Eastern Tennessee Vortex Sighting

by Ken on August 27, 2011

With all the hoo-rah about Hurricane Irene, it’s nice to see the sun shine someplace. In particular, over Bristol TN, for tonight’s running of the Irwin Tools Night Race. Bristol. High-bank concrete track. Night Racin’ of a Saturday night.

Man, that gives me goosebumps. However, we all know there could be storms in Bristol tonight. 43 cars create a well-known vortex. Let the storm begin!

And, please, Dominion Power, keep the juice flowing, so I may witness the spectacle.

Thank you.

-k-

Cross-posted to ten billion butterfly sneezes.

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More Wally, Please

Semi-boozy musings on the race tonight

by Scott on July 2, 2011

Maybe it’s because of his lack of exposure, but there is really no one else I would rather listen to on the teevee than Wally Dallenbach. For my money, he’s got just the right touch. Wonder how others feel about him?

Kyle Petty, on the other hand — WAY overexposed. His schtick has grown tiresome.

Pretty cool, young Trevor Bayne and the Wood Bros. taking the front row at the second Daytona race of the year. Too bad the idiot Brad Keselowski dumps him. Boy, that Keselowski drives dumb, talks dumb, too.

Personally, and I’m sure this is the first time I’ve mentioned this, but I’m pulling again, and almost all the time, for Tony Stewart. I like the cut of his jib, always have, and as a small (microscopic) businessman, I respect the owner/operator. About the only guy I don’t care to see win is that grinning Missouri jackass, Carl Edwards. He rubs me the wrong way for some reason…probably the fact that he never doesn’t sound like Eddie Haskell.

Social media fails again — trying to find streaming fan pix of Daytona is a fruitless endeavour. Tell me again about all this Tweetbooksquare mashup garbage and how it’s changing the face of the internet. BZZZT! Wrong, iPad breath! It’s the suck and it always has been so for about 99.9% of normal people.

Fvcking fly-over! America, Hell Yeah! They don’t do fly-overs at that soccer World Cup. Do they?

Can you tell I got the space teevee hooked up in the Racerati World HQ? It’s a little flatscreen, though, and not HD, so I’ll be elsewhere (the Employee Lounge?) , but back regular to smoke Marlboros and whip your ass with my obsos. Gotta check on my Rangers now and then, too.

19:51: As predicted by the NASCAR Insiders, all that pre-race hoo-ha about who’s dancing with who is out the window. Far too many variables come into play. Me, I dig this style of racing, because it’s new and different and changes strategies and styles on the fly. Seems like it should, anyway.

20:18: The little Rangers are getting killt, zip-seis. I don’t see Matt Kenseth as much of an Affliction guy, but it’s probably not a bad audience to shill.

2055: For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Stewart is running with David Gilliland and not Ryan Newman. Well, I’m not a racerman.

2136: Typical wild-ass Daytona finish, huh? Congrats to David Ragan, who had to, per Kyle Petty, overcome a lot of adversity (!), I guess by being forced to step into Dale Jarrett’s Rousch ride at the ripe old age of 25.

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The Fahrcracker 400

by Ken on July 2, 2011

Happy 4th, Racerati fans! The nuances of the calendar dictate that this year’s running of the second race from Daytona occurs tonight. Under the lights. Saturday night. Horsepower. Beers. The way it oughta’ be.

The race is now known(for this year, anyhow) as the Coke Zero 400. In the day when NASCAR fans watched racing whenever they could(and before the sanctioning body’s incessant need to ring the cash register), the race was known as the Firecracker 400.

And what a history the race has. First NASCAR race attended by a sitting US President(the “start your engines” command from Air Force One). The King’s final win. Dale JR winning a scant few months after Dale SR’s tragic death at the same venue.

The Great American Sport, on the Great American Holiday. Man, I can’t wait.

Enjoy, and be safe!

-k-

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01-04JUL11: If You Can’t Be There

Since it's a 3-day weekend, you should be there, if you have the means

by Scott on July 1, 2011

*** ALL TIMES ARE TEXAS TIME — ADJUST YOUR CHRONOMETER ACCORDINGLY ***

A day late this week, thanks to some misbehaving wireless.

FRIDAY
3-5:30pm: NASCAR Sprint Cup Qualifying, Daytona, Speed
6:30-9pm: NASCAR Nationwide Subway Jalapeno 250, Daytona, ESPN

SATURDAY
12-2pm: V8 Supercars, Darwin, Speed
6:30-10pm: NASCAR Sprint Cup Coke Zero 400, Daytona, TNT

SUNDAY
9:30am-1pm: World Rally Championship, Greece, Discovery

MONDAY
– nothing I can find right now; so…firecrackers?

OFF-CAMBER PICK OF THE WEEK: WRC on Sunday, Discovery!

*** ALL TIMES ARE TEXAS TIME — ADJUST YOUR CHRONOMETER ACCORDINGLY ***

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Silly Season Talk, 2011, Episode 1

Ep1 for this little blog, anyway

by Scott on June 28, 2011

NASCAR Insiders talk Silly Season:

With the announcement last week that Red Bull was ceasing its NASCAR operations at the end of the season, the 2011 Silly Season went into full overdrive. While the number of available rides just potentially got cut by one, the number of unanswered questions increased. Can Red Bull find investors? What will Brian Vickers do next season?

I’ve been too tightly connected to earning a living to even think about what’s going to happen this season, much less next year. So check these guys out for some chatter on who might go where. There’s a short appearance by That Patrick Girl, too.

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60 year-old man breaks own record at Pike’s Peak

Oddly, this makes me feel older, not younger

by Scott on June 27, 2011

Tajima breaks own Pikes Peak Hill Climb record

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP)—Nobuhiro Tajima lowered his own record in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on Sunday, becoming the first driver to break 10 minutes in winning the race for a sixth straight time.

“This is what I wanted and what motivated to come back,” said Tajima, who leaped out of the car and pumped his fists above his head. “I would have been very disappointed if I didn’t win.”

The 60-year-old Japanese covered the 12.42-mile course in 9 minutes, 51.28 seconds in the Unlimited Division, surpassing the record of 10:01.41 he set on July 21, 2007.

Tajima overcame an overheated engine and wind gusts of up to 40 mph, driving his 2011 Monster Sport SX4 Hill Climb Special through 156 turns from the start at 9,390 feet to the 14,110-foot summit.

The guys noted below, in the Twin Turbo, driven by Paul Dallenbach, sadly had a DNF due to a broken axle:

The Dallenbach team had high hopes for race day, but a stalled start was an early bad omen. Less than a minute later, a broken axle left him stranded just one mile into the race.

That kind of mech breakage must truly suck, especially one damn minute into the race. There’s surely some head-scratching going on. I’ll do my best to keep an eye on the news for explanations. It will be an interesting read, if it gets talked about. I had high hopes for the Americans and their twin-turbo, rear-drive, Chevy-engined monster. Just wait till next year…

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A decent weekend in front of the Toob

Except for the commercials of X Factor, whateverTF that is

by Scott on June 26, 2011

Thanks to an enormous cock-up in Denver, delivered by the cock-up masters of the travel universe known as United Airlines, I basically spent the weekend in a daze, feeling really run down. That means I watched

  • at least three hours of Sprint Cup practice from Sonoma
  • a fair portion of IndyLights
  • all of the IndyCar Ethanol Subsidy 250 from Iowa
  • all of Formula 1 from Valencia
  • all of NASCAR’s Sonoma
  • fixing to watch NHRA, too

In case you’re keeping score at home, I had three Freddy’s #1 Combo, as well, not feeling the least bit inspired to cook. I could barely slap together a ham sandwich on a couple of occasions.

Open-wheel, open-cockpit racing on ovals at 200mph is really GD crazy and fairly frightening — that was a real good race. F1 is kind of boring, unless you’re a true engineering nerd, which I fancy myself as a little bit. Infineon wasn’t as dull as it usually is, thanks to a lot of banging and payback. The vision of Tony Stewart in the #14 car and its rear end stuck on the bumper-tires is hilarious, but not as hilarious as that flappy jalopy he drove back onto the track for about a quarter of a lap.

That’s a pretty awesome Boy Racer LaZBoy weekend. How’d your weekend go?

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24-26JUN11: If you can’t be there…

Program the teevee, if you have a programmable teevee

by Scott on June 23, 2011

*** ALL TIMES ARE TEXAS TIME — ADJUST YOUR CHRONOMETER ACCORDINGLY ***

FRIDAY

SATURDAY
11am-130pm: Rolex Sports Car Series, Road America, SpeedTV
4:30-9pm: NASCAR Nationwide Bucyrus 200, Road America, ESPN
7-10pm: IndyCar Iowa Corn 250, Versus

SUNDAY
11am-1pm: Formula1, Valencia, Spain, SpeedTV
2-530pm: NASCAR Sprint Cup SaveMart 350, Sonoma,CA, TNT
7-10pm: NHRA Summit Racing Nationals, Norwalk, CT, ESPN2

OFF-CAMBER PICK OF THE WEEK: Zip, zero, nada -- so go to a local track, get off yer ass, quit laying around the house like a slug...

*** ALL TIMES ARE TEXAS TIME — ADJUST YOUR CHRONOMETER ACCORDINGLY ***

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Crazy Bike Crash

No one is hurt...

by Scott on June 23, 2011

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Pike’s Peak in a Twin Turbo

Frighteningly fast

by Scott on June 21, 2011

The car is rather unique in the “Unlimited” category as it’s a pure American hot rod powered by a twin turbo Chevy engine and being rear-wheel drive. It’s more like an angry Indy car than the small displacement all-wheel drive rally-like racers in the field.

Pike’s Peak is one of those races I’d like to see at least once, like the Bonnevillle Salt Flats shindig.

Via Iowahawk…

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