Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2006 May.

Toyota’s move into NASCAR’s NEXTEL Cup division has been widely reported as a three team, 6 car effort. Jim Aust, vice president of Toyota Motorsports and president and CEO of TRD has consistently and adamantly denied they would expand beyond that plan.
File this in the “the best laid plans of mice and men” category.

Apparently Aust [...]

Damned if I know, you better keep asking “Gladys.” In sifting through various reports I don’t have a friggin’ clue. Most Associated Press reports are full of NASCAR boilerplate; These quotes from Tuesday’s test session at LMS for example.
“I think there’s definitely something to work with here,” Ryan Newman said. “It’s aesthetically not pleasing to [...]

Yea, I’m talking to you, all of you. As you entered Lowes Motor Speedway this past weekend did you sign a petition that was offered to those entering? No? Well that’s a good thing.
If you did, your as nuts as these people. (via Stock Car Gazette)
Petition To Stop Kentucky Lawsuit.
As race fans made their way [...]

The title says it all about this weeks lead item in the NASCAR Cesspool and as noted previously John Darby, Director of Competition should be given a Darwin Award for his “13.5 gallon solution” that contributed in large part to making the Coca-Cola 600 the “PitStop 600″ at Lowes Motor Speedway. Last time I checked [...]

BMW Sauber star Jacques Villeneuve is becoming increasingly concerned that he might not figure on next year’s Formula 1 grid. Who’d a thunk it!
Villeneuve’s two-year contract with BMW is up at the end of the season, and when asked if he would like to continue in F1 beyond 2006 he said he would, but his [...]

OK, can we nominate the brain child that came up with the “13.5 gallon solution” for a Darwin Award now? Can John Darby, Director of Competition, be placed at the tail end of the line for “natural selection?”
Really, I’m not kidding! It’s not often, if ever, I criticize a race of any type. But the [...]

Not the preferred method of course, (allow unlimited Cup testing) but having two of them knocked out before the 10 lap mark did thin the “Whacker Brigade” a little.
Surely both McMurray and Smoke have another opinion with each ending the night with a trip to the crash house - McMurray with an aching noggin’ and [...]

“Old Dog,” Michael Schumacher.
“New Dog,” Fernando Alonzo.
With a minute left in qualifying Michael Schumacher was sitting on fast time as he made his last lap. In trail was Alonzo, both on the track an on the time sheets. As time wound down Alonzo clicked off two blazing times in sectors 1 & 2 with a [...]

The name Senna has as much resonance in Monaco as the reverberating roar of Formula One cars howling through the tunnel and along the harbourside.
This weekend, 12 years since three times world champion Ayrton Senna crashed and died in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the name is back.
Bruno Senna, 22-year-old nephew of the great [...]

Michael Waltrip’s dance card will be full Saturday evening after qualifying 35th for the Busch Series Carquest Auto Parts 300.
However Mikey is lacking an opportunity to perform Sunday during the Coca-Cola 600. He is among 9 other drivers that failed to qualify for the longest race of the season. I would suspect, as happened in [...]

It may only by a small fraction, but I have lost a bit of respect for King Richard Petty.
Richard Petty didn’t think women belonged on the race track when Janet Guthrie became the first female driver to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 in 1976.
Thirty years later, his opinion hasn’t changed.
“I just don’t think it’s a [...]

Crew Chief to Jeff: “Deux pneus et un rond de cale, observent votre vitesse de pitroad !” (Two tyres and a round of wedge, watch your pitroad speed!)
Jeff to Crew Chief: “Donnez-moi un couple des caoutchoucs de ressort

Not sure what to make of this, I’ve heard the F1 to Las Vegas rumors before. Renault chief Flavio Briatore has dreamed of a Vegas stop and Bernie “The Boob” Ecclestone has also considered an F1 street race out in the desert.
But Tulsa? Oklahoma? For Formula One?
Feed Me F1 claims it is so, and has [...]

No, not the girls, not even the fast ones (thats been covered). It’s the cars stupid. But not just any cars, it’s the old cars, historic Formula One machines.
This past weekend saw the 5th running of the Monaco Historic GP, an enormously popular historic race that runs the weekend before the Monaco GP, in front [...]

Part of the fallout from Dale Jarrett leaving Yates Racing to join Michael Waltrips TRD squad has reared it’s ugly head in the form of a major shake-up at Yates.
Robert Yates, NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and Busch Series car owner, announced today that he is re-evaluating the structure of the organization and has made a [...]

Ever wonder why the Half-Vast

A1 Grand Prix

Ken Schrader had to start at the back of the field after not qualifying his car (Josh Richeson practiced and qualified the #99 Chevrolet) and make it through two green-white-checkers to take the win in the Hantz Group 200 at the Toledo Speedway Sunday afternoon.

Schrader beat Justin Allgaier back to the line after the field [...]

NASCAR’s annual ritual known as the All Star Challenge had it’s usual array of Star’s both in the Open event and the million dollar to win Challenge. And it was a good thing they were on the track as the rain delayed, then shower interrupted, evening featured enough clouds to obscure any heavenly stars that [...]

Team Australia