Notes from the Cellar - index

CottonBalls

Scrutineering Bay

Not that it's any of my business

Notes from the Cellar

Across the Border

Focal Point

Mail to a friend

Baby You Can Drive My Car

Family and friends

Brands Perception
The 2007 WTCC season continues towards its climax on the streets of Macau.....last weekend saw the circus in the Kentish Weald at Brands Hatch. As always there were winners and losers....Andy Priaulx, reigning champ, has put some clear water between him and the rest of the pack.........a reasonable result at Monza in two weeks will set him up nicely for a third world title........... Alain Menu repeated his 2006 Brands Hatch victory for Chevrolet, gold bow ties all round............ more >>>

A Lotus on Irish Streams
The phone rings and a familiar voice booms out��
�Hey Man. What are you doing next Wednesday?�
It is my favourite Dutchman, Mark Koense, recently turned publisher and editor of RTL GP magazine.
Well it turned out that on Wednesday I was going to visit the Lotus Factory at Hethel, Norfolk to shoot the ex-Elio de Angelis Lotus 91, chassis 8, as it happened. ... more >>>

Electrical Banana��..Is Bound to be the Very Next Phase
Even as a kid hearing Donovan�s song �Mellow Yellow� I instinctively knew that something weird was going on��..electric bananas? whatever next? Still it was the 60�s and we were enjoying �the White Heat of Technology�, �the Space Race�, �Free Love� and there would be �Jerusalem� just round the corner or so we were led to believe. Of course the lyrics had to mean something other than battery-powered fruit, but what?.....more

Peninsula Wars
Green Flag for the 2008 Le Mans Series last weekend at Barcelona.

Well what did we learn?

We knew.........

that Peugeot was faster than Audi....more

That Low Down Southern Whiskey..............
The 2007 edition of the Petit Le Mans was an absolute classic, thrills and spills, acted out in front of a record crowd......what a race, what a finish? The David and Goliath act of Porsche and Audi, Dumas and Capello, ensured that we were glued to our seats and screens to the last second of the last lap. Dindo and Allan's victory will in some small way compensate for the dreadful Le Mans result back in June. .......more

Red Meat Racing
For the past 80 years or so the Autodromo Nazionale Monza has been the stage for real motor racing......the buildings and the banking ooze history and drama.....the high speeds and claustrophobia of the parkland circuit are not for the faint of heart, so it was no surprise that the 2008 LMS race would be a show to remember......more

The Power Struggle
The 2008 edition of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is, as I start to write this tome, still in full swing. It is 3.00am local time and 6 or 7 cars are still slugging it out for the lead; full course yellows, rain, mixed up pit stop strategies, Pirelli and impending mechanical failures adding to the uncertainty of who really is in the control of the event. ........more

Day Tripper
While the motorsport fraternity whips itself into a Hamilton frenzy over the start of the 2008 Formula One season, the sportscar world concentrates on events in Florida with the ALMS opener at Sebring.....or does it?
Stephane Ratel and his FIA GT and GT3/4 Championships decide to have their 2008 launch despite the noise all around them... more >>>

25 or 6 to 4
Dates, anniversaries, numbers, memories, rambles, conjecture, conspiracies, more tea, Vicar?
A recent acquisition of a top end scanner prompted me to start fishing about in the office cupboard containing boxes of film and slides with a description on the lid unknown��.more

A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Forum
Late January, hmmm�.it must be time for the Rolex 24. Yes, well the annual 24 hour pound around the tri-oval set in Volusia County, Florida gives the green flag to the international motorsport season in any year........more

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Overtures and Beginners
The 2008 European season burst into life last weekend at the HTTT Paul Ricard with the Official Le Mans Series Test Days.
There was a degree of Phoney War as Peugeot and Audi did not go head to head, the French team assembling in Florida for the first of many miles of hard competition. Sebring's 12 Hours will be the first battle ground in a few weeks.....more