The Explorers' Club
№ CCCIII - The National Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Koekelberg Basilica), Brussels.







Science!
The B.B.C.'s front page headline for this story is, "Nazi Buddha originally from space." Whomever composed that gem deserves a raise, if not a medal & a cash prize. The more mundane headline accompanying the story is, "Ancient statue discovered by Nazis is made from meteorite;" more accurate to be sure, but less amusing. The Iron Man who fell to Earth: Nazi Buddha-link.

"No, GIR! Those piggies are for science. Science!"

This Week in Motorsport
Indy Rock
The last time "This Week in Motorsport" examined the '12 IndyCar season: Wayback Machine (scroll past "Formula Fun!" & "By Endurance We Conquer").

IndyCar Series
Round 11
Edmonton Indy
Sunday, 22 July 2012

This was the point in the season when I made the decision really to follow the IndyCars, after being put off by the bore of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race & the other oval-track races. The Edmonton Indy was run at a circuit carved out of the municipal aerodrome, which provided a fine track but one eerily devoid of features & spectators. It was as if a circuit had been laid out amidst an enormous parking lot.

Round 12
Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
Sunday, 5 August 2012

My father & I attended the joint American Le Mans Series (A.L.M.S.)/IndyCar weekend at Mid-Ohio. Sooner rather than later I intend to chronicle properly the myriad sensations of that weekend, but for now I shall limit our scope to the race itself. Will Power of Team Penske (Chevrolet) lead most of the race over double series champion Scott Dixon ('03 & '08) of Ganassi Racing (Honda), 'til the last pit stops, when both cars stopped at the same time & Dixon beat Power out of the pits. A lifetime of watching college football has made me only too aware of the peril of any missed opportunity, & with Power locked in a fierce battle at the top of the standings with Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport (Chevrolet), I augured darkly that come season's end Power & Penske might rue the ten points they surrendered by finishing second to Dixon instead of first.

Round 13
Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma
Sunday, 26 August 2012

Sonoma Raceway (formerly Infineon Raceway, formerly Sears Point) saw another missed opportunity for Power & Team Penske. Power was the class of the field 'til a late-race pit stop, when he exited amidst traffic that had slowed because of a yellow flag & the deployment of the safety car. Meanwhile, his Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe was racing around the circuit in clean air, gaining enough ground on Power to dive in & out of the pits just ahead of his fellow Australian. A late race spin by Hunter-Reay seemed to let Power off the hook, but for the second consecutive race Power finished second in a race he probably should have won. Twenty points that should have been his, left on the table. There was much to like about the course at Sonoma, but all things being equal I'd rather they'd been racing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, farther south in California, on the Monterey Peninsula.

Round 14
Grand Prix of Baltimore
Sunday, 2 September 2012

I make no bones about it, the Baltimore street circuit is a train wreck. There are train tracks that run across the front straight. Last year, in the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix, there was a chicane to slow the cars down over the tracks. This year, there was initially no chicane, as some surfacing had been placed over the tracks. However, in practice the cars were still going airborne because of the bump. Overnight, a chicane was installed, along with an inconsistent number of tire barriers to discourage the cars from riding too far up the curbs. Car after cars was unbalanced by the curbs & set shooting into a concrete barrier. Many drivers recovered, but three or four cars suffered virtually identical shunts. The chicane/wall combo was revamped overnight 'twixt Saturday qualifying & Sunday's race, & throughout the whole debacle the on-the-fly nature of IndyCar decision-making was evident. They seem to be making it up as they go along, instead of playing to a rulebook or established procedures. If Singapore's F1 course is everything a street circuit can & should be, Baltimore's IndyCar course is everything a street circuit should not be.

In the race, Power & Dixon were running comfortably at the front 'til they both make the absolute wrong call; both cars pitted for rain tires at almost the exact moment that the rain ceased, putting them at the disadvantage of running rain tires on a drying track & then the double disadvantage of having to pit again for slick tires. Hunter-Reay elected to stay out on slicks & profited immensely from the Penske & Ganassi teams' miscalculations. Hunter-Reay was super aggressive on several late race post-yellow flag restarts & was soon in the race lead, going on the take the victory.

Power had entered the weekend able to clinch his first IndyCar Series championship, but let it slip through his fingers. He left Baltimore with a seventeen point lead over Hunter-Reay, a lead less than half the size it would have been if he'd won at Mid-Ohio & Sonoma, instead of finishing second.

Round 15
(sponsor) 500*/IndyCar World Championships
Saturday, 15 September 2012

For the last three years, Will Power has entered the IndyCar season finale leading in the championship standings. In '10 & '11, he shunted out of the final race & finished second in the championship. His fate in '12? Exactly the same. All Power needed to do was finish ahead of Hunter-Reay, or even a few spots behind the American. Instead, while trying to pass Hunter-Reay on-track, Power spun out & dashed his car against the wall. He was not sunk at that point, as Hunter-Reay still needed to finish fifth or better, after starting twenty-second. Lap after identical lap passed as the cars endlessly circled the oval track. Cars passed each other, cars shunted out, cars ran under the yellow flag, round & round the indistinguishable "corners" of Fontana, California's Auto Club Speedway. Ryan Hunter-Reay needed to finish fifth or better to claim his first IndyCar championship—he finished fourth. Will Power was IndyCar runner-up for the third consecutive year. After fifteen races, Hunter-Reay bested Power by three points, seven less than the ten points Power would have earned by winning either Mid-Ohio or Sonoma, seventeen less than if Power had won both. My dark auguries from Mid-Ohio bore The Shadow's "bitter fruit." As a side note, the race itself was won by Ed Carpenter, owner-driver of his eponymous, Chevrolet-engined team.

The IndyCar finale as the only five hundred mile oval-track race I've watched all the way through other than the the far-famed Indy 500. Sure, there was the drama of the title fight 'twixt Hunter-Reay & Power, but other than that the racing was as dull as the annual Memorial Day snooze-fest at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The appeal of oval-track racing remains as opaque to me now as it was in the spring of '09, before Le Mans & Monaco cast their spells over me. I'll watch the IndyCar Series in '13, I'm a fan now, but I'll be sitting out the ovals that make up a third of the schedule, including Indianapolis. (I've thrice watched that race, & never once found it entertaining.)

*There is a title sponsor to almost every IndyCar race. The Mid-Ohio & Sonoma grands prix both had above-the-title sponsorship, whilst Baltimore was "presented by" a trailing sponsor. I have absolutely no problem with these sponsors, as I know motor racing is an expensive pastime & only prospers as long as enough enterprises view it as a cost-effective part of their marketing strategy. By the same token, I believe myself to be under no obligation to provide those sponsors with free promotion; thus, I habitually refer to the Izod IndyCar Series as simply the IndyCar Series, & the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio as simply the Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. In the case of the five-hundred-mile race that was the finale to this IndyCar season, it had no other name other than the sponsor & the race distance; so, I've deigned to call it the (sponsor) 500. I'll provide the sponsor with free promotion only when given no other choice, as in the case of Red Bull Racing in Formula One or Corvette Racing in the A.L.M.S.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Everybody's Better" from A Jackknife to a Swan (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"Everybody's better than I am,
I think everybody's better than me,
And everybody's swell, I guess,
They're doing well, more or less,
And everybody's better than I am…"