Of Sails and Asphalt
So as you can tell…
Dale Jr. did not have a good day yesterday. Getting caught up in some hard racing didn’t add to the fact that he had lost his first two gears on the first lap of the race (and on a raod course, that matters), but he wasn’t alone. Transmission problems abounded at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma yesterday. Calling into question, yet again, this new “gear rule”. Even the winner of the race Tony Stewart (NOT A ROUSH OR HENDRICKS DRIVER, THANK YOU GAWD!) ended the race taking the corners one handed because he had to keep the gear shift jammed into place (and making a sweet pass on Ricky Rudd as well.)
Just what was so bad about engines pumping out 9,000+ rpms, anyway?
Elliott did his usual pattern of fade and gain, dropping as low as 40th at the start of the race to come all the way back to 6th place finish (right behind his team mate and mentor Dale Jarrett), consistency maintaining his 3rd place in the standings. I’m not sure what troubles dropped Mark Martin out of the top ten to finish 15th, but he’s still securely in the top ten.
Best moment of the race: P.J. Jones doing a spin out on Carl Edward’s hood.
And who said road course races were boring?
Kip on Speed.
My Robbie Gordon fan friend invited me to a gathering at a Pizza joint with her pals to watch the race. As Robbie is an open-wheeler and started out in NASCAR as a “road course ringer” (a driver brought in specifically for the two road courses on the tack: Infineon and Watkins Glen), the RG fan base gets excited when it’s time for Robbie to...well, not go back to his roots, but do something he is quite good at. Though, mind, it’s a very cynical fandom at this stage in the game. “Oh yeah, he’ll do well, if he can finish….” I suppose being with a bunch of Robbie Gordon fans, it did give me some perspective on the season as a Dale Jr. fan. Hopes were running pretty high at the beginning and at the end of the race, but his fuel ran out just before the finish line to drop him from 12th to 16th place.
After that, a small group of us decided to go Go-Karting at Dromo One in Orange County. It was the first time I have ever tried it, but that was a hell of a lot of fun! Thank Gawd it’s all the way down in behind the Orange Curtin or they would be taking a hell of a lot of my money. Those little 9hp engines get the kart up to 40 mph easy, and the track had a lot of straight-aways that really taught a newbie like me how to take a turn. I’ve got nothing to brag about, I finished next to last in my first heat and *ahem* the second kart I got “was just evil” (I so feel like a driver now. *chuckle*) and was loose as hell coming out of the turns, so I finished last. Man, I was getting pissed, which also taught me how you cannot get too pissed at high speeds and retain control.
I’m usually fairly laid back person, go with the flow, but I can get very competitive when challenged. >:)
Afterwards we went for margaritas and Mexican food and I chatted with and learned a bit from one of the RG fans who races his own trophy trucks as well a teaching at a racing school. (Late apexes, I understand, are the thing.) He made the observation that racing karts if actually harder for him than racing a full size car because it was much more technical. “If I screw up going into a turn, I have 500 hp that I can power out with but with karts you have to hit your marks exactly.”
Sailing actually has a similar “fudge factor” with larger size. Small boats, the little 9 to 14 footers you see along shore and on lakes, etc., are much more subject to wind and current, meaning you really have to be on top of what is happening and know how to adapt to it or *kersploosh*, you’re trying to keep your mast from sticking in the mud on the bottom of the bay. With a larger boat, it more stable and not as subject to the environment, so you have more of a fudge factor. That why Olympic sail competitions are on the smaller classes of boats. It’s actually a more honest display of who is the better sailor.
(Though, with larger boats/ships you have navigation challenges that you wouldn’t in smaller craft.)
I guess Go-Karts are the same way, demanding more precise control to get that little, easily spun 250 lb Kart around a tight track.
KEEEWL!
Dale Jr. did not have a good day yesterday. Getting caught up in some hard racing didn’t add to the fact that he had lost his first two gears on the first lap of the race (and on a raod course, that matters), but he wasn’t alone. Transmission problems abounded at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma yesterday. Calling into question, yet again, this new “gear rule”. Even the winner of the race Tony Stewart (NOT A ROUSH OR HENDRICKS DRIVER, THANK YOU GAWD!) ended the race taking the corners one handed because he had to keep the gear shift jammed into place (and making a sweet pass on Ricky Rudd as well.)
Just what was so bad about engines pumping out 9,000+ rpms, anyway?
Elliott did his usual pattern of fade and gain, dropping as low as 40th at the start of the race to come all the way back to 6th place finish (right behind his team mate and mentor Dale Jarrett), consistency maintaining his 3rd place in the standings. I’m not sure what troubles dropped Mark Martin out of the top ten to finish 15th, but he’s still securely in the top ten.
Best moment of the race: P.J. Jones doing a spin out on Carl Edward’s hood.
And who said road course races were boring?
Kip on Speed.
My Robbie Gordon fan friend invited me to a gathering at a Pizza joint with her pals to watch the race. As Robbie is an open-wheeler and started out in NASCAR as a “road course ringer” (a driver brought in specifically for the two road courses on the tack: Infineon and Watkins Glen), the RG fan base gets excited when it’s time for Robbie to...well, not go back to his roots, but do something he is quite good at. Though, mind, it’s a very cynical fandom at this stage in the game. “Oh yeah, he’ll do well, if he can finish….” I suppose being with a bunch of Robbie Gordon fans, it did give me some perspective on the season as a Dale Jr. fan. Hopes were running pretty high at the beginning and at the end of the race, but his fuel ran out just before the finish line to drop him from 12th to 16th place.
After that, a small group of us decided to go Go-Karting at Dromo One in Orange County. It was the first time I have ever tried it, but that was a hell of a lot of fun! Thank Gawd it’s all the way down in behind the Orange Curtin or they would be taking a hell of a lot of my money. Those little 9hp engines get the kart up to 40 mph easy, and the track had a lot of straight-aways that really taught a newbie like me how to take a turn. I’ve got nothing to brag about, I finished next to last in my first heat and *ahem* the second kart I got “was just evil” (I so feel like a driver now. *chuckle*) and was loose as hell coming out of the turns, so I finished last. Man, I was getting pissed, which also taught me how you cannot get too pissed at high speeds and retain control.
I’m usually fairly laid back person, go with the flow, but I can get very competitive when challenged. >:)
Afterwards we went for margaritas and Mexican food and I chatted with and learned a bit from one of the RG fans who races his own trophy trucks as well a teaching at a racing school. (Late apexes, I understand, are the thing.) He made the observation that racing karts if actually harder for him than racing a full size car because it was much more technical. “If I screw up going into a turn, I have 500 hp that I can power out with but with karts you have to hit your marks exactly.”
Sailing actually has a similar “fudge factor” with larger size. Small boats, the little 9 to 14 footers you see along shore and on lakes, etc., are much more subject to wind and current, meaning you really have to be on top of what is happening and know how to adapt to it or *kersploosh*, you’re trying to keep your mast from sticking in the mud on the bottom of the bay. With a larger boat, it more stable and not as subject to the environment, so you have more of a fudge factor. That why Olympic sail competitions are on the smaller classes of boats. It’s actually a more honest display of who is the better sailor.
(Though, with larger boats/ships you have navigation challenges that you wouldn’t in smaller craft.)
I guess Go-Karts are the same way, demanding more precise control to get that little, easily spun 250 lb Kart around a tight track.
KEEEWL!
posted by KiplingKat | 1:25 PM
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