Grid Lock

This post title is cleverer than it seems.

You see this is a racing grid...

...with a huge amount of cars.

But that is the end of the story.  We need to be at the start of the story - after all, the Grid lines up at the start.

It all starts in 2018 when, as Touring Car Times tells us, UK motor racing circuit Rockingham, got dropped from the 2019 BTCC Race Calendar.  They cited the possible impending sale of the venue preventing  organisers from being able to confirm a meeting that year.  Shame.  Rockingham was intrinsically different to all of the other other BTCC Circuits in that it is built as an American-style banked oval with added in twisty bits to keep the UK punters happy.

It was different - which made it interesting.

We've not had banked curves in this country since Brooklands closed - unless you count Scalextric.

Anyway, thinks me, I'm sure the new owners will get it back on the calendar the following year.  And then I thought no more about it.

Until I read this BBC story this evening.  At which point I learned that in November of 2018 it held its final race and the following January it was announced that the Grandstands would be demolished.

It is now the home of Rockingham Logistics Hub (the eagerly anticipated new owners) and is now apparently "the UK's new centre for automotive logistics".  Not overly sure what that means but they are storing thousands of unwanted used vehicles there - including lots of ex-rental vehicles and lease cars.

Mind you, depending on how you crop your picture, it didn't look that different in 2015:

Dirty Air

A very interesting article about something I'm not interested in.

ie F1.

I found it today linked from the BBC News site.

It looks at the science behind making overtaking more possible and therefore the racing more exciting by the 2021 Season.

It makes a lot of sense. Although making the cars squarer would have the same result:

The BTCC is much more exciting.

 

But it doesn't matter how exciting the F1 Racing becomes - I'll still not be watching.

 

It isn't very accessible.  It is too expensive to visit actual races.  It was taken off free-to-view TV in the UK and in many other countries.

 

Basically, they don't care about the fans.

 

Unless you count the ones in the wind-tunnels.

Flint-Off The Road

This is the sixth post on the row with "accident" in the labels - although two of them were the same accident.

The new series of Top Gear starts on Sunday - the last with the good presenters.

None of them would have mangled a market stall in Mansfield.

Sporty Spice

Walk-on girls in Darts are a bad thing.  They are a sexist anachronism.

Here is a nice picture of some:

Interesting camera-angle.

 

The BBC use this picture to show how awful this practice is.

 

And now I've done it too.

 

The BBC story about the Professional Darts Corporation ending the practice of pretty ladies escorting players up to the oche is here.

 

Given events over the last few months, notably the Presidents Club outrage, some broadcasters are getting nervous - probably quite rightly -  so this is a good move considering we are nearly a fifth of the way into the 21st Century.

 

The article also suggests that other sports such as boxing and motor-racing should follow suit.

 

I have touched on the subject of motorsport using attractive women, including grid-girls, myself - here three years ago.  I have no issue with using pretty people to mark out where drivers have to line up at the start of a race - but, as I said in that article, it would be better for ALL spectators if some of those people happened to be of the male gender.  formula 1 obviously took note of my post because this happened at the Monaco Grand Prix that year.

Looks like the drivers weren't that impressed but tough.  Times they are a changing, even Jeremy, James and Richard are enthusing about their latest recruit:

Robot Cars/Car Wars/Robocar - take your pick.

Most of the motoring media has picked up on this story this week - but my favourite take on it is from Caradvice.com.au - although this picture has a lot to do with that:

C3PO looks terrified!

Forumla e is getting a support race.

And, being formula e, it's no ordinary support race - the cars will still be electric (of course) but they will also be missing drivers.  It is a race for autonomous cars.

The cars will be (hardware speaking) identical - which I think is a bit of a missed opportunity - but they can worry about that in the future.  The only difference will be the AI software - I'm wondering if that will mean that each race will pan out in the same way but I'm intrigued enough to want to know more.

Not worrying about driver-safety (or driver existence) will impact on the car design but hopefully crowd safety will still play a part.  Remote cut-out switches perhaps?

Post-race interviews will be held with software geeks but, speaking as a software geek, I don't mind that.

In fact, I look forward to getting a phone call from Nicole Scherzinger.