The Victorian freak likes cars, too. What the hell?
Right, so one of my sports starts up again today - I've been deprived since last autumn - and my driver's out almost immediately. What're the odds, honestly? On the plus side, I managed to convert one of my friends and got her to watch the IRL tonight. Unfortunately, Marco's car stopped working. And with the potential he's got, that's really depressing.
I follow auto racing pretty closely, especially since many of my characters not involved in the Londinium project drive and make sure that Mary Sues (entries financed solely by fangirls, who somehow manage to provide them with technologically superior cars and a disturbing amount of their own personal attributes and qualities) don't win. It's what they do. (I have an organization, the Society of Fangirl Terminators, that I've been running since May 5th, 2003, that only exists to wage war against Mary Sues. That's a story for another time, though.) I don't follow just anything, though - there are certain series I like better than others. Here's a quick lowdown of my favorites:
The World Rally Championship: There are few, if any, more difficult ways to drive. Rallying is one of the most technical sports out there - right up there with Formula One - and it's got one of the richest histories in motorsports. I first got into rallying because of the racing record the Mini Cooper S racked up there in the 1960s (Paddy Hopkirk is a rallying god), and it went from there. (Ells Robbins, who you'll probably meet eventually, has a number of traits inspired by Hopkirk, including her choice of car.) What I love about rallying is its sheer difficulty. You can't just tap the steering wheel - you have to be strong enough to yank it back and forth - and you need to know how to pull off a number of complex maneuvers (drifting springs to mind, but don't forget left-foot braking!). Quite frankly, it's one of the hardest forms of motorsports in the world. I love it for that. The first thing I did when I got Gran Turismo 4 some time ago was learn to rally (in a Mini, like Hopkirk). It was much harder than the drivers made it look. Additionally, there's also the teamwork aspect that I love - the driver has a co-driver (formerly called a navigator) who assists them by giving them directions and suggesting what speed they should be traveling. They also warn the drivers about hazards on the course. It's just an all-around cool sport, and one that I'd try in a heartbeat. NASCAR ovals have nothing on dirt, snow and the hazardous mountain roads on the Col de Turini.
Formula One: I like it when the drivers have to work. Enough said. Again, though, the garage that sent those Mini Coopers out in the 1960s has a presence in F1: John Cooper put the engine behind the driver and revolutionized open-wheel racing. Smart man, wasn't he? Anyway, F1 is typically considered to be the highest you can go in motorsports, and I can see why. I mean, look at some of the people who have driven in F1 - Ascari, Fangio, Moss, Brabham, Senna...and, of course, Schumacher (like I'd forget him). I actually named Basil's family's coachmen in Londinium after Moss and Brabham as a little in-joke (both men drove for John Cooper at some point in their careers). I could go on and on about why F1 is fantastic, but other people have taken care of that in the past. Additionally, we now also have Alonsomania to thank for giving the sport a great deal of younger fans (because Alonso is attractive). Oh, and if F1 couldn't get any cooler, Felipe Massa and I have the same birthday. Yay.
The IRL: The series I was just watching a few minutes ago. I do follow ChampCar a bit, too, but to a much lesser extent - that's not to say that ChampCar isn't interesting, because it is. People tend to take sides due to the controversial CART split, but I'm not one of them. I just want to watch people race, not argue over which is the better league. (In the world of open-wheeling, F1 wins hands-down, anyway.) As a fan of auto racing, I am required to watch the Indy 500 every year. Last year I conveniently found myself extremely attracted to Mario Andretti's grandson, Marco. It went from there.
I like the mixture of the ovals, road courses and street courses. I know some people think it should be strictly one or the other, but I think it's a good test of how versatile the drivers are. If you're finishing strongly on all three course types, you're pretty good. I also love the fact that they're running on ethanol (take note, Al Gore! We're trying here! Okay, that was a joke). It's a good example to set, actually, and we have to thank the late Paul Dana for that. I'm sure that if he believed in an afterlife and went there, he's watching his vision unfold right now. Thank you for your work, Mr. Dana.
Now, here's why I don't follow NASCAR too closely: it's too mainstream for me. I know that sounds a bit weird, but I like watching racing leagues that aren't as popular as NASCAR because I'm too used to being a nerd and liking things that aren't mainstream. (That's a bad answer.) Actually, I'm not entirely sure what doesn't sit with me. I'll watch it if it's on - and I'm glad about the road courses here, too, by the way, because we're testing driver skill again - but it's not my favorite. (I am, however, a big fan of Kasey Kahne's Allstate commercials. They're funny.)
So, back to the IRL here. I had a friend over, and she was watching the IRL for the first time. She liked it, which made me very happy. There were some nerve-wracking moments, though - something went wrong with Marco's car, and he had to retire from the race. They interviewed him, and he said it was the most frightened he'd ever been in an IRL car. I was upset that he had to pull out from the first race of the season (he just has horrible luck at Homestead-Miami), but I was more relieved that he was safe. There was also a major accident involving Matsuura, Simmons and A.J. Foyt IV (yes, another grandson), but all of them made it out safe, as well, which evoked another sigh of relief from me. A few other drivers, including the fan favorite (Danica Patrick), had to retire, as well. Dan Wheldon led nearly the entire time, too, so the retirements of the other racers were the exciting bits this time around. (Well, that and the fact that my slash-obsessed friend and I were making jokes about slashing Wheldon with his teammate, Sam Hornish Jr., but that's irrevelant and I probably won't actually do it. She's another story.) I'm hoping things go better in a week or so at St. Petersburg. Hooray for pretending to be in airplanes and racing down landing strips!
I'll make sure to post on that race, too. I'll keep you non-car people posted just because it's important that you know. Well, maybe it isn't, because you non-car people don't care. It's fun to be a gearhead, though, so maybe you can give it a try sometime. Or not. Whatever.
I follow auto racing pretty closely, especially since many of my characters not involved in the Londinium project drive and make sure that Mary Sues (entries financed solely by fangirls, who somehow manage to provide them with technologically superior cars and a disturbing amount of their own personal attributes and qualities) don't win. It's what they do. (I have an organization, the Society of Fangirl Terminators, that I've been running since May 5th, 2003, that only exists to wage war against Mary Sues. That's a story for another time, though.) I don't follow just anything, though - there are certain series I like better than others. Here's a quick lowdown of my favorites:
The World Rally Championship: There are few, if any, more difficult ways to drive. Rallying is one of the most technical sports out there - right up there with Formula One - and it's got one of the richest histories in motorsports. I first got into rallying because of the racing record the Mini Cooper S racked up there in the 1960s (Paddy Hopkirk is a rallying god), and it went from there. (Ells Robbins, who you'll probably meet eventually, has a number of traits inspired by Hopkirk, including her choice of car.) What I love about rallying is its sheer difficulty. You can't just tap the steering wheel - you have to be strong enough to yank it back and forth - and you need to know how to pull off a number of complex maneuvers (drifting springs to mind, but don't forget left-foot braking!). Quite frankly, it's one of the hardest forms of motorsports in the world. I love it for that. The first thing I did when I got Gran Turismo 4 some time ago was learn to rally (in a Mini, like Hopkirk). It was much harder than the drivers made it look. Additionally, there's also the teamwork aspect that I love - the driver has a co-driver (formerly called a navigator) who assists them by giving them directions and suggesting what speed they should be traveling. They also warn the drivers about hazards on the course. It's just an all-around cool sport, and one that I'd try in a heartbeat. NASCAR ovals have nothing on dirt, snow and the hazardous mountain roads on the Col de Turini.
Formula One: I like it when the drivers have to work. Enough said. Again, though, the garage that sent those Mini Coopers out in the 1960s has a presence in F1: John Cooper put the engine behind the driver and revolutionized open-wheel racing. Smart man, wasn't he? Anyway, F1 is typically considered to be the highest you can go in motorsports, and I can see why. I mean, look at some of the people who have driven in F1 - Ascari, Fangio, Moss, Brabham, Senna...and, of course, Schumacher (like I'd forget him). I actually named Basil's family's coachmen in Londinium after Moss and Brabham as a little in-joke (both men drove for John Cooper at some point in their careers). I could go on and on about why F1 is fantastic, but other people have taken care of that in the past. Additionally, we now also have Alonsomania to thank for giving the sport a great deal of younger fans (because Alonso is attractive). Oh, and if F1 couldn't get any cooler, Felipe Massa and I have the same birthday. Yay.
The IRL: The series I was just watching a few minutes ago. I do follow ChampCar a bit, too, but to a much lesser extent - that's not to say that ChampCar isn't interesting, because it is. People tend to take sides due to the controversial CART split, but I'm not one of them. I just want to watch people race, not argue over which is the better league. (In the world of open-wheeling, F1 wins hands-down, anyway.) As a fan of auto racing, I am required to watch the Indy 500 every year. Last year I conveniently found myself extremely attracted to Mario Andretti's grandson, Marco. It went from there.
I like the mixture of the ovals, road courses and street courses. I know some people think it should be strictly one or the other, but I think it's a good test of how versatile the drivers are. If you're finishing strongly on all three course types, you're pretty good. I also love the fact that they're running on ethanol (take note, Al Gore! We're trying here! Okay, that was a joke). It's a good example to set, actually, and we have to thank the late Paul Dana for that. I'm sure that if he believed in an afterlife and went there, he's watching his vision unfold right now. Thank you for your work, Mr. Dana.
Now, here's why I don't follow NASCAR too closely: it's too mainstream for me. I know that sounds a bit weird, but I like watching racing leagues that aren't as popular as NASCAR because I'm too used to being a nerd and liking things that aren't mainstream. (That's a bad answer.) Actually, I'm not entirely sure what doesn't sit with me. I'll watch it if it's on - and I'm glad about the road courses here, too, by the way, because we're testing driver skill again - but it's not my favorite. (I am, however, a big fan of Kasey Kahne's Allstate commercials. They're funny.)
So, back to the IRL here. I had a friend over, and she was watching the IRL for the first time. She liked it, which made me very happy. There were some nerve-wracking moments, though - something went wrong with Marco's car, and he had to retire from the race. They interviewed him, and he said it was the most frightened he'd ever been in an IRL car. I was upset that he had to pull out from the first race of the season (he just has horrible luck at Homestead-Miami), but I was more relieved that he was safe. There was also a major accident involving Matsuura, Simmons and A.J. Foyt IV (yes, another grandson), but all of them made it out safe, as well, which evoked another sigh of relief from me. A few other drivers, including the fan favorite (Danica Patrick), had to retire, as well. Dan Wheldon led nearly the entire time, too, so the retirements of the other racers were the exciting bits this time around. (Well, that and the fact that my slash-obsessed friend and I were making jokes about slashing Wheldon with his teammate, Sam Hornish Jr., but that's irrevelant and I probably won't actually do it. She's another story.) I'm hoping things go better in a week or so at St. Petersburg. Hooray for pretending to be in airplanes and racing down landing strips!
I'll make sure to post on that race, too. I'll keep you non-car people posted just because it's important that you know. Well, maybe it isn't, because you non-car people don't care. It's fun to be a gearhead, though, so maybe you can give it a try sometime. Or not. Whatever.