Look at how this flows… “A1: The Cars, The Cameras”… Mwa! Bellissimo! Or however it is you’re supposed to say that.
Anyway…
Rivals racing head to head.
Nations from all over the world (well yeah, barring us finding another planet with nations, where else are we going to find nations).
Only one winner.
It’s about the cars, baby.
[b]A1: The Cars[/b]
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-01.jpg[/img]
Seriously, why else would you even think to attend a car race without the cars. It’s that ever constant need for speed that drives us (huh, ain’t that ironic).
The need to see people reaching speeds most of us only dream about, the thrill, the danger, the excitement, and… the style.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-02.jpg[/img]
Oh yes… nothing says “style” like green and gold. Can you feel the sarcasm? No? I’ll try harder next time.
The Kiwi’s seem better for the style. An all-black car… perfect for the all-blacks. Perhaps that sense of style is helping them to win as they’re running pretty well in the top 3, whereas our Aussie green & golds are hitting… what… twelfth and thirteenth… around that end… yup.
With one car per competing nation and having the majority of that teams’ crew including driver coming from that nation, the A1 makes for some interesting multi-cultural racing.
And as such, we’ve found something that the Kiwi’s can beat us in. It sure ain’t cricket.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-05.jpg[/img]
The Irish, too, seem better for style. The green on their car is just extraordinary. It’s just… a brilliant green. There’s no other way to describe it. When it goes around the track, you just have to look at it. The picture really doesn’t do it justice.
Someone was either a colour theorist to pick that green or drunk on some really good Irish whiskey… there’s just no other way someone could’ve come up with such a brilliant colour of green like that one. It just works.
Which is a shame the same can’t be said for the Irish team and driver. They don’t.
Sure, they did better than the Australian team in that race, but as far as season standings go…
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-04.jpg[/img]
At least they’re not as bad as Pakistan, who on the qualifying day I was there decided to imitate an Alfa Romeo and stop working after a spin. I think he ended up going a bit faster once the track crew were pushing him.
It’s hard to sit here and write about the cars going around on a track because you probably don’t care, and if you do, chances are you’ve probably already read a more professionally written commentary on a news site or from the [url=http://www.a1gp.com]A1 Grand Prix website[/url] itself so instead, I’m going to show you a few pictures of clouds I shot that day before I show you anything of real importance or fun from the A1 Grand Prix Qualifiying Day.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-06.jpg[/img]
Mmm… clouds…
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-07.jpg[/img]
Right, that looks like a long enough break from the lack of action-esque action to bring us to some place near some real action, whatever the hell that may be.
Don’t worry. I didn’t understand that either. And don’t bother yourself with going back and reading it again. It’s just not a smart thing to do. You’ll give yourself a tumor. A talking tumor.
So, let’s talk about action.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-03.jpg[/img]
Well, to be honest, I don’t want to lie to you. There wasn’t a whole lot.
I mean, come on… it’s a qualifying day. I was there for the qualifying day. There isn’t any [i]real[/i] racing done on a qualifying day, or at least not any competitive racing.
I mean yeah, Canada landed himself in the kitty litter once as you can see in the picture above on Turn 2.
Actually, Turn 2 & Turn 3 (which were connected since they’re more like a hairpin turn) seemed to be causing the most problems and cause for frustration for most of the drivers. Almost every one of them locked their brakes at T2-T3 at least once during the race.
None more so, however, than Italy. The blue Italian car could be relied on for an image with smoke coming out from his tires as he locked his brakes.
And at one point, he even managed to piss off the Swiss racer in doing so.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-08.jpg[/img]
[i]There he is — Mr. Italian Blue — locking his breaks for the world to see…[/i]
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-09.jpg[/img]
[i]…that just isn’t a nice look for something so blue…[/i]
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-10.jpg[/img]
[i]…What’s this? Oh no! The Swiss team is right behind him and are going to get caught in the midst of the smoke from Mr. Italy’s brake lock-up!!![/i]
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-11.jpg[/img]
[i]Ohhh no! Would you look at what Mr. Italy did? He made Mr. Swiss take a dive into the kitty litter![/i]
And that was pretty much all the action from the A1.
Sure, there were men dressed up as kangaroos and merchandise and really, really overpriced crappy carnival rides, and if you read the next blog after this one (if you haven’t already), you’ll learn about the photographic presence at the A1… but other than that… it really is a crappy car racing event.
There’s just not a whole lot to it.
And I don’t have a problem with Eastern Creek even if it is poorly designed. Amenities need to be more numbered and in better locations with better service. The walking around the track needs to be designed better and not an almost-deathtrap, which is somewhat near what it actually is.
It also needs better advertising. You want to get more people to come? Advertise it like the F1. Christ, I don’t even live in Melbourne and the advertising for the Formula 1 is more rigorous than the A1 which is in my hometown (technically).
Or better yet, relocate the A1 [i]away[/i] from Eastern Creek and get it to be a city race done on roads, much like the Indycar in Queensland.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-13.jpg[/img]
[i]At the end of the day, some of the teams were practicing their pit-times. The Canadian team did it a few times and whoa… they were fast. Around 7-8 seconds. And they looked good while doing it…[/i]
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-A1P2-12.jpg[/img]
[i]…the Malaysian team, on the other hand, didn’t seem to know what they were doing at all. They pretty much looked like this for the whole 5 or 10 minutes I was watching teams practice, almost as if to say “We’re pitting! We are! It’ll happen! Does anyone know how?!”[/i]
Interesting note to end on, mind you. I was paying attention to the car sponsoring all over the car bodies all day and something struck me as interesting for the tails / wings.
Most cars don’t have a lot of sponsorship. That should be said from the star. However, many of them — even ones with a lot of sponsorship — have their country names written on the the wing. For instance, Italy says “Italy”, the Czech Republic says “Czech Republic”, Ireland says “Ireland”, Mexico has a brightly coloured “Mexico” written on it… hell, even England has a painting of the Union Jack on the back. All of this makes sense.
Australia has “Fosters” written on the back and New Zealand has “Fisher & Paykel” on the back.
Okay… so Aussies are alcoholics (that like crap beer) and the Kiwis are appliances.
Well, I guess it’s good to clear things up once and for all.