MAKING WAVES - 3

What a strange summer this has been...But first, Lets go to the scoreboard... FRANZ 2 GUIDO 2. I never thought I would say this but... God bless "Kiwi Magic" Eric our ace of a travel agent and Delta Airlines are you listening Ziggy? Did I say "Business Class" all the way home at 41,000 feet. The trip back home this time was a lot less stressful after the run back from Rome a month ago when I had to leave my lovely wife Monica at the gate (no seats) and she was forced to take the next day's flight back to the States. The final European event of the year turned out to be a WILD one. Firstly, the weather...who thought that we would get Sardinia type temperatures all weekend in Stralsund along the Baltic? The last 2 years we wore jackets to keep from freezing half the time. This time it was the same question for everyone, "Why did I bring that stupid jacket with me?". Is it my imagination or is that drive from Rostock to Stralsund getting more and more fun every year?...Can we take the toys away from Ziggy? He looked like a volunteer retiree working at Euro Disney taking people to their automobiles in the parking lot. People you need to know better: Gert L. and Michael W. are two of the funniest people in the paddock and both gave great TV interviews. People you need to feel sorry for: Duarte B. no luck, no start long drive home... Sami S. most "non-starts" of anyone in the paddock.thanks for coming... Luca F. who is this guy? He shows up every year for a race or two and does well. but didn't start this time... Why are there not any German F1 drivers now that Michael Werner has retired?....David Sewell has put together another winning issue of Raceboat Magazine.check out his new website.Gone missing and were missed. Isabelle B. of Ligier Sports...Photograph Adrian P. hope you are feeling better...Carol & John S. at the scoring table. Wow, what a way to end the "no crash" race streak in a big way in the first turn on the very first lap.and it all happened when 4 boats tried to fit in a space where only 3 could go.one of the nastiest crashes in recent memory. First time I've ever seen 3 boats attached by pickle forks in my 18 years of race broadcasting. How Scott, Massimo, Gert and Laith walked away is a blessing. Once the race took off for the next 69 laps, the "Terminator" Franz C. made the move of the day passing Guido on the inside at the start/finish line and dictated the pace for the rest of the race and another win in Germany... Guido had a wicked crash going end over end down at the fastest part of the 1.53 kilometer circuit at the end of the straightaway and was lucky to walk away.Now. we got a horse race to the season!!! .. A bit of a sad end to the Johnson effort as Cees van der "Cheese" has called it a close to his push to make the 3.0 litre engine a viable challenger to the 2.5 Black Magic Merc. A valiant attempt to say the least but it is now over!...Thani AQ had a great day with his highest finish ever in 2nd.shows he can run F1 as well as F2... Fabio C. had another solid day and is far from out of the championship picture... Philippe D. had a wild afternoon coming up from 19th to 4th in his "Moore Mower"... He was pushed hard in the final 20 laps by the Corona Beer driver of Fabrizio B. who won the "Fastest Lap of the Race" Award as he was charging his way to 5th and was awarded the trophy from Corona's new trophy girl, his wife Elisa. Russian driver Stanislav K. did his best race ever with a fine 6th. It must of helped as he "heated" up in one of the may sauna's around town a few nights before the race.Who else? Franco "Papa" L. was 8th and Christian J. was 9th and his first ever points with Andy E. coming away with the final points even after stopping after getting hit from behind on a restart... Does the Baba Seaquest Racing team have the best colours on the tour or what?....The "secret" to Cappellini's success? Nutella!...he has a giant jar of the stuff and eats it prior to hitting the water before every session... His teammate Stanislav wants to counter that with his request for some American "peanut butter" for the next race in Malaysia. Who puts out more fires than the men in Portugal these days? Liliane R. and Philippe S. You need to spend some time in the press area to watch them work. They have more moves than Beckum. And speaking of European football, what kind of world is this when you have Juventus playing AC Milan in NYC in front of a sellout crowd of 64,000? The team from Torino won the match by the way. Milan T. danced very well around the directors chair in the broadcast truck at his first try in the double roll of Producer/Director. Some thought the chair he sat in would be the "electric chair" for him but he did a nice job of bringing out the excitement of the race in his first attempt.Speaking of television. The series begins it's North American coverage this weekend with the "Season Preview" show airing Sunday at 10:30 am Eastern Time on SPEED CHANNEL. The GP of Portugal show will be aired at the same time on 24th of August as is the GP of Finland on the 25th of September. It's hard to believe that just a few nights ago I was enjoying a cold beverage on the left bank in Paris overlooking the Seine despite the 35 degree temperature at 7pm in the evening then heading back to the hotel room an no air conditioning. And speaking of cooling off I gotta go, believe it or not the air conditioning just broke here and it looks like it's going to be a warm and expensive day ahead.. ciao from the beach.... SM