This is the Statt Mann, Baby. It’s time to Scatt a Little Bit…

ESPN has a campaign promoting the Masters Golf tournament. The tagline: “It may be green but it won’t be spring until The Masters.”

You could say the same thing in Southern California: “It may be green but it won’t be spring until The Long Beach Grand Prix.”

The annual right of the season opened this weekend with the Formula Drift opener at Long Beach. It was a sell-out crowd of twenty thousand plus. Another quarter million tuned in on the Driftstream online programming.

Last night Irwindale Speedway opened its season with a big racing night and closed it with a very big fireworks show worthy of the Fourth of July on nearly the Fourth of April.

Next weekend the Tudor United Sportscar Championship throws a green flag making it spring on the Southern California racing calendar. That’s followed by IndyCar and the Pirelli World Challenge on Sunday.

In the middle of all that the Global Rallycross had a media day last week that involved no less than three IndyCar teams – Andretti Autosport, Bryan Herta Autosport and Penske Racing – all involved in the GRC in one form or another.

Truly, it may be green but it’s not spring until racing returns to Southern California.

Peace.