West6MT

I just got free tickets .

My friend knows a guy who has tickets but does not want to go, so he is getting the tickets for me. Apparently they are some VIP ones too. Im going to take my dad.

I will take pics.




Great year for racing for me - Montreal GP (F1), Molson GP of Toronto (champcar), and Labour day weekend I am hitting up the ALMS at Mosport.

samkws

when is the molson GP?

West6MT

It started Friday (so I missed todays practice stuff because I just found out tonight I was getting free tickets). Saturday (today) is practice and qualifying, and Sunday is the race.

astro

Adam and I went to Quali yesterday, it was fun, but CART has nothing on F1.

enjoy the race West!

Chief F1 Fan

thanks for thinking of me Steve ya prick

West6MT

Thanks Astro .

Ya I know it is going to be a downer watching this (which I have gone too before) having been to my first F1 race a few weeks ago with Chief.

West6MT

Oh shut up Scott (I know you are kidding) .

Had my dad not wanted/been able to go, you were the first person on my list to ask. When I found out I might be getting tickets I immediately wondered if you would be able/interested in coming. Give me some credit . Arent you on some kind of vacation weekend or something with your wife anyway?


Its good my dad is enthusiastic about this though. We have not done something like this in quite some time.

West6MT

Well,...........they ended up not being anything special. MAN IS F1 BETTER x 10000000000000000000. I knew it would be a bit of a downer after Montreal, but it was much more of a downer than expected. In any event, they were free and I will get to look around the paddock area tomorrow, so I wont complain.

Chief F1 Fan

Chin up Steve-CART still puts on a decent show IMO. Hey, can't beat free right? Fuck it, enjoy the race tomorrow, walk down Thunder Alley and watch 'em scream past, that's always pretty cool.

West6MT

Yep, will do.

F-C

Champ Car races are still a good value. You can't walk in the paddock in F1 races. Have fun.

West6MT

Ok, here are some of the pics I took. I have about 160, so I am not putting them all up,.............but here are some of the more interesting ones.





Ouch,.........into the wall in the morning warm up. That person on the mini bike is Tracy LOL. I think he was on his way back from taking a leak,........



Some more pics of the crashed car.



An extra car I guess,.......


The team brining out some new parts for the car that hit the wall. I later found out that they built a car from the ground up in the few hours they had before the race.




Mr. Tracy's ride after warmup.


Another car coming back from warmup.


Fill'er up. (cars at the fuelling station).





Some brake rotors were sitting on a tool cart by the cars being fuelled up. I wanted to look at them, but figured the mechanics would get pissed if I touched anything LOL.


Some body pieces.


The Bridgestone area.




Notice how it says the team name on all the wheels.



Some more pics of the team areas while they work on the cars before the race.

Tracy and Allmindinger team area (tracy's car first).




A car chopped up. I thought Cart cars used paddle shifting,.........but this thing has a clutch in the pedal box? Hmmmmmmmmm anyone know what the deal is? I guess they dont,..........is it Indy that does???










I wonder if that guy saw me taking this pic,...........sure looks like it.


Panoz and Ford GT. The Ford GT was the safety car for the weekend. When nothing was happening on track they had some Mustang GT 500's and the safety car Ford GT doing laps on track. The Ford GT sounded really good at WOT when it went by.




Some track pics.
Some army dudes, the driver parade (only the one because im too lazy to resize), and a fly by (more like fly over,.........I just got my camera out in time). Then a few cars during the race along Thunder Alley (the straight).

Chief F1 Fan

should've grabbed 4 of those rotors for yer whip Steve! Nice pics, looks like a great day. I've had some great times at that race.

dom

Nice pics West!!

And ya champ cars still use the good old clutch and shifter.

F-C

Those ChampCars are 5 or 6 years old. Very little development since the collapse.

West6MT

Ahhhh, so they still use the ole clutch & shifter eh,...........thats cool. I kinda like that,.......im a bit of a traditionalist I guess. Although, its sad if they do because of lack of development etc.

So is the IRL using paddle shifters then?

F-C

The 2007 spec ChampCar will be shown to the public this weekend. First new ChampCar in 5 years. No word on whether paddle shifters are in.

dom

If Champ Car is around.

F-C

^ True, not many people care. But I suspect it will be around for awhile.

Billiam

I'm 90% certain that while Champ Cars have clutch pedals, they're not used to shift. IIRC the gearboxes are six speed sequential units. I think the shifting is still done with an old fashioned mechanical cable or linkage though, instead of an electro-hydraulic system like F1 uses. I believe the IRL cars are the same.

West6MT

Oh,........so what is the clutch pedal for,..........just to get moving from a standstill? So if it is a sequential unit with mech cable linkage,...........is it one of those deals where they push a shift thing forward to upshift, and pull it backwards to downshift?

Im getting confused hahaha.



Unrelated, a guy I went to university with drove Cascar (Nascar in Canada basically). He was telling me the one time that he only used the clutch to get the car going (start moving from a standstill),.........after that he just power shifted the whole time. Thought that was pretty sweet.