Some Random Comments

 Belated congratulations are in order for Indycar for holding a great event at the Milwaukee Mile. There was a lot of advertising (billboards, radio spots, etc) in the months leading up to the race-something that can't be said for past years. Ticket prices are good. My south terrace seat was $35. I'm sure the higher rows in the main grandstand are better, but for someone on a limited budget, I'm 100% happy with my seats. The infield carnival is a great idea. More activities for more fans. I wasted no time getting to my car after Ryan Hunter-Reay's victory donuts, but I was still surprised at how quickly I got onto the highway and got back home.

After their performances at Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Iowa, I'm concerned how dominant the Andretti cars will be at the season's remaining oval races. The upcoming road course season should be interesting, too. Looking back on the 6 road course races in the book for 2013, three were won by Honda-powered cars. Hopefully that parity will return shortly.

This season has seen wins by the Foyt, KV, Coyne, and Schmidt teams. Think about that for a minute. It wasn't that long ago that the Penske/Ganassi juggernaut dominated absolutely. Those two teams combined for all but one win in 2009, for example.

The next Indycar race will be held July 7th at Pocono. That sounds pretty strange at first blush. Cursory research reveals, however, that I only have my youth to blame. Indy cars ran there from 1971 through 1989, conveniently running the last race right before I became a hardcore race fan. In the intervening years, Pocono has always stuck in my mind as that strange triangle track where the drivers actually shift going down the main straightaway. The fact that it seemed nearly invisible made it more strange-I believe the June Cup race was one of the last to be regularly shown live every season, plus summer months = less time to watch 4 hours of racing every weekend...

It actually makes a lot of sense to run Indy cars at Pocono. It has long straightaways, three dissimilar turns, little banking, and a massively wide front stretch. It's like Indianapolis. If Indianapolis had only 3 turns, had a super-wide straightaway (how wide is it, exactly? Google wasn't forthcoming with an answer for me), and was in the middle of nowhere. Um, Ok, so Pocono is its own animal. Which is good. Its features (like Indianapolis') might not be conducive to great stock car racing, but they should be perfect for Indy cars.

In any event, keep watching this spot! And please check out my Kickstarter for something racing-related!

It's Time

One day in May some time back, while daydreaming about the Indy 500, I started a search. I looked everywhere I could think of and put Google to the test. I never found what I was looking for: Cool racing shirts. I found a few, and I found some that were 'OK', but nothing that made me excited to spend $25 plus tax, plus shipping, etc. Several ideas came to mind that I thought would make cool shirts-the kind of stuff I would actually buy. Interesting, thoughtful designs. Rejection of the existing race shirt conventions. Celebration of what racing is. Recognition of racing's heritage.

Then it hit me. Why shouldn't I design shirts? And have them made? Surely I can't be the only one looking for this kind of thing. I reached out to friends and professional graphic artists and got some validation for my thinking. Then I started working on designs and the technical questions that came up. Finally, now, my ideas are coming to life.

I decided to begin the project with a Kickstarter campaign. Click the link to back the Flat Into One project. See the site for details, but basically if you back my project you will get a t-shirt of the above image (well, a larger, higher-resolution, cleaner version of that image). This color combination will be available only to my Kickstarter supporters.

Other shirts will follow in the near future. There will be shirts with themes for what I'm interested in: Racing, race cars, modern race cars, vintage race cars, technology, tools, photography, model cars, and so on.

I am very, very excited about this enterprise and the possibilities it holds. If you are, too, please contribute to the Kickstarter campaign linked above, and spread the word to anyone else who might like what I have to offer.