Thursday, May 31, 2007

RACELINE RADIO: Erik Tomas's 'Tomas Tales'

Raceline Radio:

Formula One fans will want to check out the guest schedule first this week! One-on-one interviews with Formula One drivers are extremely rare, especially a driver as huge as this one.

Because the postings used to get more than a few hits every week and thanks to those who clicked, but I have to release officially: there will no longer be any more “Coming up this Week on Raceline Radio” bulletins on the website: Canadian Racing On Line.

Raceline Radio has been “banned” from accessing the site. It was a decision taken by site management based on completely false and groundless accusations. It’s certainly their website and they can administrate it any way they like, but after a very unpleasant experience, this show will stay as far away from this website as possible from this point forward.

Dario Franchitti is a very deserving Indy 500 winner. He’s very much like his fellow Scottish hero, Jimmy Clark. Quiet, unassuming, without bombast, who’s deadly fast and precise. Very genuine too. I remember speaking with Dario live on air after he won one of the ChampCar ( CART ) races in Montreal. His voice sounded rough and when I asked why, he admitted that he had his visor up during a yellow and had accidentally swallowed a fly! He made himself hoarse trying to hack up the dirty invading insect! I laughed for days over that one. Dario is that kind of guy. You like it when good people prosper.

How do we prevent chaos in this sport? Enforce the rule book. It’s that simple, but it’s alarming how rules in that book are bent, stretched, maligned and distorted for any number of reasons.

At the local/regional track level, most of the “rubberization” of the rule book is based on car-count-fear. That if your tech guy finds someone’s engine illegal, he’ll get mad and leave and not come back and you’re down a car. The turn-around usually comes the Monday or Tuesday after race weekends with whining and crying on the phone and the track owner and promoter eventually giving in. Not this time.

Merrittville Speedway, St.Catharines Ontario, where I announce every week, is sanctioned under the DIRT banner ( now called DIRTCar ). Since buying the organization from founder Glen Donnelly, the crew from Tulsa Oklahoma, who also own the World of Outlaws Sprints and Late Model Series, let it be known early ALL tracks’ tech inspectors will come into line with stringent enforcement of the rule book and cheaters will be penalized to the fullest extent of the law.

NASCAR’s been doing the same thing this year you notice.

Recently, a popular local driver who doesn’t run Merrittville on a regular basis, placed in the top 3 in a 358 Modified feature. As is the usual practice, the top 3 finishing Modifieds get checked. Turns out the visiting driver, who’s a headliner at another speedway nearby, had illegal cylinder heads on the motor. Already guilty, the crew refused to turn over the illegal heads for confiscation, as is written in the rule book. Too bad. The driver is a good guy. Did he know the heads were illegal? Doesn’t matter. They were in violation of the rules. It is the team and driver’s responsibility to bring a legal car to the race track and to race and finish in a legal car. Period.

DIRTCar suspended the driver for a number of weeks to howls of protest that Merrittville was “picking” on this driver. Track management took abuse, even physical abuse over the ruling. How sad. They were only doing their job.

Merrittville is only doing something every track and sanctioning body should be doing, enforcing their rule book. It keeps racing from spinning out of sight cost wise, it actually helps keep car counts healthy and we’ve already written about Merrittville’s highly successful crate engine program for their Sportsman Division.

When drivers intentionally cheat for the purpose of enhancing their performance for larger shares of the purse, the hammer should come down, and at Merrittville, it has. Hurray from here!

I applaud my bosses at Canada’s longest operating dirt track for having the guts to do what’s right, and DIRTCar for enforcing their rule book. Lessons should be learned. You cheat, you’re gone! No exceptions!

And one final thought on motorsport websites. I have to laugh when I see notices that they’re starting up accompanying “Radio Shows”. Funny, I thought for something to be called a “Radio Show” it had to actually BE on the radio, over the air. Am I missing something? A webcast and a radio show are not the same thing. They might be in content, but not in transmission.

What’s YOUR opinion? Drop me an e-mail! Any suggestions? Opinions? Comments? Better ideas? Keep the E-Mails coming for The Raceline E-Mail Bag! The address: erik@raceline.ca . Do you agree or disagree with the commentary?

Until next time, talk to ya’ll on Raceline Radio! ET

Coming Up: Sunday June 3rd, 2007

A preview of the June 10 th Formula One Canadian Grand Prix with TEAM 990 Montreal’s resident racing expert Shaun Starr…

We talk up the brand new NASCAR Canadian Tire Series with series TV staffer Todd Lewis….

Plus lots more fan commentary from The Raceline E-Mail Bag.

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