Motorsport roundup

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted on the goings-on in motorsport but I have been somewhat busy with our own racing circuit to comment on what the big boys have been up to.

MotoGP

There have been 4 meets since my last post here The riders went on to Donington Park for the British Grand Prix, Assen for the Dutch TT and the Alice Motorrad for the Grand prix Deutschland. Team Ducati’s top rider Casey Stoner managed a clean sweep of all 3 with Rossi coming in a close 2nd in Britain and Germany.

 

The doctor stumbled in Assen to come in 11th but returned rejuvenated from a jaunt with a hot brunette on his boat to claim 2nd place in Germany and successive 1st place finishes in the United States and the Czech republic to stand 50 points clear of Stoner’s tally of 187 points.

Still, it’s early days with 6 meets still to go, Stoner luck could turn after crashing out in Brno and he could whittle away at Rossi’s lead in time to take the title in Valencia in October but that’s on a long shot. Dani Pedrosa only 15 points behind is the real threat to Stoner in spite of being in poor form since Catalunya.

Pedrosa has been in steady decline since his win there, something he attributes to his tyre sponsor Michelin. The tide seems to have turned against the French tyre manufacturer with Bridgestones claiming the top 8 places in Brno. With the debate on the prudence of adopting the F1 approach of all race teams using a single tyre brand still raging it would seem that Bridgestone, whose Potenza tyres are on every F1 vehicle are transferring the gains on that circuit on to MotoGP.

Away from the track and on to the paddock, there’s more than just exhaust fumes to make a man all hot and bothered, take a look.

excuse me Miss…..

Guilty as charged

This just in: ROSSI WINS AGAIN AT MISANO (SAN MARINO) AS STONER SLIDES OUT………….AGAIN!!!

Rossi has just led a Fiat Yamaha one-two finish in the 2008 GP CINZANO DI SAN MARINO. Rossi edged out team mate Jorge Lorenzo by 3 seconds to take the top of the podium and break out the bubbly. Toni Elias claimed the last place on the podium to round off the top 3. 

Casey Stoner has had a disappointing weekend. The defending champion’s race became unstuck in the 6th lap after a fairly good showing during both practice and qualifying where he set a blistering pace, probably rekindling memories of his epic win there last year. in the the push for pole position, Stoner is said to have unfortunately inflamed a  pre-existing injury to his left wrist. In spite of this and wobbly Michelins, he managed to lead the race until the 6th lap when he again spun out.

This pushes the doctor 75 points clear of Stoner in the championship standings. It looking like he may just have this seasons’ trophy on his pillion. Stoner in the meantime has to worry about Dani Pedrosa only 2 points behind him. The Repsol Honda team have decided to put Pedrosa on Bridgestone tyres for the rest of the 2008 season after a remarkable performance during his first time out on them. 

See you in Indianapolis on 14th September. Visit MotoGP for more.

F1

The weather in Valencia was fantastic but the European Grand Prix itself was a bit dull with most of the action taking place in the pit lane. Both Ferraris were involved in separate incidents in the pit lane with eventual race winner Felipe Massa dangerously exiting from the Ferrari garage onto Adrian Sutil’s path on the pit lane. It cost him € 10 000 in fines, something to be grateful for as it could have very well cost him the race had the verdict from the race stewards been a time penalty. Kimi Raikonnen then pulled early out of the pits before he got the green light from his lollipop man. He took the fuel hose which was still clamped to his car and knocked down his own mechanic Pietro Timpini in the process. Signor Timpini is said to be all right following the incident.

Any penalties that may have applied were mooted when the scarlet Ferrari blew her engine 11 laps to the finish. This unfortunate incident sees Raikonnen fall 7 points adrift of his team mate and 13 short of championship leader Hamiltion. It may just be the push that will force Ferrari’s hand to choose Massa as the lead driver to take the championship fight to Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes after all.

Takuma Nakajima would have been a popular target in the La Tomatina tomato throwing festival in Buñol’s Plaza del Pueblo,  25 miles west of Valencia this weekend after he ran into the rear of local favourite Fernando Alonso’s Renault in the 1st lap. The drive of the day undoubtedly went to Robert Kubica who has been in consistent form lately, definitely a man to watch as the series moves to the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on 5th September.

WRC

With 10 rounds completed so far, the WRC season has only 5 more to go. Sebastian Loeb took  with him a slim 4 point lead over Marco Hirvonen as the WRC went to New Zealand over the weekend. Loeb,  who has won all but 2 of the 10 rounds so far, has been matched in consistency closely by Hirvonen who’s had 8 podium finishes as well.

BP Ford World Rally Team lead driver Miko Hirvonen built an early lead over Sebastian Loeb as day 1 of the rally came to a close. Loeb came in second after a suffering a 30 second time penalty at the end of stage 2 whilst grappling with an electrical fault in his car.  The Citroens and Fords dominated the top 6 places in the overnight standings with Loeb’s team mate Dani Sordo coming in 3rd closely followed by Ford’s Jaari-Mati Latvala.  

Day 2 saw the Fords switch places with Latvala leapfrogging Loeb on the leaderboard by 13 seconds to claim the lead. Loeb had been whittling away at the 27 second gap between himself Hirvonen band by the end of the day his doggedness paid off leaving the gap between himself and the Finn down to only 4 seconds. Breathing down Loeb’s neck 2 seconds away was Dani Sordo.

The Subarus remained out of contention with Petter Solberg down in 7th. The Lad from next door, Chris Atkinson dropped from 5th to 30th place suffering an overheating radiator after he  tipped his car over. and was forced to retire.

Day 3 saw a double shot of bad luck for the Ford team as both their drivers first Latvalla then Hirvonen spun out on the gravelly tracks, effectively breaking the Ford team’s 1-2 formation lead. Latvalla’s car was unable to recover from an oil leak but Hirvonen recovered to finish in 3rd place all whilst battling a slow puncture on his rear right hand side tyre. Dani Sordo who was waiting in the wings pounced to capitalise on the Finn’s ill-luck to take 2nd place in the final standings. But it was Sebastian Loeb once again who stood tall to claim victory in New Zealand even after having dramatically suffered a spin out himself in the opening stages of the last day. 

Loeb now moves 8 points clear of Hirvonen in the championship standings which is a two-horse race between himself and the Ford driver. The next rally will be in Spain  from 2nd – 5th October.

visit the WRC and Rally New Zealand sites for more details.

Subaru images courtesy of the Subaru World Rally Team site

Audiophile: Electric Light Orchestra – Evil Woman
Off my shelf: Goshawk Squadron – Derek Robinson
Midday Matinee: Spartacus [1960]
Starring: Kirk Doulas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov and Charles Laughton
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick

Baby Shower

I finally said goodbye to penelope about 3 months ago but I’m still not over her yet. A friend of mine who runs a customs auto shop took her off my hands and promised to take good care of her. 

I have a new car now but she still has no name.

I still feel like I’m cheating on Penny.

*slaps self and yells, “SNAP OUT OF IT, THEY ARE ONLY CARS!!! THEY RUST AND FADE AND COST A FORTUNE IN PARTS AND FUEL!!!……..and they’ll probably kill you”.

Ah well, you only live once right? (shut up you indians, I wasn’t talking to you).

The new girl’s a 2.0 Subaru Legacy RS type B. I was sorely tempted to plonk out on the RSK version with the twin-turbocharged engine but reason prevailed and I opted for one with a normally aspirated engine. Other than that, she’s got the same specs as the RSK; Bilstein dampers, HID lights, Full leather interior, 2-DIN Pioneer audio system.

Aftermarket bits are an upgrade from 16″ single-spoke Subaru alloys to 17″ twin-spoke Subaru alloys, I draped in 215/65/17 Bridgestone Turanzas. Upgraded the audio system with 2 pairs of 3-way Alpine speakers and fitted a new battery. Other than that, she’s stock.

Not as quick off the blocks as her predecessor but since she’s heavier, she’s a lot less twitchy at high speed. The Midnight Black paint gives her an imposing presence on the road whilst oddly enough keeping her quite demure. Only one person’s dared to try and race so far (fuel prices?). It was a squidgy Toyota so it became a tiny speck in the rearview mirror soon enough. Now, she’s by no means even nearly the fastest car on our roads but she can hold her own well enough and she’s fitting well into my new persona as Morgan Freeman in ‘Driving Miss Daisy’. 

I’ll post a nice picture as soon as I get one to help with the christening.

Next stop? Subaru Outback or maybe a Range Rover.

Time to go find my own oil well.

Audiophile: The Doors – When the music’s over
Off my shelf: Black Skin, White Masks – Frantz Fanon
Midday Matinee: Key Largo [1948]
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall
Directed by: John Huston

Knight in shining Hummer

‘The Dark Knight’ premièred a couple of weeks ago.

The theatre ticket was worth every penny.

Films based on the Batman character have been around for quite a bit. I remember watching my first ones in the early-90’s with ‘Batman’ (1989) with Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson playing The Joker. Keaton went on to reprise his role as ‘bats’ in ‘Batman Returns’ (1992) Danny DeVito was cast as a pitiful penguin in that one. Both of these films were directed by Tim Burton.

‘Batman Forever’ (1995) saw Val Kilmer cast as the caped crusader probably setting him up for his role in ‘The Saint’ in 1997. Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey weighed in as Two-Face/Harvey Dent and the Riddler respectively.  Burton produced this film and handed the directors reins to Joel Schumacher. It was swiftly followed by ‘Batman & Robin’ (1997) with George Clooney as Batman and Chris O’Donnell as Robin. In what was an indicator of the studio’s haste to milk the franchise dry, the Batgirl was introduced as Alicia Silverstone and suddenly the Batcave had become rather crowded. Arnold Schwarzenegger ’s performance as Mr. Freeze left me cold and I remain more attracted to than afraid of Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy. Robin gets to kiss her in the film and it doesn’t seem to be as bad as they’d like us to believe, I was actually envious of him.

Up to this point the Batman movies just sucked. They were infused with artificial darkness in an effort to  capture the feel of batman and bring the comic-book hero alive on screen but rather than focus on bringing out the batman mythology; why he is who he is and why even without superpowers he’s still as big as superman (maybe bigger through  Frank Miller’s looking glass). Christopher Nolan must’ve been woken up by the smell of the coffee from the Marvel film sets for both the X-Men and Spiderman franchises which successfully used film to narrate the comic book stories rather than attempt to directly lift the action from the pages and animate it for the big screen.

We owe Bryan Singer (X-men) , Sam Raimi (Spiderman) a debt of gratitude. They clearly understood that it is silly to try and tell a story the same way using media formats that are as different as the Comic book and Film. Even Robert Rodrigues’ Sin City (2005) which closely mimicked the tone of Frank Miller’s Graphic Novels still truncated most of the storylines. Miller himself took certain liberties in the telling of the battle of Thermopylae in his Graphic Novel ‘300′. Zack Snyder went on to do the same in the film adaptation in 2006.

That being said, Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’ (2005) was like the return of the prodigal son. After years of wandering in the wastes of mediocrity, the bats had come home to roost.  It is the celluloid equivalent of the paradigm shift in the public perception of Batman that was triggered by Frank Miller’s ‘Return of the Dark Knight’ in 1986 and subsequently followed by his efforts in ‘Batman: Year One’ and the 3 volumes of ‘DK2′ . In ‘Batman Begins’ it is not Christian Bale, or even Bruce Wayne that hold centre stage; it is Batman. The character for the first time on film transcended the actor who played him. Bale opened a window into his mind. We struggled with him as he made difficult choices, clumsily fell off balconies with him in his first  attempts at playing vigilante and in that way we begun to care about the Batman.

In ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008), Nolan and Bale pick up probably light years away from where they had left off. The filmaking remains faithful to delivering a believable Batman but it succeeds in doing this even more than ‘Batman Begins’. What this film delivers in spades is a villain so villainous that he got a standing ovation at the end. The late Heath Ledger is a revelation in his performance as The Joker in this picture. The only thing he had in common with the Jack Nicholson interpretation was the face make-up and even that was far fetched.

Ledger was completely immersed in the character bringing out a worthy adversary to the Batman. This Joker was as twisted as he was brilliant, as complex a character as he was depraved. The opening sequence where the audience is introduced to him in a bank heist is beautifully shot but as the film progresses it becomes evident that this was only a partial introduction. The many layers of his personality are revealed incrementally, each darker than the last. Unlike his uni-dimensional calling cards, The Joker’s psyche has infinite dimensions. He isn’t in pursuit of ends as pedestrian as cash and he demonstrates this by setting fire to quite a bit of it in the film. No, the Joker’s after something more, something bigger, something less tangible. Even I’m still not  sure what it is but I think it maybe he wants to steal our hope and belief in the good that is in us.

He places Batman, Harvey Dent, the Police, the people of Gotham City and ultimately us in such diabolical moral dilemmas that it is plausible that he is Lucifer-lite. He is frightening in his compassion, giving all his victims just enough choice to make decisions that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. In one scene, he kills a mob boss and tosses them a broken billiard cue to the 3 bodyguards telling them his organisation has a vacancy for only one – leaving them to fight it out among themselves. but what is the Joker without the Jokes? In the midst of all the mayhem, he is still a funny character. In a nod to the modern-day terrorist, he crashes in on a mob meeting rigged to explode and goes on to make them an offer they cannot refuse. In another scene, he blows up a hospital he has given notice to be evacuated but when it doesn’t go according to plan, we see him seemingly perplexed by his faulty remote detonator only a minute later to have a mighty explosion rock the hospital and the Joker hurry guiltily away as though he had nothing to do with it.

It is good that there were no Robins and sundry characters to distract us from the Batman/Joker dichotomy. The film successfully delved into ethical questions we struggle with in some way everyday. Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox meets attempted blackmail with a thinly veiled threat and then turns around to conscientiously object to Batman’s misappropriation of sonar technology to eavesdrop on the people of Gotham City. Michael Caine’s Alfred the butler secretly makes an ethically ambiguous choice that allows Bruce Wayne to go on being Batman and is the strong shoulders upon which our disillusioned and despairing  hero leans upon. Even Lt. James Gordon isn’t above a little deception in the pursuit of justice and we see the political considerations that shape the thinking of the mascara-wearing Mayor of Gotham City.

There were a few things about the film that I disliked. Batman sounds as though he’s just survived a garrotting and is in need of throat lozenges. I was afraid that if Bruce Wayne stayed in the Batman guise for too long, he may develop laryngitis. The transmutation of Harvey Dent into Two-Face was a bit too fast for me. It takes some doing for paragons of virtue to cross over to the dark side. Anakin Skywalker needed 3 episodes of the Star Wars films before he finally became Darth Vader (albeit they traced back to all the way to his childhood).  A few hints on the demons that Harvey kept locked up inside himself would’ve made the slide into insanity easier to understand.

I tip my visor to Messrs. Nolan, Bale and Oldman. I bow to Bob Kane who created batman, Frank Miller who revived him, the late Heath Ledger whose Joker made us believe in Batman again and all the other people who rescued the damsel in distress that is the Batman story.

You are the true dark knights.

Audiophile: The Killers – Shadowplay
Off my shelf: Batman; A Death in the Family
Midday Matinee: The Dark Knight (2008)
Starring: Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhall
Directed by:Christopher Nolan