The Spin at Mexico City: NASCAR's first real look at Montoya?

I've heard and read a lot about the last race incident at Mexico City in which Juan Pablo Montoya spun Scott Pruett while attempting a pass for the lead. Justifiably, almost everyone blames Montoya for the incident. I have two thoughts on the incident, one about the incident itself and one on a somewhat more general level.

First, as angry as Pruett was (and probably still is) about the spin, it was obviously not intentional. It was overaggressive, yes but Montoya didn't go into the corner with the intent of spinning Pruett out of the race. His intent was to outbrake Pruett into the corner and take the lead. In my opinion, and I know I'm in the minority here, Pruett deserves some of the blame. He knows (or should know) how aggressive a driver Montoya is; anyone who has watched him in CART or F1 knows it. Pruett, in my mind, left too much room to the inside given the aggressive nature of the driver behind him.

Second, NASCAR now sees what it got when Ganassi hired Montoya. Montoya is an aggressive (at times overagressive - see above) driver. This is not the first time that Montoya has taken a teammate out (at least once I can remember in F1) and it probably won't be the last. Given NASCAR's recent distaste for aggressive driving, they may be starting to view Montoya as a double edged sword. Additionally, he is not politically correct, he is not prone to hiding disappointment or veiling his views. His personality is something that NASCAR needs but may not necessarily want. On the other hand, could NASCAR be setting up exactly the kind of white hat/black hat or good guy/bad guy, "us versus them" rivalry between the stock car traditionalists and international interlopers that could sell tickets? I sincerely hope this is not what they are doing, but it really wouldn't surprise me if they stooped to that level.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Fort Stewart Exercise

In a post yesterday, I mentioned the activity at Fort Stewart. Today I had an excellent opportunity to monitor the exercise and can now provide a better list of frequencies and talkgroups on which to find activity. In addition to the Army participants, A-10s from the 104th Fighter Wing (MA ANG) and JSTARS are taking part in the exercise.

119.100/257.800 - Savannah IAP Tower
120.400/380.025 - Savannah Approach/Departure
125.300/387.100 - Savannah Approach/Departure
138.625/237.000 - CRTC CP, 104 FW "HAWK OPS"
138.150 - 104 FW Air-to-Air
139.900 - 104 FW Air-to-Air
141.675 - 104 FW Air-to-Air

133.550/279.575 - Hunter AAF Tower
45.900 - 1-3 AVN
49.800 - 2-3 AVN
36.100 - A/2-3 AVN
229.200 - B/2-3 AVN
49.900 - 4-3 AVN

127.350/279.625 - Marne Radio
126.250/269.275 - Wright AAF Tower

280.800 - Fort Stewart Ranges
271.100 - Fort Stewart Ranges
141.800 - Tactical
300.700 - Tactical
259.425 - Tactical

225.725 - JSTARS Discrete
341.750 - JSTARS Discrete

Fort Stewart/Hunter AAF TRS Talkgroups
2288 - Range Admin
2448 - Range Control
1616 - Army Common
2704 - training activity
3632 - training activity
3728 - training activity
4176 - training activity (4th BCT)
6992 - training activity (4th BCT)
7024 - training activity (4th BCT)
7408 - training activity (2-3 BTB)
7472 - training activity (4th BCT)


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Effingham Fire Dispatch Changes

In the last few days, I've heard Effingham County dispatching fire calls over the 155.355 EMS repeater. Prior to that, I heard units 6601 and 4401 (Effingham and Rincon fire chiefs respectively) doing testing with Dispatch, with test pages being sent over the EMS repeater. It seems that they don't quite have things fully sorted out. The audio from dispatch is muffled and hard to understand, not only to the scanner listener but to the fire units as well.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Fort Stewart Exercises

Based on recent news reports on the Savannah TV Stations and Newspaper, both the 2nd Brigade and the 4th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart are in the Field Training. This could make for some interesting military monitoring while they are in the field. Check the frequencies in the weekly recaps posted on this blog for activity, the Hunter, Fort Stewart, and Savannah Approach/Departure frequencies should see some use. There could also be coordinating traffic on the Fort Stewart-Hunter AAF 400 mhz TRS.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Apologies

I apologize for the lack of posts to this blog over the last two weeks, but the work schedule has kept me away from the radios and the blog. Unfortunately it has also kept me from even coming close to getting a weekly recap together (not that I heard all that much to recap...)
I did post some catch-up posts with some of what I heard to some of the email groups, you can find those at MilCom, Flacom, and ScanSavannah.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Scanning Project: Oglethorpe Speedway

I haven't been to a race at Oglethorpe Speedway in several years, mostly because of my work schedule. I've decided that I'm going to try to make some races this year, I've really missed the excitement of the local racing. I've also decided to turn it into a scanning project. My frequency list for the speedway is over 5 years old, so it is no doubt inaccurate. Here is my list as it was in 2001:

Track Frequencies
461.500 Primary Race Control
464.550 Administrative Use
465.750

Team Frequencies
461.4375
461.650
462.575
462.625
463.275
463.500
464.5375
464.575
464.75
465.900
466.425
466.825
467.525
467.7625
467.75
468.500
468.7875
468.825

I have been looking at the Oglethorpe Speedway website and I've noticed they are using a device called a "Raceceiver" for the race officials to communicate to the drivers. It's great to see them using this safety measure and it also provides another frequency to look for.

The first step in my project, as soon as I get the chance, will be to start out by searching the FCC ULS Database for frequencies. While I'm at the races, searching will be the order of the day while watching the races. I invite local area scanner buffs to participate in this project; I'll also be posting this the ScanSavannah email group. Keep in mind that if you give it a try, a stubby antenna or something similar be useful. The speedway is located in a very RF hostile environment so attenuating the received signals make it easier to find the radio traffic at the track by reducing intermod and some area commercial traffic.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

The Time is Here For Unification in American Open Wheel Racing

Earlier this week I downloaded Real Live Roadrunning by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris. Listening to one of my favorite Knopfler songs, "Speedway at Nazareth" (which essentially tells the story of a CART season from a racer's perspective), I longed for the heyday of CART. It was time when the series was a great one. It was a series in which a racer had to be proficient at short and long ovals, street courses, and road courses. Neither Champ Car or the IRL currently or have come close to approaching that level. Over the last few years, Champ Car has been more or less a Sebastien Bourdais benefit and the IRL last year was a competition between Penske and Ganassi. Instead of one great series we now have two lackluster and substandard series, each of which is more less a spec racer series with only one choice of chassis in Champ Car and essentially only one choice of chassis in the IRL. Each series also has only one engine choice.

Over the last few weeks, I've read reports about how few entries there currently are for the 2007 Champ Car series. Apparently they are nowhere close to having a full field with only a month to go before the season opener. This week there have been reports on SPEED TV and on F1 Weekly that Panoz has been told to cease production on the new Champ Car after only 25 chassis have been produced. It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that given most teams are 2 car teams, they aren't going to have a full field. If you take into account teams ordering spares, the picture is even worse.

Over the offseason, Champ Car also dumped the Ford pace car program in favor of Paul Stoddart's 2-seat F1 car program. As a result, the Champ Car series lost it's primary backer and sponsor, Ford Motor Company. I may not be a business major, but I have enough common sense to know not to dump my primary sponsor. The financial decision makers of Champ Car must be questioned given that decision. Why should Champ Car be promoting F1 cars anyway?
Were they bribing Stoddart and Minardi into Champ Car? If so, is it worth losing a primary series sponsor to gain one team?

It currently seems that the IRL has both the better car count and the better financial standing of the two series. As much as it pains me to say so, because I am not a Tony George fan, it is time for for Champ Car to sell out to the IRL. Perhaps it is time for open wheel to try the NASACR style of leadership; love or hate NASCAR, the France family command of NASCAR has succeeded on the business level. Perhaps having one person or entity in charge rather than a group of team owners can work, even if it is Tony George. For the sake of open wheel racing in the United States, it is time. Spare us the embarrassment of failure by one of the series, which at the current time appears to be Champ Car. Spare us the watered down competition of each series by pitting Newman-Haas against Penske and Ganassi. Perhaps teams such as Andretti Green and Forsyth can become resurgent and contend as well.

My hope for such a series would be a return to having a choice between two competitive chassis and at least two competitive engine choices. Unfortunately, unless there is only one series on a solid footing, I don't see manufacturers making the business decision to fulfil that hope.

It is time to put pride, ego, and personal animosity to the side and unite the series even if it is not an even basis. If it means selling Champ Car out to the IRL, do it. Let's hope the leadership of Champ Car and the IRL come to their senses soon and do the right thing. I'm tired of watered down racing.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net