Today we had another great watch party at Cool River Cafe in Austin, with the support of Zinger Hardware and several local Austin car clubs.
Race Recap - A very exciting night race in Singapore this week. There were quite a few crashes and incidents that kept us on our toes. I won't spoil the final results for those who have not watched yet, but the race was exciting and constantly changing thanks to the incidents and even the fire from Heikki Kovalinen's car.
Now known as "Heikki the Fireman," Heikki Kovalinen's car began to smoke then a fire began as he was getting close to the pit entrance, but he stayed in the main straight and avoided the pits and stopped his car by the wall. He got out and calmly walked to the wall and was handed a fire extinguisher by a marshal on the other side. He began to put out his own fire and succeeded without any assistance. We were all yelling at the screen, "there's a fire, get out!!!," but he was aware and handled the situation promptly without panic. That was pretty cool to see a driver take care of his own problem.
source: Lotus Racing Facebook Page
An interesting twist on today's watch party, someone (any help on who was the source?) brought in two metal shims for the rear wing of Mark Webbers Red Bull car from the 2008 season. They handed out one free ticket for all members of the Grand Prix Club, and sold additional tickets for just a dollar each for a simple raffle for the viewers. Before the begining of the race they paused the video feed and drew out one ticket, then said they would draw another ticket at the end of the race.
I purchased five tickets for myself and my good friend Andrew purchased five as well. Neither of us won, but the gentleman sitting behind Andrew won the second draw, and ran up to the stage to claim his prize. He was cheering for Mark Webber during the whole race, along with my friend Andrew, and was exstatic to win the raffle. He handed the piece to us and I got a chance to feel it and analyze it. The pieces were about four inches wide by three inches tall, and about an eigth of an inch thick. They had a serial number written on them and a chassis code, RBR5 I beleve. They were made of really lightweight alloy, almost like aluminum, but darker and more dense, maybe titanium.
This was a really cool addition to the watch party and got everyone very excited about the chance to own a genuine piece of a car. I am hoping this can happen again, maybe become more common and get some more pieces for fans to get their hands on.
Kevin