Racer - October SRT

ROAD RACING AT INDY

I’m sloooowwwly starting to support this race. How much can it really hurt? It’s worth a shot..

SMR223

When you see how empty the place will look it will remind you how big IMS is and how difficult it is to fill it. More importantly it dilutes the Indy 500, that is the biggest travesty. toneloc

Unfortunately, a great many IndyCar fans are still trapped in 1975, thinking that the 500 is still the be all and end all of American racing. Attendance for the race is still a shadow of what it once was, and nobody shows up for practice and qualifying. Anything they can do to get people to show up during the month of May is better than leaving it as is.

John B

The good news: come July USCC will have a more interesting road course to compete on!

Bakkster heaRd on RaceR.coM

116

Compelling stories

I have to disagree with Peter Morgan’s comment about Jackie Stewart’s story being less “interesting” [“The Spirit of ’ 76” RACER, September] – the back story of the Francois Cevert-Stewart relationship is just as compelling, if not more so, than the James Hunt-Niki Lauda story.

I was at my first GP finish line at the Glen in ’ 71 when Cevert won [BELOW]. I directed him back to the garage area after his car expired at the Glen

6 Hours, and in 1973 witnessed part of his fatal crash. The memory of wandering into the garage the next morning and spotting the boxed-up nose/wing pieces propped up with CEVERT clearly visible through a slot in the crate is etched in my mind.

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I am looking forward to seeing Rush if for no other reason than to get Bobby Deerfield and Driven ripped from my memory banks for good. One of the things that has been picked up on is how deadly the era was. One article I saw said since Senna, F1 has been really safe and was not as deadly as portrayed – missing the point that it is safer because of Lauda and Stewart, and the loss of so many friends.

Hopefully, Stewart-Cevert is another picture waiting to happen if Rush is a success.

David Fahey via e-mail

Horse pucky

The September issue of RACER reports that when asked what he would like for his birthday, Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso replied, “Someone else’s car.” This remark earned him a stern rebuke from company management.

Alonso’s reply brought to mind an incident when Ferrari fired its driver Alain Prost in 1991 after he likened his racecar to a truck.

For crying out loud, why does everybody dump on the Prancing Horse?

Fredric H. Karr via e-mail

FALL 2013

People power still trumps

I find it amusing when F1 fans get delirious about Rush because they think it will expose people to how cool grand prix racing is and that will transfer NASCAR’s popularity to F1. They’re nuts.

The real lesson of Rush is that whether you are talking about F1, NASCAR, or racing spaceships, the human drama is what is compelling to people. What makes Rush a good movie is not what or where Hunt and Lauda are racing, but the depiction of their dedication and their character. Setting is secondary.