Honestly, Alanis wouldn’t bother me if she didn’t list “Contributing editor at @RoadandTrack” in her blurb. Inasmuch as the misaplication (or dis- and mis-use) of the objective case fries my bacon I responded but was prepared to let the affront go with a mild chiding. Until, that is, I encountered a young lady – inset bottom right – at HSR's Classic 24 at Daytona over the weekend who was equipped with photo credentials and a golf cart on the business side of the fence… SHOOTING VERTICAL VIDEO WITH A SMART PHONE! That got me fired up again! How do these “professionals” get access? Could it be what I think?
Anyway, sorry Alanis, but I’ve got to believe you feel the above photo is flattering so you won’t mind me reposting it.
Oh, and who even knew CNBC still existed?
I’ve often said the $65 three-day general admission pass to the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is the best motorsports bargain hereabouts. While that remains true for current racing series, my first visit to the Classic 24 for the same moolah comes in a close second as pure race car entertainment for a nerd like me. It’s a longer drive, just under two hours vs. ninety minutes, but the cars are mostly irreplaceable and you never know when you’re going to see one of them for the last time. For example:
Given that this Doran/Moretti Racing Ferrari 333 SP was the overall and Can-Am class winner at the 1998 Rolex 24 at Daytona – driven by Giampiero Moretti, two-time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk, Mauro Baldi, and Didier Theys – it’s valuable enough to be made right but still…
Here’s a full report from HSR via Racer Magazine.
If I had a suitably posh Prevost and four or five contiguous trackside slots to save me the indignity of backing in the following wouldn’t matter but as close as Daytona is I was able to drive home once I’d had my fill, watch some more on the YouTube livestream, then catch a rerun of Saturday’s São Paulo Formula One Sprint race, having watched qualifying for Sunday live on Friday. Then, after a few hours sleep it was more HSR and F1 for the rest of the day. Ideal weekend, except for temperature that never quite topped 72°. Today was nicer with a high of 80°, best time of year in Central Florida.
And what a race São Paulo turned out to be, eh? Did you see what they were doing? They were RACING! Well, not Max but the others, especially Alonso and Perez the last few laps. F1 and Liberty Media don’t need my advice but I suggest that all other Grand Prix tracks be plowed under and replaced by an exact clone of Interlagos. Tilke had the right idea with COTA but he didn’t go far enough.
I’ve done this before but here’s a mini listicle of superb F1 columnists and reporters whose writing sometimes engenders intelligent responses from the commentariat:
I’m sure there are others; let me hear your suggestions. I’d include Planet F1 but it’s worse clickbait than Autoweek.
The Bulli Brigade
Two of my favorite rigs at the New England International Auto Show as a kid in the fifties – when it was held at Mechanics Hall before moving to the Commonwealth Armory – were a Renault van and the VW Microbus. As a lad I could reach the pedals in both, which enticed me of course. But so did the very idea of a van you could practically live in, a notion I gleaned a decade before the Summer of Love. Sixty years later it seems I wasn’t alone. Feast:
Best Bulli Bestowed
By me, prove me wrong.
ID This Sound:
Because of a mechanical issue the Group 44 Jaguar didn’t start the race but listen the sound in this video. I seem to remember that Group 44 swapped small block Chevies into a couple of these cars toward the end of their competitive duties:
Does this sound like a V12 or a V8?
I'm gradually disengaging from Facebook to concentrate on writing about things that interest me. I don't expect to have 1.6K followers here like I do there (I've got 58 on Substack at the moment!) but we all (mostly) share an interest in cars and motorsports. So I'm fading out of FB but it's not easy, especially with the damn memories they keep tempting me to share. For example: this is just about as good as my access for race photography ever got.
The other thing about Facebook is how well it handles photos and videos. I realize Substack is a writer's platform but as marketing a professional for five+ decades I’ve always used words AND pictures to tell stories. Substack struggles with the latter. The Group 44 video would NOT upload, even though I’d successfully posted the wrecked 333 SP clip earlier. Also, Substack’s rigid grid format makes captioning images a struggle. Then I hit on the idea of using a Facebook link for the Jaguar clip and voilà!
So going forward I’ll be using FB as a free, easily sharable photo and video archive. I realize that folks without Facebook accounts won’t be able to access these galleries and I apologize for that but the strategy will keep me from pulling out what’s left of my hair.
Here are more shots from the 2023 HSR Classic 24 at Daytona. Now that I’m using Facebook as described above I’ll be adding more photography and perhaps video to this and future albums, with descriptions. I particularly want to share more Bulli Brigade photos. Enjoy!
Alanis is a deeply mediocre person with no genuinely redeeming qualities. In any era but this one she'd be the weird assistant librarian who reads too much Sylvia Plath.
Allow me to defend the vertical-video girl. She's creating content for iPhones, using her iPhone. Speed and usability are more important than aesthetic qualities -- most of this stuff will be briefly viewed via TikTok then swiped through to the next thing. Yes, it would look better with a first-rate Canon and a laptop to process it -- but the end user doesn't care enough to make it worthwhile. There's probably no sense in doing stuff that looks beautiful on a 60" widescreen, or in a large-format magazine, if 95% of the viewers will be on a two-generations-old iPhone.
EDIT: Just purchased my 2024 three-day pass for St. Pete: $70.00, up from $65.00 (first increase since I first attended in 2016).