31 Comments

as a founder i've got tickets to long beach but might hafta pass 'em to a friend if i can't make it

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I missed the F1 race because I forgot about the whole Australia being in a totally different time zone thing. I did watch the Indy car race at TMS which honestly I found to be one of the most exciting motorsport races I've watched in a long time. I found the amount of clean passing and high level of racecraft to be a refreshing palate cleanser after I sat though last weekend's NASCAR race turned demolition derby at COTA.

A Note about Sir Lewis Hamilton: One of the most perplexing things I've observed about celebrities and professional athletes is their proclivity to declare themselves "humbled" when something good happens to them. Whether it's the actor taking an Oscar or the driver winning a world championship the word "humbled" always comes out of their mouths. I've alway wished I knew what its like to be "humbled" in such away. Here in the world of plebs "humbled" is an emotion often felt when things, despite ones best effort, don't work out. With that in mind, I find it refreshing and dare I say enjoyable to witness Hamilton being humbled in such a relatable way.

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It's humbling when people say nice things about my work because I know it could be better. I mean, I know it's good, but it's far from perfect. It's funny how approval and validation can either make you humble or arrogant.

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I would like to see Ronnie become the Kanye West of embroidery and electric harmonicas ;-)

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Did anyone else here race the Champcar 14 hr enduro at Daytona Saturday? We hauled our Civic Si down from WV, and made it up to 6th in EC class before I got punted in the quarter panel by a Trans Am. We pulled the dent out with a ratchet strap hooked to the rental car and finished the race 9th in class. Lots and lots of cautions and wrecks over the course of the day (especially in the bus stop), but definitely a bucket list experience to race down there, I cracked 153 mph across the front straight in the Civic. I had never raced on Nascar banking before, that was a wild feeling with the car compressing into the track at speed..

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I find it to be a profoundly disquieting experience running races on the banking. About eight years ago I did a WRL race at the now-defunct Texas World Speedway. We had a Fox-based Granada with a carbed 351 in it that could hit 155-ish on the front straight. That was not something I'm eager to repeat ONCE, let alone forty-five times in a row.

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Was that the banking or because you were forcing a freaking Granada to do 155?

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YES

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I would like to be able to say that I was in the zone and focused on my race craft, but the reality was that every time I got the car over 150, certain thoughts interrupted my focus, things like "is that vibration just tire marbles or is the car coming apart?," or "I hope I tightened the caliper bracket bolts enough."

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Yup. Doing 150 on a modern bike or Radical or McLaren doesn't bug me, but 130 in the Neon has me thinking about what could go wrong.

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Lewis is overrated. My evaluation of him has never changed. He lucked into his first championship, and has never had to drive a dog, or even a middling car until last year. Listen to the whining to know how good/bad he is.

Pastor had an attitude problem, not an aptitude problem. he was underrated because of his background and the way he bullied people on track, often too far.

This IS the most competitive season in a long time, if you ignore the red bulls. I agree wholeheartedly.

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The minute they pitted George he was whining on the radio. He complained the whole race about how fast Alonso was. I have to say that he is lacking a certain sprezzatura.

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That has ALWAYS been the case... he is never classy in his conduct. I can understand that in the heat of battle, but even outside he's often the same. Not to get political, but wearing T-shirts advocating for thugs and criminals in the last couple of years for political activism hasn't endeared him to me one bit.

On the flip side, Vettel, much tainted of the multi-21 era, has only gotten more and more graceful in his conduct, and even with the green initiatives he's pushing, he doesn't come across as unnecessarily arrogant in the way he speaks or conducts himself.

I have to assume each driver on the grid has a certain 'minimum' speed and talent to come to terms with the machinery, so can't fault Lewis there. But anytime he had to ACTUALLY compete, his record falls apart.

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Vettel conspicuously grew up, as did Alonso. Lewis is MORE petulant and annoying than he was in 2007.

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Having children kind of forces you to grow up.

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Mercedes has the two most annoying drivers on the grid. It doesn't help I can't stand Toto either.

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"Unexpectedly" Gasly didn't get any penalty points. Imagine that. Penalty points would have put him over the limit.

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The safety car and redflag regulations need to be redone. No one wants to have another Jules Bianchi situation but we also don't need so many red flags. It is OK to end a race under caution sometimes. It is also complete bullshit what the pit stop lottery would have done to Russel.

If there are tire changes under red flag fine, but the restart order should be the order that the yellow was thrown under.

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I'm just afraid that these 'committee decisions' by the FIA will cause a driver fatality this year. It was funny to see people try to blame the restart controversy on Michael Masi, who has no say in F1 anymore. He can F up V8 Supercars to his liking.

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I don't follow F1 well enough to have an opinion but I have always wondered about Hamilton. He can't be that bad, but he obviously has had strong backing from the jump. To extrapolate to something I am slightly more familiar with he strikes me as benefiting from favoritism in an analogous way to the non-American players in the NBA, albeit presumably for different reasons.

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He reminds me more of LeBron James, another kid whose talent was recognized early, greasing the skids for life.

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The NBA is very interested in expanding globally. My theory is that is why non-US players, whatever their skin color, tend to get promoted quite a bit and get MVP awards and favorable foul calls. In Hamilton's case it was probably more of the typical attempt to appeal to a younger, ahem, urban, demographic. Whatever the reason it definitely reeks of institutional bias.

Edit-I almost forgot. IIRC Hamilton did win the most important "race" of all-the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment on the old Top Gear. That clearly means he is the superior driver.

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The NBA is more like the CCPBA.

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He really was that exciting as a young driver. I remember being elated during his maiden win in Montreal, and crestfallen when he wore his wets (inters?) down to the chords and then off the pit lane entrance. Cost him a championship in his rookie season.

I think my own frustration with Hamilton is him being so successful for so long. I miss the thrill. Verstappen wasn't the same for some reason, and Russell is exciting but is taking a long time to get there. I am sure if he wins 3 championships I'll be bored of him too. After a few he will probably act entitled too

Button was the only driver I rooted for his entire career, I think because he always struggled so much and always acted like success was right around the corner.

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If Hamilton can regain the pace he showed as a rookie he may lose the attitude, but probably not. He's been spoiled, and will be kept around because of his appeal to the "younger urban demographic". He'll hang on at F1 because if he leaves he'll lose his twitter followers for the next big thing. The only viable alternative in Europe is WEC, and I can't see him working with multiple codrivers. Button reminds me of Damon Hill, who I watched struggle with problematic cars and teams until things came together for him at Williams in '96. Frank Williams declined to keep his world champion winning driver, which was when I wrote off Williams as a serious company, much less a contender.

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I think the only disadvantage Hamilton is carrying currently is motivation. Surely every time he gets on another plane, deals with journalist after journalist asking the same questions, he must be asking himself 'do I need this for another year, and then what?'.

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This thread seems to have suffered a quick and early demise but I found this curious

https://voxday.net/2023/04/07/fake-ai-produces-fake-histories/

after listening to Joe Rogan interview Peter Attia and thought I would mention it here. It doesn't fit in the auto auction thread.

Attia is a big F1 fan so when playing around with ChatGPT he asked what was special about the last F1 race for 2021. After giving a brief answer about the race itself it also stated that Hamilton won the race making him an 8 times World Champion. Is this a feature of IA? To rewrite history to suit the ones creating AI?

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Hamilton has always been a driver with great talent but none of the truly great racers had teammates who regularly spanked them with the possible exceptions of Senna and Prost, who together were essentially the rock and immovable object. I suppose folks could point out Hamilton's age catching up to him but Fernando. And speaking of Fernando, HELL YEAH!

On to a different racing subject. I'm thinking of delving into the world of volunteering as a track marshall this year at Mid Ohio and maybe Nelson Ledges. Does anyone here have experience with this activity? Any tips or warnings? I've been considering this for a few years and spent Saturday in sort of a training class for it. Might be time to pull the trigger.

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If you went to the LEC meeting this past Saturday -- I wanted to be there but didn't make it due to Radical work.

Working at the track is a lot of fun and if you get on with SCCA I'll no doubt see you for some of them as I am both a racer in the regions and the pace car driver at Mid-O!

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I was there and up in the tower when the winds hit. Then I needed a push to get the Miata out of the mud when I left. Good times.

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You were 1400 feet from the house!

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