Sad to hear that Ralph Broad has taken the final lap and gone to the grid in the sky. My generation here in the UK grew up on tin tops run by his excellent team; Minis then Fords and on to British Leyland products. A great man and one who produced great cars. RIP Ralph
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Filed under: Cars, Retro Moments, Tin Tops | Tagged: autoracing, BTCC, NASCAR | 1 Comment »
Firstly an apology for last week’s roundup going out late. Not sure what went wrong, but it happened.
#F1 So Nick Heidfeld is back as predicted, and at #Sauber, but at the expense of PDR. A shame to see Pedro go in many ways, although he has been outperformed by Kybosh somewhat.
Will Renault take Kimi? In some ways I hope not. Petrov has been showing signs of getting the hang on F1 after a decent GP2 season where he would have conceivably taken the title if he hadn’t had so many car failures, so we know the lad can pedal a car pretty well. Grosjean didn’t get enough of a chance to show his class last season, so I hope that the team has more patience with their Russian ace. Kubica is working the car into shape as a reasoanble hopeful and the team will benefit from him sorting their 2011 car, so we have the prospect of them being competitive next year, hence Kimi being interested, but, just as I’ve said regarding PDR getting the push at Sauber, and the other week about Chandhock being shoved aside at Hispanic, I don’t like to see drivers with a chance of being the future of F1 losing out.
#NASCAR The chase is on and Smoke comes up a half gallon short at New Hampshire to gift Bowyer the win and first bragging rights. A good run for the Dinger by the look of it, but a bad day for my favourite #5. Oh well, another race next weekend.
#Indycar. Exitement in Japan. From a Penske 1-2-3 in qualifying to a 1-3 in the race. Well done Helio for back to back wins, and WP coming in third so the championship goes to the wire at Homestead in 2 weeks time. I’ll be in Clermont that weekend, so might drive down for the finale. Just 12 points in it; going to be tight.
#BTCC Ford fun at Donnington in qualifying, but just the one race win. Sets up a great 4 way shoot out for the title at the final round at Brands. Another series goes down to the wire with no need for a daft chase format.
Maybe more important than the result is having Donnington back in action after the disgraceful fiasco of the ill conceived British Grand Prix project. All those concerned in that shameful episode, including a diminutive personage whose name shall not be spoken here, deserve stringing up for what they allowed to happen.
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Filed under: Cars, Circuits, Drivers, F1, Indycar, NASCAR, Tin Tops | Tagged: autoracing, BTCC, F1, formula one, Indycar, motorsport, NASCAR | 1 Comment »
Indycar. So the Toowoomba Terror led a lot of laps, but fell short on fuel and the finish and lost a little more ground at the top of the table. Come on Will, two to go, so keep in cool and the title is yours in your first full season. Good to see Helio with a win. I was there for his Indy Car debut many years back and have followed him since. A good bloke.
NASCAR. Happy to see Todd Bodine winning in the trucks. They’re a good bunch the Bodine boys and I’ll be happy to see Todd pick up another series title if he can. I can recommend the truck series as something to go and see, especially on the shorter tracks. In the Sprint Cup Smoke finally got one this year. My man MM dropped another place away from the chase and that’s pretty much it for 2010 for the #5. What went wrong after last year?
BTCC from Knockhill. Always good action on this tight little track and nice to see the wins shared three ways. First time for a while that I’ve watched some of the ITV4 coverage and they did a pretty good job with the support races giving some of the club racers and up and comping names getting exposure.
I don’t mention the bikes much as it’s not really my scene. I respect those guys a lot though and many of my favourite racing drivers of old came up via bikes; Surtees, Siffert, Hailwood, Beltoise and more, all from an earlier age, Damon Hill being about the last that I recall. They are a supr competitive bunch and very brave racers, so it is sad to hear that they have lost a second up and coming rider in just a week. Motor racing is still dangerous.
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Filed under: Cars, Circuits, Drivers, Indycar, NASCAR, Retro Moments, Tin Tops | Tagged: autoracing, BTCC, F1, Indycar, media, NASCAR | 1 Comment »
So Shrub (small Busch) got a couple at Bristol. Can’t stand the boke myself, but there you go. Good job Rootie for a fine second despite helath issues, and best wishes for a full recovery to Brian Vickers after his heart surgery. Hopefully you can come back next season and take up where you left off. The Double M had another bad night and is now just over 100 points out of the Chase; doesn’t look like he’s gonna make it. Shame. I’m looking forward to being over next month and seeing some racing on TV in my den plus all of the other round up shows.
Another strong UK day for the DTM boys and girls at Zandvoort. Well done GP and PdR for a great one two. Audi in trouble over team orders! Where would this championship be without them (I know they have ruled them out, but come on)?
Also on the team order front the outher double M has apparently said that Ferarri, Alonso and Massa should all lose their points from the German GP. Personally I think that this is nonsense. The most that should happen is that the result should be reversed, but I don’t care if they just tell them that they’ve been naughty and don’t do it again. There wouldn’t have been much of a fight if Alonso had had to make the pass unaided as he was so much quicker by that stage. The only possible other outcomes were that; a) they would have had eachother off, or b) that they would have slowed themselves down a bit and allowed Vettel to catch them. Ah! That must have been it; they wanted a German to win the German GP! Stupid of me not to have thought of that. Oh, yes. How do team orders not come into play when you want to take a part off one car and put it on the other one? Answers on a postcard please.
Fords rule at the Silverstone BTCC. I just can’t get excited about these hatchbacks pushing each other off. It’s not really racing to me somehow.
Will Power dominant in Sonoma. Looking good for the title Will; all ovals from now, so keep it going. Simona de Silvestro impressive again even if a couple of incidents left the final result looking less worthy.
Spa next week for the Belgian GP. One of the better tracks even if it’s a bit shorter than it used to be, and why oh why do they continue the stupidity of releasing an F1 pack of the start and into the slowest corner on the track? Why not move the start back round La Source and let them charge off down to Eau Rouge like in the old days? Anyway, it’s been a wet August so far so what are the chances of a wet race next Sunday? Should shake things up a bit.
Filed under: Circuits, Drivers, F1, Indycar, NASCAR, Tin Tops | Tagged: autoracing, BTCC, F1, formula one, Indycar, NASCAR, team orders | 1 Comment »
A good run for the Mercedes armada with a 1-2-3 in the #DTM and another good result for Bruno Spengler. A good shot for the title this year maybe? As an Ingolstadt fan I’m cheering for the wrong team here, but I’m more of a fan of the three pointed star drivers.
Over at Watkins Glen #NASCAR some good news for a few of my favourites. JPM got a good win, Marcus Ambrose I would also have been happy to see win, but third isn’t too bad, and the double M moved into 12th in the standings. He’s has a quiet year in 2010 compared to last, but I’d like to see him make the chase. So three good blokes there, but what is it with mad, bad Boris? The guy has talent, so why does he drive like an animal? The first time I saw him was in a truck race at Sonoma (when it still was) back in the second truck season (or was it the first? Whatever). He had a braging match, lost out then waited at the side of the track for the pack to come round and T-boned his adversary off the track. Lunacy. Why they didn’t park him for a long spell then I could never work out, but there you go. Well done Smoke for putting into the wall. Driving standards do generally seem to be falling as I’ve said in earlier blogs, especially with re-starts. These guys get paid a fortune; can’t they actually manage to drive a few laps without hitting each other?
Across to Mid Ohio for the #Indycars. Seven poles so far this year for Will Power, and a good second in the race, putting Dario under pressure, but thinking about the championship lead and not doing anything stupid. A good run for Simona de Silvestro too.
Filed under: Drivers, Indycar, NASCAR, Tin Tops | Tagged: autoracing, Indycar, motorsport, NASCAR | Leave a comment »
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