Senna, Sutil, Marco, Busch, Kahne: Specific "Holy Race Day" Review!

    Well Well Well…. Another sublime, controversial, thrilling and teeth grinding Memorial Race Weekend!! So instead of writing about ten pages of reviews (I should just record myself for 15 minutes, but that doesn’t work on here haha: and I've had almost zero sleep throughout the weekend, but I must write about this extremely important day), I’ll briefly recap five important stories/issues of the day. 

                                              Bruno Senna 

    I first must admit, I was at the crying point of the emotional spectrum when Bruno Senna won the GP2 feature race at Monaco this morning. Who would have thought that after May first, 1994 a “Senna” would ever win something at Monaco again? This is the place where Ayrton Senna fully proved his super-human like abilities, basically winning there eight times. When I saw Ayrton's nephew Bruno move to the ranks of GP2, I thought there was hope, even though his mother had made him quit racing after his uncle's death. When you quit what you're working on for ten years as Bruno did, no matter how good you were (and Ayrton is known to have said “if you think I’m good, you should see my nephew….”), you will largely lose everything. Somehow, Bruno got back into racing just recently and flew through the ranks.

    The biggest motor sports question for the past eight years or so (for me anyway), is how good would Bruno be today had he not quit. He does seem to have those “mitochondria” of the racing “force” that uncle Ayrton had. He can do incredible things with a race car, making some mistakes at this point; but the driving is there. 

    I stuck with Bruno last year, seeing that if you really analyzed him you could see the enormous potential. This year my belief in him has paid off and I knew it would. Senna now leads the GP2 points after six events. Had he not hit a stray dog on the track in Turkey, his incredible drive from 15th to sixth place in the sprint race would have boosted him more (although that bizarre event netted him some international fame).

    Speed TV's Formula 1 expert Bob Varsha seemed to think Senna was going too fast throughout the race, but he was just being a true Senna and totally running the field. He drove the Fastest Lap of the race on his way to the win.

What’s next for Bruno Senna? Clean up his driving style some, and we’ll be seeing a win at prestigious Monaco again, preceeded by the "F1" in the series title. 

                                              Adrian Sutil 

    For anyone who forgot about this other young driver, today we all said, “How about this kid?” He proved himself in wet conditions last year at Fuji, Japan with a ninth-place run in the sub-par Spyker. That is until the rumor got out about McLaren looking into hiring Sutil to replace Fernando Alonso, which sent people searching for answers and wondering why McLaren weren’t looking at other fresh talent lying around.

    Today on a track were driver ability prevailed, and where the rain equalized equipment disparaty, Adrian was lapping cars in the Force India entry that typically lap him! The incident with defending World Champion Kimi Raikkonen was startling, as Kimi lost control of his Ferarri going into the chicane and collided with Sutil's car. Kimi deserves some credit for saving the car after four corrections, but the damage to Sutil's machine was terminal.

Sutil's drive through the field to fourth place did not go unnoticed, as F1 fans don’t just judge by little things called “results”, and neither do top teams searching for talent. The future of this driver is looking very bright. I'm just worried about the politics of him being on a low-tier team, and getting a fair shake for a better opportunity.

                                             Marco Andretti 

    Another impressive drive today was from the young man who almost won one of the greatest “story races” and overall races of all-time, the 2006 Indianapolis 500. Today, he seems to think that a wing decision on the final pit stop cost him the speed to win at the end, as he could not catch Vitor and Scott.  It was of course though, another fantastic effort for this twenty-one year old with a very bright future.  Today's incident with Andretti-Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan seemed innocent enough on Marco's part. Andretti and eventual race-winner Scott Dixon were battling through traffic in amazing fashion.

Marco followed Dixon in passing Kanaan entering turn three, but the latter moved up out of the racing groove, narrowly missing the wall, then spinning in front of an oncoming Sarah Fisher, with both cars unable to continue in the race. A “racing incident” at worst, but certainly not Marco’s fault. Andretti felt he gave his teammate room, but Kanaan didn't see events in that light. Vitor Meira had an exceptional race as well, and somehow, again, got a 2nd place in a race, and the Indy 500.....one day he'll do it! 

                                                Kyle Busch 

    Things I can remember this year in NASCAR – 

Craftsman Truck Series

Poles – Charlotte

Wins – California, Atlanta (what a pass on the Apron!), and Should have won at Charlotte

Nationwide Series

Poles - Nashville, Phoenix, Charlotte

Wins - Texas, Phoenix, Road Course race in Mexico, Charlotte

Nextel Cup Series

Poles – Las Vegas, Charlotte

Wins – (Led laps at about every race with domination, not just pit strategy), Atlanta, Talladega, 2nd at Richmond, Darlington, was walking away at the All-Star race until engine failure ended his run, and third at Charlotte in the Coca-Cola 600.

        Also– Every one of his restarts at Charlotte were beyond anything I’ve seen regarding restarts in NASCAR. Furthermore, he was very dominent in the Truck race at Dover until problems, and was very dominent in the Nationwide Series race. 

    So now he’s won at the two mile cookie-cutter California, the one and a half mile sister tracks of Atlanta, Texas and Charlotte, the unique Phoenix, the egg-shaped high banks of Darlington,  and the road course of Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to top it off! 

    This kid is dominating in a fashion that makes you wonder if he’s better, and possibly significantly better, than Jeff Gordon during his years of domination (last year included). It is borderline absurd how good the younger Busch brother is right now. The passes, car control, and saves (remember Talladega just before turn 3?) are simply remarkable.

                                                    Kasey Kahne 

    After a year of frustration in 2007, but a resurgence this season that was great but not nearly at par with 2006, Kasey Kahne has gone from heartthrob to hero! His car wasn’t fast enough to qualify for the All-Star race, instead receiving the fan vote to make the show. He drives through the field, jumps to the front in the final segment with a gutsy no-tire pit stop, and out lasts Jimmie Johnson (the "King of Charlotte") and the surging Greg Biffle to bank the million-dollar prize by pulling away from the field!

    The momentum from this win drives him and the Budweiser team to qualify second for the Coca-Cola 600; outside of the aforementioned pole-sitter Kyle Busch. Kahne runs in the top-ten for the first half of the race and the top-four for the remainder of NASCAR's longest event. He showed he could lead but stays out of first, which seemed to bring bad luck to those who did (both Busch brothers, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Tony Stewart suffered problems while on point). He staved off Biffle and the resurging Kyle Busch on the way to his second Coca-Cola 600 win. This sweep of both the All-Star race and the 600 in the course of eight days puts Kahne in the lofty company of some of NASCAR's elite (Darrell Waltrip (1985), Davey Allison (1991), Dale Earnhardt (1993), Jeff Gordon (1997), Jimmie Johnson (2003).

    Hopefully, the gremlins of last year are long past, and the charismatic Kahne will be able to build on the momentum from these surprising wins to return to the days of previous success! ===============================================================             Another great “Holy Race Day”, as I call it, and here’s to many more great ones! 

**Remember what Memorial Day is Truly About Tomorrow!!!!

      Musically –

           Cory Pesaturo