Review: Honda Indy Toronto

What a ridiculous, astounding bit of racing that was. There was passing, there was drama, there was more drama, and there were incomprehensible acts that left spectators and racers alike scratching their heads.

First off, let's talk about the home team, eh? Alex Tagliani, from nearby Quebec, kept himself near the front of the field while Dario Franchitti ran around in the lead for a while. Dario eventually ran off to pit lane and Tags led the race pretty convincingly for a good piece of time. After pit stops and some untimely yellows, Tags was mired back in the field, where he ended up trying to divebomb past Tomas Scheckter, who was in the process of passing a damaged Mario Moraes, and all three cars ended up stuck next to the tire barriers. Tags earned himself a pair of gloves from Tomas, who channeled his inner Roy Halladay to hurl a fireproof nomex fastball at the #34's cockpit.

Ontarian Paul Tracy, former two-time winner at Exhibition Place, was blindingly quick and made some of the wildest and bravest passing moves to be seen on the track today. Unfortunately, a pass for second on Helio Castroneves ended something like this:


Neither driver would give complete fault to the other, but the local fans made it pretty obvious what they thought of the incident: Helio was showered with boos for maybe the first time in his life and the boos got louder every time the video was shown to the fans. Tracy kept his cool, though, shook hands with Helio, and will move on to Edmonton with the knowledge that he at least had a really fast car today.

One of the more perplexing cases of the day was that of E.J. Viso and Mario Moraes. Moraes, who I mentioned had been previously damaged when Tagliani and Scheckter tangled with him, got his damage when Viso shut the door on him going into Turn 3 and clipped Moraes' wing. After the race was over, as the cars were cooling down on Lake Shore Drive, Moraes apparently had the red lenses on or simply wasn't thinking and he speared Viso into the wall going just-about-full speed. Moraes has become a complete nuisance on the track at this point in the season; if Brian Barnhart does not come down on him hard, then perhaps Barnhart isn't the person to run the series.

In other Barnhart news, Dario Franchitti may have been gifted the win by a completely baffling decision that had Jimmy Vasser in a complete outrage before the slightly destroyed state of his car became issue #1. Frachitti was on his way into the pits and had already committed to the pits when a yellow came out. Franchitti wasn't penalized, which is just fine, but he was given his position on the racetrack back in front of Paul Tracy. So let's see here: Franchitti went into the pits, ended up behind PT after all was said and done, then was given his position back for no discernible reason. Shortly thereafter, Tracy is trying to pass Helio to catch up with Dario and is knocked out of the race, which Dario goes on to win. SERIOUSLY, WTF?!

Oh, and blogosphere Canadian Bureau Chief MeeshBeer reported via Twitter that E.J. Viso had a bit of a run-in with Rafa Matos after all was said and done. Not sure what happened there, but it's just another bit of drama from a drama-filled event.

OH! I almost forgot to mention: there was passing! It seemed like every pass came with brake-locking and power-sliding and if someone wasn't passing someone else, they were at least taking a look at a pass. As I said, Paul Tracy was a star of the side-by-side driving, but it was happening throughout the field.

My picks were middling at best. Will Power, who easily had the drive of the day -- suffered a flat tire on the wing of Graham Rahal coming to the green flag, went to the back of the pack, managed his way back through the field -- took home a very impressive third. Justin Wilson putzed around mid-pack for a while before finding his way forward again and finishing a respectable fifth. I've already covered Tagliani, and Rafa Matos ended up in a very quiet 10th. Danica actually ended up in the top ten, but that may have been a product of the fact that 8 cars were behind the wall when the checkered flag fall.

Next race is in a fortnight (I love it when I get to use that word) in Edmonton at the City Centre Airport. See you then!

Yellow Shirt Preview: Honda Indy Toronto

For the first time in the history of the IndyCar Series and the first time since 2007, when the Champ Car World Series made its swansong tour, open-wheel racers will be taking to the streets of Exhibition Place Toronto.

Street circuits are an interesting case, for the most part; many of them go for only a few years become they either become financially unreasonable or garner complaints from those whose city streets get shut down for a week every year. Toronto is one of the notable exceptions to this rule, having hosted motor racing since 1986. Before that, open-wheelers -- including Formula One -- raced on the undulating Mosport Park in nearby Bowmanville. Mosport, despite being one of those truly classic road courses, with sweeping corners and massive elevation changes, was considered too fast and dangerous for the light, turbocharged CART cars and they left that facility.

A slower, more accessible facility was devised at Exhibition Place, a convention facility on the shores of Lake Ontario, and Bobby Rahal took victory. One of the interesting things about this track's longevity is that many IRL drivers who began their careers in CART/Champ Car have already seen this track and, even though the cars are vastly different, will have a good idea of the nuances of the track itself. That list includes: Will Power, Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Graham Rahal, Alex Tagliani, Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Robert Doornbos, and Tony Kanaan. On top of that, Danica Patrick took a turn around this track when she drove for Bobby Rahal in the Toyota Atlantic series. This means that, even though some drivers might be familiar with this track, the one with the best car balance and best idea of how their car will behave on this track will be the winner.

On that note, who will be the drivers to look out for?


Winner: Will Power. Okay, I just like cheering for Power because of his awkward situation with Team Penske. I also like cheering for him because of the fantastic paint job on the car. Apart from the sponsor decals, the car is painted identically to Al Unser's 1987 Indianapolis winner. Oh, and Will happened to win the last race on this track with KV Racing's Champ Car in 2007. He's one of six drivers who ran that 2007 race and he's in the best equipment out of those six. Yellow Penske car, for the win!


Dark Horse: Justin Wilson. Yes, yes, I know, he won the race last week and he should really be one of the favorites here. The only reason I keep Justin down here in dark horse land is because of the team he drives for. It took Dale Coyne well over 500 races to pick up his first victory and I don't know that he can hold back the better cars in this one. Everything I'm saying is probably entirely wrong, but I stand by it: I think Will Power has a much better shot at victory.


Co-Ninja Dark Horse: Rafael Matos and Alex Tagliani. It's getting to be high time that Luczo Dragon Racing finds itself some victory lane-type success. They started out as a sort of subsidiary of Team Penske, gained plenty of experience with good equipment, then plugged in a talented rookie into the car; they've shown signs of brilliance, let's see if they can make it happen.
MEANWHILE, somebody's gotta fly the Maple Leaf in Toronto, even if he's from Quebec. Tagliani has been reasonably fast and, as I watch the time sheets in qualifying, he is impressing there as well. This would be a fantastic thing for Conquest Racing if Tags could pull it off.

Danica Watch: Don't even bother watching. When ABC showers us with coverage of Danica rolling around in 15th, read a book or something. She will not be of any concern when the race rolls around, and that's that.

Race starts at 1PM in the east, 10 on the left coast. Grab yourself a couple shots of Segrams, crank on some Rush, and be there for racing, Ontario-style!

Charm City Grand Prix in 2011?

As someone who frequented the Charm City, Baltimore, just about every summer in the '90s to watch the Orioles play in their spectacular ballpark, I just had to sit up and listen when the news was broken that a group is planning to bring the IRL to the Inner Harbor in 2011.

The group who brought the plan to the city's government is called Baltimore Racing Development. BRD has already come up with a full-on proposal (which can be found in pieces on the sidebar HERE) which has already been brought under serious consideration by not only the City of Baltimore, but the Maryland state government.

According to reports:

Maryland's interest is serious enough that Terry Hasseltine, director of the state's office of sports marketing, traveled to St. Petersburg in April to observe the "Streets of St. Petersburg" race.

"The stands were packed around every corner. People were just buzzing throughout the area," Hasseltine said. "There had to be at least 110,000 on that final day."

Hasseltine said the Baltimore event could draw 40,000 to 70,000 people a day before the final race. By comparison, he said, "The Preakness is a one-day activity."

One of the folks you would expect to be most against this plan, the city councilman who represents that bit of Baltimore, seems to be pretty well behind it. His only concern is the impact of noise on residents who live not-too-far from the proposed track, and that's a pretty simple thing to fix.

A good, detailed report from the Baltimore Sun, with an embedded video from the local CBS affiliate, can be found HERE.

If this race goes off two years from now, count me in on the spectator list!

Update!

For those too lazy to click all the links and such, here's a map of the track included in the BRD proposal. I think they have the turn markers mixed up; from what I'm reading, Turn 1 would be the hairpin between Oriole Park and M&T Bank Stadium.

Review: MotoGP United States Grand Prix

Okay, so I predicted that this race would be a classic -- a battle of epic proportions between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. Turned out I was not only wrong, but entirely disappointed in the way the race turned out.

Some back story: Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa were teammates on the Repsol Honda team for a decent bit of time. Nicky was a good, successful rider and he had been putting a pretty good amount of pressure on the invincible Rossi for some years, finally culminating in a superb championship of the top class of motorcycle racing in 2006. During that season, though, the first signs of unrest began to appear: in the penultimate round, Pedrosa had a massive brain fade under braking and took out Hayden, resulting in Hayden needing a miracle mistake by Rossi in the last race to clinch the title. Pedrosa, being a young Spanish star, was embraced by the Honda bosses after he outpaced Hayden in 2007. In 2008, the Honda was obviously better-suited to Pedrosa and, mid-season without giving Hayden a similar choice, Pedrosa was switched to the dominant Bridgestone tires. Hayden also pointed out that, if a newer, better part were developed, Pedrosa got it on his bike and Nicky, former World Champion, wasn't even given the option -- Honda was obviously trying to drive Hayden out by showing Pedrosa preferential treatment.

Fast forward to July 5, 2009, and Hayden is holding down the bottom of the top ten with a Ducati that he still hasn't entirely gotten used to. In the meantime, Pedrosa immediately shot to the lead from the second row on the start with a pretty impressive move around the outside. From there on, he only had to look back once: when Rossi managed to catch him up and nearly pass him on the final turn of the final lap. In the meantime, Rossi had to deal with teammate Lorenzo, who was quite racy in spite of separating his shoulder on a wicked high-side wreck Saturday.

The home team brought in the fifth (Hayden) and seventh (Edwards) finishing spots -- neither really had a shot at the win, but a solid run for each rider.

Given the situation regarding Hayden's divorce from Honda, a manufacturer he had represented successfully and with dignity for a decade in AMA and MotoGP, I was not too thrilled to see Pedrosa cross the line in first. I don't really know much about his personality or what he's like away from the track, but it was a disgrace that took place between he and Honda, and Nicky. He's really the only rider I never want to see win a race.

MotoGP will putz around Germany, Britain, and the Czech Republic before returning across the pond to take on the greatest race course in the world: the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I hope to make it there and support my local speedway by putting one ticket's-worth of money into their bank.

Pseudo-Live Blog: Camping World Grand Prix

I am definitely not watching auto racing until the last possible moment right now. There is an epically FANTASTIC tennis match happening at Wimbledon right now, and I dunno if I want to turn it....I will though in a minute or so.

Lap 2
Tennis match over (finally). Roger Federer is the Roger Penske of grand slam tennis matches: 15 victories. Briscoe leading from Wilson (!).

Lap 3
Replay shows I missed stuff already. Matos and Hunter-Reay. No mo race for RHR, it seems. Very well-timed IZOD commercial...YOU'RE DRIVER JUST WRECKED. Highlight of Roger Penske's 100th victory...narrated by Paul Page, which makes me miss him more.

Lap 4
Justin Wilson...TO THE LEEEAAAD! I completely missed that because commercials = me not paying attention.

Lap 5
Marco slow on the escape road with a not-happy tire. Awkward 180 needed to get him pointed the right way. Replay shows collision with Viso...Andretti whining forthcoming.

Lap 7
Ryan Hunter-Reay says the whole field slowed up and he had nowhere to go but up Matos' butt. Wilson ready to lap Marco.

Lap 8
THREE WIDE down the straight! Marco causing many issues, but Wilson and Briscoe finally through. Wilson runs away now that the traffic is gone.

Lap 9
Rahal to the pits. Fuel strategery by the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team. Moraes can't get a lap on Andretti, sho is probably going to kill someone by holding up traffic.

Lap ???
We're in a local break, so I have no idea what's going on. However, Chicagoland Speedway just did a commercial and their one IRL clip was Danica interspersed amongst many NASCAR highlights. Subliminal messaging? Probably.

Lap 12
Moraes finally past Marco. Lost SIX seconds on the leaders thanks to the petulant Andretti.

Lap 13
Danica mention #1 of the day. She's waaaay back in 11th, not having fun. Paul Tracy is wobbly in 12th.

Lap 14
Paul Tracy in to get some magic worked on his front nose. Wilson and Briscoe holding station at the front of the field.

Lap 15
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire is back! The show that rescued game shows and sparked an Oscar-winning movie...BACK!

Lap 18
Wheldon into the pit. I'm wondering if Briscoe is waiting for pit stops to get past Wilson...Penske's crew is kinda better than Coyne's...

Lap 19
Wilson IN THE PITS. 8.7 seconds -- verrrry good. How will the black tires work against Ryan's last few laps on the reds. Danica and Helio in and out as well.

Lap 20
Antinucci spins, brings out full-course caution. Briscoe...pits? He needed fuel. Wilson will likely grab the lead when Briscoe and Moraes come in for tires. Yellows after pit stops on ovals: bad. Yellows after pit stops on roadies: VERY good.

Lap 21
PIT STOPS (for most drivers). Briscoe out at the top of the field of those who pitted. Most everyone else stayed in order on the way out.

Lap 23
We are...GREEN! Wilson followed by....MIKE CONWAY! and....GRAHAM RAHAL!!! I love road racing. Rahal takes second into the bus stop aaaaand Dario Franchitti is in the dirt...I think he might've been helped a bit. YELLOW!

Lap 24
So Moraes divebombed Ed Carpenter, breaking at least one of those cars, then Dario just kinda...spun behind him. Not really sure how that happened.

Lap 25
More strategery as Rahal hits the pits. Franchitti grabs some spiffy new tires. Moraes' car apparently healthy...but he should get a drive through from race control for that DUMB move. Update! he did get the drive through...and his wheel is wobbly.

Lap 26
GREEN GREEN GREEN! Wilson really jumps the heck out of that start and leads Conway and Mutoh through the hills of upstate NY.

Lap 27
MAJOR airtime for Dad's Root Beer (which is actually quite good). Good work for the ginger-Englishman-F3-Champ.

Lap 28
Dan Wheldon having some serious time with Helio's mirrors. Looks like only a matter of time before that pass comes off...and as I say that, it does. Moraes back in the pits for tires and a quick look at the left front.

Lap 30
YELLOW! Paul Tracy sitting against the wall minus a rear wing. Got majorly loose coming out of the toe of the boot and ripped it up.

Lap 32
Graham Rahal apparently not too thrilled with some of the blocking from teammate Bobby D. Pulled up during the yellow and gave a little wave to say something along the lines of, "I'm having a fine day. How are you?"

Lap 33
Strategery! Carpenter and Franchitti into the pits. Too bad for them they're both a lap down.

Lap 34
GREEN! Conway holds on a bit better this time, but Wilson still far and away a better restart. The rest of the field may be calling for an airstrike to catch Justin up.

Lap 35
Vince Welch tells us that red tires = 18-20 laps. As the Pressdog would say: "viewing enhanced".

Lap 40
We've been in a bit of a road course-style fuel conservation parade for a while. Perhaps the wick will be cranked up if we get a couple more yellows and no one has to save fuel.

Lap 41
Helio looked for a pass on Wheldon, but wisely backed off going into the bus stop. We could really use that "push-to-pass" on this track...PIT STOPS!

Lap 42
Wilson nearly stalled in the pits, but caught it and escaped ahead of Conway. Danica nearly caught Wheldon coming out of the pits...Time to watch Helio, Briscoe, and Dixon and see how long they last before pitting.

Lap 43
Helio in. Briscoe to the lead. Dixon and Kanaan behind him.

Lap 44
Dixon to the lead as Briscoe and Kanaan hit the pits. ABC is not telling us the order in which these people come out of the pits...viewing not enhanced.

Lap 45
Wilson out ahead of Dixon. Briscoe THROUGH on Dixon. Helio and Conway all over the rear wing of the #9. Somehow or another, the lead belongs to...Marco Andretti?!

Lap 46
Wilson cycles back to the lead as Andretti pits He was a lap down earlier, by the way. Red cars all over the place a second or so behind Wilson.

Lap 48
Back from the full-screen ad break. Wilson still holding onto the lead. Camera in Danica's footwall watching her work the pedals?! Viewing DEFINITELY enhanced!

Lap 50
Do I hear "Jaws" music? The amount of grey asphalt is shrinking between Castroneves and Wilson...massive five-car battle forthcoming? STAY TUNED! (ironically, I just flipped the channel to avoid watching a GoDaddy ad...)

Lap 51
50 down, 10 to go! By the way, I've been fudging up Helio and Briscoe for a while now...Briscoe is in second, Helio in fourth. Marty Reid gives us the David vs Goliath analogy (finally).

Lap 52
Briscoe is definitely catching up, but Wilson seems to hold it at 1 second and....YELLOW! Mutoh loses the car at the exit of Turn 7. Jaws music playing REALLY LOUD for Wilson now.

Lap 53
Firestone commercial: good. IZOD commercial: bad. Seriously, time for a new approach, IZOD. I did manage to get three pairs of socks from an IZOD outlet for $5 yesterday...that's not too bad.

Dale Coyne is very bad at masking nervousness...can't say as I blame him in this situation. Roger Penske has the "this is the thousandth time I've been in this position" look about him.

Lap 55
GREEN! Wilson runs FAAAARRRR away on the restart. In-freakin'-credible! Dixon now putting mad pressure on Briscoe through the Boot and Wilson disappears into the distance.

Lap 56
Dario Franchitti dive-bombing the wrong way through the order. Viso AND Kanaan past him on the backstretch. Briscoe's car is not happy in Turn 7.

Lap 57
Wilson nearly FOUR SECONDS clear of Briscoe now. Dixon really wants by Briscoe here, but I don't think either of them have anything for Wilson. Somewhere at the Glen, Meesh is smiling...

Lap 58
Incredible business for Dale Coyne Racing and Justin Wilson. Briscoe is definitely holding up the queue here. Airtime for Stefan Wilson, brother of Justin.

Lap 59
Two to go! FOUR AND A HALF SECONDS between Wilson and Briscoe. Unbeeeeeeelievable!

Lap 60
White flag! A volcano needs to open at the bus stop to stop this train!

Checkered Flag!
First-ever win for Dale Coyne Racing! Many kudos to Justin Wilson of a fantasmical victory! Briscoe, Dixon, Castroneves, Andretti, Conway, Viso (!), Kanaan, Doornbos, Wheldon wrap up the top 10.

It says something that, once the green came back out near the end, the gap between Wilson and everyone else grew EVERY LAP. What an amazing drive for the tall man.

Wilson, gentlemanly as ever in his victory speech. Major hug time for Dale Coyne and his wife. Good stuff all around for the Coyne guys...Sonny's BBQ and Z-Line Furniture party for all! Dale himself very happy, after coming here for a Super-Vee race back in the day and being a major team owner since 1990 and finally grabbing victory.

My picks: don't mess with me! My dark horse won, my ninja dark horse got some major second-place time before falling back on pit stops, my winner finished third because he was held up by Briscoe. Danica...finished 11th; that one was a bit wrong, but whatever...road racing in these monstrosities is not her thing.

IndyCar circus flies over Niagra falls to the shores of Lake Ontario. Exhibition Place Toronto, former playplace of the Champ Cars, will be the site of our next street circus and perhaps our next surprise winner

Late Night Double Preview Extravaganza!

All sorts of fantasticness tomorrow afternoon to commemorate the 233rd anniversary of our independence on America's twisty tracks from the warm, wooded mountains of the East to the cool, wind-swept hills of the West. I'm here to give you a rundown of what I'm looking for in the two headliners.

Yellow Shirt Preview: Camping World Grad Prix at Watkins Glen



Thank the mighty heavens, we get to throw a little unpredictability into the series with a trip to one of America's great road racing venues.

Now, when I say unpredictability, I mean that in a relative fashion; Scott Dixon in easily the dominant driver in IndyCars on this track, but at least positions 2-4 have a chance of being someone other than a Penske or Ganassi driver. There is guaranteed to be SOME sort of passing, especially when fast drivers like Dixon, Castroneves, and perhaps Tracy are trying to find their way to the front. Sure, the field will spread out and we'll have some pretty dull portions of the race, but that's road racing and you'll have to deal with it.

As far as the venue itself: how can you argue with the history behind Watkins Glen? In 1948, the village itself hosted the first major non-oval event in America following World War II on some small roads leading up the hills to the village's west. The permanent road course was established in the '50s, and it was in 1961 when Formula One came a-knockin'. The U.S. race at the Glen was a mainstay on the Formula One calendar until 1980, and the track has also hosted a round of the NASCAR schedule for many years. IndyCar recently made its return after a long period of time where running open-wheel cars at the track was seen as too dangerous. The name "Watkins Glen" is pretty much synonymous with road racing in America and the track (with the help of some free grandstands from Nazareth Speedway) has never looked better.

My win-tastic predictions for the race:

Winner: Scott Dixon. Because, DUH! He won three in a row here from 2005-2007, and would've won his fourth in a row in '08 had he not made an uncharacteristic error warming up his tires under yellow and spun the car into Ryan Briscoe's path. Dixon is starting from the second row, has a good pit crew, and is amazing at this track. Case. Closed.

Dark Horse: Justin Wilson. Major nod to the tall guy from England, coming off of many oval races (not Dale Coyne Racing's strong suit) and back onto a few twisty tracks (DCR and Justin's VERY strong suit, as evidenced by the St. Petersburg race). Wilson wowed by putting his car in the front row next to Ryan Briscoe and, if his pit crew can keep up with the bigger teams, he can certainly keep up with the bigger drivers.

Ninja Dark Horse: Mike Conway. Why not, y'know. Big, sweep-turned, undulating-terrain, purpose-built road courses are the former British F3 champ's forte, not narrow streets or big ovals. He placed the car on the third row next to Dario Franchitti and he's certainly not wanting for driver skill. A couple of tough breaks in the early races put Conway behind the 8-ball, but he had a strong race at Iowa. Plus, it'd just be fantastic for Conway and D&R to be challenging for the front of the pack.

Danica Watch: Normally I would write Danica off on a road course, as these cars don't fit her road racing ability very well. However, when I see that she's placed her car on the inside of the fourth row, I start to think that maybe she's got something to bring to the table this week. Top five for Danica.

Race is at 1PM on ABC. Be there!

Yellow Shirt Preview: MotoGP United States Grand Prix



At the other end of the country, on a slightly less historic but no less magnificent ribbon of road draped over a couple of hills between Monterey and Salinas, California, grand prix motorcycle racing takes the U.S. by storm once again.

Seriously, I appreciate the history of Watkins Glen and I understand the setting is nice, but I dare you to find any racetrack in America -- oval or road course -- that can beat Laguna Seca when it comes to scenery. From the hill overlooking Turn 6 and the Rahal Straight, you can see the track, the fence, then a vast valley dotted with trees and houses and framed by more of the sudden, steep mountains common in that part of the world. You can walk to the other side of the same hill and see about half the track, from Turn 10, down the front stretch and through the Andretti hairpin, and through Turn 5, with the bustling paddock contained therein. A short walk away, to the crest of the next hill, you come face-to-face with one of the craziest corners in all of racing: the Corkscrew. Typed words on a blog don't begin to describe what it's like to watch a vehicle drop some 20 feet in elevation over a blind brow in a matter of a couple of seconds, but it's astounding. If you've never been to Laguna Seca, get that done; I recommend the Historic Races in August, but I bet the MotoGP/AMA weekend would be a good one as well.

As for the racing itself, it can vary. Sometimes, as with 2007, the race can be a snoozer with one rider running off with everything. Sometimes, as with 2006, the home team runs off with the victory, as Nicky Hayden was able to do in GP racing's return to Laguna Seca. Or sometimes, you can have a true classic, as with 2008 -- Rossi and Stoner dueled each other nearly to the death in the first half of the race, with the crown jewel being Rossi going Alex Zanardi-style through the dirt at the Corkscrew to take the lead.

Which type of race will this one be? My vote is going towards "Classic". The race I linked to ranks second on my list of greatest motorcycle races I've ever seen, just behind this year's race in Catalunya (video HERE...dig the Italian commentary). This all leads into my pick for the winner of this race...

Winner: Valentino Rossi. The man's just fantastic when it comes to grabbing a bike by the scruff of its neck and making it do whatever he wants. Jorge Lorenzo is just behind Rossi in terms of talent, and they're on equal equipment, but I just can't see Lorenzo taking down the 100-race-winner. Plus, Lorenzo, though he put his Yamaha on pole, had a wicked high-side wreck late in qualifying and he did not look too healthy afterwards. Lorenzo might put up a challenge, but his medical status and Rossi's sheer talent will win the day.

The Home Team: Nicky Hayden (of Owensboro, KY), and Colin Edwards (of Houston, TX). Hayden won this race on the Honda in his world championship season of 2006, but his inability to come to grips with his new Ducati has hampered him in the results department -- expect him to maybe break top ten, but not much more. Edwards' Tech3 team uses a very similar bike to the ultra-dominant Yamaha factory team and the results have been fantastic for the Texas Tornado -- a couple breaks here and there and a little home-race motivation could perhaps send Edwards to the podium.

MotoGP is at 5PM on FOX, so check that out after IRL has wrapped up and you've had a chance to knock back a few Russian Imperial Stouts.

By the way, the finish to the Artist-Formerly-Known-As-The Firecracker 400 was hilariously amazing. Kyle Busch is the most arrogant P.O.S. I've ever seen in my life. Seriously, he tries to throw a block to hold the lead a quarter-mile from the finish and ends up wrecking half the field and nearly killing himself? That scrawny punk wouldn't have lasted five-and-a-half seconds if he pulled crap like that on A.J., Parnelli, Roger, Rathmann, or Herk in the old USAC stocks. He's lucky he didn't end up wrecking Tony Stewart, who went all mature-team-owner-Tony in his victory speech.

Yes, IMS Power Shakeup This Week

Official release from the Speedway HERE

The short of it is: Tony George no longer runs the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or Hulman & Co. George will remain on as a board member and will also be responsible for looking at a business plan for the Indy Racing League in order to have the thing make some money instead of hemorrhaging it.

If you want to find out more about the two fellows taking Tony's responsibilities at IMS Corp, LLC and Hulman & Co., read the article. Yeah...I've never heard of them either.

On a completely different note:
The Yellow Shirt Twitter Tracker (nowhere near as extreme as that on the Tonight Show) has Curt Cavin saying that the League is putting 300 more pounds of downforce into the cars for the ovals. Downforce = grip, grip = passing (hopefully).

IMS Power Shakeup This Week?

As Robin Miller will continually remind you until your ears bleed and fall off, he broke the news that Tony George was supposedly being thrown out of his spot by his evil conniving sisters who want to see racing as we know it fail (end-sarcasm).

Apart from being the only news source in America to have this claim, Miller is also telling us that this Tuesday, June 30, is D-Day for Tony George; he'll apparently be somehow reassigned out of his CEO-of-The-Speedway gig.

On a whole other plane, a super-secret ninja acquaintance of mine who has been part of the Indianapolis racing community for some time and has a solid list of connections is thinking that perhaps Joie Chitwood might be on his way out as the Speedway's president. I have a rather hard time believing that, since the problem is apparently the amount of the family's money that Tony is throwing into the IRL and Vision Racing.

However, based on what Robin Miller is saying and based on ninja-acquaintance's thought regarding Chitwood, here's my idea: Tony George is removed from his post as CEO of the IMS Corporation and is put into the position of IMS president as a way to have him focus on the Speedway while the IRL is put in the hands of...someone (Chitwood, Cotman, Barnhart, Humpy Wheeler...whatever). In the meantime, Vision Racing will still have access to the family bank account and perhaps have Ed Carpenter as the person at the center of that operation -- if Lauren George weren't so darn young, I'd say she'd be a good fit at that post.

The logic behind this? There is none! I'm a lowly blogger, so what do I know? However, is my wild speculation any worse than what Robin Miller does for the Speed Channel? I think not.

Review: Suntrust Indy Challenge

This picture was taken just after the end of the Suntrust Indy Challenge. That, or he just saw the Boost Mobile commercial with Danica signing fat dudes' chests. Either way, this poor li'l fella is not feelin' very good right now.

Seriously, what the hell happened to IndyCar racing? I had this race set on DVR so I could come home after my friend's birthday was over and watch the race. Unfortunately, I also fired up some of the other blogs on the interwebs and found out that this may have been the worst auto race of any kind ever.

After Scott Dixon grabbed the lead via pit stops around mid-race, I TURNED THE RACE OFF. This is the first time I haven't sat through a full IndyCar race in...I don't even know how long.

I'm tired of even trying to think of little suggestions for how Brian Barnhart can fix this. What they need to do is figure out what the spec of these cars and engines were around 2005 and just revert them all back to that. Whatever small things that were done over the past four years have finally added together to absolutely kill the IndyCar Series. If we're to have at least two more years with this formula, it needs to be solved before the races are run in front of nothing but the flies in the floodlights.

My predictions were middling this time around. The pick of Dario Franchitti as winner might've been good had he been, y'know, able to pass. Instead, his teammate Scott Dixon takes the cake once again. Dark horses Mutoh and Matos were kind of decent choices, with Hideki coming home fourth and Matos in eighth. My Danica Watch turned out to be pretty darn wrong. I'm going to have to say that's not down to her driving, though; position in this race was determined by pit work and not much else. Dixon, Franchitti, and Rahal were given their position based on some lucky breaks, while Mutoh and Patrick were given their position based on some pit strategy. Everyone else was a lap down and that was all she wrote.

One major surprise is the lack of Penske cars on track when the checkered flags flew. I'm not sure what exactly happened to them, but turn 2 was apparently not very friendly to them. Briscoe was out early with his slide and wall contact off of the second turn and Helio (from all accounts...it was after I turned the race off) did the exact same thing later on. Uncharacteristic mistakes from a couple of great drivers on a great team.

U.S. of A. is up 2-1 on Brazil right now in the Confederations Cup Final, which has turned out to be 500,000-times more interesting than the IndyCar race was. Later on today, it's tons of motorcycle racing from Donington (WSBK) and Assen (MotoGP). I'm going to try my best to simply forget about the IndyCar race...at least until Robin Miller shows up on Speed Channel later tonight.

Yellow Shirt Preview: Suntrust Indy Challenge

It's Saturday, so let's crank up the lights, fill up the stands, and have ourselves a good, old-fashioned short track race.

I'll skip the endless gushing about how great I think Richmond International Raceway is, but just understand that I think this track is just fantastic. The IRL needs -- NEEDS -- to go out into America and dig up good, unique tracks like this one. Unlike the soulless, nearly identical 1.5-milers at Chicago, Kansas, Las Vegas, and Kentucky and the slightly better but just-as-identical tracks at Texas, Charlotte, and Atlanta, there are a ton of tracks out there that are their own beast. Since the IRL is obviously trying to diversify its schedule CART-style, they need to get more unique little tracks that actually require that the driver drives the car, don'tcha know.

Tonight's race, much like the first half of the race last week at Iowa, has a chance to be rather interesting, since the teams that spend the most time in the wind tunnel won't necessarily be the teams at the front at the end. As we saw last week with omas Scheckter, the driver that feels very confident in his or her equipment can make a ton of noise on restarts and in traffic. There are some pretty good drivers lined up pretty deep in the field, so we'll see if guys like Tony Kanaan can put on a few passes and work their way toward the front.

My predictions that were spot-on last week for whatever reason:

Winner: Dario Franchitti. He was fast in practice, he was really fast in qualifying, and I see no reason to not believe that Dario will make it two-for-two on the short tracks this season. Richmond has lower banking and a shorter lap, but the layout and the style of racing is pretty similar to what we saw last week, where Dario dominated the last portion of the race.

Dark Horse: Hideki Mutoh. Hideki was very solid last week and, despite being mired back a bit in qualifying, he has been very fast in practice. Hideki is one of those guys who very quietly works his way towards the front and just kind of sits and waits for his time. If Tony Kanaan doesn't work his way up towards the front at one of his better tracks, Hideki could be the guy to bring Andretti/Green their first win since this time last year.

Ninja Dark Horse: Raphael Matos. He's not really that far behind Mutoh in my opinion, but I'll put down his inexperience and his place on a team that has never found victory lane as the reasons his victory would be a huge surprise. Matos has been surprisingly fast in his U.S. Marines car this weekend and we know he's had the speed to be near the front on other tracks. Perhaps tonight can be the night Matos and Luczo-Dragon make it happen.

Danica Watch: The outlook is not particularly good for Danica. This is a very middle-of-the-road kind of race for Danica and it will probably be a victory for her to be in the top half of the field by the end of the race.

Coverage starts at 8 on VERSUS (thank God) and the green flag should be dropping at 8:45. A friend of mine is celebrating his birthday tonight, so no live blog for me. I'll have the DVR fired up and I'll try and get a review up tomorrow.

Max Mosley: A Profile In Ignorance of History

Back in the Seventies, fed up with the dictatorial way in which the sport was being run, the constructors taking part in the Formula One World Championship got together to present their side of the argument at meetings and make sure their interests were served by the sport.

The most vociferous of the team leaders, and therefore the best man to lead the charge, was the principal of the Brabham team: Bernie Ecclestone. To help represent their organization's interests, the constructors found, in their own ranks, one of the more spectacular lawyers in the land and one of the brainchildren behind MARCH Engineering: Max Mosley.

For years and years, Mosley butted heads with Jean-Marie Balestre, head the FIA, the sporting equivalent of the FIA (seperate entities at that time), and the French equivalent thereof, over various aspects of the governance of the sport. After a particularly perplexing incident where Ayrton Senna was disqualified for a collision with teammate Alain Prost (a Frenchman), it was widely thought that Balestre acted on behalf of his countryman. Mosley picked up the presidency of FISA (the governing body), then managed to take the FIA itself from Balestre. Bernie Ecclestone was given control of the commercial rights, and the stage was set for the 16 years leading up to today.

As with all dictators who replace other dictators, the same problems tend to exist, but are represented by a different face. Fast-forward a decade and a half, and we have nearly the exact same situation that we had from the mid-Seventies until 1993. Max and Bernie began running the sport with a "my way or the highway" mentality, making new rules with reckless abandon and little consultation, and cracking down on the way money was distributed within the sport.

Naturally, the teams came up with a union to make their opinion heard, the teams came up with a vociferous leader to state their case (Luca di Montezemelo), and they've been butting heads with Max and Bernie.

Unlike the Max-and-Bernie vs. Balestre deal, this one was resolved much faster but in much the same fashion: Max Mosely will no longer be a part of Formula One and the FIA.

Despite the fact that the budget cap was a splendid idea -- one of the few that Max had made as FIA president -- the teams simply saw it as more strong-arming by the governor of the sport. The worst part is that Max seemed to give no consideration to the cost-cutting measures that the teams were placing on the table. Instead of being seen as someone trying to save F1 in this tough economy, Max continued to be seen as someone who didn't car about the wants of the people actually involved in the show.

By doing the exact same thing that he was hired by Bernie to fight in the Seventies and Eighties, then facing the exact same fate as predecessor Jean-Marie Balestre, Max Mosely has shown himself to be truly ignorant of history. Seriously...after being on the other side of the argument for so long, what did he think was going to happen when he strong-armed the teams with rules changes?

What we need to worry about now is who will be running things as we move on into the future. If he could reconcile his differences with some of the people in the sport, my early vote goes to Jackie Stewart, with Ron Dennis in a close second.

Silly Season: Racetrack-Style

In accordance to the words of Curt Cavin in today's IndyCar Notebook in the Star, changes are coming to the IndyCar schedule -- for better or worse, depending on who you talk to.

For those too lazy to click the preceding link, here's the gist: there will likely be 18 races next year, with exactly half only having left turns and the other half including turns that go the other way. A little bit of funny math will tell you that adds two road courses and subtracts one oval from the schedule.

As far as the road courses that are to be added, it's pretty easy to figure out. Apex Brazil is putting a bunch of money into the series so it can have a race in the company's home nation (as well as that of several drivers). There is a question of where the track will be, but it's looking like the streets of Brasilia might be the early favorite.

Road course number two is likely to be Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama. The track has already had its shakedown, hosting a test session before the season got underway and hosting a huge number of spectators for said event. If George Barber gets off his butt and actually commits to improvements he says he'll make for the Indy Cars, the track will absolutely have a race.

The major question is which oval is going to disappear, and I think Mr. Cavin's answer to that question might set off more than a few fans of IndyCar's past. He says that, because of legal issues involving the former promoter and the State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee may find its way off the IRL schedule. Of course, this would be a complete disaster because Milwaukee is...y'know...unique and historic. When you have Chicagoland, Kentucky, and Kansas, three tracks of nearly the exact same configuration, on the schedule and you don't have the oldest operational racetrack on the planet on there, there's a problem. Let Wisconsin and the former promoter deal with their thing; there's a new boss at the Mile and the race is always well-attended. Keep the Mile on the schedule and throw out one of the soulless ISC tracks that don't value the series to begin with.

MEANWHILE!

Racetrack shenanigans are making their way (as I predicted) into the FIA/FOTA conflagration across the pond. First off, Monaco's promoters have stated in very plain English that they will not run a race that doesn't include a red car featuring a prancing horse. This sentiment is beginning to be echoed in many circles of race promotion.

The Guardian in Britain has found out that some journalist in Europe has found a provisional calendar for a 2010 FOTA championship. This calendar includes Silverstone (which Bernie Ecclestone unceremoniously dumped for 2010), Buenos Aires (same story, but in the late '90s), Imola (there's a trend here...), Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montréal, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. New to the circus, should this championship go off, would be the Lausitzring in Germany and a street race in Helsinki, chief city in a country that has produced a couple of F1's best drivers ever.

The FIA seems to know it's losing steam in this battle and Max Mosely has backed off a little bit and might be looking to compromise. More to come on this for sure.

Review: Iowa Corn Indy 250

No live blog today, folks. Father's Day dictated that I enjoy today's race from Iowa over fish and chips and a pint of Guinness...and my dad and I enjoyed the heck out of it!

I also enjoyed the race itself, for the most part. Today's race featured an old friend who has been missing from the series all season: passing. Tomas Scheckter got it off to a solid start by passing seven cars on the first lap before E.J. Viso brought out the yellow out...more on the color yellow in a moment. Scheckter was blindingly fast on fresh tires and was up to second place at one point before falling back...more on Tomas in a moment as well.

Unlike so many races so far this year, the lead of the race was decided under green flag conditions with an on-track pass, then solidified by green flag pit stops. Sure, the racing got a little dull when the green flag ended up being out for a vast majority of the race's second half, but that's how those sorts of things work. That does not change the fact that Dario Franchitti had to catch Ryan Briscoe (first time that seems to have happened this year), then shove his car onto the inside like and complete a pass in order to win. What an amazing and novel concept -- something that certainly didn't happen in the NASCAR race or the Formula One race today.

For an event sponsored by Iowa's corn-growing conglomerate, it seemed appropriate that the yellow flag was so prominent for the first half of the race. Apart from E.J. Viso throwing his car on a suicide run around the outside on Turn 4 on the first lap, all of the incidents took place at the exit of Turn 2. The reason: after two years of settling soil, the ground around the track's infield access tunnel is at a slightly lower level than it was in 2007. The tunnel, however, hasn't moved and there's a fairly pronounced bump between Turns 1 & 2. Everyone played off the incidents as cold tire issues or simple snapping loose, but the evidence is there: lots of black double-helix tire marks heading towards the wall at the exit of Turn 2. Moving an access tunnel is no easy task, but something will need to be done if the problem worsens next year.

As for my predictions this week: I was so completely correct that I couldn't believe it. Dario Franchitti won, and he did it convincingly with obligatory Ashley Judd interviews and everything. I erred a bit in my preview when I said that Dario hadn't won a thing since 2007; he, of course, won at Long Beach this year "like a gentleman" (according to Mrs. Franchitti).

Dark horse candidate Tony Kanaan was certainly strong and held the lead for quite a long time before disaster struck after a mid-race pit stop. A mix of cold tires and that pesky bump sent TK into the wall and ended his day. It'd be interesting to see where he might have ended up had that not happened.

Ninja dark horse pick Tomas Scheckter -- along with teammate Mike Conway -- was the massive surprise of the day. Schecketer, who was crammed back in 16th at the start by the fact that qualifying was set on entrant points, immediately shot towards the front of the pack at the start. He was absolutely spectacular on fresh tires when everyone else was struggling to get up to temperature. Restarts were a festival of three-wide, outside-line passes by the Mona-Vie car and, in spite of "only" finishing sixth, Scheckter was definitely one of the strongest cars out there. Should be interesting to see where he ends up at Richmond.

The Danica Watch turned out to also be correct, as she ended up in ninth place at the end. The #7 car was happy early on, and some sound pit work put her at the front for some time. Unfortunately, the car became less happy as the day wore on and she drifted down the time sheet. Now that her top five run is over, she is starting to lose her grip on the upper tier of the points battle and that could effect things as her contract situation rolls along (since that is obviously based entirely on her talent and not on marketability at all...).

The next round is at one of my absolute favorite tracks in America, Richmond International Raceway. 3/4-mile, 60 foot wide, d-shaped gladiator arena that tends to get pretty good crowds to boot. It hosts two of the NASCAR races that I actually enjoy watching and the IRL race is pretty darn good too. Plus, as an added bonus, we get our VERSUS coverage back and can forget about ABC for a night. Looking forward to it, for sure.

Yellow Shirt Preview: Iowa Corn Indy 250

We've had two weeks to digest how lame big track racing has gotten (Brian Barnhart is working on the problem, apparently), so let's try and forget about it by tackling a couple of killer short tracks.

The site of this week's circus will be Iowa Speedway, a 7/8-mile, D-shaped ring of craziness. Unlike just about all of the 1.5-milers on the schedule, Iowa is delightfully different from everything else. It has variable banking in the turns, which opens up multiple grooves for the drivers. It is also spectacularly wide, which allows the drivers to go three wide on the straights with ease. Most importantly, a race here is won by the driver, not the aerodynamics.

There is but one problem with the track this year: weepers. It rained cats and dogs before the USAC midgets took to the track last night, and the storm left a ton of water in the ground. The midget race was run after the track was dried, but water began popping back up through the track and causing all sorts of issues. USAC cars can deal with losses in grip -- they make their living running on dirt after all. Indy Cars and their little brothers in Indy Lights run too fine of tolerances to be hitting random patches of water on an oval.

Qualifying was "washed out" in a sense by the weepers and at last look, the safety crew was still desperately trying to clean them up (there's an army of trucks and safety workers on the backstretch). It's hard to know how things will look when it comes time for the Indy Lights cars to take to the track, but we're about to find out.

As for the big cars, it's hard to know if they'll even race tomorrow. The weather forecast, at least for the early part of the day, is pretty unfavorable. Word butcher/meteorologist Will from Is It May Yet? says the race will go off, but it will likely start later than scheduled. The problem will be what happens to the water once the rain stops and the surface dries. If the weepers show up tomorrow the way they did today, there will be a massive issue.

As it is, I'll keep up the optimism that we'll race and give my oh-so-awful predictions:

Winner: Dario Franchitti. Dario was second in the first practice, first in the second practice, and will be starting the race near the top of the grid. He's a good driver, he's in one of the fastest cars, and he hasn't won a thing since Chicagoland '07. He'll have to watch out for those Penske cars, though...they'll be fast too.

Dark Horse: Tony Kanaan. It's hard to ever consider Kanaan a "dark horse", but this year has not been kind to his team and they have been relegated to the second tier of IndyCar. However, Tony has it in him to win and he's been consistent in practice. Plus, Kanaan is generally strong on tracks like this one.

Ninja Dark Horse: Tomas Scheckter. What a story it would be if Tomas can bring one home for Dreyer & Reinbold. He has the ability to drive the wheels off his car, as evidenced by his 9th-fastest times in both practice sessions. As long as he doesn't drive his car into the wall and gets a few breaks, he could be near the front at the end.

Danica Watch: Top ten, probably. I don't see her doing all that well in this race, especially since she's had awful luck in this track's brief history. She might be able to challenge her way into the top five, but I don't think she'll get much farther that.

There you have it. Everyone do your anti-rain dance and let's hope the race goes off as planned. Should be a good race, assuming it happens.

Officially Official: Auto Racing Rips Apart At the Seams

So the years of threats have finally been realized and the split the sport has so feared has finally taken place.

The autocrat and the team owners, after arguing for some time over matters of cost and control, have gone their separate ways to run two different series in direct competition with each other.

On the one hand, you have the teams: all of the most recognizable driver names and car liveries from years past, confident in their ability to sell out races and keep fans away from the other side.

On that other side, there is not much. Only a couple of recognizable drivers and teams that haven't seen real glory for some time, mixed with a lot of newcomers unfamiliar to the world. The fans will be initially hesitant to jump in with the new series. This series, though, will provide a more cost-effective way to run things and has a couple of solid engine manufacturers who are aboard. This series will also be able to reach into the feeder series around it and bring up drivers who never would have had a shot at the big leagues before.

The other thing the grand autocrat has is the crown jewel of the sport, the race that all drivers who have aspired to this level of motorsport want to win. No matter what happens with the series' other races, this event will still draw massive crowds, massive profits, and massive glory to the winner.

The teams will likely play that off with a shrug and say, "yes, but they don't have the best drivers and teams". They will spend money to bring new venues into the fold and spend even more money to put what they consider the fastest, most technologically advanced cars on the planet on the track.

It is plausible to think, however, that the egos of the teams will not serve them well. It is obvious that there are only a few teams that provide all of the winners and bring the most fans to the tracks. Those teams, since they will feel responsible for any success the series is having, will want to make power grabs and there will be conflicts. The interests of the teams on the track, where there is already a decent amount of bickering, may find their way into the boardroom and bog the series down.

It is also plausible that, confident in their ability to sell the names no matter how dull technical regulations may have made the product, the teams will continue to spend money somewhat recklessly until they realize that the more affordable -- if slower -- system employed by the autocrat's series is much more attractive to teams and is providing a higher level of competition. In light of this, some of the teams may even think about bolting for the other series because of its higher level of competition, lower costs, and the fact that they miss running in the crown jewel of the sport.

As time wears on, the lower-cost, more competitive series championed by the autocrat (who is beginning to look more and more intelligent) might draw fans and, most importantly, restore itself as the premier form of the sport. The more stubborn teams that are still split off will begin to get desperate in this case; new car formulae, more gimmicks, more activities that are only vaguely related to the race (concerts, carnivals, etc.) to draw fans.

The worst thing about this, though, is that it may desperately injure the sport on both sides of the split as it becomes more protracted. Viewership may end up getting split straight down the middle as the series become established, sponsors ignorant to the sport may end up being confused over who to throw their money behind, and attendance will suffer at all but a select few races. For the first time in a long time, the word "profit" may leave the vocabulary of the people involved on both sides.

....But enough about the 1996 CART/IRL split.

Honestly, I see the Formula One/FOTA situation turning out exactly the same as the CART/USAC-then-IRL split ended up when all was said and done. Words will be exchanged, PR machines will go into full-swing, and things might get very testy for some time, but it will be exactly the same in the end. Mosely and the FIA have come up with a better formula (innovation within a budget cap, as opposed to unlimited spending on minutae), they have the sport's major cash cow: the Monaco Grand Prix, and they have one of the best businessmen in the world, Bernie Ecclestone, running the commercial side of things.

The only wild card in all of this is that the FOTA's split-off series will have access to a lot of venues that have been alienated by Bernie's ruthless tactics. You know the British Racing Drivers' Club will be more than happy to welcome Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Brawn GP, and Team McLaren back to Silverstone while Bernie waits for Donington Park to finish its renovations. It is almost certain that France will have a race, though it will certainly not be a Nevers-Magny Cours (Le Mans Bugatti, perhaps?). It is also certain that the new series, with strong representation from automakers, will want a race in the world's biggest car market: the United States. We may also see a return of tracks like Imola, Estoril, the A1/Osterreich-ring, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and others to the world-class racing calendar.

I just wish these people could have put aside their egos and made a compromise of some sort. We just finished this exact same problem in the States, and no matter what series they supported, any American open-wheel fan will tell you that they wish it could have been resolved before the sport was nearly killed.

Max Mosely Throws Down on FOTA

After the Formula One Teams Association and Federation Internationale de l'Automobile failed to come to an agreement on how to properly fund Formula One in 2010, the FIA came up with some pretty harsh words -- but pretty sound as well -- for the wayward teams. Autosport was kind enough to publish the entire statement HERE

I'm not going to take up a bunch of space talking about this, that, or the other, but I will say this: The United States just finished a massive war of words and racing series between the autocrat with the big cash cow and the teams with the big egos. The autocrat with the cash cow won. FOTA needs to look at recent history across the pond and consider their actions carefully.

Review: 24 Heures du Mans

So it is in the books: Another 24 hours have been logged at the Circuit de la Sarthe and, most importantly, a new marque leaves its mark on the opening decade of the 21st Century.

The four rings of Audi have been replaced by the roaring Lion of Peugeot as the automaker of note in this classic endurance race. Audi's brand new R15 TDI could not hold sway against the sheer speed and efficiency of Peugeot and their 908 HDI-FAP. The major hindrance to a Peugeot victory in last year's event was the lack of strategy and coordination in the pit lane -- something that the ruthlessly efficient Germans with ruthlessly efficient Wolfgang Ullrich in command had never lacked. The Peugeots were fast last year, but the crew was not.

For this year, Peugeot obviously rectified that issue, because they were extremely smooth on race strategy and the cars performed magnificently. Only two issues struck the Peugeot factory effort during the entirety of the race: the robotic efficiency of the pit crew bit the #7 when it was released into the path of Pescarolo Sport's own 908 when it should have been held for a moment longer, and the left-rear of the #8 had to be completely replaced as day turned to night. The #9 car, however, was bulletproof. When the #8 sat in the garage, the #9 shot into the lead and never looked back.

Audi, on the other hand, looked almost human in this year's race. The lack of on-track testing at the Le Mans circuit obviously hurt them, as none of the drivers seemed to be content with the car until daylight broke on Sunday. Also, uncharacteristic human error became a problem for two of the cars. The #3, under the direction of Alex Premat, lost control on the approach to the Indianapolis corner and hit the wall, dropping that car deep into the field early on. The #2 seemed to have some sort of mechanical issue or puncture as it entered the Porsche Curves and Lucas Luhr was unable to prevent the car from spearing the tire barrier. The #1 car was the only one that remained in one piece, but the speed simply was not there to catch the Peugeots.

The scary moment in P1 came deep into the darkness, when the Pescarolo Peugeot carrying Benoit Treluyer ended up parked against the barriers at the Esses. There was no camera replay of the incident, but accounts say the car got unstable after hitting a bump, dug into the grass, and flipped into the barriers. The car was so entirely destroyed that the only things distinguishing the car were the white bubble top and the fact that the only remaining body panels on the car were painted the lime green and light blue of Pescarolo Sport. The moments following the accident were frightening; after the safety crews made their initial assessment of the situation, they brought out tarps to block photographers from getting close to the incident -- which could have been interpreted as keeping cameras from seeing a bloody mess inside the cockpit or something. Fortunately, after a tense hour of waiting, word was received that Treluyer was awake and alert.

One fine story that came out of P1 was the introduction of the Aston Martin-Lola to the world. First of all, the cars looked absolutely spectacular, finished off in the light blue/bright orange of the Gulf Oil Company -- colors that have graced such notable machines as the Ford GT40 and the Porsche 917. Second, the cars were very fast, propelled by the only proper power plant an Aston can really have: a roaring, gasoline-powered V12. Considering the dominance that diesel-fueled cars have enjoyed for the last several years and the semantics that Henri Pescarolo used to go through because of the disadvantage provided to his Judd V8-powered cars, it was interesting to see a gasoline-powered car running with the diesels. Apparently, the trap speeds for the Astons were easily higher than those of the diesel cars, but the diesels have immense levels of torque that could not be overcome. The next few years could see a return of gasoline to the victory stand, though.

In the Prototype 2 category, things did not turn out quite as I predicted. Team Goh, the only Japan-based team to ever take an overall victory at Le Mans, looked very strong with its Porsche RS Spyder as it battled on and off with Team Essex's Porsche. However, as Sunday progressed along, problems began to crop up and the car spent some time in the garage. The stamp was put on Goh's day when the car seemed to malfunction under braking for the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight, sending the car into the aluminum barriers on the side of the road, then through a tire wall on the inside of the chicane. Driver Seiji Ara escaped in one piece, but it is safe to say the car did not.

In GT1, the final year before the unified GT class takes effect, it was a dominant farewell for the class' most prolific team, Corvette Racing. The two 'Vettes were the class of the GT1 field the entire race, and they even battled each other throughout the day on Sunday. It looked for a time like the excellent-looking black #64 might take the win, but a broken transmission with just over an hour to go ruined their day. Luckily, the #63 was there to take the reigns and, after the crew pitted the car to clean the accumulated grime off the nose, a bright yellow Corvette crossed took the checkered flag for the final time in the forseeable future.

In GT2, there was more American dominance, though the vehicle-of-choice was of Italian make. Houston, TX-based Risi Competizione's two-car effort shot rosso corsa-colored flames in the face of the Porsches and other Ferraris to take a well-deserved victory. Unfortunately for the competition, it looks like Giuseppe Risi and his F430 GTs are going to be the team to beat in the American Le Mans Series and in the 24-hour race for some time to come. Porsche's dominance seems to have definitively ended and the only thing that will probably beat the F430 is Ferrari's next rear-engined coupe, the F450.

So there you have it. I made predictions and, as always happens with races like this one, I was made to look a fool. My P2 and GT1 predictions were almost right, but an untimely smash for Team Goh and a broken transmission for Corvette #64 made me a solid 0-4 on picks. However, it was a spectacular win for Peugeot and, as we roll into the near-future of Le Mans, the Peugeot-vs.-Audi-vs.-the world matchup should prove to be an interesting one.

24 Heures du Mans: Sunrise Update

One of the cooler moments of any 24-hour race is the hour or so where the sun lights up the sky, then clears the horizon. After many hours of watching anonymous headlights floating down the roads of central France, it is fantastic to see the cars emerge from the darkness carrying the battle scars of many hours of night racing.

Of course, some battle scars are larger than others. Here's a run-down of what's been going on in the first 14.5 hours of action:

-Audi #3, being driven at the time by Premat, overcooked it on the approach to the Indianapolis corner in the opening laps, parking it in the barriers and cracking the front end. The car was repaired, but lost a ton of ground.

-Peugeot #7, with Pedro Lamy at the wheel, was sent out of the pits in the path of Pescarolo's Peugeot, who stuck one of its various front winglets into the left-rear of the factory car. The #7 car's tire was busted before it reached the Dunlop Bridge and it shredded, taking the entire left rear part of the car with it. The safety car was deployed, as bits of rubber, carbon fiber, and mechanicals were strewn all over the track. The car was fixed and on its way, but much time was lost.

-Audi #2, under the direction of Lucas Luhr, appeared to have a flat left-rear tire. The replays were inconclusive, but the result was not: the car was stuffed into the barriers at the start of the Porsche Curves. The back end of the car was entirely wrecked and, despite protestations from Luhr, the officials would not let him limp back to the pits because of the sheer amount of fluid leaking from the car.

-Several mechanical things took place as day turned to night and night dragged on, but one incident takes the cake. In the 14th hour, the #17 Pescarolo Peugeot ended up parked next to the barriers at the Esses in complete tatters. There were no replays, but the car was so completely destroyed that there was no question that something catastrophic happened. Benoit Trulyer was yanked from the car and taken off in the ambulance, but all reports say he's awake and, most importantly, alive.

At this point, two of the factory Peugeots are leading the one remaining Audi of any concern. The Brabham/Wurz/Gene car has been leading for quite a while and is still looking good. Still, even though the sun is on its way up, there are still nine whole hours left in the event. There is plenty of time for things to go entirely wrong and, being the home stretch of the Le Mans 24-Hours, something certainly will.

The sky is turning a happy pinkish-orange over the La Sarthe district of France and we will be racing in full daylight before too long. Nine hours, 17 minutes left to go. Full review coming when day hits in North America.

Yellow Shirt Preview: 24 Heures du Mans

Here's what I love about this time of year: within a span of three weeks, the three greatest racing events in the world are all run. If you're an American oval racer, you want to win the 500-Mile Race at Indianapolis. If you're a European, South American, or Asian open-wheeler, you want to win the Grand Prix on the streets of Monaco. If you're a sports car driver, you want to win the 24-Hour Race at Le Mans. These are the biggest festivals of speed in the entire world and, as I said, they're all just three weeks apart.

Le Mans is steeped in a ridiculous amount of history that, while not quite as long as that of the Indianapolis 500, is certainly as colorful. From the get-go, the 24-hour race has been the realm of periodical international dominance -- by which I mean certain nations have, through various auto makers, put their stamp on the race over various periods of time.

When the event started, it was Bentley's Speed-Six that became the defining sports car of the '20s. Alfa Romeo took over in the pre-war years with the 8C. Jaguar, with three of the most beautiful cars ever built: the XK120, C-Type, and D-Type, kicked the field around a bit. Ferrari then took the reins and put down the competition for seven out of eight races. Ford answered Ferrari's refusal of a sale proposal by building the GT40 and winning four consecutive races. In the '70s and '80s, Le Mans became the stomping ground of Porche's screaming-fast prototypes: 917, 936, 956, and 962. The '90s provided a little parity, with Japan getting its first 24-Hour victory behind Mazda's quad-rotor 787, and Peugeot grabbing a couple of wins for the home team. Since then, though, the Germans have taken back over on the wheels and ingenuity of Audi.

One of the great things about all of the cars on that list and all of the other machines that have taken to the Circuit de la Sarthe is that they are, in some form or another, relevant. Up until the 1970s, the cars had to be homoligated, meaning you could go to your local Ford dealer and order up a GT40 if you wanted to impress the neighbors, or a wealthy Italian might have picked up an Alfa 8C to cruise the Alps.

Even after the homoligation rules were taken away, there is always some relevance of the participating cars to the everyday driver. Porsche took the engineering prowess that built the 917 and put out the 911, a car that has become an icon on both the street and the racetrack. Mazda's 787 proved that a rotary engine could be fast and could be made durable through sound engineering. Most recently, Audi perfected its fuel injection system (FSI) and it's diesel technology (TDI) with the R8 and R10 prototypes. Unlike any racing series left in the world at this point, the technology seen on a Le Mans-winning car is very likely to find its way into road cars not long after the dust from the race has settled.

What also makes Le Mans great is that, while engineers have to push the envelope and make their cars extremely fast (Nissan's Group-C cars would beat 250 m.p.h. on the Mulsanne Straight), they also have to make them last an extremely long time while under extremely high stress. Not only is the race long, but it is held on roads that, by today's standards of racetrack construction, are entirely inadequate. The regional government has done what it can to keep the D388 and Route de Mulsanne (the run from Tertre Rouge-to-Mulsanne-to-Arnage) smooth, but these are still public roads. Public roads get eaten up by large trucks and they get various fluids dumped on them by the thousands of road cars that take the route. A Le Mans prototype must be able to survive the dangers of traveling a public road at 220 m.p.h., but run fast enough to stay ahead of the other cars.

Not only must the cars be durable, but so must the drivers. There are three drivers for a typical Le Mans team and, you've gotten sleepy after a three hour drive between cities, imagine being woken up from a 2-hour nap at 3AM to go drive a 200 m.p.h. race car. To make it even more fun, the four-class system means the fast cars have to me mindful of the slower guys in front, while the slower guys have to be paying attention to their mirrors. Did I mention that this is all happening on a pitch-black racetrack? These drivers have to remain sharp for so long and they absolutely have to be mentally prepared for their drive.

The members of the team seem to do a lot of sitting around, but they have to be just as sharp as the drivers. You never know when your car is going to pull into the garage with a busted third gear, and you have to take the entire gear stack apart to replace it. When that happens at 4 in the morning after 12 hours of constantly servicing the cars in the pits, you have to be ready. That's the mechanics' job and it is just about as difficult as that of the driver.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is a mix of the endurance and skill of the engineering, the mechanics, and the drivers, and that is what makes this race so excellent.

My winning predictions:

Prototype 1/Overall: Every year that has started with a two and two zeros, except 2003, has been won by a car carrying the four rings of Audi, and there is absolutely no reason to pick against them this time around. Peugeot has a strong car, yes, and Aston Martin, as is their wont, have created a beautiful machine, but something catastrophic needs to happen to both Audis in order for them to lose. This just in: Nothing catastrophic enough EVER happens to Audi; if the car hits a fire-breathing Tyrannosaurus Rex going 478 miles-per-hour, the team will have the solution ready in the garage and the car will come back to win the race. Besides, both the Audi R10 and the Audi R15 are built to do one thing: go really fast in a straight line, which is what makes up about 75% of the Circuit de la Sarthe. My vote goes to the Audi carrying Kristensen, Capello, and McNish, because that's a lineup of pure royalty when it comes to Le Mans' current era.

Prototype 2: P2 is very underrated in the world of Le Mans-style racing because it's the only one that has no relevance to the outside world -- P2 is all about racing. One of the best cars in this class, the Porsche RS Spyder, is teamed up with a team that's won the whole thing when they entered an Audi R8, Team Goh. I'm going to go ahead and give them the nod for P2.

Grand Touring 1: This is a special year in GT1, because it's the last year before the class is merged into GT2 to make one big, happy GT class. That also means one of the most prolific makes in GT history, the Corvette, is getting its last hurrah. Corvette Racing has slowed a bit over the last few years with the improvements on Ferrari's big cars and the inclusion of Aston Martin's DBR9, both of which are tied to the Prodrive company. However, the 'Vettes are the highest-qualified GT1 cars this year and the C6.R promises to be strong in its farewell tour. Oliver Gavin, Oliver Baretta, and Marcel Fässler in the #64 are the guys I'm going to throw my prediction behind here.

Grand Touring 2: This is one of the crazier classes in Le Mans-style racing because the racing is always so even. This is due mostly to the fact that so many of the teams buy Porsche's customer winner, the 911 GT3 RSR. The Porsche has been essentially bulletproof for years on-end and there's no reason to think it's slowing down anytime soon. I'm going to put my weight behind the #80 Flying Lizard Motorsports car. Why? They win races and they have the coolest name of any team in all of racing. Count it!

The 24-Hour Race kicks off at 3:00PM sharp, which translates to 9:00AM in the eastern quarter of the U.S. Speed Channel may show way too much NASCAR and silliness, but one thing they do completely right is Le Mans -- 17 of the 24 hours will be shown live on Speed, with a half-hour before and a half-hour after. Since 9AM is a bit much for someone my age on a Saturday, I'll be catching up with my DVR, but I'll be trying to keep the world updated throughout the day, night, and next day with my mighty blog powers. Should be fun!

And Now, More Complete Silliness

Apparently, A.J. Foyt can't decide who he actually wants driving his car since Vitor went all Joie-Chitwood-stunt-driver on him at Indianapolis. First there was Paul Tracy, who left a shamed A.J. behind after A.J. provided a dog of a car. Then there was Anthony Number Four, who couldn't point the car straight coming out of Turn 2 at Texas and busted the car.

Now, A.J. hooks up with who was once crowned by the great font of valuable knowledge known as Robin Miller "America's next big open-wheel star", Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay had been signed by Vision in April when Tony George realized Izod would not be happy if their driver wasn't in a car. It looked like a good move at first, as Ryan was right in the mix for the win at St. Pete.

The results started dropping for both Ryan and teammate Ed Carpenter, and now it seems like Vision worked out a deal where they can focus on their main driver (Ed) and keep Ryan and his Izod shirts in a car. Vision immediately gets more money-per-race to throw at the #20 (though the six races run with the #21 are now a big money pit). A.J. Foyt Enterprises gets the Izod and (this is unconfirmed, but I'm assuming) William Rast money, plus a very competent driver.

A.J.'s team has always been behind the 8-ball on car development since all of CART's big boys switched sides back in 2002-2003, but there have been some spurts of excellence. Remember that last year's Watkins Glen (insert sponsor here) Grand Prix was where Darren Manning, in A.J.'s car, was beat to the line by...Ryan Hunter-Reay. There's a pretty big spate of road/street races coming in July and August and, if Team A.J. can put a solid vehicle together, Ryan could bring some serious results. Also, we've got some "handling" ovals coming up, which is something at which Ryan used to be pretty darn good.

Also of great concern: Alex Lloyd is officially cutting ties with Chip Ganassi next week and opening up his options for either the end of this season or all of next season. This is a fine move on Alex's part, as it has been pretty obvious that Chip was never going to move him into one of the Target cars. When Dan Wheldon ran off to Panther, Dario Franchitti was moved over to the #10, and the current scuttlebutt is still focused on Danica getting a third car/replacing Scott Dixon at Ganassi. Lloyd has been running just the Daytona 24 and the 500 for two years now and, as all race drivers do, he just wants to race. There is no word as of yet whether HER energy drink will stick with "Pink" Lloyd or a new Ganassi/Danica team, but that is something that is sure to have an effect on where Alex ends up.

Finally, the Danica situation is still very fluid. My personal opinion on it: if I were driving for a second-tier team with a teammate who spends all of his time shouting at his teammates and happens to have the favor of his father/team owner, I would probably want out. A lot of Danica's sponsor money is tied in no way to AGR, so her options are pretty much unlimited here. She'll sit back and watch the contract offers flow in, then probably make a decision in July or August.