Losing Track

Those blasted race stewards. Where the devil were they with their time penalties in Valencia when Felipe Massa exited dangerously from the pits? Clearly they seem to want to hand this season’s championship to the Brazilian on a silver platter rather than have Hamilton bag it. Oh yes, those sodding spoilsports really know when to pick their moments, don’t they? Ruining one of the most spectacular F1 races we have seen in a long time.

To fans worldwide, F1 seems really bent on promogulating this self-destructive streak it has been on for a while now. All we want to see is a good race, a memorable race a fantastic race. Spinning & crashing is allowed getting hurt or dying isn’t and that’s what safety technology is for. It should free up the drivers to take more risks like their real racing predecessors did until the early 90’s. After the bittersweet dominance of Michael  Schumacher and the Ferrari team, the brief entry of Renault with Fernando Alonso and the rise of McLaren Mercedes team under Lewis hamilton comes as a breath of fresh air.

Hamilton’s a talented, daring, exciting driver who pays for his mistakes on track like any other with spinning and crashing and engine failure. He’s taking the sport back to a higher level challenging and dragging the other other drivers to realise their potential. What happened on Sunday was a disgrace and only serves to dampen the spirit of fair play in the sport. Winning in formula 1 should be taken out from the boardrooms and courtrooms and back to where it belongs: On the race track.

Audiophile: The Hives - Hate to say I told you so
Off my shelf: Goshawk Squadron – Derek Robinson
Midday Matinee: Gone with the wind [1939] Starring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Hattie McDaniel and Leslie Howard Directed by: Victor Fleming

The Outrage

It was intermittently wet at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium and with that came the promise of a dramatic race. Lots of spinouts and agonising tyre choices to look forward to then. And indeed the race did not disappoint.

www.f1.com

Lewis Hamilton took pole position in the qualifying stages ahead of Felipe Massa and Heikki Kovalainen and a harried Kimi Raikkonen who seemed overwhelmed by having to contend with both his team mate Massa and the sophomore driver. 

The Briton was in bullish mood following an early spin in the race that lost him the lead. Thereafter he was constantly on race leader Raikkonen’s tail badgering him to let him by. Then the heavens opened and sprinkled the track to make for a wet race and here Hamilton came into his own. Risky maneouvre, diving past Raikkonen on the bus stop chicane two laps to the end Hamilton went over the grass and took an unfair lead.

He then did the gentlemanly thing and surrendered the lead by allowing Raikonnen to pass him on the home straight. It was gloves off again as they went into the final lap and the ‘iceman’ cracking under the strain of keeping Hamilton at bay, spun and crashed into the wall. Hamilton kept his cool and passed through to take the chequered flag and (ostensibly) win the race.

Two hours later after all the bubbly had been drunk and the post-race conference wrapped up, Hamilton was slapped with a 25 second time penalty which effectively  snatched the win from him and handed it to the eager clutches of Felipe Massa. Hamilton wound up in 3rd place after they were done with the beatdown.

f1.com

Audiophile: The Shins – Pink Bullets
Off my shelf: Goshawk Squadron – Derek Robinson
Midday Matinee: Lolita [1962]
Starring: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelly Winters and Peter Sellers
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick

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

The Doctor is in

Fantastic race weekend.

MotoGP was a hoot.

Valentino Rossi has been in good form but not perfectly so. He is currently at the top of the rider’s standings in MotoGP with 142 points after consecutive wins in Shanghai Le Mans, Mugello and coming in 2nd today at Catalunya. Dani Perdrosa won that one by a mile but the real story was the tussle between Rossi and Stoner for 2nd place. The riders went at it tooth & nail around turn 1 and the chicane switching positions over four times in the course of the race.

For Pedrosa, it was his second win this season after grabbing pole on Portugal’s podium (Estoril) earlier this year.  Today’s performance was emphatic, Pedrosa had built a massive 6 second lead on  Rossi and Stoner but throttled down when he knew he had it in the bag to win by 2 seconds over Rossi.

Today’s win puts him only 7 points behind Rossi as we go to  Donington Park in the British isles on 22nd June.

It wasn’t all bikes and boys though,as these things go there was plenty of eye candy to keep things on an even keel. Enjoy.

F1

Thing’s were a little more dramatic on the formula 1 circuit in Canada. Lewis Hamilton knocked both  himself and Kimi Raikonnen out of the race when he ran into the rear of Raikonnen’s Ferrari which had stopped for a red light at the pit-lane exit.

Nico Rosberg also damaged his front wing when he cosequently ran into Hamilton’s car. The two drivers are faced with a 10 place grid penalty in the next round.

It was a disappointing race for Hamilton in Montreal where he had his maiden win last year and it left many of the fans who had turned out to see him crushed. However, the casualty count at the circuit stood at  35% with 7 out of the 20 drivers registering DNF.

Both Renaults both did not finish with Alonso spinning out of the race and Nelson Piquet retiring with brake failure. Force India’s Adrian Sutil retired in the 12th lap with a broken gearbox as did his teamate Giancarlo Fisichella who spun out of the race, Kazuki Nakajima nudged his Williams into the rear of Jenson Button’s Honda and with a dislodged front wing sticking under his car, crashed into the pit-lane wall.

Hamilton and Raikonnen were the other two drivers who failed to finish. Hamilton had managed to open up a 6 second lead in the early stages of the race but lost it all when the safety car wa deployed following Sutil’s retirement in lap 17. It was after the drivers’ pitted in lap 19 that the crash between Hamilton and Raikonnen occurred.

Robert Kubica led Nick Heidfeld for a BMW one-two and his maiden win to put him at the top of the driver standings, 4 points clear of Hamilton. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa drove faboulously despite a poor start as he overtook both Rubens Barrichello and Hekki Kovalinen at the hairpin turn in what was a fantastic maneouvre  by the Brazilian. He came in 5th to put him at an even 38 points with Hamilton.

See you in magny-Cours, France on the 22nd of June.

Audiophile: The Killers – Read my mind
Off my shelf: Batman; Year one – Frank Miller, Lynn varley
Midday Matinee: The Hill  (1965)
Starring: Sean Connery, Michael Redgrave, Ian Hendry and Harry Andrews
Directed by: Sidney Lumet

Something’s gotta give

PETROLEUM ($/bbl)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME Nymex Crude Future 122.25 -.05 -.04 08:22 Dated Brent Spot 120.96 -.96 -.79 08:53 WTI Cushing Spot 122.30 -2.01 -1.62 06/04

PETROLEUM (¢/gal)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME Nymex Heating Oil Future 355.35 .77 .22 08:22 Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future 319.80 .29 .09 08:22

Oil is trading at $122 a barrel today. It just makes saying the phrase “fill ‘er up” that much harder. These days, my system of pulling up to the pump for a full tank that’ll run me for a week has been shot to shreds. I have been gritting my teeth through the ordeal but as the zeroes at the pump close in on the zeroes on my paycheck, I find myself drained (no pun intended) every time I’m leaving the fuel station.

What’s bringing me close to tears is just that when we’ve almost perfected the internal combustion engine with Electronic Fuel Injection, Active Valve Control Systems, Double Over Head Camshafts, yadayadayada and just when the cars have gotten to be sleek spears shaped in wind tunnels with airbags and cubbyholes just about anywhere you look and they  emit among other things, an exhaust note to die for………..there’s nothing for these works of engineering genius to run on

“TOYOTA PRIUS!!!!” I hear you scream. Er….well, it’s got two things going against it. One, it’s a Toyota and two, it’s a prius. Looks like it was designed on an etch-a-sketch, does 0-60 in the same time it takes paint to dry (on a wet afternoon) and worst, it can’t seem to make up its mind what it is; do I run on gas, do I run on static? is the eternal debate. A bragaddocio Jekyll meeting a benign Hyde.

Enter the Tesla roadster.

0-60 in less than 4 seconds (3.9 to be exact)
220 miles per full charge
No stops at fuel pumps……….ever

Shame they don’t have a saloon version (yet)
Shame it takes 3.5 hours to get fully charged (something about paint drying?)
Shame it goes for about $ 100 000 (for now)

And if I hear one word from some ultra-environmentalist about the carbon load/footprint/whatever that generating enough electricity to run this car makes, I will give them a  load of lead/foot-in-butt/whatever will make them shut up…..for now.

Audiophile: Franz Ferdinand – Michael
Off my shelf: Energy prices report: www.bloomberg.com/energy
Midday Matinee: The Merchant of Venice (2004)
Starring: Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and Lynn Collins
Directed by: Michael Radford

Dust devils

Went rally-chasing over the weekend.
Had lots of fun.
Got really dusty.
Took some great photos.
Here they are.

The end.

Burn Rubber

The motorsport season is shaping up rather well, everything is so jumbled up in my sports of choice (see my faves) that vegging out in front of the telly on Sunday afternoons is finally worth it.

WRC

The WRC remains a bit predictable with Sebastian Loeb still leading the championship after 4 rounds and Subaru still hanging in there by the grace of Chris Atkinson.

F1

Happily unchanged is the simmering rivalry between F1’s Fernando ‘dog-in-the-manger’ Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso seems hell bent on single-handedly on preventing Hamilton from effectively competing when he (Alonso) ‘brake tested’ during the Bahrain GP causing Hamilton’s McLaren-Mercedes to crash into the rear of Alonso’s Renault in what has become known as ‘The Sakhir Shunt’. Despite all that, Hamilton still manages to hold 3rd place in the Driver Standings to Alonso’s 9th so there (in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I don’t like Alonso one bit and I completely refuse to EVER be objective about him. He’s my pet peeve)

MotoGP

The MotoGP season is also off to a good start with former world champions Valentino ‘Il dottore’ Rossi and Casey Stoner both struggling on Bridgestone Tyres.

Stoner, with the no. 1 on his bike this season is also struggling on a dodgy Ducati (reliability has always been the bane of many an Italian marque).

The Hondas are looking good and the Yamahas better on Michelin rubber but that could quickly change when the series moves on to China where Bridgestone tyres have traditionally performed better than French sap.

Keep watching

Audiophile: The Clash – London Calling
Off my shelf: Nothing today
Midday Matinee: Closed

WReCked

Well, it’s official, the 2008 rallying season’s upon us and no surprises for guessing who won the inaugural Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo. Yes, it was once again, the Gallic answer to Germany’s Michael Schumacher, the intrepid Sebastian Loeb. Those Citroen C4’s are proving still hard to beat with only mechanical failure stopping Dani Sordo’s charge for 2nd place and thereby leaving the field open for Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen to take it. Subaru’s Aussie driver Chris Atkinson, claimed a podium finish in 3rd place by a hair over Francois Duval in a Stobart-sponsored 2007 Ford focus WRC.

It was a dramatic win for Atkinson who saw his 23 second lead shorn down to only 1.1 seconds by the time they arrived for the final spectator stage in Monte Carlo. Atkinson who enjoyed home-town advantage on the twisty streets of the circuit, took the last spot on the podium by the skin of his teeth when he fobbed off the determined attentions of the Belgian who put up a spirited fight to make a dead even time on the track.

Subaru’s Petter Solberg came in 5th overall to place the team one point behind Citroen in the manufacturer’s championship. Conrad Rautenbach who was placed 21st overall crashed out in the final stage of the rally when he appeared to have tried to reverse over the finish line but lost control of the vehicle.

More details on the WRC site

Age isn’t just a number………..

This morning was a bit wet so I dilly-dallied around the house trying to draw out the moment I would leave the house for as long as I could. Eventually I was all set at about 9.00am and I went and got Penelope warmed up for the commute. As I drove out in what was then a light drizzle, I was flagged down by one of my neighbours who just happens to be an older ‘gentleman’ of about my father’s age. I know him quite well and have given him lifts into town on many occasions but today was different.

As we drove down and I listened to his usual 5 cents worth of opinions on whatever caught his fancy, everything seemed to be going swimmingly until it was time to drop him off at his regular stop. As I leaned across to open the car door for him I noticed something that wasn’t there before……………………there on the door sill gleamed a big brown BOOGER! I couldn’t believe my eyes and was too shocked to even react as he calmly stepped out the car and with a courteous “thank you, have a nice day”, he shut the door as if he’d done nothing wrong.

He left a booger on my car door.

What are we, Five?

Audiophile: The cure – Friday I’m in love
Off my shelf: Kiran Desai – The inheritance of loss
Midday Matinee: Flags of our fathers (2006)
Starring: Ryan Phillipe, Jesee Bradford, Adam Beach
Directed by: Clint Eastwood