Real Time View

[Courtesy of NTT Indy Cars] Every so often there are events that as they play out can influence outcomes apart from what is actually taking place. For Margo and me there were times when we enjoyed the occasional track day that gave us an opportunity to take our cars onto real race tracks to simply have fun driving fast in a safe environment. Everyone heads in the same direction, right? What could possibly go wrong? However, these days we no longer enjoy that pleasurable pastime, but rather have been relegated to spectators. Following any sporting team, or, for that matter individuals provides insights into what is achieved. There is a definite correlation between the learning phase and just how well a performance plays out. Certainly, in some sports, there is many inputs that can influence outcomes, but ultimately it comes down to individuals, particularly those in a leadership role, just “do your job,” as NFL coach Bill Belichick believes is what wins games for the New England Pat...

This past weekend I seated myself close to the television through much of The Rolex24 at Daytona. Much like other races that span 24 hours, for as long as I can recall it was considered an endurance race, much the same as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and yet with the improved reliability of the participating vehicles, Daytona is now very much a 24 hour sprint race. Mixing prototypes with vehicles you could drive off the showroom floor sort of, these long races make for entertaining viewing. While we have a connection with one of the racers involved, the Indy Car phenom Colton Herta, the grandson of our good friends, the Kennys, who just happened to add yet another Rolex to his collection of Rolex Daytona watches after winning the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class and placed fifth overall (car pictured above), all the same I was surprised at how quickly those 24 hours passed. I remember conversations with my father after listening to Le Mans the time disk brakes first appeared (on a Jaguar...

With the Indy 500 looming, leave it to legend Mario Andretti to talk about an up and comer we can relate to in the NonStop marketplace … It seems only fitting that at this time of year we include a reference to the upcoming Indy 500 race. Marketed as the greatest racing spectacle on earth, that despite contrary arguments from my colleagues in Europe, has challenged even the best of Formula One drivers through the ages. It looks so simple but even as someone who has pulled on a helmet, strapped himself into a “race-able car,” driven at 140 mph onto the banking of the Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, CA), I cannot comprehend what it would take to enter turn one of the Indianapolis Speedway at 240 mph as was the case this past weekend during qualifying. Every country has its racing heroes and there is none bigger in America than Mario Andretti. It was almost two years ago that I had the opportunity to sit in the “second seat” behind Mario in a Honda-powered Indy car for an inaugural two-lap “...

The timelessness of NonStop on display as Intel's x86 is embraced - yes, the plan to support of x86 architectures as part of the NonStop product family has been unveiled at this year's NonStop Advanced Technical Boot Camp. While I was visiting Australia, I was kept informed of a young up-and-coming racecar driver. While only in his early teens, he was featured on American television as one of three youngsters worth watching as likely future stars. Colton Herta, the son of Indy Racing League (IRL) team co-owner, Bryan Herta, this year raced in two programs for open wheel racecars (smaller versions of F1 cars). In doing so, he managed to win the major series (in an F1600) while narrowly missing out, as we heard while travelling, on winning the second series (Skip Barber formula) by a margin of two points even though conflicts with the F1600 series meant he missed many Skip Barber events. For 13 year old Colton, campaigning against much older participants with years more ...