Full Throttle

Playing every bit the Hare from the well known fable, Michael Schumacher bolted from his pole position into the lead. Turning laps 3 seconds quicker than the field thru his lap 9 pit stop (first of three) he never looked back as he captured his sixth victory in seven races.

Rubens (tortoise) Barrichello “plodded” along with a heavier fuel load and a two stop strategy to finish 17.989s behind Michael and gave Ferrari its fourth 1-2 finish of the season, and extend its manufacturers points lead over Renault. So all is right with the world again, if you bleed Ferrari Red Acrylic paint.

Takuma Sato, on his way to a first ever podium finish, assumed the role of race goat with an ill-advised pass of Barrichello that mandated a pitstop for front wing placement. Two laps later he was gone in a cloud on oil smoke for the second week in a row. As can be imagined Barrichello isn’t happy

“I think I lost a part of my bargeboard and aerodynamically, especially at high speed, the car felt a bit strange,” he said. “So, I was lucky that the race was getting towards the end. I am sorry to say it but I think it was a bit too amateur from Sato to do that because he wasn’t in a position to actually try and overtake.

“He came completely sideways and luckily I saw the nose coming and I just took avoiding action and I was lucky that nothing else broke on my car. I just took that avoiding action which I think kept me alive.” “He could have eventually overtaken me because he was fast enough but he didn’t need to do it on that lap,” Barrichello added. “He wasn’t in contention on that lap.”

Jimmie Johnson made hay under the sunshine and turned out the lights after darkness fell Sunday. Johnson blistered the field in NASCAR’s 600-miler at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, leading 334 of the 400 laps that made up the Cup series longest event of the year.

“It was a lot of fun,” Johnson said. “But there is more pressure leading a race with the target on your bumper. But we did everything right. It was just an incredible day.”

Only the gamble of Jamie McMurray on pit strategy under a late caution and a red-flag following Ryan Newman’s later engine failure with seven laps to go provided drama in the final 50 miles in an otherwise boring event.

Johnson was two seconds ahead when Newman and Derrike Cope crashed on lap 366. McMurray took the lead and Michael Waltrip moved into second when they did not pit as the others on the lead lap did under the ensuing yellow.
Jeremy Mayfield and Kasey Kahne were the first two off pit road, putting Johnson fifth for the restart on lap 374.

“I knew we would roll out of the pits in the top five or eight,” Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus said. “At that point, it was get back out there and get after it.”

Johnson remained stuck in traffic until he shot between Kahne and the lapped car of Robby Gordon on lap 376.

“I was on kill,” Johnson said. “I saw a hole and just hoped they would back off. Fortunately, they did. All I was thinking about was the trophy and the place for it at our shop.”

Johnson blasted past Waltrip for second as they completed the 379th lap and then regained the lead on lap 384 from McMurray. Johnson streaked away and had a two-second lead when Newman’s engine expired in a cloud of smoke on lap 393.

NASCAR officials stopped the race on lap 395 during cleanup of the oil to help ensure a finish under the green flag. Johnson drove away after the restart on lap 398 and was over a second ahead when Bobby Labonte hit the wall on the final lap after a bump from Kasey Kahne.

“I knew there would be no decisions about pitting under that yellow,” Johnson said. “It was just a matter of going on the restart.”

When the yellow flag waved for Labonte’s crash, positions were frozen and guaranteed Johnson’s second win of the season.

Michael Waltrip, Matt Kenseth and McMurray were fighting for second place when the yellow waved. NASCAR ruled Waltrip was second, Kenseth third and McMurray fourth at the time the caution lights started flashing.

McMurray said he and crew chief Donnie Wingo saw the decision not to pit with 32 laps to go as their best chance to finish second. McMurray was in second when the race was stopped and lost that position on the final lap.

“I was going to run no better than third if we didn’t pit,” McMurray said. “We saw not stopping as a shot to finish second. But we weren’t going to beat Jimmie.”

Johnson attributed the domination to a combination of superior horsepower and handling. “It’s fun to drive when you can drive that aggressively and run fast laps.”

Elliott Sadler, points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, Mayfield, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace completed the top 10.

Source: High Point Enterprise (reg. req)

Dominating the race from the start, the #5 Vitaphone Racing Team Saleen S7 of Uwe Alzen and Michael Bartels took its second win of the year today at Brno, surviving a last-hour scare when it lost a wheel. The black and green Saleen crossed the finish line almost 30 seconds ahead of the #17 JMB Racing Ferrari 575 M Maranello of 1999 Champion Karl Wendlinger and his new team-mate, Jaime Melo of Brazil.

Championship leaders Fabrizio Gollin and Luca Cappellari were third, despite carrying 100 kg of penalty weight, while their team-mates Matteo Bobbi and Gabriele Gardel, lying second for most of the three-hour race, pulled out just laps from the end, an engine problem having caused their fuel consumption to soar.

“When I saw what happened to the wheel, I spoke to the team and told them,” Alzen explained. “I had to come in and we changed the wheel, and then there was a 12-second gap to the leader. But the Pirelli tyres were in great condition and the car was good, so it was not too hard to overtake them. For me, this is a great victory, and a great job from the team and Pirelli!”

Fourth place went to the #11 GPC Giesse Ferrari 575 Maranello of Philipp Peter and Fabio Babini, with the Creation Autosportif Lister Storm fifth.

The Konrad Motorsport Saleen, minus its multiple pole-sitter Walter Lechner Jr this weekend, finished a steady race in sixth, ahead of the BMS Care Racing Ferrari, which had been a front-runner for much of the race, but fell back due to throttle problems.

Taking the final point for eighth was the #18 JMB Racing Ferrari of Bert Longin, Ian Khan and Robert Lechner.

In the N-GT class meanwhile, after the disappointment at Hockenheim, the #62 GPC Giesse Squadra Corse Ferrari 360 Modena finally took its first win, with Christian Pescatori and Fabrizio de Simone dominating the race throughout.

They crossed the line nearly 30 seconds ahead of the battling Porsche 996 GT3-RS cars of Sascha Maassen/Lucas Luhr and Stephane Ortelli/Emmanuel Collard, who enlivened the race with a thrilling nose to tail, side by side fight of the kind more usually seen in sprint races.
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Buddy Rice and his #15 Rahal Letterman Racing team led the 88th Indianapolis 500 mile race at the two times it counted: the start and finish, en route to giving the only American designed-and-built Indy Racing League IndyCar Series chassis its second consecutive Indy 500 victory.

Serving as a substitute driver for the injured Kenny Brack, 28-year-old Arizonian Rice and his team overcame rain delays, a stall on his second pit stop and outstanding competition in the 33-car field to gain the first victory for Rice, his team and for Honda. He led the most laps, 91 of the 180-lap contest.?We knew the weather would be a problem,? Rice noted after his 180-lap day was done 20 laps early due to a third bout of inclement weather. The race started more than two hours late, was suspended midway due to rain storms ? and ended 20 laps early for the same reason.

?We told Buddy the rain was 30 minutes away and he just went,? remarked Rahal Letterman team manager Scott Roembke. Rice acknowledged all month that he had the best package with Panoz G Force, Honda and Firestone and credited his team for making all of the pieces work to his advantage.

By staying out later than his competition prior to making his final pit stop, Rice was able to work his car hard to build a gap.

Bruno Junqueira, finishing fifth in the #36 PacifiCare Panoz G Force/Honda today came back from mid-pack.

?We had to add downforce and were on a different strategy from the leaders. When I got the lead (on lap 135) the car was pretty fast and I could pull away. The rain came too late for me, but I’m happy with fifth today.?

Vitor Meira brought the Rahal Letterman Racing #17 Team CENTRIX Panoz G Force/Honda home in sixth place, followed by Adrian Fernandez, sixth in the #5 Quaker State/Telmex Panoz G Force/Honda and by reigning IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon in the #1 Target Panoz G Force/Toyota.

Roger Yasukawa’s 10th place finish in the #16 Sammy Panoz G Force/Honda gave Rahal Letterman Racing all three cars in the top ten and Panoz G Force six of the ten highest places in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

A dramatic race saw O?Hara lead from pole and build a comfortable lead before his wooden splitter was ripped off on the Bus Stop kerbs and the consequent loss of down force allowed Jones to easily pass. The race then finished under the safety car following a heavy accident to Don Pastor, possibly caused by him hitting the remains of O?Hara?s splitter.

The drama started on the warm up when JoJo Silverio stripped first gear and was unable to take the start. O?Hara led from Jones into turn one whilst behind Richard Joson made best use of the gap left by the absent Silverio to barge pass Mark Goddard, in the process deranging the latter?s front suspension. Enzo Pastor also passes Goddard in the confusion.

O?Hara build up a useful lead over Jones over the first few laps whilst Joson kept Pastor and Goddard bottled up behind him. Pastor sneaked by Joson at turn one in a ballsy pass whilst it took Goddard another lap to out brake Joson into the chicane. Goddard then dispatched Pastor one lap later and pulled away to what looked like a safe third place. Goddard then spun out of the race on the entry to the bus stop on lap six, around the same time that O?Hara clipped the tyres in the final turn allowing Jones to close in. O?Hara then lost his splitter and the unfortunate Don Pastor hit the offending item and slammed into the wall hard on the exit of the bus stop.

Jones was able to out brake O?Hara into the hairpin before the safety car was brought out whilst the stricken Pastor was attended to. The mess was too great to clear and the race ended under the safety car, Jones leading O?Hara and Enzo Pastor.

The Promotion Class ended in controversy after Tyson Sy overtook [16 year old] Dado Pena for the lead of the class at the hairpin. Pena reckoned the ?full course yellow? for the safety car was already out whilst Sy swears there were no yellow flags. Pena then pitted for a reported engine problem and rejoined to finish 4th in class, behind Sy, Hermoso and Kenkou Miura.. Aaron Caratti split Sy and Hermoso on the road with a sick sounding engine, due to a cracked exhaust header.

Race two results are below the fold.

Source: AF3
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LAKE ERIE, Pa. — There wasn’t much left undamaged on the No. 1 Country Homes Chevrolet of Kevin Cywinski after the ASA Racing 250 at Lake Erie (Pa.) Speedway. The car was used up after a very physical event that saw Cywinski and second place finisher Mike Garvey beat and bang all over each other.

Cywinski made a last lap bump through Turn 2 that pushed Garvey out of the groove and allowed Cywinski to take the lead on the last circuit around the .375-mile track. The move wasn’t universally celebrated though.

“It was a hard fought race,” Cywinski said from the winner’s circle where he celebrated ASA career victory number 15. “We got inside of Mike (Garvey) a couple of times and then he came down and rubbed on us. We got up on the outside of him a couple of times and got rubbed on. We were faster than him. He did a good job of running all over the race track and we did a good job of getting him at the end.”

Garvey, in the No. 17 Jani-King Chevrolet, had a different viewpoint on the finish.

“You call that racing,” Garvey asked after the event. “I don’t call that racing. I can run into everybody too. If that’s racing, then I can race that way too.”

Next week the National Tour heads to another short track, Mansfield (Ohio) Motorsports Speedway. Could Garvey have a little something extra in mind for Cywinski? “You bet your butt I do,” he replied with a smile.

Third place finisher Mike Cope had a great view of the action out the windshield of his No. 25 Manheim’s Florida Auction of Orlando Ford.

“It was the best seat in the house, I tell you, but I was getting worked over by the 96 car,” said Cope about Wade Day. “Then on the last lap Tim (Sauter) made a clean run at me. He races for a living and is a gentleman. He made a run at me. Me and Mike (Garvey) got together once, Kevin (Cywinski) and I got together once. But we race.

“Kevin and Mike had their problems, but we’re racers,” Cope continued. “These guys got to learn to race. There are too many punks in this series, and that’s no (expletive deleted).”

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John O?Hara recorded at 1m 10.7 lap to head the time sheets, with Mark Goddard and Christian Jones joint second and JoJo Silverio a close third.

Goddard?s best was a 1m 12.021 on well used tyres, Jones recorded the same time bit sat out two of three sessions as he felt he was wasting time running on well used tyres. Silverio, with 1m 12.156 was likewise was on old tyres whilst it is suspected O?Hara was using low mileage Yokohama. ?Tyres, and how many laps they have run make a huge difference here and we will not really know who is doing what until qualifying tomorrow? said Mark Goddard.

Fifth quickest was Enzo Pastor on 1m 12.425 followed by Tyson Sy and Dado Pena the first of the promotion class runners. Again they were closely matched with 1m 12.986 and 1m 13.083 laps respectively. Richard Joson was going better today with a 1m 13.632 lap followed by Don Pastor with 1m 14. 125, Roland Hermoso on 1m 14.723 and Kenkou Muira recording 1m 14.828.

Mike Tuason finally got on track at the end of the day and recorded a 1m 25.094 whilst learning the track. Also out at the end of the day was Aaron Caratti, just running in his newly rebuilt car and not posting a real time.

Jimmie Johnson ranked first and last on Thursday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The final driver of 52 to make an attempt, he claimed the pole position for Sunday’s 600-mile race by outhustling the Cup series’ best qualifying hustler with a record run. Johnson averaged 187.052 miles per hour as he streaked to the fastest stock-car racing lap ever at the 1.5-mile asphalt speedway while knocking Ryan Newman from the track record book on two counts.

Newman, who was the fourth driver on the track, blasted to a then-record lap of 186.948 in his Dodge that topped his Cup mark of 186.657 and his overall mark of 186.780 set in an ARCA car in October of 2000. Jeff Gordon was third in a Chevrolet at 186.922, followed by Elliott Sadler at 186.619 in a Ford. Brian Vickers was fifth at 186.265, joining Johnson and Gordon in the top five in Hendrick Motorsports cars.

Newman went out before sunset, while the third and fourth turns were baking. Johnson qualified well after twilight, when the track wasn’t as slick, and didn’t bother with his second lap when told he had the record. Gordon and Vickers were among the early qualifiers.

“When we picked 52nd, my confidence soared,” said Johnson, who won the 600 last year. “When Ryan made his run, my confidence dropped. Then when Jeff and Brian made their runs, my confidence picked up again. I expected to have an advantage going later, but it wasn’t as great as in past years.”

Johnson’s seventh career pole was his first since Kansas City last October, but was unsure if he went fast enough to deny Newman his 22nd pole in 92 tries.

“I had to feather the gas some,” Johnson said. “It felt good, but I didn’t know if I beat Ryan. When I came off turn four, I told the crew to let me know if I had it.”

Source: High Point Enterprise, free reg req’d

ARCA RE/MAX Series rookie Ryan Hemphill triumphed over a stellar field of able contenders Thursday night at Lowe?s Motor Speedway to win the Quaker Steak & Lube 100. Hemphill, in Todd Braun?s TrimSpa Dodge, passed fellow rookie Reed Sorenson for the lead inside of ten laps remaining, and then held off a gallant charge from another rookie Justin Hobgood to earn his second series victory in only his fifth attempt.

Hemphill, who started from the Pork Pole, never pitted during the 67-lap, 100-mile race, which was extended by 6 laps to accommodate an ARCA-mandated green-white-checker finish.

Source: ARCA Racing
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You know all those crazy rabid soccer football fans in Europe, the ones that are so rowdy and uncontrollable they have their passports pulled. They are such a menace to themselves and those around them their prohibited foreign travel to attend matches outside their home country.

I first thought of the symmetry of NASCAR and soccer football fans at the California race when a few idiots were unhappy with Jeff Gordon and pelted the track with bottles, cans, and everything else throwable except Grandma’s dentures. California reminded me that a similar incident occurred the race before at Talladega. The morons in Charlotte, not to be out done by Texas or California, displayed the same lunacy during last weekends All Star Event. With this weekends race the longest on the NASCAR schedule (600 miles), and the idiot fringe given about 45 minutes extra time to consume their favorite beverage, I foresee a sequel to the last few races.

Some have suggested closing all alcohol sales after a certain time, something that has been tried in others sports. I tend to think along more draconian lines. I suggest those caught and identified be banned from the next scheduled NASCAR appearance at that track. If the incident occurs in the last event of the season for that venue the penalty rolls over to the next year. If the “fan” is one who travels with the circuit the ban would also include the nearest NASCAR venue to his home of record. A second offense would result in a 2 year ban.

Steve Nash, staff writer for CatchFence has a piece on the same subject. Drunk Apples on the NASCAR Tree

Anyone with one fifth of a brain knows that throwing stuff on the track before, during, or after the event is idiotic at best. The dangers involved (what if you miss and knock some little kid sitting in the third row?), and the ultimate anti-image that results for NASCAR stems from you, the morons, who have to throw stuff on the track.

[…]

Something will be done if you don’t stop. Maybe the BYOB rule will be banned, and beer will cost $10 each. Of course, being that you only come to drink beer anyway (and pay $40 to get inside just to drink, come on how stupid can you be?) you are probably fuming right now, if you even know how to read.

[…]

So, again, pat yourself on the back for making the sport just that much worse and the day that much more negative. It’s great that you put such a super role model for the very impressionable little kids at the track. You’re doing the country proud, your family proud, and your friends proud by being a jackass.

But, you probably passed out after reading one sentence in the column, so it’ll still be here when you sober up for a brief few seconds.