We laugh. We had no ball in the basket, so to speak, so we laugh.

St. Patrick’s Day weekend was busy for motorsports with the opening of Formula 1, American Le mans, plus AMA Superbike. All of this while NASCAR was running at Bristol.

We laugh because we took a peek at the first week NCAA bracket results and we feel we made the right choice to watch racing this weekend. All of those folks who poured over stats and predictions to create a bracket were kicked in the pants by teams like Lehigh, Norfolk, Ohio and South Florida…

The crying over torn bracket forms was drowned by green beer.

Sorry. You could have saved yourself some frustration by settling in with a good motor race. Ultimately, you would get more out of it. Basketball isn’t going to do a thing to enrich your life. Motorsports can save you money and possibly your life. Over the top…? Maybe… However, racing tests engine, fuel, safety and other technologies that make their way into the car you drive, ultimately benefiting your budget and family safety.

That said, there was quite a bit of speed fun over St. Paddy’s weekend.

The Food City 500: Brad Keselowski dominated at Bristol. Matt Kenseth gave it a shot, over and over, but the #2 Miller Lite Dodge maintained the lead spot for almost half the total laps. It was also a good result for Micaheal Waltrip Racing as Martin Trues, Jr., Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers posted the 3rd, 4th and 5th slots after Keselowski and Kenseth. Truex, Jr., in particular, gained four spots in the points race to rest in the fourth slot with Greg Biffle maintaining the top spot. Kenseth gained 2 slots for the third position while Kevin Harvick stayed steady in the second points slot. Complete results and standings online at NASCAR.com.

Formula 1 rolled off the grid to start the season with the Qantas Australian Grand Prix. Close racing gave the open wheel fans plenty of excitement throughout. 58 laps on the 3.3 mile course separated the top 4 by under 5 seconds over 190 miles. Jenson Button of Team McLaren-Mercedes started in the second slot, drove a nearly flawless race to take the win. Lewis Hamilton, also of McLaren, took third from starting on the pole. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing-Renault finished between them after starting sixth. Formula 1 is off to a good start on the way to Malaysia and the challenging back to back straights of Sepang International on March 25th. Full results online with Formula 1.

American Le Mans ran their 12 hour season opener at Sebring with multi-class racing from morning to night. The P1 Audi team of Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish took the win over their teammates in the next R18. The one-two finish pushed Audi into the next race with good momentum. The GT class white flag lap drama put the BMW Team RLL in the grass and they still put the M3 on track under lights to take the win. An international cast of drivers and manufacturers made for an exciting start to ALMS. Full results for all classes are online at ALMS.com.

Two wheel speed with AMA took over Daytona for their 200 lap opener. It was fast chase overall but the last few laps put four bikes wheel to wheel and side by side. Project One Yamaha’s Joey Pascarella dominated the race and took the win after holding off 2011 Daytona 200 champion Jason DiSalvo, Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier and Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas. The winning margin as the four rolled over the checkers at speed was a mere .048 seconds. Did we mention Pascarella is only 19 and this was just his 3rd AMA Sportbike GoPro start…? Not bad… See more online with AMA Pro Racing.

The racing season is on, at speed and moving forward fast. Basketball…? Are you kidding?