Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2007 September.

Today’s stupid statement comes via the Santa Barbara Press, courtesy of David Poole.
The Fat Man goes on a rant about line-ups after a yellow flag. He’s an advocate of leaving all the lead lap cars double-file at the front of the field.
As full disclosure, so am I. NASCAR started to do it mid-season last year [...]

We’re less than a day from the time when the WMSC of the FIA, motor sport’s governing body (don’t tell Brain France that!), reconvenes in Paris. McLaren’s bosses and its drivers are waiting nervously to hear the results of a hearing that will deliberate on new evidence and render a new verdict.
The new verdict could [...]

Tony George, you know Tony, the fella that tried to fix open wheel racing, and instead built a jackass from blueprints that detailed the construction of a thoroughbred race horse.
Well TG has another plan. And it looks mighty Trotsky-like to me.
His latest plan is to do away with all race purses, except his cash cow [...]

Those that have hung around this place for any length of time know I call the irresistible attraction to NASCAR as The NASCAR Magnet.
The Series has always attracted a certain amount of open wheel types starting decades ago with A.J. Foyt and Mario. Open wheeler Jeff Gordon ushered in the modern era of the NASCAR [...]

(Filed under things that didn’t need to be said.)
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said on Tuesday Ferrari would accept the world championship this year even if was won in the courts.
“To win the world title at the table (rather than on the track) would in any case be a deserved victory,” Montezemolo is quoted as [...]

Wonder when the bleeding will stop in the IndyCar Series?
The Series’ newly crowned champion has all but signed, sealed and delivered himself for the #40 seat for Ganassi Racing.
Now it’s learned Roger Penske’s Sam Hornish Jr. will make his first Cup start this Sunday at New Hampshire. He said he hopes to compete in up [...]

How shocking!
The first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race televised on ABC in seven years delivered an increase in ratings and viewership for the RIR event. The telecast by ESPN on ABC delivered a 4.2 fast national rating with more than 4,731,000 households and more than 6,750,000 viewers.
The households represent a 33 percent increase (up from 3,568,000) [...]

We sit three days away from the second Paris hearing in F1’s Stepney-gate scandal and it looks as if some of the “new evidence” is actually based on the thin air contained within a “journalists” head.
La Gazzetta dello Sport published an email they claimed was sent from Pedro de la Rosa to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso: [...]

It would be easy to think the 4,000 pound marketing gorilla that is NASCAR had covered the world in it’s trademarked yellow/red/blue/green logo.
Until now we would all be wrong.
And you can thank Patrick Hickey and his love for NASCAR with aligning our thinking with reality.
Hickey possesses a higher love of NASCAR than any of us. [...]

There is an interesting, and disturbing for obvious reasons, story in Saturday’s New Zeland Herald.
Investigators are trying to track down a gang of thieves that have been targeting race teams in the last few months. At this point the reason for the thefts are unknown. Speculation centers on cars and parts are being stolen to [...]

It’s not a good week to be Italian.
A great voice silenced with the death of Luciano Pavoratti and Ferrari may have seen their last best hope of catching McLaren this season slip away. On their home track.
It doesn’t get much worse than that and you can certainly understand if the Tifosi are caught shedding a [...]

Forgive me for thinking like Red Nation about now. Or Red & Green Nation assuming some citizens cross over.
But you know some of Red Nation’s citizens are thinking NASCAR’s evil plot to include their charge in the expanded 12 team Chase was foiled.
And any plans for future changes that fall short of combining the Top [...]

That’s what CBS Sports is claiming.
According to the outfit that brought you Dan Rather’s “fake but accurate” stories the current pole sitter of this weekends Peak Antifreeze Indy 300, and potentially IRL Champ for 2007, will run, not walk into the arms of Chip Ganassi Racing for the 2008 season.
Purportedly Franchitti will man the wheel [...]

I previously noted the rumors flying around J.J. Yeley and his “emanate” signing with Robert Yates Racing. That “done deal” turned into a fiasco for the rumor mongers when Yeley signed with Hall of Fame Racing.
Little did I know at the time that “done deal at Yates” would turn out to be so prophetic.
I just [...]

NASCAR then:
“We drove for the sheer fun of driving because there wasn’t that much money to be made.” - Richard Petty
“Sometimes it seemed like the more you drove the less money you had. I remember one time Buck Baker and Lee Petty and I had to put our money together just to split a hot [...]

To borrow, and butcher someone else’s phrase; You can satisfy some of the people some of the time, but you can’t satisfy all of the people all of the time.
What brought me to this not so startling conclusion is a couple days looking at NASCAR headlines and stories as we head into NASCAR final “regular [...]

It’s rumored in more than a few places that F1 Toyota team are unhappy with Ralf Schumacher’s performance and the possibility Schumacher could have to start looking elsewhere for a future F1 seat.
Or just elsewhere.
As the rumors swirl up steps the major domo behind the German/European DTM Series.
Hans-Werner Aufrecht, who is chairman of the [...]

It was a lock some said. A “done deal.” I even read it was a “virtual certainty” J.J. Yeley would be at the wheel of the Yates Ford in 2008. Or the Woods Bros. Ford.
Or the Starship Enterprise.
Not to be says the brand spanking new Hall of Fame Racing owner Jeff Moorad. “J.J. Yeley’s determination [...]

As NASCAR fans we are all well aware of ISC’s Great Staten Island Adventure. Like any other purposed track location in the last 20 years it met with stiff opposition from the locals.
Staten Island had unique problems, being an Island chief among them, but the rest of the complaints were the usual. Increased traffic and [...]

I’m sure NASCAR star Kenny Schrader eventually got to the traditions of Labor Day. Steaks, corn on the cob, ribs, tater salad. The works.
But he had a championship to defend. The Labor Day/tailgate fixin’s had to wait.
After being stymied by Du Quoin’s “Magic Mile” for more than a dozen races, Ken Schrader, a four-time winner [...]