Formula 1 Weekend Schedule

 

Ferrari Fan Much?

One thing that sets auto racing apart from many sports for the spectators is that you can make a three day weekend out of one race! Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a big one day sports event like the Superbowl, Kentucky Derby, or the Indy 500, but a three day event should be about 300% MORE! Of course you can spend the entire month of May at the Indy 500 for all the practices, qualifying, road race, and etc too. Oh the World Series does all right with up to 7 games over 10 days or so with the travel days off. And hey, if you want a FULL DAY of sports, there are 24 hour events like the endurance race in France at LeMans too. 

The typical Formula 1 weekend spreads the action out over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so if you are attending one of these events, you better gear up and be ready for the weather too! One exception is the F1 race in Monaco, which normally starts practice on Thursday, takes a day off on Friday, and then resumes on Saturday and Sunday. I'm not sure if this is to allow everyone another day to party like a Yacht-Star, or just to allow the entire country to conduct business on Friday. This year's race in Las Vegas will be a bit different also, with the main race on Saturday night under the lights on the strip. Oh well, let's take a look at our upcoming May trip to Miami for the F1 race. 

Friday kicks it off with 2 practice sessions for the F1 race cars, but wait, there's more! In addition to the Formula 1 teams, there is also a Porsche Cup North America race, so the Porsches will be on track doing their own practice sessions on Friday too. So, if we want to catch all the action we'll get to the track after lunch, and watch all 4 practice sessions, and still have time to wander around the grounds, check out the food, see the souvenir stands, grab a beverage or two, and etc.

FRIDAY 5th MAY		Local time
FORMULA 1	FIRST PRACTICE SESSION	14:30 - 15:30
Porsche Carrera Cup North America	First Practice Session	16:00 - 16:30
FORMULA 1	SECOND PRACTICE SESSION	18:00 - 19:00
Porsche Carrera Cup North America	Second Practice Session	19:25 - 19:55

On Saturday, the F1 teams get a final practice session, and then the important Qualifying session too. For the Porsche teams, they get to qualify first on Saturday, and then return to the track later for their first of two races on the weekend. Oh no, we'll have to get there in the MORNING to watch the Porsche qualifying, the horror! On the other hand, Saturday should be all wrapped up before dinner, and I'll bet there's a Cubano sandwich with my name on it somewhere in Miami. 

SATURDAY 6th MAY     Porsche Carrera Cup North America Qualifying Session 10:15 - 10:45 FORMULA 1 THIRD PRACTICE SESSION 12:30 - 13:30 Porsche Carrera Cup North America First Race (40 Mins +1 Lap) 14:05 - 14:50 FORMULA 1 QUALIFYING SESSION 16:00 - 17:00
Sunday is race day for both the F1 drivers and the second race for the Porsche series. On top of that, there is all the pre-race hoopla of a driver parade where the F1 drivers ride around the track to wave to the fans, followed by forming the cars up on the grid, the National Anthem, and finally the actual race. Our seats are on the start-finish straight, so we should have a pretty good view of the festivities, and be able to see into some of the garages on the pit lane.
SUNDAY 7th MAY     Porsche Carrera Cup North America Second Race (40 Mins +1 Lap) 12:25 - 13:10 Formula 1 Drivers' Parade 13:30 - 14:00 Promoter Activity Grid Presentation 14:00 - 14:30 Formula 1 National Anthem 15:14 - 15:16 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX (57 LAPS OR 120 MINS) 15:30 - 17:30

NMS: 10 Years of Autocross!

Dirty Rotten Bloggers

Today we're taking a moment to celebrate the 10th anniversary since Brian Nixon and I started competing in Autocross events. You can send any gifts at any time, might we suggest tickets to the F1 race in Austin Texas this October, where part of the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) track will be a concert from the band Queen! Hey, it just happens to be on my birthday, so, no pressure!

24 Hours of Lemons Class C WINNERS!

But seriously, somehow we both were interested in trying this driving thing and signed up and just went out and did it. At that first event at Darlington Raceway, we both entered in the Novice class. Was it fun? Well, after that first event we decided to forget about being Novices and just jump into the next event in the regular competition classes. We haven't regretted that for a second. 

Brian (2nd from right) and Team Coronautski with Randy Pobst (3rd from right)

For that first autocross event we had a Miata and a FIAT 500 Abarth, and while the Miata has been replaced with a series of other Miatas and other cars (check out the page on this blog about our cars), the FIAT was replaced with my current Cayman. Along the way we have also driven at track day events, Time Trials, 24 Hours of Lemons races, Lucky Dog, the BMW Ultimate Driving Experience, Lexus demo day, Jaguar demo day, Evolution Autocross School, instructed at the Tire Rack Street Survival school for teen drivers, the BMW performance center in Greer SC, and other fun filled events. 

Kimi Raikkonen stopped by for Christmas one year!

Track wise, we call Carolina Motorsports Park in SC our home track. Between the two of us we've also driven at Darlington Raceway, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Atlanta Motorsports Park, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Roebling Road, Barber Motorsports Park, the North Carolina Center for Automotive Research, Virginia International Raceway, Pocono Raceway, Autobahn Country Club, Watkins Glen International, New Jersey Motorsports Park, and Palmer Motorsports Park. Throw in a few go-kart tracks and lots of autocross events in at least 7 states, and that's about it.

Tough Day at Work With Skip Barber at Lime Rock Park

While we'd like to list all the world championships and how many millions of dollars we've won, well, we haven't! But, some pretty reasonable achievements include Brian and Kyle and Luke (as the Bunch of Idiots racing team) WINNING last year's Lucky Dog race series, Team Coronautski winning their class in a 24 Hours of Lemons race, 2nd overall in another Lemons race, Brian competed at the Sports Car Club of America national Autocross Championship in Nebraska and other regional events one year, Robert winning 5 class championships and finishing Top Ten overall for the season in a couple of clubs, and I think we've both taken a top 2 or top 3 PAX in an individual autocross event or two. 

The 3 guys on the right (Brian, Luke, Kyle) are the Bunch of Idiots racing team.

The key thing is that we've had  a TON, yes, exactly 2,000 pounds of FUN! We've met a lot of great people, learned a lot about driving and taking care of automobiles, and likely boosted the economy so much that we should be totally broke. There are cheaper hobbies out there, so I guess we're just not smart enough to do those instead!

One minute you might get a trophy, the next minute you might have a heart attack. Take care of yourself!

Thanks for following along on our FIRST ten years. Don't worry, we'll keep driving!

Brian's NMS Tip of the Day: Make the Car Go Faster!

IT'S RAWE CEEK!

MoneyGram Haas F1 drivers Nico and Kevin: RAWE CEEK

Formula 1 race fans are very happy, because it's RAWE CEEK! What is RAWE CEEK? Can I be a RAWE CEEKER too? How much does RAWE CEEK cost? Where do I get RAWE CEEK? And mostly, what IS RAWE CEEK? Today we'll find out!

RAWE CEEK means that it is RACE WEEK! It just so happens that somewhere out there in social media fantasy-Matrix world, several promotions or photos trying to hype up the latest Race Week have gotten the message a bit jumbled if you read it a certain way, and now all the cool kids are doing RAWE CEEK on purpose.

Probably the best RAWE CEEK post I've seen is the photo above. It started with the MoneygGram Haas F1 Team announcing Chipotle as a sponsor, so of course their drivers Nico and Kevin are holding bags of Chipotle's delicious Mexican food. At first glance you might just read the letters on the bags as RACE WEEK, but of course reading it differently gives us RAWE CEEK! Mystery solved!

This week's F1 race is extra exciting because it's been weeks since the last F1 race, due to the Chinese Grand Prix having been cancelled, and giving us the past three weekends with NO racing!