Bookies everywhere agree - it's Jenson

I took a look at the betting lines on this weekend's Australian F1 Grand Prix over at Sports Interaction, and was pretty amazed at what I saw:

1. Button - 5:1
2. Raikkonen - 6:1
3. Alonso - 8:1
4. Massa - 8:1
5. Barrichello - 8:1
6. Hamilton - 11:1
7. Kubica - 13:1
8. Heidfeld - 23:1
   
9. Vettel - 26:1
10. Trulli - 30:1
11. Glock - 35:1
12. Kovalainen - 41:1
13. Rosberg - 41:1
14. Webber - 51:1
15. Nakajima - 71:1
    
16. Piquet - 81:1
17. Bourdais - 201:1
18. Sutil - 251:1
19. Fisichella - 251:1

Not sure why there's no odds on Buemi, but whatever. There's some fascinating insight here into what the public's perception is of how the weekend will go. After all, odds are generally calculated based upon bets received thus far, after an initial setting of odds by the bookies. Seems that Brawn's testing times have gotten everyone's attention, but what is remarkable is that Button is the one seen as the most likely to win, despite Barrichello's better record, and greater experience in a front-running team.

So there's some bargains to be had here and the one I've put a few dollars on is young Nico Rosberg. The German Swede posted the second fastest time at the Jerez tests, and third fastest at Barcelona, yet languishes at 41:1. An each way bet seemed like a no-brainer, since picking a winner in an F1 race (especially the first of the season) can be notoriously difficult. For a $5 stake ($10 each way) a win pays about $250, and 2nd or 3rd nets $45. Not bad at all.

Given BMW and Toyota's steady progress through the off-season, they all looked good too, bar Kubica, whose 8:1 odds can't justify the money. For anyone who wants to live closer to the edge, Webber and Nakajima are both wildcards at 51:1 and 71:1 respectively. The Williams in particular looks great.

Nothing like a flutter to make things more interesting!

V8 Supercars get mangled

Watching the debut round of the Australian V8 Supercars championship this weekend reminded me of one particular aspect of these cars:

When V8 Supercars crash, they produce the most mangled wrecks in all of racing.

Most race cars these days are made with copious carbon fibre or aluminium chassis and body panels. Not V8 Supercars... these things are steel, and when they crash they warp and bend in the most magnificent way. Making things even more gnarly is the fact that unlike NASCAR which also uses steel panels and chassis, V8 Supercars are derived from production bodyshells as opposed to tubular space frames, so there's a whole shitload of production-formed steelwork underneath too. The good news for teams is that this means they (and local bodyshops) can do much of the crash repairs themselves using welding and normal metalforming techniques including bringing out big hammers. One of the joys of V8 Supercars is watching crew members wail on the cars with massive hand tools after a car has made contact with another car or with the scenery.

With such massive grids, fuelled by Aussie-man macho driving styles, the opportunities to watch steel get formed into new and bizarre shapes are frequent...

Hotness

The new Acura P1 car. Extremely good-looking car. And the sister car to the one pictured here grabbed pole at Sebring today, so it's quick too.

It is blessed relief from the new Audi which looks like someone painted up an old WR prototype in Audi colours, then softened it like butter in a microwave and made Hagrid from Harry Potter sit on the car. The word "fugly" comes to mind.

Given my appreciation of Japanese automotive technology, it's quite clear who to cheer for on Saturday's Sebring 12 Hours.

Lapping Laguna Seca

In the period where this blog lay dormant, from September 2008 until February 2009, I had the pleasure of getting my Subaru WRX STi out to not just one, but two track days.

The first was at Laguna Seca, a track I knew pretty damn well from all the races I'd attended there, as well as my crazy virtual test drives before I bought the car. This was back in November, so the expectation was that the weather might be inclement. Luckily I convinced my father to join me in his Porsche Boxster, and his experience with track days in general and Laguna specifically proved to be great help.

We showed up to the Speed Ventures-organized day, surrounded in the paddock by everything from Ferrari 430s to Godzillas to a Mazda 3 and Infiniti M45. After a drivers' meeting I got a chance to sneak two sighting laps, which was hugely useful. My first impression was that the track seemed much smaller and more confined than either from the spectator areas or from Gran Turismo 4. The tyre wall on the outside of turn 3 was particularly worrying! I also noted how blind both the entry and apex of the Corkscrew were, requiring drivers to sight off a particular tree, conveniently marked with a cone.

My dad got to go out first, and I sat beside him to start learning the lines and braking points, as well as seeing the superb etiquette of a car track day (pointing people by if they're faster, something alien to me from my experience with motorcycle track days). It ensured the fast guys didn't get held up and the slower guys didn't feel pressured, both desirable goals.

Finally it was my turn. After a warm up lap I started to push the bright blue Rex, immediately discovering that once the needle hits 3000rpm, you need to start prepping for the upshift, because the 7000rpm redline is coming very soon. I'd set the rpm warning beep to come on at 6700rpm, but this soon proved too low. The key to performance was to keep that turbo spinning, and the flat four was constantly goading me into making it sing. In terms of handling, the phenomenal grip I'd experienced on the roads was clearly evident here, and it took some time before the limit on corner speed became mechanical rather than human. In some corners I vowed to never go full chat, simply to ensure I returned home with the car in the same condition as when I left.

Back in the paddock after the first session I reflected on the nature of the track. The gradients were massive and the characters of each corner so different that it felt like a series of mini challenges as opposed to one big one. What's the best line for the double apex Andretti hairpin? How late to brake for turn five? How much speed to carry into turn six? Where to shift in the Corkscrew complex? How to best string together the Corkscrew exit, turn nine and the Rainey Curve? All these questions come at you lap after lap, and very few were definitely answered by the end of the day.

The second session proved to be the fastest, as rain arrived after lunch. I managed to go faster than my Dad, although you'd expect an STi to spank a Boxster without too much trouble. By the end of this session I was unsure how to make any great gains, but this issue took a back seat for the rest of the day. Session three was slightly damp, so I focused initially on lines and braking points, then as it got wetter I looked to start experimenting with grip levels, seeing if I could start to get the car moving around beneath us (a tough job in a car that prefers to roll along like it's on rails). The best options for some tail-out fun were the uphill exit of turn 5, and the low-speed final hairpin, turn 11, and I took full advantage. Now that I'd learned the track, it was time to learn the car...

The fourth and final session was fully wet, and I managed to settle into a comfortable rhythm with a white STi and a red WRX. The three of us formed a dominant Subaru train, picking off cars one by one, regardless of their power, as they struggled on the soaking wet surface - Mazda RX8, Porsche 911, another Porsche, Nissan GTR, they each fell to the staggering capabilities of the Subarus, albeit piloted by track day newbies like myself. It was terrific fun, and proved that my fears ahead of time of it being wet were 180 degrees wrong. The wet track day is the best.

As we left the track my gas light came on. A glance at the odo and a quick calculation revealed a figure of 8mpg, which was hilarious in its political-incorrectness.

The next track day was at Southern California's Buttonwillow Raceway. Essentially a club-level circuit, there's no spectator facilities and very little to hit. The major challenges proved to be remembering the track, with its flat and featureless layout, and the soaking mud in the run off areas that threatened to turn any car turtle if they hit them at any kind of angle.

The main focus of this day was getting track time for my wife. One of the agreements we had made was that she would do a track day if I bought the car, so it was time to make good on this. Buttonwillow was a great place to start and once again the excellent Speed Ventures crew made it a well-run and unintimidating event. By her fourth session, with the help of an instructor, she'd finally gotten things to click, stringing together braking points, apexes and acceleration points to put together a clean and quick lap.

My experience with the day ended up finally putting me in a place where I was finding the car limiting my pace. Or to be more correct, the tyres. The Kumho Ecsta rubber was noisy and consistently letting me down on both turn-in and under acceleration, scrabbling for grip and making a big fuss of it at the same time. It's major selling points (cost and durability) seemed less important when you're trying to keep up with a 350z on track day rubber. Still, there's plenty of tread left on them, so it will be some time before I can upgrade.

The winner takes it all

Man, I've gone three years without quoting Abba on this blog. Damn you FIA!

Mornings for me, like most people I guess, are tough. I have to grapple with wardrobe decisions (something I hate), try to eat a bowl of generally disgusting high-fibre cereal, face up to yet another commute in the rain on my motorcycle, and do all this after being rudely separated from blissful unconsciousness by the alarm on my irritating and ineligible-for-an-upgrade-until-May cellphone.

It doesn't help when my well-intentioned and well-informed wife throws out a comment like "did you hear Formula 1 is going to decide its champion based on number of wins this year".

This is something we all feared - Mad Bernie's medals system. Surely this was too mad to ever make it? Well, welcome to F1, where madness is the norm and those with sanity are considered insane.

However, further reading on the topic slightly alleviated my unhappiness. Turns out that only the winner of the championship will be decided by number of wins. All other positions will still be determined by points. It's a huge roll of the dice by the FIA since a situation like last year could easily crop up again whereby the guy with the most points isn't the guy who won the most races. How will Joe Public understand that? The old system seems to work just fine in every other motorsport championship.

It works well beyond motorsport too. Imagine if the Tour de France used an equivalent of the new FIA system? Mark Cavendish would have won the 2008 Tour with four stage wins. Except he wouldn't, because he left the race to train for the Olympics. Which meant Stefan Schumacher and Riccardo Ricco would have tied with two wins and it would have gone back to the old system to determine which of them was the winner. Except it wouldn't, because Ricco was thrown off the Tour for a positive drug test. This would have elevated Alejandro Valverde, who came second to Ricco on stage 6 to two stage wins, now tied with Schumacher. Hang on though, Schumacher tested positive for drugs in a retest two months after the Tour ended, so Valverde in theory would be the only guy with two wins. Hang on again, because the organizers haven't officially undone the wins of Ricco and Schumacher, even though Schumacher was also later disqualified. So Cavendish didn't win because he withdrew. Ricco didn't win because he was thrown off the race. Schumacher didn't win because he was later disqualified. Valverde didn't win because Ricco's win on stage 6 still stands. That means that ALL other stage winners would have tied, so the decider would have been the old system, and finally we would have gotten the same winner, Carlos Sastre, after much confusion and many months of delay.

You know you're in trouble when the controversy-riddled Tour de France is used as example of how things SHOULD work....

A quick look at the calendar

This weekend sees the WRC in Cyprus and World Superbike in Qatar, both of which should be worth watching.

However, starting next week things get really cracking. The Sebring 12 Hours in the ALMS and V8 Supercars' season-opening Clipsal 500 are amongst the highlights of the motorsport year, and both are happening next weekend. They'll be backed up by AMA Superbike, World Touring Cars, A1GP and Japanese SuperGT to name but a few.

The weekend after that is notable for the first Formula 1 race of the year.

And once we get into April it's safe to say that the racing season is truly in full swing with action in F1, the WRC, World Superbike, the ALMS, the IRC's trip to Kenya and the start of the Le Mans Series, the Indy Racing League and the British Touring Car Championship.

Brawn can do it

I'm going to go out on a limb here...

The former Honda F1 team might actually not suck this year. Here's why:

• Two drivers who are proven race-winners. Being stuck in that awful Honda for so long might have shortened some peoples' memory as to how talented Button and Barrichello actually are
• Ross Brawn, he's good. I seem to remember he did rather well when he was in charge of a team running a wonky-mouthed German chap.
• KERS. Those that have it, and have it working, have a distinct advantage. Sounds like Brawn do.
• Mercedes engines. There's not a bad engine in F1 at the moment, but an engine that propelled the world champ last year is surely a better bet than one that propelled the Honda team.
• The new regs. Everyone starts with a clean sheet this year. That has to be a distinct advantage to anyone who struggled with the previous regulation set.
• It's not a new team. F1 has seen a myriad of new teams arrive, fail and leave. Brawn is not in this category, despite the general feeling of "newness". Having an established staff, facility and a complete understanding of all facets of the series (sporting, technical, commercial, political etc.) means they are at least on the level of Force India, as opposed to, say, Stupid Aguri.

Button for champ? Not likely. But Brawn being the laughing stock of the paddock again? Also not likely. And who doesn't love an underdog?

Daytona again

Weren't we just here? For some stock car race that I half care about? And before that, some sportscar race that I kind of take an interest in? Well, now it's a motorcycle race that is vaguely interesting. Every year the Daytona 200 should kick ass, and every year it kind of doesn't.

This time out we won't even have the benefit of live TV to analyze the kick-assed-ness of the whole thing, or lack thereof, as Speed Channel are moving to a tape-delayed "primetime special" format, whatever that is. Maybe it will be as lame as Pinks or one of the other shows I don't watch.

...tangent alert...

What DO I watch on Speed Channel these days? Not Dakar (because Versus have that, and even then I download the Eurosport coverage). Not the Daytona 24 Hours (because I was at a track day). Not World Superbike (tape delayed race two AGAIN, so Eurosport provided visuals). Not WRC (guess what, yes, Eurosport and Bit Torrent to the rescue again, same for the Monte Carlo Rally).

I'm paying $5 per month extra for this. And it's on my HD package now, so I'm clearly an idiot, on many levels.

...done...

Anyway, once again, the AMA has managed to split up the talent, with Suzuki vs. Yamaha vs. Ducati in the big-bike class and Yamaha vs. Kawasaki vs. Honda in the 600 class. Damn you all AGAIN. The one bright spot is that the gap that used to exist between the Suzukis and the 3rd place bike now seems to cover the top 10. So perhaps the racing will be good. Shame we'll have to wait two weeks to see it.

In the meantime, Eurosport will be on hand this weekend to show World Touring Cars and Intercontinental Rally Challenge and my laptop will be on hand to download it.

Not a good start

Aston Martin's attempt at overall victory at Le Mans reminds me of the first few lines from the first song of Tenacious D's debut album: "I don't like that - so far, off to a bad start."

The car has yet to even run and Aston Martin Racing and their technical partners Lola are already squabbling over who has put the most amount of work into the car. Aston are trying to make out that the car is almost completely changed from its humble Lola tub origins, whilst Lola claim that Aston couldn't afford to buy the IP rights to call it anything that didn't include the Lola name, and that their statements otherwise are not in the spirit of their contract.

Last time I checked, this was not the kind of preparation Audi went through for Le Mans. Or Peugeot. Or even Pescarolo. Don't you think that there are more important things to focus on than whether it's a Lola, an Aston, a Lola-Aston or an Aston-Lola? Like beating the unbeatable VW group at La Sarthe in June?

Take that, Europe

"BOOM!!!"

That's the sound of an American bombshell dropping into the predominantly European World Superbike paddock. Anyone need a quick reminder about who invented Superbike racing...?

Okay, I admit that I'm English, but I'm never going back and the USA is my home, so I'm just going to go ahead and be pleased for Ben Elbowz Spies.

Not convinced he can do well yet? Dare I throw out the names Merkel, Polen, Russell, Kocinski and Edwards? I do dare.

What a pair of races that was. Elbowz, the Sultan of Slide, the Pocket Rocket, Baldy Laconi, Jakub (can I buy a vowel?) Smrz and Fabrizio all looked rather great. Corser, Xaus, Sykes, Kiyonari, Nakano, Byrne and Checa looked a bit rubbish. Biaggi, Neukirchner, Kagayama and Rea ran hot and cold. The season continues to look ace.

And riddle me this: you have two smaller European manufacturers coming into the series after either a long break or for the first time, with brand new, never-raced bikes and they show rather well. Then you have Kawasaki, who have been in WSBK for years, who might have been better off providing their riders with scooters. What the hell is going on?

Team Green, you are the laughing stock of the bike racing world. Even when you try to quit a series you can't do that properly. You suck.

It's back

What is back? I was going to say World Superbike, but my plans are that this blog is also back. Inspired by my good buddy John Dagys' new blog, I'm going to try to get this one up and running again.

To be honest, it's been hard to be as excited about motorsport lately, with the global economic downturn claiming such racing victims as Subaru and Suzuki in the WRC, Kawasaki in MotoGP, Honda in F1 and the AMA, and Audi in the ALMS. But now that the season is getting underway, it's a good reminder that racing will always be there, and that these contractions can be a good thing, forcing the sport to think more carefully about how it goes about it's business.

So here's what I'm finding exciting at the moment:

• World Superbike - Having just watched the new Superpole qualifying format, along with the bevy of superstar riders and deep field of factory teams, I just can't wait for the first races tomorrow. And to have an American rookie on pole makes it even better...
• The Intercontinental Rally Challenge - Although it may not be the future of rallying, it's proving some important things that the WRC is simply going to have to pay attention to. Cheaper cars? Check. Simpler gearboxes? Check. Incentive for manufacturers to join in? Check. A kickass TV package with lots of helicopter and in-car footage? Check.
• Formula 1 - Everything points to an exciting season this year. It couldn't get much more exciting than the finale last year, but we may be looking at more than two people battling for the championship. Plus F1 races make my mate Dave want to have friends around and enjoy his superb BBQ, so I'm not arguing!
• Le Mans - 26 P1 entries. 26!!! Nine of the them from factory programs! Three of those from Aston Martin! Ridiculously good.
• All my favourite races: the TT, Sebring, Bathurst, Petit Le Mans, Nurburgring 24, MotoGP at Laguna Seca, Baja 1000 and of course Le Mans. These things are always great, regardless of the economy or quality of entry.

Damn, I love motorsport.

Here we go again

Time to finally break radio silence, and what a way to do it: a rant about this whole AMA situation.

For those unfamiliar with the situation, the AMA Superbike championship has been the top US motorcycle racing series for many years, featuring the participation of all four Japanese manufacturers. However, it's had its problems:

• A confusing set of rules which have changed a number of times and overlapping classes have caused a lack of continuity. Although the class structure appears to be kind of similar to the World and British championships with 1000cc Superbikes, 1000cc Superstock machines and 600cc Supersport bikes, the reality is very different. Superbike rules allow for a level of sophistication similar to that found in WSBK. This effectively shuts out privateers from winning, even a very well-funded satellite team like Jordan Suzuki. As such, they go play in Superstock, which features slick tyres, and then bring those Superstock bikes into the Superbike race, effectively forming a class within a class, a kind of "best of the rest" deal. Furthermore, there's a fourth class called Formula Xtreme, which is kind of a 600cc Superbike: much more leeway for modification and innovation. Once again you have the same problem, a couple of heavyweight manufacturer teams thrashing the pants of Supersport riders looking for extra track time.
• The racing is DULL, DULL, DULL. For some reason, Suzuki have been dominant for years. In fact, in the last two seasons a non-Suzuki has only won ONE race of the 38 run. The pattern is always the same: the two Suzukis roar out front pull miles ahead and may or may not fight it out amongst themselves. Meanwhile the other manufacturers have a second battle (along with one or two satellite bikes) whilst the true privateers wander around on their Superstock bikes waiting to get lapped.

Clearly change was needed, and when the AMA sold the series to the NASCAR-affiliated Daytona Motorsports Group, change was coming. However, DMG came up with a wacky class structure that seemed to elevate the Formula Xtreme-ish 600 Superbike class to the level of headliner, with a lame-duck 1000cc Superstock-type class called Literbike playing second fiddle. The manufacturers, who may have been okay with some levelling of the playing field and adoption of BSB-style Superbike rules (which are more like Superstock and allow for closer competition), were furious. They needed the premier class to be 1000cc, and I have to agree with them there. It didn't work very well when the Daytona 200 switched to Formula Xtreme, so the lesson should have been learnt.

The damage was done. No amount of backpedaling could fix it and conciliatory gestures by DMG such as "local variance" rules couldn't divert the manufacturers from their chosen course of action, establishment of a rival series, called the US Superbike Championship. DMG fucked up. Their attempt to tighten up the racing by removing technology and power from the manufacturers was worthy, but they seemed to forget that no matter what happens, the Big Four had to be involved, because even though they cause poor racing, they bring money, prestige, cool bikes and the best riders with them.

The split is bad news, there's no doubt about it, and even though USSB is saying it's not like the CART/IRL split, the effects will be the same. Everyone will have to pick a side: mechanics, riders, teams, promoters, media, TV networks, and, worst of all, fans. I can see some privateers sticking with DMG, safe in the knowledge that with the factories gone they have a chance at being AMA Superbike champion. Riders like Chris Perez, Martin Cardenas, Scott Jensen, Tony Meiring and Ben Thompson all now have a legit shot at the title. I'd guess that most satellite teams e.g. those that aren't factories but that bring the big trucks like Corona Honda, Jordan Suzuki, Hotbodies Racing and Rockwall Honda will go to USSB. Teams that have done well in Formula Xtreme may stick with DMG, such as Boulder Motorsports and Pegram Racing, both of which run Ducatis. True privateers may end up cherrypicking the best races from either series.

I can't imagine what will happen next. One thing is for sure: we're doomed to sit through another season of desperately boring American Superbike racing, regardless of whose name sits at the top of the program.

Update

As you can tell, this blog has been very quiet lately. A combination of factors, including other things that are demanding much of my attention and brainpower, as well as a general lack of inspiration to write are to blame. The midseason also tends to be less contentious than the start, end and period between racing seasons, and blogs thrive on contention.

I'll return to the blog once those factors cease to be factors. Until then, enjoy your summer (or winter if you're in the southern hemisphere...)

Beard

An extremely important topic is under discussion today on the Midweek Motorsport podcast: have there ever been any major motorsport champions who had beards at the time of achieving their championships?

It appears that the answer is no, making me wonder whether having extensive sideburns is causing me to be slower at trackdays than I otherwise would be.

The Onion meets Jalopnik

How the fuck did I miss this? From the depraved mind of Evo columnist and Top Gear script editor Richard Porter, Sniff Petrol is like The Onion for the automotive world. I've already wasted many minutes this afternoon trying to catch up. One of my favourite features is David "Crazy D" Coulthard's column in which he's talking like Ali G. Check it yo...

The annual US MotoGP review post

Since 2001 I haven't missed Laguna Seca's July motorcycle race weekend, with four years of World Superbike followed by 4 years of MotoGP. The transition from WSBK to MotoGP in 2005 was a tough one. On the one hand we were totally excited to see those amazing bikes and to have the biggest bike racing series there is in town. On the other hand we were shocked at the mind-numbing price gouging both in Monterey and at the track. The massive crowds only added to the misery making getting in and out of the track difficult, as well as getting around once there. Nicky Hayden's debut win helped make up for much of the negatives but I couldn't shake the feeling that something had been lost

The following year promised much but delivered little. Hayden won again, but it was less exciting, whilst the brain-frying 110 degree heat, coupled with a disastrous shuttle bus system for people who came in cars made for what was basically a shitty day. We had even foregone the usual plan of going for two days and staying in Monterey, gunshy of the hotel prices.

In 2007 we skipped the shuttle bus drama by riding in, although it turned out that they'd figured out the buses by then. It was this year that it seemed like Laguna Seca had finally gotten the hang of things, and the only major disappointment was the race, which turned out to be rather tedious.

This year again promised a dull race set against a backdrop of a well-run and easy-to-attend event. Anyone who watched the race knows that we were wrong on the first assumption, and I'm happy to say we were right about the second one. For the fourth year in a row we chose a different transportation option, going with the expensive (but worth it) VIP car parking pass. Getting in and out of the track was a breeze, and we were able to offset the cost of the pass by bringing our own food and beer, which wouldn't have been possible if we'd ridden or parked offsite and taken the shuttle.

Attendance was slightly down this year. In 2005 all 54,000 tickets sold out. For '06 the total available fell to 48,000, once again sold out, a feat repeated in 2007. This year there were 1,000 tickets left on the table - not bad at all. It felt busy, but it felt nice (see pic of me enjoying a drink above turn two!) and I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed the day, so much so that I might consider returning to the two-day plan for 2009.

And what about that race? Valentino Rossi proved once again why he is the greatest rider of his generation and perhaps the greatest ever, and Casey Stoner showed an almost Gibernau-ish indignance after being beaten fair and square by the Italian. It was certainly popular with the crowd... check out this shot of their reaction as he crossed the finish line to take the win:

A racing companion

For most people (particularly men) who follow motorsport, it's a lonely pursuit. Unless they have equally enthusiastic friends who are into the sport, they're forced to find internet forums where they can have rewarding, meaningful discussions and engage in discourse about their hobby. I can imagine this could get frustrating.

Luckily for me, that's not the case. When I first met my partner K nine years ago, there was little indication that she had any interest in any sport, never mind motor racing. She didn't even have a TV, let alone cable and she'd never seen the Speedvision channel. A typical situation could have developed where one partner learns to tolerate the interests of another, but in this case something strange happened.

Straight off the bat, she developed a fondness for my cranky but lovable Alfa Romeo Milano. This was a good start. Then she began to come to races, beginning with a trip to the Wine Country Classic historic races at Sears Point. That weekend was brutally hot and could so easily have turned her off racing forever. It didn't, perhaps because historic racing presents such a friendly, low-key environment or maybe because she was able to witness first-hand my enthusiasm.

When I bought a motorcycle she was envious, having had a certain amount of experience in hanging out with the messenger biking crowd here in SF, as well as having learned to ride many years ago. It wasn't long before she was also on two wheels again. As my interest in motorcycles grew, so did my interest in motorcycle racing, so she was able to share in the process of learning about this new side of the sport.

It wasn't too hard a sell in 2002 when we went to Italy for three weeks to convince her that we needed a night in Milan (to ensure a visit to the Alfa Romeo museum the next day) and a night in Modena so we had time to visit Ferrari. She loved the Alfa facility (which felt more like a private collection) but was less excited about Ferrari, which was more of tourist trap.

Back in the US my interest in rallying began to increase, and before long I'd had a chance to go to the WRC event in Sweden which convinced me to learn how to co-drive. My first event saw K come along to work as a timing marshal. Despite the fact she stood on the side of a mountain in pouring rain for hours on end she continued to enjoy rallying. It was at this point that she revealed her mother had been a co-driver many years back. Aha! So it's in the genes! Now everything started to make sense....

Late in 2003 we both went to the WRC event in Wales. This was surely going to be the make-or-break moment. As we stood in freezing fog on the Rhondda stage on Sunday morning, with her favourite driver Carlos Sainz out of the rally two days prior, could she still muster excitement and enthusiasm? The answer came from behind a tightly-drawn hooded rain jacket... "yes!"

Pretty soon she was joining the annual pilgrimage to the July bike race at Laguna Seca, initially World Superbike, then MotoGP for the last four years, each year educating whichever newcomers had joined us that year.

It was only a matter of time before she came with me on the ultimate racing trip... a visit to the Le Mans 24 Hours. Sadly, the gods decided that since she was clearly able to cope with wet motorsport events, it would rain like the devil on Le Mans in 2007. Once again she kept her chin up, and was rewarded with a great time and apart from the first and last couple of hours, a dry race (and a dry pitwalk on the Friday, evidenced in the picture below). It was quite a step up from our annual Le Mans weekend barbecues back in San Francisco which she'd taken to leading the arrangement of.


She was even brave enough to come to see NASCAR this year. She got a very good look at Michael Waltrip:


So, where to next for my racing partner-in-crime? Well, after we take the plunge of actually becoming married, she can look forward to a little high-speed action herself, perhaps beginning with an autocross and then moving to some track days, now that we have a car worthy of such pursuits. If past experience is anything to go by, I should be ready to start buying tyres on a regular basis, as she proceeds to become equally excited by engaging in some on-track fun as I have been.

Audi, building their brand

Last week I took part in something called the Audi Driving Experience. This was a totally free event up at Sears Point. Let me say right off that this was a clear attempt to sell some 2009 Audi A4s, but beyond that it was clearly much more, and hints at the very clever approach that Audi have in regards to building their brand.

The day began with complimentary breakfast in the main area of their purpose-built Audi Experience complex at Sears Point. We were split into two groups and each went to a classroom for a briefing on what to expect and a quick overview of the new A4. We were told that we would be "test drivers" of the new A4, a car that many car magazines have yet to drive.

Next up was an autocross. We paired up with another attendee and each of us got one lap of the course in each of four cars: a Mercedes C300, Lexus IS250F, BMW 328xi and the A4 3.2 Quattro. All four cars were four-wheel-drive, with similar engine sizes and spec levels. To be fair, the Audi was the spendiest at an MSRP of $48,000 compared with the $38k Lexus, the cheapest. Chris, my partner for the morning and I chose well by starting with the Merc before progressing to the Lexus, then Beemer then Audi. Funnily enough, that was also the ascending order of perfomance, and Audi clearly did a good job of proving that the A4 is the best. Despite its horsepower advantage over its rivals, I found that the Quattro system was the best of the 4WD drivetrains, with no annoying chatter of the outside rear wheel under hard acceleration out of corners, something that the Merc and Lexus were especially guilty of.

A couple of things to note here. Firstly the two guys running the autocross course were familiar to me: former Mitsubishi USA factory rally driver Lauchlin O'Sullivan, who lives here in San Francisco and who I know pretty well; and Ramana Lagemann, former Subaru USA factory rally driver. Secondly, it was a great reminder of just how much fun an autocross is. Both Chris and I were not afraid to really cane the nuts off the cars. Other participants were a bit more timid. I came away resolute to get my Subaru STi to an autocross soon. It will also be an ideal introduction into performance driving for my fiancee K, who is itching to get the Scoob onto a track day soon.

After the autocross it was over to the pitlane, where we set up in some more A4s. More rally drivers were in attendance here including a former Production-GT class rival, Stephan Verdier. We were led onto the track by an instructor in a TT and each got five or so laps, with the instructor leading us around by means of example and through walkie-talkies installed in each car. It worked very well and I thoroughly enjoyed my laps. The A4 was a decent car to have beneath me too: predictable, with decent grunt and a nicely setup chassis that was soft enough for road conditions but stiff enough for a few harmless laps of Sears.

What became obvious throughout the morning was that Audi are one of the most brand-aware car manufacturers out there. They know that BMW owns the "best German sport-sedan" title in the minds of the public and their inferiority complex has led them to put a lot of dollars into efforts to prove themselves sportier. This is why it's Audi who have the last eight Le Mans wins (yes, 2003 was a Bentley-badged Audi) and why they spend millions of dollars every year on initiatives like the A4 Driving Experience. I think it works. If someone were to ask me what the sportiest German car manufacturer is, ten years ago there's no doubt that BMW would be the answer. These days I'd probably be just as likely to say Audi. If I was offered either a BMW M3 or an Audi RS4, I'd probably take the Audi. It would be a tossup between an RS6 and an M5, but the fact that a car like that can come close to the amazing M5 says loads. It was an S4 that was so very nearly my next car back in March, not an M3. And BMW's reticence to leverage their F1 efforts, still hiding behind the "Sauber" moniker whilst Audi are loud and proud about their dominance at Le Mans, is helping tip the scales Audi's way too.

I've always imagined my next car would be an Audi S-something. Their investment in brand-building through sportscar racing, along with giving me the keys to a new A4 for the morning have done nothing to undermine that prediction, that's for sure.

Been kinda quiet...

Yes, it's true, I've been very neglectful of this blog for the past couple of weeks but I've compiled a decent list of excuses to justify my lax approach:

1. I got engaged to my longtime (9 years) partner K. Despite the fact that being so very anti-wedding we've decided to do a low-key thing at City Hall, we still wanted a party. So instead of a stuffy, expensive wedding reception, we're throwing an engagement party at the end of August. This is taking a little bit of planning to put together, so I've had slightly less spare time than usual. Look for a blog post very soon that will talk about how K is everything a male racing fan could ask for in a wife...
2. There's a term in baseball, "the dog days of summer", which refers to that period which exists after the excitement of the early stages of the season and before interest rises towards the end of the season. This coincides with the end of summer, when the days are long, hot and (since most baseball stadiums are in cities) muggy, sticky, hazy with pollution and generally unpleasant. I find the middle of the racing season shares some similar characteristics. All of the pre-season questions have been answered, any surprises that might be thrown up have done so, and we're still a long way from the end so we're not quite at the "nail-biting tension" phase. As a result, finding something interesting to write about is more difficult, and I'd rather not write than write drivel.
3. WRC is on a break and MotoGP is about to do the same.
4. Let's face it, in the summer the last thing you want to be doing is sitting inside working on a laptop (unless you're in windy and cold San Francisco like me, in which case, sometimes you do, such as right now!)

How does all that sound? Convincing enough?

Watch out

Timekeeping has always been an integral part of motorsport, and as I've become more interested in watches lately I've become much more aware of how closely linked the two industries are. These relationships seem to always be win-win: watch manufacturers gain credibility by associating themselves with the glamorous, sporty and hi-tech image of motorsport; and racing series, teams and drivers gain credibility by associating with the precision craftsmanship and luxury image of high-end timepieces. Just flick through the pages of British motoring magazines to see what I mean - ads all over the place for TAG-Heuer, Oris, Chopard, Breitling and more. Often you find watch reviews in their editorial too. In fact, American weekly rag Autoweek ran a feature on auto-inspired watches last month.

So where can we find these relationships? Generally in three areas: "official timekeeper" roles, sponsorship and endorsements and naming rights.

Official timekeeping deals are usually done with a race or with a racing series. In exchange for providing hardware and manpower to help run timing and scoring, a watch manufacturer sees their name notated on every timing caption on TV. In addition they often get to use the name and branding of the series on their products. Back in the 80s I can clearly remember seeing the Longines name during every Formula 1 broadcast before it was replaced by TAG-Heuer. Another big timekeeping deal right now is MotoGP's association with Tissot, which has spawned a MotoGP watch. The blingiest of all the Swiss watches, Rolex, is official timekeeper at Le Mans, as evidenced by the big Rolex clock hanging above the pitlane entry.

Watch manufacturers have long had a sponsorship presence in motorsport. What caught my eye most recently was Oris' name on Williams F1 cars. The deal with Williams has resulted in a lovely range of WilliamsF1 watches too. Breitling, best known for their aviation-inspired chronometer watches, were all over the Bentley Le Mans efforts in 2001, '02 and '03. A spin-off watch range resulted (a bit gaudy for my taste, I have to admit). Sponsorships do not just come from high-end luxury Swiss manufacturers: mid-range Italian watchmaker Breil sponsor the racing operations of Ducati Corse.

The biggest area of interaction between watchmaking and motorsport is in endorsements and naming rights. There's a myriad of watch collections out there with famous racing names on them, from the Chopard Mille Miglia to the TAG-Heuer SLR to the Panerai Ferrari to Jacques Lemans' mid-priced F1 range. Many top racers also lend either their name or image to watches including Nicky Hayden (Tissot), Kimi Raikkonen (TAG-Heuer) and Michael Schumacher (Omega). Even Marcus Gronholm has a watch endorsement, although in his case he's gone for Japanese maker Orient. For a more tenuous racing connection, look no further than Steve McQueen's association with the utterly cool Heuer Monaco, the watch he wore in the movie Le Mans.

The racing / watch dynamic is extremely interesting and really comes with only one downside... cost. Most of the watches I mention above cost at least $1500 and can run up to $6000 in some cases. Ever wondered why there's so many emails in your junk mail folder with the subject line "Replica Watches" or something similar....?