Author: Mike Shaw

Grand-Am – Review and Comments from SFP Grand Prix at Kansas Speedway

Mike Shaw

The weather was incredible at Kansas Speedway for the SFP Grand Prix, the qualifying and practice in the afternoon/evening was nice change of pace. At first the course did not seem like it would be too demanding and I wondered if the layout would provide exciting racing. The very tight infield made it difficult to pass in most areas except turn 4 and off the banking into turn 1. Being a local guy from Kansas I was hoping this venue would provide good racing and exciting exchanges, I think the…

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GrandAm – Preview for the SFP Grand Prix at Kansas Speedway

Mike Shaw

August 17th will be a first time for the Grand Am Rolex series will compete at Kansas Speedway. The speedway closed down last year for a period and created a new “Roval” layout which incorporates six turn road course in the infield and then exiting onto the outer 1.5 mile banked oval portion to complete the 2.35 mile lap. This will be the 3rd new track for Grand Am this year, after a trip to Circuit of the Americas in Texas and Road Atlanta in Georgia. Grand Am has seen…

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Global Rallycross Returns to the USA – Quick Recap Before X-Games LA

Mike Shaw

The Global Rallycross Championship has returned to the USA and they wasted no time in stacking the events.  3 weeks ago they went to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and a week later were racing on the high banks at Bristol.  After a short break, the 500+ HP “angry bees” (as Tanner Foust has been quoted) are back at it again with X-Games LA this weekend.   The Courses so far: The organizers are quickly figuring things out.  For GRC to be viable, they needed proper rallycross tracks.  They got…

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Review – 2013 New England Forest Rally

Mike Shaw

The long summer break for rally in America is over. It had been two months since STPR and teams were more than ready to get back into the action at the New England Forest Rally, the 5th round of the Rally America Championship.     As a quick recap, back at STPR Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino finally got the win they had been waiting for all season. Their win came rather easy as his closest rivals weren’t a factor. Antoine L’Estage didn’t have a car to compete in…

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GRC – Overseas Recap

Mike Shaw

The Global Rallycross Championship returned to the United States this weekend.  Before I get into the drama of New Hampshire, here’s a quick recap of what happened overseas. First of all, I have been quite critical of the GRC organizers and their track designs, at least until now.  The first event was at X-Games Brazil, and the track consisted of 90% clay dirt and a single concrete slab used as the start / finish.  In Brazil the dust was a huge issue, so to combat that they added water to…

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Pikes Peak – Loeb is the King of the Mountain

Mike Shaw

For the few of you in the world that didn’t watch it live via the Red Bull TV web site a couple of weeks ago, video of Sebastien Loeb’s record setting run up Pikes Peak is below.  Not only was it an amazing drive by a driver that I feel is the greatest of at least his generation, but it was also an amazing team effort by Peugeot.  Peugeot Sport returned to Pikes Peak for their 25th anniversary since Group B era driver and WRC champion Ari Vatanen made his…

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Teamwork wins for one, while another team suffers bad luck

Mike Shaw

Bad luck for the Andretti family is not exclusive to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Now add Pocono Raceway to that list. With Mario’s 1986 win as the lone family victory here. Marco Andretti set a new track record, and dominated early. Not only did fuel milage snap the 25 out of the jaws of victory, the rest of Andretti Autosport suffered bad luck today. On the other side of the coin, team Ganassi seemed to have the best luck a team could have. having struggled on speed all weekend, having to…

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Pocono IndyCar 400 pre-race notes

Mike Shaw

Seems to be a bad day for Hondas at Pocono. The cars of Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Pippa Mann, and Justin Wilson will all have to drop ten spots due to engine changes. Also E.J. Viso and Alex Tagliani also will have to drop to the back of the field due to engine changes. Both drivers crashed during qualifying yesterday. Tagliani is also a Honda, but his change is most likely due to his crash. Also, Jeff Gordon is in the house–AS A FAN!!! Jeff is here with his young…

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2013 Pocono Post Qualifying Report

Mike Shaw

To the surprise of few observers, Marco Andretti is the pole sitter for the 2013 Pocono IndyCar 400 presented by Sunoco. Marco was just the third driver out on track when he ran a two lap average of 221.273 MPH. Shattering the former overall track record held by Emerson Fittipaldi which was 211.715 MPH set in 1989.   Marco Andretti was the lone driver to run a two lap average over 221 MPH. Marco’s teammates Hinchcliffe and Hunter-Reay were the only other drivers to have two lap averages over 220…

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Pole Day Practice 1 results from Pocono Raceway

Mike Shaw

A very large crowd is out early at Pocono Raceway here in Long Pond, PA. The stands are filling up nicely, whilst pit road was mobbed with fans getting their first up close and personal look at the stars and machines of the IZOD IndyCar series. They were not disappointed either, seeing not just the IZOD IndyCar series, but also the Firestone Indy Lights running laps faster than the current NASCAR Cup pole record.  As it stands, the Lights are set to shatter the Cup pole record by 9MPH.  …

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