Commentary: Monday after the Long Beach Grand Prix is a little more blue than usual

April 18, 2011 By Scott Keller

Monday was a double whammy for race fans all over Southern California. Not only was today “tax day”, but it was also the first day back to work for a lot of us that spent the last three days taking in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. It’s not that I have a case of the Mondays (you can get your ass kicked for saying something like that), but Monday seemed a bit more blue after spending three days hearing, seeing, and smelling race cars blasting down Shoreline.

The highlight of the weekend without a doubt was seeing Mike Conway get his first IZOD INDYCAR victory, and in impressive fashion. Conway, also known as “Conweezy”, is one of those super-quick guys that has done a significant amount of damage to race cars over the last couple of yea

rs. I’m not talking about “EJ Viso” kinds of numbers, but  Conway has had a number of brain-fade moments, and a really scary crash at Indy last year that wasn’t his fault. That crash severely injured Conway who sat out the remainder of the 2010 season following that accident.

But Conway drove brilliantly on Sunday, climbing back to the front after early trouble left him deep in the field. And instead of brain-fade, Conway show patience that paid off. When it counted, Conway pounced on a late race restart to pass two cars in a single lap and never looked back.

But not all was rosy on Sunday. Helio Castroneves ruined a possible win for Team Penske when he accidentally dumped Will Power on a restart going into turn one.  Will Power was reportedly “speechless” after the race, and it may be a while before Helio and Will get together for a round of golf.    And I’d say it will be cold day in Palm Springs before Helio, Will, and Scott Dixon decide to go jet skiing on the weekends.

Other feel good moments, ranging from large to small, included a win in Indy Lights by Derek Daly’s son, Conor, a fantastic finish by James Hinchcliffe (4th), noticing Randy Johnson poking around with his cameras shooting pictures in the paddock, and seeing Paul Tracy sign his hat and hand it to an adoring fan in the paddock, a fan who happened to be in a wheelchair.

It was also neat to see how many young fans were clamoring for autographs during on Friday afternoon when practice was over. IndyCar needs more young fans to catch “the bug”.

Saturday was a mixed bag for me. IndyCar qualifying seemed like it was pretty wild, but I was watching from the grandstands, and the timing and scoring data just wasn’t available enough to know what was going on. I think the people watching the live timing and scoring (without video) at home probably had a better idea than the fans in the stands about what was going on. A minor glitch in a fantastic weekend, I might add.

By the time the American Le Mans race started I realized that my sunscreen wasn’t working, and I was burnt to a crisp.  But the 120-minute spring race featured some great battles in GT, and was shaping up to be an exciting finish.  Unfortunately a late race crash spoiled the fun. Joey Hand and Dirk Müller won the GT class in their BMW, but Müller was being chased down quickly by Jan Magnussen in the Corvette.   The late race crash forced a finish under caution, and spoiled what might have been.

The showing by the LMP classes were disappointing, quite honestly.  The prototypes used to be the icing on the GT cake for the ALMS, but now they are more like the sprinkles with less than a handful of P1 and P2 cars making the show.   And while the Dyson and Muscle Milk entries are impressive, it’s clear that the Sebring honeymoon is over for the ALMS, and now the series is going to have to limp along without a real prototype class in competition for 2011.

It is a shame, because their GT racing is absolutely phenomenal.   Risi is just a little off with their new car, but when (not if) they get their 458 Italia hooked up, it’s going to be a four-way dog fight in GT that will also include BMW, Corvette, and the Flying Lizard squad.

On a final note – that Muscle Milk LMP1 machine with the Aston Martin V-12 is a thing of beauty.  Not only does it look great, but hearing that Aston spinning up at full song, roaring down shoreline was enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

So with that, I’ll leave you with a picture of the magnificent machine.  I can’t wait until next year already.