Full Throttle

If you’re looking for NASCAR Awards Banquet coverage, move along, there’s nothing to see here. I place this event on the same level of importance as Pluto being downgraded from planet status.

Frankly why anyone should care about million dollar checks being handed out or a string of sponsor-laced thank-you speeches is far beyond me. Having said that, what follows isn’t necessarily more important than the NYC Soir

When a discussion starts over the future of NASCAR as it relates to tracks capable of holding events on the scale required, it’s getting to a point where that discussion may best be sung, vice spoken.

The Twelve Days of Christmas comes to mind. Twelve drummers drumming can’t be heard as yet, but that day may not be far away.

Lets take a moment to reflect:

First we have the Staten Island Adventure™ (SIA) perpetrated by ISC on behalf of its Siamese twin NASCAR and its titular head HWSBO. As all of NASCAR’s stars, luminaries and lesser lights descend on New York City for the awards banquet there’s a bit of political intrigue out on Staten Island.

To cut a long and miserable story short, SIA may have new life after the elections earlier this month that installed Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer, a devout NASCAR fan. The rumors are rife with possible plans to do a double reverse, flea-flicker, end around the local opposition. Stay tuned.

Out on the Left Coast opinion still seems to be split fairly evenly, dependent on which poll you decide to believe. The one good note is Washington State’s Governor still has a wait and see attitude. So that’s exactly what we’ll do.

Now, on to Track Tale number 10,038. The New Jersey State Senate has a bill before it “to help bring a NASCAR auto racing track to Cumberland County.”

“This motor park would be an economic benefit to South Jersey in particular and to the state as a whole and would be paid for entirely by levies on the users of the facilities inside the motor park,” said sponsor Sen. Nicholas Asselta, R-Cumberland.

According to the story officials hope to start building the track early next year.

A couple commenters around these parts, notably George of Fast Machines, has offered New Jersey as an alternative to New York. (NOTE: George… you think like a New Jersey politician.)

No word on the size of the development other than the cost, $100 million dollars. I’d say that is a bit on the high side of the true cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas which totals $18,920 this year. But who’s counting, except the State’s Senators.

You may recall Track Tale number 10,037 of a few days ago. That tale featured a couple of two turtle doves cooing about a new NASCAR facility in Tulare California. Tulare of all places! As far as I’m concerned this one gets tossed into the Skeptic Tank®.

Added to the two dreams above are the “Signature Series” race tracks. The Alabama Motorsports Park has Dale Jr.’s signature on it and exists on blueprint form only while Rusty Wallace has his name and design talents pinned on Iowa Speedway that is very much alive and well, albeit without a date for any of NASCAR’s top three series’.

That’s six new and expensive race tracks either existent or on someone’s Christmas wish list all without much hope, at least in the foreseeable future, of gaining a date for NASCAR’s top Series.

Six tracks for six days of Christmas. I’d add a seventh track, that would only leave 5 more days and slots for more Christmas wishing but War Eagle Speedway is just about dead on non-arrival from all appearances.

I don’t have a clue what is on Brain France’s Christmas wish list but it might include the ability to clone a few drivers and teams? Two Dale Jr.’s, two Jeff Gordons, two Kahanes, two of everything including double race dates for all the new race tracks and a schedule that has 72 race dates.

The only sticking point would be the need to clone 75 million people that are alleged to be NASCAR fans to fill all the seats.

UPDATE: Dale Jr., call your office, your signature isn’t worth the paper (or the race track) it’s scribbled on. The NIMBY’s have shown up:

SUMMERDALE — A proposed NASCAR track placed in south Baldwin County would ruin the community and overburden the environment and infrastructure, opponents of the plan said Monday night.

Summerdale is one of at least four sites being considered for the $624 million Alabama Motorsports Park, according to reports.

About 100 residents gathered in Summerdale on Monday night to discuss how to keep the development out of south Baldwin.

Brian France, the chairman and chief executive of NASCAR, has served notice that the successful US stock car series has global ambitions - something which an dismissive, or I should say arrogant, Formula 1 Circus has refused to take too seriously.

NASCAR was once dismissed by the other big sports in America but has since emerged as the second most popular sport in America after the NFL. Sponsorship revenues in the Nextel Cup series are now up to an estimated $5.1bn and merchandising income is over $2bn a year. The 36 Cup races attract an average of 190,000 fans.

France says that the series will continue to expand within the United States with plans for races in the Pacific Northwest (possibly) and New York (fat chance).

More importantly, however, NASCAR is admitting that it has international ambitions with “a couple of people looking” at opportunities in Europe and China. France says that the plan is to look for local partners with whom to go into partnership.

“Taking our current partners with us to expansion abroad is good for them, and good for us,” France told The Financial Times.

For regular readers of Full Throttle this isn’t news, in fact it’s past its freshness date by 362 days.

“Toto, I don’t think we are in the Miss Winston era anymore!”

Brian France, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Busch Series, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

You say your Sunday just isn’t the same as the previous 38. You feel down right cadaverous as the Sunday sun sets in the west and, well… your world was devoid of the roar of 800 horsepower engines and the sickening sound of metal to retaining wall contact.

That sinking feeling is the result of one thing and one thing only, having a “NASCAR-centric attitude. There’s more to life than the rolling sandwich boards of NASCAR.

While you were moping your brow of cold sweats and gripping the Lazy-Boy’s arm trying to steady the shakes there was some outstanding racing to be had this holiday weekend.

The fourth round of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations was held at the Sepang International Circuit Sunday. The short Sprint race (Full Race Report) was won by A1 Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani in a flag-to-flag effort. The win avenged his final lap defeat in last year

Neel Jani has taken Switzerland’s first pole position of the season after qualifying for the Malaysian A1 Grand Prix at Sepang.

The 22-year-old, who pulled off the same feat at the 5.5-km circuit last year, set the fastest time in two of the four 15 minute-long sessions to edge ahead of New Zealand’s Jonny Reid.

“This was more or less my first qualifying of the year because of what happened in Beijing, so to get pole position is very nice,” Jani said.

Such was Team Switzerland’s confidence that, following a red flag caused when Lebanon’s Khalil Beschir stopped out on track, they did not send Jani out for the final session.

“I had two very good laps already, so I didn’t think there was any sense to go out again, also the sky looked dark and we even thought it might rain,” he continued. “I was just worried if Jonny went out again as he was very close to me, but he didn’t so I was happy about that.”

After going third quickest in session one, Reid topped the timesheet in session two. But, with the aim of conserving tires, he set only the 11^th quickest time in session three, before sitting out the fourth session entirely.

Reid’s performance saw him line up ahead of German teenager Nico Hulkenburg for Sunday’s sprint race, with Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr - back in the cockpit for the first time since Brno - fourth on the grid.

With falling rain at the outset of qualifying forcing the majority of runners to set a time before the track became too slippery, the resulting traffic saw Hulkenburg hit Ireland’s Michael Devaney.

While Hulkenburg went on to set the second fastest time of the session behind Jani, the resulting damage to the right rear of his car forced Devaney - who eventually qualified 13th - to sit the session out.

“We were both on a quick lap so after the first corner he was really far on the outside and I thought that he wanted to let me past, but then at the end he didn’t and then we crashed” Hulkenburg claimed.

“It was just a very slight hit and nothing was damaged.”

Alex Yoong qualified seventh for his home race, while Australia will start 17th after Ryan Briscoe ran wide in session three, the resulting trip into the gravel tearing off his front wing and causing suspenion damage.

A1 Grand Prix of Nations round four, Sepang, Malaysia

Leading Positions after Final Qualifying: 1 Switzerland (Neel Jani) 3mins 43.014secs, 2 New Zealand (Jonny Reid) 3:43.305, 3 Germany (Nico Hulkenberg) 3:43.381, 4 Great Britain (Robbie Kerr) 3:43.941, 5 China (Cheng Congfu) 3:44.884, 6 Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen) 3:44.932, 7 Malaysia (Alex Yoong) 3:45.068, 8 South Africa (Adrian Zaugg) 3:45.238, 9 Canada (Sean McIntosh) 3:45.352, 10 France (Nicolas Lapierre) 3:45.410, 11 USA (Philip Giebler) 3:45.843, 12 Mexico (Salvador Duran) 3:46.155, 13 Ireland (Michael Devaney) 3:46.220, 14 Czech Republic (Tomas Enge) 3:46.407, 15 Brazil (Raphael Matos) 3:46.745, 16 Singapore (Christian Murchison) 3:47.194, 17 Australia (Ryan Briscoe) 3:47.711, 18 Indonesia (Ananda Mikola) 3:48.249, 19 India (Armaan Ebrahim) 3:48.388, 20 Italy (Enrico Toccacelo) 3:49.175, 21 Lebanon (Khalil Beschir) 3:50.137, 22 Pakistan (Nur Ali) 3:59.081

Cross posted @ Asian Motor Sports

A1 Grand Prix of Nations, World Cup of Motorsports, Sports, A1GP, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

With the 2006 season having just finished and James Winslow crowned champion, there will now be a twelve month wait until next year’s Asian Formula Three Championship following confirmation that it will become a ‘winter series’.

In a bid to make the most of the optimum weather conditions, the AF3 Corporation have decided to delay the start of the 2007 season until November, with an eye on luring various European drivers who would otherwise choose to sit out the winter season.

Nonetheless, in the meantime the corporation has also announced an AF3 Pacific Series to run from January to July, taking in four venues and eleven races.

In a confirmation of an earlier Full Throttle exclusive included in these four rounds is the Australian Grand Prix support race where the series will join forces with the Australian Formula Three Championship in Melbourne.

Furthermore, the series, which will reward the winner with a guaranteed Macau Grand Prix entry and full backing for the Asian F3 Series, will once again compete alongside their counterparts at Oran Park in Sydney.

Three races at Zhuhai in January and another three races at the Chinese circuit in July will begin and end the championship, launched so as to retain interest in the series in its transitional stage.

“We are excited at the prospect of joining the Australian Championship events in Melbourne and Sydney and we hope it marks the beginning of a long term association. We are grateful to Formula 3 Australia for their invitation to join them for these two events and we look forward to some really competitive racing”.

“We believe Asian Formula Three now offers a cost effective career path for drivers of all Nationalities and the fact that the AF3 Pacific Champion will drive in the Macau GP supports this belief. Add in the soon to be announced testing opportunities in Japan and the fact that four AF3 graduates have already taken part in A1GP events and it really demonstrates how drivers can further their careers through AF3.”

Asian Formula Three Pacific Series 2007 calendar :

January 20-21 Zhuhai
March 15-18 Albert Park (Australian Grand Prix support race)*
April 21-22 Oran Park*
July 7-8 Zhuhai

* Joining up with the Australian Formula Three Championship

AF3, Formula Three, Asian Formula Three, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Although not identified by the First Coast News the images make it pretty clear who the hauler belongs to.

The #88 Busch Team is part of Dale Jr’s, JR Motorsports organization.

Mark McFarland made 21 starts in the Navy Chevy with a season best seventh in the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Shane Huffman made 10 starts with a high finish of fifth in the Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park.

The non-injury accident happened Friday outside of Jacksonville Fla on I-95 just south of State Road 206.

JR Motorsports, Busch Series, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Australia’s leading V8 Supercars drivers yesterday gave the Bahrain International Circuit their tick of approval but warned fans to expect the unexpected in the weekend races.

The drivers struggled to control their cars in Thursday’s practice sessions but said the track, designed to accommodate Formula One cars, would provide a multitude of scenarios in the three races ahead.

The drivers said Thursday’s practice was slippery and almost to a man the drivers were surprised at the lack of grip for their tyres.

“There are three genuine passing spots and with tyre degradation set to be a factor I think we are in for a long day,” Ford driver Mark Winterbottom said.

“When the tyres go away it requires 100 per cent effort stop the cars from spinning.”

“I think we’ll see some pretty good racing because anyone who can drive 37 laps here without making a mistake will win the race by a long way. “Make a mistake and someone will pass you. But you can also expect to get those spots back when they make their mistake.”

Winterbottom was third in practice behind two of the sports more experienced campaigners — Jason Bright and Garth Tander.

“The circuit is enjoyable to drive but much more slippery than it looks,” Bright said. “I was most surprised. The car was pretty nervous.”

Tander has experience of the circuit in a sports car race at this year’s grand prix but after yesterday’s session said the only advantage he could claim over the other drivers was that he knew where the toilets were.

Cross posted @ Asian Motorsports (AMS). The qualifying report is also available at AMS.

As your Butterball went from rock hard to something more usable Thursday morning, followed by a crisp golden oven brown and morphing into a partial skeleton and finally into leftover fodder for the next 3 days, there was some serious racing going on.

Holiday? What Holiday, not at Irwindale Speedway. Thursday night had NASCAR stars Jason Leffler of Long Beach and Casey Mears of Bakersfield competing in the 66^th annual

Considering the days festivities it was hard to resist tying this story to the contents of millions of America’s ovens to yet another grandious plan for a potential NASCAR venue.

Presenting The Turkey in Tulare California (pass the cranberry sauce).

Tulare City Manager Darrel Pyle claims an area 20 miles south of the city — close to State Highway 99 — is a logical site for a $300 million-plus motor sports complex.

“This could change the entire character of the community,” Tulare Mayor Richard Ortega said. “But, of course, some people don’t want to change from small-town Tulare.”

Of course, NIMBY’s live everywhere. But there is something to be said for logic. I once made a perfectly logical argument (note the use of “logical, not sane) for a motorsports complex in Iceland.

On Tuesday the City Council voted unanimously