Who Won? Who Cares? By Dave Vollman©1996 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc. The month of may is quickly coming to a close, and with that areall the comparisons of the Indy 500 and US 500. There is so muchspin doctoring going on by both sides, I'm waiting for USAC tohire Mary Matlin and CART to hire James Carville. Unfortunately, from this race fan's point of view, the month was a disaster. I tend to judge the month of May based on the racing, but alsoon how many get well cards I end up sending out. Unfortunately,we will never see Scott Brayton make his pole runs at Indy everagain. In the game of inches that racing is, Scott came up a loser.It's nobody's fault. It happened. It's a huge loss to racing. Beyond the tragic passing of Scott, Dan Drinan broke a hip. Anothercard. Parker Johnstone came within inches of being CART's firstdeath since 1982. Lyn St. James is wearing plaster. Vasser hassore knees. Alessandro Zampedri is in the fight of his life atMethodist right now. Another card and letter wishing well. Katie Guerreo came within inches of reliving a nightmare she enduredover a decade ago. Thank God, Roberto was not hurt, and for oncein his hard luck career he came out a winner in the game of inches. Sure, racing is a tough and dangerous business. As a fan you haveto accept that. It doesn't mean that you can catagorize injuries asminor (as some did with Zampedri). Another part of being a fan of racing is you get a chance to meet and talk to drivers, which is good for the sport. I had the pleasure of talking for a short time with Zampedri at Mid-Ohio last year. The down side is the way you feel as a fan when a driver with whom you have had personal interaction is laying in a hospital bed. Right now I feel as badly as I did in 1992 or 1983. Let everyone else snipe over who won the CART/IRL war. Right now my thoughts are with the foot soldiers who lie wounded, or who were very nearly in that situation. Or worse. |