Easter nuggets

Whale Boo Hoo Hoo... Sounds like Hulio was cashin’ in on his Hollywood theatrics this past Friday... Sob, Sob... Damn those acting lessons have paid off, eh? As Robin Miller noted that the Government has a 97% CONVICTION RATE when it decides to go after someone for tax evasion...

Haven’t read Jeffrey reporting’ from the Valley of the Sun upon Princess Danicker getting any speeding tickets over the weekend in her Gold Mercedes while racing over to Russell Stover’s to bite the heads off of some Easter Bunnies... Or whether or not she stomped outta the store when told they were outta the said bunnies?

Meanwhile, a few of her fellow competitors were hunting for Cadbury crème eggs in the newest hot spot racetrack known formally as Portimao, the Algarve circuit of Portugal, Where “Bia” (Ana Beatriz) was busy taking part in the Rookie Drivers sessions of this weekend’s Portugal round of the A1GP Championship after having been invited to drive for Team Brazil by Emerson Fittipaldi... Remember him? He’s the dude that reportedly dropped the dime on Hulio’s tax case after getting dumped in favour of The Captain’s Marlboro “Smokey Smokes” Indy Car ride.

And Marky-Marc, a.k.a. Marco Andretti was busy rubbin’ noses, Err wheels with Vitantonio Luzzi over fourth place during the Feature race... As Luzzi who reportedly has a deal to race for Force India in Formula 1 in 2010 scored Team Italy’s very first pole position over the weekend before the two young lion’s crashed out of the race and DNF’ed.

Also snatching a pole for the Feature race was Graham Rahal’s teammate “Bad Bobby D,” as Doornbos went onto score his first win in the Sprint Race for Team Netherlands, before according to The Speed Report’s Ralph Sheheen; “Ran outta Quarters.” As his car failed to start for the Feature race... NO word if this had something to do with Doornbos trying to make a hasty getaway with Graham’s golden McNuggets? As apparently Doornboses comments about making Fireworks for Team Netherlands were to prove most prophetic as some Macdougal’s secret sauce apparently lit the car on fire...

Meanwhile ex-Champ Car competitor Neal Jani who was part of the Red Bull brigade, driving for yet to be Yank Kevin “Smiley Face” Kalkhoven... Managed to retain his and Team Switzerland’s slight championship point’s lead by notching his tenth A1GP victory during the Feature race Sunday, which is the most wins by anybody in the series history... As the Easter Bunny granted Jani two golden eggs...

Open Wheel notes

this is an oversized (Turkey) stuffing of the latest news tidbits going on in the Open Wheel Racing world, just-in-time for that delectable Turkey-Lurkey holiday. (Pass me a biscuit!)

No more Surfers
Otay, this is a bit dated, but in case you haven’t heard? The Indy Car World Series and the Queensland Government were unable to come up with a resolution to keep the Surfers Paradise event on the Indy Car calendar for next season and beyond... As the Surfers Paradise event has played host to the CART/Champ Cars since 1991, albeit a non-points event in this inaugural season of unification. Thus, the event will now become home of A1 GP which has signed a five year deal to partner the V8-Supercars Down Under, beginning in 2009...

CRIKEYS!

Will KV Racing Technology survive?
And with the loss of the Gold Coast event, will KV Racing Technology also wither? Recall that the running of this event was imperative to KVRT staying on the grid this year as its major funding came from Craig Gore’s Aussie Vineyards. And although speculation suggests that Gore is pondering retirement, nothing has been confirmed to date, although both of KVRT’s drivers Will Power and Oriel Servia are currently free agents.

Miller reports on Driver market
According to a recent article by our beloved Open Wheel curmudgeon Robin Miller, the current Indy Car driver market for 2009 is currently awash with proven “Big Names” talent seeking employment, as Newman Haas Lanagin and Rahal Letterman have not picked up options on Justin Wilson and Ryan Hunter Reay, who both scored their first Indy Car victories this season, while both of the aforementioned KVRT drivers Will Power and Oriel Servia are awaiting their Open Wheel future.

Miller also throws in Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira, Tomas Scheckter and Darren Manning as free agents seeking rides... Hmm? I thought this unification thingy was to be the end all to the current plight of Open Wheel Racing in Norte Americano? Now explain to me why it sounds like another episode of; while the Champ Car World Series turns, eh?

No more “Corn-ee” Letterman jokes?
Also according to OWR soothsayer Robin Miller, there appears to be a 98% chance that title sponsor Ethanol will not be returning to Rahal/Letterman Racing in 2009, leaving Ryan “The Dude” Hunter-Reay without a drive next season. (Unless Penske scoops him up?)

Yet now comes word via the Blogosphere that Brazil will be helping to keep corn based Ethanol in the game next season, so why couldn’t this become RLR’s new sponsor? Heck, may be ‘Ol Emmo (Emerson Fittipaldi) will wish to install another Brazilian driver like Tiago Montero as teammate? Or perhaps “Junky” could land a ride here?

IRL gets sucker-punched

Penske’s New Year plans
And while The Captain, a.k.a. Roger Penske is still trying to decide what to do over his current Indy Car “Star” Hulio’s pending legal troubles... Hmm? Wonder if Penske will scoop up another Aussie as Ryan Briscoe’s teammate? (Can you say Will Power?) But I digress, as it was announced recently on The Speed Report that Penske will field a two car effort of Porsche powered Riley Daytona Prototype chassis in the upcoming 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Is The Captain mulling a change of venue for his Sports Car operation?

Tracy legal woes continue
And while the majority of us thought that only Hulio had legal issues to wrangle with, according to crack Indy Car word butcher Will, Paul Tracy may have run into some more funny legal shenanigans’ of his own, as apparently there seems to be some sort of contention over his 2006 contract extension with Jerry “Go F-Yourself” Forsythe NEVER having been signed.

Was Tracy running without a contract?

Sully does Baja
During one of the final Wind Tunnel shows; Ye ‘Ol Windbag (Dave Despain) had Danny Sullivan as his “Last Call” of the evening, which was pretty entertaining... As “Sully” was calling in to talk about his Trophy Truck program and why he was running the Baja 1000. “Because it’s the only thing I can still race in competitively at my age!” Sully quipped.

And while I don’t know the whole story about Sully’s Baja 1000 trek, I can tell you from the results that he finished an admirable 5th place overall, which is better than Robby Gordon can say.

5. Dan Friedkin, Houston, Danny Sullivan, Vista, Calif./Steve Hengeveld, Oak Hills, Calif., Toyota Tundra, 14:34:55. (2nd highest finishing Tundra)

Baja 1000 results

Marky Mark podiums
Although it appears that Princess Danicker has decided to sit out the current A1 GP season, as she reportedly wished to be paid for her troubles...

Meanwhile, “Marky Mark,” a.k.a... Marco andretti, whom some word butcherer named Jeff is hoping to see installed as Hulio’s replacement at Team Penske, has just scored his first podium in this seasons A1 GP race held at Sepang. And although young Marco didn’t get off to a very good start, flipping and crashing out of the Sprint race, Marco atoned for his first race melee by reaching the podium in the Feature race, albeit with a little assistance from Team Malaysia's “Home-boy” Fairuz Fauzy. With Fauzy running in third place and Andretti behind him in fourth, Fairuz made a most unusual mistake, when his radio inadvertently picked up a ghost call to pit, as Fauzy heard Team GBR’s call; Box-Box-Box in his radio headset... And thus pitting behind Great Britain’s car, lost 40 seconds when he showed up in his vacant pit stall! This never seen gaff dropped Fairuz to a disappointing 10th place finish, while Marco grabbed the third step on the podium.

Marco Andretti, Andretti Green A1, A1 Team USA:
(ON THE SPRINT RACE INCIDENT) "You can say its unavoidable but at the time I thought everyone was going and I could only see two rows ahead of me. I couldn't see ahead of the whole field. I was about to grab fourth gear, and as soon as rear tires were hooking up, that was needed to stop the car. There was no hope. In the States you either go or you don't. Here, they went and then stopped. No one was to blame, it was just racing. But ultimately I crashed out two cars ."
.
Hmm? What’s that about not wishing to get in some much needed road racing experience Princess...

Doin’ the “Hulio” two-step
Ah, what better way to help digest that “Super-sized” Turkey-lurkey dinner, eh? And instead of unbuckling your belt, taking your shoes off and settling down for a little cat-nap whilst seated in the nearest Lazy Boy recliner, while some smash mouth football drones on in the background...

Why not do the Hulio two-step $heister shuffle instead? Just put your foot to the left...

And I won’t try to recap every nuance of the Helio Castroneves embezzlement shumozzle here; Castroneves indicted Hulio tear jerker, Castro-nervous bail modified, Trial date delay denied, blah-blah-blah... Nope, I’ll leave all of this hullabaloo up to the eagle-eyed Will and his crack reporting at; Is it May yet instead... And you may wish to check out his latest report; Quick Helio update, not to mention his wacky Pin-the-tail on Hulio board game.

Hulio board game

And make sure uze don’t’s steps onz ‘dem Hushpuppies, Yuh hearzs!

Ferrari selling out?

Although I’ve previously mentioned the A1 GP’s “tie-up” with Ferrari beginning in 2008, also announced in the deal was the planned launch of A2 GP. This new “rung” of the World Cup of Motorsports is a regional single seater series which is to begin testing in 2009.

As with the A1 GP supply, Ferrari will be responsible for the design and supply of the A2 GP chassis, which will potentially be a competitor to the GP2 Asia series?

These single seaters will also be powered by Ferrari V-8’s, yet slightly detuned as the A1 GP cars will possess 600bhp vs. the A2 GP cars sporting 420bhp. And I’m fairly certain that the chassis will be manufactured by Dallara, thus seeing Ferrari’s expenditures staying in Italy…

Hammer Time

After his baptism by fire in Sepang, Michael “The Hammer” Ammermueller bounced back in dominating style during this past weekend’s A1 GP outing in China. As Hammer-Muller captured his first pole position for the Sprint race, while series point leader Team Switzerland’s Neal Jani claimed second with Team Ireland’s Adam Carroll in third.

Jani then turned up the wick in the qualifying 4 session, capturing the pole for the Feature race, with Team GBR’s Oliver Jarvis snatching second, while Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan slotted into third and the Hammer dropped to fifth for the main event.

The Chinese round was the inaugural running on the Zhuhai International Circuit, which was originally intended for hosting a Formula 1 event, but was quickly forgotten upon Shanghai’s claiming of the Chinese Grand Prix in 2003. Zhuhai has struggled to land a mainstream event with the stillborn Champ Car race slipping thru the cracks before finally enticing the A1 GP series to race on its track after eleven years of existence.

Thus, all 22 nations were starting on a “level” playing field, since none of the teams had any previous experience at the track. On Sunday morning Ammermueller went on to lead the Sprint race wire to wire, claiming his very first victory in A1 GP competition, vindicating his over-aggressive “Panzer” driving style during the previous Malaysian event. Jani finished second while A1 Team China’s Cheng Cong Fu thrilled the crowds by taking the team’s first podium this season. The crowds went wild as Cheng Cong Fu was speechless over his third place finish.

Ironically during the Feature race, Hammer-Muller got pushed wide and dropped several places while Jarvis and Jani fought over the lead. Then New Zealand’s Johnny “Lightning” Reed and Malaysia’s Alex Yooung had another collision, which sent Yooung hard into the wall, thus requiring another safety car period during the day’s action.

Team GBR and Switzerland both encountered problems in the pits, which gave Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan the lead. Recall that Karthikeyan has spent time in Formula 1, first as a race driver for the declining Jordan Grand Prix team before becoming a test driver for Williams. Although Karthikeyan’s F1 aspirations seem to be fading into the sunset, Narain hung onto his lead in the Feature race and went on to score Team India’s very first victory in A1 GP.

New Zealand finished second with South Africa rounding out the podium, all the time being hounded by eventual fourth place finisher Team Germany’s Ammermuller. “Home Boy Cheng Cong Fu finished ninth after incurring a drive thru penalty for speeding in the pits. The series now goes on holiday until the New Year, which will see the debut of the second generation Dallara-Ferrari Ferrari’s…

Point standings after 4 of 11 events:
1. Switzerland, 79; 2. France, 60; 3. New Zealand, 59; 4. Great Britain, 48; 5. South Africa, 47; 6. Netherlands, 41; 7. Ireland, 39; 8. Germany, 37; 9. China, 28; 10. India, 27; 11. Brazil, 22;
12. Mexico, 17; 13. Canada, 10; 14. Czech Republic, 10; 15. Italy, 4. (19. USA, 2)

Jani’s Clean Sweep

Neal Jani; PKV Racing Champ Car driver has just completed a Clean Sweep of the Malaysian A1 GP weekend. Driving for Team Switzerland, Jani was quickest in qualifying, snatching both pole positions for the sprint and feature races, with only France’s Loïc Duval and Great Britain’s (GBR) Oliver Jarvis being able to challenge him.

Then Jani proceeded to put on a driving clinic while setting fastest lap for both events enroute to scoring Switzerland’s first “Double” victory while also scoring maximum points.

While Jani kept his nose clean and led most of both events, fun and frivolities were breaking out behind him, with Team Germany’s rookie driver Michael Ammermuller gaining quite a reputation for overly aggressive (reckless driving… As first “Hammer Muller” tried a bonsai pass of Team Canada’s rookie Robert Wickens on the last lap of the sprint race.

Wickens, a Champ Car Atlantics standout who was making his series debut was in third place when the Hammer tried taking him out, bouncing off of Wickens and taking the place. Yet the stewards penalized Ammermuller a 25 second time penalty, dropping the young German to 16th with Wickens scoring his first podium in A1 GP behind Team France’s Duval.

But the fun ‘N games weren’t over yet as the Sepang F1 circuits overly wide stretches of tarmac can induce large amounts of “Red Mist,” while drivers jockey for positions. Thus on the get-away there were several cars involved in concertina related incidents, while Jani pulled away. Wickens who’d been caught out in the early lap shenanigans then was further involved in an accident with South Africa, which resulted in a Safety Car period.

During this portion of the race, confusion ensued which saw Team Brazil’s Sergio Jimenez pass Jani and Duvall in the pits, while the Hammer was busy playing billiards with Team GBR’s Oliver Jarvis, winner of this year’s Macau F3 race. Of course Jarvis got the worse end of the Hammer, whom
Initially received a drive thru penalty for his infraction. Upon further review, the stewards decided to disqualify Ammermuller from the feature race results altogether, thus seeing the Hammer D’ Queued from his first race outing!

Meanwhile Jani cleanly picked off race leader Jimenez with a few “flyer” laps during the second mandatory pit stop. And the stewards weren’t finished yet, assessing Brazil amongst others with various penalties. Thus France’s Duval was elevated to second when Brazil’s Jimenez was given a 2 second time penalty for a pit infraction, dropping Jimenez to third. Adding further insult to injury, Jarvis was dinged a penalty dropping him out of the final point scoring position, which gave Team USA its very first point of the season.

Team Switzerland now leads the championship after three events, 8 points ahead of France and 15 points clear of New Zealand. Round 4 will be held on December 16 at Champ Cars favourite Asian venue, the Zhuhai circuit in China…

Point standings after three of eleven events: 1 Switzerland, 61 points; 2 France, 53; 3 New Zealand, 46; 4 Netherlands, 39; 5 South Africa, 37; 6 Great Britain, 36; 7 Ireland, 31; 8 Brazil, 22; 9 Mexico, 17; 10 China, 16; 11 Germany, 14.

Stop ‘N Go

In what appears to be the A1 GP’s version of the Red Green Show, the World Cup of Motorsports has announced the following revelations…

A1 GP turning Red
Interestingly the A1 GP racing series has just concluded a deal with Maranello to provide customer chassis to replace the current Lola-Zytec powered race cars. The deal is for six years and begins this January. (2008-2014(

Ferrari will be responsible for the design and supply of the new car and powerplant, although chassis manufacturing will be outsourced, most likely to Dallara. (Current Indy Car sole supplier(

The deal will also include an exclusive Ferrari merchandising license for all A1 GP merchandise to use the Ferrari name as well as the phrase “Powered by Ferrari.”

A1 GP turning Green?
Prior to the beginning of this season, A1 GP touted the launching of its “Green” initiative, planning to run on E30 Biofuel. And although this 30% blend of sugar beets has run successfully during 4,600 kilometers of testing, the A1 GP has postponed plans to race this exotic fuel blend for the foreseeable future. The delay comes on the heels of “Technical Issues” as the parties involved simply didn’t think the performance level was acceptable. Wonder if the new Ferrari “Lumps” will run on such a concoction?

A1 GP TV Schedule correction

Once again I’ve fallen prey to the lure ‘O posting TV Times for potential viewing. Last year I usually found the A1 GP DELAYED Broadcasts being played in the middle of the night or wee hours ‘O Morning, i.e.; Midnight – 2AM Pacific time...

So naturally I just ASSUMED this was the standard practice for this years television broadcasts. And y’all know what happens when yuhz ASS-Ume some-thun, eh? Oh Yeah, Uh-huh… Just checked the TV times once again prior to programming the trusty ‘ol VCR and wallah!

The Czech A1 GP broadcast is slated for 9AM Pacific…

So I’ll skip the TV times in the future…

A1 GP Teams nominate drivers

Due to the cancellation of the usual rookie sessions on Friday in line with the circuit's noise restriction requirements, Saturday practice has been extended to two 1 hour 10 minute sessions.

The following drivers have signed-on to compete in A1GP Zandvoort, The Netherlands A1

Team Driver 1 Driver 2
Australia Ian Dyk
Brazil Sergio Jimenez
Canada James Hinchcliffe
China Congfu Cheng
Czech Republic Erik Janis
France Loic Duval
Germany Christian Vietoris
Great Britain Oliver Jarvis
India Narain Karthikeyan
Indonesia Satrio Hermanto
Ireland Ralph Firman
Italy Enrico Toccacelo
Lebanon Chris Alajajian Khalil Beschir
Malaysia Alex Yoong
Mexico Salvador Duran
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen Arie Luyendyk Jr
New Zealan Jonny Reid
Pakistan Adam Khan
Portugal Joao Urbano
South Africa Adrian Zaugg Wesleigh Orr
Switzerland Neel Jani
USA Buddy Rice

(Credit: a1gp/Motorsport.com)

A1 GP Preview

Turning Green
While apparently there are whispers of Champ Car switching to Ethanol in the future… The A1 GP series has become the first international motorsports series to take the plunge into Bio Fuels. Having announced that the series will contest the upcoming season of racing powered by E30, racing on a 30% blend of ethanol produced from sugar beats in order to reduce noxious CO2 emissions by 21%...

Rules Revisions
In order to spice up the show, the series organizers have “tweaked” competition rules for this year’s series. For full details see 2007-08 A1 GP Rules changes


Swiss team spotlight
Team Switzerland has been quite busy in the off season with the hiring of engineer James Robinson as one indication of the teams willingness to improve their performance. Robinson has engineered no less than four former Formula 1 World Champions.

Meanwhile team boss Max Welti, who’s no stranger to F1 himself, has come up with the novel idea of pitting two Women against each other at the final Silverstone test session, with one of the females being given the opportunity to race for Team Switzerland. And unbeknownst to me, I watched one of the contestants in the rain soaked festivities at Portland this summer…


Team USA
Former Indy 500 winner buddy Rice has been confirmed to race for Team USA this weekend at Zandport. Rice is expected to contest the entire 11 race schedule as the first Indy 500 champion to race in the A1 GP series, with potentially 22 Nations taking part…

Rice tests A1 GP

Prior to last weekend’s Belle Isle Indy Car race. 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice flew to Silverstone to take part in the A1 GP pre-season test.

Rice tested alongside last years final Team USA driver Jonathan Summerton while A1 GP teams prepared for the season opener. As A1 GP kicks off its 2007-08 season at Zanport in Belgium over the weekend of September 28-30.

Rice ran Team USA sponsorship this May at the Speedway and has become acquainted with team owner Rick Weidinger. Interestingly this year Weidinger will take over running the team himself instead of hiring a third party to run the organization as in the previous two years.

Buddy managed a best time of 10th fastest before having to jet back to the Motor City…