Sunday, October 24, 2010

Mr Eugenides' Michael Fish moment

I shouldn't really take the mickey out of a fellow blogger, but seeing as I'm out of bed at this inappropriate hour on a Sunday morning for no good reason, and I'm grumpy about it, I shall.

Remember when Michael Fish told the world there wasn't going to be a hurricane in 1987 and later that night we had the worst storm for decades?

Well a few weeks ago, I wrote about Karun Chandhok's inaugural trip round the Korean Grand Prix circuit in an old Red Bull.

I speculated at the time that a wet race might be exciting.

Mr E, who lives out there, albeit a long drive from the circuit, gave me some very useful inside knowledge:
For what it's worth, I suspect (famous last words) that the race will be dry. The rain in Korea is a monsoon seasonal rain; it starts in July and comes down in fits and starts until mid-September. Late October should be dry.
He did actually say famous last words, so I have to give him that. Well, it's now race day, and it's raining cats and dogs. This on its own might not be a dealbreaker, but because the track's so new, and the tarmac's just been laid, the cars haven't been able to lay down any rubber so there's just no grip. Even wet weather genius Michael Schumacher said it was too dangerous to race and Alonso told his team that this was the worst race he had ever driven in.

We've been sitting for the last hour listening to the unsufferable Jonathan Legard utter banalities.

The race is about to have its second start behind the safety car. I feel a bit nervous because there's so many walls on this track. I don't really like it that much and the pit lane entry is lethal.

Let's hope all passes without incident and that Mark Webber takes one more step towards the world championship.

Looks like Mr E has borrowed Jeff Breslin, from Better Nation's notoriously wonky crystal ball. Not that I have ever made any dodgy predictions, of course.................

2 comments:

Mr Eugenides said...

Haha, yes, don't ask me for weather advice in the future!

This is quite remarkable, because I switched on the telly, saw the rain pouring down at the circuit, and immediately remembered what I had written on your blog... so over I come to switch on the laptop and what do I see on my RSS feed?

For what it's worth, it's dry as a bone in Seoul...

Unknown said...

Thank you for taking my early morning grumpiness with such good grace. I'm very impressed with the quick response. I'd barely pressed publish. It's like we're having a chat:-)

The way they're explaining it is that if the track hadn't been so shiny and new, they might have been able to start the race normally, but even with the safety car out there it's looks like an ice rink.

I can't see how the track is going to properly dry out even if the rain stops.

The walls around this place make me very, very nervous.

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