should. It's really just that the issue of being rained out calls ovals into question for me ... again.

We'll have to wait until Monday to see who wins the Daytona 500 this year. I doubt it'll be Danica (but these days, I wouldn't ever bet against Tony Stewart), but it will be interesting to see if she can hold her own with the big boys. She crashed hard in a preliminary race on Thursday, came back to take pole for the Nationwide race on Friday, then was bumped at the wrong spot during that race by her teammate. Someone pointed out that it's a lot easier to go fast alone on the track in a fast car (aka, her pole run) than it is to stay out of trouble in a pack of 43 cars for a full race. That's true. Watching the Nationwide race, I thought she looked like she was learning with every lap.

So we'll just see what she and the rest of the drivers can do. Once it stops raining. Or maybe we won't see, because we'll be at work and unable to watch.

What do you all think? Ovals? Worth it?

1 comment:

  1. Can't say I'm a huge oval fan, but they're great for spectators because you can see everything.

    I hate when there are rain delays but having raced in a total downpour where visibility was about a foot, I can understand it.

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