Everything's Bigger in Texas! Except for...?

DATE: MAY 7, 2009

I've had this saying for years. Driving is like sex, a lot of men think they're good at it, and a lot of women tell them otherwise.

You could actually apply that to me at Brands Hatch. Oh the irony.

I ran Brian Sendack off the road coming out of the pitlane trying to pass him, but that was the best chance I'd had to get past him. Early on I knew I was faster than he was in the slow sections of the track, but Brian did well.

I just pushed it too hard and took us both out of contention to win the thing... whoops! I talked to him earlier this week and he seemed a bit annoyed. Brian's been having some really crappy luck lately, so I did feel bad about taking us both out.

So we go to Texas. Yay, a track that we have literally no shot at winning at all because we don't have Saar and Lenard's illegal suspension or whatever.

Okay, time to elaborate on the whole tire wear thing that some of you have heard about. Basically on the non restrictor plate tracks, Saar and Lenard have figured out how to reduce the weight being pressed on the tires. That's allowed in the rulebook, but you can only take off so much weight from the tires.

If you take off too much weight from the tires, they won't wear as much, and when tires don't wear as much (especially at a track like Texas World), you get a ridiculous speed advantage.

There's no possible way Saar and Lenard are getting tire wear that is that good without going over the restrictions. Yet somehow, they've gotten through all of the tech inspections somehow. Leonid Roderick and a few other guys have been talking to the other team bosses about how to solve this problem.

I think they have a few solutions. But I think it'l take something big for the officials to listen and to seriously investigate the Saar and Lenard cars. Especially when Lance Andrews and Alan Foster, the series's two main test drivers, say that there is a possibility the Saar and Lenard models are not playing by the rules.

This is going to be a very, VERY long week. The speeds are high, and first practice starts in an hour.

Bye for now!
- A.R.