Time For Me

The racing season has finally begun!  I’ve been watching the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona and as I type this with about 2 hours and change to go,  the #9 Action Express Porsche Riley team with Mike Rockenfeller currently at helm has the lead over Chip Gannasi’s #01 BMW Riley by about 1 minute 22 seconds with Justin Wilson guiding the sled. It’s setting up to being an exciting finish for the race, that for me, always kicks off the Racing Season. The NASCAR darlings are mired deep in the field for the most part. The #02 Gannasi car guided by Juan Pablo Montoya , Jaime McMurray, Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon is out of the race…they blew an engine shortly after midnight on Juan Pablo’s  watch. Jimmie Johnson the #99 GAISCO/Bob Stallings crew of Jimmy Vassar, Alex Gurney & John Fogarty are now 56 laps down essentially out of it.  A.J. Allmedinger and the $6 Michael Shank Ford Riley crew of Brian Frisselle,
Mark Patterson, & Michael Valiante are only a lap down and still have a shot at it….Allmendinger is the hammer for the team will take the checkers.

On the GT side. Bobby Labonte’s  #71 TRG Porsche GT3 crew somehow ran him out of gas and he actually had to be towed to the parking lot to get a splash of gas to get thim back to pit road.  Very odd, yes?  How could they let him run out of gas!? With Spencer Pumpelly at the wheel at the moment, they are currently 27 laps behind the current GT leader Nic Ham and the #70 Speedsource Mazda RX-8 team.

 

However, my enthusiasm is guarded and I’ll still not quite on board with the new NASCAR season just yet, even though Speedweeks is less than a week away. I haven’t resolved in my mind all the changes, both in terms of rules and team mergers. It think part of this also has to do with uncertainty over Matt Kenseth’s sponsorship for 2010. As soon as that gets resolved. I’ll most likely be all in.

But I did hear a rumour regarding some new Kenseth sponsorship last night….

 

The rumour is is that DeWalt might be back with Kenseth this season in a limited capacity. I heard from a guy that they will be picking up 2 races this seasons. So there is a ray of hope there. But I’ve not as of this writing gotten any confirmation of this from either DeWalt’s website, or from Matt’s website or from Rousch Racing. No announcement has been officially made, nor is there a hint of it on Jayski. But the guy I heard it from says he heard it when he was at the Matt Kenseth Fan Club in Cambridge…said guy also had the new #17 Crown Royal pit cap.

If this rumour is the case, it IS good news. DeWalt was foolish to pull out of sponsoring Matt Kenseth. Hopefully, Geoff Smith at Roush can convince them to pick up the remaining 13  (11?) races that Crown Royal and Valvoline wont be running. I really hope they get this, or something, done soon. It would do wonders to lift some of the dark clouds that have been hovering over me lately.

 

There is happier news from the world of Football. And what I refer to is real Football, not American Football. I dont write about American Football very much, and I don’t plan on starting now.  When I say football from here on out, I am referring to soccer, and not the NFL or any other form of American Football such as College Football ((I will make a distinction there, since I will use the term College Soccer, but I digress)

Anyway, the good happy news is is that after this weekend’s fixtures, my Chelsea Blues remain atop the English Premier League table one point up on Manchester United with a game in hand. Didier Drogba and Michael Essien have not returned from the Africa Cup yet to rejoin the team, and yet the Blues were able to navigate the treacherous shoals of January without them, and remain on top. When Drogba and Essien return the Blues will be unstoppable.

After Nicolas Anelka opened the scoring on Saturday at the 26 minute mark, John Terry settled the matter at the 83 minute mark to seal the 1-2 win at Burnley.

Tuesday’s fixture at Hull City will put Chelsea a game even with Man U…and a win at Hull would put the Blues 4 points in the lead.

Chelsea’s Saturday match wasn’t televised on ESPN2, but the match between Fulham and Aston Villa at Craven Cottage was. The Cottagers were decided underdogs, so I was rooting for them. But it clear from the outset that Fulham was outclassed and overmatched. The Villans played a perfect zone defense, cutting off the passing lanes and keeping the Cottagers from generating any real offense. The Villans on offense were very crisp and precise with their passing. It reminded me a lot of the swing offense Bo Ryan uses with the Badgers. Gabriel Agbonlahor snapped two crisp goals in a five minute stretch just before the half, and the Villans goalie, American Brad Friedel kept a clean sheet as Aston Villa went back to Birmingham with a 0-2 win that was no where near as close as the scoreboard would indicate.

 

I can’t help feeling that my writing here is not up to my usual standard. I feel like something vital is missing…the why part of journalism. The part that should be the LAST part, but in these unfortunate days of despair has become the the FIRST and usually the ONLY part, spun into a deceitful web by nattering nabobs of negativity. Maybe I’ve written myself into a dark shadowy corner. Maybe I need a better focus or something more substantial. I will admit that I can’t get my brain and my arms and my heart around all the crazy changes in NASCAR this season. There is too much there to unravel, and I suppose I can just wait until the last minute for that…to pull a string…and see what happens, see what shakes loose. Maybe some Boris Said vs. Paul Menard blood feud will emerge from it all.

Or I could just fall back on my little insect-burning hate-machine of old to shake something loose. But even the thought of that depresses me. If that’s all I can aspire to, pillorying some little shit ass bloogs, then there is no point in writing another word ever again. So no, there is no longer a point in that that I haven’t already made, usually written with the blood of the victim. There was fun in that back then, but no need to go there anymore. Yes, I know I’ve been meaning to vilify what call the New Face of Fascism, ie. Twitter and Facebook, and other similar concepts of zero.  But not now, not today.

So there it is. Here we are and here I am. I guess sometimes I just keep forgetting what I discovered about blooging many years ago…that it’s really just all about ME!