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The 2016 Rolex 24 winning #2 ESM Ligier Honda at
Daytona International Speedway. (Source: bing.com images)
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Who says racing doesn't pay? Although those funny
'lil Foreign Jobbers had the prestige 'O brakin' in Daytona International
Speedway's newly renovated $400m facility running circles over 24 Hours
recently...
While all eyes will presumably be focused
upon 'Dem High Banks 'O DayToner this Sunday, as wonder how 'Ol
Boogity-Boogity-Boogity! Will spin the Daytona 500 being the very first race
ever at the brand spankin' new facility, huh?
for which has already hosted a bevy 'O races
pre-Speed Weeks at Daytona International Speedway, with the Continental Tires
Sports Cars, Ferrari Challenge series and Oh Yeah, some 'lil race called Thy
Rolex 24 having already convened.
And surely now that Jeffry "Pretty
Boy" Gordon's joined Mike Joy and DW', aka Darrell Waltrip in the booth as
a driver analyst, or is it colour commentator for FOX; Hmm? Gordon vs. Larry
Mac', go figure? Hya!
Along with Smoke' on his retirement tour,
although things certainly aren't going to plan for Tony Stewart, thus much adu
will most likely be made over one of his other drivers simply known as Danica.
Yet I was more impressed with one of
Patrick's contemporaries, notably how impressive Thy Leggy 'Juan's drive to the
front of the field during this year's Rolex 24 was. As Katherine Legge drove
the unique Delta Wing Coupe into P1 during her opening triple-stint from P13!
As Y'all can tell just how exhausting it's Man-handlin'
a racing car during her interview with The Freaks...
INTERVIEW: Katherine Legge puts a foot to the Rolex 24
Whilst Legge wasn't the only female contesting the Rolex 24, with the likes 'O Christina Nielsen and Sabine Schmitz both racing in the lesser covered GTD (Daytona) ranks, having already scribbled about Nielsen co-driving the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia, while Schmitz was a last minute addition aboard the #30 Frikadelli Racing's Porsche 911 GT3R, renowned for its Meatball graphics!
And along Pitlane were two extremely
proficient female reporters: Shea Adam and Jamie Howe, with the latter having
apparently slipped over to Thy Dark side, nee 'RASSCAR! Whilst very little can
be found upon Shea, other than she's part of the Radio Le Mans crew.
Yet my favourite le Femme' behind Thy
microphone is Rasscarland's Krista Voda, who I think is the only female who
actually holds a broadcast booth position, albeit think ABC tried someone named
Lindsay
Czarniak for last year's Indy 500 Preamble, or was it
the year or two before, since I typically don't watch the race since I'm
trackside.
Meanwhile, there's actually two Katherine's
on the Delta Wing Racing Cars team, with longtime Katherine Crawford as the
team's lead engineer, who has an extensive background in racing. As I'm 98%
certain she was the engineer of those Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototypes built
by her family's company.
As most ironically it was "SMOKE"
almost winning the Rolex 24 aboard one of the Childress-Howard Motorsports
entries with Katherine on the Pit wall before the race went Pear-shaped - As
Tony Stewart valiantly tried wheeling the car home with a broken suspension
which had a two-by-four placed aboard as a temporary fix!
As the following
article on Grace Autosport mentions Katherine as the team's race engineer...
QUEEN OF
NURBURGRING
Karmically, without knowing, Tacoma Bureau
Chief Mary Ellen had suggested over a decade ago that I should take a ride
aboard Thy Rein Taxi before we made that most wonderful trip to Germany,
specifically to attend Thy German Grand Prix at Thy Nurburgring, albeit the
modern day venue instead of Thy Green Hella! Where we got to ride around in our
wonderful Host Vladi's Daily Driver instead which I chronicled in;
As it was Sabine Schmitz no less who was the
original chauffer of said Rein Taxi - which I've just learned now, although she
no longer actually drives them, but her company still does, as Schmitz has won
24hr races at the Ring along with occasional stints upon the BBC's Top Gear
program.
With A-L-L of the
nauseating Hoopla over Jeff Gordon's retirement and final race coronation getting
me frothing over this subject originally, as 'DER TERMINATOR will always be Thy modern day King 'O Mother
Speedway for Mwah;
And what a clever segway to another bit 'O
trivia nagging at Mwah; NO! Not that Luca D's (Luca di Montezemolo)
has just spouted off 'bout his past Grands Prix championship winning driver
being in bad shape, for which I've pretty much given up on Herr Schumacher,
except for posting my yearly tributes...
But instead, as I was getting wound-up over
the greatness of Jeffrey Gordon, who I'll admit was a great racing driver,
nonetheless, only Gordon and two others rank above Michael Schumacher for
overall wins.
Yet "The King," aka Richard Petty
ran an incomprehensible 1,184 races over 35yrs! With the "Silver
Fox," nee David Pearson running 574 over 27yrs. And Gordon a 'Mega 797 over 24yrs - All of which are substantially
more than Schumacher's tally of 307, while the other Top-4 F1 drivers all have
less than 200-starts!
And that's before we even get into the notion
of NASCAR typically running twice as many races per season, i.e.; 36 vs. 18-19, with this season's 21 events being a
record in Formula 1.
FORMULA 1 TOP-5
(Rank/Name/Wins/Poles/Titles)
1) Michael Schumacher 91 68 7
2) Alain Prost 51 33 4
3) Lewis Hamilton 43 49 3
4) Sebastian Vettel 42 46 4
5) Ayrton Senna 41 65 3
(Statistics current - prior to 2016 Australian GP;
as Hamilton & Vettel are currently active drivers)
As
even good 'Ol Boogity-Boogity-Boogity who's career stats resemble Schuey's,
albeit like most Roundy-round drivers, it took 'DW 29yrs while amassing a massive
809starts to do so!
As the late "Intimidator," nee Dale
Earnhardt doesn't even crack the Top-5 for wins while Jimmy "Vanilla"
Johnson's set to tie Dale's career wins tally at 76-apiece upon his next win -
while we all know that Earnhardt Sr. is tied for most championships with
Petty's seven and Johnson's third overall with six.
And Bloody Hell! Even Danica's already made 118
starts in just three years, while one of my favourite Taxicab characters,
notorious for smoking while driving, the late Dick Trickle made nearly the same
amount 'O starts as Schuey, with Trickle amassing 303 while claiming to be the
winningest driver of all with 1,200 wins; Aye Karumba!
Although Danica and Dick are currently tied for both
wins and Poles in NASCAR, both with Goose-eggs, ergo 0 victories and one Pole
apiece...
NASCAR TOP-5
(Rank/Name/Wins/Poles/Titles)
1) Richard Petty 200 123 7
2) David Pearson 105 113 3
3) Jeff Gordon 93 81 4
4) Darrell Waltrip 87 59 3
5) Cale Yarborough 83 69 3
As surely Mike Joy, Ol' DW, (Darrell Waltrip)
Chris Meyer, Mikey "Ah Shucks!" Waltrip or A-L-L of 'Dem will SPEW
'bout how NASCAR drivers are the GURR-REATEST!
which I beg to differ, but also begs the
question of how many Taxicab drivers were participating in this year's Rolex
24? As the answer's three, albeit not
sure if A.J. Allmendinger truly counts? With the other two being Cheeps'
boys Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson. With fourteen past 'N present IndyCar
drivers taking part in the race.
Meanwhile Thy Wily Rubino', aka Rubens
Barrichello who holds the record for most Grands Prix starts with a staggering
322 was drafted into service aboard Wayne Taylor Racing's #10 Corvette DP as
insurance for the team due to Jordan Taylor being sick for two weeks leading up
to and thru the Rolex 24.
As there was something weird going on in the
cockpit, as Ricky Taylor got sick, and Max Angelelli, who was wisely
substituted for Jordan during the final stint after he reported noxious fumes
in the car, pulled off immediately after taking Thy chequered flag On-track
before being rushed to Hospital!
As "Max-the-Ax" Angelelli endured
mightily to secure the runner-up finish with the car suffering a broken exhaust
header, for which he's subsequently been released from hospital and flown back
home to Italy to be with his family...
While other ex-Formula 1 drivers Sebastian
Bourdais, Gianmaria
Bruni,
Giancarlo Fisichella, Christian Fittipaldi
and Alexander Wurz participated in the race.
But alas, suppose
we'll inevitably hear somebody in the TV Booth fawning over Dan-Dan-Danica, who
may be, just may be will have a decent race and finish in the Top-5?
Whilst I'll be
rootin' for the other A.j> - as in A.J. Allmendinger!