Archive for July 27, 2008

F-1

What do golf, Formula One and US presidential race in common? Come on, you can guess that easily. Black man. Strictly speaking, mix-raced person with dark skin more then the other half. The phenomenon in the Formula One in Europe now is the 22 years old Lewis Hamilton, an English whose grandfather Davidson was from Grenada in the West Indies, mother Carmen a white.

Formula One is the top level in auto racing. Danica Patrick is the IndyCar racer, the American open wheel racing, as vs the NASCAR, the stock cars. F-1 used to be the sports for the titled Europeans. Steffi Graf dated driver Michael Bartels for seven years. He was a F-3 driver, never qualified for F-1. In the US, there are two types of auto racing (in general), Grand prix, open wheel and the stock car. I think the sport is changing too. In the past, the drivers had the air of a gentleman and cultured. Not sure that still applies today, especially when he is only 22. This isn’t to say that the younger ones won’t develop to be sophisticated adults.

Long ago, when Golfer spotted the news that Formula One was going to build a track in Zhuhai in the SEZ, he said he’ll visit China when it opens. Years late, the track relocated to Shanghai.  It opened for business for a few years, but Golfer had since lost his appetite for China.

However, he did drag me to a NASCAR race in PA.  The Andretti family is from Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Father Mario has all three: F-1, Indy and NASCAR.  It was a gorgeous day.  But each exits were so far apart in the Poconos, we failed to gauge the distance (map quest hasn’t become popular) correctly and missed the parade and the starting of the race. Once we sat down, I noticed we were the only Asians in a Pacific Ocean of large sized rednecks.  They all well prepared for the race: huge coolers and chips.  The sound of chip chewing was drown by the nosier, no the ear splitting cars.  After the race, the party moved from the bleachers to the parking lot.  Needless to say, we stranded there for another 2 more hours.  Can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, but I would rather be at some other place .. no telling Golfer, I’m a supportive, mute and obedient wife.

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