When one's spine goes missing

It's not my fault. Rather, it won't be.

Some people drink too much. Some people indulge in rather risky and illegal behavior. Others, still, take part in rather unhealthy practices. All in the pursuit of personal happiness (or whatever it is that they tend to believe will make them happy). Me ... I follow open-wheel racing.

Oh sure, that American adult bumper-car fascination known as "NASCAR" has its moments (2 per year, in fact, when they race on real race courses with right-hand turns and no unnatural banking), but it's completely unreliable. And let's face it folks - "rubbing" is for cleaning floors, erasing mistakes in pencil, and perhaps auto-body polish, but it AIN'T RACING. And don't call me a hypocrit - I attend the Grandaddy event of the year - the Daytona 500 - each year just to make sure I'm not missing a shift in the tide tantamount to global warming x 100...

Champ Car, IndyCar, Toyota Atlantic (evolving into ChampCar Atlantic), GP2, Infiniti Pro Series, A1 Grand Prix and of course Formula 1 (even if it does tend to take itself too seriously as of late) epitomize the real deal. Hell, I'll even take some REAL covered-wheel racing in the likes of the American Le Mans Series any day over the draft-and-dump tactics used by the good ol' boys.

So, what's a real race like myself to do when Paul Stoddart, long-time real racing insider, flamboyant F1 team owner, and acknowledged Aussie odd-ball decides to auction off some 1800 lots of his collection of Tyrrell, Arrows, Jordan, BAR and of course Minardi "bits and pieces"? 22 actual F1 cars! Front wing assemblies ... barge boards ... news and used 10-cyl Hart and Cosworth piston sets (with and without con rods) ... assorted gearbox spares ... gearbox housings ... oil resevoirs ... team shirts ... autographed visors ... official team socks (ok, that's getting a little ridiculous)?!

I could use an Arrows Lost-Boys/Red bull front nose assembly (lot 1057, but who's really taking notes?) to add to my collection of race cars. Ok, so my cars are all manufactured by Lego with labor from moi, but it's a starting point! Or perhaps some really COOL gearbox components! I mean REALLY!

Hold on ... need to dab at my mouth ...

So see, when there's this much quality stuff to be had, when you can watch the bidding live on the 'net on Saturday and Sunday, when you can have the privilege of calling in to LEDBURY, HEREFORDSHIRE, England when you are ready to actually place your bids (which are only subject to the applicable UK VAT tax, the 15% web bidders premium to pay for the auctioning firm, and then whatever minor amount it would cost to ship the lot to your home in backwoods TN), who could resist?

Well, ok, so my kids and wife do need to eat. And we are somewhat partial to the roof and the house. And clothes are a pretty nice thing too.

So, yeah, I made sure I had my priorities straight and showed some "spine". I only registered with the auctioneers so that I could WATCH the auction live. You know ... just to see how much I could have lost had I been so spineless as to engage in bidding...