Purple88

Go Rocks!

Who has to go to War Memorial Stadium in the Semifinals? Usually the biggest question but who knows with RPI.

That Manual v X game is HUGE! Regardless 1 of the top 3 will be out of the playoffs in the second round. That is pretty harsh for as watered down as it is.

Sorry, don't know anything about either team, but thanks for posting this. Good luck to East Jessamine this season!

What grade is Holley in?

Highlands Trinity Scott County X Murray 24 points

This is one of the best underrated games in the entire state for the opening weekend. I think Apollo should win, but the game being at Murray makes it dead even to me. If Murray can run the ball, they will have a shot. Johnson is a quality QB for Apollo, and I look for him to have a great game, but this one is a toss-up for me. Good luck for both teams and no injuries!!!

Wow! This guy is a problem. I had forgotten all those plays he had made against BG last year. Thanks for the reminder!!! This will be a great game. O has really improved and I think most of all their confidence has and a big reason they will be right there in this opening game. I think I'm going to drive over for this one since BG plays on Saturday! I don't have a prediction yet, but good luck to both teams and no injuries!!!

Go Christian County!

Go Raiders!

I'm looking forward to going to the Barren v BG game this year! Going to be a good game! I love the fire Coach Myers has year in and year out and LOVE their Streaming Guys. They take alot of pride in what they do and I appreciate that!

2026 Rafferty’s Bowl – Nightcap!6A Bullitt East Chargers (0-0) vs 5A Bowling Green Purples (0-0)Located at Western Kentucky University’s Houchens Industries – L.T. Smith Stadium at 7:30 pm Central Streaming: Home | Sporting Times GOOD MATCHUP TO END THE OPENING WEEKEND OF THE 2026 HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SEASON!!!! Rafferty’s Bowl IntroThe Rafferty’s Bowl has another year of strong teams continuing its trend as one of the better opening weekend bowl events around. This night cap features 2 strong football programs both with high hopes for the 2026 football season in the Bullitt East Chargers (6A) and the Bowling Green Purples (5A). That being said, both teams lost some fine football players to graduation and will need to form their own identity for this season with new players in new positions. Always interesting to see how that develops. All Time Series: Bowling Green leads 1-0. The Purples won a home State Semi-Finals Game the day after Thanksgiving back in 2005 over the Chargers by a score of 42-14. I don’t remember much of that game, but pretty sure I went. Must be getting old! This was back in 3A days with Mike Settles leading the Chargers and Kevin Wallace leading the Purples. Bullitt East was undefeated coming into that game having defeated always tough Boyle County 35-33 in the Regional Final Round. BG also had a strong team only giving up 40 points total in the 13 games that preceded this Semi-Final Game. The Purples would fall to Lexington Catholic in the 3A Final at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium the next week 49-21. Bullitt East Chargers – 6A District 4 – 2025 Record: 7-5The Chargers are led by the 2022 NFHS Kentucky Football Coach of the Year Keegan Kendrick. Coach Kendrick is starting his 5th Season as the Chargers head man with a 36 and 14 record and the memorable 2022 6A State Championship. The Chargers come into the 2026 Campaign without graduating SRs including QB Cole Cornell, their top 3 RBs and 11 of the top 13 tacklers on defense. But according to our head BGP Charger, @BEChargers, the Chargers should return 2 or 3 OLinemen. And it appears JR Will Egan, younger brother of 2022 KY Mr. Football Travis Egan, will assume the reigns at QB for the Chargers, although he didn’t play at the Ballard scrimmage as I understand. Sounds like JR Isaac Payne will get most of the RB duties. The Chargers do return all of their WRs from last season, so that is likely an area of strength for this team. And this unit is led by SR Evan Butler who had 40 pass receptions last season for 477 yards and 4 TDs. Defensively though, you would expect to have a few growing pains losing 11 of your top 13 tacklers from last season especially in the beginning of the year. But SRs Evan Clan (SS) and Camren Covyeow (DT) are very good football players and should lead this defensive unit! Bowling Green Purples – 5A District 2 – 2025 Record: 6-7The Purples are led by the 2024 NFHS Kentucky Football Coach of the Year Mark Spader. Coach Spader is beginning his 9th season as Head Coach with a 77 and 30 record with 3 State Titles (2020, 2023 and 2024) and 1 State Runner Up (2022). With those accolades, the 2025 football season for Bowling Green was a tough pill to swallow. While most knew it would be difficult to replace the leadership and poise supplied by Deuce Bailey and company, the perfect storm of additional waves over the Purples bow included key injuries, over-zealous scheduling, and simply just never seemed to gel both offensively and defensively produced the first losing record for BG since 2002. But you’re not going to win them all or every year. Onward! The best part of the 2025 season for me was the sparkling play of true-freshman QB Anthony Davis who passed for right at 2,000 yards and 21 TDs vs only 4 INTs the whole 11.5 games he played. Outstanding! BG returns their second leading rusher from last year SR Nick Graham (530 yards on 96 carries and 5 TDs), but he didn’t play in the Male scrimmage. And look for SO Zyrek Burton to get some carries as well as he is an exciting young runner. The WR unit is a bit unknown, as BGs top 5 2025 WRs graduated. The young WRs in the Male scrimmage looked good, but that was just a scrimmage and this game will be for real. Oline loses 4 starters. But BG wasn’t strong on the Oline last season, so certainly hoping for better in 2026. Defensively, 4 of BGs top 5 tacklers depart and they were each fine football players. So, BG will need to retool this unit and the ability to do so may be the key to BGs entire season. The younger guys below the graduating players are good solid players as well, but they will need to step up this season on the varsity stage. Some important defensive players this season for BG will include SR Embree Dotson (S), SO Jett Reynolds (DB), SR Keaton Vinegar (DL), SR Taiyon Parker (DL), and SO Zyrek Burton (OLB). If BG expects to make it anywhere this season in the playoffs, this defensive unit must form a cohesive unit similar to years past. We shall see. 2026 Rafferty’s Bowl PreviewWith so many new faces on the field for this the opening game of the 2026 Season for both teams, I expect a lot of nerves and uncharacteristic plays from both teams before the game settles down into one with more strategy-laden structure. For Bullitt East on offense, I look for QB Egan (or whomever is over center) to be able to make some quality passes in the early downs to keep things on 3rd down manageable. Defensively, @BEChargers reported the Chargers would be retooling their secondary. So, I expect them to blitz a little more than normal to try to take the pressure off their coverage guys and test BGs untested new OLine. For the Purples, based on the above, I would expect Anthony Davis to be throwing early and often to see if he can connect with his WRs early before the game settles in. It will be interesting to see if BG can get their run game going in the early season. Bullitt East had a tough time with tough rushing Madison Central in the first scrimmage so we will see. That would certainly help Davis. Defensively, I would expect BG to try to keep everything in front of them and put timely pressure on the young Chargers signal caller. Going to be an interesting game that could go either way. Who do you have in this great opening weekend game?

6A South Warren (0-0) vs 6A Bryan Station (0-0)Opening Round of the 2026 eCampus.Com Bowl at Lexington Christian Academy High School! The South Warren Spartans will again start their varsity football campaign with a trip to Lexington specifically on the campus of Lexington Christian Academy (LCA) High School where they will again meet Bryan Station in the opening game of the 2026 eCampus.Com Bowl. South Warren will be looking to make it back to the 6A Championship game in only their second year competing in 6A. Bryan Station is looking to take a step forward from their 6-6 2025 record while playing in one of the tougher 6A districts across the state. What would that step forward look like? I don’t know. Let’s start with a 7-5 record and call that a win! But when your schedule starts with South Warren and follows with contests at Boyle County, at Corbin, Ballard, and eventually at Douglass there isn’t a lot of room for error. Bryan Station Defenders InformationThe Bryan Station Defenders come into this game beginning year 2 for head coach JT Haskins. Coach Haskins enthusiastically speaks about his 2026 team to a local news affiliate: Bryan Station Football looking to improve in year two under Haskins This team will be led on the field by Louisville commit SR WR/S JT Haskins, who I believe is the coach’s son. I’m not sure who the Defenders will rely on for the QB position but SR Coleson Carpenter who connected on just over 50% of his 2025 passes for nearly 900 yards and 9 TDs but 8 INTs returns in 2026. Haskins is the Defenders top returning rusher but rising SR Raymond Young will likely be looked on to run the ball for the Defenders in 2026. Rising JRs Brayden Payne and Tyler Crutcher should join Haskins at WR to form a pretty solid unit. I don’t really know anything about the Defenders Oline but Coach Haskins said that was the unit he was most impressed with coming out of Spring Camp (according to his interview with @Big Things Kentucky - 2026 Bryan Station Defenders - KY Football (High School) - BluegrassPreps.com – (Shoutout to @Big Things Kentucky for doing such a great job of promoting KY HS Football!). Defensively, 4 of their top 5 tacklers return and Coach Haskins said he also likes how their DLine is progressing so there is hope for the Defenders defensive unit to be a strong one in 2026. South Warren Spartans InformationI would have to think that Coach Brandon Smith, entering his 13th season as Spartans Head Coach, has to overall feel pretty darn good about how his team performed in 2025! Yes, you want to win them all, but to achieve a 13-1 record only falling to 30-Time State Champ Trinity 28-14 at Kroger Field is a noteworthy accomplishment in 6A Year 1 for the team off Nashville Road. The Spartans return talented SR QB Camden Page who had a very fine 2025 campaign throwing for nearly 2,400 yards and 24 TDs vs 8 INTs. The athletic QB also strategically ran 55 times for 285 yards and 7 more TDs. The Spartans will certainly miss multi-talented Kayden York as the 2025 graduate had a great 2025 season on both sides of the ball. But rising JR Jamir Boards should be ready to assume the lead RB role as he had over 500 yards and 7 TDs as a SO in 2025. At WR, rising SR Justin Capps will assume the lead role and try to emulate what Jake Carter (had a great year for Sparty) did last season. The Spartans Oline should again be very solid. Defensively, the Spartans return a lot from that 13-1 team. While they will miss DL Malik Butler and Kayden York, most everyone else returns and with the schedule South plays it should be very few points this South defensive unit will surrender this regular season. But big SR DT Jaquise Smith went down in the scrimmage vs Owensboro and it appeared to be a significant injury. I hate injuries and surely hate to see that. Wishing him a quick recovery. It should be noted that 3-Star recruit JR QB Chase Bell transferred from South Warren to Blackman High School in TN. LCA Bowl Game Preview and InformationStreaming: Home | Sporting Times Kickoff will be at 5:30 pm Eastern Time at LCA High School in Lexington, Kentucky. That is a 4:30 pm kickoff time on a Friday afternoon Bowling Green time. Being fan friendly has never been a prime objective for the first game of the season for South ever since they left the Rafferty’s Bowl in 2023. Game time forecast: 82 degrees and hot! South wasn’t that polished in the recent Owensboro scrimmage (Owensboro had a lot to do with that), but that is all it is - a scrimmage. But you have to think this game is now a little bit tighter than it once was. Losing DT Jaquise Smith is a big deal. Hard to replace a SR 6’2” 300lbs-ish athletic DT. IMO he anchored that South defensive unit so they will need to quickly adjust. So I look for South to run the ball and use their talented Oline to try to dominate the game. I also look for South to focus their defensive unit on stopping JT Haskins wherever he lines up on the field. If they do those 2 things, I think it will be hard for Bryan Station to put a lot of points on the board, but that’s why they play the game, as Owensboro put up 21 in basically a half of football! And it should be noted that anything can happen in the first game of the season and there are always a lot of issues to iron out. South encountered many of those last season in this game giving up more points than they did all season long (35), but even in sputtering along they also scored more points than any game last season also (56). For Bryan Station, I hope they come with a quick passing game to set up the run mentality, as very few teams have success just lining up and running the ball on South Warren. I look for an absolute sun blistering game, but also an entertaining one. So, if you want to see kickoff in person, you’ll likely need to take off work, pick up an industrial grade umbrella and a 5-gallon bucket of water to make it to the end! In the end, I still think South will be too much for the Defenders to deal with. Good luck to both teams! Who ya got in this matchup?

Sorry had phone issues. After this scrimmage, I'm most impressed with Highland's offense as they put up so many points on what I witnessed tonight as a pretty solid Male defensive unit. All Varsity Info here: Male punted on their first possession. On BGs first possession BG worked their way down the field with some nice passes from Davis to his young WRs. On the Male 25, Jett Reynolds juked 25 yards for a TD and opened the scoring at 7-0. Male used about 3 QBs during the 3Qs of varsity play and had about 3-4 INTs. One of which, Jett Reynolds took 101 yards to the house right near the half. Male did hit a 30 yard FG in there too. BG also moved the ball some, but Davis was sacked and fumbled and ended a good drive in Male territory and BG had several holding penalties too. End of 3Q of Varsity play 14-3 BG. JV both had a TD from each team. BG has a Freshman kicker and he did really well tonight. BG used alot of players tonight and I am pretty excited about next week, cautiously so. BG is young, but they played with more fire in this scrimmage than any game last year other than CAL. For Male, defensively they are really solid and blitzed heavy in the second quarter. Their LBs are solid. Offensively, they are really young and inexperienced. Their QBs have talent and potential but need alot more reps. They also have a big line. Going to be a fun season for BG even with the gauntlet schedule. Go Purples!

Brown, will it be streamed?

The Purples drive up I-65 for the first of two trips (for sure) this season (at St X in Week 2) to take on their similar wardrobe opponents the Male Bulldogs. I wasn't able to make the first scrimmage but heard BGs varsity had 3 scores vs Oldham County's varsity who had 2 scores. I don't know anything else about it or format or anything. Male got a taste of a highly charged Highlands Bluebirds squad and scored 1 varsity TD vs 5 for Highlands. This is usually a good scrimmage for both teams, as I feel both need it going into the first games that actually count for this year. For Male, I think they have a new Coach and a young team. But they expect to be good at Male, and I look forward to seeing them. For BG, Good riddance to 2025. Very tough year for all those in Purple and Gold. The good part, Anthony Davis already has a year's varsity experience under his belt at QB and only a sophomore. Some really nice pieces available in the younger grades. The unknown part, pretty much everything else. The OLine must improve and defensively I can't recall a more disappointing effort at the end of the year than was displayed in 2025. Defense has to turn the corner, but with many new faces that will likely take time. But the key is it has to turn that corner, or a similar fate will be awaiting the 2026 Purples. We shall see.

It is the summer break for F1 as all teams take a couple weeks off before resuming in the Netherlands on August 23rd. The last race prior to the break was in Hungary at the Hungaroring, a quirky, relatively low speed, multiple corner (high speed and low speed) track that is really unlike any other track on the current circuit. So, this race typically shakes things up and it kinda did here. In practice, the Ferrari's were pretty dominant and looked like the team to beat, but Lando Norris (McLaren) came out of nowhere really and got the pole with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in 2nd and Charles LeClerc in 3rd before a 3-spot grid penalty pushed Lewis to 5th and LeClerc on the front row. Kimi Antonelli was 4th and George Russell, who is having a tough stretch down in 7th. But the FIA Stewards gave Antonelli a 3-spot grid penalty for not lifting enough when Verstappen spun and a yellow flag came out. I'm an Antonelli fan and feel the FIA (the governing board who levies penalties and the like) has been overly heavy handed where Antonelli is concerned. George Russell did the same thing Antonelli did in Austria when Verstappen went off track in qualifying lifting less than Antonelli and NO penalty. Alas, we move on! Verstappen with all the grid penalties still finished 4th on the starting grid and his gritty teammate Isack Hadjar was 8th. The race was also a quirky battle with Oscar Piastri (Norris' teammate at McLaren) moving up and taking the lead for a while. He would end up getting taken out of the race by a frustrated Carlos Sainz of Williams who got a 5 second penalty, but it could have taken a win from Piastri. Oh well. As the laps went by and the pit stops went by, Lando Norris emerged in front by a long way (about 15 seconds), Max Verstappen (RedBull) in second (Max would make a KILLER pass on Lewis Hamilton earlier in the race and prove to all that he is still the best driver in the world). Then Antonelli would pit and put on hard tyres and reenter the race and be in front of the Ferraris, but a late caution allowed Ferrari to make a late pit which they did but they couldn't beat Antonelli to the line and emerged behind the Mercedes man on track but with the faster soft tyres. But Hamilton was penalized for speeding in the pit lane, so it didn't matter in the end and even if it didn't, they still didn't pass Antonelli on track. So, the young Italian came home in 3rd place. His teammate was down in 7th. So, looking into the last half of the year, Antonelli leads the Drivers' Championship by 60 points over Hamilton, 69 over his teammate Russell (who I know loses sleep over that), 81 over Leclerc and 91 over Norris. Not many tracks will suit Mercedes less than Hungary, but can the youngster Antonelli battle through the stress and pressure to capture the title? We shall see as McLaren seem pretty strong now too, but was that just because of the quirky track in Hungary or can they stay in front at tracks with a lot of long straights, which has been Mercedes strength all year? We shall see. Finally, I have heard those a lot smarter than me in racing speak about wind tunnels and how they help aerodynamic car designers with their work and I felt I knew that general gist of that and suppose I did, but the link below really explains and shows what actually happens and it's pretty fascinating to me anyway. Hope you enjoy! How Mercedes' wind tunnel mistake ended their Formula 1 dominance | Watch

I'm not a NASCAR Fan. I've always been an open wheel guy. My brother-in-law tried to get me hooked, but it just never worked out for me. But I'll say this, Kyle Bush was one of the very few drivers in this sport that I could clearly tell had immense talent. He was fearless and he didn't care if it was a NASA Rocket or a skateboard, he would race you on it and do his darnedest to beat you! He was a heck of a CUP guy, but most people don't realize how good a truck guy he was too. This story really saddens me. Life is short. Don't put off for tomorrow for what you can do today. Rest in Peace Kyle Bush! I'll miss you!

Looks like the $2 Million Dollar Kid is kicking all their arses! The Belgian Grand Prix is one I circle on my calendar every year. For me it is the best track. Nestled deep in the Ardennes Mountains in Belgium it can rain at any time. Almost all its corners are named with a back story. The Run from the first turn up Eau Rouge/Radillon is the best in the business. AND you can pass. Novel concept, but it matters. This year's race was a good one, but not great one. In the 3 practices coming to the race and leading to the Qualifying Session, it was pretty much the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli that led all drivers (who makes a mere $2 Million) who is the best balance of car and driver at this time. Max Verstappen is likely the best overall driver for RedBull, but his car is erratic at times and simply doesn't have the straight-line speed to keep up with the trump card; the Mercedes power unit. BUT, that's not an automatic win. For example, Antonelli's more seasoned Teammate George Russell sometimes has his teammates speed and sometimes not. Kinda like he has an electrical short in his system. But he was fortunate to start 3rd at the start after his teammate won another pole position and started first. Russell had a pretty good start but had contact with Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and wound up in the gravel and out of the race on lap 1. Really bad luck. Verstappen made a bold move up Eau Rouge on Lap 1 and in slingshot fashion got around Antonelli only to have the 19-year-old repass him going down the Kemmel Straight where the Silver Arrows (Merc) has the biggest advantage. Charles LeClerc, Lewis Hamilton's teammate at Ferrari, had a super strong race and was in the lead pack trying to stay with Antonelli. After Antonelli pitted, a Virtual Safety Car came out and LeClerc pitted and came out ahead of Antonelli and both behind the McLaren of Lando Norris who hadn't pitted yet. LeClerc got by Norris rather easily, but it took Antonelli a minute to get around the Orange car, who had to take a 10-place grid penalty or he would have been in the mix at the end. So, after Antonelli finally got around Norris he was about 4 seconds behind LeClerc, who had impressive overall speed, but not a top straight-line speed. So Antonelli whittled the red cars lead down and eventually overtook the Ferrari man on the Kemmel Straights with about 8 laps to go. The interesting part was that LeClerc was able to hang around Antonelli much longer than I would have thought. This had to do with energy deployment, strengths of certain sections of the track, and just sheer determination from LeClerc. And in the end Antonelli only won by just under 2 seconds. LeClerc second and Verstappen held off a charging Lewis Hamilton who was harshly given a 5 second penalty for the early incident with George Russell. I will say I think Max Verstappen's teammate Isaac Hadjar has started to put together some impressive starts. He planned to take a new power unit to start this race and did, but when you do that, you start at the back of the grid regardless. Well in Qualifying, he helped his teammate Verstappen by "towing" him through some parts of the track during Q2 and Q3 sessions and pulled Verstappen all the way to starting second on the grid when he admitted he would have been 6th had it not been for that. Verstappen won't forget that now. He's older. There was a time he would have just mowed over anyone for anything. But Hadjar had a great run making it all the way to 6th place. Well done! That is what RedBull needs. Racing Bulls the RedBull Little Brother team is also doing well with rookie Arvid Lindblad 9th and Liam Lawson down in 12th. Mercifully, Astin Martin is supposed to get upgrades for the next race next week in Hungary. Multiple teams are supposed to have upgrades for this race, which is an important one as it is the last race before the summer break with the next race in the Netherlands not until August 23. Should be a good one at the Hungaroring!

While this is true G, since your note on June 9th the Silver Arrows have been their worst version of themselves from a reliability standpoint. In Spain, Antonelli was the best car, but an electrical shutdown forced the youngster to retire. And then last week in England for the British Grand Prix, a "wheel shield" failure caused him to tumble from a sure victory to generally out of the points. Then his teammate George Russell, who was the clear championship leader coming out of the offseason and winning convincingly in Australia (the first race) has since dropped like a stone, but found really good luck or good fortune to overcome a slow puncture in Britian and somehow didn't have to defend a final lap as F1 couldn't pull their pants up to have a real end of the British Grand Prix and allowed it to end under caution as Max Verstappen spun off track with a rear wing issue, and end for the first time in 75 years came under caution. Come on man... So, who does Mercedes gremlins help? Everybody else and especially Ferrari. In that Mercedes downturn, the prancing ponies have become reborn in a lot of ways. First Lewis Hamilton is on fire and had a rejuvenating win in Spain, so much so he looked to be the lead Ferrari car for the first time as Charles LeClerc just seemed to be lost on track. But give the Monegasque a new feather in his cap as he found some game changing data on Friday at Silverstone (British GP) and turned that into a front row qualifying run. And after Kimi Antonelli became too aggressive at the start with an abundance of wheel spin allowed both Red Cars of LeClerc and Hamilton to zoom by. The Ferrari good day got better when Antonelli had his reliability problems again and allowed LeClerc to hang on and win for the first time in 37 races when he won the 2024 US Grand prix in Austin, TX. And Hamilton was forced to settle for 3rd as F1 couldn't restart the race at the end and Hamilton would have surely passed older tyre George Russell for 2nd but was not meant to be. What about other teams: McLaren - the Papaya cars are just a step behind right now, but word is they will have some upgrades soon which they hope to put them in the fight at the front instead of kinda lonely down in 4th spot. RedBull - Verstappen alone gives you a chance at the podium every race. But the car seems more difficult to drive every race. A good thing is Isaac Hadjar the second-year Frenchman and teammate to Verstappen is MUCH more solid than any of the last attempts at RedBull Teammates since Sergio Perez was around. A bad thing is the rumors of Verstappen to McLaren have started to build. Pressurized times at RedBull! Racing Bulls - the little brother team to RedBull and the leaders of the midfield (the cars not really capable of driving at the front, but still able to get points (1-10 on the grid get points for finishing there in Grand Prixs)). Lawson and Lindblad seem like a good team. Audi - a good team and along with Alpine the next up in battling in the midfield. Bortoleto, the Brazilian, has done really well and scored 6 points this year while surprisingly on top of much more seasoned Nico Hulkenberg. Alpine - Piere Gasly is a super driver and likely is too low on the grid from a constructor's standpoint, but it's a tough business F1. He is a threat for points every week. His teammate, the Argentinian, Franco Colapinto is young and fast but also more unreliable, so it's a mixed bag. Haas and Williams - are more about struggling than anything else. At least Haas brings upgrades most weeks. I think last season's wreck train is coming to haunt Williams this season as the lack of money from finishing down the grid for prize money affects these guys more than they will say. Carlos Sainz just looks like a frustration poster boy. Just can't make headway at the moment. The Dogs: Cadillac - Yes, they are down here, but they are supposed to be down here. You can't expect a team to come into an ultra-competitive sport and compete with teams that have lived for this sport for 75 years. Just not realistic. But I have been impressed with Cadillac cutting their competition times down from the beginning of the season to now and Perez and Bottas trying to compete for Q2 in the Qualifying sessions. You have to start small in F1. Keep going Cadillac! Aston Martin - I really don't know what to say here but feel I was fed a bag of information regarding Adrian Newey, the new elevated Principal at Astin and with his acclaim for engine design and car engineering prowess, I expected the green cars to be at least near the front of the midfield. They are DEAD LAST on the grid. And sometimes a whole second behind Cadillac. I'm really shocked. I don't expect them to compete with the big 4 teams at this stage, but you are getting outworked by a team with a much smaller support group (Cadillac) both on and off the track. If I'm Laurence Stroll, the owner of the Astin Martin team and I'm spending as much of his own money as he is, I'd be ticked off to be the laughingstock of the whole F1 paddock. HAVE to do better. And should be doing better. There's a week off before one of my very favorite races as the tour goes to one of the most iconic tracks in the world. The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is hidden in the Ardennes Mountains in Belgium. It along with Silverstone (British GP) have hosted F1 races from the beginning of F1 in 1950. The setup going through the Le Raidillon de Eau Rouge in turns 2, 3, and 4 are the most iconic in all of F1 IMO. Just classic and a piece of what really drew me to F1. Going to be an interesting race.

Tremendous Coach! During those early East days he chased many a referee off the field at halftime! Ha! But he was a exceptional organizer and pairing with Coach Haley at BG provided the comprehensive structure he needed to go on to be a Championship level coach! I like the Raiders! Wishing Warren East a great season this year!

I did read something interesting about the engines for the 2026 season recently. Ferrari was up in arms about the new Mercedes engines. From the best I could make out, one stipulation in the new engine regulations dictates the size of an intake port within the primary engine chamber. Mercedes designed their intake port so that when the port is measured the engine is cool at that time and the port size passes inspection. BUT when the port is engaged and the engine is live and hot the port actually expands by a few millimeters. The Ferrari engines don't do this for whatever reason. And the reason this is a big deal is their engine experts expect the Mercedes engines to out-perform the Ferrari engines on this factor alone by upwards of 4 tenths of a second per lap. That may not sound like much to regular folks, but in the F1 community that is a BIG deal! Ferreri has filed a protest of this, but it was ruled unsubstantiated by the FIA. That ruling is being appealed by Ferrari, and I haven't heard a final ruling, but don't expect Ferrari to be happy about this. Is it too late for them to re-design their ports as well? I have no idea! SO, those teams that will be using a Mercedes engine in 2026 include: - Mercedes (of course), - McLaren, - Williams, - Aston Martin Could these teams have the edge out of the gate in 2026? We are inside of two months (59 days) from the Australian Grand Prix, and I'd say it's going to be a very telling race and can't miss motor sports!

True Dat! Just Max being Max. Nothing to see here; look away from the man behind the curtain!

Then you get paid less Mr. Verstappen. Are you ok with them apples?

That is a cool gym at Seneca. They have alot of cool old Wes Unseld stuff in there. Catch a game there if you can. That is something my man @gchs_uk9 likes to do!