A Colossal Mistake

Fox News got me all excited.

But I'd made a colossal mistake.

I thought they were going to be holding a round of next year's NASCAR at The Colosseum in Rome:

The story is here.

It looks really exciting. They are laying down a temporary track like did at Wembley for the Race of Champions.

It will also be a showcase for the Next Gen NASCAR cars. Which are nowhere near as innovative as the next Gen BTCC cars.

But they seem to like them.

Now although the Colosseum is the right shape, I wondered about the size.

I was right to wonder - I'd got the wrong Colosseum - even the spelling is wrong.

It should have been the L.A. Coliseum:

Much more suitable.

And easier to get to for your average NASCAR fan.

The only NASCAR Racing that would fit comfortably into the Roman Colosseum would be this version:

And that set isn't even an oval.

Woof Rack

Some good car news and some bad car news out of The States over the last week or so.

I was in two minds about commenting on both until the above Post Title came in to my head for the second story and I just couldn't waste it.

But first, from Fox News of all places, some good news - unless you are a racist motorsports fan.

NASCAR's flag ban opens sport to diverse new crowd.  It seems that having less symbols of oppression at a sports event means that you get more people turning up.  The Confederate Flag has been banned from the circuits - the theory being that "for every fan who complained about lost heritage, someone new would discover a sport far more inclusive than initially perceived."

Turns out the theory was borne out - probably much to the annoyance of your typical Fox News viewer.  Good.

The second story, from Car+Driver, is bad news - but only if you like to let your dog ride loose in the back of your pick-up in Utah or six other US States.

In Utah, Letting Dogs Ride in Pickup Truck Bed May Be Illegal Soon.  A proposed bill, from a Democrat, "would make it illegal for people to drive faster than 40 mph with unrestrained dogs in the back of their truck. There are exceptions for working farm dogs and hunting dogs or if the sides of the bed are at least 46 inches tall."  Apparently, there have been some horrific cases of dogs falling from vehicles killing themselves and injuring other road users.

I envisage Fox News reporting on this the same way that they reported that "Barack Obama wanted to ban all guns" - when he actually was trying to make their usage safer - for example by preventing terrorists from buying them.

There is another solution:

Talladega Not As Racist Way

I was always going to do a follow-up to yesterday's post.

But it was going to be how Scalextric wouldn't be able to sell my favourite car from my childhood any more:

That is, of course, The General Lee - named after a Confederate hero and sporting a Confederate flag on the roof.

 

Not that I understood the significance of that when I was 12.

 

But they stopped selling that a few years back - now they are advertising the Pratmobile and the Reliant van from Only Fools and Horses: 

Which is all now a complete digression from the news that while some NASCAR fans are still racist, they didn't actually go as far as putting a noose in Bubba Wallace's garage.

 

Apparently, it was a door pull rope "twisted into the shape of a noose" - the new story (or noose story) is here.  It doesn't say who twisted it into the shape of a noose.  Or why.  Or when - but it was probably months ago.  I bet the pit crew team member who found it on Sunday feels a bit of a prat right now.  I wonder if he drives a green Capri.

 

Unless this whole door pull story is because someone important left the noose there?

 

No, I'm not one for conspiracy theories and neither are the FBI:

Talladega Racist Way

Speaking as a fairly ignorant white bloke, I still understand what "Black lives Matter" means.

It doesn't mean that all lives don't matter and it doesn't mean that white lives don't matter.

It means that there are still a significant number of white, lowlife scum who think that black lives don't matter.  You may have detected from my tone that I have no time for such people.  I also get irritated by people who don't understand #BLM putting up messages stating that "All Lives Matter" on their Facebook accounts not because they are particularly racist but because they don't get what #BLM is about.

I was impressed by NASCAR the other week, banning the Confederate flag from the race meetings stating it was “contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry.”

Remember that NASCAR was born out of the Southern States and Moonshine and the attitudes that prevailed down there.  A lot of the fans were not happy - as reported in this NY Times article.  And one toerag got a plane in the air with a large flag flying behind it and the caption "Defund NASCAR"

There was a similar event here last night as the footballers of Burnley FC and Manchester City took the knee to show respect and solidarity with the #BLM Movement, a small plane was heard flying overhead - it was towing a banner declaring that "White Lives Matter".  The company that owns the plane and made the banner have been identified and suspended from working at the airport they flew from and, as far as I'm concerned, can go bust but, apparently they haven't broken the law.  I suppose that saying that "White lives matter" isn't illegal - I happen to think that white lives matter too - but white lives are not under threat every day in the same way that black ones are.

They must have known, however, that they were inciting racial hatred?

Anyway, back to the States and NASCAR - the whole story took another sinister turn on Sunday, when a noose was found in the pit garage of the only African-American participant, Bubba Wallace:

The follow-up, as reported by Car+Driver is that all of NASCAR is backing him.  Good.  Although, given who had access, the guilty party could well be a member of staff at the raceway or of one of the teams.  The FBI are on the case.

Anyway, I'm with NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who simply said,

"Hope Bubba wins it tomorrow."

Abu Doubley

Bahrain don't like The Flintstones.

But Abu Dhabi do!

It's six months since I last commented on F1.  It's about two years since I gave up watching F1.

I still follow the odd F1 story though.

Today's from the BBC is about the sport's attempts to make itself more popular again.  They think that it is losing popularity because it is becoming more boring with Red Bull/Vettel winning all of the time.  A bit like the '90s when Ferrari/Schumacher were winning everything.

The FIA have come up three changes:

1. A spending cap for all teams
2. Double points for the last race of the Season (Abu Dhabi)
3. Drivers get to chose a number and stick with it for their careers

The first of these is basically a good idea although the richer teams won't like it very much.  I've always been of the opinion that if people don't like the dominance of a team - it isn't that team's fault - it is up to the other teams to improve.  However, if the other teams don't have as much money to play with, they will never improve enough.  I speak here as a fan of a Premiership football club that cannot compete financially with the likes of Manchester City or Chelsea.

The second change is the one that has really set the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons.  I love reading the readers' comments at the end of such articles and, in this case, the fans are almost unanimous in their condemnation making some very good points along the way - some teams and drivers perform better at certain tracks - Abu Dhabi is not an exciting circuit - a driver with a 49 point advantage could lose the title.

The third change seemed pointless to me until I read on and saw the commercial/marketing angle - think Nigel Mansell and "Red 5".

I think the commercial/marketing angle must also be coming into play with change 2 since Abu Dhabi is where the money is but not a lot of fan interest.

And, of course, there may be more instances of the championship going to the last race of the Season - hence less boring.

The boring-ness is only one aspect of the dwindling popularity though - another is the sport disappearing behind paywalls in more and more countries - sorry to bring back my reason for giving up on it.  Andrew Benson, the BBC Chief F1 writer, believes that the same arrogance that existed among the teams then is still there - he states,

"Inside F1 teams, though, senior figures are more phlegmatic. They are not that worried about the purists - they reckon they will watch anyway. And if this new idea, gimmicky though it is, attracts more casual fans, all the better. "

 

I have to disagree with them if they really do believe that.  They thought that about the BBC/Sky deal and seem to have been proved wrong there.

 

My favourite comments though come from someone calling himself (or herself) Abu Lincon - a play on Abe Lincoln perhaps?  First he (or she) posted,

 

"Abu has good suggestion to all F1 fans...switch over to the far superior NASCAR...better cars, faster cars, better drivers ( some women too as they are better driver than the man ) and legandary circuits like Daytona, Indianopolis and Sazuka."

 

I wondered if this was a wind-up mentioning Suzuka but apparently they have raced Nascar there.  It was a bit of harmless trolling though because it was followed with this,

 

"Abu has read your comments again and u all seem sad about rule change, so as Abu good friends with F1 supremo Christoper Ecclestone, i have text him telling him the fans are not happy and he should scrap this rule. He text back sayin "who is this?" and i txt him it his good friend Abu. He hasnt replied back so Chris is obviously thinkin things over so hopefully he change mind and Abu save the day"

I wonder if Abu is British given his mis-spelling of Lincoln and his reference to Christopher Eccleston.

 










Anyway, I know who I'd rather have running F1.

And his name isn't Bernie.

A Kind-Hearted Traffic Warden

That can't be right!

But it is. He took pity on a Falcon.No, not a Ford Falcon - the bird of prey type of falcon. He rescued it on New Year's Day in Birkenhead when it was knackered after being blown about in the gales. The story is covered here on the Liverpool Echo site with a nice comment added by a reader at the end. Being Birkenhead, it could be the same git who booked my wife a few years back when she was three minutes late getting back to her car with a load of shopping and two bickering children. I appealed against a £60 fine for three minutes but the Council weren't interested - and they wonder why traffic wardens need stories like this to try and boost their image. Here is the bird-loving one, his name is Lee Gallagher and he is releasing the bird back into the grey skies at Hamilton Square:
The BBC also had that story, but since I posted last month about how I am finished with the BBC - I can't really link to them now, can I?

Then, on Monday, I finally picked up the new copy of Top Gear Magazine which was delivered last week but I haven't had chance to look at, what with Christmas and everything, and I saw that the new series of Top Gear TV starts on January 29th. Yippee! Well, maybe not "yippee", maybe more "I'll quite look forward to that"

The Christmas special didn't grab me the way Top Gear usually does and I'm finding I'm enjoying Fifth Gear a lot more than TG nowadays - is my disillusionment with Auntie Beeb affecting my motoring televisual enjoyment - or am I just getting bored with TG? I don't know - I'll let you know after the new series.

Then, yesterday, I got my annual letter from Richard & James extolling to me the virtues of subscribing to my next year with Top Gear Magazine - they really ought to change that letter - it's getting very stale. Anyway, could this be a good chance to show my displeasure with The Beeb?

Damn it, I still really enjoy the magazine and I pay for it with Tesco Clubcard Reward tokens so they'll not be making much out of that so a new subscription it is.

I've given up on their blogs though now - I've found like-minded people (and so far no trolls) on Facebook which leads me, rather neatly, to the fact I've joined Facebook!

I've set up a Metro's Car Blog page but I'll just monitor how that goes along and see whether or not it's worth keeping it going. I've put my two favoutite pictures of Vicki Butler-Henderson on there for starters.

And, while we're on the subject of social networking, I think I finally understand why anyone who isn't Stephen Fry might want to Tweet on Twitter. "Friends" are actually interested and comment when you add stuff to your Facebook wall so it's the same logic. I've not played with Twitter yet - maybe a job for next New-Years but someone who does is NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne.

I'll leave you with this story from last week from Autoguide.com