Full Throttle

It’s a recuring dream, night after night you dream of roaring along at 200mph in the latest Formula One machine. While many dreams aren’t possible, or desirable for that matter, this one is. And it helps a worthy cause. There is one catch, you drive blindfolded, with an opportunity to set a world record.

This challenge is being offered to courageous people by Anita Knight, founder of Record Breakers, the company she set up the company to give people the chance to become a record breaker and help the charity British Blind Sport who provide sporting facilities for the Blind.

The F1 Challenge is to beat the current blindfolded land speed world record of 144.7mph. Anita said, “it is possible to exceed the world record by more then 50mph in a Formula 1 race car and with specialist training being given by EuroBoss F1 Driver Matthew Mortlock we will create a new world record holder for one Schumacher wannabe.”

If driving blindfolded sounds crazy, why not do a underwater marathon in Loch Ness or a GET ME OUT OF HERE jungle challenge in Borneo or any of the other 25 other charity challenges on offer.

BAYTOWN, Texas –? The wait is over. Steve Kinser, the undisputed king of sprint car racing, has won his 500th World of Outlaws Sprint Series ?A? Feature.

The defending and 18-time series champion drove his #11 Quaker State Maxim past pole-sitter Brooke Tatnell late in the 10th lap of the Fifth Annual Texas Shootout at Houston Raceway Park Saturday, and held off a furious last-lap charge by Donny Schatz to claim the milestone victory by half a car-length.

?I?m just glad to get this one over with so we don?t have to hear about it any more,? Kinser said in victory lane. ?Donny Schatz is one of those guys who gets better the longer the race goes on. I got to running the bottom of three and four pretty good through the middle of the race, but when I saw him beside me there, I really didn?t know what to do. I didn?t know if the top was any good, so I tried to stay low and block him, but I ended up missing the bottom. We were all pretty bottled up in traffic though.

Source: RaceFan
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All the Formula 1 fans should be thanking their lucky stars, and that favorite 1/2 inch box wrench that Ferrari only fields a 2 car team in F1. With 7 in top ten of the “Prancing Horse” variety the past dominance of the Vipers are only a distant memory.

1. Cappellari/Gollin BMS Ferrari 550 Maranello 2hours 39min 50.695secs 87 laps GT
2. Bobbi/Gardel BMS Ferrari 550 Maranello +44.790s GT
3. Babini/Peter GPC Giesse Ferrari 575 Maranello +1m 25.821s GT
4. Naspetti/Hezemans GPC Giesse Ferrari 575 Maranello +1 lap GT
5. Calderari/Bryner/Livio Care Ferrari 550 Maranello +2 laps GT
6. Goossens/Bouchut/vd Zwaan Zwaans Chrysler Viper GTS-R +3 laps GT
7. Ortelli/Collard Yukos Freisinger Porsche 996 GT3 +3 laps N-GT
8. Pescatori/de Simone GPC Giesse Ferrari 360 Modena +3 laps N-GT
9. Khan/Longin/Pillon JMB Ferrari 575 Maranello +4 laps GT
10. Goodwin/Ramos RML Saleen S7R +6 laps GT
11. Ried/Ried/Marcinkiewicz Proton Porsche 996 GT3 +8 laps N-GT
12. Erdos/Newton RML Saleen S7R +9 laps GT
13. Premoli/Barbaro/de Castro AB Porsche 996 GT3 +9 laps N-GT
14. Villaroel/Ruberti/Becker GNM Saleen S7R +27 laps GT

Not classified:

DNF. Luhr/Maassen Freisinger Porsche 996 GT3 49 laps completed N-GT
DNF. Roos/Abbelen/vd Zwaan Zwaans Chrysler viper GTS-R 47 laps completed GT
DNF. Fomenko/Vasiliev Yukos Freisinger Porsche 996 GT3 45 laps completed N-GT
DNF. Campbell-Walter/Derbyshire Creation Lister Storm 29 laps completed GT
DNF. Gosse/Kutemann/Daoudi JMB Ferrari 575 Maranello 28 laps completed GT
DNF. Coronel/Knapfield/Pearce Lister Lister Storm 19 laps completed GT
DNF. Alzen/Bartels Vitaphone Saleen S7R 10 laps completed GT
DNF. Lechner/Wendlinger/Wolff JMB Ferrari 575 Maranello 2 laps completed GT
DNF. Konrad/Seiler/Lechner Jr Konrad Saleen S7R 1 lap completed GT
DNS. Wieth/Kaufmann Wieth Ferrari 550 Maranello Did not start GT

Fastest laps:

Alzen/Bartels Vitaphone Saleen S7R 1m 44.708s / Lap 7 GT
Ortelli/Collard Yukos Freisinger Porsche 996 GT3 1m 49.967s / Lap 4 N-GT

Source: Crash Net

Much has been written in recent weeks about the short fields for the Nextel Cup Series. One of the most insightful articles is by Tom Bowles who writes for Stock Car City (Field Filler Maddness: and the rich get richer). He documents the Andy Hillenberg incident at Darlington and the justifiable rage of Jeff Gordon after being caught up in the carnage. He traces the short fields in the Cup Series to multi car teams and oddly enough Nextel itself.

Andy Belmont has been a top-10 ARCA RE/MAX Series point finisher in 5 consecutive seasons (98-02) and was one of the “field fillers” at Darlington. He gives his side of the story as he drives home from “The Lady in Black.”

Source: ARCA Racing
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Drivers Notes:

Kurt Busch

“This one by far has got to be the sweetest because of what we had to overcome,” Busch said of his victories here, nearly half of his career total of nine. “Our engine had about 1,000 RPM less all day today … and I just couldn’t get the car to handle right. It’s just unreal.”

Asked why he stayed on track when the other leaders pitted on lap 382, he grimaced.

“We only had 20 laps on our tires,” Busch said. “I looked in the mirror and some guys didn’t pit behind us, so I just … stayed out. But all those guys were a lap down. “It was a decision I was wrong on and I had to bail myself out on it.”

Rusty Wallace on the late race yellows.

“Doggone, man,” Wallace said, shaking his head. “We didn’t need those last cautions. I was just about to pass him that one time. Man, I wanted that bad. So close.”

editors notes: In looking at the last three finishers can anyone believe the published reasons for their retirement. Mechanical ? It’s been common for the under financed teams to just “make the show” then quietly bow out to save equipment. As someone that faced similiar problems during his career the words of James Hylton come to mind.

“If I’d gotten some help, I feel like I could have run with anybody,” he says. “If I’d had some financial backing-a sponsor-where we could have hired people to let me concentrate on racing, I feel I could have driven with anybody. I’m not too happy with NASCAR for not supporting the (independent drivers). Not only me, there were a dozen independent drivers who could have been winners if they’d had some financial help.

“I know it wasn’t NASCAR’s responsibility to see that everybody’s got the best of the best. But I know there were opportunities there, that with a little bit of coaching from NASCAR, they could have shoved a little sponsorship our way, but they never did,” Hylton said. Hylton is still bitter about the decades old events. ” I have a little resentment there, because I feel like I was left out, not because of a lack of ability or a lack of working myself to death,” Hylton said. ” It was all a financial deal.”

As in most things the past can be the best teacher. In Hylton’s era the “Big Three” ruled with massive amounts of cash in support of the “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” theory. Today, while auto makers still hold some purse strings, the advent of multi-car teams may be creating more problems than realized. And apparently NEXTEL, now the Title Sponsor in NASCAR, may be part of the problem as evidenced by its refusal to let AT&T become a sponsor of #49 car of Ken Schrader, because they thought AT&T would take away from their business. If this report is true the petty little BS has to stop or NASCAR’S efforts to expand will only lead to more venue’s to race on, and field size’s that hit the 30 mark.
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NASCAR Nextel Cup driver John Andretti is working on a deal to race twice at Indianapolis in 2004 ? combining a NASCAR run in the Brickyard 400 in August with a return to the famed Indianapolis 500, now a round of the Indy Racing League, on May 30.

If the bid comes off it will be the second double involving Indianapolis for Andretti, who 10 years ago became the first driver to race in both the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on the same day. Only Robbie Gordon and Tony Stewart have done the 1100-mile double duty since.

Andretti, the nephew of motorsport great Mario Andretti, is tacking on a partial Nextel Cup programme for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated this season, having raced in two of the five rounds held so far. He has not revealed who he is talking to about an IRL drive at Indianapolis. The 1994 double was the last time he raced in the Memorial Day classic, his seventh Indy start four of which have brought him top 10 finishes.

?I’ve taken the first step,? Andretti said of his Indy plans. ?Every year I’ve had an opportunity to come back. Now I can do it. I want to see where everything sets. I want to do it right.

The 41-year old added that Indianapolis remained important to him. ?(The Indy 500) has never fallen off my radar screen, and it never will. It’s the Indy 500. Good, bad or indifferent, I can’t wait for it to come around. It’s been a part of my life.?

Bahrain authorities say they have taken all necessary precautions to ensure security when the Middle East hosts a Formula One race for the first time next week.

A statement issued in London by grand prix organisers quoted a spokesman for Bahrain’s Interior Ministry as saying that a wide-ranging plan had been drawn up for the April 4 race.

“The plan the Ministry has includes all aspects of security from low level vandalism to national disasters and international terrorism,” he said.

“The help of the National Guard and certain assets of the Bahrain Defence Force have been brought in to provide a comprehensive and robust national security plan,” he added.

Organisers said the plan included a quadrupling of patrols in all key areas of the Gulf kingdom as well as quick reaction teams on call around the clock at strategic locations.

The National Guard will also be mobilised to protect key facilities.

The spokesman said Bahrain took national security as “a matter of paramount importance” but added that policing would be as unobtrusive as possible.

The British government’s latest advice to visitors to Bahrain on the Foreign Office website was of a “high threat from terrorism against western, including British, targets.”

“We are particularly concerned about potential threats to places where westerners might gather,” it added.

The majority of the 10 Formula One teams are based in Britain.

Britain’s Mirror tabloid newspaper reported that Ferrari’s world champion Michael Schumacher would be given an armed guard in Bahrain and travel in one of the king’s limousines.

A Williams spokesman said however that the team had consulted insurers and taken independent advice about the risks but premiums had not changed.

He said all staff had been briefed on local cultural sensitivities and practices but this was normal for any new race and the same would apply to China, which hosts a grand prix for the first time in September.
Reuters

? 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Twenty three Formula 1 Powerboats lined up against a spectacular beach backdrop Friday for the start of the UIM F1 Powerboat Championship of Saudi Arabia. Spectators were mesmerised as an array of brightly coloured boats literally leapt into action right in front of their eyes!

The excitement continued as two boats collided on the second lap forcing Moreschi Massimilliano from the Italian Singha team to retire and Pertti Leppala from Team DanIta to place last at the restart. F1 Powerboat rules govern that should an incident take place in the first three laps then all boats must return to the grid to restart the race.

Source: F1 Boat
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Back to “real racing.” This weekends events will be run on the high banks of the Bristol Motor Speedway. This race and venue showcase the roots and history of NASCAR like no other on the circuit. The heart and sole of NASCAR still resides at all the short tracks across the country. They feature muggy Saturday night’s in July, 30 car 30 lap main events, and walks thru the open pits at the end of the night. All Bristol is missing is a few thousand cubic yards of clay and the setting would be perfect.

There are a number of quick cars starting mid-pack. Earnhardt Jr., Martin, Kenseth, Labonte, and Jarrett are all 18th or deeper in the field and should make it interesting seeing them come up thru the field. Unless someone decides to get happy and play “bumper tag” in the early laps. Then any or all of them may be found against the wall, coolant and oil running down the high banks.
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FIA GT Championship - returns to Monza for the opening round of 2004.
This year, the sportscar series sets off on a ten-round tour, taking in Valencia, Magny-Cours, Hockenheim, Brno, Donington Park, Spa-Francorchamps, Imola and Oschersleben after its Italian opening, before finishing the season outside Europe, with a race at the brand-new Dubai Autodrome.

Source: Crash Net
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