Country puns! In a … car race? Huh. Sure, there are international motor races, right? Yeah, why not!
I have a tough time figuring out "rules" for puns. I think the most important one is that they generate big laughs. Or groans. I liked FINNISH LINE the best, a simple twist on "finish line." Something about CZECHERED FLAG made me smile, too. Maybe groan a little as well. Pretty sure that's good!
It did feel all a little inconsistent, though. RUSSIAN, FINNISH, CZECH are all descriptors of those country's natives. "Polish" would fit that set better than POLE, yeah?
And POLE, RUSSIAN, FINNISH are separate words, but CZECH gets transmogrified into CZECHERED. Huh. Again, one out of four being the odd one out felt … well, odd.
A ton of great bonuses, great to see in a debut. Especially important for today's puzzle, as I can imagine that there might be some solvers out there who neither race fans nor punsters. Love FLIP FLOP, SCRUNCHIE, RASTAFARI. Even a couple of colorful shorties in CONTRA, TUDOR, OZONE.
And love it when a rare letter gets worked in as smoothly as the Z in the south. HAZY / ZANY even with a nice SLEEPY, without any crossword glue? Yes please!
But IIII? No sir! The IVES / SMEE crossing for an early-week puzzle? Yikes! And I finished with my first error in ages on a Tuesday, what with the odd MONTE clue. Three-card MONTE, yes. Just MONTE clued without "Three-card"? Plain old mea.! (TAR seemed fine for [Tarnish], and TONTE looked equally as odd as MONTE. Maybe I've seen too many ECARTEs and ONEOCATS in my day…)
Overall, the grid was pretty good on second glance. But it just takes one or two glaring blips to leave a bad taste.
The geometer in me loved, loved, loved the clue for PIP. How the frak could there be a [Circle on a cube]? Cubes are flat-planed, with straight lines, not circles or arcs ... ah, a PIP on a die. Brilliant!
Overall, I enjoyed the story Brian told. The puns didn't all work for me, and the lack of consistency bugged me, but there was enough entertainment to keep me largely amused.