Full Throttle

Lets cut the speculation, Fernando Alonzo has. F1’s two-time world champion has let the Felis silvestris catus (more commonly known as a house cat) out of the bag about his future intentions at Renault:

“I’m at Renault because we won in 2005 and 2006 and I want to get back to that, if not this year then next year. But as I have a clause that allows me to leave, I will try to be in the best car possible, and it’s clear that Ferrari is one of the best.”

“It’s early to talk about moves and rumours, but Massa has had two bad races with mistakes and that has sparked speculation - it’s logical, but like I said, it’s too early.”

Nothing like kicking off the F1 silly season with a bang Fernando. Not to mention fueling the current “Massa can’t drive without traction control” meme making the rounds.

When first reading of the New Hampshire race driver convicted of reckless conduct with a deadly weapon I had visions of some of NASCAR’s “bad boys” being frog marched in leg irons to the local Iron Bar Hotel.

Thankfully that hasn’t happened. Yet.

The AP report of the incident contains little in the way of details, just the name of the track (Twin State Speedway in Claremont, NH) and name of the driver. So a searchin’ I went.

The Concord Monitor still has the original article online from October last year.

This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill slammin’ bangin’ that occurs in the heat of the moment on short tracks and superspeedways alike. The incident was the result of an apparent long standing family feud that wasn’t checked at the pit gate.

The local Claremont constabulary reported track officials had met with those involved prior to the evenings races and warned them to keep their personal issues off the track.

That didn’t happen with the resulting charges of reckless conduct and criminal mischief being filed and the ultimate conviction last week for reckless conduct with a deadly weapon.

Not a good thing, but the right thing all things considered.

The number one reason you can tell NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series has been on hiatus for the last week: (Subtitled; “It’s Been Far Too Long Since the Edward’s L’Affaire Oil Tank.”)

1. Jack in the Hat is blowing his stack! (Courtesy Dave Moody) “ESPN the Magazine has an interesting and potentially explosive quote from Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush as part of its 10th Anniversary issue, which is on newsstands this week.”

“We had a proprietary Roush Fenway part go missing from one of my race teams, and we recovered it from a Toyota team. I’m not going to say which team it is, but we are considering legal action, or getting NASCAR involved.”

Hmm… if I were to guess, while donning my Foil Hat, I’d say the proprietary part in question might be that super-duper, extra special, made-with-Kryptonite oil tank fastening device the #99 was caught with. But that’s pure speculation.

Dave via his Sirius Radio connections contacted Roush-Fenway and “hopes” to have a statement from them later today. I’m reminded of the old saying “hope in one hand and shit in the other, and see which one fills up faster.”

As long as the Foil Hat is in place I may as well ask a lingering question: Jack why go to ESPN the Magazine with such an explosive charge before blabbing to the Toyota team and NASCAR?

Why do I have the feeling Jack is building a very smokey fire with no flames underneath it?

My second number one reason of the day is; What’s the number one reason you can tell the Formula One season is well and truly under way?

1. Because it only took two events for more questions and controversy to arise over F1’s qualifying procedures.

After McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen were penalized in Malaysia for being rolling chicanes during the last qual session new calls for changes have surfaced with BMW Sauber boss Mario Theissen, being the loudest.

For years Formula 1 qualifying was a one-hour session with all the cars running simultaneously and the fastest driver taking pole position. In 2002 the FIA made qualifying a two two-hour single-lap shootout, where each driver ran a single timed lap alone. (eventually reduced to one hour)

2004 started with two back-to-back single lap Saturday qualifying sessions. The format was modified slightly after broadcasters and Formula One “insiders” complained that it was too long and too boring. That resulted in more calls for in season changes, they were drawn up, and promptly scraped less than a month later.

In 2006 F1 came up with the most complicated system so far. I call it the Mr. Bean Solution where you take a simple problem and place as many roadblocks between the simple problem and the simple solution as possible.

To prove my point, the change in 2006 had a fatal flaw, the first 10 minutes or so of the last session were spent with cars doing nothing but turn laps to burn off fuel, before the real competition began in the few last minutes.

That was “fixed” in 2008 when the last session was changed to 10 minutes and that has brought on new calls, again, for change.

Cha… cha… cha… changes!

A no so wonderful thing, but what the hell, they are a sure sign the F1 season is underway.

UPDATE: McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh has also called for qualy changes (see page 4) to be made.

The IndyCar Series is launching a new advertising campaign, highlighting its freshly reunified status.

The familiar “i am INDY” marketing theme will have a fresh look in 2008 as it is being expanded to reflect the unification of open-wheel racing under the IndyCar Series banner: “One series. All the stars.”

Why keep i am Indy, why give it a “fresh look?” That’s like giving your pot-bellied pig botox injections, it might make you feel better but the end result is still 99.99% pure pot-bellied pig. When the tagline was first rolled out in 2006 it was universally panned as three steps from lunacy.

i am Indy ranks up there with other “classics” such as “Bacardi: Things Spin After a While” and Pepto Bismol’s song about “heartburn, nausea, diarrhea” with people dancing around holding the appropriately pained body part as they sing the song.

Come to think of it, there’s a certain symmetry in i am Indy and “heartburn, nausea, diarrhea” but I digress.

In closing, i am flabbergasted, but hardly surprised, IndyCar’s promotional efforts have gone decidedly downhill since being contractually married to a face painted, washed up rock star for it’s marketing campaigns.

In answer to the question posed, I haven’t a clue, but it’s a sure bet 15 year old Jessica Brunelli is close.

Very close.

Saturday evening she competed in the USAC California Ford Focus Pavement Midget Car Series event at the Havasu 95 Speedway in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Qualifying fourth she was eligible for the Trophy Dash where she placed third. In the nights 30 lap Feature, won by 18 year old Ian Miille, Brunelli finished eighth in the season opening event for the 20 race pavement series.

The young lady seems to be no flash in the pan. In Dec. last year she tested in a USAC Focus Midget at Ventura Raceway in Ventura, Ca

This was her first time on the Dirt. Jessica tested with Midget and Sprint Car National and World Champion Cory Kruseman in preperation for the 2008 season. Jessica will be driving on Corys Team racing the Jr. Focus Midget at Ventura. Jessica also tested in a USAC Sprint car.

2007 was a banner year for Brunelli. Jessica competed at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows Ca. Finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 3 races she competed in earning her “Rookie of the Year” for the 2007 Skip Barber Race Series.

In mid-year she tested a Formula BMW machine at Michigan and Sept. had Jessica testing a NASCAR Grand American Modified at Altamont Motorsports Park in Livermore, Ca. The test was followed the next month with her first 600hp Open Modified race at Altamont Motorsports Park. She qualified 7th and finished 5th against an experienced field of 12 modifieds in the 50 lap Grand American Modified event.

Does this impressive résumé label Ms. Brunelli as America’s youngest racing “Diva?” Is she headed the way of Tony Stewart and J.J. Yeley as USAC Triple Crown winners?

Obviously that remains to be seen, and like all drivers she needs sponsors to get that far. It’s also plain to see she has an excellent start towards that goal.

The lone paved short track in New Jersey, Wall Stadium, is no more and has been closed ending over 5 decades of racing history.

Then owners Thomas and Jennie J. Nicol opened the gates of 1/3-mile asphalt Wall Stadium in May 1950. Since then some of Stock Car and Modifieds biggest stars have competed at the track.

Jennie J. Nicol was known as the First Lady of Short Track Racing and did nothing to disown rumors of $50 payouts to drivers to start fights on the track to get the crowd stirred up.

Legendary NASCAR Modified drivers Maynard Troyer, Charlie Jarzombek, and Ron Bouchard have all tested their courage against the asphalt of Wall Stadium and won more than averages said were possible.

Martin Truex Jr., a two-time Busch Series champion and current DEI Sprint Cup driver, cut his teeth on the high-banked track. However the Stadium’s most successful alumni is Ray Evernham, whose Evernham Motorsports, (Now GEM) has become one of the premier organizations in NASCAR.

Although having a preference for dirt track racing Evernham chose to race at Wall because they ran the economical Modern Stock division. He soon graduated to Sportsman cars and then to his first love, Modifieds. He was a terror on the track and in every division he ran at Wall, from Midgets, to Modifieds, to Sportsman cars, to the Modern Stocks.

“Wall Stadium is different,” says Evernham. “Maybe a mini Bristol. (30-degree banking in the corners and16-degree banking in the straights) It’s fast. It’s only a third. It was always pretty narrow on the straightaways, so you could haul ass coming off the corner.”

“You had to get into a rhythm to where you’d be sliding that Modified up off that corner with the tail hung out. You almost had to over correct it and let the tail slide back to the left by the starter’s stand, or you’d clip the fence. Then you’d swing it back out to the right. So it was kind of a strange line you had to run to be fast.”

The Jersey Shore still has its ocean and it’s beaches and the boardwalks of Belmar, Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights, but Wall Stadium like so may before it has been felled by poor attendance, car count in the pits and to a certain extent the 9,000 pound gorilla known as NASCAR under the lights on Saturday night.

R.I.P Wall Stadium.

Defending drivers’ world champion Kimi Raikkonen bounced back to form and back into the scrap for this year’s title when he won the Malaysian Grand Prix for Ferrari on Sunday.

Starting second on the grid, the Finn assumed control of the race following the first set of pit stops and eventually took the checkered flag some 20 seconds ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica.

But the Italian team’s hopes of a dream one-two finish just a week after their embarrassing failure at Melbourne, where both cars failed to complete the race, were wrecked by Brazilian Felipe Massa spinning off on lap 30 while running second.

The error by Massa gave Robert Kubica a perfect opportunity to finish second and he did so with a calm and solid performance to come ahead of steadily improving Finn Heikki Kovalainen for McLaren Mercedes-Benz.

It was Kubica’s career best result in Formula One.

Kovalainen’s McLaren teammate Briton Lewis Hamilton, who won in Australia, endured a troubled race which was compromised by a problematic opening pit stop, to finish fifth behind Jarno Trulli in a Toyota.

Raikkonen’s win was the 16th of his career and proved he is carrying no “negative baggage” after his dismal outing at Albert Park where he spun twice, but still managed to collect a point for being classified eighth.

It was also Raikkonen’s seventh win for Ferrari and his second win in Malaysia.

His win increased his total of points for the season to 11 after two races. This cut Hamilton’s lead at the top to just three points, the Englishman collecting four points.

German Nick Heidfeld finished sixth behind Hamilton in the second BMW after being caught up in a dramatic sequence of events at turn one on the opening lap.

Australian Mark Webber made up for his bad luck in his home race in Australia last Sunday by finishing seventh, ahead of double champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso who was eighth for Renault.

Cross Posted @ Asian Motor Sports

Scott Wimmer becomes Nashville Superspeedway’s live action Guitar Man, as opposed to the video game of the same name.

It took another stroke of Kyle Busch bad luck, this time self inflicted, but the #20’s lawn cutting escapade led to Scott Wimmer’s first series win since 2003.

Wimmer edged RCR teammate Clint Bowyer by 0.578 seconds. Carl Edwards was third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Kelly Bires.

Kyle finished 16^th after dominating the event leading 125 laps before spinning into, and through the frontstretch grass.

“It was just driver error,” Busch said. “I just messed up and lost it. I’m sure it’s going to bother me all week.”

In other news you can lose: Remember that whole “bring back tradition” thing with Rockingham Speedway’s resurrection by Andy Hillenburg?

Well… the “tradition” now might be called The Big One, as Scott Speed, Michael Annett and Justin Marks topped the speed charts at The Rock’s ARCA RE/MAX test all driving Toyota Camrys.

(NOTE, this is part of the Good Old Days series of posts. When applicable they will highlight various points of interest from that weeks Sprint Cup or Nationwide venue or geographic area.)

The Tennessee geographic area has a long and storied history that predates the current Track in Nashville by several dacades.

Nashville Speedway in it’s original incarnation hosted Cup events from 1959, an event won by Joe Weatherly through 1984 Pepsi 420, an event that had Geoff Bodine take the checkers ahead of Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Sr. Ron Bouchard and Bobby Allison. Here is an outstanding photo gallery of Nashville from 1960. The image above is Ned Jarrett in his ‘63 Courtesy Ford on the Nashville high banks.

Bobby Isaac dominated 1970 the Nashville 420, finishing two laps ahead of the field. Only nine cars ­finished the grueling race, which is ­televised in part by ABC Sports.

Newport Speedway in Newport, TN held two events both won by Glenn “Fireball” Roberts in 1956-57.

Kingsport Speedway located in Kingsport, TN held three Cup events ‘69-’71, Richard Petty won the first two and Bobby Issac won the last event in 1970. Here is a set of excellent 1970’s era photos including NASCAR legends Sam Ard, Jack Ingram, Harry Gant and ‘73 track champion L.D. Ottenger. At the bottom of the page is the Dave Marcis #2 Chevy II inside the Dale Earnhardt Sr. #8 Chevy II in 1978

Smoky Mountain Raceway in Maryville, TN (now known as The Mountain Raceway Park) held 12 Cup events between 1965 and 1971. Dick Hutcherson won the inaugural event with Richard Petty taking the last two in ‘71 and ‘72.

On July 20, 1969 the Volunteer 500 was flagged off at Bristol Motor Speedway. David Pearson prevailed after 500 wreck filled laps in the first event on the 1/2-mile oval since the turns were redesigned and banked to a staggering and now familiar 36 degrees.

Jean Alesi won a spectacular Speedcar Series race at Sepang International Circuit on Saturday morning as the championship supported a Grand Prix for the first time. Many big names from the F1 world paid close attention to the action as Alesi won a race-long battle with his old friend and sometime Sauber team mate Johnny Hebert, finally getting the better of the Englishman on the last lap.

Winner of the first race in Sentul, Alesi took pole position ahead of Herbert, Mathias Lauda, David Terrien, Uwe Alzen and Ananda Mikola. Former F1 stars Ukyo Katayama, Gianni Morbidelli and Stefan Johansson were eighth to 10th, while at the back were series rookies Christian Danner, Alex Yoong and JJ Lehto, all of whom had very little time to get used to the car after joining the series this weekend.

Among those who came to visit the cars on the grid were three-time World Champion Niki Lauda, and Toro Rosso boss Gerhard Berger, who was keen to wish his old pal Alesi well.

There was drama even before the start as Katayama and Morbidelli clashed as the field came through the corner onto the pits. The Italian spun, while Katayama retired to the pits with front end damage.

At the front Alesi held on to his advantage ahead of Herbert and Lauda. There was more excitement behind when Alzen nudged Terrien into a high speed spin and claimed fourth, while further back Danner and Yoong tangled, and the local hero spun.

Alesi and Herbert soon pulled away from the rest, and circulated nose to tail as Herbert sized up possible passing opportunities. Meanwhile Alzen closed in on Lauda, and began pushing him for third place. Mikola, Johansson and Nicolas Navarro were next, while behind that group the recovering Terrien was hassling fellow Frenchman Fabien Giroix.

There was no change at the front until lap 11, when Herbert passed Alesi for the lead with a mighty effort at the penultimate corner of the lap. The Frenchman didn’t give up however, and was close enough to have a big go at the start of the final lap. He didn’t make it at that attempt, but snuck by later round the lap.

Herbert very nearly got him back straight away, but tucked in behind and readied himself for a last corner effort. However, Alesi kept the door closed and despite a nudge from Johnny that left dents in both cars Jean crossed the line just ahead, to cheers from watching F1 folk. Many of the BMW Sauber mechanics came along to the podium to cheer their former drivers.

“It was really down to racing, and I lost again!,” joked Herbert. “In the last couple of laps I started struggling with the back end, especially at the hairpin and coming out of the last corner. I was aware of it, and maybe Jean saw that and that’s what he went for. At the last corner we were level I knew I had to go a bit wider. I thought I had a run on him, but I nudged him and had to ease off, so I didn’t get the win that I truly deserved!”

Behind the two pacesetters Alzen relieved Lauda of third on the ninth lap, but the Austrian repaid the compliment with two laps to go, and thus claimed his fourth podium finish in five starts. His proud father watched as he took his trophy.

Alzen had to settle for fourth, ahead of Mikola, Johansson, Navarro and Terrien. Giroix retired from the fraught battle with a flat front tyre. Morbidelli, who won the two Dubai races, had recovered to ninth by the flag.

The top eight grid spots will be reversed for the second race on Sunday morning, so Terrien and Navarro will be on the front row, and Herbert and Alesi on the fourth.

Cross Posted @ Asian Motor Sports

Speedcar from AC on Vimeo.