Archive for August, 2011
Actor Tom Cruise got to do what many of us racers and race fans will never do. We’re not talking about being the most sought after male actor for the last 20 years. We’re talking about driving an Red Bull F1 car!
The Days of Thunder star got to turn laps at Willow Springs Raceway in Southern California under the supervision of ex-Formula 1 stand out David Coultard. Although Cruise could have worn a dirt bike helmet considering the percentage of track time he spent in the dirt along side the racing surface, he was still complemented by Coultard.
Red Bull Racing made a stop at the Austin, Texas race track also. Much like Cruise, Coultard spent a lot of time in the dirt with the F1 car. However, in Coultard’s case there was no pavement laid out yet. Red Bull stopped by to preview the track’s layout minus the asphalt. Then Red Bull Racing took a 1-2 finish at Belgium to wrap up the eventful week.
Sonoma, California’s Infineon Raceway played host to many big races in 2011. Some NASCAR, some 2 wheel racing, and even dirt bike gear saw action at the huge motorsports complex. The season at Infineon wrapped up this past weekend with the Indy GP.
Indy Car title contender Will Power made the news this week for a much better reason then he did two weeks ago. Aussie racer Power won the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.
With the win Power stays within striking distance of point leader Dario Franchitti. Power dominated the race and headed up a Penske 1-2-3 finish.
Two weeks ago Will Power was getting negative media attention and a 30,000 dollar fine for raising his middle fingers in the direction of Race Control and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The video was run over and over on network TV, Speed Channel, ESPN, and many blog sites. Either way, attention has been drawn back to Will Power’s strength rather than his weakness.
We love all sorts of motorsports. 2 wheel and 4 wheel, dirt track and road course, F1 and Sprint Cars. You name it we watch it and love to talk about it. What is your favorite form of 
motorsport?
We favor Supercross and Motocross because we enjoy watching motocross gloves hang on to a high flying bike. Tight racing and tough competition. Not to mention short events that keep our attention for the whole event.
So what is the best? Here are a few choice suggestions:
NASCAR, F1, Sports Cars (Grand AM/ALMS,) Sprint Cars, Indy Cars, Motocross, Moto GP, Rally Car, Formula Drift, or something more particular? Let us know. We would like to share our thoughts with you.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup is the top motorsports series in the US by far. NASCAR has grown over the years and made many changes to the events and cars that can make the races more exciting while gaining more fans.
Sprint Cup is the number one racing series in the US but not in the world. Formula 1 dominates the world’s racing scene and is regarded as the pinnacle of all motorsports. Why make the comparison? The Sprint Cup has now made it official. They are the only major racing series in the world that will not race a road course in the rain. Every other major racing series including DTM, WTCC, V8 Supercars, LeMans, and many others make racing in the rain just another part of the game.
Why? This week we were told by NASCAR that they don’t want to place an undue burden on the teams and make them prepare for a wet race this close The Chase.
We would love to see the Sprint Cup drivers in the rain but, there is some truth to NASCAR’s argument. There is only 1 race a year for the Sprint Cup cars that rain tires could be used. You guessed it. Watkins Glen. Sprint Cup also races at the road course in Sonoma, California in June. Sunny California is always sunny in June. Not a chance of rain. So NASCAR sees that teams would spend lots of money and time testing for only a possibility of racing in the wet once per year.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series run 3 road courses per year. All three of them could see a threat of rain. This is why the Nationwide team do race in the wet. Make sense? Kinda.
In the end NASCAR doesn’t win the hearts of fans of other forms of racing when they make these types of decisions. Sports car racers, Moto GP racers, and F1 racers can say the same thing about NASCAR. How can NASCAR be a top series if they don’t race in the rain. Especially in the world we live in now where events like Rally Car, Drifting, and other extreme sports have gained fans by pushing the limits of whats possible. NASCAR actively decides not to push the limits at all.
Not a good way to reach the ever popular 18 to 35 year old male demographic who wants to see quick exciting racing. Well I guess you’ll have to watch Ryan Villopoto race his motocross boots around a track with jumps and bumps if you want to see limits get pushed all the time. Sorry NASCAR, bad move.
It was Donny Schatz taking the win in the 51st Knoxville Nationals Saturday night in Iowa. Schatz, is a multiple time winner of the event as well as a past World of Outlaws Champion. Schatz drives for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart in sprint car racing’s premiere division.
The Tony Stewart Racing Team had a difficult start to their week by blowing a motor on their preliminary race on Wednesday. Donny Schatz fought through the strong field of cars starting in the 13th position. Schatz had taken over the lead well before the mid-point of the race and never looked back.
Although sprint cars do race on the dirt, its not exactly off road racing. But we love it anyway. No motocross jerseys at the Knoxville Nationals but we like bring the best racing in the world to you computer anyway!
Marcos Ambrose won Monday’s Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen. The win was Ambrose’s first in the Cup series. Ambrose is now in his second full season of Sprint Cup competition, moving up from the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series in the last 5 years. Ambrose is a 2-time V8 Supercar Champion who came to the US from Tasmania. Ambrose is the first Aussie to win a Sprint Cup event.
Marcos Ambrose led the most laps on Monday but had to pass Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch with 2 laps to go in order to seal the victory. The Australian driver has won 3 events at Watkins Glen in the NASCAR Nationwide Series as well as just missing a Cup win at Sonoma in 2010. The very eventful race at Watkins Glen saw 2 major wrecks and a scuffle between Boris Said and Greg Biffle at the end of the race. As always, the NASCAR drivers provided a great show on a road course.
Ok, lets get back to dirt bike gear.
With 4 events left in the Lucas Oil Motocross season, Ryan Villopoto is in the points lead. Chad Reed was the early leader but has faded has the terrible crash at Millville. Ryan Dungey has won the last 2 events overall.
Chad Reed has had sometime to recover from the crash and will come back strong. Chad Reed needs a strong finish at Unadilla to stay in the fight for the season championship. See this weekend’s race on Speed and NBC. Put on the motocross boots and win Chad Reed!
Liam Doran came to the X Games and made a name for himself in the US. Doran who is already well known in the European Rally Cross scene introduced himself to America with a gold medal in Rally Car competition.
Doran was fastest in most of races and practices throughout the weekend. He almost had double gold but was punted by Tanner Foust going into turn 1 of the Rally Cross final.
Doran straps on his off road helmet 
on a regular basis in the FIA European Rally Cross Championship where he is currently third in points. Doran intends to compete in the US at some of the Rallycross America events and Gymkhana Grid events. Welcome Mr. Doran to the list of exciting Rally racers we need to keep tabs on.
Since we wrote about Travis Pastrana and his heroic performance in the X Games Rally Cross event, we also must talk about Brad Keselowski. Keselowski won the NASCAR Sprint Cup event at Pocono Raceway last weekend. Brad also had a broken ankle but choose to race anyway.
Not only did he win, he put himself in a position to lock into NASCAR’s version of the playoffs called The Chase. Had Keselowski choosen not to run the event, he would have bid his Chase chances good bye.
Two great clutch performances in two weeks. One in dirt bike gear and one in a race suit.
Travis Pastrana had what we called an epic fail weekend at X Games 17 in LA. The extreme sports superstar failed to land the “TP Roll,” in the Best Trick competition on Thursday July 28th. Pastrana broke his ankle and heel of his foot. The crash caused Travis to miss his NASCAR Nationwide debut that was supposed to be on July 30th. Pastrana had been working on the “TP Roll,” for the better part of 3 years. This is where Travis showed his dedication to his fans and his sport.
Travis Pastrana could have put up the dirt bike gear for the weekend and rested until his operation to repair the ankle. Instead he wanted to race. This is where he and the Rally Car crew showed amazing determination.
Pastrana’s Rally car crew designed a hand throttle control so that Travis could run July 31′s Rally Cross competition. Pastrana practiced the car one day before the event and crashed it. Despite the damage, once again Pastrana’s crew went to work and fixed the car and made it race ready for Rally Cross competition.
Pastrana raced with his foot secured to the floor board with no shoe on. Travis made the finals with a crashed car, hand controls, and bone fragments littered throughout his foot. Pastrana was actually in bronze medal position on the last lap when he over drove a corner and crashed again. The pain of the crash was visible on his face in the on board camera.
Despite the Friday crash, Pastrana did what he didn’ have to do. He put himself in harms way and raced. If it was for his fans, for himself, or for his sponsors, it will go down as one of the most heroic performances by a racer ever.