One would think that the 5,860 feet above sea level's [thin] air would take away their horsepower and slow these racers down, well in fact it does but not by that much.
At one of my favourite spectator drag race tracks, the Bandimere Speedway in Colorado, a race that marks the commencement of the all important "western swing", the guys and galls put on a great show for the fans. Just take a look at Saturday's qualifying footage in the short video below:
There was an incident during qualifying when Pro Stock driver Matt Hartford crashed his car near the top-end, he was unhurt. More on this in tomorrow's blog.
On race Sunday, defending NHRA Pro Stock world champion Allan Johnson, who's also the pro stock man to beat at Bandimere for years now, continued on a win-streak as he defeated fellow Dodge Avenger campaigner V. Gaines. Johnson reached the finals by defeating Mike Edwards in the second round and Rickie Jones in the semi-finals.
In Top Fuel, DSR driver Spencer Massey defeated Bob Vandergriff Jr with a winning time of 3.974 at 309.27 mph. Earlier he outran Caly Millican and Mike Strasburg, who in spite of his semi-final round loss, had a memorable day on Sunday.
In Funny Car, second-generation Mexican driver Cruz Pedregon claimed his third victory in 2013. Usually it is his brother Tony that gets the wins, but not so this year. Cruz, who was also the top qualifier outran Bob Tasca III with a 4.233 at 295.46 mph in the final round. Nevermind that hat!!
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Shawn Gann went 7.351 at 181.08 mph and defeated Hector Arana Jr. Gann beat the lovely Angie Smith, Steve Johnson, and three-time world champion Andrew Hines to race jr in the finals.
To see a recap of the final rounds on Sunday, watch the video below:
In NASCAR, at the 300 at Chicagoland:
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racers had last weekend off and only the Nationwide series was held at Chicagoland. Roger Penske driver Joey Logano got the call and just couldn't say no! Oh boy, he's glad he did for he took the lead with 15 laps to go and won his second NNS race of the season.
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| Logano overtaking Hornish Jr |
"At the start of the race, I thought we had a third-place car, but we made some adjustments and got it a lot better," said Logano.
He battled hard with teammate Sam Hornish Jr. on the final restart, but came storming past Hornish out of Turn 2 on lap 186 to take the lead for the last time.
Race results: 1. Joey Logano, 2. Sam Hornish Jr., 3. Austin Dillon, 4. Elliott Sadler, 5. Brian Vickers.
The next race surely will be a crowd pleaser! NASCAR's Camping World Truck series will take to the Eldora Speedway, a half-mile dirt oval which is kinda a "Grand daddy" of dirt ovals. The race will take place on Wednesday night 9.00 pm ET on SpeedTV, so adjust your plans. Cup trucks on a dirt oval. Need I say more? For more info, please click here.
In MotoGP, at Laguna Seca:
Heading to the "New World" the momentum was clearly with Marc Marquez, having won the GP of Deutschland in commanding fashion. However, he clearly admitted that his victory was not part of his target ahead of his first MotoGP race at the famous Laguna Seca track.
The Italian Valentino Rossi finished on the podium again, in third place. Earlier he won the Assen race and came in third at the Sachsenring last weekend.
"I had a fantastic start but I did not have enough pace to stay with Bradl and then Marquez did a great overtake on me. Anyway, he was also too fast for me and from that moment I had a great battle with Alvaro Bautista who was very strong today," said Vale in an interview after the race.
Race results:
1. Marc Marquez, 2. Stefan Bradl, 3. Valentino Rossi, 4. Alvaro Bautista, 5. Dani Pedrosa.
The next race will be the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, scheduled for August 18. For more info, please click here.
Thanks for reading.
Source: NHRA, NASCAR, MotoGP.
Photo credit: Boston Herald, MotoGP.
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