Although Both of the Swedes’ goth Hosed!
Hmm, why did that ‘Ol Robin Trower song Day of
the Eagles come to mind following the day’s second, Delayed race at Belle Isle, Eh?
First and foremost, the most important thing is
that Felix Rosenqvist is miraculously Ok! As that was a Nasty, Scary Shunt, where
you could audibly hear on the In Car Camera replay the throttle going Full Stop
up against thou Rev limiter as he Speared the Wall with his racecar’s Nosecone,
Shit!
As NBC Colour Commentator (Townsend) T-Bell’ commented
that Rosenqvist was going between 80-90mph before going to Zero in about five
feet when Spearing thru the Six rows of Bundled tyres and Slamming into the
Concrete retaining Wall! Hitting it so Hard that he turned over the 7,000lb retaining
wall portion, going Skywards before the Catch Fencing Stopped Him!
As the Red Flag period would last for nearly 80
minutes, with Pitlane reporter Marty Snyder claiming it lasted 1hr 19mins and
then next said it was 1hr 18mins, which most reports claimed the latter before
resuming racing.
As the new
replacement concrete barrier section naturally didn’t want to mesh with the
original barrier, no matter how they tried massaging it with a Forklift…
And even with the 80mins pause, I felt the
entire race from start to finish was frenetic! Whilst I thoroughly expected Big
NBC to switch us over to CNBC, since it was apparent the race wouldn’t resume
until after the end of the Broadcast’s original scheduled ending of 1PM Pacific
as we approached the top of the hour.
Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when NBC
decided to move the U.s. Olympic (Swimming) Trials coverage to CNBC instead, and
even more surprised when the IndyCar race resumed and NBC went an entire 78mins
Nonstop without a single Gory Commercial break, Huh?
And I’ll admit I was rootin’ for Marcus ericsson to do the
unlikely and find a way around Will Power, even crossing four sets ‘O fingers.
But obviously I had No idea it would happen under the most Bizarre circumstances.
And I broke out in laughter after DJ WillyP’s Chevrolet engine wouldn’t refire!
Which I did feel momentarily Gutted for Power, but reveled in the fact that
Ericsson would claim his maiden IndyCar victory!
As I’m Not gonna lament the Stupidness of
IndyCar going Red Flag for Romain Grosjean’s crash with seven and a half
minutes remaining. Other than Knock this Shit Off IndyCar! We Don’t wanna be
RASSCAR’, as what’s next? Green-White Checkers? Rucky Dawg Wave-rounds, Oh
Never Mind! As sometimes you just have to finish under a Yellow Flag, ‘Nuff
Said, Righto?
But then Big NBC Screwed the pooch! As Leigh
Diffey warned us before the last lap, that we’d have to scramble over to the
NBC Sports App, SHIT! To “See” the Podium celebrations and Post Race wrap-up,
meaning we Didn’t get to See Ericsson’s Jubilation of winning his maiden IndyCar
race, with the Swede’s last win being in Germany in 2013!
Nor did NBC reep the results of Will Power’s
Fiery Post Race tirade, for which this time I feel he was rightly Justified,
but at least he didn’t get caught on camera giving Race Control the Double Bird
Salute!
As I’d preferred the
race being shown on CNBC so we could have All easily seen the Podium interviews
and Post Race “fireworks” instead! Although I suppose there was either some
sort of contractual obligations for staying on Network TV, or simply going for
better ratings?
Meanwhile, Felix Rosenqvist was announced to be
Ok without any major Injuries but was being transferred to a Downtown Detroit
Hospital for further evaluation and Imaging and was kept Overnight for Observation.
While Arrow McLaren SP publicly Absolved Felix and Chevy of any involvement in
the crash, in what apparently was a One-time Mechanical Failure, while the team
drafted in former driver Oliver Askew as Rosenqvist’s replacement for Sunday’s second
race.
Naturally, the weekend’s Best News was that
Rosenqvist was released from Hospital sometime Sunday morning, going back to
Indianapolis and seemingly escaped his Mega’ Accident with only Bruising and
Swelling, with apparently nothing Broken, which is absolutely Amazing!
Askew who’s now racing for Andretti Autosport
in IMSA’s LMP3 category was already on hand at Belle Isle, which somebody
during Sunday’s very Disjointed Television Broadcast mentioned He was there as
a Driving coach for Andretti Autosport’s Indy Lights team. And presumably AMSP wanted to run it’s second car to keep it
firmly in the Leaders Circle Prize payout?
As Askew had his Helmet with him, but borrowed Juan
Pablo Montoya’s McLaren Driving Suit and a pair of CGR’s Alex Palou’s Boots
before jumping back into an IndyCar to race on a track he’d never driven
before!
Then I
elected to Tune-in to Saturday’s Sports
Car race, which leads us to the final part of this riveting No Fenders tome, choosing
to listen via IMSA Radio to the day’s Weathertech SportsCar Championship event following
IndyCar. Featuring just the DPi and GT Daytona classes, with the two GT Le Mans
Corvette C8.R’s running for “fun,” in what essentially was a marketing exercise.
As former Haas F1 driver Kevin Bacon’ Magnussen
scored his first Prototype’s Pole for Chip Ganassi Racing, (CGR) leading his
entire first stint before handing off the #01 Cadillac to Renger van der Zande.
With the Dutchman holding off the second place Whelen Engineering Cadillac, giving GM a 1-2 in Detroit and the Dane’ (Magnussen) claiming his first IMSA Sports Car victory, along with Ganassi’s first W’ of the season.
