A tribute to Prof Sid Watkins

Profesor Sid Watkins, the F1 doctor that Bernie Ecclestone brought into the sport and who not only tended after the drivers... but who also spearheaded the sport's safety campaign, has passed away. Sid had just turned 84.

Sid Watkins (1928-2012)

It would be safe to say that F1 as we know it today is partly due to Profesor Sid. Over the course of 26 years (1978-2004) as the FIA's safety and medical delegate and, head of the sport's on-track medical team, not only did he save the lives of amongst others, Mika Hakkinen, Martin Donnelly, Rubens Barichello, Gerhard Berger, Nelson Piquet and Didier Pironi, he also campaigned to improve safety for F1 drivers, officials and spectators around the world.

Motorsports in general owes a great deal to Profesor Sid when it comes to safety. In turn, he has been bestowed with many recognitions for his contribution to the sport. Amongst these are:
- FIA Academy Gold Medal for Motorsport (2011)
- Mario Andretti Award for Medical Excellence (1996)
- Special award for "Most Outstanding Contribution to the Motorsports Industry (2008)
- recognized as member of the Order of the British Empire (2002)
- honorary doctorate from the University of Livelpool (2004)

"Today [12 September 2012], the world of motor racing lost one of it's true greats", reflected McLaren's Ron Dennis. "No, he wasn't a driver. No, he wasn't an engineer. No, he wasn't a designer. He was a doctor and it's probably fair to say that he did more than anyone, over many years, to make F1 as safe as it is today. Many drivers and ex-drivers owe their lives to his careful and expert work, which resulted in the massive advances in safety levels that today's drivers possibly take for granted."

We send our condolences to Watkins' family and friends.

To revisit some of my earlier pieces on the profesor, please click on the desired link.
- Sid Watkins, Part 1: F1's Guardian Angel - the accomplishments,
- Sid Watkins, Part 2: F1's Guardian Angel - the lives saved and lost,
- Sid Watkins, Part 3: F1's Guardian Angel - the loss of his friend Ayrton

To visit FIA's statement of condolence, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: FIA, Crash.net

The KERS and DRS explained

If you are a Formula One fan you surely know about KERS and DRS. But, for those of you who are not familiar with the terms, here follows a quick explanation.

The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) first introduced the kinetic energy recovery system (or simply know as KERS) to Formula One racing in 2009, but it had not been used with reliability until 2011. The KERS recovers a moving cars kinetic energy under braking and stores this in a reservoir (flywheel or battery) for later use under acceleration. Current rules caps its power capacity to 60 kilowatts (80 bhp), but come the 2014 season, it will be doubled to balance Formula One's move from 2.4 liter V8 engines to 1.6 liter V6 engines.

Another relatively new rule is the "Driver Adjustable Bodywork" commonly know as drag reduction system (or DRS), first introduced in the 2011 Formula One season, in an effort to improve straight-line overtaking. During F1 competition, the DRS works only when certain conditions are met, such as, the pursuing car must be within one second (when both cars cross the detection point). Another one is that the DRS can only be used once two full racing laps have been completed, and when the pursuing car enters the designated "activation" zone defined by the FIA.

In the video below, World Champion Sebastian Vettel explains the KERS and DRS.

The DRS system was also used by the Nissan DeltaWing during this year's running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The KERS and DRS has certainly made Formula One races more exciting. Two thumbs up!

Thanks for reading.

Source: FIA, Formula One, Wikipedia.

Video credit: NextgenAutoVideos/YouTube

Drag racing in Europe

The sport of drag racing has evolved a great deal since the days of Lions Drag Strip, some 57 years ago. It has even been adopted in many regions around the world, such as Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and Australia/New zealand.

In the near future I will write a blog on the areas of the Caribbean, the Middle East and Australia/New Zealand, but for now Europe will have to do.

Europe knows 5 official championships, of which the following three are the most important:

1. The largest and most popular is the FIA European Drag Racing Championships. The following categories compete in it: Top Fuel Dragster, Top Methanol Funny Car, Top Methanol Dragster, Pro Stock and Pro Mod.

The race schedule taken the competitors to the following event:
- Main Event, 2-4 June 2012, at Santa Pod Raceway, in England,
- Sweden Internationals, 14-17 June 2012, Tierp Arena, in Sweden,
- Nitro Nationals, 5-8 July 2012, Alastaro, Finland,
- NitrOlympics, 10-12 August 2012, Hockenheim, Germany,
- Scandinavian Int'l, 23-26 August 2012, Tierp Arena, Sweden,
- European Finals, 6-9 September 2012, Santa Pod Raceway, England

Alund's new Haas' built Camaro

One of the top teams in TMFC are the Lindberg Bros Motorsports out of Sweden.

In Pro Stock the guy to beat is Jimmy Alund, European Champion in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011. No kidding!
A couple of years back Frankie Brandou invited Jimmy to Curacao to drive King Kong IV, which he did in good form.

2. The MSA British Drag Racing Championship holds each year five rounds of Pro Mod racing, all at the Santa Pod raceway (UK) for now. The race dates are: April 6-9, June 1-4, June 23-23, September 6-9, and September 22-23, 2012. 

3. The UEM European Drag Bike Championships is run under the FIM, the world governing body of all motorcycle sports. The following categories are: Top Fuel Bike, Funny Bike, Pro Stock Bike and Super Street Bike Classes.
The competition is held in conjunction with the FIA European Drag Racing Championships and is run during their events,


From what I can gather, the Europeans are quite fanatics of drag racing as well. If any of you have any stories you'd like to share, please feel free to do so.

Thanks for reading.

Source: FIA, Santa Pod Raceway.

The weekend that was (#10)

In WRC:
Sebastian Loeb (Citroen Total) began the last leg of the Mexican round of the WRC with a 36.2 second lead over his teammate Mikko Hirvonen, and kept him at bay to win his sixth successive win in Mexico. It was a race of teammates, as Petter Solberg took over the last podium position from his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala, as he rolled over his Ford WRT Fiesta in the long 54.3 km Guanajuatito test.
For detailed information on the race, please click here.

After round 3 of 13, the championship stands as follows: 1. Sebastian Loeb, 2. Mikko Hirvonnen, 3. Petter Solberg.

In NASCAR:

Jimmie vs Tony at the restart.

The Kobalt Tools 400 was run last Sunday in Las Vegas, where Tony Steward was quick to return to his winning ways. Early front runner Dale Earnhardt Jr. led for most of the way but after the second round of pits stop fell off the pace. Towards the end of the race and after the latest restart, just 4 laps remained meaning it would turn into a shoot out between Stewart and Johnson. But Johnson somehow didn't have a good restart giving the all important first turn to Stewart who led from there on to the checkered flag. The win was the 2012 NASCAR champ's 45 victory in 467 starts.

On the podium:  1. Tony Stewart, 2. Jimmy Johnson, 3. Greg Biffle.
For more details on the race, please click here.

In NHRA: 

Alexis Dejoria / F/C Tequila Patron

The Gatornationals have been postponed due to rain and cold weather. Eliminations are set to continue Monday, March 11, at 10 a.m. What's remarkable is the DNQ after Coughlin's name (Pro Stock), Alexis de Joria's first round win comes against John Force, and the other rookie's wild ride and touching the retaining wall. She was fine.

Stay tuned for the races' results, or follow it by signing on to NHRA's live audio cast (it will be running).

Update:
As the Florida sunshine showed up with a vengeance today, it changed the set up for most of those still running.

In Top Fuel, Morgan Lucas beat Tony Schumacher as he ran the second-quickest run in NHRA history with a 3.743 at 326.87. Congrats to the GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster team.

In Funny Car, Robert Hight (JFR) won over Johnny Gray in a tire smoking pedal-fest.

In Pro Stock, Mike Edwards left Greg Anderson asleep at the starting line to run a 6.566 at 211.69. All in all, KB racing have been to the final round for three consecutive races, and Greg still leads the championship

In Pro Bike it was a tale of happy teammates going against each other, with Eddie Krawic (6.822 at 194.94 mph) winning over Andrew Hines. The Screamin' Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson almost broke into the 200 mph club this weekend.

In F1:
Just a week before the start of the 2012 season opener in Australia, the FIA has announced a series of rule amendments. One of the more interesting is a limitation on the DRS in wet conditions, giving the race director the power to ban the use of the device if he feels that the visibility is too poor. Thumbs up, since the large speed differentials between cars would be a safety concern.

And F1's ringmaster has issued a stern warning, telling all twelve teams they must refocus and "...have to learn to be competitive without tonnes of money...they have to refocus again on the basics..." Bernie Ecclestone has hinted at the introduction of a budget cap if spending in the top echelon of motor racing continues to run out of control.

The folk at Mercedes Petronas were thoughtful enough to give us a taste of their W03, with Nico Rosberg at the wheel. Will this be the year??



Sources: Crash.net, Nascar, and NHRA.
Video courtesy of: Best-of-Rally-Live
Photo credit: NHRA, Autostock