Opinion: Madison Square Garden Has Lost It's Soul

Originally posted at The Roar

National Anthems at Madison Square Garden

I’m a Rangers fan. Since I first watched hockey, I’ve bled red, white and blue.
For me, and many thousands like me, heaven looks a lot like Madison Square Garden, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street, right there in the bustling heart of Midtown Manhattan. Heaven sounds like the blaring goal horn, and 18,000 singing the Rangers’ goal song with lung-bursting enthusiasm.

Walking into the Garden is an absolute privilege – there’s so much history there. Jordan dropped 55 on the Knicks in 1995 and Kobe Bryant bettered that with 61 against the Knicks 14 years later; the Rangers broke The Curse and won the Stanley Cup in the spring of 1994; Frazier and Ali contested the Fight of the Century in 1971 and a rematch three years later; and anyone who’s anyone in the music world has played its famous stage.

On top of that, the venue envelops you as soon as you come in off the street.
I had the pleasure of being at the Garden watching the Rangers twice during the week before Christmas – Wednesday against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins and Friday night against John Tavares and the Islanders (both, unfortunately, losses for the Blueshirts).

I’ve seen the $1.07 billion dollar renovation that, over three summers, has completely transformed the inside of the arena into one of the most beautiful and advanced sports facilities that you’re likely to find anywhere in the world, whilst maintaining its signature low roof design inside and the cake tin-like exterior.

Inside and out, the ‘new’ Garden is undeniably spectacular, with perfect sightlines and the impressive Chase bridges that sit high over the ice to provide a very unique view of hockey. But something was nagging me during both games. We’re talking about the Rangers’ crosstown rivals, the Isles, and the Penguins, whom no New York hockey fan likes. And it was quiet. Too quiet.

I’ve been at Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings games, plus a Lakers NBA contest whilst out in Southern California in the last month, and I was horrified the other night to think back and to realise that those crowds were louder than the ones I was apart of at the Garden.

I went to both Rangers games with friends who’d never seen hockey before. They’d heard about Madison Square Garden, of course – it’s one of the more famous destinations in New York City – and I was disappointed when they told me that they preferred the atmosphere at the games we saw out west.

It kills me to think that brand-new/non-traditional hockey markets have a better atmosphere than a place where hockey has been a part of the fabric of the great city ever since the formation of the National Hockey League.

It hurt more to hear it because I’m a Rangers fan and because I remember when Madison Square Garden was a place no opposition team wanted to come into. Back when Jaromir Jagr was captaining the Rangers in the late 2000s and into the early years of this decade, the Garden crowd was imposing, even scary at times.

Opposition fans were made to feel uncomfortable, in the best possible way, because the parochial support for the Rangers was overawing. The Rangers faithful were loud, sarcastic, biting, humorous and most certainly not afraid to voice their disapproval of its own team – a New York City staple – the officials and opposition fans at every opportunity.

As a Rangers fan, it was an electric place to watch a game. You could take someone to their first hockey game at the Garden and they’d come away a fan for life. The first time I went in there and saw those retired jerseys, Ranger greats, hanging above the sheet of ice, I was hooked by that atmosphere, and swept away by it. You could tell that our enthusiasm lifted the Blueshirts on the ice.

Yes, the crowd had its loud moments last week, particularly when the Rangers put the puck in the net, but it didn’t last for long. The “Crosby sucks” chants happened, of course, but they didn’t happen often. They booed him when he touched the puck…but not for long. Not like it used to be – continuous booing that stopped only for the length of a derogatory chant.

One thing for certain is that there wasn’t the same sort of continuous noise that’s made Chicago’s United Centre such a tough place for opposition teams to play. In the Windy City, they start screaming at the first note of the national anthem and don’t stop until well after the horn’s gone to end play. It hurts me to say it, but I will anyway – United Centre is the best place in the United States to watch a hockey game, and by a long way.

Why have things all of a sudden changed in Madison Square Garden? I think I have some idea. I mentioned above the billion dollars’ worth of renovation that’s transformed the famous venue. For mine, that’s what’s causing this problem. Back before the beginning of the refurbishment, you could get a pretty good seat low down close to the ice for a reasonable price – I know, because I have done so on many occasions. Not anymore.

The Dolan family, owners of MSG, have an enormous $1 billion dollar bill that’s burning a hole through their accounting ledgers – it’s a bill that needs to be paid, and paid quickly.
The easiest way to accomplish that, of course, is to raise prices across the board.

Everything is more expensive at Madison Square Garden now – you name it, it’s seen a hike. Worst of all are ticket prices. They’ve been driven clean through the Garden’s famous roof and into the stratosphere. Great seats in the lower bowl area are now far too expensive for your working class fan, and it’s not just tickets, but everything else you need to purchase at a game: food, drink, maybe a program, a t-shirt (or more, if you’re a tourist and want something to remember your Rangers game by), transport to and from the Garden…everything.

If you’re with a family, you’re outlaying some serious cash for the game day experience.
So, who takes over those seats close to the ice that are too expensive for your working class hockey fan? The type of attendee that every real fan dreads to see come in and take over their turf – the dreaded corporates.

It mirrors what’s happened at Air Canada Centre, where the Toronto Maple Leafs play before quiet crowds that have become infamous for being quiet and, dare I say it, timid.

At the two games I saw, conservatively, I’d say the bottom bowl was at least 80 percent corporate types. The types who see Rangers and Knicks games as ways to network and hobnob with potential business associates and generally press the flesh in a city so much a focal point of local and international business dealings of all sorts.

That leaves the real fans relegated to the nosebleed seats, which is what lessens the overall noise in the arena. We sat in the 400s both times – not bad seats but not ice-side, either, and were surrounded by jersey-wearing fans.

Down in the lower bowl, when they bothered to arrive well into the first period, there were suits as far as the eye could see. It’s infuriating. They barely look up from their champagne or Heinekens when the Rangers scored, and a scant few sang Slapshot with the rest of us. The sound down there was flat. Up high, we were loud and into every hit, pass, shot and save, especially on Friday night when the Isles were in the house, but probably too far away for our noise to be properly heard out there on the ice.

Is this the end of the Garden being a feared venue for road teams? It used to be an absolute fortress for the Rangers. Not anymore, sadly. Can we dare to hope that once James Dolan and the powers-that-be at MSG have recouped what they outlaid for the all-out renovations they will make ticket prices a little easier for the regular, everyday fan to afford than they currently are? It would help grow hockey, and the more people attracted to this great game, the better.

A drop in ticket and food prices and you’ll open up the lower levels of the Garden to the diehard fans, just like it used to be. That’ll change the atmosphere inside the venue in a New York minute!

Opinion: My Dream 2014 Indycar Series Schedule

Originally posted at The Roar

Talking to some of my IndyCar friends over the last few weeks that I’ve been in America has gotten me thinking, and this is the end result: my dream 2014 Indycar Series calendar.

In a perfect world – no sponsorship issues, political considerations, scheduling commitments or anything else to preclude a race from being held – this is the diverse 23-round schedule – short ovals, intermediate ovals, super speedways, road circuits, street circuits and airport circuits – that the Indycar Series would race:

1. Streets of St Petersburg (1.8-mile temporary street circuit; St Petersburg, Florida)
 
Now the traditional season starter, and a good circuit with a few nice passing zones built in. Always one of the more entertaining street races of the year, and solidly attended.
Shots of the marina and waterfront look attractive on TV.

2. Phoenix International Raceway (1.0-mile short oval; Avondale, Arizona)
 
A bastion of open-wheel racing, drawing giant crowds before The Split, when it drew mediocre numbers for the old IRL, this is a track almost tailor-made for IndyCar racing, with the awesome back-stretch dogleg. It’s a shame that no Indy-style racing’s been there since 2005. The IndyCar Series should race, at minimum, a 200-mile event.

3. Grand Prix Of Long Beach (1.968-mile temporary street circuit; Long Beach, California)
 
The Indianapolis 500 of American road racing. Traditional, fan-friendly, a wonderful race track and a staple of open-wheel racing. A no-brainer. Should be run as a double-header weekend with sports cars. Long Beach deserves the best of sports cars and open-wheel.

4. Iowa Speedway (0.875-mile short oval; Newton, Iowa)
 
Best new addition to the Indycar Series in years, purpose-built with progressive banking that promotes brilliantly competitive racing without the danger of larger tracks. Massive crowds, too. Indycars belong on tracks like this, a 200-lap event. 

5. Streets of Sao Paulo (2.535-mile temporary street circuit; Sao Paulo, Brazil)
 
Another easy choice, thanks in part to the number of talented Brazilian drivers in the series, and certainly not the worst street circuit that’s ever been invented. 

6. Fundidora Park (2.104-mile Permanent Road Course; Monterrey, Mexico)
 
An old favourite of mine, popular when there were Mexicans in the series, but could still be successful. Mexico is an un-tapped market that should be reconsidered by the powers that be. 

7. Texas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile speedway; Fort Worth, Texas)
 
The only intermediate on the schedule, simply because it’s the only one that draws a crowd. Aero changes prove that there can be exciting racing on the high banks without the death match that races there seemed to have become. A 400-mile race here would hopefully appease Eddie Gossage.

8. Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.5-mile super speedway; Speedway, Indiana)
 
The Indianapolis 500 is greatest race of them all, the greatest prize in North American racing, no matter what they might say in Daytona Beach, Florida. It all began here. Race One of a Triple Crown of super speedways.

9. The Milwaukee Mile (1.0-mile short oval; West Allis, Wisconsin)
 
Another no-brainer. The classic bullring should always be run the weekend after the Indianapolis 500. A real driver’s circuit that is tough to get around and tougher to master and win. It should be 225-mile twilight race on the track where so many of IndyCar’s greatest drivers have celebrated in Victory Lane.

10. Belle Isle Park, Detroit (2.346-mile temporary street circuit; Detroit, Michigan)
 
An important race for the automotive industry, especially with Chevrolet in the series, and another chance to capitalise on the Midwest’s fascination with IndyCar racing.

11. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (2.4-mile permanent road course; Lexington, Ohio)
 
Another traditional venue, admittedly tough to pass on, but the ebb and flow of this circuit makes it a challenge for drivers. 

12. Road America (4.048-mile permanent road course; Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin)
 
Another no brainer, as popular with drivers as it is with fans. Easily the greatest road course in North America – and one of the best anywhere in the world – there’s nothing not to like about this four-mile blast through the Wisconsin woods draws a large and knowledgeable fan-base who deserve to see the zippy Indycars rather than the lumbering NASCAR taxicabs.

13. Streets of Toronto (1.755-mile temporary street circuit; Toronto, Ontario)
 
The Exhibition Place streets always seem to be a place where temporary insanity – and exciting racing – break out. 

Canadian fans come out in droves, to an event with the wonderful backdrop of the Toronto skyline. That first turn is always exciting, especially with the double-file restarts now in vogue. It should be the beginning of a three-week swing through Canada.

14. Edmonton City Centre Airport (2.224-mile temporary airport circuit; Edmonton, Alberta)
 
I love a good airport circuit, and this one has so much going for it, and should be run a week after Toronto. 

As far as new events go, the Edmonton race has been among the very best. It’s a temporary circuit that has a lot of permanent road-course attributes and draws a good crowd. Better here than Montreal, for mine.

15. Streets of Vancouver (1.78-mile temporary street circuit; Vancouver, British Colombia)
 
Time to bring back a successful event. It was cancelled ahead of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, and IndyCar lost a fun, challenging track. The perfect final event in a mid-summer Canadian swing.

16. Michigan International Speedway (2.0-mile super speedway; Brooklyn, Michigan)
 
The middle event in the Triple Crown, another traditional venue that’s sadly fallen by the wayside recently. Far more suited to Indycars than NASCAR, it deserves to come back as a 500-mile race, just like in the sport’s glory days.

17. Burke Lakefront Airport (2.106-mile temporary airport circuit; Cleveland, Ohio)
 
The greatest casualty of the much-needed open-wheel reconciliation has been this beauty of a race track on the runways and taxiways of the city’s airport. So many passing zones made for wildly entertaining races. Run it at night, green flag just around sunset, on the Fourth of July weekend and watch the crowds pack in.

18. Portland International Raceway (1.967-mile permanent road course; Portland, Oregon)
 
This Pacific Northwest racetrack always produced good racing back in the day, and the issue of continual first-turn accidents seemed to have been solved by rolling starts in the last days of ChampCar at the venue. 

IndyCar needs to visit all parts of the country, including the Northwest. 

19. Watkins Glen International (3.4-mile permanent road course; Watkins Glen, New York) 
 
The full circuit, not the butchered short course, is one of the best permanent circuits in America, especially through the Esses and down through The Boot, it’s always been a real driver’s circuit, demanding and satisfying. 

Sadly taken off the schedule recently, a double-header with the sports car Six Hours of The Glen race would draw even more fans. 

20. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (2.238-mile permanent road course; Monterrey, California)
 
Famous for the gut-wrenching Corkscrew turn at the circuit’s highest point and Alex Zanardi’s legendary pass in it’s shadows, the northern California facility’s always been more interesting – to me, anyway – than Sonoma Raceway, so it should return, despite a narrow, tough-to-overtake layout.

21. Streets of Surfers Paradise (2.79-mile temporary street circuit; Surfers Paradise, Queensland)
 
Almost as good a street circuit as Long Beach, and a favourite for drivers, not just because it involves a trip to Australia. Brilliant mixture of fast straights and rollicking chicanes, the worst thing the IndyCar Series did was not sort out a date for this once-annual trip. 

Then the V8 Supercars came in, butchered the layout and wrecked it. Bring back the IndyCars and the old layout, especially while you’ve got Dixon, Power and Briscoe going so well.

22. Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (2.774-mile permanent road course; Mexico City, Mexico)
 
One of the great racetracks in the world, the Mexico City fans turned out in droves for the ChampCar races there when the circuit was reborn in the early 2000s. Those Mexican Waves the length of the front-straight grandstand were amazing! The layout through the baseball stadium would be preferable, that little section one of the most ingenious on any racetrack anywhere in the world. 

If you find a half-decent Mexican, they’ll pack the place.

23. California Speedway (2.0-mile super speedway; Fontana, California)
 
Final race of the season, the sister of Michigan International was the scene of some great Indycar moments – as well as, sadly, some of the sport’s darkest days – and deserves its place as the final event of the season. The IndyCar Series champion gets crowned here, as does the Triple Crown winner in a 500-mile event that should be run under lights.

That’s it, the 23 racetracks – short ovals, intermediate ovals, super speedways, temporary street circuits, permanent road courses, airport circuits, events in four countries – that would make up the 2014 IndyCar series calendar if I had my way. 

Hey, a guy can dream!

Australia's Tom Hornsey is an NCAA All American

Originally posted at The Roar

It’s been happening for a while. The influence of Australians on college football – and, by extension, the National Football League – has been growing steadily over the last half-decade or so.

But this year, Australian participation in NCAA football has reached it’s high water mark.
This, because of punter Tom Hornsey, who, inside the space of a week, won both the Ray Guy Award (presented to the best punter in the nation, and beating out fellow finalists Texas A and M’s Drew Kaser and Purdue Boilermaker Cody Webster) and was then named to the very prestigious first-team All American unit.

Players winning both a positional excellence award and being named to first-team All American Honours does happen, but it’s extremely rare. You have to be very, very good to double scoop of a positional excellence award and then to be named among the best players in the vast landscape of college football. 

Hornsey fits in there quite nicely. Google his name and you’ll find a half-dozen articles musing whether he’s the best punter in all of America. Certainly, enough college football pundits must think so: the double honour presented to him this week is proof of that.

Punting for Memphis, Hornsey, becomes only the third ever Memphis Tiger to be given first-team All American honours, following in the footsteps of offensive lineman Mike Stark in 1971 and kicker Joe Allison in 1992. 

It goes without saying, too, that Hornsey is the first Australian to achieve either – and both – honours. The Ray Guy Award is not awarded without great consideration.There is a class of brilliant punters across America, so the numbers for the eventual winner need to be immense. 

For Hornsey, they were definitely that. His average punt was 45.2 yards. That’s good enough for first in the American Athletic Conference and eighth in all of America. Even more impressively, of 62 punts on the season, 29 of them landed within the 20-yard line. That’s punting gold. You can’t say enough about having a weapon such as Hornsey, a senior from Canberra and the Australian Institute of Sport, to flip field position. 

It must nice to be Justin Fuente, head coach of the Memphis Tigers. So, your offense has failed to convert on third down to keep the drive alive and must punt? What happens? Fuente simply trots out his weapon, Hornsey, with a pretty good feeling that he’s going to flip field position and give the Tiger defence plenty to work with. 

Generally, you can’t score points on every possession. Having a good punter is the first step to getting the football back in better field position for the next possession. Your team is only as good as your punter. His kick, good or bad, will have a huge bearing on what occurs on the opposition’s next possession.

American football is still a growing sport in Australia, but awards and accolades like the ones Hornsey has deservedly collected this week – along with a little more press coverage, and better understanding of the technical side of field position and punting – will only increase the profile of the sport in the southern hemisphere. 

It’s fair to say that most of Australia hadn’t heard of Hornsey before this week, but now he must be named among our country’s most successful sportsmen. How hard it is to get a scholarship, win the starting job and keep it via successful on-field performance – a punter’s net yardage gained can be influenced by wind, rain, snow, sleet, a breakdown of punt block coverage – should never be underestimated.

Hopefully, Hornsey’s terrific dual honours are the first step to a better understanding of college football and more recognition. More than that, hopefully it opens the way for more Australian kickers and punters to travel to America and forge their own legacy kicking footballs up and down the college gridiron on fall Saturdays.

Congratulations, Tom!

Opinion: 2013 IZOD Indycar Series Winners & Losers

Winners

Scott Dixon: The Ice Man from New Zealand was involved in a tense mighty tussle with Brazilian star Helio Castroneves that went right down to the final 500-mile race at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California and emerged victorious, recording four wins (including three in a row: Pocono and the double-header weekend in Toronto) en route his third, and most impressive, series title in a championship title that couldn’t have been any more exciting were it scripted. 

I’m continually impressed with Dixon’s style, though I must admit that I thought Castroneves would win the title this year. They don’t call him the Ice Man for nothing. He’s cool, calm, collected and as fast a driver as there is on the planet. Unflappability when you’re heading into the first turn at Indianapolis Motor Speedway at over 200mph isn’t something that everyone possesses, but Dixon does, in spades. 

Those qualities combined with the fact that he’s driving for the powerhouse Target Chip Ganassi Racing make him a tough man to beat year in, year out. This year, he stared down arguably Indycar’s most popular driver, and won. I won’t be at all surprised if Dixon wins it all again next year. The planets really are aligned for him at the moment. 

James Hinchcliffe: A more pleasant and outgoing driver the Indycar paddock has not seen since Helio Castroneves bounced onto the scene in the mid-1990’s, and this year, the Mayor of Hinchtown showed that the rapid Canadian could be as fast on the track as he is affable in the pits, scoring the first three wins of his career.

Most impressive of the trio was Hinch’s scintillating and ballsy last-corner-last-lap pass of Japanese driver Takuma Sato on the streets of Sao Paolo, Brazil. The victory, recorded by a mere .3463 of a second, was one of the highlights of the season, and one that will surely be played over and over again, now that it has been committed to the annals of Indycar racing.

A career year for a friendly and popular driver – popular with both fans and other drivers alike – in what was mostly a down year for Andretti Autosport, after their driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay won the overall series championship in 2012.

Tony Kanaan: With the forced retirement of Dario Franchitti at season’s end, the ultra- popular Brazilian, Kanaan – really, is there any other sort of Brazilian Indycar driver? – finds himself elevated into the much sought after #10 Target Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing after driving good buddy Jimmy Vasser’s KV Racing Technology Chevrolet to Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.

Earlier, Kanaan had been signed to the fourth Ganassi seat, to be sponsored by NTT Data that remained mostly driver-less in 2013 (aside from an Indy 500-only effort by Australian Ryan Briscoe) and that was good news, but a promotion to the top tier of the crack Ganassi outfit is something else entirely. 

Make no mistake, this is one of the best seats in racing – NASCAR, Formula One, sports car, whatever – and Kanaan, as popular a winner at Indianapolis as we’ve ever seen in decades, appears poised for a run at what would be a very well deserved second Indycar Championship. A little more proof that, even in a business-driven world, nice guys can – and sometimes do – finish first.

Indycar Races: Four first time winners, standing starts, double-headers, close racing, extraordinary passes and finishes, incredible engine and chassis reliability…it’s not a stretch to say that Indycar racing in 2013 was amongst the very best racing in any category in the world.

After a great 2012, the second year with the DW12 chassis was even better. Coming into the season, I didn’t think that was possible. Somehow, the drivers who made up the grid this year managed to up their game. From Hinchcliffe’s last-gasp pass of Takuma Sato to win on the streets of Sao Paolo, Brazil to a frenetic, lead change-filled Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend (68 changes amongst 14 drivers) and the craziness of Toronto’s first race, there was something for everyone in 2013. Long may this sort of competitiveness continue!

Losers

Indycar Management: Firing popular CEO Randy Bernard during the offseason was a blow that the sport really did not need. Sure, he might not have been popular with a lot of team owners, but only because he recognised that things weren’t working, that Indycar racing needed to be shaken up. Bernard’s pros far outweighed his cons, and firing him was absolutely the wrong move. 

Most frustratingly, Bernard’s dismissal came at a time when the sport was actually starting to show gradual improvement, thanks to a lot of what Bernard had put in place. Ironically, the best parts of this successful season – double-header races, standing starts, a night race in primetime on American network television – were all part of Bernard’s plan to grow Indycar racing.

Ultimately, it was as simple as this: Bernard, in 2012, oversaw one of the most impressive and memorable seasons of Indycar racing that we’ve seen, at least since before The Split, yet he managed to lose his job. Here’s a thought for Indycar management: listen less to grumbling owners and more to the fans. You’ll find your series is in much better shape if you do.

Dario Franchitti: Not for anything he did on track, mind you, but because the Scotsman, an undisputed modern-day Indycar legend, was forced to retire due to the heightened risk of him sustaining brain damage following a horrific accident at the end of the second race in Houston that resulted in two fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle and a concussion.

What was easily the most horrific accident I’ve ever seen on a temporary street circuit robbed the Indycar fan base of at least a few more years of watching the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and four-time Indycar Series champion battle with his recent arch rival, Australia’s Will Power. 

Of course, retirement and the guarantee of health is far better than the alternative, which is too bitter to contemplate. The Indycar fraternity has lost too many great drivers over the years – many of them close friends of Franchitti’s. At least Dario will remain a part of the paddock community for years to come, and his legacy is well assured, though the series is poorer for the fact that the Scotsman will not be a part of it, at least not on track.

Will Power: The Queenslander has been a perennial championship contender basically every year that he’s been a member of Roger Penske’s organisation, so it came as a surprise to many when he struggled mightily coming out of the box, not picking up his first victory of the year until the fifteenth race, in Sonoma.

When Power did find his form, it was like watching the guy who’d pushed Franchitti and Hunter-Reay to the very brink in championships battles over the last few years. A win at Sonoma was followed up by a win in the second Houston street race and the all-important first superspeedway win in the season finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

It’s funny that a three-win season can land someone on the ‘Losers’ half of a Winners & Losers review, but Power’s been a consistent visitor to Victory Lane since his emergence with Team Penske. Hopefully his last-start win on the big oval in Southern California will be exactly the launching pad Power needs for a big run at that elusive championship – and, dare I say it, a victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – in 2014.

Opinion: TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Set To Propel US Sports Car Racing to New Heights

Originally posted at The Roar

If there is one model for running a series that motorsports administrators around racing are trying to avoid, it’s the messy Indycar/Champ Car split that ruined open wheel racing in the early 2000s.

It is not a stretch to say that the open-cockpit category is still struggling to regain even a small slice of the glory days before Penske, Ganassi and Andretti departed the CART World Series, as it was then known, for Tony George’s all-oval Indy Racing League.
The national rise of NASCAR was directly tied to the decline of Indy-style racing.

At around the same time as the CART/IRL split, it seemed that racing fans were experiencing a severe case of déjà vu, because sports car racing went in two separate directions not long after the IRL-CART war began. 

You had the high-technology American Le Mans Series (ALMS) on one side, maintaining ties to the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series on the other, a series owned by the NASCAR conglomerate down in Daytona Beach, Florida. These two series, though somewhat similar in terms of their endurance format, were never really on the same page. 

Grand-Am regulations were heavily controlled, producing close yet contrived racing in what were once majorly ugly low-cost Daytona Prototypes (though the new bodywork has improved their look immensely), while the ALMS went about their thing with technologically-advanced Le Mans prototypes that looked and sounded downright awesome, and a series that maintained links to the twice-around-the-clock classic in France.

Ultimately, both series’ suffered. Small crowds and a general lack of impactful television coverage brought about cracks in the façade of both the ALMS and the Rolex Series.

As a whole, sports car racing was suffering. If only the Indycar and CART people had shown as much foresight as Brian France of Grand-Am and Don Panoz of ALMS did when they and their offsiders got together to plan the formation of a new series that will combine the best of both worlds.

Beginning in January 2014, the Tudor United SportsCar Series is poised to propel sports car racing in North America to heights never seen before, and it may even leap past Indycar racing on the popularity index. 

What’s not to like? Fans will get the best of both series all rolled into one, beginning with the famed Rolex 24 at Daytona event at the Daytona International Speedway (part oval, part road course) and then, the 12 Hours of Sebring. 

Following those marquee endurance events, the series will visit a collection of the best natural terrain and street circuits in North America. 

How’s this for a hit list of excellence? Road America, Long Beach, Circuit of the Americas, Mosport, Laguna Seca, Indianapolis and Road Atlanta.

For a North American road racing fan, that’s about as good as it gets. 

Sure, you could have stuck Mid-Ohio and Lime Rock Park on the bill as well, but this is the first year of a unified series, which has come together rather quickly – here, binding agreements with certain tracks from both series’ make scheduling complicated – and it’s not hard to imagine that there’ll be upgrades and improvements over the years. 

Still, the 2014 schedule is a solid foundation from which to build the profile of the series, except on one count: don’t start me on the inclusion of the boring oval/road course at Kansas Speedway. 

Let’s all hope that it’s a one-and-done deal, because it’s ludicrous that Mid-Ohio and Lime Rock Park aren’t on the schedule, yet a boring roval is.

Minor scheduling gripes aside, how tremendous is it going to be in Daytona Beach come January? 

You’ll have the cool Delta Wing, plus Daytona Prototypes, Le Mans-style prototypes, dozens of GT cars – Porsches, Aston Martins, Ferraris, Audis, Corvettes, Camaros and Mazdas in perhaps the greatest collection of GT driving talent and manufacturers racing anywhere in the world– and all the best drivers on the same track every week. No longer will there be races opposing races on the same weekend, a situation which served only to further dilute an already small fan-base and forcing drivers to choose chasing a championship in one series or another. 

Some issues regarding the technical specs aside, this is a dream situation for fans, and, really for anyone who wants a tin-top racing alternative to NASCAR competition.
The TV package on the fledgling Fox Sports cable networks – America’s newest sports networks, Fox Sports 1 and 2 premiered in the middle of the year – will see the sports car racing gain exposure via other properties like NFL, college basketball, college football, NASCAR’s three national touring series’ and the daily news/information shows. 

A teaser trailer here and there on some of the network’s highest-rating programs and timeslots is certainly going to bring the series to the attention of many Americans who had perhaps not known that there was a sports car racing series.

That’s the goal, really: exposure. Right now, aside from a select few fans, no one in America knows Scott Pruett or Alex Gurney or Ricky Taylor from a bar of soap.
Contrast that to the stars of NASCAR, whose likenesses are all over TV, magazines and staring you down in cardboard cut-out form when you walk into a store. 

I’m not expecting that Pruett and co will become as universally known as Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt Jr, but there’s every chance that they’ll become more recognisable than some of Indycar Series drivers.

As perhaps the most important season of sports car racing in the last two decades inches closer, the new dawn looks promising. The unified series has done all the right things so far, in reaching out to disaffected fans, sponsors and racetracks, and there is a sense of great anticipation and optimism heading into this season which I can’t remember being present for many years. 

Kudos for the two sides, ALMS and Grand-Am, who had very different ideals about how sports car racing should be run and regulated, in their coming together with a minimum of fuss, bother and bickering to get the 2014 season ready in a rather short space of time, considering the technical specs that had to be developed. 

The powers-that-be have clearly realised that the fans are the ones who matter the most, and have moved mountains to get everything ready for pre-season testing and the first – arguably the biggest, too – race of the season, so that the fans see the best product possible, a herculean effort no matter which way you look at it.

It promises to be a wonderful season of endurance racing.

The Rolex 24 can’t come quickly enough! Let’s throw the green flag and get it started!

America 2013: Day Thirty-One - December 22 | New York City Los Angeles Australia

You might have laughed if I told you, you might have hidden a frown. You might have succeeded in changing me, I might have been turned around. It's easier to leave than to be left behind. Leaving was never my proud. Leaving New York, never easy, I saw the light fading out.

- R.E.M.

R.E.M. said it best – leaving New York’s never easy. The same could be said for America as a whole. This country has it’s well-documented problems, but, at it’s heart, the USA is a place full of wonderful people, amazing placed and great customs. That’s why I love coming back here, and why leaving is so hard to do.

I didn’t get much sleep during the night – not after spending a good two hours packing my two bags. I never knew how much stuff I had until I had it all laid out in front of me. It was good to remember all the places  I bought various things; like a trip down memory lane. The forecast is for 66 in New York City today (about 19 degrees Celsius) so I didn’t need my parka. That takes up a lot of space in my bag, as do the Nike runners I bought in Chicago. I just managed to squeeze everything into my two bags for the long journey home. My pound of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is safely lodged in my backpack. Not trusting the United or Qantas baggage handlers with that precious cargo!

I travelled with these crazies! And loved every second of it!

On two hours of sleep, we headed to Newark’s Liberty International Airport to begin our two-flight marathon back to Sydney in time for Christmas. The terminal was absolutely steaming hot. I don’t know what was going on, except to think that maybe they had the heating automated, assuming it would be hot outside. The security queue seemed to last forever, and I was sweaty as anything once I cleared the TSA checkpoint and got into the cooler boarding gate area. 

The weather is going crazy! 66 today and down into the low teens by Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s spring-like at the moment, and Toronto, just a few hours north across the Canadian border, is suffering through it’s worst-ever ice storm. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people without power and transport is affected badly, too. That’s exactly what you don’t want on Christmas Week.

Thankfully, our plane was significantly cooler than the terminal, and the 5-hour flight west to Los Angeles was pleasant enough. I had the window seat, which I don’t really like, but the views of the Grand Canyon and the snow-covered Midwest plains (there was a big storm through there the other day) were pretty spectacular, both in bright sunshine. I wish I’d had my camera handy but it’s packed like pretty much everything else.

Santa Monica Beach

Arriving in Los Angeles, we had a ten-hour wait before our flight home, so we organised a car and headed down to Santa Monica and it’s famous pier – one of my favourite places in America. Of course, the pier gained notoriety as being the end point for Forrest Gump’s run across the country in the classic Tom Hanks movie, and was where the two main characters in Titanic talked about visiting. It’s also a great place to enjoy the sun on the Pacific Coast, mercifully free of the bad air that plagues the city inland.

We had a late lunch at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co. right on the pier and set about filling up whatever space left in our bags – not a whole lot for me – with shopping. A few streets back of the beach and pier is the Third Street Promenade, which has a collection of shops, including Forever 21, Gap, Nike and Levi’s, where I took advantage of very cheap prices and got a few new pairs of jeans. There was an interesting street show taking place, where a guy was getting wrapped up in a snake. Only in LA…

Yes, that guy is biting a snake's head!

After sunset, we headed back to LAX and checked in and went through the TSA security checkpoint one last time. I understand why we must do the whole tango there, but it does grate on you if you do it a few times in a short space of time. It’ll be nice not to have to take off shoes, belt, watch and seemingly everything else before stepping into the big full-body image scanner. Just like not having to live out of a suitcase will be nice! Leaving America, not so much.

Santa Monica Sunset

***

Prologue: Christmas Eve, 5.00pm

Home! Because I was totally wrecked, I slept the best part of 11 hours on the flight home. I wasn’t awake for take-off, had to be woken up for dinner and was asleep before they’d even collected by trash. A solid effort. It was coming, eventually. We were all pretty tired, and sooner or later your body says, enough! That moment came for me on the flight, and I feel much better for it.

My bags are unpacked and my Christmas presents are wrapped. I’ve watched the Florida Georgia Line DVD I bought, and have related to my folks some of the stories from the last four weeks. It’s been an incredible ride, visiting great places and seeing great things, whilst hanging out with a collection of awesome Americans. 

The list is too long to name, but you all know who you are. From Los Angeles to New York and everywhere in between, we’ve been warmly welcomed by great friends, and made to feel like family. The hospitality doesn’t ever go unnoticed and it’s appreciated greatly – more than words can accurately describe. I’ll keep coming back as long as you’ll have me!

But it’s the three people I travelled with who really made this last month amongst the best of my life. Nathan, Trevor, Lauryn – I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had with you guys. We’ve seen some great things, right? I’m privileged to call you friends and family. I appreciate all the laughs, and the way we all sung the chorus to “Cruise” with varying miming success. America wouldn’t have been quite as much fun without you!

So, that’s that. Thirty one days: Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., New York City, another dip into Los Angeles and, finally, home. It’s good to be back. It’s sad to not be in America. It’s also Christmas tomorrow. That’s exciting!

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!