Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2005 November.

Brian France, (a/k/a HE, who shall be obeyed) has a plan. Speaking at the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit in New York France said he has a plan to “rule the World.”, claiming “Everybody understands auto racing,”
“We’re in the early stages of outlining a long-range international strategy that could capitalize on an [...]

U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman in Covington, Kentucky heard arguments today whether to transfer Kentucky Speedway’s $400 million antitrust case against NASCAR to a Florida federal court. ( a case I’ve covered extensively here and here)
Bertelsman heard arguments from both sides today on NASCAR’s motion to transfer the case. NASCAR contends the track agreed as [...]

Speaking at the Sports Business Journal/Sports Business Daily Motorsports Marketing Forum, Dan Sanborn, director of sports marketing for Diageo North America has defended the decision to suspend Kurt Busch for the final two events of the 2005 NASCAR season.
“Our position would not have changed,” said Sanborn, even “if Busch had been leading the Nextel Cup [...]

Who a thunk it!
Helio Castroneves best known as the first driver to win the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” two years in a row since Al Unser won in 1970 and 1971 and only the fifth driver in Indianapolis 500 history to win in consecutive appearances. He was not only the youngest driver to accomplish the [...]

What were they thinking may also fit.
McGlynn Racing (pdf file) and Derrike Cope have announced they will run a full NEXTEL Cup schedule in 2006. Former Daytona 500 winner, a veteran of over 400 Cup series starts, will run the #00 for the team. New sponsorship for the team is nearing completion and will be [...]

I’m SHOCKED… on second thought… I’m shocked ratings only dropped by 45%. Television viewing analyst ‘Initiative Futures’ has recorded a decline in formula one figures over the last year.
A report showed that 800 million people, combined, tuned in to the nineteen grands prix in 2005 - that’s a tad over 42 million per race. But [...]

I’ll keep this short as it is a very long article but noteworthy for fans of [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/irl.png]IndyCar[/avatar] and Dario Franchitti. Kenny MacAskill writing for the Scotsman newspaper has penned “Big star, big country,” a piece that details his meeting and interview with Franchitti before and after the IRL’s event in Nashville.
I’ll leave it at that [...]

The Las Vegas Review Journal is reporting the Champ Car World Series will announce a revised schedule during a media teleconference today.
It’s expected Series officials will announce Las Vegas will be replaced on the 2006 schedule with an, as yet, unnamed venue. Speedway general manager Chris Powell said, “I’ve known all along that they might [...]

Plans for the Newton Iowa Speedway have been going smoothly, but now questions are being raised about the financial terms and loans taken out by the developer, U.S. Motorsports Corporation.
Touted as the only track designed by a stock car driver ground was broken in June of this year. Driver, and now track designer Rusty Wallace, [...]

As if there hasn’t been enough controversy during the 2005 season. The last thing the sanctioning body, and sport, needs is even the slightest connection to the porn industry.
People Magazine, who else, has the story and connection.
Nick Lachey

Take a look at the following statements, do any of them sound familiar considering all the uproar over NASCAR rule changes in the last two years.

The rule change “will further erode the fundamental philosophy of racing by rewarding mediocrity ahead of class.”
“In the name of improving ‘the show,’” the sanctioning body will…
“Drivers have universally criticized [...]

Stone Brothers Racing driver Russell Ingall is celebrating his maiden V8 Supercar championship after a fifth place in the final race at the Grand Finale at Phillip Island was enough to hold out challenger Craig Lowndes on Sunday.
Teammate Marcos Ambrose took out the final round, but it was Ingall who finished the year with the [...]

VODAFONE are set to end their five-year sponsorship of Ferrari.
In the same week they cut their ties with Manchester United they are poised to quit the ex Formula One champions at the end of next season and make a

Former world rally champion Richard Burns has died after a long battle with a brain tumour, aged 34.
Burns, the only Englishman to win the championship, underwent brain surgery to remove a tumour in April. Burns died in London’s Wellington hospital with family and close friends at his bedside. He had been in a coma for [...]

Craig Lowndes has increased the pressure on points leader Russell Ingall by winning the top 10 shootout at this weekend’s season-ending V8 round at Philip Island.
Lowndes is 49 points behind Ingall on the standings and showed he will be one of the leading contenders with a scorching lap of one minute 33.2826 seconds to pip [...]

TORONTO (November 21, 2005)

A1 Grand Prix has announced its viewership through its first 5 events is averaging 8 million per event, an increase of 2 million that watched the inaugural event at Silverstone.
In an effort to increase market penetration they announced they’re also in final negotiations with OLN in the USA. When finalized the addition of OLN will [...]

And you all thought the holiday weekend would be short of racing action. You just have to know where to look.
This weekend brings the final event for the V8 SuperCars at Phillip Island Victoria. And as luck would have it, the track sits smack in the middle of Holden country (GM) - it’s Holden’s test [...]

It’s been generally accepted the NASCAR “off season” is about six weeks or so before testing starts for the new year. No more it would seem. With so many drivers jumping ship, or being pushed, and landing in new rides this “off season” has lasted less than a week for at least one driver.
A Kentucky [...]

I must admit I haven’t heard anything previously about plans for a new racetrack located in New Jersey. That’s not to say I know everything, or attempt to. But with the amount of racing related newsfeeds and blogs I read it surprises me that something about the project hadn’t caught my eye.
Plans look to be [...]