I warned you weeks and weeks ago...

That's right, Pole Position jokes all weekend! This year, of course, the Japanese Grand Prix is being held at Fuji International Speedway, home of the very first GP of Japan in 1976. However, 1977 was the last time the F1 circus visited the track in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Toyota purchased the track in 2000, and after three years of renovations and reprofiling, made it into their exclusive test track in 2005 (much like Suzuka is owned by Honda, by the way). For obvious reasons, that means that Toyota is pretty much the only team with any experience at all on the course, meaning that, for once, practices will actually MEAN something... and SPEED will be live with their coverage of practice from 1159pm Thursday night until 130am Friday morning! Finally, something watchable without having to wake up before the milkman!

Because of this lack of tracktime, amongst other reasons, Fuji is stacking up to be very interesting. The remodel did away with the huge sweeping righthander that led back to the straightway (replaced by all the fiddlybits on the left-hand side of the trackmap) that showed the true skill level of the Pole Position player (Wonderduck Sez: I was pretty darn good), one thing that stayed the same is the front straightaway... which is now the longest in F1, at 1.5 kilometers. Should make for some fun numbers in Qualifying, which starts at 1159pm Friday, and goes until 130am Saturday morning.

Break out the Suntory and Kirin Saturday night! At 11pm, the curtain goes up on the 2007 Grand Prix of Japan, and Speed'll have it live and plausibly in-person, Smarmy notwithstanding. For those of you weaklings for whom 11pm is too late, there's a replay at 330pm Sunday afternoon.

By the way, if you're wondering why it's called Fuji International Speedway, here's a clue:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:48 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 315 words, total size 2 kb.

1 That is quite a picture. Fuji-san is definitely one of the more beautiful mountains on this planet. (It looks a lot like Mt. St. Helens used to before it blew up.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 25, 2007 05:55 PM (+rSRq)

2 For the first time in I don't know quite how long, I'm going to sit this GP out. I think I'll record it and watch it when I get back from NYC Although if I get lucky with the hotel, I may even get to watch it on Speed, and see it from your point of view for a change. I'm sure mrsfb will be thrilled about that.

As for the race, I'm calling Hamilton pulling a Mooooove on Alonso into the first corner, possibly punting him about 500 yards off the track.

Posted by: flotsky at September 25, 2007 08:08 PM (6T2ID)

3 WOW! That is a gorgeous picture, and I'm looking forward to enjoying the scenery during the race.

I'll be putting on a pot of coffee to stay up and watch. :-)

Posted by: Mallory at September 26, 2007 02:34 AM (u2PEb)

4 Pole Position!

Click, children of the 80's. Click, and remember Saturday mornings.

Posted by: JP Gibb at September 26, 2007 11:02 AM (psafG)

5 Scrap, bad link.

Try this instead.

Posted by: JP Gibb at September 26, 2007 11:04 AM (psafG)

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