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Spanish GP: A Perfect Day For Red Bull, Almost

Mark Webber used his pole position for an easy romp of 66 laps in the Spanish sunshine of Cataluña and secured his first win of 2010. Not so exciting a day for teammate Sebastian Vettel . Read more

F-Duct or not Red Bull demolished the field in F1 Spanish GP qualifying

Formula 1 has returned to Europe this weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix at Catalunya, and the talk in the garages is of the major upgrades that the teams have made on their machines in the recent off weeks. The buzzword in F1 continues to be “F-Duct”, a term for the aerodynamic device that modifies airflow over the rear wing on high speed straights.

The ironic thing about the results for today’s qualifying session is that the top two qualifiers didn’t even have an F-Duct on their cars. So despite the buzz, and the talk of it’s advantages, the F-Duct just might really be voodoo aerodynamics.

F-Duct or not, the Red Bull team destroyed the field today. Webber captured the pole by winning a fierce battle with his teammmate, Sebastian Vettel, by a mere tenth-of-a-second. But while this intra-team battle was firece, the other drivers were effectively running for ‘best in class’ of the non-Red Bull machines.

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Red Bull given chase by Schumacher in F1 Spanish GP practice

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Saturday practice for the Spanish GP kicked off the weekend for Formula 1 and, as expected, Red Bull grabbed the two top spots on speed chart. But much to the surprise of many, Michael Schumacher put his Mercedes machine on the charts at P3, finally outpacing Nico Rosberg (who is quietly having a great season and currently stands second in points).

The updates to the 2010 Mercedes seem to be suitable to Schumacher. Either that, or he was “running extra light”, as David Coulthard suggested.
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Paul Tracy and Barry Green reunite for 2010 Indy 500

Paul Tracy tweeted some news news today revolving around 2010 Indy 500 effort that Barry Green is going to wire up the ol’ headset and call race strategy for Mr. Chrome Horn in the duo’s attempt at winning the Indy 500 for a second time. Ok…. In reality Paul is still vying for a first win at the Brickyard, while Green seeks to put an exclamation point on the 1995 Indy win he captured with with Jacques Villeneuve. Speaking of 1995, that race finish was nearly as controversial as the 2002 race, so Green has gotten both ends of the proverbial stick when it comes to winning and losing the Greatest Spectacle In Racing.

This reunion puts Tracy with his former team owner from the FedEx Championship Series (a.k.a. CART) when he drove for Team KOOL Green. Tracy said that the two have “unfinished” business to tend to at the Brickyard. But can Tracy pull the rabbit out of the hat, beat the likes of Ganassi and Penske, and exorcise the ghosts of the 2002 race? Doubtful, of course. I wonder, though, what kind of celebratory exhibition Paul Tracy might put on if he were to somehow win the 500 mile race.

He’s had a long time to think about it.

USA Today also has a real news story about these developments: Barry Green to work with Paul Tracy in Indy 500

Scott Dixon is again the king of Kansas

The fans at Kansas Speedway today experienced an episode of Déjà vu as they watched Scott Dixon run away with the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 for the second year in a row. Dixon led the most laps in a race that started out with a tight and competitive run at the front, and ended with a total blowout by the New Zealander.

The only thing that made the latter part of the race interesting were a string of yellows that kept the field in touch with the leader. But as the race came to a close, Dixon had 18 Honda push-to-pass “shots” with only 15 laps to go, and it was his race to lose. And for a guy with ice-water in his veins, it was a walk in the park.

The field took the green at about 2 p.m. ET, and I was amazed to see a nicely formed field of 2-by-two race cars. That’s how a race start is supposed to look, and a huge improvement over the sloppy starts of the past few races.
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Pedrosa surprises field and thrills crowd in MotoGP Spanish GP qualifying

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Dani Pedrosa provided his countrymen a thrill today at Jerez with a brilliant pole position performance in qualifying for the MotoGP Spanish GP. His lap of 1:39.202 was almost three-tenths faster than Jorge Lorenzo’s best effort.

“It’s always nice to get pole position and especially here because it is my home race and the support from the fans is amazing, so I’m very happy for them”, said Pedrosa after qualifying. “I really didn’t expect this pole to be honest, but I was pushing very hard so I’m very pleased about it.”

Casey Stoner qualified third after posting fast time in practice yesterday despite a Friday practice fall. The Ducati team made some changes to Stoner’s bike that didn’t work out so well and put him out of pole contention.
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Oval opener brings reversal of fortune during Indy Car Kansas qualifying

Indy Car has finally been un-caged this week, set free from the narrow concrete-canyons of Sao Paulo and Long Beach and unleashed on the tri-oval at Kansas Speedway. And with this change in scenery comes a change at the front of the grid, and tonight there are a bunch of drivers breathing deep sighs of relief to be back in the Midwest on an oval. Others that have had so much success early in the season have been left scratching their heads and wondering how they went from the front to the back.

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Stoner fastest and crashy-est again during Jerez practice

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So what’s up with Casey Stoner? The wickedly fast Ducati rider and former world champ is becoming more familiar with the various type of gravel found in the runoff areas of tracks all over the world. Stoner found the gravel today in Jerez, Spain during Friday practice at the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix. This follows a similar crash during the race a few weeks ago in Qatar, a miscue that cost him a podium finish and quite possibly a win.

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Indy Car’s new three-tiered championship a good move but is no magic pill

The talk amongst Indy Car fans today was the announcement by the IRL that they will be adding two new championship titles to the series. The head honcho, Randy Bernard, declared that the series will be adding a “road course” championship and an “oval” championship to the agenda for 2010. That means this weekend’s race in Kansas will be the inaugural race for the yet to be named “oval” championship. Additional, they say that these two new titles will be named by the fans, although they haven’t announced how that will happen yet. Perhaps the oval championship trophy might be named “The Foyt Cup”, or the “Harroun Trophy” (and while this fan involvement is great, I think a better idea would be to find title sponsors for each cup).
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MotoGP Notes - Volcanos, semi-production bikes and FIAT’s pushing of Rossi to Ferrari F1

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MotoGP finds itself in an off week, but not because of an empty weekend in the 2010 calendar, but due to the fallout of volcano Eyjafjallajökull. Who could have predicted this? An ash cloud the size of Valentino Rossi’s trophy case disrupted air traffic so much that MotoGP had no choice but to postpone the Japan round scheduled for this weekend. But this turn of events hardly leaves us without anything to talk about.

The buzz lately in MotoGP revolves around the push by FIAT to see Valentino Rossi in an F1 car next year. The thinking behind this crazy idea is that Ferrari will somehow lobby F1 to allow a third car, because current regulations require 2-car teams in the constructors’ championship. I can’t see the FIA bending the rules for this situation in a manner that would fit FIAT’s wishes.
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