THE LINE
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 at 10:24AM July 7, 2010
(Dana Garrett/IndyCar)
Will Power celebrates with his car owner, Roger Penske (above), after winning the sparsely attended Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen at Watkins Glen Interantional last Sunday. Series points leader Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Honda-Powered Dallara, passed his teammate Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Team Penske Honda-Powered Dallara) with six laps to go and went on to win his third IZOD IndyCar Series victory of 2010. It was Team Penske's first IZOD IndyCar Series victory at The Glen. Briscoe passed Dario Franchitti (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing D/H/F) on the last lap to help Team Penske record its first 1-2 finish since Edmonton in 2009. Brazilians Raphael Matos (No. 2 HP de Ferran Dragon Racing D/H/F) and Mario Moraes (No. 32 KV Racing Technology D/H/F) completed the top five.
(Ron McQueeney/IndyCar)
Dario Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe flank Will Power on the Victory stand after the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen.
(Dana Garrett/IndyCar)
Dario couldn't hold off Ryan Briscoe at the end.
(Ron McQueeney/IndyCar)
Raphael Matos finished fourth, tying his IZOD IndyCar Series career best set earlier this season at Sao Paulo.
(Ron McQueeney/IndyCar)
Mario Moraes finished a season-best fifth. His previous best was sixth at Long Beach. "The last few races have been really hard for KV Racing Technology, so we needed this fifth-place result," Moraes said afterwards. "Now we're heading to Toronto, where we can try to improve on it. I really need to work on my fuel mileage because I really couldn't use my push-to-pass, but it was a good day."
(Ron McQueeney/IndyCar)
Andretti Autosport announced that Team IZOD driver Ryan Hunter-Reay (above) will run the rest of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season after a group of team sponsors stepped up to fund the effort. The team also unveiled a new charitable initiative connected to Hunter-Reay's No. 37 entry called "Racing For Cancer." The program, which was developed by Tom Vossman, chief executive officer of team sponsor Inland Industrial Services Group, will raise money for cancer research and other charitable causes in honor of Hunter-Reay's mother, Lydia, who lost her battle with colon cancer in November 2009. "I've never seen anything like this," Hunter-Reay said. "So many people pulling together to make things happen. Andretti Autosport and Michael (Andretti) have bent over backward to make things work, to keep me in the car. I'll never forget that. They worked endless hours to make this work. Tom (Vossman) is like an angel out of left field that came down. You can race and honor your mom. I also have to thank Michael Fux for his personal support and making the 'Racing For Cancer' program a reality. I was really close to my mom. Super-close. For all of this to come together, it was for the right reasons. Not only does it keep a race team going, it's going to benefit the front lines in the battle against cancer. It's just an amazing system that's come up. All of the sponsors in this amazing team have contributed to make this happen. Even the best teammate I've ever had, Tony Kanaan, made a contribution. I've never seen anything like it, and I'm so proud to be at the center of it. Now to be able to just show up, go race for the rest of the season, with the same team and the same people, it's a great time."
(Ron McQueeney/IndyCar)
French rookie J.K. Vernay (No. 7 Lucas Oil/CJ/Sam Schmidt Motorsports) solidified his Firestone Indy Lights championship points lead with a victory in the Corning 100 at Watkins Glen. Vernay passed pole sitter James Hinchcliffe (No. 2 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling) entering the "Bus Stop" chicane on Lap 19 of the 3.4-mile, 11-turn circuit and went on to capture his third victory of the season by .2135 of a second, the closest margin of victory this season in Firestone Indy Lights on any type of circuit.. Sebastian Saavedra finished third in the No. 29 William Rast/Bryan Herta Autosport car.
(Mark Weber/SCCA)
Ron Fellows cruised to his second-consecutive World Challenge win at Watkins Glen last Saturday - by 11.775-seconds - averaging 104.056 mph in his Corvette over the 22-lap, 74.8-mile race. Fellows also turned the race’s fastest lap at 1:55.672 (105.816 mph).
(Mark Weber/SCCA)
Peter Cunningham, of Milwaukee, Wis., took the World Challenge GTS victory at The Glen by more than one lap, extending his World Challenge wins record to 35 in the No. 43 Acura/RealTime Racing Acura TSX. Despite more wins than anyone in the history of the Series, this was Cunningham's first in World Challenge at Watkins Glen. 
(Mark Weber/SCCA)
Robert Stout (No. 18 DG Spec/Scion/TRD/Lucas Oil Scion tC), of Brownsburg, Ind., earned his third Touring Car win in his first season as a professional, cruising to a 29.389-second margin of victory at The Glen.
(Robertson Racing)
Robertson Racing has changed engine suppliers beginning with the upcoming Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix ALMS race this weekend. The privateer team is going with an Elan engine, which will mark the first appearance in the Series for the engine builder since 2007. The team has already tested the new V8 at Mid-Ohio and Road Atlanta and it is expected to offer a step forward in performance. The team also took its GT2-class Ford GT to a wind tunnel twice last month with fresh parts being tried on both occasions in an attempt to gain further data and real-world on-track improvement. A day’s tire testing is also expected to help. “We were looking for a more personal commitment from our engine partner which is why we chose Elan," said team manager Andrew ‘H’ Smith. "We know the guys from running the Panoz in 2007 so it was a logical step. Roush Yates has been fantastic over the last three seasons but we felt it was time for a change and parted ways on very good terms.”
Rolex. Editor-in-Chief's Note: So let me set the table for you. Rolex, one of the prime presenting sponsors of the "Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion" at Laguna Seca (er, Mazda Raceway and the event was formerly known as the Monterey Historics) runs a spread ad in the new Road & Track touting its involvement in the event. Okay, fair enough, we get it. And they even use a vintage black & white racing photo to get us all fired-up for the event and remind us of the authenticity of the era, etc., etc. But guess what? The photo used is from Riverside International Raceway - Turn 6 at the top of the esses to be exact, with Dan Gurney and Sterling Moss clearly visible - and at that point I just have to say WTF? You mean to tell me that no one, not one person involved in creating this ad could be bothered to see if there were any actual archival photos available from Laguna Seca - here's a hint, there's only about a million of 'em - that could be used in the ad? Really? I am just stunned. This goes well-beyond Rolex being "tone deaf." It's embarrassing, nonsensical and beyond idiotic. Everyone associated with this ad should be ashamed. As a matter of fact, they should be taken out back and flogged because it's simply inexcusable, unforgivable and flat-out pathetic. I'm just hoping that no one at Laguna Seca saw this ad before it was produced. They couldn't be that unobservant, could they? Could they? What a train wreck. - PMD
Ford. Voting for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) design that will be featured on the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion NASCAR Sprint Cup car begins Tuesday, July 6, and ends on September 3, a total of 60 days in honor of Wood Brothers Racing's 60-year anniversary of racing Ford products in NASCAR. You're invited to visit www.jdrf.org/ford to make a donation for your favorite car design. The top five donation-earning designs will be judged and narrowed down to one. The winning design will be featured at the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 14.
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Michelin's racing website - "Michelin Alley" - and get in on all of the behind-the-scenes buzz. Go here. - PMD
WE'RE OPENING THE VAULT!
The AE wearables are back - and only in extremely limited quantities and sizes, we might add - and once they're gone, they're gone! We're starting with our most popular items, the classic AE Sweatshirt and AE Hat. Click on a PayPal button below to order yours now! (If you prefer to pay by check, please send us an email with AE STORE in the subject line, and we'll reserve your item.)
AE Sweatshirt - Crewneck, sturdy 80/20 cotton/poly, in black with throwback lettering - the original AE logo in our Chiller typeface shown above. Size XL only. 40 bucks, including shipping. US orders only.
AE Hat - Black with throwback lettering - the original AE logo in our Chiller typeface shown above. 25 bucks, including shipping. US orders only.
See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and friends this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv. By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to the Autoline After Hours podcasts, click on the following links: Subscribe via iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=311421319 http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/podcasts/feeds/afterhours-audio.xml
Subscribe via RSS: