This Week in Motorsport
Rally Monkey
World Rally Championship
Round 12
Rally Italia Sardegna
Thursday-Sunday, 18-21 October 2012

On Sardinia (Sardegna), "carnage" was the word used for the rash of shunts that thinned the ranks of the works drivers, clearing the field for the privateers to come almost to the fore. Nine-time World Champion Sébastien Loeb ('04-'12) of Citroën, '03 World Champion Petter Solberg of Ford, Jari-Matti Latvala of Ford, & Thierry Neuville of Citroën Junior all crashed out on Friday morning. Unique in my W.R.C. experience, Solberg, Latvala, & Neuville all returned to the rally on Saturday, only Loeb, having already secured this year's title, electing not to resume. I surmise that others drivers I have seen crash out of past rallies have also resumed on later days, but that these returns did not elicit the same commentary as they were not by habitual frontrunners. Interesting, Solberg, Latvala, & Neuville went on to claim first, second, & third places in the rally-ending "Power Stage," though they were long out of contention for the overall rally victory. That honor went to Loeb's team Mikko Hirvonen, for the Finn's first rally win in for Citroën. Ford privateers Evgeny Novikov, Ott Tänak, & Mads Østberg finish second, third, & fourth behind Hirvonen.

The drive of the rally belonged to Sébastien Ogier, who finished fifth overall & won a stage in an S2000-spec Škoda. S2000 cars are much like W.R.C. cars, but with non-turbocharged engines & inferior aerodynamics; all other things being equal, an S2000 car shouldn't be much of a match for a W.R.C. car. Admittedly, Ogier's Škoda profited from Citroën's & Ford's difficulties, but the stage win was won over the remaining Citroëns & Fords, no slouches them. If that's what Ogier can do in an S2000 Škoda, what will he be able to do next year in the brand-new Volkswagen W.R.C. car? Whoever partners Hirvonen at Citroën, & however many Ford privateers run, they might be in for a real fight from V.W.

I find myself curiously excited about Volkswagen's entry into the W.R.C. I am without a team for which to root, similar to my first year of watching F1; under no circumstances will I ever root for a Ford—he spat the word out as if it were an obscenity—, but rooting for Citroën seems too easy. Mini runs only a part-time program. Yet how could I root for Volkswagen? In the next paragraph I'm going to take a cheap shot at V.W.'s origins in the Third Reich. On the other hand, I am an admirer of Audi's commitment to & success at Le Mans, & Audi, like Volkswagen & Škoda, is but a small cog in the much larger V.W. Group machine. But I can't root for Volkswagen, can I? Not Volkswagen!



As with Formula One, I love the international character of the World Rally Championship. Of the drivers mentioned today, the Sébastiens, Loeb & Ogier, are French; Solberg & Østberg are Norwegian; Hirvonen & Latvala are Finnish; Neuville is Belgian; Novikov is Russian; & Tänak is Estonian. (Rallying is virtually the national sport in Scandinavia & in the neighboring northern Baltic.) As for the teams, Citroën is French through & through, both the works & the privateer Fords are prepared & run by the British motorsports team M-Sport, & the Minis are prepped by another British firm, Prodrive. Will Volkswagen be as German as the Volk or will they borrow the presumably Czech expertise of stablemates Škoda?

Semi-Pro
Mazda MX-5 Cup

My father is a fanatic. His interest waxes & wanes, never staying for too long on any one thing (except his central, horrifying beliefs, but that's a discussion-cum-lament for another time), but while it lasts he voraciously consumes whatever it is that has struck his fancy. Since July or August, he's been a fan of motorsport for the first time since the early 1970s. With the A.L.M.S., IndyCar, Grand-Am, & World Challenge seasons concluded for the year, he's casting about desperately for something else to fill that void. In using his D.V.R. to search the television listings, he's discovered a program called the Mazda Motorsports Hour, which features coverage of three series, the U.S.F.2000 series, the Star Mazda series (the first two rungs on the "Road to Indy" development ladder), & the MX-5 (Miata) Cup. We've watched MX-5 Cup races from Sebring & Laguna Seca (technically, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca), both as support races for the American Le Mans Series. We did not see the Miatas at Mid-Ohio, possibly because it was a shared weekend between the A.L.M.S. & the IndyCar Series. The races are O.K., but a poor substitute for the summer's plethora of offerings. I've nothing against development series; beyond recognizing their necessity in training up the next generation of top-flight drivers, they are often fun to watch in & of themselves & it is gratifying to see a driver progress from junior formulae to the show. That said, given my druthers I'd prefer to watch the big boys.

The worst part of the MX-5 Cup is the title sponsor: Playboy magazine. The Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup. A smut peddler's money spends like anyone else's ("all debts, public & private"), but he's still a smut peddler. I'd be uncomfortable racing a car with "Playboy" & a pair of the bunny logos splashed across the top of the windshield. Arguably, I should be uncomfortable watching cars so festooned, & if I have the courage of my convictions, shouldn't I stop watching the MX-5 Cup?

The Queue
The Master Mind of Mars suffered from two basic problems, one, its brevity (one hundred sixty pages in a large font, compared to The Chessmen of Mars at two hundred twenty pages in a smaller font), & two, the anonymous nature of its protagonist, Ulysses Paxton. "Vad Varo," Paxton's Martian name, isn't a bad character, but too little is done to distinguish him from fellow Earthman John Carter or Martians on similar quests, like Carthoris of Helium & Gahan of Gathol. There were times when the plot of Master Mind felt a little too familiar (the damsel in distress, the evil jeddak, the superstitious religion), but I've decided that this is an example of not fixing what isn't broken; sure, the Barsoom stories follow a definite formula, but it's a winning formula. Still, I'd like to see John Carter, the Warlord of Barsoom, & his incomparable Dejah Thoris return to the fore.

There has been, despite assurances to the contrary, a slight reshuffling of the queue. The time has finally come to read Leviathan, in part because I am infuriated by the misuse of the adjective "Hobbesian" in contemporary American politics.

Recently
Bob Haney, Ramona Fradon, & Sal Trapani, et al., Showcase Presents: Metamorpho, Vol. 1
Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Chessmen of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Master Mind of Mars

Currently
Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Fighting Man of Mars

Presently
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan; or, The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiastical & Civil
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Swords of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Synthetic Men of Mars
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Llana of Gathol
Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, The Arabian Nights (specifically, "Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves")

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Rob Carriker, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" from Over There!: Songs from America's Wars (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: The R.B.D.S.O.T.D. was to have been "What the Hell (acoustic)," the third version of that song from the album Goodbye Lullaby, but "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" received the nod after a dream this morning, the principal event of which was a rousing group rendition of the song. The Carriker version received the nod for its classic & earnest tone. (There are five renditions of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" in my music library.)

Tomorrow, the R.B.D.S.O.T.D. starts to celebrate Hallowe'en!