The racing weekend that was - Wk 23

In Formula One, at the Canadian Grand Prix:
Pole sitter and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (pictured on the right celebrating his victory) led from start to finish to secure his fourth win of the season. Team mate Nico Rosberg rarely ran more than a couple of seconds behind for the 70 lap long race. Hamilton now leads Rosberg by 17 points in the World Championship. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel sits in third place and trailing by massive 43 points.

The highlights of the race were the dual performances of Felipe Massa, who powered his Williams-Mercedes from 17th place on the grid to sixth, and of Sebastian Vettel, who outperformed his team mate Raikkonen by moving up 14 places to finish in 5th position. Another poor outing by Raikkonen, who ran a strong third all through the race only to spin all by himself coming out of the hairpin. He would drop behind fellow countrymen Valtteri Bottas who finished on the podium in third place. Pastor Maldonado also ran a great race to finish in seventh, his best finish in F1 in 46 races.

Though Max Verstappen had qualified in P12, penalties incurred from the Monaco race and penalties due to engine change meant he would start towards the back of the grid. However, the young Dutchman would drive a good race to finish in 15th place.

Alonso had hoped for a much faster car

One team that looks like it has started to come apart is McLaren-Honda (pictured on the right) as both cars dropped out of the race. Unfortunately, neither car was competitive enough and the strain on the drivers is starting to show, though they have very capable drivers in Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button (both are past world champions). And to think Alonso left Ferrari last year.

The top five:
1. Lewis Hamilton, GBR, Mercedes-Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, GER, Mercedes-Mercedes
3. Valtteri Bottas, FIN, Williams-Mercedes
4. Kimi Raikkonen, FIN, Ferrari-Ferrari
5. Sebastian Vettel, GER, Ferarri-Ferrari

The next race in the GP of Austria on June 19-21 next.


The N.H.R.A. at Englishtown, New Jersey:
The women in N.H.R.A. drag racing keep exerting pressure on the men. Whilst Pro Stock driver Erica Enders won the last round, this time she had to press in the clutch to soon and lost in the first round of eliminations. Not to worry for second generation Top Fuel driver Brittany Force stepped up her game and went all the way to the finals. However, she would loose to Antron Brown who ran 3.849 second pass at 318.47 mph.

Alexis doing her burn out

In Funny Car, the final race also came down between the two genders. Alexis DeJoria (pictured on the right) put up a valiant effort but came up short against Matt Hagan who ran a 4.132 at 299.53 mph and is the defending series champion.

In Pro Stock, KB Racing's Greg Anderson powered his bow tie Chevrolet to a win over Allen Johnson (Dodge) to earn his 76th career victory and take over the series lead. The winning run was a 6.504 at 214.31 mph.

In Pro Stock Bike, Louisiana native Jerry Savoie earned his second career victory when Jimmy Underdahl gave him an easy win by red lighting in the final round. Red lights are fairly common as the bikes react oh so quickly of the staring line.

The next round will be held at the New England Dragway on June 12-14 next.


On a side note, during the Top Fuel qualifying at the Winternationals down under, 39 year old Phil Lamattina suffered a major chassis failure which resulted in a horrendous crash. Though Lamattina seemed unhurt he was transported to the hospital where doctors confirmed he had suffered a shattered vertebrae in the incident. He is expected to make a full recovery. Get well soon Phil.

It is not often that we see a chassis failure like this. See picts below.

Source: crash.net, dragracingconnection.com, dragnews.com.au

Photo credit: Formula One, GP Update, Crash pictures' owner unknown,

The best weekend in motorsports

For some, like us in living in sunny Curacao, the weekend has already arrived. For others, it is just a few hours away, but what an amazing weekend of racing it is going to be. The crown jewel that is the F1 Monaco GP, the Indy 500, the Coca-Cola 600, and the NHRA in Kansas, all this Sunday. And yes, even some PDRA Friday -and Saturday night. Personally I wish I could be in Monte Carlo right now with Priscilla and my mate Gege, boy we'd be enjoying the festivities. But enough about me, let's review the races.

F1 at MONTE CARLO:
As I write this most guests of the Indian Empress party have been rudely awakened by the practice sessions. The second one is underway in the principality with Alonso leading. The third and final practice session is scheduled for Saturday 11:00, followed by qualifying at 14:00. The race itself with be run on Sunday at 14:00 (local time).

A little bit about the 3.34 km Monaco GP course: it has 19 corners (7 left and 12 right), 78 race laps (260km), with just one DRS zone. The tire compounds for this race will be Soft, Supersoft, and Schumi holds the circuit lap record at 1 minute 14.439 seconds (2004).

Mercedes will be looking to extend their lead in the Championship whilst Ferrari and Red Bull hope to have the power and a lot of luck to triumph over the competition. For more, click here. To watch an awesome video review of last years race, click here.

The INDIANAPOLIS 500:
In what is one of the most storied motor race in the US, it has always been held on the last Sunday in May with the winner being giving a bottle of milk after the 500 mile long race. Tradition.


Come Sunday at 12:12 pm, the green flag will be dropped and drivers will carefully race each other maintaining speeds in excess of 200 mph for 200 laps on the 2.5 mile long oval, in the hopes to win the 98th running of the very special race and have their face eternalized on the Borg-Warner trophy (pictured right).Tony Kanaan leads final practice. For more info, click here and for a spotter's guide, click here.

The COCA COLA 600:
Only second to the Indy 500, this race is considered to be the biggest and most important in NASCAR. There has been a build up of activities for more than a week, with qualifying held last weekend. Of course, parties and events are a common sight around the Charlotte Motor Speedway, but it will all culminate at 6:00 in the afternoon, when some 66 drivers will race for 400 laps (600 miles) in the big race. For more info, click here.

NHRA KANSAS NATIONALS:
For drag racing fans in the heartland of America, the baddest nitro drag racers have come to town. As is usually the case, race Sunday will be hot, placing even more pressure on drivers and crew to perform well on Friday night during qualifying. Saturday qualifying will then be left for the race set up of the cars. For a couple of races already, the women have been knocking at the door, that is of the 100th win by a female racer in NHRA. The loudest banging has come from Erica Enders-Stevens who drives the technically difficult Pro Stock cars. But then again, many top drivers, such as Dave Connolly, Jason Line and especially Greg Anderson will try to win the Wally themselves. It is gonna be great!
Fore more information, click here.

PDRA's MEMPHIS DRAGS:
One of the best drag racing series is in Millington, Tennessee this weekend. The big budget teams were Thursday on the track testing, for on Friday night the qualifying will begin. The live stream via MotorMania challenges ESPN's coverage of NHRA, so be sure to tune in for the best door slammer show this weekend. And if you are in the area, do visit for entry is free of charge. To my friends Lizzy Musi (Frank Brandao), Jeff Dobbins and Trevor Eman, good luck you guys and give them hell!
Fore more info, click here.

2014 FIA Drag Racing at SANTA POD:
This weekend kicks of the FIA drag racing series at the historic drag racing strip in the UK. Be sure to check it out.

Hope you enjoy your weekend as much as I shall mine. Thanks for reading.

Source: Formula1.com, Indianapolis motor speedway, NASCAR, ESPN, PDRA660,
Photo credit: Formula1.com, Guyrhodes.com

First female Pro Stock winner

Erica soaking it all in

Erica Enders made history last Sunday when she became the first female to win an NHRA Pro Stock race, regardless of sanction. This also marks the 12th time a female has won an NHRA Pro category race. She follows in the footsteps of, amongst others, Shirley Muldowney,  Shelly Anderson-Payne, Angele Sampey, and Ashley Force-Hood.

In getting to her seventh career final, Erica beat Kurt Johnson, Vincent Nobile and V. Gaines at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 Nationals. In the final round, she led points leader Greg Anderson all the way down the track to win with a e.t. of 6.627 seconds at 207.40 mph.

side-by-side racing doorslammers

The fact that it took longer than we all had hoped made it all the sweeter, for she had been banging on the door for a while now. And to win against none other than Greg Anderson, the man who didn't want to be "the one" to go down in history as loosing to a female for the first time.
Personally, I don't believe there's anything wrong with that, seeing that hard working women have made it to the top of their "game", be it in business, government or sports.

"It's awesome," said Enders. "I think that if I could have planned it, I would have asked to run Greg in the final. You know that he made it very clear he didn't want to lose to me. He's a very competitive guy, and I love him to death, but I couldn't wait to beat him."

FulTrot's followers will attest that I have been predicting that Erica's day would soon come. And there were many others who did so too, for her crew went nuts back at the starting line, as they screamed in the team's headsets. Crew chief Dave Connolly gave a great interview as well, saying that this win as crew chief was more gratifying than a win as a driver. Coming from Dave, one of the sharpest driver's in the Pro Stock category, says a lot about the win.

The video below shows the match up, race, celebrations and subsequent interviews:



The 28-year-old Houston-native and started driving in the Pro Stock category back in 2005, when car owner Victor Cagnazzi gave her the opportunity to drive a Pro Stock car, knowing that she had never let out the clutch of a race car before. Her rise as a youthful drag racer was portrayed in a Disney original movie "Right On Track".

"Twenty years, from the time I was eight years old in the Junior Dragster this has been a dream of mine and I have worked my butt off to get here," Enders said of the historical victory. "For all the kids (and forty-year-olds) who were told they couldn't do it. You CAN do it."

Erica and Team in the winner's circle

One of the first persons to congratulate Erica was the godfather of Pro Stock, Bob Glidden, who called her on her cell right after ESPN's interview.

Congratulations to Erica, her crew and team owner Victor Cagnazzy on the historical win. Great job Dave, although I'd rather see you behind a steering wheel though. That's where you belong.

Thanks for reading.

Source: NHRA, CompetitionPlus, Wikipedia.
Photo credit: NHRA, Mark J. Rebilas.

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.

Anderson takes zMAX back to back.

Greg doing a burnout

Greg Anderson knew he would have to be at the top of his game to have a winning chance at the Four Wide NHRA Nationals at zMAX Dragway last weekend. Having qualified in seventh place, he fought his way to the final of this unique three-round, four abreast race by being the quickest in each of the first two rounds, where he would race against Vincent Nobile, Erica Enders, and his teammate Jason Line.

As was the case in earlier rounds, this race did not start of without problems, as Erica's scoreboard malfunction gave the erroneous impression that she had won the finals. However, once the NHRA officials reviewed the finish line video (in slo-mo), as is customary, it became apparent that the Summit Racing Pontiac GXP was well ahead at the finish line giving the four-time champion his third home track win and the 72nd of his racing career.

Greg (second from bottom)

"Seeing Jason a car length ahead of me for the whole race, I knew I must have lost to him", said Anderson. "He doesn't red light very often, so I didn't even think of that. I figured I must have been very late, and didn't even bother looking at my win light on the wall. As I came around the corner at the top end I was really bummed, because I was wondering who else might have finished ahead of me. I then saw the TV cameras coming towards me, and realized that I had somehow won."

In Top Fuel, Spencer Massey won by running 332 mph and actually just wanted to go from A to B and make his competitors beat him.

In Funny Car, Robert Hight became just the fifth Funny Car driver to win four consecutive events in NHRA history. His winning run was a 4.076 second pass at 314.83 mph with a reaction time of 0.58 seconds.

The next race will take place April 27-29 at the Royal Purple Raceway, in Houston, Texas.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Doorslammers.com.

Photos courtesy of: NHRA and Drag Illustrated.