The racing weekend that was

In MotoGP, at Qatar:

Vale leading Marc - epic Yamaha vs Honda

The season opener got off with a bang yesterday with Valentino Rossi and rookie Marc Marquez providing loads of entertainment, whilst fighting for second place. First went to reigning double world champion Jorge Lorenzo, who's long sessions of winter testing paid off handsomely.

"Half an hour before he race I felt nervous. I had to concentrate a lot to relax on the grid because I knew the start was important," explained Lorenzo after the race. "I knew it would be hard to open up a gap but I had to try. I made a good start, pushed more than 100 per cent."

The Factory Yamaha star not only retained his pole position after the start, but also pounded out consistent hot laps to wear down the competition. By the midway point, he had opened up a four second gap which grew to almost six seconds in the end. Dani Pedrosa had ried to keep up with Lorenzo but after six laps could not keep up with the champion's relentless pace.

A familiar sight

After two difficult years racing for Ducatti, multiple world champion Valentino Rossi returned to Yamaha to secure his first podium position right of the bat.

After the race, a very happy Rossi commented: "I am so happy because my target was to arrive on the podium in the first race. After the warm-up I knew I had a good chance. However, I needed to do a good start and risk a bit to overtake the bikes in front that were a bit slower than me.....then when I had some free track I had a great pace and got closer and closer. At the end it was a great battle all three - but especially Marc, until the last lap. I was maybe a little faster but we were very close."

Congrats Vale and happy to see you back on a competitive bike!


NASCAR, at Martinsville:
Basically in control for 347 laps out of the 500, Jimmie Johnson drove to another win at Martinsville Speedway, his eight win at the .526-mile short track. At no point during the race was his position higher that fifth on the track.

The first repeat winner through six 2013 Cup races, Johnson now regains the points lead over defending champion Brad Keselowski.

On lap 487, the race got red flagged when Kurt Busch's brakes failed and sent the car hard into the Turn 1 wall. As the car slid along the fence fire spew from underneath the hood, but when the car came to a standstill Busch triggered the onboard fire extinguisher before exiting the car. Cool, calm and collected, that's how race car drivers do it.

Jr. after being bumped by Patrick #10

Dale Earnhardt Jr got bumped by the No 10 who got a push from No 55. Trading paint even after the checkered dropped were Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers. Things are definitely heating up in NASCAR!


More to follow soon. Thanks for reading.

Source: MotoGP, Crashnet
Photo credit: Crashnet

The racing weekend that was

In NHRA, at Phoenix:
The Top Fuel's "Wally" went to Tony Schumacher, with his fourth consecutive final round appearance dating back to last season. Along the way, Tony he beat Sidnei Frigo, Khalid alBalooshi, and Antron Brown.

The final became a pedal fest when both 8,000-horsepower dragsters lost traction early in the race. Both he and Morgan Lucas were on and off the throttle as they navigated the dragstrip.

"When you can win ugly like that it is so much fun,"said Schumacher. "Both cars were set up to run reaaly fast, and we both lost i and smoked the tires. It was lift, pedal, lift, pedal all the way down. I could hear Morgan beside me the whole time. As a driver, that kind of race is so much fun, and I enjoy winning like that more than a record run."

In Funny Car, Ron Capps' NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger outran Tony Pedregon, Cruz Pedregon, Tim Wilkerson and in the final round Matt Hagan, with a 4.064 at 314.90 mph.

"This new car really likes to be planted early, and so Rahn Tobler has been working on a new clutch package," Capps said. "In [the final qualifying session] yesterday, we finally found out what it really liked . And when you give Tobler a new combination, he is going to bracket-car it to death."

Enders-Stevens vs Edwards

In Pro Stock, Erica Enders-Stevens outran top qualifier Mike Edwards to earn her fifth victory. Even though Edward's Interstate Batteries/I am Second Chevy Camaro ran a quicker 6.52, Erica took the win on a whole-shot. To get to the finals, Erica beat Shane Gray, V. Gaines and Jason Line.

"Coming off the season we had last year and starting the way that we did this year, it was kind of a gut check in that we wonder if we can ever get it done again," Enders-Stevens said. "Our guys really worked their butts off during the winter, but we didn't get a chance to test a lot...but our guys proved that they can pick up where they left off, and I'm excited."

For the first time in history, a female driver won in the pro categories back-to-back.

The next race, is scheduled for March 14-17 with the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville.


In NASCAR, at the big American race:
In my view, even though Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 yesterday, Danica Patrick stole the show by running a very strong race, which included qualifying on pole, leading a lap, and remain in contention by running in third place on the penultimate lap.














More to come soon.

Thanks for reading.

Source: NHRA, NASCAR.

The racing weekend that was

In NHRA, at Pomona:
At the WinterNationals, the season opener, Courtney Force stepped up and kept the family name up on the podium by racing to victory in her Funny Car. Her sister Brittany unfortunately fouled out when her dragster rolled to deep into the staging beams, causing her to red light. The team would probe the brake system to see if there was a malfunction.


In Top Fuel, the Al Anabi Racing dragster picked up where his "brothers" left off in Qatar last week, that is with a win. In from of a home town crowd, Shawn Langdon defeated seven-time champion Tony Schumacher with a 3.721 et at 322.27 mph.
On a side note, fellow top fuel driver Antron Brown suffered a scary crash when he lost control near the finish line after a massive engine explosion. Brown was unhurt.

In Pro Stock, Vincent Nobile got an easy win in the final round, when Jeg Coughlin Jr. red lighted. There were plenty of upsets; five of the lower qualifiers advanced to the second round, while Greg Anderson went down in the first round, as did Erica Enders-Stevens, who had engine trouble.

Nobile vs Coughlin Jr.

The final round didn't get off without an hitch either. First, Nobile's Dodge stalled at the end of his burnout, and his fellow finalist and teammate Jeggy actually shut off his engine to wait for him. That gesture of good sportsmanship turned bad when the starter wire fell off Jeggy's own Dodge, sending his crew in quick fix mode. It was Nobile's turn to play good sports and wait. What is it with those Dodge door slammers?
Finally, when both cars were staged, the final ended prematurely when Jeggy uncharacteristic red-lighted.

For a short video of this race's highlights, courtesy of CompetitionPlus, please click here. The next drag races will take place this weekend in Phoenix, AZ.

NASCAR, at Daytona:
The 2 weeks leading up to the Daytona 500 are known as Speedweek one and two. In the first one, lots of practice took place, followed by the first race of speed week, and then on Sunday, the guys and galls took to the track for qualifying for the biggest race of the year, scheduled for February 24.
The generation six (aka Gen 6) cars proved to be a handful, allowing for very little drafting, and this at a super speedway. Every time the cars bunched up during practice something small, a little push or shove that wouldn't have caused a wreck with the previous generation of cars, proved to be too much and sent a bunch of cars to the garage and on to their trailers for the long haul back to their shops for repairs.
In the end, the fluorescent green "Go Daddy" car driven by Danica Patrick which was fastest during practice stayed in true form and captured pole position with a 46.420 sec lap, at 193.88 mph, and then a 45.817 sec lap at 196.43 mph. This is the first time that a female driver has ever claimed pole position for NASCAR's top echelon series, the Sprint Cup.



This Sunday, the top ten on the grid will line up as follows:
1. Danica Patrick, 2. Jeff Gordon, 3. Trevor Bayne, 4. Ryan Newman, 5. Tony Stewart, 6. Kasey Kahne, 7. Denny Hamlin, 8. Kyle Busch, 9. Joey Logano, 10. Matt Kenseth. For more information about the qualifying and speeds, please click here.

Thanks for reading and see you at the races.

Source: NHRA, NASCAR, Crash.net
Photo credit: Marty Reger, NASCAR

A truly bizarre race!

The 2012 Daytona 500 is going to go down in history as a bizarre race!

After a very fast start to the race, which was postponed due to rain on Sunday, on just the second lap Elliot Sadler tapped the rear bumper of Jimmie Johnson, sending him spinning through the tri-oval like a pinball. This massive wreck, which involved six cars, saw David Regan plow savagely into Jimmie Johnson's driver's side door. But what caught my attention is how Danica Patrick luckily passed through (some have referred to this as "threading the needle between two cars") two others cars after being involved in the initial pile up. Click here to watch the video of this wreck and Danica's lucky slide.

As the race seemed to go on forever (have to work in the morning) some forty laps before the finish and under caution, Juan Pablo Montoya abruptly spun out (due to mechanical faillure) on the backstretch and slid up into jet drier located in the upper grove of turn 3. The contact resulted in an explosion with flames shooting high up in the air and some 200 gallons of jet fuel spilling down the embankment. Never seen anything like this!



Luckily, both Montoya and the truck's driver escaped without injuries.

"I told them when I left the pits something wasn't right and I felt a weird vibration when we were with the pack," Montoya said after his medical evaluation. "Every time I got on the gas, it vibrated. So I came back in and they checked the rear-end and they said it was OK... I was on the back straightaway...I got on the brakes to travel up and while I was telling the spotter to have a look on how the rear was moving, the car just turned right."

Usually the word "circus" is mentioned when referring to the Formula One. This implies that a large group of people and artifacts decent on a locations and after the weekend they are gone. From now on, when I say the word "circus" I will be referring to the 2012 Daytona race!

Source: Jalopnic, sbnation.com