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where is Bernie’s influence when I need it? #f1 #canadiangp

Posted on June 11, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

OK, so the diminutive one can fix it so that F1 makes a significant contribution to global warming by running the Far East races under the lights at night, wasting thousands of candlepower so that the race is delayed until midday in Europe. So instead of wasting everyone’s time trying to rescue the Bahrain GP that almost no-one wants, why isn’t he getting the Canadians out of bed and running qualifying at 0800 their time so that the rest of it can watch it at 1300 (UK time) as well?

Now I don’t want to see F1 at night. NASCAR yes, but F1 should be run in the day time, and if that means that I have to get up at 0500 to watch on TV then so what? There is a natural order to these things that should not be messed with, and that is why I will not watch a grand prix run at night.

So no, I don’t really want the Canadians running their race first thing in the morning, but I don’t want Bernie mucking about with the timings in the East either. If we must have a standard timetable, then let’s keep it standard.

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Good to know Mr 500 is still going strong at 88

Posted on June 6, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

There’s a link below to a NASCAR item on Andy Granatelli, legend of the Indy 500, STP Oil Treatment, Studebaker, Paxton Products, Grancor and more. The man is a fantastic character and it’s great to hear that he is still with us and as irrepressible as ever.

Stories about him are legion (and he maybe wrote most of them), but as a salesman, promoter, innovator and all round showman the world of  motor sport would have been a lot less fun without him.

The feeling of excitement when I first saw the pictures of his 1967 STP Paxton Turbocar is with me still. It was an awesome device, and, like the innovations from Midland, Texas in Can-Am, you somehow knew that a ban would come. It did, but not before further efforts to castrate the beast had yielded the 1968 Lotus 56 STP Turbocars that also almost pulled off the win. A great shame that both of these cars never made winner’s circle, and somewhat ironic that the 1969 STP Lotus entries were pulled so that Mario Andretti had to start in his back up car, and won!

The Italian connection of Andretti and Granatelli had some rotten luck at Indy, and their one win between them is that 1969 race in the second string car. Never mind, they tried. Boy did they try. Happy memories.

Read the article here.

Filed under: Cars, Circuits, Drivers, F1, Indycar, NASCAR, Teams | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

well done Lewis Hamilton

Posted on June 2, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

Tweeting may be a strange way of apologising for old fogies like me who like to do these things face to face, but Lewis Hamilton is a modern man and you can’t get more public in your apology than Tweeting it, so well done that man. We all make mistakes and can do and say things that we are not proud of, but to stand up and say sorry is the right thing to do.

As he said in one of the Tweets, onwards and upwards. Let’s hope the cards fall better for him in Canada.

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#NASCAR round up 30 May 2011

Posted on June 2, 2011 by truckertoggle

(Managed to muck up the scheduling on this one and it didn’t go out as planned, so here it is, albeit a few days late – sorry)

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen Kimi make his first couple of forays into NASCAR with a good 15th place in the trucks (Nelson jnr did even better, although he has had more practice) and followed that up with a Nationwide outing that didn’t go quite as well. Watching him in the trucks you could see all of the car control and feel was there though, and he just needs to get used to the lack of sophistication in the equipment and the very different subtleties of the racing. If he has fun he will stay and the results will come.

In the 600 more heartbreak for Little E as he ran out of gas on the run to the flag, but good results for RPM with the Dinger and the Digger bringing their Fords in 5th and 6th. Could we have a Petty car back in the winner’s circle this season? Hope so.

Good fun watching the Nationwide race at Iowa. One of the less famous venues maybe, but a good race and good to see one of the series’ regulars hold off the Sprint Cup boys for the win.

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indy 500 round up 2011

Posted on May 29, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

So Dan Wheldon picks up a second Indy win after JR slaps the wall at the final corner. Not really the result I would have expected, but differing strategies contrived an unusual looking results table.

After all the fun of pole and carburation days,with quick people bumped, old rivals teaming up to get one of the latter into the race (imagine that it F1), the race unfolded with what looked like a fairy tale finish for Panther, but, running on fumes, the car got away from JR within sight of the flag and Dan picked up his own fairy tale result for Bryan Herta’s team. Quite reminiscent of Jack Brabham at Monaco back in 1970 is many ways with a last corner call on where to take a back marker.

The magic of Indy, still strong 100 years on.

Good also to see Tony pick up a good fourth; the guy deserves to still be full time in the series. As for the championship trail, all of the top guys finished poorly, so back to regular action soon at Fort Worth where, probably, normal service will resume.

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