HossC

If you're heading for Georgia, I think location maps are easy to come by when you get there, and I've even read about tours. This thread has mainly concentrated on the California locations, and I've included Google Maps links to most of them. Let me know if you're having trouble finding any locations.

It was a good restart, but it was on lap 144/160. Ricky Stenhouse Jr will also be staying. Trevor Bayne will be the third driver. As Garrett pointed out to me in a PM, Jeff Gordon's fifth win equals F1 driver Michael Schumacher's record for wins at IMS. He won the US Grand Prix in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. The US Grand Prix has since moved to Austin, TX, with another planned for New Jersey. Speaking of Michael Schumacher, for those of you who have read my updates of his condition in the news thread, his wife chose last Sunday's German Grand Prix to write a thank you in the programme for all support from his fans. He is now out of the induced coma, and has been moved closer to his home in Switzerland. Reports say he can now communicate with his family, but only through blinking his eyes.

Apparently, "for years Crown Royal has named the race after a man or woman who has gone above and beyond their duties as a person. This year the race is named, The John Wayne Walding 400 at the Brickyard, after Army Veteran John Wayne Walding" - more info here. The race is known as the Brickyard 400 for short (not to be confused with the Indy 500!).

After a few excursions, it's finally time to return to the identification of a Dukes filming location. This building and section of road was only seen in 'Deputy Dukes' in season 1, and I thoroughly searched the area around Lake Sherwood and the Golden Oak Ranch to no avail. After putting it on the back burner, I eventually found the location a long way from other filming sites while I was using Google Maps to do an unrelated aerial tour of the Hollywood Hills. The signpost shows that it's where Lake Drive meets Franklin Canyon Drive. I'm not sure if the house was ever residential, or if it was connected to the nearby reservoirs. Either way, it's now boarded up and the wall at the front has gone, as has most of the fencing. You can check it out here. This is the road to the right which winds up the side of the canyon. For a reverse view taken from near where the car is in the screengrab below, look at the second picture in this post from the 'Mistakes (Bloopers)/Things I've Noticed About The Show' thread. I can't get a longer view of the building because the Google car didn't drive down the road to the north, and Bing don't cover it either. To give a better sense of the location, here's an aerial view from Bing Maps.

After rain shortened the final practice session, the qualifying for tomorrow's race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway took place without a hitch. Jeff Gordon took to the track early in the first two qualifying sessions and set a fast time, only to have it beaten each time by Kevin Harvick. In the final session it was Kevin Harvick who went out earlier and set the fastest time. When jeff Gordon went out a few minutes later he could only manage second. With Brad Keselowski in third, the same three drivers were in first, second and third in each qualifying session. Kevin Harvick also set a new lap record. Jimmie Johnson was sixth and fifth in the first two sessions, but ended up qualifying in 11th just behind HMS teammate Kasey Kahne. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr struggled in the second session and could only get 23rd. For Lizzy, Kyle Busch starts in 12th and Austin Dillon isn't too far behind in 17th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr went out very late in the first two sessions, but only made his way up as far as 21st. Aric Amirola clipped the wall in the first session and had to head for the garage. It didn't look too hard, but he'll start the race in his backup car at the back of the field. The full starting lineup: 1. Kevin Harvick 2. Jeff Gordon 3. Brad Keselowski 4. Ryan Newman 5. Brian Vickers 6. Tony Stewart 7. Kurt Busch 8. Juan Pablo Montoya 9. Joey Logano 10. Kasey Kahne 11. Jimmie Johnson 12. Kyle Busch 13. Matt Kenseth 14. Danica Patrick 15. Kyle Larson 16. Clint Bowyer 17. Austin Dillon 18. Carl Edwards 19. Greg Biffle 20. Trevor Bayne 21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 22. Marcos Ambrose 23. Dale Earnhardt Jr 24. Jamie McMurray 25. Martin Truex Jr 26. Casey Mears 27. Denny Hamlin 28. Michael McDowell 29. Paul Menard 30. Josh Wise 31. Justin Allgaier 32. Ryan Truex 33. Michael Annett 34. David Gilliland 35. Alex Bowman 36. AJ Allmendinger 37. Landon Cassill 38. David Ragan 39. Cole Whitt 40. Travis Kvapil 41. Aric Almirola 42. Reed Sorenson 43. Bobby Labonte Reed Sorenson, David Stremme and Matt Crafton all failed to qualify. The Crown Royal Presents the John Wayne Walding 400 at The Brickyard is on tomorrow (Sunday) at 1:00 PM ET. It's live on ESPN.

cereal (The advertising slogan for Kellogg's Bran Flakes was/is "They're tasty, tasty, very very tasty ...") Yes, we have them here (Ireland and UK).

Looking at the pictures you posted in another thread, the car is identified as a 1970 model. As far as I know they only used '68 and '69 models on the TV show. Regarding the VIN, and to add to Lizzy's information above, 1968-70 Chargers should have a 13 digit VIN that contains letters and numbers. The information below which appears in italics is from dodgechargers.tripod.com: First Character: car line (Model) Second Digit: price class (Submodel) Third and Forth Digits: body stlye XH29 is most likely for this car. Fifth Character: engine type and size G, L, N, U, V or R for 1970. Sixth Digit: model year For 1970 it should be 0. Seventh Character: assembly plant A, B, E or G. Eighth to Thirteenth Digits: serial number These always start from 100001. For 1968-70 Chargers, the site says that the VIN plate "was located on the instrument panel's left-hand side all three years and for all models and body styles." I'm not sure what this tells us about the number you have, but it doesn't look like a correct VIN.

rabbit (There was an episode in season 1 of The A-Team called 'The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas')

poker

I know we've just had two versions Pharrell's 'Happy', but I couldn't let the release of a new "Weird Al" album go by without posting something, and this is one of the first videos to come out. Watch out for several celebrity cameos in this one-take video. I think my favorite line at the moment is "Got my new resume, it's printed in Comic Sans" . Tacky - "Weird Al" Yankovic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsWo8apgLys

I found this video of the Yankee Lake show on www.northeastohiodukes.net. The site also has videos and slideshows of older events.

Nice work, Brenton. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished models. I'd also like to see the whole of Cooter's garage.

With Garrett away, and the last 100 or so laps of the Camping World RV Sales 301 clashing with the World Cup Final, I thought I'd better takes some notes during the race so that I could write some kind of review. Hopefully that explains the chronological format of the following. Greg Biffle had smoke from his tires very early in the race, but the situation seemed to resolve itself. Jimmie Johnson got a flat rear tire on lap eight and had to pit for new tires. He came out a lap down, but crashed on lap 14 (during a commercial break) due to another tire failure and brought out the first caution. Jimmie later said that the first tire went down slowly but the second exploded. Morgan Shepherd's car also had to be pushed off the track, although I'm not sure if he hit Jimmie Johnson's car. The crash ended Jimmie's race and means that his crew only have a few laps' worth of data to help them when they return to New Hampshire in September for The Chase. Kyle Busch led the first 62 laps until he was passed by Denny Hamlin. Jeff Gordon was very quick in practice (third, third and second), and made it up to 6th in the early part of the race, but then gradually dropped back to 26th before being one of the first drivers to take a green flag pit stop on lap 74 in a car he described as "undriveable". After the pit stop, his team found that one of his rear tires had only 14 pounds of pressure left in it. There was a caution for debris on lap 112. Kyle Larson stayed out to take the lead after being one of the last drivers to make a green flag pit stop 30 or so laps earlier. He had a good battle for the lead with Kyle Busch after the restart and led about a dozen laps before Matt Kenseth came past him. Another debris caution was thrown on lap 153, just a lap or two before Kyle Larson would've had to make a green flag stop. The commentators joked that NASCAR should fingerprint the offending water bottle on the track! Joey Logano won the battle off pit road, but Clint Bowyer took the lead before the end of the first lap after the green flag. There was also some minor contact between the cars just behind them. Brad Keselowski had just taken the lead when there was yet another debris caution on lap 177. So far I think the water bottle was the largest object on the track. After his earlier troubles put him back to 26th, Jeff Gordon had made steady progress up to 16th when the caution came out. Ricky Stenhouse Jr did well after the caution, and spent quite a few laps running in 10th place just behind Kyle Larson with Jeff Gordon catching both of them. Then, during another commercial break, Joey Logano (who was inside the top five) was taken out by Morgan Shepherd (who was about 13 laps down). That obviously brought out another caution. Joey seemed quite upbeat when they interviewed him straight after the crash, but he was clearly disappointed as he thought the team could've got another one-two finish. Ricky came back out in 10th, but Jeff Gordon managed to leapfrog him into the top ten and was soon up to sixth, ahead of teammate Kasey Kahne. Kyle Larson's earlier strategy put him up to fifth. There was yet another caution for a tiny piece of debris on lap 249, again during a commercial break. Jeff Gordon was one of six lead cars to stay out, and became the new leader. Ricky Stenhouse Jr slipped back to 18th, but the new tires paid off in the next few laps as he regained several places. After 19 laps up front, Jeff Gordon was passed by Brad Keselowski who looked like he'd take an easy win. Then, with just four laps to go, and a few drivers low on fuel, Justin Allgaier hit the wall and caused another caution. Denny Hamlin was the first to run out of fuel and had to pit from second place while under caution. He was followed to pit road by Brian Vickers, Jamie McMurray, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr, Danica Patrick, Aric Almirola, Greg Biffle, Paul Menard and David Ragan. A couple of laps later, Jeff Gordon also ran out of fuel just before the green-white checker and had to be pushed back to the pits. Kevin Harvick barely saw the restart flag before he too ran out of fuel at turn one. Brad Keselowski went on to take his third win of the season, becoming the first driver to do the New Hampshire Sweep with victory in the Nationwide and Sprint Cups. He's also the 13th different winner at Loudon in the last 13 races. It was a dominant performance with Brad leading 138 of the eventual 305 laps. During the post-race interview he joked that the team had some Kevlar gloves for him this week to prevent him cutting his hands on a Champagne bottle again. Kyle Busch finished second despite running out of fuel as he crossed the line. Kyle Larson gained a couple of places at the end to finish third. I was pleased that Ricky Stenhouse Jr managed to bounce back from a terrible race last week to take a well-deserved ninth place. Here's the full finishing order: 1. Brad Keselowski 2. Kyle Busch 3. Kyle Larson 4. Matt Kenseth 5. Ryan Newman 6. Clint Bowyer 7. Tony Stewart 8. Denny Hamlin 9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 10. Dale Earnhardt Jr 11. Kasey Kahne 12. Martin Truex Jr 13. Carl Edwards 14. Austin Dillon 15. Greg Biffle 16. Jamie McMurray 17. Kurt Busch 18. AJ Allmendinger 19. Paul Menard 20. Jeff Burton 21. Brian Vickers 22. Danica Patrick 23. Aric Almirola 24. David Gilliland 25. David Ragan 26. Jeff Gordon 27. Marcos Ambrose 28. Cole Whitt 29. Josh Wise 30. Kevin Harvick 31. Alex Bowman 32. Michael Annett 33. Reed Sorenson 34. Landon Cassill 35. Eddie MacDonald 36. Ryan Truex 37. Justin Allgaier 38. Casey Mears 39. Morgan Shepherd 40. Joey Logano 41. Timmy Hill 42. Jimmie Johnson 43. Mike Bliss TNT signed off by thanking what felt like every member of their team and showing a short compilation of races they'd covered over many years. There's no race next week while the teams get a week off, but for anyone who fancies some motorsport next Sunday, and doesn't mind an early start, you can watch what promises to be an exciting F1 race from Germany (start time is 8.00 AM ET). Lizzy and Garrett - feel free to fill in anything I've missed .

The Sprint Cup moves to New Hampshire this week. Only four drivers set an early time in the second (last) qualifying session, including a quick one by Tony Stewart. With about seven minutes to go, Kyle Busch lined up near the end of the pit lane waiting for a cloud to cover the sun. He was soon joined by Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray. Jimmie Johnson blinked first, and beat Tony Stewart's time. Soon after, Kyle Busch bounced back from his rollover last week to claim the pole at Loudon, breaking the lap record by 1.633 mph in the process. Denny Hamlin made a late run, but could only manage third. Tony Stewart went out for a second run, but failed to cross the line in time to do a lap. It's interesting to note the difference between qualifying for NASCAR and qualifying for F1. The NASCAR drivers were all trying to cool their cars down, whereas F1 cars have pre-heated tires and need their brakes at a high temperature to operate at their best. Sitting around for several minutes at the end of the pit lane would kill the chances of an F1 driver getting a good time (and would probably be illegal due to the narrow pit exits). Jeff Gordon tried two timed laps near the end of the session, but they only got him to 11th (he was third in the first practice session). Ricky Stenhouse Jr was 23rd in the first practice session, and improved to 22nd in qualifying. I hope it's not going to be another of those races where he spends most of the time in a midfield position. Lizzy, I've obviously covered one of your drivers as he's got pole. Your other driver, Austin Dillon, starts right behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr in 23rd. 1. Kyle Busch 2. Jimmie Johnson 3. Denny Hamlin 4. Tony Stewart 5. Jamie McMurray 6. Joey Logano 7. Brad Keselowski 8. Clint Bowyer 9. Martin Truex Jr 10. Kasey Kahne 11. Jeff Gordon 12. Kevin Harvick 13. Kyle Larson 14. Carl Edwards 15. Matt Kenseth 16. Paul Menard 17. Brian Vickers 18. Kurt Busch 19. Aric Almirola 20. AJ Allmendinger 21. Marcos Ambrose 22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 23. Austin Dillon 24. Ryan Newman 25. Justin Allgaier 26. David Ragan 27. Greg Biffle 28. Dale Earnhardt Jr 29. Danica Patrick 30. Jeff Burton 31. Casey Mears 32. Josh Wise 33. David Gilliland 34. Landon Cassill 35. Cole Whitt 36. Alex Bowman 37. Reed Sorenson 38. Ryan Truex 39. Michael Annett 40. Eddie MacDonald 41. Mike Bliss 42. Timmy Hill 43. Morgan Shepherd The Camping World RV Sales 301 from the New Hampshire Motor Speedway is this Sunday at 1:00 PM ET. For the last time this year it's live on TNT (I can't believe you might miss it, Garrett ).

I think I've seen every episode of the modern UK series (2002 onwards), and I've watched the first four seasons of the Top Gear USA (just starting on season 5). The US series started out like the UK series, and even copied some of the challenges, but they decided to scrap the studio section and guests after the first two seasons. Because the commercials in the US version limit the runtime of each episode to around 43 minutes (compared to a full hour for the UK version), I think the change to the newer challenge-only format seems to work well, although I wish they'd cut the preview/recap either side of the breaks. The season 5 preview promises a trip to the Autobahns of Germany and a brief visit to the Scottish Highlands. By contrast, Top Gear Australia stuck with the UK format. It had the same music, very similar studio layout, guests and power laps. After two seasons on SBS One, the show moved to the Nine Network and some changes were made. The 'Star In A Bog-Standard Car' section ('Star In A Reasonably Priced Car' in the UK, 'Big Star, Small Car' in the US) was changed to 'Star In A Car' when they swapped the small car for a Ute. They also changed the presenters with only Steve Pizzati appearing in all four seasons. So far I've watched most of season 1 and season 4 (and the UK version of the 'Ashes Special' which was part of season 3 in Australia), and have enjoyed the shows. Australian cars are a bit of a mystery to me - they have some familiar cars from Europe, and are close to the car-producing countries of Asian, but also have a load of models that are unique. There is a huge rivalry between Ford fans and Holden fans which appears to be bigger than any brand rivalry I've seen in other countries. Only a few of these Australia only cars seem to make it abroad, e.g. Vauxhall have sold a rebadged Holden Monaro in the UK, and the Pontiac G8 was a rebadged Holden Commodore. UK and US viewers will notices that metric figures are used almost exlusively in the Australian show, with power output quoted in kilowatts rather than BHP, and distances/speeds in kilometers (these are probably more familiar to the rest of Europe). Other terminology is more British, with cars having bonnets and boots instead of the hoods and trunks they have in the US. Australians also drive on the correct side of the road . The Australian show retained the irreverence of the UK show (the US show sometimes seems a bit sanitized), so it's sad that it was cancelled after the fourth season finished in 2012. If you have the time, I'd definitely recommend checking out a few episodes. Just for fun I decided to look up the viewing figures. The third season of Top Gear Australia got around 1 million viewers per episode out of a population of around 22.7 million (2010). The later seasons of Top Gear USA generally got between 1.5 and 2 million viewers out of a popluation of 317 million (the electric car special in season 4 got noticeably less viewers). The latest series of the UK show got 5 million viewers for the first episode out of a population of just over 62 million (2012).

I mentioned in an earlier post that Top Gear USA had an episode where Adam Ferrara painted a 1973 Plymouth Duster like the General Lee (the video link is now dead, but you can see a clip: Well, after watching some of the later episodes of the American version recently, I decided to check out Top Gear Australia. I found two episodes where the General Lee and Dukes of Hazzard are mentioned. In the third episode of the first season each presenter has to buy a car from a junkyard for A$500. One of them chooses a Camry wagon and inexplicably decides to paint it like the General. As you can see, he didn't spend much on the paint job ... ... although it did include a flag on the roof! The driver was jokingly referred to as "The Duke of Haphazard" . In the fourth episode of the fourth season the presenters get a challenge to put a short stunt sequence together. I'm not too familiar with Aussie cars, but I think they started out with three Holden Commodores. The presenters then gave their cars very cheap makeovers to turn them into the "Striped Tomato" from Starsky and Hutch, the "Interceptor" from Mad Max and the General Lee. Of course, it was the General that did the jump. They also had a go at the roof flag on this car, but it wasn't as good as the first effort. The end credits of the sequence referred to the piece as the "Dorks of Hazard".

Thanks for the review, Roger. One of these days we're gonna have to teach you how to post pictures .

I'm afraid that I found today's race a bit of an anticlimax, even though it was on at a better time for me. I was just getting excited about Ricky being in the top ten when he disappeared from the Live Leaderboard a couple of laps before the first crash. I'd just started to wonder where he'd gone when I saw cars spinning all over the place with Ricky in the middle. At first I thought Ricky's car wasn't too badly damaged, but sadly I was wrong. It's a good job I'd already watched an entertaining British Grand Prix . You could've gone for a 3-course meal and not missed much. TNT showed around 10 minutes of commercials which were briefly interupted by two 30-second updates about the race. Next week is the last of this year's races on TNT (or Terrible NASCAR Television as I saw it called online ). Most of the remaining races are on ESPN.

Well you can't blame Ricky this time .

You have to feel sorry for TNT - not only did they have to interupt their Lord of the Rings marathon today, they also had to take some breaks from showing commercials to screen small parts of the NASCAR race! Is Jeff Gordon taking resposibility for the crash or was it Ricky Stenhouse Jr's fault?

The Coke Zero 400 has been postponed due to rain. They're going try again at 11:00 AM ET tomorrow (Sunday). It's a shame they can't race in the rain - they had some during the qualifying for the British F1 Grand Prix earlier today and it led to some topsy-turvy results. The weather forecasters are predicting a dry race, but a bit of rain would spice things up nicely .

I posted the results of the Kentucky race so they'd go before the qualifying lineup for Daytona. A combination of an exciting World Cup soccer match between Brazil and Colombia, and a "rain-abbreviated" qualifying session meant that I missed this evening's action from Florida. Nevertheless, I've read the review on NASCAR.com to find out what happened. Luckily there was no repeat of the nine-car wreck that occurred when a sudden rainstorm hit the Nationwide qualifying session (video and details here). Words like "chaotic" were used to describe today's qualifying, which used the new knockout format for the first time (the season-opener used the old format). Being a restrictor-plate track, the drivers tried some odd strategies including going very slowly until they could hook-up with a teammate. The strange qualifying behavior mixed with the rain led to an unusual lineup for tomorrow's race. David Gilliland took his third career pole just ahead of Reed Sorenson. The second row is filled by Landon Cassill and Bobby Labonte. Despite this, HMS managed to get three cars in the top ten with Jimmie Johnson in 5th, Dale Earnhardt Jr in 7th and Jeff Gordon in 9th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr qualified in a more promising 16th, although he was as high as 7th in the first practice session. It's not such good news for Lizzy this week with Austin Dillon down in 23rd and Kyle Busch down near the back in 39th, just ahead of his brother. Here's the full lineup: 1. David Gilliland 2. Reed Sorenson 3. Landon Cassill 4. Bobby Labonte 5. Jimmie Johnson 6. Matt Kenseth 7. Dale Earnhardt Jr 8. David Ragan 9. Jeff Gordon 10. Greg Biffle 11. Carl Edwards 12. Tony Stewart 13. Kevin Harvick 14. Kasey Kahne 15. Aric Almirola 16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 17. Cole Whitt 18. Marcos Ambrose 19. Martin Truex Jr 20. Ryan Newman 21. Paul Menard 22. Casey Mears 23. Austin Dillon 24. AJ Allmendinger 25. Trevor Bayne 26. Brad Keselowski 27. Michael McDowell 28. Joey Logano 29. Danica Patrick 30. Brian Vickers 31. Justin Allgaier 32. Michael Annett 33. Josh Wise 34. Clint Bowyer 35. Kyle Larson 36. Jamie McMurray 37. Denny Hamlin 38. Terry Labonte 39. Kyle Busch 40. Kurt Busch 41. Michael Waltrip 42. Ryan Truex 43. Alex Bowman This week's race may prove to be too late for me again, because the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola from the Daytona International Speedway is tomorrow night (Saturday) at 7:30 PM ET. It's live on TNT. For anyone who fancies some motorsport on Sunday, this weekend is also the date for the British F1 Grand Prix, and Silverstone is celebrating its 50th time as host. The stands were apparently packed like a raceday for the first two practice sessions today. Amongst those watching was three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti who was joined by his cousin, ex-F1 driver Paul di Resta. History was also made today as F1 had a female driver behind the wheel during a race weekend for the first time in 22 years. Unfortunately, Williams test driver Susie Wolff had her session cut short due to engine trouble. That could lead to problems at home as she's married to Toto Wolff, director of Mercedes Motorsport who supply the engines! The race on Sunday starts promptly at 8:00 AM ET.

I think Garrett's still planning to write a review for last week's race in Kentucky, but I've decided to post the results to preserve some kind of order. The race was won by Brad Keselowski who led 199 of the 267 laps. 1. Brad Keselowski 2. Kyle Busch 3. Ryan Newman 4. Matt Kenseth 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6. Jeff Gordon 7. Kevin Harvick 8. Kasey Kahne 9. Joey Logano 10. Jimmie Johnson 11. Tony Stewart 12. Kurt Busch 13. Marcos Ambrose 14. Greg Biffle 15. Paul Menard 16. Austin Dillon 17. Carl Edwards 18. Michael Annett 19. Martin Truex Jr 20. Casey Mears 21. Danica Patrick 22. AJ Allmendinger 23. Clint Bowyer 24. Justin Allgaier 25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 26. Brian Vickers 27. Reed Sorenson 28. Cole Whitt 29. Josh Wise 30. David Gilliland 31. David Ragan 32. Landon Cassill 33. Ryan Truex 34. Travis Kvapil 35. David Stremme 36. Alex Bowman 37. Jamie McMurray 38. Joe Nemechek 39. Aric Almirola 40. Kyle Larson 41. Mike Bliss 42. Denny Hamlin

Thanks for passing on the sad news, but you got his name slightly wrong: it's actually Bob Hastings. IMDb lists his date of death as 30 June 2014 and the cause as prostate cancer. He was 89. He played Barnes in 'Witness for the Persecution', ... ... Slick Doggins (spelling as used in the subtitles) in 'Coltrane vs. Duke' ... ... and Taylor in 'Sky Bandits over Hazzard'. You can see Bob Hastings' full filmography here.