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Post by Carl on May 29, 2024 0:13:21 GMT
Carl, have you been reading Mat Oxley again? he has done an article in Motorsport on the mods and rockers battle from the 60's and how that has forever tainted the image of the biker and racer, the guys I ride with are mostly pensioners and the main topic of conversation is around what ails one, mind you I think a few of us escaped the Guardia by our riding speeds - great roads in Ireland and very few cameras - no wonder the Irish are so quick- ser No I was employed by Valvoline at the time and it was a prize for being 'salesman of the year' much to the disgust of the sales manager, another fan....not....of me anyway, especially as I resigned upon my return. what a race! I only watched the lengthy highlights about 30 minutes but it looked pretty exciting and the speeds my word really exciting, relieved no major injuries reported. Chris, Your sales manager at Valvoline was too stupid to realize your performance benefited his entire department. He may have gone on to a subordinate position with Nigel Farage. I haven't read Motorsport for some time and miss the insights of Mat Oxley and Mark Hughes. I was aware at the time of the culture clash between mods and rockers in England and somewhat torn because mods were cool and sophisticated but rockers rode faster bikes. In America, where rock and roll was neutral, angry young men idolized Marlon Brando and James Dean and, despite having Harley-Davidsons in common, splintered into regional gangs where crimes ranged from petty to felonious and "hey man" was said all day. Moderns were young intellectuals found listening to poetry and acoustic guitars in colleges and coffee shops. You were a hybrid, drawn to fast motorcyles but highly intelligent and keeping a low profile...  Cheers, Carl |
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Post by René on May 29, 2024 14:41:46 GMT
What a race and what a finish! I was actually rooting for Pato the last few laps but Josef is a beast on ovals (with or without PTP...  ) as he proved again. Great win! René, Pato O'Ward was brilliant and deserved to win, but Newgarden definitely has a special understanding of ovals! I was very impressed by his surge at the end, the result of perfectly timed slipstreaming. Indycar doesn't allow push to pass on the faster ovals... without a doubt.  Inexperience has been deadly so many times at Indy, but fortune smiled on Tom Blomqvist when he put a wheel up and over the Turn One rumble strips and immediately spun, taking out Marcus Ericsson after his team had struggled so hard to get in. On the first lap! On the other hand, Pietro Fittipaldi would likely have finished no higher than he did. Colton Herta could have stayed in his car and driven slowly to the pits for a new nose, apparently all that was damaged when he spun. He's prone to snap judgments, a serious weakness. Colton is a strange one, amazingly fast at times but inconsistent, as you have said. Sophocles and Shakespeare could collaborate on the strained alliance of Herta father and son. Cheers, Carl I think Colton's inconsistency is the reason he disappeared from the F1 radar. He is very fast and I actually like the guy. He is different with a bit of a rockstar image which is cool. But even when he's comfortably in the lead, you still feel it could go wrong. A weakness he should have outgrown by now. You don't feel that with Palou or Newgarden. You know they'll bring it home. But it's a shame because Colton has the speed for sure and an amazing car control, especially in the rain. A bit like Jean Alesi had. |
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Post by René on May 31, 2024 10:13:33 GMT
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Post by Carl on May 31, 2024 19:55:57 GMT
Detroit Grand Prix
 Barely recovered from the Indy 500 and the next race is already on the program, the streets of Detroit. The contrast with Indianapolis could not be greater with the bumpy track with many 90 degree turns. Starting position is very important here because overtaking is difficult. The corners have no character and no names. This is the kind of street circuit you get when Chevrolet decides and you have no real choice.
The official city motto includes the Latin phrase "Speramus Meliora" ("We hope for better things") Not this year...
Some believe the dismal layout is Henry Ford's revenge... Losing Belle Isle was more traumatic for Indycar than when Roger Penske lost his virginity. Don't ask...  |
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Post by René on Jun 1, 2024 18:25:10 GMT
Cool qualy and pole position for Colton Herta!  A good result also for Theo Pourchaire, the reigning F2 champion, in 7th. He almost made it to the fast 6. 1 C. Herta ANDRETTI GLOBAL 2 A. Palou CHIP GANASSI RACING 3 J. Newgarden TEAM PENSKE 4 S. McLaughlin TEAM PENSKE 5 S. Dixon CHIP GANASSI RACING 6 K. Kirkwood ANDRETTI GLOBAL |
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Post by Carl on Jun 1, 2024 20:05:38 GMT
Thanks, René! Trading Belle Isle for narrow downtown alleyways is an extreme fall from grace, but we can hope tomorrow's race will be exciting. One challenge for drivers may be keeping their eyes open 
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Post by René on Jun 2, 2024 9:19:46 GMT
Thanks, René! Trading Belle Isle for narrow downtown alleyways is an extreme fall from grace, but we can hope tomorrow's race will be exciting. One challenge for drivers may be keeping their eyes open Yeah I agree about the track. Belle Isle was great and this new setting definitely isn’t. But we can still hope for a good race and a win for Colton would be nice.  |
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Post by Carl on Jun 2, 2024 22:35:38 GMT
Thanks, René! Trading Belle Isle for narrow downtown alleyways is an extreme fall from grace, but we can hope tomorrow's race will be exciting. One challenge for drivers may be keeping their eyes open Yeah I agree about the track. Belle Isle was great and this new setting definitely isn’t. But we can still hope for a good race and a win for Colton would be nice. Once again, young Colton overreaches and another pole position is for naught! 
Meanwhile, foxy veteran Scott Dixon and wily engineer Mike Hull (who I saw race Formula Fords at Riverside) are the ultimate braintrust in Indycar. The number one driver and number one strategist are hard to beat.
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Post by Carl on Jun 2, 2024 23:59:16 GMT
"A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine" - A daily prayer of AJ Foyt
The first Scandinavians to invade North America didn't stay long, having offended the indigenous tribes by demanding deluxe rooms without a reservation. Among them were several Ericssons whose descendents have returned ten centuries later, hellbent on revenge. Swedes Kenny Bräck, Marcus Ericsson, Felix Rosenqvist, and Linus Lundqvist are tremendously talented and rapacious, without a trace of Foyt's humility, least of all Tom Blomqvist, who wants to be Prince of Wales.
Danes Christian Lundgaard and Christian Rastmussen, and Dutchmen Arie Luyendyk and Rinus van Kalmthout, each a phenomenal talent who's already triumphed and will again, manned the oars as their sleek longship silently came ashore in the dark of a night during which Irish monks dreamed of being plundered.
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Post by Carl on Jun 3, 2024 1:39:36 GMT
Move of the day was Christian Lundgaard's early surgical pass of Scott Dixon, famous for being hard to pass.
At one point an aerial camera showed Belle Isle in the near distance like a mythical paradise
Detroit has many parking structures with brick facades, which provided great vantage points for smart spectators
After obsessing at length about tyre compounds and weather, there was excellent racing after final pitstops, as happens often.
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Post by René on Jun 3, 2024 16:06:03 GMT
Move of the day was Christian Lundgaard's early surgical pass of Scott Dixon, famous for being hard to pass. At one point an aerial camera showed Belle Isle in the near distance like a mythical paradise Detroit has many parking structures with brick facades, which provided great vantage points for smart spectators After obsessing at length about tyre compounds and weather, there was excellent racing after final pitstops, as happens often. The track may be awful, but the race was actually quite entertaining! Some really great passes and a lot of silly mistakes. The rain gave an additional twist. Dixon won like Dixon wins, with brains and experience. Colton made a silly mistake. That was a 'pass' destined to fail and he should not be making mistakes like that anymore if he wants to be a championship contender. Frustrating, also for his team I guess. Theo Pourchaire was sometimes a little too enthusiastic! |
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Post by Carl on Jun 4, 2024 17:14:51 GMT
Move of the day was Christian Lundgaard's early surgical pass of Scott Dixon, famous for being hard to pass. At one point an aerial camera showed Belle Isle in the near distance like a mythical paradise Detroit has many parking structures with brick facades, which provided great vantage points for smart spectators After obsessing at length about tyre compounds and weather, there was excellent racing after final pitstops, as happens often. The track may be awful, but the race was actually quite entertaining! Some really great passes and a lot of silly mistakes. The rain gave an additional twist. Dixon won like Dixon wins, with brains and experience. Colton made a silly mistake. That was a 'pass' destined to fail and he should not be making mistakes like that anymore if he wants to be a championship contender. Frustrating, also for his team I guess. Theo Pourchaire was sometimes a little too enthusiastic! It was entertaining, a real driving challenge with rain adding interest. Most passing attempts (and silly mistakes) happened at the Turn 3 double apex hairpin, the one best passing place. At restarts, contact was predictable. The obsession about tyre compounds and pitstops came from the NBC television broadcasters and if you watched on another channel you may not have been exposed to that. The skill and challenge of driving is normally less important to a network than giving airtime to major sponsors, while some broadcasters don't really understand what's happening (David Croft) and take their cues from network executives who understand even less.
NBC broadcast anchor Leigh Diffey understands motorsport, but is happy to promote corporate sponsors all day, possibly saving for a vacation home on Australia's Gold Coast... |
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Post by René on Jun 5, 2024 16:57:16 GMT
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Post by Carl on Jun 5, 2024 18:54:35 GMT
Parnelli Jones was so fast and smooth at Indianapolis that Colin Chapman offered him the second seat at Lotus in Formula One. I saw him drive several times at Riverside, in USAC Champ Cars (Indycar today) and Trans-Am Mustangs, and it was rare that he didn't start on the front row. He won on dirt ovals and in deserts, drove open-wheel cars with finesse and sedans with ferocity. His only major controversy was 1963 at Indy when USAC declined to black flag him for leaking oil. Resolutely competitive, Jones wasn't about to surrender the lead voluntarily.
Teammate George Follmer's Mustang and Dan Gurney's Barracuda chase Parnelli at Laguna Seca in 1970
Saturdays at Long Beach used to include a Toyota Pro-Celebrity race that provided a real contrast of greatness and incompetence. Actors, comedians, musicians and singers, although trained at Willow Springs Raceway not to be stupid or dangerous in modified Toyota Celicas, were nonetheless a spectacular blend of the reckless and the timid.
For several years, the two seasoned professionals starting 30 seconds behind the amateurs were Dan Gurney and Parnelli Jones, and it was magical to see these world class drivers, like twin Fred Astaires on a ballroom floor, steadily catch and pass the celebrities driving identical cars.
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Post by René on Jun 5, 2024 20:08:19 GMT
Brilliant! |
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) as he proved again. Great win! 
