After a couple of Formula One snooze-fests at Monaco and Canada, I'm sincerely looking forward to this weekend where we have Supercars and the Le Mans 24 Hour roaring into action.
The five Kiwis in the V8 series are sitting nicely with Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen one and two at the top of the point's table, Fabian Coulthard sitting in seventh while Andre Heimgartner and the fast-improving Richie Stanaway are 20th and 24th respectively.
Two time Le Mans winner, and World Endurance Championship winner, Earl Bamber has been quick in the run up to the biggest endurance race in the world and quite possibly might pick up his third Le Mans 24 Hour title. IndyCar driver Scott Dixon is in a Ford GT40 just days after winning at Texas in his open wheel machine and would dearly love to win a 24 Hour title to go with his Indy 500 trophy.
I don't need to pump those two races, and the Supercars in particular, up so I suppose I'd better 'reflect' on the latest procession, sorry F1 race, and in particular a few comments a number of drivers made post Canada.
The race started with a bang, literally, when Lance Stroll decided he didn't want to share the track with Brendon Hartley and decided to punt him off and up the wall ending both their races. I know it wasn't the Kiwi's fault, but it won't auger well especially when Helmut Marko is involved. That bloke's mantra is quite simple, get results, or get out.
After that mess was tidied up it was well, a bit of a non-event again. It got a bit interesting post-race when winner Sebastian Vettel said it was unfair to say the racing was boring. He won, so for him it's not boring of course, but he doesn't have sit there for an hour plus and watch it from a fan's perspective.
Other drivers have said how it's not boring in the car as they are always busy. How would we know? We can't see a damn thing inside the car now with that god-awful halo thing attached on top. I can imagine a few readers will be saying that you can't see inside a tin-top either — at least they bloody well pass each other quite a lot. On-track entertainment (ie passing) beats knob fiddling, button pushing, paddle flipping and conversations with the engineers any given day.
On that note, I have to give it to the category organisers for coming up with the idea of playing in-car chat live during racing. At least it gives fans something to keep themselves awake.
Sure, the drivers are having fun, why wouldn't they. It's a lifelong dream for them. However, they should keep in mind a thing called empathy. That is, it's not about you mate, it's about the fans who pay to attend and watch. Lose them and you lose your sponsors, and a whole lot else.
I don't care how busy you are at your office desk, just as nobody cares how busy I am at my office desk. In the words of the great Elvis Presley, "A little less conversation, a little more action, please."
Go the V8s up in Darwin and good luck to Bamber and Dixon at Le Mans, because you can bet your pants there'll be plenty of action at those two gigs.