As Come on IndyCar Fans, we’re Better than this…
IndyCar Fans certainly are aware of the vengeful,
despicable and disgusting attacks directed towards Callam Ilott once again on
social media following the conclusion of Laguna Seca’s season finale IndyCar
race.
As the maelstrom once again swirls around another
on-track incident involving Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) teammates Callum Ilott
and Agustin Canapino, and JHR’s desires for Canapino to claim one of the final
remaining IndyCar Leaders Circle prize fund payouts for next year.
“Read”, Err listened to a very good article by
IndyStar’s Motorsports Beat reporter Nathan Browne on the whole situation and
came away with a few thoughts upon it.
First ‘n foremost, the team never told Ilott He
couldn’t pass His teammate. Instead, Riccardo Juncos just told Ilott’s Engineer
to remind Him to respect Canapino’s position on-track regarding JHR’s need to
secure it’s second Leaders Circle payout.
According to Browne, since I never heard
anything when listening to the race on IndyCar Radio. But perhaps I’d taken
another “Potty” break during the endless Full course Cautions, Ci?
Apparently the JHR duo were running P4-5 with
Canapino ahead of Ilott on the lap-74 restart, when Ilott lined-up His teammate
and made a textbook pass on the outside of Canapino and left the Argentine room
when completing His pass for what potentially could have been a race win…
Yet Canapino apparently got loose when clipping
the rumble-strip, wiggled and then Hit Ilott’s left rear tyre with His right front
wing, leaving Canapino with a broken wing and Ilott with monor rear damage!
Seeing Ilott immediately drop two places
behind, and losing another two before scoring a fifth place finish, whilst
Canapino slowly dropped backwards – finishing 14th. But claimed the coveted
Leaders Circle prize by finishing 21st Overall in the Leaders Circle standings,
before All Hell broke loose again on Social Media!
Look I get it, being a passionate fan, which I
myself am, and have most certainly written many stupid things upon No Fenders
over the years. But it’s a far different thing to make threats alluding to physical
Harm!
I have been very impressed with Augustin’s
rookie IndyCar campaign, especially since the Touring Car Ace had no Open Wheel
Racing experience,along with never racing on an Oval before, and is my rookie
Of the Year!
While I’ve always been impressed with Riccardo Junco’s
story of becoming an IndyCar team owner, and this has been one of the “little”
teams I root for…
Yet I came away feeling slightly annoyed with
Riccardo whom tended to insinuate in the article that the incident was completely
Ilott’s fault, implying He doesn’t like having a driver going for wins! And
that He wanted to Slow down Ilott instead. And that there appears to be some “Bad
Blood” between the team, Canapino and Ilott.
But the part of the story I really didn’t like
was Riccardo noting how He holds options upon both drivers which don’t expire
until December 15th. Meaning He could leave Callam hanging in the
breeze by dropping the talented Englishman after the music stops for remaining 2024
IndyCar seats…
Yet to Riccardo’s credit, He did say He’ll wait until He calms down and watches the videotape of the incident, which sounds to Mwah like it was clearly Canapino’s fault! Since as far as I can tell, Ilott didn’t break the golden rule of Not taking out your teammate! Although it sounds like both Riccardo and Augustin are claiming that Ilott surprised the Argentinian driver…
