[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4WO9Ev_0VM[/youtube]
It’s a nice change of pace to be able to just bullshit with you readers for a week or two. No more races to recap, no engine blowups to shame Renault with, no whining to cover. Well, there is whining to cover, but that’s not what this column is about dear reader. This column is about loving this sport, not about parading all of the doom and gloom that the F1 news purveyors so love to show off. No, this is the F1 feature that starts with a video about Puppets, and a glimpse into the Japanese fan’s devotion to the sport. If you have ever seen Senna, you are already aware of some of the Japanese’s F1 proclivities.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeYUSRhoFws&spfreload=10[/youtube]
This week, I wanted to discuss my personal history with F1. Getting to write about this wonderful sport that I love so much has been a bit of a dream come true for me, so I figured I would share why I am so involved with F1. Flashback to 1996, Damon Hill won for Williams, and yours truly graced the Earth with his presence. Some of my earliest memories are of watching F1 with my parentals, who have always watched the sport with varying levels of commitment, due to tv deals and the like. You could say that I was kind of destined to love Formula 1, even before I was born. Sunday mornings for a very long time were a ritual of getting up early with my father, cheering along the lesser Schumacher brother usually, as we were not a Ferrari household. The culmination of this was my father taking me to see the 2001 USGP at Indy. Hearing the roar of the cars in person is a noise I always have in the back of my mind, ready to dig up all of these years later.
Fast forward a few years and I had fallen out of love with F1, and cars in general. As a family, we would catch races every now and then as they appeared on the main channels, usually Monaco, or Montreal, but as 2012 was coming closer, I told my dad I wanted to get back into F1. I figured, living in Houston, that the family could go to COTA for the first USGP in five years. My father thought this was a brilliant idea, and together we sat, watching every session we could together.
I instantly fell in love with McLaren’s silver and red cars, remembering Mika, David, and Kimi from my first foray into the sport. As I cheered Jenson Button on to the win in that first race, everything flooded back. That first season back ended up being the most amazing racing I still have ever seen, and I was stuck. Even after I have moved out onto my own in Austin, I still call my father to talk about the F1 every race weekend. And he has been here, on Hooniverse reading my work, cheering me along, and seeing me grow as a writer. My mother is just as supportive, and she keeps up with the drivers and news along with me, so I will always get texts from her asking if I have seen certain articles, and her asking for a shoutout here. (PS: Here you go mom, love you.)
Now, it’s 2015, and we approach the Canadian Grand Prix, where I will be attending with my parents, the two people that I can thank for all of this. So, I suggest you all, try to watch a race, or an F1 movie with your family. See if you can make this wonderful sport into something that you all enjoy. Until next week, keep on driving.