Oilpressure

By Susan Phillips

I’m going to finally write the post I have been trying to write for the past ten years. Not generally one to toot his own horn (at least in public), George tries to keep things on the down-low when it comes to what it takes to write this blog. This may take some convincing, so I hope it sees the light of day. After what happened this weekend at Milwaukee, I cannot keep quiet any longer.

First of all, this blog site began as a labor of love, the fact that it has taken us places that we may have never even dreamed of before, has been the icing on the cake. When George and I began dating in earnest, I had never heard of the IndyCar Series, I was not a fan of automobile racing, and my kid was more of a hockey fan than a racing fan. That sure has changed since George and I reconnected.

I have said before, this has become a family affair, and when all else fails, racing can bring us all together. The flip side of that is the amount of time it takes me away from George at home. He has posted nearly every week, three times a week, and every day in the Month of May for fifteen years. I’m sorry to say I am not sitting over his shoulder cheering him on, my role is more of a silent partner—making sure dinner doesn’t interfere with Sunday’s race wrap up and bouncing ideas off him for what I can write about—and what he can write about in the off-season.

Now I love racing, but sometime I would like to go on a beach vacation, but with our racing season schedule and finances, I can’t see that happening anytime soon. That’s one of the reasons this weekend was so hard to take. It cost a pretty good amount of money to drive all the way up here, not to mention vacation days burned (George) or wages lost (me). I work at a local university as a baker, which is a “fun” job, but make no mistake, the money comes in handy, as I am still incurring medical bills and trying to catch up from when I lived on credit when I lost my job.

Cancer is not a cheap illness and it takes a long-lasting toll on your body. The Media Center is a life-saver for me. That may sound corny or like I’m sucking up, but I would not be able to attend as many races as I do without having a good home base. A place for me to go in the heat and sometimes cold is essential to my well-being. It’s a bonus that I get to write and do something I love, take photographs. I may not be the best technical photographer, but I do have a good eye for waiting for the shot.

Another thing about George that you might have guessed is he is honest to a fault. He calls it as he sees it and that is true of this site. You never wonder where you stand or how he feels about a certain IndyCar race. I have learned to not ask him about my clothing choices because he will answer me honestly. “Does this make my butt look big” is clearly not a question I ever ask.

So needless to say. George works hard for these credentials, we make no illusions about his site being a “news” site. It’s an opinion site and it is racing as he sees it. I guess that can ruffle some feathers, but I think it takes a lot of originality to come up with new topics every post as opposed to re-stating the latest IndyCar facts or re-posting all of the IndyCar press releases. There are other sites for that. SO I hope this finds you all well and thanks so much for your unwavering support.

This entry was posted on August 31, 2024 at 12:05 pm 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.