[Louis B.]

Today was much better.

We arrived at the track one hour earlier than yesterday. The weather was gorgeous.

In our way to our stands (ironnically, they are ten minutes away from home going there by bike but this access is closed during the GP weekend such that we must take the metro and walk 45 minutes to get there), my seven year old asked me whether the fox we often saw on the island would be safe. I told him that, shy as the animal is, he must have moved to nearby St-Helen's island for the GP weekend. I told him we might nevertheless see some squirrels or "siffleux" (sorry, I don't know the English word for this kind of tailless beaver). It reminded me of a few years ago when one of those crossed just in front Irvine's Ferrari during a Friday or Saturday practice.

Île-Notre-Dame where the GP circuit is located is essentially a man-made island. There used to be there only a few rocks and dry patches of sands and muds in the Lachine rapids. However, in the course of building the present seaway in 1958 with its locks allowing ships of a length of up to 730 feet to go up to the Great Lakes, the area was filled in with what was excavated in order to build the nearway St-Lambert lock and access waterways. This is how the present island came to exist.

It later became part of the site of Montreal Expo 1967. An olympic basin for rafting and kayak racing was built there for the 1976 olympics and, later, the island got most of its greenery for the the international "floralies" contest. It is now a park with a casino and formula 1 / champs car race track. When there is no GP, we can roller skate or bike on it. There is also a patch of water and beach in the middle of it.

Unfortunately, most of the island is, except for the corridors giving access to the various stands, barricaded behind ugly fences for the GP weekend.

The f1 infrastructure are getting old and Bernie didn't miss a chance this year to remind us of the fact that, while the future of the Canadian GP is safe for the upcoming four years, it could be held elsewhere in Canada.

Crawling with my eldest son in the crowd to our stands, I could understand how Lenin might have been inspired for his communist theories. While I paid a significant amount for my pair of tickets, the "well-born people" (the lucky ones working for sponsors or potential sponsors) are gratuitously ferried to loges with roofs, comfortable seats, TVs and free meals. The worst is that those are most of the time empty. It makes me suspect that most of the "well-borns" don't even care about f1.

Meanwhile, the racing fan has to walk to roofless and uncomfortable aluminium stands and pay his hot dog and beer $4.50/$5.75 each. Fortunately, we can bring our own food & drinks.

The show was good. JV kept us at the edge of our uncomfortable seats with early appearances and impressive lap times during the free practice and parts 1 and 2 of qually. It's a shame that he just missed the last stage but, as per my post in the qually thread, his engine deserved a rest.

The on-track live coverage is also surprisingly good. The pair of commentators includes the excellent "Bob Costanduros" (why is ITV not hiring him in lieu of James Allen?).

The Mazda serie race just after qually showed us how unsafe the track can be. We were patiently waiting to cross the Royal Bank of Scotland wooden overpass when the rolling start was given. I went with my son just next to the fenced wall such that the cars passed only 10 feet away from us. It was scary. My son was asking me if we could stay there for one more lap when I saw on the giant screen a huge accident involving a dozen of cars a couple of turns away from us (nearby where Panis had been injured). The ambulances went on the track. We later saw and took pictures of some of the wrecked car. I still don't know whether anyone was injured.

We came home exhausted and I fell asleep watching Argentina v. Mexico. My son, after having asked me to carry him on my shoulders for some of the walk between the stands and the metro, still had enough energy for playing roller hockey with his younger brother and neighbours.

Tomorrow is D-Day. Good luck JV!