Yesterday the magic day - September 2nd - was announced for the first ever Indy Racing League event in Detroit. The Detroit Free Press reports the Belle Isle road course will be a featured event for the next five years of IndyCar racing.

The track last featured "Indy-style" racing in 2001, when then CART driver Helio Castroneves won the race. I don't know if this makes Spiderman the defending champion, but at least there's some continuity. For what it's worth, Mr. Judd was second in the race, Andretti 2.0 was fourth, the Invisible Man was 15th, Iceman placed 22nd and Rocky was dead last.

As for changes to the track to improve racing:

Brian Barnhart, IRL president and chief operating officer, said improvements to the old racecourse at Belle Isle would be made, including paving the paddock area, which turned into a muddy mess during rain at previous races. He also said bridges and berms for viewing would be erected, and the track would be reconfigured to make for more passing opportunities.

...and there was much rejoicing.

The official 2007 total is now up to 14 races.

March 24 at Homestean-Miami Speedway
April 1 in St. Petersburg, Florida
April 12 at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan
April 29 at Kansas Speedway
May 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
June 3 at The Milwaukee Mile
June 9 at Texas Motor Speedway
June 24 at Iowa Speedway
June 30 at Richmond International Raceway
July 8 at Watkins Glen
July 14 at Nashville Superspeedway
August 11 at Kentucky Speedway
September 2 at Belle Isle
September 9 at Chicagoland Speedway

Interestingly enough, the only dates left to fill are from Michigan Speedway (yes, a second race in the state of Michigan), Sonoma and possibly Mid-Ohio. Sonoma will probably be announced in August soon, but Curt Cavin of IndyStar says there are some problems trying to get both Michigan and Mid-Ohio on the schedule. Basically, July 22 and August 5 are the dates in question, but as you can read for yourself there are some issues for both tracks in determining who goes where.

Been at least 10 minutes, what's up with the "Princess of Speed"?

I'm weary of covering Danica! and am reduced to one sentence paragraphs.

For starters, she's the cover story of Travel Girl magazine.

In a field where machismo rules, Patrick rocks. People put her on its World's Most Beautiful list, while her professional credentials would make Nascar winners swoon. No creampuff, Patrick competes in open wheel racing--one of the toughest racing disciplines. Yes, she likes pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, but after she's left the boys in the dust.

Travel Girl not only profiles Patrick but gives readers a crash course in Indy racing. Admittedly, it's not the standard where-do-celebs-like-to-party fare, but it is an education. Travel Girl, as you've surmised by now, is not your ordinary travel pub.

Yes, that actually says "...crash course in Indy racing".

If that doesn't give you an aneurysm, consider Mrs. Hospenthal's upcoming stint as a runway model in Las Vegas.

For her turns on the runway, Patrick will wear the new Tissot PRC 100 Diamonds watch, the T-Touch Danica Patrick limited-edition timepiece and a T-Wave with diamonds.

The show will offer the public its first glimpse of the PRC 100 Diamonds watch, which features a dodecagon polished bezel, 60 diamonds and a red index dial. The PRC 100 Diamonds is also available in a quartz version and with a steel bracelet.

No doubt it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Speaking of (this would be my transition), a writer for the Elmira Star-Gazette briefly speculates that Katherine Legge's recent crash at Road America may catapult her to Danica!'s level in the public consciousness.

Thankful to be alive and healthy, she is now enjoying a mass media blitz, appearing on all three major network morning shows along with ABC's "World News Tonight" in its First Person segment. Legge also appeared on "Inside Edition," "The Insider," "Entertainment Tonight" and ESPN's "Cold Pizza." She's also appeared on television shows in her own country.

I'm sure this wasn't her preferred method of gaining notoriety, but perhaps now people will take notice of Legge, who is as talented as Patrick on the track and more personable off it.

Legge actually won some Atlantic Series races last year, but I dare say "spectacular crash survivor" is a bit lower than "fourth place at the Indy 500" on the driver accomplishment scale. Although, probably not by much.

Remember what I said in July about Roger Penske getting what he wants? According to the Detroit Free Press the announcement will ocme today that the IRL wil be resurrecting the Detroit Grand Prix at the course at Belle Isle.

On the one hand, I'm hopeful that putting a race in the backyard of U.S. automakers will lead to one or more engine manufacturers joining Honda in the IndyCar series. Hey, doesn't Chevy have a bunch of Ethanol-powered cars out right now?

On the other hand, the Belle Isle course was an especially egregious example of a no-passing road course. Plus, the locals weren't too keen on the logistical nightmare of the course, located on an island.

The Belle Isle racetrack, pits and paddock areas were criticized by some teams as being inadequate, while many fans complained about difficulties getting to and from the island and the lack of facilities at the track.

In campaigning to return the race to Detroit, Penske, who was instrumental in the successful staging of Super Bowl XL, said he would help improve conditions on Belle Isle, including the racecourse.

Let's wait and see what The Captain says at the announcement on Friday.

The testing on the road course at Daytona is complete, and the word from TrackSide Online is the Indy Racing League would love to schedule an actual race on the circuit. With addition (or at least the intended addition) of non-ovals in Daytona, Montreal, Detroit, Southern California and who knows where else, Tony George’s new strategy appears to be the creation his own “unified” league without actually unifying.

This may or may not be a good strategy, as it remains to be seen just what percentage of America wants to watch all this brake-induced racing. But still, if the policy for the near future is to add more of these types of courses then I suggest the league go ahead and take another page out of Champ Car’s playbook.

The last CCWS race at Road America had a mere 17 cars on the grid. In an effort to combat the dwindling car counts in their series, Kevin Kalkhoven and the Champies have devised a plan to lower the cost of fielding an entry. Prospective owners may now lease both the engine and the chassis from the league instead of forking over the cash for purchases and praying they stay crash free. Hey, Paul Tracy is still in the league, so it’s a losers bet.

I know it’s a series of parades marketed as races, but if it lowers the cost of parade participation then it’s still a good idea. As such, the IndyCar series should try to the same thing in a more limited capacity.

Somewhere out there is a Panoz chassis graveyard, as the Dallara proved to be vastly superior ride for oval racing in 2006. In 2007, no one save Arie Luyendyk Jr is considering a Panoz for a fulltime ride. However, the Panoz was still used by some teams on the road courses, where it was considered the equal or better vehicle.

Panoz also seems to be at home with road courses since they will serve as the sole provider for Champ Car next year. Keeping this in mind, it may be in the IRL’s interest to keep a working relationship with the manufacturer, just in case financial considerations force a merger.

Here’s my idea: If the IRL were to purchase those new or gently used Panoz cars and work a deal with Honda for limited leasing, then they could offer very low priced “rentals” to teams who wanted to compete only on the road and street courses, which are obviously growing beyond the three in 2007. There are several motivations from the driver or team end for this:

1. The rental would conceivably be less than a full series Champ Car ride, thus undercutting the budget conscious crowd leaning towards CCWS.

2. The playing field is leveled as drivers otherwise known as “road course specialists” could compete favorably, as road course have shown to feature more than just the Penske and Ganassi teams.

3. The road courses would allow for partial series runs (read: auditions) from developing drivers seeking a full-series sponsorship – primarily but not exclusively those from the Indy Pro Series.

And what does the league get from this deal? More cars in the field, which is especially important for races in major metropolitan areas like Montreal, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Twenty cars or less doesn’t seem like such a problem when featuring races at smaller tracks like Richmond or Milwaukee, but it’s visually obvious on two-plus mile road and street courses. If you want people to come see the races again, then show them more cars and more racing.

Who knows, you may even get some “name” drivers who are trying to play their options in multiple series. You could even attract drivers who would love to race in the series but don’t particularly like racing on the high-speed ovals.

If the Indy racing league is indeed looking to add a race at an historic location like Daytona, then it makes even more sense to leverage the event by getting more drivers who would love to drive on that track but might not otherwise have the backing or inclination for a full-season IndyCar series ride to participate.

You want to see higher TV ratings? Put 33 IndyCars in a race at Daytona.

With or without Daytona, the league needs to keep exploring ways to add more cars. If they are committed to adding more road courses, this Panoz rental idea makes that possible.

Now we have a beginning and an end. It appears there will be no race in the Dodgers parking lot - at least not to start the season - as the IRL has announced the season will open at Homestead-Miami Speedway again. This time, the twist is night racing.

The official 2007 total is now up to 13 races.
March 24 at Homestean-Miami Speedway
April 1 in St. Petersburg, Florida
April 12 at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan
April 29 at Kansas Speedway
May 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
June 3 at The Milwaukee Mile
June 9 at Texas Motor Speedway
June 24 at Iowa Speedway
June 30 at Richmond International Raceway
July 8 at Watkins Glen
July 14 at Nashville Superspeedway
August 11 at Kentucky Speedway
September 9 at Chicagoland Speedway

Any other announced races will fall between March 24 and September 9.

Well, more silliness on the Champ Car front here in the Valley of the Sun. I know as IRL fans you may not particularly care, but this is pretty amusing stuff.

As you may or may not know, Maricopa County - which includes all of Phoenix and it's suburbs - is home to the self-proclaimed "world's toughest sheriff", Joe Arpaio. Arpaio is the guy known for putting county prisoners in tents, providing them pink underwear, and feeding them green baloney. Effective or not, the guy likes publicity.

Well, Arpaio is apparently no fan of the proposed Champ Car race since the proposed downtown course will go right by the county emergency call center. The Arizona Republic reports.

Race promoters have to work with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas to ease their concerns about the noise, traffic and public safety impact of the race.

Mary Millard, with the Communications Division of the county Sheriff's Office, said that the sheriff would "post a tank and a swat team to stop the race" if it disrupted the emergency call center.

Tank on the course? Sweet.

Seriously, I had no idea the sheriff had a tank.

Man, have I been asleep at the wheel.

A week ago Marc at Full Throttle (the blog, not the drink) took my post about the would-be Danica! movie and ran with it. More interestingly, he took her quotes regarding her uncomfortablility in the race car and juxtaposed that with Laleh Seddigh, an Iranian race driver also of the female variety.

Not withstanding her “constant state of excruciating pain and discomfort,” Danica is worried about her six point harness “ironing out” a couple “things,” while (Laleh) Seddigh is racing wearing full scarf and long coat over her Nomex firesuit. Say, does anyone know of an Iranian factory that specializes in Nomex scarves amd long coats?

Somehow I doubt it.

Check the whole post and be sure to read the source articles about Ms. Seddigh’s adventures.

It is only in recent years that women have even been allowed to watch men's sports. At her first race, women spectators were screaming and climbing up the fences, Seddigh said, and that worried the organizers. "The committee said, 'Please, don't make the audience excited."' For the championship, she had to agree not to wave to the crowd, a third of which by this point was women.

Wow. Now THAT would be an interesting movie.

I live in a suburb of Phoenix, and as you are probably aware 2006 was the first time in memory that IndyCar racing was not held at Phoenix International Raceway.

And now, the Arizona Republic reports tonight the Phoenix city council approved a vote 7-1 on Tuesday to allow Champ Car to hold a downtown event next year.

I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

I remember the three years the U. S. Grand Prix (that was Formula One) was held downtown, and those cars were WAY TOO LOUD. Not to mention the fact that someone thought it was a bright idea to hold the thing in June when it's 120 degrees.

It hasn't been determined when this race will be, and I'm not sure I care.

Two days of testing on the 10-turn, 2.73 mile road course at Daytona International Speedway start today. Woo-hoo!

OK, there are probably more fun things to do than sit around and watch one car at a time spin around a road course, but still it beats a sharp stick in the eye. Besides, Uncle Sam and Rocky will be rolling around using brand-spankin' new 3.5L Ethanol-fueled Honda prototype engines that all drivers in the IndyCar series will be using in 2007.

Iceman, Mirror Man and Well Done will be dogging it in ye olde 3.0 powered by the Methanol version of E10. Yeah, it's kinda technical for me too.

Anyhow, TrackSide Online promises pictures, and I'm sure Indycar.com will have a few as well. If you are in the area, head on down and buy a tour pass of the facility and watch the guys buzz down the straightaway at Daytona.

Think of it as payback for the Brickyard 400.

In case you were wondering, this dude is not me.

However, it is highly coincidental that this fellow lives in Newburgh, Indiana. My mother lived there for 26 years and as a consequence I spent my summers there in my youth. Small world.

Come to think of it, I too am 5’ 8”, Straight, Christian, Aquarius…but I definitely have more hair than that dude. Maybe this is Bizarro me?