Haas Formula

One of my favorite types of motor sports is Formula 1 racing.  Maybe the attraction is that it's mostly a European dominated sport, with 11 current teams that are all based in England, Switzerland, and Italy. Coming in either 2015 or 2016 though, that will change, with the appearance of a new team in F1, Haas Formula based in Charlotte NC, as in the good ol' U. S. of A, or if you want, 'MURICA!

Being a fan of F1, what makes this amazing is that while the Indy500 and NASCAR get most of the attention here, there have been some great accomplishments by folks from the 50 states in F1.  World Champions Phil Hill and Mario Andretti come to mind, as well as Dan Gurney, who not only drove in F1, but also built his own car and won with it in F1. 

But what is really exciting about Haas Formula is that even though it is a tough sport to break into, he's going to give it a shot anyway. That's what makes it worth doing, that it's not easy, and that he's willing to try it from the US and still compete against the Europeans at their own sport. I guess the reverse would be someone in England starting an NFL level team from scratch...it's just not going to happen.

I've read a lot of experts that are already predicting that the Haas team will not succeed, but I have to answer them this way.  If you were in the situation like Gene Haas, what would you do?  In other words, if you were already a very successful business man with enough money to start your own NASCAR team, build your own wind tunnel, employee hundreds of people in the racing business outside of your primary business, what would you want out of life?

The way I see it, in that situation my 3 main choices in life would be:
1: just keep doing what I'm doing
2: retire, sell everything, and sit on the beach drinking rum the rest of my life
3: roll the dice and take a huge gamble on another field, even if people told me I'd fail

Yep, he's going with #3, and jumping into F1 with both feet and millions of dollars to try and be successful at something that is very difficult.  I have to admire him for that, and I can't wait to see if the team starts competing in 2015 or 2016 since he has that choice.

Either way, let's start the chant now...USA...USA...USA!!!!