COSTA MESA, Calif. — Kobe Bryant and Snoop Dogg gave the Maloof Money Cup skateboarding championships some celebrity buzz.Â
Bob Burnquist gave it some good skating.
Burnquist, best known as the guy who rode a skateboard into the Grand Canyon three years ago, had the best score in the semifinals of the vert competition Saturday afternoon at the Orange County Fairgrounds. He and five others advanced to the finals on Sunday. They’ll join Pierre-Luc Gagnon, who as the defending champion was prequalified all the way to the finals.
Burnquist appears ready to give Gagnon a run for the $75,000 top prize…Â Details
After two consecutive years of unbridled success for the McLaren-Mercedes team and Lewis Hamilton, despite the lying and the cheating, Formula One fans had started to take McMercs’ performance for granted.
But the first half of 2009 was decidedly different for Lewis Hamilton, the man who couldn’t but contend for pole position, week in week out couldn’t even get out of the first round of qualifying anymore. Early in the season people were still hopeful that McLaren would turn it around, but as March become June and July the hope all but disappeared.
In two races this year Jenson Button has lapped Lewis Hamilton, all I could think was “how have the mighty fallen”, but Hamilton never acted like he was flustered or frustrated …Â Details
Magnitude 80, Doug Baker’s Andrews 80, is about to pull to within 100 miles of Diamond Head and claim the Barn Door for the fastest elapsed time in the entire Transpac fleet.
There are a handful of boats within 200 miles of Hawaii and then the troops will start to march in. Sunday will be a light day for Aloha welcomes and the parties will go around the clock in Ala Wai on Monday and Tuesday.Â
Eyes are peeled to the Pegasus 50 blog where Philippe Kahn had demonstrated earlier today that you need very little other than a dry, fully charged iPhone with the FullPower MotionX application on it to navigate to Hawaii when he and Mark ‘Crusty’ Christiansen lost their battery power. With nothing more than enough juice to send messages via e-mail, the two-man boat is navigating through the darkness and squalls without electrical power. Says Kahn, ‘Bad. Safe, but bad.’ Relays Kahn, ‘All down – Down to flashlights, mechanical compass and add-on batteries for iPhone MotionX and hand held iridium. Trying to fix.’Â Â …Â Details
As a sprinter in college, Antron Brown had fast wheels.
Now a top fuel driver, his wheels are even quicker.
Brown has the top dragster going this season, leading the NHRA points standings heading into this weekend’s competition at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals.
“This has been like a fairy tale season,” said Brown, who retained the second-fastest time down the track after the third round of qualifying Saturday. “This is just a big dream of mine.”
Brown was once at a crossroads in his career, trying to decide between racing tracks or dragsters.
A 100-metre thunderbolt at Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, Brown was fast enough to qualify for the U.S. championships in ’97…Â Details