Random Thoughts... (Motorsports Edition)

In other news, last year's F2 champion Dean Stoneman was planning to race in FR3.5 this year... but, unfortunately, at only 20, he's been diagnosed with testicular cancer. :( http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89023

Stoneman sidelined by illness

By Mark Glendenning Friday, January 21st 2011, 09:49 GMT

Dean StonemanReigning Formula 2 champion Dean Stoneman has been forced to withdraw from a planned Formula Renault 3.5 campaign due to an illness.

The 20-year-old, who was set to compete with the ISR squad alongside Daniel Ricciardo, was diagnosed with testicular cancer earlier this week.

Sources close to the Briton said that doctors had made the diagnosis early and were confident that he will make a full recovery, with treatment scheduled to begin immediately.

Stoneman intends to return to the track as soon as he is back to full health, however the driver's family have requested that their privacy be respected in the meantime.
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Wish him a speedy recovery, and hopefully he'll have a comeback like one L. Armstrong (though without the controversies).
 
Zac Silver outbraking 5 cars into turn 8 at Miami like it's cool.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8aYIyljeUc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

WAT.

BTW, the top 7 cars finished with 0.3 seconds between them.
 
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Haha, that's brilliant! :lol:

I bet he didn't have any intention to do that either, it looked like he pretty much just dodged the others who were trying to block each other on the inside and were braking really early...
 
yawn, the pace was so slow that i almost fell asleep.
 
MadCow809 said:
yawn, the pace was so slow that i almost fell asleep.
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You do it then! Go race at Miami road, beat Silver's track record 1:32.8 in the Skip Barber car.

GT VIRUS said:
Looks like they were all trying to avoid being first onto that last straight to me, as you saw this guy was first and was drafted easily to lose the race.
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Yeah, the goal at Miami is to come out of 8 in 2nd and bump draft the leader, or come out in 3rd for a slingshot to 1st and pray no one else bump drafts.

Still, you really have to wonder why the leader was playing defensive. If I was him I'd have tried to get passed.
 
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It's the same one as the one from the FIA Gala that popped up on Youtube recently, probably slightly truncated. But yeah, the opening bit really was kinda awesome.


Oh yeah, and btw... the opening bit? Remind you of something in terms of style?

The Scream of Science
 
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Well, I've got a car and a team for Spec Miata in the San Fran SCCA region. It's one of Ed Railton's cars. Since I've never done a race with SCCA (or driven Thunderhill), I'll be doing the 3-day SCCA licensing school there in March to learn the track and the organization. Should get me a few hours of track time. I'm already licensed but they have a special program for licensed drivers.

Should be a kick. The car is immaculate.
 
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RIP Tom Carnegie.

[video=youtube;_R-l4_LTnKI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-l4_LTnKI[/video]

 
MadCat360 said:
Well, I've got a car and a team for Spec Miata in the San Fran SCCA region. It's one of Ed Railton's cars. Since I've never done a race with SCCA (or driven Thunderhill), I'll be doing the 3-day SCCA licensing school there in March to learn the track and the organization. Should get me a few hours of track time. I'm already licensed but they have a special program for licensed drivers.

Should be a kick. The car is immaculate.
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PI?ATA! :burnrubber:

Good luck! I've seen a couple Spec Miatas just practicing at trackdays and those things look like a freaking blast.
 
ninjacoco said:
PI?ATA! :burnrubber:
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I hope not! Last time I pinata'd one it cost nigh on a grand... :ninja:

Luckily Thunderhill has less walls than Infineon.

They're gutless and they have numb slicks, but that just means you can set them up really aggressive. They are fun.
 
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Not 100% motorsport related, but the Russian police searched Vitali Petrov's father's company's business space and found a "significant amount" of drugs and weapons. Interesting...
 
Always thought some of his sponsor money came from the mob. I always envisioned his "sponsors" sitting around in the "company warehouse" shooting the old TV set when he got passed.
 
SCCA driver school was awesome! I got landed in the group that had a Porsche 930 and a 996 Cup. I got some very nice feelings inside whenever the Cup car passed me. Sounds like sex.

The little Sealed Spec Miata did fantastic. I ran it on street summer tires for the first day, just to learn the handling with a bit more feedback. Maybe a bit too much feedback. Even with race exhaust the tires were louder than the engine... so we bought some shaved Toyo RA1s for day two and three. All I had to do was adjust the tire pressure by 1.5 pounds (hot) in the front and the car handled beautifully. They still screamed petty good but they gripped nice.

The only sore spot was the transmission. The first session out and the first time I did a hard shift into 3rd it made grinding noises - no synchro gear in 3rd. I talked to my car owner about it and he said to just use the gear up and he'll drop a new transmission in when we got back. I was shifting slow into 3rd and trying not to shift into it too often. Even so, it was getting hard to engage on the 3rd day (I had to use it twice per lap).

Despite the transmission, I was the fastest Miata there by a good ways. I was probably leaving 1.5-2 seconds on the table by babying 3rd. The GoPro footage I got was terrible. The angle is really nice but the stupid camera tried to make the cockpit too bright and washed out the view in the windows, so you can't see the track.

 
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Shirahime said:
@MadCat: You at Infineon this weekend?

EDIT: Or wait... is it Thunderhill this weekend?
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SCCA's doing a National race on the weekend of the 27th at Thunderhill, but I'm not driving in that. Rather, I will be there supervising the driver who is using the car and making sure he doesn't damage it. :p
 
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