Radio Show Debut

Just received the following message from Indiana Bureau Chief and Infrequent guest columnist Danny B whose making’ his big Radio Show debut this Sunday… You can check him out on The Fan, Indiana’s AM1070. (9-11AM EASTERN)

You’ll have to tune-in as I have NO idea what he’ll be talkin’ about besides how BIG of a Princess Danicker fan he is… (NOT!)

EVER WANTED TO HOST YOUR OWN SPORTSTALK SHOW? HERE'S YOUR CHANCE!
This Sunday at 9am, 1070 The Fan debuts our brand new show - "The Voice of the Fan." Three Fan listeners will host their own 2-hour sports talk show!Chuck Bredl, Leah Henley, and Dan Bridges are the lucky 3 who will be our first-ever hosts. In future weeks, we'll have other listeners take their shot at broadcasting glory! And yes, it could be you!
Those we really like will be invited back for subsequent shows. If you have ever dreamed of hosting a sportstalk show like Kravitz & Eddie or Mike and Mike, here's your chance!

FOR MORE INFO - AM1070

Smoke On!

The ultimate smoke bomb!

Howard in, Franchitti out, Tracy who knows?

For this weekend’s Watkins Glen road course, noted Brit and part time Autosport Radio co-host and Funny Man Jay Howard will finally return to his Day job as the pilot of the #24 Roth Racing Indy Car… To which I can only say about FREAKIN’ time… Except he’s getting’ back in the WRONG car, as he should be haulin’ the freight aboard the #25 Marty “GERITOL” Roth machine… But perhaps “Gentleman” John Andretti has a previous engagement at some ‘lil ‘Ol track named Daytona this weekend?

And speakin’ of Day-toner, Dario “Where’s my pants” Franchitti has lost his Sprint Cup ride at Chip Ganassi/Felix Sabates after a lackluster Rookie season, in which the Cheepster’s team has been fraught with performance issues, having previously fired MAC Montoya’s crew chief and will now slim down to a two car operation… And thus, now there’s just two Open Wheel warriors left from this year’s vaunted Rookie crop of Pat the Carpenter (Patrick Carpentier) Dario Franchitti, Sam “I AM” Hornish Jr. and Jackie V. (Jacques Villeneuve)

As for PT, (Paul Tracy) on Wind Tunnel last weekend, Robin Miller noted how Tony George himself was tryin’ (sorta) to get the Kuh-nuck aboard a third Vision Racing entry for possibly four races this season, beginning at Watkins Glen, which will NOT happen… As I’m sure that Tony is desperate to have a Canadian racing driver OTHER then Mr. Roth as their sole representative prior to Edmonton… And that this is all speculation, but perhaps if adequate sponsorship can be found, Derrick Walker’s gang could fill in as the team’s nucleus, since Vision Racing doesn’t have the extra manpower…

Sarah Fisher

FAR OUT!

As Y’all may know by now… I’m NOT a huge fan ‘O Princess Danicker’s… And while she may be the most popular driver in Indy Car, with Milka Duno potentially being the Hottest, by far the MOST WAY COOLEST! Is none other then Sarah Fisher.

As I was totally flabbergasted to receive a hand written Thank You card in the mail from Sarah just the other day… Holding the car to open it, I noticed there was a small bulge in the envelope… HMM? Wonder what that could be as I opened the card. Then there was a very nice personalized note from Sarah saying how she’d hoped to have an excellent month at Indy this year, but obviously things didn’t turn out quite so well and enclosed was a piece of her racecar which we all recall was heavily damaged when collecting a spinning Tony Kanaan… Along with Sarah saying she hoped to see me at Kentucky.

That just really made my day! As I was bowled over by this gesture on Sarah’s part! I mean C’mon; would Dan-Dan-Danicker ever do such a thing for me?

YOU ROCK SARAH!

Only wish I could afford the price ‘O petrol to go to the Blue Grass state… Good Luck in Kentucky!

Seeing Red

Red Bull’s two current F1 pilots have taken different paths towards there upcoming 2009 plans with Mark Webber having announced that he’ll stay with Red Bull Racing thru 2009 while F1’s elder statesman David Coulthard has announced his retirement from Formula 1 at the end of this season. Speculation suggests that Sebastian Vettel will move up to take the Scot’s vacated seat next year…

Holy Toe-Chester Batman!

In what seems to have become a yearly tradition… Look for more pomp ‘N circumstance at this year’s British Grand Prix… Which in year’s past has seen the Jaguar team run with Terminator T3 livery, Diamond encrusted racing cars… With supposedly hurkin’ HUGE jewel’s being mysteriously lost in silly Ocean’s 29 movie tie-in’s… While trying to upstage the throng ‘O Star Wars Storm Troopers in the Principality, While now we’ll have to watch out for grappling hooks, jet powered cars and men running about in spandex tights and coloured capes… (Careful! NO Sir Maxxum jokes here, eh?) As Gotham City, nee Silverstone is set to cast that mythical spotlight in the sky crying’ for the legendary Caped Crusaders help… As The Penguin, a.k.a. Emperor Bernardo and his whipping boy Sir Maxxum are on the prowl in BLOODY Towcester…

As AZ Bureau Chief Mary Jane has just forwarded the following story about Batman hookin’ up with Toyota this weekend to (Over-hype) promote the upcoming British release of the newest Batman flick; The Dark Night.

HMM? Do I dare ponder whose Batman and who’s the Boy Wanderer at Toyota?

Short Track Fever

Whale, has another two Indy Car Oval races already sped by? As I decided to lump the two shortest Short Tracks together, as although they provided some entertaining racing… They’re NOT on my list of true Indy Car racing venues… I mean, let’s leave them to the Midgets, Sprint Cars, etc.

Yeah, I’m a died in the wool Road Course fanatic…

Iowa Cornfest 250
As the weather continued to play havoc upon the Midwest, Iowa’s Friday practice and Saturday qualifying were RAINED OUT… Which was NO great relief to the waterlogged bayou’s where Charlotte and all of her friends *Oinker’s) were doin’ their best to stay dry…

Thus qualifying was arranged according to the current driver’s point’s standings which saw Scotty “Got Milk?” Dixon on point with Helioe “Blue suede shues” Castroneeves filling out Row 1… (Hey, I can’t stop myself, as My Name is IRL said we needed to give ‘dem IRL drivers some nicknames, eh?)

And thus, I found it good timing to notice that during the first commercial break of ABC’s (Huh?) half hour pre-race show… The race was being sponsored by the Midwest Farmers… Who grow Corn, by gum-it! As I found it refreshing to see a commercial playing about how Corn’s good for you… As this brings back memories of riding thru the massive acreage of Corn fields in Iowa, which I did in 1994 on the state’s famous RAGBRAI bicycle ride across Iowa, where you start by dippin’ your tire in the Missouri River and “Juan” week later traipse down a Red Carpet and do the same procedure for the “Mighty Mo. (Mississippi River) As we were informed on our bike ride that if you saw a “TP” (Toilet Paper) roll on a Farmer’s field ‘O Cornstalks, then it was fair game to go to the bathroom there, but I digress…

As it was also noted that 300 local Farmers were hangin’ out in the Turn 1 hospitality suite and were rootin’ for their boy Ryan “The Dude” Hunter Reay… You know the guy who drives Booby Ruble’s Eethanol machine.

Back from commercial break and there was an entertaining piece about whether or not; “Racing Drivers are Athletes?” UH DUH!!! Of course they are… I mean just wearin’ a Nomex fire suit in blazing sunshine will give you an idea of what they have to endure, but I digress even further… As it was time for the OBLIGATORY Princess Danicker and Marky Mark (Andretti Junior) interviews.

So, I was gonna turn off the boob tube and tune in Mike King & Davey Hamilton, but decided to gut out the TV broadcast, because suddenly I was very curious to see how LONG it would take for them to mention ANY of the ACK! “Transition” Drivers, after all, this is a unified series now, right?

As I screamed at the Telescreen, you’ve only interviewed; Danica, Marco, Dixon, Wheldon, Helio and TK (Kanaan) NOT “Juan” single Transition driver at all! NOPE! It took an amazing 48 minutes until none other than Rusty “Bark at the Moon” Wallace first mentioned any ex-Champ Car refugee, although it was some sort of comparison of Graham Rahal to Joey Lagano… Crikeys! So, we’ll keep countin’ Going’ to the 65 minute mark when Mario “NOT so Super” Moraes was mentioned as the leaders came upon traffic on Lap 99 and Enrique “I’m too Sexy” Bernoldi was next up as we went to commercial break.

Justin Wilson got a shout-out for moving from P23 to P8, while “gentleman John” Andretti was another big shaker, moving up 14 places in Jay “What me, Worry?” Howard’s rent a race car… Yet, Wilson got a real nice segment about how the Mic Dougal’s car was steadily improving… Hmm? Me thinks I smell a corporate Rat here, eh?

And in the overflowin’ trivia department, it was made known that The Captain, a.k.a. Roger Penske was missing ONLY his third race ever, in over 40 years of attending races… First race missed was for his wedding. Second race missed was because of some ‘lil thing called 9/11! And this third time was due to him recovering from a minor medical procedure… NOPE! Ain’t gonna touch ‘dat one kids…

And then the floodgates opened on the Transition Drivers shout-outs, but oh yeah, was there a race goin’ on or somme-thun? As after Helio had led the way for 91 laps, with TK leading the second most, Danny “SPIKE” Wheldon, a.k.a. Birthday Boy, who Scott Dixon busted for sayin’ he was only 26 on his BIG THREE-OH… Took over the point by staying out during one of the numerous yellows, but earlier Eddie Carpentier had retired with a broken right rear suspension piece, as he was the third car of the weekend to experience the results of excessive G-loading, as the drivers were experiencing 4.9 G’s twice a lap which took only 17 seconds to complete.

But back to Birthday Boy, as both Marty Reid and Jack “BRUT” Arute mentioned; Can you say Motegi? As Dan-Dan-Danicker is on a similar fuel stratch-ity along with Wheldon and Hideki Mutoh. And who’d uh thunk it? (Certainly NOT Hunter Reay) but Marco raced his rookie teammate cleanly and they didn’t collide while jockeying for second place as B-Day Boy took the chequered flag for his second win of the season, with Mutoh finishing a career best second ahead of Marco.

And I’ll let you puruse le internets for various reporting upon Scott Dixon calling Danica a Menace and Carpenter callin’ her the new Scott Sharp of the IRL! Now onto Richmond, the SMALLEST track on the schedule…

Richmond Sun-BAKED 300
Saturday Nite’s ALL Right for Fightin’

Just finished listening to Davey Hamilton on Autosport Radio (Tuesday, July 01, 2008; As you may wish to listen to the Archived show) and I’m MORE ‘N MORE IMPRESSED by that Cool Cat…Who’s made his way up the ranks the ‘Ol Fashioned way! As Davey said; There just was a lot of BAD drivin’ at Richmond…

But I must tell yuh, at least the IMS Radio Broadcast knows how to put on a pre-race show, as they immediately talked to the “STARZS” i.e.; the Indy Car drivers and they interviewed both sides of the fence; Boom-Boom-Boom.. First up, Ryan Hunter Reay, then Oriel Servia, Buddy Rice, Graham Rahal, etc. And for some reason the Boyzs in the booth were still hammerin’ away on Darren Manning deciding to park ‘Ol Super Tex’s Hot Rod at Iowa, with Davey Hamilton saying he wouldn’t be surprised to see a different driver in the car prior to the end of the season… You just DON’T tell AJ Foyt you’re too knackered to drive!

And then it was time to get ready to rumble... As Hunter Reay would spin on the very first lap of what would become a Demolition Derby fest, as the strangest caution of the night occurred when Gentleman John shoved “Quattro” (AJ Foyt IV) outta the way and a piece of debris flew off of his car and Eddie Carpentier had nowhere to go and had to hit the piece of debris… Which Hamilton said looked to be Foyt IV’s attenuator, whatever the hell that is? And then it simply got UGLY!

As Marty TURTLE Roth was going too SLOW! And helped to bottle up traffic on the yellow flag re-starts, as we were already on our fifth caution by lap 79 and Davey quickly pointed out that Roth was at least a good 15+ car lengths behind the new race leader “Jamie Karnuba” (Jaime Camara, leading his very first Indy Car race) and was going only 149mph and that Indy Car would have to call him in as he was simply off the pace, (AGAIN!) before we had another yellow! As Mike King was simply dumbstruck by the fact that of the first 100 laps, 58 had been run under caution and we were only one third of the way done…

And then Mr. Roth who by this point was 5 laps behind, began to slow down as Davey called out his lap speeds; 128mph, 133mph, he’s simply way too SLOW! He’ll have to come in… Looks like Marty’s pitting (to change his shorts?) as it appears Roth’s done for the night. As another caution flag flew.

Gee whiz guys, I thought you were professional racing drivers? Ain’t ‘dem Roundy-round Boyzs supposed to be duh “Juan’s” running ‘dem Bombers? As lap 145 saw caution number 8 and I enjoyed Davey’s comments about how when two drivers are jawin’ at each other so intensely, uze may wanna put ‘dem in separate Ambulances, eh? As Hunter Reay was giving Mario “M ‘N M” Moraes a severe tongue lashing after the two drivers had collided… While Mike King pointed out that the record for cautions in a Non-Indianapolis 500 race was 11 at Pikes Peak Raceway in 1999, will we break that?

And in the useless(?) trivia dept. it was noted that The Captain was once again on Medical leave and missing only his fourth race in 40+ years… Although doctors ordered him to remain vigilant in his post minor “Medical Procedure recovery… I’m wonderin’ if perhaps his IRL rival The Cheepster co-erced him into goin’ out to Idaho for a few cold ones… As Chip Ganassi reportedly was quite surprised that some ‘lil ‘Ol bar in Newell, Idaho had HD TV! (Wonder if Davey clued Chip in on that one, eh?)

While my two pages of race notes center around the smorgasbord ‘O Cautions, as the ‘lil Richmond short track seemed to be awash in Yellow-itus, it seemed extremely PATHETIC that in normal racin’ circumstances a total of 16 cars would have retired, as three drivers; R. Briscoe, E. Carpenter and D. Manning were all able to return to the race after extensive repair jobs made to their stricken chassis… Good on you mate… (Manning) and manage to secure positions 11-13 before parking for the evening as they’d be unable to advance any further in the evening’s results.

And BOO HOO HOO! Poor Marky Mark (Andretti) had to pit for fuel prior to the final yellow coming out which effectively put him down one lap, with Tony “Follow your Snauz” Kanaan beatin’ Helio Dancin’ Fool outta pit lane and crusin’ home to his first win of the season, with Castroneves second and Scott Dixon finishing third after teammate Dan “SPIKE” Wheldon ran outta cough-cough fuel on the final lap to finish fourth with Oriel “Double Stuff” Servia finishing a season best fifth!

And so now, we’re headed off to Watkins Glen, a truly great permanent road course which should hopefully see a few less wrecks?

Mitty’s Magny

So just why is the Circuit de Magny cours so overly UN-LUVED? As this tranquil countryside circuit is just three hours south of Paris in the “Nevers-sais-Nevers” (Nevers) region, having been upgraded with a sizeable donation of Francs in the early 1980’s when France’s President François Mitterrand successfully co-erced Bernie Ecclestone in moving the French GP to his home region, in the tranquil Loire Valley… Could it possibly be the influx of Bovines or its propensity for Hay fever? As SPEED’s Peter Winsor was quick to point out how the Circuit plays havoc with allergies… Yet, I was told long ago by some smarmy Brits, that it’s truly a great racing venue, so go figure? (Although Bob Varsha was quick to point out how the track was overflowing with spectators and its now been reported that it’ll host another two years of the French GP…)

And so, Friday’s second practice session wasn’t too much of a surprise, as the field was seeing red… As in the two Scuderia Ferrari’s blitzing the time sheets, but Renault went for a bit of a ruse, by having Fredrico Suave (F. Alonso) end up quickest of all… Suggesting that the Spaniard was running on extremely light fuel tanks in hopes of grabbing some headline space for the Reggie, eh? Thus Felipe Massa was second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, (P3) who was followed by Louise “Jaguar” Hamilton. (P4)

Sadly, the F1 paddock was mourning the loss of Toyota’s Ove Anderson, who’d been killed in a Vintage Rally Raid in South Africa and the Toyota team were donning black arm bands and sporting black stripes across the noses of their two TF108 challengers.

And a good deal of fun was had at the expense of SPEED’s senior commentator, Messer Hobbs, who waxed on a bit about how if he was to ever write a book, his missus said it should be titled; “I Shoulda Won, But!” to which the House of Winsor immediately broke in and said he’d just received a text message from Hobbo’s colleague S. Posey that says the title of Hobbs biography should instead be titled: “I could have been Second!”

Saturday qualifying saw the true formation of the grid come about, when The Iceman (K. Raikkonen) grabbed the pole position ahead of his Brazilian teammate, in what would be Ferrari’s coveted 200th pole… Giving the Scuderia Ferrari another front row lock-out, with Jaguar slotting into P3, yet recall that Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had both been given 10 grid spot penalties for the pit lane contretemps in Canada. And thus Alonso would ultimately start from P3 with Toyota’s Jarno Trulli alongside, while uncharacteristically The Krakow Kid (R. Kubica) was starting from row three.

And while Jaguar was to start from P13, his teammate Heikki Kovalinen was given a five grid spot penalty for supposedly driving too slowly and impeding Nick Heidfeld’s progress, while Rosberg started 15th and Honda’s Rubens Barrichello moved to caboose with a five spot gearbox change penalty.

When the lights went green, Kimi simply shot off into the lead, continuously setting the races fastest lap and pulling away from Massa, (I believe that Kimi set fastest race lap and thus tied Nigel Mansell for third for overall fastest race laps, as it would be Kimi’s 29th) with both Ferrari’s simply leaving the rest of the field in the dust. Then the unthinkable happened when Kimi’s exhaust decided to separate itself from the Ferrari lump. After being held on solely by a sensor wire, the offending exhaust pipe finally disembarked the stricken Ferrari, which enabled Massa to shoot by after having been behind by over seven seconds. Yet, amazingly Kimi held onto second place, while Trulli “Scrumptious” hung onto third to claim his very first podium in 55 races, after a massive blocking maneuver he performed upon Kovalainen, which seems an appropriate tribute to Toyota’s stricken founder.

As for Hamilton, the theme of his day was something to do with Groundhog’s, (Groundhog Day?) as he was forced to attempt passing Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr. three separate times… And wound up tenth, out of the points for the second race in a row.

And bully on you Nelson Nelson, who pulled off a late race pass on teammate Alonso to secure seventh place, his first Grand Prix points of his young career, with Alonso having to settle for eighth.

Thus, Massa’s third victory of the season now makes him the fourth driver to lead the point’s standings in the past four rounds and the first Brazilian to lead the World Championship since Ayrton Senna did at Monaco in 1993.

Qualifying Results
Pole: K. Raikkonen; 2. F. Massa; 3. L. Hamilton; 4. F. Alonso; 5. J. Trulli; 6. H. Kovalainen; 7. R. Kubica; 8. M. Webber; 9. D. Coulthard; 10. T. Glock

Race Results
Winner: F. Massa; 2.K. Raikkonen; 3. J. Trulli; 4. H. Kovalainen;
5. R. Kubica; 6. M. Webber; 7. N. Piquet; 8. F. Alonso

2008 F1 Point Standings
(Round 8 of 18)

Driver’s
F. Massa 48
R. Kubica 46
K. Raikkonen 43
L. Hamilton 38
N. Heidfeld 28

Constructors
Ferrari 91
BMW Sauber 74
McLaren 58
Red Bull 24
Toyota 23

So now we’re off to Bloody ‘Ol Silverstone, where Jaguar has just claimed the fastest time in pre-race testing last week and although the race is a reported sell-out, there’s still the BMW Sauber Pit lane Park exhibit to visit in Manchester…

IRL’s newest poster child?

Although according to the IRL’s Brian Barnhart on Danica being a Menace; “She’s No more of a Menace then some Reporters…”

All I can say is that Princess better be on her best behaviour or a Dan-Dan-Danicker STOMP may just seal the deal!

UPDATE
Why did this portion of Saturday night’s IMS Radio Broadcast bring me so much glee? As I sat smiling and laughing as IMS’s Davey Hamilton reported on the scanner traffic they’d been listening to involving AGR teammates Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick, who was seeking a way past the Japanese driver in order to keep from being put a lap down by then race leader Marco Andretti.

Hamilton: We’d love to tell you what Danica’s been saying, but we CAN’T!
Mike King: Yeah, that’s right, but this is a Family Show.
Hamilton: Yeah, it’s definitely NOT PG Rated
King: Yes, and we’d lose our license to the FCC if we told you…

Oh, Princess… What’s duh Matter, Mutoh isn’t just simply pulling over for you?

Unfortunately, Mutoh was forced to retire late in the race when he broke his driveshaft while trying to exit pit lane… And of course the crack IMS broadcast crew were “Johnny on the spot,” asking if he’d been blocking Princess Danicker?

NO, Dan-Dan-Danicker is my teammate… I give her extra room because I know she’s my teammate... To which Hamilton seemed to support saying there really wasn't any issue.

Of course Danica had an entirely different view after completing the race… WHHHAAAAAAHHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

GET OVER IT DANICA!

Patrick on pole

NO! Not that Patrick… The other Patrick, as in did Y’all notice that “Pat the Carpenter,” (Patrick Carpentier) of whom Eddie Carpentier (Vision Racing) is of no relation too… Captured his very first Sprint Cup pole position this weekend at Loudon, New Hampshire in only his 16th start, as *I BELIEVE!* that it’s the very first pole garnered by one of the Open Wheel warriors who’ve jumped ship to RASSCAR, as NOT even MAC Montoya has done that yet.

Way to go “Pat-reek!”

Straight line testing

This is an interesting article about the secretive straight line “Aero” testing the “Big Three” have been doing to potentially gain “The Unfair Advantage” in IndyCars… As reportedly AGR, Ganassi and Penske have been carrying out straight line testing, which has been done in Formula 1 for several years now.

As most recently I recall McLaren doing this on some tiny little Island last year, while the majority of the F1 Constructors have used this laborious practice to evaluate potential aerodynamic gains. Could this be one small reason why the Big Three have won the last 43 of 44 Indy Car races?

For more, see; Straight line testing

Sarah’s new chariot?
Just spotted this on My Name is IRL… That Sarah Fisher has gone off Elephant riding at the Indiana Zoo and the new mount named Tombi, is quite impervious to El Supremo Blocking Jobs… Not even Marco Andretti can upset this beast! But hey, I hear that at least its got plenty of room on its sidepod’s for sponsors…

SFR update

In regards to the recent query about whether or not Sarah Fisher was still taking donations? (See; Is Sarah Fisher still out there, below) I’ve just received the following reply from SFR…

Donations can be sent to the below address. thanks for the support!!

Best,
Klint

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Klint Briney
Executive Brand Manager
Sarah Fisher Racing, LLC.
4701 Rockville Rd, Suite D
Indianapolis, IN 46222

Thus, if anybody is still willing to part with a portion of their $timulus check, I’d assume you can just send to Sarah Fisher Racing…

Thanxs for the reply Klint, hopefully we’ll see Sarah racing at Kentucky!

ROCK ON!

Somebody CAN’T drive 55

This was recently sent to me by AZ Bureau Chief Mary Jane… And if you thought that Louise “Jaguar” Hamilton’s poppa had trouble driving his son’s borrowed Porsche GT; But son, I just wanna take your Mum for a quick spin…

Then you may wish to check out the story of some wanna-be Grand Prix Piloto who managed to wrap his Ferrari F360 Spyder around a pole Down Under!

For more pictures, see; Aussie wrecks his Ferrari

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…

Is Sarah Fisher still out there?

Recently a comment was left in regards to whether or not Sarah Fisher Racing was still taking donations? As apparently this info has been deleted from her website… Thus I’m unaware of whether or not SFR is still seeking donations, but since I recently saw a story claiming that Sarah Fisher was seeking $635+ dollars from Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the photo-op Sarah did with her in Indiana… I’d assume that SFR is still in the RED?

Also, I believe that Sarah is still planning on attempting to race next at Kentucky Speedway, so keep your fingers crossed!

Wonder what Sarah thinks about Princesses latest calling out for blocking by Scott “Got Milk?” Dixon and Eddie Carpentier callin’ her the new Scott Sharp of the IRL,OUCH!!!

Guess some drivers NEVER forget anything, eh? Like Ryan “The Dude” Hunter Reay getting in a swipe at Marky Mark Andretti about not getting’ the Chrome Horn from passing him in Cornland…

Who’s Dat?

With the recent roasting of some ‘Ol curmudgeon, Err soothsayer journalist extraordinaire Robin Miller… As My Name is IRL has asked the burning question… Doesn’t he look like Mauri Rose? In his thinly guised report on mustachioed wanderers, I thought I’d alert all of uze Miller-pyles that Robin will be keeping self centered windbag Dave Despain company this Sunday evening as co-host…

Despain has billed the show as; “Two Millers for the price of one!” With said co-host and Kevin Miller of USAC as a guest, while Wind Tunnel’s burning question of the week is… What would you say or tell Robin if you met him in a bar? Send your questions/quips to Wind Tunnel…

As I’m sure that Jeff will be riveted to his TV set this Sunday evening, as Mr. Despain asks; Pardon mwah… Aren’t you Booby Ruble?

Broken record

As I’ve previously mentioned… The Google Monster has once again struck havoc upon the No Fenders site and it’ll be in a state of flux for the next few days, as I anxiously await the return to normalcy(?) as soon as my esteemed Blogmeister can complete his daunting task of rebuilding the site…

So, as Derrick Daly would say; “Hang on to your Holly-Hocks!” As hopefully he’ll have the Technical glitch fixed soon…

Thank You for your patience and continued reading…
Tomaso

Le Mans postscript

Whale, it took me nearly one week to finally manage finish wading thru the ten plus hours of videotape I recorded for this years 76th running of the 24 Heurs du Mans, as although I knew which manufacturer won, I didn’t know which drivers…

As I made the mistake of trying to watch some of the race coverage late Saturday evening with my nearly 89 years young Auntie Harriet, who’s still recovering from her cracked ribs and sore lower tailfin…

When I arrived, she asked me; Are there any races on today? Yes, the 24 Heurs du Mans… Oh? Where’s that at? It’s in a place you once had an alleged beer in Sir Frank’s motor home at… You know, Le Mans, France…

As for several years it was recounted to me how she’d been invited into the inner sanctum of Sir Frank’s motor coach to indulge in a Fosters… Although the big man himself wasn’t present, nevertheless, Frank’s coach driver had given them the pleasure, but I digress…

Back to what would become a constantly droning on monologue… As “Auntie” said; Oh? What type of cars are they? They’re Sports Cars… So… What time is the race on at? 6PM… Where’s it at? Le Mans. What time is it in France? I don’t know. So, why can’t we watch it right now? Well because they’re (SPEED) showing some other racing series called RASSCAR right now and I don’t wanna watch ‘dat! So, how long is the race? 24hrs; What time is the race on at? 6PM and where’s the race at? Le Mans… Oh? What type of cars are racing there? What time is it in France? (Are you sensing a pattern here yet?)

So, we finally succumbed to turning on the Telescreen around 7PM to which I was immediately asked; What type of race cars are those? And what time is it in France? (And NO! I didn’t make any wisecracks ‘bout London and underpants… As I was starting to get a headache) When did the race begin? 6AM; Oh? You mean I could have been watching this all day? NO! Where’s the race at? Le Mans; Oh? What type of race cars are those? They’re Prototypes; What’s a Prototype? Who makes those silly ‘lil cars?

When did the race begin? 6AM; You mean I could have been watching this all day? What type of race cars are those? What time is it in France? It looks like the sun is coming up over there… You mean the race goes on all day… What time is it in France? Well, lets see Auntie, its 9PM so there’s another 9 ½ hours of race coverage. You mean it goes on all night? (SHEISA!!! Somebody get me a Fosters…)

And then it was over as surprisingly (Nod Nod, Wink Wink) Auntie Harriet hadn’t woken me up at 5AM to see the finish of the BLOODY Endurance race, go figure, eh?

And what a gripping race it was, eh? As the two main protagonists did not fail to deliver, as this epic battle of the tortoise and the hare was even more pronounced by the constantly changing weather… Although I’d hardly call the Audi R10’s SLOW! But, that said the closed coupe Peugeot’s are just simply stunning and thus we were treated to a real barn burner that went all the way down to the wire…

Yet, while all of the competitors pounded ‘round the clock, here’s just a few of the numerous tidbits I gleamed from the elongated television coverage.

Ex-endurance racer David Hobbs noted how he’d driven a Lola very briefly at the Circuit de la Sarthe back in 1967 as the British specialty auto manufacturer Lola Cars was celebrating its 50th Anniversary… As the future shape of the top echelon of Le Mans prototypes was being displayed by a very slick looking Lola/Auston Martin B08/60, which was described as all Lola from the nose back, and all Prodrive, nee Auston from the rear bulkhead, with the same massive 6.0 liter V-12 that its GT1 cousins were utilizing…

The Charouz Racing Systems B08/60 was the very first Lola produced and its three drivers; Tomas Enge, Stefan Mücke and Jan Charouz are all contracted by Aston Martin Racing. (AMR) which impressively split the Audi R10 TDI’s in qualifying with its production based gasoline engine…

Another interesting storyline was French driver Jean de Pourtales, who competes with an prosthetic left arm, which led “Hobbo” to launch into discourse about another hugely successful Sports Car driver; Archie Scott Brown, who gamed fame during the late 1950’s as an Lister “Nobly” pilot who raced with a right arm stump and needed to shift with his left hand before perishing at Spa in 1958. Even more impressive was the fact that De Pourtales Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola/Mazda LMP2 entry was even able to compete after the massive cart wheeling escapade Hideki Noda had endured on Thursday night…

And a number of first’s were occurring, when Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnessen scored Corvette’s first GT1 pole position since 1976, although it would be for naught, as the #009 Aston Martin DBR9 would emerge victorious for the second year in a row, with drivers David Brabham and Darren Turner repeating…

Interestingly, Calvin Fish noted several times during the broadcast that “MAG’s” only has one requirement when getting a seat fitting. Can my right foot go all the way to the floor!

There was also the very first Chinese driver competing, along with the very first Spanish chassis entries since 1952 and the first husband-wife driving duo since 1993 on tap…

And talk about making a splashy debut, as Jos “The BOSS” Verstappen was interviewed about his stout driving performance, having driven approximately half of the event for Van Merksteijn Motorsport, which took its purple Porsche RS Spyder to its LMP2 class victory upon the teams, drivers and chassis debut…

And it was entertaining to hear Mika Salo vainly pleading to NOT have to go out again and drive the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 anymore… Although the Finn claimed he’d gotten 4hrs of sleep, as Mika would indeed pilot the class winning #82 to the chequered flag in a Ferrari GT2 whitewash, seeing the Maranello brand taking positions 1-5. It was Salo’s first win in his third start…

Yet, it was amazing to think that at the 22+ hour mark, the #2 Audi was leading the #7 Peugeot by less than two minutes, before the inclement weather struck the French countryside once again… As apparently Nicolas Minassian made a strategic blunder by opting to stay on slick tyres instead of switching to intermediates as the Lord ‘O Le Mans had elected, which would see Peugeot’s chances of overall victory slip from its grasp literally… With Minassian slithering all over the 8.5 mile circuit… And then another very curious call was made when the French team elected to go onto full wet weather tyres as the track was drying!

Thus, Tom Kristensen was able to “cruise” to his record eighth overall victory at Le Mans, alongside co-drivers Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello. As it was even more impressive that Kristensen had gotten away with two mistakes of running into competitor’s and has now run his staggering victory streak to 8 wins in 13 starts…

And while I’m always suspect of publicity inspired, headline grabbing attendance figures… Nevertheless it was noted numerous times how the circuit attracts a quarter of a million attendees, with last year’s record being set at 270,000! Look for an even more epic battle between the French Blue and the Teutonic German “Silver Arrows” next year…

Tracy goin’ Truckin’

Last night on Speed Freaks, Paul Tracy was interviewed about his recent testing outing in Chicago, where Mr. Chrome Horn tested a Toyota Tundra for Germain Racing, after the team asked him if he’d be willing to test for them. Tracy said the test went very good and he’s now set to make his Truck debut at Las Vegas on September 20th in the truck normally driven part time by Chrissy Wallace, with Tracy’s debut occurring in the 39yr old backyard.

Paul also mentioned that he’ll be participating in this years Goodwood Festival of Speed… Basically the Earle of Marcque called me up and asked if I’d want to drive some vintage cars if they paid for me and the missus to fly over first class… And I said sure, I’m NOT doin’ anything at the moment…

PT noted he’d be driving a few ex-Penske Champ Cars along with a few Lola’s, one being driven by Graham Hill in 1966 and the other belonging to none other then his ex-arch nemesis The Hamburgular, a.k.a. Sebastian Bourdais… Of which Tracy noted was pretty funny since he’d be driving the car of the driver he spent the past 4-5 years of his career hating!

And while rumours still abound over Derrick Walker putting together a “one-off” for Tracy to contest the upcoming Edmonton Indy Car event, Tracy seems to believe his long term prospects are more likely to come from the RASSCAR side of the fence, as he sees his Los Wage$ debut as a tryout for a fulltime Trucks gig in 2009…

Future Indy Car calendar

While Y’all wait anxiously for the unveiling of the 2009 Indy Car World Series… schedule Which will hopefully be the “Clean Sheet ‘O Paper” we’ve all been promised… With its 50/50 split of Ovals vs. Road Courses and Temporary Street circuits, dashing the hopes of Y’all Oval Track bleedin’ hearts… I’d like to throw in my two cents on the topic of what I think the calendar should look like in the coming years…

2008 Indy Car Schedule
March 29: Homestead-Miami Speedway; April 6: Streets of St. Petersburg; April 19: Twin Ring Motegi; April 27: Kansas Speedway; May 25: 92nd Indianapolis 500; June 1: The Milwaukee Mile; June 7: Texas Motor Speedway; June 22: Iowa Speedway; June 28: Richmond International Raceway; July 6: Watkins Glen International; July 12: Nashville Superspeedway; July 20: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course; July 26: Streets of Edmonton; Aug 9: Kentucky Speedway; Aug 24: Infineon Raceway; Aug 31: The Raceway at Belle Isle Park; Sept 7: Chicagoland Speedway; Oct 26 Surfers Paradise, Australia* (* = To Be Announced)

As you may have heard by now? Robin Miller previously noted that Homestead was most likely off the calendar for next year with either a round at the Mexico City road course or a possible new Oval Track to be named later… As its now been reported that Terry Angstadt, the man behind the curtain, Err, leading the charge as head Scheduler… Has hosted preliminary talks with both Mexico City and Laguna Seca…

While Cleveland has thrown its hat in the ring with Bobby Rahal crashing a recent meeting pitching the necessity of the Burke Lakefront Airport venue returning in 2009. While it would seem quite illogical to think that Mikey Andretti secured promotions of Toronto’s street race without a contract in hand to return the popular event to the 2009 calendar, eh?

Interestingly, both Cleveland and Houston’s street races were promoted by Mike Lanigan, the third hombre at Newman Haas Lanigan Racing… While Houston would be a long shot due to the ceaseless barking of Eddie “The Goose” Gossage and his TEX-ARSE WURLD SPEEDWAY… Cleveland seems a bit more possible, although recent reports have noted how there are currently five tracks hosting events in this region… And thus, I’d happily take Cleveland in favour of Nashville…

Ironically, Mexico City was previously promoted by Gerry “NO MASS” Forsythe and thus would seem a little bit tricky to negotiate, unless perhaps the Mexico City Tourism Board has a change of ownership up its sleeves?

Of course Long Beach will return to its vaunted traditional April date with NO more STUPID Twin Rings ‘O Venus/Long Beach Grand Prix on the same weekend… Which means Motegi will be shuffled, perhaps to coincide with Surfers Paradise, Australia which is also definitely on the calendar…

Thus, this just leaves two classic, important Champ Car races missing from the new ‘N improved schedule: Portland and Road America… And although I’ve never made it to Elkhart Lake, this 4.0 mile road course simply has to be one of the BEST permanent racing venues in Norte Americano… And has long been on my list of must visit tracks! It’s offered some truly great racing over the years and I believe that it’s a true drivers favourite…

And while its old news that I’m a bit prejudiced towards Portland International Raceway, as it’s now my lone home racing track for the “Big Boyzs,” with the demise of Vancouver, BC, there are a few reasons why it should indeed return to next year’s calendar…

First of all, 2008 was scheduled to be its 25th Anniversary for CART/Champ Car competition at the permanent road course located just north of Downtown Portland. Yet, even more importantly is the fact that 2009 will be the 100th Anniversary of the very first Champ Car race… Of which Portland holds the distinction of preceding the Brickyard, as its race was part of the forbearer to what would ultimately become Champ Car. (Circa 2004-07)
“In 1909 -- in Portland -- Howard Covey drove a Cadillac to victory in the first race of what was then called the U.S. National Championship Series, a forebear of the United States Auto Club series and later Champ Car.:
(Source: The Oregonian; 2007)

And while critics will be quick to point out the lackluster attendance Portland has suffered over the past few years due to “The Split” and the watered down product Champ Car produced, I’d expect with the series unification and the proper marketing Portland could once again become a Northwest gem in the Indy Car World Series…

And speculation suggests that next year’s schedule could grow to 19 events with 20-21 making up the 2010-11 calendar, I’ll leave you with my version of the ultimate season…

(Proposed) 2009 IndyCar Schedule
1. Mexico City; 2. St. Petersberg; 3. Long Beach; 4. Kansas; 5. Indianapolis; 6. Milwaukee; 7. Texas; 8. Sears Point; 9. Portland; 10. Cleveland;
11. Mid-Ohio; 12. Edmondton; 13. Toronto; 14. Watkins Glen; 15. Kentucky;
16. Chicagoland; 17. Road America; 18. Belle Isle; 19. Surfers Paradise;
20. Motegi; 21. Laguna Seca

Kalitta on Fire

AP Photo of Scott Kalitta’s horrifying incident…
(Source: AP Photograph)

Racing tragedies

Unfortunately it seems to be a fact of life in motor racing, that every year there are tragedies ultimately concluding in death… As I was searching’ the newswires last evening, a cold chill swept over me as I learned of Scott Kalitta’s horrible death… As his Toyota Solara erupted into flames during Saturday night qualifying at Englishtown NJ, while ironically, this weekend’s French GP has made ample note of Toyota F1 founder Ove Anderson’s death, as the 70yr old “Swede” perished behind the wheel during a vintage car race in South Africa… As once again symmetry seems to have worked in its mysterious ways as I wasn’t even aware that Toyota had an NHRA program. While even more ironic was the fact that Kalitta had begun and ultimately ended his NHRA career at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Also, spare a thought for the family of the 49yr old track worker Roy Hiatt who was killed earlier this season at Anderson Raceway, during the annual running of the Little 500. Hiatt was struck by a race car, when for reasons unknown entered the track early during the caution period and had his back to the oncoming racing car.

Also, don’t forget Eric Medlin of John Force Racing having perished in a violent testing crash last year, when his Goodyear tire exploded during a routine 315+ mph pass…

Sadly, I suppose all of the above would tell us that the show must go on…

UPDATE:
Last night on Speed Freaks, it was reported that Dino Crescentini had lost his life in a Vintage Car race at Mosport, as newswire reports claim that his car, a Wolf Dallara Can Am once driven by the late Gilles Villeneuve barrel rolled several times on the straightaway…

Iowa Bleu

Whale, it seems pretty sad that I’m forced to choose between watchin’ the Iowa Cornfest 250 vs. French’s (mustard) Grand Prix… Let’s see, do I go with the Dizzney Shoppin’ Network or DUH FOX channel? Pardon mwah? Dooze uze haves any Grey Poupon? As Y’all will potentially notice that ‘lil Napolean’s Indy Car racin’ series is goin’ head to head with Emperor Bernardo’s creme de la creme (F1) Sunday morning…

And as we all hope for Iowa to dry out for the Pigs sake… And the Eethanol producer’s sake, it seems ironic that the French GP falls just one week after that epic 24 Heurs du Mans race and the upcoming Tour de Farce…

PCM parks Dominguez
Tyler Tadevic; Owner of Pacific Coast Motorsports has announced that his PCM team will be skipping this weekend’s Iowa Cornfest 250 and thus Mario “BOOM BOOM” Dominguez will not take part in the racing activities at the ‘lil house Rusty built.

The team says its re-evaluating its raceing program and that everybody’s still onboard, although after failing to qualify for the Indy 500 and not cracking the top 20 in the past two oval races, the team will regroup for another stab later this season.

Yet I’m assuming that this has something to do with the team’s (and owner) credit cards being maxed-out! Not to mention the frequency of Mario’s addiction towards Safer Barriers, eh? And hence I’ll guestimate PCM’s return to competition will commence at Watkins Glen, since after all, it’s a ROAD course…

Flood Relief
You may have heard by now that the IRL is donating $60,000 to the local Iowa chapter of the Red Cross to help out with the recent ravenous flooding that has occurred in the Midwest… As both “Tarze-Jay” drivers Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon have pledged to donate their weekend’s race winnings to local Disaster Relief agencies, as well as Andretti Green having hosted an online auction last week, raising $10k to benefit Midwest flood victims…

Attrition
Originally the IRL had announced that they’d only be seeking 26 entries for this weekend’s Cornfest, which meant one of the 27 contestants wasn’t gonna look like the others… Then PCM put the kybosh upon Mario Dominguez taking part and viola, problem solved!

Now comes word that we’ll only have 24 starters, as both Marty “TURTLE” Roth and Bruno “Whiney Bags” Junqueira will not be taking the green flag at Iowa… As both drivers have had collisions stemming from broken suspensions, with Bruno collecting Danny Boy “SPIKE” Wheldon, who’ll be forced to start his second race in a row in his back-up chassis.

And while Roth has a spare chassis handy and Dale Coyne could probably cobble something together for Bruno… They’re both sitting the race out. HMM? Isn’t it ironic? That Jay Howard didn’t make the trip to Iowa…

GREMLINS!

FREAKIN’ GREMLINS!!!

As you may have noticed, the No Fenders site is currently experiencing a RASH of Technical Difficulties… Which it’s most esteemed Blogmeister is feverishly trying to eradicate…Perhaps it has somme-thun’ to dooze with my RASSCAR badgering, eh?

Thank You for your patience.
Kudos Blogmeister…

Now it’s a Record!

Although Rubens Barrichello and Honda F1 Racing have already celebrated the Brazilian’s accomplishment of completing 257 starts at the Spanish Grand Prix, many of us including myself have stuck to the figures provided by F1 Racing and other such sources which have slightly disagreed with the numbers the ageless Rubino used to reach his milestone, while I suppose we could argue over the statistical anomalies for countless hours, eh?

Like all major Formula 1 drivers, both previous record holder Ricardo Patrese and Barrichello both began their motor racing careers by racing go karts and then moving up the junior ranks prior to beginning their illustrious careers in Formula 1.

Patrese made his F1 debut in 1977 for the Shadow team before moving to Arrows the following season, when several Shadow team members left to start-up the Arrows outfit. Due to his overly aggressive driving style, Ricardo was accused of triggering an accident which led to the death of Ronnie Peterson and was subsequently banned by his fellow drivers when the GPDA successfully had Patrese refused entry to the following Grand Prix, (Watkins Glen; USGP East) leaving great bitterness between his fellow competitors, most notably World Champion James Hunt.

Patrese then moved onto Messer Ecclestone’s Brabham team to partner triple World Champion Nelson Piquet from 1982-83, before switching to Alfa Romeo from 1984-85, prior to returning to Brabham for a further two seasons. (1986-87) In 1988, the Italian made the switch to Sir Frank Williams racing team and would stay thru as teammate to Nigel Mansell’s clinching of his lone driver’s title in 1992 prior to spending his last season in Formula One alongside some young German up and comer named Michael Schumacher…

SPEED’s Professor Matchett has waxed on eloquently about being the man to have strapped in Ricardo for those final 16 starts which propelled the Italian to the staggering total of 256 Grand Prix starts, as Patrese holds two lesser known records of scoring points the longest number of years along with longest separation between Grand Prix victories; Monaco, 1982 and Suzuka, 1992, as the likeable Italian scored a total of six wins and eight poles between 1977-93.

Ironically the torch for F1 “Supermen” would be passed from elder statesmen Patrese to a young fresh faced Brazilian in 1993, as Barrichello would begin his rookie Formula 1 season for the Jordan Grand Prix concern that very season, showing up his more experienced teammates Ivan Capelli and Thierry Boutsen by claiming his first career pole at Spa Francorchamps that year before scoring his maiden GP points at Suzuka, finishing fifth, one place ahead of his new teammate Eddie “IRV THE SWERVE” Irvine.

Although I only recall being focused upon the ascending super Star Herr Schumacher in ’93, my first recollections of Barrichello’s talent was aboard those distinctly painted Sasol Jordan’s which the plucky Irishman’s team seemed to continuously make deals with the wrong engine suppliers, which ultimately led to Rubens decision to leave the team and sign-up to drive for the upstart Stewart Grand Prix concern in 1997, where BArrichello scored a superb second in the rain soaked Monaco GP in only the team’s fifth race. Barrichello would remain with the Stewarts for three seasons prior to being called up as Schumacher’s vigilant wingman in 2000, and would score his maiden Grand Prix victory in the bizarre German GP, (Nurburgring) where a nutso priest would wander about the racing line in protest before being tackled and removed forcibly from the tarmac!

Fed up with playing the dutiful number two behind German Wunderkind Schuey, Rubino signed up to drive alongside Honda’s Jenson Button for the 2006 season, where he now looks set to finish out his Grand Prix career at, as Barrichello has scored 13 poles and 9 victories, with the latter all coming during his Scuderia Ferrari days...

F1 Changing of the guard?

While the hottest story in Formula 1 has cooled considerably now that Sir Maxxum has been given a free pass to collect his $200.00 after having landed on go…

As MAD MAX Mosley will indeed continue to serve out the remainder of his current term as the head of the FIA, having won approval during the recently concluded special meeting in “Gay Paree” on June 3rd,

Interestingly Sir Maxxum weathered the storm over the even more bizarre reporting that a member of MI5’s, (Britain’s counterpart to our beloved CIA) wife, a Dominatrix was the woman who led five prostitutes in the plot to discredit MAD MAX…

Yet, there are also some other developments occurring in the paddock, in regards to the still lingering legal wrangles over chassis cloning, as the original matter involved charges made by Spyker F1 against Super Aguri and Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Yet sadly, Honda has let Aguri-san fall by the wayside, as the team has ceased operations, as apparently “Super Best Friends” were too much competition for the works team, while Honda has been visibly without any major sponsorship the past season plus and its worth noting that Honda F1 only overtook Super Aguri in the 2007 Constructor’s championship at the final race in Shanghai…

Yet, with Super Aguri out of the picture, there have been reports of Force India’s chief executive Colin Kolles being spotted in Salzburg, assume ably meeting with Red Bull officials who are now keen to sell off Toro Rosso, as it appears that whenever the new Concorde Agreement is finally reached, as the current agreement expired on December 31st, 2007, all teams will indeed need to produce their own chassis.

And while rumours claimed that Gerhard Berger, Toro Rosso’s co-owner has been busy racking-up his frequent flyer miles with trips to the Middle East in search of backers, recall that this is the same region from where the Magma Group which pulled out of negotiations to purchase super Aguri resides…

Recent speculation suggests that perhaps the Lancia Company may be interested in acquiring Deeter Majestic’s shares in Toro Rosso and most likely a controlling interest? As this would allow for brand exposure, while the team would still be able to utilize FIAT parent companies Ferrari power train components.

Yet the latest rumours have suggested that perhaps Ultimate Motorsport, a British Formula 3 team with major backing from the Angolan oil company Sonangol, is now interested in the Red Bull satellite operation? And would potentially solve the thorny customer chassis issue by having France’s Mygale chassis constructor as their partner.

Meanwhile, there are now rumours also of a second Honda powered squad returning to Formula 1 for 2009 as an American F1 team, which seems somewhat far-fetched? As reports claim that Ken Anderson was spotted at the Canadian Grand Prix on a reconnaissance mission…

As this rumoured organization would merely revive the role that Super Aguri served, as a satellite program to run Takuma Sato and possibly an American racecar pilot… Perhaps the almighty Princess Danicker? As reportedly Honda is keen to steal some of Toyota’s RASSCAR thunder…

Yet, sadly for the foreseeable future, we’ve returned to a lowly number of just ten Constructors taking part in Formula 1, while Max Mosley was bellyaching how F1 couldn’t succeed if he wasn’t allowed to finish out his term, but let us recall, that Sir Maxxum was the instigator in this dubious customer chassis shamozzle along with selecting David Richards Prodrive organization as the twelfth and final Constructor allowed on the grid for 2008!

Thus, as we sink into a global recession, while the Concorde Agreement remains unsigned… The majority of potential new Formula 1 team owners are loathe to sign-up for the FIA’s premiere racing series, which appears to be somewhat rudderless at the moment as Mosley looks set to become a shrinking violet… But then again; Formula 1 NEVER Sleeps!

Paul Newman

I still don’t know if this story has been confirmed, but it was disappointing to read My Name is IRL’s story about PL Newman possibly having been diagnosed with terminal cancer. And although I’m certain The Split had a lot to do with Newman staying away from the Brickyard all these years, I swear I heard Jack “BRUT” Arute tell a story about the wily pool hustler being denied entry into Gasoline Alley with a golf kart load of non-Speedway food for his crew as possibly a motive for the legendary actor spuring the Brickyard all these years?

While I certainly hope it isn’t true, perhaps this is what ‘Ol Newman was referring to when they ran the piece where he said he may be watching from above when one of his cars finally wins the Indy 500…

Paul Newman has had better days

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 S