“Murphy’s Law” reigned supreme during the IZOD IndyCar Series’ season opener on Sunday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but despite all the bizarre events of the weekend, it’s already being hailed by some as one of the best road/street events in IRL history. The 2.6-mile temporary street circuit at Anhembi Park had its flaws (that’s putting it mildly), but it still managed to produce some great action for the sold-out and jacked-up crowd in attendance, as well as all of us that couldn’t afford a flight and race tickets.
We’re off and running with another season and that means it’s time to once again bring out the Bean Machine! Now if you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’ll know that this is a breakdown of events during race weekends and based on my thoughts about them, I’ll give and take away “beans.” Obviously, if the bean total is positive at the end, it was a good event. And as I’ve said before, this is nothing more than a riff on the quality of life index in Boston’s Weekly Dig alternative newspaper. I miss reading that rag.
Let’s start ‘er up!
1. But…but…street racing is boring! According to the league, 95 passes were made during Sunday’s race and half of those passes were at Turn 11, the right-hand hairpin that came at the end of a nearly mile-long backstretch. Even if you didn’t watch the race, that stat alone let you know that drivers with a decent run on another car were drafting and passing on the inside of that hairpin almost at will and if a driver didn’t get it done then, he or she would get another good chance on the next lap. It was great stuff. +15 beans
2. It’s not F1, but it’ll do. SI.com and Versus.com writer Bruce Martin reported that an overflow crowd packed Anhembi Park for the race and that more people were outside the gate waiting to get in than the entire attendance at last year’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. As pitiful as that makes us Americans look, the sold-out grandstands in Sao Paulo were a wonderful sight. +15 beans
3. Wheldon SMASH! Alex Tagliani isn’t happy after he got punted by Dan Wheldon into Tony Kanaan at Lap 29, and he’s not buying the explanation from the former Indy 500 champion (Wheldon said a bump caused his front wheels to go airborne and made him unable to stop his car from going into Tagliani’s). Whether you agree or disagree with Wheldon, his run-in with “Tag” put a damper on a darn good weekend for the Canadian and his new FAZZT Race Team. -12 beans (extra -2 beans for “collateral damage”)
4. Break out the handkerchiefs. After getting put in hospital beds last year due to season-ending crashes, Will Power and Vitor Meira shined in their first races back. Power wound up with the win after passing Ryan Hunter-Reay with less than four minutes to go, but the home crowd was more thrilled for Meira (a native of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia) and his podium finish of third for A.J. Foyt’s team. These stories never get old for a reason, folks. +20 beans
5. Briscoe botches. Did anybody else get flashbacks of Motegi 2009 when the Australian locked it up and skidded into the tires with the lead on Sunday? Come on, admit it. Well, on the bright side for him, St. Petersburg is coming up and I’d say he knows that course pretty well. But his mistake at Turn 5 in Sao Paulo was still tough to watch. -5 beans
6. Sambadromo…Oh, no. Yes, yes, everything turned out alright in the end… after the Saturday parade of spins and shunts along the ice-like concrete straightaway…after they brought in a diamond grinder overnight to fix the surface…and, I guess, after the five-car incident on Lap 1 that was partially “helped” along by the dust left over from the grinding. Embarrassing. -20 beans
7. “Dark” brings light. By this, I mean that the multiple dark horses in Sunday’s race made things even more entertaining. We saw Hunter-Reay, Meira, Wheldon, Tagliani and Raphael Matos putting up great efforts. Plus, a shout-out to Simona de Silvestro for leading her first IZOD IndyCar Series laps in her debut race, no less. If only it were like this on ovals too. +10 beans
8. Ratings progress. Despite fans with DirecTV being shut out, Sunday’s race had better ratings than last year’s season opener. And with the Versus-DTV standoff reaching a peaceful conclusion, we’ll see if those fans return when Versus picks up coverage again in early April. +5 beans
FINAL TALLY: +28 beans
SEASON TOTAL (after 1 race): +28 beans.
