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weekend round up – 10th July 2011 #F1 #NASCAR #Indycar

Posted on July 11, 2011 by driverjohn

#F1 – So Alfonso pulls one off for the Prancing Horse with you know who second. Was it a great race? I missed it; just saw the first lap and JB’s botched pit stop, so make up your own minds. One thought on the new Silverstone; why have they put the pits in a trench? I mean we all know that they’re called the pits because they used to be holes in the ground, but, whilst I love retro stuff, isn’t that all a bit silly?

#NASCAR – At least the crowds apparently got in and out of the British GP without too much trouble, but Kentucky? All sorts of trouble apparently. And those that did get in had to watch the younger Ugly Brother win and then spend hours getting out again. Not a good result for any of my boys other than a good second for Rootie.

#IndyCar – Dario shoves WP off and out to take the win in Toronto. Naughty, naughty, but he got away with it and stretches his title lead.

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British GP 2011

Posted on July 7, 2011 by driverjohn

Going to Silverstone this weekend?

If you are then, to a degree, I hope that the weather stays fine; Silverstone can be a bit bleak and miserable in the wet.

For the rest of us, a wet/dry race so typical of that part of Northants could be pretty exiting.

Either way we have a new Silverstone to play with and the modified track looks great, with all of the old great corners plus some new stuff. An old RAF bomber base may not sound like a classic GP circuit, but Silverstone earned its place as one of the great places to let an F1 car loose, but it has adapted over the years and is a much better venue than some of the plastic slot car tracks that Bernie & Co have inflicted on us.

Roll on the action!

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weekend round up – 26th june 2011

Posted on June 27, 2011 by truckertoggle

#F1 – well the F1 boys seemed to have some sort of a parade down by the docks in Spain. Probably too hot for a proper race. Pretty much the usual finishing order through so I don’t suppose too many people noticed the difference.

#NASCAR – Way over at Sears Point the Ugly Brothers managed all the 1s with Big Ugky 1st and Little Ugly 11th. Jeff Gordon (somehow calling him The Kid these days doesn’t sound right) picked up a good second to further his good year and The Digger got 5th on a track that he usually goes well on.

#IndyCar – Marco picked up win number two almost 5 years after his first one. WP failed to finish so Dario goes back to the points lead.

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button, mclaren, brawn & mercedes

Posted on June 21, 2011 by truckertoggle

Reading on the Autosport website that MSC says expectations have not been met at Mercedes GP rather make Jensen Button’s decision to move to McLaren after his championship year seem positively inspired.

Since the move he has won three more GPs and been on the podium on a regular basis when the team he left behind have just settled as second division runners most of the while.

At the time it looked like a stupid move. Leaving the team that had won both titles to move in with his predecessor as World Champion in a team that had been built around that lad seemed an act of supreme folly they said. But JB is made of strong stuff and he has gone on the establish himself at McLaren. Yes, Lewis is quicker a lot of the time, but JB shows real guile come race day and on days like last Sunday in Canada he shows that he can really race and make good use of a car and conditions.

Going to McLaren was probably the best move he could have made at the time and to hear that he is in line for a contract extension is both good news and well deserved.

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who’s that behind me? mirrors on #F1 cars

Posted on June 18, 2011 by truckertoggle

Given all of the technology that goes with a modern F1 car why are we still using rear view mirrors that have not advanced much since the early days of city to city grand prix races? The mirrors on a modern F1 car are probably inferior to the one Ray Harroun had to fit to his 1911 Indy Marmon Wasp.

These days a number of family cars have a rear facing CCTV camera for reversing, as to many commercial vehicles so, if we can have high quality TV transmission views from rear facing cameras, why can’t the driver?To distracting? Nonsense, they could lose a few buttons off the steering wheel if that is genuinely the case. After all the pit wall term could switch them to “engine map green” or whatever just as easily as telling the driver to do that over the radio.

Sure there would be problems with the rain; many of us can remember a certain Brazilian driver catching Brundle in the rain i Australia a few years back. We saw him literally as he hit, and Button would have had a similar problem with the spray obscuring any view from a camera in Canada last week, but what about all the GPS tracking on the cars to run the timing systems? Surely they could adapt that to provide a proximity warning?

The technical solutions to these problems are already available and, to one way or another, in use so why don’t the FIA and the teams sort out a standard and make it happen?

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