The IZOD IndyCar Series had its annual pre-season safety meeting today at which several changes were announced for the 2010 season. Some of which were already known, some were speculated, and one comes as a bit of a surprise. So Long Fuel Knob! The knob is gone! However, don’t get too elated thinking that we’ll see the end of fuel mileage races. We’ll still have those, but “making fuel” will now be relient on the driver’s skill to finesse their machine and precisely control the throttle. “Teams and drivers can…
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Dakar – Day 9 Highlights
Rally – Subaru Confirm Pastrana and Mirra
With the bombshell news that Ken Block had joined Ford in a global effort, the question was who would join Travis Pastrana in the other Subaru? Simple answer for the guys at Vermont and Subaru, but is this new pairing going to perform as well? Dave Mirra will now be moved from the super production ranks to join the open class and team with the four time Rally America champion. Mirra who has been waiting for an opening will make now make the jump to America’s top rally flight in…
Read MoreF1 – Life at the Cosworth End of the Grid: On USF1 and Campos
Bernie Ecclestone made some famous comments a couple weeks ago alluding to USF1 and Campos both not making the grid for the 2010 season. Further, Bernie was implicating that Stefan GP would probably take one of their places, making for 12 teams in 2010. Both Campos and USF1 promptly released statements assuring their fans and potential sponsors that they were viable. But now, more details are coming out about both teams that lend credence to the ancient billionaire’s park bench mumblings. All the while continuing to cast further doubt on…
Read MoreF1 – USF1 Nose Cone Destroyed
F1 – Alonso in Ferrari Red
Ferrari has kicked off its annual WROOM! media event this week and guess who was there in red for some photos…you guessed it. After a season that guaranteed a Fernando Alonso to Ferrari move, the Spanish double world champion was seen in the Scuderia’s colors on the ski slopes. Joining Alonso was now recovered incumbent Felipe Massa and third driver Giancarlo Fisichella. The annual event is being held at Madonna di Campiglio. Having Fred in the new Santander red outfit looked pretty good. It will be interesting to see how…
Read MoreIndyCar – Tony Cotman Leaves IRL, Kinda
New Zealand native Tony Cotman has left his position with the IndyCar Series as Vice President of Competition to start his own company, NZR Consulting. Tony was second in command behind Brian Barnhart in the IRL and his race weekend responsibilities included race direction of the Indy Lights series. Before joining the IRL in 2008, Tony became widely respected for his role in the Champ Car World Series as Executive Vice President of Operations and Race Director. Tony was instrumental in bringing the cost effective Panoz DP01 program forward in…
Read MoreF1 – FIA Appeal Official
It would appear as my cries for peace on the last podcast have fallen on deaf ears yet again. The FIA has officially announced they are going to move forward with their appeal against Flavio Briatore which would keep him out of the sport a bit longer. As we remember the Tribunal de Grande Instance had ruled in favor of Flavio and Pat Symonds and called the punishment by the FiA “irregular”. Below is the FIA’s justification for the continued legal battle: “The President of the FIA has consulted the…
Read MoreIndyCar – Sao Paulo Race Details
With just a scant 9 weeks remaining before the IndyCars make their first visit to Sao Paulo, the track layout has just broken into the news in Brazil. While I cannot understand Portuguese, driver Felipe Giaffone is seen in this video demonstrating a lap of Sao Paulo’s circuit layout. With just 9 weeks to go, they better have a final layout agreed. Especially since much of the route that is demonstrated appears to be in a bad state of repair. Reportedly, this circuit layout was distributed to the IndyCar teams…
Read MoreRally – LDR Team Prep Update
Hey everyone! Wanted to pop on and take a couple of minutes(when I should be sleeping) to let folks know how things are shaping up in our prep for the 100 Acre Wood Rally in Missouri in February. First, I’ll be posting blogs on the lastditchracing.com site. These automatically pop up on Facebook and Twitter if you’re following me there. You can also subscribe to the blog RSS feed if you want. Anyway, prep is going well, although the list is long(always is). Our goal with every race is to…
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