And the award goes to...

Well, the 2008 Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport has been over for almost a week now, and I think it's high time somebody handed out some awards. Not for the race-winning Audi R10 TDI, which has enough hardware already, nor for David Brabham and his best-in-class Patron Highcroft Acura. Not for the Corvettes that keep dominating the GT1 class, nor even for the Risi Competizione Ferrari that finally had a GT2 win this season. If you want those results, have a look at the news article, or for real fans, the race results.

No, I'm talking about some awards I've dreamed up, having spent the entire day at the races with my brother, fully tooled up with cameras. I've come up with some new classes, and these are my picks of the winners:

Loudest Vehicle: #3 and #4 Corvette C6.R (tie)

When these two went past in tandem, the ground shook.

Honourable mention: Panoz Esperante GTLM, seen here with its bits hanging out.

Loud as hell, slow as molasses.

Car that looks most like it's smiling at you: Aston-Martin V8 Vantage

Too bad it was so slow.

Most egregious use of day-glo paint highlights: Tafel Racing #73 Ferrari

Sorry, I was a long way away. Their other car had orange ones.

Worst attempt at hiding behind a post: Risi Competizione #62 Ferrari F430GT

I can seeeeee you.

Most attractive car without wheels: Robertson Racing Doran Ford GT-R

I was looking forward to seeing this one race, but apparently they blew it up in testing.

And finally, a special award for Best attempt at turning corner 2 while missing a wheel goes to Marc Basseng and the VICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

He was fine. The wheel in question is sitting off in the distance.

More of this silliness, including a picture of the fastest ambulance in the world, a Corvette showing its naughty bits, and a guy who just looks like he should be driving an Aston Martin, are in this Flickr set. There may be even more - I haven't developed the film yet.

Can't wait 'til next year...

--

EDIT: THIS JUST IN! A special award suggested by Dawn:

Car most likely to crash: #22 Porsche 911 GT3, from the IMSA Challenge GT3 Cup support race.

Please, head on over to the Flickr page and leave your own Vista pun there, if you will.

Vroooooom!

The race winner.

What a great day. Very tired now and should have been in bed a long time ago.

More pictures to follow, believe me. Have a look in the ALMS Mosport 2008 set, if you like.

Revisiting an old idea

Some time ago (February 29, if Blogger is to be believed), I posted about putting art on my office wall, and Debi even asked me to post a photo of the final arrangement.

Six months later, I got around to taking the picture. So here it is.


Yes, I know they're not quite square to each other.

Sorry for the brevity of this post. Lots to do - gearing up for another consulting project, a quick trip to Washington, DC on Monday, and a day at the American Le Mans Series race at Mosport tomorrow, with my brother. Should be fun, first time I will have ever been there, even though it's only about an hour away.

If you're interested, this video tells you a bit about the race and the place. I'll be fully tooled up with two cameras, two memory cards and a roll of film, so with a bit of luck I might have a few good photos to post. Or possibly a bunch of really, really blurry ones.

Once again, an August weekend

Wheeling down Highway 401, listening to Neil Young, his guitar either whimsical and plaintive or like a horde of demented bumblebees, as he rips through the litany of classics on disc 1 of Decade. I'm on my own this trip, as Mrs. Ricardipus and the kids have driven down to Kingston ahead of time. I spent the last Wednesday in July breaking the back of a forty-plus hour consulting project, and the three-hour drive is a welcome break. Sharing the car with a couple of Ikea mattresses, some miscellaneous things for the annual cottage trip, and a budgie, this is maybe the first time I've driven any appreciable distance on my own in ten years or more.

This, of course, enabled by the still-reasonably-novel situation of having two cars, a first for us. Mrs. Ricardipus, driving her iPod-enabled Honda Civic, still with that "new car " smell:


It is shiny.

and me, in the aging Mazda Protege. Which has but a CD player, meaning that I've got a perfect excuse for trolling through my music collection, including that of Mr. Young and his Crazy Horse compadres.


The grill is slightly bent. I didn't do it.

Opinions vary among the smaller members of the family as to which of these is best described as the "stinky car", by the way.

The cottage trip was its usual self, with the addition of a family of friends who haven't been able to make it in recent years. At its top, ten adults, six kids, six automobiles, three inflatable boats, a canoe, and a sailboat. Oh, and seven fish, tying the record from two years ago.

While on-and-off rainy, there was enough sun and heat for plenty of swimming, and the rain and clouds made the lake and sky particularly beautiful, at times:


Big sky, big lake.


There was mist one morning.

And there was the usual selection of flora and fauna to look at. I've been trying for years to get a decent shot of a dragonfly, and I think this might just be it.



So there you have it. A mainly relaxing, occasionally hectic, and thoroughly satisfying long weekend on Desert Lake. More photos, if you will, are in the cottage set.