The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XIV

Potshot, "Hitotsu" from 'Til I Die (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey-san)

Skammentary: This weekend sees the running of the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix, traditionally held in the autumn, at mighty Suzuka, the second best racing circuit in all the world. What better time for the occasional "Little Tokyo" subset of SKApril?

As usual, Potshot sing in Japanese; so, also as usual, I have little to no idea what the subject matter of "Hitotsu" actually is, but I do so enjoy their blaring horns & driving rhythms!

24 Heures du Mans | 12:34:00

Tempus fugit! I am always astonished at how the time flies by as we approach half race distance.

Hypercar
The Toyotas continue to lead, the № 7 consistently ahead of the № 8, but the № 36 Alpine & the № 708 Glickenhaus continue to hang on, just a few laps down. The Toyotas remind me of a racing quotation to whom I forget should be attributed, possibly Sir Jackie Stewart: "The objective is to win the race going as slowly as possible." The GR010s are the quickest cars on the circuit, but my sense is that if they were being pressured from behind, they could be quicker yet. There's still more than twelve hours of racing ahead, & nothing has yet been won, but this experience should stand Toyota in good stead when Peugeot's & Ferrari's Hypercar competitors arive in 2022 & 2023.

Prototype 2
The two Team W.R.T. Orecas, № 31 & № 41, are currently leading the hyper-competitive P.2 class. Of the twenty-four P.2 entrants, twenty-three are Orecas (the other is a Ligier); so, the W.R.T.'s are bettering competitors driving equal machinery. I know W.R.T. from successfully running fleets of Audi R8s in G.T.3 racing. I'm glad for them that they are having such success on stepping up into the prototype ranks, with of course the caveat that nothing has yet been decided & no points are awarded for running half the race distance.

Grand Touring Endurance Professional
The № 63 Corvette C8.R is dueling alternately with the two A.F. Corsa Ferrari 488 G.T.E. Evos, № 51 & № 52, with the № 91 Porsche 911 R.S.R.-19 not too far behind. G.T.E. Pro. is always close, & this year is no exception. Apparently, the F.I.A. & A.C.O. are doing away with the G.T.E. class effective 2023. This is a terrible, terrible mistake.

Grand Touring Endurance Amateur
I'm glad to see several Aston Martin Vantage A.M.R.s still running. Ferrari versus Porsche is the beating heart of G.T. racing, & Ferrari 488s & Porsche 911s make up eighty per cent (80%) of the G.T.E. Am. field, but no other car on the grid is as beautiful as the Aston Martins. The Aston Martin Vantage A.M.R. is exactly how a race car is supposed to look, especially when not in the sickly yellow-green the Aston Martin factory team ran when they were in G.T.E. Pro.

Aston Martin are now running a team in Formula One (the rebranded Racing Point/Force India team). I wouldn't care about this at all, except that move by the new owners of Aston Martin also resulted in the closure of the G.T. factory team & the cancellation of the Aston Martin Hypercar. The more time goes by, the more I am coming to despise F1. Locusts!

Bonus! Song o' Today

David Parry & the London Philharmonic Orchestra, "Ride of the Valkyries (from Die Walküre)" from The 50 Most Essential Pieces of Classical Music

Commentary: For the 2020-2021 season of the World Endurance Championship (W.E.C.), the existing Le Mans Prototype 1 (L.M.P.1) regulations will be replaced with the new specification called "Hypercar." Hypercars may be based on road-going hypercars (because "supercars" have become so proletarian) or purpose-build prototypes. So far, four marques have confirmed their intention to compete in Hypercar: Toyota, Aston Martin, boutique manufacturer Glickenhaus, & privater team ByKolles. Toyota are building a prototype based on their G.R. Super Sport Concept (Wikipedia-link); Aston Martin are adapting their road-going Valkyrie (Wikipedia-link), developed in partnership with the Red Bull Racing Formula One team. This past weekend, during the British Grand Prix weekend at the Silverstone Circuit, the Valkyrie turned its first public laps (see: the above photograph).

I will miss the thrillingly, absurdly fast L.M.P.1s, but freely acknowledge that their exorbitant cost has served as a deterrent to manufacturers, at least since the diesel emissions scandal demonstrated that the entire Volkswagen Group is a giant criminal conspiracy & Volkswagen marques Audi & Porsche both withdrew from the W.E.C. (only from L.M.P.1 in the case of Porsche, who still compete in the G.T.E. class) to burnish their environmental credentials in the all-electric Formula E series. Here's hoping Hypercar will both provide thrilling racing & attract a plethora of competitors, all vying or the glory of overall victory in the "Grand Prix of Endurance & Efficiency," the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Le Mans! Le Mans! Le Mans!