All motorsport news has been revolving around the return of 7 time world F1 champion, Michael Schumacher and his return into F1 with Mercedes Benz. Teaming up with his longtime partner, Ross Brawn; Schummi will have all the winning materials for him to take another F1 title. However, the cars and game-plans have changed.
Author Archive for Berns
15
Oct
Practicing What I Preach
At work or amongst friends, I’m occasionally bombarded with questions about running, cycling or weight management. Most of the time it has to do with, “how do I approach…” or “I have this pain” or “why can’t I…”. Like most long term athletes we tend to learn and give advice on our personal experiences. Usually, I will tell people that they should see a professional (doctor, weight management specialist or someone of the like), but having said that I will tell people of my thoughts and my personal experiences.
As of late though, I’ve found that I need to start to listen to my own words. I tell people how to workout but then I haven’t been following my own advice for my own personal workouts. Then when I get injured or frustrated, I think to myself, why can’t I follow my own advice?!?!
The other day, I decided that I’ve lost enough weight that I could go for a run. However, I made a promise to myself that I needed to run slow and my goal for the workout was just to relax and work into my run. My goal was to do 10-minutes per mile pace. However; when I looked down at my heart-rate-monitor, I was running 8:30-minutes per mile pace! Oddly enough though, I felt relaxed and I was enjoying my run. My point was that my mind was thinking that the 10-min/mile was going to be relaxing for me but my body was telling me otherwise. I went by how I felt and it reminds me of how many times I’ve told people to go by how you feel. Everyone’s pace will be different according to feeling. That was one of the best runs I’ve had in a long time and it reminded me how much I enjoyed running.
The problem with workouts that I have now a days is that I think that every workout has to be “hard” when in fact that’s quite the opposite. Workouts need to be efficient but effective to an overall goal. Most of the racing season is now over and it’s time to put the body into a different mode. Workouts should not be as intense but they should have a purpose… a goal. So if you’re going for a long run or ride, keep the heart rate lower and there’s no need to be training at “race pace”. So set your daily goals (if you have any) and remember to “enjoy” your workouts versus “laboring” over them.
I debated for a long while, if I wanted to purchase a completed bike or build a bike from specific components that I would get to chose. In the end it came down to a sale at www.backcountryoutlet.com for a frame that was in my size and in the wheel size I wanted. I wanted the 650c wheel size because that what my other previous two bikes were and I was familiar with them. Since I’m a shorter person, this only made sense. After the frame purchase, I went to my friend at Zipp to help me with chosing the right components for me and he helped with staying within my budget. Zipp Speed Wepontry is a company that I really believe in and I feel that they really do put out a superior product. My view is somewhat biased though because rode one of their bikes for many years. What a great ride it was.
It feels so good when you start to pedal a bike and you know in an instant that it’s going to work out perfect. Putting this bike together had some challenges and compromises. My evening with Gary Allen was phenomenal. Having been in the industry for many years and building his own bikes (which are so nice), this project still held some challenges. As Gary entertained me for the evening with stories of races past (most of them I remember!) and building this bike, not once did I feel like there wasn’t something that we couldn’t overcome. However, the end result could not have turn out better. I’ve already ridden the bike on the trainer a couple of times and the power transfer is solid, in comparison to my older Zipp2001 from 1993. This machine is strong but surprisingly light. When we weighed it at the end of our build with older heavier wheels, it was approximately 15.5-lbs. With the newer and lighter wheels, it should have saved at least 0.5-lbs. I’m curious what it’s actual weight is.
SPECS:
- Frameset – 2008 Quintana Roo Lucero Lite
- Frameset Specs: Size – XS 650c wheel size
- Headset – FSA/Cane Creek (mixed)
- Handlebars – Zipp Vuka Bull
- Aerobars – Zipp Vuka Clips and Zipp Vuka Chicane Extensions
- Brake Levers – Zipp Vuka
- Brake Calipers – Cane Creek
- Shifters – SRAM TT 900
- Front Derailleur – SRAM Force 10-Speed Braze-On
- Rear Derailleur – SRAM Force 10-Speed
- Bottom Bracket – FSA Ceramic
- Crankset – FSA
- Chain – SRAM 1090 10-Speed
- Pedals – Speedplay Zero
- Front Wheel (Race) – Zipp 909
- Rear Wheel (Race) – Zipp 909 Disc (Dimpled)
- Rear Cassette – SRAM 1070 10-Speed 23-11
- Seat – Selle Italia Flight Titanium
Next:
- Bar Tape – Forte Carbon Handlebar Tap
- Derailleur Adjustment (Front and Rear)
- Training Wheels (clincher preferred)
- XLab Carbon Wing
- Zipp SL145 Stem (100-mm)
Stats:
- Approx. Weight (Race Setup) – 15.0-lbs
Special Thanks:
- Gary Allen for spending hours building this bike and entertaining me with great stories from great times.
- My contact at Zipp for helping me choose the right parts for this project.
The Little Monster
With summer racing coming to an end the Sykart Indoor Racing Series begins! The Sykart Indoor Racing Series (S.I.R.S) consists of 7 regular season races, from September 21st until November 9th, and finally closes with a shoot-out invitational on November 16th. Next we will highlight the classes a driver may compete in.
There are 2 classes a driver may choose to compete in, broken up into different weight-divisions:
The ‘P’-classes utilize Sykart’s 9hp Sodi Karts. The P-class is broken into ‘P1′ and ‘P2′. The P1 class is the Lightweight Division, with a minimum weight of 180lbs. The P2 the Heavyweight Division, with a minimum weight of 240lbs. In addition to the weight requirement, you must first complete a regular season in a GT class before joining.
The ‘GT’ classes (GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT4) utilize the 6.5hp Sodi karts. Similar to the P classes, each has a minimum weight that must be met in order to compete in the class.
Team Grip and Hammer currently has 5 drivers competing in this year’s S.I.R.S -
Scott Santiani P2 and GT4
Ralph Boeckman GT2
Jimmy Moore GT2
David Tanioka GT3
Joe Filipanko GT3
The Race
The night kicked off with P2 and GT1 for the first race of the season. Scott had a great qualifying session and was starting from second place. When the green flag dropped the leader and Scott slowly pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap 22, Scott came in to make his pit stop at 2nd place, but because of some congestion re-enterting the track he was passed and dropped back to 3rd. 4th place had caught up to him and put the pressure on for the remainder of the race, but Scott was able to hold him off and secured 3rd place!
The 2nd race of the night was GT2. This year’s GT2 has some of the toughest veterans in any division. Good luck to Ralph and Jimmie! Team Grip and Hammer started the race at the back of the pack and had a slow start. On lap 7, Ralph made an early pit stop so he could get some clean track and run some hot laps. Jimmy made his stop on lap 25 and came out a little bit behind Ralph, but Jimmy was able to catch Ralph and the two had a great battle for position. On lap 31 Jimmy was able to pass Ralph and capture 6th position! The two ran a close race to the very end and posted their best lap times near the finish. Great race!
P1 and GT3 would start the third race of the night. Thanks to a good showing at the qualifier,Joe started from the pole and David from fourth position. The GT field stayed very tight from the beginning with the top 4 spots up for grabs. The field finally got separated by a few early pit stops and the real racing began. On lap 29, a red flag came out to stop the race due to a kart in P1 that had engine failure. Afterwards, the field was bunched back up for a shootout for the last 20 laps. David was pinched off into the wall after the restart and slipped back into fourth position. Joe was able to maintain his lead by holding off consistant pressure from 2nd place and won the race!
The final race of the night was P1 and GT4 . Scott started in 4th place in the GT4 class. Go Scott! On lap 2, Scott made an early pit stop so he could get clear track and focus on putting down some fast laps. Scott’s strategy paid off: when the rest of the field pitted he had moved into 1st place with an impressive 12 second lead! Scott kept up the speed for the rest of the race. He dominated the final laps and captured the win.
We all had an awesome start to the season and let’s hope this luck continues with us. See ya next week for Round 2!
The Roman’s dream has come true! Giancarlo Fisichella has cancelled his ties with Force India and has moved to his dream team of Ferrari! Way to Go Giancarlo! We welcome you with open arms and we hope that your success from Spa will carry over to your new dream team.
Giancarlo Fisichella follows his dream team Ferrari
Victory Racing Camp hosted a fundraiser event for its camp members by running a two-hour event known as a “Speed and Feed” at Pat’s Acres Racing Complex. Teams raced, strategized, endured and overcame ever-changing conditions for this two-hour enduro. The four member squad consisting of veterans Bernie Russnogle and Scott Santiani and new comers Ralph Boeckman and Jimmy Moore joined together to become “Team Cavallino”. Bernie has competed in the Victory Racing Camp “Speed and Feeds” for the last three years. Scott did the previous “Speed and Feed” earlier in the year and the other two; Ralph and Jimmy, this was their first time at the challenge. All, however, are experienced kart racers and compete in the various racing leagues.
The race started off around 9:30am. Team Cavallino’s strategy and running order was Jimmy, Ralph, Bernie and Scott. Jimmy seemed to be one of the fastest in the field and we relied on him to make a good start and try to take the lead for the first stint. This would also burn fuel for Jimmy to keep consistent with lap-times by having a better power to weight ratio. After Ralph’s stint, we would refuel and Bernie, being the lightest of the group, would try and burn fuel for Scott for the final stint. As good of a plan as that was, not all things went accordingly.
Jimmy took a great line going into turn one and past two competitors by the exit of the first corner. By turn three, Jimmy had taken the lead and started to spread a gap on second place. After four laps into the race he caught lap traffic and began working his way through them. On lap ten though, it all started to go wrong for the team. In an effort to work around traffic and stay within the “Speed and Feed” rules, Jimmy spun on turn two (or three depending on how you interpret the course) in an effort to avoid hitting another driver. In doing so the only safe way to reposition himself on the course was to do a drive off. By doing this, it was assessed with an automatic driver change penalty. Frantically, Ralph had to get ready to race, twenty minutes before he needed to. Team Cavallino called in Jimmy for the driver exchange and the pit stop went flawless. In accordance with the event rules there needed to be four pitstops with one of them being allowed for the mandatory four-minute fuel stop. In our case though, a penalty will not count as a pitstop so the team had to quickly rethink the strategy.
Ralph went out and worked his way back into first place after it was lost with the driver exchange penalty. Although Ralph’s stint was uneventful he still powered his way through the field giving any possible buffer for unforeseen events. With Jimmy only having completed ten minutes, we decided that our first exchange would be with Ralph handing off to Jimmy to complete his share of the stint. Again the exchange went flawlessly. Scott’s pit-board proved to be a huge asset to the team by displaying lap-times and giving driver updates as needed. The rest of Jimmy’s stint was fast and even posted the fastest lap of the event of 50.1 seconds for the short course (although the team stop watch clocked him at 49.9 seconds).
The dilemma that Team Cavallino had at this point in the race was the thought of when to take on fuel. Unfortunately, being half way though the race, this was also on everyone else’s minds. Fighting to find a time of when to bring Jimmy in for the refueling stop and working around when other teams come in was a bit of a circus act. The team decided to go ahead and bring Jimmy in to first do an exchange to Bernie and then during his stint, come in for fuel when the refueling station was open. This mix-up ended up being a blessing in disguise. By doing the driver exchange and for Bernie to do the refueling, this would relieve our mandatory four stops (after Bernie handed off to Scott) along with our mandatory refueling stop. At this point in the race we had already had the lead by six laps. Again, Bernie’s stint was uneventful but still quick by team standards. This also still allowed Bernie to burn fuel before Scott got in to do the final stint.
Finally, the hand-off from Bernie to Scott took place and Team Cavallino had little to worry about as for event requirements. Bernie stayed suited up as Scott went out for the final thirty minutes. Bernie did this in the event of another driver exchange penalty was assessed. However, this was not needed Scott drove excellent to bring home the victory and the team’s closest competitor ended up 10-laps down. The main thing is that everyone drove relatively consistent and everyone turned around the same lap-times (mostly between 52-55 second lap-times). Competition was still tough though and was not taken for granted. There were a couple of teams there that, if given a good kart, could have challenged Team Cavallino for the win.
Team Cavallino
All in all though, even with Team Cavallino’s win, this was for a great cause. Victory Racing Camp’s mission is to get kids, teenagers and council members connected to God through motorsport. If you’re interested in participating in this even please visit: http://www.victoryracingcamp.org
It’s always difficult to purchase something online when you’re not 100% sure of the product nor the service that you’ll get during and after your purchase experience. Most of the time it’s a coin toss. However, with enough research on the Quintana Roo Lucero Lite bike frame, I found that Back Country Outlet was hands down the best price that I could find. The next question was how was my service with them going to be like? After spending some time on their site I found a feature that more and more retail sites are starting to use. It’s called the “Chat” feature or the “Instant Messenger” feature. Using this was the deciding factor of my purchase and I’m happy for it. I was able to ask questions about the frame I wanted to order and they also informed me, without me having to ask, the warranty that automatically comes with the purchase. Their warranty is a lifetime warranty on any manufacturer would warranty for their bike but for a lifetime. They claim that it doesn’t matter if it’s three days, three months, three years or even thirty years, it’s under warranty!
Back Country Outlet
Shipping came free with the bicycle frame purchase (beware that not everything is free shipping) and it only took two days to get to me! When I got the bike, it was in excellent condition and shipped well packaged to prevent any damage.
Quintana Roo Lucero Lite
I highly recommend Back Country Outlet and I plan to purchase from them again.
Overall Website Experience: 9.5/10
Overall Product Deliver: 10/10
Overall Customer Service: 10/10
Overall Experience: 10/10
Earlier this week we saw that Michael Schumacher’s decision to help the Scudaria Ferrari team by taking the place of the now hospitalized Felipe Massa. In an effort to get Michael up to speed on the newer F60, Ferrari have asked all the teams permission to allow Michael to try out the new car. Currently, under the rules there is no outside testing allowed durring the racing season. However, with the approval of all the teams, some cases have been approved.
I just don’t get it. Some teams are just not understanding of the situation. In the case of Red Bull, they “chose” to let Sebastian B. go when they didn’t have to. Whereas, Felipe Massa got into an accident and was hospitalized. Now Ferrari do NOT have a choice and need a second driver to complete the team. Is this not a “safety” issue? How can you expect anyone to get into a vehicle and race it in anger and not push the limits of the car? This is Formula One… arguably the highest form of motorsport! There should be some sort of ruling to allow for teams to test in situations like this. Even if there has to be an FIA official to make sure that they are not modifying the car or have new pices on the car. I just don’t get it.
Well, baring Michael Schumacher having a bad physical, we will be looking at Felipe Massa’s replacement in the Ferrari garage. This brings up some very interesting questions though. For example; why aren’t one of the two Ferrari F1 test drivers being considered for the role next to Kimi Raikkonen? What kind of shape will Michael be in after his motorcycle fall earlier in the year? What is Ferrari trying to accomplish by getting Schumie back into the driver seat?
First, I think that Michael will be competitive, however I do not think he will win. As much as a lot of us would like to see him win, I’m not sure if he can because of how the car is today along with him not being in an F1 car in over a year.
Michael Schumacher Back In The Saddle Again
So what is it that Ferrari is trying to do here? I think part of it has to do with the development of the car. Michael is well known for his abilities in creating and developing a car to become as fast as it can. We all know that this is not Kimi’s strong point (because he just drives any car well whether it’s good or not) and Massa is still learning from Michael on the optimum setup of a car (who probably is still better than Kimi). This development of the car will be ideal for Ferrari and potentially make the car even better, stronger and more reliable than the Red Bull and Brawn teams. Even though they are out of the hunt for the manufacturer’s title, they can still make some huge ground on the competition ahead.
Publicity may help with moral and hopefully bring a new spark to the team. I think that the devoted Ferrari Tifosi will see and feed of that spark which will translate in bringing new life and new hope to the team. With Brawn and Red Bull taking the headlines for a majority of the year, this could be the big boost that Italian team have been looking for. Oh the passion.
As we all hope that Felipe Massa’s quick recovery, I can’t help but wonder how the 40 year old German will do in Massa’s place. A large part of me hopes that he continues where he left off… but maybe not ahead of Kimi. The other part of me says that that era is gone and it’s time to let the new bread carry on with the torch. Either way, Ferrari F1 will be exciting to watch and with new twist, hopefully a new reign.
The Hungarian Grand Prix saw a mixture of emotions at the old order of Ferrari and McLaren worked their way back to the front and Brawn GP started to show some weakness and chinks in their armor.
Aside from the podium finish however, were several sides story that surrounded the weekend. Jaime Alguersuari is now the new Scudaria Toro Roso (Red Bull’s second string team) with the ousting of Sebastian Bourdais. The concord agreement is in the final stages of being signed. But the biggest news of the weekend was Filipe Massa’s accident. The Ferrari driver hit Rubens Barrichello’s spring that ejected from his car’s suspension, at high impact. Knocking the Brazilian unconscious he had a head-on collision with the tire wall. Emergency personnel moved to the Brazilian quickly and efficiently. He was airlifted to a hospital and had an emergency surgery done to relieve pressure on the brain and deal with his fractured skull. Althouh his health is improving, Ferrari seem optimistic on his return to Formula One however the doctors have yet to decide. We here at GripAndHammer.com wish Massa a fast recovery and a quick return to Ferrari.
Massa's Accident at the Hungaroring
The start of the Kimi was attempting to make up some grid position but got squeezed into other cars which brought an investigation and a decision to be determined at the end of the race by the stewards. They called it a racing accident and assest no penalty to Raikkonen or any of the cars involved.
Mark Webber was under investigation for aggressive driving while leaving the pit lane. We have yet to hear an official word on that action.
During the race, Fernando Alonso had a tire leave the car. The crew were unable to lock the wheel in place and two-thirds on the out-lap the Spaniard lost his front right wheel. Now the FIA have suspended them from the Valencia race but Renault have appealed the suspension.
So with Massa’s injury and time out, who will take his place? Also will this put on hold the Raikkonen rumors of his retirement and now it could be a Raikkonen and Alonso teaming up at Ferrari? Will there be any test drivers that will come forth to take the Brazilian’s place next to Kimi? There are four weeks till the next race so there’s time before Ferrari has to make a decision.
Raikkonen had a blistering pace the weekend and took second place to Louis Hamilton’s maden podium and win for 2009. It seems like the stars are finally start t align back up and everything is returning back to order. Now if Kimi can only get back on to the top of the podium… then it would be back to “perfect”.
