The news that the Board of Directors for the IndyCar series (Hulman & Co.) had fired CEO Randy Bernard has certainly caused an uproar.  By all accounts, despite the official press release from IndyCar stating that the split was mutually agreed upon, all indications are that Bernard was indeed fired. Anyone who has followed the IndyCar series for at least a few years should know that the dysfunctional family that is IndyCar changes leadership about every 18-24 months, as if one guy is going to come in riding a white horse and save the series.

Interestingly, while Randy Bernard was well-liked and respected by the fans of IndyCar, he was generally unpopular in the paddock with both the owners and the drivers.  Given that Bernard is the former CEO of the Professional Bullriders Association, he did not have any knowledge of what it takes to run a team in professional motorsports or the dangers that the drivers face, but he knew how to draw and retain fans, and so the series from the fan’s point of view is great, while from the owner’s point of view, not so great.  From what I can gather, Bernard’s lack of communication with the car owners on the subject of the cost of spare parts and the possibility of a new tire supplier for the series pretty much was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  In the parlance of stick and ball sports, Bernard had lost the locker room and never got it back.

What is to be learned from this?  Well, the notion that one person can provide leadership to a dysfunctional organization is flat outdated and is a recipe for failure. It takes a team of committed, talented individuals pulling towards one vision (that is established by the leader), to make stuff happen in this day and age of specialization. You may love the idea of having one strong leader that is everything to everybody, but the truth is that a leader is supposed to create and communicate a vision for the future and then manage the managers who are experts in their fields.  It is the managers who are supposed to implement actions in a specific area that, taken as a whole, will drive the organization towards the vision expressed by the leader.  This is true of sports, business and politics.  To not have a management structure in place such as I have described is to set the new IndyCar CEO up for failure, and we will be talking about this again in another couple of years.

RK Siler

Somewhere in Texas

This weekend brings the end of the 2012 IndyCar season.  I must say that this has been one of the more interesting and entertaining season, with new cars, competition between engine manufacturers and new drivers to the series being the headline stories.  The on-track action has generally been ferocious, and there has been some surprise race winners along the way and others who have surprised us by having an off year.  I mean, who would have thought that despite winning the Indy 500, you would describe Dario Franchitti’s season as being a disappointment?  Or, how about Justin Wilson winning on an oval?  If that is not good enough, there’s the story of Will Power utterly dominating everyone early in the year, Scott Dixon quietly amassing points race after race and, last but not least, Ryan Hunter-Reay pulling off four wins (and three in a row) in the season to date?  Who would have imagined that one driver from Penske would be fighting it out with one driver from Andretti Autosport in the last race of the season for the IndyCar Series championship?

Yes, it’s been an entertaining season, one that I must say is ending too soon and which has two deserving championship contenders.  I honestly can’t say that I am pulling for either Power or Hunter-Reay. Both guys have dominated races at various points in the season, both have been victims of terrible luck or bone-headed moves by either their competitors or even themselves.  Both are good guys who have overcome a lot of hardship in years past who now find themselves at the top of the heap in their sport.  No losers in this one, but there can only be one winner.

I must say that in some ways, the Aussie Power winning the championship would be poetic justice.  He came close to winning the championships in 2010 and 2011, beaten both times by Franchitti.  He is stupid-fast on the road and street courses, he is brutally honest when he or a fellow competitor makes a mistake and he has an unmistakable passion for winning.  It’s hard not to like the guy.

America’s Hunter-Reay has a different story.  Forgotten by all the teams just a handful of years ago, Michael Andretti saved Hunter-Reay’s career from the scrap heap by giving him a ride. Hunter-Reay has responded by giving Andretti a win in both 2010 and 2011, and then in 2012, he went on a tear, clicking off three wins in a row followed by a very opportunistic win at Baltimore a week ago to keep his championship hopes alive.

Who’s the favorite to win the title?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Who would I like to see win the title?  I’m not sure it matters-both men are deserving champions.  What I do know is this: the race this weekend at Autoclub Speedway in California is going to be a barn-burner, since there are probably 15 drivers capable of winning, even though only two have championship aspirations.  Plan on the first 250 miles of the race being very different from the last 250 miles! Enjoy it!

RK Siler

Somewhere in Texas

I’ve gotten quite a few humorous comments from folks who have seen some of my recent Facebook posts about bone-headed moves that have been made on the race track over the past few weeks.  To be fair to the boneheads, if you are going for it, and if you are absolutely on the limit, that stuff is going to happen from time to time.  Some racing drivers are notorious crashers, guys who never get it and who apparently have more balls than good sense.  Many good racing drivers crash from time to time when they are at the absolute limit of adhesion and for whatever reason, just run out of room on the race track.

Having said all that, there are a lot of terms in the racer’s dictionary that are not necessarily used by everyday folks, or even racing fans.  While the term “bonehead” is understood by most sports fans no matter what sport they follow (an off-sides violation in football or a reaching foul in basketball because you won’t/can’t play defense are good examples of boneheaded moves), the terms “wanker” and groove turtle come to mind as good, descriptive and colorful terms pretty much in the domain of any real, honest to God racer’s vocabulary.

Groove Turtle is pretty easy to explain.  Think of the rich guy who shows up to an amateur for the first time with all the latest and greatest equipment but cannot drive a nail, let alone a race car.  He knows enough to figure out what the proper racing line (or “groove”) is around a race track but is so slow that he may as well be parked – thus the term Groove Turtle.  The Groove Turtle’s cousin is the Wanker,  a rude English term having everything to do with sexual self gratification (not to put too fine a point on this, but lots of effort for no real reason other than the Wanker’s own pleasure) and the Wanker’s kid brother, the Wally.  If you ask any member of the British Empire for a proper definition, you’ll get a conversation like this:

Your English Cousin (YEC): “Mate, that bloke is so slow, it’s not to be believed.  He’s an effing Wally.”

You: “A Wally?  Is that like a Wanker?”

YEC:  “Hmmm…Well, of course, a Wanker expends effort for their own self-gratification, but Wally won’t even do that!”

Guess this means it is far better to be a Wanker than a Wally.  Come to think of it, I’d rather be a bonehead.

RK Siler

Somewhere in Texas

Fathers are famous for doling out bits of wisdom to their sons around topics ranging from money, health or personal initiative. It was no different for me, and my Dad also shared his wisdom regarding women, that mysterious, scary, confusing but oh-so compelling other member of the human race.  Dad thought he was talking about women when he told me the famous old saying, “Son, if it has wheels, wings or a skirt, you can’t afford it!”, but he was really talking about race cars, and damn if he wasn’t right!

How so?  Well, it’s pretty obvious that race cars have wheels, and a lot of them have wings, too, so you can check those two items off your list.  Skirts?  How about the fences used on the side pods of race cars to prevent air from spilling out from under the car?  Those are called skirts, too, so Dad was clearly talking about race cars…but wait:  There are more similarities, too, such as:

• Race cars generally are identified as being female in their gender: “She was really hooked up today!”;
• A good race car is pretty sexy;
• They require many hours of attention between every 10 minute ride;
• Whether it’s race cars or women, speed costs money;
• You inevitably have a pet name for them, such as Sebastian Vettel’s “Kinky Kylie” (I’m pretty sure Seb was talking about his race car here…);
• Your Mom, sister and especially your significant other HATES them (I was once called the Anti-Christ by a particular racer’s girlfriend who couldn’t stand racing.  Given that I was certain that she was truly the Anti-Christ, I took it as a compliment, but that’s just me);
• Sometimes, when you are feeling love-struck or after an especially good “ride”, you’ll likely find yourself compelled to pat her on the ass!

Have I missed anything?

 RK Siler

Somewhere in Texas

“You want me to do WHAT?” asked my wife.

“Uh, well, see, Bob has this idea about something for the website that he’s calling a Gremlin,” I explained uneasily.  I glanced at my buddy Bob, a very talented guy who is a producer-director-writer-actor. Bob shifted uncomfortably and remained silent; Bob knew damned good and well that this conversation would go a whole lot better for him if he could just disappear or at least get invisible.

No such luck for Bob. “OK, Bob, then what’s a Gremlin?” she asked.

Bob cleared his throat.  He’s big buddies with my wife, but also knows she is not someone to be messed with-at least for very long.  “I’ve got this idea for the Endless Curves website,” he began. “Why not try something different by including a female cartoon-like character who is into everything about the race car? Remember the cover of the football novel “Semi-Tough”? The one that had the cowgirl riding a football like a bucking bronco?”

“No.”

“Oh.” said Bob, “Well, how would you feel about being posed in such a way that with some help from PhotoShop, we can put an oversized tool like a sledge hammer into your hands and make it look like you’re about to hit a driver over the head with it?  Sort of an attitude adjustment.”

“Think of all the race drivers you’ve known over the years that you would have liked to hit over the head,” I suggested helpfully.

“I’ll do it!” she said.  “Wait a minute…what am I going to have to wear?” she asked suspiciously.

“Uh, well, kind of a sexed-up team uniform, a driving suit, we had some ideas about a mini-skirt…” replied Bob.

She sighed-she’s a good sport.  “OK, I’ll do it, but only because I love you guys.” I got lucky when I married her…

So, when you look at the artwork we’re using for Endless Curves, remember that this is Bob and I paying homage to a great football novel-and my wife’s revenge on all the drivers who caused both of us pain and suffering over the years!

Until next time,

RK Siler

Somewhere in Texas

Over the past several months, I have been extremely fortunate to have about 20 people review my novel “Endless Curves.”  The feedback I have received from these folks, male and female, friends and strangers (new friends, really), motorsports enthusiasts or not, has been simultaneously flattering and humbling.  Flattering because it is truly a buzz to know that people genuinely like something that has taken years to create, and humbling because it’s great to know that I have been able to share personal experiences that so many people can relate to.

So, how does a failed racing driver turned businessman (hey, a guy has to eat) become a novelist? Well, in my case, it was a combination of dumb luck and personal experience.  I was heavily involved in my climb up the motorsports “ladder” when I began dating my wife, so she naturally started accompanying me to my races (face it, any Honest-To-God racer is going to show up at the races with a smokin’ hot girl on his arm, it’s just the natural order of things), and during her first visit to the races, she realized the sport is mostly populated with larger-than-life Alpha males with egos large enough to suck the oxygen out of a normal-sized room.

After witnessing a fellow competitor’s attempt to partially destroy his rental car on a race track, my then-girlfriend observed that, “If anyone ever wanted to write a real-life book about racers, this story would be in it!” Several race weekends later, after watching a very drunk racer’s girlfriend running one night through the garage area of a race track while being chased by her equally drunk racer boyfriend, who happened to be wearing only a pair of cowboy boots, her comment was suitably shortened to “Now, that’s one for the book!”  

Years later, after I had “retired” as a racing driver (trust me, no one ever noticed when I retired), I began writing the book that my wife had referred to so many times in the past.  The result is “Endless Curves”…Part I is now complete, Part II is nearly complete and Part III is in the works (I have A LOT of stories…). Are the stories real?  Yes, pretty much. Are the people real? Well, some of the story’s characters are composites of several people and some are entirely fictional.  In all cases, the names have been changed to protect the guilty.  

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it!  In my next blog, we’ll talk about Gremlins and attitude adjustments…

Until next time,

RK Siler

Somewhere in Texas

The website for Endless Curves – The Book