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weekend round up – 8th May 2011 #NASCAR #F1

#NASCAR from Darlington. Regan Smith picks up a maiden win for himself and Barney Visser’s Furniture Row team and manages to translate a great qualifying performance this season (7 top ten starts out of 10 trys) into a win. The wonders of NASCAR make these things possible, and it’s great to se one of the smaller teams pull off a win, especially at one of NASCAR’s iconic venues. Also of note maybe was that the four manufacturers competing in Sprint cup were each represented in the top 4. Less noteworthy was that, yet again, he who shall not be named was involved in some pushing and shoving. We’ve suggested here before that parking him for a few races might wake him up; the #18 driver has the talent to win cleanly, so why all this stupidity almost every week?

#F1 from Turkey. We’re pleased here to see Mercedes challenging and, with Renault/Lotus, making it five teams in the hunt in qualifying at least, even if race pace varies hugely. But is there any doubt that the Red Bull, especially in the hands of Vettel, is the class of the field? Certainly in terms of raw pace he has them all covered.

Behind the flying #1 Red Bull plenty of uncertainty about the outcome with the differing strategies for a while though, but once you get down to the last 15 laps or so it’s all pretty much over. A decent track for a modern one and plenty of overtaking going on.

Who can stop Red Bull though, and Vettel in particular? Two in a row is not an easy feat, but who would back anyone other than Vettel for the title at this stage? Roll on Spain.

7th April 1968 – Jim Clark and that F2 Race

Almost every account you read of Jim Clark’s death at Hockenheim describes the event as “an unimportant F2 race” or “minor F2 race” or similar dismissal.

Regular readers of my blogs will know of my campaign against sloppy use of language, and this is another example of it. I can maybe understand a hack from a mainstream rag getting the wrong idea about one of the world’s leading drivers, and the outstanding talent of that time, running in a Formula 2 event, but motoring journalists should know better. So here’s my effort to set the record straight as I see it. Continue reading