2010: ROLEX

This very name brings meaning to many, from those that are wealthy elite who wear the iconic brand on their wrists all around the world, to those that are teams, drivers, and motorsports fans, officials, and enthusiasts. Today, we focus on the latter, as today is the start of the 2010 motorsports season in North America, with the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona . This race will feature many drivers from many different disciplines of motorsport, and pro am drivers from all walks of life. This is the race that not only tests the physical and mechanical toughness of the machine, but also the physical and mental toughness for the drives who suffer from the limits of darkness, fatigue, weather, mechanical failure, and all other sorts of hurdles that can stop teams from winning the coveted Rolex Oyster Perpetual Daytona watch, leaving them dead in their tracks. In today's edition - this true international race of champions, there's 4 time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson, 2008 & 2009 Indy Car Series Champions Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, 5 time Rolex 24 winner Hurley Haywood - in his last start of this great race, 2 Time Rolex 24 Winner Max Papis, and Multiple Rolex winner Scott Pruett all running in the Daytona Prototype class. In the GT class, there's former NASCAR Champion Bobby Labonte in the The Racer Group Porsche, Jordan Taylor - son of Rolex 24 Winner and 2010 participant Wayne Taylor, and television star Patrick Dempsey in his Mazda RX8. On top of that, the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro is making its famed return to motorsports in the U.S. Considering all these facts, it looks like it will be a very exciting race..only time will tell how the race unfolds, and I a for one am looking very forward to it.

Powerful Day In The Land of Oz

Aussie native, Will Power, has set the fastest practice time in the IRL Indy Car Series, Thursday - clearly becoming the favorite (along with fellow natives Ryan Briscoe, & Scott Dixon) for the Nikon Indy 300, an exhibition race at Surfer's Paradise, Australia, and the final race of the 2008 season. Despite setting the lap time of 1:34.8, he's still knows its not the fastest practice time that matters:

"It's still early and qualifying isn't until tomorrow.........That and Sunday are all that matter to me. I am glad we are quick, but we still need to improve the car a bit. This is a very competitive field and we will have to be faster (during qualifications)."

Helio Castroneves, who received clearance to leave the U.S., after being indicted earlier this month for federal tax charges, set the second fastest lap with a 1:36.1 on the 2.796 mile street circuit. Fresh out of his NASCAR ride, and back in the series that gave him a series championship in 2007 - Dario Franchitti of Target Chip Ganassi Racing has set the 3rd fastest practice time, only being .10 seconds behind Castroneves.

Despite this race being an exhibition only event, this race is very well known in size and stature throughout Australia, sometimes being likened to Indy, and for this reason, I have started calling it the Oz version of the Indianapolis 500. In fact, a majority of the field that raced the 500 this year, have raced in years past at Surfers Paradise in the CART/Champ Car days of competition

"That will not make one inch of difference when it comes to race time. This is one race every serious Indy Car driver wants to compete in and win." - Dario Franchitti

The Nikon Indy 300 starts this coming Saturday, at 10:30pm, Eastern Time


Photo Credit: Indy Racing League

Newly Crowned Indy Car Champion Dixon Looking Forward To Surfers Paradise

As the Indy Car Series nearly draws to a close, it has so far been an amazing season, from Danica Patrick's first win (finally!) , to the long awaited unification between IRL & Champ Car, to the closest finish in series a few weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway.



Scott Dixon, of Target Chip Ganassi Racing, was elated to win the series title, beating out Team Penske's Helio Castroneves. Castroneves was elated to just win a race this season, and I cant blame him, as he said "give me my hat!" to Scott Dixon in victory lane after finding out he was the winner, referring to the Firestone Tires winner's hat. The Chicagoland race came down to .001 seconds between he and Dixon, with the latter winning the championship. Now as the series title chase is over, the season still remains with 1 race to go as the teams and drivers head to Australia for the non points Nikon Indy 300 this coming October at Surfers Paradise.



Video Courtesy: Speed Channel/Brightcove, Photo Courtesy: Indy Racing League

Indy Car: Castroneves on Pole, Team Penske Sweeps The Front Row for Sonoma

Days after Team Penske's race hauler suffered a fire en route to Sonoma, California's Infineon Raceway for this Sunday's Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix - The team has rebounded by earning the front row positions for today's race. Helio Castroneves earned the pole position with a qualifying time of 1:16.90 at the speed of 108.8mph, with teammate Ryan Briscoe almost edging him out by a time of 1:16.91, at the speed of 107.7mph





The rest of the top 5 stands out with former Champ Car star Will Power, 2004 Indy Car Champion Tony Kannan, and current series points leader Scott Dixon .




Video Courtesy: Indy Racing League/You Tube

Scotty Doesnt Know....How to Quit, Kubica's Comeback, Khane's Win in Pocono, & The Battle of the Diesels - The Remix

Texas Motor Speedway - Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon won the Bombardier Lear Jet 550, extending his lead to 35 points in the IRL Indy Car Series championship over Team Penske's Helio Castroneves. The race ended under caution when second place Marco Andertti (Andretti Green racing) and 3rd place Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal-Letterman Racing) at the time collided with each other towards the end of the race

The "Mclarri" (McLaren & Ferarri) Streak is Broken!!!!....Robert Kubica Wins Formula One's Canadian Grand Prix...breaking the stranglehold in the series, usually ending by Mclaren or Ferrari going to the podium. It's his first career win, and BMW Sauber earned its first 1-2 finish. David Coulthard, was so excited to finish 3rd, he was literally running from his parked car in the pits to get to the podium. the next race will be @ the French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours, France (much to the disappointment of most Americans like myself, considering the Canadian G.P. is the only North American stop on the F1 tour this year)



Rolex Series: Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Pruett won the 6 hours @ the Glen in Watkins Glen, NY, extending his points lead....and being a Ganassi fan, kinda makes me a little happy, to be honest. They're 34 points ahead of defending series champions - The Gainsco Pontiac Riley Team, headed by Bob Stallings



NASCAR Sprint Cup: As much as I personally am not into the whole NASCAR thing, I gotta respect Kasey Kahne for winning the race at Pocono. I didn't see much of the race, but i know it was long hard & fought one, mostly because the 500 miles just seem to have gone on forever, almost...at least Toyota still has the manufacturer's points lead, and I hope they might win it, come November in Homestead






Le Mans Series: Finally, the wait is over...The 76Th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is less than a week away. Can the Peugeot Team repeat the dominant-like run of their first few stints of the 12 Hours of Sebring over the Audi R10? It should be an interesting battle of the diesels


Photos Courtesy of: Indy Racing League, American Le Mans Series, Toyota, Canada.com, The UK Mirror

A Historical Weekend

History will be the story of this weekend. here's why:

Danica Patrick Wins!!!!! Her first win happened finally, at the Indy 300 at twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Japan. Its her first win in 50 starts in the Indy Car Series, and she becomes the first woman to win a major open wheel auto racing event, in the history of open wheel racing

Today is the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach - The final race sanctioned under the Champ Car World Series - Ever.

The American Le Mans Series races @ Long Beach. Will Audi keep their streak alive, or lose it once again to the Penske Porsche's who have an advantage there

NASCAR is racing south of the border for the Nationwide series (formerly Busch)

Grand Am - Racing, also in Mexico for the Rolex Series

Photo Courtesy : Indy Racing League

Unification - And The Long and Winding Road To It...

Finally, it took 12 years, hundreds of races, many gallons of fuel, and sets of tires to make it happen. The Indy Racing League's Tony George and Champ Car's (Formerly known as CART) Kevin Kalkhoven has reunited after a 12 year split, that has damaged the fabric of open wheel racing in North America. When I was a little kid, around 13 or so, I first had my real glimpse of open wheel racing with the Indianapolis 500 in 1995 - 1 year before the split. I was flipping through the television one Sunday afternoon, and i got to this channel, showing the beautiful Indianapolis Motor Speedway...as soon as Scott Goodyear passed the pace car, and lost the race due to a black flag penalty. Jacques Villenuve won that year, but the next year would be completely different. Of course i didn't know either series well, or the ramifications of what the split caused at the time. to me it was just more racing to watch on the television. So in 1996 I sat there, tape recorder in hand, to watch Buddy Lazier, a no name compared to the likes of Unser, Andretti, or Mears, win the famous race.

Over the years, I began to notice certain things about CART & The IRL - like the attendance being down at most, if not all of the IRL & CART events, Indy was slowly losing its infamous luster, and most fans were complaining about the Dallara & G Force chassis in the IRL being powered by the likes of Oldsmobile (soon to be Chevrolet) and Infinity, not sounding like "real" race cars. CART, on the other hand, had Unser, Zanardi, Andretti, the best road courses, street circuits, and ovals (except Indy) and Turbocharged Honda, Toyota, Ford & Mercedes Benz power with Reynard, Lola, & Swift chassis. Real race cars as some might have said, but this was all before CART CEO Andrew Craig resigned, and a succession of stand in CEO's came through the boardroom- Bobby Rahal, being the most notable, followed by the series eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2002, along with most of the well known Champ Car teams at the time, moving over to the IRL

In 2000, However, the very first sign of unification was a relatively small one - Chip Ganassi Coming to Indianapolis with Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmy Vasser to race in the Indianapolis 500. Montoya Won the race, a feat no rookie has done since Graham Hill in 1966, but little did he know is that he, Jimmy, and the team started sowing the seeds of unification. years followed along with more CART teams coming to Indy (Roger Penske came the following year, winning with Helio Castroneves - Former CART driver) along with rumors, talks and statements....some true, some not so true, but they were all leading to the moment Robin Miller, of Speed Channel, leaked the story to the general public, earlier this year












So after realizing the years of politics, and angry fans, and watching both series crumble to NASCAR's overall dominance of the sport in North America, am I happy they got back together?

Yes..

but my only thing is that some people will unfortunately be left out in the cold, and it seems unfair, somewhat. Engine builder - Cosworth, has no where to go, along with a majority of Champ Car employees, and Panoz - chassis manufacturer to champ car. several tracks will also feel the blow, such as Toronto, Cleveland, Laguna Seca, Assen, and Edmonton, with Long Beach being one of the few tracks spared on the schedule. Time will tell on how far things will go between both series, and who knows...It may give NASCAR a run for its money, in the top spot of #1 morsport in North America.



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