Renault R29

Also taking the wraps off of its newest challenger at the new Portugal circuit, was the ING-Renault team, as the “Reggie” rolled out its 2009 challenger, the R29 at Portimao, alongside Williams on January 19th. Test/Reserve Driver Romain Grosjean was given the duties of shaking down the brand new R29, of which some cynics have suggested could see Ronal McDonald becoming one of its future F1 Piloto’s, due to the garishly familiar burnt orange colours of Le Happy Meal! Hmm? Let’s see, there’s already the Hamburgular floating around the paddock for Scuderia Toro Rosso... So, if Nelson-Nelson doesn’t cut the Gray Poupon this season, could we see a Sea Bass at the Reggie? (Although it’s been claimed that Bourdais came to America partly since he didn’t wish to be micro-managed by Flavour Flav...) But I digress...

Reportedly, the development of the new R29 was thwarted by the chassis failing the mandatory FIA crash test, of which I’m assuming its since passed, as both Fredrico Suave (F. Alonso) and Nelson-Melson (N. Piquet Jr.) have also put in testing laps in Portugal, when the weather permitted and the R29 will be helped significantly by the FIA’s granting of engine upgrades in order to bring its competitiveness on par with the top three teams.

And before you shed a tear for Williams deepening sponsor woes, take note that Renault’s title sponsor ING isn’t exactly immune from the credit crunch either...

Trouble at ING

Launch notes

BMW Sauber F1.09

And while rivals Renault and Williams were busy debuting at Portimao the day before, BMW Sauber launched its newest contender, the F1.09 at Valencia on January 20th with Robert Kubica getting the honours of first drive.

As BMW Sauber enters its fourth season, Team Boss Dr Mario Theissen was quick to drone on about the requisite Launchspeak; “We’ll be better this year, we’ll fight for the title and our car will jump over the Moon!” Blah-blah-blah...

Yet, the F1.09 is a strikingly good looking chassis and according to BMW Sauber managing director Walter Riedl:
"The development of the F1.09 centered on three key areas: aerodynamics, optimum tyre utilization and the integration of KERS."

As I’ve read somewhere on le internets... (So it must be true, eh? Thanks Al Gore) that it reportedly features a novel sidepod design, of a wedged shape a la early 1970’s F1 design. *Think of Gordon Murray’s wonderful Brabham BT44) Yet, as I’m a visually impaired pundit, I’ll leave the keen technical scruntinizing to Messer Collantine over at F1 Fanatic, whom as “Hobbo” would say; Has the eyes of a certain type ‘O rat!”

2009 F1 Car comparisons: BMW

Launch notes

Teddy Mayer

This past weekend, Teddy Mayer passed away in England at the age of 73. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? As he was the guiding force that helped Bruce McLaren begin his own racing concern in 1963, when Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd was formed. And when Bruce died in 1970, it was Teddy who took over the reigns of Team McLaren, leading the organization to the dizzying heights of Formula 1 World Champions; with Emerson Fittipaldi winning the 1974 Driver’s title and James Hunt securing the 1976 Driver’s crown, along with hitting the trifecta in ’74, as it was to be Team McLaren’s very first F1 Driver’s title, Constructor’s crown and Indy 500 victory.

Yet it was also Teddy who guided McLaren Cars into the realm of Indy Car racing, which I’ve scribbled about previously in McLaren at Indy. And it was Mayer who ultimately hired Johnny Rutherford as his team’s lead driver, while it was Peter Revson who provided McLaren’s first Indy 500 pole position in 1971, before finishing runner-up. Yet it would be Roger Penske’s customer chassis with Mark Donohue at the keyboard who’d give McLaren Cars their first Indy 500 victory in 1972.

Thus the stage was set between the AAR Eagles of Dan Gurney’s construction vs. McLaren Cars during the early 1970’s, as they’d swap turns in victory lane the next four years, as Rutherford and Team McLaren would be victorious in 1974 and 1976, with Johnny scoring his second 500 victory from the pole, along with being runner-up in 1975. Yet rules changes would make the mighty Offenhauser obsolete, as Tom “The Gasman” Sneva would break the 200mph barrier in 1977 when capturing pole aboard Team Penske’s customer McLaren powered by the Cosworth V-8 lump.

Thus by 1979 the bloom had gone off of McLaren as the ground effects era had been unkind to the once dominant team and Teddy would ultimately leave the McLaren concern in 1982...

:For those of us who had the honor to meet Mayer, two things stand out: his sense of humor and his ability to include anyone he saw at a race track with a warm hand-shake or a smile as he greeted them, be it a volunteer worker to the drivers to team owners and series chiefs.”
(Source: Motorsport.com)

For more on Teddy Mayer, see; Teddy Mayer, a remarkable man, passes away

Donohue Trivia Answer

Previously I asked all of you vastly astute No Fenders readers the following trivia question:

Do you know what David Donohue’s connection to the Pacific Northwest is?

Whale du Yuh’s?(Do uze feels lucky?)

So did you figure out David Donohue’s connection to the Pacific Northwest?
BBUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!! Times up, put ‘dem pencils down...
Whale, listening to the Speed Freaks program Sunday night, (Jan. 25) I learned another piece of useful(?) trivia... As both David Donohue and Crash Gladys have something in common...

They both worked for PacWest Racing... Where David drove a Dodge Stratus in the extremely short lived North American Touring Cars series in the late-1990’s alongside ex-CART driver Dominic Dobson. As I can still vividly see the red, white & blue(?) paint scheme with massively huge Dodge script letters covering the entire bodywork... And remember watching the 12 car grid take the green flag at Portland (1996) with at least one of the two Pacwest Dodge Stratuses on the front row, as the import engine buzz-saw’s merrily revved away in anticipation of the standing start, before rocketing into the Festival Curve... Yet, this racing series never seemed to have any true support behind it and only lasted from 1996-97, before falling into oblivion, with a meager nine entries contesting the final season.

Pacwest Racing was the factory backed Dodge racing team, with Donohue winning the final season’s title, while the other high profile squad was Tasman Motorsports, which campaigned Honda Acura’s and won the title in 1996 with driver Randy Pobst. You may recall that Tasman was created & owned by former Truesports team boss Steve Horne and briefly flourished in CART from 1995-98.

During this period, Tasman was one of the first Champ Car teams to successfully campaign a Honda engine with Adrian Fernandez and Andre Ribero scoring four career victories during its short lived incarnation. Ribero who subsequently drove for Penske Racing is now “Bia’s” (Ana Beatriz) manager.

After the demise of the North American Touring Car Series, Donohue took a brief foray into the Craftsman Truck Series before ultimately aligning himself with the Brumos Porsche organization, having contested every single race of the Grand Am’s Daytona Prototype series, as he and his teammate Darren Law are the only two drivers to have contested the 80 events to date, while I’m not aware of what Crash’s role was at the now defunct PacWest Racing organization.

As for David Donohue’s thought’s upon winning on the 40th Anniversary of his father’s Daytona 24 victory, I enjoyed his view of it being neat, but he was more impressed by the countless hours the guys at the shop had spent to put him in the position to finally win the epic event, as he was just a wee lad of 2yrs old when Mark Donohue claimed victory for Roger Penske and sadly was only 8yrs old when his father perished in 1975...

De Ferran on Autosport Radio

With the just completed Sewer-dooper-bowl over, while Danica is busy getting’ squeaky clean... And SPEED having stooped to running an all day marathon ‘O Pimp-Me-Ride... I’m feeling a tad bit similar in announcing the fact that ex-Indy 500 and double CART Champion Gil De Ferran is slated to appear as a guest upon Danny B’s most favourite radio show... Autosport Radio tomorrow...

(Weather providing, eh? As I’m not certain to what the latest snowdrift predictions are for the Indiana area...)

Wither Indy Car team owners

By now I’m assuming Y’all have heard bobby Rahal’s terseful words of RLR’s impending withdrawal from running a full season campaign in this year’s Indy Racing League due to the fact that he and side-kick funnyman David Letterman have been unable to locate a title sponsor for Ryan “The Dude” Hunter-reay’s past Ethanol sponsored mount, yet is still hopeful of finding somebody to throw them a bone for a partial season, or at leas the month of May.

Following upon the heals of this announcement come word via Robin Miller that KV Racing Technology has just laid off more of its remaining staff and is currently slated to only field a single entry in 2009, while Eric Bachelart has offered his small outfit a salary pay cut or closing of business, while still seeking sponsorship for either of his two racing cars, as an Indy Car spokesman has acknowledged that there currently appears to only be 18 entries slated for full season competition... But as Bachelart said, we’ll see where things stand, at the upcoming series test Feb. 23-25 at Homestead, where both the Firestone Indy Lights and Indy Cars will participate in open testing upon the Miami Speedway...

UOWWBA: Weekly Question

Here’s another potential UOWWBA situation:
If Lewis Hamilton and Scott Dixon switched places for the 2009 season, how would each driver fare in the other's league? Who would be more successful in 2009?

I find this to be a very entertaining question, as let’s recall that our current “Kiwi” Indy Car Champion has previously put the wellie to a Formula 1 chassis.

Scott Dixon (March, 2004)
"I'm very excited about heading to Paul Ricard at the end of next week for my first taste of a Formula One car, although the real test will be in April in Barcelona,"

These words were gleamed from a 2004 BMW press release, as Dixon was given a brief taste of F1 By the Williams/BMW team, whom at the time were running the great Ralfanso, a.k.a. famous brother of Michael Schumacher, along with Juan “DON’T call me MAC!” Montoya... In which apparently Dixon didn’t do enough to impress the overly stiff lipped Sir Frank, as Scott would retain his employment for the Cheepster (Chip Ganassi) instead.

Yet, other notable Indy Car talent have tested for F1 over the years, with Willy T. Ribbs, Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr. coming to mind, while I can think of four former CART champions who’ve had varying degrees of success in what is considered the pinnacle of motorsport. (Formula One)
These four drivers are none other then: Michael Andretti, Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya. (Although Zanardi had a previous stint in F1 prior to making the switch)

And as we know, Mikey didn’t have the best of times during his lone aborted season in 1993; after all he was teammates with somebody named Ayrton... Although he did finish on the podium in his final race at Monza, Italy; but obviously Jacques was the most successful of this quartet, by winning the 1997 F1 World Championship, with Montoya being second best, having notched up seven career wins, 13 poles and 30 podiums before making the audacious jump to URRGH! RASSCAR... Although his Sports Car career isn’t going too badly either, eh? While Zanardi never seemed to be in the right place at the right time in Formula 1, having less than stellar rides at Lotus and Williams.

And a long overused quote claims: “You can make an oval racer outta a road course specialist a HELL of a lot easier than the other way round!”

Just ask triple world champion Nelson Piquet about this, eh? Yet, I’m not certain that applies 100% of the time, as I’m guessing that Lewis Hamilton would adapt quite quickly, while I’m certain that Dixon would be no slouch Across the Pond, given competitive equipment, since the jury’s still out upon the MP4-24 after F1’s radical rules revision this year...

So, I’m guessing that both drivers would succeed in either discipline, but I’d have to give the nod to the young Messer Louise “Jaguar” Hamilton...