Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2009 December.

North Dakota’s Donny Schatz continued his love affair with Tyrepower Parramatta Raceway tonight winning the 30th Valvoline Australian Grand Prix after a race long duel with Australian champion Garry Brazier.

With end of year F1 news centered around new teams joining the 2010 grid noticeably absent has been F1’s only American based team USF1. While other teams have announced driver signings USF1 co-owners Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor have been under the radar, to say the least.

In an effort to follow in Santa’s footsteps, not to mention living up to my curmudgeon-like nature, it’s time to hand out “awards” to those of the NASCAR community deserving of “recognition.”

NASCAR announced today that it will continue its 17-year streak of racing on a national-series level in Wisconsin with the addition of the historic Road America course to its 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule.

The 2.5km banked oval at Free State’s Phakisa Freeway has been given the thumbs-up from the first professional stock car driver to drive it.

A few days ago it was reported that Bernie “The Gnome” Ecclestone was twisting the arms of Turkish GP organizers looking to extract double the previous fee for staging the GP event.

Today, I went online and ordered a No. 7 Danica Patrick T-shirt. Let’s just make one thing perfectly clear from the outset — I am not a person who is inclined to wear hot girls on my T-shirts.

Danica Patrick made her first laps in an ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards stock car during a rain-shortened test session at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Friday afternoon. Patrick, one of 26 drivers who posted a time during the 35-minute single car run session, was 12th quickest on the charts with a time of 51.095 seconds (176.142 mph) around the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

A few months ago Formula One teams have expressed concern over the provisional 2010 calendar, seeking to have the date of the Turkish Grand Prix moved. Bernie “The Gnome” Ecclestone has a fix for that.

The Danica to NASCAR bruhaha, after her ARCA indoctrination of course, has become the 10,000 pound elephant in the room with every ink stained scribe opining both pro and con on her imminent arrival, or not, in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series.

After Renault’s non-decision during a recent “emergency” meeting the company is doing what most have expected all along, Renault has sold a 75 percent stake in the team to the Genii Capital company, led by businessman Gerard Lopez, with the two companies operating the team which will continue to carry the Renault name.

Leilani Münter will be driving the #59 NextEra Energy Resources Dodge for Mark Gibson Racing (MGR) in the three day ARCA Series open test at Daytona International Speedway on December 18, 19, and 20.

In a sport that has seen a former FIA president caught up in an [allegedly] Nazi sex sandal, an industrial spying scandal resulting in millions of dollars in fines and a driver admitting to a charge of purposefully crashing effecting the outcome of a World’s Championship it’s hardly comes as a surprise we now have a sponsorship scam to deal with.

One of the biggest names in the world of motorsport, Tony Stewart, will be heading ‘Down Under’ to compete at Sydney’s Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway later this month.

NASCAR’s history is well known to even the most casual observers. As a sport rooted in the mountains and the foothills of the Southern Appalachians it first received national prominence in 1965. That year saw Esquire magazine publish Tom Wolfe’s essay, “The Last American Hero”, about Junior Johnson’s Wilkes County exploits.

Milka Duno will join fellow IndyCar Series driver Danica Patrick at next week’s ARCA test at Daytona International Speedway.

NASCAR won a big court victory Friday as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the former owners of Kentucky Speedway.

Formula One’s governing body Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile announced on Thursday a plan to radically overhaul the points system in 2010. The plan to give points to the top ten finishers in each race will go before the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) for approval on Friday.

BBC Sport is reporting Renault will return to the F1 grid after the team held a so called “emergency meeting” last month that cast doubt whether the manufacturer would continue in the sport.

Danica Patrick ended months of speculation when she announced on Tuesday a deal to race part-time in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series. The only woman to win an IndyCar race will suit up for JR Motorsports, a team co-owned by Dale, Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt, as well as Rick Hendrick and Tony Eury, Jr.