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Weekend roundup – w/e 1st April 2012 #NACSAR #IndyCar #F1 #BTCC

Posted on April 2, 2012 by truckertoggle

#NASCAR at Martinsville. Good to see the modern cars at one of the sport’s spiritual homes. Kasey Kahne racked up pole for Hendrick, but went out with engine woes leaving the #24 and #48 to slug it out for what looked like a certain 200th win for Hendrick, but a late caution (when Rooti  stopped on the track) it all went wrong on the restart with Boywer’s #15 starting fast and getting a run down the inside into turn one and then the #15, #24 and #48 all spun leaving Ryan Newman and AJ to run out the last couple of laps pretty much side by side and finishing in that order. Junior got 3rd and a consolation for Hendrick.

#IndyCar from Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama with an odd looking top six shootout for pole after problems for some of the usual suspects, but round one winner Helio Castroneves picked up the pole for Penske this time out, but could only translate that into third whilst retaining the championship lead. Will Power lost last time out due to a poor strategy when starting from pole, but this time started well down the grid and won with a perfect fuel and tyre strategy. Dixon slotted in between the Penske pair for second. Rubens got into the top 10 on his second outing and looks like he might be getting the hang of things.

#F1 and it is good to see that we might be getting the French grand prix back onto the calendar. Ricard is a decent enough circuit too even if it is a bit isolated, but with a good date the weather should be cracking down South: It would be good to have it back in July so that it is adjacent to the British GP again. Our fingers will be crossed for a successful negotiation.

#BTCC got under way at Brands Hatch this weekend with Rob Collard (BMW), Matt Neal (Honda) and Jason Plato (MG) picking up the wins. Close and colourful action for the faithful on a bright day at the Kentich circuit. Almost wish we had gone…

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Weekend roundup – 12th March 2012 #NASCAR #WTCC #F1

Posted on March 12, 2012 by driverjohn

#NASCAR – So one week after the Hamlin/Grubb partnership picks up its first win, Smoke & Steve get theirs. There has been a lot of talk about how breaking up the partnership that pulled off that amazing end to last season would make, but what real difference will it make? When it all boils down to it all the #14 did before the Chase was to make it into the Chase; they had an awfully inconsistent season up until then. We think that the right calls were made all round and that both the #11 and#14 will do better with their new pairings. With three races don they now have a win each and good luck to both.

Staying with Phoenix for the moment it was great to see Mark Martin pull off another pole. We’ve always been a fan and great to see him still able to contribute at this level.

#WTCC – We don’t often mention this branch of tin tops, but good to see the series kick off well at Monza with a pair of wins for Yvan Muller and his Chevrolet. But it was another veteran pulling off the pole with Gabrielle Tarquini, at 50, showing the way and bringing home him SEAT in third for race one before being taken out in that early incident in race 2. Not a bad weekend for the old guys in tin tops.

#F1 – The BS stops next weekend when qualifying gets under way down under. Just how quick is the Iceman and his Lotus? Just how far off are the Ferraris? Are Red Bull & McLaren close at the front? Will Caterham be close to the midfield pack? Have Williams remembered how to build a quick one? Who will show best from the second division runners? Will the bottom end of the third division still be as woefully off the pace?

Answer to all of these questions and more will emerge over the weekend when the real action starts. Stuff bernie and his TV deals; we’ll be following the action on on the web with interest.

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Weekend round up – 6th November 2011 #NASCAR #kylebusch #Texas

Posted on November 7, 2011 by driverjohn

#NASCAR – So Smoke does it again, even if Carl did run him hard on what seems to be a Ford track. Good to see the top two finish one and two though. Phoenix and Homestead to go now and only three points in it at the top. Not going to jinx either guy by making predictions here, so good luck to both.

The big news of the weekend was Ugly Brother jnr. Now we don’t like the Busch boys here simply because of this kind of thing. Ugly Bro snr upset us way back when he punted Mr Excitement out of the way to win at Dover (and got a punch in the face for his trouble – see that’s the way to settle these things, face to face, not on the track). So what’s our take on events in the truck race?

Well, he lost his temper and wrecked The Sheriff good and proper. Now that was wrong in any way that you want to look at it: This is racing, not a demolition derby for a start. Two people have died in top-level racing in recent weeks for goodness sake, so don’t wreck someone on purpose. Next up he did under caution! We think that NASCAR did the right thing here in sending out a message that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable.

Now we don’t like these two boys as we say, but we do respect their abilities as race car drivers. Both are good at what they do when they run clean, and the younger one especially so. Look at his win record. OK so he has been racking up a lot of these in the trucks and the Nationwide where you could argue that there is less opposition, but the kid can drive and race. We’d like to see what he could do with an F1 car, but he needs to curb that temper. Road rage is just not on anywhere.

We also do respect the apology that he put out. He’s not stupid either, and he let down his crew, his fans and sponsors as well as his family and himself on Friday night. Just because we don’t like him doesn’t mean that we don’t feel for him. At a time when the sport is still reeling from recent tragedies what he did was really dumb and adds ammunition for people who oppose the sport that we all love and that provides him with a good living. We sincerely hope that he has learned his lesson and can go forward with that great talent harnessed to winning races and championships the right way.

As a closer to this, rather lengthy, round-up, we’d also like to be critical of NASCAR a little. Yes they did they right thing in parking KB, but they do encourage rivalries to hype up the racing. It is hard to draw the line as to what is and what isn’t acceptable, but there is no way that they should be allowing these people to use their cars as weapons against one another. If they really want to create something for “the show”, put a ring up on the grass by the front stretch after ever race and put any pairs who want to square up in there, helmets off, to sort it out like men in front of the crowd. Or they could just shake hands and walk away….

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Weekend round up – 23 October 2011 #DTM #NASCAR

Posted on October 29, 2011 by truckertoggle

#DTM Jamie Green close out the season with a win at and Miquel Molina follows up a good back end to the season with a second pole position and third place in the race. Looking forward to next year and the return of BMW.

#NASCAR Mark Martin still has it with a pole position, but problems related to that final caution dropped him back and robbed Jeff Gordon of a drafting partner. Problems for both Ugly Brothers cheered us up here as did the top three at the finish. Good to see Clint win one as his time at RCR runs out, great to see Jeff Burton a close second, and also great to see Dave Blaney pick up a good result.

Interesting stuff about the #48 car and that radio transmission. Oops!

Martinsville next weekend. Always a tight one. Where will Smoke end up? We don’t think that his season is anywhere near done yet.

#Marco – We don’t usually mention the blokes who race with only half the required number of wheels here, but sseveral of our favourite drivers of old started on bikes and we have a huge respect for those guys. So it was sad to hear that they had a tragic weekend and lost one of the promising younger riders. RIP Marco.

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Weekend round up – 3 October 2011 #NASCAR #DTM #NASCAR #BTCC

Posted on October 3, 2011 by truckertoggle

#NASCAR – not much to report really as one of the Ugly Brothers won and we don’t like them here on these pages. The #48 came up a bit short, but had a good run and a typical chase result for JJ. Is he back?

The Petty boys did well with both in the top 10 and The Dinger managing to lead a lap. Good job guys.

Smoke dropped the ball maybe and slips to joint third in the standings.

#IndyCar – more problems here too for our favourite as Miss B gets released into his path on pit road. Exit the fastest car in the race. Not Miss B’s fault; her crew should never have released her, but pit road saw more that its fair share of chaos last night. Hope those who got hurt get well soon.

Big swing in the points back in favour of Dario. One race to go.

#DTM – One to go here too, but Martin Tomczyk takes the title anyway for Audi in Valencia, the first guy to do it in an old spec car. A great series and should get better next year with BMW back to give Audi and Mercedes some competition.

#BTCC – Another series with one more weekend to run, albeit that there will be three races that day in the current BTCC format. On the Brands Hatch GP circuit two wins for Jason Plato in his Chevrolet put him in front in the title race, but success ballast and the reverse grid held him back for the third race of the day and Matt Neal took a win for Honda and takes a 5 point championship lead into the last trio of races at Silverstone.

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