Sunday, November 24, 2013

Overheard in the Office (This Morning)...

Meet the Press is not on for my weekly circulatory system pressure test. Morbo's Inside Indiana Business came on early. There was momentary bafflement. I wondered aloud as to the absence of David Gregory's vaguely simian features from our televisor...
RX: "Neanderthal Thanksgiving is earlier than ours."

Me: "And Chuck Todd couldn't be arsed to step in for a week because he's still butthurt over Obamacare?"

RX: "The Gregories invited the Todds over for the Thanksgiving Feast."
As it turns out, there is some sort of Formula One racing going on. I watched a lap or two of zoom-zoom in São Paulo. When did cars start passing each other again in the senior divisions of open-wheel racing?

I had completely lost interest when the races turned into very loud and very long Synchronized Air-Wrenching/Timed Gas-Pumping competitions...

12 comments:

Robert said...

"When did cars start passing each other again in the senior divisions of open-wheel racing? "

It's taken a whole lotta rule tweeking, believe me.

Garrett Lee said...

Actually, I think they stopped allowing refueling a few years back - something about Finns setting fire to one another on pit lane.

1911Man said...

2.5 second pit stops to change four tires would be "very long" perhaps only if other teams were allowed to play defense with their own counter-air-wrenching. Or with shotguns. Also, there be no gas-pumping in F1.

Golf would totally be improved with the addition of defensive counter-whacking.

Tam said...

re: Refueling.

Like I said, I haven't been paying attention for a while. There used to be a guy all swaddled in nomex wrestling a giant slinky in the pits...

Anonymous said...

A new German guy is winning an awful lot of the races. The main difference is that his car is not red this time.
MotoGP is much more entertaining than F1. there is often more passing in a single lap of MotoGP than a whole season of F1. And Ecclestone is a douche.

Ed said...

I caught the end of the race. I had not seen open wheel racing on TV in many years, something I used to love to watch as a kid.

Remember the engine sounds you heard, because they will be different next year. V8 engines maxing out at 18,000 rpm will be replaced by turbocharged V6 engines maxing out at 15,000 rpm to improve fuel economy with the single fuel load.

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/mercedes-amg-formula-one-turbo-v6-engine-noise-2013-08-05

og said...

"Vaguely simian"? the guy could star in a remake of Apes with nothing more than a Wolverine wig.

jon spencer said...

It was in 2011 when the F-1 gods decreed that the DRS (drag reduction system) would be used and that returned passing to the races.

Anonymous said...

I prefer World Rally Car anyday to F1. Racing on public roads, usually gravel surfaced, in rain and snow.

Al_in_Ottawa

Anonymous said...

Good thing Gregory is white. Otherwise you'd be racist or something.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 2:36 PM said:

MotoGP is much more entertaining than F1. there is often more passing in a single lap of MotoGP than a whole season of F1. And Ecclestone is a douche.

You're obviously not one of Crash.net's commenters. :-) They complain incessantly about "processional" MotoGP races. They obviously don't watch the Moto2 or Moto3 classes, where the passing each lap would give mere mortals heart failure. The last MotoGP race at Valencia was pretty good too, although I doubt that Dani was much amused when Jorge nerfed him off the track(awesome save by Dani, by the way).

BSR

Angus McThag said...

Just remember, for every lap of F1 you watch you have to watch one lap of NASCAR (and vice versa) or your turn counter will spin to the stops.

NHRA avoids this danger by not allowing the cars to turn.