The racing weekend that was - Wk 16

In Formula One, in Bahrain:
Though the Mercedes boys shined under the lights at Bahrain it was Ferrari that stole spotlight. Kimi Raikkonen's engineer gambled on an alternative tire strategy that ensured that the Fin could go much longer on one stint than the rest, and in doing so came in second on the podium. Had the race been a couple of laps longer he would have caught and passed Lewis Hamilton who along with his team mate suffered a failure of the brake-by-wire in the final laps. Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel was at the start of the race in second but struggled with his pace and was passed by Nico Rosberg on lap 8, and though he had a better pit strategy, his gains were short lived as he would run wide and damage his front wing whilst running across the gravel trap. Ferrari are knocking on the door and Sir Frank Williams' men are not far behind.

The top five:
1. Lewis Hamilton, GBR, Mercedes-Mercedes (pictured on the right)
2. Kimi Raikkonen, FIN, Ferrari-Ferrari
3. Nico Rosberg, GER, Mercedes-Mercedes
4. Valtteri Bottas, FIN, Williams-Mercedes
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ger, Ferrari-Ferrari

The next race will be the Spanish GP on May 8-10, at Jerez.


In MotoGP, in Argentina:
Nine time world champion Valentino Rossi (age 36) wins his second race of the season after dramatically hunting down race leader Marc Marquez. The pair clashed on the penultimate lap with Marquez going down. As dramatic was how Cal Crutchlow snatched the final podium place from Andrea Dovizioso at the last corner. What a race!

Rossi declared after the race that he knew they [Yamaha] had a chance to win when Marquez choose for the softer of the rear tires. Rossi, on the harder compound, knew that his pace in the second half of the race might be enough, and so it was. With 12 laps to go, the Italian started to eat into the lead of the Spaniard. At the start of the penultimate lap the Doctor (Rossi) attacked but was immediately re-passed. However, at the end of the back straight he made his move but the pair's riding lines crossed at the exit of the corner. Marquez's front tire touched Rossi's rear sending Marquez down.

the moment Marquez goes down

The pair's clash in Rossi's own words:

"I arrived to Marc [Marquez] and had six or seven tenths of advantage in the pace, but just two laps to go. So I tried to overtake him, but I think for sure now Marc will try something to stay in front."

"But as soon I thought about that, already he touched me in the center of the corner. He put his bike into me and I say "f*ck" straight away. I think you are aggressive but I don't expect so much." 

"Then when I opened the throttle to accelerate, because I want to take a small advantage before the next braking I hear another touch. But sincerely I don't know if it was on the right or left.....but when I passed to the line I saw the pit board [indicating Andrea in p2]."

The top five:

1. Valentino Rossi, ITA, Movistar Yamaha
2. Andrea Dovizioso, ITA, Ducati Team
3. Cal Crutchlow, GBR, LCR Honda
4, Andrea Iannone, ITA, Ducati Team
5, Jorge Lorenzo, ESP, Movistar Yamaha

Race director deems the Rosse/Marquez clash a racing incident.

The next race will be Gran Premio bwin de España, May 1-3, 2015.


IHRA at Bradenton:
In the Pro Mod category, second-generation racer hailing from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Isaias Rojas not only secured the top qualifying spot but also scored their first win with their Mech-Tech 2006 Chevy Cobalt. On the road to the win light, he defeated Dina parise, Ken Ficus and Jimmy Keen in the final

In the pro stock category, fellow Aruban Trevor Eman drove his Ford Mustang to the final round but lost out to former IHRA series champion John Montecalvo who laid down a 6.288 sec at 222.82 mph. The final round is pictured on the right.


Source: Crash.net, Formula One, Competition Plus.
Photo credit: MotoGP, F1

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

In Formula One, at the Hungaroring:

The Hungaroring is a racing circuit near Mogyorod, near Budapest, Hungary where the eleventh round of the F1 championship took place on Sunday. Oddly enough, this race historically draws a lot of foreign fans, with the majority of them from Germany and Austria, but the Finish contingency is large as well. Back in the eighties, Bernie Ecclestone wanted F1 to have a race in the USSR, but a Hungarian friend recommended him Budapest. And so, the first F1 race behind the iron curtain was held in 1986.

Lewis leads the field into turn 1

Up to this season's last race, Lewis Hamilton was having a season to forget. However, this past weekend he seemed to turn a page, for he set a blistering pace in practice and subsequently qualified on pole. On the other hand, Fernando Alonso, season went from great to below par.
The gird was formed as follows: P1. Lewis Hamilton, P2. Romain Grosjean, P3. Sebastian Vettel, P4. Jenson Button, P5. Kimi Raikkonen, P6. Fernando Alonso.

Lewis Hamilton lead from start to finish to complete a perfect Hungarian GP weekend, resisting a late charge from the Lotus' dynamic duo. A pretty uneventful race, except from a aborted start of the race, which saw seven-time wold Champion Schumacher embarrass his team as he turned off his overheating engine as the field was waved round for a second green flag lap. Schumi was left stranded on the grid and would start dead last from the pit lane.

Grosjean battling with Vettel

The pole sitter was quick from the beginning and dominated the race only to relinquish the lead while he pitted for fresh rubber on two occasions. In the closing stages of the race, he came under pressure from Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen who used a longer stint strategy to emerge with fresh rubber. He initially reeled in the Briton but then, as has been the case in the past, he could not pass Hamilton, even though at a point he was less the a second behind in the DRS activation zone.

In the end, Kimi had to settle for second while his teammate Grosjean completed the podium. Sebastian Vettel came in fourth and Fernando Alonso was fifth.

The Championship stands are as follows:
1. Alonso, Ferrari, 164 points,
2. Webber, Red Bull Racing-Renault, 124
3. Vettel, Red Bull Racing-Renault, 122
4. Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes, 117
5. Raikkonen, Lotus-Renault, 116


Lewis was over-joyed after the race, as be seen in the pictures below. He even kissed the camera (last picture).












The season now goes into the summer break with mandatory stop on all activity, including testing. The next race is on September 2, with the Belgian GP at the circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. At last, we will see who's got the balls not to lift at Eau Rouge.



MotoGP at Laguna Seca, for the US GP:
Last week the MotoGP guys crossed the pond for a visit to the Monterey Peninsula, California, home of Laguna Seca. The now renamed Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, is one of those tracks that is a joy to drive, or ride for that matter. The Corckscrew is simply amazing and can be seen in the two pictures below. The first picture shows Jorge Lorenzo leading Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner out of the second corner that makes part of the famed Corcscrew. The second picture is a continuation of the first.

After two difficult races, reigning MotoGP Champion Casey Stoner (Honda) put in a valiant effort to close the gap to title leader Jorge Lorenzo (Factory Yamaha). 

Stoner's gutsy call to go with softer rear tire prevented him to make an early brake and had to settle for third at the start of the race. However, after some time on the softs, Stoner was able to pass teammate Dani Pedrosa and set his sights on front runner Lorenzo. The Aussie's perfectly balanced speed with smoothness got stronger as the race progressed and at 2/3 point of the race he was able overtake the Spaniard. He won with a 3.4 second lead. The photo above/right shows Stoner looking back at Lorenzo just before the finish line.

The podium consisted of, 1. Casey Stoner, 2. Jorge Lorenzo, 3. Dani Pedrosa, with Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow rounding out the top five.

"I was confident for the entire race that I had enough pace for the win, we just needed to make sure the tire would last until the end. When we got to the front we put in some good laps and pulled a small advantage and just continued from there," recalled Stoner. "I'm very, very happy and a big thanks to all the team."

Rossi hitching a ride

Since Volkswagen's Audi division bought Italian motorcycle maker Ducati (now the 12th brand in VW's group), they has been trying to convince Valentino Rossi to re-sign for 2012. However, "the Doctor" as Rossi is called, had another off pace weekend, culminating in a fall two laps from the finish.
"I wasn't fighting for the podium, but a crash like that at the end of the race is still disappointing.... I lost the front when I was approaching the Corkscrew, when the bike was vertical, right when I touched the brake, a bit like what happened at Silverstone," explained Rossi.

The next race is on August 19, at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP.



NASCAR, at the Brickyard 400:

There was a lot of racing activity at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this past weekend. It culminated in the Nascar Sprint Cup series race on Sunday, which was filled with controversy. However, one thing was certain. Jimmie Johnson's (#48) dominance was recognized by everyone, even the runner-ups Kyle Busch, who's not known as a "good" looser.
This was Johnson's 58th win of the series in 383 starts, his fourth Brickyard 400.

"Man, you just hope to race here - to come here and win is a huge honor," Johnson said. "And to win four - four wins! I'm at a loss of words."

With 26 laps to go, Matt Kenseth could do nothing to avoid running into a out-of-control Joey Logano, who suddenly got loose.
Kenseth went to the high side in the short shute between Turns 1 and 2 but he was in vain. Although Carl Edwards' race did not end in a wreck, it didn't end much better. At 4 laps down, he was forced to come in to diagnose an engine problem and try to fix it.
And front runner Elliot Sadler was black flagged for jumping a race restart, ending his bid for a podium finish.

For more details about the race, please click here. For a short video, click here.

The race results:
1. Jimmie Johnson, 2. Kyle Busch, 3. Greg Biffle, 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 5. Jeff Gordon.

The next race will be the Pennsylvania 400, at Pocono Raceway on August 5, 2012.


Thanks for reading.

Source: Formula One Mgt, Crash.net, Jalopnik, Reuters, Wikipedia, NASCAR
Photo credit: Centraleurope.com, Totally cool pix, MotoGP, Crash.net

Kim on the Ring

In light of the recent release of Kim Dotcom, the eccentric Megaupload millionaire, from custody for allegedly orchestrating the biggest copyright infringement in US history, I thought it appropriate to write this piece.

Considered the internet's dark knight, Kim, a racing enthusiast with loads of disposable income, made this video a while back and stars none other than F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkkonen, Finn Batato and Kim himself on the Nurburgring Norschleife, with three highly modified Mercedez Benz AMG CLK DTM supercars.



Reason for making the film was threefold, said Kim. The German-born wanted to pay homage to the Nurburgring (1), the CLK DTM (2) and F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen (3), and was partly inspired when he was playing Forza and Need for Speed on Xbox Live.

Even though some could argue Kim made the video for self promotion, that is him sitting on the hood of the Merc convertible, I must point out that this is still another high quality racing video that we didn't have before. Besides, one must have appreciation for people who "put their money where their mouth is".

When I want to make a video I get my car's keys and the GoPro, but when Kim decides he's gonna make one, he gets 30 cameras, 100+ crew, 2 helicopters, 2 camera cars and one fixed wing aircraft. And to top it off, the video is set to the song "Take me away" which Kim himself produced with Printz Board. By the way, they took 20 laps to get all the shots just right for this video.

Note: the last film on racing was the award winning documentary called "Senna" and the next one is Ron Howard's "Rush", which is currently in the editing phase and is scheduled for release in 2013.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Jalopnik, Bloomberg.