By Dan Knutson
indianapolismotorspeedway.com
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
On the day after the Chinese Grand Prix, I headed for Tokyo. The race in Japan was on the following weekend, and assorted F1 people were on my flight, including Dr. Gary Hartstein, the American who heads the FIA medical and safety team.
Usually I fly into Osaka, which is closer to the Suzuka track than Tokyo, but this time I went to Tokyo to meet up with some of the editors of a Japanese magazine I work for. Between doing that and the usual post-race writing, I took in some of the sights of Tokyo with a friend of mine who knows the city well.
Using the clean and incredibly efficient rail and subway system, we headed for Kinryuzan Sensoji, also known as Kannon of Asakusa, which is a 1,300-year-old temple. According to the brochure, it is the most important sanctuary for the nation's worshipers of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy.
This was one of the busiest parts of Tokyo as far back as 1600 because so many people made a pilgrimage here. The legend is that three fisherman netted a gold statue in the year 628 when fishing in the Sumida River, on whose banks the temple now stands.
After visiting one the oldest parts of the city we headed to one of the most modern - Akihabara, also known as Electric Town. Here, in an area of a couple of brightly lit blocks, you can find the very latest electronic gadgets, computers, games, cameras and so on.
On Thursday morning we took the Shinkansen - The Bullet Train - that zips along smoothly at 185 mph. It was a cloudy day, so we didn't get a view of Mount Fuji during the trip from Tokyo to Nagoya. Then we switched to the Kintetsu Line for a 30-minute train ride to Shiroko, which is the train station nearest the Suzuka circuit.
Suzuka has been hosting the Japanese Grand Prix since 1987, and many of the drivers rate it, along with the Spa circuit in Belgium, as their favorite track because it is immensely challenging. And so it was with a tinge of sadness that we attended this year's race because it was going to be the last F1 event at Suzuka. Next year, the race moves to the far less exhilarating Mount Fuji circuit that held the Japanese Grand Prix in 1976 and 1977.
Among the drivers I talked to who love Suzuka was American F1 rookie Scott Speed, who said how thrilled he was to get to race on the track at least once. One of the cool things about Suzuka, for the fans, is that it's right next to an amusement park.
"It is different to all the other circuits in the atmosphere because you have the theme park," Speed said. "I walk from my hotel through an amusement park. I have never seen anything like it."
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Centennial Stainless Steel Can Cooler
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Centennial Stainless Steel Can Cooler.
On Thursday night, Honda hosted its traditional party for the F1 fraternity in the amusement park. Gil de Ferran, winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 500 and now the sporting director of the Honda F1 team, and Otmar Szafnauer, the American who is the vice president of Honda Racing Development, were among those Honda team members who attended the party. It was raining, but we were under a large canopy, so we stayed dry. The food, Japanese and Western, was fabulous.
I didn't stay to the end because I had to catch a shuttle bus back to my hotel. A friend of mine said that Otmar later concluded the party by quipping: "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!"
The hotel I usually stay at near Suzuka was being torn down and rebuilt, so a friend of mine managed to find us a couple of rooms in another hotel. It was close to the track, but there was virtually no place to eat that was within walking distance of the hotel.
The hotel was located in an industrial area with a couple of factories nearby, but it was also a residential area. Just around the corner from my hotel, I spotted a lovely traditional Japanese house and garden. There is not a lot of wasted space in Japan. The plot of land adjoining the hotel was a rice paddy.
As usual, there was lots of work to be done out at the track, especially as this was the second-to-last race of the season, and we arrived in Japan with Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher tied in the points for the Drivers World Championship.
Five-time United States Grand Prix winner Schumacher may be retiring at the end of the season, but he has lost none of his speed. Watching him fling his Ferrari through the "Esses" section of the Suzuka track was awesome. On Saturday, he smashed the lap record by more than two seconds.
In a thrilling and dramatic race, Schumacher looked like he was heading for victory when smoke started to trail from the Ferrari engine, and he pulled off the track. Incredibly, he had not had an engine failure in a race since early in 2002.
Renault's executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, said Alonso whooped for joy as he swept by the stationary Ferrari and headed for victory.
Alonso now has a 10-point lead in the championship with just one race remaining. The only way that Schumacher can win a record eighth World Championship is if he wins the season finale in Brazil while Alonso is scoreless. Schumacher said he is pretty much resigned that his chances for the title are over, but you know he will fight all the way to the finish of the Brazilian Grand Prix. In his 16-year F1 career, Schumacher has never given up, and he is not going to do so in his last Grand Prix.
On the Monday after the race in Japan, I took the train to Osaka airport and headed for home. The Brazilian Grand Prix on Oct. 22, and it is going to be a tense affair as both the Drivers and Constructors World Championships will be settled.
