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Racing Awaits Its '08 Classic
8/4/2008They're about to light the flame to open the Summer Olympics and people are anticipating more action from the Games than China has Terra Cotta Warriors.
We have come to expect much from each quadrennial colossus. Eternal moments: USA ices USSR in hockey at the height of cold-war tensions. Heroes to take a place alongside Bruce Jenner, Dorothy Hamill, Mary Lou Retton, Carl Lewis and Rulon Gardner.
It has, however, already been The Year of Sports Classics.
The New York Giants' Super Bowl upset of the undefeated New England Patriots. Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open on a bum knee and a broken leg. Rafael Nadal dethroning Roger Federer at Wimbleton in perhaps the greatest match in tennis history. The American League spreading the news one more time in Yankee Stadium in a 15-inning All-Star headliner.
I'm still waiting for Racing's '08 Great.
Kyle Busch, Tony Schumacher, Scott Dixon and Scott Pruett have been The Men . . . but where's The Moment?
It didn't come from the 50th Daytona 500, which would have celebrated a Kevin Harvick-Mark Martin type finish. Dixon's dominating Month of May put paid to the Indy 500's bid. NASCAR at the Brickyard was a snorehundred. And please - please! - don't try to fit Motegi into the template three paragraphs above.
Motorsports must have its moment in what looks to be 12 months that will be considered as historically significant in sports as 1968 was in American society.
I'm wondering who might do it . . . and where?
In the final round of the U.S. Nationals, John vs. Ashley Force or Tommy Johnson Jr. against Melanie Troxel, would work.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. still has another try at Talladega.
Busch makes every lap look like an Indiana Jones adventure.
Jeff Gordon's celebrity status and Tony Stewart's controversial side always position them one turn away from drawing people in along the lines of the latest Batman movie.
Bristol could be a Midsummer Night's Dream for Kasey Kahne or Jimmie Johnson.
A Sprint Cup championship front flip by Carl Edwards off the starter's stand at Homestead has possibilities.
Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal and A.J. Foyt IV might go three-wide coming to the checkered flag at Chicagoland.
I hope some racer, some where, gets it done. If, in a year of classics, Racing '08 is best remembered for Dancing With the Stars, well, Helio, we've got a problem.
An Olympic-size one.
[ Next column: August 18 ]
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(I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.)
BackAbout I.N. Sider
I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.