Bubble Drivers: A
♪ I'm, uh, I'm still alive ♪
Well, I’m starting to overcome my fears I guess. I had a string of drug reactions to almost every antibiotic when I was a child. I also watched my mom have numerous drug reactions including stopping breathing once. Her brother also had complications from a colonoscopy where I believe he contracted C. diff and as I recall, that eventually triggered the chain of events that eventually led to his death, so I was terrified. However, perhaps I shouldn’t have been. For all everyone talks about how awful the prep is, it didn’t seem that awful to me. I was worried given my history of gagging unfamiliar substances due to my ARFID that I would vomit the laxative solution all over the place, but it was diluted enough that it pretty much just tasted like water. I could taste the laxative in there but I didn’t gag it. I wouldn’t even say it was the worst diarrhea in my life. Sure, I went more times than I ever had before but it was less painful than many of my other poops and also the average amount that came out each time was less than in some of my more painful ones. I was really terrified about the sedation and catastrophizing that that would result in complications so I originally asked to do it without sedation. The doctor told me that I didn’t want to do it without sedation because of how painful it was. After I originally started without, I decided that I wasn’t brave enough to handle the pain and I was knocked out. It wasn’t quite “the best sleep of my life” like they said it would be, but it was fine. After blowing off my previous colonoscopy in 2018, I actually built up more trust towards doctors than I thought I would having seen how much my mom was abused by doctors in my childhood. Since Mom has been in the nursing home, I suppose I’ve grown up and conquered some of my fears in other ways too. She never wanted me to walk across Taft Road, the four-lane road that marks the southern boundary of North Syracuse. I’ve now done it all the time over the past few months and it was no big deal. I also think I’ve done better at being more chill and developing a kind of Zen state. Not like I specifically meditate or anything, but I don’t think I’m stressing myself out as much even in extremely stressful situations.
Although I won’t know the results of my colonoscopy for a couple weeks, I did receive a preliminary report before I left and the doctor thinks right now that all I have are hemorrhoids (which were inactive). I was still somewhat freaking out about cancer because I do have an unexplained spot or two on my skin and that is probably the next thing I will have looked at. Although I had a bit of rib pain yesterday (the day after colonoscopy), I honestly think I’m feeling a little better afterward, maybe because forty years of pizza grease has been expunged from my system. I know this would be a great opportunity for me for learning how to eat and not gag Real Food after my all carbs ‘n’ Soylent diet, but I also know that I probably won’t.
Susan Mintonye, my mom’s roommate in the nursing home, died on Sunday. We had built up quite a rapport and I’ve been so isolated for decades now that I probably saw her more than anyone except my mom in the last decade. When I came to visit Mom, I helped her too and would sometimes lift her into bed or her wheelchair, push her into the bathroom, wheel her to the cafeteria, call a nurse for her, and the like. One time, she even tried to have me help her escape. Because she slightly resembled my mom’s old home health aide Marijean Ackerson, Mom kept calling her Marijean. Until I got to know her better, for some reason, I was accidentally calling her Nancy. She was one of the main people who encouraged me to go through with the colonoscopy by allaying my fears and telling me it wasn’t as big a deal as I was making it. She tended to have the TV on all day and mainly watched a variety of game shows, westerns, Law and Order, Perry Mason, and Murder: She Wrote. One of her quirks was that she always thought it was suppertime at 4:00 so she’d have me wheel her to the cafeteria before I left to catch the 4:29 bus even though I knew they didn’t serve dinner until 5:30. After they took her to the hospital, my mom told me that she had died. When I checked to confirm with the nurses, they laughed and said she was still in the hospital. When I came back on Monday, I saw that her nametag had been removed from the door. I asked them again if she had died, and they said they couldn’t tell me. Obviously, at that point I knew, but I’m glad they found a way of telling me without actually telling me. I’m definitely gonna miss her.
As for my mom, she was supposed to have a meeting on Tuesday to determine whether she would be released from the nursing home. I was originally told it would be Tuesday (the day before my colonoscopy), so I went in, but then I was told that the letter I received was a mistake and it would actually be on Thursday. So I (perhaps unwisely) came in on Thursday even though I probably should have been resting after the colonoscopy, but while I was there I was told that the social worker was on vacation so now that meeting wouldn’t be until next week. I’ve got to say they’re being really officious, but I’m going to keep fighting for her to be able to come home.
Now that I’m back, I’ve got to catch up on my paid work. One of the things about almost all the jobs I’ve ever had being work-from-home independent contractor jobs is that you’ve really got to be proactive in asking for work and getting new assignments if you don’t have an explicit week-to-week schedule, and I struggle with that sometimes. To be honest, if it were just me, I think I’d rather work in an office just to have more people in my life in the long run. But for now, I acknowledge that piecing together my three work-from-home jobs that I can theoretically do anytime does better accommodate my being able to visit my mom, my bowel issues, and my work on this project. And I’m learning stuff too especially in my tech job. Although I haven’t learned the programming languages yet, I’ve been running my first Python scripts and spending some time in the Linux command line. I finally feel like a real nerd again instead of a failed one.
Speaking of, I’ve mentioned a couple places that a couple months ago, I was contacted by a film executive who was potentially interested in adapting Nerds per Minute into an Amazon Prime documentary. I don’t know whether I’m being scammed or not (I think it’s more likely that I am), but they were talking about a life-changing amount of money if it got picked up by the funders. I would need to send them a PDF copy of the book (fine) and an author’s statement/bio (sure), but the problem is that I’d need to produce a cinematic trailer to pitch the funders and I have no idea who I would get to possibly make it. I knew there was a film studio in Syracuse, American High, which bought a high school and film lots of movies there. It’s like only 5 or 8 miles from my house, so I walked over there a week ago Monday and talked to a guy there. He said he didn’t know much about that, but he recommended one of his colleagues who recommended someone else. After I mentioned my typing, the guy who I originally talked to said he might be interested in putting me in a video, and the person I last talked to already knew who I was because one of her friends was trying to improve at typing and apparently shared the Ultimate Typing Championship video with her. I seem to have built up a rapport with those people as well, so it’s possible something might happen with that. I still think I’m more likely being scammed by the film executive, but I haven’t spent any money on this yet, so why not see if something happens here? It would be cool, even though that definitely feels like a total pipe dream.
For the rest of the year, I would like to go through all the remaining drivers on my Bubble list so I pretty much have nailed down who will make my 1,000 Greatest Drivers list by the end of the year. Specifically, I want to know how many cumulative points a driver needs to make it on the list. It could be anywhere around 13-16. I’m not really sure. Will I inevitably make changes to that? Sure. I’ll probably push some drivers in this range slightly up or down if there are some specific drivers I want to make the list by gut instinct or whatever. This especially holds true for the sports car and rally drivers, because it’s a pain in the ass determining which driver on a multi-driver sports car team is doing most of the work and I just generally know less about rallying than most other forms to begin with, but maybe that won’t be the case if I ever finish my rally drivers’ model. Since at the moment, I think the bubble is 14 points, this means I have decided (for the moment) to move Tony Adamowicz, Jeff Allam, Jürgen Alzen, Julien Andlauer, and Marco Apicella off the bubble (Adamowicz and Apicella ended up not even being close in my estimation). These drivers are a lot more obscure than most of those I have already gone through because I’ve already covered all the F1/IndyCar/NASCAR Cup Series winners so this means for the most part, these are either drivers who dominated minor league series or second-tier drivers in less famous major league series; Alex Albon is arguably the only household name. Nonetheless, I’ve decided I want to go through these drivers instead of the locks so I can pretty much have the list done by the end of the year, then I can focus on writing the remaining columns, completing the rally model, and a few other things.
Nonetheless, the definite focus is on my mom and my other work now, so I’m going to be going a little slower on these posts now. From this point, I think I’m going to do two columns a week for the rest of the year, one for each letter of the alphabet. Here are all the Bubble drivers I had not gone through with last names starting in A. Next week will be B and C and so on, and I should finish this around November to prepare my top 200 lists. I probably won’t write any full individual driver posts for the rest of the year, but I might choose to write about the drivers who are locks on my list who died this year who I haven’t gone through yet like Rex White. Here is my first post.
Átila Abreu
2010: C
2011: C
2012: C+
2014: E-
2015: C-
2016: C-
2017: C
2018: C
2019: C-
Cumulative points: 19
Abreu won 19 races in Stock Car Brasil (now Stock Car Pro) but wasn’t much of a title contender. Nonetheless, he led Stock Car Brasil drivers in my model in 2014 and beat his teammates in points every year from 2009-2022, so I think it’s a yes.
Christian Abt
1996: C+
1998: C+
1999: E-
2001: C
2002: C
2005: C+
Cumulative points: 18
The father of Formula E winner Daniel, Abt won the very prestigious Super Tourenwagen Cup touring car title in 1999, but I denied him the full E because an appeals court gave him his title back after he lost the points lead when he was wrecked in the season finale (lol). He only had one major touring car win besides that in DTM in 2001, but he was highly rated in my model in enough other seasons that I’m still leaning yes.
Jonny Adam
2005: C-
2007: C-
2009: C-
2011: C-
2013: C
2015: C+
2016: C
2017: C
2018: C+
2019: E-
2020: C-
Cumulative points: 22
Adam is the only driver to win four British GT titles. He also crossed over to win a bunch of other sports car races in more international series from 2017-2021.
Tony Adamowicz
1968: C
1969: C+
Cumulative points: 5
I rated him highly based on reputation, then dug deeper into his career and realized I was wrong. Although I admire his 1969 Formula 5000 title season, he only barely beat Sam Posey and David Hobbs, who are better known as announcers. His nine Trans-Am class wins are a lot, but he never competed in Mark Donohue’s class. Finally, he won seven IMSA races from 1979-1983, but I give Don Devendorf almost all the credit since Devendorf had a lot of solo wins (eight in 1979), but Adamowicz never had a solo win without Devendorf.
Andrea Aghini
1992: C+
1995: E-
1997: C
1998: C
1999: C
Cumulative points: 14
Despite never being a WRC full-timer, Aghini won both the Italian Rally and the Race of Champions in 1992, pretty much matched Tommi Mäkinen in 1995 the year before his run of four straight WRC titles, and won the Italian Rally Championship in both 1998 and 1999.
Alex Albon
2019: C-
2020: C-
2022: C
2023: C+
2024: C
Cumulative points: 12
I used to think Albon was a joke (particularly after his 2021 DTM season when he got waxed by a 19-year-old Liam Lawson), but he proved me wrong at Williams. He’s beating Carlos Sainz, Jr. badly enough this season that it’s probably an E-, which will put him on the right side of the bubble.
Darrell Alderman
1989: C-
1990: E-
1991: E
1994: E-
1995: C-
Cumulative points: 22
Although some might scoff at my considering NHRA drivers at all, if I’m going to do it, his three Pro Stock titles in 1990, 1991, and 1994, including a massive 11-win title season in 1991, seem like just enough for me.
Jeff Allam
1978: C
1979: C
1980: C-
1981: C
1982: C+
1986: C-
1992: C
Cumulative points: 13
Allam has seventeen overall British Saloon/Touring Car Championship wins and two more in class. However, the problems are that he never finished better than fourth in points, he only won one class championship, he has a lousy touring car rating (-.067), and I generally think the competition was pretty shallow while he was there. I also have to consider the fact that their races are usually twenty-minute scrimmages. I think it’s a no.
Jürgen Alzen
1995: C-
1997: C
1998: C
2001: C
2002: C
2003: C-
Cumulative points: 10
Alzen is second all-time with 29 wins in VLN (the sports car series that only competes at the Nürburgring), only one behind record-holder Olaf Manthey. The problem for me is that VLN was essentially a support series for the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, which is probably more important than all the VLN races put together. Since Alzen only has a single class win and no overall wins in the 24 Hours, I don’t think it’s enough.
Ove Andersson
1967: C
1971: E
1973: C-
1975: C
Cumulative points: 15
Andersson was the dominant rally driver of 1971 with four wins in the pre-WRC International Championship for Manufacturers including the Monte Carlo Rally, but there wasn’t a drivers’ championship that year. He did later win one WRC event in 1975.
Julien Andlauer
2017: C
2018: C+
2019: C+
2023: C
Cumulative points: 10
I think Andlauer is a lot more talented than this based on his Porsche Supercup/Porsche Carrera Cup performances. However, while the talent is there, the record isn’t yet. Right now, he feels like a fairly wasted sports car talent akin to what Mike Bliss was in NASCAR.
Marco Apicella
1989: C-
1991: C-
1993: C
1994: C+
Cumulative points: 7
A 1994 champion in Japanese F3000 (the forerunner to today’s Super Formula), I overrated him because he had a very high rating in my open wheel model, but he had a short run with only five Japanese F3000 wins and one Super GT win and hardly any of his teammates were any good.
Sam Ard
1972: C
1973: C-
1978: C-
1979: C+
1980: C
1981: C
1982: C
1983: E-
1984: C+
Cumulative points: 21
Ard is hard because I don’t know how many Late Model Sportsman wins he had in the pre-Busch years, so I’m just going by the current listed win counts on the Third Turn. For this era, I’ve decided to give Late Model Sportsman seasons with 5-9 wins a C-, 10-19 wins a C, and 20 or more a C+. I gave him one elite season for his 10-win Busch season because he also won the NASCAR Weekly Series Mid-Atlantic championship and 16 races in that series that year.
Art Arfons
1964: E
1965: E-
Cumulative points: 15
Craig Breedlove’s chief rival in the quest for the world land speed record in the ‘60s, I’ve decided to award post-war drivers in this discipline an E if they set the world land speed record twice in a year and E- if they do so once, which is exactly what I did for Breedlove. However, Breedlove set five world records and Arfons only set three.
Lucas Auer
2014: C-
2016: C-
2017: E-
2018: C+
2021: C
2022: C+
Cumulative points: 15
Auer is the current DTM points leader. If he wins that title, he’ll probably be an E and ascend to lock status. Maybe I was a little harsh not to rate him last year when he won the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup title, but he was co-driving with Maro Engel, who finished 3rd in DTM points to Auer’s 10th, so I assumed Engel was doing the lion’s share of the work.
Oscar Raúl Aventin
1979: C-
1980: C
1981: C-
1982: C
1989: C
1991: C+
1992: C
1993: C
Cumulative points: 15
Aventin won 24 races in the Argentine Turismo Carretera championship as well as the 1991 and 1992 titles, but that doesn’t seem to be a great era for competition in the series. I docked him a little because unlike many of his Argentine peers, he didn’t compete in the other top-tier series like TC2000 or even Turismo Nacional simultaneously.
Soheil Ayari
1997: C-
1998: C-
2002: C
2003: C-
2004: C+
2005: C+
2006: C
2007: C+
2011: C
Cumulative points: 18
Ayari won three French touring car titles in 2002, 2004, and 2005 but the series wasn’t that competitive. He then won back-to-back French GT titles in 2006 and 2007, a European Le Mans Series title also in 2007, and the International GT Open in 2011. I might be underrating him, but he isn’t in my touring car model so I’m not as familiar with him as I probably should be.