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

The Green Flag Begins In Florida

After living here for so many years, I've noticed one certain thing about motorsports , and the state of Florida. Just about every series in North America, opens their respective series here...just think about it.

• The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona for the Grand AM Rolex Series started this past January in Daytona Beach...
• The Daytona 500, for NASCAR starts a few weeks later in the same place
• The AMA Superbikes started there in Daytona as well, during bike week
• The 12 Hours of Sebring Starts Tomorow, in Sebring, FL for the American Le Mans Series, with the SCCA Speed World Challenge & Star Mazda Series
  

and a few weeks after that?

The Indy Racing League / Champ Car World Series Opens their season in Homestead, followed by a race in the streets of St. Petersburg a week later. I know its obviously because of weather reasons..I mean, there's no way the IRL can start at Indianapolis in March, as much as Tony George may love that idea..but usually at this time of year the only thing running at Indy is a snow plow. same goes for every other series and track out there north of Daytona.

and knowing that alone makes me kinda happy, at least for a brief time before spring comes for the rest of the country, the ice thaws, and racing resumes in other parts of the country & Canada, that I can see the best racing here in the sunshine state, and speaking of which - I will not be posting anything here tomorrow, because I will actually be attending the 12 Hours of Sebring for the very first time ever in my life. I had a chance to go to an ALMS event in Miami back in 2002, but circumstances held me back from going. and I refuse to be denied. Also heading down to Homestead for the IRL season opener as well, in 2 weeks time. Peace Out, everybody

Photo Credit :
http://picasaweb.google.com/qqqracing/Motorsport

Racing News & Notes - March 9, 2008...

French manufacturer Peugeot getting ready to run the 12 Hours of Sebring - March 15, 2008



NASCAR

Sprint Cup:

Today's race for the is the Kobalt Tools 500, from Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Jeff Gordon is on the pole position for today's race

Craftsman Trucks:

Friday Night, kyle Busch pulled away from Ron Hornaday to win the American Commercial Lines 200, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch is currently at the top of the points standings for the second consecutive week

Nationwide Series:

Matt Kenseth wins the Nicorette 300, from Atlanta Motor Speedway , holding off Kevin Harvick in a green-white-checkered finish

Indy Racing League / Champ Car

A little more than a week since the merger between the IRL and Champ Car was made infamous, teams went out to Sebring, FL from March 3-6, 2008 to do some testing of the new road course version of the Indy car. new additions were made to the cars, some of which are: paddle shift gearboxes, collapsible steering columns, & etc. Ryan Briscoe of Team Penske lead the session with a time of 52.42 seconds (114.689 mph) on the final day of testing. The Indy Racing League season begins @ Homestead Miami Speedway for the Gainsco Indy 300, March 29, 2008

American Le Mans Series / Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series

The countdown to the 56Th annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring is less than a week away, and all the teams are ready. for the first time this year, French manufacturer, Peugeot, will race in the 12 hours, most likely as a preparation race for the 24 hours of Le Mans. I personally expect Audi to take the win, like they have done in years past, but other teams, like the Team Penske Porsche's, as well as Peugeot themselves (they finished second to the Audi's at Last year's Le Mans 24 Hour), may make the race a little challenging for them to do so. The race begins on March 15, 2008, and is the season opener to the American Le Mans Series

The Rolex Sports Car Series ends their 4 week long break with some testing taken at the Homestead Miami Speedway, last week. their season continues on March 29, 2008 @ Homestead, on the same weekend as the Indy Racing League Indy Car Series

Formula One

The 2008 Formula One World championship Begins on Sunday - march 16, 2008 in Melborune, Australia, at the Albert Park Circuit. All teams, such as McLaren, Ferarri, BMW Williams, and Renault and the Middle East. It should be an exciting season, especially after the amazing season we had last year, with teams having brand new chassis to start, and since they have concluded their testing at tracks in Europe and the Middle East, as well. It was a great season in F1 last year, as well as a controversial one on and off the track - with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton almost winning the championship as a rookie - missing out to Kimi Raikkonen of Frearri, which has never been done in the history of the world championship, and ended up being the closest points race in history - by a single point. Hopefully, McLaren and Ferarri will keep their noses clean this year

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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