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An early birthday present I got from a friend...

Christmas is coming up. Looks like a great regift for your old pal Roger Duke. Do you know what year it was made? What company made it? I can't quite make it out. Sweet collectible!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (The sound of Flash snoring)

I hope that fixed it for you. Man, that was a tricky bug to track down!

That brings us to yesterday and the Brazilian Grand Prix from Interlagos. For many years, this was the last race of the season, but money has now taken that to the Middle East. It's also one of my favorite tracks, and didn't disappoint this year. For the third time this year, the starting grid was determined by a sprint race. Haas driver Kevin Magnussen took a surprise pole for that, but could only finish eighth. It was the resurgent Mercedes team that took first and third, split only by Carlos Sainz Jr who had a 5-place grid penalty in the race for taking a new engine. In the main race, Daniel Ricciardo clipped Kevin Magnussen on the first lap, and the resulting crash ended both of thir races and brought out the safety car. A couple of corners into the restart, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen came together, leading to front wing damage and a 5-second penalty for Verstappen. Red Bull managed to change his tires and front wing in 10.0 seconds. Hamilton fought back up the field to finish second, but yesterday belonged to George Russell who took his first F1 victory and fastest lap. Sergio Perez, under team orders, let Max Verstappen by near the end to try and take the cars in front. When that didn't happen, Verstappen then refused to let Perez back past leaving Perez tied with Charles Leclerc for second in the championship with only one race left. With no Brazilian drivers in the field, the local crowd seem to have adopted the Mercedes team and particularly Lewis Hamilton as their favorites, so the one-two finish was very popular. The race highlights are here. Next week is the season finale from Abu Dhabi.

A week later, F1 moved to Mexico. Even at altitude, it proved to be another easy win for Max Verstappen. In taking victory, he also set the record for the most wins in a season with 14 (out of 20 at that time), although there are more races than there used to be. Mercedes kept up their newly re-found form with Lewis Hamilton finishing second again (albeit 15 seconds behind Verstappen) and George Russell in fourth. They were separated by Verstappen's team mate, Sergio Perez. Highlights of the Mexican race are here.

I haven't posted summaries of the last F1 races, partly because the Drivers' Championship has already been decided, and partly because the races have been in the Americas, so I've gone straight to bed when they finished due to the time difference. So here I make amends. First, the US Grand Prix from Austin on October 23rd. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr took pole position, but Max Verstappen beat him away from the line, and then he got spun by George Russell at the first corner. This ultimately led to retirement for Sainz and a time penalty for Russell. Fernando Alonso got his car airborne after clipping Lance Stroll, but miraculously changed his front wing and battled back to finish seventh. Mercedes finally appeared to have a competitive car, but it wasn't quite a match for Verstappen's Red Bull. Up and down the field there were some good cat and mouse battles. In the end, Max Verstappen won to cement the Constructors' Championship for Red Bull. It was an emotional weekend for Red Bull as Dietrich Mateschitz, co-founder of the drinks company and driving force behind the F1 team, died the day before the race. Lewis Hamilton claimed second place and Charles Leclerc recovered to finish third. You can catch up on the race highlights here.

Have you seen the movie Django Unchained? Luke had a small part in that movie as a towns marshall I also saw another movie a while back with Tanya Tucker, Paulie Shore and John Schneider. I cant remember what the name of the movie was but Bo played as a dirty/crooked sheriff

That would be a negative there cousin Skipper Duke ha, I will definitely check YouTube and see if the movie is in there!

Cuzin MoonRunner-01... Have you seen Tom Wopat's movie Meteorites? I got that one too from the YouTube.

Night of the Twisters is a great movie. I really enjoyed Legend of the Ruby Silver. Has a nice twist towards the end.

I got Night of the Twisters on DVD. Made from YouTube.

These young drivers have grown up with the internet and social media, but still don't seem to see the consequences of their actions. In December, just after he'd signed on as a 2021 driver for the Haas F1 team, 21-year-old Nikita Mazepin was condemned for posting a video showing him groping a female friend. Story here.