#Mark Mclaughlin

[oldschoolfrp]

Princess Ryan's Space Marines, William Lindsay box art for Mark McLaughlin's game of squad combat in the 23rd century, East Wind Rain Co, 1986. This first edition of the game included 48 space marines and 4 vehicles in 1/285 microarmor scale, all cast in lead by SIMTAC.

[marksandrec]

Marks and Rec: Misc #2581

The thought is implied. (Dialogue from Frasier.)

[nofatclips]

Paranoid Core by Mudhoney

[gameofthunder66]

Supernatural (2005-2020) tv series

-(finished) watchin' Season 7- 11/27/2024- 3 stars- on Netflix (CW)

74% Popcornmeter- Season 7

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

If there’s someone else who came to mind, feel free to share in the comments.

[ricky-tiki-tah]

Since I like putting aesthetics to people:

Mark: Analog horror/romance

Ethan: 80s/soft boi

Seán: street style/grunge

Gimme an ego and I’ll give them an aesthetic

[agentxthirteen]

Sharon-A-Day, Day 404 (2/8/23)

Captain America 261. On sale 6/2/81. "Celluloid Heroes"

Writer: J. Mark DeMatteis

Penciller: Mike Zeck

Inker: Frank McLaughlin

Letterer: James R. Novak

Colorist: Don Warfield

Editor: Jim Salicrup

Sharon in a flashback from when Steve quit as Captain America.

[alessandroiiidimacedonia]

New books published on Alexander the Great and Cleopatra and Merry Christmas!

Good morning everyone, I’m Elena from Italy and thank you for being on Alessandro III di Macedonia -your source on Alexander the Great and Hellenism! Sorry for the absence and to try to make up for it today I point out many books that have come out recently about Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. These books are of different genres and are distinguished because they are all self-published on…

[oldschoolfrp]

Princess Ryan's Star Marines by Mark McLaughlin, with Larry Elmore box art, Avalon Hill, 1997. The name and themes reference the same setting as the designer's 1986 game, Princess Ryan's Space Marines. Besides changing "Space" to "Star," presumably to avoid complaints from Games Workshop, this is a very different game than its predecessor -- now a combination card and board game that included a single 28mm miniature by Heartbreaker, instead of the previous microarmor tactical skirmish wargame.

[coverpanelarchive]

Action Comics Weekly #639 (1989)

[scotianostra]

The Pirate station, Radio Scotland began broadcasting in the dying embers of Hogmanay, 1965.

Radio Scotland was a Scottish pirate radio station which broadcast at various points off the Scottish coast between 1965 and 1967, with a mix of pop music and programmes of Scottish interest. It was conceived of and run by publicity and advertising executive Tommy Shields onboard a former Irish lightship, built on the Clyde, named The Comet. Radio Scotland's first broadcast was at 11:50pm on Hogmanay, 31st December 1965, on 1241 kilohertz, 242 metres.

After refitting for her new role in the Channel Islands she had been towed to a position four miles off Dunbar, in the Firth of Forth. Because of delays during the journey north, the ship didn't arrive at the anchorage until early on 30th December, giving the engineers only a few hours to set up the equipment. It was a frantic race against time but the station just made it on air before midnight, albeit at reduced power and with no opportunity to run tests. The first voice on the new station belonged to DJ Paul Young a former presenter of Scottish Television's Roundup programme who welcomed the listeners. He introduced the managing director Tommy Shields, who went on to detail their plans. Radio Scotland was on the air and open for business. The station also broadcast from water near Troon and Northern Ireland over its one-and-a-half years.

While navigating and planting the boat, crew had to be careful to avoid territorial waters, primarily due to the strict laws imposed on the pirate stations by the government of the day. Featuring everything from “modern” rock’n’roll to ceilidh favourites, the station soon became a sensation across Scotland as well as Ireland and northern England, where the signal was also picked up.

With its audience of one million listeners a week in its prime, Radio Scotland was very close to realising Shield’s dream of becoming a successful independent Scottish station.

Joining English stations such as Radio Caroline, Radio Scotland was the only pirate radio station to be formed north of the Border, and soon took its place amongst the big six pirate stations.

People could join the membership of the station and become Radio Scotland “Clan Members”. As a reward, the Clan had their own show every Saturday where they could send in requests, which, alongside Jack McLaughlin’s ceilidh slot, was one of the most popular programmes broadcast.

The station even had its own fanzine called “242” – named after its frequency. The 242 magazine featured interviews with the biggest stars of the day, including The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner, but station managers never quite tempted any of the stars on board the infamous boat.

The pirate station’s theme song was a jaunty wee number sung by folk band The Carrick Folk Four. Finishing off the upbeat ditty were the lines: “Oh Radio Scotland’s playing just for you/So beat the ban, and join the Clan, on station 242.”

Although they received many a plaudit, Radio Scotland was plagued with troubles from the very beginning. A poor signal and periods off-air led to a steep decline in advertising revenue and a frustrated fanbase, while fires on board the vessel and the hazardous North Sea conditions did little to help ease its problems.

In a piece in the Edinburgh Weekly just days after the station was laid to rest, Tony Mark wrote: “The death penalty in this country is supposed to have been abolished, yet here we are mourning the execution of what was surely the sound sensation of both 66’ and 67’ as far as Scotland is concerned.”

Although the station had a short life, as is often the case with such ventures, and was taken off the air in the 60s, Radio Scotland inspired a tribute station, which began broadcasting in the mid 70s.

Radio Scotland International, an independently run pirate station broadcasting to Europe from its base in Holland, started in 1975 and has been going ever since.

For around 20 months his modest little boat made huge waves and pulled Scotland into the "swinging sixties".

The first pic is Tommy Shields unveiling his pirate ship , the last is the stations first DJ Paul Young then, and as "Shug" in the BBC's Still Game.

[ladykailitha]

A Corroded Coffin Christmas ft The Fallen

Hello and welcome to my Christmas AUvent Calendar! Every day from now until the 24th I will be posting a ficlet that is 500-1500 from an AU I've done over the years.

All stories will be marked with the tag #12 aus of christmas so you can follow along as I will only be tagging my permanent list for this (it would get too confusing otherwise).

The next one on our list is: The Fallen verse. You can read the story here and it's sequels here and here. All links will be to the first chapter, but the chapter itself will have links to the rest of the story.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10

~

Steve reached over and put his hand on Simon’s knee as it was bouncing faster and faster the closer they got to the studio. He was nervous as fuck. Hell, they all were. Because apparently the perks of being the boyfriend for the lead singer of the biggest metal band in the world is getting his band to do a Christmas album with them.

It wasn’t going to be a full album, just about eight or so songs that would feature The Fallen in someway. Steve was really looking for to the absolute gay fest his version of “Santa Baby” was going to be.

Other songs would include “Jingle Bells”, “Carol of the Bells”, “Last Christmas”, “Better Do it Right”, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”, “I Saw Three Ships” (the duet version Barenaked Ladies did with Sarah McLaughlin), “Little Drummer Boy”, and “Christmas Day” for the feels.

It was going to be so much fun. Gareth and Spencer were going to do a drum off for “Better Do it Right” and Shane was going to really get to let lose on the metal cover of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. While Simon was going take over for Jeff in “Last Christmas”. Jeff couldn’t stand the song and didn’t want to have his ears bleed.

The car pulled up to the studio where they were led into the sound booth would be using. For the most part everyone would be going into different rooms and laying down their parts but would come together for the duet and Carol of the Bells where they would all be singing together.

Even Spence. Which he as super excited for. One secret that not even Eddie knew was that backup vocals weren’t sung by Asmodeus or Astraeus. But by Azrael. He had the best voice next to Steve and he loved that no one knew that but his friends and now Nadia.

They all gathered together in the green room with Bob, Chrissy, and Celeste all waiting for them. It appeared the Corroded Coffin boys weren’t there yet.

“Come on in!” Bob said brightly. “You can take your masks off for bit if you want, Eddie knows to knock before they come in.”

They all looked at each other and then all of them removed the masks with a sigh of relief. The masks were as comfortable as they could be but they were still masks.

They chatted for awhile, talking about the album and which songs they were excited to play. Everyone agreed it was Abbadon doing Santa Baby. Screw “Santa Buddy” for fuck’s sake.

Then there was a knock on the door and after they were given time to put the masks back, Corroded Coffin entered the room.

“Hey, guys!” Bob greeted brightly. “Come on in. I’m Bob Newby, I’m The Fallen’s music producer. Thank you for choosing me to do this with you!”

Jeff reached out and shook his hand. “We’ve heard nothing but things about you from the guys and couldn’t wait to get in the studio with you.”

“Yeah,” Gareth agreed. “It’s nice to put a face to the name.”

Then they all sat down and wrote down which order everyone would going in. And it was pretty much going to a full schedule for everyone for the next couple of weeks.

But they were all excited and couldn’t wait to get started.

Then the day came. The one everyone had been waiting for. The instrumentals had been laid and mixed weeks ago, but it was time for Steve to sing “Santa Baby”.

The little sound booth was crammed with everyone wanting to hear this. Both managers, Vickie their agent, and the seven other members of both bands all clustered behind Bob at the mixer.

Steve had his mask on, but rolled his shoulders as he started his vocal warm ups. He shook out his limbs and then grabbed the mic.

“Santa baby,” Abbadon crooned, “just slip a Jag under the tree for me. Been an awful good boy. Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight!”

Eddie melted on the spot. If the guys had been in the know, they would be making fun of him so hard right now. As it was, they all were under Abbadon’s spell.

“Santa baby, a ‘54 convertible too, light blue. I’ll wait up for you. Santa Baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight! Think of all the fun I’ve missed, think of all the fella’s that I haven’t kissed. Next year I could be just as good, if you check off my Christmas list.”

Steve continued to sing the whole song and the sound booth was going to crazy. Once he was done, The Fallen boys flooded the recording booth and dogpiled Abbadon, telling him how sick that was and that it was going to be a number one hit for sure.

Eddie didn’t doubt that for a moment. Abbadon coming out as bisexual and then two years later, singing that? Yeah. That song was going to be huge. They all walked out of the studio to a bright July evening, excited for the album to drop in December.

~

They were right, The Fallen were asked to sing “Santa Baby” on every morning talk show, late night show, and for the POPS! Christmas special.

Another one that made the POPS concert, which surprised everyone, was Gareth and Spence’s Little Drummer Boy. They credited the idea to Of King and Country, of course, but there was just something special about a metal version of it that drove the masses wild.

The final surprise off the album was people clamoring to know who the contra alto was in their version of “Carol of the Bells”. They wanted to know who the guest female vocalist was. Both The Fallen and Corroded Coffin burst out laughing every time the question was raised.

“All vocals were done by Corroded Coffin and The Fallen,” Bob said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “There was no female vocalist.”

Spence enjoyed every moment of the speculation.

When the album went platinum in two weeks, they threw a party with the two bands.

“Here’s to the best metal Christmas collab of all time!” Eddie toasted and everyone cheered.

Steve smiled, it was a very merry Christmas indeed.

~

Day 12

Tag List: CLOSED

1- @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog @sadisticaltarts @dolphincliffs

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @cryptid-system @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji @dreamercec @blondie1006

5- @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @genderless-spoon @fearieshadow @thesecondfate

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

[almaasi]

i was put here to vibe and so were they

@almaasi made this fun fanvid! Recommended and linked with permission. <3

[mecachrome]

your oscar primer was absolutely brilliant, thank you so much for posting it!! well-researched, well-written, and a good balance of educational and hilarious. if you want to share, i’d be very interested in reading any of the parts you mentioned that you cut out, like george-admiring, oscar’s psyche, etc, but no pressure ofc 🫶

omg no thank you so much for your kind words, i appreciate it a lot!!! :D andddd let me see... honestly i was just going to add a few more quotes & anecdotes from other people about his personality but i ended up incorporating most of them into the primer (e.g. mark's), but in general i think it's really charming how Every Single Adult who has ever worked with oscar throughout the years is so deeply and immediately convinced of his maturity. i did work in most of this old ask but it has a few extra quotes in there from mclaren personnel! anyway more below the cut:

i guess really the thing to Me about oscar is like...... idk if this makes any sense but i personally love how he's naturally a really gracious and diplomatic person but is also deeeeeply self-assured and objective, which on one hand means he presents as quite humble when he doesn't make excuses for himself or get caught up in deceptively high results, but on the other also means he refuses to give anyone else credit for his own success; if you remember me briefly mentioning prematax in that post he talks about it in the f1fs pod where he basically goes i didn't win because of PREMA, in fact i've NEVER LOST TO A TEAMMATE, SO. like any racing driver that is def a big source of pride for him, and i think it speaks to the "silent killer" (per lando) side to him, the guy who mark says "falls asleep" when hearing stories of his (championless) career, who said that he supported mark out of national obligation growing up but—let us not forget—vettel was the one winning everything back then anyway, who says he put even more pressure on himself to win his final race in f2 despite having clinched the title 2 races prior because he felt the innate urge to prove that he wouldn't simply ease off the gas pedal and still had it in himself to subjugate the field one last time.

along these lines oomf and i have discussed before how he and alex rank similarly on the kind/nice dichotomy in a way that is slightly diametric to lando, wherein he is always willing to offer tidy bits of sympathy for someone else's struggles but doesn't ever really envision any of them as relevant to his own experiences, because getting caught up in that "external noise" would be a waste of time (even with logan in the f3 finale it was honestly kind of like "aw man that sucks, i'd hate for it to be me... ANYWAY"). like not to maybe exaggerate his interiority but i enjoy that he carries an amount of hidden tension that he obviously consciously decides to not take reactionary measures over—though that doesn't mean it isn't there, it's just very well regulated (unrelated but he does actually work with mental coach emma murray, who also works with scott mclaughlin and whom he says helped him center himself at the end of his eurocup season). but he's still very... unfiltered about when he's been disrespected in an unperturbed, straightforward manner, like saying otmar confronting him on the sim over being promoted to the seat was "bizarre and frankly upsetting," the face he made when he was told they'd overtaken alpine in the standings in 2023, telling the kids in that hp tuners interview that the renault engineers treated his first f1 test too nonchalantly, etc. 😭 like every interview back when he was a reserve driver was soooo "i'm gracious about being stuck in this role but also i've proven myself way too much to Not Hate This Compromise and i'll be pissed as hell if i don't get a seat next year"... i'll stop here but basically he is truly a master of balancing gritted-teeth conviction with his tactical charm and it is one of my fav things ever about him!!!

also another quote i love is this one from david sera about his driving style, because 1) i love the correlation between it and his personality/calmness, 2) i'm obsessed with the dynamic of his early rc days helping nurture a style of "finesse" in his driving throughout his junior career that may not have appeared naturally if he'd only begun racing in karting (and subsequently how he had to learn to not get "muscled around" after moving to europe), and 3) of course as a noted jb22 appreciator i love when people note similarities in his inputs to jb because it is delicious to ME:

Coming from a remote control car background where concentration, finesse and smooth inputs, these were the traits we saw in Oscar in the cadet category. [...] You would often see other drivers have an advantage in the early part of the race, driving more aggressively, but Oscar had a more calm approach.

c__c but back to the first part of the ask and our good friend russell jorge, i'm mostly obsessed with oscar's reactions to his performance at the rollercoaster that was spa 2021 and the fact that he's been so vocally appreciate of george "outperforming" the car he was in. the 2 instances of the word HERO on his twitter:

and then this quote in an interview he did in 2022:

"[Success] is definitely not just defined by just world championships, and if you can outperform the car that you're in—I think George Russell has been a very fine example of that in years previous, you know, constantly getting the most out of that Williams and of course Spa. (laughs) Bit controversial, but he got a podium at the end of the day! And even without that, he qualified second, he outqualified everyone except Max in a Williams, which, you know, is an unbelievable result."

also george being the only f1 driver (i think) to tweet him for his f2 title :saluting_face:

AND ALSO THEM SHARING THE ANECDOTE OF THEIR AWKWARD FIRST MEETING ON THE FAST & CURIOUS POD??? aka oscar was told in his april 2023 ep that they were going to interview george next and he was like oh ok you can ask him about our "slightly left-field introduction," and then they had george on who was like oh yeah i met oscar for the first time washing our hands together in the bathroom on our way to the ausgp in 2020 😭 what a way to meet.

[coimbrabertone]

Indycar Left Me Pleasantly Surprised, and That Makes me Happy.

The weekend started on a rather negative note for Indycar, with Penske Entertainment CEO, for reasons nobody can quite understand, deciding to pick a fight with Pato O'Ward. Pato, an extremely popular driver hailing from Monterrey, Mexico, has pushed hard for Indycar to race internationally, particularly in Latin America. In response, Mark Miles said that Pato would need to be more popular to make that happen, that he's not as big as Adrian Fernandez was, that he isn't on billboards. Mark Miles finished off on a note that Pato's popularity was growing, but the damage was done.

That, combined with Indycar trying to ease expectations by saying they expected just 15,000 fans per day at the Milwaukee doubleheader, really put me into a pessimistic mood on Saturday morning.

I figured that the race was going to be an easy win for Penske based on how the other short ovals - Iowa and Gateway - have gone. So the best I was expecting was that it would be Scott McLaughlin instead of Will Power or Josef Newgarden.

Then, on top of everything else, we found out that Milwaukee lost its lights at some point since the 2000s, so if the Saturday evening race went too long, we were gonna be at risk of getting called for darkness.

It wasn't looking good.

But then...the race started.

Immediately Santino Ferrucci and especially Conor Daly made audacious passes around the outside, making the uppermost groove work through turns one and two.

Then on the backstretch, it almost turned into a pack racing type deal, where if you had to check up on the backstretch, you immediately lost momentum and you were at risk of getting passed. It was pass or be passed, and that made any start or restart scenario chaotic in the most entertaining way possible.

It was already looking racier than expected, and that was before the two properly old school things kicked in. One: there was actually lapped traffic to contend with, Milwaukee's a short track and there are big speed differentials, so it's not an Iowa type scenario where the backmarkers are as fast as the leaders. And two: the speed differential got bigger because there was actual tyre wear all weekend.

Fresh tyres were worth a second a lap, so we got to see things like drivers pitting early to get massive undercuts, backmarkers on fresh tyres carving through the leaders to get their lap back, and massive closing rates when drivers had a tyre offset in their favor (more on that when we talk about race two).

And to top it all off, we got drama!

Marcus Ericsson and Josef Newgarden, who did battle at the Indianapolis 500 in 2023, came together in turn two. Marcus was trying to send it up the inside of Josef, tried to keep it in the middle groove, and Josef tried to hang it around the outside to get the better exit onto the backstretch. Marcus put a wheel onto the black stuff on the side, spun out, and hit Josef backwards first, knocking the both of them out of the race.

This launched the final phase of the race, with Will Power leading a group of cars from midfield on a longer strategy, whilst Pato O'Ward led the main group on the undercut strategy. Pato pit on lap 186, Power cycled to the lead, but almost as soon as he did, Colton Herta lost a tyre and brought out the caution.

Power and Conor Daly had to pit under caution, Pato cycled to the lead, and the race restarted with a battle into the sunset stint. Pato tried to break away, Power used the strength of his Team Penske car to push through traffic, while Conor Daly used his 'round the outside strategy to make up ground, these three would be the top three.

Power closed in to Pato O'Ward in lapped traffic at one point, but Pato was able to get through and win the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 - Race One.

It was the perfect narrative, with Pato O'Ward's popularity being questioned in the morning, to see him come back and win from sixth? With the crowd erupting into cheers as he did so? It was perfect.

Because Pato is popular.

And despite all the negativity, when Indycar hits, it still hits.

Speaking of the crowd, it was also better than expected. Instead of the 15,000 that Penske Entertainment warned about, the ultimate crowd ended up being closer to 20,000.

That being said, with the race starting into the afternoon and getting to just about sunset - I think in the end, we got the race done twenty-five minutes ahead of the darkness call - there was a bit of a question mark over how the Sunday race in the heat of the day would be.

I was worried that the teams would figure out the pit cycle and we'd lose some of that chaos and some of that pace difference.

However, there was nothing to fear, because Sunday's race started out with chaos from the get-go.

First of all, we missed the initial start when championship leader Alex Palou failed to start with some sort of reliability issue. The championship got blown open at the penultimate race with none of us knowing whether or not Chip Ganassi Racing would manage to get him out again. They eventually did, with just a few more hiccups, and we got around to the proper start of the race, when we just got another dose of chaos!

The back of the field failed to bunch up for the start, so Indycar waved off the start. However, with the whole field anticipating a start and a lightboard flashing green even as the starter waved the yellow flag, we saw an incident.

Marcus Armstrong in third checked up and went to the middle, trying to avoid Josef Newgarden in first, but with his teammate Linus Lundqvist in third trying to get the jump, it would up being just the perfect angle for Lundqvist to spear Armstrong into Newgarden, wrecking against the inside wall.

And just like that, Josef Newgarden, the oval master, was out.

And attrition was back in force on Sunday, with Conor Daly, Nolan Siegel, Pato O'Ward, Linus Lundqvist, and Marcus Armstrong all retiring whilst Alex Palou scrapped for whatever points he could twenty-eight laps down.

Back up front, we saw the Penskes of Scott McLaughlin and Will Power jockeying for position whilst the other teams tried to get the jump on them. Alexander Rossi in the sole remaining Arrow McLaren did his best to replicate Pato's win, undercutting virtually every time, but more often than not, it seemed to drop him in heavy traffic, allowing Will Power and Scott McLaughlin to hold onto the lead.

Eventually, Scott got the jump on Will, and then Power blew the championship wide open again by spinning on a restart.

Power was able to continue, but he gave Palou a lifeline.

Meanwhile, Colton Herta and Scott Dixon changed strategies, saving a bit and trying to cut out a pitstop to make the track position play, succeeding and cycled around twelve seconds off the lead.

And Scott McLaughlin was flying, making up multiple seconds a lap, swallowing up Dixon and eventually, taking the lead off of Colton Herta. However, Alexander Rossi stopped later than McLaughlin and head even fresher tyres now, so he was the fastest of them all, having passed Dixon, and now starting work on Colton Herta for second. At the same time, Herta was stabilizing a bit, gaining every once in awhile as Scott struggled with traffic.

We had a race on our hands.

And then Sting Ray Robb brought out the caution, bringing the leaders into pitlane again. Nobody had fresh tyres at this point though, so they switched to whatever tyres they had access to. Here, Alexander Rossi's crew got the jump on Herta, cycling into second.

It was going to be Scott McLaughlin in first, Alexander Rossi second, Colton Herta third, and Scott Dixon fourth.

However, Alexander Rossi spun up the tyres on the start, used up all the life left in his tyres, and lost out on the restart. This bunched up Herta and Dixon, with Scott eventually moving into second, ahead of them both.

It was now going to be a battle of the Kiwi Scotts, and before the race was over, they caught lapped traffic again.

Dixon gained big, but McLaughlin just managed to hold him off.

McLaughlin won for Team Penske, another Penske win on a short oval, but the way it happened...nobody was gonna complain about that.

Two popular winners on two different races, but both were great.

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting Milwaukee to be this good.

As an Indycar fan, after like two straight years of underwhelming news, it feels so good to be pleasantly surprising by the series. It feels so good for a weekend to go better than expected.

And attendance was even better on the second day, at just over 20,000 for a total weekend attendance of right around 40,000. A whole ten thousand better than expected. Life's good.

Elsewhere, tyre pace differences seemed to be the theme of the weekend.

New tyres were king at Darlington with Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch using them to battle for the win in the closing laps, with Briscoe just managing to pull off the win for the closing Stewart-Haas Racing team. He clinched a playoff spot, at the expense of Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace who battled hard for the last spot on points, hoping and praying for a repeat winner up front.

At Monza, Charles Leclerc on worn tyres from a one stop just managed to hold off Oscar Piastri on fresh tyres. As much as I was disappointed in McLaren squandering a 1-2, I can't complain about seeing Leclerc win at Monza.

And in MotoGP, Marc Marquez was the only one who could master a tricky repaved MotorLand Aragon circuit, dominating both the sprint and the race. Meanwhile, in the race, we saw championship implications as Alex Marquez slipped wide in the marbles, swerved to rejoin the racing like, and wound up hooking the bike of championship leader Pecco Bagnaia.

This allowed Jorge Martin in second to snatch the championship lead, mere weeks after he lost it to Bagnaia.

Tyre wear makes for great racing, huh?

Shame that, most of the time, tyre manufacturers don't want to see their tyres wearing out and potentially blowing. It makes for a better spectacle, but it doesn't make for as good of a marketing piece for Goodyear...or Michelin...or Firestone...or Pirelli...or whoever your tyre manufacturer of choice is.