2010 Spanish GP and GP2 Race

This morning, I stayed up after work and watched the GP2 race and the F1 GP from Spain. I was really impressed with Sam Bird in the GP2 feature race, what an aggressive strong performance after problems early. I enjoyed watching his drive through the field, it was more fun to watch than the F1 race was. The F1 race was honestly a snoozer, as a matter of fact I slept through the start and the first 20 laps, waking up in the middle of the first set of pit stops. As much as I was impressed with Sam Bird's drive in GP2 I was disappointed with Button's drive. It seemed as if he really wasn't making an attempt to get around Schumacher, who seemed to be slower and was holding Button up. I can't help but think if it would have been teammate Hamilton in the same position, a pass would have been attempted if not made. Here are my weak attempts at punditry from this morning:

• @MrSteveMatchett, David Hobbs, and Bob Varsha in fine form this morning! Flying like a Bird, Riccing, Hope In Tung, Tung in Cheek...

• Sam Bird in the ART GP2 car is impressive. Very aggressive and so late on the brakes. What a blast to watch!Botched pit stop by Mercedes on Rosberg's car following a blazing one on Schumacher's car. #F1

• Already dozed off and missed start of #F1 race, woke up in middle of pit stops.

• Schumacher really holding Button up at Lap 25. Can't help but think a more agressive driver (like his teammate) would be around him by now.

• Don't know if I can stay awake thru this #F1 race; it is like Button isn't evev trying to get around Schumacher.

• Methinks Hulkenburg should be glad #F1 cars don't have fenders or Rosberg would used them; Hulkenburg blatantly blocking and weaving.

• Wil Buxton just took the cover off of the elephant in the room and I'm glad he did. Rosberg has been screwed by Mercedes...

• Rosberg was doing very good but the team changed the car all around to suit Schumacher! Been thinking this since Friday practice results.

• RT @Formula1Blogger: If Button overtakes Schumacher I'll eat my face! #F1 >> Don't worry, he isn't even trying.

• Hobbs just said what I tweeted, Hamilton would've passed Schumacher. At least he would have TRIED!

• Hamilton loses a left front with 2 to go! Game Over! Will Vettel be on podium with failing brakes?!

• Webber wins, Alonso takes P2 and Vettel is a lucky boy as he takes P3 with failing brakes. Wee bit of drama at the end.

• Next weekend: Monaco. Now that I've used #F1 for a sleep aid I'm going to bed.

This afternoon, Pressdog tweeted the following in regards to Speed TV's new pit lane reporter Will Buxton. My reply to him follows; so far I really like Buxton, he is a good addition to the Speed TV F1 team.

• pressdog Really like Will Buxton addition to F1 posse. Makes some great points like Rosberg greating hosed in favor of His Worship.

• kf4lmt @pressdog Very much agreed. He stated something that others chose to ignore. Welcomed honesty from Buxton in the pit lane.

Mac McCormick III

IndyCar 2010 Kansas Race Thoughts

I didn't get to watch the Kansas IndyCar race live, but I did record it and I watched it this morning. Here are a few of my thoughts from the race:

• Looks like Jay Howard has put SFR behind the 8 ball going into Indianapolis. I'm not sure how Sarah Fisher Racing is fixed for back up cars and spares, but that car looked heavily damaged. That team is really going to have work hard and hope for the best because Indy qualifying will be up coming up fast

• Hideki Mutoh and Takuma Sato were impressive until the restart with 14 to go. Sato did well for his first oval race. Hideki Mutoh did a good job prior to crashing with Takuma Sato, racing in the top 10 for part of the race. It looks like Newman Haas is getting their Oval house in order. I would have loved to have seen what Graham Rahal could have done with the car. Takuma Sato did quite well for his first ever oval race. No doubt racing for KV helped him out (I'm sure he got good advice from Vasser) but you have to be impressed with Sato being in the top 10 prior to the crash.
  

• Has the Kansas race been all that much better than the street course races? I'm sure some will disagree but I don't think so. While there was some good racing in the pack and there some battles for P2 and P3 at times, the race for P1 was never really in doubt. I just don't get how the Oval-Centric folks say that this is more exciting; road/street courses and ovals are equally exciting in different ways. On ovals you have wheel to wheel racing, on road and street courses you have the excitement of seeing who can brake the latest or who can control their car deeper into the corners.
  

• Andretti Autosport may not have fully sorted out the ovals, but it looks like @TonyKanaan and @RyanHunterReay certainly did for Kansas. Danica Patrick finished 1 lap down in P11 and Marco Andretti finished 2 laps down in P13 but Tony Kanaan finished P3 in front of Castroneves and Ryan Hunter Reay finished P5 in front of Ryan Briscoe. They didn't beat the Ganassi cars, but they did beat the Penske cars. Finishing in front of one of the giants isn't bad considering the Andretti team's last few seasons. Obviously there is improvement to be made by two of the Andretti cars, but this race shows that 2 of their cars are definitely getting with the program.
  

• P3 for @TonyKanaan! Good to see one of my favorites back on the podium. Congratulations TK!

Mac McCormick III

Thoughts on the F1 Chinese Grand Prix

Once again, I offer up a collection of my thoughts from the latest F1 race. Originally posted on Twitter either during or shortly after the race depending upon whether I was able to watch it live or not:

• Hamilton really racing hard, but it could be all for naught depending upon the stewards' decision on the pit lane episode with Vettel.

• I just don't understand why a decision can't be made during the race on the Hamilton/Vettel pit episode, it is on video

• Wisdom of Schumacher's #F1 return? He was just passed by Petrov. Schumacher could very well be tarnishing his career.

• Petrov doing well late in the race in the rain. He's passed both Schumacher and Webber

• Button wins over Hamilton. Good finishes by Rosberg in P3 and Kubica in P5. What will become of the Stewards' investigation?

• What might have been for Alonso if he hadn't jumped the start?

• Once again, the rain has made for an interesting #F1 race. Would like to have had more timely Stewards' decisions though.

Well, essentially the Stewards investigation into Hamilton and Vettel in the pits came to naught. That is truly a shame as racing side by side in the pit lane as they did, with Hamilton in the area where crewman could be working, was dangerous. The whole episode makes a mockery of pit lane safety. Seems to be a NASCAR-like decision to me.

Mac McCormick III

Obama Hatred

The hatred that many people have for President Obama never ceases to amaze me. This morning on Facebook, I noticed that more than one person likes this:

DEAR-LORD-THIS-YEAR-YOU-TOOK-MY-FAVORITE-ACTOR-PATRICK-SWAYZIE-YOU-TOOK-MY-FAVORITE-ACTRESS-FARAH-FAWCETT-YOU-TOOK-MY-FAVORITE-SINGER-MICHAEL-JACKSON-I-JUST-WANTED-TO-LET-YOU-KNOW-MY-FAVORITE-PRESIDENT-IS-BARACK-OBAMA-AMEN

Since when has it become acceptable to wish death upon someone just because you don't like them? People who consider themselves Christians are hoping that the President dies. Unbelievable. I didn't particularly like George Bush but I would never have wished death upon him or expressed that I wished that he would have died. I don't believe that Obama has done a good job as President, but I don't wish that he would die. I'm sure that the person who created this believes that it is an attempt at humor. It really isn't funny.

We live in truly sad times when we cannot argue our differences civilly and peacefully, instead resorting to things like this. It is bad enough that someone would have these feelings in the first first place, but instead of making comments like these, perhaps people should put their energy into campaigning against Obama and electing representatives that they believe can counter his policies.

Mac McCormick III

CNN Contributor Calls Confederate Soldiers Terrorists

In recent telecasts and on the CNN website, CNN contributor Roland Martin has repeatedly called Confederate Soldiers from the Civil War terrorists. In an online column yesterday, he defended his actions.

First, it is just as divisive of Mr. Martin to refer to them as terrorists as he claims that the Virginia Governor was in honoring the Confederate Veterans this month and leaving out any mention of slavery. Mr. Martin certainly understands that he lobbed a hand grenade into an ammo dump when he made his comments. There is no doubt in my mind that he knew he was being inflammatory. Second, Mr. Martin uses faulty reasoning to come to his conclusion that the Civil War Confederate soldiers were terrorists.

Mr. Martin states that Confederate Soldiers served with the "desire to continue slavery." That is inaccurate. Many average soldiers did not own slaves. Additionally, if left to some Confederate generals, they would have begun the war after freeing the slaves in the Confederacy. Just as the Confederates' primary war aim was not to keep slavery intact, neither was the war aim of the Union to free the slaves. There was still slavery in the Union during the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation freed no slaves in the North! Although slavery was a contributing factor in the war, it was only one of the contributing factors.

"If a Confederate soldier was merely doing his job in defending his homeland, honor and heritage, what are we to say about young Muslim radicals who say the exact same thing as their rationale for strapping bombs on their bodies and blowing up cafes and buildings?"

There is a big difference between a Confederate Soldier serving as part of an organized Army subject to government control and a terrorist who straps a bomb to his body and blows up cafes and buildings. With notable exceptions, the Civil War was fought by one Army against another Army. Confederate Soldiers did not attack and kill civilians, they fought against the Union Army in a declared war. If terrorism is defined as the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes and a terrorist is defined as a person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism then using Mr. Martin's logic, could you not label the Union Army during Sherman's "March to the Sea" as terrorists? Using his logic, where do you draw the line between soldier and terrorist?

Mac McCormick III

IndyCar Debuts at Barber Motor Sports Park

I enjoyed watching the first IndyCar race at Barber Motor Sports Park in Birmingham, Alabama yesterday afternoon. I saw a lot of tweets and comments online about how boring the race was or how much of a snoozer it was. Not all races can be pass fests and even though this one didn't feature a lot of passing, it was still an interesting race from a strategy standpoint. Even though there weren't a lot of passes, there was still a lot of pressure being applied. I imagine you could probably ask Marco Andretti about the pressure that Helio Castroneves was putting on him. That said, some change could probably be made to the track to make for more passing opportunities and I understand that the facility has made promises to do so.

Congratulations to Helio Castroneves on his win. Good to see him climbing the fences again!

Mac McCormick III

I watched the F1 Malaysian Grand Prix last night but I wasn't able to tweet any live comments on it like I've been trying to do with some races. I did tweet some thoughts later in the morning, though. I'll pull them together here to give my thoughts on the race:

• Overall the F1 Malaysian GP was pretty good. There was really no podium fight but the fight for P5 back with McLaren and Ferrari was great!

• It was a shame Alonso's car gave up on the last lap. He put up a heck of a fight with a car that had downshift issues.

• Could it be a Red Bull season in F1? They are certainly the fastest and seem to be sorting out the reliability issues.

• Well Done Force India! A solid drive from a good starting spot by Sutil yields P5 in a dry race

• Well Done Nico Rosberg. 2 straight P5s now a P3 finish. He's outperforming Schumacher on a regular basis too.

• Re: Hamilton blocking early, Don't think he was blocking but instead trying to break the draft on the straight. Once common in NASCAR.

Mac McCormick III