Todays Grand Prix of Brazil marked the end of the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship, and on the 2nd to the last corner, fate crowned Lewis Hamilton World Champion.

It was an exciting race. Unlike last year, Lewis was much more controlled and calm… he wasn’t fighting battles he didn’t need to fight, which cost him the crown last year. However, very much like last year, late in the race he just fell apart and acted like he forgot how to drive… it was sad. Post race interviews reveal that he was just trying to play it safe and didn’t realize that when he gave up position to Sebastian Vettel he was in fact giving up the World Championship. He got oh so lucky that Timo Glock lost out big in the 2nd to last corner allowing Lewis an easy pass and the Championship.

Conspiracy theorists will suggest that Glock actually let Lewis by… but I tend to doubt it. He was on dry tires, struggling on the last lap, and that corner becomes a small river in the wet. Furthermore, there is no incentive to letting Lewis win, Toyota could have used the extra point. Lastly, given the level of concentration in the closing laps, I highly doubt he was aware of the championship situation. Post-race interviews showed that when Vettel passed Lewis he had no idea that he was potentially deciding the World Championship… in fact, his tone was such that I think he regretted the pass. Therefore, the only way this thing goes down as a plot was if there was a radio transmission to Glock in the 2nd half of the last lap with information or an order. If there was information, and he wanted to give up the position, its his to give… if there were orders, you can believe Ferrari will sniff it out and we’ll hear about it. But I seriously doubt it, as I said, Toyota had nothing to gain either way.

While I’m a Ferrari fan (more to the point, a Räikkönen fan), I’m glad Lewis won. Frankly, I just don’t like Massa. And more importantly, I think Lewis winning the title is just plain good for the sport.

While a side note, I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking that if Obama win’s the Presidency, 2008 will go down as a year where two prominent positions always assumed to belong to white males have gone to black men.

And, on top of all that, a British driver with a British constructor won… go Britannia!!

I know many of you who read this blog dislike my posting about Formula 1 from time-to-time, but this one is worth a look.

The Belgian Grand Prix on the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit is perhaps one of the most challenging of the season, and certainly my favorite of all F1 tracks (although, I still have a soft spot for the A1 Ring). Spa challenges drivers unlike any other track during the year and is always exciting, but this year stood out in a remarkable way. Kimi Räikkönen (my main man) absolutely dominated the race until rain in the closing laps changed everything and this resulted….

When this happened at the end of the race I screamed and threw things like you wouldn’t believe. Totally robbed.

To make matters more interesting, Lewis Hamilton was handed a 25-second time penalty by the FIA… apparently though Lewis gave back the lead after cutting the chicane it was still regarded us unfair advantage. Whats truly sad is that we’ll debate for years if things may have turned out differently if the stewards had handed down that decision within minutes (like, 2) of the incident.

I made it out to Sunday Night Heats at LeMans Karting tonight; ’twas a good finish to a great weekend of racing. I fared well, finished 4th in the final and had a best lap of 19.3s (18′s are great drivers, 19′s are good drivers, 20′s are “learn your line!” times, and everything above that is for back markers) which is great because you figure every extra 10lbs add a tenth of a second to your time, and I’m about 30lbs over the weight I think I should be right now, so if I can get into shape in this next year I’ll be back in first or second where I want to be.

I’m hoping that in the next year I can really get things together, better sorted out, and find some time to do more driving and penitentially move from indoor karting to outdoor sprint karts. Nova will be ready to start driving karts in a year or two (Tam won’t let the kids drive till their 5) so I’ll have to be in good form.

For all you folks that give me grief about daring to put anything non-technical in my personal blog, fear not, I’ll pledge to make several technical posts in the next couple days to which no one will post comments.

Here’s a great pic of Nova at the American Le Mans race at Leguna Seca:

It’s been a long time coming! Tamarah and I have been big time Kimi fans for years and after unbearably bad luck season after season its great to see the Iceman take that title! Alanso’s behavior this season has been horrible, and I’m glad to see him de-throned. For Lewis… it was his to loose, and he did. But frankly, the man of the hour is Felipe Massa, with that brilliant blocking move at the start and gracefully following orders to be a real and true team player, in a really horrible position, having to give up winning your home Grand Prix, for a Brazillian no less, in order to give the drivers championship to your team. Hands down my excitements is first and foremost for the character and integrity shown by Filipe, truly an honorable, skilled, and world class driver of the best kind.

For Ferrari (I type as I wear my Ferrari crew shirt) this weekend is all the more sweet as Mika Salo and team take the GT2 class title in American Le Mans with the amazing Ferrari 430GT.. and its all the more sweet because Tamarah, my father, the kids, and myself were on hand to watch an amazing performance by the #62 which we cheered on the whole race. Amazing to watch and the result we were pushing for.

Go Ferrari!!!

The final race of the 2007 season is this weekend and its not something you want to miss! The top 3 drivers are all within 10 points of each other and mathematically any of them can clinch the title. Lewis Hamilton leads with 107 points, Fernando Alonso trails at 103, and Kimi Räikkönen is still in the hunt with 100 points. The likelyhood of Lewis Hamilton loosing the title fight are very low, but Alonso has been dirty this year and we’ll see him pull out all he stops to take the title… expect a bloodbath.

If ever there was a race to watch this year, this is it. I’m a Kimi fan, so my loyalties are there, but man would I love to see Lewis spank ‘em all and firmly take his seat as the best driver in the world…. he’s earned it!