San Francisco’s Marina Boulevard was turned into a demo racetrack Saturday as a Formula 1 car and other vehicles raced along the waterfront for a brief eight-tenths-of-a-mile stretch, drawing around 50,000 spectators who reportedly trashed the Marina District on their way out.

As KRON4 reports, the Red Bull-sponsored Formula One demonstration took over the Marina District Saturday afternoon for San Francisco's first such event of its kind. Around 50,000 fans reportedly showed up to watch the spectacle, which featured a branded Ford Raptor T1+ rally racer, a multi-million dollar F1 car, and other high-performance vehicles speeding along the short stretch of Marina Boulevard between Buchanan and Baker streets, which was closed to traffic from 3 am to 10 pm Saturday, as SFGate reported.

KTVU spoke to some of the spectators. "A bunch of drivers were doing crazy things like wheelies and driving with their feet off and standing up," said Avi Singh of San Jose.

"I love it. I think it's fun to have so many people around. People are excited. It's bringing people from all across the city and the Bay Area," said Stephanie Lo of San Francisco.

As SFGate reported, Red Bull’s test and reserve driver, Yuki Tsunoda (featured in the below clip) of Netflix’s Drive to Survive fame, took part in the event, along with local driver Scott Speed, off-road racer Mitch Guthrie, and freestyle motocross rider Aaron Colton.

KRON4 reports that Speed’s car ran into the barrier at one point, causing the barrier to hit the fence surrounding the crowd, which can be seen in the below video clip. A couple spectators reportedly felt the impact, including a girl who can be seen with a small cut on her knee in the clip.

Additionally, per KTVU, Tsonoda’s car caught fire during the grand finale, but he was uninjured.

Naturally, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie declared on social media he had good time at the event.

“Maybe one of my most thrilling events as mayor was driving down Marina Green for the Red Bull Showrun,” Lurie said. “It was an incredible event that brought 50,000 people to our waterfront—and our city showed out. The energy in our city was on full display. Let’s go, San Francisco!”

As the SF Standard reports, the aftermath of the event was perhaps even more of a spectacle. The neighborhood group chat was reportedly lighting up residents’ phones with ongoing reports detailing the chaos, including piles of litter, broken windows, smashed planters, attempted break-ins, and public urination.

“It was chaos,” Patrick Souris told the Standard. “It was terrible.”

Neighbors also noted the lack of police presence, and the officers in attendance were reportedly “just sitting there chilling.”

The Standard is reportedly still waiting for comment from the event’s organizers. The San Francisco Police Department said its Northern Police District Station did respond to calls Saturday, but no further details were provided.

Image: Oracle Red Bull Racing/Facebook

Aside from bed and couch, there are no optimal places to be very hungover. However, there are some locations that will make matters worse: the backseat of your parent’s car, for instance, or while babysitting your nephews at Great America under the heat of the midday sun. However, sitting aboard a smallish cabin cruiser that’s rocking side-to-side on the Bay has got to be up there. And yet that was where I found myself on Saturday morning, gasping for fresh air on the crowded bow of The Princess while our unflappable Kiwi race MC reiterated over the intercom just how very, very excited he was indeed for the races to begin.

Here is what this whole America’s Cup deal looks like, to someone who has not watched a single race or kept much track of wins, losses and general stakes beyond a casual appreciation of the Luna Rossa team’s jaunty track jackets (come back, Italians!). As a privileged spectator, I got to set sail from the Emirates New Zealand team’s compound on Pier 32, but not before browsing through a couple cavernous hangars and a besponsored lounge area, where the coffee was piping hot and the elegant Emirates flight attendants in fabulous hats stood about, ostensibly in case you needed help with your seat belt and tray table.

We were then herded onto The Empress or, on our case, The Princess, which I imagined to be slightly smaller than her counterpart and immediately developed a fierce us-against-them attitude about. Filled to the brim with mostly enthusiastic Kiwis and a contingent of preppy Frenchmen, we motored off onto the Bay, soon passing within spitting distance of an ostentatious mega-yacht courtesy of the man himself. Larry Ellison's Musashi is absurdly huge, with multiple layers of gleaming whitewashed decks and railings that evoke wishful thoughts of a Jason Bourne hit (“For chrissake, you’re the one who picked the yacht as a goddamn strike point!”). The sighting of the yacht, devoid of visible passengers, brought up some uncomfortable realities about this America’s Cup: insanely expensive and relatively inaccessible to the common person (Sportscenter won’t touch the stuff), who and what is the America’s Cup even for, exactly? Was this entire clusterfuck simply another Musashi, a gilded prize in the hands of the super rich Ellison, to be enjoyed only by your more boat-nerdy friends? Why had I decided to spend four hours onboard a ship that seemed to be actively trying to get me to puke overboard, when I could be lying very still in a darkened room? And how the hell had I managed to forget my sunglasses?

In the midst of this existential murk, the AC72s sped out onto the Bay. To call the wing-sail catamarans birdlike would imply fragility: I’d say a pterodactyl is a better comparison. You’ve seen the pictures, but it’s hard to communicate just how large and muscular these floating, flying contractions are up close. Oracle’s black-winged boat in particular resembles a vaguely menacing sci-fi creature with a terrifying attack speed and a crew that, from far away, looks like so many panicked hostages running hysterically from side to side.

Our tireless and informative commentator had been explaining just how the race worked with the aid of real-time graphics displayed on the onboard televisions, and had I not been sunk down in a seat with a too-large Giants cap over my eyes, I would have absorbed a lot more of it. But the general gist was that unseen currents play a huge role in race strategy, and that wind is a factor both in how fast the boats go and if they can race at all: as we’ve seen the past couple of days, high wind speeds can cancel a race altogether. In fact, that’s exactly what happened in the second race of the day, but let’s stick to the positives: one Saturday’s first race began, I was forced to confront the fact that it was totally, surprisingly thrilling.

Though I'm no maritime reporter, here is my approximation of what went down out there. Picture two pterodactyls that can swim and are hunting for dolphins by skimming across the surface of water (paleontologists please advise). Now imagine each is racing from the Golden Gate to the Bay Bridge on their giant, leathery wings, making hairpin turns with a clan of oompa-loompahs seasoned sailors clinging to their backs for dear life. And then, dear readers, imagine this happens:

I mean good christ! The Emirates team almost completely capsized, and under all powers of earth and heaven I don't know why they didn't. The moments that Emirates boat hung vertical seemed to stretch and warp into another dimension where the laws of physics and the logic of dinosaur science held no sway. In that instant, blood curdled and hangover almost completely forgotten, I'm pretty sure I became an America's Cup convert.

Sure, it cost millions of dollars. Yes, the boat's pricetag marginalized nations that couldn't afford them, the event is widely accepted to be a wholesale disaster and it's hard not to feel personally punked by Larry Ellison and his power (boat) trip. And let's not forget that one man even lost his life when the Artemis team capsized earlier this year.

But as we all nurse our collective America's Cup hangovers, let's also take a moment to appreciate the sporting event that delighted foreign visitors (even the preppy Frenchmen got excited), bore witness to some once-in-a-lifetime racing, and stirred this jaded and bilious reporter to life. America's Cup, you are a real son of a bitch. And I salute you.

Previously: All America's Cup coverage on SFist

Have you been to the racetrack lately? Probably not, and if you're not tuned in to the Bay Area's horseracing culture, you may never have heard of Russell Baze. But an excellent New York Times multimedia profile of the jockey with the winningest track record gives an inside look at Baze, "down-on-its-luck" Golden Gate Fields, and the state of racing today.

The story, punctuated with video interludes that give a glimpse into Baze's world, details the career of a jockey who's been a near-sure bet at Golden Gate Fields for over 20 years. The article's author and narrator, Barry Bearak, notes that our track is the "minor leagues" of racing. "San Francisco, for all its other charms, is a horse racing also-ran." And yet Baze, a career racer who's part of three generations of West Coast horsemen, prefers to stay here in relative obscurity. Is he the best jockey out there? It's hard to tell.

"Because Baze has primarily worked in the Bay Area, some horseplayers put a mental asterisk beside his name, likening his record for wins to a baseball home run king given credit for round-trippers in Class AAA. That is a reasonable observation, as Baze would acknowledge. 'I’m not the greatest jockey, and I’ll be the first one to tell you that,” he said.'"

The piece details the insider's world of Golden Gate Fields, from Baze's agent Ray Harris to his appalling number of racing injuries to his straight-edge, weight-conscious lifestyle. The profile gives focus not only to Baze's character, but also to the depressing realities of the track "Where the Bay Comes to Play." From its midcentury heyday, the track is now little more than a betting parlor on weekdays, when only the serious gamblers turn out.

"Baze finds the under-populated grandstands a little depressing. Horse racing used to suffer from a reputation for seediness, he said. But these days, apathy seems to be the problem. The sport is no match for baseball, football and the rest. 'It ought to at least get in front of golf,' Baze said."

Despite the sorry state of attendance, the track is still "a lovely spot, facing the tree-laced hills of Berkeley and Albany, the two cities it straddles. The view is even better over its shoulder, the Golden Gate Bridge itself." A weekend crowd of 5,000 is now considered a good turnout, "and when that many are present, Golden Gate Fields still seems a heart-stirring place."

The track is the only racing venue left since San Mateo's Bay Meadows was demolished, and despite its somewhat seedy feel, it's still great for a fun day out with the horses. So let the Times piece serve as your official reminder that the track's Dollar Days are still among the best deals in town for cheap beer, hot dogs, and entertainment, not to mention a chance to see a world-class jockey at work.

[NYT]

Amgen Tour of California: around 9 a.m. this morning at Ocean Beach along the Great Highway at Judah.

Bike races are typically held in faraway places like Brisbane or France, but this is a race right here in the city. Also not to miss: the Twilight Criterium on September 13, likely to feature big pro teams as well as amateurs.

Unlike this evening's Critical Mass and SundayStreets, racers in the Giro will move very fast and all in the same direction.

Of special interest at the Giro is the Elite Women 1-3 race at 1:10 p.m. (full schedule here). Metromint Cycling's own Amanda Eaken was last year's Northern California/Nevada District Road Race champion, and has racked up a few great wins in 2008. Will she win the Giro for the home team?

We hear there will be valet bike parking provided by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

Photo by Molly Van Houweling: Amanda Eaken after winning the Albany Criterium on July 22, 2008.

by Caroline on Crack (web) from LAist

What do you do when you're a gearhead with lightning-quick MacGyver fixes, $500 to spare and the need for speed? Most likely you're racing a junker you rebuilt with zip-ties and duct-tape at the 24 Hours of LeMons in Altamont Motorsports Park located between Livermore and Tracy in Northern California. That's where I spent this past weekend, tagging along with one of the LeMons veteran teams, Eyesore Pimpin (formerly known as Eyesore Racing) from Long Beach. This was their fourth LeMons race.

This weird and wonderful race series was started by Bay Area car guy and editor of various car magazines, Jay Lamm, at Altamont Motorsports Park in 2006 and spoofs the well-known 24 Hours of Le Mans car race. Its popularity with racing enthusiasts has spread and the series has extended to Connecticut, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas as well.

The premise of LeMons is that each team builds a $500 endurance racecar (not including the cost of safety equipment but including the cost of the junker and prep) and then races it for 14 hours (split into two 7-hour days).

This weekend is the US women's olympic trials for the marathon in Boston. It's really tough to qualify to get into the trials and the team that has the most members that qualified for the trials is the the San Francisco Impala Racing team-- a team that was formed specifically for competitive women racers. Best of luck to Lisbet Sunshine, Betsy Keever, Megan Daly, Chris Lundy, Shalluin Fullove, Caroline Annis who will all be competing. Run like the wind!