Rustye Number 9 in NASCAR

May 20 2014

This past weekend I cheered on my friend Russ Bond, in his first NASCAR race.

He competed in the 1st race of 2014’s NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, held at Mosport.

Here he is mid-wave.

See the full wave here, which we find quite funny, but the internet does not, which makes no sense, and is like the ‘texting with this bear‘ thing all over again.

Non-car nerds: this is a tough race, because a NASCAR is designed to go around an oval track, left left left.

And this race is on a course which is clearly not, with a top speed of 260 km/h.

18th/30, probably would’ve been top 10 but for a small hiccup in the pits, ridiculously good.

Congratulations Russ!

If there ain’t rubbing, it ain’t racing.

They’re Not Googly Eyes

Apr 28 2014

Me – I can’t figure out why, when you had this car last week, it was so much louder. Is it because of the engine algorithm?

Russ – [pushes the * button]

Me – what do the goggly eyes mean?

Russ – that’s a dual exhaust, Keri.

A $215,000 Snow Shower

Feb 10 2014

It’s a 2014 Audi R8 V10 plus Coupé.

A 5.2 L engine, outputting 550 hp and 398 lbs-ft, 0 to 100km in 3.5 seconds, and a top speed of 319 km/h.

Driving is Motoring TV‘s Russ Bond, I’ve introduced you before.

We were at a Young Driver’s event on Sunday.

Paul Reid was there too, capturing better quality footage for Motoring, while I captured a nice photo of Paul.

Which I’m good at; ha Paul, that photo is still funny.

Went to Hungary for 48 Hours

Jul 2 2013

Flew out Sunday at 5pm, returned today at the same.

My first pod.

I travelled with Audi for the newspaper, to test their all-new 2015 A3 Sedan. Basically, the new entry model Audi. In my review I called it a “starter Audi“, because once you become accustomed to the elegant minimalism, it’s hard to leave the family.

Great times, nice car.

Budapest because the car is manufactured in the city of Gyor, about an hour away.

Another first – the presentation was in Hungarian, so I listened to an interpreter.

This trip’s driving partner was Russ Bond, who you’ve met before, and who just discovered photo filters.

Budapest is beautiful.

Got some amazing footage, went through it tonight and mapped out 5 short videos, including one for the paper, wait, another first – I had to make a 1-minute video for work, talking to the camera no editing, about the car.

I’m nervous, you can tell; I’m fidedgty.

These events are fast paced as it is, the speech was delivered in Hungarian, add in a video, I’m in a busy park, in a foreign land, and there’s more consequences than if I mess up facts here on my blog…

3rd take, not bad, although I did get off to a rocky start, “this is the new A3. It has a trunk”. Oh boy.

Remember that ‘Just a Minute’ video series I did for a minute? That helped.

Seeing really old stuff is good for the head.

Saving my best photos for work. Got the skeleton of my review done on the plane, then honed the angle earlier tonight. Some journalists have already filed their stories, I look at them like this :O Auto journalists are really good at time management, I’ve learned.

My column prints tomorrow, “How to shift gears”, and I’ll get to video editing this weekend; I’m now almost 10 behind omg.Interested in a fun editing job? Pays low to start with huge potential for growth, must be on Final Cut X for Mac, apply within.

I have this weird mindset right now – wired and way overtired un-decompressed, my hands feel huge while typing this, objects have that dreamy sheen to them, night. I have a lot of auto writing to do tomorrow, TTY when that’s done.

Kids in Karts in kartSTART

Jun 11 2013

Give ’em a healthy respect for speed early on.

kartSTART – Safety through education, brought to you by Toyota

Says founder Russ Bond:

“This kartSTART program is very unique in several ways,” Russ Bond Agency, Inc (RBA) owner Russ Bond says. “What we teach here is how a vehicle works. What makes it go, what makes it stop, and what makes it turn. We teach our students what is happening to the vehicle as they travel down the road. The key here is we teach youngsters in vehicles that fit them, our karts.” Bond adds.