Welcome to Snetterton, Norfolk, England for the Rebecca Adlington 350.
Snetterton's current layout (picture:wikipedia)
It’s about 80 miles north of London, and about 30 miles north of where I grew up, making it pretty much my local track. While several times a year me and my dad (and occasionally my sister when my mum wanted a peaceful day) would head out to race weekends at a bunch of tracks, aside from Snetterton, mostly Silverstone and Brands Hatch, but for some reason it’s Snetterton I have the fondest memories of. Crowding around Touring Car drivers in the pit lane to fight for their autograph, making the walk across the infield from the Esses to Russell chicane between races, watching what I can only remember as a gravel trap set bout of light fisticuffs after a coming together at Russell, and a memorable time when the track’s own commentator broadcast the sound of himself eating a lump of cheese over the PA system. Note: this is not a sound that should ever be heard over PA systems.
To me it’s racing as it should be. You’re not tied to one grandstand, you can migrate between sections as you wish, crossing the car-park-come-paddock field in the middle. At least in the old days teams used to set up in the middle of the field, allowing fans to get up close to the very cars they will see going at 100-odd mph minutes later.
I started going in the late 80’s but it’s history goes back a lot further than that. Snetterton started life as RAF Snetterton Heath, where from 1943-1945 it was home to one the dozens of American 8th Air Force groups that were based in the region, the 96th Bomb Group (Heavy).
Snetterton's previous American tenants (picture:wikipedia)
Of course, once the war was over the RAF found itself with more airfield that it could handle, and while some continued to be used by them, or were turned into civilian airports, Snetterton was one of many – Silverstone, Castle Combe, Thruxton, Croft – that found its way into use as a race track. Originally the home of the local Aston Martin club it became more nationally used, with a 2.7mile track using the perimeter track to the airfield. However, the health and safety people got their way and the “Norwich Straight” and hairpin sections of the track were closed, and the track re-routed down a runway, what today is the Revett Straight. The old “Norwich Straight” ran parallel to the main road, separated by only a hedge, reportedly a Ford GT40 from the race track once ended up in a gas station for the main road. That must have hurried the decision along.
Snetterton's old layout, before the GT40/Gas station incident
Today Snetterton is widely used, not only by local clubs, but also by national series, including British Superbikes, Touring Cars and single-seat formulas, owned by a Motorsport Vision, Britain's answer to SMI or ISC. In the Revett straight it has the longest straight in the country, and in the Russell Chicane one of the tightest corners in the country, although this has been re-profiled in recent years, it basically used to be two hairpins that reduced the cars to walking pace. Still despite this Riches corner is one of the best corners in the country, and where modern F1 tracks have those tarmac run off areas, Riches has a corn field, that seems to be able to #### cars at regular intervals. Its layout – 90 degree corners, a fast Esses section and a really slow chicane can be compared to Watkins Glen. Of course, being an old airfield it’s dead flat, with one exception. The Bomb Hole. There is some debate as to where the name comes from. No German bombs ever fell on Snetterton, and while there is a possibility that it comes from an accidental explosion while loading bombs, it is also possible that it’s a polite version of the “Bumhole” a name given to the bend, and the slight dip it’s set in, by bike riders out of pure hatred.
British Touring Cars fight it out round the Right-hander of The Esses
Field Filler. n. A driver there to make up the numbers, who has no chance of winning and so doesn’t deserve to be driving at.
Who was the ultimate field filler at Fontana, other than Fontana itself? There's only one way to find out. This probably isn't it, but there ain't no harm in trying. Again 7 none-to-randomly selected drivers based on their previous finishes have their weekends put under the magnifying glass and get a rating - the higher the percentage, the more field-fillery. The number in brackets is their Bristol finish.
(43rd) Sterling Marlin - Erm, well, err. Sterling took the #09 into the show at Bristol. but the team didn't even make the journey westward to CA. So.... are they the ultimate field filler in that they didn't even bother to make the race, or are they the antithesis of the field filler in that they were never in the field to fill it. The mind boggles, so it's either.......0% or 100%
(42nd)Jeff Burton - Jeff lurked all day, doing just what he needed to do given the approach of the chase. Barely ever out of the teens all race and pinching 5 bonus points for leading a single lap. If this was any other race, and Jimmie wasn't make everyone else look ordinary it would probably look a lot better than.......21%
(41st)Casey Mears - Casey showed why Hendrick are getting rid of him, by being the weak link in the chain. In truth he started well, clocking the 8th best time out of the box but then fired blanks from then on before disappearing altogether in the race. Hunt down NASCAR.com's lap-by-lap for Sunday. Try Ctrl+F for "mears" - nothing - says it all..........57%
(37th)Sam Hornish - Did anyone notice Sam on Sunday? If Yes, what it only because he was driving a bright yellow car? Sam has had good weekends and bad weekends, this was pretty bad. He started well and fell back through the whole weekend, eventually finding his level with a 32nd place start and a 31st place finish and while I'm tempted to add 31 and 32 toegther for his rating, that would be too good.........75%
(27th)Scott Riggs - The first of the Haas double field filler bill, Scott was another you could easily describe as the perfect filler, but he did it in the other direction. Woefully slow out of the box, in 43rd he climbed to 35th and 29th in the other practices, before improving again to finish 25th. He went a lap down just 5 after Hornish, but his improvement brings him out on top at.........60%
(17th)Tony Raines - It's Haas Pt 2: The Easy One. There were 44 cars entered and 43 starting spots, who was the unlucky team, the #70, even being outdone by the normally pitiful #08 car (about whom enough positive stuff cannot be written), which makes this a no brainer.........99%
(7th)Clint Bowyer - At no point was CB ever a field filler this weekend, although that has less to do with his performance that it does his position on the Chase bubble. Either way he hardly seemed to be off the TV all race. His improvement through the race - 31st to 10th is the standout stat for me, but the stand out for him is 17 - the number of points between him and David Ragan, so let's go for.....17%
Honorary field filler
Let's see, is "Everyone NOT Jimmie Johnson" too harsh? How about Red Bull pit crew? Wait, I've got it. Who ever is responsible for the caution lights around the track, who stole the spanner for tightening them, it's just plain dangerous. Oh, and let's add the broadcast team in for their 'Caution to the wind' quip too.
Field Filler. n. A driver there to make up the numbers, who has no chance of winning and so doesn’t deserve to be driving at.
The field filler, a modern NASCAR virus. I’m sure we all have our own ideas of who the ultimate field filler is (cough)Paul Menard, but it’s never been scientifically studied as to who is the ultimate field filler. Well, sort of scientifically. This is where this blog comes in taking a random sample of drivers (those who finished 43rd, 42nd, 41st, 3th, 27th, 17th and 7th in the previous race) and giving them a unique Field Filler Quotient™ - the higher the more filler-esque you are. You’ll get the hang of it, so lets start with the Bristol race, using the finishers from Michigan.
Marcos Ambrose – Marcos was bumped out of the #21, so we’ll look at the car rather than the driver, which Bill Elliot took the wheel of. A surprisingly good run in qualifying gave Bill a far from Field Filler-esque 5th place start and stuck around on the lead lap till lap 264, not bad considering the relatively yellow-free race to that point a comfortable 3 lap-down finish in 26th earns Bill an FFQ of.....35%
Jeff Gordon – Don’t hate me Hendrick fans, it’s the randomness. Of course you don’t need me to tell you that Jeff isn’t a real field filler, and his weekend numbers support the obvious. 3rd in qualifying, consistent enough to grab the lead for a single lap – number 48 – and hold on for a 5th place finish. So it’s a very unfiller-esque....7%
Dave Blaney – This blog should actually be required reading for Dave and his spotter, as fillers seem to be aiming for him. The CAT car’s quail and practice runs were distinctly filler like, the starting spot of 36th being the highest of the three. In the race the run was good, rising steadily through the field to 12th before. POW!. CAT met concrete wall. A 38th place finish resulted, a whopping 221 laps down at the close. Therefore it’s....60%
Robby Gordon – A man who’s race was so anonymous about the only time I realised he was actually racing was when his car was all over turn 2. But anonymity maketh not a field filler. But a 31st place start and an eventual 39th place finish do. But practice speeds good enough for 8th and 12th do not. So it’s a fence sitting.....50%
Bobby Labonte – A mildly filler-like race that could have been much worse. He was lapped for the first time on lap 84 after starting in 37th and not moving forward. That sort of thing is bad. But only losing one more lap for the remaining 416 laps and avoiding the carnage that increased during the race shows that there a remnants of champion in the potential field filler, finishing 23rd. Those remnants mean......43%
Jimmie Johnson – A wonderfully filler-y performance from the man who filled most people’s ‘Love to Hate’ box before a certain younger Busch brother. Starting 34th (bad) going a lap down after only 26 circuits (bad) getting caught up in one of those six-of-one-half-a-dozen-of-the-other crashes (bad) going 13 laps down (bad) and finishing 33rd (bad). The verdict? Bad – and it feels sooooo good.82%
Brian Vickers – Average. How else can you define a 26th place start and a two-lap-down 20th place finish after losing a first lap on lap 144. Besides from disappearing in the smoke a few times the only vaguely noteworthy thing he did was nearly rear-end Paul Menard as the two came up on Blaney’s demise. And that would have doing the world a favour.....38%
Honorary field filler – a special place reserved for the dumbest move of the race....
Dale Earnhardt Jr – Either he’s very, very stupid, or he thinks that NASCAR officials are blind. No, of course no-one will notice you overtake about 5 cars before the start line. If you’re going to try and cheat at least be smart about it. I recommend magnets.
I'm still looking for a nice idea to make a series of, and I think I might run with this. If anyone knows of any websites with small car/number images on it would be appreciated and help brighten it up a little.
Yes, it's mostly Auto Racing, but there is a reason for the NFL tag on this post. Read down NFLers, I want your opinion.
In this cynical "Buy one Get one Free", media savvy world each of us probably sees dozens of gimics attached to products and services everyday, probably so many we don't even notice them more.
But I think I've found the worst sporting gimic yet - I give you "cross-over sport".
In 9 days time a brand new auto racing series kicks off in Europe - the Superleague Formula. There is nothing on the outside that makes it look any different from every other auto racing series in the world. It's six races - from August to November - across six European nations. The drivers won't be new, part of a diversity drive or anything else. They will be proper drivers, including those with experience in series such as F1, IRL and Champ Car. They will be run by proper teams, the AS Roma team run by current F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella's race team (they already run a team in F1's feeder series).
Now, did you spot the gimic in all that? "AS Roma, isn't that an Italian soccer club?" I'd like to imagine you asking. Why, yes it is. The teams are all soccer clubs. Top teams from Europe - Roma, AC Milan, Liverpool - The Middle East, China and Brazil have brought up the rights to run teams.
Racing and soccer: Glorious Marraige or Terrible Mismatch? (Superleague.com)
Why? To be honest I don't know. The only thing that makes this different from any other series is the soccer team gimic. The cars are all identical - so are those in F1's feeder series (GP2) and the already succesful A1GP series, that pits national teams against one another. The drivers aren't new, or particularly famous. It arrives into a marketplace for fans that is already incredibly stretched armed with only a gimic.
Obviously the hope is that the hoards of fans of the soccer teams will follow their attendent Superleague racing teams with the same passion, but it takes more than a name to inspire passion. Have they considered that soccer fans don't follow Auto Racing because they don't like it, rather than the fact they don't have team for their favourite team? Have they thought that it might be something other than a name that soccer fans follow? Have they noticed that soccer and Auto Racing are totally different?
I'm not sure how well it's going to work, I'd guess not well, but I'm probably not their target audience. You'd guess the organiser think they're onto a winner, if only by the huge amount of investment (and the flashy webiste).
Now, come with me into a realm of fantasy, where Superleague Racing comes to America, in search of not soccer clubs, but it's US equivalent in terms of popularity - football. This, patient NFLers, is where I need you.
Would you take your bumper sticker of car flag to the next level? Would you suddenly follow a race team if they happened to have the logo of your football team on the side? Come Monday morning would you be checking Superleague results and news alongside injury reports?
Coming to your city?
If your opinion is the same as mine this situation will never happen.
Wait!! There is actually NASCAR here....... Who'd have thunk it??
Very seldom does this blog seem to live up to it's title, but today it does (sort of)
Several websites have reported the Bill Davis is talking to buyers for his single car Cup team (and presumably his hugely successful Truck team). While reports mention "others", the one man who seems to be mentioned by name is former indycar racer Danny Sullivan.
It's far from a done deal by the sounds of it, with Sullivan quoted as saying "I've been pursuing it, but haven't gotten a response from (Davis). He's still dreaming on the price," No price is mentioned.
Of course right now BDR's Cup team is in no-mans-land. After a second team with Jacques Villeneuve lasted no longer than Daytona (in February), and long-time sponsors CAT departing to RCR's #31 team (horray!! another reason to hate RCR for Blaniacs). Even Dave Blaney's contract is up at the end of the season.
There's been no mention of the team having found a new sponsor - given Dave's record for bad luck perhaps he can pick up sponsorship from a mirror company, nor a mention of a new contract for Dave, although given Davis' career long links with Blaney you might think that Davis might look to help out Blaney if the sale goes though.
Of course there's always a horrible chance that Sullivan might recruit new drivers from what he knows. But we don't need anymore open-wheel converts do we?!
More musings from the Beijing Olympics. No NASCAR again etc etc
Gone in 9.69 seconds
In the two days since the last of my Olympic musings the Blue Riband athletics event has come and gone. It's the 100m metres. I'm not really sure the "Blue Riband" label is warranted, true it's the event that will most likely grab the headlines and live long in the memories of those that watch, but surely the "Blue Riband" of Athletics should be the epic decathlon, two days of great all round athletes, rather than 10 seconds of greased-whippet running. Anyway - rant over.
The 100m metres needed a positive storyline, after all the pre-games press inches have been very negative - drug related and negative. And from the off it looked like it was going to get one. The Jamaican World Record holder Usain Bolt, the man whose time he beat, Asafa Powell, and the reigning Olympic champion, Tyson ####, all competing against each other on the biggest stage. This was going to be good.
And the preliminary rounds didn't disappoint, with all three through to the semi-finals, but while Tyson #### struggled through his round, Usain Bolt seemed to be barely breaking sweat. There are times watching sport on TV when you find yourself almost involuntarily yelling at the TV, and so I found myself yelling "He's jogging, he's bloody jogging" (needless to say his jog is faster than I could run in even the most optimistic of my dreams) as he started slowing down seemingly 2/3rds of the way into the race, still winning my an insane margin.
But things went off the rails in the semis - ####, lacking 100% fitness was beaten into the final, and while two other Americans - Walter Dix and Darvis Patten - made it through to the final it made the way clear for an almost uncontested Jamaican 1-2 between Bolt and Powell, with Michael Frater threatening to add a third Jamaican to to the podium.
The final. About 10 seconds of the most explosive sport you can get. When you say 10 seconds it sounds very quick, but it always seems to last double that as commentators scream analysis and runners move back and forth for the duration of the race. There was an air of expectation. If Usain Bolt can win by that distance easing down long before the end, what could he do it he was pushed. We may never know. Because, in fairness he wasn't, he again felt able to start his arm-waving celebration a good 10metres before the end, and while Bolt ran a new World Record time of 9.69 seconds, Michael Johnson, commentating for British TV estimated he could have run 9.65 - a truly epic time. While Bolt was wheeling away on a lap of honour (which presumably also smashed a few world records) it was only then that TV cameras cut to the silver medallist celebrating, but not Powell, as the world expected but Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, and then the bronze, Walter Dix. In the various replays it showed Powell finishing 6th, in a historic race that saw the highest number of finallists run under 10 seconds in Olympic history, with Powell being the last of the six.
"I won by this much?" L-R - Thompson (Trinidad & Tobago), Bolt (Jamaica), Patten (USA), Frater (Jamaica) - (Photo: New York Times)
When the man who until very recently held the world record only finishes sixth, what does that say about a sport? That it moves as fast as it races.
Now pray no-one tests positive.
Phelps rumbles on
Ah, the unstoppable juggernaut that is Michael Phelps, but today a suprising new chapter was added to his ever expanding saga. He won (but it was really, really, really close) - see the venerable Lisa Horne's analysis for more.
I first heard of this through the article linked above (damn these time differences making everything happen at 3am) and at first wonder just how close it would need to be for the human eye to start telling you that someone who finished second had won. Now, a bunch of hours on I've seen the race, and to tell you honestly I still think Phelps finished second. Be it my eyes, camera angles of the quirks of physis that affect light going through water, but I could swear that the Serb gets the touch. To hear that the Serbian team's protest was rejected after the judges reviewed TV footage. I don't know what footage they were watching (or indeed how big the TV was) but I want it.
How?!? Phelps (top) outreaches his Serbian opponent, although it doesn't look like it here (Photo - BBC.co.uk)
Of course, I would never doubt the Olympic judges, or the battery of electric timing wizardry they point at the walls of swimming pool, but I'm a natural born cynic and with the Chinese with a little slice of history on their patch in site the window for a conspiracy is at least half open.
Union Jack Underpants
In sport there are few days when you can stand up and be proud to be British, today was one of those few. So indulge me. (for this section "we" = "Britain")
In what the (very unbiased) British media was dubbing Super Saturday Britain won 9 medals.
Rebecca Adlington won a second gold medal in the 800m Freestyle swimming, beating the World Record by a Phelps-esque 2 second and making her the most sucessful British female swimmer ever (for an island nation you'd think we'd be better at swimming).
The Mens coxless 4 took Britain's 3rd consequetive gold medal in the event, apparently another one that is labelled a "Blue Riband" event, although that might just be because we'd just won it. Two other crews won bronze in their races.
At the track cycling we took 5 medals. Chris Newton got Bronze in the moderately sensible Points Race, before Chris Hoy and Ross Edgar got gold and silver respectively in the entirely unhinged PIzza-delivery-bike-following insanity of Keirin. Meanwhile in sensible events Bradley Wiggins and Steven Burke got gold and bronze in the 4k pursuit.
Aside from being entirely biased, this section does have a point. How does 9 medals (4 golds, 1 silver and 4 bronzes) in a single Olympic day compare to all time records.
I have no idea whether any stat for this exists, but surely 9 medals is a pretty sound benchmark.
Or alternatively more musings about the Beijing Olympics. There's even less NASCAR here than last time, and that was just a picture....
They Tricked Us.......
I take everything positive I said about the Olympics opening ceremony, basically because because a lot of it came together not in around the Birds' Nest stadium in Beijing, but in a post-production office infront of a bunch of techno ####ins. First came news that the flaming footprints, symbolising gunpowder (you know the stuff I praised in my day 1+2 blog entry) had been computer generated, and then added to the "live" broadcast. And if that didn't make you feel dirty enough they've even started medling with children's voices. The red dress-ed girl who we all saw singing at the ceremony, was not infact singing at all, in what is probably China's answer to Milli Vanilli. Instead the voice of another was played, and the girl on stage - 9 year old Lin Miaoke mimed over it. Of course, you can say that such practices have been going on in show buisness seemingly forever. But it gets slightly more sinister when you look into the official reason for it, which is (apparently) it was in the best interests for China. Yes, the People's Republic felt it so necessary to have a perfect singing nine year old that they risked the integrity (especially if you think of several high-profile mime screw-up) of the ceremony.
Left: Who you Heard Right: Who you Saw (BBC.co.uk)
It's bad enough that, with performance enhancing drugs everywhere in sport, you have to take every great performance, every heroic come-back, every underdog-come-good story with a sizable pinch of salt. Now it seems that even the Opening Ceremony is not averse to some performancing enhancing jiggery-pokery.
There's something in the water
It's become perfectly clear for whatever reason that the Water Cube, the venue for Beijing's swimming events, is seriously fast. There might be something in the water, the sides might be slightly sprung, allowing a better push off on the turn, or alternatively, the swimmers might just be getting better (although if you can't trust a 9 year old girl, who can you trust).
World, national, Olympic records are all tumbling seemingly after every race, a certain Mr Phelps has three World Records already. There also seems to be a high number of what I have come to refer to as 'Outboard motor moments', when a swimmer will pull back an absolutely enormous gap in a very short distance, like they had strapped an outboard motor to their feet (see I'm putting nothing past them). My first sight of this phonomenom came in the 400m Freestyle when Briton Rebecca Adlington seemingly flew the final length to win gold, despite not being place 1st, 2nd or 3rd at any of the split time after any of the previous 7 lengths.
But then came the real miracle, the race that has been the subject already of a handful of blogs around here - America's win in the 4x100m relay. This was what I thought was a crucial part in Michael Phelp's potentially historic Olympic - where he relies on other people to get him gold medals. I feared that the relative faliability of, well, everyone else compared to Phelps may threaten his chances. But as it happens, exactly the opposite happened. After three legs the French team were leading by a seemingly insurmountable distance. Commentators were already writing the obituraries for Phelp's 8-gold title. Maybe so was Phelps. One man hadn't. That man was Jason Lezak, swimming the anchor leg for the US. In the final 50m Lezak gained a distance equal to the entire body length of his French rival to come home first, breaking the World Record by 4 (yes 4) seconds. I don't know what sort of plans there are inside the US swim team, but no matter how many medal Phelps gets I think Jason Lezak's name should be just after his in the history books.
So it's 3 gold medals from 3 events for Superfish, with three World Records to boot. While he ultimately aims to get 5 more gold medals, he only needs one more to gain another, very sizable accolade - that of the most successful Olympian ever. I don't think it needs pointing out just how massive that is.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Medals Togo
In the run up to the Olympics I read one blog on here (that I haven't the energy or the courage to face the Whoops! monster to find) that asked who this year's Eric the Eel world be. For those of you who don't know Eric was a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who competed in the 2000 Olympics, he famously was claimed to have trained by outswimming crocodiles. This was probably made up, as at the time he managed - double that of the medal contending athletes - he would have been eaten long before Sydney came around.
Anyway, since then I've been looking for a spectacular underdog story to match Eric, and I think I've found one, and this one even wins a medal. His name is Benjamin Boukpeti. He is a canoeist. He is a legend.
His country, Togo, had never won an Olympic medal before. If I was asked where I though any Togo-ese medal would come from I would have picked one of the events where the African nations traditionally do well, such as the long distance athletics event. I would not have picked canoeing. But that's probably why I'm tryping this from my house, while others are being paid to make predictions and intelligent comments in Beijing.
Boukpeti finished 3rd in the K-1 slalom event, bringing forth one of the best celebrations I've ever seen, involving general hysterics and smashing his paddle in half over the front of his boat. Meanwhile the Beijing organisers were probably frantically looking for a Togo-ese flag.
Take That Canadian Pit Lane Speed Limits (NASCAR.com)
There you go, now back to the Olympics
Did you get it?
Before Beijing’s opening ceremony I was all ready to write something about the pointlessness of the opening ceremony in the various international sporting events. Normally they’re all full of odd dancing which is supposed to symbolise the history and culture of the host nation(s) that you need an army of commentators with the official guide book to hand to explain. Normally if you watch them at all it’s only because the opening game/event etc. Follows directly after. I was already to go on about the rubbish the Chinese gave us on Friday.
But wasn’t it actually rather good? It had the normal culture and history theme – China’s inventions – the compass, paper, movable type, but not presented in impenetrable interpretive dance. There was interpretive dance, but the messages it was trying to put across weren’t lost by it. They even thought outside the box (and/or stadium) with the footprints of flame symbolising gunpowder moving across the whole city. Of course the organisers let themselves slip into the appalling clichés of international events. The happy-happy underlying theme of ‘harmony’. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the Olympic spirit, we don’t need to be reminded of it – especially when cynics can point to the events that have surrounded the route of the torch relay that ended in Beijing as a sign that this Olympics was about as harmonious as a small war before the ceremony. There were the typical outrageous moments – exactly what place do little singing children of men in green lycra with lightbulbs in have to do with, well anything.
Yes. But what does it all mean (BBC.co.uk)
Perhaps the most grating bit of the whole thing was the bit where the Chinese organisers’ hands were tied. The parade of the athletes. We know that lots of countries and athletes take part in the Olympics – we don’t need proof by seeing them walk before our very eyes. Of course a lot of tradition is tied up in this parade – the Greeks leading everyone out, the honour an athlete gets of carrying his/her nation’s flag – but it’s getting daft now, especially as sports (and so athletes) are added and more and more countries decide to make a bid for independence.
Phelps Watch
“Superfish” has 1 of 8, and in some style. He took enormous 1.41 seconds off his own world record for the 400m Individual Medley. Sometimes when sports reporters boast about someone “smashing” a record you can pretty much guarantee it’s poetic license. Anyone who describes Phelps’ swim as such is telling the honest truth. When TV graphics show the little progressing green line showing WR pace, you’re not meant to think “that line should really speed up”.
Of course it’s not always going to be that easy, although no one told him that as he made it look similarly easy in the 1st round of the 200m Freestyle. One other hurdle he cleared was done so without him even being there as the US team went through to the next round in the 4x100m Freestyle relay.
As for whether he’ll actually get the 8 golds his aiming for, I’m afraid I’d have to say “no”. Not only is it an epic ask of his fitness, but he has to contend with the busy schedule of heats and finals. In other sports fans worry if their team has peaked too early, Phelps has to peak for finals one hour, while keeping something in reserve for the heats in another event. He also has to contend with putting his fate in other’s hands – in the relays. Even when he is part of the team, unlike in the 4x100 heat, there are three other guys who can go too slow, mess up a change, whatever. That happens and it’s quest over.
Alternative Olympic Events
Every Olympics this debate – with answers of varying stupidity – appears. In Beijing there is the ‘Most Ineffectual Protest’. So far the standout is by 4 protestors who campaigned against the Chinese government (the protest was so rubbish I don’t know the full reason) during the Dressage. Yes, the Dressage. That “Sport” where people in top hats make their horses go sideways in an arena demarked by suburban picket fences. I’m saying nothing about the validity of protests, but if you want to get seen don’t do it in the Dressage. Try the Swimming, Athletics, run out in front of the marathon. You’ll get seen. The only coverage I’ve seen of this protest is ten second of the four being carried away while a horse (and top-hatted rider) seem more bothered by, well anything.
The second event the “Most Bemused Look” came from Chinese Shooting Gold Medallist Guo Wenjun, who after the traditional medal ceremony and photos was bemused to find here fellow medallists Natalia Paderina (Silver) and Nino Salukvadze (Bronze) conversing across her – presumably in Russian – before being called over by photographers for their own photo. The reason being that Paderina is Russian and Salukvadze Georgian and the two felt it necessary to venture into the “Sports people playing politics” that has already blighted what is meant to be Sport. The Chinese, either through ignorance of the relevant world event, or something more selfish had the look of “Why aren’t I in that photo, I won, I’m from China, take my picture” while she tried to keep a straight face and hold her position on the podium until the three could eventually leave together.
Chinese confusion unfortunately out of shot (hence the confusion) (BBC.co.uk)
A British Boxer also put in his entry in the “Just Plain Dumb” event by being sent home before throwing a punch for being overweight. I don’t follow boxing. At all. But surely the weight you have to get to for different classes aren’t a surprise. You know what you have to do, you weigh yourself, are you overweight – yes – eat less – no – it’s OK. It’s not rocket science.
The New Berlin
More than once in the run up to the Games they have been mentioned in the same bracket as the 1936 Berlin Olympics, famous of course for being staged in ####’s Germany, for being so dominated by politics. I’m not sure you can really compare the two, but if anyone is going to make the comparison, I’m going to ask “Where’s Jesse Owens?”. Owens won 4 gold medals, much to the disgust of ####, and so made sure that actual sport is remembered at least along side the politics around it. If these games are going to guarantee themselves being remembered as just that someone needs to step up and take on the Jesse Owens position.
Etc. Etc.
Wasn’t the USA v China Basketball an anti-climax. After all the hype I was expecting a close contest, but pretty soon it turned into a USA whitewash. If China was the best that the “Redeem Team” have to face then redemption should come very easily.
Also a completely biased wearing of Union Jack Underpants. Nicole Cooke sprinted to victory in the 75km Cycling road race. You have Michael Phelps and swimming, and Athletics, and Basketball, and well half the Olympics. We Brits have Cycling and Sailing – it’s not much, let me gloat while I can.
One Gold Medal and she's so famous she now plans to invent her own country (which of course will make the opening ceremony longer come 2012) (BBC.co.uk)
CAUTION: No NASCAR here (well one reference), it's only one of the tags as that's where most of my stuff goes. It's all Olympics here. It's also my first whirl at pictures in a blog post, and as you can tell by the title, I'm not starting small.
There are only a handful of days before the 2008 Olympics, the 29th edition of the “Greatest Show on Earth” starts in the Chinese city of Beijing. Over the 16 days there will be 302 events, covering 28 sports, with roughly 10,500 athletes from 205 competing nations. There will be tears, cheers and at least one really good argument during that time, as well as a few events that not even the sports experts paid to foresee don’t expect. Ahead of the opening ceremony on the 8th August – the date 8.8.08 is seen to be lucky in Chinese culture – here’s my look at a few storylines and the sports and events I’m looking forward to.
The Storylines
Drugs
Sorry to start on a pessimistic note, but there can be no doubting that drug doping is the main story in athletics (and all sports more or less) this year. British Sprinter Dwain Chambers will not be travelling to China, despite winning the national trials championship, after he failed to overturn a ruling that bans him from the Olympics for life after testing positive for THG in 2003. Former Olympic champion Marion Jones is currently in jail on perjury charges linked to her taking drugs. The 2000 Olympic US 4x400m relay team handed back their winners’ medals last week in the wake of Antonio Pettigrew admitting to taking drugs during the tournament.
Drugs have been a central part of so many historic Olympic moments – the scenario with Ben Johnson in 1988 – the rather more comical “scooter accident” that befell two Greek sprinters in 2004. There WILL be a drugs based disqualification at the Olympics this year, the only question is who and when we’ll get to the truth.
China
Right, this is going to make sure that FOXblogs will never get through one of the fabled Chinese Internet filters. The very fact that the Olympics in China is a marvel. The run up to the games has been blighted with political unrest. The protests – in France, the US and UK – during the Olympic Flame’s world relay over China’s treatment of the people of Tibet set the undertone. Even today in what has been termed a “terrorist attack” 16 Chinese policemen have been killed. The event was well away from Beijing itself, but it’s not the news you want to here from a host country this close to the opening ceremony.
There are the before mentioned internet filters – allegedly internet sites such as Amnesty International have been blocked from the computers at the Olympic media centre. China claims this filter has been removed giving what the IOC describes as ‘unprecedented’ internet access in China. While this is, or course, worrying you do have to wonder what sports journalists want with sites about human rights organisations. As well as this there is the smog. The TV coverage over here have been keeping track of the pollution levels and they are, as of today, roughly twice the target for developing nations, despite the fact that the city’s main polluter – a steel works – has been shut down and half the cars have been taken off the roads. The exact levels are dependent on the weather – winds, temperature, rain – and so difficult to predict in the long term. However it is expected that the endurance events to take place in the city itself – the marathon and the cycling road race – may be postponed if pollution levels are deemed too high.
What to watch
The individual sports and events you might watch will differ from person to person – the events your nation stands a good medal hope in, the sport you follow outside of the Olympics – but I’ll try my best take off my Union Jack underpants and present this largely unbiased.
The obvious thing is you MUST watch. Watching the Olympics you are always aware that you have the chance of witnessing history. In my era it’s Donovan Bailey’s 100m run in Atlanta, or Marion Jones’ win, which will forever be engrained in my mind thanks to the British TV commentary of “This is Olympic Games, you’re not supposed to win by that much” (in hindsight this was right). The more senior of you may name Mark Spitz's 7 swimming golds, or the Israeli athletes sad fate in Munich. No matter what age you are, if you watched an Olympics you can probably remember something.
Athletics
The athletics is the obvious sport to watch. It’ll be where the main storylines come from and where heroes (and villains) will most likely be made. In the Blue Riband 100m there is the three way battle between American Tyson #### and Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell. There are the incredible feats of endurance in the distance running, and the sheer absurdity of the 3000m Steeplechase and its trademark water jump. The all round athleticism of the women in the heptathlon and the men in the epic decathlon has to be admired, although many of them seem to finish the two day events appearing to be held together by straps around their joints. Plus the chaos of the jostling and change-overs in the relays, especially the 4x400m.
The water jump of the 3,000m steeplechase is cleared by runners for another lap.
Swimming
Although it may be dismissed – “swimming is not a sport, it’s a way of not drowning” – swimming is very much the second Olympic sport. It may not be the most spectator friendly sport around but it will undoubtedly be the highlight of the games’ opening week. On top of this place American Michael Phelps on going quest to emulate Mark Spitz’s 7 golds and immediately you have a recipe for a piece of history you can watch from your front room.
A chance to watch history as Michael Phelps goes for 7 gold medals. And his name on his hat is the best chance you have of ID-ing him mid-race, unless you'd recognise his back, shoulders and rear end from the top row of the arena.
Track Cycling
It’s sad yes, but I have a soft sport for the madness that is Olympic cycling. Take away the relatively restrained events – the pursuits, time trials and sprints and your left with three events – the points race, keirin and Madison that have to be seen to be believed. The points race – 20+ cyclists and 160 laps with points being awarded for leading laps and lapping the rest of field. Madness. The Madison teams of two cyclists and 200 laps in a relay format. Actually scratch that “ relay” doesn’t do it justice. One rider grabs the other by the forearm and slings him forward in the least safe Olympic event ever, frequently with results that will have you referencing Talladega NASCAR wrecks for comparison. And now the pinnacle of insanity – the Keirin. In the most bizarre start of any event riders follow a moped to a pre arranged speed for a handful of laps before racing for 2km in an event that often has more disqualifications than finishers. If these descriptions don’t take your fancy then I haven’t done well enough, but you should still watch them.
The Keirin - what the Japanese invented when they were drunk
I’m sure you all have your favourite events and the reasons for them, and could (and feel free to) make passioned claims for them, but those are mine.
With any luck I can keep up with events as they happen in Beijing and keep updating here.
I've been on hols for a week, and have decided to come back and pick up where I left off, with something gentle and uncontraversial.
With the global economy looking downwards, and car makers feeling the additional pressures of rising oil prices and environmental concerns, might the car makers feel the need to pull of out of racing in order to save money.
Of particular concern must be Chevrolet. Chevy's parent company, General Motors, made a loss of $15.5 Billion (for those of you who judge amounts by the number of zeros it's $15,000,000,000) in the three-months up to June, as well as a whopping 20% sales drop in the US. General Motors is huge. It owns several marques in the US (although many have been consigned to history) as well as makers all over the world - Vauxhall in the UK, Opel on mainland Europe, Holden in Australia as well as many others and smaller stakes in related companies. Aside from the US sales drop quite what the loss figure relates to - only US holdings - or worldwide is unknown, but either way it's a lot of money.
While a chunk of the lost money has been explained away as "one-time charges" - such as the $3.3billion used to buyout the contracts of 19,000 hourly workers made redundant in June - the total of these one-time charges is $9.1billion, but even taking away these amount the remaining $6Billion is a huge amount.
Of course GM's loss is not the only such report in the car makers section. Ford reported a 54% sales drop in SUVs and a18% drop in vans and trucks (far out-weighing the 8% gain in car sales). Toyota's picture is less positive than Ford's with car sales falling buy 8%, SUVs by 32% and "light" trucks by 33%.
Across the board there are massive losses being made, of course these results are not limited to those marques racing in NASCAR.
The economy is always going effect any sport - high gas prices stop fans travelling, high ticket prices mean fans don't want to travel and bad business results will affect the willingness of companies to sponsor teams and events - something we have undeniably seen the results of in NASCAR.
Now given the massive expenditure that furnishing NASCAR teams must be, and the loss, more or less, of the 'win on Sunday, sell on Monday' ethos, might the owners (or accountants) of these car makers see NASCAR as a cost it can easily cut?
The ugly rumour in the corner seems to have finally been slain, well for the sane people at least. All season, at least the Nationwide Toyota engines have been rumoured to have a massive horsepower advantage over everything else on the track.
These blog boards (and probably every other even vaguely NASCAR related one in the world) have seen people accusing NASCAR of turning a blind eye to Toyota's blatant cheating and allowing them to get away with it. Perhap coincidentally these complaints come from the people who often want to do unpleasent things to anyone who has the cheek to drive a 'foriegn' car in an American sport.
A few weeks ago a larger than normal number of engines was taken away for testing to see exactly how many crazed angry horses they had inside them trying to get out. It looked like finally the answer might be in sight. And maybe, just maybe it is.
After the earlier race at Milwaukee (June 21) the engines NASCAR tested told the following story - Toyota had an advantage. They had a pretty large lead over Ford and Chevy - 21 and 20 Hp respectively - but only 4 over Dodge. Despite this it is worth mentioning that Brad Keselowski took the pole there and Edwards won - in what are meant to be the weakest cars.
More recently at the Chicagoland race, NASCAR took 10 more engines to their testing facility - three Toyota and Chevys, 2 Ford and Dodge - that doesn't look like a sanctioning body looking for underhand play - more like a random pick up. And the results. According to NASCAR.com, and a quote taken from the crew chief for the #20 Nationwide car "you have a two horsepower spread that covers six or seven cars". The six or seven cars apparently including the #20 itself, defined as being "in the middle" by it's crew chief.
Now, I'm sure that the most hardline of the Toyota haters will swear this is still a cover up by NASCAR, and that Toyota is using some underhand tactics and technology that NASCAR is letting them get away with for the good of their bank balance. But frankly this is the end of the argument as far as I see it.
No-one batted an eye-lid after last year's Talladega chase race when the normal dyno tests showed a Toyota engine had the most horsepower - that of Dave Blaney's Camry which finished 3rd. No-one batted an eye-lid because it finished 3rd, but as soon as Toyota started winning the Camry having more horsepower became worse than treason.
So Toyota may have more horsepower than the others but so what. Horsepower is not the be all and end all. Remember the figures I gave for the Milwaukee test - that Toyota had 4 (four) more than Dodge. And how many wins does this Dodge motor - which is 16/17 hp better than Ford and Chevy - have - nil, nothing, none, less than one - it only has one pole (Clausen at Daytona). If Horsepower made the world go round wouldn't you expect at least a few scores in the win column?
Perhaps Toyota is doing so well, and probably Dodge so badly, because of other things. They have the best drivers, who's team work the best together, who's cars are set up the best for the track, who's crew chieves make the best strategy calls and who, when they need it, get the best luck.
After all racing is so much more than just going fast.
I love rain. But, I'm not a keen gardener, the owner of an indoor attraction, or even a sadist who enjoys watching other people's fun get spoilt. Well, I'm a little of the thrid one, but that's far more off topic for this than I want to go.....
Nope, I watch Formula 1.
The must hyped pinnacle of motorsport has got to the point where only a visit from the wet stuff, or an incident with a similarly chaotic outcome, can make it worth watching. Too often of late I feel I am watching a Grand Prix out a strange feeling of duty - I like motor racing - therefore I MUST like F1. Too often I'm very conscious that I'm starting to think of other things.
In the last few years I can only think of a handful of races that have actually been entertaining throughout - last year's Canadian GP, this year's Canadian GP, last years Japanese race, and this year's Monaco addition.
But now add to that list Sunday's British GP.
Living in the UK, I'd known it was going to rain at some point during the race for most of the week, so had made a point of making the time to watch it (despite going to sleep at something close to 5am UK time after the NASCAR race). And the Grand Prix didn't disappoint.
From the off it was clear that for one reason or another - weather, track, set-up, driver - this was not going to be a normal race. Any race that sees two different cars spin themselves round at different corners, especially when one of them is a Ferrari, is not going to a be normal race. As the track dried out I began to settle down for the cold feeling of obligation that comes from watching a dry F1 race. Kimi Raikonnen's Ferrari began charging towards the front and a constant string of replays, delivered by our very own host broadcaster, only served to remind us how exciting F1 can be when the cars don't appear to welded to the track.
But then the British summer arrived. Rain. Lots and lots of rain. But not enough to bring out the safety car because it's too wet, or even make the drivers retreat into 'grandmother mode' and lap at about 30mph. Cars that were previously fast - Kimi's Ferrari - went backwards as they found themselves hopelessly out of their depth on the wrong tyres. Massa span again.
As fans receded into the coats and under umbrellas I advanced to the edge of my seat. Cars and drivers that normally go round corners without a thought suddenly actually had to drive a bit. Keeping the tail from sliding out under power while making sure the front wheels turn. Felipe Massa spun (again).
As the rain came down harder and harder drivers that are normally no where to be seen found themselves 10 seconds per lap faster than the normal contenders - caught and passed them without a challenge. A pass, something that in dry F1 is considered an endangered species. To top off an afternoon of the sort of weather that has made British summers famous, our famous wildlife made a few appearences. Once, after Mass span (yet again) and decided to go cross country (I actaully wondered if he might just give up at that point). And once more running straight across the track at the point more famous for running Irish priests that English Hares.
Slowly the rain cleared up. But it's job was done, it had made the Grand Prix interesting, shuffled the order and caused enough incidents to actaully fill about 7 races. Honda's were third, Ferrari's were nowhere to be seen and some Brit was leading. Despite all this Felipe Massa continued to spin, being joined occasionally by Kimi Raikonnen.
I don't care that Lewis Hamilton won. Only that it was actually entertaining. If the British GP is indeed to move from Silverstone in 2010 I don't care, just as long as it rains at Donington as well.
Rain shortened races are a matter of course in oval racing - NASCAR, Indycar, even European oval series retreat to the garage when the wet stuff appears. In this position they share a dubious position in the sport with their cousin - the fuel mileage race - they seem to somehow de-value the win and often bring some criticism to whoever wins them.
'They didn't deserve to win'
'They got lucky'
Remember Danica's win in Montegi, OK there may have been a ugly dollop of sexism in there but it was all hidden under a layer of fuel mileage race criticism.
Now, leaving the fuel mileage race comparison alone. I have no problem with them, infact they are often the most interesting thing about the races that spawn. Let's concentrate on the rainy races.
NASCAR currently operates under a rule that once the race has run 50% of its intended distance, it counts as a full race. If the rain starts to fall and the track can't be dried, and the race completed, and the lucky guys get the win. Again, luck always has a place in sports, I'm sure that some people would like it to be eliminated from them, but Lady Luck is sort of hard to write rules against. (although the idea of NASCAR publishing a press release citing Lady Luck, Mother Nature or indeed God with 'Actions detrimental to Srock Car Racing' is priceless)
But luck plays a overly-massive part in rain race hence, like fuel mileage races their results often look like a typo. Kurt, Mikey, Yeley, Truex and Sadler as the top-5. No Honest, go check, see, it really happened.
But do these drivers deserve to be credited with the full number of points when they 'win' a rain shortened race.
I say no.
There may be an element of strategy invloved, or being the best at spotting the green blob on the radar but mostly it's all dumb luck. 9/10 times the drivers that get the good results are the ones that gamble. I like gambling, well at least by sportsmen, well done them for gambling and it paying off. But they didn't really 'win' if the race had reached its actual conclusion they probably wouldn't have won.
So I propose that shortened race winners are given shortened points, depending on how long the race is. Let the winner keep the Chase bonus points and the top-5 and 10's for the stats columns. Obviously to work out the percentage of the race completed to work out the percentage of points given is over complicated so the number of points awarded would be based on the rough number of laps completed - rounded to the nearest 'big' milestone - 50%, 75% or the full 100%.
The same percentage of points all the way down the chart, keeping it fair, but stopping dumb luck from influencing important point standings too much. Imagine of the Richmond pre-chase race is rain shortened and what the normal roulette could cause.
This season may be barely half over and the title race still wide open, but the 2009 calendar for Formula 1 has been announced, well at least provisionally - here it is.
29 March - Australia (Melbourne) 5 April - Malaysia (Sepang) 19 April - Bahrain (Manama) 10 May - Spain (Barcelona) 24 May - Monaco 7 June - Canada (Montreal) 21 June - Britain (Silverstone) 28 June - France (Magny-Cours) 12 July - Germany (Nuerburgring) 26 July - Hungary (Budapest) 9 August - Turkey (Istanbul) 23 August - Europe (Valencia) 6 September - Italy (Monza) 13 September - Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps) 27 September - Singapore 11 October - Japan (Suzuka) 18 October - China (Shanghai) 1 November - Brazil (Interlagos) 15 November - Abu Dhabi
Every peice I've read has gone with the finale at a new Abu Dhabi track as the main angle. This is just another example of Bernie Ecclestone, the poisoned dwarf who runs the commercial side of F1, going where the money is, at the expense of tradition and fans. NASCAR has the demise of tracks like Rockingham in favour of unloved dates in places like Fontana, in the future I fear F1 fans will talk of a calendar packed with dates in the Middle and Far East with only a bare minimum of races in Europe, the main historical F1 fan base and the locations of all the current teams.
Bernie wants dates in Russia, and a return to the US, while tracks and the governments in India and South Korea want races in the near future. At the same time traditional tracks and nations find their races under threat. Magny-Cours in France is said to have hosted it's last GP last weekend (despite the fact that it appears on the list above). Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada has been slated in recent years due a percieved lack of facilities and a poorly maintained track. Even Silverstone is perennially threatened with the loss of its race. Yes, moves like this push places to improve their facilities - Montreal have already said they will repaved the circuit and Silverstone has recently had massive paddock improvments approved. However, F1 has to remember it is not Bernie's personal play thing, nor the car manufacturers biggest billboard. IT'S A SPORT! IT HAS FANS. Bernie is already presuring Australia into making it's GP a night race, because 3am European starts don't go down well, and now he wants to move more races towards that time zone.
Aside from that there are a few other points. Turkey has moved back to August after this year's race in May, Silverstone has been shuffled up a month to June. The awful and boring Hungaroring remains in place (surely if any track should be taken off the calendar this is it). T
