Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Best of Two Worlds, And A Not so Great Third

    As Who let the Dogs Out indeedy! No, Don’t Open that door, and definitely do Not turn that Confuzer off!

 

Ah, the Joys of relying on Screen Reading technology, Oof, Ouch, Biff, Crash! As the El Stupidio, Putrid P.O.S. Zoomtext Fusion 2022 program’s decided to turn itself Off Friday evening All upon it’s Own, you Cheeky Bugger! Leaving me temporarily without a working Screen Reader, Spew! Which I thought was gonna be for the entire weekend, until I figured out how to manually activate it when using a few Silent “Work Around” Hot Key commands! But I really shouldn’t need to do Any of this, Sigh!

 

Having spent a Fantastic 10 Days on Holiday in Warshington’, including a tranquil eight days on Vashon Island, wherest No Fenders Tacoma Bureau Chief Mary Ellen was Dog sitting four Furr-rocious’ Hoonds’, from largest to smallest; an 80lbs Pitbull mix, a “Two Tone” 18yr old Terrier mix and two loveable Chihuahua’s, with All four being Boyz’, my mind was solely focused on Canines and Not Motor Racing for a rare instance! Although the lone Feline Cat was driving me Bonkers with Her never ending attempts to sit upon Thy lap, Meow!

 

As I wasn’t really concerned about missing All five major Motorsport categories races, i.e.; Sports Cars, FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championships from the Super Sebring weekend. Plus Formula 1, IndyCar and MotoGP.

 

Although I did ask Mary Ellen to find out for Mwah whilst spending copious amounts of lap time with both “Hang 10: Hilo and Bertie’, the two Chihuahua’s of the pack, whilst the lone Feline Cat Evaine got an “A” for trying to sit upon my lap Nonstop, Meow!

 

As I thought I was losing my “Marbles” when entering the Bathroom and was startled by a loud Meow! As Evain was sitting atop the counter next to the sink with the faucet’s water going Drip Drip Drip, to which I thought seriously? The Freakin’ Cat knows how to turn on the water, WTF! Before Mary Ellen told me She’d turned it on for the Cat…

 

As it must have been Friday night since I know She told me that Max Verstappen was Quickest, since I’d later learn on Saturday that Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had claimed his first Pole position since last year’s Azerbaijan  Grand Prix some Gory Nine months ago, remember that Y’all? Ahead of Verstappen’s Red Bull being the Crème filling of an Scuderia Ferrari pastry, with Carlos Sainz Jr. P3.

 

But was way more impressed and Happy when She read me the Top-10, including being Stunned by Kevin Bacon’ Magnussen for Haas in seventh upon his Formula 1 return, one place behind Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas lining up alongside his former Mercedes team leader Sir Lewis! Whilst Bottas Merc’ replacement George Russell was P9.

 

Also on Saturday afternoon, Mary ellen apparently read me just the Top-6 Texas Motor Speedway’s (TMS) IndyCar Qualie’ results, since I recall Her stopping after reading Hulio’s name to Mwah in P6.

 

As I was most surprised by the Pole winner and third, being very Happy for Arrow McLaren SP’s Felix Rosenqvist to claim his maiden Oval Pole, along with an impressive run from 40-Something’s Taku-san’ (Takuma Sato) in the Coyne-Ware Racing Honda bracketing whom the media are now calling ScottyMac’, aka Scott McLaughlin giving Chevy a  Front row lockout.

 

Fourth was Scotty Mac’s Penske teammate DJWillyP’ (Will Power) followed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and the aforementioned Helio Castroneves as the lead Meyer shank Racing entry.

 

With the Top-10 being filled out by Penske’s Josef Newgarden in P7, with Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta and AMSP’s Pato O’Ward in tow.

 

Originally thought we were going for one last Walkabout’ with the Hoonds’ Sunday morning, since it was supposed to be Dry between 8-11AM, before I got to listen to almost the entire IndyCar race via Zed Internets’ instead, but more on that later…

 

Waiting in line to board the Ferry Monday afternoon to Tacoma, I finally asked Mary ellen to read me the results of the Bahrain Grand Prix, for which She said I was wondering when you’d ask me? Which secretly I was hoping it would be Leclerc winning, so I was Happy when She told me it was a Ferrari 1-2 with Leclerc leading Sainz across the stripe with a surprising Hamilton in third, with No mention of the Red Bulls! Although I was more impressed with Magnussen’s Fairytale season start with a fifth place finish for Haas! One position ahead of an impressive Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Debut! Whilst quietly, Bottas Rookie Chinese teammate GuanYu Zhou scored a solitary point on his F1 Debut upon finishing P10.

 

 

As it was the Monegasque’s (Leclerc) and la Scuderia’s first win in some Two and a Half years since triumphing at Home at Monza’s 2019 Italian Grand Prix, along with being Ferrari’s first 1-2 Season Opener finish since the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. The latter Stat I heard Kroftie’, aka Sky Sports David Kroft mentioning either during Jeddah’s Friday (Free Practice) FP2 session or Saturday’s FP3 session, where Leclerc was fastest during All three practices. Along with learning that la Scuderia’s last Front Row lockout was the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix.

 

Then a day after returning Home and scouring le Intrawoods’, I learned that the Grandfathered LMP1 Alpine A480 had won the weather shortened 1000 Miles of Sebring FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Season Opening race. As the race was Red Flagged three times, ultimately for a passing Thunderstorm Friday night.

 

As I must say that the WEC seems like a Lame Duck this season, with currently only four top flight Hypercars, albeit the Alpine and lone Scuderia Glickenhaus are vastly outclassed by the two Werks’ Toyota GR010’s!

 

Thus Peugeot’s Brace of radical 9X8 prototypes cannot arrive soon enough this year, before the real Competizione begins in 2023 when the Prancing Horse Hypercar arrives, along with Scuderia Ferrari being joined by the likes of Porsche, Acura, BMW and Cadillac at Circuit de la Sarthe! Since last I read was that Audi’s LMDH, Err IMSA GTP plans were on Hold…

 

Also learned that the following day at Sebring, Thee Cheepster’, nee Chip Ganassi Racing’s #02 Caddy’ with Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Neil Jani, drafted in as a Substitute Driver due to IndyCar’s TMS Conflict led a 1-2-3 Cadillac DPi V.R sweep at this year’s 12 Hours of Sebring! With last year’s “Mach 5 Mustang Sally” JDC Miller Motorsports second and the #31 Whelen Engineering entry third.

 

As unbeknownst to Mwah, as I was Rootin’ for Marcus Ericsson to pull off an unlikely Oval victory Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, that would have given Cheep’ two wins that weekend…

 

And lastly, Miguel Oliveira aboard His Factory KTM mount won his fourth MotoGP race at the rain sodden Indonesia MotoGP race, ahead of current MotoGP World Champion Fabio Quartararo. Whilst Pramac Racing Ducati Satellite rider Johann Zarco passed Ducati Werks’ rider “Thriller (Jack) Miller” for the Podium’s final step.