What Success Requires

by Tammy

I'm writing, writing, writing these days (as is Simon; both of us are on deadline), so I'm pondering the whys and the how comes of racing more than I'm watching it. (Seriously, there's a moratorium on TV in my house until I finish this second manuscript.) And as I'm creating and exploring a multitude of characters in the racing world, I realized that in racing, as in life, it's not enough to only have talent.

Talent is a baseline, in racing as in any other endeavor. But you've got to have something else that gives you an edge. I heard a story about a guy who almost made it onto The Voice. He's a really good singer, but he had no story to bring tears to the masses. He had no hook. When it comes to selling a mystery, having a hook helps. I pitched myself as "The Dick Francis of auto racing, with a female racecar driver protagonist" (Simon will also claim to be the Dick Francis of auto racing, and I don't disagree. I think we can share the title).

When it comes to racing, you've got to have talent, but you've also got to have (forgive the pun) drive. Motivation, charisma. A story, connections. Something. I remember hearing a not-currently active driver who I'd seen race in years past described as "too nice to make it in racing." That's not to say you have to be a jerk to make it, but, let's be realistic. Willingness to win means a willingness to beat others. At some point, you've got to be willing to step on or bump aside the other guy to take the checkers first.

There's a business axiom that I quote often: Right, fast, or cheap. Pick two. 

Applied to racing, this might turn into something like this: Talent, story, or charisma. Pick two to survive. (By "charisma" I mean both the inner drive to succeed and the ability to communicate that to others.)

Of course, you won't do very well if you only have the story and charisma, but you'll still have opportunities. (Anna Kournikova, anyone? Admittedly, many will claim Danica falls into this category also.)

And if you have all three? Golden. Think Dale Earnhardt. Think Junior, if he can just start winning again (did you see the headlines from this weekend? NASCAR.com didn't feature "Kyle Wins!" No, it featured Stepping Up His Performance because Junior finished second).

Certainly there are different levels of talent among drivers, from so-so, to good, to great, to exceptional. But I also believe that in life many of us have the same talents, but some people will be wildly successful not because of raw talent, but because of undefinable extras. Charisma, hook, lightning strikes. This is true in racing as in publishing as in life.

How To Own Shares in F1

Reports abound this week that CVC Capital Partners, the largest stakeholder of commercial rights to Formula 1 (the largest motorsports game there is), would be listing it for an IPO in Singapore. Reports have the the entity (it's hard to refer to "the commercial rights to a motorsports competition") valued north of $3 billion ... far short of Bernie Ecclestone's suggestion of $10 billion. But plenty of clams.

Two reports: in the Wall Street Journal and on MotorAuthority.

TAMMY: First of all, the money involved in F1 just boggles the mind. Second, genius of the rights-holder, because what fan doesn't want to own a piece of the action? Shoot, NASCAR fans buy a brand of beer or gas or motor oil because it supports their driver. The articles I've seen talk about CVC partners doing the work, but I can't help but wonder if Bernie is behind this, because the man seems to do nothing but figure out how to make more money. (He says he won't sell his 5.3% share of the rights, but that's an awful lot of value to borrow against.)

SIMON: I don't quite get this. Is F1 struggling for cash that it needs to raise more? I don't think so. If you look at how F1 is owned, it hurts the brain. Bernie has shell corporations for different parts that make up the whole. It's very confusing. The thing I don't get even more is why would Bernie would want to do this in the first place. He's had a tight grip on F1 for decades, but if he floats it, he'll lose a certain amount of control and with all those freely available shares, F1 is open to hostile takeover. Many English football teams have fallen a foul of this. Raise a bunch a cash in an IPO and then some billionaire comes in and buys the place out from under them. So it doesn't quite make sense to me and I think it's dangerous. F1 should be privately held so that outside interests don't sweep in to take over and make "changes."

Tam Tam, I like your point about buying a chunk of a sport you love for the sheer feel good factor of just owning a piece of heritage. I've done this. I bought shares in my soccer team a few years ago and wrote off the money, because it wasn't an financial inventment, but an emotional one. However with the F1 IPO being done in Singapore and not New York or London, I don't know what chance any of us have at owning a chunk of F1.

TAMMY: Oooooh, the idea of a hostile takeover getting Bernie out of there makes me giddy. Just think, races in old-school places like the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and not Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. Hmmm, I bet we know people who know people in Singapore. Maybe if we get 300,000 of our closest friends, we could run things?

What do you all think? Will you buy a piece of Formula 1?

The French Are Back!!!

By Simon

On Friday, I mentioned I was saddened that F1 has dropped from its calendar countries that have a strong motor racing culture—France is one of those countries. The French Grand Prix was dropped a few years ago, but it looks as if Bernie Ecclestone has struck a new deal and the French GP is back.

However, instead of returning to Magny Cours which has been the home of the French GP for the last twenty years, it will take place at Paul Ricard, which was the on and off home to the French GP from 1970-1990. All sounds pretty fine and dandy until you take a look at the track. Regardless of whether you use to the long or short circuits, Paul Ricard has massive straights. The Mistral Straight is 1.8 km long! This makes Paul Ricard a mega fast track, but also one of those tracks where it’s easy to run out of revs, so it’ll be interesting how the gearing will go.

That said, Paul Ricard is a popular F1 test track, so I’m guessing it’ll have few surprises for most of the teams. It’ll certainly be interesting to see a modern F1 car turning wheels there again compared to the late 80’s.

Either way, Paul Ricard is a balls out track that'll hard on engines, which means it should make for a great race. :-)

Road Atlanta Research

by Tammy

I'm deep into writing about a race. And not just any race, but an epic: Petit Le Mans. I turned my office upside down looking for my notes from racing school, which I attended there in 2006 (didn't find them, dammit!). And then I did a bunch of Googling.

Here's what I have to report, for the second time. It's really amazing what you can find on the Internet.

First of all, here's a lap of Road Atlanta in a Porsche, driven by my friend and favorite, Patrick Long.

Then there's a night lap in a Corvette, driven by Tommy Milner. Yowzer, how do you like 130m.p.h. through Turn 12?!

Imagine me watching both of those over and over and over again, counting shifts, squinting at the mph and gearing display on the Corvette video. And just enjoying the music of the V8.

Finally, for your track reference ... did you know there's a wikipedia (of sorts) for tracks? Yeah, trackpedia.com. So I spent some quality time on the Road Atlanta page there, as well.

Don't you love research? And YouTube?! Any favorite videos to share?

Racing, Politics, and Innovation

For this Discussion Friday, I thought we'd cover a couple timely and possibly controversial topics.

First topic: the DeltaWing racecar. Originally a concept for the new IndyCar chassis this year, the revolutionary design has found new life thanks to Dan Gurney, Duncan Dayton (Highcroft Racing), and Don Panoz (ALMS founder). They're taking this baby to Le Mans. And that should be really interesting.

(Photo from deltawing.com)

The car (wing?) has been tested in a variety of locations, on a variety of tracks, and even in a variety of weather conditions. It hasn't flown yet (I mean that literally, which is good). It seems to turn corners. But it also inspires ... humor. (Many refer to it as the DeltaWang, because, I mean, look at it.)

SIMON: Yeah, I saw this news piece the other week and I'm a little skeptical over this design. It looks more in keeping with a landspeed car of the 50's (a la Campbell's Bluebird). This year's Indy cars have come out of the ugly factory, but I think they're better than the "Wing" design. I'm intrigued how it will corner and where the downforce will come from. Personally, I can't see how a narrow front track will work. It's always been the wider the better. I raced a car that went from a narrow to a wide track (about 4" wider) and it made a big difference. Where's the designer of this thing? I have questions.

TAMMY: My husband is a mechanical engineer, and he's never had a positive thing to say about the Wing. Since I trust him, I don't trust the car. It's really good as the subject of jokes, though. I think Le Mans is going to be really, really interesting.

Second topic: Bahrain. This weekend, Formula 1 races (after much discussion, grandstanding, and playing chicken) in Bahrain. Some of the natives (not sure how many, but they know how to burn things) are not happy about this. These are protesters against the current leadership, who view F1's arrival as tacit political support. Groups associated with F1 (the FIA, which is F1's leadership, and FOTA, the Formula One Teams Association) played "not it" over a decision last week, and the end result seems to be both sides shrugging and saying, "well, they don't think it's a problem, so let's go."

Should they?

SIMON: I understand why F1 is getting some flack over this, but people are displaying some selective memory here. Here's something to consider, why isn't anyone complaining about the Chinese Grand Prix over their human rights issues and I don't remember too many people making comment over the South African Grand Prix during the apartheid years. It might be in poor taste, but so is baconnaise.

On a personal level, I've not liked some of the changes in where F1 races. Bernie has ditched some great motor racing countries for places that will attract more TV and money and that's a little sad. For me, Barahain isn't a go-to destination. It's nice to have a race in that region, but who is going to attend? F1 should go where the fans are.

TAMMY: I'm all for racing as a positive statement about the success or resilience of a country or people, but F1 is a sport for the wealthy, like the rulers of Bahrain who built a fancy track to bring the racing. I don't know what I'd do if I were a team owner or driver, with lots of money already invested in arrangements to be there. But at least those folks have security. Someone like Will Buxton (on-the-ground reporter for SPEED) only gets some extra pairs of underpants. (I paraphrase his tweets, but will note: he made it clear SPEED gave him the choice of going or not.) Bottom line? I wouldn't go, purely for safety's sake. I wouldn't want my sport making a political statement. But obviously, I'm not Bernie....

What do you all think?

Formula Ford, A Love Story

By Simon

I’m very excited. Formula Ford is going through a change this year. Formula Ford was introduced in 1967 and was designed a breeding ground for drivers entering the sport. It’s open formula which means manufacturers can interpret the specifications as they want, although the engines are the same (within reason). This year, the cars are getting a new engine and the chassis specification has been given new rules.

Formula Ford is what I raced when I was a wee one and it’s a formula I have a lot of love for. The reason why is that the cars were real racing cars, both complex and
simple. They came with real racing gearboxes, tires, layout and engine—and it was adjustable. I could change ride heights, gear ratios, suspension geometry. You name it, I could do it. It’s a reason I like single seaters. I understand their sheer elegance.

Anyway, here’s a short video of what to expect this year. Yummy.

Thoughts on GPLB

by Tammy

Long Beach's days in the sun (and one in the pouring rain) have come and gone, and the racing world is starting to pull out of Southern California. If I didn't already, I'd know the race was over because of the increase in the number of private small jets taking off from the Long Beach airport between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.

Surprisingly, even the appearance of F18s taking off from the airport (30 min before scheduled flyover time) isn't unusual; we get those every weekend (the jets, not the flyovers--or maybe it's that they do flyovers at my house EVERY weekend).

The race weekend was short (rain-shortened this year), packed with storylines, and full of amazing racing. I assume all of you watching will agree?

First, the ALMS race. I ran into Doug Fehan, program manager for Corvette Racing in the paddock on Saturday morning and asked him how everyone would deal with so little on-track time before the green flag (maybe 45 min of wet running Friday morning and about a lap of puddles during qualifying; that was it). Fehan assured me they weren't too worried, as "Corvette is usually pretty good right off the truck." Boy, was he right. Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner in the #4 carried a commanding lead to the checkers, and even the troubled #3 (missing a hood after a first-lap incident) almost held on to the podium, ultimately finishing fourth.

The battles were fun to watch, the passing was well done, and there was only one full-course caution. Well done, boys! (The photo above was taken from my vantage point in one of the apartment towers overlooking the course, looking down onto the back straight and around to the hairpin.)

Then the main event.

The story of the weekend for IndyCar was of course the engine changes for all teams running Chevrolet motors, and associated 10-grid-position penalties. Most drivers took it philosophically, as growing pains for the new car and engine packages they're working with this year. And in the end, Chevy drivers needn't have worried: they filled seven of the top ten spots, including the top step of the podium (go, my fantasy pick, Will Power!). The IndyCar race featured passing, wrecks (but nothing drastic), fuel strategy, pit lane strategy, post-race penalties, a roadblock in the hairpin as the second half of the field tried to take the checkers, and some unbelievable driving (I'm lookin' at you, Simon Pagenaud). A little something for everyone.

And I even got to see the cars up close (pictures above and below). I still think they're weird looking, for instance, that back wheel is only nominally "open." What do you all think? And what did you think about the weekend's racing?