Hot Summer Racing

The summer of 2008 will probably go down in history as the summer the Olympic Games went to China. It is also a scorching season of racing in North America's elite racing series':

ALMS

The American LeMans Series went on the road last month...to LeMans for the 24, of course. Champion Audi and Risi Competition both won in their respective classes, and they are both mainstays here in the U.S. in the ALMS. ALMS is the "sprint" series of LeMans-style endurance racing. ALMS is stateside and has several extended races, Daytona has a 24 hour race, the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring to name a few. But most races are shorter in time and on varying road courses and street courses throughout the U.S. and Canada. This week they were at Mid Ohio Raceway with the Indy Racing League, and ran an exiting race on Saturday.

Audi North America notched another overall victory after the smaller displacing but lighter LMP2's won at Limerock last week. With the several straights and higher speeds overall, the R10 Turbo Diesel stretched is legs and left the field in their dust again. Lucas Luhr and starter Marco Werner kept it between the lines and took fuel only on their last stop, the difference between their car and their teammate's car at the finish. Audi's Emmanuel Pirro and Dindo Capello drove their sister car to second step of the overall podium.

Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhardt piloted their Penske Porche RS Spyder to class victory in LMP2, outlasting the Acura of David Brabham and Scott Sharp. Gil DeFerran put his Acura P-2 on pole, and co-driver Simon Pagenaud drove a great race, but late problems in the pits cost them the race, with a pit fire and an injured crew member to show for it. Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz finished third in class in another Acura.

In GT-1, the Corvette of Johnny O'Connel and Jan Magnussen finished ahead of teammates Olivier Baretta and Oliver Gavin, but a rough exit from the pits had O'Connell and Baretta leaning heavily on each other in an effort to get ahead. No harm, no foul. Interestingly, when asked what kind of music Jan Magnussen liked when he was alone, he said, "...dark, heavy, heavy metal..". Hmm, let's jam, Jan.

In GT-2 points leaders Dirk Mueller and Dominic Farnbacher lead with almost a lap on the entire field to win for the 3rd time this year. Their Ferrari F430GT was rarely out of the lead. Second on the podium was the Team Flying Lizard racing Porsche of Johannes Van Overbeek.

Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalienen impressed a large crowd at Hockenheimring for the German Grand Prix. Team McLaren, if they can have a fine-free season will challenge Ferrari for dominance this year. After staying out of the pits during a safety car period, Hamilton made several more laps before pitting, and after coming out of the pits some 18 seconds back from new race leader Nelson Piquet Jr, Hamilton, and the McLaren made mincemeat of the field catching the leader with 8 laps left, passing him and taking Piquet's closest proximity to a win since debuting in Formula 1 last season. Second place points are a helluva consolation prize, though, especially for Piquet who was reportedly under scrutiny for lukewarm results so far in his first full year at Renault.

Felipe Massa finish third for Ferrari giving points to the constructor points competition.

Indy Racing League

There were several story lines to this race, but in the end, careful planning and precise execution led to a 1-2 victory for Penske. Ryan Brisco steered his car to victory over Helio Castroneves, and Scott Dixon, while Marco Andretti got caught up in a melee. Danica Patrick had a heated post-race conversation with fellow-female driver Milka Dunho which didn't appear to go well. Patrick will get an elitist reputation soon by admonishing the younger drivers in the series when they make errors. Dixon, last week was critical them also and of Danica herself, saying he is uncomfortable with her and any driver who can't seem to keep their car where it belongs. This demonstrates the underlying conflict in open wheel racing on ovals, especially: you have to have confidence in you fellow competitor's ability. If not, passing is not just difficult anymore, it's suicidal.

Nice weekend of professional racing on planet Earth. Looking forward to ALMS at Road America, IRL at Kentucky and Formula 1 at Hungary.

-Katykarter