Standing in the checkout line at a CostCo this week,
looking around at the patrons emptying their carts, Margo turned to me wryly
observing that this is now looking more normal. Yes, our favorite brand of TP
was readily available. And yes, the passage through the checkout stations and
then on through to the exit for a final count of items, there was little
acknowledgement that anything other than a kind of normalcy had returned. Yes,
there were still a strong contingent of naysayers on social media dwelling on
the downside of this global pandemic but to anyone living in Northern Colorado
(NoCol), observing the bare minimum of social interaction anyway, it meant that
well, it was getting harder by the day to see anything having changed at all!
During my early trips to Tokyo, Japan, I have to admit
I was taken by surprise to see passengers on commuter trains and buses wearing
masks. Turns out that for Tokyo residents, waking up of a morning with a
sniffle meant that out of common courtesy you wore a mask. Better to minimize the chance of spreading anything
nasty than having every head turn your way should you happen to sneeze in the
confined spaces of commuter carriages. Indeed
to these Tokyo residents, nothing appeared out of the ordinary when masked
commuters entered transit hubs, banks and stores or places of work.
Clearly, we have left normal behind and are well into
the process of adjusting to life that is a little more normal. This past week
has seen Margo and me, heads-down at our desks, finalizing the September 2020
issue of our digital publication NonStop Insider. Now that the task has been
completed, it’s been a time of sitting back, drinking coffee and skimming
through magazines that I have ignored for some time. With the weather now a
little more normal in that the snow that fell earlier in the week and with it,
daytime temperatures hovering around freezing, the return to warmer weather has
seen us stepping out onto our decks.
“We
won’t forget the year when the world buried its foot in the brake pedal and
brought out the red flags for auto racing.
“Fundamental
alterations to how we go racing are guaranteed. But this experience will change
us in other ways that aren’t fully known yet, carrying the permanence of a new
normal as it’s established.”
Pruett then quotes Indy
Car team owner, Chip Gnasssi, after he made the observation:
“We have no option but to take a fresh
look at how we do the things we do. And all of us from the sanctioning bodies,
to the tracks, to the team owners, to the engineers and mechanics, and
everybody in between, has no option but to do the same.”
As for fresh looks at doing things including stepping
up security trackside, a newspaper in Toronto published the cartoon above. A
not so subtle reference to the up and coming Indy stars being as young as they
are these days with many in the twenties and a couple just barely twenty.
Pictured as the two “race babes” are Colton Herta and Conor Daly, with former
Indy winner Hinchcliffe acting as the trackside reporter for NBC. As a
historical side note, it was Hinchcliffe who won the pole for the 2016 Indy 500
but where it was team Herta with driver Alexander Rossi who won that year’s
Indy 500, the start of an even closer tie-in with the Andretti dynasty.
It is not always easy to take the words coming out of
sports programs literally or to quickly apply to our daily lives. And yet, in
all the conversations Margo and I have had of late it’s been hard to ignore the
comments about what we are doing differently today. No more handshakes or hugs,
no more sitting bar-side at your favorite restaurant and no more gathering as
friends over small talk and chitchat. On the other hand, elbow bumps seem
unnatural even as we have adapted to something more normal that gives us a form
of contact that we have been deprived of for most of the year.
This past week two posters appeared on my Facebook feed that struck a chord. Next year will be a big year for me and even though Margo and I just cancelled our 2021 return BizCation to Australia and New Zealand we are both adamant that we are not getting old. No question about it, we continue to be in good health, to enjoy the work we do even as we plan our next road trip. However, we were only recently reminded that it was two years ago, this past August, that we spent our last weekend trackside. The red Vette was still our sports car of choice and on the Friday prior to the weekends outing with NASA – the National Auto Sports Association – I took Jim Miller out for a couple of laps.
The skies were even more ominous than that depicted at the top of this post. Not influenced by fire as much as by converging weather systems that were not normal for that region of Colorado at that time of year. Symbolically, after a fashion, a tornado just happened to sweep past the track and, completely unaware of its potential for destruction, I completed the lap. Time to seek shelter!
NASA certainly stood by Margo and me as we slowly advanced up the ranks. And
our thanks to Ryan Flaherty, John Matthew and Fulton Haight as well as to
instructors like Steve, Mike and Tom. When you encounter a group director with
the name Maddog, you know you have to be on your best behavior. There were
occasions when I wasn’t particularly behaving at my best but even then, a day
or so later, Ryan would call me and walk me through whatever issue I had at the
time, spending his own time to encourage me to keep at it!
We aren’t quite yet at the point where we can say we have arrived at the new normal. I am not sure we will fully appreciate the new normal when it does arrive as it’s probably going to be a moving target for at least the next two years. However, I am quite OK with living in the more normal circumstances we encounter up here in NoCo. The forest fires seem to have died down even as there remains a hint of burnt pine needles in the air. Parts of the sky remain hazy but even with the presence of forest fires we shrug our shoulders and dismiss them with the thought that after a dry summer, they were expected. They are just another part of normalcy we live through each year.
It’s been quite a while
since I referenced Colton Herta, the grandson of our good friends the Kennys.
This weekend began the beginning of the end for the 2020 Indy series with just
five races left to run. Colton had worked his way into fifth place overall but
then, in a difficult first race on Saturday he slipped back to seventh place in
the standings. Still, with the potential of ending the season possibly as high
as third, Sunday was going to be challenging as rain was heading towards Ohio.
It would be more than two decades later that I sat in the stands at Monte Carlo
to watch the 2004 Formula One event that was won by Giancarlo Fisichella,
an upset win as Montoya took out Schumacher in the tunnel while under a full
course yellow! Racing is always full of drame as the hours unfold. Then again,
even as we sit at home glued to our television sets, there were no surprises this
Sunday; Colton won the race.
“That
was sweet!”
Colton led every lap apart from the laps as the race
leaders made their pit stops. It was as clinical a win as I have ever seen with
the distance separating Colton from the other placegetters clearly visible as
he crossed the line. With the laps
winding down and with the appearance of being caught by fellow Andretti team
members, Colton was in fuel save mode. On his radio, asking for when he could
return to racing (as those Andretti drivers closed the gap), it was with a sigh
of relief when, with about three laps to run, his crew chief gave him the
signal to go race.
And race young Colton certainly did, quickly pulling away from his adversaries. Yes, he won; pulling away and in so doing closed the gap between himself and the driver in third place in the championship. It’s always good to be greeted by the boss and team owner Michael Andretti couldn’t be more pleased to see three of his drivers make it to the podium for the very first time in forever. Then again, it was history too after a fashion:
“The last time Andretti Autosport swept the podium was in 2005 at St. Petersburg when Dan Wheldon scored the win and fellow Andretti teammates Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta – Colton Herta’s father – followed to sweep the top four finishing positions for what was known as Andretti Green Racing at the time.”
The significance of that F1 win by Mario all those
years ago then hit home. Hertas and Andrettis have enjoyed close relationships
for a very long time and it’s only normal then that Colton has found a home
with a winning team. From seventh place on Saturday night for Colton it meant a
jump up to fourth on Sunday afternoon. In times when there’s so much that is
normal and where conversations oftentimes harken back to when it was normal,
the sense that we were seeing something a little more normal was encouraging.
“I’d love to give Formula 1 a crack,” (Colton) said. “I think it would have to mean either being with a top three team or incentives of, if I do good enough, getting to a top three team.
“So I think if having that U.S. driver can push the market forward and drive the market, I think it’d be very beneficial for Formula 1.
“I’d love to give it a shot; I think you’d be a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said. “But if I don’t, I think I’m going to be just fine and enjoy driving IndyCars just as much as I’d enjoy being in a Formula 1 paddock.”
Maybe just maybe there’s more to that connection with
Europe and F1 in Colton’s friendship with Mario after all!
It’s only a matter of days now before we head to
Southern California (SoCal) where the forest fires have been more extreme and
not to be trivialized in any way. Returning to the highways for only our second
roadtrip of the year in a way further highlights how life is becoming a little
bit more normal. There is a long way to go and there’s no discounting the
tragedy that has been faced by many families around the planet. Shocking, and
heart-braking, to say the least. This
experience will change us in other ways that aren’t fully known yet … What
will follow in the months that lie ahead isn’t clear but there is a growing
sense of us becoming adaptive to our changing circumstances.
At the very least, our cars will have masks in the door pockets and we will be carrying plenty of hand sanitizer. The only question we have been asking ourselves is whether or not we should have been doing this all along? Perhaps what comes next is simply a greater appreciation for keeping our neighbors safe and isn’t that something that none of us will be tired of doing any time soon? And when it comes to winning, isn’t taking simple steps like this all that counts in our life race?
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