May the best man win - Homestead Miami

When the intelnet first entered my life around 2003/4 thanks to some excellent writing by Jerry Bonkowski I found myself developing an interest in all things NASCAR.



That interest turned to fandom when I won a Happy Harvick hat thanks to a competition run by Jay Busbee's From The Marbles Blog.



Last year I was fortunate for a third time when I won tickets to go to the Aarons 499 at Talladega, where these photos were taken, thanks to Buck Fever over at rowdy.com.



Today is the final round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup and 'my driver' Kevin Harvick stands an outside chance of winning it all.

May the best man win, Go Harvick ! Go #29 ! Go Happy !

More fun at 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' tomorrow don't forget to come back now !

Mini SUV's

On Saturday I went to the 'Mini Festival' at Castle Combe Circuit 20 miles outside Bristol.





Drivers of a variety of models were offering rides round the track to raise money for the Jay Ryles Fund, in aid of rehabilitating Jay Ryles 18 year old Jay Jyles who collapsed with Brain Damage after a school rugby match earlier this year.



Amongst my favourites, all being driven with great gusto was this circa 1980 Mini Pick Up. Just 11' long nose to tail and weighing in at just 1500 lbs (680 kg) with a full 6 imperial gallons of fuel ! Optional extras back in 1961 included, recirculatory heater, passenger side sun visor and seat belts. 58,179 of these are thought to have been built.



Also being driven with great joie de vivre was this Mini Van coincidentally also a circa 1980 and like the pick up above fitted with a grill from the passenger car version. The van had a 1/4 ton capacity and was a popular alternative to the passenger car because as a commercial vehicle it carried no sales tax. 521,494 examples of this model are known to have been built.

Off topic observations.

NASCAR

Jimmy Johnson took the win at Dover leading most laps blah ! blah ! blah ! back in contention in the drive for five blah ! ! Congratulations to the #48.

If you want to know why I am indifferent to His Majesty Jimmy Johnson, NASCAR is built on drivers infinite patience with their fans except now one man seems to have run out of patience with a 'return all fan mail unopened policy'.

It was great to see AJ Almendinger leading the first half of the race, shame a flat tyre forced him to stop early.

Racing on concrete is good at Dover because the cars are always loose on the edge of over steering into the wall calling on drivers to display immense car control skills, several drivers likened it to driving on ice towards the end of longer runs.

It was a less than stellar day for my man Happy Harvick, I expected nothing more after the playground silliness displayed on Friday, to wit my man of the meeting award goes to Coach JD Gibbs who seems to have called his man 'Denny four Cups Hamlin' to order over the remarks he made that set Kevin off in the first place.

Formula One

Fernando Alonso took a well judged win in the Singapore GP last night, Sebastian Vettel had absolutely nothing for him, Mark Webber came in 3rd with a good recovery drive after an early pit stop.

McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton appear to be slipping out of contention for the World Championship both now 20 points behind with 4 races to go.

An hour into this race I found my self cutting the lawn despite the amazing night landscape in which the race was run.

Hope you have enjoyed todays blog and that you'll join me again tomorrow.

Sunday Best - Triumph Vitesse

Yesterday, like to day, there was no racing going on locally, but it would have been criminal not to go out and enjoy the fresh autumn air and unbelievably bright sunshine that turns the world of photographers such as my self into a super illuminated paradise.



So I headed out to my local track Castle Combe where there was an event billed as a 'Mini Festival', there were hundreds of the cute critters in a variety of states of tune to be seen and I'll post pictures of them in due course, because the vehicle that leapt out at me as the subject for today's blog was this convertible Triumph Vitesse MKII.



The 1968 - 71 Triumph Vitesse 2 originally featured a 104 hp 6 cylinder 2 litre / 122 CUI engine with two carburettors which gave it a 0 - 60 mph performance time of 11 seconds. As can be seen above this 1968 model has been upgraded with triple carburettors.



The Vitesse was outsold, in the UK, by its smaller 4 cylinder sibling the Herald, at a rate of 10 to 1, and was no match for the cheaper Ford Mustang in the US, however as is the way of these things the Vitesse has a strong following amongst aficionados of performance convertibles.

Slightly off topic, I tuned into JTV to watch the Nationwide NASCAR race at Dover last night just in time to see Kyle Busch taking his victory bow in a cloud of smoke of his own making, congratulations to Kyle on winning his 11th Nationwide race of the season thereby beating the Sam Ard's record of 10 wins which he set in 1983.

Further off topic, I see Kevin Harvick took the NASCAR 'have at 'em' policy to heart during practice for the Dover Cup race ! Much as I'd like to see Kevin take the Cup home at Miami Homestead, these actions do not inspire me, sitting in the peanut gallery, with confidence about his chances.

These play ground antics probably make great headlines and are sure to provoke a further on track response from "Dangerous 'I am owed four cups' Denny" Hamlin, I just hope they are not a distraction from the real job in hand for Kevin, which is to make sure he beats Jimmy Johnson in the infernal #48 to the big trophy at the end of the season.

Looking forward to tonight's race at Dover hope to catch some of you on Rowdy Chat.

Look forward to to hearing from you all, 'y'all come back now ! Hear !