Any Formula One fans here??

The Guilds of Grot

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beecee

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Oswego Speedway runs the super mods all summer long!!
 

richardp69

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Well, this is likely sacrilegious coming from a guy that worked in the auto industry for 33 years or so and I know it will anger and confuse many of you but I just never saw the point. Yeah, they're going fast but going around in a circle never really did all that much for me. I even hate to see the crashes
 

The Guilds of Grot

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Well the circle does two things. First, it allows you to see the whole track as opposed to just one or two corners. Second, the pack comes by much more often then a large road course. The point of it is to see who can go around the circle the prescribed number of times first. To each his own.

This Saturday night will be the 69th opening night at my home track of Wall Stadium. I haven't missed many in the last thirty something years!


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Oh, and real races fans don't like crashes either. There's way too much down time to clean them up!
 

adorshki

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Oh, and real races fans don't like crashes either. There's way too much down time to clean them up!
Besides which, that's what Demolition Derbys are for.
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And fans of massive low-end torque who don't give a damn about top speed are finding an outlet in the emergent sport of Combine Derbys springing up in rural bastions of tractor love:
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Nuuska

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There was this hilarious moment when Spike Jones was acting as race car commentator and he goes : " . . . he went by twice . . ."
 

JohnW63

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Formula 1 should have been a showcase for whatever now technology the car manufacturers could come up with

That would be the early days of the late 60s and early 70s CAN-AM series.
 

Westerly Wood

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When I was probably 10, a friend and his Dad took me to NH raceway to see the formula 1s race. my friend's father was involved with the Trojan race car or company. I have no idea. All I can remember is it was so loud, I could not speak or talk. And I remember chain link fences. And a lot of trees. And the track was so freakin small. Looks a lot bigger on TV.
 

b0rn2w0rsh1p

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F1 does push the envelope for transportation on 4 wheels, I watch it when I can - wife doesn't like the high-pitched engine sounds... I like motorsports of all sorts, I kind of lean (no motorcycle pun intended) toward IMSA, my all-time favorite car being the classic Porsche 917. Having been born in West Germany - I always root for the Porsches, Mercedes, Audis and BMWs. It was amazing what they did with diesels a few seasons ago - out-right beating the gas cars. Speaking of German innovation - how about that VW All-Electric Pike's Peak racer that set the overall record in 2018! Eclipsing the Peugeot 208 T16 by over 15 seconds... That's like lapping the previous F1 record holder!
 

adorshki

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When I was probably 10, a friend and his Dad took me to NH raceway to see the formula 1s race. my friend's father was involved with the Trojan race car or company. I have no idea. All I can remember is it was so loud, I could not speak or talk. And I remember chain link fences. And a lot of trees. And the track was so freakin small. Looks a lot bigger on TV.
Do you mean New Hampshire Motor Speedway (would have been Bryar Motorsports Park?)
Never had a Formula One there, but plenty of IMSA And TransAm
Watkins Glen, perhaps?
If it was '76 or '77 you would indeed have witnessed Hunt and Lauda; although understandable if it didn't mean anything to a 10-year old or even most Americans at the time.

From the usual source (my bolding and italics):
"1975: saw a medium speed chicane added to the Esses to slow the cars down, but it did not ruin the flow of the track. The race however, was a politically charged event. Regazzoni held up Fittipaldi's second placed McLaren for six laps to try to help his teammate and leader of the race Niki Lauda get ahead; Fittipaldi eventually lapped the Swiss. However, Regazzoni was black flagged by Clerk of the Course Berdie Martin and this irked the ire of Ferrari team manager Luca di Montezemolo. The thin and wiry Montezemolo actually got into a bit of a scuffle with the large Martin; and Montezemolo withdrew Regazzoni in protest. It was not a complete disaster for Ferrari- Austrian and recently crowned Drivers' Champion Lauda went on to win from Fittipaldi.

1976 saw James Hunt win crucially in a McLaren while his closest championship contender Lauda finished third. At this point, Hunt was only three points behind Lauda for the final race at Fuji, Japan. The race also saw Jacky Ickx crash hugely at the Chute, the Belgian survived but was injured.
1977 saw rain throughout the race. Hunt won again on a very wet track as he held off home favorite Mario Andretti in a Lotus 78 to win by two seconds.
1978 saw the heavy-hearted circus arrive after the death of Ronnie Peterson at Monza two weeks before. Andretti had already accumulated enough points to win the Drivers' Championship before coming to Watkins Glen. Mechanical problems forced Andretti to retire early from the race, which was won by Carlos Reutemann in a Ferrari 312T3.
1979 saw Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve win a very wet race after Australian Alan Jones retired after dominating much of the race.

Starting in '75 Lauda's car would have been a Ferrari 312T:
"The 312T series won 27 races, four Constructors' and three Drivers' Championships, making it the most successful car in the history of F1"
(Of course a car's useless without a driver.)
"The car was powered by the powerful and ultra reliable flat-12 engine which gave around 510 bhp"
Of course they were un-muffled, even then Enzo Ferrari habitually complained about 'em not sounding good enough.
Being flat 12's with small cylinders they did sound a bit flatulent even at 10-12000rpm.
Yea that was 12,000 rpm.
:fox:
In the early '60's there were production sports cars that could beat Formula One Cars (Corvettes; Cobras; Trans Am entries) basically due to simply having great big V-8s' (a 327 is 5.4 liters, Trans Am was topped out 5 liters yielding the famous Mustang 5.0 or 305 displacement)
So from '66-86 ( an incredibly long time, actually), the F1 engine formulae were fixed at a choice of 3 liters normal or 1.5 liters turbocharged; beyond that anything went: cylinder/valve count, fuel injection or turbo, no rev limits.
THAT's where the loud came from.
:friendly_wink:

And if I didn't mention it before, why was he my first racing hero?:
"Having emerged as Formula One's star driver amid a 1975 title win and leading the 1976 championship battle, Lauda was seriously injured in a crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring during which his Ferrari 312T2 burst into flames, and he came close to death after inhaling hot toxic fumes and suffering severe burns.[3]
However, he survived and recovered sufficiently to race again just six weeks later at the Italian Grand Prix.
Lauda missed only two races, appearing at the Monza press conference six weeks after the accident with his fresh burns still bandaged. He finished fourth in the Italian GP, despite being, by his own admission, absolutely petrified."

Even stone-hearted Enzo was impressed.

That lung damage btw was what finally caught up with him, requiring a lung transplant last year, and he'd already had a kidney transplant in '05, as his kidneys had also suffered damage from the toxic fumes that got into his lungs in the crash.
He died of kidney failure; apparently a complication of the transplant recovery.
He'd actually been active in management in Mercedes' F1 program for the last couple of seasons (much to my regret).
Go with God, Niki.
Grand Prix of Monaco's this weekend, there'll undoubtedly be some recognition of him.
6 AM Pacific time on ESPN; check their listings for practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday.
:tranquillity:
 
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adorshki

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'Bout time for a bump on this necrothread...how 'bout that Charles Leclerc, eh?
Two weekends ago, Spa:
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Yesterday, Monza:
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I never would have expected it when the season was beginning, but in retrospect I think they still should have kept Kimi.***
Who by the way, still holds the fastest lap record in F1 history; at the fastest and most raced track in Formula 1, since last year:
https://www.the42.ie/kimi-raikkonen-pole-italian-grand-prix-4214150-Sep2018/.

On the podium, just before answering a question, Leclerc asked the reporter if he could speak in Italian.
"Of course" was the reply.
"Oh boy," I thought, "that'll win 'em over like nothing else, in a country where simply driving for the team is enough"....and shed a tear.
Won me over.
Oh well, back down to earth:
Can Ferrari keep it up?
***Edit: What I meant was, "And let Vettel go".
 
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dreadnut

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My friend used to race vintage Porsches. The he went to formula V.
 

D30Man

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Only car race I have ever been to was the Devil's bowl speedway in Denison, TX with a friend about 15 years ago.. It was fun..
 
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