Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Black Panthers


So, I’ve been having a few discussions with Tacoma Bureau Chief Mary Ellen over the subject matter regarding how it seems that nobody’s broaching the topic of the colour barrier in Der Vurld der Motorsporten...

Of which I recently scribbled about in the story titled Hope, to which Mary Ellen immediately replied by saying; Lewis Hamilton’s not an African American, which indeed he’s not... As I enjoyed the Speed Freaks crew’s assessment; He’s a Black born, British World Champion! While Stat Man Caruthers also immediately corrected Kenny Sergeant when he pronounced that Lewis Hamilton was the first African American to win the Formula 1 World Championship, as Bob Varsha repeatedly commented; Do we bring the matter up? As part of the world wishes to remain colour blind, while the other half thinks it’s important to mention.

As now, that “Jaguar’s” (Hamilton_ done it! It seems that the topic is once again making the rounds, albeit just-in-time for today’s potentially historic Presidential election... Which I thouroghly expect Barack Obama to win and hence, become the nation’s very first Black President!

Brazil Post-race quotes



Lewis Hamilton (5th)
"The most dramatic race of my whole life. It's pretty much impossible to put this into words: I'm still speechless. It's been such a long journey, but I've always had the support of my family, the team, our partners and the fans. We did a fantastic job throughout the whole year and, with all the sacrifices we made, I'm so thrilled to be able to win this for everyone."
"Before it started to rain I was quite comfortable, and I was just focused on having a clean race. Then it started to drizzle and I didn't want to take any risks - but Sebastian (Vettel) got past me and I was told that I had to get back in front of him. I couldn't believe it. Then at the very last corner I managed to get past Timo (Glock) - it was just amazing."
"This was one of the toughest races of my life, if not the toughest. I was shouting, 'Do I have it? Do I have it?' on the radio. It was only when I took the chequered flag and got to Turn One that the team told me I was World Champion. I was ecstatic."

Felipe Massa (Winner)“Well, I think as Kimi said, we did everything perfect today and unfortunately it was not enough. I think we did a great championship, we had some up and downs and we paid for that and we are also paying now a little bit but racing is like that. Sometimes you just have a perfect year with so many victories, a very reliable car, and sometimes you have some ups and downs and that's racing. From one year to the other things change. That was our championship but even if we had some ups and downs I think everybody did a great job. Everybody worked really hard to achieve our goals with the heart and sometimes things don't happen in the way we want. But that's racing. That's the sport, sometimes it is a little bit different than we expect. We need to be happy with our Constructors' championship. It is very important and I am sure our President, everybody inside the team is very, very proud and very happy like me as we need to be. The second thing is we need to congratulate Lewis because he did a great championship and he scored more points than us, so he deserves to be champion. I know how to lose and I know how to win and as I said before it is another day of my life from which I am going to learn a lot. Hopefully we come back here with the title but anyway I think it is part of our experience, part of our life. I am sure everybody here, me, Fernando, Kimi, knows how tough it is to be a driver. Sometimes things are very easy and something happens you don't expect. Sometimes things are very difficult and you win without expecting, so we know a lot about that and that is another day. But as I said I am very happy and I am leaving the track with my head completely up as I think we did everything we could.”
*Source: Grandprix.com)
So, do you think Barack's opponents will be as gracious in defeat as SPEED’s Peter Winsor commended Felipe Massa for being, at the end of the Post-race press conference...