The racing weekend that was

A great weekend of racing: Formula 1, MotoGP, and NASCAR.

Formula 1, at Silverstone, UK:

The new Wing complex

Round nine, the Santander British GP, was run at the Silverstone Circuit. The track first hosted a GP back in 1948, and in 1950 under the sanctioning body of the F.I.A. Before that it was a WWII Royal Air Force bomber station. Recently, it has undergone a radical redesign to transform it into a "Arena" circuit configuration to bring the spectators closing to the action

Weather played a major role during the weekend, with torrential rain and flooding on Friday's practice and Saturday's qualifying. The fans were even asked to stay a way from the track on Saturday.
However, on race-day the sun came out and threw off everyone's racing strategies, for the teams had no data on slick racing tires at Silverstone. The race would be wide open.

Alonso leads Webber at the start

From the start of the race Mark Webber, driving for Red Bull , took the fight to Fernando Alonso and kept up the pressure throughout the race. And in the closing laps, Ferrari executed their tire strategy to perfection, as the Ausie native Webber exerted considerable pressure on the Spaniard hoping to force him into making a mistake. While the battle for first continued Vettel was coming on strong, still in third. With four laps to go, and in spectacular fashion, Webber took first in a daring move on the outside, as Alonso's tires started to fade.
The Spaniard drove a great race but the Red Bull was just quicker. Monday's headlines would read: "Webber out-duels Alonso for Silverstone win."

Vettal in his RB8

Both Lotus' ran strong. The man of the day would be Romain Grosjean who drove very well, who after a first lap incident with Paul di Resta, made it all the way back to sixth place. His team mate Kimi Raikkonen, also ran well passing Schumi and Hamilton in the closing stages for fifth. Also worth mentioning was Ferrari's Felipe Massa who drove like his old self.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi gave Schumi a very tough time but when Kamui pitted he locked the fronts and slid into some of his crew, sending them flying. He immediately apologized to his mechanics for misjudging his entry.

1st place finisher Webber celebrating

Race results (top 5): 1. Mark Webber,  2. Fernando Alonso, 3. Sebastian Vettel, 4. Felipe Massa, 5. Kimi Raikkonen.
At least we didn't have Schumi in the post race interview screwing everything up or not knowing where he was on the track.

Round ten will come at Hockenheim in Germany on July 22 next. For more info, please click here.


MotoGP, at the Eni Motorrad GP of Germany:
Round 8 of the MotoGP was run at the Sashsenring which is the shortest and slowest tracks on the championship.

Pedrosa ahead of a sliding Stoner

The factory RCV riders were in a class of their own throughout the race and had exchanged the lead many times. For the final eleven laps Dani Pedrosa was ahead of his team mate and reigning world champion Casey Stoner. The Ausie native was determined to win the race pushed really hard on the final lap. However, as he explained later on, it was not meant to be, as he fell off his Honda on the last lap of the race and was unable to continue.
The German marshals were not very cooperative.

"I had planned to go for my "win or bin" effort in the last corner, not that one!", lamented Casey Stoner after the race.

As for Dani Pedrosa, he finally broke the casey Stoner/Jorge Lorenzo victory strangelhold on MotoGP in 2012 with this win. His drive could be summed up as follows: He took a holeshot into Turn 1, but was then passed by Stoner on lap 2, but he made what turned out to be the winning pass on lap on lap 19 when he out-braked Stoner into turn 1.

Italian Andrea Dovizioso rode a great race to get his second third-place finish in two weeks. With this he stakes his claim to the factory Yamaha seat, after he beat Ben Spies for third place, again.

Next race, the Gran Premio d'Italia TIM, at Mugello on July 15 next. For more info, please click here.

AJ Allmendinger suspended

NASCAR, at the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona Int'l Speedway:
Just a couple of hours before the start of the race Nascar temporarily suspended AJ Allmendinger for failing a random drug test. Team owner Roger Penske had to scramble to get Sam Hornish Jr back to Daytona to drive the no 22 car. He did so with just 8 minutes to spare, thanks to the track be situated next to the Daytona's airport, and of course, having access to private jets helps too. For more info, please click here.

The track was patched up very nicely after JP Montoya's fiery incident jet dryer truck incident in back February.

Racing under the lights at Daytona

Lap 81, the first caution came out due to Sam Hornish Jr blowing a tire and wrecked on the back stretch.  The caution enabled Stewart and Keseloski, who were half-lap down, to catch up.

However, in the ensuing pit stop Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon whent three-wide and touched on the way to the exit to pit road, sending Newman's Chevrolet spinning into the back of Keselowski's Dodge, which was still getting service. Alert and nimble crew members scattered and jumped for safety and luckily nobody was hurt.

Lap 124, a seven-car wreck saw Jimmie Johnson's car destroyed, caused Greg Biffle to be penalized for stopping under yellow. His team mate Matt Kenseth who was pitting with him continued down the pit lane with out stopping. Both drivers were committed to pitting before the yellow came out.

Lap 153, Denny Hamlin made an ill-fated move that exiting the tri-oval which caused a wreck that thinned the field for the final restart. All of Joe Gibbs Racing cars as well as Michael Waltrip's were involved.

Steward ahead of the massive wreck

At the last restart, Kenseth led with Stewart to his outside and Biffle behind him. However, Stewart out-foxes Kenseth as he skillfully side-drafts and unhooks himself from the teammates and pulls ahead while Kenseth waits for Biffle. As Stewart approached the checkered flag, a massive wreck in Turn 4 skewed the finishing order behind him, unfortunately for those who had been driving well all night. Yet another wild finish.

Stewart, on his 47th career win and 4th at the July race in Daytona: "I'll trade all [the July Daytona wins] in for just one Daytona 500. ... But all of 'em are special, and it's cool to do this.

The top five are as follows: 1. Tony Stewart, 2. Jeff Burton, 3. Matt Kenseth, 4. Joey Logano, 5. Ryan Newman. Click here to watch the "race rewind" video.

Next race will be Lenox Industrial at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 15. For moore info, please click here.

Check back for a report on NHRA.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Nascar, Wikipedia, Crash.net, Foxsports, MotoGP, Formula One,
Photo credit: Getty Images for Nascar, FoxNews, Dailymail.co.uk, Crash.net

The racing weekend that was-UPDATED

NHRA, at Route 66, Chicago:
The heat proved to be a very hot challenge for the crew chiefs on Friday. And then come Sunday, the race had to be delayed due to rain. All in all, a difficult race for both tuners and racers.

In Top Fuel, Antron Brown beat steve Torrence when he red lighted at the start. This is the second victory for Brown in his Matco Tools sponsored dragster.

In Funny Car, Jeff Arend defeated the 24-year-old Courtney Force (rookie), who made it all the way to the final. She did a great job, even though her 4.454 could not best the 4.131 of Arend. To get to the final, Arend defeated Tony Pedregon, Tim Wilkerson and Jack Beckman, all very good drivers.

In Pro Stock, Erica Enders became the first woman ever to win, and it came on the back of the man who didn't want to go down in history as "that guy", four-time world champion Greg Anderson. She drove a marvelous race and was sure not to let history repeat itself. Her GK Motorsports Chevy Cobalt muscled her way into the lead and won off Anderson with a 6.627 at 207.4 mph. A shout out to her crew chief, Dave Connolly, who is a great pro stock driver as well.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Three-time world champ Matt Hines claimed his second win of the season when he defeated L.E. Tonglet, who red lighted. Hines' Screaming Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson won over Scotty Pollacheck, Chip Ellis and Hector Arana Jr. to reach the finals.

Check again soon for an extensive piece of Erica winning in Pro Stock.

The next race will be on July 8, at the Summit Motorsports Park, in Norwalk, Ohio. For more info, please click here.


MotoGP, at Assen:
Last weekend the fastest riders met up at the TT Circuit Assen, in Holland. The track was built in 1955 and is considered "The Cathedral" of motorcycling by the fans.

Lorenzo (R) was furious after the incident

Heading into the first corner Alvaro Bautista (P8) attacked hard and way too early into the race. Bautista lunged for the inside at turn one, fell when he lost the front of his Gresini Honda and then wiped out the unsuspecting third on the grid Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha factory) ahead of him. Both out of the race, Lorenzo was left with a "big bruise" on his leg and lost the lead of the championship.

At the restart of the race, the first and second on the grid machines of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa seemed to be in a class of their own. Both Yamaha riders pulled away from the pack and the still sore Stoner (from a crash in Friday's practice) calmly put a move on Pedrosa with ten laps to go.

At the checkered flag it was Casey Stoner (Australia), trailed by Dani Pedrosa (Spain) and Andrea Dovizioso riding for Monster Yamaha Tech 3, who passed Ben Spies on the last lap.

Now, the championship is heating up with Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo in a tie. For more info about this race, please click here.

The next race will be the Eni Motorad GP in Germany, on July 8 next. For more info, please click here.


NASCAR, at the Kentucky Speedway:
The Quaker State 400 would prove to be a highly contested race. The heat was on from the practice sessions on Friday, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Brad Keselowski getting into clash that saw Keselowski end up in the wall with his primary car. They were supposed to be practicing, not racing. Pole position went to Jimmie Johnson, his first since 2010.

Keselowski's Penske team battled 100 degrees heat to prepare his back-up car for the race on Saturday night. And the fact that their driver was a bit ticked off, meant that he'd be pushing even harder, which he did. There were the usual wrecks and periods of trying to save fuel.

The video below shows the finish and some close racing:

In the end, Brad Keselowski took the checkered flag, his third this year, followed by Kasey Kahne (2), Denny Hamlin (3), Dale Earnhardt Jr (4), and Jeff Gordon (5). For the entire race recap, please click here.

The next race is at Daytona, the Coke Zero 400, on July 7. For more info, please click here.


Thanks for reading.

Source: NHRA, Crash.net, MotoGP, Wikipedia, NARCAR/Youtube
Photo credit: Courtney Enders/Facebook, Crash.net

The racing weekend (#18) that was

MotoGP at Estoril:

Both Honda's went hard into the first turn of the race, but the reigning world champion Casey Stoner came out ahead partly because he forced Dani Pedrosa's bike to the limit, and it said "no-no-no, I don't like this very much!" This little kick by the RCV allowed both Stoner and Lorenzo to blast past.

After gaining a lead in the opening stages of the Portuguese GP, both Jorge Lorenzo and Pedrosa caught up to Stoner and the fans looked forward to a three-way thriller. Each rider held his ground through the middle of the race, with Lorenzo almost close enough to strike and Pedrosa ready to capitalize on any mistake.

However, with some six laps to go, Stoner had enough of the pressure and set out to put some distance between them. At first he put a couple of tenths [seconds] and then, with two laps to go, he dug deep and effectively rode away from them again, and at the beginning of the last lap he had a full second lead. Casey Stoner went on to win by a comfortable 1.421 seconds. Remarkable of this win for Stoner, is that he has now won each of the MotoGP races on the present calendar. 

Race results: 1. Casey Stoner AUS (Repsol Honda), 2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP (Yamaha Factory Racing), 3. Dani Pedrosa ESP (Repsol Honda), 4. Andrea Dovizioso ITA (Monster Yamaha), 5. Cal Crutchlow GBR (Monster Yamaha)... 7. Valentino Rossi ITA (Ducati).

The next race will be the French MotoGP at Le Mans on May 18-20.


NHRA's Southern Nationals:

Steve Torrence

The NHRA boy's and gal's hit the Atlanta Dragway for the Summit Racing Equipment sponsored race.

Seven-time Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher lost to first time winner Steve Torrence, when he lost traction early on in the race. Torrence ran a 3.893 at 320.66 mph and had qualified in second place.

And after a long streak of wins this year in Funny Car (F/C), John Force Racing (JFR) was send packing by none other than Ron Capps. Capps used a consistent string of 4.16-second runs to take his 34-career victory, along the way winning of Robert Hight (JFR) in the final. So nice to see the NAPA Auto parts Dodge Charger in victory lane.

As with the guys in F/C, the KB boys have been on a roll this season, advancing to five straight Pro Stock finals this year. However, they not only made it to the finals, but they both reached it and had to race each other. Greg Anderson took the win over Jason Line with a 6.649 at 208.26 mph. The win was dedicated to team owner Ken Black.

In Pro Stock motorcycle, defending world champion Eddie Krawiec put his Screamin' Eagle Vance & Hinces H-D in the winners' circle by running a 6.905 and defeating Micheal Ray's Buell.

The next NHRA race is scheduled for Topeka (Heartland Park) on May 18-20.



 ADRL (1/8 mile) at Maple Grove:

Mick Snyder drove his '63 Corvette not only to the No. 1 qualifying position, but on Saturday night under the lights, he ran a 3.648 ET at 207,46 mph to beat Tommy D'Aprile. For more info about this memorable Northeast Drags II, please click here.

Other winners were: Robert Patrick Jr (Pro Nitrous), Billy Glidden (Mickey Thompson Extreme 10.5), Eric McKinney (Pro Extreme Motorcycle), Dean Goforth (Extreme Pro Stock), Mike Castellana (Pro Mod), Chip Forman (Top Sportsman), and Chris Holbrook (SuperCar Showdown).

Team Aruba's Trevor Eman (Extreme Pro Stock), though had a better reaction time than his opponent in the first round of elimination, lost to eventual race winner Dean Goforth by a mere 0,0015 seconds. That was a close race, some 5 inches at the finish line!

Trevor's run can be seen at the 3.30 minute mark in the video above.


NASCAR at Talladega Superspeedway:

Its called a super speedway for three reasons: 1. it's the longest Nascar oval with a length of 2.66 miles, 2. speeds average around 200 mph, and 3. a whopping 175.000 seating capacity. For more info, click here.

So, conventional wisdom, especially at these draft heavy tracks, tells you that the one leading the last lap doesn't win the race. I guess nobody told Brad Keselowski this fact,
for he shook of Kyle Busch on the last lap to go on to win the race. Remarkable is that Kyle lost to Joey Logano the previous night the same way he intended to win of Brad, except he couldn't make it happen.



Up to those final laps, it had been a huge test of endurance, patience, mechanical reliability and lots of good luck for only 19 cars out of the 43 were on the lead lap at the end of the race.  As is common in draft racing, most of the wrecks occurred towards he end of he race.

All in all, a great race and if you haven't watched a Nascar race lately, be sure to tune in for the next one. To me the entertainment score the folk at Nascar have achieved is the highest ever in motor racing, even when Rossi rode his Honda in the good-old-days in MotoGP.

For a recap of the races at Talladega, click here for a Nascar video.

The next Nascar race is Darlington, this Saturday at 6.30 pm. Don't miss it.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Crash.net, MotoGP, NHRA, Robzneed4speed Drag Race Videos
Photo credit: MotoGP, ABC.es, Dragzine, CompetitionPlus.

Qatar 2012 MotoGP recap

The MotoGP season got underway this past weekend with the running of the Qatar GP at Losail circuit. Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) utilized Bridgestone's softer compound to push hard and secure pole position over reigning champion Casey Stoner by a margin of 0.221 seconds.

On race Sunday, it was good to be a Spaniard, as Jorge Lorenzo's fighting spirit carried him to victory, his first at the Losail circuit. In the beginning Casey Stoner was very strong and opened up a gap, however, towards the end he struggled and had to drop his pace. As Lorenzo had no problems he capitalized on this and passed Stoner for the lead, while keeping hard charging Dani Pedrosa at bay.

"From lap three you are really sideways," said the Spaniard when asked about his new Bridgestone tires. "It is fun to ride because you are always sliding and trusting the traction control but it is not so easy."

Lorenzo leading the Honda's

Dani Pedrosa rocketed from seventh to second at turn one, but then was passed by his team mate Stoner as he set his eyes on polesitter Lorenzo. Pedrosa was able to stick with the second place rider Lorenzo throughout the middle stages and later the duo caught up to Stoner, as his performance started to fade with only a few laps remaining. Pedrosa briefly passed Lorenzo for second only to have the Yamaha rider responding in kind and then putting Stoner between them.

Barbera about to pass through Rossi

As for 79 time MotoGP winner Valentino Rossi, his struggles continue with a poor performing Ducati. He finished the race in tenth place, 33.6 seconds behind Lorenzo. At one point he was even pushed off the track by privateer Hector Barbera, also on a Ducati!

Rossi on his Ducati: "The problems with the bike haven't changed, and neither have my requests. It's unridable, and it doesn't make much difference what track we are on".

The podium results:
1. Jorge Lorenzo, Spain, Yamaha Factory
2. Dani Pedrosa, Spain, Repsol Honda
3. Casey Stoner, Australia, Repsol Honda

Next race will be the Spanish GP at Jerez, on April 29.

Thanks for reading.

Source: MotoGO, Crash.net
Photo credit: Ducati Corse, The Australian

Grand Finale MotoGP

For excitement and awesome overtaking maneuvers, nothing beats MotoGP racing.

And the last race at Valencia, Spain, did not dissapoint. Too bad that at the start of the race, as the field neared the first corner, which is a tight left-hander, Alvaro Bautista collided into Valentino Rossi and swept him of his Ducati, taking fellow riders Nicky Hayden and Randy de Puniet with him.
Rossi on the first lap incident, "I felt some riders coming up the inside really fast as we approached Turn 1. Then something happened and it was just the domino effect - race over in the first corner."

However, as the race neared the end it started to rain harder. American rider and 2009 World Superbike  champion, Ben Spies was riding a superb race and battled hard with Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso for second place. In the closing stages he secured this spot in a commanding fashion and set his sights on first place rider Casey Stoner. With three laps to go, as the rain drops intensified, Stoner made a mistake and went wide giving Spies the position. He recalls, "Followed him [Stoner] for a bit, then he made a mistake and I went by."

Since Ben Spies came over from "Superbike", I have been pulling for the him to win a race and I was quite happy when he won Assen earlier this year. Now he looked set to win in Valencia too.

Stoner at Catalunya

As he pulled away from Stoner, it looked as if the 2011 MotoGP champion had settled for second place. However, one doesn't get to be world champion without much experience and wisdom. And I couldn't believe my eyes for what I had been expecting came true. Since it was raining and the riders hadn't changed bikes yet, Stoner chose to stay behind Spies in order to gauge the track's condition in front of him. Spies commenting on the last 2 laps of the race, "It was still raining quite bad and without anybody in front of me it was hard to know how grip was on the track." As Stoner followed the american around the track he was staying safe and gauging Spies factory Yamaha's performance, and on the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season, the world champion made his move. Casey Stoner focused on getting a good exit out of the corner and maximized his speed hitting his shift points just right every time. What a finish!

The margin of victory:just enough.

Casey Stoner beat Ben Spies by a mere 0.015 seconds at the finish line and stole the Valencian MotoGP. The man isn't world champion for nothing!

Sources: MotoGP.com, Crash.net
Pictures courtesy of: MotoGP.com, Crash.net