I didn’t stay up to watch qualifying fo the opening round of the Australian Grand Prix. My regular sleep schedule has me up around five in the morning, so a start time of 1:00 isn’t in the cards. I did randomly wake up at 12:30, but any idea of attempting to stay awake was beaten into submission by the sandman. My DVR was put to good use as soon as I woke up, though. I fired up the F1 app and set to see how F1’s ridiculous new qualifying format…
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Harrisville, New York (October 26, 2014) The woods of Upstate New York played host to two days of intense rally action last month. Black River Stages, the 2014 NASA National Rally Championship Event was held in the towns of Harrisville and Croghan on September 20-21st. A big field of rally teams from all over the country showed up to see just who would have what it takes to be the fastest on these twisty and sometimes muddy stages. Six qualifying events across the country led up to this winner-take-all event.…
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Fast Friday This weekend’s qualifying for the 98th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race started with questions, albeit not the usual ones. The new format did away with the traditional Pole Day and Bump Day. And lets not forget the points for qualifying and the Fast 9, making starting position mean far more than pit selection. When IndyCar turned up the boost for practice on Friday, Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay both posted laps in the 231mph range and Marco Andretti laid down a 232.2mph lap. Of those, only Hunter-Reay’s was truly…
Read MoreI arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Fast Friday just in time for the rains to come. Bummer. It did mean that I was set and ready to go for Pole Day and Bump Day last Saturday and Sunday as the IZOD IndyCar Series drivers attempted to qualify for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. I know I was tardy for getting these posted. Bad time for a hardware failure! Tomorrow, the Firestone Indy Lights teams and drivers come to the World’s Greatest Race Course, so…
Read MoreThe 2012 “Bump” Day is in the books, and the only bumping that actually happened was allegedly done behind the scenes as Pippa Mann and Jay Howard, who both had funds and deals secured for a car and a Honda engine, had their engine deals withdrawn unexpectedly. The rumor is that Lotus, in exchange for releasing Dragon Racing from its engine contract, were guaranteed two spots on the grid, and that the league ordered teams to not bring out their backup cars. The league has denied the rumor, but there’s…
Read MoreThe Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear is going to have a hard time of it for their race on Sunday. The drivers qualified on Thursday afternoon and will have to wait until Sunday before their race. On Race Day morning, they will get a 15-min warm-up which is just long enough to check for fluid leaks and not much else. The conditions between when they practiced and qualified on Thursday certainly won’t be any where near the same as they will be on Sunday when temperatures are to be…
Read MoreIZOD IndyCar Series qualifying has just concluded down at Homestead-Miami and Dario Franchitti has struck the first blow this weekend as the championship comes down to the wire. The championship contenders were late on to the track, but Will Power would take pole position from teammate Ryan Briscoe giving him that crucial one point for pole. Not to be out done, Dario would come out and lay down a blistering pace of over 213 mph! This would give Dario the point and reduce Will Power’s championship lead to 11. The…
Read More“Shocking” is the word many would pick to describe this situation, but maybe not so much when you look at how Dan finished at Kentucky last year and how well both Panther Racing cars did last weekend at Chicago. Ed has been a stalwart finisher at Indy and no slouch on the ovals for the last few seasons, but the downgrading of Vision Racing from full season team to occasional sponsor has certainly not helped his cause. Ed’s fight with Briscoe at Kentucky has to go down as one of…
Read MoreHere is your Pole Day qualifying order from IndyCar.com. Keep in mind that T cars that have not set a time will be withdrawn from the order in favor of primary cars later in the order. That said, AJ Foyt IV will be first on track tomorrow when the gun goes off at 11 am. Paul Tracy, Alex Tagliani and Marco Andretti look to have prime early pill draws to take advantage of a cool morning track before the temps start to rise. Look for those guys to put in…
Read MoreThere are some new ways of thinking at 16th and Georgetown, and they are being fully displayed in the format for Pole Day at the Indy 500. There has been no official announcement about qualifying this year, other than the budget conscious slashing from four days down to two. While this was a move made for bean counting purposes, it also could be viewed as a good move to allow another race to take place in May to help the build up to the Memorial Day classic. But with radical…
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