Real Time View

  There is always a car or two on the exhibition floor This past weekend we had the opportunity to combine just a little business with a weekend at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. If up until now you hadn’t come to the realization that Margo and I are both into cars then let me break the news gently, we had an opportunity to attend the three day carnival of speed (and noise) as a highlight of the quarter, but as Margo and I walked around the venue   we realized that we were indeed simply enjoying another event where similarities to past NonStop events couldn’t be ignored. Take for example the use the event made of the convention center. Packed into this venue were aisles littered with exhibits. Almost all the teams involved in racing that weekend had stalls attended by the marketing types you typically come across at any other event you care to name. Outside of the convention center there were many other stalls selling trinkets together with numerous food and drink pavil...

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 “...