Spectacular Day for Motor Racing

INDY CAR, CHAMP CAR, FORMULA1...and then there's the sportscars!

Racing started early this weekend, with American LeMans Series at Portland International Raceway on Saturday. It went late here in Texas, as all west coast events do, it was after 8 p.m. at the checkered flag, and as ALMS races happen, there are winners everywhere.

Frank Biela and Emmanuel Pirro have driven Champion Audi's R-8 to many victories, and none more suprising than this. Champion Audi has been locked in battle with Dyson Racing for dominance in the series. Dyson, after a resurgence in recent races, qualified front row for Saturday's race, with Chris Dyson and teammate Butch Leitzinger's Lolas outlapping Pirro and Lehto's R-8's. But that's why they run the race. A body snafu made a spectacular race-ending wreck for JJ Lehto's R-8, and a last lap fuel pressure failure on Dyson's Lola gave Biela and Pirro and Champion Audi Team another victory this season, and bragging rights...until next race-August 21 at Road America.

Sunday mornings are Formula 1-time on Speed channel, due to the time-zone difference of the live television coverage. Varsha, Hobbs and Matchet, and don't forget Peter Windsor, do a bang-up job. Hungaro's stories were McClarens speed, Schumacher's pole, and where's Fernando?
Kimi and Juan Pablo are the fastest team mates right now, and Kimi is behind Fernando Alonso, who is leading the championship points battle. If 'Nando finishes in non-points paying positions Kimi may still have a chance. Michael Schumacher had a predatorial drive, but his Bridgestone's wouldn't outlast Kimi's Michelin's, and he slowed to save them early on. Raikkonen passed him with plenty of time to amass a 35 second lead, although it should have probably been for second, were it not for a mechanical failure on Montoya's McClaren. Ralf Schumacher put in a great drive and pressured brother Michael near the end but could not pass. And speaking of passing, the fact that there are few passing attempts tells the story as to how closely matched the competition is in Formula 1. I sure miss the tire rules of last year, and although it's a large part of Ferrari's and Schumacher's troubles, it's not the complete story...

IRL and CHAMP CAR ran races this weekend, and Andretti's Bryan Herta won at Michigan and Sebastien Bourdais in a Newman/Haas Cosworth took the victory at the inaugural event at San Jose, California on the downtown streets.

WORLD KARTING FEDERATION is one governing body here in the states, and we'll have some pictures from some National events soon. For now, though, we have a picture from my own club, Gulf Coast Karters Inc. in Katy, Tx. It is of A.J. Foyt IV emitting smoke. I understand he finished on the podium. AJ IV has graduated on to bigger cars, but he still shows up on non-club days and sharpens the skills.

Next Issue: some kart pics from stateside, but a huge journey through the steeped circuits of Europe and the elite ladder system to the most elite open wheeled sportscars known.
Euro Karting is off the charts.

















AJ Foyt IV (left) emitting smoke (GCKI and
Speedworks)

Tracy, Speed and Allmendinger

Paul Tracy is a dominant force in Champ Car World Series and ranks near the top in all categories including most wins and most poles of any active driver. He has inhereted the reigns of the Series' horses and he whips them to the checkered flag on race day.Sunday July 31 is Champ Car World Series' 8th of 14 televised races, The San Jose Grand Prix, a street race new to the schedule this year. Check the stats for most street wins...Tracy's favorite street course, by far is if you count where his most wins occured is Long Beach, a few miles up the coast line from San Jose...do you know the way? Paul Tracy leads the way with the determination of a champion but speaks of an after-life: After Champ Car.
He already owns partnerships in several endeavors including a line of racing karts and sponsorship of driver programs and competitive series. But Paul talks about driving with his eyes on the horizon: there's a challenge out there and he's still seeking it out.
But for now, Tracy hasn't lost any fire, and he drives with the desire of a man on fire. During a recent street race in Toronto he tangled with his nearest rival Sebastien Bourdais and his front wing was damaged. Half was knocked completely off, only the right side was still there. Paul Tracy made the initial call to at least try to run laps with it the way it was and not waste time in the pits, but when his crew chief told him he was almost as fast as his previous laps, he stayed out for the remainder of the stint, and was not only fast, set his best lap time!! Tracy was burned later by not going into a closed pits, a seemingly good idea unless you run out of gas at the next corner and are out of the race.



Scott Speed is the latest American to drive Formula One, test drive that is. Speed is an up-and comer from the States, the winner of a head to head driver search sponsored by RedBull, the main sponsor of the F-1 team. Drivers for RedBull are veteran David Coulthard, Christian Klien, a third year driver, and Vitantonio Liuzzi as reserve. Scott came of-age in the Formula 3000 and newly renamed GP 2 this year. Third in the points in GP2 driving for Red Bull, Scott has had several chances in the team's third Formula-1 RedBull Cosworth. Above, at Indy, Scott impressed his team by out lapping Klien.
Scott is the first American to drive in Formula 1 since Michael Andretti, and if his instincts continue to guide him, keep his nose clean and finish as many laps as possible, when and if an opening forms at Red Bull or at other teams, Scott Speed plays into the mix.

AJ Allmendinger another American in foreign dominated open wheel racing, here in his RuSport Champ Car at the Milwaukee Mile. Allmendinger impressed team members and owners by stepping up his game this year, and the team has responded by fielding a reliable, competitive car. Several off's this year are attributable to AJ's relative newness to the series. Last year was Rookie of the Year in Champ Car, before that he was Toyota Atlantic's Champ. Allmendinger's story begins as humble walk-on at Barber Racing Series. With only cab fare, Allmendger began the season with little else, and posted his first win. From there it was a runaway-several more victories and consistency. Heads turned to this unknown, shy kid with the crew-cut. When the season ended, and AJ took the points championship, doors opened, and now, in his second year in Champ Car, he's notching podium finishes, pole position in qualifying, and that first, elusive win might be right around the next corner.

A shout to my bud, Griff, who sent me these pics, knowing there was a story behind each one.

A Seriously Brief Post

A BAD DAY IN THE IRL...














...Better than a good day here!


Sam Hornish Jr. had a bad day practicing for the
2005 Indy 500















A.J. Foyt Sr. and Jr., 1967



I'm off to gig with my band, Strange Brew, so talk to you later-

Katykarter

And For the Latest...

Aside from the chaos surrounding this author's life lately, our world of motorsports kept turning, and this past weekend was not without drama.
The IRL spent their Kentucky weekend on the concrete of Nashville Speedway, and Andretti Racing kept the motor rollin' with Dario Franchitti posting a long awaited victory. Reports held that Danica Patrick was fast again...
My man Tony "Smoke" Stewart put the pieces together for his third NASCAR Nextel Cup victory in four races Sunday at Loudon, New Hampshire. I loved the fence climb, and he rightly credited a very fast car.
Champ Car's inaugural race at Edmonton saw American AJ Allmendinger claim pole with his teammate at RuSport, Justin Wilson take 2nd. Sebastien Bourdais, however, benefitted from other's mistakes and took another victory and a 19 point lead on Paul Tracy halfway through the season. Oriel Servia drove Bruno Junquera's car to another podium, and Tracy finished third. Bruno will be fast as usual when he returns from a nasty Indy 500 wall ride. Justin Wilson is 9 points back from Tracy after Sunday's race.
The one race I watched, if you call not seeing the finish watching, was the American LeMans Series' timed race from Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. One of my favorite tracks (I can't wait until Indy cars take to it Aug. 28), sports car racing is in effect.
Four different classes race at the same time, and the GT2 category is the Porsche class.
No other car, pound for pound will ever equal the Porsche here, and Timo Barnhard and Romain Dumas drove away for their third straight victory. My man Wolf Henzler drove from the back to podium his Porsche.
In GT it's all about the Corvette's. And it was Corvette Racing's C-6R Corvettes No. 3 driven by Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connel took their 24th career win together away from a faster No. 4 Corvette driven, through two spins and a dominant pass for the lead by Olivier Baretta and Oliver Gavin. It was the mis-handling that was the difference. The Saleen of Borchellar and Mowlem took third.
GT category is a more powerful production car category than GT2, which is lighter and less power.
P-1 and 2 are LMP's, or LeMans Prototype. The LMP 1 class is the elite of sportscar racing. The big sexy, open cockpit. With upwards of 800 h.p., LMP's are the most powerful sportscar out there, and Audi's various teams over the years have dominated this class.
Until recently, European Audi teams had dominated consistently, but USA's Champion Audi broke through this season, and are now the team to beat in the P-1 class.
Cris Dyson's Lola LMP was compettitive as usual, however a first lap fracas cost Butch Leitzinger's team a shot, and Emanuel Pirro and Frank Biela drove their No. 2 Champion Audi to victory again.
American LeMans Series has timed events, with this race timed at 2-3hours (I didn't see exactly how long and the network wasn't able to carry it in it's entirety). Once the timer reaches zero, the first place car in each class is the winner.
You should know 24Hours of LeMans is a timed, endurance race, as is 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, long running traditions in the sportscar racing world, with 24hoers du LeMans being the ultimate it glamour and legend.
A similar racing series, Rolex Sportscar Series races at these same tracks, why they don't compete with each other is a mystery to me. But the racing is excellent, and stalwarts in these two series join together for the big one, 24 Hours of LeMans.
Clint Field and Liz Holloway drove their LMP2, Intersport Racing Lola to their 2nd win, with Indy 500 driver Jeff Bucknum and Chris McMurray taking 2nd. LMP2 class is, in power terms, equivelant to GT2 cars, however, can aerodynamically outperform them.
Finally, race-fans, we got aquainted with the upcoming A1 Grand Prix Series, an international competitive open-wheel racing series. Website at A1GP.com had excellent video of on-board shots and the car is a slightly smaller F-1 style. An adapted Pro Formula chassis if you will.
Till next time,


stay outta trouble!
-Katykarter

Wild day on Sunday

Sunday's fireworks started early.

Formula 1's British Grand Prix from Silverstone, England aired live at 7am Houston time. Grid positions from the saturday session saw Jenson Button's BAR Honda qualify tops only to see a late lap from Kimi Raikkonen in his McLaren Mercedes go quicker, but it was Fernando Alonso and the Renault powered car that stole the pole at the last second. Alonso is the points leader going into this 11th of 19 world championship races, closely trailed by Raikkonen. But it was to be Juan Pablo Montoya's day following a scorching start from the second row, and a pass for the lead in the second turn. From there, it was McLaren's stellar stops and reliable car that enabled Montoya to hold off Alonso and Raikkonen.
Move of the race: Montoya's pass in turn 2 after going side by side with Alonso into turn 1, but I must mention Raikkonen's drive, which started from 12th position following an engine change penalty.
Michelin's tire troubles seemed to simmer under the lid this week, although news came out that penalties for the sanctions named two week's ago will preceed the appeal date.


Champ Car's Grand Prix of Toronto from Exposition Center came later in the morning, and there was plenty of action on this road course that is a staple of the Champ Car calendar. It began with the usual suspects on the front row, Bourdais and Tracy, followed closely by fast entries from RuSport with Wilson and Allmendinger and Vasser and DeMatta in PKV cars. From the start, Bourdais and Tracy are the cars to beat, stretching out a solid lead over the third place car till the first rounds of pits. Bourdais enters the pits first, but after short fueling, Tracy drops from his jacks first and sprints to the exit just ahead of Bourdais. Then, Bourdais makes the bad decision: He refuses to yeild at the pit exit and runs side by side with Tracy toward the exit line, and in order to keep from being penalized for crossing the pit exit merge line, he swoopes over and clips Tracy's front wing! This is not the first time these two, while dueling for the lead have tangled and taken each other out this year. Bourdais cut a tire from the collision and slowed and entered the pits when he came around. But Tracy, with only half a wing, continued on past the pits, and after running a slightly slower lap than normal, his team decided to stay out with the car as is. Paul Tracy showed great gamesmanship by pushing his car as hard as possible, he actually improved his fastest lap with half a wing! Their day was cut short by a bad split-second decision by Paul Tracy himself, when after intending to enter the pits for a "green" pit stop, was blocked by a 'closed' status because of an accident on track. Tracy ran out of fuel only two turns later and was out of the race. In retrospect, his team Mgr. said they were surprised to run out of fuel, so there were problems with the milage estimate and, of course, would have preferred a penalty for entering closed pits than a DNF. Oriel Servia inhereted the lead late in the race, but a clean pass by the quicker Wilson iced the victory, and after several near misses, Justin Wilson hung on to take his first Champ Car victory. His teammate AJ Allmendinger clipped one of those tight concrete walls and wrecked with only six or seven laps to go, and after spinning back into the racing line, was clouted hard by Mario Dominguez. Niether driver was injured by the scary impact, thankfully.

Karting update; I'll be looking to field the Birel next month. It's been several months since I competed and I'm itching to get back to it. Luckily, our season runs well into December.
My last outing was marred by brake failure. It had been coming, we struggled to gain pressure, but etched cylinder walls from the moisture in our air and lack of use made them irrepairable. This etching happens when the system is mothballed, and we weren't able to hone and rebuild anymore, (This kart was stored for sometime before I bought it, and the brakes were a problem from the start).
Prior to that, we were extremely happy with the handling and the power. I had made a serious mistake during a test session, but the PPK team helped me through it on race day, and I was able to finish.
I have to commend the PPK/Fullerton team. Colin Walker and Frank Newsom put fast karts on the track. Their driver Craig McClain is terrific as well with many years of experience and an eye for first place. These three help me a lot at our local events and I thank them all. They help many racers in the area, and the Fullerton kart chassis is getting a fast reputation.

Part of the reason I named this page is the need to express the fantastic feeling racing gives me. I knew that feeling from when I was a kid, but this kart is several steps faster, and not the fastest. Still, 75-85 mph in a kart ain't bad-and the addiction, at times against monetary sense, must be satisfied. A'ight.

-Katykarter

Sir Stirling, Michael and Gilles

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
7-time world champion in motorsports'
crown jewel, Formula 1

Schumacher likes to ride his Harley in America, and buy thoroghbred horses with his wife.
Schumacher in his Ferrarri at Grand Prix of Bahrain, '05

GILLES VILLENUEVE

The late, great Gilles Villenueve climbing from the wreckage of his Ferrarri in the 1980 Italian Grand Prix at Imola. Gilles' death only weeks later dealt a harsh blow to his friend and team owner, Enzo Ferrarri.

Gilles' son Jacques captured the World Championship he could not in his memorable but short career. Gilles, the pride of Canada, was a fearless qualifier and died while doing just that.

There are many truly great drivers in motorsports today, as we look at the top of each discipline:

World Rally.......Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb

Formula 1..........Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso

Indy Racing League.........Tony Kanaan, Tomas Scheckter and Sam Hornish Jr.

Champ Car............Sebastien Bourdais, Paul Tracy and Bruno Junquiera

NASCAR...............Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and "Smoke" Tony Stewart

...and remember, for each of these stars, there is between 25-42 drivers on the track that are at the top of the game too, and for each of these, there are thousands in support series of whom a small, oh so small percentage graduate and move up to the big time. For some it's luck, for some it's money, but for the best, it's winning that gets them to the top.

The two drivers pictured above are obviously a cut above, in my estimation, and I'll show more and more pictures of those drivers in my Hall of Fame.

Till next time, enjoy Sir Stirling Moss driving a Jaguar at the 1956 Goodwood Grand Prix!

A Racing Moment

In racing, they say, when you have a moment, it's not a good thing. The moment in time is forever imprinted on your memory; it's when you slide dangerously close to the edge of control. Maybe you were actually out of control, and miraculously, you spin back to the proper direction and you continue on with as little noticable shuddering as possible.
Formula 1 had another moment last month, as I'm sure you've heard all about. Bad tires, blah blah, yes, conversations in testy tones, but in the end, life goes on, and a final judgement is still pending. Formula 1 took a severe hit in the eye here in the US, where the European affair with racing is looked on with some amusement. Over there, they are crazy...about racing. It's an heroic mystique. Over here, we look with genuine respect, but over there, shees. Anyway, their attitude at us is converse. Ah, the Americans and their racing, how quaint! Look at them go round and round. Open wheel is our anchor on the world of open wheeled competition, and yes the Indy 500 is the 'mecca' of our style. But open wheel cannot survive on the Indy 500 alone. It would be a shame if it did, because personal agendas and cronyism are all that would derail a plan to combine Champ Car and Indy Racing League. Both series are suffering from low entries, IRL has a steady entry level of 20 cars in each race- Champ Car is close to the same. This year's Indy saw hours go by on bump day while only a few teams saw a legitimate shot at making the field on that day. Even subsequent days saw little additional qualifying. There simply was not a huge contingent unable to make the race. There must be an opportunity for teams to test, some series make that a requirement. Make the power a spec requirement also. This is a dramatic cost cutter for the teams, obviously it's not going to be Toyota, probably not Honda either since Toyota's impending exit. Cosworth makes spec motors for Champ Car. No other major series has spec motors and entries are down. Sunday at Lime Rock Park, Connecticut, American Le Mans Series raced. In the four classes on the track, LMP 1 had five or six entries, LMP 2 had three cars. GT 1 and GT had a grand total of ten cars or so. The whole field was less than 25 strong, or near about.
What say the powers that be hear a voice of reason, and give us a strong open wheel premier series that consists of ovals, road courses like Road Atlanta and Laguna Seca, and street courses like Long Beach and St. Petersburg.

-Katykarter