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"Making Movies;" Hya! As Claudio takes
Tomaso's picture - while Nelie snaps Claudio taking Mwah with blue bonnets. (The
Tomaso Collection)
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Yeah, MotoGP phenom Marc Marquez left us A-L-L
speechless with his mesmerizing performance over the COTA weekend! Whilst it's
been anything but smooth sailing ever since...
What Back-up?
Yep, Y'all know the
line that's Ah-coming'; Hya!
BACKUPS? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' BACKUPS!
Although I couldn't SEE I-T Myself, it was
obvious in Claudio's tone how surreal the 22yr old Spaniard had been during
Saturday's Qualie' session, but I'm getting ahead of myself... As I was more
concerned over whether or not my new
FAV' Knee Dragger, nee Spain's 20yr old rookie rider Maverick Viñales would make his way into the
Top-12 Shootout qualifying session?
Having later paid Attenzione to the MotoGP
world TV Announcers pronunciation of "Vin-Yalez," (during the
Argentina race) as 'LUCY, my ARSE-steamed screen reader has a funny way of
reading European pronunciations; as she calls him Vy Ales instead; Hooah!
As its A-L-L
coming back slowly now, as how could I forget his riding for the SuperMartxé
VIP by Paris Hilton 125cc motorcycle team in 2011, where he won races for Madame
Hilton!
Then
Maverick moved onto a rival 125cc team before winning the 2013 Moto3
championship - next graduating to Moto2 where he finished third overall before
jumping to Suzuki's MotoGP squad this year.
As MotoGP has its own unique knockout Qualie
format, where the fastest Top-10 riders time wise from FP3 (Free Practice) session
go directly into the Q2 Top-12 Pole Shootout bracket, while positions P11-12
are determined by the riders with the quickest times of the preceding Q1 Qualie
session, of which the young Maverick would be contesting.
Alas, I was most happy when Maverick claimed
one of the two transfer positions and advanced to the Pole Shootout round,
where he'd wind-up P12, apparently
unable to advance any further, while team-mate Aleix Espargaro finished in eighth.
And
can't remember the order now, but the Moto2 Qualie was very entertaining, as
the Track Announcers quipped over how Sam Lowes apparently didn't want to come
into the pits after he'd dropped his Scooter whilst setting the quickest lap
time, as they marveled over him going round 'N round instead, saying he didn't
want to come in to hear what his team would say to him; Hya! While Jason
Pridmore quipped you can only get away with crashing so many times! Although
Lowes would manage to hang onto Pole position...
Yet
for Mwah, the highlight of the weekend, and simply stealing the Qualie show,
was Marc Marquez herculean feat of qualifying P1! As Y'all would say what's so
special about Marquez taking Pole once again, eh? After all, it would be his
23rd career Pole to date.
But as
Claudio described to Mwah in Real-time action, Marquez did the unthinkable,
after I'd heard the track's PA announcers notice the Spaniard was having some
sort of mechanical issues with his Scooter after just having left the Pits for
his final qualifying lap with some 3mins remaining.
Its unbelievable
Tomaso, Claudio excitedly said. Marquez just parked his Hondre' (Repsol Honda) motorcycle
on the front straight by leaning I-T against the wall. Then he jumped a five foot-plus
fence, ran A-L-L the way (stiff-legged
in his full body protective riding gear) down Pitlane (fully suited with helmet on...) and jumped upon
his waiting backup Scooter that his crew had alertly started for him! He raced out onto the track and
crossed the start-finish line with seven seconds left before setting a new
track record to claim Pole; UN-FREAKIN' BELIEVEABLE!
Where'd my 'Gee-tar go?
Saturday evening,
Claudio, Nelie and Mwah trundled off to Neighbors Kitchen & Yard
Restaurante in nearby Bastrop to partake a George Harrison Tribute Night
concert being performed by Ky
Hote and Friends of the Kerrville Folk Festival. As I noted the group playing
the following songs, which were just what I could remember, with many more Harrison renditions being
played.
As we walked in fashionably late with the first song being
sung Isn't it a Pity, for which I really liked
the lead vocalist's crooning, while others followed, including selections
I'd never heard before, along with many trued 'N tried Harrison staples...
A few Harrison songs
- Isn't It a Pity
- The Sue Me Sue You Blues
- Here Comes the Sun
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- My Sweet Lord
- Taxman
- Traveling Wilbury's Song
- Brainwashed
As noted, the lead musician was Ky Hote, while the other
musicians were his guests, including Claudio & Nelie's good friends Jimmy
Jo playing lead guitar and his wife Chrissie
singing vocals, as they have their own recording career under the moniker of
The Better Half's music, which Y'all can check out their website at;
As I know they'll
be in the Pacific Northwest region in
Mid-July, with stops in Eugene and Portland, Oregon, along with slipping across
the border to Vancouver, WA...
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| Austin Hostess Nelie & Tomaso pose with some of Austin's vaunted Blue Bonnets. (The Tomaso Collection) |
Race Day!
Deciding to skip all of the morning's
festivities, Claudio & I elected to
simply attend the two support races, i.e.; Moto3 & Moto2 along with the
day's featured event, nee MotoGP race.
Claudio said I'm gonna take you down close
Tomaso where ITS L-O-U-D! As we once again sat in the Stadium section
grandstands, albeit this time bathed in sunlight. As unfortunately for Mwah,
the sun was glistening off of the silver aluminum railings directly into thy
eyes, causing Mwah to spend the entire three day's races with sunshine BLASTING
into thy retinas, unable to even S-E-E the typical blurs' O colors screaming by;
SHEISA!
Adding to insult is the fact that after
numerous attempts of searching thy Intrawoods, nee Zed Internetz, I cannot get
a decent Moto3 race report to "Pop-Up;" SHIT!
As I seem to recall it being a Slip-streaming
affair, although the miniscule reports on the World wide Web thingy sez'
Britain's Danny Kent ran away with the race by over some 10-seconds... As
Messer Kent has since gone onto win three straight races in-a-row, a feat not
accomplished by a British rider since some Dude name Barry Sheen a long while
ago...
Next up was the Moto2 race, and I recall
thinking Oh Shit, here I-T comes! As the humidity was so intense I could feel
it spitting upon us, thinking rain was imminent; CRAP!
As although there would be short lived
humidity in the air and moisture upon the track, the race would go on. And it
was a 'KURR-RACKING race, as there was a Battle Royale for the lead, with Sam
Lowes stalking the leader before taking over the point, as the 24yr old Bloody
Brit' would stay upright the entire race
en route to scoring his maiden Moto2
win!
Then another Bizzaro thingy occurred! As we'd
had what this Pacific Northwest Boy considered to be almost oppressive HEAT! As
after that extremely brief period of spitting rain, the sun came out and it simply got H-O-T! Racing into the mid
80's, as it hit 85deg-f! (Fahrenheit)
Thus it was just weird! When upon the
sighting lap of the day's premiere MotoGP race, apparently the Safety Car
spotted water gushing onto the circuit; WTF? As there was an apparent
undisclosed stream of W-E-T stuff flowing across the track nearby one of the
crossover bridges on a downhill portion of the track, which caused a 20+ minute delay, as corner workers with
brooms swept the water 'Uh-ways, whilst Claudio' told me that they'd also
brought out the Jet dryer's; all-the-while as the track announcers marveled
over where'd the water come from?
Finally going Green, "DESMO DOVY" rocketed
away from Pole-sitter Marquez and led briefly before the Spaniard overtook him
on lap-5 and that was that! As Marquez sauntered away into the Sunset to win
his third COTA MotoGP race in-a-row; having won
the last six consecutive races held in Americre'; CRIKEYS!
While "The Doctor," nee Valentino
Rossi stalked Andrea
Dovizioso for second place, before overtaking his
fellow countryman on his previous Ducati ride, but Dovizioso's Desmosedici GP15 'Duc
was simply too strong and 'Dovy retook second place while Valentino's
Yamahopper' lacked the necessary grunt
to overtake the Ducati!
Meanwhile, thee Suzuki Boyz' are currently
down on power, and unbeknownst to Mwah,
they were also riding without the preferred Seamless Shift crash-boxes that are
now de riggour in MotoGP! As Suzuki hopes to rectify this sometime in the future,
now being the only manufacturer without one after Aprilia introduced theirs at
the Post-Jerez race test a few rounds
after Austin.
And my Numero Doce Knee-dragger Maverick Viñales
scored his first points of the season with a fine ninth place finish, one place
behind team-mate Aleix
Espargaro, (P8) giving Suzuki a Double-Points finish.
With Marquez celebrating another victory, a "Hat Dance;" Err three in
-a-row at Circuit Of The Americas with "Desmo Dovy" (Andrea Dovizioso) scoring his second
runner-up finish of the season and "the Doctor," nee Valentino Rossi taking
the podium's final step in third.
And
now Y'all know how Fox Sport's longtime excellante lead announcer Bob Varsha so
cleverly came up with the nickname "Desmo Dovy..."
Flora 'N Fauna Dessert
Still NOT sure why we did this? But, Claudio pronounced
to us Monday night that he wanted to go take thy picture with some 'O Austin's
famous blue bonnet flowers and hence, we set off in search of some corresponding fields 'O
fertile flowers, for which I've decided to grace the pages of these two
corresponding story posts with; Hooah!