1000 Not Out!

This is my 1000th Blog Post!

Number 1 was a bit serious - I hadn't got into my stride of  commenting on car news items at that point.

And I was right. 

That was November 2009 by the way - when the World was a better place but we didn't know it.

In fact, it wasn't until 2021 that the end of the World was announced.

By me.

And it was 2018 when I foresaw the end of Top Gear.  I may not have said it, but I definitely foresaw it.

Number 999, just last week, was an amusing electric Bentley story.

So, what have I got for today's Number 1000 story?

An amusing story about a Yorkshire cyclist who decided that a car had passed him too closely so sent footage of it to the Police.

That footage also showed the cyclist squeezing his bike through this gap:

(The car on the left is parked)

The BBC story is here together with the video. There is no news of the car driver that he reported.  But there is news that the cyclist ending up with over £1200 in fines for riding without due care and attention.

I have a vision of the police officer watching the footage then spotting this.

Poetic.

Women Drivers, Eh?

Here are some:

The one on the left has just been given a new job.  She is going to be a test-driver for the Sauber F1 Team.

 

The one in the middle is rallying legend Michele Mouton.

 

The one on the right has recently criticised the one below.

But then again, I sort of did too - in 2015.  And so has Jensen Button now.

 

The recent criticism is about her ("her" being Carmen Jorda) claiming that a "physical issue" was the barrier preventing women from competing in Formula 1 or Formula 2.  Susie Wolff, the third woman in the top photo responded with a tweet pointing out that motorsport doesn't care about gender.

 

Susie Wolff became the first woman in 22 years to take part in a Formula 1 race weekend in 2014 - and is married to the team boss.

 

I'm not too sure that motorsport doesn't care about gender - especially given by the responses to her tweet and the fact that it has taken until 2018 to sort out the grid-girl situation.

 

However, if you want to see a really tough woman driver, please watch the video in this story. 

Her name is Charmaine Laurie.  I was very impressed when I first saw the footage which was before it had been identified that it was a woman driver.

After I knew it was a woman driver though, I was impressed at exactly the same level.

Musical Cars

I often see this car on the M53 Motorway on my journey to work:

Well, maybe not that actual car - because the one I see has number plates and (I hope) is road-legal and it isn't being driven by Andrew Jordan.  But it does look the same - including the full livery, the Jordan stickers and the roll-cage.

I guess it has something to do with Pirtek, the main sponsor, having a site at Ellesmere Port - a place that, if you pronounce it with the right accent, may sound like a beach resort somewhere exotic (like Jordan for example) but, in fact, isn't.

Anyway, Andrew is in the news today - BTCC News that is.

He has switched team.

Again.

I first noticed him in 2011, when he was in his very early twenties and having his first taste of success.

Since then, he won the whole British Touring Car Championship in 2013 - which is why the car above is carrying the Number 1.

He wasn't as successful in 2014 so, for 2015, he switched to the cars run by Triple Eight Racing who had previously had great success with Vauxhalls but were then running MGs without much success.

So, in 2016 he switched team - just as the MGs improved.  He was now with Motorbase as Mat Jackson's team-mate in Ford Focus STs.  I add the "ST" to avoid having to use the plural of "Focus".  He finished eighth overall (in a tightly contested contest) and won the Independent Drivers Title so was in a strong car that he had got more and more used to during the year.

So now he's moving to West Surrey Racing and their BMWs.

I refer you back to my first ever post on this Blog.