Rain plays role in all three series’ races

As a child, I remember there were those kids who would look for cover when it rained. But of course opposites fill our planet too. Conversely, like a two-sided coin, others reveled in the wet stuff, taking off shoes and luxuriating in the same downpour that the less adventurous ran from.

It was in similar fashion that Sunday’s motorsports calendar played out, with NASCAR’s rain-held hostage Sprint Cup drivers dashing for umbrellas at Martinsville, Va., waiting hopefully for a chance to start the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500, which ultimately was postponed until Monday.

Contrasting that disappointing picture, the F1 boys visiting Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia, for the second leg of the F1 Grand Prix season, happily traded in umbrellas and goulashes for rain tires and a winding wet weather road course in a race that started under rain and finished in the dry. And what a race it was!

For the second race in a row, Red Bull Racing/Renault’s Sebastian Vettel roared off into the distance, dusting the remainder of the field from the get-go. But just as in Bahrain two weeks ago, Vettel’s commanding lead was sabotaged by mechanical failure, this time just under halfway through the race, when front-end brake failure sent him into the gravel traps, ending his day.

But it was the opportunistic Jenson Button, the F1 series’ defending champion, who made a daring strategy call on Lap 7 of the 58-lap affair that dramatically altered the race’s outcome. Languishing in seventh spot after a poor start in the rain, Button radioed in to his crew that he was coming in and wished to switch to slicks. The bold maneuver looked initially foolish when Button careened all over the course on his in-lap, falling way off the pace. But several laps later, the Englishman was turning laps five to six seconds quicker than anyone else, and the copycat effect soon followed: the remainder of the 24-car field all pitted to switch to slicks from the rain tires. Button managed to pass several cars reentering the circuit on cold slicks, improving his position to fourth, and later, to second. When Vettel’s misfortune occurred, Button was in the clear for his and McLaren/Mercedes’ first victory of 2010.

Sunday’s third race, in IndyCar, was to be run on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., on a cool track layout that included parts of an old airfield. On this day, IndyCar played the role of the kid who was on the fence about coming out to play in the rain: sort of “should we or shouldn’t we?” The series prides itself on running in the rain, as it did partially two weeks ago in its season debut at Sao Paulo, but as was the case in Brazil, lightning, monsoon-like thunderstorms, and ultimately a track awash in deep pools of gathered water postponed the event until Monday. But if attitude counts for anything, the IndyCar “kids” wanted to play in the rain, if they'd had their druthers. Said driver Marco Andretti during the delay before postponement was announced: “I think we’re getting too soft. We should get out there and race!”

Alan Ross is the author of 32 books and a regular contributor to American Profile. E-mail: alanross_sports@yahoo.com
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