where have you gone, simon pagenaud?

 

Well, Simon Pagenaud deserves a ride in single-seaters. He should race in GP2. (Can’t believe I am saying this) Or even in the IRL, as much as I do not like the merger. He showed lots of promise last year in Champ Cars (RIP). Dear potential sponsors, help him get a ride.

i do a new blog now

Well, call me a stick and ball writer:

Ugueth Urbina is Burning

I decided, with a friend, to write about a different sport with infinite humor possibilities.

I may still write here if something interesting comes up, but for now, play some ball (that’s what she said).

an ode to champ car if champ car was a person

listen to the song here

(yes, i like obscure music but i feel it’s better to pinpoint the mood in what happened to CC and auto racing in the past five years)

The Statistics “Final Broadcast”

Hey there, can’t you find me?
You’re stranded, between stations…

I’m playing songs from all the bands that I love
Because no one ever calls in
And the record’s spinning as the clock is ticking
And I don’t know who is listening

We’re pausing, station id
I’ll backsell, if you pay me

I’m playing songs from all the bands that I love
Because no one ever calls in
And the record’s spinning as the clock is ticking
And I don’t know who is listening

And this will be my final broadcast
You could say we’re switching formats
I’m signing off for one last time, so thanks…

And this will be my final broadcast
You could say we’re switching formats
I’m signing off for one last time, so thanks…

And this will be my final broadcast
You could say we’re switching formats
I’m signing off for one last time, so thanks.

an ode to champ car and my mood

listen to the song here

(yes, i like obscure music but i feel it’s better to pinpoint the mood in what happened to CC and auto racing in the past five years)

The Statistics “Final Broadcast”

Hey there, can’t you find me?
You’re stranded, between stations…

I’m playing songs from all the bands that I love
Because no one ever calls in
And the record’s spinning as the clock is ticking
And I don’t know who is listening

We’re pausing, station id
I’ll backsell, if you pay me

I’m playing songs from all the bands that I love
Because no one ever calls in
And the record’s spinning as the clock is ticking
And I don’t know who is listening

And this will be my final broadcast
You could say we’re switching formats
I’m signing off for one last time, so thanks…

And this will be my final broadcast
You could say we’re switching formats
I’m signing off for one last time, so thanks…

And this will be my final broadcast
You could say we’re switching formats
I’m signing off for one last time, so thanks.

an ode to champ car

listen to the song here

auto racing just got a lot suckier

More of this awful, greedy asshole. 

 Next up: blatant bias by the media and Robin Miller, as well as douchebaggery by Penske and Ganassi, and boring NASCAR domination at 11.

 

Well, time to watch ALMS. If it’s ever on TV. 

my only daytona 500 coverage of the year (until boris said wins the 500)

]      

 

Casey Mears. Duh. (also the rest of auto racing destructing.. wow, thanks NASCAR) 

champ car is not having the best day ever

The Champ Car World Series has had a pretty decent offseason so far, with stability and the addition of Laguna Seca being main factors here, as well as their competitor, the IRL, struggling for air with drivers like Scott Sharp, Dario Franchitti and others leaving (the Helio Dancing with the stars thing is really a gimmick that won’t last, just like Danica). But the TV schedule just came out and it looks like ESPN/ABC wants to play hardball and screw the pooch by giving a blowjob to the IRL.

April 20 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Long Beach, California
5:00 – 7:30 p.m. – ESPN2 – Same-day tape

April 27 Grand Prix of Houston at JAGFlo Speedway, Houston, Texas
10:00 p.m. – Midnight – ESPN2 – Same-day tape

May 18 Champ Car Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, California
4:00 – 6:00 p.m. – ESPN – LIVE

June 1 Champ Car World Series Belgium at Circuit Zolder, Zolder, Belgium
3:00 – 4:00 p.m. – ABC – Same-day tape (Just 1 hour of highlights)

June 8 Champ Car World Series Spain at Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Jerez, Spain
4:00 – 5:00 p.m. – ABC – Same-day tape (Just 1 hour of highlights)

June 22 Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. – ABC – Same-day tape (Just 1 hour of highlights)

June 29 Champ Car Mont-Tremblant, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
1:00 – 3:00 p.m. – ESPN – LIVE

July 6 Champ Car Grand Prix of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. – ESPN – LIVE

July 20 Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – ESPN – LIVE

July 27 Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland, Portland, Oregon
10:00 p.m. – Midnight – ESPN2 – Same-day tape

August 10 Champ Car Grand Prix at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
5:00 – 6:00 p.m. – ABC – Same-day tape (Just 1 hour of highlights)

September 14 Champ Car World Series Holland at the TT Circuit Assen, Assen, Holland
10:00 p.m. – Midnight – ESPN2 – Same-day tape

October 26 Gold Coast Indy 300, Surfers Paradise, Australia
11:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. – ESPN2 – Same-day tape

November 9 Gran Premio de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. ESPN2 – LIVE
A lot of same day delays and 1 hour race reviews. Screw you ESPN. Blowing Champ Car off for an inferior racing series that no one outside of Indianapolis watches with the IRL is not good for open-wheel racing, period.

Also, Champ Car driver Dan Clarke is moving to the IRL with this to say, on Autosport:

“The IRL is one of the few series where drivers can get paid and you can work your way up. Sam Hornish started at Panther and moved to Penske, Ryan Briscoe has been around for a few years and now he’s landed a Penske drive too.” (Autosport)

Yeeeeeah. He’ll start his career at Panther and end up at NASCAR with Wood Brothers/JTG or something. Then again, another Dan Clarke-like moving chicane J.J. Yeley has a ride in NASCAR so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

now you can sponsor robert yates racing too!

Since disbanding with Newman-Haas in a possibly bad move (hey, maybe it wouldn’t have worked, not everything always does work) and losing sponsors to Joe Gibbs and the home mortgage implosion, now, you can sponsor Robert Yates!*

*=might need a lot of money

So go to http://www.sponsoryates.com. Travis Kvapil is easily the most talented race car driver ever. More than Michael Schumacher. or Jackie Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, etc.

He will win the Winston Nextel Sprint Cup championship this year by at least 500 points over second place A.J. Allmendinger and the rest of the field. Don’t overlook this racing sensation, future sponsors.

(happy new year by the way.)

attn NASCAR: your (over)use of gradient sucks

How to cheapen a sport: use gradients and two-color value changes disgustingly to no end. It is not cutting-edge, it is awful. Hire some new direction in marketing and make your sport look good.. not cheap and even more annoying than it is now..

Can’t they create a brand identity that uses a one- or two- or even three-color design that actually looks decent? Instead of this black-on-whatever stuff that they’ve been doing?

Examples:

Sports leagues love using gradients to make their sport look cool. Some leagues look good but others really really do not, and the most overuse of the gradient would probably be NASCAR. Maybe your sport will look decent if they actually used white as their main color.

If you really want to hurt your eyes, and possibly freeze up your computer, check out their website.