The racing weekend that was - Wk 21

Just saw my first F1 race of the season on TV and what a race it was. After Nico Rosberg managed to keep team mate Lewis Hamilton behind him after the first right hander of the first lap at Monaco, most of us knew that the race would be pretty uneventful, since the Monaco street circuit is known to be most difficult to pass on.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikonnen followed the Mercedes duo, whilst reigning world champion Sebastien Vettel had problems with his car's KERS. This forced him into the pits a couple of times and he eventually dropped out of the race. Raikonnen suffered from some bad luck and poor driving decisions and was penalized by the marshals, while his Ferrari  team mate Fernando Alonso ran a somewhat difficult race having also suffered from KERS problems in the opening lap, but he would still finish fourth.

Race winner and son of Keke Rosberg

The race's intensity decreased as the Mercedes duo created a big gap over the third place driver Ricardo, but shot up again when Hamilton radioed in he got something in his eye, as he was following the German too close for too long. This caused him to drop back into the clutches of Ricardo, who was reeling him in at more than a second a lap. However, he could not overtake the Brit who finished in second place behind last year's winner Nico Rosberg (right).

F1 insider Allan McNish

Whilst watching the race I subscribed to the Formula One "premium" app for my iPad. I strongly recommend this for those like me who do not get F1 TV coverage throughout the season. Not only do you get a very good sense of what is going on during the race through data reporting and live track race positions, but you get also live commentary by none other than "Le Mans" great Allan McNish!

Race results, the top 6:
1. Nico Rosberg GERMANY Mercedes-Mercedes,
2. Lewis Hamilton BRITAIN Mercedes- Mercedes,
3. Daniel Ricciardo AUSTRALIA Red Bull-Renault,
4. Fernando Alonso SPAIN Ferrari-Ferrari,
5. Nico Hulkenberg FERMANY Force India-Mercedes,
6. Jenson Button BRITAIN McLaren-Mercedes.

For more info on the race click here.


The INDY 500:
In the grand daddy of open wheel stadium racing that is the Indianapolis 500, its 98th running ended in the 2nd closest finish (see pict on right), as Ryan Hunter-Ray held of three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves by a hair raising margin on 0.06 seconds. In a race that is known for early cautions due to cars sliding into the wall as drivers struggle to come to grips with different track qualifying-race conditions, the race ran smooth well into the second half of the race.

Carpenter-Hinchcliff accident

On lap 149 (of of 200) Charlie Kimball made a pretty impressive save only kissing the outside retaining wall and sliding across the track into the inside wall. Luckily the safety crew were able to fire his car back up and he would finish 31st. Just twenty laps later, Scot Dixon also got loose and hit the wall hard. He was running in the top five at the time and would finish 29th. At the next restart, a gutsy move caused pole-sitter Ed Carpenter and James Hinchcliff to wreck. The race was red flagged for an hour for debris on the track. It would re-start with just six laps to go and Hunter-Reay and Castroneves would duel it out to the finish each passing each other a couple of times, but in the end Castroneves couldn't catch the American.

It should be noted that Hunter-Reay raced for Andretti Racing, and though Marco Andretti (third gen) finished third, no other Andretti has won Indy 500 since Mario in 1969 when "Man walked on the moon".

For more on the race, click here including a good recap video by Indycar/ABC.

Race results, the top 6:
1. Ryan Hunter-Reay
2. Helio Castroneves BRAZIL
3. Marco Andretti
4. Carlos Munoz
5. Juan Pablo Montoya
6. Kurt Busch (also racing in Coke 600)


The COCA COLA 600:

Race winner Jimmie Johnson

The longest NASCAR race was an eventful one with good racing that started late in the afternoon and lasted well into the night. Pole-sitter Jimmy Johnson went in what was considered as his house, namely the Charlotte Motor Speedway, from the drop of the green flag to the checkered in commanding fashion, when he passed Kevin Harvick with just 9 laps to go. He was the last to win the Coke 600 race from pole a decade ago. This was also his 1st win of the season.
For a complete recap of the race including different videos, click here.

Kurt Busch who also raced in the Indy 500 to finish a solid 6th, unfortunately had to drop out of the race due to a blown engine.

Race results, the top six:
1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Matt Kenseth
4. Carl Edwards
5. Jamie McMurray
6. Brian Vickers



NHRA's Kansas Nationals:
On Saturday night I got the feeling that the "force" would be with the women of NHRA, after seeing the rebroadcast of qualifying. For the first time in history, two women (and sisters) qualified number one in their respective classes.  And as if this wasn't enough, Courtney Force out-qualified her father John. In an interview with John's wife Lori, after Courtney's run, she said, and I am paraphrasing here: John is probably riding around on his scooter trying to cool off.

Courtney Force, 100th female winner

And on race Sunday, Courtney kept her winning ways by outrunning Dale Creasy Jr., Jeff Arend and Tommy Johnson Jr. and, as if the final had been scripted in Hollywood, she would face none other that Cruz Pedregon in the finals. Well, she outran Cruz too and in doing so, achieves the milestone 100th female win in NHRA history. Courtney Force, 25, is the youngest daughter of 16-time world champ John Force. This win pretty much cements the fact that all three Force will be back in 2015.

The other winners were; Spencer Massey in Top Fuel and Allen Johnson in Pro Stock.

For more information about the race, click here.


Please check back for more updates

Thanks for reading.

Source: Formula1, Crash.net, USA Today, Fox Sports, NHRA,
Photo credit: Mike Young, USA Today, Indianapolis, NHRA

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

MotoGP, at Misano, Italy:

Pedrosa pushed to the pits

In what was to become known as a race filled with drama, title contender and Misano pole sitter Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) suffered a technical problem with his tire warmers, which forced him to start from the pits. However, starting last, he quickly passed some riders but a collision with Hector Barbera at the apex of a left hander, high-sided Pedrosa and put him out of the race.

The Texan Ben Spies made a solid start and even though he lost some speed mid race, he dug deep in the closing stages to snatch fifth place from Stefan Bradl. "After what happened in the last eight weeks it almost feels like a podium for me," said Spies after the race.

Andrea Dovizioso (Tech 3 Yamaha) went mano-a-mano with Alvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda) in a thrilling final lap battle, and a photo was required to identify who crossed the line first to secure the third spot on the podium. Unfortunately, the Italian Dovizioso  drifted wide on the exit and Bautista had enough power to get to the line first, but barely ..... by a margin of just .003 seconds!

Since the 2011 French GP, MotoGP legend and Ducati rider Valentino Rossi has not been sighted anywhere near a podium after a competitive race. Somehow, this all changed when Rossi secured second place after battling with Stefan Bradl during the middle stages, and was just 4.4 seconds behind the event winner.

Jorge Lorenzo (Factory Yamaha) and 2013 teammate to Valentino Rossi, took a big step towards securing his second MotoGP title when he won the Misano race, his sixth victory of the season. 

"Valentino, to be honest, has been very brave today," said Lorenzo. "He rode in a very good way. To only finish four-seconds behind me with the Ducati is a good race."

The next race is the Gran Premio Iveco de Aragon, in Spain, on Sunday, September 30 next.

WRC, in Great Brittain for the Wales Rally:

After what can be called some difficult months, Jari-Matti Latvala did an outstanding job last weekend. On Friday morning, the Fin moved to the front, then extended his advantage on Saturday in the Brecon Valley mountains and consolidated his position in the Vale of Neath on Sunday, to secure his second win in a row. He crossed the line almost 30 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, a Citroen.

The victory is a major boost for Latvala and Ford and put an end to the 5 race domination by Sebastian Loeb and Citroen.

The rest of the podium was contended between sebastien Loeb and Petter Solberg. The two battled hard, but Loeb edged out at the finish to take second. "You cannot win everytime. It shows it is not as easy as sometimes people imagine," Explained Loeb. "...Jari-Matti was really very fast today, he was flying in the stages and so we had no chance."

To watch a video highlights of the race, please click here.

The next race will be held on October 4-7, Rallye de France -Alsace.

NASCAR, at Chicagoland Speedway:
Usually I don't cover the Camping World Truck series but Saturday night something special happened at the Iowa Speedway. In a truck that its owner could not make go fast, a young Ryan Blaney jumped in and made an incredible run and held off a couple of race restarts towards the end of the race, to take the win. At 18, Ryan becomes the youngest winner in the truck series.

Brad Keselowski

The Sprint Cup cars raced in the GEICO 400 on Sunday afternoon, a race in which Jimmie Johnson seemed to be in complete control. Johnson led 172 of the 267 laps but his luck turned after a lengthy final pit stop dropped him behind Brad Keselowski. The Penske driver proceeded to pull away from Johnson and the field to eventually take the checkered flag.

Denny Hamlin got an even more frustrating end to the race, when he ran out of fuel on the last lap. His crew didn't not get his fuel tank all the way full on his final pit stop which sometimes can come back to haunt you.

And, too bad the lucky moustache didn't work for Jeff Gordon. A stuck trottle, obviously in the wide open position, usually, that is where you need it, sent him into the Turn 1 wall on lap 188. See it here.

Finally, it sure is good to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. having some fun again. Professional motorsports have become too commercialized for my taste. No more bad boy image or speaking your mind... well maybe just this time. Earnhardt over-revved his engine for a split second after the qualifying session on Saturday. A valve hit a piston in the third cylinder and to avoid any malfunction during the race they replaced the engine. This is how he explained it; "The valves and piston had a little party and they all ended-up with a hangover"!

Next race: New Hampshire on Sunday, 1.00 pm

Thanks for reading.

Source: Crash.net, WRC, NASCAR

Photo Credit: MotoGP, Mirco Lazzari gp - Getty Images Europe, Automobilsport.com, 

The racing weekend that was - UPDATED

ADRL, at Gateway Drags IV, St. Louis:

Snyder with 2 track records

With near perfect atmospheric conditions on Friday, and continuing on Saturday, the Gateway Motorsports park saw numerous world and track records, as well as a bunch of first time winners.

Pro Extreme driver Mick Snyder put his Corvette for the second race in a row in the winner's circle, with a 3.63 at 208.23 mph. "To get two in a row is just crazy," Snyder commented after the race. He also set two track records.

Unfortunately, during the first round of PX's qualifying on Friday, Todd Tutterow met the wall but was able to walk away unscathed. For pictures of the accident, click here.

Pro Nitrous winner Doug Riesterer was the feel-good story of the weekend, having arrived Saturday morning at the track and hereby missing the three previous qualifying sessions, he dug deep inside and qualified his Camaro into the field. He then went on to win of Rickie Jones and matching the latter's  Friday night track record. In the final, Riesterer edged Burton Auxier with a 3.826 at 189.10 mph.

Extreme 10.5 winner Todd Moyer had lady luck on his side as his competition couldn't get his car started, leaving Moyer to a solo pass of 4.608 at 125.17 mph. "It was ugly, that's all I can say, but we haven't had any luck this whole year so this feels good" Moyer said. "I almost forgot what it feels like."

Todd takes out Trevor in XPS

Extreme Pro Stock winner Todd Hoerner has lot's of reasons to celebrate, after beating a hard charging Trevor Eman, of Team Aruba. Hoerner became the first ever driver in XPS to win running electronic fuel injection (EFI) and this was also his first win ever in this class. En route to this final, he had an awesome .002 reaction time in a holeshot win against defending World Champion Cary Goforth.

XPS runner up Trevor Eman had a very fruitful weekend and made great strides towards winning a race in the very near future. He ran a career best of 4.07 seconds.

A shout goes out to "Lil" JD, son of our friend Jeff Dobbins, on being the winning crew chief in XPS and who got them the first ever win in XPS while running EFI in the Sonny Racing Engines sponsored Camaro.

Pro Mod driver Jeff Naiser went 3.876 in the semis and later improved to a 3,867 at 193.32 mph to pick up his first win in the new class.

No. 16 qualifier in Top Sportsman class, Chris Nyerges met the no. 15 qualifier Jim Sackuvich in a a race that was called "a matchup of underdogs" by many. Nyerges came out on top with a pass of 4,467 at 157.72 mph.

Pro Extreme Motorcycle rider Eric McKinney won back-to-back races for the first time with a 4.072 et at 176.01 mph victory over Travis Davis in the finals.

The next race will take place at the Virginia Motorsports park on June 22-23. For more info, please click here. If you can't make it to the race, like many of us, just go to the ADRL website for live streaming content. Two thumbs up for ADRL.


Moto GP, at Catalunya:

Lorenzo immediately after the race

Spain's largest newspaper (in circulation), El Pais, will run "Lorenzo wins Catalunya home MotoGP duel" in the sports section on Monday. The Factory Yamaha rider fought hard nearly for the entire race with fellow home hero Dani Pedrosa, who blasted from the second row to first place leading into the first corner at the start of the race.

American Ben Spies rode an awesome race, briefly getting into the lead on lap three, only to run wide and fall after getting on the grass. He quickly rejoined the race and charged all the way from last to tenth place.

Pedrosa leads at the start

On lap 7 Lorenzo executed Spies' botched pass of a couple of laps earlier to perfection, but a relentless Pedrosa stayed with Lorenzo and around the half way mark, used the slipstream to regain the lead. With five laps to go, Lorenzo, riding on softer rear tire, was able to catch up to Pedrosa (who was on a harder tire), but then suddenly Pedrosa's Honda made a wheelie and forced the Spaniard to back off to bring the front wheel back down. He went on to run slightly wide in the next corner and the rest is as they say "history".

Lorzenzo finished first, his third in five races, Pedrosa came in second, and Andrea Dovizioso took third riding for Yamaha. He held off the fast charging event pole sitter and World Champion Casey Stoner who finished fourth, who suffered from the cooler race conditions.

Rossi's during his pre-race ritual 

Valentino Rossi, who finished 2nd at the last race, was humbled today on the slower Ducati, crossing the finish line 17.6 seconds behind the race winner. Still trying to make the Ducati handle better, he tested an aluminum swing-arm on Friday, and now will have two more days of testing with the new A-arm and some set-up ideas. Hopefully they will make the Ducati a bit faster, for we all would like to see Rossi battling with the front runners again.

Interesting post race quote, by Dani Pedrosa:

"These bikes have traction control and wheelie control, but they are not magic. We have everything said to the limit, to help but not stop [wheelies], because if we have all the controls set to never make a wheelie the bike would not be fast enough."

Next race will be the British GP at Silverstone on June 17 next. For more info, please click here.

NASCAR, at Dover, Del.:

Jimmie in victory lane

Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports are back! Jimmie drove away from Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth after a restart with 31 laps to go and never looked back.
Johnson led 289 laps of the 400, and with this win records his 57th career victory, eight most all-time and tying him for the most wins at Dover with legends Richard Petty and Bobby Allison.

The Dover Monster Mile mascot

As usual there were some large wrecks at the all concrete short track.

"The way the cautions fell [Sunday], it allowed us to really flex our muscle and bring home the win. I'm proud of the effort. It was a brand new race car we brought to the track. We pulled it off the truck, and it was awesome all weekend long," said Jimmie Johnson.

Though Johnson won handily, his car might not have been the fastest. The No. 24 of teammate Jeff Gordon was at least its equal, but Gordon had to pit on lap 250 because of a loose wheel.

Below there is a video of the latter part of the race and the finish.



Results of the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks:
1. Jimmie Johnson, 2. Kevin Harvick, 3. Matt Kenseth, 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 5. Clint Boyer.

The next race is the Pocono 400 on June 10.


NHRA, at E-town:
E-town, aka Old Bridge Township Raceway park, was the place to be for the NHRA guys this past weekend.

A Steve Torrence burn out.

In Top Fuel (T/F), Steve Torrence beat in Tony Schumacher and Spencer Massey in earlier rounds with his quicker reaction time, but in the final round he used sheer horsepower advantage to win over Brandon Bernstein at the finish line. He won with a 3.800 at 323.66 mph.

Torrence on his win, "It's really a little surreal coming out and having success in a short time."

And Massey failed to back up the T/F best low e.t. of the event as a national record.

In Funny Car (F/C), Johnny Grey claimed his first win of the season and second of his career by beating Ron Capps with a 4.078 at 314.39 mph.

Anderson, KB celebrate 100th win

In Pro Stock (P/S), KB Racing debuted the first of their new Rick Jones' build Camaro's with high hopes and quickly surpassed these, when it made it all the way to the finals. It would race none other than the car it was replacing, with teammate Jason Line behind the steering wheel. In an emotionally charged race, Greg Anderson, in the new car, raced to his fourth victory of the season with a 6.56 at 212.03 mph, that bested teammate Jason Line, when his engine broke a valve spring that cost him about two-hundredths.
And to top it off, car owner Ken Black, who is recovering from illness, jetted all the way from Las Vegas to be with his boys for their 100th win. Great stuff!

In Pro Bike, Eddie Krawic won for the first time at the track where he once worked as a track manager,  an emotional victory for sure. He beat Hector Arana Sr. when he red lighted at the start of the final round of eliminations. It is Krawic's 14th career victory on the Screamin' Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson.

For information on this race, please click here.

The next race will be run at "Thunder Valley" on June 15-17.

Thanks for reading.

Source: ADRL, Crashnet, MotoGP, Fox, NHRA, NASCAR, Wikipedia

Racing this Sunday

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.

Thanks for reading.

Photo credit: SpeedTV, Nascar, SunTimes, WRC.

The weekend that was #19

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