Purple88

Monaco still is the Crown Jewel for the F1 Racing Calendar, but it certainly isn't the best race. Once qualifying is completed, you basically know who is going to win the race. I have heard some chatter of F1 looking to change the track layout to create a longer straight stretch along the beachfront, which could create a DRS zone and potentially create more or should I say any passing. I hope they do this, as the race is just a formality at this point. But even with that said, have McLaren and Ferrari caught up to Red Bull? Well on a track with no straight stretches, I think the answer to that is probably yes. Have they caught up overall? I think that remains to be seen but should make for some highly competitive racing going forward which is what we the fans truly want. So good for us!!! The Monaco native, Charles LeClerc, who has sat on pole twice before but never won the race was really the best car through practice and proved it during an entertaining qualifying session. He finished an eyelash in front of equally brilliant Oscar Piastri, the McLaren driver who has really come on this season and formed a super team with standout Lando Norris as his teammate, who qualified in second place. LeClerc's teammate Carlos Sainz drove well and finished 3rd with Norris in 4th. Mercedes ran well IMO at Monaco and qualified 5th (George Russel) and 7th (Lewis Hamilton), with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen settling for a lowly 6th place on the grid thanks mostly to a car they just had trouble with all weekend long; saying it just didn't have good balance and they couldn't hit a kerb without it damaging the setup. Well, that is really problematic around a course like Monaco with many kerbs to maneuver around. The order above that finished in qualifying finished exactly the same way in the race with no passes. There was a red flag on lap 1 when both Haas drivers collapsed on the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who had perhaps the worst weekend of any driver on the grid. He has a very good car (even with the kerb issues) and AGAIN doesn't get out of the first round of qualifying (Q1), which is really sad. AGAIN, just don't see how Red Bull stays with Perez. We'll see. But congratulations to Charles LeClerc, as he deserved to win IMO, and that gave me some breathing room in my Fantasy F1 League!!! While I don't see Red Bull folding here, as their power on the straights and using DRS will come back into the light at many tracks ahead, it does give the regular fan hope that each race will be competitive from here and create some great races going forward! In the drivers' championship race, Charles LeClerc has cut Verstappen's lead to just 31 points. And in the Constructors championship, Ferrari has cut into Red Bull's lead and trimmed it to just 24 points. On to the Canadian Grand Prix in 2 weeks!

What a great race! And on a crazy weather day really was The Greatest Spectacle in Racing! With a heavy rain delay right when the green flag was supposed to drop, it continued for 2 hours. Then took another 2 hours to dry the track and appease NBC of all the pre-race festivities! Really impressed with the parachute guys this year. They dropped out of an airplane in STIFF wind and landed cleanly on about a 1/4-acre spot. Impressive, as were the Blue Angels jets! Really makes you feel in awe when they fly by. And the race began 4 hours after its scheduled time. Last year there wasn't a yellow flag until about lap 100. This year there were 3 in the first 46 and 1 of those was turn 1 of lap 1. I had a great spot to watch the wrecks as I sit just outside of Turn 1 and most of the wrecks were right in my lap. Pretty cool! There were a total of 8 yellow flags, which seemed a little high. Early on Scott McLaughlin the pole sitter seemed to have everyone covered and pulled an incredible passing of 3 cars on the front stretch heading into Turn 1. He had a great car. But about mid race the pack that McLaughlin led, were offset by a pack of cars led by 2008 Winner Scott Dixon. I still don't know how they pulled that off. Regardless, by lap 130 the Dixon pack had overtaken the McLaughlin pack (he shuffled down to about 6-8th place and had trouble once he was in that pack moving back up. Anyway, after that Lap 130 yellow, it seemed all the drivers put in Jolt Cola and were just racing like it was 10 laps to go instead of 70. A LOT of overtaking and chances were taken at this point in the race. It was fun to watch. And with about 20 laps to go the Arrow McLaren cars of Rossi and Pato O'Ward were leading the 500 and basically taking turns at the front of the front of the pack. That stayed for about 8 to 10 laps, but Rossi had to pit and then Dixon passed O'Ward to start the drive to the finish. With about 10 to go, there were some of the best racing at Indy I can remember, cars really going for it, BUT more importantly they were really clean racing, which is a great spectacle to watch. Joseph Newgarden and Pato O'Ward began dueling with about 5 laps to 3 laps to go and passed each other a couple times. And with 3 to go O'Ward settled in behind Newgarden and waited until the White Flag signaling 1 to go before he made his move and passed Newgarden on the front straight to take the lead with just less than a lap to go! Newgarden didn't panic and inched closer through Turns 1 and 2 and on the back stretch so bobbing and weaving transpired, but in the end O'Ward took and blocked the low side of the track into Turn 3 and Newgarden chose to go to the high side and clearly had the momentum to slingshot around and passed O'Ward in Turn 3. They continued to battle to the line from there, but Newgarden likely had just a bit better car and prevailed for his first Back-to-Back Indy 500 title since Helio Castroneves won back-to-back in 2001 and 2002. I believe it's only been done 4 times in the 108 years they raced, so that is super impressive from Newgarden. Even thought I was pulling for O'Ward (because he had not won Indy before), I appreciate Newgarden's humble interview praising O'Ward and calling him a Clean Driver. This race was incredible really with a record of 16 different leaders and 87 lead changes during the race. Really fun to watch. 10 cars did not finish the race. I was hoping my man Santino Ferrucci was going to bring it home. He ran a respectable 8th place, so good effort from the AJ Foyt driver. The other guy I wanted to do well, really did do well and that was the NASCAR guy Kyle Larson. Larson started an amazing 5th place and shuffled back at the start; got his feet under him and was really charging to the front when a disappointing speeding in pit lane penalty shuffled him to the back and he made up a few places but would have really liked to have seen what he could have done near the front late in the race. And because of the weather delay, he didn't get to fully attempt the Double, so that was disappointing, but certainly not his fault. GREAT race! Those Tecate's were really nice after the race!!!!

Sitting in a car in our parking spot waiting out the rain. Could end about 2:30. Will take 80 minutes to dry track. Then maybe get to see them run. But a lot of maybes in there.

Well the weather could be a factor (and I suppose already is) for the Sunday races. This is an interesting article interviewing Rick Hendricks about it: Rick Hendrick explains ‘tough’ decision for Kyle Larson to have to pick Indy 500 or Coca-Cola 600 due to weather threat (msn.com) The weather forecast for Indianapolis is all over the place. Anywhere from a 70% chance of rain as stated in this article to the weather forecast I like to go by which says a 30-40% chance of rain during the race hours. So it will be interesting. Add that to Former President Trump may be attending the Coca-Cola 600. When a sitting or former President is in attendance, there is a no -fly policy over the venue he's at; so Larson may be hamstrung by this. Going to be interesting!

Really classy post from Coach Mcpeek! Going to be a great game that both teams will use to get better later in the season.

Coach Mcpeek is a class act! So looking forward to this game. It will help both teams later in the year!

Just a great ESPN article about the Double: What Larson can learn from past Indy 500-Coke 600 Doubles - ESPN They bring in more history for when (pre-1974, when Indy was locked into being on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend) guys would run Indy and the Coca-Cola but on different days sometimes a week or so apart. That is cool too, but certainly different that doing so on the same day. Really pulling for Kyle Larson this Sunday to have good trips both races. Also crazy interesting in the article was that the Indy 500 was part of the F1 series back in the 1960. That's fascinating to me. I'll have to look more into that. If you look at the Double Wikipedia page, there was also talk of guys doing Indy and the Grand Prix of Monaco in the same year. That had to be back in the day too though as all 3 HUGE races (Indy 500, Coca-Cola 600 and the Grand Prix of Monaco) and all happening this Sunday.

Wow! That looks like a super nice facility! I saw above from @FirstTimeLongTime that Highlands has lacrosse. Do they have both boys and girls' teams? Also how do they get along with the football team? I ask because some football coaches don't want their players playing lacrosse in the spring.

Hard to believe, but it's that time of year again for "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" the Indianapolis 500. The starting lineup for the race can be found here: Here's the starting grid for the 108th Indy 500 | wthr.com I still (perhaps naively) believe this is still one of the Top Races on the entire planet. It's history, tradition and following set it apart and really remind me of the Kentucky Derby in that regard. There have been many great races at the old track. It's 2.5 miles around in 1 lap and really is a spectacle to go. If you haven't been I'd recommend it at least once for the atmosphere alone. Back to the race; I have to admit that I have not watched one IndyCar Race this year. It's a combination of several things including being busy, being a Huge F1 fan now and just being drawn MUCH more to the F1 drivers as opposed to the IndyCar Drivers. I mean the only guys I really know are veterans now (Helio Castroneves, Takuma Sato, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon are the guys I know and respect. The new guys are just that to me - new. So, while I'll give them a chance for sure, am I likely to watch a lot more IndyCar races? Probably not. BUT, with all that said, I will ALWAYS LOVE the Indy 500. Sunday will be my 17th trip to the old track and I'm really looking forward to it! The atmosphere, the Americana vibe, the holiday weekend, the 300,000+ fans throwing beer cans in "the pit" before, during and after the race are just what it's all about! The front row has significance and starts 3 Team Penske Drivers: Scott McLaughlin (who earned his first ever pole position and beat the all-time Indy qualifying record with a 4-lap average of 234.220 mph! REALLY impressive!) Will Power - the veteran Josef Newgarden - the 2023 Indy Race Winner. These 3 are all Team Penske cars. A lockout of the first row not seen since 1988, the year I graduated High School. That 1988 Team Penske front row included the GREAT Rick Mears, Louisville's own Danny Sullivan and Al Unser Sr. That's a big-time front row! I like several drivers including the GREAT AJ Foyt Motors Santino Ferrucci and Pato O'Ward, but there are 2 more interesting stories this year. One is Katherine Legge. A female racing at Indy is always intriguing to me because it's hard enough to compete in this sport as a guy, who have been doing so for 107 years. But add the stigma of being a lady racing in THIS race has to be incredible pressure on her. I'm going to pull for her for sure. She starts 31st and her best Indy finish is a respectable 12th place in 2012. So, I'm hoping she gets 11th this year or shocks us all and gets in the Top 10. That would be incredible. But probably the BEST storyline for this race has to be Kyle Larson. The full time NASCAR Cup Series racer for prestigious Hendrix Motorsports is the 2021 Series Champion and he's won many times in many other types of racing including Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. While I am not a big NASCAR guy; I instantly become a fan of any driver attempting to do "The Double". What's "The Double"? Running the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day Weekend Sunday during the early afternoon and then IMMEDIATELY flying to Charlotte NC (getting a couple IV bags, and a nice meal) then driving the Coca Cola 600 in the evening. Only 4 drivers have EVER attempted this feat before: Tony Stewart in 2001, Robby Gordon (5 times), John Andretti (5 times), and Kurt Busch. This website is fascinating to me as this is truly a unique feat: Double Duty - Wikipedia The most amazing information there to me is Tony Stewarts Itinerary back in 2001 when he completed all 1,100 miles of both races. He remains the ONLY driver to have completed both races. Here is what Tony Stewart logged: In 2001, Tony Stewart's "Double Duty" effort had the following published itinerary: 9:25 a.m. EST (10:25 a.m. EDT): Stewart at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 9:50 a.m. EST (10:50 a.m. EDT): Stewart changes into his fire suit. Driver Richie Hearn standing by to drive relief if necessary. 10:15 a.m. EST (11:15 a.m. EDT): Driver introductions at the Indy 500. 11:00 a.m. EST (12:00 p.m. EDT): Start of Indianapolis 500. 2:30 p.m. EST (3:30 p.m. EDT): Indianapolis 500 completed, Stewart finishes 6th. 2:35 p.m. EST (3:35 p.m. EDT): Stewart rides a golf cart from pit area to the infield care center. 2:45 p.m. EST (3:45 p.m. EDT): Stewart boards a helicopter to Signature/Combs Flight Center. 3:08 p.m. EST (4:08 p.m. EDT): Stewart leaves for Concord Regional Airport on a Citation Ten private jet. Stewart is administered two liters of IV fluids. 5:03 p.m. EDT: Plane lands at Concord Regional Airport. 5:10 p.m. EDT: Stewart changes clothes and boards helicopter to travel to Charlotte Motor Speedway. 5:20 p.m. EDT: The helicopter lands in the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield, in front of the start/finish line. Stewart waves to fans and climbs into his car. (The team had Mike McLaughlin ready if Stewart did not arrive in time.) 5:37 p.m. EDT: Starting command for Coca-Cola 600 given, Stewart's car is moved to 43rd (last) starting position as a penalty for missing the pre-race drivers' meeting. 5:45 p.m. EDT: Start of the Coca-Cola 600. 10:00 p.m. EDT: Coca-Cola 600 completed, Stewart finished 3rd. Simply Remarkable! I'm pulling for Kyle Larson, who qualified an incredible 5th place at Indy and will start in the middle of Row 2. He is running for Arrow McLaren and has a real shot, I think. On the way home I'll be listening to the Coca-Cola 600 pulling for Larson too! Weather looks good right now! Going to be a GREAT race!

3 Months from this Friday = Rafferty's Bowl vs a very good Frederick Douglas team!

Like the new uniforms! 3 Months from this Friday (August 24th) is the Rafferty's Bowl! Not that far away now!

I cut out the 2 items above of @theguru post that I truly believe in. F1 is more than just a popular Netflix documentary. It IS INTERNATIONAL! That is what makes it so cool! Racing in 20+ of the best venues in the WORLD with the 20 best drivers in the world with Great Teams. Really worth your time. I will say that doing the F1 Fantasy League has upped my appreciation for it as well. And ESPN has really stepped their game up and as G said, the NO COMMERCIALS is GOLD! You never have to disengage from the race, and it brings you as close to being there with all the info! Awesome! On to Imola! The Italian track is simply beautiful. When you watch the race and see the setting it's in; it's very picturesque! Bucket list worthy! They were not able to race here last season as torrential flooding devastated the area. F1 to their credit gave millions of dollars to the relief/recovery efforts of the LONG-time venue, as this is one of Ferrari's home tracks. The Red cars are so popular and been around for so long they have 2 home tracks! Just more mystique for a great sport! No sprint race this week, which meant 3 full practices for all teams to tune their cars to the right settings in a track that is mostly tight and fast. Sounds like a great bar date!!!! Red Bull came to Italy bruised after not winning (AS USUAL) in Miami but finishing a respectable 2nd and 4th. But the Milton Keynes, England team came up scratching their heads in really all the practice rounds at Imola. While Red Bull was struggling, the Ferrari's were flying with new upgrades they had been holding back for their home race. Additionally, the orange McLaren cars were super quick as well during the practice rounds. Qualifying came around and as much surprise as an 8-consecutive pole position effort can be, Max Verstappen, dare I say, stole the spot by 7 one-hundredths of a second over Oscar Piastri from McLaren who had his papaya car flying around the track. AND had Verstappen not gotten a fortuitous tow from Nikko Hulkenberg, Piastri would have taken pole. But as we like to say, that's racing, and the better drivers simply get those breaks. Norris and the Ferrari's were below the 2 at the top qualifying leaderboard. One setback for Piastri was he was assessed a harsh IMO 3-spot grid penalty for impeding the Haas of Kevin Magnussen. The start of any F1 race is important as many racers try to improve their positions. Imola is a track where this leads to wrecks, plain and simple. And why there was a 100% chance the race officials put on a yellow flag probability during the race. Well, the one thing I know about probability is that until it happens, you haven't crossed that bridge yet. Such was the case (somewhat unusual case I'll admit) at Imola as the drivers launched hard at the opening standing start beginning of the race and ALL 20 cars made it through unscathed. Pretty remarkable actually. The race did not have explosive wrecks but the racing was intense with several battles up and down the grid to pay attention to. The first was Oscar Piastri chasing and trying to pass the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. Piastri was clearly quicker, but Sainz did a great job of holding him back. But in the end due to poor Ferrari management IMO cost the Spaniard the spot and Piastri would finish 4th and Sainz 5th. At the top of the grid Verstappen pulled out with a roughly 5 second lead on the field but didn't or couldn't push it more than that. He was on the medium tyres and they were working pretty well for him. But when he came into the pits and changed to the hard compound types, he had trouble getting them into an optimum working window and towards the end of the race was sliding more than he had grip to turn in the corners. Enter Lando Norris. The McLaren driver was second on the grid at the beginning (benefitting from his teammates 3-spot penalty) but fell back about 5 seconds throughout the front half of the race, but when he came out of the pits, also on hard compound tyres, I feel he managed the tyres better than Verstappen did and he slowly closed the gap to the leader from there. So as the race laps ticked down Norris was closing steadily on the World Champion. But to his credit, Verstappen knew how to use everything in his bag of tricks from battery power to back marker DRS engaging to hold Norris outside the magical 1 second DRS range to not let the McLaren driver get too close too quick. The finish line couldn't come fast enough for Verstappen, but he did manage to hold off Norris, but only by roughly 7 tenths of a second. If there was another lap or 2, the Red Bull was vulnerable. It was a brilliant drive from Verstappen really, but for me it was more brilliant the work his team did to get his car improved from the Final Practice to the Race standing start. They improved the car immensely. They are the top constructor for a reason. The Red Bull TEAM earned that win! Other notes: I just can't see how Red Bull goes forward with Sergio Perez, their other driver. To me he has the 2nd best car on the grid EVERY WEEK, but yet again did NOT make it even to the final qualifying round of Q3. That my friends is sad. I would sign Carlos Sainz, the current Ferrari driver. However, that Ferrari contract will end this season as Ferrari has already made the decision to hire current Mercedes Legend Lewis Hamilton. Quite the shakeup. I think Sainz would do well there. He's a good teammate and would push Verstappen, but more importantly for Red Bull would be at the sharp end of the grid to partner up with Verstappen and implement some team strategy, which frankly Red Bull has not really enjoyed for some time. It's just been Max go win it. Another battle, I enjoyed watching was the RB of Yuki Tsunoda and the Haas of Nikko Hulkenburg. Tsunoda has been racing his tail off recently, as I'm not sure he has a signed contract after this season yet. Well, he deserves one! Anyway, at the beginning of the race, Hulkenburg used the better outside lane to sneak by Tsunoda and drop the Japanese driver back to 9th after the opening laps. This did 2 things IMO: 1. It forced RB to push Tsunoda to take the undercut strategy, meaning you make sure to come in the pits before your rival and when you exit and before they pit you gain ground on them because of the tyre differential. RB/Tsunoda did this to perfection, but IMO was a little early, going to the hard compound tyres they felt could make it to the end. So when Hulkenburg came out of the pits he could see Tsunoda, but he was passed due to the undercut strategy. 2. While Tsunoda (10th) would beat Hulkenburg (11th) in the race, pitting early made him vulnerable to other good cars behind him. Lance Stroll, a decent Aston Martin driver, went long on the likely better medium compound tyre, pitting 25 laps (yes 25 laps) later than Tsunoda. So, when Stroll came out of the pits, he was really quick compared to guys on 25 lap old tires, and he blew by Tsunoda to take 9th place, when Tsunoda likely had the better or at least even car. Verstappen leads in the driver championship 161 points vs 113 (Leclerc), 107 (Perez) and 101 (Norris). Red Bull leads in the constructor's championship 268 points to 212 for Ferrari. Interesting here is my focus on the Red Bull little brother team of RB is now at 20 points and where you'd expect them to be in 6th place, but the 5th place team of Aston Martin has 44 points and feel RB can climb into the battle. We will see. On to Monaco, the crown jewel for the sport. It's honestly more about pageantry, parties, awesome yachts in the harbor and seeing signs for the Casinos than actual racing, as who wins qualifying usually wins the race due to the tight streets and the wide F1 cars. Will be fun to see though!

While I'm surprised by this, it sounds like Coach Morris is going out on his own terms. He is a Legend no doubt. Hope he enjoys his retirement! 25 years as head coach - that's impressive in this day and age! Good luck to the next Mayfield Coach. That is an unenviable position to be in to follow Coach Morris, but a GREAT opportunity in an area of the State that expects to win!

What a race! The Miami Grand Prix was a SUPER race. Although I haven't been able to watch many of them, I think the Sprint Race Weekends (a venue that holds a short race - say 20 laps) right after 1 practice round before Qualifying Starts) really makes the Grand Prix's more interesting. I say that because the best teams don't get many practice sessions to get their car set up just right and it gives other teams a better chance, especially if their car is inherently slower than the better cars. Well, getting right to it - A dumb move by Kevin Magnussen riding way too close on the inside of a corner he never should have been at caused a collision with fellow bottom-feeder, but American, Logan Sargent and caused the American to wreck and end his afternoon. Dumb move. Magnussen was penalized and got several more for dumb things on the day. He just wasn't in the race mentally. Anyway, it brought out a yellow flag just a few laps after the leaders had already pitted. This provided the glass slipper to Lando Norris the super-solid McLaren driver who to this point had never won an F1 race before although had been close a few times. So, the Orange car came into the pit under yellow (a HUGE time advantage in the 1-stop race - It saves you about 10-12 seconds in a race and that really matters in F1). He had inherited the lead after the leaders had pitted (he was running about 5th place at the time but had good pace. So, then the yellow came out, so when they re-started, he had to be careful to not get overtaken by World Champion and multi-race 2024 winner Max Verstappen and other really good drivers too. He did just that and extended his lead to about 7.5 seconds, which is really impressive overall. And the young Brit claimed his first F1 win! A Huge congratulations to him! He certainly earned it! Dissecting it a bit more. IF, Norris had NOT gotten the yellow flag when he did, I do NOT think he would have been able to pass 4 other strong cars and win the race, but who cares as that's part of racing and what makes you watch week in and week out. But honestly, Red Bull just didn't have their A game this week. Even though Verstappen won the Sprint race and did qualify on pole, it wasn't the same gas they have come with before. I just think they were a little off kilter due to only getting 1 hour to set your car up. That is just a really slim window to do that with the razor thin time margins these guys race to. Plus Verstappen made a rare error and ran over a bollard pole on track and it damaged the floor of his car and he wasn't the same after this and a piece of the reason Norris was never threatened in this race. BUT give credit where it is due. McLaren has probably had better developments come race week than any constructor other than maybe Red Bull. They got Lando a new car package with upgrades this week and it showed. I think his teammate Piastri will be really tough in Italy for the next race too. Will they beat Red Bull? Not Max I don't think. He'll be on a mission, but his teammate Perez? Yeah, he's vulnerable and honestly not driving very well IMO. I think the Perez vs Verstappen in the same car shows you just how good of a driver Max Verstappen is. The guy is a world champion for a reason. So what about the rest? The Ferrari's were good, but they didn't have the luck you need to do better than 3rd and fifth. Fifth instead of 4th for Sainz due to a penalty he took trying to pass Piastri. Just wasn't his day. Mercedes were ok. Lewis Hamilton is just a great driver as you'd expect and got more out of the car than it had IMO. George Russell just didn't have it this week. The Astin Martins are receding IMO, but Alonso running 9th tells you just how good he is on a car that likely isn't 9th best. Give Alpine credit for continuing to battle in very tough circumstances and scored their first point of the season with Ocon's 10th place run. Congrats on that. It's been a hard season for them. BUT How bout my man Yuki Tsunoda! The RB driver finished a tremendous 7th place when he didn't have the 7th best car. He finished ahead of Russell (Merc) and Alonso (AM) and that is hard to do! His teammate Ricardo choked during qualifying and as a result started dead last. But he did finish 15th so he climbed alittle. I still think this RB (Red Bull little brother team) is a sleeper to challenge Astin Martin later in the year. But we will see. If you think Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Astin Martin are all better than the RB team then they should not finish higher than 11th on the grid. THAT is what makes Yuki's 7th place finish noteworthy to me. On to Imola and the "Temple of Speed"! Going to be a fun one! In about 8 days.

Bryce Button is a terrific rising Senior QB at South Warren. His numbers last year were: 189 for 290 for 3,274 yards including 38 TDs vs 5 INTs. He is also a very effective runner rushing 50 times (3rd most on the team) for 290 yards and 7 TDs.