July 30, 2006
Champ Car Or Championship Boxing?
Great television moment out of the San Jose Grand Prix today: After overshooting Turn 6 on the city-street course, Paul Tracy spun his car into a 180 degree spin to rejoin the race, unfortunately, he skipped right out into traffic, and took the nose off of Alex Tagliani's car, knocking both out of the race.
But that's just where the fun began, as Tagliani stalked off the course to find Tracy and give him a piece of his mind -- and with an NBC cameraman in tow to boot. The results were predictable, as Tagliani grabbed Tracy and demanded an explanation. When he didn't get one, an enraged Tagliani screamed that his car was destroyed. He made it clear repeatedly that he had "no cars left,".
It was at that point that Tracy had enough, and asked Tagliani to get his hands off of him. But Tagliani wouldn't let up, which is when he threw a punch at Tracy. He then responded in kind -- which is where NBC cut the feed to the camera.
It's probably the best moment Champ Car has had in a long time. I'm glad I decided to watch. Courtesy of TiVo, I've watched the confrontation at least four times now.
One last note: PJ went to last year's race, so there's always a chance he was nearby with his camera. I sure hope so.
UPDATE: Goon Blog is all riled up.
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I was watching the race live (being the ChampCar fan that I am) on NBC.
What Tracy did was one of the stupidest, most bone-headed moves I've ever seen in any level or type of racing. He had NO room and NO chance to pull out in front of Tagliani without contact, and he knew it when he did it... and yet he tried it anyways. There are 8-year-olds on go-karts at the local family track that wouldn't make that move and know better. The fact Tracy admitted on TV afterwards that he had no room and no chance only backs that up, and no apology he can give can possibly make up for it.
Now, Tagliani had no business going after Tracy. What did he THINK would happen? Tagliani wanted a scrap and got it, and now looks like just as much of an idiot as Paul., Congratulations Tagliani -- you're a moron. Tracy had every right to defend himself against you once you took a swing.
However, this has been such a horrible season (or past couplke seaosn really) for Tracy that ChampCar needs to flat-out just pull him for the rest of the season. As he's gotten older, his reckless chance-tasking has gotten flat-out dangerous for every other driver, and today was a microcosm of what he's basically become. It's too bad. He used to be such a good, bold driver. Now he may as well drive drunk during the race, because he couldn't possibly make any worse decisions. He's gone from Bold to flat-out Delusional.
Tagliani has every right to be furious (but not to physically go after Tracy), and Tracy had every right to defend himself when attacked (but his pulling in front of Tagliani is 100% indefensible). And that's where we're at.
Also, how low and classless does NBC come off as? They follow both drivers, KNOWING Tags is stalking Paul wanting a fight, and they hang with them the entire time... and then finally when Tags throws a punch at Paul NBC cuts away to a pit stop.
Because, you know... NBC has standards and wouldn't want to show that kind of tomfoolery. Which I'm sure is why they spent all that time ignoring the actual race and following the two drivers until they finally came to blows, knowing it would happen.
Posted by:
at July 30, 2006 05:37 PM
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