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Tomaso, Claudio and "Friends" breathlessly watch
the A-L-L conquering Renault powered Red Bull F1 car scream by in Downtown Austin
last year. (The Tomaso Collection)
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It's funny thinking how much the Grid's changed in
one year's time, with Seb' Vettel replacing Fernando, and Alonso replacing
Kevin "Bacon" Magnussen, who's just broken his hand! While sadly two
Tail-gunner Charlie's, i.e.; Caterham & Marussia were missing from the grid
- giving us a paltry 18-runners. Whilst Karmically, I'd just met one representative
team driver apiece at Buxton's Big-time Bash, nee Marcus Ericsson &
Alexander Rossi...
Fri,
10/31: Halloween!
First of 3-Dazes at the Circuit Of The
Americas racetrack, where Claudio' & Mwah watched the 2 90min F1 Free
Practice sessions before taking Shuttle bus back to Downtown. As sadly, and STUPIDLY!
This great Alternative Transportation option, vs. everybody driving their
automobiles continues seeing its price increase each year - gouging the race
fans more 'N more! As I've just read it'll be $25 per day again this year;
SHEISA!
In a pre-cursor of this year's grid, an even
younger? Max "Dutchboy" Verstappen and Felipe Nasr drove in (Free
Practice) FP1 session for Scuderia Toro Rosso and Team Willy', aka Williams
respectively. As we know that Verstappen's a Toro Rosso race driver, while
Nasr's joined Marcus Ericsson at Sauber after their very messy divorce with
"Guido-the-Dutchman!"
Zx
Met an amazing gentleman who came all the way
from Belfast, Ireland to attend the F1 race. The amazing part? He was alone in
a motorized wheelchair and had a speech impairment, for which he didn't talk
much, but opened-up when I asked him if he had a favourite team/driver? And he
made my day by saying Red Bull, but NOT
Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo instead, as
Mark Webber was his favourite driver and he'd really wanted to come last
year...
Then Nelie came Downtown 'N met us to go to
Austin's Fan Fest where we caught the end of The Flying Balalaika Bros,
a Russian music group who were all dressed up in costumes.
Nelie took lots of pictures of racecars for Mwah and we stayed and listened to "Heavy Petty," a local
Tom Petty cover-band who were very good, as I didn't realize Tom Petty had so
many hit songs!
Then, even though I'd really wanted to hear
the "Hello Kitty" Cats from Japan David Bowie cover-band, it was
going to be another 45mins set-up time + hour+ concert and I was shivering due
to my FREAKIN' STUPID cold I picked up Thurs evening or on Aeroplanes to
Austin, Tuesday? Although I still think I got I-T at Buxton's Big-time Bash,
since the AIR was really nasty in there, albeit NOT nearly as Narly as
Singapore's, but nonetheless, a very stale, foul air! So instead of waiting around
as mentioned & getting home some two hours plus later, we left the venue
and went home, thankfully!
For
some assorted pictures from Austin Fan Fest & Buxton's Big-time Bash, see;
Sat, Nov
1st
Now with a full-on feverish cold, Clyde &
I went to track for second day, this time with Nelie driving us to & from
COTA; with Saturday being the coolest day of entire week, with temperature in
low 60's, (Fahrenheit) as I think 63 was the high, which was some 20+ degrees
cooler than when I arrived.
Arrived for the 1hr FP3 (Free Practice) session
"Justin-time" & stayed thru 'Qualie, i.e.; qualifications; 3
sessions of 18, 15 & 12mins apiece, with just four runners apiece being
eliminated from the miniscule field of 18-cars before the Top-10 Shootout - where
my hopeful race winner Brittany, aka Nico Rosberg finally stepped-up his
"A Game" by breaking Lewis's stranglehold of leading 10-straight
sessions when finally besting him in Qualie' Q2.
As won't it be
nice when there's 22-cars on the grid next year when Haas F1 arrives! Although
it appears the Salad Days 'O 26 Benefited runners On-track are long gone...
Then Rosberg
continued walking the walk, after saying he had more in hand, time wise,
before besting his rival Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton for pole.
As its pretty
amazing how the two drivers have completely "Flip-flopped" in
qualifying results this year. As Nico totally dominated en route to the
inaugural most Pole positions award (P1) last year - whilst Lewis has already
sown I-T up this season...
Then I wisely stayed home rest of day, first taking
a long afternoon nap, then going to bed early while Clyde went back to Austin
Fan Fest for headliner Joan Jett & The Blackhearts late that evening...
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| Close-up 'N Personal with Ferrari F1 Showcar. (The Tomaso Collection) |
Sun, 11/2
Race-day Baby! And we got UP an hour early,
even after I'd told Claudio & Nelie multiple times about the "Fall
Back" time change the night prior. Lazed around before leaving for just
the Pre-race activities, as we were there before the Driver's Parade and then
although a tad bit boorish race for the overall win, a delightful 'Mega Scrum
for the middle places which saw lots of good
battles over positions 5-thru-12, albeit, as Y'all know only down to
tenth place pays F1 championship points,
I vaguely recall lotso' good "iecking"
between midfield runners, i.e.; Button,
Alonso, Raikkonen, etc w/lots of back 'N
forth action occurring thru our (Turn) T11 corner, before Rosberg, who'd been
leading from the start was apparently Asleep at the Wheel as Hamilton serenely
passed him into T12, which was the turn
foling the long straightaway DRS zone
after our T11 vantage point.
As the
WRONG driver won! Although Lewis Hamilton made history by becoming the most
winningest British driver in Formula 1 history (that day) by scoring his fifth
race victory in-a-row and 32nd overall,
eclipsing Sir Nige', 1992 F1 world champion Nigel Mansell's tally of 31 career
Grand Prix victories from '94.
(Photos Courtesy of Austin Hostess Nelie)