The circus is in town…

So, I’m beyond exhausted at this moment, but I thought I would jot down a few notes before I crashed for the night.

This race event/weekend is still far from it’s former glory. Leaps and bounds as far as the preamble goes.

Today was a day of one step forward/two steps back. So many things were ‘this close” to being great, but fell short. :insert wah wah wah sound:

Things that were great, which mostly had nothing to do with this weekend’s event. My racing yaya’s are in town. There are friends, there are childhood friends, there are everyday friends and then there are racing friends. Racing friends get it. They get the joy of burning eyes and throats from being on pitlane. The get the frantic schedule. They get the ear to ear grin that only time at a race track can evoke.

I had a great time at the street party. (much room for improvement dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

oops.. I literally nodded off there. (so beyond tired right now)

Highlights of my day: Seeing Bronte get her first ever 2-seater ride with Tags as the driver.

Getting a pace car ride with Stefan Wilson on my home track  *woot*

watching the IndyCar drivers who weren’t on “our side of the fence” watching the San Jose moment between Tags and PT from on track incident to off track throwdown. I don’t think I’ve ever seen either Dario or Will as animated as They were earlier. (pics later) dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

shit… fell asleep again, so I’m gonna bail on this and prepare for the morning.

Race track = happy place

A little Watkins Glen preamble…

ah yes… the joys of road trips… I love the Glen weekend, but it falls over not one, but TWO holidays. The Canada Day & the Fourth of July. Conveniently this year, my travel days… ugh.

I left my house at 9am. Filled my rental car with gas, grabbed a Starbucks for the road, and headed down the highway, wind in my hair… nope… to generate wind, the car would have to be  in motion!! Traffic was a shit show as our brilliant government instituted harmonized sales tax as of yesterday. Nothing harmonious about it. Happy Birthday Canada, everything your citizens purchase or enjoy just became a fuck of a lot more expensive. For instance, My rental car and the gas I put in it that morning cost me an additional 8%. Gee thanks. Cause race weekends aren’t expensive enough

Of course this has lead to a rush for the border to buy shit, and gas, and whatever else to avoid the taxes. Ironically of course I  watched a quarter tank of now really expensive gas burn away while sitting in the line up for the border. Yes, sat at the border for 4hrs and 26mins. The entire trip should have only taken me just over 4hrs… maybe 5.

My weekend also doubled expenses wise when my traveling companion could no longer make the trip. Too late unfortunately to cancel the hotel without penalty, so I’m a bachelorette this weekend with 2 double beds all to herself LOL! One will be where I will be eating the food I hastily packed yesterday  morning, in my room for 4 days. Cheap and cheerful. Hopefully there will be something I can eat at the track as well that won’t activate the gluten allergy. I have given myself permission to purchase a nice meal at Seneca lodge one night. It’s tradition now!

I’m looking forward to a couple of days of nothing but racing to concentrate on. Work has been  brutal this year. Lot’s of 12hr days and 7 day weeks. Oh… but I was informed yesterday that my “racing” related days off (I usually take my 2 weeks of vacation time in  Monday’s and Fridays throughout the year) do not count towards my allotted days! sweet!

It’s an added bonus that Paul is racing this weekend, and that I get to see all of his races this year! Of course I would happily be disappointed to miss some due to his running a full season… ya know?

It still didn’t feel like I was going to a race until I got here this morning. LOL! Usually I’m so distracted with anticipation leading up to a weekend, but there was no time to even think about racing the past 2 weeks. (I’ve been doing stuff in preparation for being away end of the month for Edmonton too) I literally thought I had one more day until I could leave, then Wed night I was like, OH SHIT tomorrow is Thursday, start packing!

If you are at the track this weekend, please say hi. (Hobbson, I’m call you out you bastard!) I usually don’t have a lot of time to socialize at the track, but do stop for quick chats and intros!

Iowa Corn 250 *live* race blog

It’s 2:13 and the cars are on the parade lap as the peeps at IndyCar thumb their noses and give the fickle middle finger to Ms. Nature who has been less than accommodating with the weather this year.

The skies are looming, but no precipitation as they line up two by and take the green flag.

Grren green green!

Power gets the jump, but Dixon is right on his ass.

and we’re yellow…

The ass end of J-Wil’s car gets away from him in turn 4 and he spins like a whirling dervish into the “wrong place wrong time” KV Tech car of Mario Moraes. 2nd time this season that MM is out on lap one.

FYI… I will only be online watching until about 3:20pm, as I have to rush off to a phot0 shoot. By then we’ll either be out of cars or under rain delay I imagine… LOL!

This is a lengthy clean up…

And we are back to green on lap 12. Power, Andretti, Dixon your top three off in a little pack all their own. This could be the weekend that Marco breaks through…

ooooh that was close and ugly. Power and Andretti split around Milka. Power gets through pretty much unscathed, but Marco barely makes around Milka as she drifts up from being passed by Power and cuts him off.

uh oh, things just got all discombobulted at the front (lap 33)  Marco took the lead, Franchitti got around Dixon, Power is dropping like a stone. The world is screaming for Milka’s head. LOL

Penske   er… “debris” yellow, so it’s a festival of leaders pitting on lap 54-55.

Kanaan, Castroneves and Dixon make contact exiting pitlane… much kerfufflage!

With all the yellow delays, doesn’t look like I’m going to get much of this race in before I have to bail.

Green flag Rahal leads for a few laps, but the red cars inhale him by lap 68 (?)

Lap 73, The Ganassi boys are in the lead, followed by the Andretti boys (Kanaan, RHR) Sato is having a good run in 5th, and Rahal (filling in for Conway) has settled in 6th.

wait, 3 cars run into each other on pitlane, but Lloyd gets a stop and go penalty? Weird. That’s a get the “little guy out of the way” penalty in my opinion…

The Penske boys have gotten it all wrong today.

Turn 4 collects another one. Sarah Fisher got loose, high and into the wall on lap 95. Her day is done. A small clown car drives to the media centre with a cold miller and consoling back pat for P-Dog from all of his colleagues out her in bloggersville.

A plug for the Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen!  And with that I just got all giddy. Woot!

Apparently we can call this at 126 laps.

Restart on lap 113 , Dixon takes over the lead from Franchitti, with Kanaan in tow, Franchitti takes it back.

Here comes TK!!

Tony Kanaan takes the lead! But FROchitti is all over his ass like a fat kid on an ice cream bar.

Mutoh appears to be done.

And Franchitti get’s by TK, with Dixon in the hunt… the Deathstar on the attack, the hopes of an interesting race and winner begin to fade…

And just like that, he’s back in the lead!! Bring on the rain! LOL!

Simona appears to be done as well…

OK… I must run to work now.  I’ll try to keep up on twitter till the end.

Go TK and Taku!!

Is it July yet??

I left the office at a half decent time today and took a detour to sit here by the lake and enjoy the breeze and zen calm of the waves and the sailboats.(I’m resisting the urge to hop onto the patio and partake in a Jack n’ coke…) This is one of those stream of conscience posts that happen between events, when I have rare moments of “spare” time.

The start of my personal “Month of May” is but a few weeks away. 16 days to be exact. And I can’t wait!!

Car and hotel booked for the Glen. Flight and hotel booked for Edmonton. Several Fridays and one Monday scheduled of my “holiday” time. Conveniently our nation’s birthday falls on the Thursday the Glen week, allowing me a travel day… during the day! I’m so looking forward to seeing the Glen by daylight and being able to stop and pick up a bottle of “Pompous Ass” wine on the way in! (Someone needs to make some “Mouthy Bitch” Vodka… just sayin…)

Then a week and a bit to cram in as much “real job” work as possible before the back to back Toronto/Edmonton swing! Actually, I’m doing a lot of July prep now so I don’t get too slammed then. (once a Virgo, always a Virgo)

I can’t believe how quickly the season is going. Come August my racing schedule gets shoved to the side while real life takes over again (job number 2 – photographer’s assistant – has booked me every weekend! Sometimes twice!) Then it’s September, then it’s over.

Once again this year, I missed out on a few key races on the schedule. So I will be planning better for 2011.

I’ve barely had a moment to look up the past couple of months. Mostly growing pains at work.  A year and a bit into the not so new anymore job, and my responsibilities quadrupled. I know some of my colleagues are also going thru stuff this year on a personal and professional front as well, so while I feel like I’m treading water most days, at least I have company in the water.

I got to go to a couple of PR events for the Honda Indy Toronto in the last couple of weeks, (I uploaded some pics to the Honda Indy Toronto Facebook page) which has me all giddy with anticipation for my home event. They’ve really stepped it up from the shit show that was the lackluster return of the race in 2009. The arrogance has been replaced by a genuine desire to do it right, and make this event the grand lady it was for all those years. I’m looking forward to being proud of our event again.

Of course the cherry on the top is that Paul will be racing at at least 2 of the 3 races. (hopefully something will come together for the Glen too)

We played the lotto the other week at work. (50 million jackpot) and went around the room talking about what we would do with our share of the money. Without hesitation I said I would fund Paul’s farewell tour. With whatever team he wanted to drive on. We’d paint the car up for local charities each race, and I’d provide an extra pool of cash each race for nose cones. (chrome of course ) My workmates rolled their eyes, with “what a waste’ expressions, and went about spending their fantasy money on cars and boats and homes and other material things. My fantasy money would bring me so much more joy, because it would bring so many others such joy.  Money well spent in my opinion.

We didn’t win, but those few hours planning the “Chrome Horn heard around the World” tour was sure fun…

and on that note… my battery is on fumes and my grocery shopping awaits…

Talk to ya on the weekend…

IndyCar Texas 550 *live blog*

Welcome to the Texas 550, where after 22 laps it’s Penske, Ganassi, Ganassi, Penske, Penske…

The 812 people who showed up to watch are on the edge of their seats.

The radio announcers are already hoarse from screaming about “touching wheels” and “side by side!!”

Lap 37, cars not called Penske or Ganassi are dropping like stones. There are approximately 10 cars on the lead lap.

Competition yellow to try to make this interesting. Somehow Briscoe loses the lead and plummets to 5th. The Princess is now up to 3rd. *curious to know how many pushes of her magic speed juice she has left, cause from what I’ve seen she’s used a few)

*and we pause while everything crashes simultaneously* (my browser and a car apparently as we are one a yellow, and the safety crew is on track)

according to T&S it tooks like Takuma “we could have funded PT for the season with what we’ve paid in crash damage” Sato found the wall.

Running order is Ganassi, Penske, Andretti, Penske, Ganassi, Andretti, Penske, Andretti… everyone else.

66 laps complete and we go back to green.

I just flipped around the channels to see if anything interesting was on. No such luck. Maybe I’ll play solitaire for a while …

oh ya, we’re on lap “who gives a crap, let’s end this already…”

HOLY FUCK guys. Here’s a suggestion: FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!

Geezus christ, were you waiting for an invitation??

And now the radio guys are making excuses for them all standing around with their thumbs up their ass while Simona cooked. “They don’t usually have fires, so they don’t practice for them” REALLY?? You think that was the best choice of words for an excuse?!

Best in the business my ass.

Maybe someone should hand Randy Bernard Lon Bromley’s number so they can put together a world class safety team while they make changes to the rest of the formula.

“@SBPopOffValve: A safety crew can be out of practice for rarities. Like toe fungus. Or loose bowels. NOT FIRE. Judas Priest…”

absofuckinglutely my friend.

And now the IndyCar PR is trying to spin it…

“Gang, the Holmatro Safety Team has a job much tougher than I. They do their job very well and they will learn from their mistakes.”

and just who wants to be the “mistake” they learn from?? Sorry, that spin doesn’t fly with me. I’ve seen too many “what might have been” situations that were prevented by the CART/Champ Car Safety team to give ANYONE a pass for not being 150% prepared for ANYTHING!

Ok… back to the race.

blah blah blah… round and round and round…

oh MY Helio doing his best Princess Sparkle Pony impression for the gathered masses! LOL!

Well, I’ve now lost sound and picture…

ok, I’m back. nope… gone again…

ok… so I briefly had sound again only to discover that there were more hijinx in the pits.

and then the internet dies…

and now I’m back and Princess Sparkle Pony is leading. (wonder how much Gossege paid to give her a few more shots of P2P ( I notice they called out everyone but her’s earlier..)

no wait, Briscoe still at the top of the chart.

According to the booth, the Princess gained a lot of respect after she got out of the car and bwahaha apologized for the  “perceived knock on her crew”

Do these guys actually listen to the shit they spew?

I can’t believe I’m rooting for a Penske car right now… Actually I would like to see Ryan redeem himself. I think he’s a good kid who is under immense pressure to live up to the hype of being a Penske driver under the shadow of Twinkletoes.

LOL… of course the first interview is the Princess! She’s back to rainbows and fluffy bunnies. I guess she had a sit down with her 120 agents after Indy and got her new script for the rest of the season.

I’m very happy for Ryan.

P2 for the Princess. Whatever. Would she still be P2 had she been black flagged for blocking? … oh wait, that’s not in her rule book. The hater defense rests.

oooh… apparently I missed a major tirade by TK citing the above lack of black flag action towards the blockage. “what goes around comes around” look OUT… it’s ON kids!! (Iowa just got interesting already…)

Will still manages P3. I can’t believe they (Penske) managed to screw Power over again. I guess it’s been decided that it just wouldn’t look good to have the new kid (former CC driver) take the championship.

I’m giving props to Marco too. He is a different driver this year. I would like to see him on the podium soon too. He deserves it.

and how bout Alex Lloyd?! Woot!!

So it would appear that my T&S stopped working in the wrong order, despite several refreshes. Too funny. What a fucked up night technically for the Meeshster. At least I’m home and not commuting back from my office in the middle of the night.

Ok, guess I have to piece together all the crap I missed so I can write this up.

Thanks again to Ryan for preventing me from having to write enthusiastically about Shamica.