There’s been a great deal of talk, speculation, and fear since the tragic accident that claimed Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas last weekend. It was a terrible situation that no one ever wished would happen. Racing is dangerous! All of the drivers, crew, and fans know this fact, accept it, and try to do their best to deal with it. Some of the talk has been productive, and some has been less so.

Discussions about how to deal with fencing are probably the best immediate solution. Highly banked 1.5 mile ovals are made for NASCAR. With IndyCars running full throttle, with that much downforce, they achieve some astonishing speeds in very short distances. When wheels touch or a car goes sideways all of that downforce is gone, then these cars become short flight airplanes. Once a car is above the wall the fencing acts as a cheese grater, tearing the car into shreds.

This discussion on ESPN.com, IndyCar Canopies, seeks to avoid similar tragedies by putting a canopy on the cockpit much like an F-16 fighter jet or hydroplane speedboat. I am against this type of move for safety and aesthetics. On the safety side I have seen the current IndyCar emergency crew take too long to get to a burning car and the canopy would add to the time needed in extinguishing a fire. Take a look at Simona DiSilvestro’s wrecks at Indy this year and Texas last year. The Texas incident is almost comical, only because she was OK, in how poorly the safety crew acted – there is no way a canopy would have helped in this situation.

The 2012 Dallara IndyCar has made strides to keep wheels from contacting, and this avoidance will probably be the most effective way of keeping drivers out of the fence. There are some bulges on either side of the rear wheels and I just hope this will be enough. I just keep thinking that in so many ways the ICONIC committee missed the boat when selecting the 2012 chassis. I believe that the Delta Wing would have solved most of these safety issues and ushered in a completely new era in motorsport. Only time will tell, and I hope for everyone that the new chassis lives up to the hype and fulfills its role well.

It’s almost 3 months since Vulcan XH558 landed at Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport on its return to the former RAF base.

Having since moved into Hangar 3 the aircraft has now a dedicated home at the airport and will be open to the public as well as be available for private and commercial events.

Having photographed the aircraft in and around the airport on numerous occasions I thought it might be nice to pop together a short slideshow of some of my images.

Check out the website for more pix along with the Vulcan to the Sky site for information on the aircraft and how you can help in keeping this last example flying.

contact:       shaun@sf-pictures.com

web:            www.shaunflanneryphotography.com

twitter:         @sfpix

That’s right, the groundbreaking concept introduced for last year’s IndyCar chassis search will be retooled for the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. The ACO, which governs the race, has dedicated one starting spot to “experimental cars” and dubbed it Garage 56.  Some really heavy hitters in the racing industry have been brought together to bring Ben Bowlby’s vision to life. Dan Gurney’s AAR team will build it, Highcroft Racing will campaign the car, and Dr. Don Panoz will provide support through the ALMS. Congrats to Ben and his team, you can find all of the specs here.

During Indycar (Non) Decision 2012 Delta Wing became the most polarizing possibility.  Some, especially sports car fans, loved it, while the rest of us hated it.  At the time I noted that sport car racing fans tended to like it more than others and that perhaps the appropriate place for it would be in sports car racing. As it turns out I may know a thing or two about racing, because today it was announced that Delta Wing will receive the “56th” entry into the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, running as an unclassified LMP1 car.  It looks about the same as the Delta Wing we saw last year; in other words, it looks like a Trike mixed with something you’d find in an adult store along side the interstate.  Highcroft racing has re-emerged as the team that will field the car with help from Delta Wing and Dan Gurney’s All American Racers. If the car is actually able to turn… it could be very fast.

My biggest concern with the Delta Wing is it’s design is a bit like a Reliant Robin.  It has 2 wheels in the front… but they’re very close together.  It’s rumored that the original concept was in fact 3 wheeled.  While they are going to play with the aerodynamic’s to make it more stable, that’s a bit of a risk at a track like Le Mans.  I would not want to be in a GT car that get’s hit on the driver’s side door by the bullet shaped nose, nor would I want to be in the very narrow Delta Wing that get’s rammed by a GT or LMP car.

Those are the negatives; here’s the positive.  It should be very quick assuming it’s goals are technically possible.  The goal was to make an Indycar level car… and LMP’s are roughly the same speed.  They won’t be allowed to do this because they are a concept car, but if they were truly competing against Audi and Peugeot they would have one very large advantage.  If they needed more speed they’d just have to up the horsepower a little.  Go to 350 or 400 instead of 300.  As well supposed fuel efficient design might put them on an equal plane with the diesels. Which brings me to this question: What happens if an “unclassified car” finishes the 24 Hours of Le Mans first?

The Delta Wang (old Indycar joke) could be revolutionary in Le Mans style racing.  The question is… it is a revolution we want?  I can’t say the idea of under powered trikes running around Sebring, Road Atlanta, Road America and Le Mans fills me with joy.  From a racing standpoint I worry the idea’s behind the Delta Wing could make racing more aero dependent.  Aero efficiency is one of the key’s behind the Delta Wang concept; what happens to one that takes a small amount of damage?  Will it still be able to run?  Or will even the slightest contact force the car to retire?  Part of me would like to see the Delta Wing be competitive against Audi and Peugeot and another part of me hopes it get’s it’s ass kicked by the Audi, Peugeot, and Aston Martin teams.

Viewer Discretion Advised: Not for viewing by children

The Delta Wing lives.  It (thankfully) failed in it’s quest to populate the Indycar field with trikes and is now setting it’s sights upon Le Mans.  If the D-Wing can live on without Indycar… can the Swift concept live somewhere else?  Anyone????  It’s unfortunate this is what Highcroft is going to be doing instead of running the very competitive HPD LMP1 prototype… but I guess it’s better than closing down.  Delta Wing belongs in sports car racing and I would not mind seeing a “Delta Wing” class, perhaps instead of the pathetic LMP2 class, or as a 5th class at Le Mans and as a replacement for LMPC in ALMS.  But the last thing I’d want to see is the trikes replace the current style of LMP1 prototypes.  I would be alright with the more supercar-esque LMP class McLaren want, but not this.

Take off! xh558 departs Robin Hood Airport

Vulcan xh558 departed it’s new home at Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport today to undertake a training and crew display currency flight.

The aircraft left the airport at around 1pm cheered on by hundred’s of onlookers who lined the perimeter of the airport and returned almost 2 hours later doing a ‘bump and run’ before landing.

Viewing gallery at Robin Hood Airport.

The aircraft has been on public display at the airport over the Easter weekend and will remain so until the 2nd May after the Vulcan team secured a viewing gallery within the terminal building at Robin Hood Airport.

Check out the Vulcan To The Sky website for more details.

Check out my web gallery for more images of today’s flight along with images taken over the last few weeks………….click here

contact:       shaun@sf-pictures.com

web:            www.shaunflanneryphotography.com

twitter:         @sfpix

Concept:

A stretched fighter, mini-bomber, designated for deep strike missions similar in scope to the F-111 Aardvark and the F-117 Night-Hawk, like a stealth F-15E Strike Eagle. The are designed to get to targets fast, out in the middle of nowhere. They are bomb trucks that can protect themselves from enemy fighters with air to air defenses. They fit in a sweet spot of better protected than a standard bomber, and carry more ordnance than a fighter.

Details:

The tailless design gives it greater stealth. The delta-wing design gives the jet a large wing area, enabling super-cruise and greater range. The co-pilot, conducts hard and electronic attacks or drone operation. A backwards facing radar between the engines targets would be aggressors.

Vulcan XH558 arrives at Robin Hood Airport, a video shot by colleague Trevor Smith.

Check out Trevor’s other video projects on his website or YouTube Channel tspixvideo

Vulcan XH558 on 'the stand' at Robin Hood Airport

Image gallery

contact:     shaun@sf-pictures.com

web:           www.shaunflanneryphotography.com

twitter:       @sfpix

Passengers in the departure lounge take a close look at the aircraft.

Air passengers at Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport may have had a little surprise today as the last flying Vulcan bomber landed at the airport mixing with the more ‘conventional’ ThomsonFly and Flybe aircraft that usually fly from the South Yorkshire airport.

XH558 will use the former V-bomber base as its home for the summer as it visits air shows around the country. Discussions have begun that could lead to a permanent home for the ‘Cold War’ aircraft  which could be the first stage in the development of a visitor centre that will eventually be linked to a facility to inspire the next generation of engineers and technicians.

ThomsonFly Boeing 737

The aircraft was originally based at RAF Finningley, known as ‘the home of the Vulcans’ between 1961 and 1968 and stood on Quick Reaction Alert during the Cold War. Today she is the world’s only flying Vulcan and the most complex all-British historic aircraft to be operated outside the RAF. She costs around £2 million a year to operate and receives no government funding, making her entirely reliant on public support.

Squadron Leader Martin Withers

Flying the aircraft in today was Vulcan to the Sky chief pilot, Squadron Leader Martin Withers who flew from the site between 1972 and 1982 but is best known as Black Buck One, captain of the famous first 1982 Vulcan mission to the Falkland Islands. At the climax of an 8,000 mile round trip that required refuelling from eleven Victor tankers, Withers and his crew released the bombs that signalled the beginning of the end of the Falklands conflict.

On his arrival at the airport today a thoughtful Withers said “Touching down at Finningley today was one of the most emotional experiences of my professional life”

XH558 deploys it's parachute!

Operating the last flying Vulcan costs around £2 million a year. To hit the 2011 season with stable finances, the Vulcan to the Sky Trust must raise £75,000 before the end of March, £125,000 during April and a further £150,000 by the end of May: a total of £350,000

Please visit the Vulcan to the Sky website and pledge your support to keep this aircraft flying in the skies of Doncaster and the UK, #doncasterisgreat

Image gallery

contact:     shaun@sf-pictures.com

web:           www.shaunflanneryphotography.com

twitter:       @sfpix

2010 was an interesting year in the world of racing.  The economic issues continued, but in some series the recovery started, while in others, the recovery hasn’t even begun.  I started watching motorcycle road racing, primarily MotoGP, but with a lot of World Superbike and AMA Pro Racing thrown in as well.  NASCAR and Indycar were more of the same, literally, as the same person who won the championship last year repeated this year (which was disappointing) but off track, it was the tale of two series, as Randy Bernard attempted to renovate Indycar while Brian France continues to try and kill off his series.

By far, the best racing of the year

The best racing I saw this year was definitely in the motorcycle road racing series, AMA, MotoGP, and WSBK, which featured the closest racing I have ever seen on a road course (Seriously, Indycar fans, this is what we should get!) and produced between them finishes that would stack up to any Indycar or NASCAR oval race.  That is what road racing should be.  I enjoyed it a lot, and hopefully next year I’ll have more to say on this site on that subject.  As it was the first year of watching these series, blogging them was pretty tough.  Also, AMA and WSBK run a schedule that has some huge breaks in the schedule, sometimes back to back (IE: Race, month break, Race, month break) and that can make it difficult to follow, especially for AMA, which doesn’t get much coverage anywhere (WSBK I usually see updates on twitter from Moto Matters).  The only downside was my interest in F1 dropped in large part due to this. Interestingly, while the championship fight itself was a blowout, and Yamaha won 60% of the races, the individual races still managed to stay interesting, as Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrossa were able to win a fair amount of races against the Yamaha’s, and Rossi’s recovery on the way to his second win at Sepang was incredible.  Even if the battle for 1^st wasn’t great, there was almost always a great race for some position in the top 5, and unlike a couple of North American racing series, the TV camera’s actually focused on the close battles on track!  And, while 3 teams won every race, unlike in most form of motorsports, the teammates aren’t friends; in fact, they were often bitter enemies (especially Rossi/Lorenzo) which led to some great racing.

I can’t say I watched a lot of F1.  The races just aren’t exciting, as whatever position you’re in on lap 5 is where you’ll end up, unless penalties or pit strategy changes things.  I don’t think there’s any passing in F1, outside of maybe Montreal, Spa, Monza, and one or two other non Tilke tracks.  Honestly, for my international road racing fix, MotoGP and WSBK are everything I could ever want, including good racing, and some successful American racers.  I like the SpeedTV TV crew and I like the Sidepodcast.com community, and my part time co-blogger Ryan, but I can’t say I like F1 that much.  I just can’t get into it, as far as I can tell, driver talent really doesn’t matter, neither does team skill, it’s 100% car, when Brawn or Red Bull or Ferrari has a good car, literally anyone who’s a professional level racing driver can win in it, so what’s the point?

Indycar was okay.  The oval racing, outside of Indy, Kansas, and Motegi, was good, and the road and street racing varied between horrific and okay, but never great. Also, I was correct, the Red Cars completely dominated, with every Red Car driver winning at least once, and everyone but Power (surprisingly) winning an oval race.  As with F1, I really believe any professional level driver could win races in a Red car, from Kyle Busch to Tony Kanaan to Tony Stewart to Danica Patrick to Mark Webber to JR Hildebrand, give someone a Red Car and they’ll win, period, unless they are Milka Duno level bad.  Despite this, the racing was good on most of the ovals, and exciting, if a little disappointing that the Red cars won every race, even when Panther was faster (due to fuel mileage) but I guess it gives some hope for seeing Panther win next season (and thus Hildebrand).  Ryan Hunter Reay, Justin Wilson, Dan Wheldon, and Ed Carpenter and Simona De Silvestro were to points of light in a sea of Red Cars, as both managed some impressive performances, and often were the leaders in the non Red Car group on track, with Ed shinning on ovals and Simona on the road and street courses.

The ALMS was a mixed bag.  They had a lot of good racing, especially Road America, but no full time factory prototypes put a damper on things.  Sebring wasn’t very good for LMP1, as Peugeot entered but Audi didn’t, which took all the drama out of the race for overall victory.  On the other hand, combining the LMP1 and LMP2 classes produced some great racing, as the LMP1 based cars were faster but LMP2 based cars handled better.  This kept everything close, as one car would pull away on the straights only to be caught by another in the turns.  That said… more regulation changes mean it’ll be completely different for 2011, and LMP1 and 2 will be separated again, and it’s pretty unclear which teams will be back.

Another bland winner (same one) for another Chase

NASCAR was pretty meh for me.  It was okay, but nothing special.  I watched most of the races, but honestly they’ve pretty much blended in my head, and I’d have a hard time pointing out individual moments from the races.  The racing was a little better, but the overhype and complete insanity of “Have at it boys” negated that.  The Chase was close, but JJ winning overshadows that.  By far the biggest issue though, is how clearly out of touch the leadership of NASCAR is, and sadly, I don’t see that changing until things really hit the fan.   As a blogger, I don’t really get a ton of links or site hits for most of my NASCAR stuff, as there are so many other writers writing on the same subject, although a couple articles have been fairly well read.  And as a writer, it often feels like everything has already been said a thousand times on most subjects revolving NASCAR.

Who Cares About Grand AM???

While most people were praising Ganassi for his season this year, where he won the Indy 500, Indycar Championship, dominantly won the Grand (Sh) Am championship, and the Daytona 500 (which is a crapshoot), Brickyard 400 (most impressive of the 4), and two more NASCAR races, I can’t say I was that impressed.  Grand Am, I could care less about.  As for Indycar, he was just doing what a Red Team does, win an extreme amount of races, so again, not surprising or impressive, and he wasn’t a whole lot better than Penske.  In NASCAR, yes he won 4 races, but that’s out of a 36 race season… and neither driver qualified for the Chase, despite Montoya making it last year.  I was impressed with McMurray, I wouldn’t have expected him to outperform Montoya, but neither of them made the Chase, and there are plenty of Chase spots to go around.  They had a good year, and certainly Ganassi should feel pleased with himself, but I can’t say I was blown away by them, either.

As for the best driver and team, they’re one in the same, as Jorge Lorenzo and the Fiat Yamaha/Tech 3 Yamaha teams dominated MotoGP.  They combined for 60% of the wins in the season, despite Rossi breaking his leg mid season.  Throw in Ben Spies result on the satellite bike, and they often placed 3 bikes in the top 5 each race.  And while the bike was very good, it had some flaws (low top speed, especially for Tech 3) which the team and riders managed to overcome.  With two major rivals, the Repsol Honda’s and Marlboro Ducati’s, it didn’t feel as bad as the Red Car slaughter in Indycar.

Even a win at Iowa couldn't keep 7-11 and Tony Kanaan together

Series have started to evaluate whether or not the cost cutting measures they made during the start of the economic crisis are a good idea or not.  NASCAR and F1 apparently will keep their testing bans, despite the fact it hurts rookies more than anyone else, but MotoGP and WSBK are starting to expand their race weekends back to normal, after cutting back in 08, to almost universal criticism. Economically, everyone struggled with sponsors, but sportscar, Indycar, and NASCAR led the charge in this area.  NASCAR has added almost no new sponsors, outside of AARP and a partnership between Sunoco and an Ethanol group; while at the same time losing quite a few, or seeing massive scale backs, some of which (Verizon, AT&T, Geico with Germain in Trucks/Nationwide).  The Truck series and Nationwide series are in even worse shape, with both series bleeding out sponsors so rapidly that ride buyers are becoming the norm, even at teams such as JRM!  Indycar gained some sponsors, but also lost long time sponsor 7-11. The series is doing well, but the teams aren’t. The biggest problem is sponsors are bleeding out of the smaller teams and into the Red Cars, which will just make the gap even larger.  That said… Wheldon and HVM both may be close to announcing new sponsors, and Wiggins (owner of HVM) has said he has a major multiyear deal lined up and plans to return to 2 cars with real funding.  F1’s mixed… overall, everyone but HRT has some outside sponsorship, but the cost of operating is so high, Williams and Renault are taking ride buyers, which is never a good sign.  MotoGP, well, the teams who are in it are generally well supported… but the bike count is 17.  ALMS and Sportscar are struggling, and I worry if Indycar takes off… ALMS could be in serious trouble with keeping the remaining sponsors.

The 2012 Indycar chassis/engine decision was the subject of a lot of discussion on this blog (and I mean a lot) most of which resulted in a battle between me and a majority of my commenter’s, who didn’t especially agree with me.  Looking at it with what we know now, I believe Indycar made a good decision engine wise (though I want more HORSEPOWER!), but I still maintain, the Indiana First mentality that gave the contract to Dallara over Swift, which was truly an American company, and produced a very good looking car, was a failure.  Also, for something that we’ve known would be happening for years, the 2012 Indycar chassis move is looking pretty rushed, as we’ve yet to see a chassis be built, or the rules and regulations confirmed, although engine specs did come out in the fall.  I wouldn’t blame Bernard for this; the blame clearly falls on the unholy trinity of George/Barnhart/Angust who were willing to use the same cars for eternity.  Bernard had to make the best of a bad situation, as these decisions should have been made a year or two ago!  Also from what I’ve heard, Indycar may have badly burned the bridges with Swift and Lola, so that in the future they may not be willing to join the series when it goes back to proper chassis competition.

Certainly, the engines have worked out okay, with 2 new manufactures confirmed for 2012, and possibly more for the future.  The real issue here is that if Indycar hadn’t waited until so late to get the specs out, Ford and Fiat may have joined, but I guess there’s always 2013 or 2014.  As for aero kits, it’s worked with Lotus and Chevy, but I doubt we’ll see much more, though Cavin expects one or two more than we have now.  I guess for the Honda teams, they’ll want something else besides Dallara, and they won’t be using Lotus or Chevy (who’ll likely have both Dallara and their manufacturer), so maybe something will come up, but there’s absolutely no way Lola or Swift will develop an aero kit, unless an automaker comes to them and commissions them to build it, which isn’t likely, as the people who make the aero packages on the ALMS/Le Mans GT Corvettes (Pratt and Miller) are expected to built the aero kits.  Summing it up, engines went well, chassis not so much, but I’m pleased we’ve got manufactures interested. There’s potential for more in the future too, but the series procrastinated way too long on the entire 2012 decision and still don’t have official regulations set up for the chassis!  This isn’t Bernard’s fault; this is George/Barnhart/Angust who seemingly would have been willing to keep the current crapwagons forever.  Let’s hope the remaining two join Tony on the outside as soon as possible!

This was supposed to save Indycar? More like kill it!

Speaking of Indycar chassis, Delta Wing was by far the most disappointing thing this year.  From what Miller had said about it, I had expected something great, but what we got belonged in a sex store, not on the racetrack!  That thing was hideous, and as someone who had at first believed in it, I quickly became disenchanted with it, and moved onto Swift.  From all the pre release hype from Miller, I expected something that looked more like the old wingless Indycar/F1 cars (which are awesome) not the “flying cock”!  The entire business model of open source and stuff was ridiculous and unbelievably complicated (do you trust Penske and Ganassi to self police?) and 300 Hp is embarrassingly low for a professional racing series.

Ugh.... two of my least favorite drivers both won another championship!

A close second on the disappointing scale was the fact Dario and JJ both won the championship, again!!!!! They’re both unbelievably boring champions, and having them win multiple championships in a row isn’t good for either series.  Dario winning also plays into the idea that open wheel is “easy” to NASCAR fans, as Dario may have been one of the worst drivers to ever attempt to run in NASCAR!  That’s not a completely fair assumption on NASCAR fan’s parts, as he got injured and his team ran out of funding, but still, that’s the perception.   Plus, I find Dario a little whinny, and I dislike immensely his b*tching about the racing being “too close” or at Homestead when he said people were racing him “too hard”.  He’s also one of the most underwhelming multiple time winners of the Indy 500, as he won one race on rain and the other on fuel mileage!  He’s a driver, not a racer; he is good at running a Red Car fast, but he can’t really handle having to race closely with people, and he’s not very aggressive.  JJ is bad because he’s won 5 Chases in a row, which has gotten incredibly old!  Not only that, but he’s so dull and very underwhelming, as he’s so clearly a product of the Chase. Not only that, but the amount of points racing and “trying things out for the Chase” makes him even duller! I guarantee without it, he wouldn’t have won 5 in a row.  Maybe he would have won 5 titles (unlikely) but no way would he have won 5 in a row.  The Chase now almost has a sense of inevitability to it, which was reflected in the huge ratings drop this season.  I’m just hoping next year, I don’t have to see EITHER of them hoist the championship trophy!  I’d be ecstatic if both went winless, although I admit, that’s incredibly unlikely. I think a majority of fans would be in agreement with me on that one.

RIP to Indycar's best track...

The loss of Chicagoland and Watkins Glen, as well as the potential for returning to MIS and Phoenix that came from the ISC/Indycar split was also pretty disappointing.  It’s pretty clear the NASCAR business model is war on everyone who’s not NASCAR, and the promotion sucked, which annoyed Randy Bernard, which caused them to get pissed off with each other, and us to lose our ONLY good road course and best oval.  Vegas should be a good replacement for Chicagoland though, but Watkins replacement is another street course!   Also… the Indycar TV ratings may have grown by “40%”, but that’s because they were basically at ZERO last year, and they’re still horrifically low.  I’m really surprised how poorly the ratings have done on Versus, as they do very well with PBR, Cage Fighting, and NHL, so why are Indycar’s ratings so poor?

Brian France and the leaders of NASCAR were incredibly unimpressive.  They’re convinced that the only issue with NASCAR is a problem of perception, which they can fix by fining everyone who criticizes them and having the TV and “official” journalists pump out as much Kool Aid as possible.  Sadly…20% ratings drops during Brian’s precious Chase suggest it’s not working out.  Worryingly, the ratings had started to stabilize over the summer, only for the bottom to fall out in the fall.  Even worse, the rumored “Eliminations” in the Chase which only Brian France likes is looking more and more likely, which will just make everything completely contrived and pointless.  The series is in desperate need of good leadership, but there’s really not a lot of hope on the horizon, as who’s going to fire Brian France? Himself?   Also… the allegations by Jeremy Mayfield… however you stand on that issue, after hearing them, and adding in some questionable calls at the end of the Chase against Childress and secret driver fines; it really makes you question everything you think you know about NASCAR.  Or at least, it did for me.

As for what impressed me, Iowa’s Indycar race tops that list.  The Indycar races at Iowa haven’t traditionally been very good.  It’s a great track for NASCAR, but a 3/4ths mile track isn’t exactly what modern Indycar’s are meant for; many of the previous races have been pretty follow the leader, and of course, last year’s race at Richmond, another 3/4^th mile track, was horrific.  Despite all of this, the race at Iowa actually was one of the best of the year, with some great racing, surprises running up front, and a non Red car win as Tony Kanaan made it to victory lane!  It was everything you could ask for in an Indycar race!  Next year the race is being moved to Saturday night, so it should be even more spectacular to watch.

The ONLY American Chassis Maker, A Great Looking Car that was designed in time for the announcment... too bad Indiana First ruled the day....

Also, I loved Swift.  I loved how the cars looked, I love how approachable they were to fans, I loved the Swift Lights, I loved how they were the ONLY American chassis maker to express an interest that weren’t startups (BAT, Delta Wing).  They were awesome, and I hope to see them in something I watch, whether it’s ALMS, F1, or even a constructor of motorcycle chassis, possibly in MotoGP or Moto2.  If only it had been based in Indiana, instead of the foreign country known as California.

You can’t talk about impressive without mentioning Randy Bernard.  Outside of the Texas double header, horrific championship trophy, and 2012 ICONIC (not his fault) he’s been almost perfect, and he’s made the best of a bad situation with the last one.  From making the Road to Indy matter, to helping end Milka Duno’s reign of terror and embarrassment, he’s spent the last year making the long overdue changes the series needed.  Only question is, why did it take so long to get him?  Imagine if he’d been here after Unification!  Next year, he’s going to take a larger role in the marketing and promotion of the series, alongside Izod, which should be a huge plus to the series, and hopefully help raise the TV ratings from infomercial levels.

Fans Choice For Sprint Cup Champion

The way Childress turned around his team, from going winless last year to nearly winning the championship this year was by far the most impressive performance in NASCAR this year.  They got a ton of penalties, from pit road speeding to failing the R&D center inspections, which does make you wonder if Childress did something to piss off Brian France (RE: Mayfield Allegations).  It’s a shame Harvick didn’t win the Chase, as he was by far the fan favorite, despite being consistently under rated by the media.

2010 was my first full year as a blogger, and it was interesting.  There were high points and low points, but it’s been fun, and I’m thankful to have some fairly dedicated readers out there.  Racing wise, I’m not sure how I feel about NASCAR anymore, or how much coverage it’ll get in the future.  Indycar… I’m cautiously optimistic about, but the Red Cars and boring road races need to change.  ALMS… they need factory LMP teams to run the full season, badly.  F1… boring.  MotoGP and WSBK, love them, and I’ll try and blog more about them next year.  AMA Pro Racing, interesting, but being choked by being owned by NASCAR.  2010 was a better year than 2009 across the board in racing.  The economy improved some, and that was beneficial to everyone, although money’s still tight.  Generally, the quality of the racing was better, as both Indycar and NASCAR races were better than last year, even with Jimmie Johnson and the Red Cars ruining it.  I would also say that Denny Hamlin’s outspokenness, which upset NASCAR, made me a fan of his this year.  Tomorrow, check back in, I’ll hopefully have some thoughts on 2011.

  The Indycar Chassis war isn’t going away anytime soon, and since it’s been ages since I last did a full post about it here’s what I know, and what conclusions can be drawn.  But first, an overview on each carmaker.

Huh, who knew the FIM sanctioned Indycars?

Delta Wing:  Delta Wing started as the most intriguing option, but the launch didn’t go well, and most fans have pretty negative views on it.  I was originally pretty positive about it, but I just can’t get behind the trike design.  It’s selling points are innovative, wingless, improved fuel consumption, 350Hp(that’s a positive?!), open source build (whatever that means), and supposedly better racing, because losing the wings should help fix the “dirty air” issue.  The Delta Wing design has picked up some fervent followers and haters, particularly Marshal Pruett. 

These look fine, but not that unique.

Lola:  Lola has a very traditional car.  It’s designed to be more passing friendly, as well as protecting the wheels to prevent a Kenny Brack type wreck, and having a chassis that will be usable for both Indycar and Indylights.

BAT:  BAT is a strange thing.  The design really doesn’t stand out compared to the others, although it’s founders have experience, the company itself hasn’t ever built anything. BAT market’s itself for it’s saftey, but doesn’t do anything remarkably different. 

Dallara just rehashes the last generation Indycar

Crapwagon(Dallara):  Well, Dallara has 3 different designs, and none stand out.  Their option 2 was alright, but option 1 was a regression to 2002′s Indycar, and option 3 made Delta Wing look good.  Dallara’s been really quite recently…

Swift:  By far my favorite.  They’ve been really good at reaching out to fans, with some of their engineers being on twitter, and Swift even starting a blog.  Swift has released many designs, and seem to be leaning towards a very different design that is similar to a Le Mans Prototype car.  As well, Swift has designed a ”Mushroom Buster” which they claim will reduce the dirty air behind the cars.  Swift also has manufacturing capabilities in the US, and are based in California. 

If only...

Lotus(?):  Lotus is sponsoring KV racing, but haven’t officially been included in the 2012 Chassis design.  Still, there has to be a reason for them to be sponsoring a car, right?

The new car will be made in the USA

  Two things unite the divided chassis makers, made in America and spec cars.  Except for Swift and maybe Delta Wing, all manufacturers claim to plan on building in Indianapolis, although that would require opening a new  facility, while Swift will manufacture in California, at their current facility.  As an outsider to Indianapolis, I think the obsession some have with being constructed in Indy is dumb.  Made in America should be good enough, whether it’s built in Charlotte, Boston, Indy, Phoniex or LA. 

  As for Spec cars, each manufacturer claims that the only way costs can stay down is if they become the sole supplier of the series.  Delta Wing plans on having an “open source” design, which means that they would theoretically have the pieces of the car built in different places, with the possibility of different manufactures of certain parts.  As well, a council of team owners would be in charge of  making sure each part was allowed on the Delta Wing.  It seems almost certain that we will continue to have a spec series, although I do have a little hope that with so many manufacturers fighting for a slot, prehaps two of them could agree to supply the series.  Unlikely, but there may be hope. 

 I am a big supporter of the Swift designs.  Overall, they fit with my vision of Indycar racing, and they are visually attractive.  Plus, Swift is an experienced manufacturer with it’s American facilities already built.  Whatever the Delta Wing supporters want to say, I feel that except for option 23, Swift’s designs are revolutionary, maybe not to the point that Delta Wing is, but compared to any other Indycar, they are a revolutionary concept.  Besides, Ben Bowlbey, designer of Delta Wing, admitted on Indycar Trackside that when looking into designing a car, a Le Mans Prototype style car was the first thing they came up with, but wanted to go down a different route, and ended up with the trike.  Otherwise, BAT, Dallara, and Lola are just, dull.  They’re nothing particularly attractive about them.  On the plus side, except for option 3 of Dallara, there’s nothing horrible either. 

Revolution You CAN Believe IN!!!

  As for Delta Wing, well, it’s divisive.  Some, such as Declan from MidWeekMotorsports, Marshal Pruett of Speedtv.com, and Robin Miller of Speedtv.com are very favorable towards it, particularly Pruett, while many others hate it.  I was incredibly disappointed with it’s launch, although a lot of the reason for that is my misinterpreting of the descriptions of Delta Wing.  I envisioned it as similar to the wingless rear engined cars that ran in Indycar and F1 in the late 60′s early 70′s, but sadly they went to a trike.

How well does this sell in America?

One of my issues with Delta Wing is the proposed 350HP 4 cylinder engine.  While I understand the idea of being more “green” and more “relevant”, for the American market, a 350 HP 4 cylinder engine just isn’t going to cut it.   Yes it will please environmental’s who don’t even follow racing, but they don’t watch racing anyways.  Supposedly manufacturers want 4 cylinders, but guess what, BMW, Audi, GM, and Ford all also make V8′s, and V6′s.  Besides, I fail to see how “relevant” Delta Wing will be, because despite raising MPG to *gasp* over 10, it’s still less than my uncle’s V8 pickup truck.  Besides, I doubt many people will be buying trikes, except for the hardcore environmental freaks.  Again, look at Mustang and Camaro sales, Americans love big engines and high horsepower, and if you want to sell Indycar, going away from that isn’t going to help.  Anyways, for relevance and low HP, go watch ALMS. 

  Another Delta Wing claim I disagree with is that it will attract more fans.  From what I’ve shown people, Swift is by far the most popular with NASCAR fans, younger people, and casual Indycar fans.  They can’t even tell the difference between Dallara, Lola and BAT, and although Delta Wing is striking, they aren’t particularly fond of it.  Swift, on the other hand, usually fits with what they see as a good race car.  Guess what, Delta Wing, I’m a younger person, and I’ve shown the design around, and Delta Wing isn’t that popular.   Besides, a lot of hardcore racing fans are turned off by it, to the point where one doesn’t even plan on following the series.  So much for catching fan’s interest…. 

  One thing that I’ve noticed is that Dallara, and Lola have been much more quite than Swift and Delta Wing.  This could be interpreted two ways.  The first is that Delta Wing and Swift are the top 2, and thus are the most motivated, I’d love to belive this, but I have to think that’s not it.  The other is that Dallara or Lola is the top pick, and Swift and Delta Wing are trying to get enough fan support to convince management that they have to use one of these designs. 

The front runner? Sadly yes.

 What chassis is the front runner?  That is hard to tell.  According to many people, June 1 is the deadline for a decision, and that hurts Delta Wing, because they likely won’t have a car on track until later in the summer, unless they rush production.  John Oreovicz believes Dallara is the clear front runner, and both Miller and Pruett claim Brian Barnhart is in favor of Dallara.  Team owners are supposed to be pretty united behind Delta Wing, though.   interestingly, some of Penske’s recent comments seem to have him behind Dallara, although I have heard that he is in fact a major Delta Wing supporter.  Where does Swift rate?  Fan wise it’s clearly number 1, and it should have the production capacities needed, and already has it’s US center built.  They seem to be pretty active and so I would assume they’re fairly high up, particularly because they could be seen as the compromise between Delta Wing and Dallara.  But it’s almost too perfect, I just don’t want to get my hopes up, and then see them dashed by trikes or crapwagons.  Lola, well, they just really aren’t that different from Dallara, if Indycar plans to keep to the current format, they’d probably just stick with Dallara.  As for BAT, well, there’s no way they get adapted as the sole supplier.  The only way I could se BAT involved is with multiple manufacturers, because they have not built a car themselves ever, and don’t have the teamowners backing that Delta Wing have.

  Some of the recent comments from Roger Penske and Randy Bernard suggests that the chassis may be delayed until 2013 or even latter.  Although I understand this, from an economic standpoint, further delays seem like a horrible idea.  People are tired of the current cars, and if the release is delayed longer, could run for over 10 years.  Hopefully, reason will prevail and Indycar won’t delay, again. 

  Also on Delta Wing, I worry about how involved Ganassi’s team has been.  I understand that this shouldn’t be a problem, but lets face it, Ganassi and his team aren’t impartial observers. 

 Finally, and I don’t mean this the wrong way, but some of the Delta Wing supporters come off as elitist.  Particularly Ben Bowlbey.  It feels as if they’re talking down to fans, by saying that this is a must, and trying to bend over backwards to explain how this will make everything better. I’m not sure I’m explaining this well, but it’s just the feeling Bowlbey and his supporters give off. Plus they keep talking about “relevance”, yet I still am not convinced Delta Wing will be more relevant than Swift, Lola, or Dallara.  I want revolution, but I feel Swift does proper revolution, while Delta Wing is basically going to turn the Indy 500 into a trike race.  I don’t want to be rude to Declan, Peter De Lorenzo, Marshal Pruett and Robin Miller, I really think they’re all great, and are some of my favorite motorsports correspondents, but I just can’t get behind Delta Wing.  Sorry, but I just can’t. 

 Now, will I stop watching Indycar, if Delta Wing or Dallara is picked, no.  But I must say that I wouldn’t be nearly as excited for 2012 if they’re picked, either.  As for the claim that the car doesn’t matter, guess what, it does.  Look at the COT in NASCAR, the combination of ugly car and horrible aero package is killing NASCAR.  So yeah, an appealing car does in fact matter.  This is my official editorial opinion:  Swift needs to be the Chassis manufacturer, and it needs to be in 2012.  Think of it like a newspaper endorsing someone for President, except far less influential.  Unless something major happens, this will stay my position.  Swift for 2012!!!

Formula One cars are designed for ideal conditions. They’re designed to go as fast as possible when they’re out front of the pack with no one nearby in “clean air.” Clean air gives cars maximum downforce on the front wing which allows the car to handle optimally. The clean air also allows air to reach then engine to cool it.

When a car is behind another car, there is no clean air for the trailing car. The air coming off the lead car’s rear wing is disturbed (or turbulent). That turbulent air doesn’t hit the front wing which diminishes the handling capability of the car. That is why F1 has adjustable front wings which allow drivers to attempt to recover the lost downforce. However, the increase in handling from the adjustable wing means that drivers can’t take advantage of the reduced drag (and therefore increased straight-line speed) of less air hitting the front wing. That increased straight-line speed is what commentators refer to as the slipstream (or what North American broadcasters call being in the draft). The other problem with being a trail car is that not as much air gets to the air inlets which means that the engine isn’t being cooled. The trail car will have to fall out of line or drop back to get more air to the radiators so the engine doesn’t blow up.

One of the ideas floated by former Toyota designer Frank Dernie was to use “rock-hard tires” to make braking zones longer to provide more overtaking opportunities. There are two counter-arguments to this. One: NASCAR tried something like this to improve the racing. However, the cars were sliding all over the place and couldn’t get a run on each other. On a road course, like the tracks on the F1 calendar, there might be some merit to this proposition unlike on an oval. That leads to counter-argument number two: The previous ban on in-race tire changes didn’t drastically improve overtaking. Also, the Bahrain GP seemed to have rock-hard tires that were losing grip by the end of the race. That would make me think that going to low-grip tires might make a small difference but isn’t the drastic overhaul that F1 needs to improve the show.

There are two solutions that F1 could attempt to improve racing. Both will cost untold sums of money but one is easier than the other. The first solution involves fixing the circuits. The Tilke-ization of Formula One (a situation which I’ve complained about in the pass) means that near half of the circuits on the calendar follow the same basic formula. There are one or two long straights followed by a slow corner. Those are good for passing but the plethora of medium speed corners and rhythm sections on those tracks make getting close enough to take advantage of those passing opportunities difficult. It gets back to the explanation above. Those medium speed turns are where downforce becomes increasingly important. Without full front downforce, closing in on a slow car is exceedingly difficult because front downforce is diminished so the trailing car can’t take full advantage of the slipstream down the straight-away. Another Tilke trademark is the slow turn followed immediately by another bend like Turns 1 and 2 at Bahrain. A driver could get up the inside at turn 1 but find themselves on the outside of turn 2 and not finishing the pass.

Another problem with Tilke circuits are that they almost entirely flat. Elevation changes into, through, and on the exit of turns change the attitude of the car. Generally, uphill turns make the car understeer and downhill turns create oversteer. Camber (or banking) in turns also affect the handling. A driver’s ability to cope with those is part of the skill set he should be using on a regular basis. I think there might be only one downhill breaking zone at Bahrain and no turns with an incline. Of all the Tilke tracks (Bahrain, Malaysia, China, Hockenheim, and Abu Dhabi), I can only think of two turns on an incline (a double-right at Malaysia and the T1/2 complex at China). That doesn’t really force skill from the drivers.

Of course, all the blame can’t lie with Hermann Tilke (as much as proper F1 fans would like to blame him for all that ails the sport). As mentioned above, the pursuit of more speed means the pursuit of increasing downforce. Increasing the downforce means more advanced aerodynamic devices which means that there’s more turbulent air coming off the back of a car which makes it more difficult to follow a car in front. The FIA’s brilliant idea was to make the front wings bigger and rear wings smaller. Unfortunately, that hasn’t had the desired effect. Raising the rear wing has likely increased the distance behind the car that turbulent air flows which means the bigger front wing doesn’t make much of a difference. The fact that the FIA insisted that there were fewer elements to the front wing means that it’s probably not producing much more downforce than the last generation of F1 car.

My solution to the aerodynamic problems with current F1 cars brings us to this side of the pond. American open-wheel racing was looking to differentiate itself by improving the quality of racing. In its last days, Champ Car introduced a new car which was slightly narrower than the cars under the last set of rules (to give drivers more room) but also lowered costs and made the car less disturbed in turbulent air. While there is nothing to say that the cost factor would translate to F1, the other two could be applied to F1. The most important part of the last Champ Car was the fact that over half of its downforce was generated by the car’s underbody. While I’ve said that more downforce means more turbulent air, with underbody produced downforce, it works best if the air coming out from under the car is clean. The air travelling under the car is accelerated to reduce the air pressure under the car which causes the air traveling over the air to push it into the ground because it has higher air pressure. That accelerated air needs to be reintroduced to the normal flow of air with a rear diffuser and the cleaner the air leaves the diffuser, the more downforce is produced. Therefore, the effect on the downforce of a trailing car is minimal compared with a lead car that uses wings to generate most of its downforce.

With that in mind, what would be the best way to ensure that an F1 car produces most of its downforce from the underbody? Well, letting the cars be flat-bottomed (with the exception of the 10 mm FIA legality plank) would be a good start. That doesn’t mean that cars will trim out the wings to reduce the turbulent air off them. That brings us back to how to reduce the turbulent air off the wings. The easiest way would be to say that no wings would be allowed. No wings, no barge boards, and no other little flaps designed to generate downforce on the body of the car. For anybody that’s never seen a pre-1970s F1 car, the idea of an F1 car without wings is ludicrous. However, the idea of an open-wheel car without any wings isn’t totally far-fetched in this day and age.

Back to this side of the pond. The IndyCar Series is looking at a new car to debut in its 2012 season. One of the many concepts put forward is a very controversial and very radical one called the Delta Wing. The basic idea behind the car is half the weight, half the drag, half the power, half the cost but go the same speed. The look of the car is likely to disturb the so-called F1-purists. It’s been described as a top fuel dragster meets Speed Racer. But my thinking is that racing has to evolve. If somebody at Cooper didn’t put the engine behind the driver, we’d still be watching front-engined boats. If Colin Chapman didn’t come up with the monocoque chassis, we’d have cars that would be wallowing around because there wouldn’t be any structural rigidity. If somebody didn’t put an upside-down airplane wing-like appendage on a car, the cars would slip and slide all over the track. If McLaren didn’t build a car completely from carbon fibre… Things would be a lot cheaper but the cars wouldn’t be as safe and likely would be slower. The Delta Wing may seem like a revolution but I think it’s just a very large step in the evolution of race car design.

It’s not the actual car itself that F1 should be carbon copying for its next set of rules. Like I said in the last paragraph, it’s the concept behind the Delta Wing that gives it potential. Why not have a turbocharged four-cylinder as an engine? It would use less fuel so you could give teams the option of refuelling or not because they could carry enough fuel to last a whole race distance without it being so much that they can’t stay in contention. Covering the wheels is an idea that even Michael Schumacher supports. It doesn’t have to be done like the Delta Wing. There could be a wider front-track and tires and nothing says that the front tires have to be completely inside the width of the front nose section. The driver sits upright so it’s safer for him and a potential injury like the Schumacher or Glock broken legs could be avoided.

Most importantly, the Delta Wing, in concept, looks like it is built to run well in traffic and out front. There’s a small spoiler at the very back of the car (which is often called a wicker strip in AOWR parlance). That creates downforce on the top of the car but it also provides a slipstream opportunity. As I mentioned before, the cleaner the air coming out from the diffuser, the more downforce it produces. That would mean that the cars should be able to follow closely which would mean better racing. Of course, this is all in theory. The Delta Wing hasn’t been on track yet and all the optimism over its ability to improve racing has been based on computer simulations of airflow and on-track performance. Nothing says that this thing will work as advertised. But when you think about it, neither have any of the ideas that have come out of F1 recently.

Of course, I will admit that it’s too soon to tell if F1 needs a complete overhaul to improve the racing. I thought that the racing was finally starting to get good in 2008. Hell, it really seemed as though anyone could win. The cars had been developed to the point where the playing field was starting to level out and the mid-field runners could run up near the front. If this generation of car is allowed to run its course, we might see the likes of Sauber, Force India, and Williams on the top step of the podium. Formula One seems to like to be proactive to its own detriment. The 1997 season was also pretty even and it took nearly 11 years to get back to the point where an effort like Toro Rosso (kinda like Arrows) could pull off an upset.

Maybe, just maybe, if the cars are changed so it’s easier to follow and pass, that could make talent the number one decider of who finishes where and not who has the deepest pockets to fund aerodynamic development.

The 2010 IndyCar season debut is upon us (Sao Paulo on Versus Sunday @ 11:30am), and even with all of the chaos open wheel racing has endured over the last few years it still represents some of the best racing action. But it’s future may provide one of the largest shakeups in motorsports.

Enter the Delta Wing project! IndyCar needs to change in many ways to become more in touch with the fans, sponsors, economics, and environment. The powers at be are smart enough to know these facts and asked a new car be designed to meet the objectives. The offerings from the standard suppliers – Dallara, Swift, Lola, etc – all looked like slightly modified versions of current examples. But not Delta Wing.

Heralded engineer Ben Bowlby – Lola’s CART chassis designer – came up with a clean sheet design that will shake up exactly how motorsports operates. Of course the shape is much different than your typical road car and that’s the point. Get rid of your assumptions & comparisons (Batmobile, dragster, lake-speed car) and start focusing on what this car can do. Record speeds at Indy on a 300HP turbo 4 cylinder, 2 X the fuel mileage, open source design that anyone an build, safer, huge sponsorship platform, and BUZZ. After all isn’t the attention what everyone wants? Sponsors, drivers, manufacturers – You name it and they’ll get more attention with this new car.You can read Robin Miller’s Q&A with Bowlby here.

IndyCar can use the to vault itself back into public consciousness and become to forefront it once was for automotive innovation. I seriously hope they go for it!

 Dallara Option  1 looks about like the Indycar’s from about 2000.  Dallara Option 2 is very similar to the DP-01.  Dallara Option 3 is a strange mix of prototype and Dallara.  I really didn’t get excited by any of the Dallara options.  Dallara has promised to build in Indianapolis.

  Swift’s has three designs.  Option 23 is looks like a Formula One car from about 2007-2008.  Option 33/32 look very ALMS Prototype.  They are planned to come with something called a “Mushroom Buster” which is supposed to break up the dirty air behind a car. 

  Now to Delta Wing.  A very, very different design.  Not a pretty design, or a particularly popular one with fans, the team owners love it, though.  Ben Bowley explained it on the most recent episode of Indycar Trackside.  Interestingly enough, Delta Wing will probably be the least spec of the designs.  Under the current plan, Delta Wing is the designer, not the manufacturer of the car.  Their plan is to sub contract out all of the parts to various companies in the US.  The plan is to have Delta Wing approve parts for the car, which will be based off price and availability.  This sounds interesting, but also somewhat complicated.  I can see this system going horribly wrong, but it would be less spec, which is a good thing. 

  But here’s what bothers me about Delta Wing.  First, the proposed 300 HP engine.  Yes, efficiency is good, yes there’s a push to get more speed with less power, but 300 HP is club racing power.  It will be mocked, by NASCAR “writers” by F1 fans, ALMS fans, car enthusiasts, Champ Car crappies, ect.  The other thing is most people agree on the fact that more HP is needed for road courses, so how does lowering it help?  And, I had hoped that Delta Wing would be smaller and narrower then the current car so that they could pass on Mid Ohio and some of the other smaller tracks.  Finally, it just doesn’t look that good. 

  During the Trackside interview, Bowley mentioned something really intriguing.  He claimed that when they looked at how to make the car more efficient and raceable, they came out with a ALMS Prototype design, and then changed that into  something they felt was more unique.  Two points on that.  First, that bodes well for Swifts option 33/32.  They both look like a P1 car, and so possibly have the same improvements that Delta Wing has.  Secondly, I don’t see why Bowley didn’t want his car to look like a P1 car, the Acura and Audi are the two best looking active racecars, in my opinion. 

  On Swift’s, I really like option 33/32.  Option 23 looks very F1 like.  The issue there is twofold.  Firstly, looking more F1 like will not help develop a unique look.  Secondly, F1 cars have issues with passing partly because of the aero package, so why put that aero package into an Indycar?  Of course, prehaps the Mushroom Buster can fix that.

  I feel that Dallara’s designs are just too much of the same.  We do need change.  Nothing about Dallara’s designs are interesting or really that different from the current car.  It doesn’t feel like Dallara really see’s the need to re design the cars to improve the racing.  Delta Wing and Swift both seem to get that.  There needs to be a change the crapwagons.  I feel that Swift’s option 33 is the perfect mix, different but still a car, it would be a complete re design of Indycar without racing around in 300 HP odd shaped trikes.

“it was 2 o’clock when we gathered for your unveiling…
“this is Indy’s future” they were wailing…
then they pulled back that red satin from your skin…
and the laughing, gasps and joking did begin…

“Delta Schlong”, oh my god that just looks wrong.
Could it be we’re being punked by Demi’s guy?
This supersonic wang ain’t gonna bring the fans back again
let’s give this strange device a wave good-bye, eye…..

feel free to continue on your own

*those of you too young to know who Helen Reddy is… A) I hate you B) Google it! *

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  I don’t know.  I’m have no idea if I love this thing or hate it.  It changes every minute.  So don’t expect a major post today, I’m digesting it still.

  So not what I had hoped.  The first thought is, how does this thing turn?  Millers interview didn’t seem to answer this. 

  Secondly, why all the fuel miliage stuff.  Yes, that’s important, but no one wants to watch fuel saving parades. 

  The car looks very strange.  I can’t say it’s beatiful.  Swifts option’s were better looking.  And I don’t understand why Bowley wouldn’t want his car to look like a prototype, the Acura and Audi P1 cars are the two best looking active racecars.  I like it better than the 3 Dallara options. 

  Otherwise, well, I want to read more.  Lola will show off their entry on Friday.  Swifts currently is my favorite, but maybe Lola or Delta Wing will lure me over. Dallara is not the answer, but I can’t say that DWing is either. I’ll keep an open mind, or try to at least.

  The radical design is here, and it is radical. 

EDIT:  The pictures were taken off of the Link.  Sorry about that. 

  However, I’ll explain it this way, it looks kinda like a trike.  More comming as the announcment is unfolding

This is the start of the new feature Blog Participation!  The first guest is John Hall from www.livefastracing.com, and the LivefastRacing Podcast.  He watches multiple series, and does a lot of Motorcycle stuff.   This feature will continue, and for the next two guests I would like to find NASCAR writers/bloggers to kick off the Daytona 500!

1.) What races are you looking forward to the most next year?  Why?
John: First and foremost I am probably most excited about when the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series returns to Cleveland Speedway this June.  Last years race was one of the best dirt races I’ve ever seen and I’m sure this year’s will be as well.  Lucas has a great series and Clevelandalways does well with this show.  This is what oval racing SHOULD look like.

I’m also going to try and get back down to Atlanta for Petit Le Mans
this year.  I’m not sure any other event in North America packs as
much into 2 days as the Friday/Saturday of Petit weekend.  I love the
variety of cars and classes you get with ALMS as well as the more
casual paddock atmosphere.  Road Atlanta knows how to treat fans as
well.

Other than those two, I pretty much am looking forward to WSBK and
MotoGP, especially WSBK.  With Spies gone, it will be WIDE open for
the championship this year and the talent level just keeps getting
upped.  And although they’re now a year old, I still get pretty pumped
to see/hear the Aprilia RSV4 and BMW S1000RR used in anger.  Those
bikes are just vicious.  MotoGP should be good as well, although it
feels like we’re back in a holding pattern until the 1000cc engines
come back.  I’d like to see Hayden rebound some and see how Spies
does.  The new Moto 2 championship should be interesting as well.

Dylan: In a dark way, I’m looking forward to the first 4 Indycar races, to see how bad they are.  Brazil(unconfirmed), St Pete, Barber, Long Beach?  It’s like they are trying to turn fans off!

Otherwise, I’m not sure if there’s one race I’m looking forward to more than others.  Certainly Indycar at Kentucky and Chicagoland should be good, and the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petite Le Mans are good.  But really, how many good F1 or NASCAR races have there been in  the  last few years?  Thats a problem, when I honestly can’t pick an event for either series that I’m particularly pumped about.

2.) Who was the driver/rider of the decade?(2 or four wheel)

John: That’s easily going to be Valentino Rossi.  Seven championships in thepremier class is impressive enough but the way he did it was what putshim above anyone else I’ve ever seen.  He is one of the few riders on earth who is both a good rider and a good racer.  He can be fluid and
smooth when he needs to preserve the lead but also dice through
traffic and make the most of his passing opportunities.  And then
there’s his mental game.  He simply BROKE the competition when
necessary.  The way he completely destroyed rivals was downright
brutal.  I think the bike world will always wonder the “what ifs” with
Gibernau and Biaggi (who has since redeemed himself in WSBK) had Rossinot been there.  Vale also went to arguably the worst bike on the gridwhen he switched from Honda to Yamaha and still found a way to win thechampionship which proved with him, it was about the rider, NOT thebike.  This is bittersweet to write because I’m really not a huge
Rossi fan at all, but facts are facts.  If I were to give honorable
mentions for the decade I think I’d have to give Michael Schumacher
and Ricky Carmichael the nod.

Dylan: To me, three drivers occupy the top tier.  Jimmie Johnson, Micheal Schumacker, and Valetino Rossi.  And I do feel Rossi is the best.  I’ve watched very little of MotoGp, but the fact is he consistently is on top, and has won a streak of titles, lost a few, then come back and won more really elevates him ahead of Johnson.  As for Schumacker, Rossi has raced longer this decade.  And he does it without appearing to be the machine that Johnson and Schumacker are.

3.) What was the best racing moment of 2009

This is a tough one because I didn’t get to see a whole lot of racing
due to my work schedule.  I think Ben Spies winning the WSBK
Championship as a rookie and for the first time ever for Yamaha was
amazing.  I think it proved just how good he and the pre-DMG
competition that strengthened him as a rider really were.  I also
think it was a great moment for Yamaha because of their decades of
lackluster output in WSBK.  They finally put the right team and bike
together and I appreciate the effort that had to take.

Also this year some praise here had to go to Max Biaggi taking the win
in the WSBK Race One at Brno on the new Aprilia RSV4.  This was sort
of a redemption for Biaggi after his MotoGP career kind of flamed out.
Even though he had won with Alstare Suzuki a few years back, to do so
with a new team that also happened to be Italian was a serious
achievement.  Brno was also a great result for Aprilia in their first
year back in the series on a new bike that they are still sorting out
now.

The best racing-related but non-racing moment was when Roger Edmonson,
the hapless, malevolent destroyer of AMA Superbike was shown the door.
Hopefully the bridges he burnt with EVERYONE in the series can be
repaired over the coming year and when paired with an overall economic
recovery, the series can possibly come back to where it needs to be.

Dylan: Honestly, I didn’t feel like there were many good races in the series I watched, partly why I’m looking into MotoGp and WSBK.  F1 had different winners, but no passing.  NASCAR’s only underdog winners won on fuel mileage or restrictor plates.  Hendrick just stomped the field.  And there weren’t any epic finishes without plates.

Indycar had a few good moments, namely Toronto, Kentucky, and Chicagoland.  However, Homestead, Montegi, ect. still sucked.  But I feel like all the best moments were Indycars.

Otherwise, as a long time fan, Jeff Gordon’s win at Texas was pretty big.  I was really excited about it, but unfortunately he didn’t win again.

4.) What changes does Indycar need to make to help rebuild themselves?

John: I think I’ve said it a few times on my podcast before and I still
believe it here…Indy Car needs to figure out what it is before it
can sell itself to the world.  Right now it’s just sort of a bizarro
mashup between old fashioned USAC oval racing and then a poor man’s
American Grand Prix.  Until they have a consistent identity that they
can market to sponsors and fans they will be trapped in purgatory.
That said, this situation wouldn’t be as bad were the on track action
a little better.  Since Indy Car seems to have a knack for always
picking THE WORST road and street courses (Barber in particular) and
lets the Big 2 teams dominate all the ovals, I don’t think the on
track action is going to pick up any casual fans.  Finally, if they
don’t get the new car situation sorted and some other manufacturers
involved immediately, it’s going to be too late.  Fans and sponsors
aren’t going to wait forever.

Dylan: To me, the best way to make Indycar successful is to make it different.  It cannot be fenderless NASCAR or, as John put’s it, poor man’s GP.  That is why I support Delta Wing, or at the VERY LEAST, a completely different looking car.  If we have a completely different car, say a wingless one, it would help make it a unique product.

My vision for Indycar is the most diverse series in the world, both in terms of drivers and tracks.  50-50 of ovals and Road courses, with a couple of street courses in the Road course side.  I believe that there should be a mix of American short trackers, American Road Racers, and International drivers.  As for the feel of it, I think that Indycar should be a much more fan focused F1 type thing.  Be more cutting edge than NASCAR, but don’t do it at the fans expense either.  Be diverse, and embrace the diversity of running Iowa and running Long Beach.  Not the easiest thing to do, but it’s what has to be done.

Also, if Delta Wing is a significantly smaller car, then hopefully Mid Ohio could become a good event, and the Street Courses and Short ovals would improve too.  And yes, Barber, Infenion, and the street courses need to be reduced, NOT ADDED!!! No Baltimore GP!

5.) Which American would be most fun to watch try F1(does not have to be a likely possiblity)

Well, since Nicky Hayden just won that karting event in Europe maybe
he could get a try?  Honestly, I’m not sure how he’d do on four wheels
but he does at least have the world travelling lifestyle and pr thing
down cold.  I’d definitely root for him.  I know a lot of people are
having fun with this question and think any of the more aggressive
NASCAR drivers would be fun.  You hear names like Carl Edwards, Kyle
Busch, Tony Stewart, even Dale Jr., and honestly I think they’d all do
better than people expect because NASCAR forces them to get a LOT of
wheel time and basically dedicate themselves to racing full time, so I
doubt they’d have any of the discipline issues you see F1 drivers have
sometimes.  I don’t think it would be that fun to watch though.  After
the first turn the cars are so spread out that individual driving
style is irrelevant.  Honestly, and this is way out there, just on
entertainment value, I’d like to see the senior guard of American
racing go over there.  Somebody like a John Force or a Scott
Bloomquist.  The radio chatter and press conferences would be off the
charts.

Dylan: Jeff Gordon would be the best.  I’ve been a fan a long time, and would love to see that.  I think he’s good enough, but of course he’s to old.  And he’d need a good car.  But that’s the one I’d want.

6.) Where Should the USGP go, where is it likely to go?

In my mind you have three choices.  You can do Road America,
Indianapolis or Streets of Miami.  From a racing standpoint Road
America would absolutely be the best, but since it is so far from an
international airport I’m not sure it would ever happen.  And without
MAJOR subsidies from local government and sponsors there’s no way they
could afford Bernie’s sanctioning fees.  I was at the last USGP in
Indy and I think it was better than some of the critics give it credit
for.  That town knows how to handle a race and the track isn’t really
any worse than any of the Tilke designed ones.  Now they could run the
MotoGP course so that might improve the racing a bit.  However, with
Tony George no longer controlling anything I doubt it happens.  Again,
the sanctioning fees are just too much.

The Miami street race has been talked about a long time, and Miami’s
culture and location make it accessible for Central and South American
F1 fans to be there again it’s just in this economy I’m not sure how
the financing would come through.  Right now I just don’t think a USGP
will be likely unless the manufacturers force a reduced cost for the
race out of Ecclestone or one of them ponies up as title sponsor.
Since the few factories that haven’t left have kind of taken a
backseat in the newest version of F1, I would think the chances of
that happening are remote.  And with the series being gone for the
last three years, I’m not sure there would be enough fan interest to
justify doing one here again.

Dylan: Road America!  Yes, they need to move the wall of the Kink back a little so that a SAFER Barrier could be added, but otherwise it’s fine.  It would be one of the best tracks in the series, and a nice break from the Tilke Tracks and Street Curciuts.  Sadly though, with the pull out of Toyota, Honda, and BMW plus the loss of some of the main sponsors that do business in the US, there’s just less push for a race here.  And who’s going to pony up the cash for a series few Americans care about when they’ve got NASCAR, or Indycar, or MotoGp or WBSK?

7.) What is the future for Sportscar racing?

I don’t really know.  While it is technically relevant (at least more
so than NASCAR or NHRA) and has a highly devoted cult following, I’m
not sure it will ever have enough mainstream appeal to garner big time
factory support in the United States.  As much as I love the format,
the longer race lengths and multiple classes on track at one time are
probably confusing to somebody who isn’t familiar with it and worst of
all, it doesn’t make for great TV, which is crucial in gaining market
share.  The future is probably more of the same…a niche sport that
survives on superfans and is a testing ground for manufacturers who
want to race Le Mans.  There’s nothing wrong with that and it is
probably a more sustainable model than most series have.

Dylan: Grand Am needs to die.  It hurts ALMS, and does nothing on its own.  For a very casual fan, it is hard to tell the differance at first.  Plus it keeps three events(24 hours of Daytona, Montreal, and Watkins Glen) and a few good teams/drivers out of real sportscar racing (ALMS).  Plus, whats the point of spec enduro racing?

Thats what I think needs to happen, but the problem is Grand Sham is owned by NASCAR.  Because of this, they won’t let it die.  Plus, they probably like the fact it hurts ALMS.  ALMS’s biggest problem is that in the current economic enviroment the Prototypes are dieing.  But once the economy gets better, they’ll probably find more.  Plus, Sebring and Road Atlanta will always have Prototypes.  However, I don’t know how to get it to the level of a major sport for most people.  Still, hopefully ALMS will grow again, and the GT2 class looks great.

8.) Should Indycar run 1.5 mile ovals?

Yes.  As long as they can be done cheaply, which shouldn’t be an issue
in this economy.  Ovals are integral to Indy Car’s series is going to be DOA in North Amerhistory and still
what most of their hardcore fans care the most about.  Plus I think
the demise of the CCWS shows that a road/street course only open wheel series is going to be DOA in North America

Dylan: Yes!    Chicagoland and Kentucky were the best two races held last year I watched.  The only issue is ISC owns a lot of those tracks, and SMI owns the others.  But still, Indycar is the only series right now able to put a good race on these tracks!

9.)  Can the Hendrick domination be stopped?

I don’t know.  So much goes on in the background that we don’t hear
about in NASCAR you almost wonder if they haven’t come up with some
kind of secret “Hendrick Rule”.  I’m not sure that would be necessary
though.  With the newer rules package, other teams may become more
competitive.  But if you look at it from a business standpoint,
Hendrick probably has the most solid sponsorship and funding of anyone
out there, and in this economy that means they can hire more
specialists and do more simulation and testing than anyone else.
Honestly for as tight an on track operation as Hendrick runs, R&D is
probably their strongest attribute.  Until someone matches that, they
will be hard to shake. But l also I think Hendrick has had an
incredible lucky streak over the last few years and NASCAR success
often depends so much on luck (i.e. track position) I wonder if
Hendrick doesn’t just regress to the mean naturally anyway.

Dylan: Hopefully.  It’s hard because Hendrick runs a budget of like 250 Million dollars.  It should be remembered that Hendrick doesn’t have to travel around the world, and doesn’t have to build a unique car every year, as in F1.  So yeah, thats a lot of money.  But, as long as Penske, Gibbs, and Roush are around Hendrick won’t stay on top forever.  These three teams are strong enough to take down Hendrick.  My only hope is that they take Hendrick down without becoming Hendrick, because that would be boring to watch.

10.) Are NASCAR’s fixes enough, do they go to far, or do they miss the point?

The jury is still out on this.  Moving the start times back to what
the were is HUGE because they’re now on even footing with NFL start
times in the fall and because I think people were tired of races
starting and running so late.  I have no idea what substituting a
spoiler instead of the wing rule will do, and the plate and bump draft
changes will likely result in nothing but more needless carnage.
Every year we hear “we’re going back to our roots and let our drivers
be themselves” etc ad infinitum but it never really happens.  Most of
the newer drivers have no personality anyway since they’ve been
programmed to be racers since early childhood and have had to spend
nearly every waking moment of their lives in preparation for their
careers.

Personally I would still like to see shorter races.  The reason for
the long race distances was originally as a test of endurance of stock
or near stock equipment, which hasn’t been relevant in probably 25
years.  Shortening races would eliminate the complete tedium of
hundreds of needless laps and tighten up the action so that every pass
and every pit stop meant something.  Obviously a shorter race duration
would mean less TV ad buys but you could raise the prices for the
smaller number of slots and still probably come out ahead.  I’m not
sure NASCAR would ever do this since they own over half the tracks and
want people at the tracks and spending money as long as possible.  I
see this as short sided though because TV is what made NASCAR and is
still how it is primarily experienced.  If it resulted in a better
product, the at track revenue losses could be mitigated.  But I know I
am not their target demo and honestly am probably going to take
another vacation from following the sport much as I did in 2004-2007.
My free time is so precious and there is so much better racing out
there right now to waste on it.

Dylan: I think the start times are good.  It will please the fans.  However, I think the three things that hurt NASCAR the most are completely missed here.

First, they need better tracks.  I feel that 32 races at 28 tracks make the most sense.  I understand that SMI and ISC don’t like this idea, but the constant re-running of the same tracks get tedious.  Adding some smaller tracks, which I feel is a good idea, would bring NASCAR out to places that have NO major sporting events, except maybe College Football/Basketball.  I’d like to see them run Portland and Road America, drop Infenion, add Montreal, and add Pike’s Peak, Nazareth, Irwendale, Iowa, Kentucky, and some of the other smaller tracks back in the schedule.  Yeah they’d be run in front of “smaller” crowds, but it would have a great impact on fans if a smaller track in their area hosted a race.  Plus Iowa has few major entertainment options, and no NASCAR Sprint Cup race anywhere near it, I feel like you could sell a ton of tickets for this event.

Secondly, the all spec car aspect is getting old.  The issue I think is that because it’s all spec, smaller, and harder to find changes are what’s going to add that extra bit needed to win.  I feel like more adjustable is whats needed, and it’s not happening.  The spoiler will still be tightly controled, just like the wing.

Third, the series has very little personality.  The drivers who have it, aren’t  allowed to show it.  It’s just not compelling to watch a bunch of people who all are best friends race each other.  JJ, Gordon, and Martin all were buddy’s while running for a title!  Sadly, NASCAR seems unable to see this, as the “shut up and drive” meeting two years ago proves.

  It’s been a while since I’ve updated, so lots of news. The reason for this is I’ve been filling out a lot of college/scholarship stuff, and so spend most of my writing time on that.  That’s going to continue for the next like 4 weeks, so posts will be a little low.   That, and I went on vacation this last weekend.  Still, stay checking up, because I’m sure I’ll have more stuff coming!

NASCAR:

  The changes to the Budwiser Shootout have resulted in Ken Shrader getting to drive the 82 Red Bull, and possibly Bill Elliot in the Roush 6, although that one has yet to be confirmed.  Seeing these two drivers in good equipment will be interesting, because their talent will be more on display then most of the other rides they’ve been in recently. 

  In major news, on January 21st major changes will be announced for NASCAR.  Included will be the replacement of the wing with a spoiler, the removal of the out of bounds line at the Restrictor Plate tracks, and the removal of the bump drafting rule.  Other rules may be introduced as well.  This is a good step, but the news out on the spoiler makes it sound like another spec NASCAR piece, so the improvement is questionable.  Also, I’m not completely anti-wing, but if it’s affecting areo push, than it needs to go.  Also, a larger plate may be coming at Daytona.

  Good news, Prism Racing, one of the worst Start and Park teams, might be going away.  I’m always upset by team closures, but this one makes me happy. 

  Bad news, though.  What everyone has expected for some time, RCR moving back down to a 3 car team is getting more and more likely.  The only hope is for Mears to win the 500.

  Aric Amalrola is going to race for the Phoniex Team, so hopefully they’ll do the Hendrick deal instead of the Start and Park Dodge deal.

  I watched Madhouse, the new History Channel “reallity” Tv show, and I have to agree with all the haters.  It just paints a poor picture of the whole short track racing scene.  Anyone who’s paying attention can tell that a lot of that stuff is just being manufactured for the show, which is the norm for this stuff.  However, the production value was good, and the story about the one man team was well done.  But yeah, it does put stock car racing back a lot.  I’ve complained a lot about the lack of personality in racing, but on the other hand, it needs to be geniune.

 Sadly, Nelson Piquet Jr. is saying he’s going to come to NASCAR.  So if NASCAR wants to stop 5 in a row for JJ, now there’s someone there who’s willing to do so.  Of course, if he ever gets a penalty he’ll tell the world about it, and claim he’s really not guilty of any wrong doing. 

Indycar:

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  So yeah, this isn’t good.  5/17 races are GOING TO SUCK!!!!  This track is terrible.  It isn’t even that good looking of area, it looked pretty run down to me.  Now maybe it will look a little better, but still, it’s no where near the Rio track originally proposed.  And of course, it’s STILL not officially confirmed.  As well, some of the comments at www.pressdog.com from people in Brazil seemed pretty sceptical about the track, and if it is even possible to build. 

  More bad news, Tony Cotman is leaving Indycar to work on a new track consualting company.  Very, very bad.  He was the hope for the anti Brian Barnhart crowd, and that is everyone who wants a successful Indycar series. 

  One thing I’ve been thinking about is this.  Some of the things going on (Delta Wing, Tony Cotman leaving, some of Millers comments) have me thinking that Indycar may be in for another restructuring/reformating soon.  I think the team owners may set up a new CART type structure to sanction/run the series.  I don’t think they’ll split agian, more likely they’d buy Indycar from the Hulman’s. 

  Good news comes from an Indycar press conferance today.  First, the fuel knob is going away.  Second the Push to Pass power will be doubled, so it might actually do something.  Third, reverse gear will be added for the road and street courses only.  As well, a new headrest is being added, and some cost cuts to the engine lease stuff.  Really, it was some of the only positive stuff coming out in the last few weeks.  The improved PtP is important, as thats the only hope Barber, Brazil, Mid Ohio, Montegi, and Infenion have of being exciting. 

  Ryan Hunter Ray is going to drive for Andretti Autosport, sadly it wasn’t confirmed as full time.  But, acording to Curt Cavin, even though the Izod deal isn’t full time, the AA car will likely be full time. 

  Dayle Coyne has partnered with the Boy Scouts of America on the 19.  No drivers were confirmed, but Justin Wilson is almost certainly going to get the 18 back.  19 wasn’t confirmed as full time, and I believe that they’ll look for other sponsorships as well.  As for drivers, the hope is J.R Hilderbrand or John Edwards or John Sumerton.  The likely driver would be Sheckter, Junquria, or Servia.  I’m actually disapointed, because this likely rules out Simona De Silverstro at DCR.  I really hoped she’d get that ride instead of HVM. 

  Some bad news on Delta Wing.  It looks like at it’s current proposal that it may only have 325 HP, at least that’s what Miller has said. 

F1:

 USGPE, the sh*t continues to fly.  Lets see.  Alright, so the good news is the sites up.  But, that just gives Peter Windsor another outlet to make stuipid comments.  From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, it turns out Johnathan Sumerton was lined up as a driver, but then Peter Windsor made the comments of “no Americans in 2010″.  Which makes no sense, as the two drivers who are likely have zero race experince.  Great move Peter.  So the original excuse for no Americans was they needed experinced drivers.  Guess thats not true.  Then, Peter Windsor claimed to be going to Barber for the first laps of the car.  Not good, Barber is a terrible track.  Then, there have been reports of USGPE wanting to get an extension until Barcelona, so that they can skip the first 4 races. 

  Campos is having problems too.  

  That’s it for this week.

NASCAR:

 Danica may or may not be running at Daytona.  She will certainly be at Fontana, but may or may not at Daytona.  I really think she should be at Daytona, personally.  First off, the biggest fear that her people have is that Daytona has a ton of cup drivers.  I understand that fear, but it’s a plate race!  Plate tracks are crapshoots, and ANYONE can win, from the talentless ride buyer, the rookie owner/driver, the top cup driver, or the rookie with JR Motorsports!  Of course, anyone can wreck, too.  Besides, it would make the NASCAR Nationwide Daytona race a lot more exciting. 

  The ARCA Daytona Test wrapped up, and the controversy over Danica has already began.  Some people, mainly Indycar fans who don’t understand RP racing, were happy that Milka Duno was faster than Danica during the second day of the test.  I believe, and I posted my feelings in the comment section of www.pressdog.com, that it didn’t matter.  Some delusional Danica haters seem to think that Braun is a stronger team than JRM, that Milka is a better driver than Danica, and other insane things like that.  Look, a RP test is all about two things.  The single car runs are irrelevant because cars NEVER race that spread out.  For single car speed runs, a lot of special techniques are used, often which make the car faster yet not able to run for a long period of time.  Danica ran a much larger amount of laps than Milka, so I would guess her team didn’t do that as much as Milka’s.  Milka’s engine blew up on day three, so draw your own conclusions….  I would hope Milka could keep up in an ARCA Daytona test, because it’s just flat out, no talent required.  From what I’ve read, only small drafting groups were allowed, so really it would have been easy even for her to keep the draft and not wreck.  As for the Braun/JRM debate, I believe that the people who claimed Braun is a stronger team than JRM are either insane, complete Danica haters, or have never actually watched a NASCAR race in their life. 

  I know a lot of people are probably over the Danica stuff, but personally, I’m enjoying it.  It’s something more positive than the down economy, the fall of De Farren, the contraction in NASCAR, new street courses in F1 ect.  

 Junior Motorsport looks like they’ll run 2 full cars, the 7 and 88.  Dale Junior will run the races Danica doesn’t, and I’m guessing a few other people will run when he doesn’t feel like running.  I’m sure they’ll have plenty of choice of drivers.  Kelly Bires is planned to run full time, although they are having a tough time finding sponsors.  I would guess that having Danica and Junior run a car together should help fix the money problem a little.  I think one big thing to watch is Danica vs. Bires.  Kelly Bires has a lot more stock car experience, but he’s not a veteran by any means.  He’s only got 1 full season under his belt(2008) and only has 8  top ten finishes.  Really, he is a lot like Keselowski, and Junior picked a great talent in him.  Still, the results between them when they run together should be interesting, they’ll be two drivers in similar equipment, and neither are well established stock car drivers. 

 Road America has been confirmed for the 2010 Nationwide series!  I am excited, because Road America is the best road course in America, and the perfect track to show off road racing for oval racing fans!  Now, if only F1, IRL, and Sprint Cup would run there….

  Jimmie Johnson won the AP’s Male Athlete of the Year award.  I’m glad they consider racing a sport, but I really don’t agree with this award.  First off, I don’t like  how Mario Andretti, Aj Floyt, Micheal Andretti, Jeff Gordon, Valentino Rossi, Micheal Schumacker, Nigel Mansell, Senna, Prost, Alonso ect. haven’t also deserved it, and never won it.  I wouldn’t even consider this Johnson’s greatest year, I’d say 06 and 07 were both better seasons for him.  Secondly, I wouldn’t say this year his year was better than Rossi’s just in the racing world.   I don’t know if I’d consider him better this year than other stick and ball athletes either.  But, all that said, it is pretty cool to see a race car driver win that awards. 

  Grand Am has moved it’s HQ into the NASCAR HQ!  So, soon it will be renamed the NASCAR Rolex Grand Sham Series. 

Indycar:

  It looks like Gil De Farren’s team will close down, and so the Indycar team will not happen.  It’s very, very upsetting, I really had high hopes for this team.

  Brazil is STILL NOT CONFIRMED!!!!!!!  It’s been almost a month since the Sao Paublo confirmation, and yet still no actual location!  I’m guessing we won’t get conformation for AT LEAST TWO WEEKS!!!  This is just insane!

  I am a big supporter of the Delta Wing Chassis.  If it is decided that Indycar will be single chassis, than I really hope this is it.  The fact is, yes, the car does need to race well, and it does need safety testing.  But, I think that a radical re design is what Indycar needs badly.  If they go multiple chassis, than I would love to see Swift, Dallara, and Delta Wing compete against each other.  That would be cool.  Delta Wing would have an insane advantage since most of the team owners seem to be on board, unless they defect, which is always a possibility.  I really hope that the Delta Wing thing happens, though.  It hopefully will be an American made and produced chassis, which is a good thing.  Also, I think they might be trying to build an engine too, although I dont’ know.  If that is true, than I hope they use it, because than there wouldn’t be as many issues with NASCAR drivers trying Indy, since Honda wouldn’t be involved.  And, we could finally dump Montegi!!!!!

  Last but not least for Indycar, the Month Of May will be reduced to a two week three weekend format.  I like it, overall.  My concern is with this hurting the last minute rides, though.  Still, it should be a good thing.  It does upset the long time fans a lot, who want it to be the full month.

F1: 

  The Micheal Schumacker to Mercedes seems to be getting a lot more serious.  I still find it hard to believe, but, I think it’s a great thing for him, and for Mercedes.  I worried a lot about the future for Brawn, but by picking up Micheal and Roseburg, and by picking up the Mercedes title, they, I believe, can contend for the title next season.  I’m really hopeful about next year, I really hope that Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mclaren all are really competitive.

  The other big news is that the  Rome GP will likely replace Istanbul in the near future.  NO MORE STREET COURSES!!!!   The last thing F1 needs, Indycar needs, LeMans needs, NASCAR needs, ANY TYPE OF RACING NEEDS! Is another street course.  They are boring, they are pointless, and I do not want to see another street course!  At least it is replacing a Tilke Track.   It’s too bad Istanbul is the best Tilke Track, and we’re losing that instead of say, Shanghi. 

  Well, that’s all.  Hope everyone enjoys the Holidays!  I’ll still be posting stuff, I think. And, there is a small possibility you’ll see a post by me in an unexpected place, but I can’t get into that!