Categories
Drivers

RWA

By now most people have heard the term DWA or Driving While Asian.  If not, look it up in the Urban Dictionary and take it for a spin on Youtube.  Chances are you have been a victim of a DWA.  While it can be construed as being a racist claim, I tend to look at life through a humorous lens and find it rather amusing.  Living in San Francisco, being able to quickly identify a DWA in progress can be a matter of life or death.  It’s amazing how the human evolves and develops an acute awareness of potential threats in their environment. Like the prehistoric man who had the ability to tap into all five senses to learn of the presence of a predator, the modern city dweller can spot a DWA upwind at 200 hundred yards while texting and watching an episode of Breaking Bad at a bus stop.

A .2 second example of the brain at work processing a DWA:

  • Car three blocks away going 18mph and straddling two lanes, just ran a red light

  • Driver behind the wheel: short, dark hair in bangs, over-sized glasses, Asian features, torso too close to wheel, no spatial awareness

  • Conclusion- RUN for Cover!

Sure it’s fun to laugh and celebrate all things DWA, but RWA or Racing While Asian, now we are delving into another matter altogether.  In fact, is there a more noble pursuit than RWA?  Particularly the brave men who risk life and limb to race under the Flag of the Rising Sun.  In my humble opinion, a Japanese F1 driver is to be cherished and held in the highest buzzardly regard.  

For years I’ve been waiting for a Japanese driver to arrive on the scene and take F1 by storm.  Some sort of mythical character with rock star sensibilities and a nasty cigarette habit plucked out of the drift car wars of the Tokyo underworld and hand delivered by Honda to the McLaren young driver program.  So far, I’ve had to be content with just a few podiums spread out of the years.

It’s a head scratcher as to why this hasn’t happened yet.  Japan is a car crazy nation with a passionate F1 fan base.  Honda, and to a lesser degree Toyota and Yamaha, have played a major role in the sport the last 30 years. They have a multitude of sophisticated national racing series with big horsepower and high downforce.  When their economy is healthy, drivers are able to find sponsorship money.  But still no Akira Senna.

One would probably need a PhD in Sociology to unlock this answer, so in the name of time and money, I will grant myself an honorary degree from Texas Southern University and volunteer three of my own theories:

Theory 1:  Japan, like the USA, doesn’t have the level of karting that is prevalent in Europe and Brazil.  The average 14 year old kart kid running the CIK-FIA series all over the European continent is essentially a professional driver.  Making F1 by 20 is just the natural progression for those with skills or huge bucks.  By the time the Japanese driver hits the scene in his late teens, he’s already too far behind the development curve catch up.

Theory 2:  Even if a Japanese driver has all the natural abilities in the world, the cultural polite factor and the language barrier between driver and engineers is just too big of an obstacle to overcome.  I just haven’t seen a Japanese driver with the me first mentality of say, a Nigel Mansell, be the dominant personality within the team and dictate to the engineers exactly what he needs the car to do in order to get results.  Look at all the greats and you will see an enormous personality orchestrating the entire operation like Leonard Bernstein presiding over the New York Philharmonic.    

Theory 3:   I have a friend who lived half her life in Japan explain that in school Japanese kids are taught to strictly memorize and recite.  Improvising and thinking outside the box are not encouraged.  When applied to this conversation, there could be something there.  After all, isn’t  driving an F1 car on the limit with constantly changing conditions best suited for an improvisational artist ala Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost or Michael Schumacher?  In watching the Olympics from Sochi, I see Japanese athletes winning medals in figure skating and ski jumping, sports that require extreme repetition.  But where are the Alpine skiers, a feat that is all improvising on the ragged edge?*

*Authors internal debate: Ahh maybe there are no Japanese winning downhill skiers because they don’t have great skiing mountains??

Even if a single F1 driving championship never materializes, Japan’s place in the history books is secure.  From the Godfather Satoru Nakajima, to Aguri Suzuki to the current ace Kamui Kobayashi, here are my 5 favorite Japanese F1 Drivers or カーレーサー:

 

5.  Toranosuke “Tiger” Takagi:  Tora burst on to the international scene in 1998 as a driver for legendary team owner Ken Tyrrell with enough hype to whip me into a frenzy.  He had The Godfather, Satoru Nakajima, proclaiming him as the best yet to come from Japan.  He had a mullet.  His name was just plain old fun to say.  I was Tigersold.  I’m still sold.  When I first laid eyes on Tora Tiger Takagi at the 1998 Canadian GP, I was instantly a fan.  His Friday morning hairpin exits reminded me of a 1980’s high school kid in a ‘69 Camaro leaving the AM-PM after receiving word of a keg being tapped just two miles away.  He was all right foot and blackies through 3-4 gears.  In two seasons in subpar equipment, Triple T never managed to score a world championship point, but you always had the sense that he was giving the car a proper thrashing. After returning home to capture the 2000 Formula Nippon title, Tora raced Stateside for two seasons in a deep CART field, managing a couple of 4th place finishes and a Rookie of the Year at Indy.

4.  Hideki Noda:  Noda first caught my attention when I read in Autosport that he had won a round of the British F3 series, becoming the first Japanese to do so.  (Funny to think that the only way to get motorsports news just a few years back was to wait for magazines to arrive in the mail)  What really sold me on Noda wasn’t the fact that he drove in 3 GP’s for Larrousse to close out the ‘94 season, it was a quote in Autosport from his race engineer proclaiming him the hardest braker in F1 history.  Supposedly his telemetry showed him pulling over 4g’s in the heavy braking zones.  Whether that claim has any validity or not, it was all the ammo I needed to be a fanhideki_noda for life.  And to add the icing on the cake, I was fortunate enough to witness Noda score a brilliant Indy Lights win in the wet at Portland in ‘97 over the likes of Castro Neves, Kaanan and Da Matta.  In honor of the feat, a friend even managed to invent “The Noda Dance” that left a few Pacific Northwestern open wheel fans scratching their heads in the grandstand that day.

3.  Kamui Kobayashi:  I’ll admit, I was slow to warm up to Kobe.  Watching him languish as a backmarker for two seasons in GP2, I wasn’t very excited when Toyota promoted him to replace the injured Timo Glock for the 2009 Brazilian GP.  But by the end of the race he had won me over after a spirited battle with the ‘09 champ, Jenson Button.  Button was driving to secure the title and Kobe couldn’t care less.  He fought Button for every inch Kobeof track like he was trying to take the crown for himself and had Button yelling into the radio that Kobe was “mad” and “crazy”.  As a fan, I always want my drivers to be first and foremost, mad and crazy!  From that day on Kobe has not relented.  He is a master at finding a way by under braking.  Hamilton and Alonso often get credited as being pass masters and rightly so, but Kobe is the best in the business.  

2.  Takuma Sato:  Sato had my buzzard antennas on full alert when he won the British F3 title, Macau GP and Zandvoort Masters in 2001.  I remember his engineers at Carlin Motorsports claiming that they had never worked with a driver who was better through the high speed stuff than Sato-san. In his first season in F1, he scored a glorious 5th place finish in his home GP in a poor Jordan chassis that essentially saved the sato03beloved team from having to close their doors.  I like to give myself credit for being somewhat of a good luck charm, or lucky buzzard, for Sato.  I was at Indy in 2004 when he scored a podium for BAR-Honda.  I was at Montreal in 2007 when he scored a remarkable 6th place for Super Aguri, highlighted with an outside pass of Alonso with just a few laps left!  And just this past year, I got to witness Sato win the Long Beach GP with an inch perfect drive.  
1.  Ukyo Katayama:  I fell hard for Katayama in ‘94.  A year when my unrelenting thirst for buzzardry may have equaled or surpassed my interest in women.  A year when on track tragedy left us vulnerable and looking for something to latch on to.  Ukyo, with his helmet bouncing around like a bobblehead in the cockpit, became my salvation.  His speed in the Tyrrell- Yamaha was a thing of beauty and he was regularly UKYOgetting the better of his highly regarded teammate, Mark Blundell.  I was in the Hockenheim stadium marveling at his commitment as he qualified 5th, sandwiched between Schumacher and Coulthard in the mighty Williams.  His style always looked ragged, like a rodeo rider hanging on to a wild bronco.  I recall Schumacher being astounded how Katayama could go into a fast corner, turn it into a 3-4 apex mess, and still come out flying on the exit.  He is a one of a kind and worthy of a place in the buzzard hall of fame.

Categories
Other Sports

NBA Halftime Report

The NBA regular season is already halfway through and I’m feeling the need to type my way into your life.  I think it may have something to do with the sad truth that my go to hoop conversationalist, Joe Kavanaugh, has gone AWOL since The Great Alaskan Shootout!  I mean, we were basically The Starters before the current Starters came to be.  (note: you have to watch a lot of NBA TV to get that reference).  Now I’m reduced to internal debates over things like will Andrew Wiggins be better than Ben McLemore in his rookie season?

You laugh but let’s look at the numbers at KU:

McLemore: 6’5”, 195lbs – 15.9pts, 5.2rb, 2ast and 49.5% from the floor

Wiggy: 6’8”, 200lbs – 16.5pts. 6.1rb, 1.5ast and 46.2% from the floor

Advantage Wiggy, but Joe would have an answer and it would usually be backed by quotes from Rivals.com and detailed stats from play in a Maxpreps holiday tourney during Wiggins junior year when his team went up against a team led by McLemore.  Of course for the sake of argument, I would have to disagree.

So, to get into the official opinionated, know-it-all blog mode, I’m stripping down to my tighty whities and grabbing a bowl of Honey-Nut O’s.  For future posts I need to get my hands on an old school sports writers visor and start smoking while I write this mumbo jumbo.  The more I can distance myself from any semblance of athleticism, the better the blog.

Okay let’s tip this shit off:

Warriors – Grade B-.  They are just about where they were last year in terms of record, but with the heightened expectations coming into the season, the team is dragging a bit.  The Western conference is brutal and the W’s are currently in the 7 spot with teams like Memphis 2.5 games behind and quickly rounding into shape.  Bottom line, the playoffs are not a lock.

Curry’s wizardry on the offensive end is approaching Steve Nash in his prime, but he leads the league in turnovers.  Thompson is an amazing streak shooter and is second only to Curry in 3pt FG’s made this season, but he still hasn’t really developed much of a game off the dribble and is very limited in his ability to create for others..  The Black Falcon started the year hurt and hasn’t really progressed in his soph year.  A.I. is the glue man but his offense has vanished the past few weeks.  The bench is weak.  They rely too much on jacking the ball rather than working inside out.  How about Bogut and Lee getting the ball on the block to initiate the offense?  What would Hubie Brown do?

The landscape throughout the rest of the league is basically what you would expect with two major exceptions.  In Rip City, the Blazers are on fire.  How did this team just materialize out of nowhere?  Aldridge was a disgruntled big looking for a way out of town last year but this core of Lillard, Matthews, Lopez and Batum have made him into an MVP candidate.  GM Neil Olshey deserves a medal for assembling this crew.  This is Sam Presti like.  I love it and firmly believe that Lillard’s supreme confidence will carry over into the playoffs and make these guys a contender.  Grade A+

The other ball boggler is the play of Phoenix!  They should be down there with Utah and the Lakers (Love to say that!!) but instead find themselves currently in the 6 spot in the West.  Huh?.  Jeff Hornacek is the Bulseyeview coach of the year.  And keep in mind, the Suns lost their best player in Eric Bledsoe and have continued their winning ways.  Really?  The Morris twins and Miles Plumlee down low??  Channing Frye jacking?  Goran Dragic and Gerald “reject” Green handling the guard duties?  It makes the old saying “This is why they play the games” seem that much more relevant.  Grade A+

The Indy Pacers get an A+.  You now have to say “Well there is Lebron and KD and hmmm…Paul George!”  He’s that good.  Amazing to think that a guy who was lightly recruited out of HS and slipped to #10 in the draft could blossom into an elite ball player.  (Great Wiki stat:  Paul George originally committed to play at Santa Clara!).  The rest of the Pacers are built to win ugly in the playoffs.  Lance Stephenson is becoming a star and if Granger gets his rhythm, it will be curtains for LeBron.

The OKC’s get an A+.  Kevin Durant, the solo artist, has raised his game to a new realm bordering on the absurd while Westbrook is down with knee troubles.  He’s a 25 year old cold blooded assassin on the hardwood.  And Sam Presti has unearthed more gems in Reggie Jackson and Steven Adams to go along with the steady grinders Ibaka, Snafalufagus, Perk and Collison.  If Lamb keeps improving and Westbrook gets back into the flow, I think we are looking at Indy/OKC.

Other Random Thoughts:

Reading a page full of box scores over coffee in the morning is the perfect way to greet the new day and my new immediate go to box score is that of the T-Wolves and Kevin Love.  Love is a stat sheet stuffer supreme!  25 pts and 12.9 rbs per game is just nuts.  Plus I’m always intrigued with Nikola Pekovic (18 and 9) and Rubio (8.2 assists and 2.6 steals to lead the league).  Of course, my favorite active box score filler is Rondo.  I’ve always had a soft spot for the triple double guys like  Magic, J. Kidd and Rondo.  Seeing 11 pts, 13 rebounds and 17 assists can somehow make a day seem bright!  Michael Carter-Williams….I’m counting on you to continue this style of play.

Speaking of shocking box scores, How did Quinton Ross go for 51 against the Clippers last week??  This is a promising young man averaging just 6 something per game.  Stat geeks could write papers on a deviation like that.   In fact, he was the first player in the history of the NBA to score 50+ while averaging under 10pts/gm.  

Are the Heat and Spurs just sandbagging and conserving all of their energy to make another run in June?  Will Tony, Timmy and Manu snuff the life out of poor KD come May?  Will the Heat make that one extra play again to put them over the top in game 7?  It should be a classic.

If you had to draft between Lillard, Irving and John Wall, who would you pick?  I’m going Lillard.  He has that Oakland swagger that Kidd and Payton had and he seems to be all business.  Just win baby.  I wonder if he prefers Too Short to E40 or if he’s more of a Toni Toni Tone guy?

Is Anthony “Brow” Davis three years away from being the best player in the league?  KD may have something to say about that but his ascension to the top of the heap will not be denied.  His blend of height, quicks, timing and soft hands are genetic wonders and when he grows into those Michael Cage like shoulders of his and develops the physicality to own his space anywhere on the floor, it will be curtains for the rest of the PF’s in the league.

David Stern is officially retired as commissioner but his final draft call of, “With the number 1 pick in the 2013 NBA draft, The Cleveland Cavaliers select Anthony Bennett from UNLV” may live in infamy as the biggest bust of his entire 30 year tenure of greeting young superstars at the podium.  Nobody in this draft was a sure fire star but Bennett seems like a lost cause already.  When I heard that he suffers from Asthma and Sleep Apnea and arrived to camp 30lbs overweight, my bust meter went to 10.  

Under the Radar:  After a tumultuous rookie year that involved limited playing time, a stint in the D-League and some off court run-ins with the law, Terrence Jones is developing into a nice player in Houston. The former Kentucky Wildcat has season averages of 11 and 7, but his numbers have spiked in January (17 and 8) while Chandler Parsons was out with injury.  Keep an eye on the #18 pick in the 2012 draft as the Rockets make a move to lock up a home playoff seed.

IR Report:  Sad to see Rose, Kobe and Westbrook go down in just a few games after lengthy rehab stints.  Their shoes are irreplaceable.  And a shout out to Gallinari and Tiny Nate, both missing in action to the Nuggets for the rest of the season due to ACL’s.

  Pick the winning team: All players in their prime.  They get three weeks of practice and then play a best of 7.

Team 1: Magic, Kareem, Larry, McHale and Jordan.  Bench: Dr J, Andrew Tony, Barkley, Isaiah, Parish  Coach: Chuck Daly

vs

Team 2: Tony Parker, Duncan, LeBron, Durant and Kobe  Bench: Wade, Westbrook, Howard, Dirk, Curry   Coach: Pop

College Update to come soon!