Full Throttle

Auckland NZ’s weather is closing in on the Australian V8 Supercars. All the top teams were in set up mode today, before the first practice session Friday morning. About 80,000 fans are expected to descend upon Pukekohe for a full weekend of racing in the V8 Supercar Championship Series. Other races include the Formula Ford, Porsche GT3 Carrera and New Zealand V8 Touring Cars classes

Top Kiwi drivers Greg Murphy and Paul Radisich will be among the competitors in the three-day event.
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Jenson Button’s first ever pole position in Imola held out some promise that what has passed for racing this season, would take a decidedly different look once the green fell on Ferrari’s home track. The promise held, for nine laps, then the race took on all the excitement of watching paint dry, Ferrari red paint.

It became obvious the Button qualifying performance was in no small way assisted by a light fuel load as evidenced by the early stop. He entered the pits one second in front of Michael Schumacher who responded with two of the races fastest laps to that point. The quick laps and an eight second stop on lap 11 translated to a 5 second lead that Schumacher never relinquished, and went on to post his fourth victory of the year, followed by Buttons third straight podium finish and his best ever placing.

Next on the schedule is Circuit de Cataluy?a for the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks (May 9).

Cross Posted @ SportsBlog
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…..is not the way things should be. A 4 hour fight to the finish is supposed to have a FIGHT to the FINISH! Not a parade lap and a foregone conclusion. The Talladega fans are upset both with the ending, and against the few that decided to throw garbage on the track. David Poole of the The Charlotte Observer has the ultimate answer I believe:

There are ways it can be fixed that wouldn’t require racing back to the caution, which remains unsafe. The best way? With 10 or fewer laps to go on tracks one mile or longer, and 25 laps to go on short tracks, stop counting yellow-flag laps. Keep the cars running, but don’t count the laps. What about cars that might run out fuel? You could just say “tough luck,” or you could allow cars to come to pit road for fuel only without losing track position under such a circumstance.

Sounds simple to me.

It will be interesting to see the NASCAR reaction. In a time where they are struggling to maintain full sponsorships for some teams, its not in their best interest to have a few idiots throwing things and making racing a harder sell to corporate bigwigs. As for the few that are guilty, if they can be positively identified they should be permanently banned from all NASCAR tracks. England has a ban list for soccer hooligins, maybe its time to start something like it.
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2004 ARCA RE/MAX SERIES EVENT #3

Salem Speedway, Salem IN, 4-25-04
Official Results, Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200
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Christian, son of Alan Jones, triumphed in the first round of the Asian Formula Series after pre-race favourite, John O?Hara, spun out of the lead when under pressure from Jones. Mark Goddard finished third after an eventful race. Tyson Sy ran second overall for the first half of race one before spinning out but recovered to take maximum points in the Promotion Class. Jones led all the way in race two soaking up tremendous pressure from O?Hara whilst Goddard stalled at the start and finished third with an overheating car. Tyson Sy again won the Promotions Class.

The Asian F3 Series is part of the Asian Festival of Speed (AFOS) that also includes a touring car championship, and GT class. Rules and regulations for the F3 series can be downloaded here. (PDF). And just like every circuit and series in the world, there are the BABES!

Source: Asian Formula three
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A perfect lap by Jenson Button in qualifying for tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix has seen the BAR star secure his (and his team’s) maiden pole position. Button’s 1:19.753 was comfortably faster than the lead Ferrari of Michael Schumacher, with the Briton clearly benefiting from aerodynamic improvements to the BAR005 which have allowed BAR to enjoy a highly competitive start in Imola. Schumacher finished second with a laptime of 1:20.011, 0.258s slower than Button and 0.201s quicker than Williams’ Juan Pablo Montoya (pasesetter in the first qualifying session). Rubens Barrichello claimed the fourth quickest time whilst Ralf Schumacher and Fernando Alonso will line-up alongside each other on the fifth row of the grid. Takuma Sato (seventh), Mark Webber (eighth), Jarno Trulli (ninth) and Cristiano da Matta (tenth) round out the session’s top ten which established arguably the most interesting grid of the season to date.

While this report from F1 NewsWire sums up todays action it is slightly misleading for anyone that missed the broadcast. Button “clearly benefiting” from a Schumacher near spin into the gravel trap is closer to the truth. The fact Button BAR team-mate Sato posted a time over a second slower suggests the “aerodynamic improvements” are clearly not a factor. I suspect the BAR bosses looked to build on Jensons recent podium finishes, gave him a lighter fuel load, and said, got get’em kid.
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On the eve of another episode of “freight train” racing, Daytona being the first, Talladega Motor Speedway always prompts the question, will I get caught in “the big one?”

At Daytona and particularly Talladega, races have become two parallel trains, the 43 car pack lapping at almost 200mph in two trains, drafting each other. Drop out of line and lose the draft, and you go backwards so fast you can be a leader one second and 43th the next. And not incidently struggling to regain the draft you just got booted out of.

And that leads to the “big one” — the wild multi-car crashes that have happened in recent years in just about every race at Talladega and Daytona. Not surprisingly the drivers have had plenty to say on the matter.

Jamie McMurray

?Talladega is like a big chess game,? says Jamie McMurray. ?It’s one of those races that is more a mental game than anything else. We run in one big pack for most of the day, and you always have to calculate what your next move will be in order to stay in the lead draft. We’ve had some good runs there, but always seem to get caught up in the wrecks.?

Jimmy Johnson

?At Talladega, you spend so much time looking in the mirrors and paying attention to what’s going on around you that you almost lose sight of who you’re racing with and who’s around you. You’re kind of staring at the back glass of the car in front of you ? you’re almost looking through his rear window and out his windshield to see what’s going on in front of you. And then in the rear view mirror, you’re trying to block and defend the position you have. At Talladega or Daytona, you forget who’s around you because you’re running in a huge group of cars. You really can’t get away from anybody you start with and you can’t control your own destiny, so you almost admit that you’re stuck in a sense and just trying to work traffic.?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a little more to the point, ?We seem to have Talladega figured out,? he says with all the confidence of someone that heads a team (DEI) that has won 10 of the last 13 restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega, and Junior himself has won four of the last five ? in the other he took second to team-mate Michael Waltrip.

The qualifying results are listed below, note the difference between 1st and 38rd place (last timed entry). Less than 9/10ths of a second. With the draft negating the 3mph spread the “big one” lurks just around the corner.
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After crashing out with 2 laps remaining at Nashville, and a possible win, Clint Bowyer has captured the pole position for the Aaron’s 312 at the Talladaga Motor Speedway.

Chevrolet’s took 8 of the top ten starting spots, with only Mark Green’s Clorox Ford (7th) and Kasey Kahne’s (9th) Great Clips Dodge breaking the Chevy monotony.
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Max Mosley, the FIA president, unveiled radical proposals to change the face of Formula 1 on Friday.

As he faces another year of Ferrari domination, Mosley released a series of plans to improve the spectacle from 2008 onwards in a document released at the San Marino Grand Prix.

His proposals for the 2008 regulations include fitting cars with smaller engines, banning electronic driver aids in order to bring down costs and make racing closer.

Mosley’s ideas were detailed ahead of a two-day meeting with Formula 1 team bosses in Monaco on May 4.

Source: IAfrica.com
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NASCAR NEXTEL CUP

Aaron’s 499
Site: Talladega, Ala.; Talladega Superspeedway (trioval, 2.66 miles, 33 degrees banking in turns)
Schedule: Friday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 3:10 p.m.); Sunday, race (KDFW/Ch. 4, 12:30 p.m.)
Race distance: 188 miles/500 laps
2003 champion: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

BUSCH SERIES

Aaron’s 312
Site: Talladega, Ala.; Talladega Superspeedway (trioval, 2.66 miles, 33 degrees banking in turns)
Schedule: Today, qualifying, 2:10 p.m.; Saturday, race (KDFW/Ch. 4, 1 p.m.)
Race distance: 311.22 miles/117 laps
2003 champion: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

FORMULA ONE

San Marino Grand Prix
Site: Imola, Italy; Enzo and Dino Ferrari Autodrome (road course, 3.057 miles, 15 turns)
Schedule: Saturday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 8 a.m.); Sunday, race (Speed Channel, 6:30 a.m.)
Race distance: 189.534 miles/62 laps
2003 champion: Michael Schumacher

ARCA REMAX Series

The Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200
Site: Salem Indiana, Salem Speedway
Schedule: Saturday, practice (11-12;30), qualifying (2pm)
Race distance: 200 laps/110 miles