I’ve been following Ben Spies and his rise to the MotoGP ranks for a number of years. Spies has been struggling with injuries and a reduced testing schedule as a result of that. The 2013 season has been extremely difficult for him, and it didn’t get easier this week in Austin.
“…two laps before the end of the warm-up, I had a twinge in my chest. It was like a knife, so we went to the clinic and they worked on me a lot and got me ready for the race.”
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Monday are always tougher after spending a full weekend at a street race. Your feet hurt, your face is a little baked from the sun, and your body keeps asking you, ” Why so much Tecate and King Taco?” But your brain says, “I can’t wait until next year!”. This year’s Grand Prix was a good one, with great races on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Seeing Takuma Sato and A.J. Foyt get their first Long Beach win was a treat, and could only have been topped if Graham Rahal had been able to catch him in the closing laps.
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This article from NBC Sports points out the obvious reason that F1 hasn’t grabbed the Chinese fan base: Young Chinese don’t have $500 for a weekend at an F1 race. Other factors include the fact that there is no famous Chinese F1 drivers in the series, and the people that do have the money just “don’t get it” when it comes to auto racing.
Imagine how much less popular F1 would be in the United States if there wasn’t a huge auto racing culture here. There hasn’t been a successful American driver in F1 in my lifetime, and there aren’t any Americans that are on the radar in the near future. Americans are barely aware that F1 exists, although that’s because most people here think that NASCAR is the definition of “auto racing”.
NBC Sports: Formula One remains a tough sell in China
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Hunter-Reay Rebounds at Barber
Ryan Hunter-Reay won the #HIGPA, otherwise known as the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park (yes, it’s a gorgeous facility) on Sunday. Hunter-Reay fought off Scott Dixon and a racy field on a track that is usually considered “not racy”. Hunter-Reay’s performance, including a pole position run on Saturday gave notice to the field that he is not touting the #1 on his car in vain. Not only that, he beat Will Power on both Saturday and Sunday at a track that the Aussie has owned for the last three years. And while Power has grabbed headlines for his sheer speed on road courses, Hunter-Reay is making case that he is Mr. Quick this year, and he is the favorite for the championship.
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The IZOD Indycar series enters their second round of action this week at Barber Motorsports park at the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. In a shocking turn of events, Will Power did *not* win the pole position for this race. Power has been the “default” pole sitting at most of the tighter road courses for the last three years, but Ryan Hunter-Reay bested Power this weekend in a qualifying session fraught with controversy over drivers intentionally slowing down to block others on flyers.
Let’s tart with Row 1.
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I wrote up a little piece about how hard of a time A.J. Allmendinger was going to have this weekend at Barber. Let’s just say that after the first practice, my analysis was more than slightly off target.
Dinger posted a time in the Top 10, and out-paced fellow Penske driver, Helio Castroneves, no less.
The bigger story of the first practice is that Chip Ganassi can come off the ledge. The Hondas were 1-2-3-5 in practice this morning.
Barber Friday Practice Top Ten
1:09.0120 Vautier
1:09.0646 Dixon
1:09.1917 Hunter-Reay
1:09.2798 Kimball
1:09.2806 Power
1:09.2883 Franchitti
1:09.3396 de Silvestro
1:09.3443 Pagenaud
1:09.3822 Allmendinger
1:09.4241 Castroneves
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Marco and Graham need to win some races this year if they are going to hold onto much credibility as the Young Lions of Indycar, carrying the heritage of their families forward in the sport. Marco took new measures in the off-season this last winter to work toward getting back in the winners spot on the podium in 2013.
The USA Today has more.
USA Today: Marco Andretti hoping offseason work leads to Indycar wins
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MotoGP cranks it up for 2013 this weekend in Qatar, and Yamaha came out of the gate strong, posting the top three times in practice.
In what is almost like a throwback scenario, the top two riders for Yamaha are Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi who is back with their factory team.
SPEED.com – Lorenzo Leads Yamaha to 1-2-3 in FP1
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The 2013 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama will mark the second IndyCar Series race for the team at Barber Motorsports Park (BMP). Last year the team prepared an entry for Takuma Sato here. He set the third fastest lap time in Friday’s first practice at BMP and was fastest in the wet second session but traffic limited his qualifying performance on Saturday to 16th.
In the race he passed Newgarden, Barrichello, Hunter-Reay and Andretti for 12th place on red alternate tires but struggled on primary tires and ultimately retired in 24th place due to mechanical failure after 52/90 laps. For 2013, RLLR has entered the No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires car for Graham Rahal and the No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts car for James Jakes to bring the team’s total to three entries for this event (2012-2013) and will attempt to break the stronghold Team Penske has on this event. In the three IndyCar events held here since 2010, Team Penske drivers have won pole and the race each year.
Continue reading »
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A.J. Allmendinger will be stepping back into the open wheel arena again this weekend at the Indycar Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. Allmendinger was once considered the American savior for the Champ Car series back in the early 2000′s, but it wasn’t long before the NASCAR money came calling, and he left for greener pastures.
After landing the ride of his life in one of Penske’s Cup Cars, Allmendinger failed a drug test and found himself on the outside looking in with NASCAR. But Roger Penske has giving Dinger a chance to get back into racing with a part time ride in Indycar for 2013.
A.J. hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in his pre-season tests, and will have a huge challenge this weekend at Barber which is a narrow, highly technical track with little room for error.
The Province: Allmendinger looking forward to IndyCar debut at Barber
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WALLER, Texas April 2, 2013—As the son of a race driver, Conor Daly spent most of his life watching the Indianapolis 500 from the grandstands. This year the 21-year-old rising star will be seeing the race from the cockpit of an Indy car.
Daly has been hired to drive A.J. Foyt’s No. 41 ABC Supply Honda in this year’s Indianapolis 500, joining Takuma Sato who pilots the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Daly, who grew up in nearby Noblesville, Indiana, will be making his formal IndyCar debut in the 500 on May 26th although he did test the ABC Supply Indy car in December.
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Ask any NASCAR fan out there this question: Is blocking in NASCAR legal? If the fan is worth his or her salt, they will tell you that it is perfectly legal and happens all the time. And that’s exactly what happened at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana near the end of their Sprint Cup Race last month when Joey Logano drove former champ, Tony Stewart all but into the grass on a restart to protect the top spot in the race.
Stewart blew up, and went after the “Rich Kid”, Logano in the pits after the race for making that kind of move.
I thought it was a silly move by Smoke, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. basically agrees with me.
Junior told ESPN.com:
“In my opinion, it was just hard racing,” Earnhardt said during Tuesday’s national conference call. “The guy is leading the race, he’s trying to do what he can to win.”
If Smoke had never blocked anybody, or had never caused a wreck near the end of a race trying like heck to win, I could see the outrage. But we all know Tony Stewart has done plenty of both in his storied career.
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In what seems like a confusing move by Speed/Fox Sports 1, the MotoGP series will be carried through 2013 by the morphing network. SpeedTV is getting turned into a more well-rounded sports network by Fox, much like Versus was converted by NBC into the NBC Sports Network.
Speed had shed Formula 1 for 2013, which was snatched up by NBC Sports Net, so this move to keep the even less-watched MotoGP Series seems like an odd move.
Maybe Speed ran out of episodes of Pinks and Are You Faster Than a Redneck?
Read More: http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k13/mar/mar250.php
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Will Power earned his fourth consecutive pole for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg — and the inaugural Verizon P1 Award. While that might have been an even-money bet, the Firestone Fast Six lineup and the remainder of the how the starting order for the season opener shook out was a bit surprising.
Read the rest: http://www.indycar.com/News/2013/03/3-23-IICS-pole
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File this one under “a bit weird”. Danica told the AP that she is now dating Ricky Stenhouse just months after she filed for divorce from her husband, Paul Hopenthal. Wow, good for Ricky. He is living out the dream of many a teenage race fan.
Danica was already a walking media circus when she was dating a quiet, older doctor. Now she is dating one of the most colorful drivers in NASCAR. Can you imagine what kind of media attention this will bring? Will TMZ be following the story? Will ESPN drive the story into the ground, a la Tebow? Will they hold each others’ hand during the playing of the national anthem? Will they break up after a crash at Daytona and never-ever-ever….be getting back together?
I can’t blame a girl for falling in love, but brace yourself for media hyperventilation. Somebody pass the guys at ESPN a brown bag to breathe into.
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It was a sad day in Early 2012 when the lights went dark on the Toyota (Irwindale) Speedway sign on the 605 freeway in Southern California. The news of the closure of the speedway was announced, and the cancellation of all oval racing at the track was suspended. I wondered if the track was destined to be ground into gravel like the rock quarries that it sits next to.
The good news is that the oval may be hosting regular racing shows this season, and the roar of late models might again bounce of the San Gabriel foothills on Saturday evenings.
Here’s the presser from the newly named “Irwidnale Event Center” with what details are now available:
Irwindale, Calif. (December 17, 2012): “We’re very pleased to announce that oval track racing will return to Irwindale for the 2013 season.” With that direct statement, Team 211 Entertainment’s President/CEO Jim Cohan ended a long 11-month period of uncertainty about regular racing competition at the well-known Southern California motorsports and family entertainment facility.
“Our master lease with the property owners, Nu-Way Industries, has been broadened and now includes all forms of racing activities on the 6,500-seat twin oval track. We are now working very hard to put all of the pieces together to be able to run a 2013 racing season,” said Cohan.
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I know I should be shocked that it’s been six years since an American driver was atop the standings, but I’m not. There’s still a long way to go with five races left, but the Chevy’s seem to have the reliability the RHR will need to continue with consistent finishes as the battle for the championship takes shape in late summer.
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Superb win for Dani but despair for Casey
Dani Pedrosa took his maiden victory of the 2012 season at the Grand Prix of Germany in a dramatic race which saw team mate Casey Stoner crash out just two turns from the chequered flag whilst running in second position.
The Repsol Honda riders set an incredible pace from the beginning that no one else could match and they arrived at the final lap neck and neck, almost fifteen seconds ahead of Lorenzo in third position. Continue reading »
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Ryan Hunter-Reay made it three in a row today, winning at Toronto to turn the hat-trick after winning at Milwaukee and Iowa. And after years of waiting for another Michael Andretti or Little Al to come along in Indycar, we might have just seen a new mantle passed down to Hunter-Reay.
Ryan is a sponsor’s dream. He’s attractive, well spoken, and he’s a heck of a driver on both road courses and ovals. Until this year, he was a driver that was working to achieve his potential. This year he has realized it.
“Three in a row, I don’t know what to think about this,” Hunter-Reay said. “It really shows that this team can get it done on all venues.”
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NASCAR at Daytona. It’s wild. It’s crazy. It’s over the top. It’s reached a level that is almost shameful.
NASCAR’s racing at Daytona seems to get more and more epic at Daytona and not in a good way. The constant need to top last year’s ridiculous finish seems to produce an even more moronic episode each year. It’s like a soap opera that needs more and more scintillating revelations until there is no shred of credibility in the plot of the story.
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