Celebrating Motorsports and the Automotive Lifestyle.
In-depth coverage of Sport Car Racing and other Road Racing series such as IndyCar, Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, V8 Supercars, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) and World Touring Cars.
All from a fan's perspective.
A few days ago, Leo Parente and some of this staff at Drive Network/Shakedown got together to tackle the mammoth task of repairing the sport of auto racing in America, which is badly needed.
I also made a video reply to their 30 mins video. 30 mins is not enough time to get to all the problems, not just in America but around the world. So I plan on making a series of videos in the hopes of generating interested in a fan forum.
The only way to keep this opaque sport from self-destruction and that's for the fans that watch the races on TV and attend the races in person to speak up!
1) Props to fellow Californian Charlie Kimball for his first victory in the Indycar series
He drove a great race, was fast all day. Another caution-free run at Mid-Ohio and the decision to split the strategy from the other Ganassi cars benefited him greatly. But he had to make make a daring pass on Simon Pagenaud to secure the victory. Pagenaud actually had a enough of a lead to beat the pit lane/stop delta time needed to stay ahead.
He came out ahead of Kimball but with cold tires couldn't hold him off.
Not sure what happen to Sato as his weekend went from bad to worst. I believed he finished 1 lap down with transmission issues but finished the race.
2) What happen to BMW in Moscow?
Only Farfas managed to make it into superpole qualifying only for it to be cancelled because of President Putin's plane flying in the airspace required for the helicopter to take aerial shots.
Farfas finished on the podium (3rd) and Derek Werner finish 7th.
Anyway the short of it is; Spengler's chances of defending his title took a serious blow when he was bullied off the track by Mortara and finished 1 lap down in 19th. Being 27 points behind with four races to go; Rockie is one victory and Top 10 finish ahead of Spengler and doesn't appear ready to start having reliability problems since he dominated most of this race and won with ease.
Joey Hand got another Top 10 (8th) finish which is more than I can say about Andy Priaulx. He continues to struggle even with a car change for 2013 (He driving Hand's car from 2012). Andy has had one bright spot during his time in DTM, one top ten finish last year. He was never a dominant driver in WTCC, he was consistent points scorer with about 3 victories on average since 2004.
I guess he's not cut out for DTM, which isn't surprising, plenty of former F1 drivers have tried to win in DTM and haven't. It will be very interesting to see if he's continues in DTM next season because the only other outlet for Priaulx might be 3rd driver duties in USRC with RLL Team BMW.
Of course its possible BMW might decide that Hand needs to focus on DTM, which would open up a seat for regular driving duties in USRC, but I think John Edwards is vying for that spot.
With four races left in DTM and four races after this weekend's ALMS@Road America combination race with Grand Am, the silly season could start in earnest a bit early and people's lives could be drastically different by Christmas.
If you haven't seen the race, check it out -
3) Remember Jose Maria Lopez?
In 2007, he was recruited by Peterson/White Lightning who was partnering with the new Corsa Motorsport team who was also fielding a Ferrari F430. Brand new tub from Italy.... In opening qualifying, he managed to wreck a two race old car. We wouldn't see Corsa again until the Utah race and then a year later when they tried to run a hybrid electric car for the first time in the ALMS.
Lopez was tapped in the media for the US Formula 1 team that was to be based out of the Charlotte, NC area.
When that failed, Lopez was a regular in the Argentinian Touring Car Championship (TC2000), where's he's two time champion ('08-'09). He also made some appearances in the final years of the FIA GT series before it moved too its GT1 World format.
I'm fairly sure he's done some Blancpain races as well, but don't quote me on that.
In any event he won race #2 at the WTCC race in Argentina where he was a guest driver. Even though he benefited from a reversed grid, he steadily increased his lead and was helped out tremendously by a stop-n-go penalty given to Yvan Muller who was running him down after starting 8th but was already 3rd after one lap.
Race #1 was another whitewash by Yvan Muller who increased his point lead yet again. He could actually quit now and nobody would catch him. I don't know what the magic number is, but I may send a Tweet out to Martin Haven to see if he has any idea.
Rumors are swirling that Muller might be a teammate of Seb Loeb when he makes his WTCC debut next season in a factory backed Citroen.
There are new regulations for 2014, stay tuned as I hope to have a Touring Car expert to explain it not only to me but the rest of you. All we know thus far is the cars will be drastically different and all races will be standing start. Its believed BMW will not return to the championship next season, leaving only FWD cars to compete in 2014.
Next top for the WTCC, Sears Point! I would love to support the series but the truth is, I am saving up for a trip I will discuss very soon and it's too inconvenient to get to the track without a car.
4) Another interesting weekend for the British Touring Car Championship.
All the races were very active, lots of close racing. I guess these new championship specific cars are a success.
If you want to watch any of this stuff in the United States, you have to wait until the off-season on Speed. But Speed is going to be defunct August 17th, so where will you be able to watch this?
If you have access to the Speed 2 web site, both the BTCC and WTCC are shown there I believe both live or time-shifted.
DTM streams their races live on YouTube and its not Geo-Blocked so you can watch it here.
Failing that you have another way to access this and all the racing you can stand. I will discuss that soon, so stay tuned.
If you venture around the net some you'll find fans, insiders and even some media types simply don't get it...
From the top, the ALMS despite being bought out by Grand Am/NASCAR which I thought was a possibility all the way back in 2007 has won the fan's hearts and minds. Grand Am supporters always want to look at the P1 and P2 class and say "its not successful". What are you kidding me? So many ALMS fans are desperate to get Audi back into the fold, they are okay with them running a DP... So the rigidness of a few Grand Am teams (Spirit of Daytona, Action Express and Gainsco) *I should mention this is the FIRST AND LAST TIME you'll see me link these ridiculous Grand Am teams on my web site.* that are reluctant to upgrade their cars to match P2 pace in the new merged series is unfounded and not easily explained. But I will attempt too! :) There is a CLEAR conflict of interest in who is paying the bills and it seems pretty obvious to me. Notice that all three teams mentioned run the GM designed, Pratt-Miller built DP body panels. I know for a fact and its been mention by Peter Keane on Racing Insiders that they would not like to upgrade their DP because it defeats the purpose of DP's cost control measures in Grand Am. Maybe that's because GM pays the bills? That has been confirmed by Starworks owner Peter Baron. He makes the comment @ 1:30 into the interview.
That line of thinking is consistent with "The victor get all the spoils". But as the IRL paddock soon learned when it merged with CCWS (CART); ALMS has the fans Grand Am covets, but knows they alienated them with the first and second gen DP cars and yet some teams want to protect that which we (myself included) fans don't like at all? I would say I can't believe my eyes/ears but I'm not surprised at all actually. In the end, CCWS/CART fans got what they wanted, New Cars, Turbocharged Engines, Diversity and great racing;. The IRL brain trust had to yield. Two of the poorest (relative term) teams in the DP paddock are in support of allowing more technology into DP's and it would actually save money. Ryan Dalziel explained on Radio Leman's Midweek Motorsports that for example moving to carbon fiber brakes on the cars would actually save money and this was taken directly from their experience in running a cost controlled program with a P2 car in WEC. In fact Ryan discussed at length the differences between the DP and P2 since Starworks owns both and recently tested them at Sebring in April (2013). In the end the Grand Am brain trust and TEAMS will have to yield. The fans want P1 if they can keep it (won't happen) but will pretty much get the rest of the ALMS untouched, while the Rolex GT field will get pared down by attrition. Attrition you say? Yes I said it, the question is who? Right now if you cornered me, I would say Turner Motorsports is unlikely to continue in Rolex GT but may continue in Continental Tire. In fact I think all the Prep 2 tube frame cars will disappear, this includes the GX class Mazda 6's in a one and done for Mazda. I think that engine will be moved to Dyson's Lola LMP2 car, its always been an P2 car for those paying attention.
If that wasn't enough, now comes more news about DTM being licensed in America without any domestic involvement. How can they push forward with this nonsense while trying to sort out Sports Car racing? I am not sure who believes this, but in some circles there is a belief that to capture the fan base that watches plays Gran Turismo (okay Forza too), Japanese Super GT and DTM online but actually goes to Drifting events will be interested in DTM America. Really? Is there any proof???? Since DTM and Super GT regulations have merged, starting in 2014, except for the body panels and powertrains, the cars under the skin will be the same. Since GT500 in Super GT have a tire war, all things equal the GT500 cars will be faster over a lap. Anyway, IMHO you can't have an American DTM series without involvement from at least one US manufacturer. It has to be a coupe body style, so that leaves out Chrysler/Fiat. Ford should and I believe would have some interest since they spent very little money outside of NASCAR and NHRA. It also allows them to race the Mustang body shell without the limitations of its current suspension. Though mules of the new Mustang coming in 2015 have been seen with Independent Rear Suspension . They are also moving away from retro body styling which means they may be finally be able to race the car in ACO GT spec. Without a clearly identified fan base and without any clear involvement from an American car company, I think correctly can hope for DTM races in the United States. But honestly if you're the type of racing fan I am, you knew this was coming anyway, especially since European car sales are slipping. An update on the podcast - It looks like August is the debut for the podcast and an update of blog visuals. It will also start using the domain name I purchased back in Feb.
