Author: Mike Shaw

SCCA — World Challenge Ready to Wrap Up

Mike Shaw

This weekend, Pirelli World Challenge prepares to wrap up the 2014 season with this weekend’s race in Tooele, UT. Going into the final race of the season, the championship is still up for grabs, as Johnny O’Connell leads the points standings by a mere 42 points in his Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V.R in GT class. A similar gap of 48 points separates leader Michael Mills from Hendrik Hedman in GT-A. Mark Wilkins has a more comfortable lead over Lawson Aschenbach, sitting 80 points ahead in GTS class. In TC, Michael DiMeo…

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RALLY – Colin Clark’s WRC Australia Preview and “Bingle”

Mike Shaw

The Voice of Rally, Colin Clark entertains us along with fellow WRC Live Radio correspondent George Donaldson with a preview of this weekend’s Rally Australia. [youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/smccH-cHiws”] In addition to the beautiful scenery and wildlife of Eastern Australia, Colin also got an up close and personal taste of the dangers these stages can produce.  In a guest ride with none other than 2013’s Rally America 2wd Champion, Brendan Reeves, Colin got a ride he’ll never forget.  After a big jump at high speed they go off the road and crash,…

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SCCA — A Look Back at Road America

Mike Shaw

Its been almost two weeks since I had the pleasure of working with the Mazda MX-5 Cup Series Presented by BFGoodrich Tires at “America’s Nurburgring”, the beautiful Road America. Now that some time has passed and the excitement has calmed, I think it is worth looking back at the weekend as a whole, as the newly formed TUDOR United SportsCar Championship series paired with the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, in addition to the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge, Prototype Lites and Mazda MX-5 Cup, to form the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. The weekend had…

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Red Bull GRC – Daytona is Best Track Yet

Mike Shaw

As we mentioned on the podcast earlier this week, Red Bull GRC’s stop in Daytona has the biggest and most dynamic track to date.  The 0.924 mile circuit features the joker in turn one to split the field and preventing the infamous pile ups that caused red flags in past events.  Additionally this course has long enough straights that the cars are reaching 120MPH!   Qualifying, Heat 1, and Heat 2 are already complete.  What I could best discern from their tweeted commentary, this course is allowing for very close…

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Rally – David Sterckx Rallysport Moves Up to Open Class for Ojibwe

Mike Shaw

CONFIRMED! – David Sterckx & Karen Jankowski are moving up to Open Class for the Ojibwe Forests Rallly! If you listened to this week’s podcast we recorded on Tuesday evening, I assumed wrongly that Sterckx’s entry showing as open class must have been in error.  In reality while David & Karen missed the STPR & NEFR rounds of the Rally America National Championship, they were upgrading the car from Super Production to the Open Class specification.  Unfortunately no details have yet emerged of the upgrades to Sterckx Always Evolving 2011 WRX STi, but David…

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SCCA — Copeland Sweeps MX-5 Cup Double Header at Road America

Mike Shaw

Rounds Nine and 10 of the Mazda MX-5 Cup Series came to a close this weekend at the renowned road course of Road America, located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Driver Dean Copeland had a great performance on his favorite track, finishing first in both races. During Round 10, Copeland made a great save after going over the curb in Canada Corner and injuring the car, resulting in the steering wheel being offset by almost 90 degrees, yet still managed to hold on to the lead and take the top step of the podium. In the…

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SCCA — Mazda MX-5 Cup Ready for Rounds Nine and Ten at Road America

Mike Shaw

As practice has ended for the Mazda MX-5 Cup Series at Road America, drivers look to tomorrow’s qualifying for a suitable starting position for the upcoming double-header. As teams and drivers decide how to secure a spot on the podium in Elkhart Lake, WI, the one strategy that everyone has been talking about is drafting. No, this isn’t NASCAR and these Mazda’s are not the futuristic looking machines of F1, but here at Road America, drafting will be the name of the game for the two MX-5 Cup Series races this weekend. The combination…

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IMSA – Indy Wrap on to Road America

Mike Shaw

Action Express racing dominated the Grand Prix at the Brickyard this past weekend. Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi took the lead going into the first turn of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and didn’t look back. With the win the two drivers have taken over the points lead heading into next weekends event at Road America. But as dominating of a victory it was I believe the real story coming out of Indy was that of Wayne Taylor racing. The driver combo of Jordan and Rickey Taylor, were virtually…

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RALLY – WRC.com Launches New WRC+ Service

Mike Shaw

  Today WRC Promotor GmbH launched a new WRC+ subscription service.  The expanded features include most of what fans have been hoping the free site should have had ages ago.  For $4.99(EUR) a month you can get live stage video, on-boards, the full daily highlight shows, and perhaps best of all live maps with tracking of the drivers on stage.  WRC+ won’t replace the existing excellent WRC Live Radio coverage provided by Colin, Becs, George, and Lisa, but I think it should enhance the overall experience especially with the live tracking maps. I…

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Red Bull GRC Returns to the Dirt at The Dirt Track in Charlotte

Mike Shaw

Although gravel and dirt would make any traditional rally car at home, the Red Bull GRC cars are more tuned for tarmac and will be struggling for grip this weekend.  Smooth acceleration and clean driving will be the key.  Tune into NBC at 2:00PM Eastern (11:00 AM Pacific) to watch all the action. To catch heat races make sure you go to http://livetiming.net/grc   IN BRIEF: The Charlotte area is home to a significant portion of the Red Bull Global Rallycross field, making this weekend’s tilt at The Dirt Track at Charlotte…

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