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Coop
You know, I stopped shaving to think of something to write here. That worked out well.

Will Cooper @Coop

Age 41, Male

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Motorsport season is here!

Posted by Coop - March 16th, 2008


So as any followers of my ranting and raving about various disciplines of motorsport will be aware, my viewing of NASCAR started over a month ago, with the 50th Running of the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida. That season is already 5 weeks old and, while my driver (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) hasn't won a race yet, he's one of the hottest races on the circuit, with 4 top-10 finishes. He would have had a clean sweep of top-10s, if it wasn't for some incidental contact with his spinning teammate, Casey Mears in the second race of the season at Califonia. He got the car repaired and ran race-pace with the rest of the pack, even though he was 30-something laps down.

Still, I managed to cost my lovely girlfriend more sleep than myself this morning, as I got up at 0430, local time to watch the Australian GP. A lovely sunny day, where the brightest talent in the long line of British F1 drivers for a very long time was taking his position at the front of the grid. Lewis Hamilton drove a near-faultless race to lead the standings, while most of his rivals came into trouble of some sort. You've got to laugh at the Ferraris, as they really had a torrid time, despite the fact that all of the pundits were saying that it should be their race today.

Reigning world champion, Kimi Raikkonen wasted a great opportunity, by passing Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen down the inside with far too little braking space. Kovalainen just eased off, letting his countryman overshoot the apex and dive into the gravel trap. You would have thought that the McLaren Driver was the reigning world champion and that Raikkonen had just started only his second season in F1.

Felipe Massa in the sster McLaren fared slightly better, picking a fight with a grizzled veteran, David Coulthard. He scythed up the inside and Coulthard didn't see him until he had made severe contact with the sidepod of the Ferrari (see the image for further details). Massa continued, only to have his suspension fail later on.

Rubens Barichello almost killed one of his refuellers, Jock Clear (who is no stranger to getting mown down in the pits - something similar happened last year, I believe). Barichello's lollipop man, who tells him when to leave the pit stall lifted the lollipop when Barichello was still taking on fuel.

As if that wasn't enough drama for the first race of the year, Timo Glock, driving the Toyota had a nasty incident, when he caught some air (only a couple of feet, but that's plenty) and literally tore the suspension off the car as he landed. I suggest that if you want to see any of that, check YouTube for some highlights!

I returned to bed at around 0630 to catch up on the sleep I'll need to get me through the last 4 days in the office until Easter. Woke my girlfriend up getting back into bed and she didn't get much sleep at all, but she's up now, playing Guitar Hero at almost 11pm, so she's still doing alright :P

Motorsport season is here!


Comments

It was an awfull race for the Brazilian racers. Felipe Massa, who had a good season last year, didn't finish the race because of problems in his car. Nelsinho Piquet, son of the famous racer Nelson Piquet, had great expectations here. Started into the 21st place and didn't complete the race.

And Rubens Barichello was having a great race untill the master problems while pitting came. He even scored some points, but was desqualified for exitting the boxes with the red lights on.

I stood up untill 3:40 AM (local time) watching the race. And I think it was worth. The "new generation F1" looks promissing.

Massa is overrated. We'll see how good he really is now that they've taken the driver aides out now.

Piquet has a bright future, so we can't judge him on his first corner crash in his first GP.

Barichello is a good racer, with a very experienced head on. He can lead Honda forward with Jenson 'Tough Luck' Button into a new era. He will pass Ricardo Patrese for the most GPs contested at some point, mark my words.

im looking forward to that

Anyone who is interested in Motorsport is looking forward to it ;)

you do know they had a re-run of the whole thing in early afternoon right?

I was at the pub and the patrons wanted to watch the Worcester Warriors play in their crucial Rugby match against Leeds Carnegie, which predictably ended in a draw :P

I've watched a few highlights of it on Youtube (the ones that havn't been deleted). My favourite one so far is of Hamilton holding a slide during practice which was pretty cool. The FIA outlawing traction control is gonna make races loads more entertaining. Too bad about DC as well...

Now we're going to see drivers actually driving the cars and accelerating properly, rather than just mashing their feet on the pedals and expecting the computer to deal with the input.

If anybody is fucking hopeless without driver aids, its gotta be Alonso.

Also even Hamilton himself if i heard correctly was saying he was gonna keep an eye on the Ferrari's during the race. Also, Ferrari had a fucking horrible weekend, and yes, Raikkonen did fuck up in that corner, but it was towards the end of the race where everyone is loosing it, like Barrichelo running his fuel man down, and leaving the pits early.

But hey, its only the first race, and although Hamilton is going to win, Ferrari will still come in 2nd or 3rd. So im happy.

Interesting comments there. I'll be sure to track back to them after future races ;)

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

I believe that the FIA had this reclassified last year. It should read NEEEEEEEEEEOW!

The FIA is a bunch of cockblocks.

It's not all bad news - the BBC will have uninterrupted coverage back from next season!

No more commercials to interrupt the best action. Huzzah!

Ah yes... NEEEEEEEEEEEEEOW.... the universal sound of a race car speeding past the TV camera/microphone. Gotta love it. #;-}>

Am I to understand that you *JUST* became a NASCAR watcher this January? You were speaking about NASCAR in Wi/Ht? these past few months like it was old hat to you. Then again, I guess racing is racing, but... heh. #;-}>

I've been watching NASCAR partially since 2000 (My first full race was the 2001 Daytona 500 :$) and I've watched 4 full seasons now and the championships of Matt Kenseth (Boring) Kurt Busch (Close) Jimmie Johnson (Closer) and Johnson's repeat last year (Meh, it was good while Jeff Gordon raced him, but how about Clint Bowyer in the 07?)

I'm hoping that since Junior has switched to Hendrick, he's going to prove that he's got what it takes to win races and championships. He's doing alright at the moment - 5th in the championship and he's top of the Hendrick boys, the only one of four drivers who would be eligable for the Sprint to the Cup.

I Love Teh Lemonparty, Do You?

Lemonparty sucks balls - big, hairy, sour balls at that!

I shall say it here even though i already said it in the F1 Club there.

Bernie Ecclestone is a cunt.

He suffers from Napoleon syndrome. Look at the size of his wife!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Thankee!

Happy birthday too!

Because of it you changed your aura to Neutral?

Thanks.

It's not easy, being green.

Man, Hamilton screwed up in qualifying and in the race, poor bastard, i didn't watch it all, but i know both Ferrari's won, but what was the outcome with Alonso slowing down out of that corner?

Alonso "didn't get good traction out of the turn" it unsighted Hamilton and he lost his front wing.

Racing incident, no further action taken.

Apparently Hamilton lost his front wing earlier though.

I never saw that, so I wouldn't know.

Damned cricket training interfering with my enjoyment of the race!