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Category:
General Nonsense
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. It’s ‘amusing American name’ weekend, and today we have IndyCar driver Buddy Rice. Don’t think about it, just enjoy it.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. It’s unreasonable to expect anyone to have a surname that’s just a first name with ‘o’ on the end. But that’s what bike racer Roby Rolfo – Roby is more fun than Roberto – has. Alliteration is the cherry on a particularly lovely cake of a name.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. It’s another family contest, and one in which there is a clear winner: 125cc rider Pol Espargaro beats his 250cc brother Aleix hands down. Yet again it’s a Spanish surname doing most of the work, but Pol sets it up perfectly: it starts quickly, climaxing with a rapid final three syllables.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. I was always going to include someone along the lines of Timo Rautiainen, and in Marcus Gronholm’s brother-in-law and more relevantly WRC co-driver, I think I’ve chosen the best. I’d considered Kimi Raikkonen, Mikko Hirvonen, Mika Hakkinen – and Heikki Kovalainen definitely came close. But Rautiainen is such a wonderfully formed surname, it just couldn’t be beaten.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. Nani Roma is possibly the most obviously good motorsport name – because it’s just so odd – but not necessarily the best. As a name, it was partly responsible for piquing my interest in the Dakar – and that’s pretty good for nowt more than a string of letters. It’s a bit disappointing in a way though, as his real name is Joan Roma Cararach. But to be fair, that would probably find a place in the Good Name Advent Calendar anyway.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. I’m going to put A. J. Allmendinger in bold, because that’s how he known in IndyCar and NASCAR, but I’m not sure whether I prefer his full name: Anthony James Allmendinger. I’m going to stick with the initials though – they add to the overall American flavour. Then there’s the surname, and anything with ‘ding’ in it is going to get bonus points in my book.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. ‘Best in family’ weekend continues – and for that matter concludes – with Fonsi Nieto. His full first name is actually Alfonso, but it’s emphatically because of Fonsi that he is here. His family is full of bike racers: Angel Nieto is his uncle, and Pablo Nieto his cousin – but they’ve got nothing on Fonsi, in good name terms at least.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. It’s ‘best in family’ weekend, starting with touring car stalwart Jordi Gene. I’d not previously put two and two together and realised that he is the older brother of Formula 1 test driver Marc Gene. Their parents had evidently run out of good names by the time Marc was born.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. Scott Speed and his daft name provides this week’s Friday fun, despite being a very irritating driver. But for having the surname Speed – and there’s alliteration to boot – he simply has to be included somewhere in the Good Name Advent Calendar. And as far as I can tell, it is his real name.
Celebrating advent with motorsport’s best names. Obviously. We venture to Turkey today, to meet 2007 Supersport World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu – a couple of interesting names which can’t help but catch your attention. His two brothers were also motorcycle racers, but died young. There will be more families of good names this weekend.
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