Monday, September 29, 2014

Sprint Car legend makes Curtain Call in Indiana...



And while still somewhat intertwined with the world of Sprint Cars, I came upon this story penned by Open Wheel Racing and A-L-L things IndyCar stall hart "Curty" Cavin in the IndyStar about the legendous' Steve "the King" Kinser's final races of his Hall of Fame career taking place in Indiana.

Being unawares' that Kinser,  at age 60 was  finally retiring, as the only comparison I can think of for him, is he's the A.J. Foyt of Sprint Cars! As surely his numbers will never be matched, with an astounding 500+ feature wins for starters; Aye Karumba!

As ironically, Kinser's boss is somebody named SMOKE! As in a one Mr. Tony Stewart, whose Sprint Car career is on indefinite hiatus for obvious reasons...

WoO legend Steve Kinser set for finalIndiana ride

Scrutiny over Tony Stewart case troubling for Motorsports



So I originally missed the news over Tony Stewart's deadly incident with Kevin Ward Jr. having now been sent to a Grand Jury for deliberation upon charges or not? Having first heard about the latest development Sunday night (Sept 21) on the Speed Freaks, who refreshingly had an almost entirely 'RASSCAR Free  broadcast, instead focusing upon Sports Cars whilst broadcasting  live from the OLD-est IndyCar Blogger Geo. Phillips favourite Texas track COTA, aka Circuit Of The Americas.

As what I can only imagine was a very enjoyable  Double Header featuring the Tutor United Sports Car championship along with its European counterpart, WEC, aka World Endurance Championship.

Alas, I can only agree with 'Duh Freaks' over this latest development being very troubling, as in can Tony Stewart be given a  fair trial if the need arises, as how many of "Mainstream Stick 'N Ball" Americans truly understand the nature, intensity and aggression motor racing breeds in a driver?


While I enjoyed Scotty Scooter' Pruett's usual candor regarding the Tony Stewart incident, basically stating how NOBODY wins in a  situation like that! Noting how at his last time in an IndyCar at Fontana he was averaging 236mph with a terminal velocity of 247 FREAKIN' Miles-Per-Hour on the straightaway; SHEISA!

And if anything goes wrong at that rate of speed, things are gonna get broken or potentially worse! As people tend to forget that these Athletes stare into the face of Death every time they strap their  helmet on...


Whilst Andy Lally, who apparently moonlights as a MMA fighter had  a far more candid answer for The Freaks when asked 'bout handling aggression, along with divulging having driven with his foot literally on FIRE for 90mins in a previous race, for those who still don't think drivers are Athletes; GET OVER IT!


As I tend to agree with Crash Gladys's sentiments and vitriol that Tony Stewart is simply 100% incapable of intending any malice towards Kevin Ward Jr. Although as 'Sarge followed up with, we all want justice served correctly, and if  Tony was trying to teach Ward a lesson - that went horribly wrong, then Stewart must be held accountable for his actions...

Thus, fortunately, and correctly, the Grand Jury has rightly decided NOT to charge Tony Stewart over Kevin Ward Jr's  death, although his family is still seeking restitution financially from Stewart, which could be hard to accomplish due in part to Ward's toxicology report  having found the 20yr old driver to be impaired by marijuana the night of his untimely death.


Yet in another sign regarding the serious consequences of racing, another driver has died  in a Sprint Car crash,  this time in Wisconsin...

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Lotus's Bloom Over...



Ran across this article whilst purusing my daily NFB Newsline for The Blind Newspaper service. Noting how Lotus Cars has now firmly entered the Austerity era. Yet surely, a replacement for the long  in the tooth Elise is needed? Which apparently is utilized for the underpinnings of all three current models...

Marc Marquez still blowing MotoGP field away!



Otay, so I'm a little late with this story as usual, still celebrating No Fenders 8th birthday 'N all; (Since I'd originally intended to post this story thru the magic of E-lectronics whilst away playin' in the Dunes but alas, ran outta time to get I-T loaded before leaving...) but! Doubt that the red hot Marc Marquez has cooled down much at all, if any since capturing his eleventh win of the season at Silverstone. (Having NO idea if he's won more races in the past 3wks time-span I've been away...)

As I enjoyed the following New York Times story, albeit get tired of the media playing games by swapping story titles, etc, which makes it pretty hard for Mwah to sus' (search) them out upon Zed Internetz; but I digress!

As I was somewhat baffled over why "the Doctor's," nee Valentino Rossi's 246th  start was a record, according to the story.

But since have found out that Rossi had broken the all-time 500cc-MotoGP starts  record of 245 set by Alex Barros during his 17-year career. (1990-2007) in style with a fine third place finish behind Marquez and team-mate George Lorenzo. (At Silverstone)

Hence, The Doctor's feat is impressive indeed, given the physical demands of wrasslin' a 'Scooter, but pales in comparison to 'Ol 'Rubino's (Rubens Barrichello) staggering tally of 322-starts in Formula 1!

Yet, it seems obvious to Mwah, that we're witnessing the passing of the torch from the legendous' Rossi to the mercurial Marquez, albeit only time will tell what the young Spaniard's final career  statistics  will be, while can Rossi push the bar to an unbelievable 300-starts in the pinnacle of motorcycle racing, who knows, eh?

Monday, September 22, 2014

No Fenders Summer Requiem...



Howdy Y'all, Chief 'Vurd Botcherer Tomaso here... Sorry for the recent lack "O verbiage on thy 'lil No Fenders 'Bloggenspotten; Ja Ja! As I've been 'Oot 'N Aboot *out 'N about) once again, having just returned from a two-weeks plus Holiday adventure to the other Florence; NOT the one in Italy but Oregon instead; Hooah!

Where Florence stands upon the precipice of Oregon's majestic Sand Dunes. With said trip recap eventfully making its way into another riveting Tomaso Files yarn sometime shortly before I-T ALL Fades away...

But Hey! At least I didn't miss any IndyCar races 'cause they've gone DORMANT for the next 486-weekends; Err an ABSURDLY LONG 212 Days approx. which equals 72.5% of one year's time if I've done my ryth-Muh-tickin' correctly? Uhm, where's the sudden angst coming from? As so much for the post-Holiday afterglow, eh?

And it's quite an odd feeling to think I've missed the last two Grand Prix's, i.e.; Spa and Monza, having not viewed any Formula 1 on thy Telie' since Hungary 'Wayback at the end of July, nearly  two months ago,  and barely spoke a word 'bout motor racing over the past Fortnight-pluses time, to which A-L-L I can say is that COTA, nee Circuit Of The Americas is LUCKY! Since FedEx, which is notorious for dumping 'N running, did I-T once again and left my Austin F1 tickets sitting in my Apartment's Breezeway for who knows how LONG whilst I was away; SHEISKOPFS!

And I finished off this glorious 'N epic adventure by unexpectedly attending a Rally to STOP the Coal Ports from being built in Washington at the 'Kuhnaidiun-American border crossing, from which I've selected the notice from the FREE Peltier blog, as do Y'all know the plight of Leonard Peltier?


Yet I find it overly  ironic that said peace rally to stop the toxic destruction of the Pacific Northwest's Oceans from the hazardous corruption of coal, petroleum and liquid natural gas water-ways amassing was taking place where businessman, lawyer and Railroad Tycoon; Err Executive Samuel Hill - where somewheres previously I'd read he'd proclaimed his occupation as  Industrialist had paid for the erection of his white concrete peace arch between Blame, Washington and Surrey, BC's border crossing whom I briefly chronicled in;


As the Rally was very enlightening and amongst several speakers, our most favourite being the 21yr old activist, environmentalist and soon to be scientist - who we met briefly afterwards, having only caught her first name Sarah, who's from Ethiopia, a Senior at the University of Washington who plans to get her PHD in Oceanography in order to study the Ocean's ever growing toxicity -  discussed the fast disappearance of Terapod's, while pointedly noting how the United States couldn't BOMB its way out of Climate Change!

Orca - Killer whale. (Image source: 3.bp.blogspot.com)
Whilst I particularly enjoyed Dana Lyons song about the Salish Sea and protecting the Orca's, aka Killer Whales, which he noted the profound effects ships have upon their abilities to communicate with their Pod's and more importantly children...

As I find it somewhat Karmic that we'd just passed thru Newport, Oregon some 48hrs earlier, where Tacoma Bureau Chief Mary Ellen first pointed out Newport's Municipal Airport, which was utilized in Keiko's transport to Newport's Oregon Coast Aquarium, which I was totally unawares of 'til Mary Ellen casually mentioned how it was where the Orca, nee Killer Whale Keiko, star of the Free Willy movies had been taken to prepare for his reintroduction into the wild after some $7-million-plus in Donations had flowed into the Free Willy Keiko Foundation (charity) created by Western Warshintonian' businessman Craig McCaw, brother  of Bruce McCaw, ex-CART team owner of Pacwest Racing.

Thus I felt somewhat chagrined whilst sitting  on the grass in Peace Arch State Park totally unawares of the nearby Salish Sea and its significance in regards towards mammal and sea life, which I really dug Messer Lyons song about The Great Salish Sea, of which you can get the overall vibe in;


As ironically, I've just now discovered that Mr. Lyons is the same artist who sang one of my favourite Activist songs: Cows with Guns!

Then upon our being instructed to form two parallel lines with all those traveling northwards for today's rally  to face north on the left side, with all those traveling south to do likewise upon the opposite (right) side, Claudio' spotted a man in the British Columbia line (facing south) sporting a Minardi F1 hat!

Next, being instructed to take a step forward and shake our opposite counterparts hands, Mary ELLEN said to Keith; you've got to meet Tomaso who's a Diehard F1 Aficionado, and even has a Formula 1 Blog!

Keith from Oh 'KanaDuh was exceedingly polite, albeit mystified when I asked him what he thought of "Uncle Bernaughty;" WHO? You know, Bernie Ecclestone, the BASTARDO who PAID his way out of a Bribe!


Yet I must say, that Formula One's current GREENWASHING' campaign is being successful, as Keith extolled the virtues of this year's PU's (Power Units) advances of racing on one third less fuel, along with their myriad of hybrid technologies, i.e.; the two power generating electrical units onboard said Formula 1 chassis - all of which is true, despite overlooking the toxicity of  producing said  electrical current, etc.

When asked why the Minardi cap, for which Keith said most people don't know who I-T is, which once again Mary Ellen quickly interjected Tomaso does! He replied they'd been in Monaco for the Grand Prix and he wanted something different and spotted a man selling two Minardi hats and SHUHZAMM! Whilst I last scribbled 'bout Minardi Alumni in;


Lastly, there was the most BIZARO encounter in my life I've had of my very brief experience of Mary Ellen taking me in the Women's Loo' when out in public, since she  tired of getting the evil eye from men upon escorting me to the Men's bathroom instead.

As Y'all might NOT understand just how difficult I-T is for a blind person to successfully navigate their way to a bathroom stall in either gender's washroom, especially with they're having NO exact identical design! Or  better yet, next time try going into a public WC" (Water Closet) BLINDFOLDED and S-E-E how good Y'all do, eh?

AnyHoo, after our day of unity, peace and prosperity between our two nations we approached said women's  bathroom to which Mary Ellen first inquired to its occupants if they minded having a blind man enter said facility, to which they all immediately replied; No Problema!

As I'd taken one or may be two steps across the bathroom's threshold,  an INSANE SCREAMING DITTOHEAD (androgynous) woman assaulted us with a barrage of angry high pitched words; saying she'd seen men impersonating being BLIND just in order  to go inside women's bathrooms, and why couldn't a man escort me into the men's bathroom instead! Uh Duh lady, 'cause I wasn't with a man! As she continued her verbal accusation of my perverted desires to enter the women's bathroom...

Thus, we quickly made an U-turn and exited the female bathroom in Questione, to which I heard one of the ladies inside say mockingly "What was he gonna S-E-E Anyways!" As they were chuckling loudly over this outlandish scene as we  strode away...

But Oh, NO! INSANE lady wasn't done, SCREAMING she was going to get a Policeman to test my eyesight 'cause she knew I wasn't blind! As although I should have simply ducked the ABSURDITY of this surreal episode, my inner cranium was severely PISSED OFF 'bout being labeld as a PERVERT! To which unexpectedly I shot back ANGRILLY towards her I'm Legally Blind and would love to S-E-E a police officer determine my LACK of vision; while NOT saying I-T, my inner child was channeling "Bring IT On, lady!" To which she  SHOUTED back to me, S-E-E; YOU'RE NOT BLIND 'CAUSE YOU LOOKED RIGHT AT ME!

OH FUCK-A-DUCK LADY!

As I'll let Yuhs in on a 'lil secret Sister; I can HEAR the direction your voice is coming from; Oh Never Mind! As we made our exit promptly and stopped at the first Rest Area upon the I-5 Highway south, to where it was Claudio's turn to take me to the bathroom, where he noted there was  an electric car charging station at said rest area, which I suppose was a symbiotic reminder that the electricification of the automobile is definitely now  occurring...