Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Brits Love the Rain

Hamiltonmania aside, the most hair-raising part of this past weekend's rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji was the last lap's pants-off dance off, where Ferrari's Felipe Massa claimed bigger balls status against BMW's Robert Kubica. (See Massa's in-car view of the action.) You don't have to be a fan of motorsport to enjoy the duel, even if it was only for sixth place.

Re: Hamiltonmania - If everything goes well, it looks as though rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton is about to enter the record books:

"Hamilton has matched or set the following records in Formula One:

* Most consecutive podiums from debut race: 9 (previous record was 2)
* Most consecutive podiums for a British driver: 9 (tied with Jim Clark)
* Youngest driver to lead the World Championship.
* Most wins in a debut season: 4 (equalling Jacques Villeneuve's record from 1996)

Hamilton is the first black driver to compete in Formula One (although Willy T. Ribbs tested an F1 car in 1986) and the first black driver to win a major race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in any discipline. In addition, he is the third youngest driver to achieve an F1 pole position, and the fourteenth F1 driver to achieve a podium finish on his debut."
[source: Wikipedia]

While we're on the topic of black race car drivers, a few years ago I picked up one of those free automotive weeklies aimed at an African-American audience (kinda like the BET car commercials featuring smooth jazz and people with big hair driving to the poetry club). The "special advertising insert" highlighted in words and photos a number of African-American drivers from the 1920s and 30s. There was even a book published on the subject, For Gold and Glory: Charlie Wiggins and the African-American Racing Car Circuit by Todd Gould, and a PBS documentary. These days you don't see too many black folks driving race cars, so the fact one is excelling in the world's preeminent (and most ecologically-minded) series is an important one.

As my girlfriend might say, "Gettit, rookie sensation."

[Image: itv.com]

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK two things:

firstly, you killed it with the big haired poetry ppl.

and secondly, gettit lewis!

ha.

7:51 PM  
Blogger Cherra said...

I'm a fan of Formula One racing. Danica Patrick is a little disappointing lately, so I'm very excited about the happenings with Hamilton. The one good thing about being back in the 'burg is being in close proximity to Richmond International Raceway...and Skip Barber racing school. If I can manage to scrounge up the cash on a teacher's salary, I'm going.

4:09 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

The internet is too small. I was reading another blog about bike riding and thought...wow this can't be the same E I know making this comment. Indeed it is.

10:38 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home