So I did it again by gorging thyself upon
Open Wheel Racing instead of going outside on a beautiful fall day in the
Pacific Northwest, where it was actually bright 'N sunny for once, a brief
respite from our typical wet "N gray climate, as apparently our
precipitation was being borrowed by Houston this morning instead...
As I know Y'all are saying just get to the
point man! As I quickly felt the emotions of euphoria over somebody having
forgotten to torque 'HULIO's transmission casing to what 'Ol Ralph Sheheen
would have simply described as a "WICKED HIGH SIDE!" A term utilized
often in the rarefied climes of MOTO GP, the Formula 1 of two wheel
'Scooterland!
As I simply held my breath over Dario
Franchitti's HORRIFIC looking last lap accident at Houston, as shades 'O Ryan
"Disco Inferno" Briscoe's nasty fence climbing shunt at Chicagoland
came screaming into mind! As Dario's car got so high that I could actually see
the airborne chassis, albeit just a blob for Mwah, since I cannot decipher the
individual paint schemes/colours these days - as a frightening chill crawled
over my skin as the horrible accident occurred!
As a rightful hush momentarily silenced the
announcers and put a definite pall upon the racetrack and fellow competitors...
Although recall that Messer Dario "REO Speedwagon" Franchitti
previously escaped an earlier frightening Blow-over last lap accident, when he
ran smack dab into the back of Kosuke Matsuura at
Kentucky, somersaulting his Crap Wagon after having misjudged that it was the
cool down lap of the event!
Now I certainly do NOT wish for any
competitor to be seriously injured or worse - as I take NO comfort in correctly
predicting that Franchitti certainly had at least suffered a compression
fracture... It's just that the sheer
violence of the incident, especially when being stopped by an immovable object
- as thankfully the catch fencing did its intended job! (mostly) But I just
couldn't believe that some sort of internal injuries wouldn't occur as the
human body surely isn't designed to partake such sudden deceleration, eh?
As rightly or wrongly, it was refreshing to
see the instant coming together and immediate concern for Dario from all three
of the podium finishers along with Helio Castroneves as it cast a very somber
tome over the whole victory celebration before Chip Ganassi gave Kevin Lee the
good news that Dario was ok, albeit he mumbled and complained of back and ankle
pains... Which we now know were due to them being fractured. (As its
since been reported that Dario suffered two fractured Vertebrae, a concussion
and has now had surgery to repair his ankle...)
While the AP's Jenna Fryer reported that 13
Fans had been hit by debris, with only two being taken to hospital thankfully!
As Franchitti's impact at a blind, sweeping corner where the cars nearly reach
180mph tore the catch fencing from the concrete jersey barrier and sent it into
the stands., with only two being taken to hospital fortunately!
As Dario's violent impact - which sounds like
a thunderclap from the remote camera filming it tore the catch fencing from the
concrete jersey barrier and sent it into the stands... As in tearing it clean
off and throwing it to the TOP of the stands, like Row 20; Aye Karumba! As
let's NOT kid ourselves over how lucky IndyCar was! As why does the Charlotte
IRL race come to mind.
Thus obviously, it was anti-climatic
attempting to watch the delayed coverage of Saturday's Indy Lights race - as
I'm curious over who'll be crowned champion at Fontana, although it certainly
appears that Carlos 'Silk Munoz's title chances have slipped away...
And I still hadn't watched my recording of
Saturday night's Korean Grand Prix, to which I can say felt very strange
watching as I felt NO joy, as I attempted logging onto Indycar.com four-plus
times at 2:09PM (Pacific) and was simply greeted by a blank gray page every
time... Although I knew Dario was okay figuratively due to 'Cheep's on-air
announcement.
But while the results were predictable, it
was definitely one of the more bizarre F1 races I've sat thru recently, with
all of the tyre issues due to the much unused track's surface apparently being
grippier than expected - with 'Checka, nee Sergio Perez suffering a massive
right front tyre explosion, as everybody was suffering from 'Mega graining
issues... As Lewis Hamilton's in-car radio antics were absolutely priceless -
bringing momentary laughter back to my somber state when he told Mercedes he'd
already gone thru the graining period and his tyres were DONE! And that's
before having to be BLEEPED later!
Then there was teammate Nico Rosberg's bizarre equipment
failure followed by the most unsureal sending of a fire truck on-track to put
out the burning Red Bull of Mark Webber who'd been center punched by Adrian
Sutil. As think it was Bob Varsha who cleverly said pour a Red Bull on I-T! Or
do something as the corner workers seemed to be vainly searching for marshmallows...
Hence, all-in-all, it was a very dramatic day's TV watching of Motorsports...
