Pirates, Outlaws and Disappointment

(Val) It's been a busy weekend around our household, with friends in town, kids' birthday parties, a trip to the movies and a night at the races. It is now Sunday afternoon, and what I really want is a nap, but what I will probably do is check out a car show in town where my brother has entered his 1956 Ford Pickup.

Friday we went to the first showing at our local theatre of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Because our entire family enjoyed the original movie so much, we bought tickets a week ahead of time for the debut of the new one. As I have mentioned before, we're not real big on going to movies, and I usually average one or two per year at best. Pirates 2 was my fourth movie this year and the sad part is, only 1 of those four was really worth the price of admission, and that was Cars.

Unfortunately, Pirates 2 did not live up to the hype, and in fact, I highly doubt this one will find its way into our DVD collection any time soon. We expected a similar type of adventure on the high seas that we saw the first time out, but were sorely disappointed. To be honest, this latest delivery from Disney fell far short of the expectations of our entire family. With its focus on science fiction, violence, creepy characters and tissue paper thin plotline, this one only gets 1 and a half spark plugs from me. I would definitely not recommend it for small children, as it undoubtedly earned its PG-13 rating, with even my 13-year-old son saying the whole thing was very weird.

Now for the big question: Will I go see Pirates 3? Probably. My hope is that the pattern will follow that of the original Star Wars trilogy, with the first one being spectacular, the second just ho-hum and the third just as good as, and maybe even slightly better than, the first. Since the whole Captain Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann/Will Turner triangle has become a blatantly obvious ripoff of the Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo story, I figure there is still hope that P3 will pick up the slack left hanging by P2. And besides, who doesn't want to see Keith Richards play the part of Captain Jack's Dad? I am nothing if not optimistic!

Yesterday was spent cleaning house, which made me feel like I really earned my night out at the races last night. At about 4:30 my brother and our Dad stopped by to get me and we headed down to I-55 Raceway at Pevely, MO. This was to be a World of Outlaws vs. All Stars event, so we expected a good field of cars, and we were not disappointed. There were 38 winged 410 Sprint Cars in the pits, two of which were captained by women. Yes, Tiffany Wyzard was once again "in the house" as was Becca Anderson. Unfortunately, neither one made it to the A Main, with Tiffany suffering engine problems on her second lap of qualifying, and Becca Anderson getting caught up in a little incident during the B Main that caused enough damage to keep her from finishing the race. Nice try girls, and it was great to see you there. Keep pushing it!

This was the first time in a couple of years that I had been to a WoO event, and along with feeling like I was among old friends as soon as I heard the voice of commentator John Gibson, there were a few noticable changes. It was a bit strange not seeing guys like Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski, who along with many other former WoO regulars have gone over the run with the National Sprint Tour, but it was nice seeing guys like "Neon" Dion Hindi who I haven't seen compete in a long time. Paint schemes have changed as well, which made it a little tough at first for me to remember who was who, but I got the hang of it pretty fast.

The biggest disappointment of the night was seeing that one of the drivers has accepted sponsorship from a smutty men's magazine, which to me just goes way beyond poor taste and right on over into "What were you thinking?" territory. I mean, I know racing is expensive, and teams work hard to get sponsorship dollars, but how in the world does working with a company like that forward your career? If anything, it limits your promotability because the focus is on such a small group of people. By putting that name on your car, you automatically elminate two-thirds of your fan base: women and children. And hopefully, the majority of men out there are decent enough not to want to have anything to do with you either. How many upstanding sponsors are going to want to share valuable advertising real estate with that? So is it really worth the short-sighted financial gains of getting that sponsor's money when in the long run, it's going to cost you your hard-to-rebuild reputation?

When it's all said and done, this was, in my opinion, a very poor choice. This driver lost at least three fans last night, and I doubt that we are alone in our feelings. I do my best not to cheer against certain drivers, because I think that's pretty low-class and unsportsmanlike, and I NEVER wish a crash on anybody, but to be honest, I just wanted to see that car finish dead last with wings bent beyond recognition. It brought a smile to my face when his attempt to sandbag during the dash failed and instead of starting up front, he had to start ninth. All I can do is hope and pray that this team/driver comes to their senses enough to realize that the majority of fans are not going to support their efforts at promoting the porn industry.

Enough said on that subject.

All in all it was a great night of racing, and in fact, one of the best WoO shows I've been to in a long time. The heats weren't your typical fare of whoever starts in front finishes in front, and the feature was outstanding! With a lot of shuffling about, it was clear to everyone that Brook Tatnell fought hard for the win, and deserved to carry that checkered flag. There was a lot of dirt, but in the world of dirt track racing, we take the bad with the good.

I'm ready to go racing again, but not sure when the next one will be. The price of gas is making us, along with a lot of other folks, reconsider just how far we're willing to drive for entertainment.