USGP this weekend.

[Matt Harper]

Hope everything goes well for your father John.

[Dave H]

John:

Does Chuck know that this doesn't get him out of looking after the cats in September?

Let me know when the dust settles.

[Fax]

All went great guys, like I said in the email's to Matt & Dave, Dad's hooked up to more tubes, wires and instruments than a 747, but all's going great.  He should be back to being his grumpy old self soon. I come by it naturally
Fax

[Canada Phil]

Hi Fax,
          Good to hear your Dad is on the mend.
 I too have been offered a free ticket to USGP includes ride and room...... but I ain't going. Pace car duties at region race at Mosport much more entertaining.
Canada Phil

[Fax]

Hi Phil,
Thanks for the well wishes.  Hey! Pace car duties as Mosport would be damn good fun, where do I apply?!
One of these days I'll get back up to the Ontario Rollercoaster, maybe this year...you never know
Fax

[Fax]

Forgot to mention, when I was up at Mid-Ohio last Sat.
several people had mentioned rumors that the USGP was going to be replaced at Indy with a Grand-Am or ALMS race on the combined circuit.  A ten or twelve hour race at IMS would be good fun, and it would draw a helluva lot bigger crowd than Bernie's prima donnas.
Fax

[BigH]

Great to hear you're old fella's up and fighting fax, my best wishes to you both.
Now probably wouldn't be a good time to ask for more pocket money...
H

[Fax]

Hi H,
Big thanks! Nah! I gave up on that a long time ago when my requests & sob stories were met with a two word expletive beginning with F! and ending with OFF!
Fax

[Fax]

Just took a peek at the weather forecast for the race Sunday, its supposed to be damn hot, 33 degrees celsius with a chance of isolated T-storms.  Why am I going to this again?  At least the heat will keep the posers sheltered away in the AC.
Fax

[Fax]

Well, that was a wasted afternoon
It was boiling hot and a shitty race, what a way to spend a July afternoon!  Started with twenty two cars, by lap four we were down to twelve.  Did anyone actually overtake anyone on the track?  I was too busy trying to stare down the top of the leggy blonde in front of me to notice   Seriously, it was a joke, this is what F1's been reduced too..  Nothing more exciting than watching twelve cars drone around in front of empty stands (That seat 300,000).  Usually I would rather pull my teeth out than feel sorry for ticket scalpers, but I really did feel for these poor bastards standing out in the baking heat not being able to GIVE AWAY tickets.
See ya F1, have a nice time in the rinky-dink, poo-dunk countries who you've actually duped into thinking your cool. F1 won't be back here anytime soon.
Great races at Lime Rock and Daytona this weekend, would rather have been there.
Fax

[Kpy]

Well, that was a wasted afternoon

Sorry about that Fax. I just fell asleep watching on TV. Great MotoGP on earlier!
I saw one overtaking move on track, but that was Fisi vs Alonso. Oh so boring 

[termietermite]

Liuzi and Rosberg was a great o/t but to wait nearly 2 hours just for that...  I have a bit of drying paint which Fax may have found more interesting.

[Fax]

Well it wasn't total waste, there were some South American cuties walking around, and we had plenty of cold beer (about the only thing that was cold).
But the race itself was truly dreadful.  It really is amazing to think of how fast that race has plummeted in popularity.
For the first race in 2000 the place was packed, seven years later most of the stands were closed because they couldn't sell any tickets for them.  There were easily more spectators from abroad than domestic.  But hey!
At least twelve cars was better than the six we had last year ....Yeesh!

[Bob U]

Surely you must all be wrong. You only had to listen to James Allen to realise that F1 was back in the USA bigger and better than ever.
 I have heard of rose tinted spectacles but never rose tinted blind folds.
Surely, even that useless prick could see the empty grandstands, who the hell is he trying to kid.

If the yanks boot out F1 then good on them I say at least they won't be taken in by Bernie's circus like so many other "easily pleased" motorsport fans.

[Steve TTTD]

Sarcasm mode on:

Fax you must have been at a different race..
The London Times reporter saw it this way...

The future of Formula One in the United States depended at the very least on a professional showing here — although, thrillingly, it got much more than that — while the title race required a 37-year-old German victor to keep it alive and kicking for a few weeks more.

Step forward Schumacher. A consummate display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, abetted by the canniness of Felipe Massa, his Ferrari team-mate, who made it a memorable one-two for the Scuderia, will have appeased the natives, who were all but ready to turn their backs on the sport after last year’s US Grand Prix descended into farce

Scott Speed, the only American driver in the field who suffered an early exit, had hailed Formula One as “the pinnacle of motor sports”, but while many of his countrymen would disagree, the 120,000 who populated this vast expanse of concrete and steel seemed happy to consign last year’s shambles to memory and enjoy the day.

Certainly, the sight of Americans turning up en masse will have done much to convince Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s paymaster, and Tony George, the Speedway’s owner, that the sport has a future in the US as they prepare to thrash out a new contract in the coming days.