7 Reasons to Love Turbo

A loyal Indy Car fan, there was never any question that I would see Turbo.  I even had my picture taken with him at the Indy 500 this year, at my mom's request.  I wasn't all that enthusiastic about it at the time, but now that I've seen it, I'm impressed.  Turns out, this movie is worth seeing.   

• It's so real, you forget it's fake.  There is not a paint stripe out of place.  If you know that track, you won't be disappointed.  When Turbo first arrives at the track, there is a drop dead gorgeous montage of real scenes that are still fresh in my mind from May.  I was bouncing in my seat when I saw the perfectly proportioned and painted number 12 car of Will Power.  The cars weren't too fast for the track, so it wasn't too cartoon-ish.  Actually--it was an animated movie about a snail who races in the Indy 500, but there wasn't much that was cartoon-ish about it.  It was a whole lot more realistic than Driven, the 2001 train wreck chronicling a season of CART.  But then again, that's not saying much.  (I'm criticizing the movie, not CART.)       
• In the theater, you're surrounded by kids.  I was kind of dreading that ahead of time, but there were some undeniably captivating open wheel racing scenes, and I was happy they were seeing it.  I was hoping that it had the tiniest bit of influence on just a few of them.  I love open wheel racing, and I just want people to know that auto racing isn't synonymous with NASCAR.  It's not that there's anything wrong with NASCAR.  It's just not all there is.  It was nice to hear everyone in the world of Turbo raving about the Indy 500 for a change.       
• Guy Gagné has a wonderful name.  So, everybody is writing a novel, right?  Which means everybody's been through the struggle of naming characters.  Choose a name that means something significant about the character, say baby name websites that include advice for aspiring authors.  And that's just what the makers of Turbo did.  "Gagné" is the past tense of the French verb "gagner" which means "to win."  Simple, and not too obvious.  A winning choice indeed.   
• One of the drivers' names is Shelby. Oh my gosh!  That's my name!  I just might be happy forever now.  But in all seriousness, I'm elated she was there and running up front.  It's a tiny, tiny detail, but it's important.  Perhaps the fact that it was such a little part is what made it so important.  I don't mind when female drivers get attention; I think it's pretty clear that it's hard to be a woman in a male-dominated sport.  (If you disagree, then you should give it a shot.)  However, I love it best when there isn't any fanfare at all.  It says, yes, she's here.  And she's a driver just like everybody else.  There was an incomplete little sound bite about a Shelby Stone in the pre-race coverage in Turbo, and her name was mentioned a few other times.  Of course, her being a woman was completely irrelevant to the plot, but that's just it.  They didn't want to make her gender part of the plot, so they could have just put another male driver there.  But they didn't.  Me and all the little girls in the theater, we saw a competitive woman driver, and I promise, that is important.    
• Social media. I don't often see kids' movies; I'm not sure if all the latest ones reflect our smart phone culture as perfectly as Turbo.  Turbo got to race in the Indy 500 because a video of him went viral.  That was part of the plot.  It wasn't just a little bit thrown in to make the parents laugh--this is the world now, and that plot point keeps the story relevant.  That shot where everyone in the stands had their phones out?  I'm only eighteen and I remember a time before texting and Twitter.  But all those kids in the theater don't.  This is the world they know and this movie is right in with it.            
• It's actually pretty engaging.  Not entirely unpredictable, but what movie is?  I sat down in the theater assuming the only good parts would be at the Speedway.  And the best parts were at the Speedway.  But there were definitely other good parts.  
• That was really Paul Page.  I checked IMDb.  It was.                                                                       

Go see it.  Right now.  Wait, what am I saying?  You'll only be mad it's not May yet.  

Where are the Marketing Degrees?

It seems that Indy Car has found the sweet spot when it comes to road racing.  I must say that the quality of the ovals has worsened.  Okay, I admit I was biased toward road courses to start with, but before Texas especially, I tuned in prepared for the usual good action and was disappointed.  Toronto was a breath of fresh air after the long stretch of ovals and after Saturday's race, all I could think was, "We get to do this all again tomorrow."  These double headers are growing on me.  

There were a few pieces to the weekend that were a bit unsavory, however, and a lot of it goes back to marketing--that one thing Indy Car just can't get right, that one thing that's keeping the series down.  NASCAR's marketing?  It's solid gold.  Everybody knows what it is.  This may have something to do with the fact that I'm from North Carolina, but still, if I say the words "Indy Car" to someone, they picture NASCAR.  Despite NASCAR's widespread popularity, I can't believe that it's just what people prefer, much less that Indy Car is an inferior product.  Indy Car is just extremely different.  And because it's so different, it can't ride on NASCAR's tidal wave.  It has to make its own name, and it's not.  

So, here's hoping the rumors are true that Tom Garfinkel will be coming to Indy Car.  But it's not just how you promote the series.  You have to deliver what you promise, and this weekend in Toronto, race control fell just a little bit short.  

It started before the beginning.  The first-ever Indy Car standing start was a selling point of the weekend.  On Saturday there was just one attempt, and then it was called off and they went ahead with the flying start.  That said, I was not at all interested in the concept anyway.  Indy Car is a different product from Formula One--it has to be, or the two series couldn't coexist.  Therefore, in Indy Car, there are flying starts, just as there are ovals in addition to road courses.  Regardless, we were told that we would see a standing start on Saturday, and it just didn't happen.  That's not the right precedent to set.  At least they went ahead with it on Sunday.  (Though it was just as anticlimactic as I expected it to be.)

Then there was the penalty for Dario Franchitti.  He is not my favorite driver, but the call was wrong.  Yes--he did move over.  I saw it as a subconscious reaction to Will Power suddenly appearing underneath him, and others believed it was indeed on purpose.  But at least in the room I was in, everyone agreed that all the drivers had been doing that all day and the call should not have been made.  Particularly after the race.  Most people hate to see a race won or lost in the pits, so nobody wants to see nitpick-y rules get in the way.  As my dad said, the results should only be reviewed after the race if there was a violation that couldn't be ignored.  But then again, Brian Barnhart was calling the shots this weekend.

The only thing worse than making a crippling, incorrect call?  Taking it all back the next day.  You want to make those decisions?  Then just leave it.  I guess I'm happy things were set right, and I bet that's how most people are feeling.  But, personally?  Make the call or don't, but pick one.

All I'm saying is that this is a spectator sport.  If we're promised a standing start and if (for some reason...) we want to see it, we need to get it.  We want to see cars battling for position, on the track, start to finish.  And even though the rule book is important, it's only there because it has to be.  It's there to keep things safe and fair.  It's not there to punish drivers for trying to maintain their position in the closing laps of a race.

*DISCLAIMER*:  I hate blocking.  I am NOT saying drivers should be able to defend their position to the point of blocking.  There is a difference between actually coming off the racing line and driving aggressively.

      

Now the last unfortunate thing about the weekend is a much bigger hurdle as far as marketing goes.  We've been having the most interesting season in so long...until now.  Coming into Toronto, we had eight different winners from seven different countries.  We had three first-time winners.  Helio Castroneves, who has always been one of the strongest drivers but has never won a championship, continues to hang on to the points lead.  Even when Ganassi had luck at Pocono with Scott Dixon, it was nice to see the other half of the big two get their rhythm back.  But after Dixon scored his third win in a row today, now that we're headed to Mid-Ohio where he is unquestionably the favorite, I'm afraid the last leg of the season is going to look a lot like it did last year.  Of course, it doesn't matter how many marketing degrees a person has--a lot of this is out of their hands.  Talent and skill can't and shouldn't be stifled.  We are going in the right direction with the two engine manufacturers, the red and black tires, and the aero packages that will debut in 2015.  We've just got to keep the competition tough.  We've got to keep one or two big teams from dominating.  Because, for most of the races this season, I've been genuinely unsure of what would happen next and completely excited to find out.