Full Throttle

On a day that brings out all sorts of ghosts, goblins and witches, Halloween also hosts one of the symbols of an everyday superstition. The Black Cat.

Whether one believes crossing the path of a raven colored feline will bring bad luck is a matter of choice I suppose, I for one don’t, but others take it as a serious matter to the point of crossing the street to avoid what they feel is the inevitable. A piano falling on their head or other such catastrophe.

Racing drivers as a whole, even if most deny it, are superstitious people. It took Harry Gant, and then sponsor Skoal Smokeless Tobacco, to finally lay to rest a decades old superstition against driving green race cars.

On this All Hallows Eve it’s appropriate that a current driver, and his superstition. has come to light. Recent Brazilian Grand Prix winner Felipe Massa has revealed an odd superstition that he says could have contributed to his success this past season.

“If my weekend begins well,” Massa confessed, “I use the same underpants on Saturday. If that is also a good day, I wear them on Sunday.”

“That is what I did in Brazil.”

Three days! That might explain a lot of things, not the least of which why he appears to be so fast at the wheel of his Ferrari. No one wants to get too close.

“Getting too close” also seems to fall inline with the belief by some that having sex before a big athletic event hampers performance.

I suspect Mrs. Felipe “SpongeBob” Massa might feel that to be true.

On another note and continuing the “Black & Orange” theme of the day, is this piece written by Roy Madden of Formula One LinksHeaven.

The crib notes would read, F1, Monaco, a soon-to-be-married couple, a former F1 driver and a ghost. Don describes it as “a mixture of Mills and Boon meets Poltergeist meets a creative writing class for 7 year olds.”

It’s all that and much more.

F1, Formula One, Felipe Massa, Ferrari, FIA, F1 Circus, Sports, Monaco, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Following a hugely successful inaugural season, the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today reaffirmed the Series

On a personnel level Juan “Don’t Call me Pablo” Montoya made the move into NASCAR for the challenge of something new.

The fact compensation received from Ganassi Racing for doing so matches, and may exceed, the reported $3 million a year A.J. Allmendinger is being paid by Red Bull shouldn’t be dismissed either, although he does dismiss the money when comparing NASCAR to F1. It’s all about “fun.”

Alessandro “Alex” Zanardi who was involved in a horrendous racing accident in 2001 at EuroSpeedway in Lausitz, Germany that cost him both legs will make a triumphant return behind the wheel of an F1 car in late November.

Zanardi has been cleared for the test in a modified BMW Sauber F1 machine during the Formula BMW World Final at the Valencia, Spain F1 circuit.

The test will be conducted in a modified BMW Sauber F1.06 that features a special brake pedal, which has been moved to the right side of the cockpit. To accelerate the car, Zanardi will use the shifting paddle on the left rear side of the steering wheel.

“First of all I would like to say thank you to BMW for this opportunity,” said Zanardi. “That’s just amazing for me. Of course, I know that I won’t get a contract with the Formula One team. However, having the chance to drive an F1 racer again is just incredible.

“Formula One is all about development speed. Therefore, I’m really excited to see what has changed since my last Grand Prix in 1999. I can call myself a very happy man, as I turned my passion into my profession. Despite having been a race driver for quite a while now, I still feel the fire burning in me.

Zanardi’s Formula One career consisted of two starts for Jordan in 1991 and a couple fill-in slots for Minardi in 1992. For the ‘93 and ‘94 seasons he signed on with the Lotus team and played an active role in developing the team’s active suspension system.

When Lotus’ F1 effort went belly-up at the end of the year, Zanardi spent a brief time in Sports car racing in 1995, his Formula One career apparently over.

In ‘96, Zanardi made the switch to CART (now CCWS), signing a contract with Chip Ganassi Racing and won three events in his rookie year, finishing second in the championship. The last event of the year at Laguna Seca featured what has become known as The Pass by open wheel fans as Zanardi passed race leader Bryan Herta in the famous Corkscrew turn in a highly risky maneuver.

He would win the championship for Ganassi in both 1997 and 1998, bringing home twelve victories.

The Zanardi name became synonymous with spinning, tire smoking, celebrations that left hot black donuts on the tarmac, a practice that has migrated to the current generation of NASCAR stars.

The two CART championships caught the eye of Sir Frank Williams and Alex moved back into F1 under a three-year contract in 1999. Much like the curent edition of the F1 Williams his was saddled with a car that was plagued by numerous reliability issues - and was consistently outpaced by team-mate Ralf Schumacher - he was replaced by Jenson Button for the 2000 campaign.

Out of F1 Zanardi returned to CART with a team, interesting enough, run by Mo Nunn. Nunn had been with Ganassi as race engineer when Alex was considered for that ride. He advised Chip against signing him, as he believed Italian drivers were too prone to mistakes.

Then tragedy struck September 15^th in Germany. As the first major sporting event held after the attacks of 9/11 the event was renamed the American Memorial 500.

Alex was leading and was attempting to merge back onto the track after a pitstop. When he attempted to accelerate and spun into the path of Alex Tagliani, who was traveling at over 180mph. The near-fatal collision cost Zanardi both legs, amputated above the knee.

Undaunted, Alex returned to what nearly killed him. He made his first appearance behind the wheel of a race car at EuroSpeedway driving final thirteen laps in an endurance sports car race and was highly competitive for that short duration test.

Zanardi has since raced in the highly competitive World Touring Car Championship capturing his first win last August at the wheel of a BMW 320i. He currently stands 11^th in the Drivers Championship with BMW leading the Manufacturers Championship.

BMW motorsport boss Mario Theissen had this to say about Zanardi’s return behind the wheel of an F1 car: “Alessandro Zanardi is a truly impressive character,” said BMW motorsport boss Mario Theissen. “With an unprecedented show of will and dedication, he fought his way back into motor racing and now proves in the WTCC that he is able to win races at the highest level.”

“It was rather a joke when he asked me at the beginning of the year, if he could do an F1 test with us. We will give him this chance now, the engineers made it possible. I cannot wait to watch his reaction after the test.”

Alessandro, “Alex” to those of us on the “correct” side of the Atlantic, deserves every bit of respect and admiration that comes his way. All that are forced by nature, or a stroke of fate, that live with life altering handicaps can learn much from Alex.

The Half-Vast Staff

Officials unsuccessfully tried to find the culprit who threw a piece of roll bar padding onto the track to intentionally bring out a caution flag during Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops 500.

The piece of padding was tossed from one of the cars during the race, but a NASCAR spokesman said a review of the film was “inconclusive” about which car it came from. The piece of padding forced a caution on lap 291 and allowed several trailing cars to catch up to the lead pack.

Jeffy Gordon said NASCAR didn’t try hard enough to find out who threw the padding out, and claimed that it affected the outcome of the race.

Gee, ya think? I’ll be the first to admit I’m… Not… The… smartest DZUS fastener rattling around the bottom of the toolbox.

However given the circumstances and the only possible scenario for not finding the perp - that he rode around since the opening lap with a piece per-staged “just in case” it was needed - I do believe I could have found him.

My first stop would have been with Reed Sorenson, he was caught at Texas pulling this stunt. A quick check of those “trailing cars” may have done it. Failing that, a through check of the remainder of the field should have pointed to the perp via damaged padding.

If no missing padding is found so be it. That along with, allegedly, no video evidence the case would be closed. As it stands NASCAR, once again, has egg on their face.

Not a good thing, even if it was Halloween, a holiday that many “celebrate” by egging people houses.

UPDATE: I haven’t seen the race yet, I’ll catch the rebroadcast in about 12 hours when it’s replayed here. According to this Jim Utter piece the NBC replays clearly show Robby Gordon tossing the offending padding out of his car. Robby says: “Who me!!!”

By coincidence he was a lap down at the time and received the Lucky Mongrel

And the common NASCAR theme Cup beat writers, pundits and bloggers this past week was… closest Chase ever, eight still in hunt for Chase, eight within 100 points!!! Yadda, yadda, yadda!

Can we lay that nonsense to rest now?

Can we be honest and say Mark Martin’s consistent and overabundant pessimism has set upon him the final karmic experience - cloaked in a Kenny Wallace Halloween mask on lap 310 - with a 36^th place finish, plus 200 points out and inexorably out of the Chase picture?

Is it safe to assume Kasey Kahne, despite a brief flirtation after last weeks win, is in fact Chase history? Kyle Busch, same result. Busch the younger has entered Chase antiquity and has cashed in his free meal coupon at the Also Ran Cafe.

Jeff Burton; Sorry Jeff, you’re gonna have to give back the “Iceman” tag Dale Jr. hung around your neck. It looks better on its rightful owner who will wear it with pride as he retires next week in Texas.

Kevin Harvick, well it was a nice run while it lasted.

“It was an eventful day for us,” Jeffy said. Indeed is was thanks to Jamie McMurray. At just short of a buck and a half behind points leader Matt Kenseth he’s toast. The Hendrick hopes rests on the #48.

What’s left are Hamlin, Dale Jr., Still close but without a lot of luck, or someone else’s bad luck, their chances are about as slim as Calista Flockhart.

At the head of the class are arguably the two most deserving to be where they. Kenseth and Johnson have been the most consistent all year. Funny how that works out isn’t it? The Chase regardless of what it’s designed to do, produced a microcosm of the first 26 events.

Notwithstanding J.J.’s early problems, to Don Long’s great satisfaction and my amazement, he’s where he needs to be if that first championship is to be won this year.

And then there’s that Other Guy! Pushed aside like last weeks beef stew, he’s only won two Chase events of the 7 held to this point. Last year, the Other Guy won his second points championship without winning any of the 10 Chase events.

Proof irony also resides on top of that enormous, gigantic, 8 foot tall trophy Smoke takes home.

Auto Racing in general has seen it’s share of on track fights and “over aggressive” driving tactics that contributed to most of them.

In NASCAR’s case the most infamous incident occurred in 1979. Bobby Allison, brother Donny Allison and Cale Yarborough took part in a skirmish that’s widely credited with establishing NASCAR as must-see TV to this day - a wild fistfight that ended the Daytona 500.

While the combatants duked it out in sunny and warm Florida an East Coast blizzard locked down the entire coast and the must-see TV reached a helluva lot more than expected.

To a much lesser degree, Robby Gordon did a helmet-toss two step on the tarmac as cars whizzed by under caution last year and Carl Edwards has acted the fool a couple times this year.

But when it’s all said and done, auto racing is a sport. A sport that is supposed to be enjoyable to participants and fans alike.

That’s not always the case, sometimes things can get a little overboard. And in rare instances a reenactment of a Genovese Mob hit breaks out.

BOGOTA, Colombia - An amateur race car driver was shot dead at a track near the capital Saturday minutes before taking his position at the starting line, police said.

Witnesses said German Neira’s assailant entered the pits at a race track in Tocancipa, north of Bogota, and, using a firearm equipped with a silencer, shot Neira four times, in the head and back.

The victim died shortly after being taken to a hospital, said Col. Cesar Rojas, the local head of police.

You have to ask yourself why, in what must have been a crowded paddock, did this nut make use of a silencer?

Stupid criminal aside, it kind of places incidents seen around most of the world’s tracks into a different light doesn’t it? Compared with the seriousness of a murder an exchange of fists and tossed helmets seems trivial, almost comical.

Out of respect for three racing greats, I’ll give Bobby Allison the last word on that long ago ‘79 incident: “When it was over, they fined me, Donnie and Cale $6,000 each for it. They’ve used our money to promote that fight to this very day. They’ve made a fortune off of that fight.”

And continues to do so.

Daytona 500, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Bobby Allison, Donney Allison, Cale Yarborough, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Joe, Nemechek you didn’t really send former CCWS star, NCTS rookie and EasyCare Vehicle Services Contract 200 (whew, what’a mouthful!) pole winner A. J. Allmendinger into the fence did you?

Opps, my bad, I guess you did. And so early to. So much for gaining any experience at the super fast Atlanta Motor Speedway, least for this year.

Other than that, most of the other NCTS rookies had good days along with one veteran. Mike Bliss, the veteran, won his first truck race since 2002 and was followed by Terry Cook and the top finishing rookie Eric Darnell.

Other rookie finishers were Chad McCumbee (7^th), Bobby East (15^th), Marcos “Tasmanian Devil” Ambrose (16th) (Sorry Dutton that moniker was thought of looog before the press in the US), Scott Lagasse Jr. (18th), Kerry Earnhardt (21st) and Evernham’s Side Dish in 23^rd.

For a while the series points race looked to gain a new leader with three events left on the NCTS schedule. Points leader Todd Bodine had a flat tire under the green flag and lost two laps early but second place Johnny Benson Jr couldn’t capitalize on Bodine’s misfortune.

Benson looking for his first championship at any level of NASCAR competition fell fell seven laps down to the leader after crashing on lap 89. Bodine wound up 25^th and Benson 29^th, giving Bodine an 86-point lead with Texas, Phoenix and Homestead remaining on the schedule.

Mike Bliss, A.J. Allmendinger, NCTS, NASCAR, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Ho-hum! 2006 Busch Series Champion Kevin Harvick won the Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park Saturday.

It’s his eighth series win of the year as he continues on his quest to acquire more championship points in a single Busch season than a 16 year-old prom queen has pimples. On the night before the prom, with no Clearisil within reach!

Harvick was followed across the line, after the almost obligatory green/white/checker finish, by Clint Bowyer,Carl Edwards, Johnny Sauter, and Shane Huffman.

Of more interest was Juan “Don’t Call Me Pablo” Montoya who finished in 11^th place in his first NASCAR start after a couple prelims in Chip Ganassi’s ARCA car. Although his finish wasn’t as “clean” as he would have hoped for - Montoya got into the J.J. Yeley causing Yeley to spin and later was involved in another spin, which he said was his fault.

It’s that second spin and Montoya’s remarks about it that should alert the veterans that the “Non-Pablo” needs to be straightened out on. About both spins he said:

“I spun around a couple of guys, but both of them - my front bumper was in their door when it happened, I said ‘I need to try to stop doing that because I am damaging my car.’

“But there are some guys out there who would race like it’s the last lap. It feels like kindergarten out there.”

Emphasis mine. The respect and leeway given to those that have stuck their bumper along side a drivers door has been an ongoing problem in both Cup and the Busch Series.

It’s been one of those dreaded “unwritten rules” (read: respect others) that has been around at every level of stock car racing and has been lost at it’s highest level. If the overtaking car gets that deep alongside, according to the “rule,” give way and either attempt a crossover move to retake the position, or resign yourself to the fact you just got smoked by a faster car.

And Frankly, Montoya feels the way he does because he is in kindergarten and that’s why the vets need to alert him to “the rules” and unwritten ones as well. And that includes Yeley who should have given up the position.

And BTW, don-cha think Elvira is a bit… shall we say, “overblown” as the race Grand Marshall? Now Julie Robert, that’s another story!

Memphis Motorsports Park, Jaun Montoya, Busch Series, NASCAR, Sports, Kevin Harvick, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Lets get the obligatory “Hotlanta” is “Wetlanta” and all NASCAR activity was suspended Friday” out of the way now. The Cherokee Nation, some of which are native to Georgia, had a successful rain dance apparently.

So lets move on, there’s no need to belabor the point. If you don’t know how they will line-up Sunday you’re in the wrong place.

It’s been well established the local “burrow” politicians - “burrow” as in a rats home, not Borough as in a geographic location within NYC - of Staten Island vehemently oppose the purposed NASCAR track within their imagined island paradise.

It could be paved in gold and the toilets designed to overflow with diamonds and they still would be opposed.

They haven’t been alone. By any measure the local press hasn’t exactly rushed to the defense of NASCAR or the ISC either. Leading the charge has been the Staten Island Advance (SIA) and Friday’s edition is another in a long line of examples. To hear SIA tell it NASCAR and the ISC have taken the Sicilian pledge of omert