Introduction A dedicated feeder series to the primary American Open-Wheel Racing series has been in existance in one form or another since 1986. The American Racing Series began in 1986 to serve as a development platform for CART, since the Formula Atlantics series which had been around since 1965 had failed to race in 1984, and existed as two separate series, a Pacific and an Atlantic series, from 1985 to 1990. In 1991, the same year that the split Formula Atlantics championship merged back into a single national series, the…
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AOWR – Atlantics 2009 Season Review – Looking Ahead to 2010
Atlantics Championship – Year In Review Thoughts on Next Year: The immediate thought is, “Will there be a next year?” Having only 10 cars on the grid most races, and 13 as a maximum, the existence of the 2010 Atlantics Championship is not guaranteed. Things are looking promising, though, as the series has announced their 12-event 2010 schedule and Cooper Tires returns as the presenting sponsor. The series is still negotiating a 13th event, presumably either a return to the Long Beach Grand Prix. The series has had a presence…
Read MoreIndyCar – Attendance and Ratings
Attendance figures have been released for the Long Beach Grand Prix with a weekend total of 175,000. This is up from last years 170,000 for the Champ Car World Series finale. On the surface, a bump of 5,000 doesn’t seem to carry much significance, but with the stagnant economy, the numbers should be read as a win for the race promoters. But the numbers only tell part of the story. This event’s headline act is far more stable than CART or CCWS was in their last few visits here. The…
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IndyCar – Dario Wins Long Beach
Dario Franchitti showed everybody this weekend that a season in Nascar did not dull his abilities on the street courses. On the tight streets of Long Beach, he displayed his dominance by putting up more passes than anyone else. It certainly didn’t hurt matters that Dario’s two pitstops occurred just moments before full course yellows, allowing him to take the lead and comfortably stay there. But the stories coming out of Long Beach this weekend don’t stop with the top step of the podium. Take your pick. Helio returns to…
Read MoreIndyCar – 500 Update
Going into the day, we knew that KV racing had scheduled a press conference. We also pretty much knew exactly what they would talk about since Robin Miller told us he was sworn to secrecy about it on Wind Tunnel last Sunday, and then proceeded to act like he wasn’t leaking it. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that KV had put together enough hamburgers and hot dogs to lure Paul Tracy out of his Forsythe induced retirement. Jimmy Vasser (part owner of KV racing with Kevin…
Read MoreIndyCar – Helio in for Long Beach!
Robin Miller is reporting that Helio will be driving for Team Penske in his familiar #3 this weekend. Will Power will drive the #12 entry that as of yet, Team Penske hasn’t even unpacked. We incorrectly assumed that the #12 would be for Helio, not for Will Power. Trackside Online reports that Team Penske has called a press conference for later this afternoon to discuss the situation, but currently the media and even Brian Barnhart are swarming the Penske operation at Long Beach for quotes and information. It will good…
Read MoreIndyCar – Helio’s #12 Hauler Spotted?
Our friends over at trackside online took this image of a Penske #12 hauler painted up with Verizon logos this morning at Long Beach. Two weeks ago during the St. Petersburg weekend Roger Penske and Tim Cindric both made comments to the effect that Helio would have a car waiting for him as soon as his trial was over, and by implication it would be a third car for Penske. So presumably, the hauler contains all the necessary trappings for a third Penske entry. This seems to go against a…
Read MoreIndyCar – Long Beach Preview
A crown jewel of American open wheel racing will be showing its luster and sparkle this weekend as the IndyCar series makes its first full visit to the streets of Long Beach. Unification happened too late last year for there to be any chance of a real combination of the CCWS and IndyCar calendars. The most unfortunate victim of this incident was the Long Beach Grand Prix which was scheduled on the same weekend as Motegi, both of which were understandably unwilling to give up their dates. So Long Beach…
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