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Around The Racing World

Formula 1 is in the midst of a firestorm, and no doubt the crux of the matter being argued is liability, someone should be made to pay, they all agree, just not "me". I'm sure the USGP lawsuits will come forth, and should reports of a boycott of the French GP prove accurate, more litigation outside this most litigious land we live in, will ensnarl the principles of F1. Those associated with Michelin, and those who are not!..
Bernie Ecclestone made his views known in a report of a post-Indy500 phone call to none other than Danica Patrick herself. Bernie congratulated her on her outcome, and remarked that she should wear white, just as all kitchen appliances do. The headline read, 'Patrick Angry Over Remarks'-or something.(!!) Man, what a comment from the head of worldwide FIA operations. Kinda had Islamic-connotations as well. Maybe that was just me.
Champ Car kicked ass, but did anyone see the helicopter crash???? It was reported, a mere 1/4 mile from a populated grandstand, a helicopter crash landed on the westernmost tarmack of Burke Lakefront Airport Saturday during the Atlantics race. Paul Tracy runs strong here, and true to form, inherited the lead for good as off-pit sequence cars succumbed to fuel need. AJ Allmendinger had a hard hit in practice, but came back and made a podium finish. It was a hot day and they all looked very hot on the podium.
Conversely, the IRL's Indy Car race at Richmond provided some excellent, and cool, night racing if speed and precision are your cup of tea. Far outclassing the field, Penske's two Toyota/Lola cars driven by Sam Hornish Jr, and Helio Castroneves drove as if it was their home track. Well, it is their home track and even though Penske is the only team with Toyota power being competitive, the Hondas never made a strong bid for the lead. It was a split second mistake that kept Hornish from winning from pole, instead he had to climb from a mangled, wall-impacted car. His team mate never flinched, he just disappeared into the Virginia night. I was glad to see the ceremonial fence climb. Good to see good-guy Helio Castroneves back on top of the podium.
Home town favorites Foyt Racing had mixed results. They finished last, but they did finish. I hope they continue to grow, and get better at getting handling, cause that's all they got. Foyt is one of the Toyota teams on the outside. Without the massive R&D of a Penske, the 'stock' Toyota power plant is several steps behind Honda this year. According to AJ Sr, Toyota comes out with upgrades mid-season, and they're looking forward to this. Anthony is improving on track and in the pits, and the team is fighting through a lot of adversity. From the top, however, no one on the team has lost his focus on the big picture, and that's good. AJ is still a force to be reckoned with.
And finally, I saw a story on an American F1 hopeful, he's 14. His family allowed him to move to Italy, and if I'm not mistaken, he's competing in the premier league of European Karting on Auto circuits. Now, THAT'S cool. I'm sure ladder series' entry forms have already been filed. Good Luck, Yank. I'll find out your name and publish it in future letters, (I think it's Edwards...)

Good night and good racing!

My Chinook Story

The Chinook helicopter, CH-47 I think, is in the news again by it being shot down again. I served from 84-87, and had some contact with the Chinook.


The Forward Area Alerting Radar was an old p.o.s. Korean war era, and as operator on the modern battlefield life expectance was only seconds. But the FAAR accompanied the AA guns of Airborne ADA, the Vulcan, Stinger and (in training), the Hawk.
The FAAR was far too sensitive and breakable to heavy-drop or LAPSE, so it was airlifted into the area, but too late for early operations. SSG Alford knew he could air-mobile the unit, little tricky at the center of the unit, it was mounted on a six-wheeled truck known as the gamma goat. With a huge retractable mast mounted on one side, the ungainly radar was big and heavy.
Three pairs of straps suspended the unit, with a wooden spreader bar across the top of the operators cabin in back. All that was left was to hook it up to the bird, and that was my job.
I stood on the roof of the unit with the straps in my hands, all gathered and held together with a large D-ring. But the D-ring was metal, and the static electricity of the hovering copter would knock me down. Trick was to hold the D-ring upright by squeezing the straps together, and then lifting it and hopefully hitting the belly-hook first try.
I stood on the roof and watched the big bird circle the meadow we were in. It turned and approached me with the nose high, exposing the belly and the hook in the center. I never saw the pilot, it saw only the hook. I held the ring high, and the pilot brought it in, center and right height...I slammed the D-ring through the spring-loaded gate on the choppers' hook, it hit home, and I turned and jumped off the roof.
I don't remember the tremendous noise it must've generated, I remember the rotor-wash hitting me.
The bird's engines cranked up, and the Chinook tilted upwards and climbed. The FAAR flew for the first time, and was set down again without damage to the radar unit, showing it could be done in combat.
FAAR Platoon, Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion(Airborne), 4th Air Defense Artillery
82d Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, NC
SSG Tommy Alford, SGT Darrell Jenkins, PFC Dennis Anderson, PVT Ian Carroll
1985

I also had a fun jump from a CH-47. Tailgate.

My dogs birthday and karting plans

A call from Lynda today reminded us again of Mozart's birthday. Mo mo's two, and his early days are a wonderful story.

Lynda gave us Shelby for Christmas one year, gave it to my 11 year old son, who had come to live with us. I had moved in with Lynda and my soon to be fiance, Crystal, and the three of us would live with her on Karenbeth St. for another year before moving to a nearby apartment.
Shelby was a black with white German Shepherd pup, female, but had some other breed in her, we didn't know what. She was magnificent as she grew up, even in the apartment, where she grew to 95 pounds, she was loyal, obediant and smart, smart, smart. She did, however, take to me, and even though she was technically Chris', she and I were inseparable. I didn't plan it that way, but that's the way it has been and always will. She is eight years old now, and although she may have lost a step, she's just as intense at keeping up with me.

Lynda wanted puppies, though, we all did, and we wanted a pure bred German Shepherd for a sire. Most owners wanted a stiff cash fee to stud, as well as first pick. We never got it done, and Lynda gave in and bought a male to breed with Shelby. Sweeny was named for the town Lynda found him in, and paid for him and she brought him home for Shelby's approval. He played with Shelby when he was young, and finally, after three cycles of Shelby's "in-season", they got pregnant. We were very happy, but it had taken five years to get Shelby pregnant. Our veteranarian advised us to make this her last litter, she was getting a little too old for the stress.
I was most upset by this, I had hopes of selling puppies, and with her markings, and a Heidlberg sire, the pups could easily fetch 2-300 bucks. But we had a litter to get through first.
By now, we were all very expectant, and the weeks passed by slowly. They seemed to extend towards the end, but at last, her water broke, and she began to give birth on June 21, 2003.
Lynda was determined to be there when Shelby gave birth, and stayed at our house day and night for a week until the pups came. One came at first, and from the monstrous size of Shelby, she had more to come. And they did, four the first day, spread out over the early day. Several hours after midnight, the second night, she had two more, but the next didn't come until several hours into the third day. When it did come, Lynda, thankfully, was there.
In the first place, Lynda is a registered nurse, and has mid-wived at German Shepherd births before. She cleaned off the pups as they came, made sure they had a teat, and kept Shelby watered. She did so much, but the miracle was yet to come.
Some time in the afternoon of the third day, the 23rd, the eighth pup came, but it would not breathe. Lynda gave it a second or two, and Shelby nuzzled and licked it, but Lynda could sense, Shelby knew something was wrong. Lynda picked the pup up, performed mouth to mouth, and the pup breathed! Then another one came, and another, and this one was the problem. It never breathed. Lynda tried for some time to rescusitate the pup, but it wasn't meant to be. Lynda, poor thing was shattered. I remember her calling, distressed, and I could only console her: she had done all that she could. And she had, but she wasn't through yet.
Our theory was that since the birth took so long to get these last few out, they had the most trouble. So far she had had eleven, but one died. Almost three hours later, after I got home, she had her last two, for a total of 13! 12 lived. The last two also took rescusitating, but the very last one also had obvious low birthweight. Six males and six females, all squirming, black and black and white.
We reared them well, and began to sell them, but gave several away to friends. Mozart was the last male we had, and after all but one other pup remained, we decided to keep him and Crystal named him. He's two this week, and still a rambunctious puppy. He's the black one, Shelby's got the large white smock. They are our kids now, and we love 'em.
Lynda took the small pup, the runt, and it was a female. Lynda named her Mandy, and Mandy had problems keeping her food down right from the start. Of course, Lynda knew she had a problem from observing her while the pups were still suckling. Mandy would eat, but would throw it up again. Then, sometimes, she would eat the softened regurgitated food.
Lynda found out that Mandy had a birth defect. A blood vessel in her throat was wound around her esophagus, constricting it. Major surgery was necessary, but none of us had the money. No way, we're talking thousands. Well, Lynda packed up the van and drove to A&M.
She somehow convinced the vet's there to take Mandy as a case study. Needless to say, and although Lynda did pay several hundred for the surgery room and other costs, Mandy was operated on, and to this day, she's small but vivacious! Mandy is more full of exuberence than any of her brothers and sisters. Never getting tired of running and playing.
Our hats are off to the kind veteranarian students and faculty at Texas A&M in College Station, without their caring, Mandy would not be here today.

I guess we'll talk karting next time....

F1 Indy Woes

They say it happened before, but I couldn't imagine so many cars and teams opting NOT to run for safety concerns. That is what a stunned crowd of over100,000 had to swallow, and in typical American fashion, showed their displeasure by reigning debris over the drivers and track. A television audience around the world tuned out early over disgust at the farce, as Derek Daly kept saying, that had overtaken Ecclestone's F1 racing.
Tire manufacturer of many of the teams, 14 of the 20 cars, Michelin issued a statement on race day saying they couldn't guarantee the performance of their tires due to excessive load inflicted while in turn 13, or turn 1 Indy style, perhaps the fastest turn in Formula 1. Several failures during practice and qualifying left Michelin puzzled as to why the tires failed; only one failure happened during turn 13, coincidentally, Ralf Schumacher's left rear failed and sent him into the new safer barrier- a crash eirily remeniscent of a more severe crash just last year on the same turn and the same tires.
FIA fired off a letter and released it to the media pointing out that Michelin should have had substitute sets of tires for teams, in the event the team should need to change, which to me was an obvious attempt to deflect blame. Regardless, the FIA effectively scrapped the only plausible solution to the events that ended up taking place.
In a move to salvage the day, Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Michelin posed the addition of a chicane before the fast turn to reduce the speed when the cars passed through the turn, reducing the load.
But FIA, from London, would not, or could not sanction the race if the circuit changed without approval, making the race a non-points-paying race. Obviously, teams with other tire makers would have been penalized in that scenario.
Not lost to me was the tremendous deflation of emotions on the day. When the crowd turned nasty, the posh Europeans withdrew into themselves, and sniffed and sought the exits. Montiero was the only high spirited of the three podium finishers, Michael Schumacher with a nail biting pass of Barrichello again for the win and Rubens in second.
Commentators Varsha and Hobbs were speechless (not literally), but told us it was not the first time. Appearently dramas such as this are not unprecedented. A dark cloud has settled over Formula 1 this year, and it's center is over the tires. Until they (FIA) relieve the unbelievable strain placed on the teams to qualify and finish the race on a single set of tires, these failures will continue. Oddly enough, it was Bridgestone that seemed most unable to cope with the new tire requirements earlier in the season. Now, Michelin is under the gun, and with a debacle such as our generation has never seen, FIA will be under it's fans' microscope to improve conditions from impossible back to merely difficult!
Perhaps the most disturbing factoid coming out of the day was the similarity to the above referenced Formula 1 race inwhich over half of the teams sat out in protest, and again, it was two Ferrari's that outclassed the diminished field to a predictable finish. A dangerous pass by Pironi over teammate Gil Villneuve, against teams' orders, so inflamed Villneuve he vowed never to speak to Pironi again. Tragically, at the next race, at Imola, Villeneuve pushed his car harder than ever before, some said to out-qualify his teammate, and crashed violently, senslessly, fatally.
Needless to say, it was a black day for Formula 1 then, and it's a black day for FIA, Eccleston, and Michelin today.
Too bad the drivers who were prepared to race bore the fan's ire.

Second Try

Lost in the ether, it seems, is my first attempt at this site. It was titled, "The Late Racer" and I LOST it!!! For some reason, the URL for it was never recorded by me, and so far, finding it hasn't proved easy. SO- it has given birth to the new site, this one, Racing Diaries.
I am also a writer of dubious ability, but more importantly I like it. So from time to time I will include some writings from the past and present.


News Flash:
Watching the Speed network coverage of USGP, tire controversy is appearently raging. Incredibly, the race might be called!! Will report more...

Just Getting Started

Welcome to my canvas, I am the Late Racer, Ian or as will be the norm, Katykarter.

Thank you for visiting, and this is the start of many communications from me.

I have many interests, but racing is my passion.
It is June 18, and 24 Hours at Le Mans will conclude and Champ Cars are at Portland, but the 2nd biggest racing day of the year is today, the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis is half an hour away.
(THE biggest day is, of course, Memorial day and the Indy 500)

Thanks for visiting, and any and all feedback is appreciated.
More and better things are to come, the least of which not being learning about this site and blogging in general.