Night of the Living Bloggers

Otay, I confess I stole the title from “Jeffie” of My Name is IRL, which after I read it makes me smirk and think of that long lost MTV video classic Thriller and all of the marching Zombies…

After having recently learned about the Indy Car “bloggaratzi” taking over the Indianapolis Airwaves last Thursday evening on AM1070’s The Fan’s Trackside with Kevin ‘n Cavin, in which I tuned-in for my very first Trackside episode, carefully taking notes of everyone participating during the entire two hours.

Also, I especially liked Kevin’s quip about Curty Cavin’s Job Shadower: Are you going to be a Word Butcher on the keyboards or an Ink Stained wretch in Journalism… To which Cavin replied I’ve tried to talk him outta going into Journalism since there AIN’T gonna be any newspapers in the future…

But I really enjoyed Kevin doting on the “Vurd Botcherers” aspect, of which was a very clever takeoff regarding an ‘Ol article Jeff Olsen wrote abouts us nucel bashers ‘O keeboards many Moons ago, which I scribbled my thoughts in Beauty ‘N the Beast when gang tacklin’ the effervesant Mr. Olsen, noting how it was the perfect opportunity to cancel my subscription to Racer magazine!

Thus here’s my “lowdown” on the show’ participants in order, as Kevin Lee said ladies go first, so drumroll please…

the race gIRL
1) Monica
Talked about upcoming “Tweet-Up,” while Cavin noted that Monica sounded an AWFUL lot like the Princess; Dan-Dan-Daniker, or as “The DAWG” calls her; the Danistar… To which Curt also mentioned that Kevin was wearing his pressdog T-Shirt to which shameless pandering then took place. As for the Tweet-up, you’ll have to go elsewhere in the Blogosphere since I’m nNOT-a member of the TWIT-er Nation, which I like to refer to as the GRUNTER Nation…

Is it May Yet?
2) Will McCarty
Kevin asked for a brief description of his site to which Will explained started with the famous Son ‘O Stash mustachio photoshop pic and also provides Race Day weather forecasts which is what he does in his real job, along with having a very good sense ‘O Humour!

Also gave a “Shout-Out” to Jeff of My Name is IRL “Fame” who couldn’t make it since he was stuck in Rush hour AZ traffic… You know when Arizonan’s actually have to go the legal speed limit instead of 37.5+ mph over!

Open Paddock
3) Doug Patterson
This Blog is new to me, with my notes saying that Doug resides in Indy and he “Yakked” about the current state of the I500 as Matt “CAM-WOW!” Chamois of The Other Side likes to call the Indy 500…

Planet IRL
4) Kohl Kirkland
Kevin noted that Kohl was the first of three members from Planet IRL, which seems a little overboard to me (Hee-Hee-Hee…) As this even took Kohl by surprise, who gave another Shout-Out to Jeffie, Gee Whiz, what’s the Dealio, eh?

Kohl brought up the subject of the current Open Wheel Racing Feeder system, mentioning how USF2000 had just had a press announcement, while also noting how there were only two I500 Rookies in ’07 and how we need more “Young Guns” in the series. Cavin gave his two cents on the muddied waters of our Open wheel ladder system, while Kevin brought up how the Champ Car Atlantics used to give $1m bonus to the season’s Champion.

For more Feeder series insights, I suggest you check out Ryan’s Junior Open wheel Talent blog, which keeps tabs on this sorta stuff.

16th and Georgetown
5) James Black
James talked primarily about the leagues hottest property at the moment; Ryan “The IZOD DUDE! Hunter-Reay as Kevin ‘N Cavin bantered on ‘bout how they expect RHR to do in 2010, as Curty pondered if RHR could take TK (Tony Kanaan) straight-up? But he certainly expected Hunter-Reay to push Marco and the Princess, or did Kevin say that last part?

Also Cavin said tell us ‘bout your IMS Seating Chart project, which James has just launched on his site after the previous author was unable to continue it, to which Cavin lamented I don’t know why the Indy Star never did anything like that before Kevin interjected; you shoulda taken a camera with you when you were counting all of ‘dem seats! To which Curt replied; whale I was trying to not get caught by the (Yelllow Shirts) Security…

Oil Pressure
6) George Phillips
George mentioned how he was probably the oldest (Southern) IRL Blogger having gone to his very first I500 race in 1965 and lamented on the lack of diversity in today’s Indy Car Series, noting how he really missed the competition of rival chassis/engine combinations and the innovation in general this brought about when everybody wanted to see what showed up each May at the Speedway; citing how Chip Ganassi took a flyer on the relatively unknown Reynard chassis in ’94 and two years later it was dominant. (It was also the Cheepster who switched to the rival Toyota when the Honda was dominant in CART, before Toyota became the “Lump” to have…) But all three agreed that they’re will never be another tyre war and they don’t like them either…

Planet IRL
7) Paul Dalbie
Paul brought up a great subject over how it just seems a little too coincidental that the latest round of the Danistar to RASSCAR made the Airwaves just prior to the ICS’s IZOD title sponsor announcement and how this perpetual Danistar SHIT is conveniently fueled by ESPN as he never saw anything solid on this after it broke via ESPN’s assistance…

Indy Racing Revolution
8) Chris Estrada
Mr. “CHiPs” as I like to call Christopher talked a bit about how he got called up to the big leagues… And wanted to know the Hosts take on the current level of competition and what Tony Kottman needed to do, since he felt that if the league didn’t do something to spice it up from this year’s Red ‘N White Show; Can you say TCGR ‘N Penske? Then he felt that the league may be hard pressed to continue riding the IZOD wave…

Drive Hard-Turn Left
9) Bill Potter
Bill is also another “Indy Homeboy” (While Monica also mentioned she was in the process of moving there, since it’s the Heartland of Open Wheel Racing) who wanted to know how the proposed Comcast Takeover, Err merger of NBC/Universal would effect the IndyCar viewership? To which Cavin commented he just doesn’t know how important it is to Comcast?

pressdog
10) Bill Zarhin
After some guffawing ‘bout wearing The DAWG’s T-Shirt, Bill shocked us all by talking ‘bout Formula 1 instead… Hey, wait a minute… F1? What’s going on here, that’s my turf Bubbah!

Bill spent considerable time chronicling the absolute zaniness of the just completed season; how BRAWN GP came outta nowhere along with Red Bull Racing which was an Also Ran squad before the season and how they finished 1-2 in the Drivers & Constructor’s Championships. And that doesn’t even mention all of the vonybrtdird… Err Controversies, sorry ‘bout ‘dat, meese nucel’s gotz in duh way!

Indy Car Garage
11) Tyler Carmichael
Tyler wanted to know if they thought the ICS was doing enough to build-up a younger Generation of Drivers to grow the league. To which Cavin said that sounds like a question we had earlier… To which it musta been here when Kevin noted the $1m Prize Fund Mazda used to hand out for the Atlantics Champion, to which Cavin said is only a third of what it’ll cost to be driving for a bargain basement bottom rung ICS team… And $5m will only make you an average race team

Planet IRL
12) Joel Osborne
Joel, the Threes Company member of the Planet IRL Tag team wanted to know when was the last time a USAC Driver made it in Indy Cars instead of going to RASSCAR? To which Cavin explained how the parallels between USAC and RASSCAR were largely due to the similar driving style which is all about the weight bias being on the right rear tyre… To which Kevin eluded to how there’s NO current USAC road racing to give them the experience needed… To which Don Kay likes to lament how that’s exactly what Bruce Ashmore and his Gold Crown Series is setting out to rectify… While Cavin rattled off some names of drivers who had their shot in the Dark Dazes of the IRL (Pre-Unification) saying how Tony Stewart was a wildcard, but bringing up my favourite American IRL driver name Billy boat… And I seem to recall somebody named Greg Ray?

Anyways that’s the end ‘O my notes; so good job to all of the Word butchers taking part, to Kevin Lee for being the catalyst of the yearly Blogger Night and Curt Cavin and Kevin for making the show hum right along, as I’ll try to participate next time and may be we can talk Kevin “N Cavin into doing that twice a year? May be right before the season starts next year…

And if you’re interested in listening to the show, then check out the Trackside Bloggers Podcast, click here. (Thanxs to George Phillips who I borrowed the link from…)

You may also wish to read George Phillip’s Oil Pressure take on the event in his story An evening with Indy Car Bloggers

John Edwards to Indy Lights?

Last night on the Speed Freaks, albeit some narly static interference for major portions of the show, for the first time ever, they had reigning Atlantics Champion John Edwards as a guest and quizzed him about whether or not there was any controversy regarding his securing of the title at Laguna Seca…

When the former Red Bull American F1 Driver Search recipient, two time Star Mazda and Atlantics Champion was pressed about his 2010 plans, Edwards eluded to the fact that a potential sponsor had fallen by the wayside and Indy Cars in 2010 was most likely not going to happen, although he’d been looking forward to sampling the Dallara/Honda package in a test and now most likely he’ll wind-up competing for Newman Wachs Racing in the Firestone Indy Lights next year, albeit nothing is confirmed and they’re still exploring their options…

John Edwards on Speed Freaks

2009 ROC Recap

Whale this year’s ROC, the REAL Race Of Champions… NOT to be cornfuzed with that dually departed abomination of Pontiacs goin’ round ‘N round in some Adult Spirits series… (IROC) Has just been completed, having taken place in Beijing, China on November 3-4.

And with this year’s event having been moved forward one month and clashing with something called The Chase, Team USA dug deep into its bag of available Personalities, settling upon a pair of largely unknown Rally and Drifting Champions… As with NO disrespect to either Travis Pastrana or Tanner Foust, I think Double Formula D (“DUH!”) Champion Foust was OUT of his league…

As this year’s entrants consisted of no less then several top caliber names like: Jenson Button, Mattias Ekstrom, Marcus Gronholm, Mik0 Hirvonen, Tom Kristensen, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, to name a few.

2009 ROC Preview

And this year’s event in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium, site of the 2008 Summer Olympics, having moved from the previous two events at London’s Wembley Stadium in December also saw a change to the event’s format with Drivers and Nations now competing in Groups before progressing to the Semi-Finals.

The Nation’s Cup which began the two day event on Tuesday, saw a grouping of four and two groups of three compete against each other, with Team USA competing against France and Scandinavia. As Team USA made it into the round of four: China, Germany, Great Britain, and USA.

surprisingly Tanner Foust defeated the TERMINATOR (Schumacher) in round One before Michael’s teammate ‘ZEBB (Vettel) won the next round against Travis Pastrana in Rally Cars to see Vettel then defeat Foust in Heat 3 in ROC Buggies.

‘Zebb’s win enabled the Defending Nation’s Cup Champion (Team Germany) to advance to the Finals vs. Team Autosport GB, consisting of World Champion elect ‘JENSE (Button) and 3-time (WTCC) World Touring Car champion) Andy Priaulx, who’d defeated Team China. Team Germany then went onto defeat Team Autosport GB 2-1 and claimed its third Nation’s Cup title.

Team Germany wins Nation’s Cup

The following day (Wednesday) saw the similar first round groups format, where 2-time Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) Champion Mattias Ekstrom defeated all three first round competitors including Pastrana; while Foust lost to button in his first round grouping, as Ekstrom would cruise all the way thru to the Finals.

The other side of the ladder saw the TERMINATOR similarly working over his competition, starting off by defeating old F1 rival David Coulthard and also basically cruising thru his heats, as Schuey would face his protégé, the young Wunderkin Vettel in the Semi-Finals, but ‘ZEBB crashed and thus Schumacher would once again square off against Ekstrom in the Finals, of which the “Swede” (Mattias) easily won, by taking the first two of three heats.

Mattias Ekstrom:
"This is a very special day for me," the 31-year-old Swede smiled. "I was not particularly fortunate this year in the DTM. To end the season with a victory against Michael Schumacher is fantastic!"

Ekstrom is Champion of champions again

Greg Moore – 10 years after

So like always, its hard to believe that a decade has already passed since the fatal tragedy that claimed one of CART’s rising Stars on Halloween occurred, thus taking Greg Moore’s life in the 1999 CART Season Finale’s Marlboro 500 at the California Speedway…

As I can still recall seeing Moore’s Player’s liveried Forsythe Reynard/Mercedes Benz violently Barrel-rolling multiple times along the circuits high bank knowing that it would be a miracle for Moore to escape un-injured; especially at the unabated speed of 200mph plus!

Yet for reasons unknown, the strongest memory of the late Greg Moore I seem to harbor is his overly foolish Bonsai carnival-like maneuver into the Festival Curves at the start of the 1998 Portland G.I. Joes 200, where as “Auntie” Harriet would say… He was acting like a “Hot Head!”

As almost co medically, Moore attempted to leapfrog his way into the lead from P14 and in the process managed to eliminate seven Racers!

Yet obviously the New Westminster native, who grew-up in the Maple Ridge suburb of Vancouver, BC had unbridled talent, as none other than the legendary “Captain” Roger Penske had just inked him to a (Multi-year) contract during the summer of 1999 to become a Penske Racing Driver for the 2000 season before his untimely incident.

Like many “Kanuck’s” Moore played Ice Hockey as a youth and ironically the No. 99 would be assigned to him when he began his Karting career… Thus reputedly having nothing to do with the revered “Great One,” (Wayne Gretsky) although certainly the connection wasn’t lost to Greg, as it would become his Car number throughout his CART career...

And like most Open Wheel Racecar Drivers, Moore cut his teeth in Go-Karts, winning the 1989-90 North American Enduro Championship before progressing to Formula Ford’s, where in 1991 he was the Formula Ford 1600 Rookie of the Year after finishing fourth overall with one victory.

In 1992, Moore became the USAC West FF2000 (Formula Ford) Champion, having claimed four Poles and four victories enroute to the title, along with being the series Rookie of the Year, before moving onto the (original) Indy Lights series, which he ran in 1993 for his Family’s underfunded Team and finished ninth overall.

In 1994 Greg became the youngest ever winner of a (CART Sanctioned) Indy Lights race at the tender age of 18 when he took the chequered flag at the season opening round in Phoenix, AZ and would record two more wins that season enroute to finishing third in the Championship.

For 1995, Greg joined the Players/Forsythe Racing Organisation and simply crushed the competition enroute to the Indy Lights Championship with a staggering ten wins out of twelve races, including a scintillating five-in-a-row… And thus was destined to make his move up to the “Big Boyz” the following season.

In his Debutant season, Moore scored 84 points and finished as runner-up in the CART/PPG’s Jim Trueman Rookie of the Year standings behind somebody named “Zorro,” a.k.a. Alex Zanardi.

In 1997, Greg then became the Championship Auto Racing Teams youngest ever winner (to that date; since eclipsed by Scott Dixon and Nelson Philippe) at the age of 22 when he beat Michael Andretti to the stripe at the famed Milwaukee Mile and would repeat as winner again just one week later… As I recall screaming at the Telescreen as not one but both of my Home team’s PacWest Racing Drivers; Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell who were running nose to tail 1-2 both sputtered out of petrol on the final lap and Moore swept thru from third place to claim victory on Detroit’s Belle Isle.

In ’98 Greg was joined by fellow Canadian Patrick Carpentier as Players/Forsythe expanded to a two car operation and Moore would dice with Zanardi at the Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway (“Roval”) in Rio de Janeiro before making a spectacular pass to solidify his fourth Champ Car victory, before later that year he’d pass the Target Boyz duo of Zanardi and Jimmy Vasser to claim the Vanderbuilt Cup in the US 500 at Michigan International Speedway, which was sadly overshadowed by the deaths of three spectators from a flying tyre that bounded over the catch fencing.


The year 1999 would start off very good for the Kanuck, once again taking victory in the season opening race in Miami, this time on the Oval Track at Homestead, which sadly would become his final Indy Car career victory, as Moore would suffer fatal head injuries on his early race incident at Fontana. (As the violent crash registered an incomprehensible 154 G’s!)

And ironically the Halloween race weekend had started out ominously for Greg when he was struck on his “Scooter” by a vehicle in the Paddock, suffering an injured right hand with Roberto Moreno being called-in by Players/Forsythe as a Back-up replacement, although Greg would take the Green flag from the rear of the field, having been cleared to drive with a hand brace.

And as I’ve said before, reportedly it was Greg whom introduced the “Dashley ‘Juan,” nee Dario Franchitti to his future wife (Ashley Judd) at a party of friend Jason Priestley's… As Greg’s posse was known to include the likes of “Mad Max” (Massimiliano) Papis, “TK,” (Tony Kanaan) “REO Speedwagon” (Dario Franchitti) and others I cannot recall, (Greg Moore Brat Pack: Adrian Fernandez, Franchitti, Kanaan, Papis and Jimmy Vasser) as I was overly touched by Dario dedicating his 2009 Indy Car Series Championship at Homestead to his late, great, friend…

Remembering Gregg Moore

Stats
1993-95: CART Indy Lights
1995 Indy Lights Champion

1996-99: CART/PPG Championship
72 Starts; 5 Poles; 5 Wins; 17 Podiums.
First race, 1996: Homestead-Miami Speedway; Homestead, FL
Last race, 1999: California Speedway; Fontana, CA

Edwards wins Again!

Although it would have been nice to see the Winn ingest Female Atlantics Driver in history… NO! Not Princess who’s got less “W’s” (Wins) then former Champ Car driver Katherine Legge in Atlantics.

No, it’s Simona De Silvestro with four victories who went into the Season Finale at Laguna Seca leading the title, so it would have been nice to see Simona win the Championship title, yet it wasn’t to be upon retiring early and thus the title went to perennial front runner John Edwards, the 2008 Star Mazda Champion instead… As Juniour Open Wheel Talent (JOWT) has a pretty good story about it, click here.

Zanardi to contest 2012 Olympics

Ironically, after posting this story Salute Cavalryman yesterday, the AP Newswire reported that the always mind boggling 42yr old Zanardi has now announced his intentions to compete in the 2012 London Paralympics.

Alex Zanardi:
"My honest objective is to be at the level of the best Italian bikers, waiting for a dream that could come true in London in 2012."

Zanardi to seek place on cycling team

Thanks to No Fenders reader Doug for the heads-up…

Good Luck Alessandro!

Salute Cavalryman

Today marks the eighth anniversary in a day that I’m certain a one
Alessandro (“Alex”) Zanardi wishes to have never happened, as he nearly lost his life! Along with both of his legs and most likely causing Alex Tagliani to suffer nightmares of an out of control spinning racecar careening directly into his path!

Yet, out of this tragedy, Zanardi, the ever youthful optimist has triumphed repeatedly, as I fondly recall watching him kick ARSE two years later when there wasn’t a dry eye in the Euro Speedway House when “Zorro” took to the wheel of a specially adapted Reynard Ford/Cosworth Indy Car chassis and set about running off the final remaining (13) tribute laps of his uncompleted 2001 Lausitzring race where he was leading with 13 laps remaining before enduring his horrific shunt…

Thus it was even more impressive that during his return, not only did he climb back into an Indy Car, Alex incredulously ripped-off a top lap speed of 194mph+, which would have qualified him fifth for the days event!

Alex Zanardi races without legs

Yet, the amazingly energetic and joyful Italian has since gone on to drive a BMW-Sauber F1 car along with currently competing in the FIA World Touring Car Championship, (WTCC) continuing to win races for Team BMW Italy-Spain, run by ROAL Motorsport and most recently claiming the Czech Republic’s first round on June 21st. Not to mention his ever improving competitiveness in Hand-bike racing, of which Zanardi finished 4th in the ’07 New York Marathon, basically on a dare!

Bravo – Magnifico Alessandro!

Dario-speak

Ok, so I know it DOESN’T mean a single DAMN thing what your Humble Scribe’s opinion on whom the winner of the ’09 Indy Car Series Championship should be… But this ‘lil item has been stickin’ in my craw so to speak since the winners (WHINERS?) interview in the middle ‘O the night at Chicagoland… Where I thought that Roger Penske’s on-air comments in Victory Circle about the Burnin’ Inferno’s stellar drive was just a little Manu e Manu “Psyche” game between the Captain and the Cheepster, but I digress…

As the comment that got my dander up was Dario “REO Speedwagon” slaming his pit crew by saying” that’s the type of thing that LOSES us Championships. (Referring to a balky front wheel change)

Earth to Dario! Why are you throwin’ your awesome pit crew under the bus publicly… I mean didn’t you catch the young “Louise JAGUAR” Hamilton’s graceful handling of his teams Foopah that cost him the win in Valencia, Spain to Rubino, stating; “We win as a team, we LOSE as a Team.” Not to mention did you notice what happened when the Renault crew sent Fred Alonso out of the pits in the European GP without his front tyre’s wheel nut attached securely… Uhm? I believe we last saw it hurtling down the front straight!

Thus after having rooted for the flying Scot to collect his second title nearly all season long… I’m now rooting for the Aussie Ryan Briscoe… And NO, NOT because I wanna see Penske win again, but first Ryan got the boot from Chip Ganassi and secondly it’ll be something that Hulio has been unable to accomplish…

So GO Briscoe!

Bourdais to race in super League

Wonder what “The Hamburgular,” nee Sebastian Bourdais is up to after having been given the boot by Scuderia Toro rosso? Whale wonder no more race fans, as Sea Bass has decided to go racing in the final three events of the 2009 season of the Super League Formula Series for Spanish Football Club FC Sevilla, after completing a half day’s test at Magny Cours with British team Ultimate last week.

Bourdais will make his debut in this weekend’s round in Portugal at the Estoril circuit and will compete against ex-Formula 1 Piloto’s Georgio Pantano, Antonio Pizzonia and Enrique Bernoldi, who currently contest the series…

Portland’s Centennial

Sorry folks, but I just cannot let go of the fact that Portland has been majorly “Dissed” by the Indy Car World Series... Although I suppose I should understand by now that IMS rules the roost and will not play second fiddle to anybody! Yet, while much ado has been made over the fact that this year’s Indy 500 marks the famed Speedway’s Centennial, (Part One) little noise seems to be made about the fact that Portland, Oregon is also celebrating its own Open Wheel Racing Centennial, as its AAA sanctioned road race pre-dates the series first visit to Indianapolis, with Portland’s inaugural race being held on June 12, 1909; while today marks the 100th Anniversary of the Speedway hosting its inaugural event; the National Balloon race, of which IMS founder Carl Fisher was participating in...

Balloon races at Indianapolis

So, it’s a bit funny to me how I’m assuming that there’ll be NO mention of this fact by Indy Car, which seems sad to think that there still is an unspoken rift between CART/Champ Car and the IRL, of which I suppose will linger on for several years to come, sorta like the Civil War?


Truesports; Scott Pruett

And although my earliest memories of Open Wheel Racing cars is those bygone days of the early 1970’s with ABC’s Wide World of Sports Jim McKay at the microphone over Memorial Day weekend... much of my zest for this unique series spawn’s from traipsing about the grounds Of PIR for over two decades and the yearly pilgrimage on Father’s Day weekend to watch the Champ Cars.

Portland Celebrates 90th Anniversary

It was here that battle lines were drawn over whether you were an Andretti or Unser “Hater!” As the elder generation gave way to the mighty skirmishes between Mikey and Little Al, although John and Jeff Andretti would also take turns at Portland, along with Mario’s farewell tour, whose teammate was none other than “Il Lione,” a.k.a. Nigel Mansell or better known as BLOODY NIGE!

There was Scott Pruett persevering in the struggling Truesports chassis, which always seemed to be one step behind on engine choice, while Randall was always quick to give a driver a new nickname like “Stevie Johnson” (Stefan Johansson) and Raul Boesel being the originall Boom-Boom Smash-Smash BRAHMA! Who was at the time being sponsored by Brahma Beer.

Yet, one of my most favourite memories is the Pub we made our yearly destination sporting a life-size cardboard cutout of Bobby Rahal, who I used to call “Boobie Ruble,” of which Meesh has a much more diabolical spelling of... As Rahal senior was resplendent in his Miller High Life racing overalls and somebody had cleverly stuck a note underneath his arm saying “Need two tickets for Indy!” Since this was the year that the Three time CART Champion had switched to Honda “Lumps” and looked set to fail qualifying for the 1994 Indy 500 before making the painful decision to switch to a customer Penske/Ilmor chassis instead to satisfy his sponsors...

Then there was the year when a person by the name of Robby Gordon asked me if the seat next to me in the Grandstands was taken? As he and his girlfriend sat thru the entire Trans Am race, as I tried having a casual conversation with him, while my friends tried heckling him... As this was his Rookie season in CART, driving for ‘Ol Super Tex... Before I got his autograph the following year when he’d jumped to Derrick Walker’s “Team Valvoline” and Robby seemed none too impressed with me when discovering my pen was running dry of ink!


ARS Chassis with Buick V-6

Or watching a very “Young Lion” named Jon Beekhus kicking ARSE in the ARS... (American Racing Series) which I believe was the pre-cursor to the original Indy Lights series, as the ARS chassis were motivated by normally aspirated Buick V-6’s...

And then there was the SCCA Trans Am, which just had some of the NARLIEST Pony Cars going fender to fender, as this was during the era of Factory backed “Works” teams featuring the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro and Dodge Avenger(?) With Tommy Kendall, Dorsey Schrader, Ron Fellows, Scott Sharp and the Archer Brothers to name a few; while there was our local PacWest Racing team making good, as Mark Blundell captured the team’s very first victory in what must arguably be Portland’s closest finish, beating Gil De Ferran in a drag race, with Raul Boesel in third for CART’s closest ever 1-2-3 finish in its history.

Patrick Racing; Alfa Romeo

And witnessing “Mr. Hollywood” or “Sully” (Danny Sullivan) going from the highs of CART Champion in 1988 in the beautifully prepared gold Penske PC-17/Chevrolet Miller High Life to the lows of struggling while driving for Pat Patrick in the hugely uncompetitive Alfa Romeo powered Lola T91/00 chassis.

Along with Marlboro Team Penske’s three car armada simply crushing everybody in its wake, while “My Boy Dirtmann” (Robby Gordon)
Pipped ‘Ol Bloody Nige for fourth place on the final lap coming onto the front straight... (Remember that Randall?)

Then the tide turned red, as those pesky Target/Chip Ganassi cars ruled the roost in CART, winning an unprecedented four consecutive Championships (1996-99) as Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya flexed their muscles on track, before Kenny Brack had what was deemed a sub-par season driving for The Cheepster!”

Or watching De Ferran take an improbable victory in the low budget Walker Racing entity vs. the big Guns of Penske, etc. by putting his Goodyear tires to good use over the opposition, as Derrick Walker called another crafty race for his charge, while Team Rahal triumphed at Portland with Max Papis, with Brack and Vasser driving that wonderful looking white/yellow Shell car, along with Mexican Michele Jourdain Jr’s brief tenure with the team.


Walker Racing; Scott Goodyear

And I’ve completely left out the “Kuh-Nuck’s” (Not on purpose Meesh & CAM-Wow) as there was Scott Goodyear, Ross Bentley, and John Jones off the top ‘O my noggin... Not to mention somebody named PT, as Mr. Chrome Horn (Paul Tracy) and Dario Franchitti were always a force to be reckoned with at Team Kool Green, along with some cats nicknamed Jack Vanilla, (Jacques Villeneuve) Pat the Carpenter (Patrick Carpentier) and TAG. (Alex Tagliani) And let’s NOT forget the late, great Greg Moore, whom I recall watching cause a massive seven car pile-up into the Festival Curves by going into the corner on the start overly aggressive and ultimately flying off track...

Or “Shorty” (Cristiano da Matta) scoring his final Champ Car victory whilst driving for PKV Racing before his horrendous testing accident at Road America, while Portland was also the site for first time CART/Champ Car maiden victories for: Al Unser Jr., Alex Zanardi (Mark Blundell) and AJ Allmendinger.


Dorsey Schroeder; Tom Gloy Motorsports

And lastly, all of the years making countless sarcastic cracks at “King Hiro” (Hiro Matsushita) Lyn St. James, Scott Brayton, Willy T. Ribbs and all of the other perennial back markers who drove for Dick Simon Racing and Dale Coyne Racing respectively, of which was totally uncalled for, but, hey! If we knew now what we didn’t know then, eh? Thus Salute Portland! And may be some day (SOON?) in the hoped for near future the leadership of the Indy Racing League will see fit to return to the Pacific Northwest of which could potentially once again attract its dedicated fans from California, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, BC, eh? As it’s now going on three years without a FRILLIN’ race...

PIR Photos

Past Race Winners: Portland Champ Car Event

June 17, 1984 Al Unser Jr; June 16, 1985 Mario Andretti; June 15, 1986 Mario Andretti; June 14, 1987 Bobby Rahal; June 19, 1988 Danny Sullivan; June 25, 1989 Emerson Fittipaldi; June 24, 1990 Michael Andretti; June 23, 1991 Michael Andretti; June 21, 1992 Michael Andretti; June 27, 1993 Emerson Fittipaldi; June 26, 1994 Al Unser Jr.; June 25, 1995 Al Unser Jr.; June 23, 1996 Alex Zanardi; June 22, 1997 Mark Blundell; June 21, 1998 Alex Zanardi; June 20, 1999 Gil de Ferran; June 25, 2000 Gil de Ferran; June 24, 2001 Max Papis; June 16, 2002 Cristiano da Matta; June 22, 2003 Adrian Fernandez; June 20, 2004 Sebastian Bourdais; June 19, 2005 Cristiano da Matta; June 18, 2006 A.J. Allmendinger; June 10, 2007 Sebastian Bourdais.

My ’07 Portland Race weekend re-cap

FIL Fillies’

While all of the media coverage centers around Princess Danicker, let’s not forget that the Firestone Indy Lights has its own share of Female Piloto’s in the mix, albeit only two this season making up the ranks of the hyper-intensive Indy Lights Championship, after three Females made their mark last season... With the exclamation point being Bia’s record setting first victory at Nashville Speedway last year, as Ana Beatriz who’s driving for perennial FIL powerhouse Sam Schmidt Motorsports is joined by FIL Rookie competitor Pippa Mann driving for Panther Racing...

Women in ’09 Indy Lights

A somewhat quiet weekend

Its funny to think of the weekend just squandered, being considered a “Quiet” weekend due to the Formula 1 circus receiving a well deserved break, while the Indy Cars are all settling in for a month’s stay in Indiana. And thus, upon pulling significant seat time in front of the Telescreen, alas I fell fowl to Lee Jiffy’s words ‘O warning about being a Couch Potato this weekend. Since I’m not as technically savvy as Meesh pulling up live streams via le confuzer, nor able to see anything on a tiny 4X4 box, I instead stuck to the tried ‘N true methods of remote control itus...

Supercross throw down in Los Wages
I started the weekend’s gorging ‘O television by tuning into the AMA Supercross finale live from Las Vegas, NV, as I’ve become somewhat intrigued by these INSANE athletes... Thanks in large part to Jefford, who’s a Motorcycling nut, having acquired one of Ryan Dungee’s past “Scooters” for his son Dundee.

Thus, I’ve been pullin’ for Dungee to win this season’s Supercross Lites West title, which he accomplished prior to the East-West Shootout Saturday... In which he finished runner-up by mere inches.

I’ve also been somewhat interested in the made for TV Drama-fest between James “Bubbah” Stewart and Chad “Crocodile” Reed of which a simmering rift has widened over the season with the plethora of Dirty Tricks being played between the two of them, who’ve for the most part owned the season, being head ‘N shoulders above the majority of the field. And after some questionable team tactics in Salt Lake City, Reed was trying to do the impossible and come from behind a six point deficit in the final round.

Thus, I found it most enjoyable to see Paulsbo “Home Boy” Ryan Villopoto on Stewart’s ex-Kawasaki score his second victory of his rookie season, while Reed tried making Stewart crash into the tough bloc’s with an overly aggressive move while stalking Stewart, which wasn’t successful as Reed would finish second with Stewart winning his second Supercross title aboard Chad Reeds ex-Yamaha mount by ultimately finishing third...

New Jersey Soak-fest
Sunday morning I decided to endeavor in watching the Grand Am race live from New Jersey Motorsports Park, which unfortunately was under a deluge of precipitation... And I mean heavy rainfall, as the in-car camera showed a virtual whiteout as Mark Patterson nailed the suddenly slowing Ricky Taylor on the opening lap, causing considerable damage to his Michael Shank Racing Daytona Prototype, as the racing conditions were simply atrocious, as the drivers noted that you could only see about five feet ahead, with many noting looking out the side windows to find braking markers...

Of course much was made over “Uncle Scooter’s” over-indulgence of F-Bombs caught on David Donohue’s in-car camera after the two collided during the finish of the previous week’s race in Virginia. As it was wryly noted how that conversation would most likely not make its way into Scott Pruett’s Children books, eh?

And it was most ironic while pit reporter Brian Till was doing a segment on how rain and electronics DON’T mix, the Telescreen went blank! And then the picture cut out several more times before finally returning. As the Proto Auto Lola, a combined effort between Tracy Krohn and Lola, scored its maiden victory, as ex-Formula 1 piloto “Ricky” Ricardo Zonta simply motored away from his manager Max Angelelli, building up a 40 second lead in the precipitous conditions, as it helps to be ahead of the rooster tails, as Zonta had taken over from Nick Johnson, whose Nordic driving talents had paid off handsomely during the races opening stint, as the Lola’s superior downforce finally paid dividends for the team after developing the chassis the past few years, giving Krohn its first win since July, 2006.

Budget Cap This!
Taking a brief gander on the confuzer, (so much for not logging on Sunday) I noticed that once again Emperor Bernardo is flexing his muskcles, by stating that he’s decided that BRAWN GP will not receive the Honda $20 million prize money he’d promised them after all, since the team’s just doing a little too good for Bernie’s liking... Having even gone so far as saying that they should have kept Honda’s name, since Brawn doesn’t sound good to him!

Is there a Doctor in the House?
For the afternoon, I tuned into the Spanish MOTO GP event, of which I missed the starting segment, hence not knowing why The Kentucky Kid (Nicky Hayden) continued performing so badly... New Team/Bike blues? As unheralded Collin Edwards has completely outperformed him to date on a non-works machine.

And being in Spain, which reports have noted is worth an extra tenth or two for the Spanish riders, it was most impressive to see The Doctor (Valentino Rossi) simply run down Dani Pedrosa, pass him and motor off into the distance, while Ducatti’s Casey Stoner held onto the final podium spot after a late race scare from Pole Sitter Jorge Lorenzo, who crashed with four laps remaining while trying to run Stoner down for the final Jerez podium step...

Tracy’s new Tattoo
“BOSS! Dee Plane, Dee Plane!”
(Sorry ‘bout ‘dat, couldn’t resist, somme-thung to do ‘bout Tattoo’s, eh?)

Thus for my bug-eyed Telescreen nightcap, it struck me how once again, how time flies by as Bob Varsha was filling-in, with Robin Miller co-hosting Wind Tunnel as Ye ‘Ol windbag Dave Despain was taking only his second ever night off... As the trivia question was who was the first fill-in host? It was Ralph Sheheen way back in 2004 when Despain contracted laryngitis... As DAMN! Was it really five years ago when I watched that episode?

Of course I was most interested in the interview with Mr. Chrome Horn, whom seemed overly sedate with his interview, as I for one am looking forward to the Month ‘O May being over simply so we won’t have to hear about the 2002 INDY 500 controversy, eh? As its interesting how the results do seem a little bit skewed in favour of the Speedway...

Towards the end of the interview, Varsha noticed Tracy sportin’ a brand new “Tat.” When asked about it, PT responded that he’s had a LOT of Free time lately and not a lot to do... Which gathered laughter from both Varsha & Miller, as Tracy continued on saying that he’s been tinkering on his cars in his garage, etc. as I seem to recall that he’s also a Harley fan and has a few custom choppers, but just too much DAMN Free time on his hands lately...

Asked about Toronto, he bluntly stated that they need him to be there this year in order to sell tickets...

And they razzed him on his lack of performance in SPEED’s Fantasy Racing League, to which he replied; “I just pick the drivers I like.” And how it’s probably Bad Luck to pick himself for Indy since he really doesn’t like any of the drivers at Indy this year. Yuck-Yuck-Yuck... With Tracy stating, well I like Dario and Kanaan, but I’m NOT going ‘dare for NO STINKIN’ dancin’ contest!

And Miller who was sporting a Head Cold this evening, made the comment during the shows opening segment when a caller asked about why no Will Power at Kansas... That the rumour he’s been hearing is that Penske will farm out Power to his son Jay for Luczo Dragon Racing to run a two car entity after INDY... (But hey, this is only a rumour, eh?)

And for those of you North of the border, eh? With your magnificent TSN, you may be able to catch the Tracy segment buried somewhere on the SPEEDTV website page?

Bloomers; Take 2

(Sebastian Vettel - Shanghai; Source: Grandprix.com)

Whale apparently all HE-LL broke loose while your Humble Scribe was busy trying to load the Seattle Sounders button picture and then watching the tape of the Chinese GP practice session...

As Y’all will be shocked to learn that once again our hero JENSE’ stuck his (Brawn) “Bee-Gee 01” racecar on provisional pole, with young German Whippersnapper Nico Rosberg being the meat in a Brawnie sandwich, as he was P2 while elder Formula 1 statesman Rubinoe was third quick, with the next two spots going to the Red Bull mono difusser chassis, with Mark “Barbie” Webber besting young Zebb.

Of course the entertaining portion of yesterday’s practice was the fact that Ferrari and McLaren held spots 9-12-13-14, with “KOVY” (Kovalainen) leading the pack ahead of Massa, Hamilton and Raikkonen respectively... With BMW Sauber toiling in P17-18 and Fredrico Suave (F. Alonso) who’d ripped Bridgestone a new orifice over bringing the “super-soft’s” to Shanghai languishing in 19th.

And Ferrari having seen The Iceman suffer three KERS failures in Malaysia decided to dump the system for the Chinese weekend, while I’m not exactly pleased to hear all of the scuttlebutt suggesting that Hamilton Senior somehow helped instigate the Ronster’s demise from McLaren F1, as this seems a nasty way to reward the man who brought your son a World Championship after having inked him to a contract at the tender age of 13, eh?

Yet, I suppose the Rally-Rally-Rally Big News occurred upon the Indy Car side of the Pacific... As I’m guessing Y’all have heard that Hulio has been declared innocent... (Uhm? I’m thinkin’ he’s pulled another fast one here and certainly will be glad he can keep all of those snazzy uniforms, eh?) While Meesh & the Sham-Wow! Amongst others (myself included) will be celebrating Paul Tracy’s arrival... With the announcement that he’ll be driving the No. 15 KVRT entry at Indianapolis this May. While Davey “I Believe” Hamilton has been inked to drive Dreyer & Reinbold’s third Dallara/Honda at the Speedway this May... Now all we need is for the 93rd INDY 500 Entry list to be unveiled, eh?

Oh yeah, according to Will of Is it May yet? Will Power will be in the No. 12 Verizon “Can you hear me now?” Penske at the Speedway, as I’d assume that means that Sam Hornish Jr. will be at Charlotte drinkin’ Coke’s, while there’s NO word on whether or not Milkalicious will be able to find a spare Dallara for some hot laps at Indy this May?

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...

Three’s company

Whale, by now perhaps you know that Firestone Indy Lights Rookie Junior Strous Captured a very rare double header “clean sweep” pair of victories during the season opening rounds at St Petersburg, Florida last weekend... Driving for one of the little, under funded teams of the sport... Running under the guidance of Paul Diatlovich’s PDM Racing organization which runs the operational portion of the racing program for Jon Lewis and Rick Nelan’s ASR/Nelan Winner’s Circle Group Racing Team, as apparently the Winners Circle Group Firestone Indy Lights team is an offshoot of last season’s American Spirit Racing Team, which campaigned easy on the eyes Swiss FIL Rookie Cyndie Alleman under the direction of Diatlovich, who served as the team’s Crew Chief.

All I seem to recall about Junior Strous, is his most entertaining interview last year upon the Speed Freaks after having run down some would –be crooks trying to rob his parents Shell gasoline station back home in the Netherlands... Hence the Shell V-Power sponsorship on his No. 18 I’m guessing?

Junior Strous – Hey You, STOP!

Yet the ex-Atlantic racer from the Netherlands has just joined the rarified company of past Indy Lights Champions Alex Lloyd and “Rafa” (Rafael) Matos as the only three drivers to win double header race weekends at St. Pete in the series, which isn’t too shabby of a way to begin your season, eh?

And listening to a very humble Paul Diatlovich on Autosport Radio this past Tuesday, it was nice to hear a little bit more of what Arie Luyendyk Jr. had mentioned during the Versus race rebroadcast Monday afternoon, that the teams Chief Race Engineer was none other than his father’s Indy 500 winning engineer Tim Wardrop... Who as the abnormally sedate Mike “Yippee Kye Aae” King noted; knew a thing or two about going fast at the Speedway...

Thus I was momentarily stunned to hear Diatlovich divulge to Donald Kay that Mr. Wardrop, who even Darren “Danger Mouse” Manning warmly greeted as “Doctor Who” while I was hanging’ out in Speedway, Indiana had been severely sick last year and almost didn’t make it... Hmm? Dare I speculate on this, Nah... Ain’t my biz’ eh?

Doctor Who

So, its seemingly good news all around for Mr. Diatlovich and his merry tight knit group of hard core racers at PDM Racing, as although it’s a long ways to go until the end of the season with perennial powerhouses Sam Schmidt Motorsports and AFS Racing/ Andretti Green Racing most certainly to be heard from in the races to come... Yet, you just gotta root a little for Winners Circle Group/PDM Racing, especially when Mr. Diatlovich states that their dream plan is to graduate into the “Big Carzs” ranks next year with Junior Strous as the team’s pilot of choice...

F1’s Danica factor?

I find it most intriguing that Formula 1 seems to be suffering a bit of Danica-itus at the moment... As current Formula 1 Driver’s weight has apparently become an issue. As first the Aussie Mark Webber has called for adjustments and now BMW Sauber has chimed in during the weekend of the season’s opening race, as apparently the non mandatory usage of KERS in F1 this year is causing drivers to go on the Slim Fast plan in order to give team engineers the ultimate freedom in ballast positioning...

Currently Formula One chassis have a minimum weight allowance of 605 kilos, (1,320lbs) with the KERS system reportedly weighing in between 35-40 kilos (80lbs) and with the tight confines of a modern F1 chassis, apparently it’s a most challenging packaging exercise.

Professor Steve Matchett noted that the teams are stuck with trying to shove the whole darn thing underneath the fuel tank, not to mention the unique problems surrounding battery storage, safety and serviceability... Recall that last year “Truly Scrumptious” (Jarno Trulli) suffered a retirement from the Australian Grand Prix due to an exploding battery located underneath his seat, due to the venues excessive heat, as many were quick to point out the term Hot Bot...

Thus reportedly the majority of drivers including Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso have all lost wait to further help the engineers in their quest to build the lightest car possible and then strategically re-ballast it, as BMW Sauber decided to run its Kinetic Energy Recovery system on “Quick Nick’s” (Heidfeld) car only, as the German was diminutive enough to not pose a weight issue, while the taller bean Pole-ish “Krakow Kid,” a.k.a. Robert Kubica was not running the controversial system due to his larger mass, as Matchett noted how Red Bull Racing had gone to brand new driver suit materials to save a mere three ounces.

Thus both Webber and Dr. Mario theisen have called for the FIA to increase the minimum weight limit as they claim that the larger drivers are being penalized due to their taller and theoretically larger physique’s... Which caused me to recall Robby “Dirtmann” Gordoun’s boisterous outcry over Danica Patrick having an unfair advantage in Indy Car due to her Lilliputian size...

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!

New Open Wheel Racing teams

This past Tuesday evening’s Autosport Radio Show was fairly entertaining, as it featured key members of the latest two Open Wheel Racing teams to be announced.

First up, was guest Greg Beck, current owner of Beck Motorsports and now part owner of the newly formed Indy Car operation, Team 3G; which stands for: 3 Guys. As many may already know, Beck has inked stuntman and Nationwide series competitor Stanton Barrett as his full time Indy Car driver for the 2009 season, with hopes of a possible second car to be added. Beck is also hopeful of running an Firestone Indy Lights team, being close to having at least a partial season deal for an initial car and further hopes of a second car, which could see Greg ultimately fielding four race cars after struggling to just run a lone Indy Car previously.

When asked how much it takes to run a single Indy Car effort for a full season and does the $1.3 million incentive doled out by Tony George factor in? Greg said yes, we definitely factor the money in and I’d say you can probably get away with a NO Frills, bare bones single car entry for $3.5 million for an entire season, although $5.5-6.0m would probably be more realistic a number in order to do the season correctly.

Stanton Barrett did all of the stunt work for the three Spiderman films and has a long list of credits, along with being the son of Stan Barrett, who was part of the original stunt team for Burt Reynolds Smokey and the Bandit along with Hal Needham. And I believe that Stan also did multiple work as Paul Newman’s stunt-double.

Interestingly, Greg threw out the tidbit that Stan had also been the pilot behind the controls of the Budweiser Rocket car, that controversially tried to become the first vehicle to break the sound barrier nearly three decades ago, while its top speed of 739mph was never officially recognized!

Next up, was Louis “Butch” Meyer III, who’s decided to leave his post as Firestone Indy Lights technical director after six years and form an alliance with Jim Guthrie, as the new co-owner of Guthrie/Meyer Racing. This Indy Lights team has been raiding the workforce of current champions Sam Schmidt Motorsports and features an impressive line-up of its four cars chief mechanics, which includes Mike “Groovy Baby” Meyer, son of Butch; while Butch is the grandson of the late, legendary Louis Meyer, the first driver to win the Indy 500 three times...

Standard engines, say what?

Perhaps you’ve heard of the latest NONSENSE coming out of Sir Maxxum’s, Uh? Mouth... As Mad Max (Mosley) in conjunction with his puppet master Emperor Bernardo, have come up with the most LAUGHABLE notion of forcing the Formula One Constructor’s into running a standardized engine in their respective chassis beginning in the near future with bids being open for 2010-12.

Hmm? Isn’t this exactly opposite of what Indy Car and Honda are seeking “Across the Pond? As interestingly this is exactly what Steve Chassey expounded upon last night on Autosport Radio, saying how Indy has lost a sizeable amount of its luster as it’s simply a “Spec” series now. As part of the fun of showing up at Indy every year was you didn’t know what was going to show up? As in there were multiple chassis/engine combinations and they changed every season...

Hey Sir Maxxum, why don’t you give it a rest!

Mexico’s newest star

While Sports Car ace Memo Rojas, is currently basking in the afterglow of his just collected Grand Am title, there have been several other Mexicali piloto’s to come before him, with the likes of the Rodriguez Brothers of Formula One fame, followed later by such talents as Adrian Fernandez, Michele Jourdain Jr. and Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez, to name just a few...

And there now appears to be another rising star on the horizon, as 17yr old Monterey, Mexico native Esteban Gutierrez has exploded onto the motor racing scene, storming the Formula BMW (European) series with twelve podiums and seven wins enroute to capturing this year’s title, along with being named Rookie of the Year (2007) in the Formula BMW America’s division.

If Gutierrez can go on to claim victory at the Formula BMW World Championship to be held at Mexico City’s Hermanos Rodriquez circuito, (12/05-07) then Gutierrez will be awarded a test drive aboard a BMW Sauber F1 racing car...

Super League

Ever wonder where ex-Champ Car drivers go, who aren’t lucky enough to graduate to the new unified Indy Car World Series? As it seems that the newly created Super League has become a haven for many of the displaced foreign drivers...

What’s that? You say you’ve never heard of the Super League? Well, it’s a somewhat novel idea, very loosely framed upon the principle of the A1 GP, which bills itself as the Motorsports equivalent of World Cup Soccer, Err, Foosball... As the Super League is the cross pollination of worldwide Foosball clubs and Motorsports, with 17 Soccer Clubs racing against each other in identically prepared racecar’s...

And talk about your “Spec” racecar, as all of the single seaters are produced by Elan Motorsports Technologies and powered by Menard Competition Technologies (4.2 liter) V-12 lump’s producing 750+ bhp.

“While the chassis and components are constructed at Elan's base in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, the final assembly is taking place at the headquarters of Norfolk headquarters for renowned Formula Ford constructor, Van Diemen - also an Elan owned company.”

The driver roll call sheet seems to be a combination of A1 GP, GP2 and ex-Champ Car stars, piloting such notable Soccer clubs machinery as Liverpool, Olympiacos and PSV Eindhoven.

While such notables as Ryan Dalziel, (Rangers) Robert Doornbos, (AC Milan) Tristan Gommendy (FC Porto) and Nelson Philippe, (Borussia Dortmund) which equates to approximately ¼ of the old Champ Car grid… OUCh!

The first round of the six race series was run at Donnington on August 31st, with victory going to Davide Rigon, driving for Beijing Guoan, with Enrico Toccacelo (AS Roma) runner-up and Duncan Tappy (Tottenham Hotspur) finishing third…

Correction
A very astute reader has caught me making another blunder… As I’d incorrectly assumed that the Rangers noted above equated to the Queens Parks Rangers of London, in which “Flavour Flav,” a.k.a. Flavio Briatore is part owner of. But, you know what happens when you ASS-Sume things, eh? And thus Open Wheel star Ryan Dalziel, was indeed behind the wheel of his Scottish Football Club’s entry, the Glasgow Rangers of Scotland and NOT driving for Briatore’s London based club…

Racing Fodder

See what happens when you go on Holiday for a few days? All Hell seemingly breaks loose in the “Vurld der Motorsporten,” Ja-Ja!

Castroneves freed on $10m bail
This by far was the most shocking news of the past week, of which I was totally unaware of until returning from Minnesota last evening. As thanks to Indiana Bureau Chief Danny B, the news was awaiting my return...

As apparently Penske Racing’s Helio Castroneves has been charged with several counts of Fraud and Tax Evasion by the Internal Revenue Service and was seen putting on another of his Hollywood cameos in the courtroom, when breaking down in tears...

Obviously, this isn’t the type of publicity that the Indy Car series is seeking, as this could potentially leave a very black mark upon one of the leagues two Prima Dona’s, Err, “Top Stars.”

To read more, see; Castroneves pleads not guilty in tax case

Canada loses Grand Prix
And while I find the Castroneves business quite alarming, I find the cancellation of the 2009 Canadian Grand Prix even more disturbing, as the FIA (nee Emperor Bernardo) has just dropped the longtime Montreal event from its latest 2009 calendar, which will see the North American shores totally devoid of any Formula 1 races next year, which seems certain to cause some rancor with the worlds leading Auto manufacturers, eh?

Apparently the Canadian Grand Prix has ran into the dreaded effects of the ever increasing Global economic crisis, of which is being spearheaded by the United States, yet Montreal’s loss will have a major economic fallout upon the city, which reportedly benefits by the massive $100 million the event pumps into the local economy.

Turkey will now take Canada’s place upon the F1 calendar and allow the Formula One circus a month long break during the summer, of which the teams employees rightfully deserve, but will do little to inspire Canadian fans... Hey, I know! Why can’t Emperor Bernardo give his friend and long time “Kuhnuck” whipping boy Normand Legault, (NOT to be confused with Sir Maxxum...) the event promoter since 1981, a monetary handout, Err, I meant bailout? Oh yeah, that’s right. Bernie NEVER spends any of his money...

“Rafa” called up to the Majors
Interestingly, reigning Indy Lights Champion Rafael Matos has been announced as Luczo Dragon’s chauffer of its #12 Dallara Honda Indy Car for the 2009 season. Matos has been on a quite impressive streak of late, having previously won the 2007 Champ Car Atlantics Championship, along with taking the GT class victory at this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, Overall victory aboard a Daytona Prototype for Michael Shank Racing at the Gran d Am’s season finale at Miller Motorsport Park and winning the Skip Barber and Star Mazda Championships previously.


Although there’s no word upon Tomas Scheckter’s future with the team, presumably Matos signing leaves the South African driver as a free agent upon the Indy Car driver market, as I’m wondering how this arrangement came about, since I thought that Matos was a contracted Andretti Green Racing driver? Yet, this is certainly good news for aspiring Indy Lights contestants, as yet, none have been able to be given legitimate shots in the Indy Car World Series...

Pantano wins GP2 Championship

While writing about the good fortunes of Italian motorsports the past weekend, while history was made during the Italian Grand Prix, along with The Doctor’s good fortunes at the Speedway, I forgot to mention that Italian Georgio Pantano finally got the monkey off his back, by capturing this year’s GP2 Championship also at Monza, Italy... As I hadn’t watched the race yet!

But the elder statesman of GP2, at the tender age of 29, having contested 75 GP2 events, did indeed clinch his very first title and now aspires to join the Formula 1 ranks, although this seems unlikely, largely due to his age, as youngsters like Bruno Senna, series runner-up to Pantano, Sebastian Boomi, (6th overall) Lucas Di Grassi, who finished an amazing 3rd overall, driving only a partial season and reigning GP2 Asia Champion Romain Grosjean, who finished 4th overall, all clamour for F1 seats in the near future.

And don’t forget about Karun Chandhok, (10th overall) who was just handed the series "best driving style" award, as I’m certain that Vijay Malia (Not to mention Emperor Bernardo!) would most likely wish to see Chandhok in F1 just-in-time for the impending 2010 Indian Grand Prix... As I wonder if Giancarlo Fisichella is simply keeping the Force India seat warm for him?

Yet, further implications towards this quintet of “Young Lion’s” potential superstardom vs. Pantano, is the fact that they all have a major advantage over the Italian, as Boomi and Chandhok are both sponsored by Red Bull, along with Boomi being Red Bull Racing’s F1 test and reserve driver, while Di Grassi and Grosjean are both Renault F1 test drivers and Di Grassi seems to have overshadowed GP2 pre-season favourite Grosjean.

And let’s not forget series runner-up Bruno Senna, whose name alone is a sizzling commodity in regards to a future Formula 1 career, as rumours suggest that either a drive with Scuderia Toro Rosso or McLaren as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate abound...

Good Luck Georgio!

Georgio Pantano interview

Belle’s and Whistles

Main Entry: block
Function: verb
Date: 1580

transitive verb
1 a: to make unsuitable for passage or progress by obstruction barchaic : blockade c: to hinder the passage, progress, or accomplishment of by or as if by interposing an obstruction d: to shut off from view e: to interfere usually legitimately with (as an opponent) in various games or sports f: to prevent normal functioning or action of g: to restrict the exchange of (as currency or checks)2: to mark or indicate the outline or chief lines of 3: to shape on, with, or as if with a block 4: to secure, support, or provide with a block5: to work out or chart the movements of (as stage performers) —often used with out6: to make (two or more lines of writing or type) flush at the left or at both left and right.

intransitive verb: to block an opponent in sports
(Source: Webster’s Dictionary)

Originally I planned to scribble my thoughts about this past weekend’s race upon Detroit’s Belle Isle, you know? The track that The Captain, a.k.a. Roger Penske has personally poured large amounts of capital into in order to return the noted mud bog back onto the Indy Car calendar, with reports of between $5.5-7.0 million having been spent upon its upgrades this year... Although reports claim that the events return on investment nets the city $53m in revenue, but I digress...

And why yes, I was all set to babble on ‘bout Milka-licious and Whiney Bags colliding on lap 1, with Bruno Junqueira being penalized for “Avoidable” contact... Although guest colour commentator Arie Luyendyk Jr. had a hard time stifling his laughter during the broadcast as the leaders came upon Milka Duno and were having a hard time getting around her...

Or how about Tomas “Roc-em Soc-em” Scheckter perhaps needing his nickname revamped to Halfshaft? As Tomas seemingly has a propensity for snapping the large metal objects... As Jay Penske reportedly claimed that the team was 90% certain to run the full calendar next year along with being based in Indianapolis due to a sponsor to be named later, with no word on who the driver would be.

But instead, I immediately SCREAMED HOORAW!!! When Justin Wilson made the move that would ultimately garner him his very first Indy Car series victory, when the league’s “Golden boy,” Err, Golden-shue was rightly penalized for AGRESSIVELY BLOCKING!

And I screamed even LOUDER; BLACK FLAG ‘EM! BLACK FLAG ‘EM! Upon the news that Castroneves was not heeding the instructions to give up the lead to Justin... Of which he finally did, while a microphone was shoved in Tim Cindric’s face about how he felt over the penalty? Well, usually, you get one warning first; Wah-wah-wah...

Yet, this led to an interesting conversation with Mary Ellen, who asked; “Isn’t blocking what everybody does in racing?” Of which the same topic was debated upon Wind Tunnel, as the ‘Ol windbag himself (Dave Despain) noted that blocking occurs all weekend long in a RASSCAR race... Asking Open wheel curmudgeon Robin Miller; “Wasn’t it those Bra-zillion’s who started blocking?” To which Miller retorted; “Yeah, some guy named Ayrton started the whole thing and just look at Schumacher and Hamilton lined up for the start of a Formula 1 race.”

Of which reminds me of Robert Doornbos’s comments towards the Hamburgular (Bourdais) saying” “You’d better get used to it when you go over to F1!” As Sea Bass was sniveling about having been given the chop block treatment during a Champ Car race... To which somme-thung ‘bout dishing it out but NOT being able to take it comes to mind in regards to both Bourdais and Castroneves. (OOPS! DON’T FORGET THE PRINCESS, EH?)

Yet, I appreciated the female midget driver’s comments about how the league, i.e.; IRL’s Brian Braveheart was trying to look out for the driver’s safety, remarking how similar blocking tactics had led to Jeff Krosnoff’s fatality, as Open Wheel racecar’s have a higher potential of driver injury due to the nature of the open cockpit...

Yet, blocking the path of a competitor’s impending progress is nothing new on either side of the pond, as this aggressive maneuvering is quite common in the pinnacle of Motorsports, Grand Prix racing, as demonstrated by Eddie Irvine’s most widely known moniker; “Irv the Swerve.” Yet, I’d argue that in Formula 1, drivers are more ruthless and when said blocking occurs, it routinely leads to both drivers colliding, along with a massive shunt or countless pieces of carbon fibre disintegrating... Along with several trips into the pit lane for either front nose changes or immediately being pushed into the garage and the doors being closed briskly!

So, once again, we’re left with the question over whether or not blocking should be a fundamental part of racing? To which I’d say is simply part of a driver’s craft, yet must be demonstrated in a matter that isn’t overtly obvious, while I prefer to think that Indy Car is more sophisticated then those Tin Top bumpkin’s ‘O RASSCAR! And thus, if you lose the corner to your competitor, instead of chopping his nose off with an aggressive tug of the steering wheel, give up the corner and continue your fight on track instead... Along with the known ground rule of you’re at the indiscretion of the race stewards who can penalize you at anytime for overly judicious blocking jobs! Since anybody can punt an opponent outta ‘duh way...

And I’d say Helio was lucky, since he could have incurred a drive thru or 10 second stop-go penalty, a la Formula 1...

So; Get over it Helio!

The grass is always bluer

So did Y’all catch Robin Miller on Wind Tunnel’s last call Sunday night? Miller’s time was preceded by a pretty lengthy interview with Tony “Follow your Schnauz” Kanaan, who claims that Miller should be known as Agent Robin Miller and get 10% of every deal he’s involved in...

Yet, you have to enjoy Miller’s antics as he tried makin’ a collect call replete with old fashion rotary dial telephone while being live on satellite... Along with his jabs ‘bout hoping’ “Those Three” didn’t get their Christmas bonus, to which Dave Despain said; “Which Three?” To which Robin clarified as Savery, Green and Mikey... And how he hoped that because of his story TK would be getting’ $4 million a year instead of the rumoured $3m.

In regards to the reported sell-out announced for the Blue Grass states Indy Car race, Miller proclaimed’ “That’s what’s known as a Kentucky sell-out!” As in Bruton Smith and Edwardo “Hyper mouth” Gossage were reportedly in the building, are rumoured to be purchasing the joint and perhaps they were trying to pump up the media... As in the fourth turn seats were empty...

Kentucky Fried
And speakin’ of Kentucky; “There’s NO place like home, there’s NO place like home, and there’s NO place like home...” OOPS! Wrong state, uh Toto! But as I mentioned before I only wished to listen to the race via the IMS Radio Network, as I prefer Mike King, Davey Hamilton, Mark James, Bob Jenkins, The Kevin Twins, etc OVER Marty Reid & Co. as I feel they give a much more descriptive narrative of whets going on...

And dare I say it? I think it was a pretty tedious race, as Scotty “Got Milk?” Dixon seemingly “TOYED” with the entire field the whole evening, enroute to his series tying sixth victory, which was previously held by current, ahem? Teammate Danny Boy Wheldon...

Highlight of the race “For Sure,” was Sarah Fisher and The Princess goin’ Mano E Mano, Err Female vs. Female when Fisher gave Danica a taste of her own medicine with a TK-Helioe LUV tap on lap 81, as reportedly there was an audible gasp as a (Are we sure it wasn’t Smoke coming’ from Danicker’s helmet?) smoke cloud arose from the two ladies rubbin’ tyres...

And lets NOT forget about Danny b’s favourite Indy Car Femme Milka-licious, a.k.a. Milka Duno, who first made waves by slowing down the race leaders entering the pits before going up in a cloud ‘O smoke with a big time wall smack on lap 134. But, hey! Marty “GERRITOL” Roth also managed to impede the progress of eventual race victor Scott Dixon also during a pit stop...

And shockingly, the “Flinstone Tyre-rific” winner of the Edmonton race was none other than Paul “Chrome Horn” Tracy, supposedly by a wide margin, so I guess ‘dem free Subway sandwiches really paid off, eh?

And speakin’ of crass commercialization... I found it a bit tawdry to hear Franks Energy Drinks, complete with sultry Franks Energy-girl asking; “Do you wanna try two of my cans?” Immediately followed by Princess Danicker who was Peaking with some sort ‘O motor oil... Um? NOT tonight Danica, I think you were simply getting your ARSE KICKED by Sarah Fisher... Albeit the final results show Fisher in 15th after a last lap tire bearing failure... Hmm? Any chance it was a result of that evening’s earlier tyre rub?

SFR Kentucky Race Report

Sears Point
And is it just me... Or don’t you find it funny the amount of energy being put into selling tickets for this month’s upcoming Indy Car event at Sears Point Raceway in sleepy ‘lil SNORE-HOMA...

As I simply chuckle every time I see a commercial run for tickets during the Indy Car race and now this exquisite promotional flyer has just arrived in my mailbox... Makes me wonder just how far Tony G. plans on bending over backwards to appease the folks at Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) eh? You know that ‘lil organization with some dude named Bruton Smith at the helm, who in 2006 DROPPED to Number 278 on the list of Forbes 400 list (of BILLIONAIRES) with a net worth of only $1.4b. (While some dude nicknamed The Captain was ranked #140 with $2.2b in the same ’06 rankings)

Is GP2 better than F1?

Now don’t get me wrong, as Formula 1 will always be my undisputed Number One Heavyweight in terms of motor racing series, but I find it a bit odd that lately I’ve seemed more intrigued by the first few rounds of this year’s GP2 series vs. F1, (Minus the Canadian GP) to which I’ve been adding to my regimen of auto race viewing recently.

Perhaps this possible interest is spurned by what I found so attractive towards CART/Champ Car, as there were always a dozen plus potential winners on any given weekend, as the IRL tends to be somewhat similar to F1 at the moment. You know that the Big Three; Andretti Green, Ganassi and Penske have won the last 43 of 44 events, (Post Iowa) while Formula 1 routinely seems to be a “Dust-up” between Ferrari and McLaren, albeit Renault stepped into the breach momentarily with some Spaniard named Fredrico Suave… Yet the “Reggie” hasn’t been in the winners (Whiners?) circle since the heartbreaking Japanese Grand Prix; (Oct. 8, 2006) when Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari lump inexplicably went “KABLAMOE!” Most definitely costing him a potential 8th World Championship…

There are currently 17 Nations participating in GP2, which now begins its fourth season, with all three prior GP2 Champions having taken up residency in F1: Nico Rosberg, 2005; Lewis Hamilton, 2006 and Timo Glock, 2007, with other former GP2 competitors Heikki Kovalainen, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Kazuki Nakajima also having graduated to the big league of Formula 1.

This year’s crop of GP2 contestants features several F1 test drivers from Renault: Lucas Di Grassi, Sakon Yamamoto and Romain Grosjean, who was also the winner of the inaugural GP2 Asia series championship this winter; Red Bull: Sebastien Buemi and Toyota: Kamui Kobayashi.

Currently Georgio Pantano and Adam Carroll are the only two drivers to have contested the inaugural GP2 event in 2005 left on the grid, as David Hobbs quips: It’s a development series, which means you’re supposed to move up.

While Carroll has been recently competing in the A1 GP series, at age 29, the Italian Pantano is the oldest driver in the field, who’s made a living in the International F3000 series from 2001-03, which was the forbearer to GP2, as Pantano has been in these stepping stone series for six seasons and has 60 GP2 starts alone to his credit. Pantano has also competed in the Champ Car and Indy Racing League series after making what Bob Varsha noted was a coffee cup stop in F1… Having raced briefly for the faltering Jordan Grand Prix team in 2004 before his sponsorship checks dried-up.

In this year’s season opener at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Portuguese GP2 debutant Alvaro Parente stormed away from the field to win his maiden GP2 victory ahead of Bruno Senna and Andreas Zuber.

In Sunday’s Sprint race, Kamui Kobayashi became the first Japanese driver to win a GP2 event after leader Romain Grosjean was penalized for blocking in the later stages of the event. Having overtaken pole sitter Kobayashi earlier, Grosjean was given a stop-go penalty for his evasive maneuvers after the field had been bunched-up by a safety car.

Kobayashi began the Sprint race from the pole since GP2 inverts the top eight finishing positions from the day’s previous Feature race and having slipped to second in the race was pressuring Grosjean for the lead when the penalty was assessed. Kobayashi has now won a total of three GP2 events, with his first two wins coming during this year’s inaugural GP2 Asia championship.

Round 2 was held in Turkey at the Istanbul Autodrome, where the aforementioned Pantano put on a driving clinic during the Feature race, as Bob Varsha said; Pantano’s taking off like a Scalded Dog!” As I’m now convinced that this was scripted as the following day’s Sprint race would see the bizarre accident of Bruno Senna killing an errant Pooch running about the circuit.

The win was the Italian’s 12th overall, tying him with the legendary Jochen Rindt, who scored all 12 of his victories in F2; prior to becoming the only driver awarded the Formula 1 Championship posthumously. (1970)

In Sunday’s Sprint race, while driver’s Mike Conway and Bruno Senna were busy trying to avoid run-away animals, Romain Grosjean finally made good on his promise, as some pundits have picked him to become the 2008 GP2 Champion, when he won the shorter Sprint Race 2 and thus collected his first GP2 victory.

This year at Monaco saw the GP2 circus host two races for the very first time in the Principality, as Bruno Senna stormed away from the front row and led virtually wire to wire, including a major pile-up by fellow competitors in the downhill chicane. The win was even more special as it comes on the 15th Anniversary of his late uncle’s (Ayrton Senna) final Formula 1 victory in Monte Carlo and David Hobbs claims the young Brazilian not only looks like Ayrton but sounds like him also…

The following day’s sprint race saw Mike Conway run away from pole and hide all the way to the finish to take some solace in a victory after having been punted out of third place during the previous feature race.

While the F1 circus made a brief stop on the Il Notre Dam, GP2 took a brief holiday before resuming competition as part of the French GP weekend, which saw Bruno Senna claim his first pole of the season for the Feature race, while SPEED had an entertaining segment on elder statesman Pantano, who was making his unheard of 100th start in GP2/F3000 competition, with 65 starts alone in GP2…

And while Senna led handily until being forced to retire with gearbox issues, I’m assuming the French crowd was quite enthralled to see countryman Grosjean take over the lead… Until the unthinkable happened and he too was forced to retire with you guessed it! Gearbox troubles, which meant that Messer Pantano was left to take over the lead and cruise home to his 13th victory, tying Mike Thackwell for all time career F2/F3000/GP2 victories according to David Hobbs…

The following days Sprint race was quite a different story as the race was held in varying weather conditions, with drivers starting off on rain tyres and then having to decide when to switch over to slicks for a supposedly drying track which saw Pantano and Grosjean once again finish well outside of the points, upon retiring, while Sebastien Buemi took his first GP2 victory with Senna hanging on to finish fifth, while Pantano holds onto his championship lead over Senna due to his Feature race victory. Pantano leads Senna 35-28, with Buemi vaulting to third with 20 points and Grosjean lies fourth with 19 points.

And there you have it! Eight races and seven different winners… Can GP2 elder statesman Giorgio Pantano do the unthinkable and win the title? Or will somebody else like Grosjean, Senna, Buemi, Zuber or Parente spoil his party…

Another Record

Austin Harris, has just become the very first African American in USAC history to win a race in the series 53 years history of 7,500+ races…

The 17yr old Californian native was signed to drive for Bob East in the USAC Ford Focus Midget series for three races, as East was asked to give the youngster a shot by Ford… As East is no stranger to driving talent, having previously worked with Tony Stewart, Bobby East, JJ Yeley and Bobby Labonte to name just a few…

Harris has driven a multitude of different machinery including a stint in Sports Cars at the Rolex 24 and currently leads the Ford Focus Midget points standings.

And with the hunt on to find more sponsorship to continue his racing, it seems like it would be a really SHREUD move by Tony George to sign up the youngster to a “Developmental” deal of his own to groom Austin for a future career in IndyCars…

I mean, c’mon! Just think of the huge publicity sweepstakes Tony would inherit by having the Princess and Harris battling head to head, as perhaps Austin Harris could be the next Lewis Hamilton in the making…

Harris wins Midget race

Radio show Mo-jo

Whale… I guess it pays to do an interview on the Autosport Radio show… As Tuesday’s (May 20th) program featured three promising “Flinstone Indy Lites” racing drivers; Cyndie Alleman, Dillon Battistini and Mike Potekhen, of which by far the most entertaining was Cyndie from Switzerland, who is one of two females currently contesting this year’s Indy Lights Championship, the other being Brazilian Ana Beatriz, who’s also been interviewed previously on the show…

Cyndie Alleman
The daughter of Swiss Karting Champion Kurt Allemann. Her brother Ken is a seven-time Swiss champion go-kart racer. · Enjoys karting, cycling, working out and shopping, tried gymnastics as a child. Studied business while competing as professional racer in Europe.

Career stats:
Early Career· Won two Swiss and one European Junior karting titles· Finished third in Swiss Formula A in 2001.
Finished eighth in European Foruma A championship in 2002.
2004 - Finished 6th in Swiss Formula Renault 2000 with a best finish of third at Varano (Italy)
and Most (Czech Republic)
· Competed in selected German Formula Renault 2.0 events.
2005 - 12th place German Formula Renault 2.0 Cup
2006 - Finished 9th place in German Formula 3 Cup with a best finish of second at EuroSpeedway Lausitz. · Earned pole at EuroSpeedway Lausitz.
2007 - Competed in the Formula 3 EuroSeries
Has two top 10 finishes so far this season in Firestone Indy Lights competition.

Dillon Battistini
Born December 3, 1977, Dillon is an English-born racing driver. He competed in various classes of karting before moving to cars in the Caterham R400 challenge in 2003.
In 2006 and 2007 he raced in the Asian Formula Three Championship, finishing 4th his first year and winning the 2007 series championship on 5 race wins. After testing a Champ Car Minardi Team USA and the subsequent unification of American Open Wheel Racing, Battistini signed to race in the Firestone Indy Lights Series (formerly the Indy Pro Series) for Panther Racing less than 10 days before the season was set to begin. Battistini won his first race in the series which was also his first race on an oval track at Homestead-Miami Speedway March 29th.
(Source: Autosport Radio)

And during one commercial break Cyndie and Dillon could be heard chatting in the background, to which Donald Kay then announced, for those of you who couldn’t hear what they were saying… Dillon has just had an Indy Car seat fitting… Oh, was it supposed to remain a secret?

According to Autosport.com, Battistini will make his Indy Car debut later this season, contesting two races in the later stages of the championship for Panther Racing, who he’s currently contesting this seasons Indy Lights Championship with. Plans call for Battistini to most likely test at Watkins Glen and then probably compete in one Oval and one Street Course race, of which the team hasn’t divulged yet. By running only two races, Battistini will keep his rookie status intact for 2009.

Yet, meanwhile back in Indiana, which was staying true to the month’s continuance of the WET stuff, after an abbreviated 11 minute running of the IndyCars on Carberation Day, the rest of the days activities were RAINED OUT on Friday and the Indy Lights race was rescheduled for Saturday at 12:15PM ET

Continuing to show off his impressive early form, Dillon “BAD ASS” Battistini captured the Pole for the Freedom 100, while Ana Beatriz qualified an impressive fourth, one spot ahead of 2007 Atlantics Champion Rafael Matos. Cyndie Alleman lined-up eighth, with Jeff “Double Dipping” Simmons landing in the 10th slot, while some “Big Name Guys” Luyendyk Jr. And Unser III started in 18th and 19th respectively. 2007-08 A1 GP runner-up and series newcomer Johnny Reed was 25th, one position ahead of Mike Potekhen (26th) who was making his first start of the season.

So, for humour I decided to tune-in the race on the IMS Radio Network, which was pretty enjoyable to listen to… As although Battistini was briefly challenged for the lead, he led virtually wire to wire, leading 38 of the races 40 laps, while all of the mayhem went on behind him… With one of the “junior” reporters exclaiming that they were going five wide! Which certainly DON’T work in racin,’ especially around the Speedway, as the inevitable happened with a crash occurring…

Yet, Johnny Parsons Jr. (JP) was very impressed by Beatriz’s performance, who spent the whole race swapping positions back and forth before finally finishing fifth, the highest place finish in the race by a woman, while unfortunately Alleman finished 26th with gearbox problems.

Simmons came home in 8th, two spots ahead of Matos, (10th) while “Just Al (Unser III) managed to move up eight positions to finish 11th, which garnered him a long winded post race interview… While Potekhen made an impressive run, moving up 13 places to split the heralded “Young Gun” generations of Unser ‘N Luyendyk, finishing in 13th, one spot ahead of Luyendyk Jr. who wound up 14th and Reed winding up 20th in his series debut…

Open Wheel briefs

Contrary to popular belief… This isn’t a story about MAD Max Mosley, a.k.a. Sir Maxxum… No, just a comment towards an article I’ve seen somewhere recently while scouring the newswires when playing “Ketsup” from my most enjoyable "Puppy-luv" outing this past week. (Unfortunately I’m not High Tech like some of my contemporaries and therefore the Tibetan Pup’s are on Koda-chrome instead of Didge-it-tull)

Closing in on an F1 record
One forgotten source is claiming that Honda F1 pilot Rubens Barrichello will tie Ricardo Patrese’s all time Formula 1 starting record this weekend in Barcelona, but I believe this is incorrect.

Although it will be Rubino’s 256th Grand Prix, it will only be his 253rd start, while Patrese amazingly contested a total of 257 Formula 1 races between 1977-1993, a record that surely would never be broken… As there are currently only a handful of drivers to have eclipsed the 200 starts barrier, therefore my calculations predict that Barrichello will tie the record at Montreal on June 8th and surpass the affable Italian’s total at the French Grand Prix on June 22nd, thus Barrichello will finally have beaten one of Herr Schumacher legendary statistics…

Conquest switches drivers
With primary sponsor Opes Prime Ltd having fallen into receivership, Conquest Racing’s rookie driver (and best buddy of Vitor Meira) Frank Perera has lost his ride as team owner Eric Bachelart has sought the services (nee, sponsorship dinero) of Jaime Camara.

. Being a journeyman graduate of the Indy Pro Series, I have little knowledge of the driver other then he’s another Brazilian looking to find the limelight in IndyCars, which currently has six fellow countrymen competing in America’s top-flight Open Wheel Racing series…

PCM joins Indy Racing League
As previously noted, Pacific Coast Motorsports has announced their plans to join the Indy Car World Series with a single car effort beginning at Indy. Mario Boom Boom Dominguez will pilot the #96 entry sponsored by the Mexico City Tourism board, seeing a total of ten “transition” drivers and teams joining the IRL, with a total of 27 entries…

Wezs luv’s yuh Dan-Dan-Danica

Whale shiver me timbers… The Princess finally won HER VERY FIRST Major race…

As I was pleased to hear Speed Freaks guest Lyn St James set Kenny Sergeant straight on the headline that continues to be popping up about Danica becoming the first woman to win a major auto race… As St James correctly pointed out that Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney, Katherine Legge and Melanie Troxel have all accomplished the feat PREVIOUSLY! As I’d like to point out that Muldowney has even WON multiple Championships.

And in keeping with the Oxygen TV channel theme, after the obligatory Hail Dan-Dan-Danica opening interview, Mrs. Troxel got her moment in the spotlight, as she was talking up a very impressive charity event she’s involved in, dealing with severely medical-challenged children who are sometimes abandoned by their parents who simply CANNOT afford the costs of today’s Healthcare…

And they even interviewed Switzerland’s Simona De Silvestro, as I betcha didn’t know that another female won a major race this weekend, eh? Yes, that’s right; De Silvestro became the second woman to win in Atlantics competition by winning this weekend’s season opening event at Long Beach. For the record Katherine Legge was the first and both Legge and De Silvestro have done something that Danica hasn’t…
Hmm? Strangely the G-Man and his highly tooted IMS marketing staff DON’T seem to wish to share the spotlight with the Mazda Atlantics Championship… Is Tony afraid of a little competition for his vaunted Flinstone Indy Lites?

Even funnier is that “Juan ‘O” Press Dawg’s favourite websites is still alive… As you can read all about De Silvestro’s victory at the half mile marker post of the Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda website. Try saying that fast five times, eh? To read more see; De Silvestro wins Long Beach opener

Having waited 1.5hrs to hear Long Beach victor Will Power, who’s not a woman, is that ok with you Lyn, said the head cheese Kenny Sergeant... Power tried to answer a question and proceeded to get hammered by the Sarge for taking too long, SHEISA!!! To which Power said I’m your guest as Kenny was talking over him, although Crash Gladys told the Sarge to knock it off…

And then St James stuck her foot in her mouth... By asking; Have you driven an Indy Car yet? Which is almost as big of a foopah as Donald Kay of Autosport Radio asking Sarah Fisher last week what it was like sitting on the sidelines last year?

Then Power tried vainly to tiptoe around St James question of how the two chassis compare? To which ultimately Power conceded that the Panoz DP-01 is a HELL of a lot funner to drive, since it’s faster and has more downforce than a Dallara.

Trying to wrap up a very befuddled interview, Kenny asked Will if he’d be racing at Kansas next week? To which Power shot back Yep! Is that a short enough answer for you? Good on you mate… As I’d be a bit turned-off too after having to wait 90 minutes to get grilled like that.

Shame on you Kenny Sergeant!

When Two equals One

HMM? Why does the title of this post make me think of that old Three Dog Night song? You know; One is the loneliest number. (Wonder if Tony George has ever heard that song?)

Although I’d thought of doing the Jack “BRUT” Arute double, albeit from the Lazy-Boy recliner late evening with visions of Sugar Plums, Err, Hulio “Dancin’ Shoes” Castroneeves… HMM? Perhaps I should think ‘bout the Princess more kindly? While hoping to be serenaded by the soothing voices of Mike King and Colour Commentator extraordinaire Davey Hamilton of the IMS Radio broadcast via le internets…

Oh, that’s right, Davey’s busy “Stateside” getting his seat fitting for the Hallowed Shalt be thy Name Kingdom Racing team… But back to the pain in the Keister Indy Car website… C’mon where’s the FRILLIN’ link??? Thinking I’d be able to listen to “live” qualifying, even if I cannot master the Japanese Time Zone Conversion + Eastern Time listings. Let’s see, Japan = +16 hours, carry the 9, subtract the 6 and divide by 12.5, then add another 3? Oh never mind, what in the HELL time is it?

But as Y’all know, the TT Gods weren’t smiling upon Motegi and Qualifying was rained out. Neither was the Microphone God for Jack Arute, nor were any of the broadcasters actually in Motegi…

Thus, taking a cue from My Name is IRL.. Although I’ll catch BOTH… Yep, that’s right TWO Open Wheel races from the cozy confines of my rich Corinthian leather couch, which won’t be nearly as impressive as Messer Arute’s racking up of frequent flyer miles this past weekend, (But, Hey! Somebodies gotta do it, right?) I’ll leave the Motegi Twin Rings of Venus weekend’s coverage to my fellow (SHHShshh…. Don’t tell Jeff Olsen) Indy Car Bloggers…

(Good thing Arute wasn’t flying on American Airlines or having to go to Terminal 4 in LAX, eh?)

And just what did we learn over the past weekend’s dubious Open Wheel double header, which thankfully will be the last time we’ll have to put up with that sort of NONSENSE! Well, I believe that the Roundy-round boyzs learned that the “Majic Rings” utilized to propel those Dallara Honda’s don’t seem to do very good on weeper’s... As all of the drivers were wearing coats and Tony “Follow your Snauz” Kanaan told Mr. Arute how he wanted to be somewhere warm… Like California!

And while foolishly sitting thru the entire two hour race delay, it struck me as somewhat bemusing that Bobby Rahal had flown (The Coup?) all the way to Japan in order to leave the track Saturday in order to fly back to California to be the Grand Marshall of the Long Beach Grand Prix.

And if we’re gonna really quit this Open Wheel divide… Then when in the HELL! Is the Dizney Shopping Networks going to start giving the “Transition” drivers equal billing? As I thought I caught Marty Reid only congratulating Buddy Rice and Edward Carpenter on their recent additions… With NO mention of Justin Wilson during the Pamper’s portion of the race delay… I mean C’mon, either give us the silly poop on all of the driver’s wife’s having babies or don’t bother us with the filler crap!

And even better yet, if you wish to win over us Champ Car diehards… Then don’t put the FRILLIN’ Delayed race coverage on ESPN Classic… Cause many households DON’T have access to that channel… Yet even more hilarious was the continuous plugging of the ALMS tape delayed race on ABC which my locoe affiliate has decided NOT to air in favour of Paid Programming, i.e.; Jack Luhlaine Juicers, Sally Struthers Tummy Tucker, etc. Guess I’m gonna get to listen via le internets after all, since that’s the ONLY way I’ll be able to catch the race live…

Thus with all of the extra time on my hands while waiting for the Really Really Really Big Champ Car swan song... I happened to notice the following tidbit courtesy of Kurt Cabin;

“Also entered is Mario Dominguez, who is due to be named to a new IndyCar Series program with Pacific Coast Motorsports later this month.”

And if Jamie Little reports on it during the Long Beach race, then it must be true…

Running out of time

And the drama continues over the future state of Open Wheel racing and more specifically Champ Car, as the Wurld ‘O Chump Carzs Turns. Ever so slowly, as it seems to be like so many pebbles on a beach being washed away by the tide…

Apparently things have gotten even stranger at the listing ship SS Chump Carzs, as rumours suggested that there had been further divisions inside the organizations HQ in Indianapolis.

Apparently while the staff was told that Champ Car would not be filing for bankruptcy, it was just another crazy rumour that majority co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven’s office belongings were being packed and he no longer sees eye to eye with the other Moosketeers in charge of the floundering series; Gerry Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Dan Pettit. (Who are rumoured to have had a conference call on Friday to discuss CCWS’s future)

Further reports claim that long time participant Derrick Walker is now focusing upon switching allegiances to the Indy Racing League for 2008, having grown tired of the continuous mis-management of CCWS. Walker claims it would have cost him $150,000 to take part in the just concluded Sebring test session, which he decided to forgo, noting that he’s still owed money from team co-owner Craig Gore.

Taking a cursory look at the 2008 CCWS participants, shows that there’s currently only one team with a complete line-up; Newman Haas Lanigan, while the remaining entities are still attempting to finalize their team rosters. Thus, currently a total of seven drivers are confirmed for the upcoming season, although Alex Tagliani is expected to drive for PKV Racing, while Conquest, Dale Coyne, Forsythe Pettit and Pacific Coast all plan on having two car efforts.

If all nine of the current teams showed up with full squads, this would net a total of 17 cars, which seems to be the minimum CCWS can contractually get away with running, since I seem to recall that the original contracts called for 18 cars, which CCWS managed to get around last season.

Thus, if Kevin Kalkhoven was to take his two car team to the IRL along with Derrick Walker and possibly Newman Haas Lanigan, CCWS would be left with a pitiful car count of 11, which I can assure you, wouldn’t be pretty!

There have been further stories about the PI representatives taking equipment out of the CCWS HQ, which if true, makes me wonder if there’s something funny going on between Kalkhoven and Forsythe?

For humour, imagine if a rift between Kalkhoven and Forsythe really exists? Would Kalkhoven try issuing a restraining order against Champ Car from using the Cosworth engines that he’s half owner of. Or banning CCWS access to the PI electronics making the cars run? Yet, according to the Toronto Sun, Kalkhoven has scoffed at all of the above and still claims that the Champ Car circus will indeed perform in 2008.

It’s worth noting that Kalkhoven and Forsythe are co-promoters of Long Beach, Toronto and Portland, while Mike Lanigan; the “L” in Newman Haas Lanigan Racing, promotes Cleveland and Houston, with Forsythe running the Mexico City event.

Thus, it appears that Forsythe & Kalkhoven are most likely angling to get a deal for the Long Beach event which was supposedly the deal breaker towards the impending merger. And although Edmonton has been named as one of the three events to be added to the IRL’s schedule, rumours persist that it lost $7 million last year.

Next, if N/H/L was bold enough to move to the rival Indy car series, what would happen to the Houston and Cleveland events? But would this occur as reports claim that Haas is currently holding $2 million in Panoz parts. Ahem, Mr. Haas, perhaps you’ll wish to hold a “Going out of business” sale on these items? (As it seems only a matter of time before CCWS implodes) Note that Dan D. Jones & Associates, who repaired the faulty DP-01 fuel tanks last year has just filed court papers upon CCWS for failure to pay the $300,000 it owes.

And what do you do if you’re a current CCWS Team Owner, as such dedicated entrants as Paul Newman & Carl Haas, Eric Bachelart, Dale Coyne, Tom Figge and Derrick Walker have supposedly been kept out of Champ Car management’s information loop. This lack of communication led to Bachelart plunking down a million dollars on a new Panoz DP-01 in order to become a two car operation before hearing of the latest merger rumours from Robin Miller.

Yet, adding further insult to injury comes news that Ziggy Harcus, the former Director of Race Operations, speculated to be taking over Tony Cotman's duties as VP of Operations and potentially as Race Director, has also “Left the Building.” (Champ Car)

And I suppose CCws will host their upcoming Spring Training March 13-15 at Laguna Seca, yet I’d guess that PKV Racing and Team Australia will sit out the test as Champ Car works overtime to deny the inevitable. I mean if Graham Rahal can figure it out;

"I used to say specifically that I wanted Champ Car to live and I wanted the IRL to die off, but the truth is, the IRL isn't going to die off because they've got the Indy 500. Right now, the way I look at it we need to have one series, whatever way we can achieve that."

Then it don’t take NO Rocket Scientist to figure out its time for Champ Car to throw in the towel. Then again CCWS could always file for bankruptcy at any moment. Hmm? Does anybody know when Tony George gets back from Scott Dixon’s wedding?

Open Wheel participants

This is just a quick listing of what I could decipher for car counts of the Family Fued occurring in OWR and by NO means 100% accurate, as I’ve never before pursued making an Indy Racing League team score card.

And while things may be bleak on the CCWS’s side of the roster, it’s not all peaches ‘N cream on the IRL’s side either, as there’s at least three teams (Dreyer & Reinbold, Panther and Rahal Letterman Racing) who’ve all dropped a car for their 2008 efforts.

Meanwhile it appears that Tony George himself has given two of his three drivers their walking papers, (AJ Foyt IV & Tomas Scheckter) while son-in-law Ed Carpenter’s ride is still in limbo. Two other teams programs remain unknown; As I know nothing about Danny B’s favourite Milka Duno, while Sarah Fisher is busy trying to put together funding for her own team.

Yet, perhaps the most entertaining tidbit towards the future consolidation plans concerning CCWS’s plight is the latest press release from their official website promoting the upcoming golfing ad created for Bridgestone tires which is set to debut shortly on the Golf channel. Can you say FOUR!

2008 CCWS Teams
(Possible total Car Count = 17)

Conquest Racing
R-Frank Perera, TBA

Dale Coyne Racing
Bruno Junqueira, TBA

Forsythe Pettit Racing
Paul Tracy, TBA

Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal

Pacific Coast Motorsports
Alex Figge, TBA

PKV Racing
Oriel Servia, TBA

Rocketsports Racing
R-Enrique Bernoldi

Team Australia
Will Power, TBA

Team Minardi USA
TBA/TBA


2008 IRL Teams
(Possible total Car Count = 17)

AJ Foyt Enterprises
Darren Manning

Andretti Green Racing
Marco Andretti
Tony Kanaan
R-Hideki Mutoh
Danica Patrick

Dreyer & Reinbold
Buddy Rice

Sarah Fisher Racing*
Sarah Fisher

Luczo Dragon Racing
Tomas Scheckter#

Panther Racing
Vitor Meira

Team Penske
Helio Castroneves
Ryan Briscoe

Rahal Letterman Racing
Ryan Hunter Reay

Roth Racing
Marty Roth
R-Jay Howard

Citgo SAMAX Racing*
Milka Duno

Target Chip Ganassi Racing
Scott Dixon
Dan Wheldon
+ R-Alex Lloyd#

Vision Racing*
Ed Carpenter

(* = Sarah Fisher Racing, SAMAX Racing and Vision Racing yet to confirm programs. # = LDR to run limited race schedule)

Could Open Wheel racing finally merge?

I’ve just been alerted to the SPEED TV article penned by Robin Miller claiming that the War of Northern Aggression may finally be over, as Miller has written that Champ Car World Series co-owners Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven have come to an agreement with Indy Racing League’s Tony George…

Thus, it appears that CCWS will indeed take up George on his offer of “FREE” Dallara chassis and Honda engines plus the $1.2 million per team entry prize sharing caveat for running an entire Indycar season.

Obviously, there are still many details to be ironed out, especially what the reconstituted 2008 Open Wheel calendar will look like, as the newly proposed season sees the addition of only three CCWS events; Long Beach, Edmonton and Surfers Paradise, yet the problem with the Long Beach date is that it clashes with Indy car’s traditional Japanese race weekend at the Honda owned Twin Ring Motegi track, which means that this event will need to be re-scheduled as both the Long Beach and Kansas race dates are locked-in for ’08.

And I’m unsure of what happens to the remainder of the CCWS scheduled events, as I assume they have already inked contracts? Also, it’s rumoured that there are up to 50 Panoz chassis floating about that will effectively become show cars.

And what will happen with the Champ Car Atlantics series which has a contingent of 24+ team entries for 2008. Stay tuned, as they’re will undoubtedly be more to follow on this most encouraging development! Looks like we’ll actually have bumping on “BOOMP” Day this year, eh? So, hopefully ‘ol Gomer’s vocal chords will be good ‘N rested…

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…

GP2’s Five year plan

The GP2 series has announced that the current 13 entrants will contest the series for the next five years. (2008-12) Left out of the announcement was the purchasing of GP2 by CVC Capital Partners,Which currently owns Formula 1. This takeover solidifies the formal linking between GP2 and F1.

Although GP2 was originally designed as a cost savings series, it’s rumoured that the series is twice as expensive as F3000, the series it replaced.

And with A1 GP’s new link between Ferrari, its unknown if the GP2 Asia series will now be needed? As speculation suggests the series is having a hard time finding potential teams due to the projected high costs of competing in GP2 Asia.

Although the series is scheduled to debut in 2008 with Emperor Bernardo’s Super Car series, as well as being a support series for two upcoming Grand Prix’s. Will this simply become part of an extended GP2 season while going head to head with the upcoming A2 GP series?

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)

Kanaan races at Suzuka

While Tony Kanaan’s “best friend” Helioe Castroneves has been busy carving up the dance floors, TK was winging his way across the Pacific Ocean to Japan.

Kanaan was the invited guest of Honda, given the chance to take part in the Formula Nippon race at Suzuka, where Kanaan found himself at a disadvantage, not having done any standing starts in 12 years. After qualifying 18th, TK steadily worked his way forward and finished a very respectable sixth place in the 51 lap event. Kanaan said he’d really like to be able to compete again next year and hopefully have some added practice time before the race…

Soo-Eeeee!!!

In case you thought I was being too harsh towards Champ Car recently, fear not, as the Indy Racing League has their own issues to deal with.

Perhaps you’re not aware of the Scott Sharp/Patron vs. Rahal/Letterman Racing contretemps? In a case of who SUED whom? Sharp, Tequila sponsor Patron and RLR have engaged in a multiple round robin of “spy vs. Spy,” err Lawsuit vs. Counter Lawsuit in their ongoing dispute of contractual mischievous…

While Sharp claims that RLR has been phoning in its IRL efforts with recent staff cuts and lack of testing, Bobby Rahal claims that Sharp cannot simply walk from the team due to having a contract for 2008. Makes you wonder just what Rahal’s other sponsor Ethanol thinks about the whole sorted mess, eh? I mean talk about being full ‘O corn… Hmm, me thinks its time to pass me that bottle of Mescal… Wonder who’s gonna eat the worn?

Meanwhile, according to SPEED’s Robin Miller, Champ Car is perhaps on the verge of making its largest BLUNDER yet! As there appears to be rumours of Forsythe Petitt Racing having sent Paul “Chrome Horn” Tracy an email stating that if he didn’t renegoiate his contract for 2008 he could be given his walking papers.

With the Hamburgular having jumped to Formula 1, Justin Wilson currently without a ride, Champ Car is now flirting with dumping its MOST Popular driver… What in the HELL is Gerry Forsythe thinking? If this occurs, it may be too late to pull out the paddles and shock Champ Car back to respectability! While Indy Car is currently riding the wave of Helioe’s dancing shoes performances. OUCH!

C’Mon Champ Car… PULL YOUR HEADS OUT!!!

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?

Miller time

Nope, that crafty title doesn’t correspond to this being the start of the weekend, although a few cold “Juan’s” may be in order after reading this latest scribbling?

And is it just me… Cue the Alana Moresett. “ISN’T IT IRONIC” Theme music as Gene “I AM INDY” Simmons didn’t even need a costume during Wednesday’s “Really-Really-Really BIG Blockbuster” announcements…

Yeah, that’s right, the IRL was busy touting their “New & Improved” multi-million dollar sponsorship agreements at the SEMA Show in “Los Wage$” on none other than Halloween!

And I’d expected Indiana Bureau Chief to carpool with his good buddy Robin to “scoop” the Brickyard announcements for Y’all… As Danny B. proclaimed these major endorsements would easily net Tony George $60-70 Trillion… *Peso’s)

So without further ado… Here’s the Big News. Indy Car will now be powered by Frank’s Energy Drink… Y’all heard ‘O Frank’s high test bottled water? Neither had I prior to this week, as I’m told it’s a “Pretender” to the current “Kingpin” of this delectable beverage market. You know? That stuff that “AWNOLD” gaugle’s with. None other than the good Baron Deeter Majestic’s Red Bull, which reportedly “Gives you Wings.”

Yet apparently Mr. Simmons was busy with other “Fright Nite” engagements and couldn’t be bothered to show up on Halloween for any Indy Car announcements. Perhaps he didn’t wish to be shown up by the Princess?

Nor did this much anticipated, drum roll please………. Announcement has been made (to date) as reportedly it’s a Gene Simmons marketing masterpiece. Although it seems a bit comical to me to have an “Official” energy drink while Coca Cola is the official soft drink of the Speedway! (Which was to be announcement number two according to Danny)

And not to be left out of the party, Danica Patrick (“The Princess”) was on hand to announce that Peak Oil will now become the official lubricant *Insert Joke/Retort Here!) of the Brickyard… Guess we’ll all know what those “Slippery Liquids” are next time “Milk “N Doughnuts” clouts the Speedway’s Safer barrier, eh?

And speakin’ of ‘ol Robin Miller, it had been awhile since I’d seen the soothsayer on the SPEED Channel… But I did manage to catch a slice ‘O Miller-mantra on The Speed Report via the Memorex “Old School” taping’ machine upon returning from my trek to the Orient.

In typical Miller fashion, he was first to suggest that Honda would seek the golden opportunity to insert Rookie Japanese driver Hideki Mutoh into the vacated Dario Franchitti seat at AGR. Especially since NO Japanese driver to date has brought Honda ANY success in CART or the IRL>

Thus it was confirmed Wednesday by Andretti Green Racing that 25 year old Mutoh would take over Franchitti’s #27 entry for 2008. Mutoh will be joined by mentor Aguri Suzuki along with Super Aguri backing. Hmm? Wonder what will happen to Super Aguri’s other ace Kosuke Matsuura? As Matsuura and Super Aguri were partnered with Panther Racing this season, running a third entry for Mutoh’s Indy Car debut at Chicagoland’s season finale.

And Miller is now also noting that perhaps CDW will be inclined to land at Newman Hass Lanigan Racing with Justin Wilson in 2008 after all? As they’re both Chicago based companies and CDW is keen to work with Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang camps… As well as getting some better Sponsor treatment by N/H/L.

Also, with the IRL having announced its 2008 calendar, which if they’d been savvy they’d have possibly gone after Portland? It now appears that Champ Car is the only alternative for the much lamented Portland Int’l Raceway, yet Miller speculates over a possible street race? Please DON’T do that Portland! Just look at what happened to Vancouver, BC and San Jose…

For more Robin Miller, see Montezuma's Revenge

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 TV Schedule

”Ro-Ro...”

OOPS! For those of you interested, this is a little bit late as I’ve missed posting prior to the A1 GP Season kick-off… Having apparently missed SPEED’s EXTREMELY (Tape) Delayed airing of the season opening round in Zanport on Sept. 30th.

Yet while those ‘lil Gouls ‘N Goblin’s are continually ringing the doorbell, I’ll be sequestered in front of the “Telescreen” watching’ the late night airing of the previously contested second round of the A1 GP series, while this weekend’s originally noted TBA event has been scrapped…

Here’s SPEED’s TV info (EASTERN TIME)

Czech Republic
Wed, Oct 31 12:00PM (Noon)

Malaysia
Thu, Dec 6 12:00PM (Noon)

China
Thu, Dec 27 12:00PM (Noon)

Talladega Nights

Whale, I suppose there will be more blather about the various Open Wheel refuges makin’ dare Super Speedway debuts then the actual Nextel Cup race.

Apparently RASSCAR Official have seen ‘nuff wire transfers to promote Jacques Villeneuve to “Big Boyzs” status, as “Jack Vanilla” was originally scheduled to rub fenders with Scott “Nose” Speed in the ARCA event as well as contest the Craftsman Trucks event. But Jackie V will now run the NCTS event prior to joining MAC Montoya in the Cup race in the Bill Davis Toy-yoter’

And if Scott Speed gets buckled up in time he’ll take his chances on the high banks of Talladega…

While I didn’t get up in time to watch the Really-Really-Really Big announcement scheduled at 10:30AM EDT live on SPEED (Which is 7:30AM out here on the West coast) from “Cheep” Ganassi’s N. Carolina headquarters.

It seems indicative that “Half Gainer” Dario (Franchitti) will indeed be announced as a bonnafied TCGR employee set to ply his trade in the RASSCAR waters alongside Montoya beginning in 2008. (Under a five year contract)

Franchitti was originally scheduled to be busy competing at Road Atlanta in the Petit Le Mans 1000K this weekend aboard former team Andretti Green Racing’s Acura L MP2entry.

But AGR quietly announced the releasing of the Flying Scot from his contract that expired on December 1st yesterday in order to allow Dario to move to Ganassi’s growing stable of Open Wheel drivers turnin’ left.

Franchitti will now join Scott Speed in the ARCA Remax race at Talladega this weekend as his baptism under fire will see a rapid immersion in the Stock Car universe in preparation for his Sprint Cup debut at Daytona next February…

Funny, but there hasn’t been any talk about Sam Hornish Jr. trying to qualify for his first race at Talladega, nor whether Buddy “Soprano” Lazier will be runnin’ another Truck race that weekend. Kinda scary how the Open Wheel community’s brightest star of the moment is Helio “Dancin’ Shoes” Castroneves who’s busy hangin’ out with Mr. Los Vegas.

And perhaps a roof over Dario’s helmet is a good thing…

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…

Senna to contest Macau

Bruno Senna who’s currently competing in GP2 with Arden Internationa will once again contest this year’s Macau Grand Prix in November.

Senna will compete in the Formula 3 All Star event for the Raikkonen/Robertson team that campaigned the 24 year old Brazilian during his two seasons in British F3 along with contesting the Macau event in 2005. Senna currently lies seventh in GP2 with one victory to his credit…

Open Wheel Wanderer’s

Fortunately I was busy this weekend, so I MISSED all of the hyperboles over the Open Wheel warriors making their Tin Top debuts, or NOT makin’ duh show once again…

With Jackie V. qualifying an astounding seventh before running over a spinnin’ “Krapmann” competitor and windin’ up 21st with his good buddy Bobby Joe Lazier strokin’ home in 24th.

Meanwhile Sam “Not in a Boat” Hornish Jr. failed to qualify for his second attempt in the neXXtel cup event with AJ Wall Dinger finishing dead last.
And rumours persist that Dario “Half Gainer” Franchitti will make the jump to RASSCAR full time next season with a five year contract as “Juan ‘O Cheep’s” boyzs as Franchitti is expected to test an ARCA bomber this week in preparation (H) for his Tin Top debut at Talladega October 5th. Dario will be joined by another debutant named Scott Speed who’ll be runnin’ a third Red Bull entry for Eddie Sharp Racing…

Around the Globe

Well a lot has certainly transpired over the previous fortnight in regards to the world of motor racing, Not to mention the Italian & Belgian GP’s, the crowning of the 2007 IRL Champion and Champ Car plodding along… Everyone remember who Champ Car is? As we’ll FINALLY see them once again on TV October 21st at Surfer’s Paradise

Formula 1
Obviously the most shocking development of the 2007 season (besides Honda’s DISMAL performance) without a doubt is the WMSC’s bombshell of last Thursday… As I was most unaware of the colossal $100 million fine against McLaren along with loosing its 2007 Constructor’s points while visiting Watkins Glen.

This decision affectively hands the Constructor’s title to arch rival Ferrari as well as elevating everyone else forward one spot in the championship. And Kudos to BMW’s Dr. Mario Theissen for saying he wants NOTHING to do with inheriting second place in the Constructors championship via the Machiavellian workings of “Stepney Gate…”


Champ Car
Congrat’s to Justin Wilson for finally scoring a much overdue victory this season at Assen TT, as the lanky “Brit” has been robbed of victory previously this season by the Hamburgular at several venues.

Apparently long time friend and ex-teammate Jimmy Vasser has suggested that Alex Zanardi test a current Panoz DP 01 Champ Car chassis in hopes of resurrecting his Champ Car career. Yet at 40 years old, I hope the affable Italian will sensibly decide to pull a “Reggie Miller” and not attempt making a series comeback! As much as I like Zanardi, this seems a stretch at best as Champ Car has become a “Young guns” event a la Formula 1…

Forsythe has announced that David Martinez will replace Oriel Servia for the remaining two rounds in this years season, competing in Australia and Mexico City. Which dovetails nicely with being Martinez’s home race and effectively takes pressure off of Gerald Forsythe’s earlier dismissal of Mario “Boom Boom” Dominguez…

Champ Car has announced that the San Jose street race will be swapped back to Laguna Seca for 2008 as San Jose property development will interfere heavily with the street races current location. This is great news for “Juan” ‘O my favourite Norteamericano permanent road courses… Hmm? Perhaps a visit to the California venue is in order, eh?


Indy Car
Its always funny to hear one of the pundits echo your thoughts as SPEED’s Robin Miller mentioned previously how many would enjoy seeing Dario “Half Gainer” Franchitti win the Indy Car title, but NOT Michael Andretti winning it! As this is exactly what transpired at Chicagoland.

Although it was a nail biter and Franchitti was on the outside looking in with a single lap remaining before title protagonist Scott Dixon ran out of fuel with two corners to go…

Now everyone is holding their breath to see if the Flying Scotsman will make the jump to RASSCAR? As rumours abound that Dario has a five year contract to partner MAC Montoya next season at Chip Ganassi. Although this seems a bit confusing since Dan “Spike” Wheldon has repeatedly said he wants a shot at “Juan” ‘O “Cheep’s” Tin Tops, a la Sam Hornish Jr.

Now time for me to watch the Belgian GP… Which has to be one of the best racing venues on the planet! And with the front row being a Ferrari rosso lock-out with the McLaren Beastie Boyzs nipping at their heels, it should be a doozy, eh?

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…

European Vacation

Hmm? Why did this title spring to mind, as it makes me conjer up images of Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn & Co. gallivanting about Europe while “On Vacation.”

As the Griswalds once again show off their Wally Wurld ways in this really BAD “B” movie… Which is where Champ Car is in my book at the moment. As I’m still fuming over the STUPIDITY of broadcasting both European rounds on ESPN Classic…

And I would have enjoyed watching yesterday’s race to provide my insights on the famous track, but NO!!! One of the BONEHEAD “Brothers” err, four Mousketeers decided either to cut costs or make another really BAD business decision? By getting a really, really good deal on air time on ESPN Classic…

Since once again Champ Car LOOSES at the IRL’s expense! As I wasn’t able to watch the Circuit Zolder race, I was forced to settle for the Indy Car race at Sears Point instead. And Champ Car wonders why it has a TV rating’s problem?

As nexts weekend’s Netherlands race will also be impossible to watch. I’ll once again be viewing Indy Car from Detroit, which has morphed into CART…

And speaking of European Vacations… Did you hear the “Juan” about Jenson Button going camping. Apparently Jense spent the majority of the three week Formula 1 break on a camping trip with his girlfriend roughin’ it in France. As they actually camped out in a tent.

With Jense claiming neither he nor the misses had ever put up a tent before. Along with the couple staying in B ‘N B’s… And after this weekend’s outing at Istanbul. Perhaps Button would have wished to remain camping?

Indy celebrities (Postscript)

Did you guess who the six celebrities I ran into while at IMS are?
Or are you simply getting tired of the suspense? Just give us the “Frillin’” answers man… (No cheating Danny B, your excluded)

As I’ve previously written. The mystery men in no particular order are: DH, “S. George,” DM, “Doctor Who?” Mr. Interscope and the REAL “Double D.”

And with no further ado, Drum roll please…………..
The first three represent 1/11th of this year’s Indy 500 grid. And how often do you meet three racing drivers in one day?

Obviously DH is Davey Hamilton, whom returned to the Brickyard for the first time after six years of countless surgeries to repair his shattered feet. Davey has kept sharp by compiling seat time piloting one of Sinden Racing’s two seaters. He’s a true gentleman and it was a pleasure to spend so much time talking with him. And I felt it was a true bonus to have him as my chauffer around the Speedway!

“”S. George” is the aforementioned Steven George. Better known as Stefan Gregoire. And he seemed like a very nice chap as he was sent home early after his two seater mount lost its motor at IMS. Apparently Gregoire is also collecting valuable seat time at IMS as Sinden Racing’s other driver...

Although technically gregoire didn’t compete in this years Indy after crashing during practice. As you may recall Chastain Motorsports drafted the wiley veteran Roberto Moreno as his replacement. Look for S. George to be back next year at Indy.

The third driver is by far the court jester of the triumberant. As Darren Manning is a total crack-up. Making a loud snoring sound when recounting his displeasures of having to attend Sponsor meetings. As well as being a pretty fine golfer. Manning now resides in Indianapolis and was the BAR Honda F1 test driver before moving to Derrick Walker’s Champ Car team.

Dr. Who is none other then 1997 Indy 500 Winning race engineer Tim Wardrop. And I really enjoyed my prolonged chat with him about various facets of Formula 1.

Mr. Interscope could also be called the Flying Hawaiian. As I’ve just read that he was a tire buster in the early ‘60’s prior to getting his shot as a racing driver. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? His name is Danny Ongais.

Unfortunately when I hear his name I can only recite the fact that his crash at Indy in 1987 opened the door for Al Unser Sr. as his replacement at Penske Racing. “Big Al” went on to win his fourth Indy 500 that year behind the wheel of a year old Penske show car. Wow, it just hit me. This is the 20th anniversary of that most forgettable saga.

And lastly, not to be confused with Robin Miller’s Double D. Nope, not “Milk ‘N Doughnuts.” Nor Derr-Wreck Daily. The REAL “Double D” is none other than official track historian Donald Davidson. Whom I’m now calling D-Squared…

The affable Englishman came abroad in 1964 before immigrating in 1965 to work for USAC and has been here ever since. Davidson is a walking computer as he simply rambled off answer after answer to us in the Photo Shop…

Indy celebrities

So I’ve been reveling over my most excellent adventure to the Speedway for the past few weeks now. While basking in the afterglow of my extreme euphoria experienced while hanging out at Indianapolis. As I can still hear the banshee wail of the two seater reverberating off the Turn 2 grandstands. (Especially when I play it back on my mini-recorder)

Did you guess who the six celebrities I ran into while at IMS were? As I wrote before they were none other than: DH, “S. George,” DM, Mr. Interscope, “Doctor who?” and D-Squared. (O.k. The REAL “Double D.”) I’ll let you ponder it a little longer, eh?

For this most memorable trek to Mecca, I stayed at the Brickyard Crossing Hotel, which is located directly next to the Turn Two Grandstand. And it’s slightly dated. Ok, so it looks circa 1970’s. Yet I found it to be a most enjoyable locale as it’s full of old fashion charms.

Although I didn’t get Jimmy Neighbors suite. The room was clean, the staff is super courteous, the waitress’s & bartender’s very friendly and the food is quite palatable. But what I found most humourous was having a real “live” person making the wake-up call each morning. Along with using a real key to unlock your door.

And where else can you simply step out of your room and be serenaded by the symphonic harmonies of the Sinden Racing Two Seater reverberating off of the Brickyard grandstands?

After checking into my hotel room Monday evening. Danny B introduced me to his old friend Dave, who we met on his way into the bar while Danny was showing me the hotel’s layout. There Dave introduced us to Dr. Who. And on our way out for dinner, Danny said hello to Mr. Interscope.

Tuesday was the big day for me. As Danny chauffeured me around the corner to the Formula 1 garages for my big adventure aboard Sinden Racing’s Two Seater.

While waiting for my ride, Danny introduced me to DH, who’d be my two seater pilote later in the afternoon. DH was super friendly and really made my day enjoyable. He talked to us for over 20+ minutes before excusing himself to go get suited up for his afternoon at the office. And I’ll give you a hint. He finished ninth in this years Indy 500.

While awaiting the track to be cleared after having a big problem with the other two seater, Danny introduced me to “Steven George” while going to have my picture taken on the pit lane with DH in front of the Canadian Club car. According to Danny, Steven George has been given the moniker due to his close relationship with Mary Holman George.

Than after a mind boggling FANTASTIC day at IMS, we returned to the bar for some liquid refreshments along with a quick bite to eat. Walking in after us and sitting down directly behind us. There’s Mr. Interscope once again. And Danny told him of my ride aboard the two seater and perhaps he could have been my chauffer? No thanks said Mr. Interscope. I’ll stick to single seaters.

After dinner Danny drove us over to McGilvery's Speedway for a weekly radio broadcast hosted by Don Kay of Autosport Radio. One of his featured guests this week was the “Cheeky Brit” DM. Who as always was quite entertaining. And he started off the show by claiming that I’d messed up his golf game when roaring around Indy! But DM had NO interest in the two seater, stating that may be his girlfriend would?

As he was leaving Danny brought him over to our table and introduced me. DM promptly said, so you’re the chap in the two seater messing up my golf game!

Wednesday upon taking a PAINFULLY SEDATE bus ride around the Brickyard narrated by D-Squared. We toured my favourite racing haunt. The Hall of Fame museum. And upon popping into the Photo Shop on the second floor. Which you really must if you want to see AWESOME racing photography from wall to wall. Coming out of his office was D-Squared, who Danny introduced me to. And very obligingly chatted with us for quite some time as we picked his brains over the history of the Brickyard.

SHEISA!!! That was a really ruff trip! As I mentioned to “Auntie” Harriet, I’m getting a bit spoiled here. And I’m becoming a bit particular on whom I meet ‘N greet…

To continue reading, see; Indy Celebrities - Postscript

Open Wheel chatter

I’d have to say that the San Jose race was far more entertaining to watch vs. Road America. Although I hugely prefer the Elkhart Lake venue over the concrete canyons of Silicon Valley.

Nevertheless, Bad Bobby D utilized a Sand Dune Tracy race strategy after giving Jan “Van Hagar” Heylan the Chrome Horn at the beginning of the race. Vaulting from 15th to take the chequered flag first. This was after Dan “Speedy-Dry” Clarke punted pole sitter Justin Wilson from the lead at the beginning of the race…

Yet the Hamburgular celebrated his announcement of going to Formula 1 next season by capturing the Road America pole by over 1.5 seconds. Then cruised to a fairly sedate race win while both Robert Doornbos and Will Power suffered major points hits to their fleeting championship hopes…

And I found it very awkward to be rooting for Bruno “Whiney Bags” Junqueira as it was Dale Coyne’s 500th start in Champ Car. And Junky got an excellent start, vaulting into third place. In fact it was so good that the in-car camera showed him jumping the start…

As the Forsythe team continues to struggle, it was noted that Mo Nunn had joined the team as a Consultant for the weekend, in hopes that he’d be able to sort out some of the teams troubles. And if memory serves me right? I think that Nunn was engineering Oriel Servia at Patrick Racing when the team ran Visteon sponsorship. Many may recall that Mo Nunn was the engineer for three of Chip Ganassi’s four CART titles…

And although it’s a slightly old rumour that I heard Robin Miller comment on awhile ago. There are now multiple reports of Justin Wilson being in the catbird seat to take over the departing Bourdais’s seat at Newman Haas Lanigan in 2008.

And I’ll be interested to see where this year’s Atlantics Champion Raphael Matos lands next year in Champ Car. As Matos goes shopping for a seat with his $2.0 million winner’s check.

Quickest guess is he’ll take Wilson’s vacated seat at RSports. Since co-owner Paul Gentilozzi was rumoured to be putting together a Team Brazil last year. Of course I’d prefer to see Matos simply move up with his team Sierra Sierra, but that would require them running a two car effort?

Meanwhile the IRL’s Brian Barnhart put the entire field of drivers on probation after the Michigan crash fest, where 12 drivers took themselves out of action after various melees. So did it work? Not really as both Helio Castroneves and Dario “Double Half Gainer” Franchitti were both summoned to Barnhart’s trailer after the Spartan, KY event. With both drivers most likely to receive $25,000 fines for race incidents.

And speaking of the flying Scotsman. I had to go see what all the buzz was about another supermodel possibly joining the RASSCAR pit lanes. It seems that Franchitti who’s friends with Richard Childress is being linked to a possible fourth car entry at RCR in 2008?

Yet it seems to me that perhaps Dario may want to contact his ‘old sparrin’ partner PT and ask him how that “Bomber” tryout went? Y’all recall Tracy’s not so excellent attempt to transition over to Tin Tops with the aforementioned Childress.

Also there’s been reports that Scott “Nose” Speed is coming to America on a fact finding mission to investigate possible racing options in either Open Wheel Racing or Nexxtell Cup. With Speed stating that Red Bull owner “Deeter Majestic” thinks he’d make a good fit in the Cup carzs… Perhaps Speed will want to put AJ Almendinger on his speed dial? As the latter has now failed to qualify in his last 9 attempts. Did I mention that AJ is driving the Red Bull #8? Err #883 since that other number used to be Ironhead Jr’s…

SHEISA!!! I’m talkin’ RASSCAR… But it is sad to note that all of the American drivers hunker to hang their crash buckets there. Could it be something to do with the influx of dinero? By the way how’s reigning Indy Car champion Sam Hornish Jr doin’ with his Tin Top education?

And speaking of CRAP! What in the HELL is up with Champ Cars big foray to Europe. As the series returns across the pond for the first time in four years with two races in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Now I know that Champ Car is paying a hefty fee to be on the Dizney Shopping Networks… And it was funny to hear Katherine Legge saying she’s worried about her reputation being tattered in Europe. But who in the BLOODY HELL has ESPN Classic? Which is where you’ll find this weekend’s telecast. Talk about being in the Netherlands…

A1 GP announces upcoming calendar

While the major Open Wheel Racing series are in the second half or latter stages of this years championship. The A1 GP is gearing up for its third season with the announcement of its
2007-08 Calendar.

And although not as glitzy as Formula 1, I found the racing entertaining last year, albeit a bit too late at night. Err usually the wee hours of the morning on SPEED.

In case you’re not aware of the A1 GP, the series is billed as the World Cup of motorsports. With various nations competing in identically prepared single seaters, taking queues from different racing series to comprise this unique series. Now it only has two hurdles to overcome. Since it could be dubbed either the Arena Football or USFL of motor racing. Along with new competition during the winter months from Emperor Bernardo’s newly created Asian GP2 series. As well as the new Speed Car series…

Flipped Out

Interestingly the intra-squad tussle at Andretti Green Racing is now tied for the driver who’s flipped the most cars this season at 2-2. With Dario Franchitti’s dancin’ partner being the owner’s son Marco Andretti.

And just where do winning Indy 500 chassis go? As two of the last three year’s winners have now been flipped. (And wrecked!) With Marco flipping Dan Wheldon’s 2005 winner this May at the Speedway. While Dario flipped his 2007 winning entry at Michigan. Damaging 70% of the car, with only the tub, engine and gearbox surviving the impact.

And the “Kentucky Kid” that Dario flipped on the cool down lap? None other than Michael Andretti’s 2007 Indy 500 chassis that was also driven at Texas by Marco.

Speculation over the 2004 & 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner’s flipping their race winning mounts has been proven wrong. As Buddy Rice’s flip at Chicagoland was in a back-up chassis. While Sam Hornish Jr’s flip at Indy occurred two years prior to his first Borg Warner trophy. With the wrecked race car being unrepairable due to underside damage to the tub.

While AGR claims that the cars are too expensive to pull from competition and leave sitting on a show room floor. Roger Penske insists that nearly every winning Indy chassis be completely restored and pulled from active duty. As Penske team personnel claim fortunately Penske’s willing to buy new equipment…

And AGR leads the IRL in flips with six total. For this season along with two in 2003. One each by Wheldon and Mario andretti. Meanwhile AGR will repair both, err all three chassis and return them to service. With Franchitti’s latest two flyer’s being ready to race next year…

Michigan’s Last Waltz

Looks like Champ Car isn’t the only major Open Wheel racing series giving its venerable tracks the boot in favour of new sanitized circuits. As this weekend’s IRL race at Michigan International Speedway appears to be the last at MIS.

Scottish sentiment

Although the racing world has moved on, with several rounds of the championship having been run since the month of May. I’m sure that Dario “R.E.O. Speedwagon” Franchitti is still pinching himself over winning this year’s Indy 500.

And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy than Dario, whose career has seen its ups & downs. Having made another mistake and aged the Scotsman an extra 10 years. Dario actually celebrated his 34th birthday with cake in the face live on TV prior to winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

This makes it hard for me to believe how many years ago it was when Dario was fighting for the championship in CART alongside teammate Paul Tracy at Team Kool Green. As Dario was just another “Young Gun” to me back then, while watching him win in Vancouver, BC.

Franchitti’s best career seasons in CART were 1998 & 1999. As the ’99 season saw Franchitti tie Juan Pablo Montoya for the series championship, yet loose on tiebreaker to the Columbian. As I still believe the Scotsman was morally gutted by the death of close friend and competitor Greg Moore that fateful day in California.

And I was unaware that Franchitti was another alumnus of the vaunted Paul Stewart Racing team, which ultimately “morphed” into Stewart Grand Prix before being transformed into the duly departed Jaguar F1 team. Of which has now become Red Bull Racing.

Franchitti was part of an all star cast of Open Wheel racers with Gil De Ferran, David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello, Jan Magnessen and Ralph Firman to name just a few.

Thus it’s funny to note that Dario is clinging firmly to a fast disappearing points lead in the current Indy Car championship. With his main title rival becoming Scott Dixon, with both competitor’s being ex-CART protagonists. As Dario seeks to win his first major championship in the “All Oval” racing series.

So why all the belated fanfare over the Scottish Speedwagon? Well as you finish reading this. I’ll be departing for my trek to Mecca, hopefully to experience the ride of a lifetime. As I’ve secured my time slot to strap on a chauffeured ride in the back seat of Sinden Racing’s two seater at IMS this Tuesday afternoon!

What goes up must come down

So the action from Silverstone was somewhat entertaining, as I rose early to watch the practice. Which was enjoyable to see “Jaguar” struggling a bit to keep up with the Ferrari’s. Of course as the ever sharp Peter Windsor spouted. Perhaps they were just keeping a low profile in regards to the current Stepney Gate fiasco.

Of which a little bit more was divulged. Bob Varsha recounted the main talking points, while stating that they weren’t going to try rehashing all of it. Since obviously the blogosphere was in high gear and there was still more to follow undoutabely.

But Varsha did note that its now been revealed that Nigel Stepney met with Mike Coughlan in April and reportedly passed along a packet containing roughly 500-700 internal Ferrari technical documents… Supposedly an Italian got suspicious upon request being made for copying of the documents which sported the official Ferrari masthead.

While Windsor stated that he was ready to go onto record over knowing that this type of activity occurs all of the time. It seemed obvious to me that Professor Matchett was extremely choked up over the matter as it involves the very man that gave him his start as a Benetton mechanic. Ultimately it sounds like this level of industrial espionage occurs when team members have sour grapes with their employer.

Meanwhile in Toronto it was business as usual with that dreaded Hamburgalur stealing provisional pole position once again. And he really did literally steal it today, as Oriel Servia was only .018 seconds behind Sea Bass. While Justin Wilson was a solid third with the Minardi Team USA teammates Doornbos and Clarke respectively rounding out the top five. It’s funny to note that Wilson claimed that he and Oriel both had trouble with traffic… Uh traffic in Champ Cars? With a decimated field of ONLY 17 entries… Yet Bourdais did state that the track was quite slippery, which can become a bit hairy between the concrete jersey barriers.

And in a similar occurrence that previously transpired during a Champ Car race this season. The SPEED TV posse was wondering aloud if McLaren had put a mixed set ‘O Bridgestone’s on Hamilton’s chassis as one front tire had the white “softer” marking while the other didn’t. As you’re not allowed to run mixed set of tires.

Turns out a similar thing had occurred when the Champ Car driver in question was spotted with only three red sidewall tires and “Juan” black. As he’d rubbed the paint off while scraping a wall.

In young Jaguar’s situation apparently the graining of the softer compound was so severe under lengthy running, that the tire’s black rubber had simply covered the painted white stripe…

Got Milk?

Well perhaps it may be time to put Fernando’s mug on the back of those Milk cartons after all? As Alonso was MIA in today’s “Q3” Qualifying session... Well actually he was sequestered in the McLaren pit garage with a detonated Mercedes lump, winding up 10th in final qualifying. If the engine needs to be replaced Alonso will incur a 10 grid spot penalty and would start the race from P20! Thak could make for some interesting racing.

And I particularly enjoyed David Hobbs comments about the four Red Bull cars starting together in lock step, positions 14-17. With “Hobbo” wondering if all four cars would knock themselves out on the first lap?

And is it just me or does it seem a bit funny how Lewis Hamilton’s only being second today seems so anti-climatic? Ho Hum, I could have done better, but I made a slight mistake in corner 15… So strange to be disappointed with P2 in only your 8th race, eh?

Meanwhile in the Quebec countryside, a Frenchman was once again busy stealing the pole in Friday’s provisional qualifying atMont-Tremblant. NO! It was not the Hamburgalur as we’ve all come to expect. Instead it was rookie countryman Tristan Gommendy of PKV Racing. This is quite impressive, being both Gommendy’s and PKV’s first front row qualifying position of the season, with Gommendy guaranteed of starting no worse than second on Sunday.

Bourdais admitted he’d made a minor mistake while trying to steal the pole away from Gommendy, winding up just .007 seconds adrift. With Team Aussie’s Will Power third, Justin Wilson fourth and Robert Doornbos rounding out the top five. Doornbos commented that the St. Jovite track reminds him of his favourite race course, Spa Francorchamps, which ain’t too shabby company to be compared with!

Back in France, Scott “Nose” Speed was running Scuderia Toro Rosso’s first Seamless Shift” transmission, making good use of the new box to work his way into second round qualifying. Unlike DC who managed to find a box full ‘O neutral’s from his Seamless Shift unit during “Q2.” Thus giving me thoughts of how much Bourdais may be salivating at the jump to Toro Rosso next year.

And would somebody please tell Peter Windsor to QUIT GOOSING Speed during the interviews! As he sounds like he’s got a frog in his pocket when the microphones are upon him…

Hard Rock vs. Corn

So it was a pretty entertaining Sunday morning of jumping between two races with the emphasis on the Champ Car race and the IRL as commercial filler…

Having not watched a Champ Car race via TV in two months, I’d forgotten how annoying Rick “Insert $ponsor Here” Benjamin was! As Benjamin made up for my switching during commercial breaks with his NON stop sponsor-fest of every driver’s car speeding thru the frame.

And I’ll leave you to guess who won the Ricky-Boy name a sponsor sweepstakes, as I thought for sure it would be Mr. Benjamin’s personal favourite Wallmart.

With the Hamburgalur once again on pole, I was afraid it would be another boring race. Yet the Team Aussie duo actually kept Sea Bass firmly in their sites thru the entire event, with Will Power running an extra lap over Bourdais to take the lead. And I found Jon Beekhuis’s comments to be as brilliant as always. At one point noting that the Mac Dougal’s car was the meat of a Team Aussie sandwich. Err paddy! To which I would have said was a Bitamite sandwich.

And what more can you say about Sugar Ray Tracy? Using the Chrome Horn not once, but twice in the opening laps. Causing the Forsythe team to have to change nose cones on two successive pit stops. As first PT tangled with Graham Rahal and then punted Bruno Junqueira. Making me wonder if Forsythe would need to start using Tracy’s teammate Oriel Servia’s noses?

And perhaps it’s not wise to have Mr. Rick call out your car’s sponsor too many times as Dan “Speedy Dry” Clarke finally managed to throw it off track after running up front for the majority of the race. Oh well, at least Clarke’s #4 Oz Jet/Ticketmaster won the sponsor-fest race with a total of seven “shout-outs.” With RSports either coming in second or tying Team Minardi USA…

And speaking of RSports, Beekhuis made a very interesting comment towards Justin Wilson. As you may know the lanky Brit is the tallest driver in Champ Car. And apparently Justin’s size is causing his car to be 15lbs heavier than the competition.

Yet for the foreseeable future Champ Car has mandated that all teams remove their onboard starters which way 17lbs. Since some of the identical units aren’t functioning correctly. Yet Beekhuis claimed that Wilson was still +14lbs, which in a spec series apparently makes a big difference.

And every time I flipped over to the Corn 250, it seemed like they were under yellow for another incident. As I managed to tune-in during the big Princess cry fest in pit lane after she’d caused a 7 car pile-up.

And then back to Cleveland where there’s “Whiny Bags” commenting on how PT gave him the Chrome Horn… Yet you have to feel a little bit sorry for “Junky,” whose Open Wheel career seems to be fading fast.

And then I started screaming gleefully as the motor had gone quiet on Bourdais’s car, ultimately leading to his retirement in 12th place. Then everything seemed to come down to fuel strategy. With question marks over the top 5 cars, with guess who leading? Yep it was Paul Tracy followed by Graham Rahal, Robert Doornbos, Neil Jani and the Team Aussie duo. And although Rahal had to pit for methanol, the rest gave chase to PT. Who incredibly held off Doornbos to take his first victory in two years! While Jani scored his maiden podium finish in Champ Car. Scoring PKV Racing’s first third place finish of the seson.

Tracy seemed quite speechless, which is a rare sight to see, since he seemed very surprised to have finally won! Saying it wasn’t pretty, but he’d take it.

Meanwhile in Iowa, Dario “REO Speedwagon” had marched his way to the front with younger teammate Marco Andretti running second. With Franchitti holding Marco at bay to claim his second victory of the season. While Scott Sharp claimed his first podium of the year. Taking third place for Rahal/Letterman Racing’s Corn sponsored team

And Thank God for TV Remotes… As I immediately reached for the MUTE button upon the start of an overly too long jabber with Judd Ashley, err Ashley “My Husband Won” Judd. As I don’t know ‘bout you, but I really don’t know what Dario’s dog running away for 24 hours has to do with racing?

Interestingly Marco alluded to Dario’s car’s having swept the top two spots, saying he made an awesome set-up on my car.

Hey that's kinda funny having the two Ex-Team KOOL Green drivers winning the two Open Wheel races!

Three ring circus

Of course the majority of household televisions will most likely be tuned to the RASSCAR race this Sunday at Sonoma, CA. But interestingly the two rival Open Wheel race series will be going head to head also this Sunday morning.

Champ Car will once again invade the shores of Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport, where the Hamburgalur will try to steal another race away from his competition. It will be interesting to see if the Team Aussie duo, not to be confused with the Hendricks Dangerous Duo. OOPS dose are dem Nextel-Sprint-AT & T-Singular guys…

Yet it would be really nice to see somebody stop Sea Bass’s winning streak of 3 consecutive victories. But if Portland is any indicator, then we’re in for a long sordid processional season of Bourdais leading the way. Yet obviously Justin Wilson & Co. aren’t just giving the races away to Seb, with Will Power only 12 points behind. And one should probably never count out ‘ole PT, eh?

Meanwhile the IRL is taking to the High banks of Iowa, which believe it or not actually has hills ‘O plenty as well as tons of farmland. And that’s possibly part of how the event got its name? As AJ Foyt said when giving the command to start engines in Milwaukee, “Boy’s ‘N Girls!” Will be making Indy Cars debut on the 7/8th mile bull ring that Rusty l. T. O. Wallace built… Which seems a bit silly to me to be having 220+ mph projectiles covering the miniscule track in 17.6 seconds in excess of 182mph!

Danny B was most impressed with the events name, the Iowa CORN 250. Which seems right up there with the Kansas Lottery 300? Yet could the Corn moniker be in deference to the much ballyhooed running of said IRL series on 100% switchgrass… Err, Ethanol. All I can remember about Iowa is that I was told if you see a roll ‘O toilet paper on a Farmer’s cornstalks, then its safe to you-know-what there…

And speaking of Corn… Lastly dem good ‘ole boyzs of “Roundy Round” fame will be struttin their stuff at Ifineon Raceway, one of RASSCAR’s two road course events. Which I’ll admit like Danny B sez. You have to marvel at the fact of trying to wrassle a 3,400lb behemoth thru both right & left hand turns. Throw in a host of “Road Warriors” like Boris Said, Ron Fellows, PJ Jones. Well I don’t know about PJ, but tis kinda funny he made this event but NOT Indy this year… And funnier yet is all of the chatter ‘bout running the COT on its very first road course, yet I prefer Marc’s title for this new Beluga whale better known as the CORN!!! Not sure why, but these cars remind me of the old Chevy Beretta’s…

(I was going to throw in a witty “Juan” liner ‘bout Robert Blake, but I’ll leave the humour department to others…)

You can watch all three races on Sunday with Champ Car (CBS) squaring off against the IRL (ABC) @ 10AM (Pacific) as 17 Champ Cars make their second standing start vs. 18 IRL chassis circulating dizzily past the corn fields. With RASSCAR on TNT sometime later in the day

Three card Indy

While my esteemed Indiana Bureau Chief Danny B. was busy drinking creame soda’s inside the IMS media center, I couldn’t resist putting in my two cents worth on today’s coverage of Indy’s Day 3 Qualifying.

And I have to say that its interesting how different the media coverage was as once again for humour I tuned into the IMS Radio Network for hour one of today’s action, since it wasn’t on TV. It was great to have the radio coverage go PAST their allotted time to cover John Andretti’s run completely, including a live interview immediately afterwards. Even better was getting to hear the wave of emotions flowing over Andretti as he tried to answer all of the questions after a 13 year absence from Indy.

And then I started laughing again while pondering if it was “Groundhog Day?” As I feared a repeat of last weekend’s travesty when the LPGA overran the final hour of Day 2 Qualifying on ESPN2.

These thoughts came about since “The Deuce” once again had another scintillating round of Women’s golf preceding the Speedway TV coverage. And once again since NOBODY was trying to qualify during the “Heat” of the day, ESPN2’s announce crew (MINUS Rusty L.T.O. Wallace) quickly got us “Up to Speed” upon the day’s happenings.

“Sure ‘Nuff” there was Milka Duno getting prime billing as she was the very first competitor to qualify. With the TV coverage showing her getting instructions before leaving, both warm-up laps along with all four qualifying laps and an extensive interview afterwards. Yet John Andretti got third rate billing, showing only 75% of his run and NO interview.

Recently I’ve been “Wunderin” how much does it cost to run a limited program at Indy? So I enjoyed the venerable pit reporter Jack Arute throwing out the following figures while awaiting qualification attempts, as the “Heavy Hitters” AGR, Ganassi and Penske were busy circulating in race day trim.

If you sign-up for a full month program then you’re allowed to run 1,200 laps for the entire month, while second week only contestants are limited to a lower lap count. (No figure given) All entrants are limited to 35 sets of “Flinstones” (Firestone tires) for the entire month of May which cost $64,000.

A full month Honda engine lease will cost $225,000 vs. $95,000 for a second week only package.

A preferred current spec Dallara chassis will cost you $300,000 vs. $145,000 for a year old G-Force/Panoz chassis.

I found all of this extremely interesting after the big “guffhaw” over the NFL forbidding PDM racing to run their #18 entry painted blue & white with the words Go Colt’s emblazoned on the side pods. This was after a sponsor had paid $7,000 for the paint job.

Yet the Playa Del Racing team secured Indiana Ice sponsorship for it’s #21 Jaques Lazier piloted entry. The two full width side pod logo’s cost a cool $150,000. Today ESPN2 made a big deal out of it by pointing out how the Indiana WNBA & Pacers were both quick to jump onboard Lazier’s entry.

And Arute further chimed in on the costs of Indy in regards to rookie Phil Giebler’s crash during qualifying. Unfortunately the rookie crashed on his final lap while making a solid 221+ mph attempt. Stating that the wrecked rear wing would cost $30,000 while the damaged gearbox would set the team back a further 85 grand.

During Robin Miller’s OTB video segment on SPEED TV this week, Jimmy Kite’s owner quipped to Miller. “You know the drill, its $30,000 a corner!” (For repairs)

Yet the days best TV highlight came after the 6PM gun had been nervously fired as pit reporter Sam Welch helped set-up Dario “REO Speedwagon” Franchitti on his 44th birthday. Innocently beginning the interview with birthday wishes while Dario’s teammates came racing in and completely plastered Dario’s mug with a chocolate cake!

And Franchitti stood there completing the interview with his wife Ashley Judd eating cake off of his face, while telling the story about cutting Tony Kanaan’s custom made bicycle in half while TK was in the midst of an interview for ESPN a few years ago. Dario promised that paybacks would be forthcoming, especially to his rookie teammates Marco and Danica…

Another Brick in the Wall

Yeah, I know many of you are probably getting sick of me beating the proverbial “Dead Horse.” But here’s a few more comments from Sunday night's The Speed Report in regards to the vaunted Brickyard’s Pole Day weekend.

Was that Speed TV’s Dudley or Dynamic Duo live from the Speedway? As Drew Johnson claimed if he’d seen Robin Miller in person he’d have turned him in to Tony George for the $20 reward...

Playing the role of the “Boy Wonderer.” Or most definitely, the Dudley portion of the duo was Derr-Wreck Daily, chiming in with his 12 cents worth. And although he didn’t say anything earth shattering. I suppose you’d have to find it slightly bemusing when Miller asked him who’d the final 11 entrants would be?

Daily quipped it would be “Harem Scarem” time as some of the persons trying to put rides together were pretty scary. Mentioning that one even had a 1-800 number on his garage to help him buy an engine…

And I’m told that contrary to the constant media drubbing of how attendance was “GRRRRRRRRRRRRREATTTTT!” It was actually pretty sad. Compare this against Barcelona having 67,000 adoring Spaniards for Friday F1 Practice vs. how many for Indy’s “Fast Friday.” Or Pole Day vs. the Spanish GP qualifying…

In fairness to Indy, Portland, Oregon’s largest G.I. Joes 200 race day attendance was only 65,000+ during the pinnacle of Champ Cars popularity during the mid-1990’s.

But for me, by far the best quote of the show came from none other than ex-Beauty Queen Nicole Manske while reading off the Indy 500’s grid. “In row three is “The Princess” and Marco.” (As in none other than Danica…)

Four!

And I continue to “wunder” What’s WRONG with Open Wheel Racing? I’m pretty sure I now know the answer…

For humour I decided to tune-in for Indy “Happy Hour” Day Two qualifying “live” on The Deuce. And it was really PATHETIC for the show to be pre-empted by the LPGA…

Yes that’s correct, Woman’s Golf “BUMPED!” Indy off the air as a two way playoff was covered in EXCRUTIATING stroke by MISSED stroke action. With the two finalists trying to give the title away to their competition for three extra holes.

(“Isn’t it Ironic?” But hey! Danica’s already “safely” in the show… So who cares?)

So I found it WOEFULLY humorous as the ESPN2 announcers tried to OVER HYPE the sensationalism (?) of The Brickyard’s new qualifying format… As Rusty “Left Turn Only” Wallace expounded: “How cool is it that we went all the way down to the wire to see who’d “Boomp” their way into the Top 22!”

Uh, “Earth to Rusty!” The whole “FRILLING” final 60 minutes was NOT seen because of some STUPID playoff golf!

Is it any “wunder” why Open Wheel Racing is on life support? I mean, C’mon that’s supposed to be “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Then again what can you say about Indy when one of the "top" story lines is John Herb getting “boomped” out of the days field twice in one afternoon…

Indy Commercial Day

So I know its part of the DREADED Price ‘O COMMERCIALISM… In order to bring us “Live” racing action. But what in the HELL is up with the OVERSATURATED COMMERCIAL FEST on ABC’s Family ‘O Network’s coverage of Pole Day from Indianapolis. (Quick it’s been 6 1 /2 minutes since our last break… And we all know that Americans have really short attention spans…)

I mean is this the sordid state of affairs, when the “Deuce” (ESPN2) hosts the opening two hours of Indy qualifying sponsored by Go Daddy. (Although I know who that is. How many of you know who they are?) And I wonder how much it cost them to have Danica on their “team.”

Yet I’d have to say that the classiest move of the whole day came early during qualifying when TV Announcer Marty Reid paid homage to Tom Carnegie by having him call AJ Foyt IV’s qualifying attempt. It was really nice to hear the REAL voice of Indy once again. You may recall that “Baritone Tom” was the official track announcer for 61 years! (Yet Mr. Carnegie is suffering health-wise lately)

Today finally marks the first time in three years that Indy gets to try out its much vaunted “New” qualifying format of having only the fastest eleven cars “locked” into the starting grid. As in desperation over the LACK of entrants making the much ballyhooed Bump Day into “BOOMP Day.” Now each car has three qualifying attempts per day… Which as Robin Miller pointed out, assures EVERYBODY of making the field…

And it was pretty funny to see the #12 Luczo Dragon “Penske B Team” entry driven by Ryan Briscoe sitting on Pole briefly while “The Captain” (Roger Penske) elected to pull both of his entries out of the qualifying line during the early heat of the day.

Briscoe’s time was faster then both of Chip Ganassi’s first attempts with Scott Dixon 4th and Dan Wheldon 6th. While the only female taking a shot at qualifying was Danica Patrick who wound up 8th. (Ahead of both Andretti’s) As all five of the Andretti Green entries squeaked thru first day qualifying with the “Boss” (Michael) holding onto 11th place.

After the fury of initial qualifying during the first hour and twenty minutes, Dario “REO Speedwagon” Franchitti sat atop the Indianapolis scoring pylon, with Briscoe in P3.

And then the doldrums of the waiting game set in as the track went silent during the hottest portion of the day. Upon switching networks after a 1hr break, the first hour of ABC’s coverage was just recaps of the day’s action before going to a live interview with Milka duno in street clothes. Duno stated that her team would now focus upon practice on Wednesday, before going for second week qualifying. And I found it funny how they had to go immediately to Danica after talking with Duno.

Then another “filler” interview with Billy Jean King who really laid into the gender issue… Before Jack Arute cut her off!

And then finally the action picked up, as there’s some added drama about how your car goes into a “Parc Ferme” involuntary impound condition with 1hour 45 minutes remaining in the days action.

Helio Castroneves made his first qualifying attempt at 4:15PM, (EDT) yet wasn’t quick enough to bump Dario off of pole. And then Sam Hornish Jr. took not one but two shots at Dario. On both runs Hornish was ahead of Dario’s time before making one minor mistake in each run to end up with a slower 4 lap average.

And then the ultimate “Chinese Checkers” game began when Dixon put his #9 into the tech inspection line with 37 minutes left.

This opened the proverbial “floodgates” on the minuscule amount of last minute qualifiers, as everybody left standing took one last shot at Franchitti. I mean the pole position pays $100,000 as well as short lived bragging rights.

And I enjoyed Reid’s comment, claiming it was a “Maalox Moment” for Dario as Castroneves “stole” the ple away with 10 minutes left. The gun was fired to signal the end of qualifying as Tony Kanaan started his last gasp effort… Falling just short of Castroneves on the final lap…

And what the HELL was the deal with interviewing Danica at the end of qualifying? As I’m getting really tired of hearing her “Hissy Fit” interviews. (Because she didn’t get another chance at the Pole…)

And was the outcome of Pole Day overly surprising to anyone? With ten of the top eleven grid positions being captured by Ganassi, Penske and Andretti Green. As Tomas Scheckter of Tony George’s “Vision” Racing was the lone interloper.

(Perhaps its just me, but I believe that the Indy Racing League needs to go back to the drawing board as 6 hours for qualifying is simply TOO LONG!)

So did the new format work? Was the “New” Indy qualifying format akin to Formula 1’s “Knock-Out” qualifying. Or was it simply a way too long stringing out of too few entrants vs. WAY TOO MANY Commercials!

You make the call…

Top 11 INdy Grid Positions

Fast Friday

Upon penning today’s quips about Milka Duno’s accident. I did the “Unthinkable.” (Being a devoted Champ Car fan…) For the very first time ever, I listened to a live IMS Radio Network broadcast via the internets... And funny enough, I tuned-in “Just-in-Time" to hear this year’s media darling Milka Duno being interviewed about her CRASH! “I... I think I went a little too high into turn 1 and had a big crash.”

Johnny Parsons (JP) who’s moonlighting for Davey Hamilton in the booth this year had an interesting observation in regards to Duno’s crash. As Milka stated that the plan was for her team to fix the car and then qualify on Sunday. Parson’s pointed out how he was amazed how many teams were lacking back up chassis in their garages this year. (Perhaps the IRL is a little cash strapped also…)

Towards the tail end of “Happy Hour” they interviewed Hamilton who sounded really down to earth. And I was amazed with his willingness to discuss his chassis set-up with Parsons.

Davey told JP what rear wing angles he was running, claiming he'd just slapped on negative 3 degrees in order to run a 222mph + lap and was now ready to throw negative 4 onto it. Hamilton said he'd been running 0 degrees the whole week which was his race set-up which was giving him a comfortable run at 218-219mph!

(That's “Frilling” amazing to comprehend how somebody can be comfortable running around Indy in EXCESS of 225-230mph!!!)

And it was fun to hear them interviewing Ryan Briscoe alongside some legend named Mears. As in Indy 500 four time winner Rick Mears, who chimed in about seeing Briscoe’s “loaned” Penske painted in “Pennzoil Yellow,” evoked happy memories of the past.

Don’t forget that PJ Jones will also be running in a chassis harkening back to the “Glory Days ‘O Yesteryear. As PJ will be qualifying on the second weekend aboard the number 40 painted in STP “Day glow Orange.” This is a tribute to his father’s 40th Anniversary of almost winning Indy aboard legendary team owner Andy Granatelli's Turbine car.

But the highlight of “Happy Hour” was Scott Dixon throwing down the gauntlet with a lap of 227+ mph in fairly warm conditions, as the weather is expected to drop 10 degrees on Pole Day…

Milka’s Doughnut

Perhaps it’s just me, but does anybody else find the timing of “Little E’s” (Ironhead Jr.) press conference a bit surprising? I mean why was this bombshell “dropped” just two days prior to Pole Day at Indianapolis.

And in RASSCAR lingo, when drivers collide with the wall at “Juan” famous track, it’s referred to as earning your Darlington Stripe.”

Ok, so I shouldn’t be jumping on the band wagon. But how could I refuse after getting this photo along with the news from Danny B. that the wait is over… In his best Tom Carnegie voice, saying “Milka’s HIT the Wall!”

And although Duno’s not the first person to crash this month at Indy, with John Herb claiming the first lick. (Or would that be a “French Lick?”) I’m sure that Duno’s crash will receive far more media attention. Coming one day after Danica “flirted” with the day’s top speed, before settling for second. (Ahead of Dan Wheldon, etc.)

Yet at least Danica was honest and admitted her speed came courtesy of a tow. And before you think I’m being too harsh on the female Indy rookie, Duno can at least take solace in the fact that she’s been faster than ‘lil Al all month long. Yet again, I’m not sure if this is what The Brickyard has in mind in regards to earning your “Rookie Stripes…”

Back home in Indiana

Hoorah, it’s the month of May, which means it’s that time again. When the engines roar to life at The Brickyard. As I can almost hear “Gomer Pyle” (Jim Neighbors) singing ‘bout the Sycamore.

And while Indy has definitely lost a lot of its luster, nevertheless the hoopla over the event is most entertaining as the media desires to create a three ring circus over Las tres hembras… (The Three Females) Better known as Danica, Sarah and Milka.

And perhaps it’s just me, but the publicity stunt appears to be working as everybody wants to know what Milka thinks about driving at Indianapolis. (Well almost everybody. Probably not Gene “I AM INDY” Simmons) as the media watch proclaims. Will Milka go faster today?

And Indy traditionally has a “Feel good” story of the month, although some aren’t really that great. But I’m happy to say that this year’s candidate is Davey Hamilton, who’s making his return after six plus years out of the cockpit. Hamilton was forced onto the sidelines after a massive crash in Texas, so it’s really good to see a driver return from devastating injuries, with Hamilton getting up to speed fairly quickly.

The on track action came to earnest when full field practice opened on Tuesday with 25 cars taking to the track. This was a far cry better then the pathetic Opening Day action which featured seven cars and two Rookies.

Speaking of which, this year’s crop of Rookies is the smallest since 1979 with only two contestants. And I’ll let you guess who one of them is. (Hint, She’s from south of the border.) While the overshadowed counterpart is Phil Giebler whom I’m told is from a Sprint Car background. Yet we won’t see anymore of Giebler until week two, as his team has selected the “cheaper” second weekend Honda engine lease program.

Yet the man to beat undoubtedly is Dan Wheldon. Hell Robin Miller even had a “Cheep” Ganassi button (circa 1982) affixed to his lapel while co-hosting Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. And Despain took the bait, inquiring what’s the deal with the button? Miller replied that it’s when Chip had a skinny face and he’s just “Showing the LUV!” (For the Red Menace.)

And would you be shocked to learn that Wheldon has led the time sheets since practice began? Wheldon has “cruised” around The Brickyard at 225-226+ mph prior to Pole Day. Yet Penske’s Helio Castroneves hasn’t let Wheldon run away, nipping at his heels each session while their teammates are close behind.

Day One saw the top five drivers less than one second apart with Tomas Scheckter pulling off a surprise lap of 223+ mph to grab the third quickest speed on Tuesday. Yet perhaps Scheckter is a “Dark Horse” candidate as he’s remained solidly in the top five during practice.

And Tony Kanaan’s set-up must be pretty good. After shaking down both Danica’s and Marco’s “mounts,” they’ve both posted top ten times. Danica finished seventh (ahead of Sam Hornish Jr.) with Marco finishing fifth fastest on Day Two. Kanaan quietly motored about in sixth, sandwiched by his two younger teammates.

And I know its way too early to get downtrodden on ‘lil Al, who’s had very little seat time, but c’mon “Junior.” Unser Jr. cracked 206mph on his first day, then managed to improve to 215mph on Day Two of practice.

While Milka has improved to 219mph and Hamilton is just one spot ahead of the rookie, “Super Tex’s” entries are languishing at the bottom of the time sheets once again. As foyt’s primary driver Darren Manning is last on the speed charts, I think its time for Foyt to quit limiting mileage on his equipment and turn his drivers loose.

Meanwhile the Ganassi and Penske squads play the never ending game of chess in search of securing their place upon the Borg Warner trophy on Memorial Day weekend. As Pole Position and race victory will most likely be decided between the top three teams: Ganassi, Penske and Andretti Green. Then again will Indy disappoint these prominent outfits with the triumph of an unexpected victor?

Driving Indy

Have you ever pondered the idea of driving a “full blown” race car around the hallowed banks of Indy? And although it just seems like one more way to line Tony “Ronnie” George’s pockets… Hey, Indy is the OLDEST track in existence.

Recently I received and interesting story “penned” by “Danny B.” from Indiana: “Sinden Racing Hits a Grand Slam“ .“ Who’s just taken the plunge and driven The Brickyard. (LUCKY BASTARDOE! Talk about pouring Salt in the Wounds…)

The closest thing I can relate to this story is the time I got to ride around Phoenix International Raceway 10 years ago. You see I was on hand to witness my brother taking part in the Bob Bondurant “Lap the Oval” experience. (Which was held after the RASSCAR event weekend) And it was pretty cool as they let me “shadow” my brother from getting suited up, the driver’s meeting and then onto the track.

Unbeknownst to me, I got to ride along in the pace car for one stint while the participants followed behind us in their identically prepared Formula Ford 1600cc race cars to learn the “line” around the track.

Prior to getting aboard the Ford Taurus SHO, a fellow instructor came up to me and said. “Ok, after you’ve done two laps around the track tell your driver you heard he crashed a Viper…”

You see, I was riding with race car driver/instructor Tim Moser, whom at the time was racing a Dodge Viper GTS/R in the fledgling American Le Mans Series…

Taking my cue, Tim laughed and said who told you that, we had an excellent chat about racing in general and what it was like hammering a Dodge Viper about, before the way too short ride around the Phoenix oval ended.

Unfortunately as is the case for many aspiring race car drivers, as far as I can tell. Tim Moser NEVER got the right break to make the leap into “Big Time” motor racing.

At that time Moser was competing against another American hopeful named Mike Borkawski. And according to Moser, he was kicking his ASS in Toyota Atlantics.

Yet Borkawski got his “15 minutes of Fortune ‘N Fame” being selected to pilot one of Bobby Rahal’s Champ Cars after a short stint in Trans Am. Borkawski was a brief “flash in the pan” at Rahal as he seemed to either not be quick enough or crash. I believe he was replaced with another American hopeful named Bryan “High Speed Hurdles” Herta. Interestingly both Borkawski and Herta are now plying their trade in the rival Sports Car series, but I digress…

The Indianapolis drive the oval opportunity sounds fantastic, and I’ll leave you to read Danny’s story to get the full details. (And yes that’s Danny at the controls of ‘Ol Yellur” above, prior to lapping at 101mph) Of course Danny didn’t mention whether or not he held off Sam Hornish Jr. on the final lap. Or if you get to drink the milk in victory circle. (I suspect that drinking the milk costs extra…)

Danny has also told me that the IRL has a two seater option available, which sounds like a much more viable option than Champ Cars current two seater program. (C’mon Champ Car. Pull your HEADS OUT!)

As you may be aware of, this year Champ Car is running the Minardi Team USA F1 X 2 seaters, which commentator and ex-CART driver Jon Beekhuis had the privilege of sampling at Long Beach. Beekhuis was estatic about the ride, which says a lot for a former driver. Afterwards Beekhuis had them show the data, indicating a top speed of 182mph…

And then the catch. Beakhuis said if you had an extra $10,000 burning a hole in your pocket… Then the ride aboard the two seater would definitely be worth it!

This seems to be one more sad example of how divided the two Open Wheel series are, as they now even have competing two seaters. Yet Champ Car seems to be getting more and more out of touch with its remaining fan base…

(And I NEVER thought the day would come when I'd be promoting Indy!)

Hopefully we’ll hear more from Danny in the coming months towards the build-up to the Month of May…

Race Report

Of the two races I watched over the weekend, the Bahrain Grand Prix had to be by far the better of the two as Louis “Jaguar” Hamilton continues to be the story of Formula 1 to date.

Hamilton accomplished something that hasn’t been done ever before by claiming his third consecutive podium in his first 3 races. While only two drivers before have ever managed 3 podiums in their first 4 starts: Jacques Villeneuve and Luigi Fagioli.

And even more impressive is the fact that Hamilton is tied for the championship lead along with Kimi Raikkonen and Fernandoe Alonso.

Yet I too, like Steve Matchett would have loved to see the look upon Ron Dennis’s face after “Quick Nick’s” (Heidfeld) brilliant overtaking maneuver of Fernando Alonso for 4th place! So what do you think now Ron about those “lightweight” BMW Sauber’s…

It was nice to hear Bob Varsha give a “shout-out” to Dan Gurney who just turned 76 years “young,” as it was 40yrs ago that he won the Belgian Grand Prix in the only American made chassis.

And fellow commentator David Hobbs said don’t forget Phil Hill who’ll be turning 80 shortly. Yet I got a good laugh over Peter Winsor saying that Sir Frank Williams is turning 65 today but DON’T tell anybody…

And it was really nice to see Felipe Massa so ecstatic after his victory… I mean he looked really pumped as he’s gotten the monkey off his back for the moment, basically controlling the race from start to finish…

Bahrain GP Report

Meanwhile in Long Beach, Champ Car muddled along in a fairly boring processional fashion. If you can call flying down Oceanside boulevard at 185mph muddling along… Yet the start seemed extremely hap-hazard, but they did manage to avoid a 5 car pile-up into turn one…

The “Hamburgular” (Sebastian Bourdais) simply ran away and hid from everybody, building up a lead of over 23 seconds before getting nabbed by the yellow flags. And these weren’t none of those mysterious RASSCAR debris caution flags… As first Mario Dominguez and then Alex Figge both slammed hard into the walls.

The story of the race was Oriol Servia leap frogging from 14th to finish 2nd behind Bourdais while filling in for Tracy. I really liked Servia’s quote on Saturday about “Crash’s” steering wheel being so big that it felt like driving a bus. Will Power and Justin Wilson both passed Alex Tagliani on the final lap…

Long Beach Report

Indy struggling with entries?

In what seems to have become a new yearly tradition, once again reports are suggesting that this year’s Indianapolis 500 may be shy of its traditional 33 starters.

Yet for the past few years the naysayer’s suggest that this May will be the year that Indy doesn’t field 33 cars. But somehow Tony “Ronnie” George always seems to manage to dig far enough into his pockets (or the Family’s piggybank) to ensure that there’s eleven rows of three cars taking the green flag after “Gomer Pyle” sings Back Home in Indiana Again.

And the biggest problem I noticed about the entry lists floating around was that they did NOT mention ANY Chip Ganassi entries. Surely “Cheep” will be fielding at least two cars?

Or if we’d be gullible enough to believe Robin Miller… “The Red Menace” as he’s nicknamed Ganassi: “Will Finish 1-2-3” at the Brickyard this Memorial Day with “MAC” Montoya in the third chassis.

And don’t forget Milka…

Kosuke gets censored

DAMM!

I know its still way too early into the season for this, but until the elder court jester, Mr. Paul Tracy makes his presence felt, Kosuke Matsuura gets my vote of interview of the year…

And although I suppose it had to happen… I can’t recall if Janet Jackson had to pay an undisclosed fine for her wardrobe “malfunction?”

Yet in the theoretical vacuum off squeaky clean “PC Friendly” television on ABC’s “Family” of networks… (Can you say Disney?) They’re most definitely hoping for “Goo-goo” baby talk…

Yet it seems to be a common source of discussion that is the world of corporate media speak vs. neutering driver personalities. As I guess we’re expected to NOT use foul language, cuss or show our emotions

And is it just me, or how FUCKING frustrating is it trying to figure out just exactly which network is hosting either the Champ Car or (GASP!) IRL races…

I mean is it on ABC? NOPE! ESPN? NOPE, ESPN2? Well it was there last week but now it’s on ESPN! NOPE it’s on NBC. I mean as Robin Miller has pointed out, how does either Open Wheel series plan to build any new fan base?

In previous years the media actually published the season previews prior to the first race. And Champ Car was even smart enough to publish the TV schedule for its fans to follow along. Never mind actually televising both days of qualifying…

So needless to say, I’m rooting for “Kazuki” to win the pole at Indy this year, so he get’s another interview. Better yet, wouldn’t it be hilarious to have him WIN the Indy 500…

“Go Kosuke!”

The Fool on the Hill

OOPS! I have to admit that I must have been desperate for some motor racing action… As I was writing about Milka Duno’s big announcement, I thought to myself, hey those chaps should be on the “tele” by now…

And all I could think of as I sat down to GULP! Watch the IRL season opener on a Saturday evening was Bruce Springsteen’s” “There was 57 channels and NOTHING ON!”

So I got a really good laugh as the race was RAIN Delayed for 72 minutes… And how the announcers kept trying to build up the start any moment now. Of course they had to talk about you know who… (For those of you who can’t guess. It was time for more “Danica Mania!” Yet I found it amusing that Danica was starting five places behind the other female. Sarah Fisher was slotted in 8th, while Danica was the SLOWEST of the four AGR (Andretti Green Racing) entries in 13th…

And it was funny how the more things change; The more things stay the same as the announcers tried building up all of the usual story lines. Will Danica finish higher then 4th? Will Marco (Andretti) win the race… Announcer: “I’ve been saying all winter long, He’s a contender.” Can anybody beat the Red and White cars? (Ganassi & Penske) Hey Jack (Arute) has a first. He’s got both Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske together…

Interestingly Ganassi made a frank comment about how they’d like to see the two series get back together (Champ Car & IRL) in the future, which could really turn around Open Wheel racing. Then Jack had to ask “whose Jet is faster?”

Yet I found it disappointing that the IRL’s self promoted pitchman Gene “I AM INDY” Simmons wasn’t anywhere in sight or one of the interviewees… And good riddance as Rusty “Left Turn Only” Wallace wasn’t in the broadcast booth!

Continuing with the “filler” interviews was AJ Foyt who is celebrating his 50th season in motor racing this year and was the Grand Marshall of the race. And I had to ponder as AJ drawled on ‘bout his driver Darren Manning, what did “Super Tex” think about “All ‘O duh fuss over Danica?” Recall that AJ was instrumental in getting the very first female an Indy Car ride some 30 years ago. Does anybody remember Janet Guthrie?

And it was fitting that they “segwayed” from one legend to another as the next interviewee was Mario Andretti… Who of course was full of nothing but praise for his grandson Marco.

And then AJ said “Ladies and Gentlemen, Start your Engines!” And I found it hilarious that the team sponsored by Ethanol was starting both of its car’s on the final row of the grid.

Apparently Bobby Rahal’s squad had interpreted the rear wing rules differently then the rest of the entire field and the IRL scrutinizers didn’t agree with their interpretation…

Talk about egg on your face as this was the very first 100% Ethanol powered race in the IRL’s history along with Ethanol being the races co-title sponsor… And while I see nothing wrong with running on “Switch Grass ‘N Stuff,” the Ethanol “hype” seems a bit too politically motivated to me…

Yet I did find it interesting that the IRL has gone to a new smaller 22 gallon fuel cell due to Ethanol’s increased gas mileage. Also it was pointed out during the races first caution on lap 8 that these racing cars can get up to 12 mpg during a caution flag period. “Quick, where’s Danica now?”

Back to action and wow, something’s really wrong with Marco! He’s way off the pace exclaimed ABC’s announce team. “Marco’s only running laps of around 186 (mph) while the leaders are running about 209! And then Marco parked his racing car and later spouted that was the scariest race car I’ve ever driven in my life!

Then on lap 66 the second caution flag flew for another rain delay… Back to racing and Dan Wheldon is just motoring along out front, nobody can touch him. And then time for our first accident after showing Tomas Scheckter fist waving at Marty “Can’t Keep Up” Roth…

It was amusing to hear Scott “Don’t pass that pace car” Goodyear… (What NOT to do when you’re leading at The Brickyard!) proclaim that Wheldon who’d commented about his car going loose could actually feel Sam Hornish Jr. messing with his “Hair,” err, “Air” by sucking up directly behind him. Hornish is learning from his Busch Series experiences*?) About taking the wind off of a competitor’s rear spoiler…

It was also pointed out that it was Hornish’s 100th start and he’d notched 18 victories in that time frame. Yet he probably wouldn’t be getting No. 19 tonight! Only three drivers have won more races in their first 100 starts: AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti and Rick Mears. Which is some pretty good company to be joining…

And yet during the races latter pit stops both Hornish and Wheldon had uncharacteristic problems. Hornish stalled in the pits while Wheldon had a wheel nut dropped. “Where’s Danica now?”

Oh DAMM! Danica “MUFFED” it coming in for her final pit stop. Trying to slow down to the 60mph pit lane speed limit, Danica locked the rear wheels, looped it and smacked the pit wall Jersey barrier! Round 1: Sarah Fisher finished 11th; Danica 14th. (Marco 20th)

Meanwhile Wheldon carved thru the field from ninth to first in 11 laps and ran away from the rest of the field. And who said that it would be any different? Once again Ganassi and Penske “waxed” the field…

You know it’s a sad day when a die-hard Champ Car fan watches an entire IRL race… Well OK, I had the TV on the whole time, even if I was busy gallivanting about. And I’m afraid that Champ Car will lay a rotten egg on Easter in “Los Wage$” since they still DON’T have a full field! Think I’d better stick with Formula 1 instead, eh?

I wonder what Robin Miller will have to say about this doozey of a motor race…

BC Museum Honours Moore

Although the “Hoser’s” Up North got rid of an extremely popular money making Champ Car event. Placing the 2010 Winter Olympics ahead of motor racing, a new exhibit has just opened at the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Racing fans will now be able to check out the Greg Moore exhibit in the Vancouver, BC museum, which features tons of the Canadian’s memorabilia…

JV the Crooner

Apparently Disco JV has tired of the siren songs of his swanky Montreal night club? As Jacques Villeneuve has just held a media blitz to promote the release of his new record, featuring tracks such as “Cry me a River” and “If I only had a Ford Fusion…”

Meanwhile his longtime manager Craig Pollock is busy turning the screws, by claiming that JV is close to landing a title sponsor for an apparent RASSCAR deal. The most likely scenario will see Villeneuve driving in the Montreal Busch Series race this summer as RASSCAR is desperate to break into the Northern Tundra market…

Zwolsman Sr. and the Law

They say that history has a habit of repeating itself… Which is why the story recently penned by Robin Miller seems eerily reminiscent of the John Paul Sr. drug scandal that rocked the racing world 20 years ago.

His father’s illegal activities effectively knocked John Paul Jr. out of ever landing another top flight drive. Will this happen to Charles Zwolsman Jr.?

Champ Cars Damage Control

Ah, the joys of confUZers! As Blogger.com seems to have been suffering bouts of ADD recently…

Naturally after penning Open Wheel moving further Apart? Which questioned Champ Cars current chassis count, Champ Car decided to publish a press release on January 9th, just prior to the Sebring test. The release stated that 25 Panoz Dp-01’s had already been ordered for the upcoming season…

Yet while the yearly soap opera ““As the Daze’s ‘O Champ Cars Turns” continues playing on the small screen, Champ Car president Steve Johnson claimed that all is well in the Champ Car World Series and that car count will be up for the 2007 season with many driver announcements to follow shortly…

Here’s what the sorid 2007 Champ Car grid looks like after testing at Sebring this past January…

1. Newman/Haas
Reigning champion Sebastian Bourdais will return in attempts to become the first 4 time consecutive Champion, while Rookie sensation Graham Rahal will be his teammate. And with both drivers participating in the 3 day test it’s clear that Bruno “Whiny bags” Junqueira will not be returning to Newman/Haas in 2007…

2. RuSPORT
I assume the team’s name will remain unchanged now that Dan Petitt is the new team owner. Justin Wilson and sponsor CDW were confirmed just prior to the test’s kick-off, while Ryan Briscoe signed with Roger Penske to drive a Porsche Spyder…

Mario Dominguez tested in Sebring in the team’s second entry, yet Dominguez has nothing further lined up with the team, as the seat remains unoccupied. Once again it’s down to whom can bring the necessary dinero with a quartet of drivers in the running…

3. Forsythe
This “Big Team” seems wrought with question marks, as Gerry Forsythe seems to be getting advice from Gerhard Berger? While “Sand Dune” Tracy is assured of a drive, the team’s second seat is currently empty…
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It’s hard to fathom that one of Champ Cars winning drives will be left vacant, especially with the surplus of drivers currently available. Yet it appears that the Forsythe “sweepstakes” will become a bidding war between Jos “The BOSS” Verstappen and Red Bull’s Robert Doornbos who’s flush with cash…

I’d give the nod to Doornbos, although I think the better bet would be Team Minardi USA since Forsythe’s top engineer Scott Cannon has moved there after being let go. Cannon led AJ Almendinger to 5 victories last year…

4. Team Minardi USA
This team is a bit of a wildcard now that ex-Formula 1 boss Paul Stoddart has bought into last year’s CTE/HVM race team. Although Nelson Philippe just completed a seat fitting prior to Sebring, there was speculation that he’d possibly jump to the empty Forsythe chair. Yet Philippe’s best options appear to stay put or jump to RuSPORT...

“Speedy” Dan Clarke would like to retain his drive with the team, although there had been whispers of Katherine Legge’s name as a possible candidate, this now seems unlikely…

Although Doornbos tested for the squad at Sebring, I still expect that Verstappen will join the team for a 3 car effort…

5. Team Australia
Look for Will Power to continue with the squad with Reigning Champ Car Atlantics Champion Simon Pagenaud most likely bringing his $2 million paycheck with him to replace ex-team leader Alex Tagliani, Pagenaud tested with the team at Sebring…

6. Rocketsports
Will Mario Dominguez retain his seat at the floundering race team? And Tagliani seems destined to rejoin the very team that dumped him in favor of Timo Glock’s Deutschmarks as he was the sole driver testing at Sebring…

And with one seat available, will Junqueira join the fray, or will this seat also go to the highest bidder?

7. Mi-Jack
Unfortunately last year Andrew Ranger’s on-track performances were overshadowed by Rick Benjamin’s sponsor endorsements, along with Rookie driver Charles Zwolsman showing brief flashes of brilliance…

Going into this year’s upcoming season both drivers appeared to be hard pressed towards retaining their seat’s since the team is struggling to obtain funding…

With Mi-Jack skipping the Sebring test there were rumours of team owner Eric Bachelart being forced to close his doors. Now word comes that Mi-Jack will only be fielding a single car entry for 2007, with the team’s previous driver duet looking for employment elsewhere…

So just who will be the team’s new driver? Could it be Reigning A1 GP Champion Alex Permit?

8. PKV
This team is once again being revamped upon announcing that it will
Become Red Bull’s American farm team…

And the poorly kept rumours suggesting that Scuderia Toro Rosso test driver Neil Jani would join PKV were confirmed prior to Sebring. Meanwhile relative unknown Clivio Piccione waits in the wings. Perhaps there are some delays with the necessary wire transfers?

Also making a strong case for remaining with the newly renamed Red Bull PKV was Oriol Servia who set the fastest overall test time…

And although there appears to be no room for Legge at PKV, with the massive personal investment that Kevin Kalkhoven has made in Legge it’s hard to believe she’ll be dropped from Champ Cars…

9. Dale Coyne
Once again “The little Team that could,” will have NO shortage of veteran Champ Car drivers knocking at its doors along with several aspiring young-guns to choose from. The question is who’ll be willing to drive for Coyne or bring the needed “dinero” to fill a seat…

While last year’s final line-up did a yeoman’s job, it’s hard to tell if Jan “Van Haggar” Heylen and Andreas Wirth will return?

And with Legge and Junqueira setting quick times aboard Coyne’s new Panoz’s, it appears that they may be hard pressed to retain their seats…

Meanwhile Coyne has quietly admitted that he already has a sponsor lined-up for one of his race cars…

10. Pacific Coast Motorsports
Making their Champ Car debut this season, PCM was one of the 3 teams with confirmed drivers prior to the upcoming 3 day Sebring test. The team will feature American Alex Figge and Scotland’s Ryan Dalziel…


With Champ Cars second open test at Houston set for Feb. 12-13, it’ll be interesting to see if Champ Car can alleviate any of the bleeding towards the swirling negative publicity over their faltering car count…

And unless Champ Car makes some really really really bold moves… It’s likely to have another “minimalist” car count for the upcoming season, which would be a far cry from the predicted increase of 22-24 chassis…

And I can tell you its pretty SAD to see only 17 cars taking the green flag while the lower series feature full grids of 10+ more cars…

Little Al’s All Night Bender

For some reason the Unser’s seem to be continually stirring up negative publicity for the famous racing family of Albuquerque , New Mexico…

First Al Unser Sr. and bobby Unser were arrested outside their property during a police roadblock set up during a SWAT team stand off…

Now “Little Al” (Al Unser Jr.) Has been arrested in his hometown of Henderson, Nevada on charges of DUI after sideswiping a Mazda sedan in his Ford Excursion “$UV” on his way home from the Black Mountain Night Club in the early morning hours of last Thursday…

Unser Jr. hit the vehicle on the Las Vegas Beltway and proceeded to continue driving home without stopping before being arrested by Nevada police…

Open Wheel moving further Apart?

A few weeks ago I was reminded to not paint a picture of “Doom ‘N Gloom” over the possibility of a Champ Car-IRL merger actually happening, after writing the story: Discussing the Future. Yet I continue to rite that the chances of this happening appear to be slim to none…

Yet with the dawn of a new race season just a few months away, brand new non-oval track friendly Panoz’s taking flight, different engine formulas, methanol vs. ethanol and the IRL’s slowly increasing number of competitors, its hard to see how any fruition of such a merger will occur…

As David Phillips recently noted, both Open Wheel series seem most determined to move on, as their schism continues. Yet both Open Wheel series futures aren’t all roses…

Champ Car seems to be having as much or more trouble towards filling its field as the IRL. First Carl Russo walked away from RuSPORT, causing Kevin Kalkhoven to scramble before convincing his partner Dan Petitt to buy the top notch racing team…

Now Gerry Forsythe is threatening to run only one car in 2007 unless he gets $5 million in sponsorship to campaign a second car along “Sand Dune” Tracy…

Rightly so, Forsythe is still smoldering over AJ Almendinger walking out on him in favor of Red Bull’s easy money. And even though Red Bull will partner with Forsythe to run his Atlantics team, Forsythe is still stinging over Almendinger’s DEFECTION! This comes on the heels of Forsythe’s not being able to find a sponsor the past 3 years…

And in what is becoming a bad yearly tradition… As of just two weeks prior to Champ Cars first test at Sebring, Robin Miller has just reported (The Speed Report) that champ Cars has ONLY 5 confirmed drivers. (Sebastian Bourdais, Paul Tracy, Will Power, Alex Figge and Ryan Dalziel) Yet I expect the 10 Champ Car teams to show up with two drivers each for the season opener in April. Perhaps a total of 21 cars?

Meanwhile the IRL continues to announce new driver/car combinations with the announcement that IRL series founder/owner “Ronnie” (Tony) George’s IRL Vision Racing team will run AJ Foyt IV in a third car this season…

This is in addition to Adrian Fernandez’s planned single car effort along with roumours that long time IRL competitor Dryer & Rhinebold is trying to put together a deal to run Buddy Rice & Sarah Fisher which would give the IRL 20-22 cars prior to its season opener…

Speaking of George, the 47 year old Hoosier decided to purchase a Grand Am DP chassis from Eddie “Underachiever” Cheever in order to enter this years Rolex 24. (Daytona 24hrs) Funny how the leagues most despised driver (Cheever) is in cahoots with George, eh?

So George decided that he’d like to try racing again, possibly contesting this year’s Rolex 24 alongside his three hired guns. (Ed Carpenter, Thomas Scheckter, Foyt IV) Taking the #0 (interesting choice) car out for a spin during this past weekend’s testing, George promptly lost control and slammed into a wall…

Perhaps George should stick to sticking it to rival racing series instead of behind the wheel of a racing car? Or perhaps the two rival Open Wheel series should reconsider merging…

Nah, there’s too many cooks in the kitchen and too many egos in the way to accomplish the revival of Open Wheel racing as the premiere motor racing series it once was…

Especially if Champ Cars send Devoted Fans Fuming, eh?

Police trouble in Unser Case

Although Al Unser Sr. was acquitted of misdemeanor charges recently, there are still some questions towards the Police’s conduct during the Unser brother’s arrest…


Al Unser Sr’s lawyer has asked the Albuquerque General Attorney’s office to investigate possible witness intimidation. The attorney states in a letter sent to the state’s attorney, that there’s a clear case of trying to smear his key witness, police officer Sam Costales…

The Albuquerque Police Chief has said that he’ll launch an internal investigation regarding police officers conduct during the arrests of both Unser brothers…

Meanwhile Bobby Unser’s lawyer has filed a motion to have his clients arrest thrown out due to the outrageous police conduct documented in the Al Unser Sr. case…

Discussing the Future

Although not as well known as his mercurial Champ Car cohort Robin Miller, David Phillips has been covering Champ Cars for several years now. Phillips writes for Racer magazine and is extremely enlightening towards the world of Champ Cars…

Phillips also pens regular articles for Speed TV.com and I find his commentary very insightful.

Phillips has recently written about the just concluded 2006 SAE conference, (Society of Automobile Engineers) noting that his favorite speaker was Bobby rahal. Phillips also pointed out that for a few hours, two members of Open Wheel rival sanctioning bodies were “Working Together” along with the SAE’s “GREEN” panel…

Al Unser Sr. Acquitted

Four time Indy 500 Winner Al Unser Sr. who was arrested on Aug. 9th for arguing and ignoring police orders at a roadblock adjoining his property has been acquitted of misdemeanor charges of resisting and disobeying police.
Al Unser Sir’s lawyer told the jury during opening arguments that Unser Sr. was “confused” and not giving the police a piece of his mind… The Unser brothers have never been too opinionated… Well ok, may be older brother Bobby?
Prior to closing arguments a different version of the police’s actions were presented of how Unser Sr. was too weak to fight cops. (I.e.; both shoulders surgically repaired, broken ribs, metal rod in leg; all from racing accidents) Having been yanked from his vehicle, thrown to the ground and forcibly handcuffed by plain clothes detectives…
Meanwhile Bobby Unser who has an affinity for tangling with the law was also arrested at the roadblock and his trial was pending of Al Unser Sir’s.
Bobby Unser has previously punched an Albuquerque traffic cop at the airport, also previously becoming lost on his skimobile on restricted National Parks property. The skimobile incident required a large search & rescue operation to find the errant Unser…
Al Unser Sr. has publicly stated that he’s lost endorsements and consulting work over his arrest, even having Jay Leno joke about him. Parnelli Jones and Chris Economaki served as character witnesses towards Unser Sir’s polite demeanor and Jury members took only 3 hours to acquit Unser Sr. off all chargers…

To check out Albuquerque’s newest visitor attraction, sans roadblock… Please visit: The Unser Racing Museum

Motormouths

Recently I’ve been advised that people don’t want “niceties” from my blog, they want cold, harsh, biting opinions… Therefore “Just-in-Time” for the holidays I recently sat down late one night to be interviewed by a fellow racing college; “El Captione.” No, not “The Captain,” (Roger Penske) but none other than Captain Kirk… No, NOT Bill Shatner either, just some racing hombre from New Mexico…
As you shall soon realize, as the “Memorex” rolled, the totally un-scripted interview plowed through some of Captain Kirk’s thoughts towards the current state of ““CHUMP CARZS” TV broadcasts…
Captain Kirk (CK) has asked for complete anonymity, making me promise to never divulge his true identity for fear of having to quit his day job. For the sake of future interviews, I’ve decided to become my dreaded alter ego; Rick Daly. (RD) The following is intended as some “light reading” to help digest the traditional Thanksgiving feast…

CK: Ok, hopefully Rick’s going to ask me some real good questions about Formula One or CART. He can ask em about NASCAR if he wants…
RD: The correct pronunciation is” “RASSCAR.”
CK: As you can see, he’s NOT real funny, so hopefully he’s going to come up with a good first question to get me fired up…
RD: Tell me why you like Rick Benjamin from the Champ Car broadcast so much?
CK: Oh do you mean: Hi, this is Rick “Champ Cars sponsored by Bridgestone, Ford, Pepto-Bismol + inser 15,000 other sponsors names her Benjamin?
RD: Yes
CK: Oh but now that I’ve said my name I’ve been talking too long and we have to go back to another commercial…
RD: Yeah, that guy
CK: Or that IDIOT he works with who I really CAN’T stand because he thinks he knows everything about Formula One racing and driving because he was in a race or two…He thinks he can WIN anything because he flew over his teammate and crashed them both out of the F1 race in Monte Carlo back in 1978/79?
RD: Yes (Do you mean Derrick Daly?)
CK: And have you ever noticed how in every race he calls some driver an IDIOT and says I can’t believe how that “Doofus!” is driving… Hello “derr-WRECK!” You’ve done that MANY times in your career and by the way your F1 career SUCKED! And didn’t you also SUCK in Champ Cars too?

RD: Correct. Now when are you going to attend his karting school in Las Vegas?
CK: The day I win the lottery… I think if I ever won the lottery I’d go to LOS WAGE$ NOT to gamble, but just to drive “Juan” ‘O his stupid karts and CRASH it into the wall…
RD: And would you also attend the Buck Baker School of driving?
CK: I’ve never heard of the Buck Baker School…
RD: I believe that’s a NASCAR driving school?
CK: Well I’ll tell you “Juan” thing. If Buck Baker was there I believe he could teach me a thing or two because he’s actually WON a race or two hasn’t he!
RD: I believe so
CK: I’d actually like to see Derrick Daly get into a NASCAR race. I’d bet those “good ‘ole boys” could teach him a lesson or two? They would kick his ASS! May be they’d even shut his mouth, don’t you think?
RD: I doubt it…
CK: Well would NBC, SPEED and CBS just do us a huge favor, lets just not have these two “bozoes” calling the race action. We’d be happy to just have Jon Beekhuis calling the race…
RD: But I think it’s a package deal. You’ve got to take “derr-WRECK” Daly or nothing at all…
CK: Look, we’d be happy to just have nobody talking…
RD: Except for Jon Beekhuis…
CK: Just show us the race… Have the director give us some decent footage of the on-track action. We can figure out what’s going on…
CK: And what the hell is that crew chiefs name they interview all the time?
RD: Craig Hansen
CK: Put this in BOLD print, I DON’T want to her another “bleepin” interview with him…

If you wish for more Captain Kir & /Rick Daly episodes, please leave comments…

What Merger?

While at Surfer’s Paradise, Champ Car co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven threw more cold water on this past summer’s media “hyping” of a potential merger between Champ Car and the IRL. Kalkhoven told reporters: “Yes, Tony (George) and I met and had talks at Indy, but we only “talked.” My primary focus is on Champ Car (obviously) which is growing stronger each year.”
With both series releasing expanded 2007 schedules and Champ Car’s new “non-oval friendly” Panoz DP-01 chassis, DON’T expect an Open Wheel merger anytime in the future…
Kalkhoven spent the Surfer’s Paradise weekend wooing potential 2007 Champ Car team owner Paul Stoddart. Stoddart attended the race as a guest of Kalkhoven’s watching the action from the PKV Racing pit box.
Car count’s still seem to be a major issue for both series. While Champ Car may actually increase its 2007 roster, the IRL appears to be shrinking? Adrian Fernandez’s team appears to be folding as Fernandez Racing driver Scott Sharp has been confirmed at Rahal/Letterman Racing with teammate Kosuke Matsuura having been confirmed at Panther Racing. This will leave the IRL with 16 cars being campaigned by 8 teams…
There are currently two new Champ Car teams planning to debut in 2007. Pacific Coast Motorsports is definite with the second team still undetermined. This could possibly push Champ Cars car count to over 20 entries…
The lone bright spot for the IRL is that Darren Manning has been confirmed at AJ Foyt Racing for 2007. Manning previously drove for Chip Ganassi before being released in mid-2005. Larry Foyt (AJ’s son) will take over as Team Director as “Super Tax” celebrates his 50th season of racing…
Interestingly ALL of the IRL’s “Big Mac’s” err, big name Team Owners are either starting or currently have Sports car operations. The ALMS (American Le Mans Series) is heavily favored with team owners favoring this racing series. ALMS Teams include: Roger Penske; 2 Car Porsche RSR Spider team. (LMP2) Andretti-Green Racing; Single car entry (Courage/Acura LMP2) Fernandez Racing; Single car entry (Acura/LMP2) Rahal/Letterman Racing; 1/2 car entry, Porsche 911 RSR (GT2) Meanwhile Chip Ganassi is the sole team owner to field a two car Grand Am DP (Daytona Prototype) entry... Does this imply that these owners aren’t entirely confident of the IRL’s future success or simply diversifying?