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Holiday roundup December 2010 #F1 #NASCAR #Indycar

Posted on December 23, 2010 by thatconsultantbloke

#F1 – Good to hear that Vitaly Petrov has retained his seat at what will be Lotus-Renault and on a 2 year deal. Whether or not there may have been some finacial inducement he deserves to have a long term chance. The lad has the potential as shown the year before in GP2 and from a couple of drives in the second half of 2010, so it is refreshing to see a team making the committment. This is why I was so dissapointed to see Williams let The Hulk go when he is clearly a driver with some class and potential, but there you go.

Talking of Lotus, it will seem odd to have two varieties of Loti in the races next year, but that might be a marketing coup when all is said and done.

Will the team orders issue make any difference? I doubt it, but there are just 80 days to the new season, so we’ll soon know.

#NASCAR – I’m pleased to read that Richard Petty will have a team up and running next season, and will be looking out for the Digger and the Dinger week by week. At the moment I’m looking at options to be over in Florida in February, so might get another trip to the Daytona 500 in. It seems incredible that it will be 15 years since I last saw the race live, but time flies.

Is Junior something of a Jonah? His results have been way below expectations since the switch to Hendrick and the efforts to pair him with Mark Martin this year saw the latter have a much less stellar year than in 2009. Giving Junior another fresh start by, effectively, swapping him with Jeff Gordon may actully be doing the Martin/Gordon garage a favour at the expense of the #48. Jimmy Johnson and Chad Knaus are a mean double act, and their professional approach has seen an unprecedented 5 year championship run. Jeff Gordon is a pretty resiliant bloke and also knows what it takes to win titles, but even he seems to have been ground down by the relentless march of the #48 crew. The switch of the #24 and #88 puts Junior in something of a make or break position, but the #5 and #24 operations may well benefit from sharing an garage more. I hope that Junior does well; we know he can do it as we’ve seen him do it in the past. The question is, will putting him in with the #48 operation pull him up or them down?

We kick off in 60 days. If I’m not there to see it for real, I’ll be following the Daytona 500, and the rest of the series, on the ‘net.

#Indycar – I’ve been re-reading a few on my many books on the Indy 500 and am getting tempted to try and fit in a trip to Indiana on one of my Stateside trips this year. It was a pretty good season this year and hopefully we’ll get another one in 2011. Tony Kanaan will be back for another year, but with a new team and he’s always good value. Sarah Fisher looks to be stepping back into an owner’s role rather than owner/driver, but my hat is off to her for having done so much over the years. Andretti, Ganassi and Penske will be strong again no doubt and there is a good mix of circuits to test different styles and skills. Bring it on.

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Coming soon – motor sport book reviews

Posted on November 25, 2010 by thatconsultantbloke

I have an extensive library of motor sport books and am always adding to my collection. One of my followers here has mentioned that I sometimes recommend books related to posts on this blog, but could I comment on new books, so over the winter I’m going to start adding reviews of motor racing books here.

These things are always personal, but I’ll try to be objective. I’m not sure where I’ll start, but expect a mixture of new books and also some old classics that I think should be part of your library if you can find a copy.

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Weekend round up – 21 November 2010 #NASCAR

Posted on November 21, 2010 by thatconsultantbloke

#NASCAR And so to Homestead for the finale. Things not looking so good for the #11 team after qualifying, but Denny Hamlin is not as flakey as a certain team mate and it looked for a while as though he had pulled it off. JJ has done this before though and he wound up the #48 to put the chase out of reach. Game over – who’d have thought it possible to win 5 in a row, but the chase has screwed up the championship race pretty thoroughly, so these things become possible.

If NASCAR want a 12 car short series then let them run one. The real cup should be about the whole field and the whole season. It’s why my interest in cup level racing has faded since they brought in this competition caution on the season, but there we go; I don’t make the decisions.

With most of the season done and dusted I’ll be doing just one more round up for 2010 to wrap up the #DTM, and then  I plan to report my thoughts on some of the off season events through the Winter. I’m also working on some retro related posts to bring my slant on events of past times in the way that I did for the Sid Collins eulogy for Eddie Sachs, and the first of these relates to Jim Clark and his final race with another coming along on the Ford GT40 at Le Mans. Watch out for these in the coming weeks.

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Weekend round up – 14 November 2010 #NASCAR #F1

Posted on November 15, 2010 by thatconsultantbloke

#NASCAR Well done Todd Bodine on a second truck title. Families likes the Bodines are part of the backbone of racing. Over at the duel in the desert, the Spring Cup rumbles towards a conclusion with just 15 points between the top two and three possible winners. Roll on next week.

#F1 Well, it’s all over for another year. It would be nice if the title could go down to the wire at one of the classic circuits rather than a glorified slot car track, but never mind. “Watta mistake-a to make-a” as Bertorelli used to put it in ‘Allo ‘Allo as Ferarri make amends for the Hockenheim team orders issue by covering Webbo and spoiling Alonso’s chances. Some you win, some you lose. Easy to be right after the fact.

Having said that, the Mineral Water Kid deserved the title with 5 good wins, so no arguments there, and a good result for the sport. Also good to see the McLarens back on form.

Nice also to see Petrov do well. The lad has had a traumatic season, but is learning the ropes and has the right to be on the grid. He had Alonso welll covered for two thirds of the race and that is pressure.

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

Weekend round up 31 October 2010 #NASCAR #DTM #F1

Posted on October 31, 2010 by thatconsultantbloke

#DTM Heck of a wreck for Alex Premat, but good to hear that he walked away. The series lead changes again, so all to play for still at the top of the table.

#NASCAR All the fun of the fair at Talledega. Good to see Junior doing his stuff at the head of the field for a time, but what was all that between him and Burton? Wasted day. Also good to see Front Row Joe do a great job in qualifying and got a lap led. His home town of Lakeland is just up the road from my place in Fla, so he sort of got adopted back in ’93 as my local driver and we’ve followed his fortunes since. Shame he got in wreck so close to the finish.

So, with the wreck at the whiteflag, it looks like Bowyer has the win by inches over Harvick, with Johnson edging Hamlin for seventh (at the time of writing). That should put the #48 just 10 points ahead of the #11 in the title race by my reckoning. (I’ll update this later when we get a provisional result). The Dinger is apparently OK after getting flipped as the white flag flew. JPM a good 4th.

#F1 Comings and goings at Williams? I’d like to see the Hulk get another season. He is a promising talent and hasn’t been shown up that much by the Barrow Boy.

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