Friday, January 14, 2011

Remembering Dale Earnhardt




We're about a month out from the start of the 53rd annual Daytona 500. With every year that passes and when the green flag drops during the Daytona 500, you can't help but think of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and what he meant to the sport.

I've been to the Daytona 500 many times myself and was fortunate enough to have been at the 1998 Daytona 500 with friends and family when Dale Earnhardt Sr. won. If you weren't a Dale Earnhardt fan,on that day you were.

When Dale crossed the finish line and finally clinched his Daytona 500 win, the grandstands absolutely exploded. Looking back on it now I wish I could rewind time to enjoy it for one last moment.

After Dales passing you heard so many stories of how he helped people in the community,including donating money to his church so that they could repave the parking lot. He often told the people that he had helped not to mention it to anyone or he'll undo what he did (lol), but that is one of the things that made Dale Earnhardt Sr. one of a kind, he was a working mans hero and a great guy for the sport.

Here's a pretty cool video I found on YouTube


Picture borrowed from:http://www.nascar.com

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Great Race from New York To Paris in 1908


The Great Race from New York To Paris in 1908 was a publicity stunt dreamed up by the New York Times. In 1908 6 cars left Times Square in New York city at a whopping 35 MPH heading to Paris from NY. Back in 1908 there were not to many cars and there were no roads as we have today, so these six cars drove through conditions beyond extreme.

The cars were bound for Alaska but when they got there the travel was impossible due to deep snow and melting rivers.With this obstacle in the way the cars were shipped back to Seattle,and them shipped to Japan to continue the race.

On July 30th the Thomas Flyer had reached Paris,but one of the guards would not let them into the country without a working headlight. One light worked on the car but the other was broken.A guy on a bicycle passing by heard the commotion and gave the driver his bicycle that had a headlight on it.They strapped the whole bike to the hood of the car and continued on.

With two cars left in the race barreling towards the finish line, the Protos had crossed the finish line first but received a 1 month penalty for taking short cuts and skipping Alaska and Japan.

So the Thomas Flyer was declared the winner of the Great Race.

photo borrowed from the New York Times