Daily Archives: March 6, 2005

Formula One Racing

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Formula One Racing

Formula One Racing season started this weekend and I’m looking forward to this season. Last year was a bit of a disappointment with the Williams BMW team having an off year. We went to the formula one race in Montreal, Canada last year and the team did great with both cars in the points finishing in 2nd and 5th place but they were later disqualified for having the brake ducts too close to the rotors. I blogged about that race here. This year there will be 19 races on 5 continents and the Williams BMW team has two new drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber. They aren’t exactly rookies, but neither one has won a race yet, partly because the cars they drove last year were not very competitive.

I hadn’t known much about Formula One racing since in the U.S. there are too many other race events which is a distraction from this global sport. To watch it for a season is a lesson in geography as they move the race between 17 different countries. I worked on a project at the Chemical Analysis Division of HP (now Agilent) that was a joint venture with an Italian company.

The company was located in Monza, just outside Milan near the famed race track. During my visits to Italy I became good friends with my host, Silvio, and we still communicate regularly. Terri and I have been over to Italy several times and visited him and his family while we were there. He lives very close to the race track, within walking distance, and you can hear the cars practicing at the Monza Autodrome from his patio. He knows the sounds of various engines so well that he can tell you which cars are practicing by listening to the sound of their engines. Hardly a day goes by that there isn’t some event going on at the track and we got to visit the track each time we were there and saw a wide variety racing, including Superbike racing which was truly a thrill for a motorccyle enthusiast like me. We’re hoping to visit my friend again soon and would like to time it so we will get to see the F1 race from a European vantage point

Greeley to Sydney

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I took a flight in the LongEZ with my friend Kyle today from Greeley to Sidney, NE and back. Cabela’s is located within a mile from the field and they come out to pick you up with a free shuttle. It only took about 36 minutes to get there, and Kyle was impressed. We hit speeds of over 180 mph on the way thanks to a 20 mph tailwind. The crosswinds at Sidney were pretty lively, 18 kts. gusting to 30 kts. and not exactly down the runway, more like at right angles to it. But we were able to land safely and without too much trouble. He generally drives there about once a year and it takes over 2 and a half hours each way when you drive there.

We ran into my friend Rick Gardner from Greeley there. It’s a small world indeed. He was there giving a seminar on fishing. He’s a professional walleye fisherman with lots of sponsors who provide him with some fancy equipment. We had a nice lunch, resisted much temptation in buying lots of things, and then returned home.

The shuttle driver told us that Cabela’s will be building a 200,000 sq. ft. store in Denver next year. It should be a beauty if it’s anything like the one they have in Sidney.