Letter from America

The Brickyard, Indianapolis. For us petrolheads here in the US, May is a big month, it is of course time for the Indianapolis 500. Yes, before you say it, we know it is not what it used to be… half of the drivers (maybe more) would struggle to be bit part players in GP2 but this does not matter – it is the biggest race in the world. Period.

If you had to name THE top three motor races in the world over the last 50 years you’d have to go with the Monaco Grand Prix, the Le Mans 24 hours and Indy – the Triple Crown of motorsport. Of course, only one man has won all three, the great Graham Hill, and it’s pretty unlikely that unless Juan Pablo Montoya decides to go off and win Le Mans, that Damon’s dad will be surpassed. It may yet happen, although JPM struggles to keep his head for 2 hours so 24 might be pushing it a bit.

Of course, a lot of IRL fans are F1 fans too, so it was great to see Takuma Sato turn up to watch Pole Day. Taku was / is not the kind of guy likely to trouble Hill snr for his record but he is, as we like to say over here, one hell of a racer, and judging by the amount of fans after his autograph today, one guy we’d like to see back at the Brickyard..

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