The fun is back

[oddlycalm]

Something struck me after watching the St. Pete race and attending the Town Hall meeting in Portland; the fun is back.

For the last couple seasons, CART has been under a cloud, and a gloomy one at that. So far what I've seen has put a smile on my face, and I realized what it is today. The jerks and arseholes are gone. In their absence, it's like the entire series is cast in a fresh new light.

I'm looking forward to some good racing this year, but even better than that, it's also going to be fun again.

[Warlock!]

Ya know, I never stopped having fun, but it was always fun in a sense like, "I'm gonna have fun, dammit! You never know what the future may bring". I'm still thinkin the same thinig about Road America though... :(

Winter Warlock!

[RaceGrrl]

I agree, and my attitude change is due in part to this forum. I don't think any of us here are blind to CART's past faults and future potential for failure, but we choose to focus on the racing.

[Napoleon]

Absolutely agree OC. Things are far from perfect, and CART still has some rough seas ahead, but I think the future looks bright

[duh, edited to complete my thoughts]

[pchall]

I've had a similar feeling.

Since St. Pete it's like somebody brews me a double espresso of Doom and Gloom Lifter and hands it to me every morning.

[Kiwifan]

I was one of the blind faithful who has always believed in CART but last night my son and I sat down to watch SuperSpeedway on DVD.

How did it slip away? I mean there were thirty cars all with big name sponsorship, stands full of fans and the racing was exciting. Mario and Micheal were full of praise for CART and optimistic about the future. Sigh. The quality of the filming was outstanding and the two of us really enjoyed the show. The Speed, the sounds. It was great.

This is starting to sound like a D&G thread from me but it's not meant to be. :) The racing was good. We have had our troubled times but I reckon this year will be the most exciting for quite some time and with that will bring new fans.

Cheers, Rusty.

[Chaos]

i'll have to agree with the general tone of the thread. I watched last year, but i felt as though there was a dark cloud hanging around all the time. This year the dark cloud is gone. Well, maybe a small one, but that's good because you never want to get complacent and pretend everything is peachy.

[tantra]

Early on, I decided to go to the event in St. Pete as a show of support for CART. I drove down from Ohio through ice and snow (both going and coming) to see for myself if (a) we were actually still in business, and (b) what the series was going to be like this year.

I can tell you that (obviously in evidence to all now) that we certainly are alive, and the tone of things at St. Pete was lively.
I mean GREAT! The hospitalty area was warm, the pits were electric, the racing was spritied, and the crowd response was very good for a first race.

This is going to be fun year for us all, so get to as many events as you can afford, and we'll all have a brew in celebration of some of the best auto racing buy some of the sharpest young guys (yes, including Roberto who is about 20 yo at heart) to ever take to the track.

[JT265]

I gotta echo everyone's thoughts here.

And for Nappy, here's a present for ya to finish off your thoughts;

"." :D

[nz_climber]

well this only about my third season following CART - and to me this season looks to be the best i've seen !! BRING ON THE RACING!!!