Nascar and Racing Formula One

The FIA is an organization best known for being the governing body of Formula One racing. The FIA's president, Max Mosley, had been known to organize social activities for strange fascist parties during his teen years.

Mr. Mosley has grown up since then but his odd tendencies have continued. Now, at the ripe old age of 67, Max is shocking the auto world for organizing another kind of social activity: a Nazi-style orgy.

Mr Mosley was caught on video by the News of the World with five women in an underground "torture chamber" in Chelsea, where he spent several hours allegedly indulging in sado-masochistic sex.

The Oxford-educated former barrister, who is president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), reenacted a concentration camp scene in which he played the role of both guard and inmate.

It is believed Mosley whipped the prostitutes and submitted himself to "humiliating" acts. Not surprisingly, Jewish activist groups are outraged. Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, called the acts "sick and depraved."

All Your Motorsports Belong to Michael Schumacher. The legendary open-wheel driver, now retired from Formula One, has taken to dominating motorbikes just to have a laugh. This weekend in Hungary, Schumacher came in third in his professional debut. Of course, getting advice from former racing friends certainly helped, but we give Schumacher credit for still being modest enough to be nervous before the race, not that four-wheeled racers offer much more protection at 200 mph.

(HT: Thelocal.de)

Switzerland always did strike us as one of those countries only wealthy people know about. Its an international playground of mystery where the laws know no bounds, the beer flows like wine, and you can pick up Italian racing cars tax free. Not surprisingly, F1-sales.com is offering duty-free purchases through the Zurich airport.

Really curious how that conversation would go, "Yes, I'll take a carton of Parliament, a fifth of Grey Goose, and a '93 Benetton chassis No. 04." While still rather expensive (at least six figures American), we fail to find the sticker shock. We'd have thought such high performance vehicles, even 15 years out, would have to be worth millions of dollars in precision automobile components. Maybe it's the sweet tax break.

(HT: Stuff.co.nz)

In a twist, French police were on the other side of surrender this weekend. Rising open-wheel star Lewis Hamiltion, 22, was pulled over in Laon Sunday for going 122mph in his private Mercedes. The area speed limit was a more conservative 85mph, and Das FanHaus would have liked to see some wiggle room in the strict interpretation of the traffic code.

Topping 120 in an 85 converts to like doing 65 in a 55 out here, and that's basically just keeping up with the pack. I'm sure there were a bunch of minivans and mopeds or what have you whizzing by le radar gun, but poor Lewis was targeted for his flashy German ride. We've seen it a hundred times ourselves. You're whizzing down Champs Mc Champs at a brisk pace and then WHAM! speed trap behind the baguette stand.

Hamilton must pay a €600 fine and have his license suspended for one month in France. In our opinion, his best bet is to challenge the ruling one region at a time. Start with the Rhineland and work your way in.

(HT: BBC News)

Michael Schumacher retired from Formula One in 2006 after a glorious career that left him peerless in the sport of open-wheel racing. How does the almost stereotypical European racecar wunderkind spend his days now? Apparently, its doing his best damn impression of Jack Bauer in the streets of Coburg, Germany.

Schumacher, 38, flew into the aerodrome at the Bavarian town of Coburg on Saturday and took a taxi to the village of Gehuelz, 30 kilometres away, to pick up a new puppy - an Australian Shepherd dog called "Ed". But when the former Formula One ace, plus his wife and two children, caught a taxi back to the airport they were short on time and, after a polite request, cab driver Tuncer Yilmaz watched in wonder as Schumacher took the wheel

We can just see him now, Nokia in hand exiting the airport, some kind of German Chloe on the other line bungling up the puppy information, and Schumacher screaming "THERE'S NO TIME!" Next thing you know, a nearby motortaxi is commandeered using nothing more than an ID card saying "I'm Michael !@#!$ing Schumacher," and the family is whipping around the Fatherland at French Connection speeds. Suffice to say, the family got their new puppy, and the taxi driver was tipped 100 Euros for the privilege of almost soiling himself several times on the trip.

(H/T: AFP and Yahoo Sports)

Another hurdle has been placed in the way of Das FanHaus finally getting those rocket cars we always wanted. FIA's World Motor Sport Council passed a freeze on all engine development by March 31st, 2008. The authority ruled that the current engines, already partially frozen, were very close competitively, and that a full freeze would be beneficial to the sport. Parity and relative lack of further improvement were cited as the main reasons for the rule change.

Das FanHaus remains steadfast in its resolve to deliver rocket propelled open-wheel racing by 2017, and we warn our neighbors to be mindful of the alley between 1 and 3 am on weekdays.

(H/T: Jalopnik)

Das FanHaus is certainly not one to indulge in pointless celebrity gossip, or endorse things of this nature as actual news, but Helio Castroneves is an accomplished racing car driver and now a champion ballroom dancer, and these things fall squarely into our domain. Combine this with the ongoing saga of whether or not he is practiced the bedroom type moves on his partner, 19-year-old, Julianne Hough. Normally, this type of journalistic integrity remains firmly in the pages of People, US Weekly, and OMG! at Yahoo!, but Das FanHaus has a sworn duty to uphold the rules and regulations of randomness associated with the world of world sports. This definitely includes the overexposed exploits of open wheel racers and the accompanying pictures of their barely legal conquests.

Rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton has stolen plenty of limelight from his fellow teammate and defending F1 champ Fernando Alonso this season, and Saturday, Formula One's sanctioning gave him the pole for Sunday morning's (in the States, 7:30am/ET) Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso will be moved from his starting spot on the point to 6th on the grid, slotting Hamilton into the pole, due to FIA saying Alonso and his team were involved in actions "considered prejudicial to the interests of the competition and to the interests of motor sport generally."

Wait, FIA has rules against that?

The penalty in starting position is huge in F1 and Alonso will only be scored for driver points, with none applied to the constructor's championship.

At last week's Gran Prix 2 race, Ernesto Viso very nearly exited the world of Gran Prix racing before he ever entered it in a mind-bending crash at the French Gran Prix 2. Productivity warning: you will have to show this to a co-worker, who will have to show it to a co-worker, who will...you get the point. Watch it anyway.

The race gets off to a disastrous start when the two lead cars collide seconds after the starting light. Shortly afterwards, Viso's car turns into a plane.

Viso suffered--wow--no injuries in the crash. Neither did the race marshals nearly decapitated by the flying car, though understandably one did have to be treated for shock, and presumably given a new pair of pants, as well.

Add Forbes magazine to the list of those who don't count NASCAR drivers as athletes. Or celebrities.

On Friday, the business magazine released The World's Most Powerful Celebrities, its annual list of the world's most powerful--and best-paid--celebrities.

While former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher and his successor Kimi Raikkonen made the list, there's not a single NASCAR driver on the list. Granted, they have higher incomes, but ...

To generate the list, Forbes "analyzes celebrity earnings, plus media metrics like Google hits, press mentions as compiled by Lexis/Nexis, TV/radio mentions from Factiva and the number of times an A-lister appears on the cover of 32 major consumer magazines."

I find it extremely difficult to believe that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was not among the celebrities topping the media metrics.

He made one of the biggest announcements in the sport's history this year and was reported in more mainstream news outlets than probably any NASCAR story since his father's death in 2001. There has been no shortage of media coverage.

There was also the little matter of him announcing that he had this girl he was seeing back in January, which I can personally attest led to thousands of searches for "dale earnahrdt jr. girlfriend" that led inquirers to the Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Girlfriend category on Answer this...

Not to mention Junior's estimated $20M annual income, which dwarfs several celeb on the list, including IRL driver Danica Patrick, whose annual income Forbes reports as $4M. Is it even comprehensible that she's on the list and Junior is not?

And the Food Network's "queen of southern cuisine and home-cooking" is on the list at #99. Cooking with Paua Deen. Hmmmph. How about Hallucinating with Forbes? I want some of what they're on.

What up, Forbes?

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