Race Car Stuff

Voting for your favorite moment in the GrandAm Rolex series so far this year:

Voting for Rolex Moment of the Year Now Open

I had thought the finish of the VIR 400 race was one of the best road racing finishes ever in any form of racing when I watched it. Just to be sure my VIR central bias was not showing through too much I watched all of the clips and still came to the same conclusion. It definately got my vote.

Sorry posting has been so slim lately. Much has been going on in my life lately, but preparations are underway for the Mazda Driving Associates High Performance Driving Seminar at the Summit Point Raceway, Shenandoah Circuit in less than two weeks. Anyone going, look me up. I will be in a faded and peeling paint first generation RX7 being towed by a blue Expedition.

Things have sorted out with Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. since last time I posted. As expected Carl Edwards was fined and put on probation. Of course he was already on probation and the money is basically a drop in the bucket. The important story will never be heard in public. Carl has been Jack Roush’s protégé for some time now. I definitely got the feeling that in Jack’s eye he is the one of his very talented crop of young drivers that had the most talent. Listening to the in car radio communications between the two, that Roush is none too pleased with his driver. I am sure there is some sort of internal punishment at Roush that is more severe than anything we have heard about.
I very truly believe that Edwards deserved the punishment handed down. But when I was a kid, my parents always said I could fight back if someone else started the fight. I know that those are not accepted values in today’s times….. And I don’t think the new way is better. It just bothers me that the initial innocent victim is the one that gets punished, while the guilty one celebrates in victory lane.
I do realize that NASCAR draws a line between on track racing incidents and intentional wrecks like Carl did the past few weeks. They have made it clear that running into another car while the green flag is not out is the biggest no-no. I can completely understand that. But seeing Dale Jr. spin Carl out immediately made me think back to two incidents with Ricky Rudd. One year at Sonoma Rudd was in second place on the last lap, and he spun out whoever was leading (I think it was Davey Allison) going into turn 11. He tagged him from behind; Allison did a quick spin, and continued. Rudd went through the last two turns and crossed the finish line first. But he was penalized 20 seconds and moved back to second place, leaving Allison, who crossed the line second, won the race. Now I like both Allison and Rudd, so I can’t be accused of playing favorites. But that was the precedence. Rudd’s tap of Allison was no more or less intentional than Dale Jr’s. But the penalty was not the same. I am not sure I was in favor of the penalty, then or now, but it bothers me.
I believe in racing. I hate blocking in racing, but I have done it myself on the race track (boy did I feel dirty). I don’t always know where to draw the line that keeps drivers from blocking, vs. drivers that will gladly spin out the person in front. I have also been on both ends of that one too. I guess I will never agree completely with the decisions NASCAR, or any other sanctioning body makes. But this incident bothers me. I can tell by the boos heard from the grandstand that most of the fans also have a problem, in spite of Dale Jr’s. Popularity.
I have given no answers here. In fact I have probably opened up more questions than existed before. Let me know what you think…

More Mayfield

In a story that might take few readers away from the tabloid headlines for a few minutes, it seems that the entire garage at NSACAR (and CART/IRL) races knew of the personal relationship between Erin Crocker and Ray Evernham. I have to admit that information lends more credibility to Jeremy Mayfield’s claim of lack of attention from his car owner.

But I am still going to miss the Mayfield and Stewart Nextel commercials.

Why did they make it so ugly?

The “Car of Tomorrow” finished a test Monday at Michigan. This was the biggest track it has tested on, in addition it was the first time the Toyota was tested on the track with Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge. The tests apparently went pretty much as expected with no real surprises. The one exception is the comment of Matt Kenseth who said “They’re kind of hard to look at, but I’m sure we’ll get used to them.” I guess that sums up my feeling on the subject.

Tracy on Tunnel

Paul Tracy was on Wind Tunnel Sandy night. He is a refreshing breath of fresh air. In Today’s world of drivers being corporate spokesmen, it is nice to find a driver that seems to honestly speak from the heart and the head. Tracy has made many statements that would have had lesser caliber drivers been released from their services. But his sponsors give him that freedom. As a fan I am thankful.

Tracy made an interesting comment about Dale Earnhardt Jr taking the heat off of him for at least a little while after being involved with spinning out Carl Edwards. Carl retaliated after the completion of the race. Problem was that Edwards was already on probation after the incident on pit lane at Pocono. I am sure there is some interesting conversation going on between NASCAR officials and Edwards and Earnhardt.

My Sunday Races

I did not see any professional racing live Sunday as I was out autocrossing my RX7 at the Tidewater Sports Car Club autocross. The event was huge for the average events in the area. I happened to end up the worst that I have done in quite some time. The problem is that I felt like I had a pretty decent run. Other drivers that I had run close to, were now several seconds faster than me. Here are some pictures from the event:

Cameron’s photos from the 8/20/2006.

I think I have use that title before… I went another week swamped with my “real” job. I wish enough of you read this that I could quit, but lets just say that is a long ways from happening. So catching up in this busy past week in the racing world, here is my take on what has happened.

NASCAR at the Glen

I actually had time to remember to record this, and managed to squeeze in watching the race. I love Watkins Glen, but the races there have managed to turn into caution flag fests. The sand traps are nice to have, but having 4 or more laps of caution for every car that goes into the gravel in a 90-lap race gets pretty bad. NASCAR used to use localized cautions on road courses, but if the Glen doesn’t replace all of the gravel traps with pavement the races will continue to be this way. With the current money structure, there has to be funds available to pave over the remaining gravel, it sure has helped turn 1.

I am still also wondering why Kevin Harvic was not black flagged for leaking fuel. That was pretty significant.

I love road courses, but if the gravel traps are still there next year, I might spend the day getting caught on the work I have to do my cars.

Jeremy Mayfield vs. Ray Evernham

I was wondering if this was going to turn into a WWE match all season long. It was obvious there was some major tension between the two. I know that Dodge, Nextel, etc. have some serious money tied up in Mayfield promotions. Truth is that the general public seems to think Jeremy is a really nice guy and they enjoy the racing the Charger vs. the Magnum through the car wash or the back and forth banter between Mayfield and Tony Stewart on their Nextel walkie talkie phones. Well the strain between Ray and Jeremy got intense enough that Mayfield was let go. I will not begin to take sides, I like both of them. The #19 Dodge team was just not performing this year for whatever reason. As much as I like Mayfield, I can’t help but feel that he will never again get into a Nextel Cup car that is capable of winning a race or making the Chase to the Cup.

To make it a little more interesting, Kasey Kahne was on a local radio morning show this week. In an off the cuff remark on the air, he said that if he does not make the chase (he currently sits in 11th place 54 points outside the chase) that he will probably not be back at Evernham. Hummmmmm…… I guess a series high 4 wins and 11 top 10 finishes is not enough to keep a ride these days.

Extreme Wednesday

I went with a large group of my Rotary (engine) friends to Extreme Sports Wednesday at Langley Speedway. We had a great time. This is some in car footage from a friend’s 2005 Mustang GT:

Dustin Mergi’s Mustang

Do him a favor and do a right click and save as to watch the video.

Paul Tracy

I can be considered a Paul Tracy fan. I would like to see him win another championship. But he has been driving… like…. Well Mario Andretti lately. He seems to think nobody except him is on the racetrack. This is not even mentioning his off the track…. “events”. I normally say that whenever a driver first gets out of a car, if they go over and punch someone, yell at a course worker, or call someone ……uh.. colorful names when some bimbo announcer sticks a microphone in their face, I can forgive it. In this situation, adrenaline is flowing, and emotions are in full overload. Give them a break. But what is up with Paul the past few weeks.

The Big Cat Fight

At Kentucky Speedway the media hyped up a battle between Danica Patrick and the return of Sarah Fisher to the Indy Racing League. Sarah had been out the series for a number of years. Many said she never had a good car that was capable of winning, but in spite of that she had won two poles in her brief career. Taking into account the competitiveness of women in general, one could understand the envy she had for Danica Patrick. Danica came into the series with a top notch ride, very nearly won the pole for the Indy 500, and managed to milk the sexiness aspect into publicity, which means sponsor dollars and a better car. Well in the race they two of them never really ran together, but both of them ran very good races. Danica again out running her Rahal teammates, and Sarah soundly running in the meat of the field. Afterwards neither of them really mentioned the other in post races interviews, much to the chagrin of the media and the IRL promotional department. I give them both a “well done!”.

Autocross This Weekend

I am going to a Tidewater Sports Car Club autocross at ACU-4 which is probably the best autocross site on the east coast. I will be taking my RX7, and just enjoying myself. For more information about the event check out August 20th, TSCC at ACU-4. Watch for pictures and results on Monday.

About 15, maybe 20 years ago there was a video produced freaturing James Hunt driving a Ford Sierra, John Watson driving a Porsche 928, and Nikki Lauda driving a McLaren Formula 1 car that was current at the time. Basically they all dorve a lap around a fairly long race track. Hunt started first and about 30 seconds later Watson started, each showing in car footage and makeing comments about how good of a performance car each of them was. Lauda was still standing at the starting line, drinking coffee. He finished his coffee, casually put on his helmet, climbed in the car, got buckled in, started the engine and took off in persuit of the others. To make a long story short, Lauda beat the other two cars to the finish line.

Well the concept has been reproduced with Fiat and a Ferrari 575M Maranello being given a head start against Michael Schumacher in a current Ferrari F1 car. It is done just as well today as it was then. Let me know what you think.

Did you like the Shelby GT-H but wanted to own one rather than rent one occasionally on weekends? Well, According to AutoBlog.com:

Now you don’t have to go to a Hertz car rental just to pilot the best Mustang on the planet — you can actually buy it. Observe the 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT, the car that, until now, was only available as the Ford Mustang Shelby GT-H, the black and gold pony exclusively rented out at your local Hertz Rent-a-Car.

On a tip from our buddies at Winding Road, Ford’s grand pumbah of the Americas, Mark Fields, will unveil the second-wildest steed in the Ford stable for the 2007 model year later today. For those uninterested in picking up such the 325 hp beast with automatic transmission (available only as such where the GT-H is concerned), the Shelby GT will come with available manual transmission, as well as in different color schemes: black or white with silver stripes.

Ford’s Flat Rock, Mich. plant will churn out 10,000 at most, according to the Associated Press.

>>–More

Many club racers and autocrossers has experssed concern about the Pontiac Solstice upsetting the status quo in classes dominated by Miatas/MX5s and Toyota MT2s. Well the Solstice has achieved it first few wins in Showroom Stock B in SCCA Club Racing.

It seems that it is at least a serious contender. See what AutoBlog has to say about it. It does sound like a number of Miata racers might be making some test drives at their local Pontiac dealership.

I don’t really consider a Z06 Corvette a street car because they were originally built to make them legal for various racing series. But over the years the cars have gotten faster and more street friendly. The 2006 is an amazingly fast car, and a great platform for any track, autocross, or any kind of racing car. In spite of its road racing heritage it is even a great drag race car.

Well for 2007 it sounds like Chevy hit the performance plateau for at least a little while, so they have made it more street friendly with things like a bigger glove box, better accoustics, OnStar option and a new color.

The color is called Atomic Orange. For more info check out the pictures at AutoBlog.com.

What is this going to cost the buyer? An additional $4,310 for a nice round base price of $70,000.