#second and sebring

[maskednat]

Second & Sebring - Of Mice and Men

El año era 2011, acaba de regresar de Minnesota y estaba en mi época "emo". Cuando regrese, comencé a notar cosas extrañas en mi casa, mi papá regresaba a casa más tarde y mi mamá había dejado de fumar. Mis papás aparentaban que todo estaba bien por lo que no quise preguntar.

En una fiesta de navidad, los amigos de mi mamá dieron un discurso de como ellos iban a estar ahí para nosotros no importase lo que pasara. Y yo comencé a sospechar. Esa noche entre al cuarto de mis papás y les pregunté que pasaba. Y mi mamá me sentó y me dijo que tenía cáncer. Entré en shock. No sabía que decir. Por lo que no dije nada. Me fui a encerrar a mi cuarto y lloré. Lloré porque perder a mi mamá era lo peor que me podía pasar.

Pasó año nuevo a 2012 y mi mamá comenzó quimioterapia. Y me acuerdo que ella estaba tan cansada, y yo no sabía que hacer. Con mi mamá teníamos una tradición que cada inicio de clases forrabamos libros juntas. Yo forraba los míos y ella los de mi hermano. Nunca se lo dije, pero esa vez que me tocó forrar libros sola, lloré. Lloré porque pensaba que así iba a ser el resto de mi vida. Sola.

En 2010 Of Mice and Men sacó Second and Sebring para honorar a la mamá de Austin, que había muerto por una enfermedad cardiovascular. "I hope you smile when you look down on me" yo quería eso. Quería enorgullecer a mi mamá.

Solo había un problema. En 2011 comencé a tener síntomas de depresión. Me acuerdo que me iba a tirar al jardín con la Gema y miraba al cielo, y pensaba en morir. Yo solo quería morir. Pero con la enfermedad de mi mamá, esa depresión aumentó aún más. Y comencé a ser rebelde. Me enamoré de un idiota que empeoró mi conducta. Y comencé a recentir a mi mamá. Recentia que ya no estaba conmigo, recentia que su adicción al cigarro la había enfermado (aunque fumar no fue la causa de su cáncer). Recentia que me había dejado sola y que ahora me tocaba cuidar a mi hermano.

Creo que lo más doloroso de todo era llegar a casa del colegio y verla dormida. Antes de su enfermedad, llegaba a casa del colegio y almorzábamos juntas en su cuarto mientras hablábamos y mirábamos Fashion Police. Ahora llegaba a mi casa y estaba sola. Mi única compañía en ese tiempo era la musica. Especialmente está canción.

Escuchaba Second and Sebring y decidí que iba a enorgullecer a mi mamá. Me esforzaba mucho en el colegio. Y cuidaba de mi hermano. Quería que mi mamá supiera que no importara lo que pasase, que nosotros íbamos a estar bien. Pero al mismo tiempo, mi recentimiento y mi conducta se volvían peores. Y las peleas con mis papás crecían.

Mi rebeldía se estaba saliendo de control. Pasaba mucho tiempo con mis amigos porque me sentía sola en casa. Todos mis amigos eran más grandes que yo, por lo que salíamos de fiesta y yo me emborrachaba. Tenía 15 años, y era mi única forma de poder sacar el dolor de mi corazón. Porque en el fondo, necesitaba a mi mamá. "I need your love, like a boy needs his mother's arms".

Fueron épocas difíciles, yo no entendía porque era como era. No entendía porque había tanto dolor en mi corazón. No entendía porque no podía tener una relación estable. No entendía porque en mi cabeza yo quería ser una buena hija y amar a mi familia como ellos me amaban a mi, pero mis acciones y palabras hacían lo contrario. Y no iba a ser hasta 2022, 10 años después, que me iban a diagnosticar con BPD y todo iba a tener sentido.

Eventualmente, mi mamá entró en remisión y su salud mejoró. Y regresó a ser la mamá dedicada que siempre fue. A mí me tomó tiempo, pero volvimos a tener una buena relación.

No fui, ni soy una buena hija. Mi BPD y depresión arruinan mis relaciones. Pero aún así, mis papás me han apoyado en todo lo que hago. Me apoyaron cuando me salí de la U y comencé a trabajar. Me apoyaron cuando regresé a la U a los 27 años. Me apoyaron cuando me diagnosticaron epilepsia y todas mis enfermedades mentales. Y por eso estoy muy agradecida.

Siempre ha sido mi meta enorgullecer a mis papás. Es lo único que quería. Demostrarles el amor que ellos me dieron y que estuvieran orgullosos de mi. Pero no pude. Y eso me rompe el corazón.

Espero que entiendan la razón por la que morí. Espero que entiendan que esto tenía que pasar. Que yo ya estaba sufriendo mucho y que cada día que vivo es otro día en el que mi mente y mi corazón me duelen. Que el sufrimiento no vale la pena. Y duele, porque sé que mis papás dieron todo por mi. Y no saben lo agradecida que estoy con ellos.

Espero que miren al cielo y sonrían, porque finalmente estoy en paz. Y quiero que sepan, que no importa lo que pase, yo voy a estar con ellos siempre y que los amo demasiado.

Pd. Sé que está canción es muy fuerte, pero lo importante es la letra.

-Nat

[viper-motorsports]

[tyresdeg]

colton herta | 12 hours of sebring 2024

[you-wanna-know]

I just triggered a memory. I used to post singing covers on YouTube when I was like 15. Absolute trauma

[vintageclassiccars]

The Ford GT40.

This GT40 Mk II came second in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans competition in 1966 and the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring.

[robinfrinjs]

Pictured: Suzy Dietrich, part of one of two all-female teams during the 1966 edition of the race

Always There, Women in Motorsport: Women at the 24 Hours of Daytona

Women's history in motorsport is rich, and that has always been the case. This year we will have seven women competing in the race, but back in 1966, when it was run as a 24 Hour race for the first time, we already had five women competing in the race.

The 24 Hours of Daytona was first run in 1966 but its history goes back to 1962 when it was first run as a 3 Hours race counting towards the FIA’s International Championship for GT Manufacturers (Later known as the World Sportscar Championship). 1963 would also see a 3H race. In 1964 and 65 a 2000 Km race would be held, which was about half the length of the 24H of Le Mans at that time. In 1966 the race turned into a 24 Hour race and has ran as such since with two exceptions*

*In 1972 the race was shortened to a 6 Hour race as the FIA feared the reliability of the 3.0 liter cars and in 1974 the race was not run due to the energy crisis.

In 1966 the 24 Hours of Le Mans had already run over 30 editions and with success for women at that. In 1930 Marguerite Mareuse and Odette Siko would become the first women to compete in the race, finishing 2nd in class and in 1932 Siko would even go on to win her class. The 1930s would prove to be successful for women as in 1935 a record of 10 women would compete at Le Mans. In 1957 women were prohibited from competing at Le Mans and this ban would only be lifted in 1971.

During the period of this ban, the first 24 Hours of Daytona would be run which saw two all female teams compete. Rosemary Smith and Sierra ‘Smokey’ Drolet finished 30th overall and sixth in their class in a Sunbeam Alpine. While Janet Guthrie, Donna Mae Mims and Suzy Dietrich finished 32nd overall and won their class in a Sunbeam Alpine.

Clipping from The Boston Globe · Sunday, February 13, 1966 Mentioning these performances

Sunbeam Alpine Driven by Donna Mae Mims, Janet Guthrie, and Suzy Dietrich at the Daytona 24 Hour Continental Race, February 1966 (Source: thehenryford.org)

Donna Mae Mims, also known as the "Pink Lady" was the first woman to win a Sports Car Club of America national championship. Also one of the first women to compete in the 24H of Daytona (Source: Sports Car Club of America Archive)

Women would continue to compete at the race with another all-female team competing in 1967 consisting of Janet Guthrie, Sierra ‘Smokey’ Drolet and Anita Taylor driving a Ford Mustang. They finished fifth in class and 20th overall. Smokey would go on to win her class in 1969 driving a Corvette with John Tremblay, Vince Gimondo and John Belperche finishing sixteenth overall. That same year she would finish the 12 Hours of Sebring second in class together with Rosemary Smith. In 1970 Smokey would finish 25th overall while Donna Mae Mims competed but failed to finish

February 5, 1967: Sierra “Smokey” Drolet awaits her turn behind the wheel of the Ring Free-sponsored Ford Mustang she co-drove with Anita Taylor and Janet Guthrie during the 24 Hours of Daytona. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

In 1977 another female team took the start Christine Beckers and Lella Lombardi would share an Inaltéra GTP but unfortunately they did not make it to the finish. In 1980 Kathy Rude would drive in the 24 Hours of Daytona for the first time, finishing eight in the GTO Class together with her teammates. That same year Anne-Charlotte Verney would finish 9th overall and fifth in the GTX class while Lyn St. James finished 17th overall and Christine Beckers would finish 47th overall.

In 1981 Rude would finish seventh overall and third in the GTU class with her teammates Lee Mueller and Philippe Martin in a Mazda RX-7, Gaile Engle (36th overall) and Vicki Smith (56th overall) would also compete. The following year she would team up again with Lee Mueller, and she achieved a class win and sixth place overall with Allan Moffat as third driver. Vicki Smith also returned with a 25th place overall and Desiré Wilson would finish 45th overall.

In 1983 Rude would return to the race, now with an all-female team. Rude, Deborah Gregg, and Bonnie Henn would finish thirteenth overall and sixth in class in their Porsche 924. Smith and St. James also competed finishing 35th and 44th overall respectively. Kathy Rude would unfortunately suffer a huge crash at Brainerd that same year which left her in a coma for several weeks. She recovered but it meant she never got the chance to compete in IndyCar where she had arranged a seat for the 1984 season. The following years also saw women compete but without much success. 

Kathy Rude, Bonnie Henn, Deborah Gregg Photo: Robert Fischer

In 1987 Lyn St. James finished 7th overall and first in the GTO Class, together with her teammates Tom Gloy, Bill Elliott, and Scott Pruett. Deborah Greg would finish 9th overall and 3rd in the GTO class while Linda Ludemann finished 16th overall.

Drivers Bill Elliott, Lyn St. James and Tom Gloy in victory lane following the SunBank 24 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

Ludemann and James would continue to compete in the race in the coming years but it wasn’t until 1990 that there was success again. James would finish fifth overall and win the GTO class together with her teammates Robby Gordon and Calvin Fish in a Mercury Cougar. Ludemann would finish 17th overall.

Tomiko Yoshiwaka and Desiré Wilson would finish 47th overall in 1993. 1994 would see the return of an all-female team when Linda Pobst, Kat Teasdale, Margy Eatwell, Tami Rai Busby, and Leigh O’Brien finished 47th overall. That same year Lilian Bryner (15th overall), Kat Teasdale (17th overall) and Tammy Jo Kirk (34th overall) would also compete.

Tomiko Yoshikawa at Daytona in 1993

1995 saw another female class win when Lilian Bryer finished fifth overall with her teammates Enzo Calderari, Renato Mastropietro & Ulli Richter. They won the GTS-2 Class in their Porsche 911. The following year that same line-up would win their class again while they finished fourth overall. A little under 10 years later, in 2004, Lilian Bryner made history when she won the 24H of Spa overall.

In 1997 Claudia Hürtgen would finish 4th overall and first in the GTS-2 class with her teammates Ralf Kelleners, Patrice Goueslard, and André Ahrlé in their Porsche 911 GT2. This is the last female class win to date. Throughout the late 90s into the early 2000s women continued to compete in the race. The biggest success came for Milka Duno when she finished 2nd overall in 2007 with a Riley mK XI together with Dario Franchitti, Marino Franchitti, and Kevin McGarrity. This remains the highest overall finish of a female driver to date.

In 2019 an all-female entry returned when Simona de Silvestro, Katherine Legge, Bia Figueiredo, and Christina Nielsen finished 32nd overall and 12th in the GTD class in an Acura NSX GT3. The following year Tatiana Calderon, Rahel Frey, Legge and Nielsen competed in a Lamborghini Huracan but failed to finish. 

Simona de Silvestro, Katherine Legge, Christina Nielsen, and Bia Figueiredo in 2019

From 2013 up until the race this year, at least a single woman has competed. With a record of entries coming in 2024 when nine women competed. This year 7 women will compete in the race with Karen Gaillard making her debut in the race.

[bewbberrytarts]

Thank you @rebellingstagnationblog for the tag 💖

Music Game!

Rules: shuffle your 'on repeat' playlist and post the first 10 songs, then tag 10 friends to do the same

Let’s just say, it was never a phase

1. Feel Good Drag, Anberlin

2. Miss Murder, AFI

3. A Work of Art, Ice Nine Kills

4. Abagail, Motionless in White

5. Fade Away, We Came as Romans

6. You Be Tails, I’ll be Sonic, A Day to Remember

7. I’m Low on Gas and You Need a Jacket, Pierce the Veil

8. Chelsea Smile (KC Blitz Remix), Bring me the Horizon

9. Artificial Suicide, Bad Omens

10. Second & Sebring, Of Mice and Men

Tags 💕:

@obstinatejules @afreakingdork @morning-sun-brah @shyspider @nerdy-turtle-enthusiast

[tiimelydeath]

the almost birthday girl.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1964 Mistral Spyder

Diana Dors bought the brand new Mistral Spyder in 1964 when she saw it at Earls Court Motorshow while in the throes of bankruptcy.

In 1964, the Maserati range was at its most diverse, with the Mistral and Quattroporte joining the Sebring, 3500 GT, and 3500 GT Spyder. Maserati was building upon the success of the 3500 GT and Sebring when it commissioned Pietro Frua to design a new body to be placed upon an updated Tipo 109 chassis. The new two-seat coupé was named “Mistral”, after the strong winds blowing from the Mediterranean coast in the south of France, at the suggestion of Colonel John Simone, the French Maserati importer. The Mistral was sold directly from the Motor Show stand to its first owner, Diana Dors, the English screen icon frequently known as the “English Marilyn Monroe”. She is said to have fallen in love with the car after seeing it first-hand at the motor show. Dors, one of the earliest English stars to court the press, and gain notoriety in the process, was famously the youngest person to own a Rolls-Royce, despite the fact that she was not even old enough to drive at the time

With a 3.7-litre engine developing 255bhp, the Italian sports car was capable of 0-60mph in just 6.2 seconds with a top speed of 160mph.

[coimbrabertone]

South America, Australia, (Jim) France, Germany!

It's a stretch and a half of a title but it's a good bit so I don't care. Let's talk about this last weekend of racing.

We'll start chronologically with the 12 Hours of Sebring last Saturday, where Porsche Penske Motorsport took a 1-2 finish for the German manufacturer. It wasn't the most exciting Sebring race, but we got a little bit of everything with Lamborghini leading at one point only to be caught napping on a restart and retire, the BMWs got pole for the race but fell back, and we saw the debut of the new V12 Aston Martin, which is cool.

Ultimately though, nobody could hold back Porsche today.

Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, and Laurens Vanthoor won both opening rounds of the season, winning the big endurance races of Daytona and Sebring.

With this, Nick Tandy has not only won the Triple Crown of endurance racing with his 2015 Le Mans win and these two 2025 wins, but also won the 2015 Petit Le Mans overall - in a GTLM car, no less! - along with the 2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring and the 2020 Spa 24 Hours.

Tandy has won so many big endurance races that they've made a new name for it.

So long Triple Crown, it's now about the Big Six.

Porsche has given us the Germany aspect, now we'll move onto the Australian Grand Prix, which fell on Saturday for us Americans.

I know I've shat on F1 a lot on this blog, but I'm legitimately happy with the Australian Grand Prix and this is the most interested I've been in Formula One in a couple of years.

The reason is simple: we had competition, we had changeable conditions, and we had something truly rare in modern F1: the teams were legitimately caught off guard.

McLaren ran 1-3 in the early stages of the race, with Max initially threatening Lando in the Red Bull, but he was having to push it to the limit. We saw Max lockup just ahead of Oscar Piastri, lose the position, run over a puddle, and then completely lose pace as he couldn't make the tyres work, dropping fourteen seconds off the McLarens.

This left the McLarens in a dominant position, and Piastri was gaining on Lando for the lead. However, with a 1-2 in the rain, McLaren made a very Jordan-at-Spa-1998-esque call and told Oscar to hold position.

An annoying but understandable choice - nobody wants to lose a 1-2 because their drivers crashed into each other.

What was less understandable is that Oscar then had a snap of oversteer and nearly crashed while Lando opened up a three second gap, at which point McLaren told him they could now race.

Bit late for that, eh?

In any case, around lap 33, they all start pitting to make a brave switch onto the dry tyres. On the line, this is the fastest way around the circuit, but just off the line, there's still a lot of water around the circuit. Not only that, but there's more rain on the way.

They have to pit because the dry line is burning the intermediate tyres away, but they'll need the inters again before the race is done.

Then Fernando Alonso lost it through the fast sector two and brought out the safety car, and that SC brought them all the way up to 42...right before it started raining.

The perilous moment of the race came at the end of lap 43, when both McLarens went off at the end of the lap and into the gravel and the grass. Lando managed to recover and rejoin the track before pitting, but behind him...Piastri lost traction in the penultimate corner and spun off into the wet grass, spending the next lap beached before finally reversing his way out of the grass and back into the race.

All of this gave Max the lead, but with slick tyres on a wet track, he was crawling like Marco Andretti at Belle Isle that one year.

Max pit, but the Ferraris stayed out despite a spin for Leclerc, putting Lewis in the lead while Charles in second. For a brief moment...it looked like it could be a fairytale start to Hamilton's Ferrari career...but it kept raining.

The safety car came out due to a crash by Liam Lawson, but Ferrari had to pit regardless, dropping to 9th and 10th.

Up front, it was Lando Norris leading from Max Verstappen and George Russell.

I will admit, given the tricky conditions and that Lando no longer had Oscar Piastri to act as a rear gunner, I figured that Lando was screwed. Max was gonna take the lead and drive off into the sunset like he did in Brazil.

Only that's not what happened, Lando and the McLaren weathered the pressure, and in fact, on the initial laps, it seemed like Max was more defending from Russell than threatening Norris for the lead.

This didn't last though, as Max got up to pace and pressured Lando again, especially after Lando made a mistake in turn six, giving Max DRS again.

This time I thought Lando was surely going to crumble...but no.

Lando held on, he took the win, and Max had to settle for second. George Russell was third after barely getting any camera time whatsoever during the race, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli made an audacious pass on Alexander Albon on the last lap. Initially, Antonelli was penalized and dropped to fifth, but Mercedes appealed successfully, and the Italian's fourth place was reinstated.

Still, fifth place for Albon was Williams' best race in years, giving the team something to celebrate in spite of Carlos Sainz's opening lap crash in the final corner.

Lance Stroll was sixth, Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, scoring more points in one race than Sauber did in all of 2024 and being the highest Ferrari-powered car. Leclerc was eighth having drawn first blood over Hamilton in the teammate battle - not that either of them will be particularly happy with that race - while Piastri was ninth in an impressive recovery drive. Lewis Hamilton was tenth, scoring the last point in a race of increasingly unhinged radio transmissions between Ferrari's drivers and Ferrari's engineers.

A race so crazy it's ended with McLaren and Mercedes tied for the lead in the constructors' championship.

A very fun, old school chaotic Australian Grand Prix.

Onto South America for the Argentine Grand Prix.

Yes, MotoGP is still a thing this year, but with Marc Marquez dominating by winning every race while Alex Marquez has finished second in all four races - two sprints, two GPs - this year, your opinion on the season will vary based on what you think of the Marquez family.

If you're a Marquez fan, you're having the time of your life.

If you're a Marquez hater, you're gonna be miserable.

If you're a neutral, well...it ain't much of a show.

Perhaps that's harsh given that this time around, Alex Marquez was in the lead for most of the race and Marc was having to push hard to pass his little brother, but in the end Marc did, and then he ran away with the win.

Franco Morbidelli was third, getting his first podium since Jerez 2021 and the first since that massive leg injury in 2021 that reduced Morbidelli from 2020 championship contender to a bit of a joke on the 2022 and 2023 Yamahas.

So there is that.

Onto Las Vegas, with its Eifel Tower, much like France. Get it? It makes the David Bowie joke work, right? No? Well, what about Jim France? Jim France runs NASCAR, so can we use that gag? No? Well screw it, I'm gonna do it anyway - I want my blogpost to be a Dancing in the Street reference, dammit!

I won't spend too much time given this is already a long blogpost, but I'm very happy for Josh Berry. This is a driver who has clawed and struggled to get into NASCAR to begin with, then he finally got his big break at Stewart-Haas Racing just to find out that the team has gone to shit and they're gonna sell their charters at the end of the year.

Berry found a landing place at the Wood Brothers for 2025, and he's made the most of it. He's been consistently running with the other Penskes even if he doesn't have the finishes to show for it, but he's made it all worthwhile with a win in Vegas.

It was a deserving win too, because he kept finding his way into the top ten all day long, battled with reigning champion and pseudo-teammate Joey Logano for position multiple times, and in the end, he was up front when a caution with twenty to go reset the race for everybody.

Everyone took fresh tyres, with Daniel Suárez leading the bottom line while Josh Berry was on the top. Daniel had his teammate Ross Chastain behind him, so it looked like Trackhouse had this one, but Berry rallied back, passed Suárez on track, and led the last sixteen laps on his way to victory in the Pennzoil 400.

It was Wood Brothers' 101st victory and the first time they've won in consecutive seasons since 1986 and 1987.

Talk about a feel good story.

On a weekend of four races, it looked like F1 was going to be my favorite of the weekend for a long time, and it probably still is, but that's the happiest I've been at the end of a NASCAR race all season.

It feels nice to be legitimately happy at the end of a racing weekend.

[burnedxpoet]

Sam's 8 heart event playlist

Adding some meaning behind the songs/personal headcannons I chose for Sam's eight heart event in Nobody's Son, Nobody's Daughter.

Shout out to these great artists for creating beautiful music:

Bad Omens, Health, Swarm

Polaris

Emmure

Sleep Token

Chevelle

Alpha Wolf, Ice-T

I Prevail

Dance Gavin Dance

Get Scared

Architects

Mudvayne

Varials

Story of the Year

The Devil Wears Prada

Beartooth

Lantlôs

Crystal Lake

Of Mice and Men

The Word Alive

Escape the Fate

ΛΔΛΜ 

Tyler the Creator, Lola Young

Artificial Suicide

Sam wrote

political commentary

lowkey abt the governor

Hypermania

Sam wrote

abt working at Joja Mart

Pigs Ear

Sam wrote

abt insecurities

a song to get the screams out

Granite

Seb wrote

abt a weird situationship

was having an affair with a married woman

The Drain

Seb wrote lyrics

Sam wrote music

We Own the Night

Sam wrote

Sam does high notes/clean vocals

Seb does heavy vocals

The Red

Abby Wrote

abt her dad and his anger

Sucks 2 Suck

Sam wrote

song to get his anger out

Abby does the rap part

Whenever you're ready

Sam wrote

lowkey abt Penny

Come and Get it

Sam wrote

he had a one sided beef with Alex over Penny when Alex first moved to the valley

Don't You Dare Forget the Sun

Seb wrote

a song to himself

disguised as a song abt a girl

The Remedy

Seb wrote lyrics

Sam wrote music

Second & Sebring

Sam wrote

does the clean vocals

Seb does heavy vocals

The Summoning

Seb wrote

abt an older woman he used to hook up with

different from the married woman he was having an affair with

Dethrone

Seb and Sam cowrote

Jodi thinks its blasphemous

Robin thinks it's sick af

Naysayer

Abby wrote

small f u to parents

Super Silver Haze

Sam wrote lyrics

Seb wrote music

abt weed and being high lol

A Quiet Place to Die

Seb wrote lyrics

Sam wrote music

Death Blooms

Sam wrote

no particular meaning

just sounds sick af

Romance

Sam wrote music

Seb wrote lyrics

War

Sam wrote

while he was in high school

lyrics are super edgy

Pluse/Surreal

Seb wrote a poem

Sam put music around it

BOOM. song.

The Love Machine

Seb wrote

in the perspective of his dad

Sacrifice

Abby wrote lyrics

Sam wrote music

In Between

Seb wrote a couple lines but abandoned project

i.e. up on the mountain i see down below it's easy to lose yourself i know can't hear what you're shouting i'm deaf to your show

Sam picked it up and finished writing the lyrics and music

Aeon

Seb wrote

a Solarian Chronicles fan song

Animals

Sam wrote

Another You

Seb wrote lyrics

does heavy vocals

Sam wrote music

does clean vocals

Trapped

Seb wrote

Creep

Seb wrote lyrics

Sam wrote music

One For The Money

Sam wrote

Like Him

Abby, Sam, and Seb all cowrote the lyrics

Seb wrote the music

inspired by the farmer

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday to Alan McNish born in Dumfries December 29th 1969.

With a highly-successful career spanning karting to Formula One, including three victories at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans and winning the FIA WEC World Championship, Allan is one of the most respected and liked personalities in the dynamic and competitive world of motorsport.

Having started in karting and sealed six Scottish and three British titles, the young McNish progressed, under the watchful eyes of David Leslie Snr & Jnr, into single-seaters at Knockhill.

He won the 1988 Formula Vauxhall Lotus Championship and finished second in the 1989 British F3 Championship by three points.

McNish also gained F1 experience, with testing contracts for McLaren and Benetton, Toyota – including a full F1 World Championship race season in 2002 – and Renault.

But it was in sportscars where he proved to be a world-beater. Having first won at the world’s greatest endurance race with Porsche in 1998, McNish — with his tartan band round his race helmet — made his Le Mans debut with Audi in 2000.

Audi team orders had ensured it was the Audi driven by a German, Frank Biela, which won, despite McNish’s car being clearly faster over the closing stages.

It was another eight years before he stood on the top step at Le Mans with Audi, but three years later, in 2011, the Scot somehow miraculously walked away from one of the most explosive crashes ever seen at the La Sarthe circuit, as seen in the second photo.

Twelve months later, McNish was again left devastated when he and his Audi were nudged at high speed into the barrier in the closing stages when he was leading. McNish’s career has also racked up three American Le Mans Series titles, plus four wins in both the Sebring 12 Hours and Petit Le Mans races. He also finished second in the Daytona 24 Hours on three occasion. McNish, though, will always be associated with Le Mans.

Although he lives in Monaco and enjoys the almost permanently good weather to be found on the Cote d’Azur, Allan McNish is a proud Scotsman. He regularly wears the family tartan kilt or trews to official engagements.

[gasgasdaily]

Today, we're not talking about cars itself but a man of legend and myth, the "American Cobra" himself, Carroll Shelby.

Carroll Shelby was born on 11th Jan, 1923 in Leeburg, Texas. By 7, his parents realized that he had difficulty breathing and would often pass out after running whilst playing and upon sending him for checks, then did they realize that he had a valve pressure leakage near his heart which rendered him unable to do strenuous activities but for speed junkie, Shelby didn't care. When his family moved to Dallas, he would often ride his bike to the dirt track to watch races and by his teens, he was proficient enough to tinker on his father's Ford truck (pickup). He would then be enrolled into the Georgia Institute of Technology for the aeronautics department. However by 1941, everything changed.

Japan bombed Pearl Harbour in 1942 and in that instant, US was embroiled into WWII and needed people to join the war effort, fast. Shelby who always liked the trill of speed, decided to enlist in 1941 but there's a massive problem, his medical. Knowing that he would be rejected if the Army Air Force (Yes, it didn't become known as the USAF till near the end of the war in 1945) knew about his heart condition thus he faked his health reports to be enlisted as a cadet pilot. Rumour was that to bend the rule, he enlisted as a paratrooper and upon passing the tests, he then switched to being a pilot but regardless rumours or not, he did eventually pass his cadet pilot courses and officially became a second lieutenant by 1942, just in time for the war albeit with difficulty. Initially, his CO apparently managed to get his original medical report and was determined to fail him due to the health risk he impose but then he pleaded with the CO that his condition isn't as serious as stated and he can fly a plane without his medical issues impeding him nor the mission. The CO then relented and let him try the course out and if he passes, he passes but if any time in the middle he faints or causes serious issues during training, he'll be booted out of the course. Eventually, he passed. He had wanted to be a frontline pilot of either being a fighter pilot or a bomber but his CO, yet again worried for his health, intervened and instead assigned him to be a flight trainer for bombers across Texas thus throughout the war, he went across all the military airfields in Texas to train bomber squadrons and he was rather good at it and flew multiple different bombers like the B-18 Bolo, B-25 Mitchell, B-17 Flying Fortress and even the B-29 Super Fortress after being moved to Denver, Colorado right before the war ended.

Discharged after the armistice, he went on to work in various lines of jobs including being a tech for an oil rig company somewhere in 1946 till he saved enough money and with his military pension, opened a poultry farm in 1950 but the farm failed and would cause him to declare bankruptcy in 1953. Despite being bankrupt, he would continue chasing his passion, racing and from 1951-1953, he would race in multiple events and won quite a few till he eventually caught the eye on an European that would bridge his horizon into the top league and that's Aston Martin's team principal for their motorsport division, John Wyer.

Shelby was racing in Argentina in 1954 for the SCCA where he met Wyer who then asked him to join the team to race for them at the 12hrs of Sebring which, Shelby quickly agreed. However, Shelby's car snapped an axle thus rendering him out of the race but his pace was electrifying. This gave him even more favours with the team and Wyer himself who would ask Shelby to retain in the team and race for them even more. Shelby would then race for the Aston Martin team with their DBR3 at Monza and Silverstone which received great results. After that, Shelby would jump around teams and race for them as long as they paid him which, he did good enough but he met with a serious accident in 1957 during his race at Riverside International Raceway which left him out of action for 2 months after severely destroying his nose which required plastic surgery and also 72 stitches across his cheeks. This didn't stop him as once he recovered, he went back to racing immediately. He would race for multiple teams still but would still race mainly for Aston Martin of they called and his luck shined in 1959. Wyer called him up to race in that year's Le Mans with the new DBR1 and the team, with Shelby's help, won the race. That would be Shelby's racing glory but also his bane and "alarm clock".

During that race, Shelby had actually nearly blacked out due to his health issues but he forced himself to be awake and persevere thru the pain and took the win. However, he knew his time was nearly up and went for a check to find out that his heart was totally strained to the maximum and if he was to race that strenuously again, he would die from a cardiac arrest. Undeterred, he continued but each time, the bout of attacks from his heart was getting longer and stronger thus by 1960, he caved and hung his racing boots but, he wasn't done STILL.

After hanging up his racing boot, he would open an advanced driving school just beside Riverside International Raceway with the racing legends of the time, Pete Brock whilst also opening a tuner shop in LA called "Shelby American". His trip racing across Europe had also taught him that the US itself had a severe lack of sports cars and in his eyes, muscle cars were not "sports cars" thus he decided to merge them two together to produce his own ideal of an "American sports car" but no one in America had the know-how except the Europeans so he went to England and eventually, he set eyes on a company, AC Cars. AC Cars were a part of the Bristol Aeroplane Company and they've stopped building car engines thus Shelby found the AC Ace to be a great doner chassis . After acquiring the rights to import the chassis into the US, he then went to Ford and brokered a deal to get them to supply him with their V8s and transmission. Combined, it became the AC Cobra and a total of 100 units were built and sold by 1963.

Shelby's team would take the AC Cobras to various racing events across America and despite it doing well, Shelby also realized that the roadster platform of the AC Cobra was not suitable for high speed tracks thus he decided that to beat the likes of Ferrari and Porsches who by now were all using enclosed coupe-style designs for their racecars, he needed to follow suit and he did with the Daytona Coupe. Car debuted in 1964 where it performed extremely well that it even won Le Mans for its class and even won the overall manufacturers International GT championship.

With his name now solidified in the tuning, production, tuning and racing world, their old pal, Ford, came knocking. Ford had in early 1963 tried to buy the failing Ferrari business but after Henry Ford II (aka "The Deuce") was ridiculed by Enzo Ferrari bad, he ordered the Ford engineers to make a car with no budgets set just to beat Ferrari but Ford, who hasn't been officially racing with a factory team in the US for a long time, needed an outside source for help and having ties to Ford, Shelby became one of the top choices to work with and Lee Ioccoca became the bridging gap between the two companies which would become the GT40 project.

Ford would buy the Lola chassis to work with as they simply did not have the time to create a new one and with Shelby's know-how to endurance racing and race car tuning, they were supposed to be ready to race and perform well in 1964. However, the car performed horribly with the Mk.1 as whatever Shelby and his test driver and friend he met during Shelby's days racing in the SCCA fold, Ken Miles, had proposed was vetoed by the Ford execs. This caused the car to be extremely unreliable and the same car, despite upgrades, was still shit in the 1965 season. So for 1966, "The Deuce" gave Shelby free reign to do what he wants to ensure a clear victory against Ferrari and Shelby got to work with the Mk.II, this time without bureaucracy bullshit and, it worked. He widened the rear abit to fit in the bigger 427ci (7L) V8 and with the widening of the rears, it also allowed a slightly larger tire to give it better stability and it shows as the car performed well across the entire season winning in Sebring, Daytona and eventually, the race "The Deuce" wanna beat Ferrari at, Le Mans by clocking 1-2-3, an all-kill. By 1966, Ford had decided to design and build the upgrade of the shell for the new Ford GT40 themselves and they made it with a honeycomb structure and named it the Mk.IV. Shelby would then work on the engineering and mechanical side of things like he always does but upon testing, the car crashed which took Ken Miles with it and killed him instantly. Shelby would then quit making race cars outright after reworking the Mk.IV to perform.

In the meantime of helping Ford in building race cars, his early performance also gifted him the chance to tinker with Ford road-going product and just nice that in 1965, Ford launched the Mustang and he straight got to work. He managed to make the GT350 then the GT500 afterwards where these cars would be lethal weapons on the roads and streets. The GT350 would even be famous to have been bought in bulks by Hertz Rental for weekend drivers who wanted to have fun and can rent it from them.

However, after years of working with Ford, the situation soured by the late 70s and thus after a dispute falling out, Shelby stopped working with Ford products. Meanwhile, the one that got Shelby involved with the GT40 project in the first place, Lee Ioccoca had also left Ford and became the chief of Chrysler. Chrysler was in a very bad shape back then and needing to bring in new blood to revitalize the brand after the fuel crisis of the 70s Ioccoca immediately got Shelby to work with him after learning that he had abandoned Ford. Thus, Shelby across the 80s went on to work on Dodge & Chrysler stuff with special and mystical models like the Omni GLH and the GLH-S ("Goes like Hell"/"Goes Like Hell Somemore"). He would later on also be one of the advisors for the Dodge Viper R/T during its development.

After the launch of the Viper and the step down of Lee Ioccoca, Shelby left the partnership with Chrysler also and continued doing stuff on his own with his own company and even made a purpose built machine with its own chassis and body panels all designed in-house mated to an Oldsmobile 4L V8 making 350hp and the whole car was called the "Shelby Series 1", Shelby American's first self-built car. Due to the high costs, Shelby had to sell stakes in his company to bring in funds to complete the dream thus he sold parts of his company to a firm called Venture Corporation who bought the rights to not just Shelby American itself but also the rights to produce the Series 1. However, the company went bust in 2004 and prior to that, a total of 249 were built of from the proposed 500 models. Because he had lost his company too in the process of the sale and bankruptcy of the company that bought his up, he had to recreate another company, Shelby Automobiles Inc. to continue in doing his works.

Right after he set up his new company, Ford came knocking on his doors again for a collab which he readily agreed by designing a new retro-restyled Cobra concept with modern parts which was the rage in the 2000s. He would eventually stuck with working on Fords that by 2005, he was back in tuning the Mustangs that another GT500 was made, a gap of 34 years since the partnership fizzled out in 1971.

Shelby and his new firm would continue working on Fords since 2006 till the time of his death in 2012 aged 89. Despite that, Shelby's name still carries "performance" till this date and he himself made multiple legendary cars fit to be called "holy grails" of American automobiles.

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ANP

Always There, Women in Motorsport: Liane Engeman

Liane Engeman, and how close the Netherlands came to their first Female Formula 1 driver

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As we approach this year's running of the 12 Hours of Sebring. – A race that has been around for almost 75 years, with the 12 hours first run in 1952. The race has been held each year since, with a single exception; in 1974 it was cancelled due to the energy crisis – I'm putting the spotlight on one of many drivers to have competed in the race, Liane Engeman.

Engeman, a Dutch driver born on March 24th 1944, competed in the 12H of Sebring three times with the Ring Free Ladies’ "Motor Maids" team. All during the latter half of the 1960s together with Janet Guthrie. In 1969 Donna Mae Mims joined the female duo. 

Donna Mae Mims, Janet Guthrie, and Liane Engeman, Sebring, 1969. Getty/Bettmann Archive

Their adventures at the 12H of Sebring saw a highlight in 1967 when they finished 23rd overall and won their class. In 1969 they would once again finish 23rd and sixth in their class.

In 1968 they encountered troubles and had to retire. But they were also blamed for a crash by driver Paul Hawkins – famous for being only one of two drivers to crash into the Monaco Harbor. 

He blamed Engeman for a crash and went on a sexist tirade, saying women did not belong anywhere near a race track. In said crash however, their car wasn't even involved. Hawkins made contact with a completely different car. It became a huge controversy, leading to a Swiss Porsche team defending Engeman – with proof in pictures – showing she never was at the scene of the accident.  

Liane Engeman started in cars from a young age. At just 15, she worked for her father's taxi service driving a frequent customer in one of the company cars. She found her way into motorsports at age 16, when she met Dutch racer Rob Slotemaker at a bus stop. He offered her a ride to Zandvoort and eventually enrolled her into his driving school.

Engeman and Rob Slotemaker during the Dutch Championship finals at Zandvoort (6 October 1974) Wikimedia/Bert Verhoeff

She borrowed cars left and right, taking to the track whenever she could. And in 1965 she would win her first race in Formula Vee. Eventually she was encouraged to move to London and worked as a housemaid for a family. Every week she would borrow a Cooper to race on tracks around the UK. She would eventually meet someone at one of these tracks that owned a Cooper, when he found out she was four seconds a lap quicker than him in the car, he allowed her to compete in it. During that time she held the lap record at Thruxton for a solid 6 months, it was then beaten by Emerson Fittipaldi.

Later on she would become an assistant to the manager at Alan Mann Racing (a Ford works team), she managed hotel stays, recorded lap times and alerted when cars had to come in for fuel, but she didn’t do what she really wanted; race. She did her job well however, and was even offered a job at Ferrari, but ultimately had to decline as she suffered from a spinal inflammation at the time.

She took a job at a traveling agency to continue financing her career. And continued to compete all over Europe in several championships. Both in open-wheel and touring cars. In 1969 she had a major crash in Brazil where her steering wheel stopped working, causing her to drive into the marsh. She only narrowly managed to crawl out of the wreckage, before she drowned. 

Liane Engeman at Circuit Zandvoort during the Formula 3 race on 7 April 1969

In that same year she competed in the 24 Hours of Spa, taking 13th place overall with teammate Bob Wollek and winning their class. The following year she would also compete at the 24H of Spa, together with Belgian driver Christine Beckers. Mid-race however, Beckers was given the news that her boyfriend had died in a crash during that same race. They continued in the race, but ultimately retired with engine issues. 

Throughout her relatively short career she showed flashes of brilliance several times. Taking podiums and class wins throughout the years. Some say, several disagreements with teams causing walkouts could’ve prevented her from making big strides in her professional career. 

She did however come close to a Formula 1 contract around 1972, she was in talks with Lotus and BRM for a Formula 1 seat but had to decline as she found herself pregnant with twins. She quit racing and would return just once a few years later, but ultimately stepped away completely. 

To finance her career, she played in several commercials, one alongside Beth Morris, and she was a stand-in for Ursula Andress in the James Bond-film Casino Royal. 

Liane Engeman and Frans Lubin (her old teammate) in 2017 during recordings of the Dutch show “Andere Tijden Sport”

This weekend 5 female drivers compete at the 12H of Sebring among those one all-female team as the Iron Dames will compete with their #83 in the GTD class with Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting & Rahel Frey. Lilou Wadoux will be in the #21 and Sheena Monk will be driving the #021, both also in the GTD Class.

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