Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 3

Sunday

Today’s meal: Reheated pizza from yesterday.  They can’t all be gourmet meals.  Still great though.   

F1 Monaco
It’s 5:30 am.  The sun isn’t even up yet, but I am.  How could I resist the opportunity to finally see the Monaco race in English for the first time?  The broadcast said it was live as well (but I’m still skeptical).  In the pre-race, this track was compared to “threading a needle at 100mph,” and “riding a unicycle through a fine china shop.”  But who cares about the race?  It’s all about the glamour.  They showed scenes of the street parties that were going on only a few hours before the race.  The stands, the yachts, the hotel balconies, and even the even the free seating on the overlooking hill were filled.

Local boy, Nico Rosberg had won the all-important pole position, with his teammate Lewis Hamilton right next to him at the start.  The announcers mentioned there was some controversy about qualifying, which was never explained.  Mostly the rivalry between these two was hyped up. 

The only hope of an interesting race was either rain or a bunch of NASCAR’s showing up.  Essentially, Rosberg took the lead at the start and never gave it up.  The announcers tried to build up some drama, saying he might run out of fuel before the end.  Right.  Hamilton came in second, though he had to fight for it at the end against third place Daniel Ricciardo.  Even the other drivers politely pulled over to let them race, desperate to see some racing action themselves.  Hammy may have had some vision problems that cut his speed in the later laps.  I didn’t get confirmation during the broadcast.

There were a few interesting incidents.  Perez was knocked out by Button early in the race.  Gutierrez hit a barrier late and was taken out.  Suddenly I was missing the hysterical call of the Uni-mas announcers.  Four-time champion Vettel retired early with electrical issues.  Adrian Sutil, who’d managed to make three passes on track had the biggest wreck.  This brought out the Safety Car and a bunch of cars pitting for tires.  There was some gamesmanship as racers were blocked in to help teammates, such is the desperation for position on the world’s most famous slot-car track.

NBC went side-by-side with commercials during green flag racing, but did not break away during a wreck though.  I only noticed one, full-screen local break, and that was during another Safety Car period.  The feel-good story of the race for me was hearing that recently retired Mark Weber was out on one of the yachts, finally able to watch a Monaco race in peace.    

Indy 500

KVIA El Paso was still broadcasting sound with no pictures on Sunday.  I can hardly convey my disappointment.  This might be my favorite sporting event of the year, ruined for no apparent reason.  I didn’t even care to follow what happened.  Worst of all, I didn’t even get to hear Jim Nabors last performance of “My Indiana Home.”

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