• Home
• Blog
• Podcast
• Forum
• Speed Shop
• Archives
• About Us

Subscribe

• Channels:
• Formula 1
• IRL
• NASCAR
• Motorcycles
• NHRA

Re-Load: Risi seeks to build on Utah win in ALMS GT battle at Lime Rock

Houston, Texas - Tuesday, July 20 - Hot on the heels of its dominant GT victory in the Utah Grand Prix, Risi Competizione now heads to Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, for the second round of the five-race ALMS summer odyssey.

Its central aims will be to not only secure a back-to-back ‘sprint’ victory, but also to consolidate its position in the championship points’ battles. Melo and Bruni currently lead the Drivers’ Championship by two points over Bergmeister/Long, and Risi/Ferrari are one point away from leading the Teams/Manufacturers’ chase.

With a view to breaking the stranglehold that the Flying Lizard Porsches have had on class victories over the last three years, the Houston-based Ferrari team has drafted in a second F430 GTC to be driven by Finland’s Mika Salo and Germany’s Pierre Kaffer, racing alongside Miller Motorsport Park winners, Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni.
Read more

Justin Wilson putting up big numbers in Indy Car Toronto practice

The IZOD Indy Car Series heads north of the border this weekend for the Honda Indy Toronto, a tight and super-fast street course that separates the men from the boys. And this weekend, Justin Wilson has been “the man”, posting either the first or second fastest time in all three practices conducted on Friday and Saturday. And in the latest session today, Wilson was almost three-tenths faster than EJ Viso and looks to be the favorite to grab the pole during the Firestone Fast Six session.
Read more

Lorenzo edges Stoner for MotoGP pole, Rossi 4th in Germany

Jorge Lorenzo squeaked out another pole position in MotoGP qualifying today, just besting Casey Stoner at qualifying for the MotoGP German Grand Prix. Lorenzo’s time of 1:21.82 was only .02 seconds faster than Stoner, and just .13 seconds quicker than fellow countryman, Dani Pedrosa.

Strangely, Lorenzo’s leaky motorcycle was nearly the demise of Ben Spies and Randy de Puniet who both crashed out after hitting an oil slick left on track by his Yamaha. Both are OK to race tomorrow, but Spies will start deep in the field, with de Puniet starting seventh.

Valentino Rossi made a spectacular return after suffering a broken leg just six weeks ago. Despite needing a cane to mount his bike, he qualified fifth in a demonstration of intestinal fortitude.
Read more

Lorenzo’s super season continues, takes Silverstone pole

Jorge Lorenzo will start from pole postion for the MotoGP British Grand Prix after setting the best time in today’s qualifying at Silverstone. Lorenzo has rocketed to two wins this year, and is poised to take control of the MotoGP championship if he can win from pole again this weekend.

Randy De Puniet’s run to P2 was surprising as he used is LCR Hond to beat both Repsol Hondas and Both Ducatis.

Nicky Hayden continues to gain confidence on his new Ducati machine, this time edging Casey Stoner for the fifth starting sport. Stoner expressed his nervousness about finding the limit on some of the bumps on the older part of the Silverstone circuit.

“The layout of the track is simply fantastic”, said Stoner after Friday practice. “It is great fun to ride and some of the corners are awesome. Unfortunately there are a few bumps on the ‘old’ part of the track where the asphalt hasn’t been relaid but when they get around to doing it I think we can safely say it will be one of the best circuits in the world. We’ve worked hard on the set-up today and for the moment we are still looking for the right solution. The bike was a little too stiff for the bumps and it was difficult to find the limit or understand how fast we can really go. We’ll make some changes tomorrow and hope the weather is good to us.”

Perhaps those bumps feel a little bit more treacherous to Stoner who has done a lot of crashing this season, and needs to regroup and find his pace in 2010.
Read more

LM24 mid-race update: Risi #82 retires with gear selection issues

LM24 2010 has been tough on a couple of favorites, and the latest major player to fall out of the race is the #82 Risi Competitzione Ferrari. The Risi squad was aiming for their third GT2 win, and looked to again have the right car to do it. The retirement of the #82 car means that the incredible battle between it and the #64 Corvette is over. It was fun while it lasted.

Here’s the presser from Risi Comp:

The No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GTC will have no opportunity in 2010 to challenge for a third consecutive GT2 victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans; the car has been retired in the 10th hour of the race due to gear selection problems.

The retirement is a bitter blow for the team after an intense and exciting battle with the two factory Corvettes in the first quarter of the race. Nose-to-tail racing between all three cars provided heightened interest in the GT2 category, with Pierre Kaffer and Jaime Melo both having hard, but fair, battles on track with Emmanuel Collard and Oliver Gavin.
Read more

Saturday NASCAR update - Almirola wins MIS truck race, Logano looking to make Nationwide history at Kentucky

The Nationwide series is racing in Sparta, Kentucky tonight at the Meijer 300. Joey Logano took his third pole in a row at the 1.5 mile oval, and looks to make history by winning the same race from the pole three years in a row. Kentucky is the track where Joey made history two years ago by setting the record for the youngest winning driver in Nationwide Series history.

The race airs tonight on ESPN.

Almirola Steals the show at the MIS truck stop
I love it when anybody can figure out a way to beat Kyle Busch. Aric Almirola did just that during Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series race at MIS on Saturday when he interrupted a fight between Busch and Brett Bodine. Almirola is in the thick of the championship battle with Bodine, and is now just 55 points out of the standings lead.

Here’s the presser from MIS:

BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 12, 2010) - Out of nowhere, with two others ready to decide the outcome, Aric Almirola decided to make it a three-way affair and all but stole the VFW 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday.

What appeared to be a shootout between points-leader Todd Bodine and Kyle Busch became a three-way battle with Almirola jumping in the middle of a tight, three-wide dice for the lead following a restart with eight laps remaining.

Almirola, not in the most enviable position of the three contenders, went for the lead, got it with seven laps left and held off the hard-charging Bodine and Busch to win for the second time this season and first at MIS.

“I didn’t think it was the greatest place to be, but I knew we were going to run wide open to the corner and we were either going to crash or make it out the other side on that last restart,” Almirola said. “I knew how important clean air was and I knew it was my only shot to get out in the lead, and if I didn’t get out in the lead there was no chance of us winning the race. I went down in turn one and I knew I was going to run a shorter distance than Todd (on the outside of the three-wide situation) so I just tried to hang tight on Kyle’s door and get him loose, which I did. By the time we got off Turn 2, I was almost clear of Todd and then we went through three and four I cleared him. That was the move of the race as far as I was concerned. Our car in dirty air wasn’t as good as it needed to be and that was the key.”

There was a Truck Series track record of 20 lead changes up to that point. Neither Bodine nor Busch was going to make it 21 with Almirola winning by a scant 0.111 seconds, or about one car length. Busch was another two car lengths back in third. Ron Hornaday Jr. finished fourth with rookie Austin Dillon fifth.

“We just didn’t have enough,” said Bodine, who posted his fifth top-10 finish in six races at MIS. “We had a great truck. We were a little tight on exit at the end and I could role up and start to go around Aric but I just couldn’t continue. With two to go, I rolled up and did it without lifting and I almost knocked the wall down and I thought Kyle was going to pass us.”

Busch posted his fifth top-10 finish in five races at MIS, but was anything but overjoyed. He was asked what it was like racing three wide for the lead toward the end of the race.

“It’s challenging. You’re all over the place trying to get back up in there, slicing, dicing and everything. I just didn’t have enough. Unfortunately they gave me a good truck and the driver didn’t get it done. I was trying to find some way to get around those guys but I couldn’t find it,” Busch said.

Tickets are still available for Sunday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, and start at $30 for general admission. Kids 12 and under are free in those sections.

Nestled in the lush Irish Hills of Southeastern Michigan, Michigan International Speedway is the Great Escape, a venerable NASCAR national park where fans can get away and enjoy the very best in racing and camaraderie. It’s the love of racing and the thrill of a great time for race fans and drivers alike.

Hamilton’s brilliant drive yields Canadian GP pole

It’s a busy sports day around the world, especially for people in England and the USA with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a world Cup game featuring both countries, and two NASCAR races to boot. Oh yes, and one more thing, F1 is in North America this weekend as the series returns to Montreal after a year’s absence from racing on this side of the pond.

Lewis Hamilton drove brilliantly today to take the pole. And when I say he drove brilliantly, I just have to believe what I read, not what I see, because qualifying won’t air on TV here for a little while. In fact, with a rain delayed truck race happening now at Michigan, we may never get to see qualifying in the US today.

Lewis somehow beat the wickedly fast Red Bull pair of Webber and Vettel, and even Jenson Button was impressed with his teammate and says that Hamilton usually does well at Montreal.

Michael Schumacher had a terrible day, and will start 13th. He was beaten by both Force-India cars, and whipped by three grid positions by teammate Nico Rosberg. That’s not a good day at the office for Schuey.

DVR Reminder: For all of you that have your DVR set to tape all the F1 races on SPEED, remember that this weekend’s the race will be aired on the FOX network. Set your TiVo accordingly.

STARTING GRID - F1 CANADA

Starting	Driver	Team
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
4	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
6	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
8	Robert Kubica	Renault
9	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes
10	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth
13	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes
14	Vitaly Petrov	Renault
15	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari
16	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari
17	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari
18	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth
20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth
21	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth
22	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth
23	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth
24	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth

Le Mans news alert: Peugeot #3 retires, Bourdais out

You didn’t even have to see his face. With a shrug in his shoulders and helmet sagging into his chest, you knew the dejection Sebastian Bourdais was feeling as he found out that his mighty #3 Peugeot LMP1 machine had just dropped out due to a mechanical failure and resulting chassis damage.

Bourdais, who grew up near Le Mans, had put this car on pole, and seemed poised to lead his three-driver team that included Pedro LAMY and Simon PAGENAUD to another 24 Hour victory. It wasn’t to be.

This is sure to give the Audi LMP1 camp a morale boost, because they’ve not been able to keep up the pace. But can they win the endurance battle? There’s 21 more hours left before we find out.

Live Timing and Scoring: http://www.lemans.org/en/courses/24h-chrono-en-direct-2010.html

24 Hours of Le Mans Hour 1 Tweetcast

Hour 1 of the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans has been pretty exciting and eventful despite the Peugeots early drubbing of the LMP1 class. The big story of the first hour was a fairly large shunt by Nigel Mansell in the Beechdean LMP1 Ginetta-Zytek that brought out the safety cars for a long full course yellow period. Mansell was transported to a hospital via ambulance, but SPEED TV reported that Mansell is ok.

The safety car “situation” created by the early crash really screwed the Audi P1 effort. Track officials don’t use one safety car, they use four, all seemingly spaced out evenly on the race track. The Audi’s get caught by a different safety car than the leading Peugeot cars, and were put 3 or 4 minutes down due to the ridiculous safety car rules.

The cast of characters on Twitter have been doing a heck of a job keeping the world updated on this years “#LM24″. Here’s some of the best for Hour One’s “Tweetcast”.

TWEETCAST - HOUR 1 - 2010 24 HOURS OF LEMANS

sniffpetrol: Cars on parade lap. For some reason the ACO is pumping out EuroToss music on the pit straight about 1 hour ago via Twitterrific

TheAardvrk: Here we go!! About to start the #24Hours of Le Mans. LIVE on #SPEED. The coolest race you’ll see all year! Good luck to the #ALMS teams!!

MidwkMotorsport: So bloody excited with #LM24 on the flat screen @radiolemans reverberating around the house! Just magic! Come on Nishy & @Audi!
Read more

Risi holds on to GT2 pole for the 24 hours of Le Mans

UPDATE: Risi disqualified during technical inspection, Corvette assumes pole.

Risi Competizione ruled GT2 qualifying in Le Mans today, taking the class pole, and making ALMS fans here in North America proud. The Ferrari F430 piloted by Gianmaria Bruni put up the fast time on Thursday in the provisional qualifying session. Risi was followed by the ALMS GT2 Corvette driven by Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Emmanuel Collard.

The GT classes will again be the race to watch unless Peugeot has some mechanical issues. The Sebastian Bourdais piloted Peugeot is smoking the Audio R15’s by about two seconds per lap. It could turn into yet another massacre by the diesels.
Read more