2008 has definitely been a year to forget. It puts me in mind of the misery of 2005, with its endless frustrations and lots of tears. As always I try to find the silver lining behind every cloud but it has been tough this year. First of all, the learning curve with the wretched COT has probably been steeper than even Robby realized. He just has to stop trying for major adjustments. Things did seem to stabilize the last 10ish races of the season and Kirk did very well with his high strung boss. At times during the year Robby seemed to be very distracted and I believe this played a role with some of his less than spectacular finishes. I could analyze things to death but I'll leave that to the really smart people. We can only hope for a better 2009 beginning with the Dakar!
Let's hope it was a learning and building year for RGM and next year will be the breakthrough we all want for him. I just hope that little black cloud that seems to follow him around will find a new driver to follow.
The biggest is the presumption of certain events. The Glen, Baja... It seems to me that some people place the entire season into four events, and do so with an assumption that a win is all but certain. That hit even harder than normal this year.
The field is too strong at the Cup road courses or the SCORE events to assume anything for any driver/team.
Which just makes it that much better when your favorite does pull it out!