MCSFers,
Its that time again - the last race of the season. But alas this year is not
like any other year in our or in Minardi's history. As all of you know the
Team has been sold to Red Bull and the future is unclear. However, they are
still our friends, our role models our heroes in some cases - to boil it
down they are OUR Minardi.
Some of you have emailed me with concerns about our future. I have no
answers for you. Not yet at least. There is pretty much a radio silence out
of Faenza - and for good reason. The devil is in the details and they are
probably still being devised. I do know from press reports that the owner of
Red bull has stated openly that Gian Carlo Minardi has a job if he wants it.
In a separate press report GCM has stated that he is more excited about the
prospects for Minardi's future now than in quite a few years past.
For the past few weeks some of us have been busy getting the now world
famous Save The Minardi Name Petition together as well as getting as much
publicity for our endeavor as possible. You probably heard the plugs we have
been getting on SPEED TV's coverage of the last few races. The petition has
over 15,000 good signatories and is now in the hands of Red Bull - as of
1:25 this afternoon Euro Central Time. Hopefully I can get back to sorting
the other pesky membership issues that have been set aside - I appreciate
your understanding of the delay on this and I promise that things will not
fall behind like this in the future.
The long and short is that I will keep the promise I made to Mr Minardi when
we were at dinner together last April. We will do whatever it takes to
support the Team - all they have to do is point us in the direction they are
going and we will walk side by side.
November 1st is the hand over so until then we will not know much.
Ger, the Leader of the MCSF Irish Brigade will be celebrating Roberta's
Birthday in a week or so and will be bringing gifts to her as well as the
owners of the Tana del Lupo - the restaurant we had that once in a lifetime
meal at.
Now, lets get back to the business at hand. The Chinese GP is at unusual
hours so I just wanted to get the times out to you in case you were not
aware. Here they are:
Thursday Practice 11PM - 12 Midnite
Friday Practice replay 9 PM - 10 PM
Quali 10 PM - 11:30
Saturday Race 10:30 - completion
There are also some other shows on SPEED - the F1 decade as well as Inside
F1 - I typically tape them but the meat of the weekend is listed above.
Our cars will have some new aero upgrades thanks to Andy Tilley and Gabby
Tredozi - never say die!
There is no scheduled meet for those of us in the SF Bay Area due to the odd
time of the race and key people having to attend family events. We will have
a gig around the hand over time - probably at
MCSF HQ. Standby for details.
However, the SF F1 Meet Group has invited us all to their event:
http://formula1.meetup.com/10/
I will try and make it - but go to that site and let them know if you can
make it. They are a great bunch of F1 fans and quite possibly we can do some
conversions!
Now, for those of you who are waiting on badges etc I still need your
ephotos. You know who you are. Johnathan - I have not forgotten about you -
we will sort you this week.
Say the course - keep the faith and remember, as always
FORZA MINARDI
SEMPRE MINARDI
Fearless Leader
