SuperCars in Indy

Photo via IZODIndyCar on Flickr.It's a bit of disappointing that Indianapolis is hosting the Super Browl this year and we no longer live there (simply owning a house doesn't count). As a loyal Vikings fan, born after their four Super Bowl appearances, my favorite Super Bowl to date was when the local Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. It was the closest that I got to ever getting on the Colts band wagon and it was a lot of fun to live in a city so excited about the game leading up to it. And, that game was in Miami.

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RIP Dan Wheldon

The professional sports world lost a good one today in IZOD IndyCar Driver Dan Wheldon. Dan died from unrecoverable injuries sustained in the worst crash I’ve seen since we started following IndyCar about seven years ago. In a race that was supposed to feature a dual for the championship between rivals Dario Franchitti and Will Power along with a second storyline of Wheldon with a unique chance to compete for a prize of $5M.

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My sweet new iPhone case

After almost five years of dropping unsheathed iPhones, I finally decided to get a case for my phone. I spotted the sweet case above in a Skymall(1) magazine last month and decided it was both unique and fun (it's real leather!).

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Establishing a no meat goal

Photo by val'sphotos from Flickr.

Still working on eliminating meat from my day-to-day diet (I think we're up to 10 days of no meat as of today). It occurred to me recently that because I'm not taking on a philosophical transformation (such as "I'm a vegetarian"), I'm just trying to change things up and maybe get a little healthier, too, that in order to be really successful with this that I needed to establish a goal. This gives me something to focus on working towards rather than focusing on what I'm not having.

The easiest goal I could come up with is to set an end date, basically, "I will completely eliminate meat from my diet until [some day in the future]". But, what date should I pick? 

I remembered hearing something in the past about the number of days in a row that one needs to do something to psychologically establish it as a habit. I quick google search, informed me that, almost universally, people think it's a mere 21 days. That doesn't seem too bad - but doesn't seem like much of a challenge either. So I upped it to a round two months which makes the goal May 17th, 2010. That's good timing since it's only a week or two before the Indy 500 - where they serve things like this:

Eric & his turkey leg at the Indy 500

IZOD brands the IndyCar Series (part 2)

What excites me about the announcement is the branding that IZOD brings to IndyCar. IZOD is a brand that brings to mind words like “premium,” “high class,” and “quality.” With their investment in IndyCar, they also want it to extend to words like “youthful,” “speed,” and “sport.”

NASCAR is currently the largest racing brand anyway that you measure it (other than history). However, this hasn’t always been the case. NASCAR built that brand over the last few decades with great sponsorship and the idea that they are the “every man’s” racing league. They feature “stock” cars – lately Chevrolet Impalas, Dodge Chargers, Ford Fusions and Toyota Camrys - which (at least externally) look like those that you see driving through your neighborhood. They appeal to the blue collar market and play up their roots in the southern states. There is nothing wrong with this and it works well for NASCAR. It also leaves a wide niche that IndyCar should exploit.

That niche is people who want the ultimate in racing; people who like the fact that IndyCars are built to be speed machines, specifically, and not the “stock” car in your neighbor’s driveway. They want machines that drive 230 mph. They want quality, high class, premium racing. That is why IZOD is a great match for IndyCar.

This will turn off some IndyCar fans that would prefer that IndyCar appeal to the core NASCAR fan base. These will be the people calling into radio shows to complain about the cost of an IZOD shirt. However, I believe the potential to attract fans to a “premium” racing market is far greater than potential to convert the self-identified blue collar NASCAR fans.

I think the “premium” play is the best one for IndyCar in the long term and the sponsorship from IZOD helps establish that brand. They don’t need to be the biggest, they don’t need to be the most widespread, they simply need to be the best. It’s worked for Apple. 

(Go back to Part One)

IZOD brands the IndyCar Series (part 1)

There’s a lot of buzz in the racing world about the announcement last week of IZOD as a title sponsor for the IndyCar Series. IZOD has been involved with IndyCar since 2008, as both “the official apparel sponsor” of the series and as a personal sponsor for driver Ryan Hunter-Reay.

IZOD fills the role of name sponsor for the top open-wheel series run within the Indy Racing League much like Sprint fills the role for the top equivalent in fender-racing (for those who like association games: IZOD is to IndyCar as Sprint is to NASCAR). Firestone has been on board for years for the open-wheel development series (to continue the game: Firestone is to IndyCar as Nationwide is to NASCAR).

Much of the talk has been about how what the sponsor tangibly brings to IndyCar such as distribution through hundreds upon hundreds of Macy’s stores, an increased advertising buy as part of IZOD’s parent Philips-Van Heusen gigantic spend, and (with a 6 year commitment) validity of the series’ economic health over the next several years.  That’s not to mention the straight up cash that’s being routed to the teams and the good folks at the IMS.

(Continue to part two)

The Year of Our Wood – 2008

This post was written well over a month ago and was intended to coincide with our annual New Year's card. Due to a variety of circumstances we didn't get around to putting together the card - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't proceed with: 

Edition #4 of The Wood Family’s Annual New Year’s letter: The Year of Our Wood 2008

We Have Big News!

We suppose we should probably start off with the big news of 2008 – we’re having a baby! We found out in October that we’re due for a baby in late June 2009. We’re very excited and plan on keeping all-things-baby a bit mysterious as we’re not going to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time and we’re not letting anyone in on our choices for names. We have agreed to names for both genders (with relatively little arguing and need for compromise) and will let the rest of you know on or about June 25, 2009. Until that point, we’ve nicknamed the kid “Baby Blueberry” (due to a reference to the size of the baby found in a Mom’s book a few months back) and you’re free to use that name as well.

Life in the Hoosier State

The end of 2008 marks the end of our fourth full year of life as Hoosiers here in Indiana. We both continued in the same roles at our respective employers, Hope at the American College of Sports Medicine and Geoff at The Schneider Corporation. Geoff is still pursuing his MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and is on schedule to graduate a semester early in December 2009.

Work, school, and baby preparations have kept us pretty busy all year and unfortunately, we haven’t had the chance to see our friends and family as much as we like. We had the opportunity to meet up with Hope's parents in Houston, TX in March for a weekend visit to Hope's Uncle Kelly and Aunt Bonnie. We enjoyed hosting our friends Eric and Jen from Omaha and Geoff’s brother Joe and his wife Mary for the annual Indy 500 race festivities in May. Geoff’s parents and his brother Sean visited in November and we made an icy trip to Iowa over Christmas to see Hope’s family and stay with Geoff’s Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue for the Roth Family Christmas. 

Travel

Outside of the usual work travel and visits to Ames for Iowa State football, we enjoyed a fun weekend in Washington, DC for the wedding of Geoff’s long time friend Matt Klinger to his fiancée Jane and a great weekend with old friends in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the Annual NFL Draft Party hosted by the D’Amicos. We also spent one week-plus cycling in the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) with our friend Kerry McGuire’s Team FUNK. The RAGBRAI experience dominated our Spring and Summer, including new bike purchases for the two of us, nearly a thousand combined miles of training, and lots of fun. We both turned the big 3-0 in 2008 and we celebrated each in our own ways. For Hope’s birthday, we made the trip to Newton, Iowa to take in the “Iowa Corn 250” Indycar race. For Geoff’s birthday, we made the trip to Las Vegas (Geoff’s first time) to watch the Cyclone’s take on the UNLV Rebels. On one trip, we had the opportunity to meet the 2008 Indianapolis 500 champion, who later went on to win the 2008 Indycar Series, Scott Dixon, at the Indianapolis Airport. 

Our Family

For the most part, each of our families is doing well. We live far enough away that we don’t get to see our parents, siblings, nieces, or nephew very often but we’re very proud of the successes and growth that they’ve all had in 2008.

Unfortunately, we lost Geoff’s grandfather Davis Luck (age 93) unexpectedly in August. In recognition of his service to the Navy and our country, he was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in December. It was certainly a sad circumstance but we enjoyed the opportunity to spend so much time with Geoff’s extended family in Florida in August and in Washington, DC in December.

2008 was certainly a great year for our family and with Baby Blueberry on the way, we expect 2009 to be that much better!

Happy New Year!

Hope and Geoff