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As we head into the heart of the Christmas season, it’s time to put my computer into a little bit of a slumber as I always do at this time of year. The reason for this is two-fold – It’s always good to get away and re-charge my batteries, but few people come to this site around Christmas anyway; so it’s a good time to take a break.

Before I close the books on another fun year with this site, I’ll take a little time to reflect on 2018. We said goodbye to Phoenix and Sonoma, but hello to Portland as we wait to see what Laguna Seca holds. The jury is still out on the Sonoma/Laguna Seca swap.

Personally, Susan and I attended races at Barber, the three weekends at IMS, Road America and Gateway; along with our first trip to Sonoma (which we found out to be the last, after we bought our plane tickets). It’s really hard to say what the highlight was for us. After all, who can complain when you’re at a race track no matter where it is?

The year was not without it’s tough moments; the toughest being the accident at Pocono, which has rendered driver Robert Wickens a paraplegic – at least for the time being. Pietro Fittipaldi also had a scary moment when he broke his leg in a frightening sports car crash at Spa. However, he mended enough to return to the cockpit of his Dale Coyne ride at season’s end.

There was also some drama; none bigger than when popular drivers James Hinchcliffe and Pippa Mann both failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

Tony Kanaan and Matheus Leist both brought a combination of experience and youthful exuberance to AJ Foyt’s team. After a dismal 2017 that saw the team make another round of wholesale changes, the 2018 season saw the team have several respectable runs by both drivers. Whether that can translate into wins in 2019 is another question, but at least the Foyt cars were not bringing up the rear in most races.

In 2018, Alexander Rossi went from a young driver with the occasional flash of brilliance to a consistent threat to win every weekend as he battled for the championship down to the final race. After winning four of the first six races, Team Penske cooled off considerably and won only two more of the final eleven. However, one of those first few races they won was when Will Power won the Indianapolis 500 – giving The Captain his seventeenth win at the historic oval.

By the end of the season, it was Scott Dixon who was crowned the series champion for a fifth time – putting him into the rarefied air with AJ Foyt who won a record seven championships. Some IndyCar purists refuse to accept Dixon on that level, but they need to get over it. Dixon is that good.

As I mentioned in Monday’s post; once we get past the holidays and into January – we’ll suddenly realize that the IndyCar season is just around the corner. The early February test at Laguna Seca will be followed by Spring Training at the Circuit of the Americas. By then, we’ll be less than a month from the season-opener at St. Petersburg and another IndyCar season will be in full-swing.

But that’s after the first of the year. For now, it’s time to push away from racing and from work, in order to relax and enjoy the Christmas season with family and friends. My mother is now ninety-four, but she will be hosting an entire houseful of company for Christmas. Along with Susan, my daughter and me; we’ll be joined by both of my brothers and their wives. All three brothers will be spending Christmas with our mother in the same house where we spent Christmas as kids, since we moved into that house in January of 1964. For someone that hates change like I do, I find that very comforting. Unfortunately, this will be the twenty-fifth Christmas without our father, who introduced all three of us to the Indianapolis 500 in the early sixties. He passed away Dec 1, 1994 at the age of sixty-eight; but we will all remember him fondly this Christmas.

So today will be my last post until Monday, January 7; when I’ll return with an eye on the 2019 IndyCar season. I want to thank everyone for following along this year as some of you have done for years and years. When I return here in January, it’ll be 2019 – the year this site will celebrate its ten-year anniversary on May 1. Although I’m looking forward to a nice break, I’ll be ready to get started back when the time comes.

Aside from thanking all of you again for your support, Susan and I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and happiness in the New Year!

Susan & George Phillips

This entry was posted on December 21, 2018 at 4:02 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.