Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2004 May.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

On the fifth anniversary of his most recent Lernerville victory, Kinser snapped an inexplicable 0 for 8 losing streak at the track with a victory in the World of Outlaws Commonwealth Clash on Tuesday night. Kinser, the winningest Sprint car racer in World of Outlaws history with more than 500 wins, outran 23 of the [...]

Marcus Gronholm’s victory in the Rally of Cyprus was overruled Wednesday after motor racing’s governing body upheld a finding by rally stewards his Peugeot water pump was illegal.
Peugeot said they would not appeal, which means Sebastien Loeb replaces Gronholm as the Cyprus winner and the Citroen Xsara driver takes over the world championship lead.
Cyprus Rally [...]

And a Saturday night bull ring NASCAR event appeared on my TV screen. The Monoco Grand Prix certainly departed from what has been mostly a Schumacher parade this season. Drivers reactions:
Jarno Trulli, Renault (1st):
“It is hard to express what I am feeling right now. The team, the car, myself, we have all been improving bit [...]

The icy cool Matt Kenseth, driving on perhaps his best track, waited patiently until three laps to go to make his move, then took the air off Ryan Newman’s rear spoiler in a pass for the lead and went on to win NASCAR’s annual all-star race by a solid eight lengths. It was a good [...]

Marcus Gronholm’s victory in last weekend’s Rally of Cyprus will not be officially ratified until after a meeting next Wednesday between his Peugeot team and the sport’s governing body to clarify a technical issue, the FIA confirmed on Wednesday. Cyprus Rally Organisers have summonsed Peugeot chiefs to a meeting in Paris on May 26 to [...]

Enzo must be lapping in his grave quicker than Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari on nitrous!
A Lamborghini for Italian cops SPEED-LOVING Italians now have a good reason to become traffic policemen: a

Making the best of an otherwise off day Ken Schrader takes the win from the pole at Toledo (OH) Speedway. There were more trying times for Frank Kimmel and a black flag for Billy Venturini; and that was only part of the story Sunday afternoon at Toledo Speedway when the ARCA RE/MAX Series played before [...]

Sprague, who returned fulltime to the series this season after a two-year absence, led the last 54 laps of the 250-lap race to post his first victory since Sept. 9, 2001. Sprague took the lead from fellow Chevrolet driver Dennis Setzer as the pair - rubbing fenders and doors - crossed the start-finish line on [...]

Gambling that he could win on tires and fuel with 54 laps to go, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made it happen Saturday night, outrunning Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte over the last 45 laps for his third victory of the season. Earnhardt made the move look brilliant, gradually building a lead of more than 3 seconds [...]

Joey Saldana dominated Tri-City Speedway’s quick half-mile Saturday, grabbing the $10,000 winner’s check and posting his first World of Outlaws Sprint Series “A” Main of the season.
Saldana started outside front row for the 25-lap headliner but just as he and pole-sitter Craig Dollansky took the green Kraig Kinser and Erin Crocker farther backinthe pack, with [...]