June 26, 2010

F1 Telemetry Primer

Filed under: The Sporting Life — cipher @ 10:41 am

Interesting if brief article in NYTimes today about how F1 teams are using remote telemetry (like back at the factories in England) to determine how the race cars are running and should be tuned for the races. Enjoy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/automobiles/27TELEMETRY.html?hpw

June 25, 2010

How McLaren’s F-Ducts Work

Filed under: The Sporting Life — cipher @ 8:41 pm

Fascinating article in Racecar Engineering that I just stumbled upon. I know that there are enough F1 addicts around here to appreciate this:

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/f1/449813/f-ducts-how-do-they-work.html

Now how Red Bull and Ferrari have managed to work this into their designs is an unanswered question. Martin Brundle has a good animation showing how the folks at the Beeb think this is working:

March 3, 2010

WTF, Carmel Basketball?

Filed under: The Sporting Life, Uncategorized — cipher @ 11:01 am

When Deadspin picks up the story, you know that you’re hosed. Sure, NCHS may suffer from an occasional outbreak of arson, but homosexual serial digital anal rape? Good Lord! I can’t wait to hear the argument “Just because I fingered another guy’s ass doesn’t make me gay.” Is Carmel HS really that analogous to prison life? Go you mighty Greyhounds!

September 6, 2009

Link to Online Draft Spreadsheet

Filed under: The Sporting Life, Tomfoolery — cipher @ 8:46 am

This is the link to the Navin League 2009 Online Draft Spreadsheet.

Enjoy.

PS Here’s the info for the teleconference tonight at 7:00 Eastern/6:00 Central:

Please Call Dial-in Number: 1-219-509-8111
Participant Code: 898028

August 3, 2009

“Lap Dogs”

Filed under: The Sporting Life, Tomfoolery — cipher @ 7:12 pm

Stevo asked me to link here the article (”Lap Dogs“) that was just published in the August 2009 issue of Spirit Magazine about the Toxic Asset Racing Program and their race last February. Here’s a photo:

June 24, 2009

Peace in Our Time?

Filed under: The Sporting Life — cipher @ 9:29 am

Max Moseley says that FIA and FOTA have reached a truce and there will be no breakaway series in 2012. Apparently there is a new agreement between the FOTA teams and FIA that reaches to the 2012 season. I suspect that’s when FIA’s contract with Bernie Ecclestone’s group expires too, although I’m having a tough time digging up research on that one.

Moseley agreed not to run for FIA’s top office again, which opens the door for Ferrari’s Luca di Montezemolo to step into that spot.

Interestingly, under the current FIA contract with Bernie’s group, the teams only receive 1% of the TV revenues, whereas Bernie’s group keeps 49% and passes 50% to FIA. Sounds to me like that’s going to have to change going forward.

Interesting Perspective on F1/FOTA and CART/USAC

Filed under: The Sporting Life — cipher @ 9:19 am

Once upon a time, open wheel racing in America was ruled with an iron fist by the United States Auto Club. You might recognize this organization as the sanctioning body of one Indianpolis 500 and a bunch of smaller series (dirt, sprint, and midgets). Then the titans of open wheel racing — Penske, Gurney, Pat Patrick — decided that they weren’t getting their proper slice of the pie and thus emerged CART. The Last Turn Clubhouse has an interesting article comparing the situation in the US back in ‘78 with the situation in F1 today and warns of the inevitable consequences. Enjoy.

June 22, 2009

Why do FOTA Execs Hate Bernie So Much?

Filed under: The Sporting Life, Tomfoolery — cipher @ 4:53 pm

Maybe it’s because of asinine comments like these. Regardless of the validity of the points he makes, this kind of stuff is just petrol on the fire:

“I would hate to see any kind of takeover happen because it would be badly managed They can’t even run their own teams. They can’t agree on anything. If the teams owned it they would destroy it,” Ecclestone added.

He also scoffed at the leaked FOTA calendar, wondering how the body can compete with the structure operated by his businesses.

“We organise the venues which don’t cost the teams a penny,” said Ecclestone. “I reckon Ferrari and McLaren need us more than we need them.”

“All they have to do is pitch up at a track with their sponsors’ names all over their cars in exchange for millions of quid and race in front of a worldwide television audience - which I have set up and keep going.

“The bottom line is they can’t afford to set up a rival championship,” he added.

Is that an extended middle finger for Ecclestone that I see originating in Maranello?

June 19, 2009

Holy Crap. F1 Breakup!

Filed under: The Sporting Life — cipher @ 10:10 am

Proving that European open-wheel racing teams are no less dumbsh|ts than their American counterparts but that the Euros can lag behind the concept by a good ten years, F1 teams Brawn GP, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso have announced that they are breaking with FIA and Formula One starting with next season:

In the dead of Thursday night in England, the eight Formula One Teams’ Association members issued a statement announcing that a breakaway world championship will be formed.

The announcement came on the eve of the FIA’s Friday deadline for making unconditional entries for the official Formula One series, and amid the sides’ deadlocked negotiations about income, governance and rules.

Reportedly, WilliamsF1 and Team Force India have different contracts with FIA/Ecclestone and can’t skip town too but would do so if they thought they could get out of their contracts.I can only imagine how much McLaren has been wanting to do this ever since FIA and Ecclestone slammed them with that 100 million Euro fine last year — oddly, the exact same number that Ecclestone owed to McLaren for their share of the TV money paid to Ecclestone by broadcasters for the right to show the F1 no-passing circus.

I wonder if this will really happen or if Moseley and Ecclestone will pull it together. What a titanic clusterfvck erupts when egos clash. Cue the lawyers!

June 1, 2009

Best Save Ever?

Filed under: The Sporting Life — cipher @ 1:04 pm

No, not a soccer post — a motorcycle post! Check out this clip from some 250cc race. I think this dude would have just used up one of his 9 lives if he were a cat:

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