Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2008 July.

The release of the 2009 IndyCar schedule has clouded the future of the Gold Coast event (Held as a Champ Car event prior to the reunification), and is in grave doubt whether the Gold Coast will return.

It’s been some time since having to add an entry to the Speedway Mortuary - which is probably a commentary on how much news I miss rather than any great resurgence of short track support around the country - but word is USA International Speedway will shut its pitgate after hosting its final race this [...]

Former Formula One and CART champion Jacques Villeneuve will make his debut in NASCAR’s second-tier series Nationwide on Saturday on a very familiar track.

Big changes are coming for the interchange by the future and under-construction NASCAR Hall of Fame.
State crews are redoing the ramps to make it easier for drivers to get to the hall and so that Charlotte has an attractive gateway to uptown.
When they finish, they plan to turn the land near the interchange over to [...]

North Carolina Motorcycle dealer Click Baldwin died in Montana from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident that occurred on Tuesday morning.
Baldwin was riding through Montana with 14 other members of the Hamsters Motorcycle Club. The group was meeting other members for the 68th annual Sturgis Rally in Sturgis, S.D.
Click Baldwin was riding a 2009 Harley-Davidson [...]

Current Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson has never driven in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
That will remain true fact until the Aug. 20 Truck Series race at Bristol when he will jump into new team owner Randy Moss’s #81 Chevrolet.
“As for the trucks, I am really looking forward to that. I have never run a [...]

Superleague Formula development driver Bruce Jouanny took the first “victory” for the V12-powered Panoz chassis at the Nurburgring on Sunday.
Jouanny’s prototype Superleague Formula car took part in a “World of Race Cars” event prior to the DTM event at the famous German circuit.
The Frenchman’s competition included the Audi R10 sportscar, its Peugeot Le Mans rivals [...]

The Indy Racing Series leaving Nashville Superspeedway.
Both sides have failed to negotiate an agreement for a 2009 race. Track officials made the announcement Monday.
The IndyCar Series had raced here the past eight years, including July 12 when Scott Dixon won a rain-shortened race.
The superspeedway is owned by Dover Motorsports, [...]

According to the DeMoines Register the Nationwide Series date in Mexico will not be on the 2009 schedule. (Bueno-por México y Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez?)
The paper has confirmed the change via an email with the series’ senior manager of communications
Tracey Judd.
Iowa Speedway’s director of media relations Mike Beecher said he’s heard the speculation centering on the [...]

As you can tell I have had my thinking cap on since the end of the Sprint Cup…. ahem… race, at Indy.
You should also know my having gone to outside devices to assist in thinking about the event doesn’t guarantee any token amount of success.
That said, and already being in a mood prone to laughter [...]

Series veteran Matt Kobyluck got the best of development drivers Trevor Bayne and Austin Dillon in the late stages of Saturday’s Edge Hotel 150 at Adirondack International Speedway to collect his second straight NASCAR Camping World Series East victory.

Rookie Jeff Barkshire thrilled family and friends at his home track by capturing his first career win Saturday night in the Toyota/Concept Race Cars & Parts 150 at Evergreen Speedway.
Eric Holmes has been the driver to beat this season in NASCAR Camping World Series West competition and that is exactly what Barkshire did, battling [...]

Joe Gibbs is running out of viable reasons, and running out of time, for fielding a fourth Sprint Cup team in 2009.

SunTrust Rookie of the Year contender Scott Speed held off veterans’ Justin Allgaier and Frank Kimmel to win the ARCA RE/MAX 200 Saturday night at Berlin Raceway.

Unconfirmed reports, from completely impeachable sources, claim to have intercepted the following email from Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition to Brian France CEO and chairman of NASCAR:
“Oh Great One:”
Subject: “Sweet Revenge“.
“I want that kids ‘Jewels’ hanging in my N.C. office by Sunday night!’ How dare he usurp my all-encompassing authority (granted by you, [...]

Hey Buddy sucker, can you spare a dime for a down on its luck speedway project?
Located virtually in the shadow of Mesa Marin’s “headstone” plans have been pit on hold for a new center of speed for Kern County.
A defaulted land deal has resulted in the brakes being put on a new racetrack west of [...]

After five starts with just one top five result in the books, Alex Tagliani, a rookie in the Canadian Tire NASCAR Series, rolled back into Edmonton and onto a track he used to race as a Champ Car driver.

Ryan Briscoe will start on the pole for Saturday’s Rexall Edmonton Indy after winning a qualifying session Friday that saw Canadian Marty Roth shatter any front-running hopes for fellow Canadian Paul Tracy.

Enter NASCAR’s resident curmudgeon (aside from myself) Jack Roush on having spent $300,000 on a COT prototype at NASCAR’s request, for a set of specs that keep changing: “We’ve had just about all the cost containment the teams can afford so far, and I don’t think we’ve got a car yet that will race on [...]

As I read through this story I couldn’t help but think of a rewrite of a famous phrase:
“Hell has no fury like a woman Dale Earnhardt Senior fan scorned.”
The city of Kannapolis is taking its “Dale Trail” banners down at the request of Castle & Cooke, the developers of the N.C. Research Center — and [...]