April 18, 2012
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com)
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out photographer extraordinaire John Thawley's latest scintillating images, this time from last weekend's American Le Mans Series action at Long Beach. Great stuff, especially in Friday's rainy practice sessions. - PMD
(Phillip Abbott/INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Will Power (No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet) made 18.5 gallons of E85 last over the FINAL 21 laps on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street circuit to win the 38th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday (April 15th). Power started in Row 6 because of a penalty assessed to all 11 Chevrolet-powered cars for unapproved engine changes. It was Power's 17th career Indy car victory and his second victory of 2012. His last win was at Barber Motorsport Park two weekends ago. It was also Team Penske's first win at Long Beach since 2001 and the team's fifth win on the seaside track.
(Phillip Abbott/INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Simon Pagenaud (No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda) pitted for the final time on Lap 70 of 85 and finished just 0.8675 of a second back of Will Power. Over the final three laps, Pagenaud ran lap times 1.5-2 seconds quicker than the Team Penske driver. Pagenaud gave Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports its highest finish in the IZOD IndyCar Series. "It was fantastic," Pagenaud said. "The car was great from the beginning. The guys, they did a great job running. We're a one-car team operation, we don't have as much data as Penske or Ganassi, but I'm glad we're giving them a good run for their money. One more lap, man, I would have tried I tell you."
(Phillip Abbott/INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
James Hinchcliffe, driving the No. 27 GoDaddy.com car for Andretti Autosport, finished third as teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay incurred a 30-second penalty on the final lap for avoidable contact with the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda driven by Takuma Sato. It was the first podium finish for Hinchcliffe in his IZOD IndyCar Series career. Sato, seeking his first IZOD IndyCar Series podium, ended up eighth, Hunter-Reay finished sixth.
(Lesley Ann Miller - as seen from the POV of Chief Mechanic/outside front tire changer Jeff Simon - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Tony Kanaan (No. 11 Mouser Electronics/GEICO KV Racing Technology Chevrolet) who started 19th, finished a season-best fourth "Today coming from the back was a tough race but a good break for us. I mean, we didn't finish two races in a row so it was nice to finish this one. I'm very happy. I'm happy for the guys. Now let's go to Brazil - one of my favorite races." The next IZOD IndyCar Series race is the Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle on April 29 at the Streets of Sao Paulo. The race will be televised by NBC Sports Network at 11:30 a.m. (ET) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network on SiriusXM (XM 94 and Sirius 212).
(Phillip Abbott/INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
"It's a great day for the Verizon Team Penske Chevy," Will Power said after the race. "We really didn't think it was possible to win from 12th place here because it was a two-stop race, but once again with (strategist) Tim (Cindric), Dave (Faustino), my engineer, and all the boys we overcame a 10-spot penalty. They told me (Pagenaud) was coming and that I had a four-second gap and just needed to save as much (fuel) as I could and then I ran hard at the end, the last lap or two, and it was enough." With his win at Long Beach, Will Power now leads the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series point standings.
(Phillip Abbott/INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Esteban Guerrieri (No. 11 Pistas Argentinas/Sam Schmidt Motorsports) overtook Sunoco Pole Award winner Sebastian Saavedra in Turn 1 of Lap 1 on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street circuit and went on to his first Firestone Indy Lights victory of 2012 by 1.5989 seconds. It was the fourth career victory for the 27-year-old Argentinian. Picking up two bonus points for leading the most laps, Guerrieri heads to the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway three points behind Saavedra (130) in the championship standings. Tristan Vautier, the points leader entering the race, was credited with third place and has 128 points. The next Firestone Indy Lights race is the Firestone Freedom 100 on May 25 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be televised live by NBC Sports Network at Noon a.m. (ET).
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com)
Andy Pilgrim (No. 8 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V), of Marina Del Rey, Fla., earned his first GT class victory since 2009 at Sunday's Pirelli World Challenge Long Beach Grand Prix presented by StopTech. Pilgrim started second to polesitter Randy Pobst (No. 6 K-Pax Racing Volvo S60), of Gainesville, Ga., on the race's standing start but moved past Pobst in Turn 1 on Lap 9 of the 31-lap event. Pilgrim beat Pobst by 6.337 seconds to score his 11th win of his World Challenge career. Johnny O'Connell, of Flowery Branch, Ga., finished third in his No. 3 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V. O'Connell, who started third, leads the GT point standings by 13 points, 374-361, over Pilgrim.
(Nigel Kinrade - Autostock 2012)
Greg Biffle (No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing 3M Ford Fusion) finished 3.2 seconds ahead of Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Kobalt Tools/Lowe's Chevrolet Impala) to take the Samsung Mobile 500 Sprint Cup victory while averaging 160.577 mph at the Texas Motor Speedway last Saturday night. The win broke a 49-race, 18-month drought for Biffle, and it was the fastest Sprint Cup race ever run on the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked track. Biffle's 17th Sprint Cup win means he maintains his lead in the Sprint Cup points chase. It was also Roush Fenway Racing's ninth victory in 23 Cup races at Texas. Johnson led three times for 156 of the 334 laps while going for owner Rick Hendrick's 200th victory. Mark Martin was third in his Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota Camry.
(Brian Czobat - Autostock 2012)
Roush Fenway Racing completed a weekend sweep in the Lone Star State when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (No. 6 Roush Fenway Pure Michigan Ford Mustang) won the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 Friday night. It was Roush Fenway's ninth Nationwide race win in Texas and fourth in a row. Crew chief Mike Kelly and Stenhouse Jr. sport the traditional cowboy hats in Victory lane.
(Highcroft Racing)
The Nissan DeltaWing prototype sportscar kicked off its European testing program in England at Snetterton, in Norfolk, yesterday (April 17) with Scotsman Marino Franchitti and German Michael Krumm getting the opportunity to sample the car in wet conditions. Steady rain throughout the morning enabled the team to undertake wet weather development with tire partner, Michelin, with the innovative 1.6-litre Nissan DIG-T turbo-powered car. As racing enthusiasts know, the Nissan DeltaWing features half the weight, half the horsepower and half the aerodynamic drag of a traditional Le Mans sports racer – with front tires that are only four inches wide.
With the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans just two months away, the Nissan DeltaWing team gained valuable information about the ground-breaking car's performance in typical European track conditions, having conducted all of its development work so far in America. Darren Cox, General Manager Nissan in Europe, said: “The whole Nissan DeltaWing team is still on a massive learning curve. Testing in the States was a stable, predictable way of doing the initial groundwork but this exciting car is going to be racing in the French countryside. Today, the whole team got a taste of the conditions they may well face on June 16/17, so it may not have been much fun in the Norfolk rain, but it's about the best thing that could have happened for a project and a car that will face an enormous challenge just to make the end of the race.”
Franchitti conducted most of the morning running in conditions that ranged from damp to fully wet weather, gathering valuable data as to how the car performs. Having only previously conducted some brief wet track running on an artificially damp track at Sebring with the help of a water truck, today’s on-track action was an important step in the development of the wet tires for the car. Michael Krumm climbed aboard for much of the afternoon running – enjoying drier conditions as the team worked on suspension adjustments, braking and gearbox improvements.
The Nissan DeltaWing will make its official racing debut at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Nissan’s involvement in the program was announced in March, with the manufacturer not only providing the engine, but additional technical resources for the car’s debut.
Designed by Ben Bowlby, the DeltaWing partnership brings together some of the biggest names in North American motorsport, including project managing partner and American Le Mans Series founder, Don Panoz; racing legend and Nissan DeltaWing constructor, Dan Gurney’s All American Racers organization along with Duncan Dayton’s Highcroft Racing.
The Nissan DeltaWing will continue its testing program next week with a two-day test scheduled.
(Dennis Ashlock)
Bobby Rahal, Brian Redman, Sandy Hall, Jim Hall, Roger Penske, Gil de Ferran and Johnny Rutherford pose for a photo at the Road Racing Drivers Club tribute to Jim Hall on Thursday evening, April 12th. Hall, internationally renowned as an ingenious designer, engineer, championship racer and innovator in the sport of auto racing - and one of America's true racing icons, was honored by close to 350 of his peers and racing elite at the RRDC Evening with Jim Hall presented by Firestone. This was the fourth annual Road Racing Drivers Club West Coast banquet, held prior to the running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The dinner was also supported by Chevrolet and Honda.
Hall, whose accomplishments ranged from the 1960s, with the remarkable series of Chaparral race cars he built, to the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s as an IndyCar team owner, was interrogated in the style of the Late Show with David Letterman by RRDC president Bobby Rahal. Rahal coaxed many an interesting story from the usually reserved Hall, who retired from racing in 1996. From his initial encounter with Chevrolet engineers and executives who partnered with him to help create such advanced race cars as the “vacuum cleaner” Chaparral 2J, to his experiences as a team owner and co-driver with racing champions Roger Penske, Johnny Rutherford, Brian Redman and Gil de Ferran, Hall entertained the crowd with accounts never before chronicled.
Rutherford, Penske, Redman and de Ferran related their own tales of their history with Hall, while Mark Kent, Director of Chevrolet Racing, presented him with a plaque recognizing his “tremendous contribution to auto racing.”
“It was a magical evening,” said Rahal. “Jim Hall is an icon in this sport, and it was a pleasure to sit down with him and listen to the recollections of an extraordinary visionary from such in important era in our sport.”
“It’s fabulous to be honored by your peers,” said Hall, with wife Sandy at his side. “And that’s really what it is here tonight. There are so many of the real racers here and I’m honored to be with them, and It’s terrific to follow the three guys who were previously recognized by the RRDC (Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones and Roger Penske – all in attendance). And to see so many of the other people in the sport who were willing to come here and support this event just makes you really proud. I’m excited about it.”
Past Indy 500 winners were present, including the aforementioned Rahal, Jones and Rutherford, along with Rick Mears, Dario Franchitti and Danny Sullivan, accounting for 13 Indy 500 victories among them.
Other contributors to the evening included Bernardus Vineyards and Winery, and Adobe Road Small Lot Handcrafted Wines. In assembling photos from Hall’s career, the RRDC has received invaluable assistance from David Friedman, Road & Track, LAT, Michael Keyser and Peter Biro. Steve Earle provided vintage video and motorsports artist Randy Owens donated art for the silent auction.
The dinner's proceeds will help support the RRDC’s young driver initiatives, including its groundbreaking www.SAFEisFAST.com program and the Team USA Scholarship, which the RRDC has backed since 1997. (AE thanks Judy Stropus for the account from the evening.)
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Jim Hall is one of my all-time racing heroes and the Road Racing Drivers' Club dinner honoring Jim last Thursday night in Long Beach was a fitting tribute to the legendary force behind the magnificent Chaparral racers. My colleague Gordon Kirby summed up the evening nicely here, as Hall was recognized for his countless contributions that still resonate in racing today. When you savor the highlights of Hall's phenomenal racing career you realize that much of that "blue sky" thinking, seat-of-the-pants ingenuity and creativity is too often stifled in today's world of spec racing (which is another reason why the DeltaWing racer is so important). It truly was a different time and a different era, and sadly, as it begins to fade from view, you come to realize how much it will be missed. - PMD
(Ford)
The 2012 Ford Focus Electric will be the first-ever all-electric pace car used in NASCAR. The new machine will lead the field for the upcoming Sprint Cup Richmond 400 on April 28. Ford was also first to use a hybrid to start a NASCAR event when the Fusion Hybrid served as pace car for the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2008. Ford research shows that approximately 35 percent of new car intenders are motorsports fans and 78 percent of them support NASCAR. Additionally, Ford race fans are 67 percent more likely to consider Ford products than general market consumers.
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
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