Full Throttle

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) — Dennis Setzer led the final 55 laps to become the 10th different NASCAR Craftsman Truck series winner at The Milwaukee Mile, and took the points lead with his victory Friday night.

Setzer, who started his Chevrolet from the third position on the grid, totally dominated the Toyota Tundra 200 after taking the lead from polesitter Jack Sprague on the 44th lap. Setzer gave up the lead just twice during pit stops and beat Sprague by 3.993 seconds for his second consecutive victory.

Defending race champion Ted Musgrave finished third in a Dodge with Ron Hornaday Jr., won the event in 1997, fourth in a Chevy.

Brendan Gaughan, won the 2003 race with a then- record average speed of 109.689, was a lap behind in fifth.

Bobby Hamilton, Steve Park, Rick Crawford, rookie Todd Kluever and Terry Cook completed the top 10.

IRL - Sam Hornish Jr. captured the pole for Saturday night’s SunTrust Indy Challenge at the Richmond International Raceway. The No.6 Penske Racing Toyota circled the 0.750-mile raceway in a track record 15.3197 seconds (176.244 m.p.h.). 12 drivers surpassed the year-old track record in qualifying. The pole victory was Hornish Jr.’s second of the season and fifth of his IndyCar career.

Starting on the front row with Hornish Jr. will be teammate Helio Castroneves, who posted a second-best time of 15.3586 seconds. Castroneves held the old mark of 15.7708. Ryan Briscoe (15.4590) and Patrick Carpentier (15.5372) will start in row two. Leading rookie candidate Danica Patrick will start inside the 11^th row.

NEXTEL Cup: Jeff Gordon broke his own track record for his fifth career pole at Sonoma and series point leader Jimmie Johnson will start on the outside pole. Shhhh… quite. Hear that low moaning sound? It’s the Hendrick’s haters crying in their beer over an all Hendricks front row.

1, Jeff Gordon, 24 DuPont Chevrolet, 75.950 sec, 94.325 mph, Leader
2, Jimmie Johnson, 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, 76.079, 94.165, -0.129
3, Mark Martin, 6 Viagra Ford, 76.203, 94.012, -0.253
4, Boris Said, 136 CENTRIX Financial Chevrolet, 76.233, 93.975, -0.283
5, Robby Gordon, 7 Harrah’s Chevrolet, 76.306, 93.885, -0.356
6, Kurt Busch, 97 Crown Royal Ford, 76.465, 93.690, -0.515
7, Tony Stewart, 20 The Home Depot Chevrolet, 76.560, 93.574, -0.610
8, Terry Labonte, 11 FedEx Freight Chevrolet, 76.788, 93.296, -0.838
9, Scott Pruett, 39 Texaco/Havoline “Shine On” Dodge, 76.810, 93.269, -0.860
10, Dale Earnhardt Jr., 8 Budweiser Chevrolet, 76.880, 93.184, -0.930

Champ Car: Top ten after round 1 qualifying ifor the Grand Prix of Cleveland.
1 C. da Matta 21 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 58.436 129.742 208.799
2 P. Tracy 3 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 58.440 129.733 208.785 0.004
3 M. Dominguez 7 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 58.546 129.498 208.406 0.110 0.106
4 S. Bourdais 1 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 58.576 129.432 208.300 0.140 0.030
5 A. Tagliani 15 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 58.705 129.147 207.841 0.269 0.129
6 J. Vasser 12 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 58.835 128.862 207.383 0.399 0.130
7 O. Servia 2 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 58.920 128.676 207.083 0.484 0.085
8 J. Wilson 9 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 58.986 128.532 206.852 0.550 0.066
9 A. Allmendinger 10 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 59.158 128.158 206.250 0.722 0.172
10 T. Glock 8 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone 59.346 127.753 205.598 0.910 0.188

While I’ve been a fan of FSU’s exploits on the football field and it’s insistence on keeping the Seminole logo and mascot, now there is another reason. The school has lent it’s support to a young student/racer.

Via I Love Racing.

There aren’t many athletes at Florida State University who never play a home game. Chris Festa, race car driver in the Indy Racing League Menards Infiniti Pro Series, is one of a few such athletes.

Festa, 19, recently completed his freshman year as a marketing major at FSU. The school granted Festa, who has raced competitively since he was 12, student-athlete status prior to the school year, enabling Festa access to athletic department facilities, including the weight room and training staff, as well as policies that make it easier to miss classes for travel.

Festa, whose helmet features a Seminole, has proven to be a quick learner on the race track, moving into fourth place in the Menards Infiniti Pro Series point standings after six of 14 races. Festa has finished on the podium three times, including consecutive third-place finishes at Texas Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He speaks mostly nonsense and is in full spin control mode but at least he’s not hiding under a desk somewhere. Keep my preceeding entry in the back of your mind when Max speaks of rules and how they must be followed.

What about the American fans who travelled long distances and spent a lot of money to see a race with only 6 cars?

My personal view, and it is only my personal view, is that Michelin should offer to compensate the fans on a fair basis and ask the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to coordinate this. Then Tony George and Bernie Ecclestone should jointly announce that the US Grand Prix will take place at Indianapolis in 2006 and that anyone who had a ticket this year would be entitled to the same ticket free-of-charge next year. But I emphasise, that

Via Auto Car

Scenario 1: Bridgestone brought intermediate tyres to Interlagos in 2003 and a monsoon flooded the circuit prior to the race. The FIA allowed the Bridgestone-shod teams (Ferrari included) to change to full wets out of concerns over safety, despite such a move violating the rules stating that only one wet tyre could be nominated for the race weekend. The FIA also delayed the race, and then, when the track didn’t dry out sufficiently, started the race behind a safety car. All well and good because the race went ahead and the fans got what they paid for.

Scenario 2: Michelin brings a tyre to Indy that ultimately proves unsafe. It informs the FIA two days before the race that it has concerns about the tyres

In the last few months the efforts to locate a NASCAR facility in the Northwest has met with financial and environmental concerns. Many have said the ISC would never succeed after their proposed track north of Seattle, Washington was turned down.

Port Orchard, Washington - located on the Southern side of
Puget Sound from Seattle - has won this round of racetrack sweepstakes and unlike Rusty Wallace’s recent ground breaking in Iowa this track, with ISC money, will get a NASCAR sanctioned event very early in it’s lifespan.

A team leader for the International Speedway Corporation, Grant Lynch, has announced it has chosen a 950-acre site near the Bremerton airport for a Northwest NASCAR race track.

Lynch told a news conference Thursday at Port Orchard that the $250 million project can be funded with no new taxes. He says the track would generate tax dollars from the economic impact of fans.

He says, “This project carries its own water.” Lynch says the biggest race at the track would have the economic impact of the Super Bowl. Lynch says the track would be built in a bowl configuration with seating for 80,000.

An earlier plan by the Daytona, Florida, company for a $250 million track near Marysville was canceled because of financing problems. ISC owns or operates eleven tracks around the country with more than 100 events a year

The ISC’s desire for a Washington State location is obvious. Just last September their proposal included promising to spend $50 million of the $250 million cost and cover any overruns in exchange for $200 million of public financing.

Now that that a financing solution is found work will commence on lingering transportation issues. They must also gain acceptance from the Legislature and go through the permitting process in Kitsap County before construction can start in 2007 or 2008.

The first NASCAR event for the 7/8^ths to 1.2 mile facility is projected as 2010.

In my thirty plus years around race tracks - short straight ones, ovals and those with “twisty bits” - I’ve seen my share of novel race ideas by promoters to fill the stands.

I’m sure the ever popular demolition derby was some local promoters idea at one time that spread like wild fire. In pre-Danica days Janet Guthrie’s exploits at Indy spawned Powderpuff Derbies. Their have been chain/train races where groups of cars are chained together with the lead car providing the motive power and the “caboose” giving the train the only brakes available.

Two of my favorites, although not strictly of the “side show variety,” are the Australian Pursuit and the Double “O”. The pursuit takes the top ten qualifies and inverts them for a ten lap heat. If a car is completely passed by a car behind, the overtaken car is eliminated. As I remember it the Double “O” was 25 laps in length and was run on a track that consisted of a 1/2 and 1/4 mile ovals. Drivers had to alternate each lap going from the 1/2 to the 1/4 back to the 1/2 etc.

All this brings me to this story out of South West Florida and Punta Gorda’s Charlotte County Speedway. This all makes perfect sense - if you’re slightly insane - when you realize the track is nearby to the Peace River and a stones throw to the Gulf of Mexico. That makes the obvious choice of marrying short track auto racing with boats and boat trailers a win-win situation for the promoter. And I should note, it was held on the figure 8 track. As if getting just your vehicle through the intersection isn’t hard enough these guys had to drag a Boston Whaler through also!

About 10 Southwest Floridians last Saturday night hooked trailers loaded with boats to eight-, six- and four-cylinder cars and raced for a whopping 20 laps at speeds up to 40 mph.

The winner in this case was the only guy whose sedan, trailer and boat were still intact by the end. He was the only guy to finish, actually. He was Dan Benoit of south Fort Myers.

Wait, don’t be shocked - Benoit makes his living in the junk car business. Relying on his 8 cylinder 1979 Lincoln netted him a cool 500 bucks for the win. And how appropriate is that? That era of Lincoln’s and Caddies were always tagged with the moniker of Land Yachts.

It wasn’t all peaches and cream for Dan, “On the way to the track, he got two flat tires,” said Benoit’s wife, Kim. And he seemed a little reluctant to truly embrace the boating crowd. “I hate boats. I hate water. I like showers, but not boats,” Benoit said when asked if the experience would help him next time he tows a boat.

Oh well, at least he’s got 500 bucks, and the promoter can be proud of one hell of an idea!

Image via New-Press.com

I first noted this story the week of the Indy 500. Unfortunately the only site that I was aware of that carried the Bernie Ecclestone quotes wasn’t available for some reason. The headline would show up in my RSS reader but the URL was dead.

Now that Bernie is reeling from lefts, rights and a few uppercuts from all directions I might as well pile onto his misery. Sports Illustrated now has the story and I have a question for my female readers. How would you feel if this were directed towards you? “Women should be all dressed in white like all other domestic appliances.” This is how Danica Patrick reacted:

Patrick received a telephone call from Ecclestone last week during which he congratulated the Indy Racing League rookie for her performance at the Indianapolis 500, but also reiterated remarks he had made during an interview at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the U.S. Grand Prix was being held.

Among the comments Ecclestone made in the interview and to the Roscoe, Ill., native was that “Women should be all dressed in white like all other domestic appliances.”

“I just didn’t make sense of it,” Patrick said during an IRL teleconference this week. “I was surprised, I guess, somebody would say that to me. And the days after, when it actually came out in the press, people were asking me ‘What do you think of that?’

“I was like, ‘You know what he told me? He said that on the phone.’

Patrick said some of Ecclestone’s comments were positive and complimentary, which made the exchange more perplexing.

“I can’t believe that he would say it to me over the phone, not to my face, but directly to me,” she said. “I was a bit confused. … So I don’t really know what to think about it.

“I don’t know if he was talking about someone else or the majority or what, I’m not really sure. Or, maybe that’s his real feeling.

“If that’s the case, then you know, [it] doesn’t really matter because I’m racing in the Indy Racing League.”

Good ole Bernie makes Robbie Gordon look like famed feminist Gloria Steinem. Now can anyone doubt, with this nut in charge, why F1 is so screwed up?

No, No, NO! Twasn’t us, go ask Michelin for your wasted cash.

The president of Formula One’s governing body thinks Michelin should compensate fans who bought tickets for the United States Grand Prix fiasco.

“My personal view is that Michelin should offer to compensate the fans on a fair basis,” Max Mosley said Wednesday in a FIA statement. “Anyone who had a ticket this year would be entitled to the same ticket free of charge next year.”

Question. Why would the FIA President offer a “personal view” prior to the scheduled hearing with the 7 Michelin teams and the FIA?

Rather obvious isn’t it? By bringing charges up against the 7 teams then offering his personel view he shifts the blame from the FIA and taints the “jury.” At the same time any shift in public opinion - that seams to be evenly divided between Michelin and the FIA - as a result of his comments are a bonus.

Crafty guy isn’t he? I, for one ain’t buying it. And somehow I don’t think Tony George will be either and there won’t be ‘06 tickets to make the exchange with.

The largest question of all still looms. What penalty will be handed down? A monetary fine would be the most logical and least damaging to competition.

If the governing body chooses to dock championship points from the teams they open their selves to charges of favoritism towards Ferrari. Renault has already lost 18 points toward the manufacturers championship to Ferrari and Alonzo 10 points to Shumie in the drivers standings. The same can be said for suspending the teams for a race or two. There are enough events left that they could spread out suspensions one team per race, but that possibly could favor Ferrari and making a larger mockery of the sport than it already is.

The FIA has made a bed that isn’t as comfy as your favorite king size Beauty Rest and I don’t think they are sleeping very well at any rate.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone in the obsurdity department, the FIA is shifting all blame to the 7 boycotting teams. “In a letter separately addressed to the seven principals, it is alleged that they failed to have ’suitable’ tyres, that they ‘wrongfully refused’ to race, ‘damaged the image’ of the sport and failed to notify stewards.”

Not surprising given the current scenario of the FIA sending the teams to Paris for an inqusition. But I wonder… just how is it the teams are responsibile for providing suitable tyres.?

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1. Cartoon via Global MotorSport [back]