Laguna Seca Donnybrook

Whale fortunately SPEED decided to show the 4hr American Le Mans Series finale from Monterey, CA in its entirety a day after the fact and thus, I sat down and watched the entire show mid day Sunday, and what a race it turned out to be for the overall victory and the GT2 class win, as both were mighty scrums between the various combatants…

Yet, it was even cooler getting to see (briefly( that not only had Jim Hall been coaxed into attending the race, but he brought along a pair of his legendary Chaparral’s for exhibition duty, to which SPEED’s Dorsey Schroeder said the crowds went completely “Banana’s” (wild!) over seeing on track… Not to mention the brief interview with Hall saying how he was looking forward to being out on the track with Gil… As this was Gil De Ferran’s final race and thus as I said before, it was a nice touch on Gil’s part to honour the man who gave him his very first Indy Car ride some 14yrs ago, behind the wheel of a Hall VDS Racing Pennzoil yellow Reynard 95 Mercedes Benz, (Ilmor) where he won his very first CART race at Laguna Seca enroute to the Rookie of the Year title.

Paul Gentilozzi’s Rocketsports Racing made their Jaguar XKR GT2’s chassis full race outing as a development test as the team looks to make a full season campaign in 2010, while I’m wondering if perhaps this car is simply a dusted off Trans Am racecar since Gentilozzi should have plenty of them laying around his shop from the days of SCCA Pro Racing competition.

The No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911GT3 RSR competing in the hotly contested GT2 category was busy developing Falken racing rubber as a new contender in the series and the team had driven 11hrs to retrieve a better suited set of tyres “Just-in-Time” for the race…

The No. 16 Dyson Racing Le Mans P2 (Prototype class) Mazda Lola B09 86 once again was racing as an Unclassified entry (UNC) as it continued it’s test program involving running upon Bio-Butanol in conjunction with team sponsor BP (British Petroleum) and engine partner Mazda, which the team made its Butanol debut at this year’s Petit Le Mans, as the series fourth fuel source: Diesel, E85 Ethanol, Pump-grade Petrol and now Bio- Butanol, which the team hopes to use in series Points competition next year, while in my previous story Is Corn King? I noted how BP is an ardent supporter of Butanol in the future, especially as an alternative to the media darling Ethanol, as interestingly Butanol has better properties then Ethanol as shown in an cross country exercise way back in ’05, albeit most likely to be a Petroleum Corporations byproduct, but I digress…

Thus, back to the racing action, as fittingly De Ferran captured the Pole position for Saturday’s race, with his main competitors for the overall victory being Championship rival Highcroft Racing, along with Fernandez Racing’s LMP2 Acura being the dark horse.

Simon Pagenaud led from Pole and simply motored away from the 32 car field, comprised of four different classes, as Championship leaders Highcroft simply needed to complete 70% race distance to secure the title and thus David Brabham took it very easy, albeit suffering with an electrical gremlin relating to the gearbox shifting selector, which the team disconnected and thus Brabham and co-driver Scott Sharp needed to be informed of which gear they were in when pitting as their dashboard no longer displayed this pertinent information…

Meanwhile the No. 48 Corsa Motorsports Hybrid P1 challenger argubably put in its best performance by running as high as third place overall, before finishing fourth, after having to replace its electric motor earlier that morning, while Brabham and Sharp would cruise home to a third place finish.

But the race was an epic battle between old CART competitors De Ferran and Adrian Fernandez in the final thirty minutes, as Fernandez doggedly chased Gil as close as a scant 0.4 seconds adrift thru traffic, even passing De Ferran, only to be out powered on the front straight, as Fernandez said; Gil’s a great racer and he never made a mistake… As the pair would finish 1-2 respectively with De Ferran 0.6 seconds ahead at the stripe!

Yet the real fireworks were being contested in the GT2 class between the No. 45 Flying Lizard’s Jorg “Rowdy” Bergmeister and the No. 3 Corvette with Jan “Trickle” Magnussen behind the keyboard, as “MAG’s” (Magnussen) relentlessly hounded Bergmeister for the class victory, putting an unbelievable “Out-of-Bounds” pass upon the German for the lead, by using the pit lane’s entrance as a passing zone, which the Officials told the Dane to give the position back, before the two combatants did a ‘lil Racin’ is Rubbin’ action on their way towards the Corkscrew… Then in the final corner Magnussen did his best Cole Trickle impersonation, trying to loosen up Jorg with a luv-tap, but Bergmeister was having none of it, as he basically ran MAG’s into the front straight wall, which the Dane then T-Boned as Bergmeister held onto the GT2 victory with Jan’s crumpled Corvette runner-up… As Jorg said he was still shaking in the Post-race interview… As both drivers have now received a two race probation for the beginning of the 2010 ALMS season, with any further incidents to result in a two race suspension...

And next year should be even better with the American Le Mans Series new four class structure, which I’ll delve into later…

(And now they’ve moved the Laguna Seca race to May… SHEISA!)

2009 Laguna Seca ALMS Class Entries:
P1: 6; P2: 4*; GT2: 14; GT3-CS: 8#.
(* = #16 Dyson Racing UNC race car.)
(# = Two competitors excluded from results for rules infractions.)

Laguna Seca Race Results

Seafair splendor

Oh Boy Oberto/Miss Madison
Whale for Mwah; I still harbour memories of the thrill of Seafair as a young lad, as tradition was for young boys to pull cut out wooden planks, usually plywood fashioned in the shape of a Hydroplane by string behind their bikes through the neighborhoods…

Having grown up in the era of the pre-turbine’s, today’s Hydro’s just don’t have the same notoriety to me name wise or in spirit, as the turbine whoosh has long since replaced those glorious open cockpit, front & rear engine World War II surplus V-12 Allison and Rolls Royce Merlin powered monstrosities known as the “Blue Blaster” and the “Beer Wagon,” dueling for supremacy opposite of the finger piers of the Stan Sayre’s pits, where Miss Budweiser, Atlas Van Lines and the Pride of Pay ‘N Pak all left their indelible mark as Seafair victor’s, Gold Cup winners and National High Points Champions.

As luminary drivers like Bill Muncey and Dean chenowith immediately come to mind, not to mention Mickey Remund, Jim Kropfield, Tom D’Eath and local hero Chip Hanauer to name a few; while everybody fought to beat the sport’s “Kingpin” owner Bernie Little. During a time When boats named Squire Shop, Miss Rock (KISW 99.9FM), Oh Boy Oberto and Miss Madison were yearly contestants…

And thus, another summer has now come ‘N passed, as to me the zenith of summer in the Northwest is our annual Seafair Hydroplane Regatta on Lake Washington, capping a month long’s celebration of events including the landing of the Seafair Pirates, the Torchlight Parade and the piece de la resistance, the Blue Angels… (Which I’ve been watching since they used to fly with A-4 Skyhawks before upgrading to F-18 Hornets) Whilst in its heyday, I fondly recall the Goodyear Blimp making its yearly trek to Seattle and being stationed at the Sand Point Naval Air Base.

Yet, unbeknownst to me, this year’s just concluded running was the 60th Annual Seafair, which just like the modern Formula 1 series, began in 1950.

US Navy Blue Angels
And without trying to rehash too many details after revisiting my Seafair Sunday (2008) report, its funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same, after quickly perusing the final heat’s entrants in last year’s event, which saw the Elam piloted by Dave Villwock win his ninth Seafair Cup against arch nemesis Jean Theoret (Miss Beacon Plumbing) and rival Steven David.

Yet, earlier this season in Detroit, apparently Theoret, now driving the renamed U-37 Hoss Mortgage flipped over and according to Hanauer’s repeated claims; (now a long time colour commentator for local CBS affiliate KIRO 7’s annual Seafair coverage) took his second gulp of water and thought he was dead… before being rescued!

After contesting Saturday’s preliminary heats, Theoret decided he just wasn’t physically able to go the distance and last minute substitute driver - J.W. Myers was brought in Sunday to pilot the U-37 Hydroplane.

Yet, this year’s event saw four different Heat winners over the two days of action, with Dave Villwock in the U-16 Ellstrom Elam Plus, Steve David in the U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto, Jimmy King in the U-3 Grandview on the Lake, and J.W. Myers in the (U-37 Hoss Mortgage Investors) each winning heats, with the 200,000+ crowd and sentimental favourite being King’s piston powered turbocharged Allison beating both Villwock’s And David’s turbines with a mesmerizing first flying lap at over 147mph.

And this feat of Old School technology is even more impressive as it’s reported that the piston powered boat is at a definite weight disadvantage, with the turbocharger weighing a hulking 600lbs alone… While on the opposite range of the spectrum, was the U-787 Boeing Hydroplane making demonstration runs the past two weeks with none other then Hydro legend Hanauer behind the wheel, having made a top speed blast of 153+ mph on Friday, as the Boeing boat is being utilized as a PR exercise while evaluating Biofuel, which it runs upon and has previously been tested by multiple airlines.

Yet, another Highlight to the weekend’s events was the Unlimited Lights Championship winner being none other then local resident Kayleigh Perkins, as Mr. Rock ‘N roll, Northwest Concert promoter extraordinaire, Patrick O’Day (75yrs old) exclaimed as the chequered flag was unfurled:

O’Day: There you have it! Seattle’s very own Danica Patrick!
Hanauer: Uhm, sorry Pat, but unlike Danica who HASN’T won very much really, Kayleigh has now just WON five races in a row.
O’Day: Yeah Chip; I guess you’re correct…

Yet Kayleigh isn’t the first female Hydroplane pilot, as that honour falls to Brenda Jones, whom I can seem to find very little out about, albeit one internets site proclaims that there was more then just Brenda as a Femme Fatale of the waterways, with the names of: Dorothy Levitt, Delphine Dodge and Betty "Joe" Carstairs being mentioned.

Also during the late 1970’s to early 1980’s; Carol Lee from Seattle, WA was the lone Female worker trailblazing the APBA National circuit as a crew member for the Miss Madison. Then the female ranks doubled when Yvonna Thomas crewed for her older brother Todd Yarling’s Cellular One Unlimited Hydroplane in the ‘80’s.

Brenda Jones – Miss KYYX
And don’t forget Lori Jones ownership of the U-9 Skyway Park Bowl and Casino, Fran Muncey’s team ownership after her husband’s unfortunate death, while in the new millennium Cindy Shirley currently is a crew member of the Oh boy Oberto.

But back to Kayleigh Perkins who was celebrating her inaugural victory at Seafair, enroute to clinching her second Unlimited Lights Championship, previously having been Rookie of the Year during her first title in 2007.

Yet Mr. O’Day was quite the celebrity in his heyday, when he amassed a fortune via Concerts West Promotions, where he traveled with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin and the Beach boys, along with being Seattle’s premiere Disc Jockey with an unheard of 40% market share and owning local Radio Stations such as KJR and KYYX, while becoming “the Voice of Seafair,” when first calling the action in 1968, which he’s now done for the past 41 years continuously…

Along the way, O’Day Dabbled as a boat owner by picking up various Unlimited Hydroplanes; becoming the very first to run a turbine and female driver.

O’Day ran the KJR (950 AM) sponsored turbine boat which once was the premiere Rock ‘N roll station in Seattle, but his ill fated U-95’s most notorious moment came when it sunk to the bottom of Lake Washington in the mid 1970’s.

Then in 1981, Pat was the first to put a female behind the wheel of an Unlimited Hydro, when he tapped Brenda Jones as the pilot of his Miss KYYX, before his bubble apparently burst in the mid ‘80’s when he was forced to sell almost everything during a period of insolvency; now living a more sedate lifestyle in the San Juan Islands as a John L Scott Real Estate member.

Meanwhile the Oberto’s have opened their Lake Washington home once again to selected Senior Citizen’s groups for what Art & Dorothy say will most likely be their final shindig on the Lake as they’re set to retire and downsize…

And I don’t know why the APBA has decided to muck up the rules even further, as now all races see assigned lanes, to which I agree with Chip; at least make the final five lap heat a free-for-all lane choice, as with Dave Villwock’s Elam having lane one, it was going to be an uphill battle for Steve David’s Oh Boy Oberto (the reigning National High Points champion), in lane two to defeat Villwock, with each successive lane outwards for the six boat field giving a diminishing chance of victory… With Hanauer mentioning they’d be making their respective turns south of Southcenter… (A major shopping center south of Downtown Seattle)

And thus, after a spirited first lap duel between Villwock (53yrs old) and David (55yrs old), with a hard charging Jimmy King on the outside, Villwock steadily pulled ahead, bouncing over the choppy water with roostertail flying high into the sky, while apparently the Oh boy Oberto was suffering from a melted down turbine and steadily lost power throughout the five lap heat, faltering to a lowly finish of last place, while the piston powered boat came home an impressive runner-up with J. W. Meyers in third place.

The win for Villwock gave him an unprecedented total of ten Seafair victories, the most by any driver, eclipsing Chip Hanauer, and was his 59th career victory, moving him withing striking distance of the top two all time winners: Bill Muncey (62) and Hanauer (61). Also, interestingly Will (Power) Muncey, son of the legendary Godfather of Unlimited Hydro’s is currently competing in the Unlimited Lights class…

2009 Seafair Results
U-16 Ellstrom Elam Plus - Dave Villwock
U-3 Grandview on the Lake - Jimmy King
U-37 Hoss Mortgage Investors - J.W. Myers
U-5 FormulaBoats.com - Jeff Bernard
U-17 USNW Express - Kip Brown
U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto - Steve David
U-7 Graham Trucking - J. Michael Kelly STARTED AS TRAILER

Two Green thumbs?

“The Bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle.”
(Perry Como; Seattle, 1969)

Whale, not really!
So does this mean a change of scenery is immanent? As in years past, I recall making calendars to count down the days until the first Grand Prix of the new season would begin... While wading thru the bleakness of the Winter Olympics, better known as Winter testing, which the FIA has dastardly cut proportionally over the past several years, although the in season testing ban should theoretically cause the drivers to log more track time on Friday’s this year.

Thus having waited with great abandon for this weekend’s season opening Formula 1 race Down Under, instead I partook in two days attendance at Seattle’s 2nd Annual Green Festival, which I must say was overly packed and very well attended... Something to do with us Northwest “Tree Huggers?” And thus I set the commands of my shiny new Comcast Box to record the week’s drama in Albert Park to my trusty ‘Ol VCR... Which is much easier to program then today’s DVR’s for Mwah, but that’s a whole ‘nother conversation, eh?

Saturday evening Mary Ellen & I attended the Electric Vehicles 101 presentation hosted by two very entertaining gentlemen of the Seattle Electric Vehicles Association.(SEVA) As the main speaker Daniel Davids, being 65 years old has spent 29yrs living, breathing, eating, dreaming Electric vehicles, while his “junior” partner Steve Lough (54yrs) has a 40 year history with Electric vehicles... Including numerous drag racing victories, while Davids is featured in the 2 SCREAM to 60 Youtube video; yet, it was interesting to hear Lough actually suggest that one wait 3-5yrs to purchase an Electric vehicle as opposed to running out and buying one today, as there’ll seemingly be an explosion of these vehicles being produced by our major Automobile manufacturers then... Since if you wish to convert a vehicle today it’ll potentially set you back somewhere between $12-15,000 and there’s NO guarantee you’ll end up with a good conversion. Although I found it interesting how they scoffed at GM’s much ballyhooed Volt... Because it’s NOT a true 100% Electric vehicle? Ironically I found this a most enjoyable lecture, although it seemingly contradicts my interest in Formula 1 and IndyCars...

On Sunday, we attended four speakers hour long presentations, which were most dynamic, inspiring and devoid of the mainstream “fluff” that we’re subjugated to 24/7, as we listened to Amy Goodman, John Perkins, Clifford Pichot III and Laura Flanders respectively.

Amy Goodman touched upon the fact that this weekend marked the 20th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound, of which the Herring have never returned too... And of the initial 22,000 plaintiffs who filed against the world’s largest Petroleum Company, 6,000 have died while Exxon has kept these lawsuits in litigation...

John Perkins spoke upon what would happen if we refocused our Corporate priorities, while Pichot divulged his “Happo-Damno” philosophy; which is the measuring of Happiness vs. Damage environmentally... And Laura Flanders spoke to the demise of our legacy Newspaper industry as the loss of these jobs like most, once lost will never come back and how this is a travesty for each cities morale fiber... Noting how a two time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist of our just castrated Seattle Post Intelligencer has suddenly found himself unemployed! As perhaps (if you’re still reading this) you’ve guessed by now that the Green Festival is geared towards the world’s future Sustainability...

Green Festival – Seattle

And thus I found it ironic that while attending the Green Festival this weekend, which also happens to coincide with the 10th Anniversary of the WTO Demonstrations in Seattle... Two of the world’s largest Automobile manufacturers chief executive officers were being sacked... As Rick Wagner, General Motors Head Honcho resigned from his post in the wake of further Government assistance, as under Wagner’s stewardship, GM’s United States market share has declined from 33.2% to 18.8%, while the company’s stock price has devalued over $50.00 per share.

Meanwhile, Christian Streiff, the embattled leader of PSA Peugeot-Citroen,, was fired from his post, as one of France’s “Big Two:” Peugeot and Renault SA struggle to survive in the Global economy on the back of a $7.5 billion Euro ($9.8b USD) 5yr (Rescue plan) Economic aide package, as Peugeot, France’s largest car maker has suffered a $343 million Euro net loss for 2008.

Meanwhile, as in previous rants about the intrusion of electronic media... I am currently unable to scour le internets or newspapers, open my email or listen to my voicemail in fear of having the results of the Australian Grand Prix divulged prior to my rewinding of the Memorex and watching Qualifying and the BLOODY RACE! As I found it even more ironic that all of the Fosters which was apparently on sale this weekend had disappeared off of the shelves of my local grocery store... Crikey’s Mates!

So, will Nico secure his first Formula 1 pole position? Or will the newly reconstituted Brawn GP do the unthinkable and lockout the front row? Or perhaps either Jarno Trulli or Timo Glock score Toyota’s long awaited inaugural Grand Prix victory? SHEISA! I’d better go watch the tape, eh?

Is corn King?

Whale, I do have to say that the Indy Car Series decision to go with Brazilian ethanol in favour of our own Mid-western bread basket’s variety is seemingly just one more slap in the face in regards to the current economy... (I mean, couldn’t the IRL have given those farmers a bailout?)

Now obviously, I’m NOT privy to the inner sanctum of 16th & Georgetown; nor what ‘lil Napoleon, a.k.a. Tony George is thinking(?) so, I found it most bemusing that the IRL dispatched Terry Angstadt to the Autosport Radio show recently to try and explain their reason’s for cutting a deal with Brazil instead of its current American Ethanol producers.

But after having listened to Mr. Angstadt’s (woeful) explanation of how they tried to do everything(?) in their power to continue their association with EPIC and American Ethanol... Hmm? That party line sounds awfully similar to the Oz race cancellation, eh?

It seems to me that the IRL simply saw an opportunity to get into (bed) with a partner who’s a bigger market, along with another case of Outsourcing, as Brazil reportedly has a giant Indy Car fan base and TV rating shares of 4.0 – 4.5, to which Terry said wryly; I’d like to have those here... Thus, I think the IRL simply saw an opportunity and took it!

Even more ironic is that one of Donald Kay’s show sponsors is EPIC: the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council...

And while I’m all in favour of alternative energy sources, I’m not exactly sure what to think about Ethanol, having heard conflicting reports over its production vs. benefits.

Yet, I’m obviously in favour of slashing our dependency on foreign oil, i.e.; Saudi Arabia, although it’s a bit funny that actually the United States No. 1 importer comes from our neighbors Up North, Eh? “Oh-Kan-ah-duh!”

Thus, I found the following article very interesting, as it disputes the virtues of Ethanol, in favour of a little known alternative substance known as; Butanol. Of course this is from a biased source, but nevertheless it does make for an interesting thought, as now the head of DuPont has just urged the Big Three to form an alliance to produce a 75mpg vehicle that would run upon, you guessed it! Butanol.

Perhaps the switch to sugar cane based foreign Ethanol, hydrogen, corn based Ethanol, Butanol, Cellulosic based Ethanol, Bio Diesel, hybrid’s and plug-in’s will indeed enable us to solve our dependency of fossil fuels.

Then again, it’s hard to believe that the Oil Barons will be willing to let go of their monopoly, eh? I mean, have you ever noticed how many 18 wheeler’s dot the countryside? Then again, it cannot hurt us to try something different...

NOT so Green

ACK!!!

What in the HELL is wrong with our BLEEPING Government in Washington DC. Oh Never Mind!!!

But the Sheis-kamfs at the EPA just struck down California’s request for its annual emissions waiver; you know the one that restricts the amounts of those nasty, nauseous, toxic fumes exiting tailpipes…

And I’m quite aware of the irony of going “Green;” Fuel economy vs. Motorsports, yet I fail to understand why there cannot be a balance of responsible, positive changes towards a cleaner environment.

Just note how almost all major racing series are turning “Green” with some sort of initiatives towards this global concern. To date the quickest fix has been the changing of petroleum products to the much vaunted Corn fed Ethanol, with Indy Car running a “100%” mixture; the ALMS has switched to a 50% ethanol blend, while the A1 GP will begin racing with a 30% sugar beet blend at its next round in New Zealand.

Yet our wonderful government has the audacity to NOT grant California the required waiver for stricter tailpipe emissions after doing so for 40 years. As some puppet spouts off ‘bout how we’ve increased the CAFÉ standards to an average of 35mpg by 2020, (Big F’ing Dealoe! As the Auto manufacturers (GM, Ford, Chrysler & Toyota who’ve worked so diligently to BLOCK this for decades) will finally have to do something…)

Thus, I was happy to see that Washington has joined California and 14 other states in suing the federal government for failing to approve stronger regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

Yet isn’t it nice that we’ve had to get the “$heister’s” involved in filing what I’m sure will be the first of many lawsuits trying to curb NOXIOUS carbon gasses (CO2) which are NOT only bad for the environment they’re also bad for us Humans to inhale!

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…

Racing goes Green?

And while the retortive “sound bites” continue to flood mainstream media, as the “hype” over being environmentally “clean” continues to be a “wedge” issue. David Phillips has once again written another great article towards the subject of how “RASSCAR” isn’t as “Squeaky Clean” as it would like “Y’all” to believe…

Is gasoline really Dead?

In a recent David Phillips commentary, Phillips writes that Bobby Rahal has pronounced that gasoline is dead as a future power source of motorsports…

Is Rahal on crack or simply touting the virtues of his team’s title sponsor Ethanol? You make the call…

Meanwhile RASSCAR just contested its very first race last weekend in Fontana running Unleaded gasoline for the very first time during its 50+ year history. Holy Unocal, Batmann… What’s next? Don’t tell me RASSCAR will make all ‘O dem roundy rounders ditch their beloved carberators? Would the sanctioning body dare mandate fuel injection and overhead valve trains like the rest of the civilized world currently utilizes?

Switch grass ‘N stuff

You know that old saying, know your friends, but keep an even closer eye on your Enemies… Well suffice it to say the IRL is definitely the ENEMY! Yet one must wonder what’ll happen this year with the series deciding to switch to E100, better known as 100% fuel grade Ethanol…

As Champ Cars continues to muddle about finding drivers with big enough wallets to buy the limited number of open seats, the Indy Racing League currently has a larger starting grid than Champ Car. Meanwhile the IRL has just wrapped up a two day test at the famed Daytona International Speedway…

Practicing on a modified 10 turn road course, the IRL cars attempted to circulate the famed 31 degree banking for the first time in nearly four decades with apparent ease. There were 9 teams and 17 drivers taking part in the two day test…

The fans attending were assaulted by the overpowering sickly sweet smell of corn syrup along with a vastly different style of race car than those tin tops them good ‘ole boys drive…

Will the IRL eventually host a race at Daytona? Only time (and money) will tell…

Stinking up F1

Ok, I know that I shouldn’t be touting diesels as being stinky... But they still have a bit of a reputation. Especially when I just heard that the number 1 cause of cancer in the northwest comes from breathing diesel particulates… Followed closely by benzene, a byproduct of all pump gasoline’s…

Meanwhile Ferrari test driver Marc Gene has just commented after testing the Peugeot 908 that he thinks that diesel engines would be well suited for Formula 1 in the future…

And it seems hard to believe that Formula 1 would switch from the beloved internal combustion “lumps” running on “pump” grade gasoline, especially with the Middle East just having confirmed its second Grand Prix…

Yet then again with the IRL and the ALMS switching over to Ethanol, I suppose just as long as it’s some form of Dinosaur petroleum base product, since "We’ve Got to squeeze out one more hit before it’s ALL gone…”

Corn Fed ALMS

The American Le Mans Series has decided to jump on the bandwagon of running alternative fuels for the 2007 season by announcing that all competitors will race on E10 derived petrol…

E10 stands for 10% Ethanol blended gasoline which will be used for the first time ever in a 12 hour endurance race this March at Sebring…

Audi to upstage F1?

On the heals of Max Mosley’s speech and the implementation of new Technical Rules changes for Formula 1 over the next 5 years, comes reports that Audi will continue its trendsetting ways.

After becoming the first manufacturer to win the prestigious du 24 heurs Le Mans last year, Audi now plans to attack the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2008 by running its R10 turbo diesels on Bio-fuels…

Formula 1 turning Green?

With the never ending manipulation of Crude Oil prices the current rage of major automobile manufactures is the race towards hybrid synergy’s… While Toyota leads the way in hybrid vehicles currently available to the public, Honda continues further refinement of its fuel cell powered car with Nissan set to build its very first hybrid.

At the recently held LA Auto Show, the “Big Three” gallantly blathered on about upcoming “plug-in” hybrids, as GM & Ford try to desperately cling to their eroding market share. While Detroit seems to believe that only Trucks/SUV’s are the vehicle of choice, Daimler-Chrysler was busy unveiling their new “Blue-Tec” diesel technology. Developed jointly with Audi & VW, blue-tec is the latest in diesel fuel economy technologies as emission standards have further increased for 2007.

Meanwhile Max Mosley gave a keynote speech on how Formula 1 engine manufacturers should be focusing upon alternative fuel technologies and environmental standards instead of
Simply trying to make their “lumps” rev even higher. Formula 1 engines have been “frozen” for the foreseeable future along with being mechanically rev-limited to 19,000 RPM’s for 2007.

Audi’s revolutionary R10 turbo diesel won the 12hrs of Sebring and du 24 heurs Le Mans this year, becoming the very first manufacturer in history to win these two events. The R10 went undefeated in the ALMS this year. Peugeot plans to attend the 2007 24 hours of Le Mans with its own turbo diesel. With the push towards diesel engines which get up to 40% better fuel economy over gasoline engines will we see bio-fueled turbocharged diesels powering Formula 1 chassis in the future?