Full Throttle

Mike McLaughlin will test the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevy of 2005 (NASCAR) Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart from Jan. 9-11 at Daytona.

Stewart’s publicist Mike Arning said via e-mail that Stewart’s 2005 Cup testing schedule will begin when his team tests at Las Vegas from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1. Stewart also skipped Daytona testing in 2005. (Via Florida Today)

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports

“I am very excited to have a young, aggressive, knowledgeable driver like Scott Wimmer join our team.”

That’s what Morgan-McClure Motorsports President Larry McClure said as he announced Wimmer as his new team driver.

Wimmer replaces Mike Wallace who finished 36^th in the points standings last year. But thanks to the #77 team disbanding, Wimmer’s new team has been bumped up to 35^th in the standings. That’s important because that 35^th spot in points guarantees Wimmer a spot in each of the year’s first four races, including Daytona of course.

The local TV station in Wausau Wisconsin, Wimmer’s home town, has posted a video interview for those interested.

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports

I first started this piece over at my second home, Fast Machines (Who should be commended for finishing fifth in a large field for the 2005 Weblog Awards), - as opposed to my third home - and contained two speculative stories and asked if they were possibly related.

One story, that Renault would pull out of Formula One after the 2006 season, was quite possible in my eyes. The second, and based on its original and only source at the time, I judged to be entering Area 51 territory. By the time I had reached the halfway point of writing my piece it became evident the most speculative of the two was true.

Reigning, and youngest F1 Champion in history, Fernando Alonzo had become smitten with another suitor, “pulled a Kurt Busch,” and signed a 2007 contract with Mclaren and will ride out next year as a lame duck for currect team Renault.

A shocker, but not unprecedented (as was Kurt Busch’s move). McLaren nabbed current driver Juan Pablo Montoya a year early too. But Juan Pablo wasn’t the reigning F1 champion when he decided to sign the contract that would move him from Williams. Alonso is.

He is also the driver who nearly single-handedly revived the moribund Renault F1 team in 2005, making the sky blue and yellow more ubiquitous on the international tube than even the Prancing Horse’s famous red (which, in another McLaren coup, will be bereft of Vodafone decals).

Alonso’s defection will more than likely result in Kimi Raikkonen being shipped to Ferrari in anticipation of a Michael Schumacher retirement. That leaves both McLaren and Ferrari in good shape when 2007 rolls around, but it also leaves Renault with a lame-duck Spaniard next season.

McLaren team principal Ron Dennis said the announcement had been made to enable all the drivers to concentrate on next season. Yea, right. Better ask the previously mentioned Kurt Busch how that worked out for him. As I step out onto this 10 foot in diameter limb I’ll go on record now. Kimi Raikkonen will get his first World’s Championship next year.

It also casts doubt on Renault

Evernham Motorsports development driver Erin Crocker turned her first laps at Daytona International Speedway on Friday. “They were exciting,” said the 24-year-old Crocker, a native of Wilbraham, Mass. “It was a childhood dream to race at Daytona and these were our first laps. It’s my first day at Daytona, the first day of many hopefully.”

Current plans are for the former World of Outlaws pilot to run a full season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in the No. 98 General Mills Dodge Ram for Evernham Motorsports as well as selected ARCA RE/MAX Series and Busch Series events. Crocker will compete in both the ARCA 200 on Feb. 11 as well as the Daytona 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Feb. 17.

Kevin Harvick Inc. development driver Burney Lamar will also pull double duty during Speedweeks, competing in both the ARCA 200 and the Hershey’s Kissables 300 NASCAR Busch Series season opener.

Lamar, who ran an abbreviated schedule of NASCAR Grand National Division West Series, Craftsman Truck Series and Busch Series races for KHI last year turned in the fourth fastest time in the morning session putting laps on a pair of Richard Childress Racing #31 Chevrolets prepared by Kevin Hamlin.

Crocker was one of four females participating in this weekend’s ARCA/REMAX testing. RE/MAX Series veteran Christi Passmore, of Pryor Oklahoma, put her Mike Mack-prepared Ford through its paces. Florida short tracker Amanda Gogel was at the wheel of Ralph Solhem

As A1 Grand Prix reaches its halfway point in the inaugural season of the World Cup of Motorsports its time to make an assessment of the first six events held to date. Before I get into any subjective critique lets first look at the numbers from the first six events that include 12 races.

Sprints won: France 4, Brazil 1, Switzerland 1.
Feature races won: France 5, Brazil 1.
Poles won: France Brazil and Switzerland all with 3.
Fast Laps: France 3, Brazil 2, Ireland 1.
Top ten in points: 1 France 106, 2 Switzerland 75, 3 Brazil 60, 4 Great Britain 49, 5 New Zealand 42, 6 Portugal 39, 7 Ireland 37, 8 Netherlands 34, 9 Malaysia 33, 10 Canada 31.

Obviously in a series generally considered to be running “spec” engines, tires and chassis’ the dominating performance by Team France is surprising. And its made even more so by the fact the team alternates drivers each event. Nicolas Lapierre, who just won in Dubai, has five wins and co-driver Alexandre Premat four. Their performance can be called “spec” as well and there is little indication, unless Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani has his way, that Premat won’t add to his total in Indonesia next round.

A few words on the cars and associated mechanicals. As noted previously, during qualifying for round 6 in Dubai the Zytek 550bhp V8’s A1GP uses passed the 62,000 mile mark without a single mechanical failure. Based on the telemetry graphics they have been running in the area of 8300 to 8600 rpm’s. Not an incredibly high number I admit but still impressive a valve hasn’t been spit out or piston burned to date.

There have been several engine failures that have been traced to the electronic management system in use. A few electronic bugs have also shown up in the system controlling gearbox function. In a number of cases failures during Feature event starts, (Sprint races have rolling starts) gearbox glitches have left competitors at the line and a couple failures have occurred under green flag conditions.

Pit stops have been a Chinese fire drill and far from being restricted to Team China. As background, for those that have not had access to view any A1GP events, crew members are not allowed to service the car until it comes to a complete stop. The pit crew must remain behind a line that delineates the garage from pit row - in effect parallel with the garage door - once the car stops they do an old style “Le Mans start” and rush out to service the car. And that’s where the problems start.

Through the first two events the pneumatic wrench used to remove wheels either failed outright or hung up on the wheel nut. The problem seemed to be corrected after round three but reappeared during round 6 in Dubai. The best pit times have been in the 24-30 second range. When the wrench has acted up stops of longer than one minute have been common. I see no problem with the unique “Le Mans start” stops and assume it was introduced to increase safety along pitroad. It’s unacceptable to be having so many wrench difficulties in a piece of gear that is common in most, if not all, open wheel series.

The safety built into the A1GP cars has been put to the test, most notably by Teams Lebanon, China and Japan. All three have been involved on rollover accidents the worst being Japan at Eastern Creek Australia. Driver Hayanari Shimoda suffered a number of side over side flips before slamming into a solid concrete retaining wall. The impact totally destroyed the car splitting it in half just aft the drivers head. Shimoda was knocked out for a number of minutes before being stretchered to a waiting helo and taken to the local crash house. After an overnight stay he was released and was back behind the wheel two weeks later in Indonesia finishing 13^th and 14^th in the weekends events.

Let’s talk about media and TV coverage, or the lack of it. The recent addition of Comcast’s OLN Network to the schedule in North America obviously will help. But the problems may be bigger than that. From the first event in Great Britain there has been a lack of coverage by the online versions of the print media. AP’s coverage of round one, for example, consisted of noting the first three finishers only and no mention that America was even entered in the event. There has only been a slight improvement since then. Certainly the PR Dept. of A1 can’t twist the arms of every copy boy and editor on the planet unless they happened to subcontract The Sopranos. But, I bet an aggressive campaign that included inundating all news services, newspapers and online sites with stories to run in addition to highlight clips to TV stations may help.

A look through this thread at PitPass will give a good idea of the problems of TV coverage in other parts of the World. It generally breaks down as a fight between terrestrial and satellite TV. In many cases A1GP has taken the satellite option and that has produced a smaller viewership than expected. I assume from many of the comments in that thread cable is expensive in Europe and that has led many fans to be dependant on the web for news and results.

On the plus side of media coverage is access provided during events. During qualifying, before each race and between the Sprint and Feature races drivers and team officials are all available to be interviewed. It’s a refreshing change after so many years watching the prima-donnas of Formula One either run and hide from a microphone, or be placed in such a structured environment you you get is canned, rehearsed dialog.

Which brings me to web presence. The A1GP website is ok but can be improved. The design and basic information is very good, albeit very slow loading if you depend on dialup Internet access. I believe it should be updated on a more regular basis. At the moment it’s been five days since the last new entry has been added. Granted it’s 28 days until the next round in Indonesia but that should give a prime opportunity to add related content. Reactions on the operation of the new A1 Recovery system that saw its first use in Dubai is an example. In depth profiles of the drivers would be a welcome addition. Many things could be added with the object to simulate new or retain fans interest in the series.

Of the other web resources F1 Central has some A1 coverage however much of it is cut & paste from A1’s home page. By far the best has been provided by PitPass’ A1 coverage that includes photo galleries dating back to 2004 when the first test was held in Jerez. Also included is a forum and an extensive archive of team and Series announcements.

In summary, and if I were grading like your high school shop teacher, the lowest grade of “D minus” would go to the pitstop and elecrical problems seen to this point. A grade of “C” would be given for television coverage. Despite the claims that over 10 million, on average, have watched A1GP events it’s obvious many more have the desire to. The addition of OLN gives the series access to another 60 million potential fans. Even if only one half of one percent tune in that’s a significant increase.

And finally the most important grade of all, the competition. I give the racing an overall grade of “B minus”. The first three events saw little passing among the top five finishers and what passing was done down the filed was shown in replay as the director concentrated on the front of the field. The two most recent events in Malaysia and Dubai has featured side by side racing from those in the top five and two late race passes for the lead. A vast improvement and should it continue should warrant a higher grade on the year.

The next event on the Grand Prix of Nations calender is round seven at Sentul Indonesia on 15 Jan, 2006.

Cross Posted @ Fast Machines and Asian MotorSports Blog.

A1 Grand Prix, Auto Racing, Sports

The Urban Youth Racing School celebrated the holidays with a festive bash Thursday night.

But the founder of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization - which introduces inner-city children to career opportunities in motor sports - was feeling anything but joyous when he returned to the office Monday morning.

When Anthony Martin arrived at the school’s modest facility, on a hardscrabble stretch of North Front Street in the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge, he noticed that the trailer used to transport the school’s five mini race cars was missing.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Martin said. “We had a 30-foot trailer parked in a lot across the street from the school. We even had a special lock on it that would prevent someone from hitching it to a vehicle. There was some graffiti on it and our kids were excited about cleaning it up and painting it, but somebody stole it. And nobody in the area saw or heard anything.”

Martin, who has seen nearly 1,000 children graduate from the racing school and its “Build A Dream Program” that he founded in 1998, asked that anyone with information about the trailer contact him at 215-923-2532.

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports

Darrell Waltrip never has been one to take careful aim when shooting his mouth off had this to say about Jeff Gordon missing NASCAR’s clam bake in NYC:

… If you’re outside of the top 10, then you figure your presence isn’t going to be that important.

That’s true except for 11^th place, which is worth a cool $250,000 bonus. With that bonus, 11^th place pays $1 million. That’s why I say no show, no dough. If going to Paris or going on a vacation is more important than showing up in New York to pick up $1 million, you’re going to have to forfeit the $250,000 because it is a bonus. That’s how I would handle 11^th place.

I guess DW missed the point about Gordon informing and gettiing tacit approval for representing both NASCAR and America in Paris.

DW does say NASCAR and Hunter should have keep their rebuke of Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. private and I would agree with that. But NASCAR has already said how they will handle 11^th places finishers. They made it “special” by attempting to appease the 11^th through about 15^th places because of being locked out of the Chase. Then they tied a quarter million dollar ribbon around it trying to make it look good. No matter how much lipstick is applied to that pig it’s still a pig and Dale Jr. finished the year as the 18^th loser, award or not.

Oh… and DW is ok with Dale Jr. missing the event because, well… because that whole Most Popular Driver Award thing would be only “mentioned during the awards ceremony” and actually awarded on the Thursday preceeding the banquet in the past.

Thanks DW. Now when did they pass the United States Federal income tax law?

Think I’ll try the same ruse on the IRS agent when he comes knocking.

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports

Not Likely, with 19 events on the calender and Mexico and South Africa waiting in the wings the Chances of Israel gaining an F1 date are slim to none, even if they had a track in place. But this is interesting none the less.

Until now, the concept of a grand prix in Israel was sheer fantasy.

Motor racing in the country was all but non-existent thanks to legislation that failed to protect drivers and teams from normal road rules.

But in Jerusalem on Wednesday, parliament green-lighted the ‘Sports Drivers Bill’ that lifts the obstacles that hinder the development of motor sport in the country.

”It is absolutely crazy that until today Israel was one of only a few countries in the world where racing was forbidden by law,” [Switzerland is another one - ed] politician Ehud Rassabi told The Jerusalem Post.

Israeli rally driver Danny Levy admitted that a F1 track in Tel Aviv is a long term goal, but said 2005 Minardi test driver Chanoch Nissany proved that ‘Israel is making a name for itself’ on the world’s racing stage.

Ok I’ll go out on a limb and make a prediction. F1’s calender won’t be graced by having the “Nishbar li Hazayin Grand Prix” anytime within most of our lifetimes. (20 points and one free ticket to Disneyland for anyone with the correct definition of “Nishbar li Hazayin”)

Founder, President, CEO and Grand Poobah of A1GP Sheikh Maktoum recently announced the Series would add 5 more teams for the 2006-2007 season. I bet Israel will be one of them and Chanoch Nissany one of it’s two drivers.

BTW, just kidding about the two tickets… and the 20 points for that matter.

A1 Grand Prix, Formula One, Auto Racing

Auto racing from its inception has been about being the fastest. For nearly as long, racing in most of its forms, has provided a platform for mechanics, engineers and auto manufacturers to grasp headlines for their winning efforts and also gain market share in car showrooms the world over.

A side benefit of all this racin’ and engineerin’, whether by design or accident, have been improved products for the consumer to purchase for trips to the nearest Stop & Shop to pick up the latest “hot thing” for Christmas. Or a twelve pack whatever the case may be.

While sifting through my daily news feeds I came across an article written for The Auto Channel. Authored by “M Snide” he suggests the days of auto racing being supported by the corporate world are nearing the end of its lifespan. He begins his piece by admitting his “fellow journalists and auto industry observers thought I was once again off target in my view of the future…but guess what…I