Much draft. Very vroom. Such ‘Dega.
I may have been away last weekend but I was keeping close tabs on the NASCAR race from Talladega. That’s because the community over at /r/Dogecoin sponsored the #98 Phil Parsons Racing Ford for the race at Talladega. Their funding didn’t go unrewarded because the #98 Dogecoin car, piloted by Josh Wise, finished in 20th place on Sunday.
Neither rain nor severe weather nor standing water stayed the drivers of the IndyCar Series from the swift completion of their appointed round at Barber Motorsports Park. Okay, it did a little as the race was pushed back by over two hours due to a severe rain storm and standing water.
When the race got going, it looked like Will Power was going to storm off into the distance and win his second race of the season. However, as it so often the case in inclement weather, the only person that can beat you is yourself. Power left the track early in the race which allowed Ryan Hunter-Reay to claim the lead and his first win of the season.
The only exciting part of this race was the banging and crashing at the start. For the third consecutive Grand Prix, it was Lewis Hamilton who won the race. Without an interruption from the safety car, Hamilton stormed away with his largest margin of the victory of the season. At least the race officials did something to keep us on our toes.
Long Beach is the most historic road course race in America. It’s the one that everyone wants to win. Even Formula One wants to take it back from IndyCar and they’re only interested in big money and big extravagance which is something that Long Beach doesn’t do to nearly the extent that F1’s newest races.
While Long Beach has a long history of making heroes out of its winners, sometimes, it’s the underdogs that have their day on the streets of the California port. This time out, it was a part-timer driving an oval-specialist’s car taking the checkered flag as Mike Conway won his second Long Beach Grand Prix.
As part of the changes to all of the technical regulations, the 2014 Formula One World Championship season included a rules change that allows four two-day in-season test sessions for teams to work on their cars and gather data about new parts and Pirelli tyres.
The first of these test sessions was in Bahrain following last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. If you include the pre-season testing, that makes 13 days out of 23 (12 days of pre-season testing, 9 days of race weekends and 2 days of this test) of official running that has been held on this one track. So it should surprise anyone that Mercedes was still at the head of the field after this test.
I was planning to do a best of the interweb post today but I thought that I would use this space to pay tribute to The Ultimate Warrior instead. I had a few favourite wrestlers growing up. I was a Hulkamaniac like everyone else. Being Canadian, Bret Hart was one of my favourites. Then there were the heels, Mr. Perfect and Ted DiBiase, who were just too good to hate (and/or feuding with Virgil who was terrible and not worth the time, even to a kid).
The most unique wrestler of them all, and another of my favourites, was the Ultimate Warrior. He wasn’t as swollen as Hogan but he looked more muscular. He didn’t have the most coherent interviews but you couldn’t help but be captivated. He had the coolest ring music and entrance in the Fed. And many, many years down the road, I figured out that he could work matches too. (I’ll explain.)
So let’s look back on some of the best and most memorable moments of The Ultimate Warrior’s career.
People were looking for all sorts of reasons why the first two races of the season weren’t as epic as everyone was hoping. Much blame was laid at the feed of the new engines being too quiet. Mercedes engines absolutely dominating proceedings wasn’t helping much. Pirelli tyres, as always, were blamed too.
It turns out, though, that all we really needed to get an exciting race from the new generation of Formula One was a late safety car to bunch the field together and allow people to run all over each other in order. Despite some close side-by-side racing at the end, it was Lewis Hamilton that led the race essentially from first corner to the last as he picked up his second win of the season.
For the first time, the Bahrain Grand Prix will be contested under the lights. While this makes it easier on the viewers in Europe and the Americas because it won’t be competing with other sports in the middle of the afternoon or start at the break of dawn. The downside is that the cooler temperatures likely means that the cars aren’t going to overheat and expire. So we might actually get a normal-ish race this time out.
He may not have had the best first three-quarters of the 2013 IndyCar season but Will Power closed out last season going from 11th in points to 4th. To start the 2014 campaign, he’s picking up where he left off with a win to open up the season by taking the checkered flag in St. Pete.
Testing isn’t the complete story but it certainly does give you an insight into how the season will play out. The Red Bulls weren’t expected to be in the same timezone as the Mercedes-powered cars but they’re running for podiums. However, the insight that said that Mercedes GP would be blindingly fast proved to be right as Lewis Hamilton led the team home in a 1-2 finish.
The Lowdown 