All the F1 action at Valencia was off the track

From Autoweek: It was perhaps inevitable that the European Grand Prix weekend in Valencia, Spain, was going to be a little flat. Michael Schumacher was there all right, and wearing Ferrari clothing--but not the driver's suit virtually everyone hoped he would. Schumacher smiled a lot and kept wishing Ferrari stand-in Luca Badoer well, but that didn't really help. And as he stared at the timing screens, it was impossible to disguise Schumacher's frustration at Badoer's, er, modest pace.

During Friday practice, the hapless Badoer set a record by exceeding the pit-lane speed limit on four different occasions--as the paddock's razor-tongued observers noted, somewhat cruelly, that no one could accuse him of excessive speed on the racetack. In qualifying, the No. 3 Ferrari was dead last; 12 months ago, driven by Felipe Massa, it dominated the weekend.

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Dario Franchitti leads flag-to-flag to win in Sonoma

From The Los Angeles Times - Sonoma, Calif. - One unique feature of Infineon Raceway is Turn 2, where the drivers make a sharp right after accelerating up a steep hill moments after crossing the starting line.

Maneuvering through that section of the 12-turn, 2.3-mile track is tricky enough when the cars are single file. When they're bunched together, it gets even dicier.

So it was Sunday at the start of the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, as a cluster of cars -- including then-points leader Scott Dixon's -- collided as they moved through Turn 2 on the first lap, effectively knocking them out of contention.

But the mishap occurred behind pole-sitter Dario Franchitti, who then held off Ryan Briscoe to lead all 75 laps and collect his first win at the Infineon course in the hills of Northern California wine country.

Yet, with his second-place finish, Briscoe left Sonoma with the lead in the IndyCar championship standings.

Kyle Busch wins in Bristol

From Racin' Today: Kyle Busch held off Mark Martin for the season sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway as both drivers fought for every point available in their quest to make the Chase for NASCAR Sprint Cup. Hear from Busch and Martin and find out who is on the Chase bubble with just two races to go.

Rubens Barrichello ends winless drought in Valencia

From AFP: VALENCIA, Spain: Drivers world championship leader Briton Jenson Button was upbeat on Monday when he reflected on the positive side of seeing his Brawn GP team-mate veteran Rubens Barrichello winning Sunday's European Grand Prix.

Despite finishing only seventh in a demanding race on the streets of this Mediterranean port city, he managed to increase his championship lead over Red Bull rivals Australian Mark Webber

and German Sebastian Vettel.

Button said: "It ended up as a bit of struggle for me, but I take more positives than negatives from this one - and it is great to see Rubens winning. The team have asked me to push harder now if I want to win the title..."

Barrichello's first win in five years not only lifted him back up to second in the drivers' title race, it also confirmed the two Brawn men as the front runners again after a spell of three races without success - though, as Button said, he would rather have not lost so many points to his partner.

Brian Vickers gets longed-for win at Michigan

From the Detroit Free Press:
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Brian Vickers' weekend at Michigan International Speedway was full of drama that included a tussle with NASACAR's Wild Thing Kyle Busch on Saturday after the Nationwide Series race.

But Vickers' drama peaked, in a positive way, Sunday when he won his first Sprint Cup race in three years, driving his No. 83 Red Bull Toyota to victory in the CARFAX 400. The victory also thrust him into the battle for a position in the Chase for the Championship.

Vickers, 25, stalked Chevy ace Jimmie Johnson in the late laps of the race before Johnson's No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet ran out of fuel with three laps remaining.

Vickers, whose previous Cup victory came at Talladega in 2006, shot to the lead and the finish line, giving Toyota its first Cup win at MIS.

David Brabham scores a win at Road America

By Jonathan Ingram at RacinToday.com:

Elkhart Lake, Wis. – In a battle of two master craftsmen on one of America’s finest road racing circuits, David Brabham held off the challenge from Gil de Ferran for the last 14 laps to bring Highcroft Racing the victory by 0.461 seconds in the American Le Mans Series event at Road America .

The Acuras of Highcroft and de Ferran Motorsports were nose-to-tail as the green waved for a re-start with 29 minutes remaining in the two hour, 45-minute race.

Once again, a two-tire stop for Highcroft had brought Brabham the lead over the de Ferran entry. But unlike Lime Rock, where a puncture cost Brabham and co-driver Scott Sharp the victory, the Highcroft duo recorded the win and ended the four-race winning streak of de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud.

“You just have to drive the wheels off it,” said Brabham of the duel between the two ARX-02a entries. “We knew whoever got out of the pits first was going to win the race.”

The de Ferran team opted for four tires instead of two, a decision driver de Ferran thought would spell the difference. “I felt we were quicker than David,” he said. “But I had too much understeer behind him. I couldn’t quite get close enough to attempt a maneuver.”

Get qualifying coverage here

Jeff Gordon hurts back in big Watkins Glen wreck

From Sports Illustrated: Jeff Gordon once was the master of Watkins Glen International. Now, he can't seem to catch a break at the storied road course.

Relegated to starting 31st after the worst qualifying effort of his career, the four-time Cup champion was making headway despite some damage to his No. 24 Chevy in Monday's rain-delayed race at Watkins Glen International.

WGI is a road course equivalent of Talladega Superspeedway, always capable of precipitating a big crash. Last year an 11-car pileup in turn 11 caused a 43-minute stoppage. On Monday, a multicar crash involving Gordon and Sam Hornish Jr. on lap 63 brought out a 19-minute red flag.

Kasey Kahne caused it when he dived inside Hornish coming out of turn 9 and sent Hornish off onto the grass on the left side. Hornish's No. 77 Dodge caromed off a tire barrier and back onto the track, and Gordon's No. 24 Chevy slammed head-on into it, spinning violently around into the guard rail lining the track.

Both Gordon and Hornish climbed from their cars and were uninjured.

"It's just not what I needed,'' said Gordon, who suffers from chronic back pain. "You take three or four steps forward, take a hit like that, and take a couple back. I knew he was going to ricochet off. I just hoped I could get by him.

"It took a toll on my back again,'' Gordon said. "If we were going to Bristol next week, I'd be concerned. Every time I take a hit, it seems to recover. We'll be all right.''

Gordon completed 61 of 90 laps and finished 37th, his first DNF of the season, and remains third in the standings.

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Scott Dixon's win at Mid-Ohio gives him IRL Indycar record

From the Miami Herald/Sports Network:

Scott Dixon doesn't have the star quality of Helio Castroneves, the Scottish brogue of teammate Dario Franchitti or the All-American stature of Sam Hornish Jr.

What the affable New Zealander does have, however, is the IndyCar Series record for career wins.

Not that he's counting, not even after his dominant victory at Mid-Ohio on Sunday gave him 20 victories in the open-wheel series, breaking a tie with Hornish.

Scott Dixon blazed the field to win Sunday's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and surpass Sam Hornish, Jr. for most career victories in the IndyCar Series with 20.

Dixon passed Justin Wilson during the mid-stages of the race and then benefited from a quick pit stop to dominate late in the race. Wilson trailed Dixon by six seconds but ran out of fuel, as he coasted onto pit road for his final stop. His car then stalled while exiting his pit area.

Wilson's mishap helped Dixon to finish nearly 30 seconds ahead of pole sitter Ryan Briscoe for his series-leading fourth victory of the season. He also won on a road course for the first time since July, 2008 at Edmonton.

"Obviously it's a fantastic milestone for myself and obviously for the team," Dixon said regarding his record 20th win. "I've achieved all of those wins with Target. Without them, it wouldn't have been possible."

Dixon, the defending series champion, tied Hornish's mark of 19 career wins in June at Richmond. Hornish, who won three series titles, moved to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition after the 2007 season.

With four races remaining in the season, Dixon reclaimed the lead in the championship standings. He holds a three-point advantage over Briscoe, who has finished either first or second in seven of the last nine races. Dixon's Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti is now 20 markers behind.

Mid-Ohio produces fourth straight ALMS win for Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud

From Autoweek: Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud went flag-to-flag Saturday to win the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, their fourth consecutive overall victory in the American Le Mans Series. Team owner de Ferran qualified on the overall pole position, and the pairing won at Mid-Ohio for the first time in their careers.

The victorious team boss crossed the finish line in the de Ferran XM Acura ARX-02a 8.358 seconds ahead of Patrón Highcroft Racing's David Brabham and the Acura that he drove with LMP1 championship co-leader Scott Sharp.

Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz won their fifth LMP2 race of the year and were third overall in the Lowe's Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b. The class championship leaders won the race with a short-fill for fuel on the race's final caution period while running second. The Acura was the first car out of the pit lane, beating the de Ferran Acura and receiving a free pass by the safety car, which had to pick up overall leader de Ferran.

Robert Doornbos returns to HVM; Oriol Servia takes his spot at Newman/Haas Lanigan

From Tony DiZinno at Motorsport.com

That sound you hear off-track this weekend at Mid-Ohio is someone cueing up "IndyCar musical chairs," because it's August and drivers are rotating around the seats until someone is left standing. To start the process, one of this year's rookie-of-the-year contenders is rejoining the team where he won that award in 2007 in Champ Car.

Robert Doornbos, the affable Dutchman better known as "Bobby D," has confirmed a departure from Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, after an anonymous first 12 races this season. "Bobby D" now reunites with HVM Racing for the remainder of 2009 and all of 2010.

The vacancy this weekend at N/H/L goes then to a driver also with prior experience in the team, and it's a welcome return for Oriol Servia who filled in admirably for Bruno Junqueira in 2005. Servia, like Junqueira, has spent all but the month of May in 2009 on the sidelines and now takes his spot in the #06 entry.

The 'roar' of Indycars in Miami

In the 1980s real estate developer Ralph Sanchez helped promote Miami by bringing auto racing downtown. First, with the IMSA Camel GT series with a race held just outside the Port of Miami at Bicentennial Park in March and then with an Indycar race held at Tamiami Park in November. While the Camel GT race flourished, the Indycar race never drew as many fans. The Indycar race was held 1985-88 and featured the Marlboro Challenge, a short race featuring Indycar's top drivers from the season all seeking their share of a healthy prize fund.

The most-memorable Indycar race at Tamiami was 1985, when Al Unser beat his son to the championship by a single point. Here are a couple of articles previewing the race, as well as post-race coverage.



A lot of work was done to help promote the Indycar race, including this promotional video titled "Roar of Miami" and featuring David Hasselhoff of Knight Rider fame.


While Indycar stopped coming to Miami, the Camel GT race flourished until 1993. After that season the big and powerful GTP cars were replaced by a new formula that attracted few entrants. Camel money had dried up as well and budget cuts meant the IMSA series would not return for 1994. Ralph had already begun plans to use reclaimed land in nearby Homestead, devastated by a hurricane a few year's earlier, to build a permanent oval. For 1994, Sanchez hosted a Trans-Am race at Bicentennial Park and had hoped to have the oval ready in time for Indycar's return to Florida in 1995. It wasn't, which lead to a one-off visit by Indycar to downtown Miami. Beginning in 1996, open-wheel racers would regularly visit the Homestead-Miami Speedway; some year's both the CART Fed-Ex Series and the Indy Racing League making visits to the track. Champ Car also tried to revive downtown racing in Miami in 2002-03 but the new circuit was crammed into a small section of the city, offered little opportunity for racing or fan access, and was not successful.

Should they stay or should they go? Is Acura about to bow out of the ALMS?

Autoweek is reporting what many in the American Le Mans Series paddock believe is already a fact: That "Acura looks increasingly likely to quit its LMP1 prototype program in the American Le Mans Series."

A global economic meltdown coupled with the departure of Audi from LMP1 and Porsche from LMP2 has created a cavernous lack of competition at the front-end of the ALMS grids this season. And the "show" has suffered. Crowds are down, TV ratings are down and media interest is almost non-existent.

When the ALMS was first formed in the late 90s, it was just what American sports car racing needed. The series quickly attracted top-flight teams and manufacturers, including BMW, Audi, Chevrolet (Corvette) and Ferrari, to name a few.

Within a few years the series was in major markets, hosting its own street race (Washington, D.C.) and getting good ratings on major networks like NBC. The racing only got better when Porsche and Acura joined Audi. But running in LMP1 or 2 costs a lot of money, and Audi was getting upset that Porsche and Acura were getting overall wins while running in the "cheaper" LMP2 class.

Then the economy turned and it made a simple excuse for many to bolt. Meanwhile, the Rolex Grand-Am series developed a reasonable-cost alternative prototype car, getting a number of car and engine builders interested. They've also seen a small reduction in grids, but no where near the drop the ALMS has experienced.

The ALMS still provides a good show - the GT2 class features some great battles between BMW and Ferrari, and Jaguar and Corvette (jumping from the now-defunct GT1 class) are set to join the fray. But these are modified street cars, not the prototype racers that the crowds love to see. Case in point: after the end of the GTP/Lights IMSA era, it was the prototype Ferrari 333SPs and similar racers that made the crowds come, and when they departed, the crowds left.

The same thing that made ALMS great - its exotic racers - is what makes Grand-Am successful now, and why Grand-Am abandoned its plans to feature street-based cars for the DPs back in 2001. If the American Le Mans Series is going to remain viable, it has to make a choice: Continue to follow the Le Mans rules and keep car costs high or change course, focus on the GT2 class at Le Mans and let teams build cost-effective prototypes that require minimal manufacturer investment. A third option, hoping the economy turns around and Audi and other manufacturers return, just does not make sense from anyone's point of view.

Jacques Villeneuve gets a job - in NASCAR - for one weekend

Wanted: A road-course specialist for one of NASCAR's Sprint Cup series two stops at a non-oval track.
Start Date: Immediate.
Qualifications: Should have knowledge about race cars, be a proven winner and have nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon.
Sounds like the perfect job for an out-of-work former F1 champion and Indy 500 winner whose been beating the doors down in F1 and NASCAR for the past couple of years with no luck - so far - of finding steady employment.
No surprise then that Jacques Villeneuve has "jumped" at the chance to drive in this weekend's Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen. Villeneuve's also going to compete in the Nationwide race at Montreal this month, and admits to Autosport that he is working on having something lined up for 2010.
It's interesting that a guy who, a little more than a decade ago, said he really didn't care about racing and would walk away from the sport before getting to the point of having to shop for a ride, has spent so much time pounding the pavement looking for work. He certainly doesn't need the money; I guess it's just that the passion for racing never really left him.

2006 Champ Car at Road America

Here's a new video series over on my YouTube page - the 2006 Champ Car race at Road America. This race is infamous for a crash at the start and a much-bigger wreck involving Katherine Legge with a few laps left to go. What's amazing is that Legge emerged from the wreck with nothing more than a bruised knee.

From wikipedia: The 2006 Grand Prix of Road America was the twelfth round of the 2006 Champ Car World Series season, held on September 24, 2006 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The event is most remembered for Cristiano da Matta hiting a deer in free practise, causing him serious injuries, but he'd be fully fit again and also the horrific crash from Katherine Legge which resulted a 42-minute red flag.

To see the complete race:


Want to just see Katherine's wreck:


I've also got a "crash compilation" on the site too:

Ricky Craven on why Denny Hamlin was so confident at Pocono

Ricky Craven writes at yahoo sports: "At one point late in Monday’s Pennsylvania 500, Denny Hamlin, while running outside the top five, came on the radio and said, “I’m winning this race!”

This statement represents the highest level of confidence and is what I refer to as “racing with authority.” But it was also from a driver coming into the 21st race of the season … winless. Where does this confidence come from?

Expectations are often associated with prior performance. Statistically, Pocono has been a very good track for Hamlin. Drivers feel more confident at a place where they’ve had success. Do you need a great car, a great crew, and a great engine? Absolutely. If you have all three, then you will only increase your odds of winning.

Click here for more on Hamlin's win.

1996 Sunoco Ultra 94 Trans-Am Classic at Mosport Park

Back in 1996, Trans-Am was celebrating it's 30th anniversary. Here's a race from the season - the Sunoco Ultra 94 Trans-Am Classic at Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario.



Paul Gentilozzi, driving the #5 HighwayMaster Chevrolet Camaro, became the fifth Trans-Am race winner in five races, taking the victory at the Sunoco Ultra 94 Trans-Am Classic at Mosport Park. Gentilozzi, of Lansing, Mich., started on the pole after qualifying fifth and became the first Trans-Am race-winner to go flag-to-flag in 1996.

Finishing the 40-lap, 98.36-mile race was Jamie Galles, scoring his third-consecutive podium finish. Galles, in the #2 ICI/Glidden Camaro, finished 0.349-second behind Gentilozzi, while Tom Kendall, in the #11 All Sport Body Quencher Ford Mustang Cobra, finished third.

After five of 14 races, Galles leads the Drivers' Championship point standings with 130, followed by Dorsey Schroeder, 125; Kendall, 117; Gentilozzi, 98; and Ron Fellows, 96 points. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet leads Ford by six points, 41 to 35.

South of the border: 1998 Rio 400

With Indycar's 2010 schedule out, and the news that the season will start somewhere in Brazil, here's a flash back to the last time American open-wheel racing paid a visit south of the border - In this case it was the CART Fed-Ex series and the place was Rio where an "oval" track replaced what had been a Formula 1 road course. This particular race featured a thrilling duel between Alex Zanardi and Greg Moore.



Results from the CART Fed-Ex Series' visit to Rio.

Rain forces delay of NASCAR Pennsylvania 500

From Reid Spencer at Sporting News
"LONG POND, Pa.—After hours of battling the elements and "weepers" on the racetrack, NASCAR finally conceded defeat Sunday afternoon and postponed the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 until 12:15 p.m. ET Monday.

The weepers—water from saturated ground seeping through the racing surface—frustrated track-drying efforts at Pocono Raceway. A storm cell that arrived after 3 p.m., approximately one hour after the scheduled starting time, delivered the coup de grace and ultimately forced NASCAR to postpone the 21st race on the Sprint Cup schedule.

NASCAR called the race at approximately 4:15 p.m. as track workers were cutting grooves into the asphalt to facilitate runoff of the seepage. Monday's weather calls for partly cloudy skies with a 10 percent chance of rain and a high temperature of 77 degrees."

Ryan Briscoe just beats Ed Carpetner in thrilling Kentucky Indycar race

From The Sports Network/Miami Herald: IndyCar simply wanted a better show. Ryan Briscoe and Ed Carpenter gave the series a little bit more than that.
Briscoe slipped past the upstart Carpenter yards from the finish to take the Kentucky 300 on Saturday night, winning by 0.162 seconds following a 10-lap duel that provided the kind of thrills that have been lacking during a mostly listless season.

There were nights this season when IndyCar veteran Ed Carpenter would hop in his trailer following another ho-hum race, flip on the replay and fight to stay awake. "It was hard for me to watch," Carpenter said. "There were races where we just didn't put on a good show. It's hard for them to even make it entertaining."

Taking a second look at Saturday night's Kentucky 300 could be just as difficult for Carpenter to sit through, but for an entirely different reason.

Ryan Briscoe edged Carpenter by inches to win Saturday's Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway.

Briscoe and Carpenter battled side-by-side for the lead during the final 10 laps before Briscoe beat him to the finish line by 0.0162 seconds, the seventh closest finish in IndyCar Series history. The Team Penske driver captured his second victory of the season and the fourth of his career.

"I'm pretty happy to get another one for Team Penske," Briscoe said. "I just wanted to keep doing what I had been doing. Ed would get a little bit in front of me in the middle of turns three and four, but with my momentum on the outside, I was able to edge him down the back straight."

Click here for more news from the race.