wood

Yeah I said it was a mistake to bring him along so quickly, but who knows. Wewillsee.

My kid is out at COTA right now for WEC practice. He said everything from T3 to about T15 is closed to the fans. Not the first time we've seen this kind of thing here, but closing off half the track to paying customers for an FIA world championship series is just sooooo COTA.

First time for everything. Just goes to show that even driving the SC is no walk in the park imho. In other news ... Piastri surprised by Sargeant’s F1 struggles: ‘His potential was much greater’ https://racer.com/2024/08/29/piastri-surprised-by-sargeants-f1-struggles-his-potential-was-much-greater/

Thanks, and the other one works now, too. $45 / day? For GA? Hmm ... bold strategy, Cotton. Sure would be nice to know how many matches, who our team is composed of, etc.

Yep. Karting World Champ, but honestly, Logan's confidence was shattered a long time ago. Williams held onto him much too long and put him through a lot of unnecessary pain imho. I feel bad for the kid in a way that I don't usually do in these situations.

So, in typical recent AVP style, they sent out an email today about Chicago and about tickets for the 'AVP League' events. The Austin event will be at the HEB Center Oct 5-6, but when you click on the ticket link, it goes to an error message. No info on match schedules, how many matches, etc, either. Oh yeah, they also said the Chicago finals will be on the CW.

So, Franco Colapinto to replace Logan. LOL. Sounds like a movie race car driver name.

Max isn't calling a shot like that. He doesn't pay the bills. No driver is calling the shots at that level in any team, except maybe Stroll, and probably not him, either.

The WDC pays nada. The WCC pays big bucks - $140M last year. WCC is king in F1. WDC is a nice bonus, esp for the driver, but does little for the team in practical terms. If that weren't the case, then I could maybe see something like that being somewhat plausible. Also, it's been widely reported that FOM stepped in and influenced the Perez decision because Mexico. Bold strategy, Cotton. Never seen anyone sacrifice the WCC to get the WDC before.

Would anyone miss them?

This has nothing to do with F1 or the race, but ... speaking of the dirt track, I went to Cotton Bowl in Paige last night, as I do from time to time. The racing (mods) was great, as usual, but at intermission I witnessed one of the most bizarre and most 'redneck' things I've ever seen --- even for a dirt track crowd, and I've been going to dirt tracks for 55 years, in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. It was a gender reveal, on the track. Why? Because 'Why not', I guess. The Mom knew the gender of the baby, but the Dad and the 2 boys didn't. Mom & Dad looked much older than they seem to actually be, and looked like they just came to the track from working the fields. They looked like sharecroppers, or like the couple in American Gothic (except add about one-fiddy to each of their weight totals). So they go out to the start/finish line, flanked by the two little boys. The kiddos were flanked by the grid girls, or whatever ever they call the local teenage wannabe beauty queens that congratulate the winners, wearing checkered flag outfits. I wish I had taken video, but got damn, there was no way to foresee the sheer awesomeness of the bizarre shit that was about to go down. The plan was that a race car was going to race past them on the straight, releasing either blue or pink smoke indicating the gender of kiddo #3. Cue the PA guy spouting stuff like "What if the smoke is purple? Does that mean the baby is non-binary? And what is 'non-binary' anyway. That's crazy". Not making any of this up. No cr. Then he said he'd better shut up before he got in trouble. So then the car comes out. No, it's not a cool, badass modified. It's one of the shittiest cars from the shittiest class - the 'Sport Compacts' - painted in a terribly done stars & stripes livery to, I kid you not, 'honor Donald Trump'. No cr. OBTW, the race was sponsored by GOA - Gun Owners of America. No cr. So the car flies past spewing blue smoke, and there's basically no reaction at all from the family that's supposed to be celebrating this reveal. Mom kinda looks like "Yep. FML. Another boy". Dad looks like he dgaf about any of it & isn't thinking much past his next meal. And then it was over, and even in that crowd of mostly Deliverance-type rednecks, most people were just standing there with blank stares, trying to make sense of what they had just seen. /csb

OH, and TIL we have Buddy Ryan's sorry ass to thank for the decades-long, utterly failed coaching experiment that is Jeff Fisher. Fisher was a kick returner / DB for da Bears. Apparently he got hurt and Ryan convinced Ditka to bring him on road trips to assist in defensive coaching duties. So yeah, fuck him, too.

Watching The Murder of Air McNair on Netflix. POS Fisher getting way too much screen time so far. Everything he says is calculated to make him come off the best way possible. Talks waytoo much about himself in ways that don't relate at all Steve, too. So perfectly typical of him.

For you Aggies out there, that's about 45 - 55 mph.

So then I'm guessing it's not 111F there like it was here today? It's supposed to be 8 degrees cooler tomorrow, and it'll still be 103F. Crazy.

The speeches by both Obamas were fantastic. So refreshing.

nsiap ... the comments are gold. Gold, Jerry! Some sooner, responding to some aggy: me:

In case any of you want a USGP 3-day GA pass, I just saw this at Costco. $35 cheaper than ordering from COTA, and there are no Ticketmaster fees, so you'll save about $80 or so vs buying from COTA.

Uh ...

Yep. THAT is our best men's team, and they probably would have made some noise in the Olympics ... but the qualification process is stupid.

So, I can watch on MLB.TV on my laptop. Earlier I could watch it on my phone, but now when I try the Astros game, it says it's blacked out & I can only watch it 90 min after the game. VPN is on and connected in ATL. FML. I guess the phone's location is keeping me from watching, while that's not happening on my laptop.

Sleeping. Serious binness. I almost always feel much better when I go to bed than when I wake up in the a.m. Coincidence? I think not.