If you know me the you know I like racing. I've been wheeling race cars for more than 20 years and while I like to watch racing I'd always rather be driving them. For me the best form of racing is road course caring. It doesn't matter what form. Be they open wheel or prototypes. Formula one or SCCA Club Racing. If its on a road course i'm going to be interested. For many years I watched pretty much all NASCAR races because it was racing and it was usually good. About 10 years ago though NASCAR started going down the toilet in my opinion. When Dale Earnhart died there was a void that was created and for whatever reason the racing became plain. Fast forward to this season and it's safe to say I've only watched pieces of a few NASCAR races. I usually never miss the 2 road course events, but this year I did. NASCAR has just become boring across most levels. Yesterday I was faced with watching the MotoGP race from Indy and the ALMS race from Mosport or the NASCAR Nationwide race from Montreal. Well since I was dealing with a killer migraine I mostly watched the MotoGP race as the NASCAR race was mostly caution laps (don't get me going over their full course cautions on road courses) and well with 3 hours left I had plenty of time. So as the ALMS race came on I started flipping back and forth as the ringers were moving towards the front in Montreal. NASCAR however will do anything to keep a ringer from winning one of their races and only 2 guys have been able to do that with any frequency in Ron Fellows and Marcos Ambrose (Juan Montoya needs to win 1 more to be in this group). As the race wore I stopped flipping to ALMS and watched as Boris Said, Max Papis, Jacques Villenuve, and Robby Gordon moved to the front. Now NASCAR being all about their own this must have hurt. You had a guy from California leading a wild Said-head who in turn was holding off an Italian and a French-Canadian. Nightmare scenario as no southern boys were poised to win. Well we all knew Robby could never make it on fuel (why obby continues to do this is beyond me?) and nothing would be more awful then a furriner winning so Boris got 'the call' and finally brought one home. Boris has trained so many of the roundy round boys on how to turn right and left, yet they always have no problem dumping him out of the way as a ringer and NASCAR always looks the other way. Yesterday they finally paid him back. It's about time!
The video is not embeddable so for ow you will have to cut and paste. I'll embed one when I find it.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid71457653001?bctid=598908743001
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
The F-15 Has Some Life Left in Her Wings
The newest version of Boeing's air superiority monster designated F-15SE or Silent Eagle made waves a few weeks back becoming the first F-15 to fire an AMRAAM in flight with no adverse effect on the performance of the aircraft. As you can see in the photos from Boeing the newest version of the F-15 is borrowing some of the tricks learned in other advanced aircraft and with this plane its weapons are tucked inside a newly designed Conformal Weapons Bay (CWB) instead of hanging underneath and flying dirty.
"I've been flying F-15s for more than 20 years, but this flight was different from all others," said Boeing F-15 Chief Test Pilot Dan Draeger. "This first launch of an AMRAAM from the F-15's internal weapons bay opens a new era for the F-15 and for strike fighter capability in the dominance of the F-15 Eagle.
"The F-15, CWB and missile performed exactly as we predicted," Draeger continued. "The Silent Eagle continues the F-15's role as the most versatile strike fighter aircraft ever built."
These updates are not the only goodies that Boeing has been studying for future F-15's either. Lots of potential upgrades will be available if other nations choose to buy the F-15. Notice the slightly canted tails on the photo below. While it's not a 5th generation fighter its VERY close for much less.....
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
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