Full Throttle

I don’t have a dog in this fight because I simply don’t care, there are more pressing issues with NASCAR, but still, many have taken great umbrage with all the name changes occurring in the sport.

The controversy centers around what to call past NASCAR champions. This years will be the 2008 Sprint Cup Champion, but some, including NASCAR, refer to champions of the past as Sprint Cup Champions.

They dislike calling, to use one example, Alan Kulwicki the 1992 Sprint Cup champion when to them he was and always will be the 1992 Winston Cup Champion.

Be that as it may, I’ll let “them” fight out the distinctions.

The reason for this treatise, aside from wasting time during a rainy Cali evening, is to say NASCAR is not the consummate history revisionists some would have you believe.

I’m bestowing that title - “honor” doesn’t fit the occasion - on the Australian V8 Supercar Series.

This weekend marks the series’ first of two marquee events on their calender - the other being the Bathurst 1000 - and changes are afoot.

By way of background, events normally are weekend long affairs comprised of three events and points awarded for each are tallied with the leading points winner declared as the Round Champion.

No more, on the eve of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide series officials announced a change. Henceforth the winner of the last round of the Clipsal 500 would be crowned as Round Champion rather than the driver accumulating the most points over the three events..

Not happy with changing the rules at the last possible second they put on their Revisionist History Hat (often confused with a Foil Hat) and applied the new rule retrospectively. Put another way, “I’ll substitute your reality with my own” or if you prefer, “All your history are ours!”

Their reality, as opposed to ours, changes the outcome of last years Clipsal 500 that saw Todd Kelly toppimg the scoring with 66 points by winning on Saturday and finishing second on Sunday thereby winning the Round championship.

Not no more bucko, Kelly’s brother Rick, who scored 58 points last year is now your New 2007 Clipsal 500 Champion! (even if it took a year and some fudging of the books)

But hey! At least it’s still in the family right? That’s something, especially if still living under the same roof, the trophy would reside on the same mantle piece.

V8 Supercar Series: Consummate History Revisionists.

As an aside, those comparing NASCAR and the V8 Series take this similarity into account, both series’ hand out after race penalties. But one has to admit getting slapped by the V8 Supercar Investigating and Prosecuting Officer (IPO) sounds a hell of a lot more menacing than the National Stock Car Racing Commission. I mean really, who could take them too seriously. Well, except for Robby Gordon, but I digress.