So this year I wasn't driving, but Wee Dod was, so I went up for an hour to take some pics and offer a bit of moral support.
Judging from the smile, I think George liked it (a lot), so the real driving school down in Pueblo in a couple of weeks should be a blast.
Managed to take way too many pics of course (and thanks to Cliff who provided a few photography pointers - "hold the camera like this", "don't keep pressing" etc etc), but I loaded a selection up on Flickr here if you wanna check them out.
And not just any type of crashing - the kind of crashing by experienced motor racing stars that typically don't happen. The video below is Danica Patrick taking out a member of her own team in pretty spectacular fashion, and this link is the son of Ayrton Senna, Bruno, being taken out of the race (and not being very happy about it) when a stray dog wandered onto the track. The dog obviously didn't survive, so if you're squeamish about that sort of thing (hi wife!) I wouldn't recommend clicking through.
Now, if there was a sport such as running, where someone told me I didn't have to train for 10 years and I could still compete (and be competitive) that sounds great to me. But cars? You've got to be kidding. 10 years is a long time, and given that some manufacturers use Formula 1 to test out new technology that gets fed back into their road cars further down the line - does this mean there's be no more engine improvements in passenger cars in 5 or 10 years time. And what happens if you're the team who didn't quite get the best engine sorted out before the deadline, and you're guaranteed to spend the next 10 years slightly worse off than the rest of the teams - wouldn't you just throw in the towel before you wasted any more money?
I may be slightly over-reacting here, but it's a bit ridiculous - I think F1 has got so far up it's own backside that it's forgot what makes a good racing series.
Well, not exactly, but at least (virtually) on the same track. It's been announced that the track used in one of my favourite programs (Top Gear), by the mysterious driver named Stig will be one of the tracks in Gran Turismo 5. Don't get too excited though - it doesn't come out until Christmas next year.
Today was my first venture in the car that involved a bit of closed track action - the learners starter place known as the Car Control Clinic. This is a mandatory (I think anyway, if not, highly recommended) prior to the driving school I'm going to in a couple of weeks (I got my helmet yesterday).
Of course, it was all brand new, so I was a little scared, but after easing gently into the slalom, I gradually got faster and kept it all under a semblance of control. After slalom was the skid pad - two large circles next to each other - one wet, one dry, just so you could feel the difference in grip. I think it was my favorite part of the day - getting the tail to lightly drift out as your pushing it was a lot of fun.
Finally was the emergency braking section - stop as quickly as you can, first in a straight line, and then as you're turning. ABS obviously makes this a lot easier than it used to be, but it was still fun. Unfortunately, during the braking, the car started making some weird scraping noises, so I pulled out before the end, and a few of the very helpful staff there took a look and gave me a hand working out what was going on. It all turned out fine in the end - I had a small rock stuck in between the rotor and caliper, and it managed to pop out as we were driving home, with no damage done. I think I turned white before I knew what it was though - obviously imagining the worst, and wondering if I'd even get home.
Anyway, still recovering now - the clutch leg is a little achy, and the face is definitely sore from all the grinning I've been doing. Heidi took lots of photos and vids, so I combined all the slalom ones for your viewing pleasure below. And can I just say in my defense (before you get started with the abuse brothers), the first couple I was told to go pretty slow....
Well, not quite yet, but it's looking good for when it does make it. Not only does it take advantage of the new consoles (PS3 and XBOX360) to bring lots of realistic pretty pictures, the developers have somehow built into the physics the effect of driving cars on the track. Not really surprising you might say - all the good racing games vary the grip with the type of track and/or weather - dry concrete is less slippy than snow covered mud for example. However, Sega has taken it a step further, so that the car actually has an effect on the track - that ridge you left in the mud on lap one is there to throw you off course on lap 2 if you're not paying attention. What this means is that there are unlikely to be 2 laps the same, ever. Anyway, the guy from Sega explains and demos it a lot better than I do, so listen to him...
It looks like the Gumball is off again this year - from what I can tell, it looks like the Germans weren't too happy about the path the trip was taking, and everyone was escorted to the airport for immediate expedition. Luckily there weren't any problems like this in the UK, so here's a quick vid of the start...
