As any motorsports enthusiast knows, at the pinnacle of the sport we find the likes of FIA's Formula One, World Endurance racing, and World Touring championships, and on the other side of the Atlantic, the Nascar and drag racing truly stand out from the rest. However, where the Europeans are obsessed with constantly pushing the envelop of technology, and righteously so, the Americans are solely focused on the entertainment value.
And then you have NHRA drag race, who from its very inception encouraged women to participate in the mostly man dominated sport.
Alexis putting the Patron sponsored F/C through its paces
In the modern era of NHRA drag racing, women, often using the same equipment as their male counterparts, beat them to the finish line [light]. Above a picture of Alexis deJoria warming up her nitro-methane breathing 10,000+ horsepower funny car on jacks in the pits.
FIA gentlemen, Nascar men..... eat your hearts out. Drag racing has intelligent pretty girls... and they're winning championships. Go ask Greg Anderson!
UPDATE
Just ran across this great picture of Leah Pritchett in her Top Fuel dragster after a run at last weekend's race in Pomona. Note that these are not just pretty girls! These cars produce as much G-force at the starting line to make an astronaut sitting atop of a Saturn V rocket sweat bullets. Not only must Leah endure the incredible G-force but she must drive the car and keep it in the grove while on the constant lookout for that excessive tire spin. Very cool stuff that we owe to the founding fathers of drag racing for empowering women to participate in the sport.
Photo credit: Alexis deJoria Racing, Leah Pritchett Racing
This Monday marks the US's celebration of those fallen for their country, known as Memorial Day, first observed after the American Civil War and to commemorate the fallen Union Soldiers. It has been a long tradition to have great racing spectacles on Sunday, such as Indy 500 and later the Coca-Cola 600. Many of the best american drivers long to participate in both races on the same day.
Here's a look to the long racing weekend ahead:
INDY 500: the 96th running of the The Indianapolis 500 will start at 12.00 pm ET. It doesn't seem Jean Alesi carried over Lotus' recent F1 success to the brickyard, for he qualified dead last!
Racers like Tony Kanaan, Takuma Sato, Simon Pagenaud, 4 time IndyCar Champ Dario Franchitti, Ray Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves are among the top contenders. Be sure to tune in, cause you never know what will happen at the brickyard. Nobody could have predicted that rookie JR Hildebrand would hit the wall off the final corner while leading in last year's race. For more info, please click here.
NASCAR: The Nationwide series will run on Saturday at 2.30 pm ET. The Sprint Cup Series will run the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday at 5.30 pm ET, televised on Fox. This is NASCAR's version of an endurance race. The drivers must endure 600 miles, or 400 laps around the Charlotte Motor Speedway, at speeds topping 200 mph. For more info, please click here.
Across the pond, the well known GP of MONTE CARLO will take place on Sunday. Already this year there have been five different winners. Who will it be this time or will one of the usual suspects eek out the rest, here at this, the most glamourous race on earth. If you have a ticket, great and do share picts and stories. For the rest of us, humans, tune in to Speed TV for the race.
For more info, please click here.
The WRC will run round 6, the Acropolis Rally, on Saturday and Sunday. Sebastian Loeb leads the drivers' championship standings, followed by Petter Solberg and Mikko Hirvonen.
For more info, please click here.
Formula 1, the Spanish GP:
Five races into the 2012 season, five different winners.
The last race winner in Spain could not have come as a bigger surprise. The Venezuelan driver, Pastor Maldonado, often referred to as a "rental driver", won the race from start to finish for Williams-Renault, who hadn't won a race since 2004.
Pastor Maldonado qualified second on the grid, but when pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton got penalized for a weight infraction and placed at the end of the grid, Pastor moved up to P1.
When the red starting lights went out (signaling the start of the race), Fernando Alsono (P2) made a great start in his Ferrari and going into the second corner had passed the Williams driver for first. However, Williams' pit strategy paid off when Pastor got out in front of the Ferrari, who was held up in traffic, and even though Alonso put on a strong charge towards the end of the race, he was not able to maintain the pace and eventually had to settle for second place.
The Lotus boys put on a helluva run, with ex-champion Kimi Raikkonen making a hard charge towards the front in the closing stages of the race. He finished in third place, in spite of a costly tire strategy mistake that hurt his chances to fight for the win.
Below the post race interview with the top three, in their own words. Maldonado: "Winning is an unbelievable feeling". Kimi: "we could've won"!
The interview with Sir Frank Williams was interesting enough to merit it's posting below. Among others, he mentions that he didn't see Pastor make a single mistake throughout the race and commended him on his great drive and first win.
It looks as if the season is going to be very exciting. The different winners up to now are: Jensen Button (Mclaren-Mercedes), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault), and Pastor Maldonado. Soon to be added: Kimi (just my humble opinion).
Next race is the GP de Monaco, to be held on Sunday, May 27.
NASCAR, at Darlington, S.C.:
Called "The Lady in Black" for the black streaks on its retaining walls at the end of each race, in spite of them being white at the start, is considered among the top three must-wins for any Nascar driver.
Overall, a good race under the lights won by five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, and in doing so, earning team owner Rick Hendrick finally his two-hundredth win.
Johnson controlled much of the race on Saturday night, leading some 134 of the 368 laps. The race stayed green for the longest (until lap 172) and the first round of green-flag pit stops came on lap 48, when pole-sitter Greg Biffle relinquished first place to Kyle Busch. The two swapped the lead until Johnson came into the picture after the second round of pit stops. Tony Steward ran a great race and in spite of braking his clutch with 85 laps to go, he remained a top contender.
There is no Nascar race without any wrecks or near misses. Marcos Ambrose had a big save on lap 140 and Jeff Gordon had a rear tire problem on lap 196, and subsequently again just a couple of minutes later. Jamie McMurray ran into the wall after an incident with AJ Allmendinger, putting both out of the race.
Towards the end of the race, there was a severe case of flipping the "ignition on" switch, in a valiant effort to conserve fuel. And the race winner wasn't taking any chances.
The race would end in a shoot out. Watch the exciting last laps on the video below.
Next race is the Sprint Showdown and All-Star Race, held at Charlotte Motor Speedway, home of the Nascar Museum, this Saturday night, May 19.
Thanks for reading.
Source: Formula One Management, Nascar, Crash.net, Fox Sports, Wikipedia
