The BEST of times....

OK guys, please bear with me while a ramble on for a bit... I started following F1 back in the late 60's when Stewart was on his game, Surtees was still kicking butt, and Rindt was just comming on. The 70's brought Lauda, Ickx, Emo, Hunt, and Villeneuve. The 80's brought Watson, Prost, Senna, Alesi, Mansell. The 90's Hill, Schuey, JV, Hakkinen. Y2K brings us Alonso, Weber, Button. All were/are special drivers that are just a joy to watch in action. But I think back to the days of Fangio and Clark and Hill (Sr.) and Moss and Hawthorn. What would it have been like to see these guys?!?!? Then I think about what MS is accomplishing, right before my eyes! 20 years from now I will be able to tell my grandkids that, "yes I saw the great MS in action and wow, what a driver!" Me thinks these are special times in F1 and I for one, am not bored, turned off, or wanting for regs to even the field (useless anyway).

I'll share something with you that I am very proud of. I have an 8 yr. old daughter who is an F1 nut! She watches all the races with me (at all hours of the day and night!), knows all the drivers and what country they are from, has been dying to go with me to the USGP (I've had tics since the first one and has been a buddy/guy kind of trip - next year she will go), can kick my butt on the F1 2000, 2002, 2003 EA Sports computer games. I have never pushed her interest and my wife says she is the son I never had! Of course she also says I warped her for life! She begs for rides in our 308 (note I said "our"!) and if I don't take it to at least 6 grand on each shift she calls me a grandpa! If this interest holds, she will be telling her grandkids about the great MS and that she actually saw him drive. I may be a goofball about this stuff, but I think this is really, really cool! She is something else!

There is, however, one problem.....she is a Montoya fan. I am withholding food and water until this is rectified. ;o) Yup, we look like a pair going down the road - me with my Schuey hat and her with her Williams BMW Montoya hat. Sigh...I knew she would break my heart some day!

Thanks for letting me rant!
Jim

 

Hey thanks guys! You know what is really scarry? On the F1 video games she knows which cars are better in the corners, which have the best straight line speed, which work well at Monaco, etc. She is SUPER competative and gets impatient when there are no oportunities to pass. She then goes into what I call "the Montoya mode". She calls it "crash 'em and pass 'em"! Har! Technically she is very good, she knows the lines through the corners, overtaking spots on diferent tracks, etc. - it's spooky. I told my wife we NEED to put her in a kart. I got the death stare. If she gets into the computer program to tweak the setups on the cars (she races them out-of-the-box now), I am going to insist on some sort of motorsport career! Her favorite movie is that Disney one about the sisters that raced Jr. Drags (can't remember the name...), she plays with her Breyer horses ("Daddy, this looks like the Ferrari horse!") and my old Hot Wheel cars. I never did anything to influence her interest. I think I have a keeper here!
Jim