Operation ÖSTERREICH
I set a new personal best today, a minute & fourteen seconds faster than yesterday's record pace, & a full two minutes faster than the previous course record. In my youth I was a swimmer, in my dotage I am a Formula One fan; both are sports in which the margin by which victory & defeat are determined is oft measured in fractions of a second. I think it not immodest to say that two minutes over the course of two & a half miles is a significant improvement. Today's daily constitutional was comprised of three distinct locomotive styles: walking, jogging, & a walking-jogging hybrid that was new to me & initially unintentional. From the first, I knew that I was flying, but I'd gone about half a block before I was consciously aware of the manner in which my body was moving, the aforementioned hybrid. That continued for two blocks before I resumed my more normal walk, but this soon gave way to a genuine jog. 'Twas a place on the route where I'd never before jogged. I thereafter alternated 'twixt walking & the hybrid, 'til I reached the spot on the return leg where I'd previously jogged; I broke into a full jog & continued farther than I'd ever jogged in the history of the daily constitutional. I did not jog again after that (relative) sprint, but alternated between walking & the hybrid. Toward the end of the course I could feel the fatigue in my legs. I time the daily constitutional but I don't take splits, so I cannot say how that final leg compared to a formal final leg, but it felt slow. The real test will come tomorrow. Will I awake stiff & sore? Will I have the vim to set a time anywhere in the ballpark of today's record? Only the fullness of time shall tell the tale, but for today, that was a heck of a time.

This Week in Motorsport
Formula Fun!
Formula One World Championship
Round 16
Grand Prix of Korea
Sunday, 14 October 2012

Red Bull's back, baby! On Sunday, reigning double World Champion Sebastian Vettel ('10 & '11) of Red Bull (Renault) won his third consecutive grand prix, becoming the first driver to win four grands prix on the year & three grand prix in a row, & passing double World Champion Fernando Alonso ('05 & '06) of Ferrari to take the lead in the Drivers' Championship. 'Twas Vettel's second consecutive victory at the Korea International Circuit. Adding to the good news, Mark Webber of Red Bull finished second & both McLarens (Mercedes) had a rotten day ('08 World Champion Lewis Hamilton finished tenth, '09 World Champion Jenson Button did not finish, crashing out on lap one), increasing Red Bull's lead atop the Constructors' Championship standings. In fact, Ferrari passed McLaren into second place. For the second consecutive race, Red Bull locked out the front row, though in the reverse order from Japan: Webber on the pole & Vettel starting second. Everything's coming up Red Bull!

The Ferraris of Alonso & Felipe Massa finished third & fourth, a fine result for the Scuderia that would leave me scowling but for one thing. Massa was clearly faster than Alonso, who entered the grand prix leading the Drivers' standings, but the Ferrari brain trust sitting on the pit wall radioed Massa to forbid him from passing Alonso. Massa had the speed potentially to chase down Webber for second place, but Ferrari ordered him to stay behind the slower Alonso. As if that wasn't enough, they even radioed Massa to back off & give Alonso more room; I howled with glee at those radio calls, mocking Alonso as the "delicate genius" (thank you, George Costanza) who mustn't be disturbed. Bwa ha ha ha ha! It was so grand to see Ferrari's true colors, & I'm not talking about rosso corsa, Italian racing red. Man alive, I hate Ferrari! Even though they finished third & fourth in the Korean Grand Prix, Sunday was still a great day to hate Ferrari.

Next: the Indian Grand Prix on the last weekend of October.

Beyond Thunderdome
International V8 Supercars Championship
Round 21
Bathurst 1,000
Sunday, 7 October 2012

Holy smokes! Bathurst is quintessentially Australian madness, a thousand kilometer endurance race around an incredibly fast, incredibly narrow, incredibly steep course originally built as a scenic drive (& thus the circuit's name, Mount Panorama). Australia's great race was broadcast in an edited form, with the race call by the usual crew from Australia's Seven Network; though I greatly enjoyed last year's live broadcast of the whole of the Bathurst 1,000, there's no denying that the call by the Aussies was better than last year's call by a pair of Speed's good ole boy N.A.S.C.A.R. commentators. The Australians know their sport backwards & forwards, & understand the challenges of a road course better than their oval-obsessed American counterparts. I could watch a race like the Bathurst 1,000 every weekend, a race so fast, a circuit so perilous, a finish so close. One need only watch the great race once to understand why Bathurst is the crown jewel of the V8 Supercars calendar.

Next: a pair of races from the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, in metropolitan Gold Coast. The wrinkle is that each car must not only be shared 'twixt two drivers (the same as at Bathurst & Sandown, which along with Gold Coast make up the V8 Supercars "season of endurance"), but the drivers must be "international." Australians are allowed to compete as second drivers, but only if they normally race outside of Australia. Because the race falls on the same weekend—this coming weekend—as the American Le Mans Series season finale, the Petit Le Mans, many sports car racing drivers who would normally compete are unavailable; so, a sizable contingent of IndyCar competitors will swell the ranks of the internationals. (A smaller band of IndyCar pilots will be at the Petit Le Mans, where three drivers are necessary instead of the usual two.)

Rally Monkey
Ford have announced that their factory effort is kaputt at the end o' this season. Ford will still be supporting customer teams, the Fiesta being the most numerous car in the W.R.C., but the works effort is no more. Fear not, this will not leave Citroën as the only full-season works team (B.M.W. Minis runs only as privateers), as Volkswagen was already gearing up for a full-season W.R.C. campaign in '13. Against Mikko Hirvonen & his yet-to-be-announced Citroën teammate, V.W.'s driving duo will be Sébastien Ogier, who spent '11 at Citroën as the bane of seven time World Champion Sébastien Loeb's existence (dual & dueling Sébastiens!), & Ford's "Flying Finn" Jari-Matti Latvala. Where does this leave Latvala's Ford teammate '03 World Champion Petter Solberg? Probably back in the privateer ranks. I certainly hope he doesn't retire. There is talk of Hyundai entering the W.R.C., but Hyundai is something of a windbag, & I won't believe 'til I see it. I'd be happy to have them in the W.R.C.—the more the merrier, I say—but they have a track record of not following through on grandiose announcements.

The next rally is already underway on Sardinia. Qualifying was held today & the drive in anger starts tomorrow.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
They Might Be Giants, "She's an Angel" (live) from Severe Tire Damage (T.L.A.M.)