Racing Diaries

2012-01-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Automobile Racing Has Taken It's Toll

Many fatalities during races or qualifying, practice and testing have decreased in modern years. After Dan Wheldon's death last year, I compiled a list of racers killed in major racing organizations throughout the world since 2000. It is a stark reminder of the mortality racers face every time out on the track. Scott Goodyear said he never realized how close to death racers were on virtually every lap of every race. It wasn't until he was sidelined that he realized it. It wasn't long after that he retired.

There has been trajedy in automobile racing almost from the first. Long before any organized races took place, men who were able to make their cars go as fast as possible have misjudged their own ability, or reacted slowly or incorrectly to the new paradigm of "at speed" physical forces. Many, many racers have been killed in their own neighborhoods never making it onto this list. But here it is. Each one a professional, each one deserving of acknowledgment:

2001
Alexander Blaise, ARCA race Lowes Motor Speedway
Michele Alboreto, Sportscar racing, Audi R8
Dennis Brooks, Nascar Auto City, Michigan International Raceway
Dale Earnhardt, Daytona 500

2002
Bob Akin, Historic sportscar race
Jeff Clinton, Grand Am practice
Fritz Glatz, Euroboss Race
John Lingenfelter, Pamona NHRA
Eric Martin, ARCA Practice
Nolan White, Bonneville Land Speed Record Attempt

2003
Stewart McColl, Production Car, Philip Island, Australia
Mark Lovell, SCCA Rally
Tony Renna, IRL Testing, Indianapolis

2004
Darrell Russel, Madison NHRA
Tom Baldwin, NASCAR Whelen
Marcelo Nunez, NASCAR Monterrey, Mexico

2005
Michael Park, World Rally Wales

2006
Jorg Bastuck, World Rally Catalunya
Peter Brock, Targa West Rally
Paul Dana, Indy Car Homestead
Steve King, Sprint Car Knoxville
Mark Porter, V8 Supercars, Australia

2007
Eric Medlin, Gainsville NHRA
Ryan Bark, IMCA Sportmod
John Blewett III, NASCAR Whelen
Billy Kimmel, Sprint Car
Wanda Philips, Lonesome Pine
Stan Perry, Super Late Model

2008
Ove Andersson, Classic Rally
Ashley Cooper, Support race, V8 Supercars, Australia
Shane Hammone, Midget Race
Scott Kalitta, Englishtown NHRA

2009
Carlos Pardo, NASCAR Mexico
Henry Surtees, Formula 2 Brands Hatch

2010
Mark Niver, Kent, Wa., NHRA
Neal Parker, Englishtown NHRA

2011
Guido Falaschi, Race at Fangio
Dan Wheldon, Indy Car Race Las Vegas

While the Indianapolis 500 has been held virtually every year (except during the war years), there have only been 24 drivers killed. Since NASCAR was organized on the beach at Daytona in the 40's, only 42 drivers have been killed during NASCAR sanctioned events, the first of which was "Slick" John Davis, in 1948 at a race at Greensboro, NC raceway.

Through the Champ Car years, only 4 drivers were killed. These years were between 1982 and when Champ Car dissolved and the Indy Racing League absorbed the teams in 2004:
Jim Hickman, August 1, 1982, Milwaukee
Jeff Krosnoff, July 14, 1996, Toronto
Gonzalo Rodriguez, September 11, 1999, Laguna Seca
Greg Moore, October 31, 1999, Fontana

Last year, the same weekend Wheldon was killed, a MotoX rider died from injuries he sustained during practice for an exhibition at a NASCAR race. Jim McNiel, November 6, 2011, Texas Motor Speedway.

During the previous week in a race in Malaysia, on October 23, 2011, veteran Italian MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli was tragically killed during the Malaysian Grand Prix. It was a costly two weeks for racers across the world.

Automobile and motorcycle racing has always been a dangerous proposition. The man or woman who straps themselves into a racecar or bike has a simple equation of dynamics to survive. While Newton's theory states that, among other things, an object in motion tends to stay in motion, racers get up on the wheel and try to change that formula.

The public has been attracted to these races since they were first organized. A large section watches for the accidents expectantly. Some fear it, and fear for the safety of the pilots. Rarely are pilots' untimely deaths as widely felt as in the case of Ayerton Senna, who drove an F1 car for Sir Frank Williams. The country of Brazil announced a national day of mourning, and hundreds of thousands paid tribute at the State funeral for their beloved son, Ayerton Senna de Silva. Senna is still probably the agreed upon greatest of all modern day racers. His career was cut short, and his exploits were tempered by the unquestioned brilliance of Alain Prost, French champion and Senna's arch-rival.

Among NASCAR fans, the day Dale Earnhardt died is a day inwhich all remember where they were when they heard. Being the dominating champion he was, Dale Earnhardt's death laid a serious blow to the theory that legendary drivers did not die. Speaking from personal experience, disbelief was followed by morose depression. He was an icon, and even though he earned his nickname "The Dominator" honestly, his rivals missed him as much as the up-and-coming drivers he befriended. During a career inwhich he accomplished almost everything there was to accomplish, including 7 Championships, he had never won the Daytona 500 until the year before. His victory lap that year was something that had never been seen before and never seen since: every member of every team came out on pit road to high five Dale as he passed by towards victory lane. The next year, Dale was holding off the pack as his son, Dale Jr and teammate Michael Waltrip went on to win the 500. Dale spun and impacted the wall during the final turn of the final lap, and as Michael's brother, broadcaster Darrell Waltrip stole a glance, Dale the Intimidator passed away from a freak accident inwhich his open faced helmet, a weak line of stiching and a deceptively furious impact combined to steal him from the sport.

Rip Dale Earnhardt, Febuary 18, 2001, Daytona 500

RIP ALL

-Katykarter

Farewell Dan Wheldon, another driver lost

2011-11-14T18:19:00.000-08:00

Audi Recaptures Le Mans 24 Hour, Peugeot close behind

2011-06-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

Its time for the greatest test of an automobile manufacturers overall endurance, with the annual 24 hour race from Le Mans, France. Once again, Audi captured the win although it wasn't ever a done deal.After finishing the 2010 24 Hours of Le mans 1, 2, 3, Audi returned this year to defend it's title, with full knowledge that anything can happen...and it did- roughly one hour into the race for lead driver, champion Allen McNish. Whether the slower traffic caught him off guard, or he was forced into a compromising situation, McNish flew of the track in the Dunlop curves after contacting a Ferrari and floated sideways over the gravel trap, contacting the armco barrier and exploding into a jillion pieces, showering corner workers, emergency personnel and photographers and casting a pall over the team watching from their garage. McNish, the wiry Scot and veteran lead driver for AudiSport walked tenderly from the wreckage with the aid of a medical worker to a waiting ambulance to be whisked off to the trackside medical facility. He was examined and was, for the most part uninjured except for cuts, bruises and scrapes. The car, Audi's new enclosed cockpit R18 TDI was a complete loss.

It was the first of two of the championship teams' entries that would leave the race early, due to slower traffic and collisions. Later that night, Mike Rockenfeller would attempt to pass another Ferrari on the Mulsanne straight, but right at the slight right-handed kink before the braking zone for the Mulsanne turn, and the Ferrari didn't see him coming. The closing speed of these LMP's is stunning. Forced off track into the grass, Rockenfeller was relegated to just a passenger when he lost control of the R18 at top speed, an estimated 200+ mph, crossed over the track and struck the barrier on the opposite side, flattening the car and destroying a section of the barrier causing an almost two hour delay while crews worked to repair the gap

ing hole. Rockenfeller also was taken to the medical facility on site, and was amazingly not seriously injured, although he was transported to a local hospital for further examination. He walked away from the brutal crash, but Audi's three car team was now down to one.

Three was the charm for Audi, though, and aside from a hard charge at the end making it close (the gap at the finish was a mere 13 seconds), Audi won it's tenth overall victory at Le mans over Peugeot and it's diesel powered 908 driven by Frenchmen Simon Pagenaud and Sebastien Bourdais, Bourdais being a native of Le Mans.

The LMP 2 class was won by Greaves Motorsport Zytek nissan driven by Olivier Lombard.

Team Corvette finished first in the GTE Pro class, with Antonio Garcia at the wheel for the checkers, while the other Team Corvette entry driven by Jan Magnussen wrecked out early.

Another Corvette won the GTE Am class, fielded by Larbre Competition and driven by Gabriel Gardel at the finish.

Notably present was Michael Waltrip, competing in his first 24. Michael along with two co-drivers, competed in the GTE Pro category driving a Ferrari 458 Italia and finished over half the race before falling by the wayside. There wasn't an explanation for their dnf, but I'm sure it was the experience of a lifetime for the American racing legend. Guess it's back to the roundy-rounds in Michigan next week.

As an aside, it was a fascinating weekend of racing which saw Jeff Gordon win at Pocono, tying him for 3rd on the all time Nascar win list.

In the Canadian Grand Prix, weather was the story with rain interrupting the race. After the worst was over, the cars took to the track and Sebastian Vettel continued to lead until a streaking Jensen Button, recovered from a drive through penalty for avoidable contact with Fernando Alonso (which put Alonso out of the race), a puncture from that contact and another brush with a competitiors car to storm up behind Vettel on the last lap. Whether it was his pressure or a rare lapse in judgement by Vettel, Button passed the defending champion when he went wide on a corner, running out of the dry line into a still-wet area of the track. Button's McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton went out early in a collision, and Alonso's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa had a great handling car at the end and finished strong. Michael Schumacher had a great race but suffered at the end and was passed on the last lap by Button and Webber for the final podium spot.

-Katykarter
ps Love those F1 grid girls from Turkey! Homina Homina!

Raikkonen should do well in Nascar

2011-05-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Kimi Raikkonen, former Formula 1 World Champion has landed in Nascar. He's got a good ride, and his new boss, Truck owner Kyle Busch says he'll do well in Nascar, he took right to the truck and was fast right away:

"He did a great job-he jumped right in the truck and was up to pretty good speed right out of the gate", said Busch, "I got in the truck right after him on the hot tires and went out there and ran the same lap times as he did. I couldn't go any faster."

High praise from the hottest driver in Nascar who know's his trucks!

Kimi Raikkonen qualified 30th in his first truck race at Charlotte, NC.

-Katykarter

Dale Jr Loses Daytona Pole, F1's Kubica surgery "successful"

2011-02-16T18:39:00.000-08:00

Dale Jr had a feeling he didn't need to practice today.

"We had a pole sittin car...I didn't want to practice it".

Sure enough, slower traffic on track at DIS on Wednesday during practice caused Jr and draft partner and teammate Jimmie Johnson to check up. Trailing not far behind in another two-car draft team, Martin Truex couldn't avoid them and crashed into the #88 causing Jr to switch to his backup car for the Gatorade Duels tomorrow night and for the start of Sunday's Daytona 500. Since the #88 will start from the rear for both races, Hendrick decided to drop a new motor in the car for the weekend.

Nascar also added to the "slowing" rule changes today. Along with a higher operating temperature making cars unable to draft for such extended periods during the race, they've decreased the size of the restrictor plate, roughly shaving 10 hp from the cars. Speeds dropped significantly from the 206.068mph posted by Michael Waltrip on Lap 10 of the Shootout to less than 201 mph on Wednesday.

This is also the 10th anniversary of Jr's dad, Dale Earnhardt Sr's death at Daytona. RIP, #3

Formula 1 Team Lotus Renault driver Robert Kubica emerged from delicate elbow surgery with an encouraging progress report from doctors. Kubica was gravely injured and airlifted from his wrecked World Rally Championship Skoda Fabio rally car last week during the Rally of Italy. Among his injuries was a compound fracture of his right elbow, and an almost severed right hand. Team Lotus Renault announced Nick Heidfeld, (pictured @ right), will take Kubica's place to begin the 2011 season.

Kubica, pictured above in last year's BMW Sauber and below, is an avid karter, and graduated from the ranks of the elite European karting championships, having battled with Lewis Hamilton and Vittantonio Liuzzi. In the picture, Kubica's kart is operating at a maximum. Notice the wheel-up on his inside-rear wheel during braking/turning!

PS On a personal note, today is my dad's birthday, Thomas Cyrus Carroll, he would have been 79. Last week was my son's birthday, Chris Pendleton, he is 24, and my birthday was last week also, I turned 45. Happy Birthday guys!!

-Katykarter

2010-12-09T19:25:00.000-08:00

December is the slowest racing month. Usually the weather sucks, there's no sunshine.
But Christmas is coming up, my favorite holiday, and New Years shortly after, and before you know it, they're racing in Daytona again, first the 24 then the big one, the 500.

And since there's not much else to keep us intrigued, lets watch a couple of youtube videos!

The first is a christmas song from Saturday Night Live from a few years back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOakBWW4BYTU&feature=related

The next one is slick, hilarious vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2_9HOjzXRM

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-Katykarter

Indycar at Iowa Pics, 2010

2010-07-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

Indycar visits New Hampshire in 2011, Iowa in 2010

2010-07-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

Indycar will visit New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2011, this according to Indy Racing League CEO Randy Bernard. The short, low-banked speedway will be an exiting venue for the IRL as evidenced by a three lap demonstration by Ganassi and Dario Franchitti which saw speeds in excess of 200 m.p.h.! This will be a return to New Hampshire for US Formula cars. In 1996 Scott Sharp won here and in 1997, in another CART sanctioned race, fans saw Robbie Buhl's first victory and a third place from Tony Stewart.

Last week at Iowa, Tony Kanaan won, breaking a three year draught in the AndrettiAutosport car while Dario Franchitti's DNF changed the championship points lead back to Will Power in the Penske car back ahead of he and Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon.

Indycar is at Watkin's Glen this weekend, and the road racing will be at it's zenith at the historic Glen. Watch out for any Penske car, but Ryan Briscoe has won here and Castroneves is always a force. It will be a battle though, probably between Penske and Ganassi, but watch out for Dreyer/Reinbold Racing's Justin Wilson who won here last year in Dale Coyne's first Indycar win after decades of trying. Paul Tracy is finally back in a seat, albeit as a fill in for injured DR driver Mike Conway. Paul impressed with his speed in practice after more than a year out of the seat, having narrowly missed a start in this year's Indianapolis 500.

Love that 24 and Birel

2010-06-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

June 13, 2010

Racing had international headlines this weekend, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans taking place. In prior years, the Audi stranglehold seemed weakened by the consistent assault the Peaugeot powered teams posed. But this year Audi ushered in a new era of champions as little known but powerful drivers piloted the undeniably most reliable prototype entered in the 24 hour race this year and in years past.

Because of the wages of war, the Peaugeot became the Peau-junk cars, none of the four starting cars were able to finish, handing Audi a 1, 2, 3 finish.

Reliable experienced drivers piloted the Peageots, like Sebastien Bourdais and Franck Montagny, but mechanical difficulties and racing incidents spelled doom for this latest assault on the Audi TDI dominance. Poor Bourdais didn't even get into the race, as a co-driver wrecked the Le Mans native before he had a chance to see a racing lap. Better luck next year!

Lewis Hamilton held off the field and won again at the Montreal Canada Grand Prix. Red Bull's Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel are still the front runners and point leaders.

Karting

Team Principle J.A. Griffin acquired another kart today to make his garage a two-kart-one-dirtbike garage! How awesome!! It's a '99 Buller rolling chassis. This one will be for his son Jaybin to drive, probably with a Kt motor and a sprint setup for the nearby GCKI's sprint track.
In the wings waits another kart, a road racing kart with several spare Kt 100 motors...we're hoping to get this deal done.

The Birel is nearing full reassembly, although several parts need replacement. Some repairs and cleaning have really set off the new painted chassis: it looks great! Hoping for a one-off later in the summer.

-Katykarter

Time to Post

2010-02-11T12:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a long, long time and I'm worse for the wear! Incredibly, it's been a whole year since I've been able to post onto this page. I've moved several times chasing work, gone broke, and met serious upheaval in my life...but am I finished racing???

You gotta be kidding!

I'll be back, and you'll probably have to look at my six again all day!

Seriously, it's good to be back, and it will be even sweeter when I'm back racing the Birel again.

Patience, patience...

-Katykarter

2009-04-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

(This blog entry was delayed in its publishing. First written 2-29-09)

IndyCar.Com

There are several new things to report from Indycar.com. The first will be the coverage.

Exept for a few races including the Indianapolis 500, most coverage will be from Versus Network.

VS. is a cable network not on the basic channel lineup, so for those irritated that ESPN won't be covering the races, it doesn't get better. The good news is there are several Indycar specials on VS. in the month of March before the first race in St. Petersburg, Fla. on April 4.

Versus Preseason Indycar coverage

All episodes air at 2 p.m. Eastern

March 7 Danica: Five Years and Running
March 14 Indycar's Closest Finishes
March 21 Crashes and Conflicts
March 28 Indycar Tour 2009

Indycar has several new names in the field, several rookies to the series including a few names you'll recognize.

Stanton Barrett, Team 3g, Mike Conway, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Rafael Matos, Luczo Dragon Racing

Robert Doornbos, Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing

Dario Franchitti, Ganassi Racing

Though, Dario isn't a rookie to the IRL, it's his first trip back since going Nascar. Kudos to these up and comers, Matos will certainly be fast but his car may be a step off, Doornbos has a great ride with teammate Graham Rahal.

Photos: (from top)

1. Robert Doornbos in his elite Newman/Haas ride

2. AJ Foyt IV, Vision Racing

3. Vitor Meira, A.J.Foyt Ent.

4. Dan Wheldon, Panther Racing

-Katykarter

Photos from Cresson

2009-02-16T16:21:00.000-08:00

Motorsports Ranch Cresson was the first race of SWRA's 2008 schedule. As readers know, I was only able to compete in this and the second race of that season, in defense of my KT100 Heavy title.

The following pics are of the fellow competitors and myself in the Sunday race.

Race winner Jamey Brown

2nd Place John Dale Brown

3rd and 4th Place #22 Oscar Moran and #21 Ian Carroll

#16 Keri Summers

Gene Brown

Luke Heskith, Left and Blake Krueger, center

#27 J.R. Miller

#23 Julie Munden and #25 Luke Heskith

Justin Casey, left, makes last minute adjustments in the hot grid.

Justin talks with Blake pre-race

Your humble host, Ian Carroll (aka Katykarter), left and Colin Walker, right.

ps! thats David Munden with his back to the camera along with his wife Julie. That's about all anyone saw of David this year, he won the 2008 KT100 Lights and Heavies points championship. Congratulations, David!!

Click on "Cresson Opener a Fast One" in the Previous Posts section near the top of the page for a description of the Saturday and Sunday races.

-Katykarter

Hot Summer Racing

2008-07-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008 24 Hours of Le Mans

2008-06-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

Le Mans, France, Circui De La Sarthe

The 2008 Le Mans proved to be an extremely close affair if you consider the distance the cars travel in the 24 hour period, to be separated by only one minute is a testament to the drama. Audi, and it's North American team, Audi Sport North America had it's two car team in the field, set to defend their stranglehold on the Prototype class.

Kristenson, McNish and Capello captured the third straight Audi TDI R-10 overall victory at Le Mans, but also Audi's eighth in nine years, beaten only by the Bentley Speed 8 in 2003 (Pictured below in a museum).

This year Peugeot mounted their hardest assault on Audi to date, with the 908, a turbo-diesel like the Audi. They finished less than a lap after the Audi, clearly a faster car, with good handling, but needing more time in the pits, which was the difference in this year's race.

Jacques Villenueve piloted the lead Peugeot and stood to become the first Indy 500 winner, Formula 1 Champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans overall winner. But it was not to be, and Jacques will have to go back to raising money to race in NASCAR.

Peugeot as a team had troubles in the pits, as well as overheating problems in their engines. Late in the race, early morning and rain had fallen overnight. At one point, one Peugeot had full rain tires and the other had full dry. Of course, the car that had the dry tires had to make another pit stop to correct the mistake. Twice, the French team had to bring their cars into the garage and cool their radiators for several minutes each time. Smaller, sprint-style radiators were probably the cause, commented David Hobbs.

But the Peugeot's were clearly faster. Several times, the Peugeot drivers had to pass the R-10's to get their laps back. There were several miscues by each team, with Kristensen having a rare brush with a competitor. Marco Werner spinning the Audi and Manassian spinning the 908 at the start/finish line.

In 1966, the Ford GT 40's take the checkered flag a la formacion. Unfortunately, it cost driver Denny Hulme the win due to allowing the second Ford to close. In 1966, the rules stated the furthest distance traveled in 24 hours wins. Since Bruce McLaren had started further back, it was deemed that he won the race by 8 meters.

Talking Turkey and Ayrton

2008-05-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

Peter Windsor, the pit reporter for Speed Channel's coverage of Formula 1 was remarking at the appearent fragility of the Red Bull car driven by Mark Webber. As constant fans remember, the Red Bull team had a vote of lack of confidence by the technical director of FIA after the front wheels popped off of David Coulthard's car in Australia after he tried to re-enter the track after a slight off. While the curbs taper up from the track, if you try to cross the curb from the backside as Coulthard did, you must bouce over a large bump. We saw several cars try to do this this weekend, as Fisichell did, shattering his front nose and requiring a replacement. The Red Bull car, however, was completely smashed when it tried this crossing, both suspension on the front end giving up and breaking away.

During the Friday practice at this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix, Webber spun coming out of turn 9 and the car crossed back over the track, spun again and impacted the arcove barrier nose first...and the front wheels and suspension broke away clean. It was a substantial impact, though, curiously, the nose seemed not to be damaged!

Windsor's comment included this nugget of info from Ayrton Senna's fatal crash in 1994 at Monza. Senna, during the race, left the track and slammed into the wall and was killed, but, according to Windsor, and I'd never heard this before: his death was caused by a component of the suspension entering the driver's cockpit.

It was obvious from the footage available, that Senna was moving after the car came to rest, and from trackside reports, Senna was bleeding profusely, but the flying debris was never suggested as the actual cause of death.

Ten Years after his death, Senna's team, Williams was exonerated of blame in his death by a court in Europe.

Qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix, during a tense Q3, Hamilton, Kovalienen and Raikkonen posted fast laps, but it wasn't enough to defeat Felipe Massa. His Ferrari posted the fastest Q3 time as well as the fastest time of the weekend to claim the pole, his third in a row this season. Massa is also the defending Turkish Grand Prix champion.

Long Live Senna...

-Katykarter

SWRA Swoops into Eagles Canyon

2008-04-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

Five hours north of West Houston, just north of Ft. Worth, Texas near Decatur, Eagle's Canyon Raceway was recently completed and word was SWRA was the first official event at the new track.

The track is a technical majesty, the four outer left-turns are four different, double apex 180's of varying diameter. Turn 3 is a quick left into a full out exit, turn 6 is a tight turn in and a tight, compression exit with a lot of track to deal with, painted apex and exit curbs. Turn 9 has a massive elevational drop, but with the off-camber left/right to enter, it's a joyous run downhill through the Turn 9 complex. The fourth double is Turn 11, an even-tighter double left after a long straight. There are many elevational changes in the 2.5 mile track, making entries and exits exciting.

Competition was fierce again, with Jean and John Dale Brown in attendance on Friday for the lights, and Jamey on Sunday due to scheduling constraints. I was unable to be there for Friday practice, but I arrived early Saturday to assemble my unprepared kart. I hadn't completed the necessary repairs, and parts from Frank's shop met me at the track. Aside from a missing gas tank, and a new one ($55 trackside), the Birel went together with no hitches. Dropping out onto the track in the lights race without any practice laps put me down early. In the 12 or 13 laps of the race, I was able to shave 4 seconds off my times, and made my last lap my fastest, a 2:20.

The leaders with the three kart draft were lapping at 2:13 though, so I never saw them after the start. I passed several slower karts to finish 6th thanks to one of the lead pack going off on the final lap. I felt a lot of horsepower was left on the table after this race: some in the motor, some in the clutch, and some in my overall body weight, but after some consideration I think it'll also prove effective to update the aero package, it's ten years old now and though it's complete, it is a bit of an air dam.

Sunday's race was better for me, I finished 4th and improved on my lap times, but performance-wise it was the same. I look forward to our next race at Oakhill. We'll visit SWRA's home track twice in the year, May 16-18 and again Oct 17-19.

Sponsorship operations need to improve. There were several last minute donors prior to this past weekend, but overall, sponsorship is anything but busy.

The good news is I should be in the lead in points in the Heavies and fourth in points in the Lights.

-Katykarter

Starting Tribulations and Trials

2008-04-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

The start of a race is an all important moment.

The green flag drops and all your systems come on-line at once: a flurry of movement and synergy: a flood of karts funnelling towards the first turn...

but the start is just a moment when you drop the accelerator and steer towards daylight.

Its over so quickly, it seems like just a moment. In truth, you prepare for the start giving it the extra attention and preparation it deserves. The start, done properly, can give an extra place or two in addition to the strength/weakness of your kart. That will play out on the high speed road course ahead. Starting grand prix style, or from a dead start, depends on reflexes, skill, and determination. When more karts than can fit dodge into the first turn mayhem ensues. Open wheels tend to not rub but launch skyward! Often, a small space is all you have, and it's everything you can do to just survive. But when an opening pops up, or a wreck happens, instinct, luck and skill provide the means to take advantage of it.

A Clutch in the hole is worth...everything

The start starts with the clutch. It's impossible to overstate the importance of a properly set clutch. With it, you'll rocket out of the hole into the lead. Without it, your mired in whatever-place.
Lately, the clutch is presenting itself as the center of the kart's universe: it has become the difference in the competition and us. This is no new revelation either, Frank has been collecting data, testing, using different models, different makes. Changing the weights, springs and friction plates. Our clutches are hard-hitting SMC's and they are highly tunable. The competition uses SMC as well, but some use Horstman and Hartman, both 'back in the day' clutches that literally kick-ass with regular rebuilding. The launch is maybe the most important role the clutch plays, but it is just beginning it's job, proper adjustment keeps you launching hard out of the slowest corner all race long.

The Kt 100 is a venerable motor produced by Yamaha in it's present configuration and displacement for decades. I don't know when it came on the scene, but Frank started tuning it and rebuilding it almost immediately, and that's some 30 or more years ago. It's a 100cc two stroke motor making peak power at almost 13,000 rpms. That's pretty high and your clutch will engage sometime before that in the rpms' screeching rise and you've got the motor's full power after that.

Keeping the Motor Running

The Walbro carburator is another old time/all time part to this package, it is relatively the same as in years past. The carb has two fuel-mixture adjustments: the low speed and the high speed. Because of the Kt's penchant for running at WOT (wide-open throttle), it needs to be greatly leaned-out prior to the start so it will stay running. In this extra-lean state, the carb keeps the motor alive, but on the start, or throttle input WOT, it needs to be richened immediately or it's lights-out for the motor. It can't handle that lean of a mixture: the added heat seizes the piston in mid stroke causing quite a mess not to mention an immediate halt.

Depending on the ambient conditions, after richening the mixture properly, the needle will be set to a position to accommodate the heat. Heat kills the motor (and clutch), and it's ever present in racing conditions. Ambient temperature, humidity and dew point greatly affect the carb's performance and in turn the motor's performance.

During the start of the Cresson 'Lights' race, I richened the mix sharply, and the motor chugged in protest. I screwed it back down a fuzz, allowed the motor to get it's breath and started out again, this time richening it evenly: a horrible start! Sunday I richened it evenly and had a superior start. There are still several slower karts in the fields, and at the start they are obstacles to avoid. Compound that with spins and offs, dust, smoke, flipping karts...it's a little hairy.

To Finish First...

All of this happens moments after the green flag drops. Getting through Turn 1 intact is paramount but getting the best start puts more behind you than is in front of you, making fitting into Turn 1 all that much easier. Finishing is even more important, so throwing it into Turn 1 recklessly is like going "all in" on the first hand of the poker tournament! Don't do it!

Instead, visualize smoothly accelerating past the field into lone possession of first place.

Now...make it happen.

-Katykarter

Cresson opener a fast one

2008-03-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

MSR Cresson provided an excellent venue for the combined karting event to start two clubs' 2008 seasons.

Southwest RoadRacing Association along with Midwest America's Road Racing Series brought out their clubs to mix it up. Along with some very intense racers, the size of the fields was akin to a national competition. The more popular classes such as TaG and Formula 125 and Rotax had 25 to 30 and more entries.

The Kt100 Ltd Lights raced Saturday, and although it technically wasn't my first 'Lights' race, it was the first I was competitive in. Random draw saw me start 15th out of 18. Oscar was driving PPK's '08 entry and was near the front and got away well. The start was chaotic and our two first year drivers at the back had to avoid a melee. When too many karts squeeze into a space too small for them all, someone is going to spin. That spin happened right in front of me and I avoided to the outside. Out of my perifery I saw another kart spin but I got away clean, (I found out later that it was Luke spinning to avoid the other spin).

The downhill section after turn 6 is a fun run down, reminds me of skiiing, but close proximity to slower karts made me nervous and I dropped two tires off at an extremely fast speed. Luckily the Birel popped right back onto the track with nary a bad result. At the bottom of cresson's new section, from turn 6 has two high speed kinks that I was able to go flat out, and braking hard and driving deep into turn 8, a steep uphill hairpin, I'd let my forward motion carry me over the hump and drift all the way to the bricks. Cresson is noteable for its several blind, high speed turns. This one isn't as blind, but you cannot see the exit once you enter it. I was catching karts as a consequence of this turn all weekend. During the Sunday race, I was bumping Oscar up the hill after this turn.

I had passed several karts in the first lap, and gotten away clean from the start where 3 or 4 got caught up or slowed down. Mike Jones, driving a Randy "Socks" kart and Dale Posinski both passed me and I settled into a rhythm. I had adjusted my carb to a hotter, leaner position and I watched it and my lap times for a few laps. I was seconds faster than yesterday's practice times. In the 2:49's and :48's, just a few seconds off of last year's times. There were slower classes on track, and I was able to make passes without affecting my racing line, but I had begun reeling in some other karts in my class. Ahead was the 44 kart of David Munden.

David and I had had several great battles on track. We were friendly to each other off track and treated each other with respect on track. While driving up on him, he'd raise his hand and signal he was slowing, having some kind of problem. I passed him safely and come the back straight and he passed me back going into 12. From there we'd stay in each other's draft, I'd catch him in 8 and 9 and he'd pass me back from 10 to 12. When the white flag flew I was trailing him going into the snake section of 2, 3 and 4 and made up some time, when we got to 8 I was ready and passed him going up the hill to 9. Then came 10 and I knew he'd try to repass there. I moved over to the right to change my line and confuse, and when I didn't see him right, I leaped back and entered 10 in the lead, I didn't know if he was there or had had another engine stutter but I pressed hard through the last turns and took the checkered...but at the very last moment, he flew from behind me and passed on the right. It was a photo finish for sure, though there weren't cameras set up for that. I felt like he completed the pass, I was turned towards him as we went across the line and I think his bumper reached the line first, but just barely. Ironically, electronic timing wouldn't help because I had dropped my transponder somewhere during lap 6, the last lap recorded. I think David's pass put him into 5th, I finished 6th out of 18.

Justin had a short race, he went off early at turn 8, and Luke had a mechanical failure causing his motor to die. Both of these guys would come back Sunday with strong improvements.

Reflecting on the race that night, Dale suggested I lengthen my gear ratio, or take a few teeth away. This caused me distress because I had spent time and energy changing the rear sprocket because I wanted those extra teeth. I had to hunt the sprocked down though, I didn't bring an 88. But I couldn't find a two-piece which meant I had to dis-assemble the entire rear end to put the one-piece sprocket on. Now, he was telling me it was better to have straighway speed than corner speed. Let me go on the record now, and if history proves me wrong then so be it, but I would rather have corner speed. If I had to choose between the two- If I had to, it'd be corner speed. Which is the decision I made: even if I made that change, and it helped a little, I still wouldn't catch the leaders. This was a fact I knew before the first laps of practice Friday morning. I was not going to challenge for the lead in lights. This combined event had John and Jamey Brown in the field, and another Marrs Kt driver, who dominated the field, finishing one two three exept Saturday where the third place driver failed post-race weight tech, handing Oscar third place points. I'm glad I didn't change it back, when I thought about it Sunday morning, it didn't make sense; I was unhappy with it when I changed it.

Sunday's race had a field of 14 and again I was near the back. At the start I got a good start and passed a handful of karts before the first turn we came to, turn 6. Down the hill I passed several more and got around another coming out of 8. Ahead I could see Oscar battling with a Marrs driver. When they got in line and drafted, I could not catch them. But when one driver tried to pass, they'd get side by side for a while and I'd start to catch them. Just as I came up behind we came out of 12 and I blew by on the right. I had to brake hard to stay in front but I had passed Oscar and John Thompson. But as I expected, they passed me back on the front straight and I came up behind them fast coming out of 8. This was my best turn. Pretty soon it was just me and Oscar, we say the other guy standing by the side of the track out of the race with a failure.

At Friday's driver meeting, the SWRA let it be known that bumping was going to be penalized. With the strong draft at this track, karts were bumping everywhere. As Oscar and I began lapping together, I was able to stay in his draft and pass. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that I should be tucking in behind him and trying to draft. It wasn't until Oscar signaled me to stay behind him that I fell in consistently. Along the way though, SWRA thought I was bumping and dropped the 'rolled' black flag to me. I wasn't sure what this meant because of the direct statements they'd made at the driver's meeting. "There won't be a warning flag for bumping. The won't be any warnings, there better not be any bumping." It wasn't that I was bumping, I was coming up fast behind Oscar and I didn't want to slow down. When I got the rolled black flag, I signaled the started next time by, "do I need to go into the pits?" He signaled "yes" by giving a thumb's up. I dove into the pit lane and when I came around to the hot pit area the race director Mac gave me a frantic "GO GO GO" signal and I nailed the gas and sped back onto the track. I had a little squirrely moment on the pit exit lane, but I had lost Oscar's draft ( I found out later they didn't intend for me to pit, saying 'it was a rolled flag') but I hadn't lost a position and that's how I finished. Oscar in fourth, Me in fifth.

It should be said that the race winners Saturday and Sunday are nothing new to their club, our club and national events. John Dale and Jamey Brown have been winning in the Yamaha KT class for years now racing motors prepared by their dad, Gene Brown. This weekend was another testament to the deathgrip on their region, they led start to finish, though both days Jamey started near me at the back. The winning margin was some :55 seconds.

Both Justin and Luke did well, though Luke had more bad luck, first with a nose cone falling off and a sever front end chatter, then he threw a chain late in the race and DNF'd. Justin drove a steady race and finished, earning good points in the first race of the season.

Although the severe thrashing dampened the celebratory feeling, Frank, Oscar and PPK left leading the KT 100 Ltd Lights points. I scored points in both races and finished both and held my ground with Oscar, who had extra weight bolted on. I was very happy with this finish against the large field that turned out.

-Katykarter

Cresson Countdown

2008-03-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday night, March 25 and I'm home from prepping the kart over at Frank's after work. I got there about 5 and stayed till about 8. He'd been doing 10 to 15 hour days this week and last and has just two more days(and three nights) till load up.

The Birel is doing well. It's not as pristeen as in recent memory, last season took a toll. The underside is in need of addressing. It has been banged around a little since I took ownership, and it needs paint there badly. But the secret recipe of metallurgy and design is still there: it's still the same chassis, and it's systems are all but in place and race-ready. I have only two more evenings before load, and I'd like to load early Thursday and sleep till edt 3:45am Friday.

I have bitten off a mouthfull this season, I've decided to run in the lights as well as the heavies and two races per weekend will take some getting used to. I'll still try for Friday practice to sort the kart out, and get seat time, but a race on Saturday and Sunday will provide ample opportunity to get race experience. I don't hope to win on Saturday. If the fields are as numerous as last year, I might expect fourth. The first race is one of two dual-club meets which means there will be more entries than usual. Remember, I'm used to racing on Sunday in the KT100 "heavy" class. On Saturday, the competitive "lights" race and I'll be giving up a lot of weight. This will be a sizeable disadvantage, but I know I can be competitive and hopefully consistancy will again lead to success. On Sunday's I'll have less of a weight disadvantage, and as last year showed, consistency in this less populated class will pay dividends.

Driver weight is a huge issue. In the KT100 class, a 100cc Yamaha motor with a centrifugal clutch is a class where corner speed and acceleration is highlighted. Without a manual transmission, the clutch allows the driver to smoothly accelerate out of the turns, but it penalizes a slow turn, or slow corner speed. It takes a long time to get the speed built back up, and makes the driver seek every inch of track and inertia to keep his speed up. When more mass has to be kept in motion this way, the motor must work harder and makes a light driver naturally faster.

My weight is a known weakness and I've done a lousy job of keeping the excess bulk in check over the winter. Leading into this first race, I'm as heavy as ever, over 210. I haven't dropped a single pound, though I have let the gym membership lapse, and I had a couple of wierd injuries several weeks ago that dampened the workout regimen. I have resumed a regular workout schedule though and I know these first couple of races I'll be heavier than I should be, but I'll be down to around 200 soon. The food/eating issue is also being tweaked. I don't overeat as much anymore, but it doesn't take as much to turn into fat as it used to. I like to say I've slowed my metabolism down by not working as hard as I used to, but in reality my body is doing the typical, "oh well, it was nice but now we're going to be a fat-ass and die of heart disease" routine. What my body doesn't know yet, though it's getting hints is that I'm not going out like that. I know I can adjust my body's aging operation, and stay healthy and happy for many more years.

On Saturdays I'll be racing against guys that will have to bolt on weight to pass post-race inspection, while I'll be sweating away ounces off of 20-30 pounds of extra weight. It doesn't sound like I'll be competitive but we'll see: I will be out there, and I'll be consistent. I have a very reliable motor package from Frank, I have the best clutch money can buy, and dude, it took plenty of money!! The chassis is excellent, front wheel brakes, new tires, I cannot freakin wait.

-Katykarter

Budgetary Cosmos

2008-03-23T18:04:00.001-07:00

Recently, I was describing the astronomical amounts of money Formula 1's teams are allowed to spend and the climate this creates. I then decided to find out just what recent F-1 budgets actually are. I was shocked.

Leading the pack is the highly successful, and highly penalized McLaren. Last year, they paid a $100m penalty for 'unauthorized viewing' of rival technical information. Team principle Ron Dennis brushed it off as a temporary minor discomfort. Projected 2008 expenditure: 400m

2. Toyota 393m
3. Honda 382m
4. BMW Sauber 378m
5. Ferrari 329m

I couln't believe it: Ferrari with only 329 million?? The gall.

-Katykarter

Bobby Rahal: American Icon

2008-03-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

Gentleman Bobby Rahal is the perhaps the US's most prolific driver. He has compiled some impressive stats, and continues to as an owner.

As an owner, Bobby and partner David Letterman won the most prestigieous race we know of, the Indianapolis 500, of course, driven by Buddy Rice in 2004.

But Bobby had paid his dues for years, coming up in American open wheel ranks. He was the Championship Auto Racing Teams or CART points championship as a driver three times, in 1986, 1987 and 1992. He won the Indy 500 once, in 1986 on his way to his first CART title.

He was voted driver of the year twice, in '86 and '92. Bobby is the only owner/driver to win a CART title.

Along the way, Bobby crossed the pond and raced in as many forms of competition as he could. He had a short time in Formula 1, starting only two races for Walter Wolf in '78.

Back in the US, Rahal won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1981 and 12 Hours of Sebring in 1987.

Bobby also had starts in NASCAR, Can-Am, and IROC. In every instance, he represented himself well, and gathered the esteem of everyone he competed against.

Perhaps his most staggering statistic: in an 18 year professional racing career, Rahal finished outside the top ten only once.

-Katykarter

IRL Fallout

2008-03-09T21:17:00.001-07:00

Derrick Walker racing has announced it won't

compete in the IRL this year, leaving a decision

for next year up in the air. Meanwhile, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power, Champ Car Aussie Vinyard drivers are in limbo until their availability comes into focus.

Champ Car's race in Australia has been secured by the IRL. Surfer's Paradise, Queensland, Australia has hosted the Gold Coast Indy. During merger negotiations, it was expected early on the Australia, Edmonton and Long Beach races would be picked up by the IRL.

Alonso is back with Renault for the 08 Formula 1 season, but the car seems to be off the pace. Winter testing revealed inconsistent performance.

Mike Skinner to take over Red Bull Toyota.

NASCAR Team Red Bull has shown AJ Allmendinger where the door is, but didn't let him pass through yet, calling his replacement temporary.

Indy merger not a pipe dream

2008-03-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

I am Indy
From day one, Tony George was painted as the bad guy. And why not, he was unwilling, as other track owners were, to divide the proceeds from the Indy 500, the yearly iconic auto racing event. Tony didn't have the negotiating position to get the owner group to commit to returning to the IRL. It was 1994.

So the two sides split with some of the same personalities in play in this merger some 14 years later.

Three years ago, Champ Car went bust and George bid on the lot of equipment the defunct CART governing body put up as property. A court had to rule in favor of a coalition of owners to become the new controlling interest-holders: Kevin Kalkoven, Gerald Forsythe and others. For three years after, Champ Car World Series changed chassis manufacturers and continued in business, seemingly oblivious to the Tony George machine. But in the end, it was a fairly lucrative offer by George to any team, Champ Car or other, to join the IRL.

As controlling interests, the CCWS owners group visited with George and a deal was inked: any CCWS team that wanted to could join the IRL and George, who owns a majority of the Indy Racing League, would provide a Honda engine lease (not sure for what length of time), a Dallara chassis and 1.5 million pocket change. Of course it'll take much more than that to field an IRL team with only one car, but it was a deal maker. Appearently witht the blessing of the minority owner members of CCWS, Kalkoven, Forsythe, Rahal, Haas and others committed to compete in this year's IRL season and abandon their established CCWS race dates with the only notable exeption of Long Beach. The organizers of the Long Beach race have been assured there will be a full field racing on April 20. Beyond that, there will be no more Champ Car.

I thought it'd be appropriate to recognize the champions of the Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART and it's progeny Champ Car World Series.

1995 Jaques Villeneuve CAN Green (Reynard-Ford)

1996 Jimmy Vasser USA Ganassi (Reynard-Honda)

1997 Alex Zanardi ITA Ganassi (Reynard-Honda)

1998 Alex Zanardi ITA Ganassi (Reynard-Honda)

1999 Juan Montoya COL Ganassi (Reynard-Honda)

2000 Gil de Ferran BRA Penske (Reynard/Penske-Honda)

2001 Gil de Ferran BRA Penske (Reynard/Penske-Honda)

2002 Cristiano da Matta BRA Newman/Haas (Lola-Toyota)

2003 Paul Tracy CAN Forsythe (Lola-Ford)

2004 Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman/Haas (Lola-Ford)

2005 Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman/Haas (Lola-Ford)

2006 Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman/Haas (Lola-Ford)

2007 Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman/Haas (DP-Ford)

Bourdais bid farewell to CCWS at the end of last year, after his fourth consecutive title to go to Formula One. He'll drive a Ferrari powered Red Bull car for their European team, Torro Rosso. In pre-season testing he and his teammate, young Sebastian Vettel have been the class of the field.
Hard to imagine the Torro Rosso team vying for the lead against Ferrari, McLaren, and Renault.

Incredible Kart Video

2008-02-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

I've gone whole hog YouTube! There is no shortage of videos of anything you might be interested in.

Try these for some wicked kart video.

1st up is some onboard of some 250cc superkarts in Great Britain on the Isle of Man. Some of you , I'm sure, have heard about the Isle of Man trials, mostly motorcycle (this is the first time I've seen kart video), but the whole Island shuts down all traffic for one weekend every year and the superbikes are insanely fast.

These superkarts are racing on a city circuit, don't know the city! With the speeds they're carrying, one loose moment and...you're toast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf3cJRkeEqE

Isle of Man is a testament to speed and cojones. When you get to you tube, look at related videos, some of the isle of man wrecks are the nastiest.

Below is a 250cc superkart with a top speed of around 140 mph. It is driven by Kevin Schwantz, world superbike champ in 1993. He holds the lap record at Laguna Seca of 1:23:875 with an average speed of 100.864 mph. By contrast, the superbike lap record is held by Troy Bayliss on a Ducate of 1:24:833 in 2002.

This link is a new motor being tested in the UK. The drivers are agog at the power and the compact design is significant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKayagHUCw8&feature=related

Finally here is a compilation of some knarly kart wrecks set to some cool Limp Bizkit. The impact at about 1:00 into the video is brutal. That's competition near the top.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q6UCZ5WstQ

Jacques Villenueve exhales, hello Barry

2008-02-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

Jacques Villenueve lures Green in renewed NASCAR bid

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/2008-02-20-2862777525_x.htm

Jacques has had a bad winter. With the failure to get into the Daytona 500, his bosses at Bill Davis Racing decided to persue other options after Jacques' sponsor pulled out. But it was Barry Green, his old boss in CART who came through as an actuator and advocate.

Jacques, right, in a Williams BMW in 2006' German GP

Indy Car/Champ Car Merger?

IndyStar.com reported reunification talks happened this past week, portending the combination of the Indy Racing League and their marquee stars like Andretti Green and their driver Danica Patrick with Champ Car stars like Paul Tracy and ex-driver car owner Jimmy Vasser as well as Paul Newman and Carl Haas. What a spectacle to see, but it looks like Houston would lose it's 08 race. BUMMER. I will be racing at Eagle's Canyon raceway in N. Texas that weekend.

Indy Car would essentially consume Champ Car, it's venues and assets, and will add their marquee races such as Long Beach and Surfer's Paradise. '08 scheduling conflicts seem to be the obvious sticking points in negotiations at last report.

1995 Indy 500 Winner Jacques Villenueve

2008-02-22T19:37:00.001-08:00

In 1995, aged 24, Jacques won the Indianapolis 500 (running 505 miles due to a 2-lap penalty) on his way to winning the entire championship. Villeneuve was the last Indycar champion to win the title before the 1996 CART/IRL split created two rival series. As such his achievements perhaps carry greater weight. As a result of his success racing in the United States, Villeneuve attracted the attentions of Frank Williams who tested him in 1995 with a view to signing him. He is now the winner of Formula One™ (1997) and Champ Car championships and the Indianapolis 500, one of only three drivers to accomplish all three feats (the others being Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti). -courtesy sportsonline.com

Historic 24 Hours of Le Mans

2008-02-10T19:18:00.001-08:00

Here are some excellent videos via You Tube on Le Mans prototype footage.

Onboard with the Porsche 936 at Circuit la Sarthe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWeLuglJr9

Onboard footage with the Mercedes CLR on a Le Mans lap inwhich it did not flip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f-1869sGzQ&feature

Aforementioned Mercedes CLR crash, one of several. This was a fast car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3rxq7U1mA&feature

Onboard lap at Circuit la Sarthe with the McLaren F-1 Supercar along with some other racing exotics!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8A7UCc-ZrQ

A Ferarri mechanic takes a peek at rival Honda

-Katykarter

'08 Pre-Season in Full Swing

2008-02-03T16:54:00.000-08:00

Around the motorsports world, the garage doors are swinging open, the dust is flung from the dustcovers and the chassis are rolled into the sunlight to be gone over for the first time this year. The motor has been sent to the builder, and replacement parts are ordered, paperwork is completed and plans are underway to compete again in the dominant passion in the lives of so many: auto racing.

Sound like the protocol from a large competitive organization in professional racing? Think again, it's the preparations and the plans of IanCarrollRacing Inc.'s 2008 effort in Southwest Roadracing Association.

Top News

Nascar

First races only two weeks away in Daytona leading up to the Daytona 500 on Feb 19

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has signed with longtime family friend Rick Hendrick...oh yea, his is the most dominant team in Nascar right now, with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Already in preseason Jr. is fast.

Longtime Dale Jr. crewchief Tony Eury Jr. has come with Jr. to Hendrick and loves the cool electronic toys he's got to get acclimated to this year..
Now, he finds himself at the MIT of Sprint Cup with the Hendrick brainiacs. Lots of guys with letters behind their name making fancy charts based on physics instead of gimmicks.

Ray Evernham is talking to Robbie Gordon Inc. Evernham would share info and technology with Nascar's only remaining owner/driver Gordon. After the cancellation of this year's Dakar rally, Gordon's off-road project took a hit. Maybe this will be a break in Robbie's costs this year.

2007 Nascar crew Kahne, Sadler and Crocker will be joined by developmental driver Kevin Swindell in this years' Gillet Evernham Motorsports(GEM) lineup.

Formula 1

First race in Australia March 16th.

Torro Rosso fastest in Spain testing. Sebastien Vettel was faster than teammate Sebastien Bourdais in the Scuderia/Ferrari powered, Red Bull sponsored car.

Champ Car

Pre-Season testing at Sebring (2-4), Laguna Seca (3-14) and Houston (3-28). First race is in Long Beach, April 18-20.

Teams testing in Sebring this weekend: after day one, Frank Montagny is quickest with Oriel Servia and Justin Wilson less than half a second behind.

Conquest Racing tests drivers Pagenaud and Rerera at Sebring.

Indy Car

First race is March 29th at Miami-Homestead Speedway where Wheldon is the defending race winner.

No defending champ: Dario Franchitti gone to Nascar.

Departing drivers' voids filled: Ryan Briscoe will be Castroneves' teammate at Penske and Hideki Mutoh will drive for Andretti-Green.

Ganassi brings in Alex Lloyd to round out team with Wheldon and Dixon.

Milka Dunho, Sarah Fisher and Danica Patrick make up a strong female contingent. Patrick has the best ride and chance for a win with Andretti-Green

Tony George will have Ed Carpenter and A.J. Foyt IV back this season along with Tomas Scheckter to drive for Vision racing.

American LeMans

First race is 12 Hours of Sebring March 15

Capello, McNish test the Audi R10 TDI at Sebring

Timo Bernhard, "this (Sebring)test is a prep for the 12 Hour race".

Andretti-Green will be strong again in P-2 with Marco Andretti, Dario and Marino Franchitti Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan. Acura still trying to make inroads against Penske's Porche Spyders.

-Katykarter

Napoleon Hill

2007-12-25T07:04:00.000-08:00

I was influenced early on by Napoleon Hill, he first suggested a positive mental attitude to me.

"Your mental attitude is something you can control outright and you must use self discipline until you create a positive mental attitude – your mental attitude attracts to you everything that makes you what you are."--Napoleon Hill 1883-1970, Author of 'Think and Grow Rich'

Cure for the Winter Blahs

2007-12-24T07:06:00.000-08:00

Sexy Racing Pictures!

Photos from top: Hockenheimring, 2003 Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams leads the two Renaults Hockenheimring 1989, Prost's Ferrari leads Senna's McLaren; Katykarter and his 98Birel at Oakhill, 2007; Jody Schecter's Ferrari, 1979

Update:

Sponsorship proposals are coming soon! I'm really exited by this, I have high hopes to re-sign last year's sponsors and add a new heavyweight. The '08 season is coming- as of this post: 95 days till race #1 at MSR Cresson.

-Katykarter

Year End Wrap for Professional Racing Series

2007-11-17T10:06:00.000-08:00

2008 Nascar Nextel Cup Champion

Jimmy Johnson

Nascar has several professional, national classes. Top of the food chain is the Nextel Cup where Rick Hendrick has dominated all teams this year, with the top two driver's points are Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson. Of course, Johnson is the 2008 NNCS Champion for the second consecutive season.

Carl Edwards wrapped up the Nascar Busch Series Championship several races ago, they don't have a chase format like NNCS so Carl's lead was mathematically unbreakable three races from the end of the season. Edward's car owner, Jack Roush has won the owner's honors.

The Craftsman Truck Series was a helluva contest this year, with two veteran drivers in close competition, but it ended up with Ron Hornaday driving a truck owned by Kevin Harvick k to first place in the championship. Mike Skinner was close at the end, close enough to break your heart.

Sebastien Bourdais has won the Champ Car title every year exept his rookie season. This year makes it an unprecedented four- in-a-row. Bourdais dominated the series almost from day one, I remember watching his first race and he took the pole. You knew from the start this kid from LeMans, France was something special. We don't know exactly why

he didn't go to Formula 1 after winning the Formula 3000 (which is now called GP2), as it turns out, Bourdais has signed on with Formula 1 team Torro Rosso (Red Bull) and will compete in the 2008 season. Names like Will Power, Simone Pagenaud and Graham Rahal will move to take his place.

The 2007 Indy Car Champion is Dario Franchitti and he had several firsts.

He won the Indy 500 and is the first series winner to win the 500 in the same year. Then Dario went to Chip Ganassi and has driven his NASCAR Busch and Cup car at the end of this year and will drive in the Daytona 500 early next year.

Formula 1's 2007 season should always be remembered as the dawn of Lewis Hamilton. Although he didn't win the World Championship, he was clearly dominant and though he made several rookie mistakes late in the year he had a great year getting a handful of victories.

His teammate, Fernando Alonso was unable to capitalize in the wake of Hamilton's late missteps which left the way clear for Kimi Raikkonen to claim the prize in the last laps of the last race to become the 2007 World Champion.

For his part, Ron Dennis and the McLaren team dominated with both of their cars and had nothing to show for it at the end due to penalties and sanctions. All in all, Ferrari prevailed with it's Constructor trophy and their driver the World Champion.

-Katykarter

Formula 1: All that Glitters

2007-11-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

Whether its the sheer joy of the F-1 spirit, as in the flagman at the Australian GP in Adelaide 1990 or the engineering feats of Formula 1 Team Renault, Alain Prost brought an air of formality that disinguished him from his peers.

Shown above in the Renault Espace F1 minivan: essentially an F-1 car with a minivan body atop, karting in a charity event and battling Senna, Alain Prost became the first 4-time world champion with Williams in 1991.

Formula 1 is the crown jewel in all of motorsports, and Prost's rise and return to the championship exemplified the finest any driver had offered until a young german came along.

1989 and Forever

2007-10-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

The golden age of F-1 arguably began in the late 70's and continued through the 80's and 90's until staggering budgets left most teams struggling to keep up with technological advances: wind tunnel 24/7, shake dampeners and race-suspension simulators. Here are some of the front runners in 1989 with their car's designation for reference.

Alain Prost and Gerhardt Berger at Spa

Louis Perez Sala, Minardi M-189

1989 German GP at Hockenheim

1989 Portuguese GP

VIVA F-1!!

-Katykarter

Season Ends with a Championship!

2007-10-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

There were so many storylines in the making, I can hardly collate them in my head. But suffice to say, when the checkers came out, I said a silent thank you to God for enabling the unlikely season it was. But it was also determination, dedication and a 'never say die' attitude that earned the Championship.

Perhaps the first aspect that needs mentioning is SWRA. Southwest Road Racing Association really is a family run organization, and I was impressed by their professionalism and preparation. Mac, Hank, Ben and Loren, John and Randy plus all their spouses are fully committed to providing a road racing season at full size, automobile tracks. Their hometrack is Oakhill, also a motorcycle track. It's in Henderson, Tx and it is where the points championship played out it's finale. Other tracks we raced at were the famous, Texas World Speedway in College Station, brand new Motorsports Ranch Houston in Angleton, south of Houston, Motorsports Ranch Cresson, just outside Ft. Worth, near Weatherford, and Hallet Motor Racing Circuit in Hallet, Oklahoma. I drove the kart in a driving rain in Hallet, my first stint ever on rain tires. Though there were a few controversial moments, I thank the SWRA crew for a great season and suggest you all become members.

As you probably know by now, this was my first full season in road racing: I had done some sprint racing before, but road racing is much more thrilling, a high-speed, technical challenge. I raced in the Yamaha Heavies, so I wouldn't give up so much weight. I couldn't have done it at all if not for the help of Frank Newsom and Colin Walker, whose companies together are Swift/PPK. Frank has prepared my motor all year, and he's helped me with many other aspects of the kart's race preparation. To say that I couldn't have done it without them is, as I love to say, a masterpiece of understatement! After all the help, the motor never failed me. It was crisp and fast and I jetted it conservatively, under the tutelidge of Frank, and finished every race, save one late in the season- and it wasn't a mechanical failure, but a driver error. He and Colin provided everything I needed to compete including Maxxis tires, SMC clutches, Freeline Brakes, and an Alfano electronic unit to capture lap times, temperatures and other stuff.

Colin and Frank field a kart every year in SWRA. It's a Yamaha LTD Light, and this year it was driven by Oscar Moran. Oscar is a talented driver, an enthusiastic team player and a great guy. From the beginning, Frank had me pit in his team area. I was privvy to their strategies, their technical conversations and many, many things a rookie couldn't know. I still don't know it all, but I've heard a lot of it once! And it's all about making a fast kart.

I raced in 7 road races in 2007. The season followed a unique path: it began with zero points. I mistakenly raced with the lights on Saturday. In the subsequent 6 races, I would race on Sunday against the heavies, but at Texas World, I took to the venerable track with the lights, giving up some 30+ pounds. Still, I managed an 8th place out of 11 entrants. The draft is evident here at TWS, it's high-banked front straight was very long, long enough for a pair of karts to swap positions once, and back again. It was just enough for Jamey Brown to steal the win away from Steve Miller after drafting out of the last turn. I stayed with the pack of karts I was with for several laps before I made a mistake reading my engine temperature, and slowed down thinking I was too hot.

Race 2 was outside of Houston and I got it right this time, I raced with the Heavies, though most of the lights didn't race in the heavies this time. There were five other karts in the race and I finished 2nd, but when the winner failed to make minimum weight requirements in post race inspection, she was DQ'd, and I became the race winner.

Race 3 was the first visit to Oakhill, and my first visit ever. Four hours outside of Houston in N. Texas, my wife, Crystal and our two dogs camped out in a cool camper for the weekend. I placed second again, to the same kart, driven by Kari Summers, a sixteen year old girl whose kart is prepared by her dad Bill. This time she made weight, and took her first victory. It was hot as blazes this weekend, and I experienced the discomfort that really is racing. It's borderline painful when it's that hot, and you willingly strap yourself in next to a motor that is running at a pitched level, inside a suit, helmet, gloves and boots! . Just to get to race day, it is without a doubt long hours of detailed work... add to that stifling 95 degree heat and high humidity making it feel like well over 100 degrees.

Race 4 was Motorsports Ranch Cresson, outside Ft. Worth. It was rainy at times this weekend, and the lights raced on a wet track. My buddy Dale Posinski had his best performance of the year, but fast Jamey Brown took his second victory of the year. And it was only his second entry of the year. On Sunday, I arrived late and missed morning practice. Because of financial restraints, or if you will, cash starvation, I missed my first Friday practice. All year, as it was with my commitment to finish every race, I committed to every Friday practice. It made sense: all of the tracks were new to me, and it was a full day of open practice, exactly what I needed: seat time. Since I had missed Friday, and was late showing up Sunday, I stood a good chance of experiencing the track for the first time in the race. With this fact staring me in the face, I adjusted my expectation to drive conservatively, and slowly until I became familiar with the track, and it is a good one, perhaps my favorite. It's the longest at over 3 miles, and has a newly finished addition. It's very hilly and when the rain hits it, it becomes very, very slick. I found out before the race, though. Rain interrupted the second race on Sunday, and when it quit, racers were allowed to take to the track in their streetcars to help clear the water off of the racing line. Several cars spun in the slick conditions, including me and Frank in my Chevy pickup! Come race time it was clear, though we heard rain was 30 min. away. Our race was 30 minutes long so when we started I assumed we'd finish before the rain came. Not so fast! About lap 12 of 18, raindrops started to fall. The final time past the pits Frank was giving me the "WHOA!!" signal, and I slowed way, way down for what would be the last lap. I was still on slicks, and after the first turn, the bottom fell out and the rain came. I started passing karts that had gone off the track. By tip-toeing around the track and making it back to the pits, I earned a third place finish: I made the podium and those points would become important later. Ahead of me was Kari and race winner Jamey Brown who decided to race in the heavies after winning in the lights on Saturday. Jamey's brother John DQ'd after finishing early with a mechanical failure.

Race 5 was a 12 hour drive north of Houston in Hallet, Oklahoma, just west of Tulsa and almost in Kansas. There were many other karts at this event, as it was hosted by MARRS, or Midwest Area Road Racing Series. MARRS also came down to the season's first race at TWS. Craig McClain showed up with Dale Posinski, who both came from Houston, both in the Yamaha Lights. Craig is a former driver for Frank and Colin, they won an armful of "Duffy's" together. On Saturday, Craig and Steve and Dale chased Oscar Moran around HMC until rain slowed everyone down. Now, when conditions are really bad, SWRA or MARRS will stop the race and order everyone to put on rain tires, declaring it a "rain race". But when it's not too bad, they won't do it and you must continue on slicks. While trying to get past a slower kart, Oscar spun on the slick track and lost his chain. Craig would go on to pressure Steve Miller but never get around him. Steve finished first, Craig second and Dale third.

On Sunday, the rain came early and steadily. Although some competitors opted not to drive, Kari decided to run and I agreed: I was prepared to run. I went out onto the track for morning practice and got experience on rain tires. The rain was a steady soaker, and the track was completely washed out. I began my practice slowly but gained over twelve seconds before pitting. But my first race in the rain wasn't to be: Kari had a burned piston and couldn't start: I was awarded the win, my second of the season.

The 6th race of the season was supposed to be at Eagle Canyon, a track that is new to everyone, but it was canceled because the track wasn't quite finished completely. Race 6 was move a week later and back to Oakhill. My second trip to Oakhill was my first DNF. After the win at Hallet, I was 10 points ahead of Ms. Summers in the championship. I was determined to win, and had a blisteringly fast kart this weekend. Frank and I had made serious upgrades and adjustments; our clutch was hitting and we had new tires and a fresh motor. Plus I had been working steadily to reduce my body weight and I was down from 211 to 197. But it wasn't to be, and I experienced my first costly mistake: I went off the track trying to battle a kart that wasn't even in my class. Kari went by and finished first. My points lead was cut to 5.

The finale was back at Oakhill. I was very fast the last race and I changed absolutely nothing inbetween. Again because of limited finances, I didn't practice on Friday. I was there and practiced on Saturday morning and ran well. Oscar, in Frank and Colin's kart, was fast again and won his second race in a row, and the last two of the season. Steve Miller had wrapped up the points championship in the lights long ago, but the Heavies' points championship was still up for grabs.

My first visit to Oakhill, I made a poor start and began the race spotting the whole field about two seconds. I was fast though, and made my way through the field, though David Munden went out with a mechanical failure. David and Julie Munden are always fast, David especially. In this race, I knew not to make that mistake again. I got a good start and never saw any trace of the rest of the field. With Frank and his son Neal Newsom signaling my widening gap back to Kari, I concentrated on hitting my marks, and being fluid throughout the race. It was 30 minutes and in the last laps I had built about a 30 second lead, although I was a full second slower than morning practice. I sharpened my attention and lapped more conservatively when Frank displayed "+ 30". Then came the white flag...

On the last lap I reminded myself that the race was not over yet; I had not, in fact, won the whole shibang yet, I still had a half a lap to go...and...

It happened! The motor stuttered... and my heart did too.
I had just sped down Chicken hill, made the right-hander at the bottom and was heading to the carousel, when the race changed for me. The tone of the motor had changed and I babied it through the turn. Why that gear hung on for another two turns, I'll never know, but it gave up for good as I entered the last turn, the Barn Turn, and I had just enough inertia to coast across the finish line...still under my own power-barely!- and win the points championship by 10.

It was a heart-stopping moment: Frank heard the trouble and had started for the last turn with the intent to push me across, although he knew it was illegal...everyone in the bleachers and on pit road stood agape as I coasted lazily across the finish line and pulled off into the grass 5 feet after. If the race had been one more lap, I would have lost it all.

It was an incredible ending to an improbable season. I had done what I set out to do: to compete in all races, and though I didn't finish every lap, I had only one dnf. I had zero mechanical failures in any of the races, I just kept finishing! The old saying- "To finish first, first you must finish" was my credo! Frank was a key steadying force who recommended conservative attitude the whole season.

I have to thank two sponsors who committed substantial donations to my racing effort.

Randy Blanchard, with Green Mountain Builders is a swell guy, and my boss. He graciously donated although the race weekends ate into the time I could spend on his jobs.

Kendall Phenney with Hale-Mills Corp. who wouldn't have even known about me if it weren't for Terry Lovell, one of me closest friends. Both Randy and Kendall supported me on this mission: to be the best and the fastest.

I absolutely cannot forget Richard Gutierrez, my friend and fellow racer. He is a motorcycle racer from way back, motorcross and road racing. Richard came through in the 11th hour before the season's last race, and put up the funds to allow me to travel, enter and ultimately, win. I can't thank him enough, because if anyone knew what it meant to compete in this final race, it was Richard.

I hope I can find sponsors in the future with as much enthusiasm and belief in this racer's dream- I salute you, and all who knew about my project, which, by the way I formally cristen Ian Carroll Racing Enterprises, and gave best wishes, advice, and most importantly money- the lifeblood of racing.

You will see me on the track for the first race of next season, although the rest of the season isn't as clear. Hopefully everything will stabilize and I'll be able to again commit to every race in the 2008 season...this time in the lights!

-Ian Carroll, or just Katykarter

Victory, like sand, slips through my fingers

2007-09-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

SWRA returned to Oakhill instead of Eagle Canyon this past week, something about the track surface not being quite ready yet.

No worries, Oakhill is the home track and a favorite. It wasn't quite as hot this weekend as the event in June, and the points situation had improved for me: I now held a 10 point lead.

I had other reasons to be confident though. On the long drive home from Hallet, Frank asked if I felt I could lay down some consistent laps at Oakhill.

"I've got a few ideas to try out, new pipe configuration. I might be leaving a little bit of power on the table". Frank had driven every mile on the way up and made it well into Texas on the way back before he asked me to take over. Now, in the darkness of the cab, I had thought he was asleep, but he spoke again, "I need you to give me consistent laps, though, we won't be able to tell just how much we could gain if you don't". I cannot tell you the surge of adrenaline that gave me. Hell yes, I could lay down some consistent laps. It would be my second time at Oakhill, and I would have all day Friday to get the lap times down to a consistent pace.

I was encouraged by Frank's attitude. He's told me on occasion that he spends 75% of every waking minute thinking about racing and getting faster. This was what I'd hoped would happen: I had hoped Frank and Colin would invest themselves fully behind me. Perhaps my desires were pre-mature, but this was an indication that Frank was trying to make me faster. I had just put the front-wheel brakes onto the Birel, but didn't have a chance to utilize them at Hallet. Oakhill would be different. It was a shorter, slower track than Hallet, with several turns that the extra braking power would make a difference on. I was also controlling my diet and working out regularly and I'm sure Frank sees this as a certain level of commitment.

Friday practice started with my clutch out of adjustment. Right off the bat Frank called me back in. The clutch was hitting way too high in the rpm curve. We had expected this fine tuning though, and it was yet another reason for confidence this weekend; Frank had installed tungsten secondary weights in the clutch. Now it would be hitting like Lennox Lewis! It took some adjusting to get just right, but after several 3-4 lap sessions and adjustments we got it to truly hit hard, a marked improvement at this track with its slower turns.

As the middle of the day approached, the track got greasier, but the Maxxis MH's seemed not to notice. The times in the middle of the day only slipped a tic. When the heat of the day had for the most part passed, we began trying different pipe/coupler combinations. I started with the G4, then went to the G2, which saw some improvement. Then we went to the KBDO and I turned my fastest lap of the day. I was only a half a second off of Oscar's "light" pace. I was giddy with expectation for the race Sunday.

Because of a commitment with my band in Houston, I couldn't stay for Saturday's race, but they won! Finally, Oscar got his first win, and I'm told he was very happy and emotional about it. They had been through a lot as a team this year, with several things popping up and taking away victories earlier in the year. By this time, they were in second place in the points, but 35 points behind first place Steve Miller. But Steve didn't finish this race, so now Oscar isn't "mathematically eliminated" anymore. It would be a farfetched scenario for him to pull off the win with only one race remaining, Steve would have to dnf again. But this victory buoyed the whole team.

When Sunday came I was ready. I had to drive through the wee hours to get to the track, but the morning practice went well, and I was ready when race time came about. Since there were only four karts in our class: David and Julie Munden, Kari Summers and me, they put another faster class with us, and started them first. When our green flag dropped, I snuck out ahead of Kari and raced behind David and Julie. Julie wasn't on our pace, so I flew around her on the second turn and tried to keep David from totally checking out. David, I knew, ran an engine clutch, and according to Frank, after 4 or 5 laps, heat saturation would begin to cost him a full second per lap. Sure enough, I began to reel him in. I had a very fast kart and it was handling well. I was able to outbrake David in the corners, get back on the gas earlier and even out-accelerated him from the corners. He still had the advantage on top-end, though, and when I passed him in turn 4, he passed me back at turn 1 after the long start/finish straight. We dueled for six or seven laps, David and I. I would drive the defensive line, and he would risk it and outbreak me into turn 1. He did this maybe three times. I would pass him back at one or more other turns, and by lap 12 I was eeking out about a one-second lead. Frank told me he was just about to flash "+1" on the pit board the next time around. But I didn't make it.

One of the other, faster class karts came around me just as I was braking for the timing turn, and instead of giving up the position to him, I fought him off and tried to stay on the outside on the Barn turn, but ran out of track. I sped off into the grass and stalled. My race was finished.

I remember being totally pissed for about 30 seconds, then I just started laughing: I had so much fun, I knew I'd get a chance to redeem myself in three weeks. I just watched David drive on to his first victory of the season...not.

In a rare misfire, the SWRA officials made a mistake and cost David his win. One of his sidepods came off, and according to rules, if he took the checkered flag without it, he'd be DQ'd. No problem, there were still several laps left and they had Julie, his wife, who was back in the pits after dnf'ing, take the side pod out onto the track to get him to stop and have it reattached before finishing. He had about half a minute lead on second place Kari Summers. But David sped by, not knowing why his wife was waving a sidepod at him. On the last lap, she walked out onto the track, got down and made frantic gestures for David to stop, but to no avail. He didn't know his sidepod was gone, and finished the race thinking he'd won. Later he'd blame the flagman for not giving him the "black flag", which would have told him something was wrong, come into the pits. But the flagman couldn't find the number board, which is required when showing the black flag so as not to confuse other competitors. Once earlier in the season, a black flag without a number board had the wrong kart pull into the pits. So no black flag was shown, and David didn't stop. He was livid and swore not to compete with SWRA anymore. I was really saddened to learn that and even appealed to the judges to recind the dq, but it was a "done deal". Once he passed the finish line and took the checkers, his fate was sealed. Yes, the flagman should have shown him the black flag, but in the waning laps and with so many other karts on the track, it never got shown.

Kari ended up with the win, on a day when she had the slowest kart in the field, and I got second with the fastest kart.

Oakhill on October 6 will be the deciding contest. I know I'm up to the challenge. Now if only the days would hurry up and pass by!!

-Katykarter

Bizarre Times at McLaren

2007-09-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

The gloves have apparently come off between Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Ron Dennis, the venerable chief.

Not previously reported on this page is a massive package of sanctions levied on the McLaren Formula One team for alleged spying. For utilizing, and at the very least perusing data provided to them by an outside source about rival racing teams' operations. Part of the penalties include a 100 million dollar fine and being stripped of all constructor points they've earned so far and any they might earn from here on out this year. Driver's points are still intact and the on-track antics witnessed by me during the start of the Belgian Grand Prix this past weekend tell me the two drivers are playing for keeps.

While Ferarri drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa qualified on the front row, McLaren teammates Alonso and Hamilton started just behind them. No sooner had the red lights gone out and the field lurched from the grid positions did Fernando Alonso begin his cheap shots towards his rival for the points championship and teammate Hamilton. While Hamilton was outside on row 2, giving Alonso access to the apex of turn one and the advantage to getting ahead from the start, it wasn't enough: Alonso immediately jerked the wheel over and forced Lewis over clearly aggresively pointing out that he meant to lead away from the line. When Hamilton refused to yeild and stayed alongside going into the first turn, Le Source, Alonso did the unthinkable and banged his wheel into Hamilton's sidepod exiting the turn, punting him off of the track completely.

I am aghast at the nerve of this Spaniard, who willfully challenged the age old decorum driver's hold for each other in this bigger than life sport of the priveledged. Since I couldn't have possibly overheard any acrimonious conversations they might have held prior to this start, it must have ended with racial epithets and slanderous assertions. It could be the only thing I might forgive him his on track actions at the start.

But I think Hamilton has more class in his braking foot than Alonso has in total and wouldn't sink to that level.

GO LEWIS!!

Hamilton more than Alonso can handle

2007-09-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

Following the sanctions enlisted upon Fernando Alonso for his actions during Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, British phenomenon and Formula One rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton quietly went on to win another race this year, putting himself firmly in control of the championship and a three thousand pound gorilla in between Fernando Alonso and his third consecutive world championship.

During the final moments of qualifying for the Hungarian G.P., Fernando Alonso delayed his exit from the one pit box the teams share for their multi-car program, causing Hamilton to miss his final chance to put up a faster lap than Nando. Viewed by this author as a 'cheap shot', Alonso stayed put for 10 to 15 seconds after his service was complete, while Hamilton waited just behind him to enter the pit stall and recieve new tires and possible adjustments before going out on track for a last attempt at pole position, one that pays additional championship points.

FIA, the sanctioning body of Formula One, and principle Bernie Ecclestone subsequently ruled Alonso fabricated (lied about) conversations going on that caused him not to leave quickly, and also caused (duh) Hamilton to miss a chance to put up a faster lap. Not at all a far-fetched scenario, Hamilton has out-qualified and out-raced his seasoned teammate on several occasions this year.

Lewis Hamilton, a rookie this year with McLaren F-1, was groomed for years is Euro-karting and Formula One's ladder system by none other than McLaren team principle and G.P. boss Ron Denis. When Raikkonen and Montoya bailed from the floundering 2005 and 2006 McLaren teams, Hamilton was tabbed to drive the "second" car. In a widely celebrated "coup", Denis signed defending world champ Alonso to drive the "first" car. Although teams rarely admit to it, frequently situations present themselves that lend credence to the theory that goes like this: When a team fields more than one car, there will be slightly less attention paid to the second car. The best most reliable parts go to the first car, the best driver, the more experienced crew and commander (crew cheif). This only makes sense to me, because, after all, a team is out there to win, and if you have to split your resources- if you don't have the millions necessary to give your team a chance to win, then don't field a second car. There are benefits though, to having a second car: testing results are doubled. New procedures and combinations can be tested without comprimising the readiness of the "first" car.

As you can imagine, it's tough on the "second" car driver. In recent years, Rubens Barrichello was the "other" driver at Ferarri with Michael Schumacher, Montoya to Raikkonen, Sato to Button and as history tells us, there have always been "first" and "second" cars.

This year, appearently, McLaren's "second" car, driven by Ron Denis' protoge' is bucking that trend.

GO LEWIS!!

-Katykarter

Racing in the Rain in Hallet

2007-08-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

I got to test my rain driving skill again this past weekend at Hallet Motor Racing Circuit. The small town of Hallet is about an hour west of Tulsa, and the rolling hills, rivers and trees- its very beautiful country, my first time there.

I dropped out onto the 1.7 mile road course on Friday morning to "shake the kart out". We'll just run a few laps- get some heat into the tires and motor, come back in and check it out. If it needs any major adjustments we'll make some then, but it was very good. With needle positions Ls>7/16, Hs>2 the motor was singing along at a comfortable 13,400 rpms making about 16 h.p. With my body weight, it doesn't get quite to it's estimated top speed of roughly 75 m.p.h. I'm probably closer to 70.

Hallet is a twisty, rising and falling track with one monster corner, Coyote Turn. It's usually turn 2, but karts go opposite direction from cars and bikes: we go clockwise. This puts Coyote Turn at the bottom of a very steep hill and long straight. Exiting that turn, any slide or overdriving will cripple your speed up the hill. While the rest of the course is pretty standard, this turn is very challenging and the focus of everyone's setup plans dealing with tuning the clutch just right.

Our clutches are axle mounted, while Oscar has a 1 1/4" rear axle and the new, red SMC clutch, I have the old standard, the very quick and hard hitting gold SMC on a 40mm axle. My kart is European, a Birel with metric components and his is a Fullerton, designed by Terry Fullerton and owned of course by Colin Walker.

The new red SMC was being unveiled with high hopes: all year the difference (besides being snake-bit so many times), between Oscar and his best rival, Steve Miller has been Steve's Hartman axle clutch. Several times this year, however, Oscar had driven his way to the lead only to be killed by chains jumping off of sprockets and not knowing (as well as Steve) his way around the tracks we've visited. At MSR Houston Oscar's chain came off while he was in the lead, but at MSR Cresson he over drove a corner after limited practice laps because of rain. This is Oscar's first year in the road racing circuit SWRA as well as me. Another race Oscar's chain came off while he was in the lead, so the team is going to switch over to belt-drive. Frank had been resisting the costly upgrade, but after this last chain failure has relented. Oscar went off again out of first place. It was rainy and he zigged to miss another kart spinning out and went off.

Sunday the rain came and never left. A huge storm system had rolled across Oklahoma City with high winds and torrential rain was moving into the Tulsa area. It held off till about 8:00 and our class's drivers gathered in the scoring tower. If all entrants agree not to race due to the conditions, everyone would be given 1st place points. If one entrant wanted to race, then others must race or take 2nd place points. My main competition, 16-year old Kari Summer decided to race, although everyone else had suggested not racing. When she committed to race, so did I. We were racing for championship points.

I left the scoring tower and took to the track when practice opened. I had set my kart up for wet weather, we narrowed the rear track, lowered the air pressure in the tires, and had full-wet tires. It was a rain-soaked track and I was eager to find out how I'd do on it. First laps of practice on Sunday morning were very tenative, by the fourth lap I had cut 8 seconds off my lap times and ended with a 1:57. The kart was performing well and the leaner needle positions set by Frank were perfect, we still achieved 13,400 rpms with a needle setting of Ls1 1/4 Hs 7/16.

I came off the track after about 5 laps and was confident the kart would perform well in the race.

We never got there. Kari couldn't race because of mechanical failure, giving me the 1st place finishing position without actually having to race. Preparation was our best ally this weekend, and it allowed us to tweak another five points out of our lead.

The final two races of the season will be at Oakhill. The last race has been on the schedule all year but an unfinished track at Eagle Canyon forced the change in venue to Oakhill.

I raced well at Oakhill in April, but I finished a distant second...to Ms. Summers. It'll take outright winning to bring home the championship. And while I contemplate what it'll mean to win the championship in my rookie year, I pull back on my reigns and remind myself:

"To finish first, first, you must finish."

Ancient Chinese philosophy, I think.

Katykarter

Montoya Retains Open Wheel Profile in NASCAR

2007-07-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

From correspondent John Griffin:

"Professional race car driver Juan Pablo Montoya trades his McLaren MP4-21 for a Dodge Charger as he joins ranks with the increasingly popular North American professional stock car series, NASCAR. With the switch to the heavier Cup car @ roughly 3200 lbs., J.P. will long for the wicked acceleration and dead braking power of the agile open-wheeler, weighing in at about 1320 lbs. But as he proved this weekend in Sonoma, California, home of Infineon Raceway, a 3200 lb car boasting 750 horsepower in the hands of an Indy 500 champion and former F1 driver may have it's upside, especially at a road course."

Juan Pablo Montoya isn't the first open wheeler to attempt the jump to full time NASCAR driver. Several racing icons and hall of famers have proven their ability in any type of car, although all agree the ultimate in a driver's test is the fastest most agile car of all, the "formula" type of car: the open wheeler.

Back in the day, before NASCAR was the 300 lb. gorilla in the room it is now, the best drivers competed in the glimmering jewels of the motorsports world as they do now too: AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti and others began their careers in open wheel, AJ on dirt in the modifieds, Mario in sportscars and formula cars. Then when their careers seemed to plateau, the got into the taxi cabs and had success, both drivers I mentioned are unique that they are the only ones to win the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans. At LeMans, Mario with Ferarri, AJ with the Ford GT 40.

In modern times, several top notch NASCAR drivers began their careers in Indy cars. Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon both began in karts then went to midgets. Having raced the karts gives the equivelant to the dynamic of a formula car: stiff chassis responding to left and right steering input.
Both drivers have garnered considerable success with Rusty retiring in 2005 after a storied career, and Jeff Gordon still winning races and competing for championships to go with his previous four.

Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon are two top notch NASCAR drivers who were in high demand to drive Indy 500 entries in recent years, while still maintaining a full season of Winston/Nextel Cup starts. The Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600 are usually run on the same day and these two drivers' top notch teams went to extreme lengths to allow their drivers to compete in the "Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports" then fly via chartered jet from Indianapolis to Charlotte, NC to take the start of the Cup race.

Several years ago, Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya participated in an experimental show idea put on by Speed Channel. "Tradin' Paint" began life as two driver's exchanging cars to see how they perform in the other's ride. Jeff, a former karter and open wheeler in his youth took Montoya's Williams BMW powered F 1 car out on the Indianapolis Formula 1 track while Juan Pablo took Gordon's Chevy Monte Carlo onto the same track. In the general scheme, it was agreed the Montoya actually outperformed Gordon in his car, and is now an indicator that JPM might be able to operate this bulky, top-heavy, won't freakin' stop TAXICAB!

2006 and 07 were breakout years for open wheel drivers. Mostly because they seemed to want to "break out" of IRL and Champ Car drives! It was a disgusting display of, frankly, greed. AJ Allmendinger, Sam Hornish Jr., Montoya, all seemed to want to try to duplicate the cross-over manouver with success that road course specialists occasionally hired by NASCAR teams to drive their cars on the road course events on the calendar: Watkins Glen, Infineon and in the Busch Series, Mexico City. Drivers like Robby and Jeff Gordon (no relation), Boris Said, Scott Pruett and other full time drivers adept at road courses like Tony Stewart all came from a roadrace if not actual open wheel backgrounds. Of those drivers, only Boris Said is making a go of starting a full time race team in Cup, Robby Jeff and Tony already have full time rides while Robby is an owner/driver.

And while Boris and Robby struggle to remain in the field as newly formerd teams, Allmendinger, Hornish and Montoya drive for second tier teams and are struggling to produce results. Montoya is by far the more successful of these taxicab rookies with a road course win in Mexico and Infineon, and the highest point total of the drivers on his TexacoHavoline, Ganassi/Sabates Dodge Team.
Montoya knows that it is on the ovals that he needs to produce results to truly make his mark in the history books alongside other greats that have attempted the same feat.

By the way, JPM has won in Formula 1, 24 Hours of LeMans, as well as an Indianapolis 500 and a Champ Car Championship. Each year, Juan Pablo coordinates a charitible kart event in his home country of Columbia featuring other elite open wheel drivers such as Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Vitor Meira and Felipe Massa.

History will judge him as an elite driver regardless of whether he can trade paint with the rednecks in Cup.

2007-07-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

July 8, 2007

Motorsports Ranch Cresson, West of Ft. Worth, Tx
3.1 mile permanent road course

SWRA rolled into MSR Cresson this past weekend for the 4th of 7 race meetings. Because of financial tribulations I wasn't sure I'd even make the race, so I skipped Friday practice and came up on Sunday morning hoping to practice before the midday race. It didn't happen, I arrived after 8 and before I was ready to go out, practice was already over and the first heat races began.

There was rain in the area and before the second race could begin, the rain came and sent the field of racers back into the tech area under the pavilion canopy for shelter. After 20 minutes or so the rain quit and people were allowed to go on-track in their street cars to take laps and help clear the track of standing water. Taking advantage of this, I made several laps around the track in my pickup truck. It was a very lucky happenstance, as I'd never been to the track before and was looking at having to race without ever having had a chance to look it over turn by turn. But here we were, Frank and I, cruising easily around the roadcourse in my pickup, labeling turns and complex corners (multiple apexes, off-camber turns and such) when we came up to the top of the track near the clubhouse on our first lap out. I had sped up slightly when people came up behind me and though I entered the last turn of the "rattlesnake" section I was not applying the throttle at all, indeed my foot was off the accellerator completely. Even though, the rear end of the truck broke loose and began to come around on the left. I didn't hit the brakes, just turned the wheel into the skid but it was to no effect: the truck spun around and came to rest along the inside of the track, luckily still on the pavement and not out onto the soft dirt. Now this was a wet, slippery track!

After twenty minutes of so of making laps, we were cleared off the track and the interrupted class got the green flag again. The rain stayed away but just when my class was in pre-grid, word came down that the rain was 30 minutes away. Our race was thirty minutes long, but it took us several minutes more to start.

Right from the start I had my hands full with a skiddish kart: for some stupid reason, I had put "tire-black" onto the tires earlier in the week which killed any grip the tires might have. It took the better part of the first lap to scrub it all off. By then the pack had disappeared completely. I wasn't worried, it was part of my adjusted expectations that since I had never been on-track with my kart and had no idea how to drive it, I was going to take it easy and just make sure I finished. Once the slip-agent had left my tires and I began to recieve some grip, I began taking the turns faster and faster. After six laps I was turning fast laps and had begun to catch the slower karts in the field. Out of the seven that started, I had passed two and was now in fifth place. Only a few short laps later there was rain smacking into my wind visor and I came out of the throttle, slowing down my entry and exit speeds to ensure there would be no DNF(did-not-finish= zero points awarded), due to a spin-out and a motor that died. Twice my motor almost died because of the diminished rpm's I was giving it, but I kept it running and passed the start finish line for the last time: the rain began to really fall hard when I got to turn 1 and caution flags were out at every corner. So were the off-track competitors. I passed two more karts that had gone off on that last lap, kept it running and finished in 3rd place.

As you know, I was tied for second place in the points standing coming into this race which was a large part of why I strived to make this race and salvage any points I could. Jamey Brown finished first, a national kart competitor and a fast guy and Kari Summers finished second. This would make the third time I finished behind Kari this year, but it gave me the points lead for the season with 4 of 7 races complete.

MSR Cresson is a huge track with lots of high speed cornering and massive elevational changes. I really had a great time and I look forward to the next race in Hallet, Oklahoma at the end of August, another track I have never raced at. But that shouldn't matter, with Friday practice I should be a force to contend with and one of two with a chance to win the championship.

-Katykarter

SWRA's Oakhill Event a Scorcher

2007-06-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

Two weeks before this race, I started working out to lose some weight. At the same time, June rolled in and brought with it a taste of the hot summer to come. Each evening, I pushed myself hard with situps, pushups, jumprope, distance running and stair climbing. Still I hung around 200 pounds, and at 5' 10", I was larger than most all of the other competitors, still giving away crucial poundage. In case you didn't hear, it was weight that sunk the last race's winner, Kari Summer, a 16 year old driver who came across the scales 6 pounds too light- handing the trophy to me.

This race, I knew lightning wouldn't strike twice: I would need to win outright. Arriving at the track just after dawn on Friday for practice, I checked in right after my motor builder and mentor, Frank Newsom. It was already hot. Since I hadn't had time to install the freshened motor Frank had prepared for me I set to that once my area was set up. By the time I was ready to take my first laps of practice, it was almost 11 a.m. I went to pre-grid and after 1 lap knew my clutch wasn't right, I came back in.

Crystal and I had brought the dogs with us, and we had to go and pick up our pop-up camper. I didn't get back trackside until after 4 p.m. When I did, we made an adjustment to the clutch and I made the first real laps at Oakhill, a 10 lap practice stint.

Oakhill is an old track near Henderson, Tx, southeast of Dallas, built in the 50's for karts it was embraced right away by motorcycles. It is a hilly, asphalt twisting road course with several fast turns and a couple of slow ones making it a challenge to get the proper setup.

In our class, Yamaha KT 100, the difference is beginning to be the clutch. Who's got the best clutch setup and at Oakhill with it's several slow turns the launch out of the hole is everything.

After the first stint in the afternoon, a fellow Houston karter and buddy Dale Posinski helped me make an adjustment to the SMC axle clutch; it was coming in a little low. He rotated the clutch out a quarter turn to make the stall speed a little higher. It made quite a difference and now the kart was accellerating out of the slow corners much quicker.

Frank's team karts seemed to be operating well, and their experimental "left engine" kart came out of the trailer. Driven by Oscar Moran, the #22 "right engine" kart was doing well. They decided to try out the "lefty" which had been fabricated in Frank's shop over the last couple of months. The point of a left engine kart is that the Yamaha KT 100 motor has a drive direction out of one side of the motor. When mounted traditionally, on the right, the drive shaft comes out of the motor on the inboard side. To get the shaft out on the outboard side, the motor's got to be manipulated with the head being spun around 180 degrees- but this degrades slightly the power the motor generates. The reason Frank has been toiling at this change is that several other compettitors are running "lefty's" and they are measurably faster. So this was their first attempt with the lefty on-track. The results weren't all they had hoped though, and due to handling problems, they switched back to the right hand drive. Colin's #29 kart was reliably running and Colin took only a few laps of practice.

On Saturday morning, I took to the track for morning practice and recorded lap times roughly a second off of Oscar's pace. Since I didn't race on Saturday, I had the rest of the day off, and though it was as hot as Hades, we had a great time watching the team go through their preparations and their race. I helped Colin start and he got away cleanly. Oscar wasn't so lucky. After sitting on the grid for several minutes, the kart's motor wouldn't fire right away. Our races start Le Mans style: we line up on-track, parked at an angle and when the green flag drops, we take off. Well, not wanting the motors to have to idle or rev without accelerating, we start the motors as late as possible, mostly within one minute of the flag dropping. When Oscar's motor wouldn't fire, Frank attempted to restart it, but the flag fell, the field took off and finally his motor fired and he left the line- dead last. Oscar is a terrific driver and the strong motor got him back to the top of the field, but one kart, driven by repeat race winner Steve Miller had taken so much of a lead, Oscar had to settle for 2nd place. He drove through the field though, and it was a fine display of driving skill.

On Sunday I had a good morning practice. Frank stayed and helped me and called me in after only 4 or 5 laps. No sense in tiring the motor out when the setup is right. And it was, I was lapping at roughly the same time as yesterday.

My start was a disaster of the same stripes as Oscar's the day before. The motor fired alright, and I left the line along with everyone, but I adjusted my carb the wrong way. This is a drill I thought I had down pat. Our motor needs to start in a "lean" state, so when it is started, and while leaving the starting grid, it gets a full turn of "rich". For some reason, my dislexic brain turned the needle the opposite direction! My boneheaded move earned me dead last into the first turn, but I had a good motor and a great setup and I was able to pick-off most all of the other competitors, and several went out with mechanical failures. After 4 or 5 laps I had moved into 2nd place to last race's fastest kart driven by Kari Summer. The rest of the race was almost a carbon copy of the last race: She checked out. This time she made weight and took the victory she deserved and I took 2nd.

This karting club, my second club, is mostly made up of shifter karts and quite a lot of TaG. the KT100 class is a slightly less populated class, just as it was at GCKI. This weekend there were several more Yamaha's there, but our field was comprised of only 7 karts (there were 5 at the last race). I have always wanted to get into the shifter class, but I know I'm honing my skill in these less powerful class. I am planning to finish this year and race as many times as possible, and I've voiced my intentions of returning for another season as a Yamaha KT100, but I look forward to the time when I can purchase a more powerful kart and compete in a largerclass.

All of the Loves in my life

2007-05-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

From your humble host, Katykarter, comes this incomplete list of the loves in my life: the first of which is the most important, my wife, Crystal.

This picture was one we took of ourselves while we were at the Monster Truck Jam in January of '07. This was near the end of the night, and Crystal had taken a lot of video of the action from our seats near the field. With us was my son Chris and our roomie Bubba, although neither was in this special picture: I'll always love my dear Crystal. She is the reason my life is SOOOO livable!!

The next few pictures are of my karting passion.

This first one is of the entire Swift/PPK adventure while in the pits at Motorsports Ranch Houston for Southwest Roadrace Association's 2nd Sanctioned event. Under the white canopy is the #22 kart with the driver, Oscar Moran at right while engine guru Frank Newsom bends to work at it. Under the blue canopy is the #21 Birel which I drive. Colin's #24 kart is on-track during a practice session.

This picture is a self-portrait after the main event on Sunday, May 6. I placed 1st after the kart in front of me failed post-race inspection (she was too light). That's a victory smile on my face and a fast kart under my hands.

This picture I call "All business and the Birel". I have that steel stare right here...(you should see my face while I'm racing!)

Here are two of my favorite's: my best dogs Shelby and Mozart. Shelby, (L), is 8 yrs old and the mother of Mozart, 3 yrs old. Both are super obediant and a hell of a picture in the bed of my truck.

-Katykarter

Victory in Houston

2007-05-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

Southwest Roadracing Association brought it's kart racing schedule to Motorsports Ranch on May 4-6, 2007. The most populated class was once again the TaG class and the Formula 125's, but it was the KT 100LTD Heavies that counted to me, your humble host, Katykarter.

After an excellent Friday practice at this track, my first exposure to this new track, Saturday morning practice brought a lot of unanswered questions. My new data-acquisition instrument wasn't working properly, I threw a chain and had an engine sputter maliciously at the end of practice.

Swift/PPK fielded two team karts in the Yamaha KT 100 lights on Saturday, one driven by team principle Colin Walker (pictured), the other driven by Venezuelan racer extrodinaire Oscar Moran. Both karts prepared by PPK motor-guru Frank Newsom. Unfortunately, the #22 kart driven by Oscar dropped out of the race with a broken chain. He had a fast kart and was driving it to victory when the chain failed. This chain problem was a reoccuring problem this weekend, although several other issues clouded the team's efforts. Oscar was pressuring the eventual race winner, Steve Miller, when the mechanical failure took place, breaking his heart and sending the rest of us on a chain-driven re-assesment of our karts. Colin hung in there with a fast kart and through attrition benefitted from a podium third place finish. Colin is the other team principle, the swift-boy of Swift Racing, a lifelong racer still going strong at age 77.

Although there were no team karts racing Sunday, Frank Newsom (pictured), came out and supported me, your humble author, Katykarter and helped me to finish the 30 min. race in second place. The kart handled magnificently and the motor never faltered, giving me what I thought was a podium second place finish. Post-race inspection proved fatal for Kari, the race winner. She ran across the scales 8 lbs. too light, disqualifying her and propelling me into 1st place.

I'll take it. See you at the next race, June 8-10 at Henderson, Tx's Oakhill Raceway, the home of Southwest Roadrace Association.

SWRA Races onto Texas World Speedway

2007-03-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

It doesn't get any better than this!

Author of this column, Ian Carroll, "Katykarter" stands next to his '98 Birel racing kart just prior to his race on Saturday. Against the lights he placed 8th out of 11. Respectable for his first time out.

Southwest Roadracing Association held its first event of the 2007 season at Texas World Speedway this past weekend, March 23-25, 2007.

It was a memorable weekend of kart racing for me, my first event in over two years. Hopefully, I'll be able to attend all seven race meetings this year in their road race calendar, the next one is the first weekend of May at Motorsports Ranch Houston.

Here are several picures from the weekend. At right and below is the front straightaway of the main track at TWS, and the very popular TaG class.

-Katykarter

Kart Roadrace Debut this Week

2007-03-18T17:26:00.000-07:00

The Birel is getting very close to race ready. It's Sunday after a rare weekend off, exept Friday night, and there are only two things left to iron out before loading up Thursday night.

Friday, March 23 will be practice day for anyone who wants to, Texas World Speedway opens the track to all competitors for open practice and it will be my first time back in the seat in almost 24 months. I have put on weight, although I have worked hard to bring it back down. My results are not eye-popping. Up from a previous weight of 185 to over 200 at times, I must realize I've increased mass as well as some flab. I think though, that to lose over 10 - 15 pounds will be an incredible feat. I'll be satisfied at 190-195 if there are enough entrants in the Yamaha Heavy. The rest of the team will compete in Yamaha Light, a difference of 40 lbs. which I would be giving away. We'll see how the Heavy class is populated.

Frank and Colin are busy putting together the team's karts: Colin, Oscar and one other I think will run. We'll be ratio scaling the karts this coming week in preparation of the loading on Thursday night.

Talk to you soon.

Katykarter

Swift/PPK Behind Kart Effort

2007-03-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

With 4 weeks to go before opening weekend in the IKF/SWRA's 2007 Road Race Karting Season, Team Principles Colin Walker (Swiftboy Racing) and Frank Newsom (Precision Performance Karting) combine their resources to move forward, and you're humble blogger will tag along the team's heels.

Texas World Speedway is the first stop on the list with a race weekend beginning on March 23. Topics around the Birel are engine work, a new pipe and header pipe, and tires.

The engine work is done by Frank at his shop, while he and/or Colin will provide the pipe combination for this track. It will be a part I am purchasing and hopefully use again after this race meeting. Some tracks call for special pipes, although, and again this is my first season in road racing, this pipe/header combination may be used again this year at other tracks. Bottom line, I have no idea. Good thing for Swift/PPK!!

We should be ratio-scaling the kart soon, along with the team's karts, driven by several young men I'll report on in this column. The chassis the team uses are Fullerton's, while mine is an Italian-made Birel. The motors are all Yamaha KT100's and the tires are by choice, all Maxxis.

The clutch set-up is new to me, so I'll be learning more about it soon and reporting on it in upcoming posts.

Here are some pics from around the U.S.

-Katykarter

Childress Returns to Daytona Podium with Harvick

2007-02-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

Six years after Dale Earnhardt died of his injuries in a last lap, last turn crash, Kevin Harvick drove his Team Childress Monte Carlo to the front of the field in the 2007 Daytona 500, winning by only a hair over Mark Martin.

With the field spinning in their rear-view mirrors, Kevin Harvick dropped the hammer and creeped past Martin on the high side to win by a fender. The last moment crash was "the big one" and cost Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and others a top ten finish.

Young Kevin Harvick took over the black, Childress GM Goodwrench Chevy after Earnhardt died, having a tough time winning back the devoted, shattered fans No. 3 left when he departed.

In recent months, the Childress team has seen great strides forward in their effort to be competitive, while fending off super programs like Roush, Hendrick and Evernham, and second tier teams like Penske and Gibbs much like their own program. There's no shortage of competitive cars in this year's Nextel Cup, and the season is off to a fast start!

Picured is Bobby LaBonte, driver of the No. 42 Cheerios car owned by Richard Petty answering question s on media day during this year's Daytona Speed Week. Since leaving Joe Gibbs racing, the 42 team has seen a resurgence of success, along with teammate Kyle Petty in the No. 43 car.

Kart Season is Coming

2007-02-19T20:07:00.000-08:00

February 15, 2007

Expectations are coming

As season’s open gets closer, I find myself planning and wondering how this first year will go. It will be my first year back after a two year layoff. I’m pensive about my finances, although this time there are more funds, they’re just as scarce as before. When my finances fell flat on their face in 2005, it wasn’t until late 2006 that racing became a legitimate fantasy again, a reachable one. In 2004, I built an elevated deck for a racer who traded a racing kart for my services. It is a 1998 Birel with a Yamaha 100cc motor, with clutch- no shifter. It will reach speeds of 80 mph, and this year I’ll see just what it will do. Previously, I'd raced at a local sprint track, and the top speed was around 55mph. My engine man is named Frank Newsom, a shop owner specializing in Yamaha kt100’s, and I’m fortunate to have someone of Frank’s experience so nearby. Frank, along with lifelong racer Colin Walker field a team of karts under the name Swift PPK. I hope to race alongside their team karts and learn from these two experienced veterans.
Opening race is at Texas World Speedway in College Station. It will be the second time I’ll have stepped foot on those grounds. The first was an unforgettable camping weekend at the Texas Twin 200’s. I was 9 or 10 years old and we saw AJ Foyt, Richard Petty, Johnny Rutherford and all the greats from that day competeing in Indy cars on Saturday and Nascar on Sunday. A Jackrabbit had to be cleared off the track on Saturday and we walked the 2.5 mile steeply banked oval Saturday night.
This race meeting will be mostly on an infield road course, but will race on the big oval for the start finish stretch, then entering a left hander at top speed which I hear will curl your hairs. Really looking forward to March 23. Mark your calendars.

And That's a Wrap

2006-11-19T18:01:00.000-08:00

Jimmie Johnson finally got it done, finishing in 9th at the Homestead race clinching his first Nascar Cup Championship. He, Chad and his whole crew deserve it.

Michael Schumacher fought valiantly for a backdoor championship, but in the end, Fernando Alonso repeated as the Formula 1 Drivers Champion and Renault wins Constructor. Michael and Ferarri both took second.

With the championship hanging in the balance until the final lap, Sam Hornish Jr. followed Dan Wheldon across the finish line with enough points to clinch his second championship in the Indy Racing League. It was a spectacular race at Chicagoland, a very lively track.

Sebastien Bourdais clinched his record tying third consecutive Champ Car Championship with one race to go, but out-duelled Justin Wilson on the final lap and won the season's last race at Mexico City. Gotta give it up to the Frenchy Frenchman, he's fast, boy's, he's fast.

Authors Note:
Finances have stabilized and preparations are underway to race my kart next season, starting in March or April. I'll be roadracing my Birel/Yamaha KT 100 at tracks like Texas World Speedway, No Problem Raceway in Lousiana and Motorsports Ranch Houston, not far from home at all. Brakes were completely replaced, motor work will take place and a new/extra motor for race weekends will be next.

OUTTA LOVE AGAIN

2006-10-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

Michael Schumacher's hopes may have evaporated with the rare failure of his Ferrari engine.
With his Farewell tour in it's final hours, Michael must look to a finale considerably bleaker than the P-1 with 15 laps to go at the penultimate race of the 2006 championship, Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka.

Fantastic A.J.

2006-07-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

A.J. Allmendinger's story begins and continues in the way of the greatest legend of American optimism and success. Named by his father for the 4-time Indy winner, Daytona 500 and 24-Hours of LeMans winner, my hero AJ Foyt, Allmendinger's Dad was instrumental to steering his son towards racing. He entered him in go-kart races at an early age and A.J. excelled. As a young man, A.J. paid his own way to Skip Barber's Racing School at Sonoma, Ca and with his last dollars, paid his way into the competitive racing school for one season. Traveling on a threadbare-budget, hitching rides and sleeping on couches, A.J. survived that first season to finish first, taking the championship. His natural ability and fierce commitment had taken him to the place he needed to be, because Carl Russo saw his ability and sponsored his next years' ride. From there, A.J. moved up to Atlantics, the training ground for Champ Car, driving for Carl's newly formed RuSport Formula Atlantics team. With some success and flashes of brilliance, A.J.'s inaugural season paved the way to the Champ Car ride the next year for RuSport. Although it was both the team's first year and A.J.'s first year, he refused to accept mediocre results and found himself in a viscious battle for a top 5 finish week in and week out. His team mate, Justin Wilson found the winner's circle several times over the next few years, and although A.J. was fast and stood on several podiums, he had yet to find the winner's circle.

This all changed when Russo unloaded him mid-season, giving A.J. his greatest test of the '06 season. After several unsuccessful outings, and his firing from RuSport, A.J. didn't have to wait long for a replacement ride.
Jerry Forsythe contacted A.J. almost immediately, then called Mario Dominguez with the bad news: "You're fired."

A.J. joined Forsythe Championship Racing before the Portland race in June, and A.J. put the car on pole and won flag to flag, leading every lap exept pit laps. The next race, Cleveland's Burke Airport temorary course, and A.J. again had a fast car and with the help of attrition...won again.
After watching Sebastien Bourdais with the first three races of the season, A.J. now hoped to close to within striking distance.

Post Script:
After five wins in the Forsythe seat, Allmendinger announced his intention to drive in Nascar and was promptly fired by Gerald Forsythe.
Go figure.

30 Days In May

2006-05-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day fell on a Monday and the 90th running of the Indianapolis 500's green flag fell on Sunday. This was the culmination of weeks of intensive testing, on and off track work, a full month where the 2.5 mile 'square' oval always sees sporadic testing and tweaking early in the month, to arrival of all the race teams, Media Day, Speed Day, Qualifying Day, Bump Day, Pole Day to name only a few of the scheduled examination and thorough combing through of available entrants to the unquestioned "Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports".

Much of the tracks festivities in the Month of May has to do with honoring the veterans of past Indy 500's, and veterans of military service to our country. Many of the legends within the halls of the on-site museum served proudly, and their machines are there on display.

This years field is as always split between the have's and the have-not's:
The 'have's' are Penske Racing. Roger Penske redoubles his effort every year with a seemingly inexhaustible bank account. The Penske Teams in virtually all forms of motorsports have the best equipment, the cream of the crop in team members, engineers and drivers. Indy car racing is no different. As far as two driver teams, Penske is unmatched. This year, two-time Indy 500 Champion Helio Castroneves brings his veteran prescence to Gasoline Alley, along side younger Sam Hornish Jr., a man who was fast as the driver for Panther Racing's Chevrolet, then as a new Penske driver replacing retiring 2-time CCWS Champion Gil DeFerran- Sam was stunning. Mechanical difficulties have kept him out of the winner's circle of the Indy 500 up till now, in three tries, he has yet to finish.
The other 'have's' are the five cars of Andretti/Green Racing. Always fast, Michael, Mario and Kim's Honda sponsored team has been at the forefront of the Indy Racing League's win column every year since it's inception in 2002. Michael makes his return to Indy as a driver after three years as an owner only, and his son, Marco, a rookie this year, starts just ahead on the grid. Dario Franchitti is on board again as a dominant team member, Dario's reported skill is the ability to sort the car out for the engineers, and accurately telling them what the car is doing. It may seem like an innocuous thing, but I can tell you from some experience, you're kinda busy when you're racing, but to be fast, as Dario is, you must make your car as fast as possible too. Tony Kanaan is the fourth member, a past champ as an Andretti/Green driver, and a formidable threat to repeat always. Brian Herta drives the fifth car, although it has been said that Brian will continue to be the testing driver, and may see limited entries in IRL events this year. Missing from the Andretti/Green driver line up is defending Indy Racing League Champion Dan Wheldon. Let's check over at the Ganassi pits...he might be over there.

Chip Ganassi has made his prescence known in Indy Cars and Champ Cars over the last ten years. I first saw him in Champ Car in 99 with a two-car Target sponsored team driven by Jimmy Vasser and Juan Montoya (He didn't get his middle name until he left for Formula 1). Both drivers saw success and Montoya went on to win the Cart/FedEx points championship as well as the 1999 Indy 500. Chip also won a championship with Scott Dixon, one of his present drivers. Other cars owned by Ganassi are driven by Ryan Briscoe and Danny Wheldon.

Grand Prix

2006-05-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

Grand Prix weekend begins weeks before for the racing teams themselves, but on Monday, the line of team transport vehicles stretched beyond the line of sight. We knew the GP weekend was beginning.

The track's construction was nearly complete- certain sections were being patched and striping and logo graphics at the start/finish line were being finished up.

This grand prix was the return of Champ Car World Series to the streets of Houston, Texas. The Texaco Havoline Grand Prix of Houston ran for four years in Downtown Houston, beginning in 1999, but massive construction projects negated the race for the next few years.

On a typical GP weekend with Champ Car, we were used to seeing Formula Atlantics, the developmental series for younger drivers, and Trans-Am races. Trans Am are heavily modified production cars such as Corvettes, Vipers, Jaguars, Mustangs- only we found out last fall it would not be Trans-Am supporting Champ Car, it was to be American LeMans Series along with the popular developmental open-wheel series Star Mazda Series.

ALMS is not a typical support series. Started relatively recently, in 1999, ALMS has seen stunning growth as it brings North America it's version of LeMans competitive sportscar racing. ALMS is an intense exhibition of raw power, marvelous technology and the glamourous world of European sportscar racing. On track, slightly modified production cars such as the Porsche 911, the winningest car in racing history, along with BMW M3's, and new American racing manufacturer Panoz compete in GT2 class, along side GT1 class or Grand Touring, larger, bigger displacement and more heavily modified production cars such as ChevroletCorvette, Saleen Mustang S-7 and Aston Martin DBR9. At the very same time, LeMans Prototypes (LMP) cars are competing. LMP's are very powerful open cockpit racecars split into two classes. The most powerful, are the LMP1's with some 800 h.p. and LMP2's with some 550 h.p. powered by and built by manufacturers such as Audi, Porsche and Mazda along with privateers such as Zytek and Pescarolo.
This racing series is a North American offshoot of the LeMans Endurance series which races in Europe on Formula 1 tracks such as SpaFrancorchamps, Silverstone and Magny Cours as well as at The 24 Hours of LeMans. If you're and F-1 fan, you recognize those famous circuits. Teams from Europe travel to America for the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, and ALMS teams travel to the famous Circ de la Sarthe in LeMans, France in May for the 24 huers du LeMans.

On Thursday, teams get their first laps on a brand new track. Several of the teams took the opportunity to test at a nearby raceway to get atmospheric data. But everyone is on a level playing field when it comes to learning the track. As is expected on a temporary street course like Reliant Park, it is bumpy, and the stiff suspension the race cars typically posess gives the driver a constant pounding.
Weather is uncharacteristically fair on Thursday morning, with a NW breeze. It is clear and cool when the first cars take to the track. They are the ALMS cars. All classes take to the track and share space now, P1's Champion Audi and Dyson/Thetford Lola, P2's Porsche Spyders, and Mazda Courage and Intersports' Lola. Grand Touring's Team Corvette with Aston Martin and Ferrari close behind, and Grand Touring 2's Porsche dominance. With speeds at a stark difference, these classes mingle with each other and at times, clash. During practice, teams enter and exit the pits making adjustments on their setups from their first time on track.
The next cars on track for a 50 minute practice session are Star Mazda. The Star Mazda Series is actually an SCCA Professional class of spec-open wheel racers. The cars are all Formula Mazda, provided by the series, but prepared by individual race teams.
As a spec series goes, it is tight competition by young drivers with equal, open wheel cars powered by the same Mazda Rotary motor, the same as is in the Mazda Rx-8. The difference is the driver.
Last year's championship chase boiled down to three drivers who are now competing in the Formula Atlantics. Formula Mazda open wheelers probably have a top speed of 130-140 mph here in Houston, and on Turn 4, the long, long right hander arond the Astrodome, these drivers went two by two at over a hundered miles and hour. Star Mazda was some great competitive, racey action.
All series have practice sessions on Thursday, and next on track is the Formula Atlantics. Atlantics have always run along with Champ Car, it is the developmental series of Champ Car. Nearly all Champ Car drivers come up through Atlantics, although some drivers come from other competitive series and skip straight to Champ Car.
For most though, they must prove their skills against the other prospective, young drivers in cars prepared by provfessional teams with independent ownership and budgetary constraints, or as in some cases, the lack of monetary constraints, e.g. Penske, Forsythe and Newman/Haas.
Up and coming drivers such as James Hinchcliffe, Robbie Pecorari, and last years Star Mazda champion Rafael Matos are among the fastest of the Atlantics drivers, but marquee names like Graham Rahal and Al Unser IV, or 'Just Al' are very competitive in privateer rides.
For all series, Thursday is an opportunity to feel out the new circuit, and attempt a set up. Practice on Friday will solidify the open wheeler's setups, but ALMS must gain knowledge fast, as they will have to qualify tonight, and race tomorrow on Friday night.
Thursday night, Champ Car, Atlantics and Star Mazda will practice, then Friday night before the ALMS race, all will qualify for their Saturday races.
Because of scheduling, I was unable to witness Friday night's American LeMans Series race from Reliant Park, but John Griffin was there and files this report:

Saturday, Champ Car teams roll out for a late morning practice. Early bird fans saw teams wheeling their cars from within the Reliant Arena's massive interior onto the track for practice. With their grid positions assigned, their purpose on track is to further sort out the car's setup.
Typically, the high end teams have a solid handle on the setup.
Two time defending Champion, Sebastien Bourdais, (Newman/Haas), has qualified fourth after a daring qualifying effort by Mario Dominguez, (Forsythe) that earned him pole position and Number 1 starting spot. Bruno Junquera, (Newman/Haas), and Paul Tracy, (Forsythe), seem well sorted out and separated only by tenths.
From there, Justin Wilson and A.J.Allmendinger, Alex Tagliani, Katherine Legge and Oriel Servia comprise a closely packed group about half a second back.
At 160 mph, it's tough to make out the names of the drives on the side of the cars, but the driver's nationality is represented with his/her country's flag, and there are a wide variety of countries represented.
At the back of the pack are some unexpected drivers and some new-borns:
Cristiano deMatta, now with Dale Coyne Racing, is a former Champ Car World Series champion. He won it all with a Newman/Haas ride. When he left for Formula 1, he relinquished his seat, and Bruno Junqquera took over. Now Cristiano's back, but there wasn't a seat open to his talents with one of the big teams this year. So instead of sitting out for a season, he took an offer from Dale Coyne and signed on to drive the Sonny's BBQ car in 2006.
Other up and coming drivers are Will Power, Charles Zwolsman, Andrew Ranger, Can Clark, Jan Heylen and Nelson Phillipe, who last year was the youngest driver ever to start a Champ Car race, however his younger brother may break that record.
Once practice is over, the drivers relax, the teams go to work if they are behind, and the support series begin their contests.
The Champ Car World Series' Grand Prix of Houston will begin at 8 pm.
We'll see you there!

-Katykarter

How Sweet It Is!

2006-05-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

Champ Car World Series had a winning weekend in Houston and I'll attest to the fan fest that accompanied it.

Thursday began the speed weekend here with American LeMans Series taking to the new circuit first. O'Connell, Fellows, Long, McNish and others explored the varying setups around the newborn 1.7 mile temporary street course in shadows of the venerable Astrodome and the monolithic Reliant Stadium. Atlantics, Star Mazda and Champ Car practiced then ALMS qualified for their Friday night race. It was a struggle for most teams, but the favorites found their way ahead of the competition, and Audi, Porsche and Team Corvette were among the winners.
Saturday night was left to Champ Cars after exiting races by support series', Star Mazda, and Champ Car developmental series Formula Atlantic. Several Champ Car drivers are past Atlantics champions, and it is a competitive series and the last challenge before a driver moves up to the elites. Andreas Wirth perservered to take victory after Graham Rahal was penalized for bumping Rafael Matos into a spin in the Turn 2 chicane late in the race.
Champ Car World Series back to back champion, Sebastien Bourdais is as fast as ever and the Frenchman has taken an early lead in the points battle, winning the first race in Long Beach and winning here in Houston by a modest margin over Paul Tracy and Mario Dominguez. Bourdais took the lead late in the race when leader Dominguez made a rare error and overshot turn 5 and had to spin the car about to return to the race in third place.
Cristiano DeMatta is making the best of his chance with Dale Coyne Racing this year. Dale had seen the birth of many of CCWS's best drivers, but his spare budget precludes the competitive edge to get his cars to the front. Consequently, podium finishes for his entrants are few and far between. Cristiano was unable to secure a sponsor this year, and without it, several teams passed on his proven talent for a driver bringing sponsorship with him. He was able to sign on with Coyne without sponsorship. So goes it in American open wheel racing: talent gets you there, sponsorship($$) gets you in the seat.
Champ Car goes to Fundidora Park, Monterrey, Mexico this weekend, we'll be watching!

Indy cars enter the fabled Thirty Days of May looking for a break in the weather. It didn't happen.
Cars had limited practice on Wednesday the 11th, where Hornish was fastest lapping at 39.68 @ 226.7 mph followed by Wheldon, Castroneves, Dixon and Franchitti. It rained until Sunday when in shortened practice Wheldon put up the fastest lap at 39.35 @ 228.6 mph followed closely by Hornish, Castroneves, Dixon and Franchitti.
Practice will resume on the track on Wednesday morning, with final Pole day qualifying on Saturday, then a last chance Bump Day qualifying on Sunday. There more than enough entrants to fill the 33 car field.

The 90th Indianapolis 500 will be on Sunday, May 28, coverage on ABC begins 1 pm Eastern, Noon Central.

I ran into Bobby Rahal again at the Houston races, this time he signed my Indy 500 hat from 2003. Bobby drank the milk in 1986.

Nice guy.

-Katykarter

Michael Schumacher wins at home

2006-05-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

The world's highest paid athelite, Michael Schumacher, earned his money today in Germany for the European Grand Prix at one of Formula 1's vaunted locales.
Alongside the monstrously difficult Nurburg Nordschligle course of old, the new Nurburgring is the modern, bland circuit designed for sterility, safety, and lastly, racing. There are few passing opportunities, yet there was great action in todays race.

Holding the points lead again, reigning Formula 1 Champion, Fernando Alonso came confidently into Germany expecting victory. Ferrarri's outcome at Imola was termed "home-field advantage". Schumacher held of Alonso to finish ahead and reduce Alonso's point lead.
At Nurburgring, Michael and Alonso left the front row, and aside from Massa lingering and fading slowly, the two left the rest of the field. Raikkonen and Montoya's McLarens didn't seem to have anything to answer the Ferrarri and Renault dominance of late.

Coming into the final pit window, Todt and Ferrarri principles seemed determined to overtake Alonso in the pits, and directed Michael to stay out an extra lap to gain precious tenths of seconds of less fuel delivery. When Alonso pitted for the final time, Michael did not pit the next lap as he had in the first set of stops. He continued and set fastest lap of the race. This is Michael Schumachers's genius: His ability to get more from his car on in laps and out laps than anyone else. When he did not pit after that lap, and crossed the line again, he set another fastest lap, this one by almost half a second. He was pouring it on. Still he did not pit. On the next lap, Massa pitted, then one lap later, Michael pitted, a full four laps after Alonso. Upon returning to the track, Alonso wasn't yet past the start finish line, halfway up the straight. Schumacher continued to pour it on and finished with an 8 second lead.
He eroded another four points of 'Nando's points lead away, in front of his fans.

That is championship form.

-Katykarter

Life With Champ Car-Colored Glasses

2006-05-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

It absolutely is all about Champ Car World Series
or whatever it is powered by, presented by or carried on-air by: Champ Car is back in Houston!!

I can't believe it's finally here, next week, along with American LeMans Series, Champ Cars roar through the streets of Houston, this time at Reliant Center, around the new Reliant Stadium, and old-Astrodome.

Champ Car is, to me, the most elite racers in the United States. The cars are the most powerful on the planet, generating some 900hp on a very light chassis with NO traction control. These drivers are the best. Formula One beckons to all, and several drivers in Champ Car have driven Formula 1 and some will eventually go to F1. Champ Car differentiates itself from the Indy Racing League, another elite open-wheeled racing series, who's goofy marketing scheme this year, "I am Indy" was hatched and presented by metal god and unbalanced-business man, Gene Simmons(What a pathetic display of ineptitude on Dave Despain's show by Simmons, just painful to watch).

While the IRL takes to mostly ovals, Champ Car is almost exclusively temporary street course. Most, though not all, are built on the public streets of the host city, just as is the case in Houston in the past (although it will not affect traffic as radically-this year the track is in the vast parking acreage of Reliant Stadium).

Champ Car Update
Recently, teams recorded data from a testing weekend at Portland International Raceway in Oregon. Fastest on the time charts was Sebastien Bourdais by almost a second over Justin Wilson. Wilson's RuSport car has flirted with the top of the time charts and podiums recently, he and RuSport teammate, A.J. Allmendinger, are the best after Newman/Haas' Bourdais, Junquera and Servia and Team Forsythe with venerable former champion Paul Tracy and Mario Dominguez.

It was reported in the SCCA Southwest Div. publication to members that several Champ Car teams tested at nearby Motorsports Ranch Houston. MSRH is a brand-new, state of the art (in-progress), 2.4 mile permanant road course built south of Houston on a large tract of land in close proximity to Hwy. 288.

In April, though CCWS made no mention of it, Team Forsythe and several other teams tested over several days, and when asked, Paul Tracy, of Team Forsythe complimented the track owners for a demanding, technical road course, with "every type of turn imaginable" represented.

Sebastien Bourdais brings the points lead after victory in Long Beach, and Paul Tracy has the whole season to reel him in.

Fish On!

Karting Note: Scheduled for May 13 & 14, South West Road Racing Association brings its IKF open competition to MSRH. Considering his heavy involvement in karting in the past, and ownership in a line of competitive karts, it's a good bet the above mentioned P.T. will make an appearance trackside one day this weekend. ICC and ICA classes will be represented, and talent of European flavor is always expected.

-Katykarter

Willy T. Ribbs: A Credit to the Game

2006-04-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

Bill Lester made notoriety recently by becoming the first black driver to qualify for a Nascar Nextel Cup race since Willy T. Ribbs did it in 1986.

Willy T. Ribbs began his racing career in Southern California as a kart racer. In 1977, after graduating high school and paying his way to England, he entered the Formula Ford racing series in a rented car. In that first race, he placed third which paved the way for someone to to sponsor him and in the second and third race, inwhich he finished third and second, ahead of fellow racer Nigel Mansell. Ribbs raced his way to a championship in his first competitive year in Formula Ford.

Back in the United States, he competed in Formula Atlantic, the stepping stone to CART racing, Championship Auto Racing Teams which is today's Champ Car. In Atlantics, Ribbs raced against legends like Bobby Rahal, Mario Andretti and Geoff Brabham.

In 1983, partnered with David Hobbs, Ribbs drove Trans-Am cars and won Rookie of the Year honors.
In the next three years he would have 17 Trans-Am starts.

Between 1986 and 1994, Ribbs drove Champ cars for Dan Gurney and Derrick Walker, and breifly for Bill Cosby in Nascar.
He had 3 Winston Cup starts in '86,
46 CART starts between 90-94
2 Indy 500 starts with best finish 21st
One IRL start but a full season of Craftsman Trucks, ending 2001 in 16th place.
Ribbs also had several Formula One starts, but mechanical problems overwhelmed the program.

Ribbs never needed to play the race card. He brought his talents and outgoing style to the forefront of his efforts, and it payed off.

Today, he is a competitive shooter and active participant in Champ Car and IRL promotions.

Yes, Bill Lester does owe some thanks to his black predecessors, and just like them, he was never put off of his path by others who would insert racism into the sport of auto racing.

It's what is under the drivers' skin, not the color of it, that makes him fast

Katykarter

Turn 4 fence

2006-02-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

Scott Goodyear once remarked that the beginning of the end of his racing career happened one day as he stood outside the Turn 4 fence at Michigan and watched as the other drivers barrelled past. Goodyear had just been in a serious crash and was sidelined for several weeks recovering from injuries. Standing at the fence, he saw the danger in a way he never experienced before. It seemed like every car, every one, was on a collision path with the fence, but caught traction at the last moment and went past.

This year's racing season is barreling towards us, at breakneck speed, and it seems that it surely will crash right into us where we're standing, and actually, it will crash on us, one series already has.

Rolex Grand American Series' 24 Hours of Daytona took place over last weekend. Plenty of drivers from other series competed, and it was a Daytona Prototype driven by two Indy Racing League drivers and owned by Chip Ganassi that took the overall win. Scott Dixon drove to victory, but Dan Wheldon, new teammate in the IRL drove earlier stints, and the two combined with a great car took the field by two laps. Randy Pobst led his Porsche to victory in the GT class.

Formula 1's disappointment that Team Super Aguri wont compete this year due to technical restrictions (they didn't have the proper paperwork filed on time), is tempered somewhat to find that the team is moving forward and principle owner Suzuki Aguri is preparing for the 2007 season. Recently, Aguri signed several key members of his teams management and mechanical staff. Already signed were the corp of drivers: Takuma Sato, Sakon Yamamoto and Friday driver Kosuke Matsuura. Team Super Aguri will field the formerly Arrows chassis with Honda power.

Gentlemen, Start Your Hype-Engines!

2006-01-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

As Houston draws nearer to the Champ Car World Series/American LeMans Series races here, the hype pendulum is ramping up.

In 1998-2000, the Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston ran a temporary street circuit through downtown Houston, Texas. Reliant Center will handle the needs of this event, an area outside of downtown Houston. Champ Cars were, as today, the most powerful and fastest automobile racing in the United States, which is somewhat of a feat, considering the competition:

Last year, the Numero Uno racing series was the Indy Racing League, drawing the most fans through the gate of any racing series with the exeption of NASCAR. Open wheel's' most celebrated series, the IRL has the crown jewel of all of motorsports worldwide, the Indianapolis 500 on Labor Day. Tony George seemed to hold the cards as Champ Car raced towards an uncertain future several years ago. Funding for the ever more expensive competitive American formula series was difficult to achieve for many teams, and longtime partners of Champ Car such as North America's fastest permanant road course, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wi. had to withdraw from the schedule. Then it was Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca who couldn't support the yearly races and went missing. It was when Long Beach, the glitteriest date on the Champ Car calendar was in jeapardy of being wooed away by none other than Tony George that the newest principle owners of the series said enough was enough, and launched a counter-offensive aimed at re-launching Champ Car not only to the fans of the United States but to other nations as well.
2005 Champ Car schedule saw expansion and withdrawl. They no longer went to Road America, Mid-Ohio and Laguna, but now were slated to go to new street circuits in Edmonton, San Jose, Korea and Denver with Denver being a proven success, along with longtime street circuit stalwarts such as Long Beach, Toronto and Australia's Surfer's Paradise. Combine with that two new races at permanant road courses in Mexico, again at Monterrey but also at the newly opened, Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Gone in 2006 is Las Vegas, one of the only two ovals left on the schedule (Milwaukee is the other), but Champ Car has added once again Road America and will revisit the Circuit de Gilles Villenueve in Montreal, Canada, a permanant road course used by Formula One.
Ansan, South Korea sounds intriguing because of the permanant road course venue that will be visited. Uncertainty arising from 2005's cancellation of this race places it late in the season.

Most notably for Champ Car is the return of the most contentious battle for supremacy in any and all premier series. For the second year, Sebastien Bourdais proved he is the worthy champion over the will of Paul Tracy. After courting NASCAR at the end of last season, Tracy is appearantly ready for another CCWS title run with, hopefully, no distractions.

Combined for the very first time will be Champ Car World Series and American Lemans Series.
Last year, ALMS presented a brilliant points contest in televised sportscar racing. Unknowing fans may mistake The Rolex Sportscar Series with ALMS. ALMS gets it's pedigree from its namesake, the pinnacle of all sportscar racing, 24 Hours of LeMans at the Circ De laSarthe in LeMans, France every year. All of the best teams travel to France for this event every year. The biggest event of all sportscar competitions' calendar, 24 Hours of LeMans is the culmination of many, many teams yearly aspirations.
Last year, for instance, Renault, the National Automobile Maker of France, spent tens of millions to field one team. The Pescarolo/Judd entries, driven by, among others, World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb, didn't get the luck it needed to remain in the field and had to retire early. Champion Audi, whose two-car team dominates American LeMans, won the title again last year, and , no doubt, will be there next summer to defend it's back-to-back titles with two driver tandem Frank Biela and Emmanuel Pirro. Tom Kristenson will probably be the third driver again this year completing the return of the entire 2005 Championship team.

ALMS is unique to American racing due to it's four different classes sharing the track at one time. Normally, different classes are put on track at different times to keep the disparate speeds apart. This is the factor that makes ALMS so exiting. There is action on track at every turn, every lap and at almost every moment. Passing, defending and survival make ALMS the ultimate in American sportscar racing.
The ultimate sportscar, the LeMans Prototypes or LMP, the slightly smaller LMP 2, Grand Touring sedans such as Corvettes and Aston Martins, and Grand Touring 2 made up mostly of Porsche 911's with some competition from the Panoz entries: all on-track at the same time-
well, it's surely a spectacle.

ALMS news: The winner of 2005's Star Mazda Series, another series that will race on the same weekend in Houston, earned the right to drive the Mazda Factory entry in LMP2. Raphael Matos won the Star Mazda '05 Points Championship and will join two other Star Mazda graduates in the Mazda Courage LMP2 entry.

Post script: (or 'He might be doing something right' category) Tickets will go on-sale Monday for the May races here in Houston, but driving isn't the only thing I do fast. A local radio station is giving away tickets to callers and, yea, I won a pair. Guess the wife can come with me now!

-Katykarter

Teams shake it up in Formula One

2005-12-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR from your humble host, me, Katykarter. Living in Southeast Texas gives us mild winters and blazing summers- and a long, long racing season. Last year at this time, having just completed the last race of the 'o4 season with a win on Dec 15, I was scrambling to assemble my kart for the opening of the '05 GCKI season- at the end of January! As it turned out, I did well, and won enough races early in the season to carry the points through after my money ran out, giving me the points title. Yay! Hopefully I'll be able to race this upcoming season, barring cataclysmic financial upheaval!

Many Formula One teams have changed or been sold and will be launched under new direction, crews and drivers. Two teams that did not change at all for 2006 are Renault, although Fernando Alonso has already announced he will change teams in 2007, and McLaren.
Teams that will change are:
Williams: Lost BMW power plant (not yet known what power they will field next year), and Nick
Heidfeld along with it. To replace him, Frank Williams chose the '05 GP2 champion,
son of former world champion Keke Rosberg, Nico Rosberg.

Ferrari: Retains former world champion Michael Schumacher, but replaces Barrichello with
Felippe Massa.

BAR: Will keep Jensen Button, but fired Tacuma Sato in favor of Reubens Barrichello.

Red Bull: Will retain their present driver lineup of David Coulthalrd and Christian Klein, but
will field a second, "junior" team called Torro Rosso.

New to Formula One

Team Super Aguri: The Honda backed team will use leftover Arrows chassis with drivers
Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto. Rumored to be the Friday driver is
IRL driver Kosuke Matsuura.

Team Midland: This team is assembled from the former Jordan team holdings, and will most
likely give seats to Christian Albers, and either Narain Karthikeyan or Tiago
Montiero.

Team BMW: Will likely be an upper eschelon team, and their driver lineup in no different.
Nick Heidfeld, who was brought over from Williams when the change was
made, and Jaques Villenueve. 2005 IRL champ Dan Wheldon is rumored to
be the designated test driver.

Team Torro Rosso: This is the second Red Bull team, with drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott
Speed. Torro Rossi is spawned from the debris of former Team Minardi.

ALMS and Champ Car Update:

My home town, Houston is exuberant over several racing news nuggets at the end of this year, the first of which doesn't include ALMS or Champ Car.

Motorsports Ranch Houston is officially open in Alvin, 30 minutes south of Houston. It is a permanant road course, 2.6 mi. We have a video already and it looks smooth, varied and fast.
Can't wait to see some racing there.

ALMS and Champ Car have changes some facets of their combined weekend here on May 12:

Champ Car and Trans Am have parted ways. The Trans Am series, as old as Champ Car will not accompany them for the first time in their mutual history.
Also missing from the weekends action will be ALMS' partner series last year, Speed World Challenge. This comprised of Speed GT and Speed Touring GT races.
Supplanting these two will be the highly competitive Toyota Atlantics and Star Mazda Series, both of which are open wheeled developmental series. Both posess potential stars of tomorrow, including Marco Andretti, son of Michael and Graham Rahal, son of Bobby.

Mika Hakkinen and Adelaide '95

2005-11-13T15:07:00.000-08:00

It was while watching Barry McGuire's Car Crazy show on Sunday morning on Speed; he was interviewing the spongy curator of the Crawford Auto Museum, a whale of a working museum. While I say working, this legitimate museum collection of automobiles re-launched in 1970, posesses working automobiles, all of them. Those which aren't- are in progress with full machine shop and fabrication operations on site and a contingent of volunteer restorers. One of the treasures on site was a 1960's Formula 1 car driven by David Hobbs, loveable muck calling F1 races on Speed. This car was enroute to total restoration and our monkish curator tells of their hope that Mr. Hobbs will drive it in an upcoming vintage festival.

The connection is that David Hobbs contributes color commentary to Speed's coverage of Formula One events. He has done so since before 1995, I presume, but it was on an episode of "Formula One Decade" on Speed, inwhich races from 10 years earlier are aired, and David Hobbs, along with present day co-commentators Peter Windsor and Bob Varsha, called the race that day from the city of Adelaide in Australia, 1995.

So many famous names from this showing of the glittering world of Formula 1 racing: Coulthard, Hill, Moreno, and Mika Hakkinen, who would go on to win his own World Championship, and it was during qualifying Mika had a severe "off".

The temporary street circuit in Adelaide was used 51 weeks of the year as a horse training facility. But they sweep the sawdust up and paint the tarmack below and the races come to town. On the long straight section leading up to the pit entrance turn, Mika lost control of his car and swapped ends, leaving the track backwards, sliding over a large section of paved surface, off-track, it was painted with the giant logo of the local sponsor, "Foster's". This runoff area was purposefully installed to give drivers "another shot" at getting control of a car that was driven too deep into the turn and won't have to end their day being dragged from the kitty litter.

But Hakkinen hadn't braked yet, and when he clipped the inside wall during the run up to the braking zone, his car pirouetted slowly, crossing the track, and while in full view of the main straight grandstands, the car turned finally forward and slammed, nose first, into the tire wall below the turn's spectators.

Since the Hans device hadn't yet been introduced to F1, Mikka's head flew unrestrained into the steering wheel. The extent of his injuries, surmised by the first corner worker to reach the wreck, were life threatening. Mikka had collapsed his airway, was not breathing and was unconscious.
The alert corner worker performed a very controversial on-site trachiotomy, allowing Hakkinen to be evacuated to a local hospital and to ultimately recover fully- well, he won a World Championship.

-Katykarter

Champ Car looking forward to May weekend in Houston

2005-10-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES has added to their 2006 schedule a "temporary street course" in the Reliant Center, adjacent to Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.

2005 Champ Car powered by Ford champion Sebastien Bourdais has yet to see the streets of Houston, but Newman Haas' "Back to Back" Champion has a choke hold on North America's Premier open wheeled street racing series.

Bourdais and teammate, Oriel Servia placed 1-2 in the points chase going into the this weekend's race at Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast, Australia. The last race of the season will be in two weeks in Mexico City. Servia supplanted Paul Tracy late in the year for 2nd place. Oriel Servia's '06 season is still uncertain, with his role of mid-season replacement for regular Newman Haas driver Bruno Junquera not translating into a ride just yet. That Servia may finish 2nd is a monumental achievment in itself; that it was Tracy he caught and passed is very revealing. Servia may have done well enough to make Junquera sweat, and I wouldn't have thought that possible soon after Indianapolis, where Bruno tangled with backmarker AJ IV in turn 4, swapped ends and backed it into the wall at 180+mph. His condition hasn't been updated lately, and next year's N/H lineup isn't cemented yet.

Champ Car's spec chassis for 2006 is an all new, Panoz DP 01 built by Elan Motorsports Technologies. Toyota Atlantics will begin their 34th year supporting Champ Car with a new chassis as well, built by Swift, the 016.a to go along with a new 2.3l, 4-cyl Cosworth power plant giving 300 horse power and speed up to 175 mph.

Newly revealed on the Champ Car web site is the addition of Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series to the race weekend at Long Beach, the first race of the season and, although there are no details on their site, the Houston race date coincides with The American Le Mans Series' event, May 12. More details should be forthcoming.

Finally about Champ Car- Since 2004's joint effort of Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerald Forsythe and Paul Gentilozzi to purchase the rights to Championship Auto Racing Teams, Mssrs., Forsythe and Kalkhoven have been busy. They purchased operating rights to Cosworth Racing Interests and cemented Champ Car's power issue for the forseeable future. Also by the active duo was the purchase to the rights to The Grand Prix of Long Beach, assuring the "crown jewel" of Champ Car stays there as well as Forsythe's heavy investment in Mexico's racing venues and their developement, giving Champ Car two dates south of the border, May 22nd in Monterrey and November 6, next week, in Mexico City. Mexican drivers have done well in Champ Car over the years, including some, such as Adrian Fernandez, who've moved on to owning a racing team. Mexico is highly represented in the multi-national field, with Roberto Lavin and Mario Dominguez. Other countries with two drivers are Australia, Brazil and France. Canada has three drivers, with Paul Tracy, Andrew Ranger and "Tag", Alex Tagliani. USA is tops with four drivers competing or in Ryan Hunter-Reay's case, waiting for a ride, Jimmy Vasser, A.J. Allmendinger and newcomer Michael McDowell, a standout from the Toyota Atlantics.

-Katykarter

Champ Car, Lousy computers and the World Series

2005-10-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

I know I mentioned it last, but the first thing in my mind this night, Friday, October 21 is the Houston Astros. Our boys of summer finally made it to the fall classic.

Houston has been in the Major Leagues for 44 years. We've had only several close calls with the 'Series, once in 1980, '86 then again in 2004, we came within one game of winning the pennant and going to the World Series. So this year we finally got it right and we'll go against the Chicago White Sox, another team without a pennant for about 50 years, although their team did once upon a time, win a World Series, in 1917, Several years later, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and the "black sox" fell to scandal, accused of betting against themselves and throwing the 'Series.

We are euphoric tonight and this week: the Series starts tomorrow night.
GO ASTROS!!!

This blog has been in large part, a way for me to forward to you what I think is important in the world's racing scene and my own experiences. I can not provide pictures now, though and it brings the quality of this page back a notch. Apparently my computer, heavily laden with spyware as it is, is unable to download my pics and post them on my page. Not being a computer scholar, I'm largely in the dark as to the why's of this situation, and if any reader might have advice and post a comment I would be sorely grateful. Anyway, no pic's for a while. I'm working on getting a new computer soon.

Going with the Phlow

2005-10-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

The trick seemed to be the smootheness, accelerating out of the apex at the proper time, not too early which would call for a lift, or too late which leaves power unused. Turning in from the exact position was crucial to gain the highest overall speed in the corner, and hard braking and swift acceleration-the tempo was constant-repetitions seemed to mount-lap after lap after lap. A couple of times after late braking the hairpin, and fighting deep into the turn to gain control and turn in, the tires would chirp. Almost giggles. From high to low, decelerating, the Maxxis tires bounce slightly on the bumpy track, then turn in to the righthanded hairpin-not quite as full as a hairpin, then as you exit you continue your slide setting up the next lefthander, and on, and on.
Turn 1 is taken full out, my 100cc Yamaha motor is singing it's high-pitched song, but at the end of the long straight it sings it's "second song", where it really rings. At the end of the long straight is the turn 2 & 3 complex, a tightening left hander into an immediate right. The deceleration is intense, the stiff chassis flexes it's maximum, and the clearance to the road shrinks. This produces a burning sensation on the glutea. Your body's organs feel the pressure too, intestines and bowel are dragged downward, and it feels like you're gonna shit yourself.
Turning and braking and fighting the pull, you're looking in for the apex...

Katy, Texas, December 6, 2004

2005-10-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Katy, Tx.'s Gulf Coast Karters Incorporated had their twelfth race of the season December 6, 2004. This was not a tri-city challenge where visiting clubs would be here, and some of the members were away competing on the road. This was my third race of the season, as I joined late, and my third race ever as an owner/driver. Yes, I had been to the kart tracks that were opening up around town, indoor centers with nice fast karts, but the kart I own is a Birel, set up to race. My first couple of races hadn't gone well inasmuch as I didn't finish. Mechanical failures- broken chain, and such sidelined me. I was alongside Mike Range in the pits, Mike sold me the Birel, his mechanic Frank Newsom and owner and engineer Colin Walker. Colin is an old school racer who understands the needs of a team and personally funds this team' entire operating costs exept engine building, which is where Frank asserts himself. Both are longtime racers, and both bring a wealth of information trackside, and I am blessed and very lucky to be in their proximity. I watch, learn, ask questions and try to address all aspects of my own operation. I am essentially a privateer, who they share their pit area with, and they are a factory sponsored Fullerton Kart Chassis racing team. The engine is also factory supplied by Yamaha through Frank. When I had mechanical difficulties, the helped me. So many issues were easily dealt with because of this situation that would have driven a newbie crazy during this early time, and I tried to take advantage of it and race as much as possible.

On this day, the conversation was about carb triggers. My friend Griff had mentioned reading about this earlier in the week, and I posed the question to Frank. And this is why I like Frank: He doesn't give the ten cent answer.
Yamaha's KT 100 motor had been and still is a staple in kart racing for 30 years. Today's KT 100's were essentially the same as the old ones, with the same spec's being utilized. The difference is the technology being incorporated in the exhaust pipes. The motors on karts today, due to the extreme pressures being inflicted by modern headers and tail pipes, operate on a razor-thin edge of performance and destruction. The carb trigger works on a simple principle: By flooding the chamber with an extra shot of fuel (which has two cycle oil mixed in), the super heated engine's cylinder is cooled, and if the carb is set to it's leanest position, the carb trigger will literally save the motor from lock-up, or sticking. You see, as if operation this close to the edge weren't dangerous enough, the carb trigger pushes the envelope even further. According to Frank, these engines don't need the extra stress, however that it makes the kart faster is evident.

I was in the field with a number of other Yamaha karts and Brian Bosein. Brian is in the same class and, as I found out later, has a carb trigger mounted on his KT 100. Brian's a big guy and we are very compatible in speed. During our first practice event we didn't see each other much and finished in comparable spots to begin the pre-final next to each other.

When the green flag flew on the pre-final, I slipped ahead of Brian into turn 1 and began workin on the field. Our track in Katy is an asphalt-paved sprint road course. It's usually run in a counter-clockwise rotation, but today it's clockwise which puts the long straightaway before the start finish line instead of before turn 1. This way's turn 1 is actually turn 7 . At the end of the first lap of 12, Brian knocked on my back door at the end of the front straight, coming into the last turn before the start finish. I kept my advantage and worked through the turns and coming off of the long straight, the last turn is a 90 degree right which we take full out or "flat-out", which I did. Brian came unexpectedly on my right after that turn and beat me to the first turn with the inside position. I was surprised by this, he was so fast at this point, but I immediately made to re-pass after the next turn, another right hander. Since he was inside for this turn, I expected him to move outside upon exiting and set myself up to retake the lead coming out. It worked like a charm. I defended the re-pass and held the position until the end of the straight at which point he over took me again comin out of the start finish turn-at which point I re-passed at the very same spot. He couldn't defend his position on turn 1's exit, and I was able to set up the move again. This actually kept up for the next several laps, Brian passing me at the start finish line, me taking the position back with a timing move against his inability to defend the pass, until...

Lap 6 I couldn't retake the position. Brian foiled my fourth attempt to retake the lead on the exact same scenario by simply slowing at turn 1 forcing me to stay outside of him and leaving him to lead into turn 2. For some reason he didn't defend his position coming out of 2 and I took advantage and blasted my way around him leading into the button-hook turn and onto the back straight. I was definately faster on the interior turns of the track, he was faster in the straight. We kept our positions until the start finish straight again when Brian pulled his 'carb-triggered' kart alongside again going into turn 1 and this time I asked the kart to do too much. I stayed in the gas and attempted to turn on the outside at the same time Brian was inside. It didn't work and my rear end came around slowly and I spun into the infield. I kept it going and got it back onto the track but the laps were dwindling and Brian was out of sight. I was determined to close on him again and I drove the kart even harder through the two right handed turns 1 & 2 into the button hook left of turn 3 onto the back straight into the medium speed long right hander of turn 4 then a short sprint to the complex of turns 5 and 6, usually turns 2 and 3. Run regular rotation, counter clockwise, turns 2 & 3 begin with a declining-radius left hander into an immediate right hand 180. Exiting this complex onto the front straight, the next turn is taken full throttle, a hail-mary type of right hander to the short start finish straight, into the right hander of turn 1 again. I absolutely willed the gap to close and it did dramatically. Slower traffic helped and it was two short laps before I was back on Brian's back bumper. That was the way I finished, there wasn't enough time to make the pass. In the final I wasn't able to get by Brian and because of his switch to another class the next season, I never finished higher on the podium than Brian.

We were a treat of dicey racing action for the spectators gathered at the fence that day, and everyone treated us like we'd won a championship, but we had actually only run a helluva race.

-Katykarter

HOUSTON, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

2005-10-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES, CHAMP CAR AND THEIR SUPPORT SERIES SCHEDULED FOR MAY '05 AT RELIANT

ALMS announced it's 2006 schedule after it's Petite LeMans at Road Atlanta this year. New to the list and this author's hometown, Houston is scheduled for May 12. It will be a specially built street course for both series, however it is unclear that both ALMS and Champ Car will share the same weekend. Further details are awaited.

Along with each series are it's respective support series.

ALMS also has Star Mazda, an open-wheel series boasting new talent and their points battle this year is outstanding. Competing at the highest level of Star Mazda are familiar names like Andretti and Rahal, however both Marco Andretti, grandson of Mario, son of Michael and Graham Rahal, son of Bobby are chasing recently slipping points leader Raphael Matos. Also worth mentioning in this highly competitive series are top 5 drivers James Hinchcliffe and Robbie Pecorari.

Champ Car's main support series is Toyota Atlantic, another open wheel series with Toyota power. Recent graduates of Toyota Atlantic ranks include Jeff Green, test driver for Team USA in A1 Grand Prix. Also on the weekend is the Trans-Am series, where Corvettes, Vipers and Mustangs battle Jaguar and others.

The Harris County Sports Authority has no information to release on this event, but The Mayor's office and County Comissioner have a good track record of putting on professional, world class events. I am beside myself with expectation. It's been three years since we had a Champ Car race here and we are ready for another.

-Katykarter

Road Atlanta set to recieve Petite Le Mans

2005-09-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

Beginning Thursday, September 29, and through Saturday, American LeMans Series mixes it up with the big boys from across the water in the American version of the grand daddy of all sports car racing, 24 hours of Le Mans.

Petite Le Mans is a twelve hour timed event, with the same classes as usual in ALMS, P-1 or LMP 1, P-2 or LMP 2, Gt 1 and Gt 2. All class battles will step it up a notch to recieve the European teams into the already competitive mix.

Pictured above is the Saleen entry in the GT1 class, shown here with Jeff Mowlem at the wheel. This car is the main competition for the twin Corvette CR-6's- that is when the factory Aston Martin's DBR9 race car is not in the field.

Pictured at left are Champion Audi's No. 1 car, driven by Emanuel Pirro passing slower traffic on-track, pictured behind Pirro is the Panoz entry in the GT 2 class.

Champion Audi has dominated recent contests in ALMS, but this weekend's 12 hour event and estimated 1000 mile distance, the competition steps up in intensity as do the conditions. In ALMS, the two car team of Dyson Racing has risen to the lofty challenge of matching Champion Audi's speed, now for the overtake...that's another story!

After struggling last season and earlier this season, the Dyson Racing LMP-1 entries can hold their own against the Champion Audi cars. James Weaver (pictured in the Thetford Lola, center) found several ways to DNF this year, but rebounded with a victory.

A1 Grand Prix: Nation's Cup

2005-09-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

JOLLY GOOD to be back, it was an unofficial snafu that led to the creation of another webpage to hold all of my prolificy...yea that's it...

THE A1 GRAND PRIX, The World Cup of Motorsports has been created over the past few years as an off-season F-1 style racing series. It's inaugural race will take place September 25, 2005 at the historic Brands Hatch raceway in England.

What a dramatic first step for the series, but, of course it's far from the first step. That historic race will take place due to the dedication, tenacity and vision of Shiekh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, a crown prince and heir to the throne in Dubai where the series is based. With his idea, and a once-in-a-lifetime group of engineers, they have created a Nation's Cup, where teams from each nation that wants to participate have been given two identical cars. Teams from nations then blend their own prospective teams and drivers, test and race in, essentially, a spec series, or one inwhich all cars a equal.

The series has some heavyweights from the world's established racing teams, and some hot young and old talent in the driver's seat.
Team USA: Scott Speed
Team Ireland: Ralph Firman
Team Australia: Will Davison
Team Malaysia: Alex Yoong
Team Netherlands: Jos Verstappen
Team South Africa: Tomas Scheckter
Team Brazil: Nelson Piquet Jr.
And others, all of which have competed at a high level already, and were chosen for their obvious talent.

The most recent testing was conducted over three days at the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track in France. Team USA topped the speed charts over Team Brazil, France and Great Britain.

Picturd above is Team USA's car, emblazoned with the stars and stripes and the words, "We The People" and driven by Scott Speed. Among other drivers in contention for a seat with Team USA is Jeff Simmons, veteran of Toyota Atlantic Series.

Pictured at right is Team Pakistan's entry,
driven by Adam Khan.

Below is Team Irelands A1GP car driven
by Ralph Firman, and Team Australia's car, driven by Will Davison.

This racing series' first race is scheduled for
September 25, 2005 once again, at England's
Brands Hatch. Over the season which will end in Febuary in the US at Laguna Seca, A1GP will be broadcast live via ESPN from such incredible circuits as Estoril, Portugal, Sepang Circuit, Malaysia, and Lauzitz' Eurospeedway in Germany. Most of the tracks A1 will race on are Formula 1 tracks, and it's no surprise that F1 has given it's venerable seal of approval of the series.

We live and breathe racing, people, even them rednecks turning left all the time, NASCAR.
But know we are an open wheel enthusiast, and kart racer here in Katy Texas...

U S A

-Katykarter

My "Source"

2005-08-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

I'd like to tell you how I came into kart racing, and why it's a rich man's game.

There isn't a more dedicated fan, die hard, old school, you name it, that's me. I haven't studied racing per se, couldn't name the winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from any given year, but I know it's the pinnacle of all sportscar racing, and every year LeMans Prototypes and Grand Touring exotics gather at an event of un-matched prestige. I may have been indoctrinated into the Indy 500 as the greatest spectacle in motorsports, but as a driver, an endurance race is the toughest of all- the Indy 500 is 4 to 5 hours, in LeMans, three drivers pull two four hour stints. Pitting in the wee hours at LeMans is fascinating!

Growing up I idolized AJ Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby and Al Unser, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears and Emerson Fittipaldi. Drivers from the old school were Sir Stirling Moss, not a sir yet, Dan Gurney and Bill Vukovich Sr. and Jr. I loved the American open wheel drivers, but the Europeans raced in a pure kind of way. It showed in the people's love of it. The fans elevated the drivers to near deities. Countries took immense pride in victories notched by their countrymen doing battle in foreign competitions. It was accepted as dangerous and people died, but this was part of the mystique. Some drove in a way that made their continued existence improbable.
The most fearless were those who qualified on pole more than any others. Every generation has one. I love stories of Gil Villeneuve qualifying in the wet and Ayerton Senna...he was purity and Bill Vukovich sailing around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking pole in a rainstorm. Some drove with animal abandon and some drove with cool precision. They were the best.

Freeway go karts were the only karts I would know for almost 40 years. I loved it and I was fast. I also raced Malibu Grand Prix, which was a virage race car, open wheeler on a serpentine track. It was against the clock and it was okay, but...Fast forward to 2001 when a friend named Steven Knapps and fellow Gran Tourismo fan told me about an indoor kart center his company rented for a conference-did I say Gran Tourismo?

I just have to say a few words about the game that changed gaming. Gran Tourismo calls itself the Real driving simulator. It is an excellent driving game, with nice automobile characteristics. Lots of production cars to choose from, but the exotics! OH! Steven also introduced me to this game and it wasn't long before I was beating his times. I really connected with that game and when GT2 came out, I was in line and bought it even though I didn't have a Playstation. I did get a playstation later and when Gran Tourismo 3 came out, it was, to me, the culmination of the first two games. In each game the cars got faster and faster. In the first, you learned how to adjust the settings of a car for racing: suspension dampening, ride height, sway bar, then there was transmission gearing, fully adjustable, tires, they would even lighten you production car and put a racing scheme paint job on it.
GT2 took it a step further and introduced full blown sportscars from real life, LeMans-winning prototypes, Porsches, a marked improvement.
Well, GT 3 gave you Formula 1 cars. Open wheelers from history, Nigel Mansell's championship MacLaren from Indy, Senna's Williams, there are almost a dozen F-1's to collect and race. Now GT4 is out and it's all cool... they say online racing is possible. It's what we've all been waiting for.

But I digress.
Everyone got to race that day at Davy Jones' Kartzone and Steven spanked them all. I was beside myself with envy. Where was this place? I had to find it. It was actually a kart center I'd heard about at the Champ Car races Downtown the year before. In the paddock I saw a crowd of people around a guy and asked an important looking man what the buzz was. He said that the man in the crowd was Davey Jones, driver and he was Davey's partner in a business venture coming soon to Houston, an indoor karting center. He handed me a flier.
When I walked into the airconditioned facility, I was buzzing. Inside here was a competitive raceway, and for a fee you could race wheel to wheel on an indoor track, about 24 second laps, with electronic timing. You got a printout of your session with fast times, speed, a hard copy of a memory.

I really wanted to know I was as fast as I thought I was, and those first laps were a revelation. It was difficult, but the perception of speed was excellent. These karts were markedly faster than any freeway kart I'd driven, and the handling was supreme. The track's turns were spaced far enough that the kart got up to it's top speed several times in a lap and those that could brake and turn together would be faster. I attacked the circuit and was the fastest time of the day. I was in top 10 for the month too. I left extremely satified, sweated out, adrenalized, it was hard not to drive aggressively on the way home!
This was truly when the racing bug bit me. My bud, Atom and I went back there lots of times for the next couple of months, while work was good.

Several months later I made a deal that bought a racing kart. I'm a carpenter, a contractor, and I'll build just about anything, and a guy was having trouble selling some stuff on E Bay to pay for his deck construction. Nice deck, pretty pricey. I was hot to ink the deal so I asked what he was trying to sell. "A racing go kart", he said and 'bing' it all clicked and I made a deal to build his deck for the kart.
It is a 1998 Birel TO-32, a Championship chassis from the Italian maker. Mike Range, the owner, was racing out in Katy, near my house, wouldn't I join them on the next Sunday to check out the kart and watch the races? Hell yes, and Chris, my son went with me. Chris is 18 now, but he was 16 or so then, and we tore it up in that kart when I first got it. We didn't have access to the track at first, so we went to parking lots and set up cones and raced around against the stopwatch. Chris, Atom and I went many times to the Movie theatre parking lot-sometimes at night with the lights on. It was great- that kart simply kicked ass! When I did put it on the track, it was fast there too.

The first couple of races I didn't even finish. Mechanical difficulties at first: broken chain, new clutch needed, but when we got it repaired and running, we just went to the track and ran and ran. The expense of this sport is considerable and by all rights I don't have the money to do it, which is painfully evident at the time of this writing- I haven't raced in 3 months. When we started out we knew we had to upgrade our equipment in several areas. Frank Newsom is an engine mechanic who has help me in so many ways...lets start at the beginning.

Mike Range was on a team with Frank Newsom and another man, Colin Walker.
Colin is an Englishman who has some 50 years of kart, motorcycle and auto racing experience. He started out in Great Britain and has raced everywhere he has been. When providence brought him to Houston, he sought out the kart track here in Katy and began helping it grow. Colin is partly responsible for the major growth of Gulf Coast Karters Inc., track resurfacing, new scoring tower and assembly hall, and a track expansion this year. Colin is also a Fullerton Racing Kart dealer, and that is what they race, a Fullerton and a Yamaha KT 100cc motor.
This is where Frank comes in, he's the engine mechanic. Frank has a shop on the north side too, and is a Yamaha dealer. He has been in racing for thirty years as a driver with his father, and now as a sponsor and full bodied racing team. Team PPK/Fullerton are the team to beat here in Katy, and they're very successful when they enter larger competitions such as IKF's Road Race Grand Nationals last year at Henderson, Tx where they entered and won in several classes and took home a handful of "Duffy's". This team has also been very helpful to me when I've been out there, they invite me into their pits, and assist in any way. Frank, PPK/Fullerton, Colin and Craig McClain have been super nice to me and I've learned lots. Mainly how to win.
Being a new driver, I had no vocabulary for describing handling. I've heard terms like "push" and "loose" or "tight", but you can't know it until you feel it. My son or my bud's Griff and Nicosea and I will go out to the track and just run lap after lap. We'll make changes and retest, make more changes and all the while, I'm learning about the track.

They say that a track will own a driver until the day as the balance shifts. In other words, after a period of time, familiarity with a track gives way to deep knowledge of the track and the driver doesn't have to think as much anymore-He'll own the track. He knows how to enter each turn and how to exit them. He'll know different characteristics of his karts performance on this track and he can tune his machine to run optimally. He has a definite advantage over competitors that are not home to that track because of the sheer number of laps he's run there over the years.

Karting has moved into the technical stratosphere. And prices have grown as well.
In Europe, where karting is supreme, competitors in major series, and they are major, have budgets that run into the millions. Kart manufacturers spend huge budgets and drivers compete for thousands in prize money with equipment on the cutting edge of technology.
Karting is the admitted breeding ground for future professional drivers. It is closely resemblant to the open wheel racing cars, Champ Car, IRL and F-1, but lots of stock car drivers come from the karting ranks. Wherever there's a 1/4 mile dirt oval you can bet there's some karts that get on it and race.
My karting club is in Katy, Texas, Gulf Coast Karters Inc., and it's been around for over twenty years. It's a permanant road course, a sprint track, paved asphalt. I am having a blast at it, and once the money crunch has abated, I'll be back out there. Check it out at www.racekarts.com.
While there click on the Fullerton link and say hello to Colin Walker.

Carroll-Griffin Championship Racing Team

2005-08-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

No Championships yet, but a points lead at GCKI

These pics are of me at GCKI
the top one testing with Griff, '05,

the second waiting to start in 04

The kart is a '98 Birel TO-32 with a Yamaha
KT-100 motor.

That's me gettin' my ya-ya's.

-Katykarter

Spectacular Day for Motor Racing

2005-07-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

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...

2005-07-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

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

Greetings from Katykarter

2005-06-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Your humble host, Katykarter from the home office.

New posts are a mere keystroke away...

Around The Racing World

2005-06-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

Formula 1 is in the midst of a firestorm, and no doubt the crux of the matter being argued is liability, someone should be made to pay, they all agree, just not "me". I'm sure the USGP lawsuits will come forth, and should reports of a boycott of the French GP prove accurate, more litigation outside this most litigious land we live in, will ensnarl the principles of F1. Those associated with Michelin, and those who are not!..
Bernie Ecclestone made his views known in a report of a post-Indy500 phone call to none other than Danica Patrick herself. Bernie congratulated her on her outcome, and remarked that she should wear white, just as all kitchen appliances do. The headline read, 'Patrick Angry Over Remarks'-or something.(!!) Man, what a comment from the head of worldwide FIA operations. Kinda had Islamic-connotations as well. Maybe that was just me.
Champ Car kicked ass, but did anyone see the helicopter crash???? It was reported, a mere 1/4 mile from a populated grandstand, a helicopter crash landed on the westernmost tarmack of Burke Lakefront Airport Saturday during the Atlantics race. Paul Tracy runs strong here, and true to form, inherited the lead for good as off-pit sequence cars succumbed to fuel need. AJ Allmendinger had a hard hit in practice, but came back and made a podium finish. It was a hot day and they all looked very hot on the podium.
Conversely, the IRL's Indy Car race at Richmond provided some excellent, and cool, night racing if speed and precision are your cup of tea. Far outclassing the field, Penske's two Toyota/Lola cars driven by Sam Hornish Jr, and Helio Castroneves drove as if it was their home track. Well, it is their home track and even though Penske is the only team with Toyota power being competitive, the Hondas never made a strong bid for the lead. It was a split second mistake that kept Hornish from winning from pole, instead he had to climb from a mangled, wall-impacted car. His team mate never flinched, he just disappeared into the Virginia night. I was glad to see the ceremonial fence climb. Good to see good-guy Helio Castroneves back on top of the podium.
Home town favorites Foyt Racing had mixed results. They finished last, but they did finish. I hope they continue to grow, and get better at getting handling, cause that's all they got. Foyt is one of the Toyota teams on the outside. Without the massive R&D of a Penske, the 'stock' Toyota power plant is several steps behind Honda this year. According to AJ Sr, Toyota comes out with upgrades mid-season, and they're looking forward to this. Anthony is improving on track and in the pits, and the team is fighting through a lot of adversity. From the top, however, no one on the team has lost his focus on the big picture, and that's good. AJ is still a force to be reckoned with.
And finally, I saw a story on an American F1 hopeful, he's 14. His family allowed him to move to Italy, and if I'm not mistaken, he's competing in the premier league of European Karting on Auto circuits. Now, THAT'S cool. I'm sure ladder series' entry forms have already been filed. Good Luck, Yank. I'll find out your name and publish it in future letters, (I think it's Edwards...)

Good night and good racing!

My Chinook Story

2005-06-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

The Chinook helicopter, CH-47 I think, is in the news again by it being shot down again. I served from 84-87, and had some contact with the Chinook.

The Forward Area Alerting Radar was an old p.o.s. Korean war era, and as operator on the modern battlefield life expectance was only seconds. But the FAAR accompanied the AA guns of Airborne ADA, the Vulcan, Stinger and (in training), the Hawk.
The FAAR was far too sensitive and breakable to heavy-drop or LAPSE, so it was airlifted into the area, but too late for early operations. SSG Alford knew he could air-mobile the unit, little tricky at the center of the unit, it was mounted on a six-wheeled truck known as the gamma goat. With a huge retractable mast mounted on one side, the ungainly radar was big and heavy.
Three pairs of straps suspended the unit, with a wooden spreader bar across the top of the operators cabin in back. All that was left was to hook it up to the bird, and that was my job.
I stood on the roof of the unit with the straps in my hands, all gathered and held together with a large D-ring. But the D-ring was metal, and the static electricity of the hovering copter would knock me down. Trick was to hold the D-ring upright by squeezing the straps together, and then lifting it and hopefully hitting the belly-hook first try.
I stood on the roof and watched the big bird circle the meadow we were in. It turned and approached me with the nose high, exposing the belly and the hook in the center. I never saw the pilot, it saw only the hook. I held the ring high, and the pilot brought it in, center and right height...I slammed the D-ring through the spring-loaded gate on the choppers' hook, it hit home, and I turned and jumped off the roof.
I don't remember the tremendous noise it must've generated, I remember the rotor-wash hitting me.
The bird's engines cranked up, and the Chinook tilted upwards and climbed. The FAAR flew for the first time, and was set down again without damage to the radar unit, showing it could be done in combat.
FAAR Platoon, Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion(Airborne), 4th Air Defense Artillery
82d Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, NC
SSG Tommy Alford, SGT Darrell Jenkins, PFC Dennis Anderson, PVT Ian Carroll
1985

I also had a fun jump from a CH-47. Tailgate.

My dogs birthday and karting plans

2005-06-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

A call from Lynda today reminded us again of Mozart's birthday. Mo mo's two, and his early days are a wonderful story.

Lynda gave us Shelby for Christmas one year, gave it to my 11 year old son, who had come to live with us. I had moved in with Lynda and my soon to be fiance, Crystal, and the three of us would live with her on Karenbeth St. for another year before moving to a nearby apartment.
Shelby was a black with white German Shepherd pup, female, but had some other breed in her, we didn't know what. She was magnificent as she grew up, even in the apartment, where she grew to 95 pounds, she was loyal, obediant and smart, smart, smart. She did, however, take to me, and even though she was technically Chris', she and I were inseparable. I didn't plan it that way, but that's the way it has been and always will. She is eight years old now, and although she may have lost a step, she's just as intense at keeping up with me.

Lynda wanted puppies, though, we all did, and we wanted a pure bred German Shepherd for a sire. Most owners wanted a stiff cash fee to stud, as well as first pick. We never got it done, and Lynda gave in and bought a male to breed with Shelby. Sweeny was named for the town Lynda found him in, and paid for him and she brought him home for Shelby's approval. He played with Shelby when he was young, and finally, after three cycles of Shelby's "in-season", they got pregnant. We were very happy, but it had taken five years to get Shelby pregnant. Our veteranarian advised us to make this her last litter, she was getting a little too old for the stress.
I was most upset by this, I had hopes of selling puppies, and with her markings, and a Heidlberg sire, the pups could easily fetch 2-300 bucks. But we had a litter to get through first.
By now, we were all very expectant, and the weeks passed by slowly. They seemed to extend towards the end, but at last, her water broke, and she began to give birth on June 21, 2003.
Lynda was determined to be there when Shelby gave birth, and stayed at our house day and night for a week until the pups came. One came at first, and from the monstrous size of Shelby, she had more to come. And they did, four the first day, spread out over the early day. Several hours after midnight, the second night, she had two more, but the next didn't come until several hours into the third day. When it did come, Lynda, thankfully, was there.
In the first place, Lynda is a registered nurse, and has mid-wived at German Shepherd births before. She cleaned off the pups as they came, made sure they had a teat, and kept Shelby watered. She did so much, but the miracle was yet to come.
Some time in the afternoon of the third day, the 23rd, the eighth pup came, but it would not breathe. Lynda gave it a second or two, and Shelby nuzzled and licked it, but Lynda could sense, Shelby knew something was wrong. Lynda picked the pup up, performed mouth to mouth, and the pup breathed! Then another one came, and another, and this one was the problem. It never breathed. Lynda tried for some time to rescusitate the pup, but it wasn't meant to be. Lynda, poor thing was shattered. I remember her calling, distressed, and I could only console her: she had done all that she could. And she had, but she wasn't through yet.
Our theory was that since the birth took so long to get these last few out, they had the most trouble. So far she had had eleven, but one died. Almost three hours later, after I got home, she had her last two, for a total of 13! 12 lived. The last two also took rescusitating, but the very last one also had obvious low birthweight. Six males and six females, all squirming, black and black and white.
We reared them well, and began to sell them, but gave several away to friends. Mozart was the last male we had, and after all but one other pup remained, we decided to keep him and Crystal named him. He's two this week, and still a rambunctious puppy. He's the black one, Shelby's got the large white smock. They are our kids now, and we love 'em.
Lynda took the small pup, the runt, and it was a female. Lynda named her Mandy, and Mandy had problems keeping her food down right from the start. Of course, Lynda knew she had a problem from observing her while the pups were still suckling. Mandy would eat, but would throw it up again. Then, sometimes, she would eat the softened regurgitated food.
Lynda found out that Mandy had a birth defect. A blood vessel in her throat was wound around her esophagus, constricting it. Major surgery was necessary, but none of us had the money. No way, we're talking thousands. Well, Lynda packed up the van and drove to A&M.
She somehow convinced the vet's there to take Mandy as a case study. Needless to say, and although Lynda did pay several hundred for the surgery room and other costs, Mandy was operated on, and to this day, she's small but vivacious! Mandy is more full of exuberence than any of her brothers and sisters. Never getting tired of running and playing.
Our hats are off to the kind veteranarian students and faculty at Texas A&M in College Station, without their caring, Mandy would not be here today.

I guess we'll talk karting next time....

F1 Indy Woes

2005-06-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

They say it happened before, but I couldn't imagine so many cars and teams opting NOT to run for safety concerns. That is what a stunned crowd of over100,000 had to swallow, and in typical American fashion, showed their displeasure by reigning debris over the drivers and track. A television audience around the world tuned out early over disgust at the farce, as Derek Daly kept saying, that had overtaken Ecclestone's F1 racing.
Tire manufacturer of many of the teams, 14 of the 20 cars, Michelin issued a statement on race day saying they couldn't guarantee the performance of their tires due to excessive load inflicted while in turn 13, or turn 1 Indy style, perhaps the fastest turn in Formula 1. Several failures during practice and qualifying left Michelin puzzled as to why the tires failed; only one failure happened during turn 13, coincidentally, Ralf Schumacher's left rear failed and sent him into the new safer barrier- a crash eirily remeniscent of a more severe crash just last year on the same turn and the same tires.
FIA fired off a letter and released it to the media pointing out that Michelin should have had substitute sets of tires for teams, in the event the team should need to change, which to me was an obvious attempt to deflect blame. Regardless, the FIA effectively scrapped the only plausible solution to the events that ended up taking place.
In a move to salvage the day, Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Michelin posed the addition of a chicane before the fast turn to reduce the speed when the cars passed through the turn, reducing the load.
But FIA, from London, would not, or could not sanction the race if the circuit changed without approval, making the race a non-points-paying race. Obviously, teams with other tire makers would have been penalized in that scenario.
Not lost to me was the tremendous deflation of emotions on the day. When the crowd turned nasty, the posh Europeans withdrew into themselves, and sniffed and sought the exits. Montiero was the only high spirited of the three podium finishers, Michael Schumacher with a nail biting pass of Barrichello again for the win and Rubens in second.
Commentators Varsha and Hobbs were speechless (not literally), but told us it was not the first time. Appearently dramas such as this are not unprecedented. A dark cloud has settled over Formula 1 this year, and it's center is over the tires. Until they (FIA) relieve the unbelievable strain placed on the teams to qualify and finish the race on a single set of tires, these failures will continue. Oddly enough, it was Bridgestone that seemed most unable to cope with the new tire requirements earlier in the season. Now, Michelin is under the gun, and with a debacle such as our generation has never seen, FIA will be under it's fans' microscope to improve conditions from impossible back to merely difficult!
Perhaps the most disturbing factoid coming out of the day was the similarity to the above referenced Formula 1 race inwhich over half of the teams sat out in protest, and again, it was two Ferrari's that outclassed the diminished field to a predictable finish. A dangerous pass by Pironi over teammate Gil Villneuve, against teams' orders, so inflamed Villneuve he vowed never to speak to Pironi again. Tragically, at the next race, at Imola, Villeneuve pushed his car harder than ever before, some said to out-qualify his teammate, and crashed violently, senslessly, fatally.
Needless to say, it was a black day for Formula 1 then, and it's a black day for FIA, Eccleston, and Michelin today.
Too bad the drivers who were prepared to race bore the fan's ire.

Second Try

2005-06-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

Lost in the ether, it seems, is my first attempt at this site. It was titled, "The Late Racer" and I LOST it!!! For some reason, the URL for it was never recorded by me, and so far, finding it hasn't proved easy. SO- it has given birth to the new site, this one, Racing Diaries.
I am also a writer of dubious ability, but more importantly I like it. So from time to time I will include some writings from the past and present.

News Flash:
Watching the Speed network coverage of USGP, tire controversy is appearently raging. Incredibly, the race might be called!! Will report more...

Just Getting Started

2005-06-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my canvas, I am the Late Racer, Ian or as will be the norm, Katykarter.

Thank you for visiting, and this is the start of many communications from me.

I have many interests, but racing is my passion.
It is June 18, and 24 Hours at Le Mans will conclude and Champ Cars are at Portland, but the 2nd biggest racing day of the year is today, the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis is half an hour away.
(THE biggest day is, of course, Memorial day and the Indy 500)

Thanks for visiting, and any and all feedback is appreciated.
More and better things are to come, the least of which not being learning about this site and blogging in general.