The collected works of ScottyB

Thanks to Australia’s complete disinterest in motor sport outside of V8’s, we saw no television coverage of this years 24 hours of LeMans.

Luckily, we live in a World of online alternatives and I was able to view all of Qualifying just hours after it happened and online timing, as well as live news updates for the entirety of the race.

I’ve never gotten into LeMans like I have with F1, but that is mainly due to accessibility to information and video/pictures. It’s not shown in any form here and it is an event (and series) that just isn’t (arguably) as high-profile or as popular as F1 is mainstream. So despite it being what is essentially a more exciting race and series, I am forced only to view text on the screen during the race. And a bit of build-up.

Nonetheless, what I saw this year was incredibly exciting. Watching the Qualifying was incredible. It really doesn’t get much better than sports car and prototype racing categories in terms of looks and competition. Sure an F1 car is beautiful, but these sports cars are simply amazing.

It is disappointing that it hasn’t become more popular out here - which would essentially mean more interest from the networks to show coverage. For the time being, I can live with watching it a few hours delayed. Hell, the F1 is basically the same. Even though TEN has live rights and even have qualifying broadcast this year, its all still shown hours after the live race…

From Autosport:

Audi have extended their remarkable Le Mans record with a comprehensive win at this year’s 75th edition of the race.

Marco Werner had the honour of taking the No. 1 Audi R10 that he co-drove with Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela across the line for the finish.

History was made in GT1, as Aston Martin finally managed to break Corvette’s stranglehold on the class by getting the No. 009 David Brabham/Rickard Rydell/Darren Turner across the line in first place.

Much of the final hour had been run behind a safety car due to heavy rain that left rivers of water running along the track.

But although the downpour continued, the race returned to green flag conditions for the final 10 minutes.

Common sense among the drivers prevailed to the point where the Audi was so keen to get to the finish in one piece that it was overtaken by two GT1 cars at a single corner.

Sebastien Bourdais managed to get the No. 8 Peugeot across the line in second to give the French marque a podium in its Le Mans comeback campaign.

…

The IMSA Porsche team of Raymond Narac, Richard Lietz and Patrick Long picked up the GT2 silverware.

While I would have loved to see Peugeot take the honours this year, it is a fantastic result once again for Audi.

Aston Martin winning GT1 (finally) ahead of the ‘Vettes was excellent news also.

I’m going to try to follow the LeMans series more closely from now on, simply because it is so unpredictable and exciting.

This afternoon, I had my first experience viewing a ship on Nobby’s Beach.

It was however, no ordinary ship - during the horrendous storms last weekend, the 76,741 tonne deadweight Panamax bulk carrier operated by the Lauritzen Bulkers Shipping company, the Pasha Bulker, beached right on the shore.

It is 225 metres in length and has a beam of 32.2 metres and a cargo hold capacity of 90,911 cubic metres.

On television, it looked big. In photographs, it looked big. In the Newspaper, too, it looked pretty big. But nothing can prepare you for the sheer gargantuan presence that the Pasha Bulker commands sitting a mere 20 metres from the beach. It is absolutely enormous, dwarfing the people, the helicopters, the lighthouse hovering around it. Even from a distance, through the lines between buildings and down the streets, it looks incredible. Almost surreal.

Matt, Karen, Emily and Kerrie decided to make the journey up today, giving me the excuse to take a drive in there and work against the traffic and the weather (which is still lashing NSW in one form or another). And today was no exception.

Just minutes after arriving, seconds after walking up and progressing down the Boardwalk… the heavens opened. And spoiled our potential photo session.

And made right drowned-rats out of us!

Nonetheless, I managed to snap a couple of shots before I had to hide the camera back into its waterproof bag.

Plans to salvage the Pasha Bulker include using a specialised anchor-handling vessel, the Pacific Salvor, to winch the ship seawards with 15-tonne anchors and cabling.[9] A hydrographic survey has been conducted to survey and map the bottom of the ocean through the surf zone using a surf ski single beam echo sounder and GPS. This will give the salvage team more insight into the chances of refloating the ship.

Link: ABC.net.au