The racing weekend that was - UPDATED

In Formula One, in Australia:

Kimi celebrating his victory

As this race was not aired in my neck of the woods, I can't comment on it... other that it was won by Kimi "The Iceman" Raikkonen, followed by the Spaniard Fernando Alonso and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel.

A very strong start for Lotus which will make my father unbearable until the next F1 race!
For details about the Australian F1 race, please click here.

In NASCAR, at Tennessee:

Aerial view of the Speedway

At the very exciting short track that is Bristol Motor Speedway, the final 100 laps of the race had some epic battles for the lead, and the top ten positions.

Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne ran door to door for what seemed an eternity. No matter what Kahne tried, he could not complete the pass and when they hit traffic on the back stretch he tried his best but lost control for a brief moment. As he fought to regain control Keselowski was able to pull away. While this battle for first place took place, Kyle Busch was running a strong in third and briefly took second from Keselowski.
After the last caution of the race, caused by a tire failure on Jimmie Johnson's car, Kasey Kahne held off a series of battles to win the Food City 500, followed by Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer.

Unfortunately for the two strongest cars of the race, Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth saw their races end in spectacular fashion. As Gordon lead the race, his car shot up the embankment and hit the wall and was later collected by Kenseth who had no place to go.

As NASCAR tightens its grip on the Sprint Cup series, especially on the behavior of the drivers, it is interesting to see what NASCAR will do after a shoving match occurred after the race. After battling for the lead with Gordon, Joey Logano slipped back a bit and allowed former teammate Denny Hamlin to catch up with him. As the former teammate rounded turn one, Hamlin bumped Logano causing him to spin out. This type of behavior is a flagrant display of unsportsmanlike conduct. However, what Logano did after the race in going to talk to Hamlin while he hadn't climbed out of his car yet, wasn't much better. Let's see how the governing body will handle this situation.
At the very least the NASCAR drivers are not as sterile as the F1 boys!

Below a short video of the Logano-Hamlin shoving incident.

 


In NHRA, at the Gatornationals:
I will write this piece as soon as I see it on Monday,s o please bare with me and do check back. In the meantime, some pretty cool picts of Saturday qualifying at the Gatornationals can be seen in Dragzine's picture gallery. To view these, please click here.

Update:
Well, as I thought previously the Gatornationals was well worth the wait (until rebroadcasted on Monday).

In Top Fuel:
Antron Brown defeated Clay Millican with a low et of the meet at 3.761. Brown gave his team owner Don Schumacher (DSR) his 200th win. Quite impressive if you ask me.

In Funny Car:

Gray vs Worsham in the finals

It was great to see Courtney Force sticking it to the ol' man. In a staging duel, she held up her own and went in last. And then beat him too! She is now 3-1 against her famous father.

In the finals, Johnny Gray defeated Del Worsham with a 4.05 to 4.10. He jokingly mentioned that even though he would be retiring at the end of 2013, he would do his very best to give the youth a very hard and though time this year.

In Pro Stock:

Finals: Johnson vs Coughlin (far lane)

In the doorslammer category Mike Edwards continued on Sunday to dominate the field when he bashed out a 6.473 that matched his national record pass from qualifying. At the time, he had four of the five quickest passes in class history this weekend. However, a severe tire shake cost Edwards his race against Jegg Coughlin Jr, who went on to defeat Jason Line on a holeshot, 6.532 to 6.501.

The finals of Pro Stock saw two Mopar's and teammeates going mano-a-mano. At the stripe it was Allen Johnson who had lady luck on his side throughout Sunday, winning on a holeshot, 6.535 to 6.514.

In P/S Motorcycle:

With some drastic rule changes coming too late for the harley boys to adapt, clearly had them at a disadvantage. And so it was.

But it couldn't have turned out any better, well I guess he could've won, for Steve Johnson after getting to the final round in Pro Stock Motorcycle since back-to-back runner ups in Chicago and Englishtown in 2010. He kept going rounds and getting great TV exposure, even though he didn't have any major sponsors.

Finals: Arana II vs Johnson (far lane)

The Arana's went head to head in the semis with Sr having to back down. And even though Johnson had lane choice over Arana II, last year's rookie still got the win.

Congratulations to all the winners!

To see the NHRA recap of the race, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Formula One, Fox.com, Dragzine.com, NHRA.
Photo credit: Newsobserver.com, Motorauthority., NHRA.

The racing weekend that was

MotoGP, the Italian GP at Mugello:

Mugello Areal photo

On Saturday, Dani Pedrosa riding his Repsol Honda took provisional pole position at Mugello with a 1 min 47.284 sec on his last lap. However, not to be out-qualified, Jorge Lorenzo (Factory Yamaha) was aiming to take pole away from Pedrosa when an "apparent" electronic problem cut-out the engine at the very final corner and the fellow Spaniard had to settle for second. Third on the grid and flying the home crowd colours was Hector Barbera aboard the Pramac Ducati.

Jorge Lorenzo (Spain)

It was a different story on Sunday though, as Jorge Lorenzo put the hammer down and broke clear of Dani Pedrosa, as he sliced under pole man Pedrosa at the apex of turn one. After hanging on to Lorenzo for the first half of the race, his searing pace was too high for a "worried" Pedrosa, who slowly slipped back. As the checkered waved, Lorenzo was 5.223 seconds clear of second place finisher Pedrosa.

Casey Stoner's hopes of retaining his World Championship crown have suffered another set-back [last week he crashed out of the race] when they made a costly mistake by opting to run the "special" harder tires. From the very get-go Yamaha rider was running towards the back of the chasing pack but an error on lap ten saw him drop further to tenth. He would finish in eight place.

Valentino Rossi was one second away from a podium finish, while Andrea Dovizioso completed a hat trick with his third straight podium finish. For more race results, please click here.

Lorenzo's fifth win of the season puts him 19-points clear of nearest rival Pedrosa and 37-points ahead of reigning champion Casey Stoner, at the season's midway point.

So, the cat and mouse game continues on July 29 for the Red Bull US GP, at Laguna Seca, one of America's legendary tracks. For more info, please click here. To watch a one-minute video by MotoGP of last year's race, at Laguna Seca, please click here.


NASCAR, at Louden, New Hampshire:
It would be a dramatic finish to the LENOX Industrial Tool 301 race as the with 65 laps to go to the end of the race, a miscommunication pushed the race leader Denny Hamlin back to 13th place.

NASCAR has a short video on the final laps of the race. Please click here to watch it.

The pit stop that cost Hamlin the race

Denny Hamlin dug deep and raced hard to try and catch Kasey Kahne, who inherited the lead due to Hamlin's pit stop miscue. He had wanted 2 tires changed [right side only] but his crew chief Darian Grubb somehow understood a four tire change which cost them precious time. In the end, he passed 11 out of 12 cars in the final 65 laps but he didn't have enough time to catch up to and pass race leader Kasey Kahne, who ended up winning the race.

Race results:
1. Kasey Kahne, 2. Denny Hamlin, 3. Clint Bowyer, 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. , 5. Brad Keselowski

The next event is the Crown Royal race at Indy. For more info, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: MotoGP, Crash.net, Wikipedia, NASCAR.
Photo credit: MotoGP, Getty Images.

The Racing Weekend that was, #21 - updated

Formula 1, at Monaco:

The Grimaldi's hosted this past weekend the Monaco Grand Prix. Widely considered the most important and prestigious race of the year, it was run through the streets of the principality for the seventieth time.
The crown jewel in F1 racing was nurtured and looked after by Prince Rainier III, and since 2005 by his son, Prince Albert II (left in photo).
The principality of Monaco, a sovereign state since the signing of the Franco-Monegasque treaty in 1861, is located on the French Riviera and encompasses an area of just 1.98 km2 (0,76 sq mi) and has a population of about 36.000. Furthermore, it has the world's highest life expectancy at almost 90 years, and the lowest unemployment rate at 0%!

Grosjean forcing Schumi out

All right, back to the future. Michael Schumacher was gunning for the podium but his race was offered a setback before they got to the first corner, as a barrier seem to jump out in front of him. Ok. Romain Grosjean helped him a great deal, in a first corner accident that saw the Frenchman drop out of the race.

As I mentioned in Friday's blog, there had been five different winners up to Monaco. And now there are six.

Mark Webber set a new F1 record by becoming the sixth different winner in as many races.

Mark Webber tastes victory in RB8

Having inherited the pole from Schumi (due to Bruno Senna incident), he led from start to finish and only slowed down a bit when a light rain set in during the closing stages of the race. However, as the street circuit is a bit tight and passing most difficult, there weren't that many passing maneuvers attempted. Hence, the Aussie was followed the entire race by Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes and Fernando Alonso, driving for Ferrari. This formed the podium as well. All in all, a pretty uneventful race.

Below a video of the incident with Romain Grosjean and Schumi. The video has no audio.


Grosjean's first corner mishap caused him to spin in front of the field. As drivers ahead took avoiding maneuvers, Pastor Maldonado went from hero to zero when he ran into the rear of Pedro de la Rosa's HRT. In the end, Schumi was forced to stop due to mechanical issues. Kimi Raikkonnen said he couldn't have done better than ninth, and for the first time in three races, he would not be on the podium.

Fernando Alonso leaves Monaco in the lead of the championship standings. The next race is the Canadian GP on June 08-10 next. For more info, please click here.

If you ever get a chance to visit the principality, you will be pleasantly rewarded by going. It is not very busy and each stroll brings new discoveries, as can be seen in the picture to the right, A statue to the legendary racer Juan Manuel Fangio. If you can make it for the Grand Prix, even better. We might even run into each other.
For more information about Monaco, please click here.


WRC, at the Acropolis:

The Acropolis Rally of Greece was dominated by Citroen's Sebastien Loeb, who even had time to stop and change a flat tire on Sunday. This was his third win in Greece and his fourth win of the season. Here is a link to some footage of Loeb's race from the air.

On Friday, Ford's Latvalla was leading but when he overshot a junction in SS4, Loeb moved into the lead and ended the first day with a 6.5 second advantage.

Solberg on the attack, Day 1

On Saturday, Loeb came under pressure form Latvala and the Finn cut the Ford's lead to just 2.2 seconds. However, Latvala hit a bank which gave him a puncture and caused him three minutes and dropped him to fourth place. At this time his teammate, the Norwegian Petter Solberg (aka Hollywood) took the fight to Loeb and in torrential rain he won the final three stages and reduced the gap to Loeb from 21.9 seconds to just 10.2. It would be a tough race the following day.

On Sunday, Petter Solberg pushed hard again to try and maintain Saturday's pressure on Loeb, however around 13 km into the first stage, he hit a tree and ripped off the left-rear wheel, which caused them to drop out of the race in SS18. Mikko Hirvonen in the second Citroen put in a solid performance to secure second place, however, he wasn't very happy with his place.

Loeb en route to his 3rd Greek rally

To watch the highlights of round six of the WRC, the Greek rally, please click here.

Loeb extends his lead in the championships; the final results of the race: 1. Sebastien Loeb (Citroen Total), 2. Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen Total), 3. Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford WRT) Fiesta

The next stop on the WRC calendar is the Brother Rally of New Zealand, on June 22-24 next. For more info, click here.


NASCAR, at Charlotte for the 600:
"In his first Coca-Cola 600, Aric Almirola experienced the thrill of leading the field to the green flag in one of NASCAR's biggest events..," was the opening of Nascars' race recap. The man driving for legendary racer Richard Petty, of RPM, would finish the race in sixteenth place and two laps down. His teammate was forced to the garage with a right-front wheel hub burned up. Such is the brutality of 600 miles of hard racing, Nascar style.

Kahne being congratulated by Hendrick

After 400 laps, it was Kasey Kahne who would come out on top, as he scored his third 600 win, his first at Rick Hendrick. Kahne beat runner-up Denny Hamlin by 4.295 seconds. Kyle Busch ran third, followed by Greg Biffle, Brad Keselowski, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Crews tried to match their car's performance and handling to the ever changing track conditions, as the long race starts during daylight but ends under the lights. The tracks cooled off a great deal, which often makes the cars freer, and for some drivers like Denny Hamlin, the cars got better.

A caution on lap 319 for debris in turn 3 briefly interrupted the best racing of the night, which saw Biffle and Kahne repeatedly swap the lead, but with no clear dominant leader. As Kahne and the other 7 lead cars pitted, Hamlin and Earnhardt stayed out. This strategy proved costly, as Kahne blew by the two just 7 laps after the restart.

Johnson pit incident, fuel man walks back

A late in the race pit-road miscue proved costly for front runner Jimmie Johnson. He was somehow released to soon as the jackman dropped him he drove off. However, the fuelman was still busy with his delivery and was dragged and dropped by Johnson as he sped away. He would return fo a stop-and-go penalty under green, which put him a lap down and left Kahne and Hamlin to decide the race. See the costly mistake at minute mark 9:25 on the race rewind video.

At the finish line Kahne proved to strong for Hamlin. For a race rewind video, please click here.

The next race on the Nascar race calendar with be the FedEx 400, at Dover, on June 3 next. For more info, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Crash.net, WRC, FIA, NASCAR.

Photo credit: Rally Sport Live, Massimo Bettiol/Getty Images Europe,