Pole Day
Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 11:40AM
No, it is not Robert Kubica's birthday. It is of course that annual soporific exercise called Indianapolis Pole day. One car on a 2.5 mile oval doing 225.345mph or 225.346 does not make for entertainment. Who can tell? I certainly could not the only time I went. It used to be exciting when they had more good cars than places on the grid, but these days?
Elsewhere, and there is a fair bit of elsewhere, some surprises on pole. Dyson Racing finally seems to have sorted their Mazda powered Lola and put it on pole for the 6 hour race at Mazda Raceway, aka, Laguna Seca. Call me suspicious but that could just be a nice little promo for our sponsors? I hope not and wish them good luck. Rob Dyson and his son Chris have put a lot into sports car racing for a long time and deserve their success. It could spice up the race for us in the absence of the Aston Martin. Lord Drayson's absence from his Cabinet duties does not seem to have helped the team any, being the slowest of the prototypes when at Sebring it was racing against the Peugeots. Perhaps Lord Drayson should be voted out of the cockpit?
Valentino Rossi scored his first pole of the season at Le Mans in a Yamaha 1-2. What's surprising is it his first pole, he has been so dominant for so long. In the Moto2 event young American, Kenny Noyes, is on pole. Most of us will remember his father Dennis, a successful rider and journalist who lived and worked in Spain for many years and was part of Dorna. Dennis moved back to the States a few years ago and has obviously schooled Kenny well. Our next World Champion? One worrying point for the Championship must be that it is down to just 16 motorcycles, and some of those are well off the pace.
Joylon Palmer, what sort of name is that does anyone know? Anyway he is the son of Dr. Jonathon Palmer, former F1 driver and now successful businessman and track and F2 series owner. F2 is racing at Monza this weekend and young Joylon put it on pole and won the first race, so again following in Dad's footsteps. There are suggestions that with GP2, GP3, F2 and F3 etc, the driver gene pool is stretched pretty thin so Joylon is not beating too may other good drivers, but he is still winning so let's see where he goes from here.
Elsewhere the GT's are racing at Brno with Maserati on pole, and who could forget that annual demolition derby, the NASCAR All-Star race from Charlotte, where qualifying was washed out. Just how much money is spent and wasted to win $1 million?
It has been confirmed that, as I suspected given the proximity of events, the loose manhole cover caused Barrichello's accident at Monaco. The FIA is going to teach Monaco how to weld down the covers properly. Given that Monaco is the oldest surviving street race I am very surprised that they did not invent how to weld down covers, but did that person pass away and no one else knew the trick?
Following on from Monaco, it seems "The Lord Giveth and The Lord Taketh Away." Flavio was seen on his yacht in the harbor and the FIA relented and let him back in the paddock following the Singapore incident. On returning home the Italian Authorities have chased and impounded the yacht. It seem it is registered as a charter to avoid some tax, but only Flavio seems to have chartered it.
Finally, Lotus and Williams have both come out and said they are happy with the Cosworth and are not contemplating a change to Renault. Rubens and Nico Hulkenburg have been doing pretty good with the Cossie considering where Williams have been recently so sticking with the Cosworth could be the right move. They have a great history, which I know means nothing in the end, except that they do know how to produce a great engine, and you do not easily forget that stuff. With so many being used it has to help with the rate of development and spread the cost.
Elsewhere, and there is a fair bit of elsewhere, some surprises on pole. Dyson Racing finally seems to have sorted their Mazda powered Lola and put it on pole for the 6 hour race at Mazda Raceway, aka, Laguna Seca. Call me suspicious but that could just be a nice little promo for our sponsors? I hope not and wish them good luck. Rob Dyson and his son Chris have put a lot into sports car racing for a long time and deserve their success. It could spice up the race for us in the absence of the Aston Martin. Lord Drayson's absence from his Cabinet duties does not seem to have helped the team any, being the slowest of the prototypes when at Sebring it was racing against the Peugeots. Perhaps Lord Drayson should be voted out of the cockpit?
Valentino Rossi scored his first pole of the season at Le Mans in a Yamaha 1-2. What's surprising is it his first pole, he has been so dominant for so long. In the Moto2 event young American, Kenny Noyes, is on pole. Most of us will remember his father Dennis, a successful rider and journalist who lived and worked in Spain for many years and was part of Dorna. Dennis moved back to the States a few years ago and has obviously schooled Kenny well. Our next World Champion? One worrying point for the Championship must be that it is down to just 16 motorcycles, and some of those are well off the pace.
Joylon Palmer, what sort of name is that does anyone know? Anyway he is the son of Dr. Jonathon Palmer, former F1 driver and now successful businessman and track and F2 series owner. F2 is racing at Monza this weekend and young Joylon put it on pole and won the first race, so again following in Dad's footsteps. There are suggestions that with GP2, GP3, F2 and F3 etc, the driver gene pool is stretched pretty thin so Joylon is not beating too may other good drivers, but he is still winning so let's see where he goes from here.
Elsewhere the GT's are racing at Brno with Maserati on pole, and who could forget that annual demolition derby, the NASCAR All-Star race from Charlotte, where qualifying was washed out. Just how much money is spent and wasted to win $1 million?
It has been confirmed that, as I suspected given the proximity of events, the loose manhole cover caused Barrichello's accident at Monaco. The FIA is going to teach Monaco how to weld down the covers properly. Given that Monaco is the oldest surviving street race I am very surprised that they did not invent how to weld down covers, but did that person pass away and no one else knew the trick?
Following on from Monaco, it seems "The Lord Giveth and The Lord Taketh Away." Flavio was seen on his yacht in the harbor and the FIA relented and let him back in the paddock following the Singapore incident. On returning home the Italian Authorities have chased and impounded the yacht. It seem it is registered as a charter to avoid some tax, but only Flavio seems to have chartered it.
Finally, Lotus and Williams have both come out and said they are happy with the Cosworth and are not contemplating a change to Renault. Rubens and Nico Hulkenburg have been doing pretty good with the Cossie considering where Williams have been recently so sticking with the Cosworth could be the right move. They have a great history, which I know means nothing in the end, except that they do know how to produce a great engine, and you do not easily forget that stuff. With so many being used it has to help with the rate of development and spread the cost.
Reader Comments (1)
Great post. Very refreshing given all the duplicate content out there. Thanks for doing something original.