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Good to know Mr 500 is still going strong at 88

Posted on June 6, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

There’s a link below to a NASCAR item on Andy Granatelli, legend of the Indy 500, STP Oil Treatment, Studebaker, Paxton Products, Grancor and more. The man is a fantastic character and it’s great to hear that he is still with us and as irrepressible as ever.

Stories about him are legion (and he maybe wrote most of them), but as a salesman, promoter, innovator and all round showman the world of  motor sport would have been a lot less fun without him.

The feeling of excitement when I first saw the pictures of his 1967 STP Paxton Turbocar is with me still. It was an awesome device, and, like the innovations from Midland, Texas in Can-Am, you somehow knew that a ban would come. It did, but not before further efforts to castrate the beast had yielded the 1968 Lotus 56 STP Turbocars that also almost pulled off the win. A great shame that both of these cars never made winner’s circle, and somewhat ironic that the 1969 STP Lotus entries were pulled so that Mario Andretti had to start in his back up car, and won!

The Italian connection of Andretti and Granatelli had some rotten luck at Indy, and their one win between them is that 1969 race in the second string car. Never mind, they tried. Boy did they try. Happy memories.

Read the article here.

Filed under: Cars, Circuits, Drivers, F1, Indycar, NASCAR, Teams | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Bahrain GP back on? Just how stupid can you get? #bahraingp

Posted on June 4, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

I am staggered by the decision to put Bahrain back into the calendar for 2011, and to announce the decision on a day when certain civil rights events were taking place is the height of insensitivity, let alone stupidity.

Other than lining the pockets of a tiny minority what possible benefit can come from this decision? What if some teams or drivers refuse to take part? What if the event leads to protests that are brutally put down?

This decision deserves the widest condemnation and brings nothing but shame on those that made it.

Filed under: Circuits, Drivers, F1, Teams | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

well done Lewis Hamilton

Posted on June 2, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

Tweeting may be a strange way of apologising for old fogies like me who like to do these things face to face, but Lewis Hamilton is a modern man and you can’t get more public in your apology than Tweeting it, so well done that man. We all make mistakes and can do and say things that we are not proud of, but to stand up and say sorry is the right thing to do.

As he said in one of the Tweets, onwards and upwards. Let’s hope the cards fall better for him in Canada.

Filed under: Drivers, F1 | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

#NASCAR round up 30 May 2011

Posted on June 2, 2011 by truckertoggle

(Managed to muck up the scheduling on this one and it didn’t go out as planned, so here it is, albeit a few days late – sorry)

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen Kimi make his first couple of forays into NASCAR with a good 15th place in the trucks (Nelson jnr did even better, although he has had more practice) and followed that up with a Nationwide outing that didn’t go quite as well. Watching him in the trucks you could see all of the car control and feel was there though, and he just needs to get used to the lack of sophistication in the equipment and the very different subtleties of the racing. If he has fun he will stay and the results will come.

In the 600 more heartbreak for Little E as he ran out of gas on the run to the flag, but good results for RPM with the Dinger and the Digger bringing their Fords in 5th and 6th. Could we have a Petty car back in the winner’s circle this season? Hope so.

Good fun watching the Nationwide race at Iowa. One of the less famous venues maybe, but a good race and good to see one of the series’ regulars hold off the Sprint Cup boys for the win.

Filed under: Drivers, F1, NASCAR | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

monaco grand prix round up 29 May 2011 #F1

Posted on May 30, 2011 by truckertoggle

Mayhem at the #monacograndprix with the decision to allow cars to be serviced during the red flag screwing up any chance of the natural outcome.

Some say that you make your own luck, and Vettel certainly fluked this one. Not that he isn’t fast, but McLaren had this one won until that call to bring Button in for athird change of tyres at just the wrong moment. Just when it looked as though he might have a chance of picking up the win late on the red flag blew his chance for good. Why F1 doesn’t run NASCAR parc ferme style procedures at these times is maybe down to safety, but they might just as well have flagged it short under the circumstances. I’m sure that my friends dow the road at Grove would have been happier as hamitlton would not have been able to stuff Pastor’s chances into the barrier. At times Lewis is a bit daft, and his lunge at Massa earlier was not what you expect of a driver with his talents. His penalties were deserved and his ill considered comments post race did him no credit.

Whilst the new tyre rules provide overtaking chances, it was Sutil’s marathon stint that built up the convoy that triggered the red flag incident just as the leaders were coming through.

So, for me, the race got spoiled. Vettel and his Red Bull is the quickest combo around, but a bit of guile, as well atalent and racecraft almost saw him beaten today, but circumstances handed him the win on a plate. Maybe he should get into the casino and put his winnings on the table, or maybe he’s used up today’s quota of luck?

Filed under: Circuits, Drivers, F1 | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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