Live From St. Pete

Good morning!

Good morning from St. Pete! I'm putting my sportswriter hat on and will be live blogging the events from the media center -- except for the times I go out and actually watch some of the race. When I'm in the media center I'll be watching the TV feed and listening to the IndyCar Radio broadcast.

While I'm sure much of what I report will be a bit redundant to some, it will also be sprinkled with my own commentary. This is the editorial part of my coverage today, so I'll throw a lot of my opinions in here. I'll have the more serious stuff out later tonight or tomorrow when I get home and sleep until noon to catch up on what I have lost this week.

If you ever want to work in racing, there are two things you need to know: 1) you won't sleep a lot and 2) you will do a ton of walking, especially if you work in one of the developmental series as we don't get the best paddock assignments.

The media center actually runs right along the straight between Turns 9 and 10, which has already seen some action today. During the IndyCar warm-up this morning, Ryan Hunter-Reay lost his brakes and crashed hard into the tire barriers. Walking in I saw him riding back to the paddock on a scooter so it looks like he will be OK.

The car sustained some pretty heavy damage, so we will see if they decide to fix it or go to the backup car. His shunt no doubt will bring more concern among the teams, as this weekend they have experienced lots of problems with the new brake package.

Warm-up is over and the Indy Lights race is about to begin. Here's hoping for a fast and safe day of racing.

More on the warm-up

Looking at the time sheet from this morning, it appears that Scott Dixon is the early favorite to win the race, and Honda might been resurrected.

Dixon turned a lap of 1;01.9292, while Helio Castroneves was second and defending champ Simon Pagenaud was third. Again, who knows what everyone was working on this morning, but Dixon has been fast in every session this weekend. He has finished second three times here, but surprisingly has never won.

If you look at the combined results from all sessions, Honda has the six fastest times and seven of the top 9. As I blogged about earlier in the week, Chip Ganassi pretty much always gets what he wants.

Castroneves will be interesting to watch today. He's won three times at St. Pete and has stood on the podium six times in 11 starts, but after a sub-par qualifying effort he will begin the race in the 16th starting position. With teammate Pagenaud starting 14th, does Penske Racing take one of them off-strategy in an effort to get them to the front? Both will be starting the race on black tires.

Speaking of tires, the top 13 starters will go on alternates, as will Marco Andretti (starting 15th) and Sebastien Bourdais (21st). Mikhail Aleshin (17th), Ed Jones (18th), JR Hildebrand (19th) and Conor Daly (20th) will start on blacks.

Indy Lights

Pole-sitter Colton Herta, who finished second in the Race 1 yesterday, took the lead into the first turn and never gave it up to pick up the first Mazda Road to Indy win of his career. Santi Urrita was second and Pato O'Ward finished third.

Herta, of course, is the son of Bryan Herta, who won the Lights title in 1993, won four times in CART and IndyCar and has two Indy 500 wins as an owner. Colton leaves St. Pete with the points lead and will be back on track in a Lights car at Barber in April.


While his name and early racing success. naturally brings high expectations, Herta said he's focusing on development and knows they aren't going to win all of the races. And besides, since he only turns 17 in a couple of weeks, it's going to be a couple of years before he can think of moving up the final step of the MRTI ladder.

"I have plenty of time (to get there)," he said. "To come out of a this weekend with a championship lead, we just have to work at keeping it going."

A member of the media asked Herta if he told the instructor when he went to get his driver's license that he was a race car driver. Herta said he did not, but did mention that he passed his behind the wheel test the first time, unlike his dad, who needed two tries.

Friday at St. Pete

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- After a crazy first practice session that saw Marco Andretti with the fastest time, Honda powering eight of the 10 fastest cars, and five Chevys sitting in the bottom eight, order was restored in the afternoon session as teams geared up for Saturday qualifying at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Pete.

Thanks to an off-season switch to Honda by Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda place six cars in the Top 8, and while there were a lot of surprises in the morning session, the names on the top of the speed chart later in the day were more than a bit familiar.

Scott Dixon, who surprisingly enough does not count a win at St. Pete among his 40 career victories, covered the 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit in one minute, 2.5591 seconds to lead the way, while teammates Tony Kanaan (1:02.8545) and Charlie Kimball (1:02.8748) were third and fourth, respectively.

The only driver who managed to break up the Ganassi monopoly was Team Penske's Will Power, who was second-quick at (1:02.8146). St. Pete resident Sebastien Bourdais, driving on his "home track", was fifth-best (1:02.9056) in his return to Dale Coyne Racing.

With all of the teams on different strategies and agendas as far as what they wanted to accomplish Friday, Dixon wasn't interested in "winning Friday", instead he and the team want to focus on building through the weekend.

"Friday doesn't pay anything and doesn't mean anything," Dixon said. "Hopefully we can continue to improve the car for tomorrow and the race on Sunday. (Saturday) should be interesting once everyone turns it up."

Power rebounded quickly from a crash in Turn 10 in the first session, which was a bit of deja vu as he crashed in the same place in the same session a year ago. That incident eventually led to Power missing the race, but this time he just suffered damage to the right rear of the car and will be in the mix to win for the fourth time on the streets of St. Pete.

Despite the speed chart looking like Honda "dominated" the session, the reality is that it was more parity than anything else. As is usually the case in IndyCar less than one second separated Dixon from Spencer Pigot, who was 18th on the grid in 1:03.4909.

"The grid looks pretty nicely mixed up with Honda and Chevy, which is great for competition," Power said. "It could make for a really competitive year."

IndyCar qualifying will begin at 2:55 this afternoon.

Track changes: Much of the circuit was repaved since last year's race, with the rest of the repaving scheduled between now and 2018, and the changes were met with positive reviews

"The track is nice and smooth, it’s a nicely done street course," Power said. "It’s kind of set the standard for what street courses should be. 

"We have a lot of lanes (now) to pass on. The bodykits have made the racing tougher, and closer. But the tires degrade quickly, which makes for good racing. I think we’ll have a good race."

The teams were thrown for a bit of a loop Friday morning when they arrived at the track to find that Turn 3 had been changed overnight as the result of several incidents in support series practice sessions the night before. About 180 feet of curbing was added to the corner to round it off in an effort to keep cars from impacting the wall on exit.

Dixon was very complimentary of the effort made to have the turn ready by Friday morning, and said the change should help some of the other series racing here, For the IndyCar machines, it narrowed up the corner and could take someone by surprise.

"It's different through Turn 3 because it used to be a flat corner," Dixon said. "(The change) was made more for the car with less downforce, but it made the corner tricky, and it's something that could catch you out at any moment."

Looking long term: After a New York Times piece ran Friday that pointed out the postivie growth of the series IndyCar announced Friday that long-term contracts had been secured with all four series manufacturers: Dallara, Firestone, Chevy and Honda. 

That type of commitment had been missing for quite some time in open wheel racing, and both Power and Dixon, whose careers overlap both the split and unified series era, feel that securing such deals will only benefit open wheel racing's future.

"You can see the momentum and the continuity (building)," Power said. "The drivers, teams and manufacturers shows strength in the series. There was once a time where we had different drivers every year, but now we have the same drivers, the same teams, and it’s heading in a great direction."

Dixon agreed, but like many he hopes a third engine manufacturer could be added to the mix as well.

"Kudos to everyone in the series and Jay( Frye) as well," Dixon said. "It shows that the manufacturers know that this is the right place to be. As we have all spoken about, if we can get an addition of one more (OEM) it will be ideal, and hopefully that will happen."

Fearless Predictions, 2017 Edition

Last week I spent over an hour recording a podcast, only to discover 1) I had editing problems and 2) I didn't really like it. While that goes completely against my "garage" sound philosophy, I thought I rambled a bit too much and went off on a few too many tangents.

I know...rambling and tangents. I never do that kind of stuff!

So here I am instead, blogging my 2017 predictions instead of talking about them. Trust me, this version will be just as good.

My first prediction…Simon Pagenaud is going to repeat as the series champion. Out of all of my predictions, I think this is the one that will more than likely happen. After all, ou are talking about a guy who right now is at the absolute apex of his driving abilities and is the perfect Penske driver in that he takes a very measured and methodical approach to his racing. I think he is a lot like Rick Mears in that sense – minus being absolutely omnipotent at Indy – in that he is patient and confident in his abilities and that of the car. Most importantly, the guy just doesn’t beat himself, and that’s what separates him from someone like, say, Will Power, who could probably have at least one more championship if he could keep his head into every race.

If Simon doesn’t win the championship then I could see 7-8 other drivers competing for the title, given how things might develop over the season. I think the big wild card will be how the Hondas perform, and I was reading today that they feel they have made up some ground. Then there the Ganassi factor. I don’t see Chip mailing in this season and hedging on things being better with the new cars next year. He doesn’t work that way. So there is something there that makes me feel like they will figure out a way to close up the gap. That will be something to watch early on this year.

I’m sticking with Penske for my second prediction that Josef Newgarden will win the Indy 500. Yes, I know that totally goes against my normal MO if sticking with one driver until he wins the race, and in this case I have hitched my wagon on the James Hinchcliffe train the last couple of years. But if you want to go on recent performance, it's hard to bet against Newgarden. He qualified second and finished third at IMS last year, and absolutely dominated the Iowa race (with mega props to Ed Carpenter Racing and JR Hildebrand for that). And, since Iowa in 2015 he has five top-4 finishes on ovals. As tough as he has been on ovals over the last couple of seasons, now he has the resources of Team Penske behind him. How can he not be the favorite?

If I had to pick a darkhorse in the title mix, I'm going with Carlos Munoz. AJ Foyt racing made the switch to Chevy this year, which is huge, and I thought Carlos did a nice job last year with Andretti, all things considered. I also think he's in the position to take the next step in his career. One metric I’ve always look at with a driver is where they stand after about 50 races. A lot of drivers, like Josef Newgarden and James Hinchcliffe for example, or even Simon, have shown a real uptick in their careers once they hit that 50-race threshold.

Of course there are several reasons for that, including working their way up the ladder in terms of competitive teams, and learning what it takes to contend on a weekly basis in such a competitive series, but if you research it, there is just something with that number. Sunday will mark Munoz' 54th career start, so I’m guessing an uptick will be coming from him as well.

Not only that, when you look at Foyt, one of the things that sticks out to me the last couple of years is that they seem to be really getting it together on the business side of things thanks to Larry Foyt, but you really have to go back to almost 2011 and Vitor Meira to find a really good full-time driver in that stable. Not to bash on Takuma Sato, but if you are looking to contend for a championship, he’s not your guy, and let's not even get started on Jack Hawksworth. But now the team has two good drivers in Munoz and Conor Daly, so everything seems to be pointing up for that team.

It's hard to call it a comeback because he's been here for years, but I look for JR Hildebrand to completely resurrect his career this year.  I’ve written and talked a lot about JR in the past as I think he got dealt a bit of a bad hand a couple of years ago and I respect how hard he has worked to make his way back. 

I don’t really subscribe to the whole “we need Americans in IndyCar” sort of thing, but we need drivers like JR. He’s smart, he’s articulate, he’s good with the media, and he brings a cool storyline given his background in engineering and some of the other things he’s done outside of racing. I think it would behoove the series and their media partners to start pushing a few different people, and he is one of them. He’s fast on ovals, we all know that, and if he has improved his road course skills at all he has a shot to have a very solid, successful season.

Of course, if you are talking a comeback, you also have to make mention of Marco Andretti, who was just absolutely awful last year, finishing in the top 10 only twice and coming home 16^th in the points.

The thing is, and this is where we reach the real talk segment of the program, I am starting to wonder if he can make a comeback. 

This is a guy who has five podiums over the last four years and hasn’t won a race since the middle of 2011. I don’t think this is a talent thing, or an engineering thing, or even a who calls his races thing. I think it’s totally in the six inches between his ears. Marco just constantly puts way too much pressure on himself, and I think his confidence has taken a hit the last couple of years. 

He drives well at Indy because he’s always driven well at Indy and fully believes he’s going to win there someday, which is highly likely to happen. But he’s a mess on so many of the other tracks, and instead of going out and just driving he puts more pressure on himself and makes it harder for him to do his job. 

Granted, when a driver the caliber of Ryan Hunter-Reay finishes 12^th in points, you’ve pretty much had a breakdown in your organization. But at the same time, RHR mustered up three podiums and Munoz two, and of course Alexander Rossi won the 500 with Munoz finishing second. So it wasn’t all bad for the rest of the drivers, except for Marco. 

The brutal reality is that next week he will make his 170^th IndyCar start, and in that span has finished in the Top 10 in only half of those races. Add to that he turns 30 this year and this is a make or break year for him. The only problem is that he knows that as well, and instead of using the pressure to motivate him and to drive with confidence, I think that he might shrink from it instead.

OK, don't laugh at this last one, but one driver I think who will be vastly improved this year is Alexander Rossi. Hear me out though. As far as a rookie goes, Rossi had a very good season, I mean, any season is great when you add an Indy 500 win to your resume. But outside of Indianapolis, he had a very ordinary rookie-like campaign, which was kind of expected. I think it says a lot about this series that when you take a guy with Rossi’s resume and look at a few of the tough weekends he had this season.

What's interesting is that Rossi had some difficulties on the road courses, and that was something he admitted kind of frustrated him. We know he is good on ovals – he ran well at Phoenix, was fast all month at Indy, finished sixth at Iowa and was running well at Pocono when he was involved in that bizarre incident in the pits, and he should be much improved on the road courses now that he has seen them. This year he knows the tracks, has developed a great relationship with his team, and has an influx of money and resources. With that in mind I think he’s poised to be somewhere in the Top 8 in points and on the podium several times this season. Best of all I think he is in IndyCar to stay, which is a 180 degree turnaround from this time last year.

Isn't it the craziest of turnarounds, though? It was 51 weeks ago that I wrote my I Hate Alexander Rossi column, and now the guy is an Indy 500 champion and is slowly becoming a more popular person in the series. He's talented, he's humble and he gets it now, See, everything has a way of working out, doesn't it?

So here we go with 2017. I'll be heading to Florida on Tuesday and staying with my mom for a couple of days before the USF2000 stuff starts on Thursday, then I'll have my Ray Rayner* hat on for the rest of the week. Can't wait!

Editor's note: Ray Rayner hosted a morning kids' TV show on WGN in Chicago in the 1960s-70s, which I would watch before school. He had a hat that was a Cubs had on one side and a White Sox hat on the other, and he would turn it to one or the other when he talked about the previous days' game. That's kind of me and the whole PR-15DIM thing.

Getting the Band Back Together!

As dedicated readers of this blog know, I'm a big fan of late night movies. I mean, I love movies, but the late-night thing isn't really by choice, just necessity for a guy who has perpetual insomnia.

(Quick sidebar: I saw La La Land a couple of weeks ago. Thoughts? I loved it until the last 15 minutes, but then what a cruel twist. They should've been together, right?)

Over the last few weeks, one movie that has been heavily in the late night rotation has been Blues Brothers, the 1980 comedy starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, who as brothers Jake and Elwood Blues have a dilemma: the orphanage where they grew up is set to be closed because they can't afford the $5,000 in property taxes.

As anyone who has seen the movie knows, lots of hilarity ensues throughout the flick. One of the key scenes in the movie is when the boys go to a church on the South Side of Chicago, and during legendary James Brown's sermon and musical number, Jake (Belushi) sees a light from above that inspires him to get get the band back together, and put on a concert to raise the money.

Eventually they get the band back together, raise the money and embark on one of the best movie car chases of all time to get to the Cook County assessor's office in time.

So what does all of this have to do with me? Not a lot, but I thought it would be a good way to explain that I'm getting back into the game. Along with my duties with John Cummiskey Racing in the USF2000 series this week at St. Pete, I'm going to do my best to follow along with the goings-on with the IndyCar side of things, and do some reporting back in this blog.

So yes, 15 Days in May returns!

I've been thinking for a while that I want to get back involved in sportswriting, and when it comes to IndyCar, you all know I can write about it all day!

Look for some content from me starting Thursday night. I'm excited and hope that it is the start of a little bit of coverage all season long.

Happy Trails Carl Edwards

As I approach my 50th birthday, I have to say that few things shock me anymore. As I've gotten older I've realized the term "shocking" when applied to news is usually hyperbole, like Clemson "shocking" Alabama.

Really? I watched the game and there was nothing shocking about it, Clemson is a great team and they had the better players. Actually I kind of saw it coming, and everyone else should have too. So "shocking" news doesn't really shock me any longer.

(Editor's note: I turn 48 on May 25, I merely throw the approaching 50 thing out every so often as I'm trying to ease myself into the thought of my sixth decade of life.)

That said, I was pretty shocked to hear that NASCAR driver Carl Edwards had decided to step out of his car and pursue "other interests" with a year to go in his contract. Edwards is just 37 and back in November was a clean restart away from having the chance to win a championship. So, to step away now seems a bit strange.

Needless to say, the speculation in the NASCAR community is running rampant, and no one seems to be coming closer to the reason why. Don't expect the reclusive Edwards to give up his reasons in his Wednesday press conference, either. He doesn't work that way.

And, frankly, he owes no one an explanation. He has his reasons and whatever those are, they are valid.

I think the answer is simple: the guy just wanted to go home.

No question, the life of a racer, while glamorous at times, is tough, especially in NASCAR's way-too-long 38-week season. Their season is so long (and unnecessarily so, because the product has become a dog), women conceive a child and give birth to it in less time than it takes to run a Cup season.

That's a lot of time on the road. After joining John Cummiskey Racing at Road America in June, I spent about 20 days away from home the rest of the year. A very modest number, but that's for four race weekends and two test sessions. Multiply that out to a long race season and include commercials, photo shoots and sponsor commitments, and you are looking at well over 200 days away from home every year.

Lots of drivers have dealt with it by bringing their family with them, and I think that is great. It's probably not the easiest thing, to raise a family as part of a traveling show, but it seems like the families that do make the best of it and seem very close because of it.

That wasn't the case for Edwards' family, which includes his wife -- who is a neurologist -- and their two kids. A very private man, Carl is also very protective of his family, to the point where very few people know anything about them. While I take my hat off to him for that, it also means that when he hits the road, he goes by himself, meaning probably 50 or so times a year he kisses his family goodbye and leaves them for days at a time. That has to wear on someone after a while.

One thing I always thought about Edwards is that racing doesn't consume him. He loves to race, he loves to drive and loves to compete, but at the same time when the day is over he doesn't think about it all that much. It's his job, he's very, very good at it, but there is more to his life than that.

I don't think of this as his "retirement", I think of it more as a "sabbatical". I think he just wants to go home and stay there for a while, to support his wife in her career and to wake up and see his kids every day. As a dad to a college junior and high school sophomore, I get it. Once you have kids of your own you are cognizant of the passage of time because it's right in front of you. The little tiny things you brought home from the hospital grow and learn every day, and before you know it they are embarking on their own lives.

Edwards is in a wonderful position, he's had a solid and satisfying career that while it may be missing a couple of pieces (like a championship or Daytona 500 win), his 28 victories ties him for 26th place all-time, and he's made by some estimates upwards of $80-$90 million in his career. If this is it for him, he's left a legacy of a really nice career.

In my mind, two options exist for a guy like him: be happy and walk away satisfied with what he's accomplished, or continue chasing things that may never come. Given what we are beginning to learn about concussions and head injuries, and the fact that he has had some nasty crashes in his career, why not just go with option A?

Option A is walking away and choosing health and family, and I have to say I can respect that. There are a couple of other drivers out there, like Dale Earnhardt Jr., who I wish would make the same choice. I really do worry what will happen to Junior if he has another concussion.

One thing that really sticks with me from my time as a sportswriter is that pro athletes are just people who happen to have really cool jobs, but just because they have those jobs doesn't mean they aren't immune from or struggle with the same things the rest of us do.

I remember once following Tiger Woods around a golf course for a story I was working on, and after following him for a couple of days I realized I wouldn't switch my life with his for a second. I would love to play golf for a living, but being under a microscope and being under constant pressures from all directions would exhaust me. And from what I've read is going on in Tiger's life now, it's done the same to him.

At a certain point, the money becomes irrelevant because there is so much of it. They are still human beings with the same hopes and fears as the rest of us. If his heart is telling him to stay home with his family, support his wife's career or chase another passion in his life, who am I do judge? The only person he has to answer to is himself.

If that's behind his decision, I have a lot of respect for him. Whatever his reasons, happy trails, Carl, you had a heck of a career.

A Tale of Three Tracks

Those of you who are fans of this space know that thanks to my wife's job and my association with John Cummiskey Racing, I've visited a lot of race tracks this year.

If you count my visit to my local Rockford Speedway back in April, I have visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca, Memphis Motorsports Park, as well as street courses in Toronto, Monaco and Singapore.

This week I was pretty busy and added three more to my list, and all three have their own distinct personalities and backstories. Two are stops on the Verizon IndyCar series, and the third, unfortunately, is a part of the history of open wheel racing, where it will probably remain forever.

My first stop was at Barber Motorsports Park, where JCR was among several USF2000 teams testing for the 2017 season. It was my first time there and I was completely impressed. What an amazing facility, and one place where TV does no justice to how cool the place really is.

My friend Ross, who I have known since high school and lives in the area, says Barber is much more beautiful in April when it is all greened up, but even though it was pretty dormant and brown, it was still stunning with its rolling hills and natural beauty.

On Tuesday I drove around to various spots on the course and discovered there were some awesome spots to view the action all over the course. Unlike a lot of natural terrain road courses, Barber is very compact and doesn't take up a lot of space, so from many vantage points is possible to see a lot of the course from no matter where you sit.

My favorite spot was along the backstretch, where you can see about three-fourths of the course, with the potential to see cars going in three different directions: along the front stretch, through Turn 5 and all along the back portion of the course.

This may come as a surprise to most people, but despite being on-site at Road America, Toronto and Mid-Ohio for an entire race weekend, I didn't actually stay for the IndyCar race. Part of it was because by the time our events finished for the weekend I had spent 30-40 hours at the track working, and, in the case of Toronto, I had a long drive home and just wanted to get on the road.

I've already decided, however, that I'm staying for the Barber race, it looks to be a can't-miss event!

Another track I visited was Pocono Raceway, a.k.a. the "Tricky Triangle". Darcy had a business trip that took her to Eastern Pennsylvania and then New York, so I tagged along so we could spend a couple of days in Manhattan.

Our hotel was in Bethlehem, PA, which is about a 45-minute drive from the track. Thursday I jumped into our Nissan 370Z rental and headed up.

The drive up is mostly on some twisty, two-lane roads that go through a few small towns, and, as it turns out, up some really large hills. It's kind of a
trivial thing, I know, but it was interesting to see that the track sits at about 1,850 feet above sea level, making it, by my best guess, the highest track on the schedule.

The track itself looks like it sits on land that was cut out of the trees and leveled off, because it is completely surrounded by forests. Still, with its huge front-stretch grandstand -- which looks way bigger than it appears on television -- it cuts an imposing figure as you drive up to it.

With track tours done for the year in
October, there wasn't much else to do except to check in at the office to see if there was anywhere I could go to take pictures or see other spots on the track. The person I spoke to in the office pointed me to a viewing stand just at the exit of Turn 2.

Actually, the view from there was pretty cool. One thing that really startled me is just how bare the infield was, which from the camping areas or the top of the grandstands would make it a great place to see the cars pretty much all the way around the track. That's kind of a given now with the
way tracks are designed now, but Pocono is 45 years old so I think it it unique in that sense.

Actually, where I was standing would've been a great place to watch the race, but I think a perfect place might have been to my right, which was where I see RVs parked during both the IndyCar and Cup weekends. That looks like it would be a lot of fun. Either way, getting to finally see Pocono in person makes me want to go see a race there. While the USF2000 series won't be there next year, I'll get there someday.

Before heading to Pocono, I had made one other stop. Since the next town over from Bethlehem was Nazareth, I drove over there to see if I could find what was left of Nazareth Speedway, which was once part of the IndyCar schedule but has been closed since 2004.

I've written about Nazareth before, back in 2012 when I found a "save Nazareth Speedway" Facebook page. But I really wanted to see the track for myself.

It didn't take all that long to find it, and
I drove around trying to find a place where I could get a better view. That led me to a side road and a gravel path that looked like it had once served as parking. One gravel path led to another and before I knew it I pulled up to a fence that had conveniently been pulled back far enough that I could squeeze through.

So, the answer is, yes, I trespassed! And given the survey of replies to one of my Twitter posts, most of you would've done the same thing!

Anyway, I walked along a path and cut
through some trees and brush, and I was to the wall at the entry to Turn 3. The photo above was looking back down the backstretch, and the one to the left was looking towards Turn 4. Of course, the first photo in this sequence is of the start-finish line.

I climbed over the wall and worked my way all the way around to the frontstretch -- hence the start-finish line photo. I really wanted to completely walk the track but I also didn't want to get back to my car and find a law enforcement officer or upset landowner waiting for me. So I grabbed a few more photos and worked my way back to the car.

You can find photos at the bottom of this post, but when I went back and looked at some old photos of the track and watched some videos on YouTube, it was hard to believe that I was looking at the same place that had seen so much racing history, which actually dated back over a century on that property.

It's really sad to see what has happened to the track, but even sadder is the fact that we will never see racing on that site ever again. The track is in such a state that it could never be rehabilitated, and just mowing it down and building a new track on the site would cost millions of dollars no one wants to spend.

Like so many tracks around the country that have shuttered over the years, it's sad to see it happen, but, as I mentioned in my blog post almost five years ago, time just marches on. Still, I was glad to be able to get there and walk the track a little, just to say that I did.

Monaco Track Walk

I've been fortunate to have traveled with my wife Darcy to some really cool places in the last couple of years, but if you had told me I would ever have made it to Monaco, I wouldn't have believed you!

Yet, here we are! Darcy's boss was a panelist for the Ernst/Young World Entrepreneur of the Year conference, and he wanted Darcy to come so I tagged along. It's been a fun couple of days here, Monaco is a beautiful city, and while I've seen lots of wealthy, beautiful people, and tons of amazing yachts and supercars, I've also discovered that it is full of nice, everyday people too.

Of course, I was excited about the opportunity to check out the course used for the Monaco Grand Prix. First run in 1929, the race uses the sometimes narrow streets around town, and while the race is mostly a parade of cars because it's so hard to pass here, it's location and history gives it the status of one of the world's most famous and prestigious races -- and rightfully so.

I actually lapped the 2.07-mile course four times! Once as a track walk, twice as a runner and another time later in the day when Darcy and I went on a leisurely stroll.

I discovered that it is a pretty interesting course. Again, very narrow, with most of the streets averaging about 8-12 paces across, but one thing I never really knew about it was the massive elevation changes. Watching the race on TV or checking it out on YouTube, there really isn't justice given to how extreme they really are.

So, although I started from the Fairmont Hotel where we are staying and jumped onto the course at the famous Fairmont Hairpin, we'll get started with my selfie at the start/finish line.

The race starts on one of the busier streets in town, one which is lined with restaurants and shops. What is so amazing to me is how they are able to squeeze grandstands and stuff along this street, much like the start/finish line in Singapore.

Once the drivers take the green, the course begins an uphill ascent

that continues until the cars reach the Hotel de Paris and the Monte Carlo casino. In just about one kilometer, the course goes up almost 150 feet! I'll tell you what, running up that hill was a beast!

Speaking of running, last month I ran the Indy Mini marathon, which includes a lap of the Speedway. My total time to run around the track was 28:03, which I was really happy with. My lap here in Monaco was 24 minutes, so you can tell the difference the big hill makes!

Does this photo show a little bit as to how steep the hill is? Crazy.

Once at the top of the hill, the hotel and casino await. It's super narrow up there as the cars go through a little bit of a roundabout in front of the hotel. Both buildings are so beautiful, I've been looking at photos and old videos from the race and it's kind of cool how you can superimpose either a car from, say, 50 years ago, and a current one racing by the hotel and the view is really similar.

Actually, if you are a fan of the movie Grand Prix, as I am, the scene where Stoddard's wife wakes up and runs to the balcony of her room is at the hotel right next to the Hotel de Paris at the Hermitage. 

You can't see it in this photo, but the hotel is undergoing a big renovation. Across the way at the casino, they were filming a commercial, and a camera crew was repeatedly shooting three people walking across the street and into the casino. That was kind of cool.

Once through the roundabout, the cars start to go back downhill again, and this one is even steeper than the first as they wind their way back towards the Mediterranean Sea. The street is still crazy narrow and drops into a hard right-hander that takes the driver by the Fairmont Hairpin.

Imagine busting it down this street at about 100 miles an hour!

As you can see, there is still a lot of guardrail up, but it is being removed bit by bit ever day. They took the guardrail down by the Fairmont on Thursday, and the teardown of the big grandstands by the harbor is an ongoing project that will probably take another couple of weeks.

So the cars head down this street and bang a right and just keep going downhill. That takes them to the hairpin. Referencing Grand Prix again, I noticed in the movie that the Fairmont hadn't been constructed at the time

and there was just a set of grandstands there. Now the hotel has such a great view that the rooms that face the race course are in high demand.

Actually, the rooms that are good for viewing have a sign on them, which I'll post at the bottom. I peeked into one of those rooms when housekeeping had a door open, and they are pretty swanky too.

This photo is looking up the street, and the cars would be coming towards you in the Grand Prix. This corner is super slow, with the cars going around it at

30-40 miles per hour. It's kind of interesting to be around there and to see and hear supercars going around that hairpin. I think the people driving those cars like to have a little bit of a feeling they are F1 drivers.

Here is the exit of the hairpin, not again the steep elevation loss. From where I took this picture, we are probably about 75 feet above sea level, and they will drop another 60 feet or so in the 400 meters from here.

It's pretty easy to follow the course from here. It's

basically you drive to the Mediterranean and turn right! That of course turns into the famous tunnel. The road through the tunnel is about as wide as the course will get, but it narrows quickly at the exit.

Three things make that tunnel tough: 1) the quick adjustment your eyes have to make coming out of the tunnel, 2) the narrowing of the street and 3) there's still more downhill to go!

I drove through that tunnel in our rental car, and even at 40-50 mph you still get a sensation of what it is like for the

drivers. In such a tight space I bet it looks pretty spectacular to see them drive through it.

The exit of the tunnel gives the drivers their first look at the harbor. Coming out of the tunnel, they head a bit downhill until a little kink turns them closer to the harbor. Of course, since that is the largest and flattest place in town, that is where the huge grandstands are put up.

I also drove through that area, and it is narrow and really twisty. What is funny is that to the driver's right there are a bunch of shops and cafes. Unfortunately

the guardrails were down in front of those establishments, so I don't know how close the cars get to them.

Even though much of them were taken down, the size of the grandstands there were pretty awesome. I can only imagine what it looks like to drive through there when they are full.

I'll throw a few more images down at the bottom, but I kind of like this one because you can see the shops and everything.

At this point, the lap is just about over! Near those clumps of trees is a quick right turn, uphill about 100 meters, and then another quick right that takes the cars onto the main straight and back towards the start finish line.

All in all, walking the course was a really interesting and enjoyable experience. One thing that really struck me is

that even though the course is slow, it is very technical and difficult to drive. Much like IMS, this race has pretty much run on the same course since the race began in 1929.

Back then, the cars were probably a little bit bigger, but they didn't go nearly as fast. Now, although components like suspensions and brakes are better, it's still a physical track for the drivers since there is so much shifting and g-forces going on.

And of course, I gave a lot of thought to the history of the race, and how drivers like Alberto Ascari, Juan Fangio, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Mario Andretti and so many others had driven those streets. But the one person I thought about a lot as I was walking was Ayrton Senna. Senna won the race six times and had several of the best drives of his career at Monaco.

In fact, his career was kickstarted here as his second place finish in 1985, and there are many epic YouTube

videos of him driving laps around the circuit.

What he did here was a large part of his legend.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our track walk. I've now been to three F1 tracks (Monza, Singapore, Monaco) and my next goal is to see a race at any of those sites, especially Monza and Monaco. Hopefully someday!