Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Sunday August 8, 2021 Crashes

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Sunday August 8, 2021

There must have been a little rain overnight, not much, but enough to wet the painted speed bumps and the cars. The streets were already pretty dry. The smell of wet smoke (intentional burning of cane fields) hung in the air and was almost sickening.

I had to rush to get to David's by 9am to watch tape-delay MotoGP racing (bikes with 280 horsepower!) over the flow of natural terrain in beautiful Austria. We had our usual sandwiches from Berthold's and my desserts of chicharon from our panaderia while waiting for the telecast to show up on his premium sports channel. It wasn't coming on, which was unusual, so we watched the exciting end (that David had watched and was raving about) of the Moto3 race (smaller bikes). It was worth watching because iffy weather and team mistakes were the main factors. A rookie named Pedro Acosta has really been making a name for himself, winning 5 of 10 races so far this year, and he was not to be denied today. Congrats Pedro.

I had suggested that the delay in getting the MotoGP was because of bad weather or a bad crash which might have delayed things. Actually that turned out to be prophetic. When it did finally show up, the telecast was showing a time of 2 hours and 24 minutes...way more than usual.... The weather had been iffy and cool but rain was not predicted during race time.

So the race started, a rookie had the pole! Jorge Martin was leading Francesco Bagnaia and my guy Fabio Quartararo. My other guy, former champion Marc Marquez, was in 8th but he proved to be feisty as he bumped his way on the start to a much better 4th position. But 3 laps in and disaster struck. Rider Pedrosi crashed alone, he slid off but his bike remained in the center of the track and was hit by Salvadori who was injured in a big slide where his fuel tank ruptured and they had a long time to put out the flames. The red flags came out and everyone retired to the pits. The cleanup took almost an hour so we fast-forwarded to a complete re-start in their original positions which was not good for my guys. The lead changed many times until the rookie Martin regained the lead and was fighting off Miller once again when Miller suddenly crashed out with 10 laps remaining. Quartararo fought to hold third behind Mir, and Marquez finished a disappointing 8th. Another surprise was the great riding of South African Brad Binder who is our friend Irma's countryman who scratched his way to 4th!

Cristina was waiting for me and we made a quick pass to the cemetery where Christian's grave continues to look excellent. A rain would be nice...

The kittens are now eating solid food on their own! That has Cristina all excited. She has saved their lives and they are so cute when we let them wander in the house, with the dogs temporarily locked outside....

At 4:30 the heavens have opened here and we are getting a really nice heavy rain. I hope it keeps up for a while, although that means a dirty house for a while with the 11 dogs.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.

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