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Weekend round up – 16th October 2011 #F1 #NASCAR #BTCC #Indycar

Posted on October 17, 2011 by truckertoggle

Toggle & I are up and about early for tea and toast and tend to check for the US results that have come in after our (early) bedtime. So to open up the computer before dawn this morning and be greeted by the news from Vegas was a real shock. We’ll come back to IndyCars at the end of the round up, but RIP Dan Wheldon and thanks for all the memories. Condolences to the Wheldon family and our thoughts are with the whole Indy racing community and to all those fans, officials and corner workers at the track whose night ended so tragically.

#F1 Korean GP – So Seb wins another one, but redemption for Lewis? Certainly that was a much more committed and confident looking performance both in qualifying and the race. And as for Massa’s claims that Hamilton is dangerous, well it didn’t stop Webbo having the confidence in him to go wheel to wheel on a few occasions do it? Like Lewis, Felipe is in a dark place right now and needs some good results too.

A horrible track though, and where were the crowds again? The rubbish places the circus has to go to these days in search of Bernie’s dollars.

#NASCAR – Has the #48 resurgence come to an end? After two good results to lull back and early contact with the wall sends JJ to pretty much the back of the pack in the race and a big tumble in the points. A good day for the Blue Oval boys though, with 4 cars in the top 7. Good to see the RPM cars doing well again and maybe we’ll get to see the #43 back in victory lane again soon.

Five races to go and  fairly open still.

#BTCC – Well done Matt Neal on another title. DJ is old enough to have seen your Dad racing.

#IndyCar – What can we say? Motor racing is dangerous and times like this bring back the immortal words of Sid Collins from Indy in 1964. You can find the full text of his eulogy to Eddie Sachs elsewhere in our archives here (perhaps because of yesterday’s tragedy that post has had over 100 hits today alone).

There is no point saying that the track is at fault. There have always been dangerous tracks and Motor Sport featured various views on Spa in its old guise last month as an example. For our US friends, maybe Langhorne Speedway would be an appropriate equivalent, albeit for different reasons? If you take away the danger you take away the sport. Losing someone is always hard, but as long as we race there will always be the risk that it will happen.

Best wishes to Pippa, Will and JR for speedy recoveries. Congratulations to Dario and his team for another title, commiserations to Will and Penske for coming up just a touch short again.

We’ve been critical here of the Indy organisers for some of what they’ve done in recent times, but have to hand it to them for the dignified way they seem to have handled yesterday’s events and plans for the awards ceremony. You did the right thing. And the 5 lap tibute was a nice touch.

 

 

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Weekend round up – 25th September 2011 #F1 #NASCAR

Posted on September 26, 2011 by truckertoggle

#F1 Fairly inevitable winner, but perhaps JB’s second place wasn’t on the cards after practice. Lewis was really very unlucky with the Massa contact and the drive through was possibly underserved. MSC was equally unlucky we think with the contact that took him out of the race. Back markers were a problem and there are a few guys out there who show their inexperience, but the stewards decision is final and that is that.

The Singapore organisers are apparently considering whether or not to continue the event. Here at MSM we would not be sorry to see it go. Leaving aside DJ’s opposition to the night race, it is not a great circuit and we would rather see the race at a decent venue.

#NASCAR was back in New Hampshire where Ryan Newman followed up his team owner’s win last week with pole, but in another fuel mileage decided race it was Smoke in the #14 who pulled off a second straight win and takes a 7 point lead into the Monster Mile.

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Singapore GP. How do you boycott something twice?

Posted on September 21, 2011 by driverjohn

Readers of recent posts will know that I stopped watching the BBC coverage of F1 as a personal protest about Bernie flogging the rights to Sky. I’ll not dwell on all that now though, you can dig through the #skypaynoway archive if you’re that bothered.

But those who have followed this blog and its predecessor will be aware that I also have a personal boycott of the #SingaporeGP since the diminutive one ordered it to be held in the evening to suit European TV schedules. If I can get up early to watch so can anyone else, and I am still not prepared to overlook the gross waste of electricity and its consequent environmental impact.

Unlike the grammatical double negative one boycott doesn’t cancel the other, but I can’t not watch it twice. Maybe I should both turn off and unplug the TV? Or should I also boycott the Twitter coverage that I’ve been using since stopping watching the BBC?

Good luck to the teams, drivers, officials and locals who turn out to watch and I hope that you have a safe and interesting race. My protest is probably a futile one, but if you can’t stand up for what you believe in it’s a sad world.

My pal Toggle will compile the round-up as far as the GP is concerned. I’ll save myself for the NASCAR.

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Inaugural Indian Grand Prix 2011

Posted on September 15, 2011 by driverjohn

We were astonished to read in the row about import tax for the F1 teams that the Indian Government do not regard their inaugural F1 event as having “National Importance”.

Now we understand that this has been said in the context of whether or not to grant a temporary tax expemption certificate for the Grand Prix as a sporting event, and therefore that the remark could be being viewed out of context, but it seems strange that they see things that way.

The motoring market in India is exploding and the country has had two grand prix drivers in recent years, both of whom had the talent to be on the grand prix grid even if both have been outed by others with bigger wallets perhaps. One of them will be on the grid when the circus rolls into the country later this year. They also have their own F1 team, and one that isn’t doing too badly either.

And there seems to be a genuine exitement amongst the fans in the country, unlike other recent additions to the GP calendar where the TV cameras reveal acres of vacant viewing areas we believe that there will be a good crown at New Dehli this October.

Here at MotorsportMania we wish the Indian nation well for their inaugural GP. We think that it has national importance and hope that they have a great race. All power to them.

And good luck to Karun Chandhok in his Lotus.

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Is the Italian GP at Monza the spiritual home of F1 now?

Posted on September 14, 2011 by truckertoggle

As DJ is holding his BBC boycott protest it falls to me to report on what may have come over as an error by the BBC commentary team last weekend when they said that the old banked Monza circuit was last used in 1961 and maybe gave the impression that it was always used up until that point and never since.

The banked track at Monza still exists and you see the North banking clearly as the cars come down from Lesmo 2 and the cars come under the bridge. When the banking was used the cars would start, as now, from the left side of the pit straight, do a conventional lap of the road course, but on the exit of the Parabolica would keep right past the pits and on to the North banking, off that and down the straight to the South banking and then emerge from that onto the left side of the pit straight to start the next lap.

This combined course was ready in time for the Italian GP in 1955, and was used again for F1 in only three more years; 1956, 1960 and 1961, but was also used for the 1000kms Monza sports/GT world championship race through until 1969, reverting to the road course only from the 1970 race.

The banking was threatened with demolition a few years back, but a concerted campaign saw that off for the time being. It can’t last forever without some work, and therefore money, being invested, but it would be good to think that it will be around for a while as a reminder of a different era in motor sport.

Monza is one of the great tracks and about the only one that is around from the start of the F1 world championship that the guys who raced then would still recognise. Silverstone is a very different track now, Spa is so much shorter, and the others are long gone from the scene. France may have held the first GP, but that has been off the calendar for a while now. The UK may be home to more teams than anywhere else, but Italy, through Monza, has that F1 world championship continuity and, with such passionate fans, has a good claim to be the spiritual home of F1, and why not?

 

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