The season’s first proper sealed surface rally got started this morning. Many people are expecting this rally to be the final nail in the coffin for Sebastien Loeb’s challengers in this year’s championship race, with Loeb holding a 22 point over Petter Solberg, and Loeb gunning for his third consecutive victory in Germany. Solberg has been hoping for poor conditions, as the Pirelli-shod Impreza seems to do better in the wet, to keep his championship hopes alive.
The rains did come on Leg 1, but unfortunately for Solberg he chose a harder compound tyre, and hasn’t been able to keep pace with the Citroens of Loeb and Carlos Sainz. Solberg is currently in fourth, roughly a minute behind the leaders and third place driver Francois Duval.
There’s already been one retirement, Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm, who slid off the road on the very first corner of SS1, damaging his wheel. Gronholm has blamed the shunt the lack of gravel crews on the event (typically, a team will have a car drive the stage just prior to the start to provide up to the minute conditions for the drivers), which have been banned by the FIA. While you can feel a little sorry for Gronholm, no other drivers got caught out on that corner….
Currently, heading into the day’s last stage, the top 8 look like this:
1. Sebastien Loeb
2. Carlos Sainz
3. Francois Duval
4. Petter Solberg
5. Markko Martin
6. Roman Kresta
7. Gilles Panizzi
8. A Bengue
Posted on 20 August 2004
Best observation about the Summer Olympics? Look to Salon’s King Kaufman:
What a day for Ahmed Almaktoum, who routed the field to win the gold in the men’s double trap final, thus becoming the first person from the United Arab Emerates ever to win a medal.
I did a double-take when I saw him celebrating his victory — a Middle Eastern man in a head scarf and an ammo vest jubilantly holding a shotgun over his head. Whoa! Did I switch to a news channel? Oh, I see.
Classic.
Posted on 18 August 2004
There’s been much talk lately on the internet about flying with children (I really wanted to include a Mimi Smartypants entry, but her archives titles aren’t exactly descriptive of their content). I’ve talked briefly about Seb’s behavior on our trip to Bishop last year. My only additional comment is — why didn’t we think to ask for an extra meal since we bought a seat for the boy? Probably because we didn’t get meals on those flights…..
Posted on 18 August 2004
What is it about this year? I’m sick, again. This time, I think this is thanks to a co-worker. It hit me Sunday night — fever, aches, pains, the works. I stayed home and in bed yesterday. Today I managed to drag myself out of bed and to work, which meant I had to take the accused bus. It didn’t take long to remember why I hate the bus — the 8:15 77F never came. So I got to sit on the curb for an extra 15 minutes. Sweet. I can’t wait for the adventure coming home.
Of course, today, one of my managers asked if I could join him for a brainstorming session for an upcoming project (one that will involve algorithms to sort users based on survey responses). I said sure, knowing full well my brain is currently mush, and asking me to think conceptually at this time was akin to asking me to finding collisions in the SHA-0 encryption algorithm. But I played along, even managing to provide a couple of insights along the way.
Posted on 17 August 2004
I really don’t mind riding to work in the rain, especially if it hasn’t been raining consistently. Like this morning. It was actually quite pleasant — it was cool enough that I could comfortably wear a rain jacket, but not so cool that it was miserable. It was one of those mornings when Things Were Right, and I managed to ride from the 62nd Street to the Convention Center without ever once touching my brake, and once I hit Penn Avenue I didn’t even have to let up on my spin. Pure bliss. I caught up with, chatted with, and then passed a couple of other commuters, and I even got the rare “Yo! Fixie” from one of them.
Also, I’m now slightly more famous than I was (please click through the ad if you’re curious).
Posted on 12 August 2004
If you have any interest at all in the issue of stem cell research, please read this article by William Saletan. He cuts through the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle, with an emphasis on John Kerry’s insistence that George Bush has made stem cell research illegal (this isn’t the case — read the article). And before you dismiss Saletan as some sort of dittohead, keep in mind he is an unbashed liberal who isn’t afraid of pointing out hypocrisy in either candidate (his Kerryism column in Slate has gotten him in trouble with the DNC).
Posted on 11 August 2004
Comment Magazine (out of Canada) has an interesting article about the ultimate failure of labour unions, and why a new organizational structure (namely, a guild) must rise from ashes. The critiques of the labour movement (again, focuses on unions in Canada) seem to be right on — unions are rapidly becoming the same beasts they are supposedly fighting against — large, undemocratic organizations that don’t seem to care much about what the majority has to say.
Posted on 10 August 2004
After half a season of disappointment, Peugeot has finally gotten a win under the belt of the new 307. Marcus Gronholm took the win in Finland (his home event) over Ford’s Markko Martin by 38 seconds. Peugeot looked as if they’d take a one-two, but Harri Rovanpera’s late day shunt on Leg 1 put an end to that. Citroen had another fine rally, especially after their rocky start, with Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb taking third and fourth. The Finns weren’t far behind, with Janne Tohihno taking fifth (and scoring points for Ford) and Skoda’s Jani Passonen taking sixth. Rounding out the points were Ford’s Francois Duval and Skoda’s Toni Gardemeister.
It was a rough event for Subaru, with Petter Solberg’s crash on Leg 1 and then Mikko Hirvonen’s slightly embarrassing shunt during the leg’s final super special stage (a 2km sprint thought a man-made course in a stadium, put on mostly for the fans). Both went on to set a stack of scratch times over Legs 2 and 3 (thanks to the SupeRally test), but that’s not much to hang your hat on, and Solberg, while still holding second place in the championship standings, now stands 22 points behind Loeb heading into the tarmac rounds.
Skoda had a fine return to the WRC, with two cars finishing in the points. The Czech team will be taking part in the remainder of the European rounds, so they could be quite competitve (and they could upset the championship balance a bit as well). Mitsubishi had a decent rally as well. Neither Gilles Panizzi or Gianluigi Galli finished in the points, but both Lancers made it to finish ramp on Sunday.
Next up — the rough roads of the Rally Germany. Seb Loeb has won this event three years running, and he’ll be favorite this year as well. This rally also represents Solberg’s best chance to steal points away from Loeb on the tarmac rounds — the rougher, changeable surfaces don’t favor Loeb’s Michelin tyres much over Solberg’s Pirellis.
Posted on 9 August 2004
Lest any of you think that I don’t care about rallying anymore (not the case), here’s a little update on the Rallye Finland, which started today…
It’s been both a typical Finnish rally and a surprising one. The local drivers are ruling the roost at the moment (halfway through Leg 1), with Marcus Gronholm, Sebastien Lindholm and Janne Tuohino leading the pack. Ford’s Markko Martin, who broke the Finnish stranglehold on the event last year, is lurking in fourth place, followed by more Finns. Current championship leader Sebastien Loeb has been well off the pace, but he’s only a second out of the points at the moment.
Now, the surprises. Peugeot’s Harri Rovanpera had a torrid start, setting three scratch times, but it all went wrong rather quickly on SS6, when Rovanpera rolled his 307 out of the rally. Petter Solberg also started well, but a crash on SS4 ended his rally, and perhaps his championship hopes. He’ll be pulling for Loeb to stay out the points….
Posted on 6 August 2004
I’ve been listening to the latest New Year quite a bit lately. I like it, and initially, I liked it more than their first release, but not as much as what the Kadane brothers did with Bedhead. But my opinion is changing a bit. My biggest problem with the record is Bubba Kadane’s tendency to slip into the Lou Reed/Stephen Malkmus talk-along style of singing, making a few of the songs sound downright Pavenment-esque. I’m not sure why he slips in and out this — Kadane has a decent voice, and his soft tone really defined what Bedhead was about (along with the chime-y guitars). It’s not enough to really blemish the album, but it’s quite odd nonetheless.
Posted on 3 August 2004