shanerogers.com.au blog

My Top 10 moments of 2009:

10 The wonderful hospitality of American Indycar fans. You know who you are. Thank you.

9 My Christmas Cards, and watching everybody laugh when they got them!

8 Helping the CAMS Victorian State Council to get change in Australian club motor sport.

7 Talking my way into the shops of Luczo Dragon/Dreyer and Reinbold.

6 Seeing a racing car turn a corner 350kph for the first time.

5 In the water on a West Coast beach with Holly.

4 Chatting to Ashley Judd in a burger joint in Milwaukee.

3 Hanging with Curt Cavin. Whether it was talking on the radio, or talking over a burger.

2 Watching Holly’s face as she got her 21st birthday present

1 Hearing 320,000 people sing “Back home again in Indiana” in person.

Apologies to Accidentally blowing off Lauren Bohlander, Seeing the Shaq in person, meeting Donald Davidson, fun with the J-Train, and buying myself a new computer for the first time in 14 years.

To my wonderful friends, from Western Australia to West Des Monies: Happy, prosperous and safe new year everybody.

A common sight these days, a dumped CRT monitor for hard rubbish collection in South Melbourne.

On my way home from work on Tuesday or Wednesday, is when it first appeared.

However, by Friday night, it appears like the CRT managed to summon enough power to communicate one more message for the benefit of the general populus before he leaves this world.

That’s right you 21 Inch, HD Widescreen, Automatic Power save, multiple input LCD: You suck!

Props to the people responsible, you’ve outdone the person that authored this in a toilet block at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the graffiti of the year title.

Hi Everybody,

Yes it’s been a while, I know. Here’s my take on the past few weeks of Indycar Racing at MyNameIsIRL.com, where I’m guest blogging.

In case you’ve been living under a rock in Australia.  Mark Webber won his first F1 race overnight.

This article amused me, in which Mark Webber is quoted as saying:

“Yeah, yeh, yeh.” he screeched aloud. “Oh yes. You beauty! Yes.”

I think Reuters might have missed a word.  Between “You” and “beauty”.  I’ll let you figure that out.

I think they also cut off the radio transmission because following the quote above, he said “We’re going to get…”

Which is a shame, because Mark was obviously going to say something like:

“We’re going to get my Dad, and Ann, and then we’re going to have a nice warm cup of tea, mine is white with two sugars, have it ready after the press conference.”

But for some reason they cut that off…

Don’t know why.

Well,

Not quite yet.

I’m sitting at 40 West Coffee Cafe in Indianapolis, chilling out with Pressdog’s race summary before I fly home. Gentlemen start your jet engines at 5:30pm.

To give people an idea of the trip:
Indianapolis to Memphis (On Northwest), Memphis to LAX (On Northwest), LAX to Sydney (on V Australia), then Sydney to Melbourne.  Arriving at Melbourne at 10:30 on Thursday.  Only 29 hours this time with a reduced LAX layover.  Sleep should be nicer too, as I’m in Australian nighttime on the plane, so I will try and sleep.

Wednesday is, well, there is no Wednesday.

I was going to post a thank you post, but if I do that, I’m going to leave somebody’s name out.  I’ll do something once I get back to Melbourne and have time to write something coherent.

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody who helped in making this little vacation the most awesome thing I’ve done in a long, long time.  Whether you were a media person, a team member, an IMS/IRL staff member, a blogger, an Indianapolis 500 historian, a member of the track staff, a hot dog vendor, or a fan I ran into at the track or an airport, or a person I met at a bar while having a feed: Thank you.  It’s been truly a pleasure.

I do intend on coming back. When will depend on when the IRL introduce the new car, whether I can get a job over here, how the credit card is travelling, and/or whether anybody is stupid enough to offer their services as a wife, Will and Grace style (US gov, only kidding about the last bit).

So for now, I’ll see ya in Melbourne.

Since people in Australia insist on me reminding them…

I have been invited to be a guest on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network during the Indy Lights practice session 2 tomorrow:

When: Saturday 4 July: 8:45AM Eastern, 10:45PM AEST, 8:45PM AWT (others check local guides – always wanted to say that)
Where: On indycar.com’s Media Center (click here). Click the “Indy Live” menu item, you then might have to click the “Indy lights practice session 2 link”

This appeared in the Twittersphere today, courtesy of my friend and big racing fan SpeeedFreekBash, who basicailly went straight from the operating table to Texas Motor Speedway, such is her enthusiasm for the racing product. Republished with permission.

Ten Reasons Why #IndyCar Should Hire @shagers (no particular order):

1. Babe magnet. Looks like a driver, sounds like one, too. A boost to the female demographics for the league.
2. He is custodian of the Briscoe Consolation Vegemite and can ably expand to handle a case of the stuff for Will Power.
3. He’s an accomplished hot dog taster and can help the league’s concessionaires improve their offerings.
4. Who else can set up and administer a network, then i’view/photo drivers, observe races and provide content over that network?
5. He’s a rising radio star.
6. He’s a team player, devoting his energy to getting Hideki Mutoh a date instead of keeping the hot young ladies for himself.
7. In a rare moment of consensus, media members AND bloggers love him.
8. He’s always thinking of ideas for improving the product and how it is received by the fans.
9. Dedication – up at any hour of the day or night to witness a race live or via broadcast. Your racing organization needs him.
10. He’s plug n play, with a wide range of knowledge: technical, strategic, marketing, PR and the business of racing.

Nice work Bash.  I need to figure out how to get that in my resume!

Jeff, Brian, Terry, you have my email address.

Sprintcar driving and setup for Dummies

1. If it’s tight (understeering) in, then left rear down (shocks) or left front
2. If it’s loose (oversteering) in, then open left rear
3. tight in center of corner: compress right rear and lock left front.
4. Loose in center of corner: open right rear and left front.
5. Loose and tight on exit of corner: same as above

Today’s updates from Richmond, where the football team (whoever it is, and whatever league and brand of football they play) is certainly better than the equivalent one in Australia.

My movements:
Another day in the town as the Indycar race doesn’t start until 8:45pm (For at home: TV is on ESPN Australia on Foxtel/Austar at 10am Eastern), so I’m planning on doing some catch up both on blogging and washing before hitting Washington and the big Gwyenth’s kid on the way to Watkins Glen.

Hideki lack of action update:
As reported by 16th and Georgetown, the hunt for a lay for Hideki is going not too well, primarily because Hideki hasn’t accepted my wingman offer yet.  I can understand why Tony has some reliability issues his team spells Hideki, like this:

It makes me wonder, though, the mistake is the in the third letter, which Japanese driver do you know has a third letter in his name which is a ‘k’?  Hmmm…

On Spying, specifically, am I a spy:
As for AGR, apparently, I’m a spy.  Well, that’s what the crew think, and they don’t mind telling everybody within a five mile radius of me when taking photos that this is the case. I think what’s given me away is that I’m the only one in the garage area taking pictures of Danica’s car and not Danica.

Very funny guys.  Look, we can solve this amicably, just tell me which bits are secret.  I can then take pictures and sent them to everybody else and make some money out of this. Track food is expensive you know. Of course, you could just pay me off. A Panasonic plasma would be nice, but Tony K can probably bargain me down to 3 Slurpees, if he can get 6 Miller Lite’s into me first, and he plays his cards right.

Then again, if I draw glasses, a fake nose, and a moustache on my smilie face pass with a Sharpie, it might be enough to throw them off the trail…

Pressdog.com Ryan Briscoe Consolation Vegemite Update
I’m pleased to report that the pressdog.com Ryan Briscoe Consolation Vegemite has successfully made it through Canadian and US customs during the Canadian swing last week, and is still going down a treat at the compliementary contiental breakfast here.  It won’t get back into Australia, so we may have to work out a way to give it a proper farewell at the Glen next weekend.  If Ryan finishes 2nd again today, there’s no doubt he’s entitled to become the permanent owner of the “trophy”.  Bit like Harry Hartz getting to keep the Wheeler-Schebler trophy.

Props to Vision Racing…
Props to Vision Racing for re-tweeting my Michael Jackson joke. Nice work boys.  Their new website goes live at 3pm today they assure us!  By the way, I have done the Vision wellness tour bus, and yes, I passed.

I distictly remember the experience of the tour bus, because I was in Texas, and the two guys in front of me, are sitting in line and drinking.  One of the guys opens another can and says something like “Better drink this one as well, if I stop drinking, the reading won’t be indicative of my usual state!”  Gotta love those laptop smashing, beer drinking Texans.

OK, time to go, and do some washing.

Hi Everybody,

A quick post to update on movements and some mild reflection on Iowa.

Firstly, me: After road tripping from Indy to Iowa, a beer with Pressdog, and two awesome days at Iowa Speedway, the “I drive like Paul Tracy but I fight like Alex Tagliani” world tour does a Canadian swing to keep my boss happy catching up with two of our suppliers.

I’m back in Richmond late on Thursday night where I hookup with the Indycar Series once again.

In the meantime, it’s Toronto, and then Montreal.  Only been in Toronto for two hours, but it’s got a degree of familiarity, with the Queen’s mug on the currency, and kilometers on the dashboard. It’s almost like I’ve wandered into a bar on the other side of the planet, to find my mate QE2, with a cold brew that is the equivalent of a pint, but measured in Milliliters.

With respect to Iowa.  The place was awesome.  It’s the kind of track you wish you could fit into checked luggage, but I don’t think they’ll sell it to me for under the duty free limit, so I’m going to have to go without this time.

The racing was tight, close, and action packed. If you haven’t done it, and you’re on this side of the planet, go.  The fans are true racing fans, knowledgeable, stand up and get excited at the right times, and genuinely interested in Open Wheel.

I get the feeling that the Apex Brazil hospitality truck must serve some kind of Brazilian Valium like drug to all the drivers that visit, because without that present at Iowa, all the South American drivers went positively psycho. Every one of them was either out or hit something by about lap 70.  Even the people who normally act like their on a happy drug like Helio went to an extra depth of insanity.

I’m starting to wonder about this 13 thing for Viso, with what is it?  7 or 8 DNF’s now this year.  In the last two races he’s made it the sum total of about one and a half miles.

Good to see no debris caution half way though the race this time, which was refreshing.

Apparently somebody gave me a shout out on the IMS radio network this weekend.  If anybody knows when, can they let me know, I’ll go looking for it tonight otherwise.

See you in a day or two…

Video highlights of Iowa from indycar.com below: