Dave Kean

A year ago I seriously I seriously started to put finger to keyboard writing a book about my journey since Mum died and my divorce being final. I’ve learned a lot about the process of writing and telling a story, but that’s only been a small part of the journey. It really has been fun, and that’s been the biggest discovery for me.

1. Find a time that works for you.

Someone told me when I started this that I would need one of the following: insomnia, proper coffee maker or a case or two of Red Bull. I know that every conversation I have with Sharon the editor she keeps pausing to take continual sips of coffee, but I never developed a taste for the stuff. I’m not in a rally car sponsored by Red Bull any more, and that stuff is spendy when purchased by the case. Ignoring the amphetamines option just leaves insomnia. After everything that went on last summer I still struggle to keep my energy level up all day, it is often lowest in the evening after work. So I adapted and discovered that by getting up at four I get a couple of hours in with good energy before I’ve got to go to work.

2. Prioritizing my writing

You don’t get to be a proper storyteller by putting it so far down “the list” that it’s sitting between “Ride a Motorbike around Alaska” and “Climb El-Cap”. I have discovered I enjoy writing (editing less so), more than I expected and while I don’t spend two hours every day writing it is something I make sure to carve a little time out for. I am a writer because it’s not just what you do, but rather, it’s part of who I am. And something that important to me becomes a priority.

3. It’s not supposed to be easy

What’s more, for me it’s probably not going to get much easier. Dad once said that stuff really worth doing (I think he was trying to talk me into paint the front of his house at the time) requires a lot of work and skill. I’m starting this as someone who got “could try harder” in English Lit at school, so I’m less prepared than most. This writing thing is hard work, but that’s fine, it’s going to be worth it in the end.

4. Dealing with fear

One of the themes through my writing is how I deal with change and fear. That could be fear of the unknown, failure, what I will become if I don’t change or fear of what people will think. A little preparation, being pragmatic about it and fear is diminished. I have found that if I face my fear head on and it’s gone. I was told at a conference last year that people who fail at writing typically do so for one of two reasons. First they were lazy, or two because they were afraid. I’m not lazy, so if I failed it would be because of the second. What’s the worst that can happen?

Is writing a book is going to see me fed to the tigers in the coliseum?  Nope.

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I was going to carve out a little time this morning to look at the times from the first F1 pre-season test at Jerez. But then I realized why?

I could put down five or six hundred words about times, but as with every other year no one really has a clue what’s going on.

The headlines are
• Times went down over the test
• The step noses on the cars are ugly
• Ferrari have a lot of work to do, but it’s promising
• Hamilton looked good
• Red Bull were fast
• Torro Rosso, Lotus and Force India did OK
• The step noses on the cars are really ugly

Absolutely nothing there we did not know before the test started and I just saved myself a bunch of time.
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I’ve finally got to the point where I admit I have a problem, I’m an addict and now the Sounders year is done I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it.

Lets take baseball as an example; I’ve watched maybe 3 or 4 baseball games all year. Then all of a sudden twitter went crazy with people talking about game 6 of the World Series. I put down the paintbrush, switched on the TV and spent the next couple of hours watching one of the most astounding games I’ve ever seen.

Sports are a big part of my life. Other than a little rallying I don’t take part in organized sport anymore. In the past I’ve played a rugby and football, never to a particularly high standard, but I’ve always had fun and certainly enjoyed the social side of the games.

I’ve been wondering what about sport that draws us in in such a way. First up is the drama, the whole on any given Saturday thing, any team can have a bad day, a little tough luck or a bad decision or two and loose.

There was a huge miss-match last week, Aldershot (League-2) hosting Manchester United (current Premier League champions). On paper The Shots have no chance, and indeed United efficiently dispatched them 3-0, but before kickoff there were thousands of Aldershot fans thinking, “Just maybe it’s our night.”

That thought is what makes sports so special. We get to watch the story unfold knowing that no director or writer has predetermined the outcome, and that uncertainty draws us in and can give us the rush that brings us back.

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Sebastian Vettel finally tied it all up last night in a fascinating Japanese Grand Prix. Lets be clear, it’s been a while since there was anything other than mathematical doubt as to who was going to win the drivers titles this year.

It’s been another compelling season of racing and the comfort of Vettel’s championship, won with four races left, had taken little of the drama away.

The winning margin this year is impressive because both the driver and the team cut out the mistakes. Last year he was clearly the quickest, but errors by both parties cost him points on more than one occasion. This year there was none of that, just a team and driver at their very best.

I can think of only two significant errors this year, and that is remarkable. The last lap mistake in Canada that gave Jenson Button an outstanding win, and a spin in Germany, that’s it.

Nine wins and twelve pole positions in fifteen races is impressive. Yes, there were weekends where he was dominant, but there were others where he had to fight for every point and did so. But wait there’s more, he’s the only driver to have finished every race and what’s more finished every race except for Germany on the podium. That’s impressive.

Perhaps his most dominant weekend was Turkey, it was clear from the Friday times that everyone else was looking at second. Team principal Christian Horner was asked after qualifying by one of the press pack if Vettel had any weakness. He replied, “Yes, when he turned up this weekend he had quite a dodgy haircut.”

It was the same story in Australia, Valencia, Belgium, Italy and a couple of others. Monaco was shaping up to be an outstanding fight to the end before a safety car ruined the spectacle. Read more…

Physically the toughest day so far, I’d never have thought that spending a couple of hours on the sofa watching the Sounders give Red Bull a good thrashing would take it out of me like this, but it did.

I awoke with a murderous headache, two vicodin and a couple of glasses of water took the edge off and I went back to sleep this morning. Couple of hours later I awoke again, felt marginally better, the worst of the headache was gone, but I could not see straight. The world was very blurred, this was on the “if this happens call me now” list of bad stuff.

So, no panic but straight off to the doctors office. Turns out some of the post operative swelling is putting pressure on my right eye, distorting the eyeball and making life interesting. So some really nice prescription antihistamines that knocked me out for a few hours tonight.

Got up, returned a couple of calls and while the pain is still there, it’s dulled somewhat and I feel much better. Still not able to focus well enough to drive, but could blow the text size up on my computer and make out the caller ID on my phone, and that’s way better than this morning.

This has been a rough day, unquestionably the roughest day post-op.

When I went through this last time I’d take time to wander around the UW, it’s next to the doctors and today I was determined to do so again, as bad as I felt there was something therapeutic about getting out into the sun for 10 minutes. I was a little unsteady, but wandering around the quiet campus was important today. I needed to show myself (and to some extent those around me) some progress today, it’s been a tough one.

And then on top of that, on the way home I got phone call from the State Patrol who asked a couple of general and then rather pointed questions, I think you can guess who that involves. I’ll deal with it next week. It’s been a day and once again I have the best support group ever.

After five days the swelling and bruising is much better, the pain and discharge are still there, but it’s progress.

I never had enough energy to head into Seattle for one of the Sounders games I had circled when the schedule came out.

New York (even with out Henry) was one of the big ones and ESPN2 missed the first 10 minutes when the Cal-Virginia baseball game went over. The apology tweet from Alexi Lalas was nice, but come one, Cal were 8-1 down with two out in the 9^th it really was long over.

“On paper” this looked like a solid chance for the Sounders to get three points. Through a combination of injury, suspension and international call ups NYRB were missing Marquez, Ream, Juan Agudelo (maybe the best player to come out of the US youth system yet), Henry and Rodgers were all starters that were missing.

Despite being shorthanded NYRB is a side that’s not had issues scoring, putting three past Portland on Sunday (and conceding three to be fair) and winning 2-1 against New England before that.

When ESPN2 finally cut to the game the first thing we saw was Freiberg control the ball with a beautiful first touch to control the ball and a then put it away with a curling ball into the far corner. A really well taken goal to put Seattle up 1-0.

No idea what happened in the previous 10 minutes, but this was a good start. Then it got even better when a minute or so later it was Alonso’s turn. A defensive header fell just right for Alonso to put away on with a great volley that took a deflection to give the keeper no chance.

Over the next few minutes it turned into a very open, entertaining game.

Dane Richards scored for New York about half an hour in. he used his pace to creat a little space and put the ball over Keller. Keller may have been unsighted by Zack Scott (replacing the suspended Hurtado), but it was a good finish to a well put together chance.

The second half started the way the first ended, with chances at both ends. This was turning into a very entertaining game for football. Both sides had some great chances and goals were going to come.

Unfortunately it was Zack Scott that scored with a toe poke past Keller for an own goal. Nothing the keeper or the defender could do, but it came during a period of consistent New York pressure where Seattle really had their backs to the wall for a period.

It really was anyone’s game at his point and it took a third goal from a corner to put Seattle ahead. Rosales one again the provider, this time it was Levesque with a flick on header inside the near post. Roger does not score often, but he soon followed it us with his second of the night when he took the ball off the NY keeper and slotted it home in the empty net to make it 4-2 with 15 minutes left to play.

There were a couple of positives for Seattle. Three goals came from corners (set pieces have been an issue). Three of the four goals were scored by attacking players and the own goal Zack Scott gave away was plain unlucky.

On the other side of the equation Alonso picked up his fifth yellow and will miss the New England game (his first game off this season). Montero did not look 100% and never had any really clear chances. The biggest issue may have been the defense. I’m not sure why Scott was preferred over Pat Ianni with Hurtardo suspended. Scott did look a little out of his depth, it seemed like nearly everything dangerous was coming past Scott in the middle of defense.

The whole of Royal Brougham Park (or Century Link if you prefer) was opened up tonight. This game was part of a package that included the Manchester United game and the 46,000 there saw a very entertaining game of football this evening with three points collected. As nice as it was sitting there with the cat, it would have been better to be at RBP.

So today was final practice followed a couple of hours later by qualifying. A very interesting day at the track. Vettel looked good, easily leading the practice session and took a fairly comfortable pole by almost two-tenths of a second.

Ferrari (and their thousands of supporters) must be content with their speed this weekend. A little distance behind Vettel, but clear of everyone else.

The practice session ended early when Sauber driver Pedro de la Rosa (who will be buying a lot of mechanics dinner tonight) brought out the red flag right at the end after damaging both the front and the back of his Sauber exiting Turn Four. It was clear early that the McLarens were off the pace this morning, taking fifth and sixth, and well over a second off the pace.

One note, Mark Webber never took part in the morning session after problems with the car.

Then to qualifying and times were not for credit. The Q1 session (to get the top 17) threw up a couple of surprises, the HRT have been (relatively) quick this weekend, both drivers qualified comfortably and for once was not bottom of the timesheets, that honour went to Jerome D’Ambrosio’s Virgin. Liuzzi had a big spin in Q1, but ended up 21^st (out of 24) and the team seemed very happy with having both cars in the race.

Best of the new boys was Lotus (as usual), but still a little space to make up with the rest. Jaime Alguersuari was the last driver not to make it to Q2, the team has looked good at times this year and this is about where he’s been all weekend (I love having the printouts, makes it easier to compare).

After Q2 it was the usual suspects, Red Bull, Renault (paint looks even better up close), Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes all made it through to the final qualifying session.

This Q3 session does make great TV and today worked well live. It’s a very exciting five minutes with drivers clearly driving right on the edge in the hunt for pole.

Vettel really did look in control and knew what he had to do, and did it. He does make it look effortless and that’s the sign of a great driver. And unlike that “other” German actually seems to have a personality.

Alonso won the battle between the two Ferraris, beating Massa by a tiny 18-hundreths of a second. Alonso’s final lap was on the monitors at the track and he looked like he gave it everything to claim P2. Great stuff to watch.

Mark Webber was fourth, while McLaren and Lewis Hamilton were disappointed with only fifth. Nico Rosberg was sixth, Button seventh ahead of Schumacher. There is a significant gap between these drivers and the top three.

I get the feeling McLaren fancied their chances this weekend; they are off the pace and seemed rather mystified as to why.

Qualifying behind both Red Bulls and Ferraris was unexpected. A lot of people felt this was the weekend they track were supposed to start to make up ground and the ultimate pace is not close. Tomorrow is race day, nothing counts for points yet, but there were a lot of worried looks on the faces of the McLaren engineers this evening as they try to work out a solution.

The biggest question is what’s the weather going to do. The forecast is for showers tonight and through out tomorrow. That will make for a very difficult and unpredictable day for all.

What ever happens it’s going to be fun tomorrow. All by itself the noise of 24 F1 cars live is earth shatteringly incredible. Tonight is a reception and once again I will use the trouser press for something other than making toasties…

Time to leave the track, back to the hotel and nap time!

There was a lot of change over the F1 off-season. New tires, rear wings, aero regulations, more power for the stewards and of course politics by the truckload. However last night all that mattered for nothing and the cars ran in anger for the first time.

Discovery-one, not much changed. Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull is the class of the field. If his maturity can match the speed of the car then he looks like he will be hard to beat. Not only did he win, he won in style. Vettel took pole by a huge margin, led from green light to checker flag.

Discovery-two, the new regs made a difference. The Drag Reduction System (RDS, or the “flappy rear wing”) is interesting and seemed to allow cars to have a decent run at each other under braking. The purist in me has issues with this, I think you need to earn the place and this aids the overtaking driver. However, in reality, it was awfully fun to watch cars overtake each other.

Hamilton had a great race; he had some undertray problems at the end, but was quick enough to hold a relatively untroubled second place. After the really poor showing in testing over the last 6 weeks McLaren have put in a huge amount of work, simplified a few things and found a lot of time.

Clearly this weekend Vettel was the class of the field.

Third place and maybe the best performance of the weekend was Vitaly Petrov in the very, very sexy looking Lotus-Renault.  Kept away from the drama and stayed in front of Alonso’s Ferrari.

Ferrari looked to be close to Red Bull in testing and have to come away from the weekend disappointed with their performance with Massa unable to do better than eighth. However it was nothing compared to Mercedes race, Schumacher could not even make the final qualifying session and was out qualified by Rosberg. Neither car finished, Schumacher got a puncture early on and eventually retired, while Barrichello’s Williams took out Nico Rosberg.

Another team that looked good on the track was Sauber. New driver Sergio Perez made it a one-stop race, the only driver to do so. The tactic paid off when he finished seventh, one place in front of Japanese driver Kobayashi. Unfortunately the Saubers were later disqualified for technical infringements over the wings.

Lots of overtaking, clearly Vettel was the class of the field, and by some margin too. The circus arrives in Malaysia in a couple of weeks, a very different style of track. Some teams obviously have catching up to do; it’s going to be a busy two weeks for the teams.

It seems like there should be a lot to be excited about for tonight’s game in New York. For Red Bull it’s the season opener in a stadium that only opened last year, for a team that won it’s conference (OK, a weak conference, but they still won) last year (and is hotly tipped to repeat that), has Thierry Henry and one of the brightest and most exciting young American strikers in Juan Agudelo.

Despite all this, the 25,000-seat stadium looks maybe 2/3 full. That’s not a good sign, especially as there are no other New York teams playing in the city tonight (NBA or NHL).

RB have a very nice passing game, Dane Richard has great pace and vision in his distribution, I think everything going forward for the Red Bull goes through him. The home team’s game is based on controlling the ball, passing from the back to the front and looking for openings. It’s an interesting contrast to the more open, faster Sounders game.

For most of the first half there were big periods of time where Seattle struggled to win possession and when they do get it, lack the imagination to really do much. Not sure if it’s the midfield missing something or NYRB doing a really good job at shutting them down.

When Seattle had the ball, and it happened more and more towards the end of the first half, they really started to open up the RB defence. Fernandez is having a good game and is happy to run with the ball and is doing a wonderful job at getting behind the RB defence.

Ozzie Alonso looks solid, but not getting the time on the ball that he did on Tuesday against LA. His influence on the game is limited when he’s being closely taken out of the game like this.

Red Bull had a penalty awarded 10 minutes in when John Kennedy Hurtado miss times his tackle and took down Agudelo in the box. Henry put it to Keller’s right at just the right height. Keller guessed correctly and got a solid hand to the kick to turn it wide. There have been some questions about maybe this being a year too far for Keller asked on the blogs and forums over the last few days. The penalty stop was largely down to experience, and Keller has not lost that.

Both teams had chances, Red Bull perhaps the better (especially the penalty), but somehow it was 0-0 at half time in what had been a tremendously entertaining half.

The game was a little quieter after the break, but again both teams had chances to go ahead. It took a wonderful individual effort from Juan Agudelo to break the tie and put Red Bull 1-0 up with a little over 20 minutes to play. It’s his first goal in the MLS and he had to take on Gonzales and Hurtardo to score it. It’s the first time I’ve seen Agudelo play; he’s only 18, has a played for the full US national team and looked very impressive on the ball.

The final real chance of the game, and perhaps Seattles best chance of the night, was a free kick taken by Montero from maybe 30 yards out in stoppage time. It was a beautiful dipping shot that the keeper could only parry. There were three Seattle players in the box, the ball fell to Nagle who snatched at it and managed to put it over the bar from 6 yards out.

Ignoring the result, there were few negatives for Seattle.

Gonzales, the left back was beaten with ease at times. As he did Tuesday night he looked a step or two slower than last year. He had no issues with the physical side of the game (though he was physically beat on the goal), but he seems to struggle defending against speed.

Montero did a decent job of finding space, but the service to him was typically to feet rather than space. His style does not fit a classic center forward; he’s not a target man and seemed far more effective and found space better when playing just behind White

This game was being shown around the world in 50 countries, and was a great advert for the style of football played in the MLS. So far both Seattle games have been good, entertaining games. However, if Seattle wishes to be thought of as one of the elite teams this season, these are they game they need to win.

It could be argued that they have been slightly hard done by in the two games so far this year, certainly the schedule has not been kind. But the reality is they have not scored yet and that was always the worry going into the year. Loosing Nkufo is a blow there, and the team have until April 15^th to find a replacement, that’s when the MLS transfer window closes until the summer.

It’s another tough game next, this time against Houston at RBP on Friday night. I hope we see the first goal of the year to go along with three points.

This was maybe the most exciting drivers title chase in a long time, certainly since Senna and Prost traded wins in the late 80’s.

Vettel did what he had to do today in Abu Dhabi. He went out, dominated the race and took care of everything he could control. His drive today was fitting a world champion and it would be difficult to argue that he did not deserve it.

Vettel and Red Bull have been the fastest combination on the grid all year, over a single lap there have not been many that have been able to stay with him. However a mix of driver errors, a few mechanical problems and a significant amount of bad luck had meant that the first time Vettel led the drivers’ championship was this afternoon after the race.

The start, as always, was crucial and Red Bull led from pole, and the first lap finished Vettel-Hamilton-Button-Alonso.

For Vettel to win he needed Alonso and Webber to have issues, and they did. Webber never got past his poor qualifying performance, compounded by poor race strategy and coming in for fresh rubber too early. Alonso made the same error in pitting too early and being forced to try and battle his way through the field. It was a huge error by Ferrari. The team forgot the first rule of race strategy, track position is everything.

Once Vettel had come in for his stop on lap 24 and got out ahead of Hamilton it was just a matter of the car being reliable and staying out of trouble.

Prior to Bahrain this is what I had to say.

“Based on testing times it looks a little like the F1 world has returned to business as usual with McLaren and Ferrari a little ahead of the rest. The rest are led by Red Bull and Mercedes, with Sauber, Williams and Force India looking very competitive.”

“As I’ve said, this could be a fascinating year with four world champions, really quick drivers like Vettel and Weber who want to join that club, and potentially 6 or 7 teams capable of competing at the sharp end.”

The 6 or 7 teams competing at the sharp end part was a little optimistic, Sauber certainly flattered to deceive, but I think a lot of that was down to budget. Force India had some good races, but like Sauber never developed through the season.

Overall I’m rather pleased with the accuracy of my thoughts from 9 months ago. It’s been a great season and I’ve been lucky enough to make it to a GP. There will be more next year, that I’m sure of. With five world champions in the top three teams, plus Schumacher if Mercedes is able to their shit together for next year could make it another great year.

It was the first time four drivers had ever gone into the final race all with good shout of the title. The fifth, Button, was only eliminated last week in Brazil.

What has made this year so compelling was very basic. A number of superb drivers in cars that were evenly matched. Looking forward to 2011 the same five drivers are contracted to be with the same teams, Webber is the biggest question mark after his statements over the last couple of weeks.

Of the rest Kubica has shown he belongs at the sharp end of the grid with some great drives in mid-table machinery. If Renault can give him a good car and Mercedes do the same for Schumacher it could be another great season.

However, it’s also possible Vettel and Red Bull will learn how to eliminate the mistakes, if that happens it would be difficult to see who could stay with him.

It’s less than three months until testing starts for 2011.