Crazy Lawsuit Game

The F1 race in Belgium this weekend was pretty amazing. Qualifying happened on a drying track and both Scuderia Toro Rosso cars made it into the last session for the first time this year, the cars expertly driven by Sebastian Vettel and Sebastian Bourdais. Mark Webber of Red Bull Renault also made it into that session with his teammate David Coulthard not quite making it and being relegated to outside the top 10.

Spa is located in the Ardennes Forest and has wonderful elevation changes and some very interesting corners. Lewis Hamilton of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes took pole followed by Felipe Massa of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, then Lewis' teammate Heikki Kovaleinen and then Felipe's teammate, Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top 4. Heikki had a bad start (they do standing starts in F1 and I wish other series did that too, World Challenge does) and was basically playing catch up all race. Lewis and the two Ferraris were off to the races but coming around the first turn (La Source) it was still a bit damp and Lewis spun, but was able to keep the car running but now had Kimi hot on his tail once he got around Felipe. Sidenote, of the 3 times Kimi has finished the race at Spa, he has won 3 times, so he knows his way around. It's a drag race to the next corner between Lewis and Kimi, Mercedes vs. Ferrari, and Kimi takes it! Kimi and Lewis exchange fast lap for most of the race with Felipe several seconds behind them overall.

Then it happens. The unthinkable but always expected in the Ardennes. It started raining! With 2 laps to go! The teams are torn between heading to the pits and getting some wet weather tires or staying out and risking it. The lead guys can't afford to pit now so they bravely head on. Lewis passed Kimi into turn one but there is lap traffic (turn 6 I think) and Kimi gets passed Lewis. Kimi gets too anxious with the throttle and spins out on the next turn! Lewis gets past Kimi again but the Finn is right behind, until it happens. Kimi really spins out and crashes, ending his race and maybe his dreams of repeating the driver's championship. Lewis is first, Felipe is 2nd and for a short time Sebastian Bourdais was 3rd but he stayed out on his dry tires and Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber has intermediate wet tires on and is flying! He passes 4 or 5 people on his last lap and a half and puts his BMW on the podium (his 11th in his career) and takes 3rd. Sebastians Bourdais and Vettel did score points coming in 7th and 5th respectively. Great job Toro Rosso and Red Bull! Mark Webber snagged the last points position in 8th.

Whoa! Update: I just saw that they penalized Lewis 25 seconds (putting him in 3rd) for slightly cutting a corner short while racing with Kimi. I watched it and he did cut the corner and did let Kimi back in front but might have had a slight advantage over Kimi, but certainly not 25 seconds. And it looks like Timo Glock was passing under yellow flags, so he was also penalized 25 seconds, giving 8th to Mark Webber.

Also congratulations to Scott Dixon for winning the Indy Car championship! Danica Patrick finished in the tenth spot. I'm sad to say I took a nap during the last race (an oval in Chicago) but I hear there will be more road courses next year! Hooray! My next question is, why is your season over in early September? All the tracks booked in October? Don't want to fight NASCAR for TV coverage? Ah well, hopefully people remember your racing series next year. Hopefully you'll have some ads during college football bowl games to remind people that America does indeed have an open wheel race series.
Update: (Oh, apparently there is another race on the Streets of Surfer's Paradise in Australia on October 25th, but the championship is already decided. It should still be a great race.)

Next F1 race is at Monza in Italy, Ferrari's home turf, this weekend and then a night race street circuit in Singapore on Sept. 28th. That will be F1's first night race and I'm really looking forward to it.

Labels: Danica Patrick, F1, Red Bull

Update #2: Tragedy struck the racing community Saturday. Scott Kalitta perished inside his Top Fuel dragster. These are Scott's final moments on this earth. He was 46 and is survived by his father, his wife Kathy, and his two sons Corey, 14, and Colin, 8. Our hearts and thoughts go out to them.

The F1 Gran Prix at Magny-Cours is almost over by now. However, Fox has decided to show their local Sunday morning programming (it's all churches here, how about you?) and are taping the race to be shown later today at 1 pm. Hopefully they have a bit more (read: any) pre-race discussion and Peter Windsor interviews on grid but I'm not holding my breath. For some reason they have decided to show it against Danica, Graham and others in their Indy cars who will be going around in ovals in Iowa starting at 1:30 pm.

Qualifying was mildly exciting yesterday. Kimi Raikkonen locked up 1st and dove into the pits at the last second and saved himself an extra lap of gas. (After the 3rd and last qualifying session, the teams cannot add gas until their first pit stop in the race) Felipe was a hair off but still came in 2nd for a Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro front row. Lewis came in 3rd but with his 10 spot penalty will actually start the race back in 13th. Ouch but it will be a good test for the driver in his 2nd year to see if he can pull off some passes on track and in the pits and score some points. Fernando Alonso gets bumped up to 3rd spot on grid and the Red Bull Renault boys are starting in a healthy 7th and 8th for Aussie Mark Webber and Scot David Coulthard (who is coming off a great 3rd place podium in Montreal). The lone French driver, Champ Car phenom Sebastian Bourdais, starts his Scuderia Toro Rosso in 13th behind his faster teammate Sebastian Vettel. Go Red Bull! See you at 1 for the start of the race (5 hours after the ACTUAL start of the race of course)! No cheating to get the results early!

In NASCAR left AND right news, some of the top drivers...I'll finish this after taking Leon for a walk because he just usurped my lap from J's new laptop, more on all that later.

Update: Okay, I'm back after a lovely stroll outside, some bug chasing, grass eating and some rolling around in dirt. All cat activities; I just brushed him off a little before he went inside.

It turns out that some of the top drivers can drive pretty damn well and their teams can set up cars to go left and then left AND right the next week. Kasey Kahne (#9) clinched the top spot with Kurt Busch (#48) and Bobby Labonte (#2) rounding out the top 3. Robby Gordon (#7), one of my favorites who is one of the few, if not only, NASCAR driver to even attempt the famed Paris-Dakar rally, will start in 8th. Team Red Bull qualified in 26th and 34th for Brian Vickers (#83) and AJ Allmendinger (#84) respectively. I'm excited to watch my first full NASCAR race ever and cheer them on.

I'll be back on later today or tomorrow for race results.

J and I were in the Hard Labor Creek State Park yesterday for a Newsom family reunion. I'm the grandchild of a first cousin, apparently. It was a fun day hanging out with my aunt and grandparents, all on my mom's side. The day was not all fun and games with someone's wife passing away last Tuesday and the funeral planned for Monday. He gave part of the eulogy he had planned and only choked up once or twice. It was beautiful and compared his marriage to a bed of roses. You had to climb up past the thorns to get to the flowers. It was quite lovely and both J and I had tears in our eyes.

Now to get some writing done before RACING!

Labels: Danica Patrick, F1, family vacation, obituary

Randy Pobst is a racecar driver. He started out as an autocrosser with the Sports Car Club of America and worked his way up to road racer and then eventually made enough contacts and friends to get a job getting paid to drive a racecar. He is definitely a "gentleman racer" and races clean every time I see him get behind the wheel. Randy also writes a column in the SCCA's periodical and racing with honor was this month's topic. Days of Thunder was mentioned and has seemingly influenced many racers who actually think that "rubbin' is racin'". Randy has the opposite opinion. If you can't make the pass clean, then you didn't deserve the pass.

Formula 1 and their billion dollar operation is in France this weekend at Magny-Course. I caught a little bit of practice this morning and it should be interesting although the course looks tight and not many chances for passing which should be a good challenge for Lewis Hamilton who is receiving a 10 spot penalty for crashing into Kimi in Montreal last race. So the best Lewis can hope for is to start the race in 11th. Qualifying starts at 8 am on SpeedTV tomorrow morning. The race will be broadcast on Fox at 1 pm on Sunday with the race taped and delayed. Last race Fox had zero pre-show which is usually Peter Windsor walking around grid and interviewing team principals, drivers and other notable people and is great and really sets up the show and mood for the race. Fox also cut out most of the awards ceremony and all but 2 questions of the post race interviews. All of this pre and post race coverage is important because it really lets people see more of what goes on in Formula 1 and is very entertaining.

NASCAR and their billion dollar operation will FINALLY turn left AND right this weekend in California at Infineon Raceway, formerly known as Sears Point. Some teams bring in "road course specialists" aka racecar drivers to replace their oval specialists(?) so they stand a better chance of getting a good result. It seems that the Red Bull team didn't do so hot at Infineon last year, so they've been testing at VIR and some Road Atlanta testing coming up in July. I guess they either can't afford to hire drivers (ha!) or they actually want all around drivers in their cars. Take your pick. Personally I would like to know that my driver can race well on ovals and road courses but maybe that's why I'm not a team manager of a NASCAR team. I'll have to look into when qualifying is and what channel but I do know that the race is on TNT this Sunday at 3:30.

The Indy cars are going in ovals somewhere this weekend. Good luck Danica! You too Graham Rahal!

J and I are going to my grandmother's family reunion this Saturday down in GA and then climbing at Adrenaline Climbing in Suwanee on the way home.

Check ya on the flip side!

Labels: autocross, climbing, Danica Patrick, F1, Red Bull

I imagine that's what went through poor Lewis Hamilton's head as he slide into the back of Kimi Raikonnen's Ferrari yesterday. The wreck took Lewis and Kimi out of the race and Kimi dropped from 1st to 4th in the driver's championship points. But he is the Iceman, so I'm sure that won't faze him. It was the 2nd rookie mistake I've seen Lewis make and I'm sure he just got too excited to get back on course and didn't see the red light. His first ever win came at this very same race just last year and I'm sure he doesn't remember Felipe Massa and Fisi getting black flagged for disregarding the red light at the end of the pits.

With that said, HUGE congratulations to Robert Kubica and Poland for their first ever F1 victory! Also congrats to BMW Sauber for taking advantage of Lewis' mistake and getting a BMW Sauber 1 and 2 which brings us to David Coulthard bringing his Red Bull Renault in for his first podium since Monaco 2006. Mark Webber had a tough day and finished out of the points. Better luck in France Mark!

The Indy Racing League was down in Texas at the Learjet 550. I caught the highlights and it looked very exciting as they condensed the 3-4 hour ovalfest down into 3 minutes. Scott Dixon came away with the win and Danica had another top 10 finish slotting into the tenth spot.

The NASCAR Sprint (formerly known as Winston) Cup went around in ovals at Pocono. I can't recall who won but Brian Vickers in the Red Bull Toyota got 2nd. Way to go Red Bull! Excellent race weekend. I also heard that Scott Speed won his first Craftsman truck race in Dover, so congrats to Scott Speed! He's figuring out this "turn left only" racing pretty well.

The Euro 2008 competition is also getting some TV time in our house. We watched the almighty Germans take down Poland 2-0 and then watched our US men tie the number one Argentinians in a friendly in Giants Stadium last night, a scoreless tie but still a good game. Today in the "group of death" the French take on somebody and Netherlands battles Italy. I'm tivoing the Dutch/Italy game for obvious fighting orange vs. defending world cup champs reasons.

You can follow the exploits of Red Bull Racing, mostly stock car with some trucks and F1 tossed in for good measure, at the Team Red Bull Blog "Stock Car Ticker".

Labels: Danica Patrick, F1, Red Bull

Yes I watched the IRL, Indy Racing League, at the Milwaukee Mile yesterday (cue Wayne's World Alice Cooper scene flashback). Congrats to Aussie Ryan Briscoe for bringing it home for the Penske team. Danica Patrick finished in 9th. The other two women were nowhere to be found. Graham Rahal was doing well until he made a rookie mistake (he is 19) and tried to pass some lap traffic in the wrong place, got too far outside the turn into the "marbles" and smacked the wall, ending his day.

Formula 1 is still bringing their whole operation to this continent for this weekend's Montreal Canadian Gran Prix! Hooray, no more ovals!

The reason I have been watching IRL is because I still feel (and now have some concrete evidence) that NASCAR prospers at the expense of other racing series and they only have 2 road courses a year. IRL has at least 3 or 4, the next one will be Watkins Glen in NY on July 6th. Just for the record, Formula has ZERO ovals, the way it should be, in my humble opinion.

This is pretty cool. It's a graphic that shows where IRL will be racing and the track maps, so let's see how many non-ovals we can find. Ifineon Raceway, Streets of Long Beach, Streets of St. Petersburg, Edmonton, Mid-Ohio, Streets of Detroit (that should be cool, assuming they repave the roads or are potholes just extra obstacles?), and Watkins Glen, so that's 7, hooray! Okay, so it looks like it's the Raceway at Belle Isle Park near Detroit not the streets of Detroit.

I would go over Formula 1 sites but they're all awesome and unique and amazing. Montreal is this weekend AND it's in North America which means that the race will be on at a reasonable time instead of 2 am or 8 am! Noon F1 here we come!

As far as I know, NASCAR has two races that turn left AND right. They race in Watkins Glen and Infineon also. But that's it. Twice a year does the NASCAR "turn left oval fest" get to balance out their set-ups and make them turn left and right equally well. Now let's check the schedule to see when those are June 22nd at Infineon (on TNT) and Aug. 10th at the Glen (on ESPN). That's pretty funny. Fox will show the crap out of the ovals but want nothing to do with road courses. Maybe there are bigger sporting events that day that Rupert wants to show.

So non-oval race fans, have no fear! There will be much turning left and right this summer from all race series. And to all those who claim it reduces passing and will be boring, take a page from our "what to do while everyone turns left all the time" playbook and take a nap or two. The roar of the crowd will wake you in time for the good stuff. We'll be enjoying the cars and trees as they go up and down, left and right.

Also in linkish news:
Confused by Christian cliches and phrases? Fret no more! Here is a handy guide!

“Hate the sin, love the sinner.”

Translation: “I’m a flaming fundamentalist.”
Acceptable Response: “Amen.”
Unacceptable Response: “That’s a relief, because I’m a homosexual transvestite in an interracial relationship.”

21 best mug shots ever

Follow Jon Dyer on his quest for every beard type.

All links are of course stolen from Cynical Chris.

Labels: Cynical Chris, Danica Patrick, F1, racing