The year that was: Open wheel, F1, NHRA and Road racing though the eyes of this racing fan.

It was an interesting 2007 season all over Motorsports for me and on any given week I had plenty to write about and what an elevator of a season its been.

Open wheel racing in the United States doesn’t really count for much anymore like it use too, for the IRL, I watched basically the entire season or at least as they say Tivo-ed it to watch when I had the time. They still had there fair share of action including one spectacle in racing, the Indianapolis 500. Even with all of the rain being off and on all day, the race was entertaining at times and seeing Dario Franchitti win it (yes, even on fuel mileage and the race being shortened due to rain), it was cool too.

The championship battle all season long was nothing like I expected and with no Penske racing cars in the mix (like I predicted at the beginning of the season), but rather the battle came down to Andretti-Green Racing vs. the challenging Ganassi Racing team. In the end, it was one bad call on the Ganassi Racing side of it that ended it all and with a hard charging Dario Franchitti winning it all.

Soon after the Indy 500, WindTunnel asked the question “Which was the most interesting race to watch…Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 or The Coca-Cola 600?”, even after a good Coca-Cola 600, I still choose the Indianapolis 500.

Of course now the latest trend is for some open wheel drivers to invade NASCAR and what a crop it is - Dario Franchitti, Jacques Villeneuve and Sam Hornish Jr. just to name a few.

As for the Champ Car World Series, I began the season watching the first two races, the first-ever Las Vegas Grand Prix and then the popular Long Beach Grand Prix. Since then, Champ Car hasn’t even come on my radar at all. The championship from what I read was a run-away bust just like most of the races.

On yesterday’s Speed news, Miller reported on two interesting stories, first, that Paul Tracy had been emailed by Forsythe a couple weeks ago that told him to renegotiate his Contract or loss his ride as Miller put it. Tracy has been trying to get a hold of Forsythe for weeks now, but no response, Tracy did tell the media that he has an iron contract for 4 more years to race for them. Personally, no need for Tracy to renegotiate his Contract, they have to pay him either way. If he leaves Forsythe, were does he go? A team should pick him up either in Champ Car or some where else, but if its going to heard Champ Car more, no Tracy, no attendance.

The second story was that in a private test session at Homestead-Miami Speedway on the road course, both the Champ car and the IRL cars ran together on track (read more on both the Tracy story and this one here…), could this be a sign of these two low-rated series getting back together? Personally, that might be the only way open wheel racing in the US can survivor.

Time is always an issue every day in what you watch and don’t watch and as much as I like watch NHRA, I didn’t get a chance on most Sunday nights even with a DVR. I watched the live ESPN coverage from Indianapolis, but for the most part nope. However I’ve been a huge fan of John force and team force for years now since before I meet John Force himself at Racearama years ago. It was great to see Ashley Force come up and race in the funny cars and she did great for her rookie season.

Still shocked with John Force’s accident in (I believe) Texas, I hope he gets back on track next year. Good luck John, good well soon.

Formula 1, Formula 1 for me this season was a huge turning point as for the first time I wasn’t watching much of the series after the Indianapolis Grand Prix, instead with Eclstones comments about not needing the United States anymore and combining that with the racing, I ended up writing a piece called “Is Formula 1 in trouble in the eyes of its US and Canadian fans?” and walking away from the series. However I did end up watching the finale in Brazil and we all know how that ended - a controversy nightmare with no clear World Championship. In the end, Raikkonen won the World Championship and I guess I understand why, oh well.

Personally, I don’t understand why McLaren-Mercedes will continue to run in the Formula 1 after that FIA’s decision on Spy-gate or whatever.

Earlier today, Renault announced there 2008 lineup and they signed non other than the two-time World Champion Alonso to a two year deal. Let’s be honest, that was all Alonso was going to get, no other team can afford him or handle him, now he’s back number 1 at Renault. So for 2008, the World Championship battle could be Lewis Hamilton at McLaren vs.Raikkonen at Ferrari vs. Alonso at Renault, now that might be entertaining, now all Formula 1 really needs is on-track passing.

I heard the former Formula 1 winner Juan Montoya say, in the first four races this season in the Cup Series, he was either passed or had passed other drivers more times then in all season in Formula 1 and its true too. I see more passing in a single Martinsville, Richmond or Bristol Cup race then in half the season of formula 1. That’s what they neded to work on, being able to have competitive on-track racing period and retracting there comments on the United States with adding a GP in the States. You watch, F1 might not even be in Canada neither.

The biggest thrill besides NASCAR of course for me was watching the American Le Man’s Series and the similar Grand-American Road Racing Series both put on great races all season long, the 24 hours of Daytona (Rolex 24 at Daytona), 12 hours of Sebring, 24 hours of LeMans, the season in these two series were action-packed all around. In ALMS, it was Audi narrowly winning over Porsche in the prototypes, but what a race it was in the GT class, great battles all season long with the champion being Mika Salo.

In the same respect, the Grand American series came out on top in both there championship battle as well as there good, close, competitive racing all season long, no this isn’t an advertisement… One downfall this season was the official calls made during the race, you thought NASCAR was bad, nope. But, all in all good racing with GURNEY & FOGARTY winning the championship.

- Racedriven