THE LINE - JULY 10, 2013

(RenaultSport)
Sebastian Vettel (Infiniti Red Bull Racing-Renault) won his very first home German Grand Prix Sunday. Incredibly it was Vettel's 30th Grand Prix win - at the age of 26! Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus F1 Team-Renault) was second and Romain Grosjean (Lotus F1 Team-Renault) was third, giving Renault power a sweep of the podium. Infiniti Red Bull Racing leads the championship by 67 points over Mercedes, with Ferrari third and Lotus F1 Team fourth. Sebastian Vettel extends his championship advantage with 157 points over Fernando Alonso’s 123 and Kimi Raikkonen’s 116.

(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.011)
Lucas Luhr and co-driver Klaus Graf (No. 6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing Honda Performance Development ARX-03c) captured last Saturday’s American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park, the team’s third consecutive victory in 2013 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. Luhr and Graf also won the MICHELIN^® GREEN X^® Challenge for the prototypes. John Edwards and Dirk Muller (No. 56 BMW Team RLL Crowne Plaza BMW Z4 GTE) teamed to win in GT. Muller held off a late charge by Antonio Garcia (No. 4 Corvette Racing Compuware C6.R, co-driven by Jan Magnussen) to secure the victory by .905 seconds. Ryan Briscoe bumped his way past Guy Cosmo with 3:30 remaining and held on to win his second race of the season in the No. 551 Siemens/Alpina Watches/Ohiya Casino Resort HPD ARX-03b started from the pole by co-driver Scott Tucker. After the contact, Cosmo returned to finish second with Scott Sharp in the No. 01 Extreme Speed Motorsports Tequila Patrón HPD-ARX-03b. Briscoe and Tucker remain the class winners, but IMSA officials penalized the duo seven points, equal to the points earned for a third-place finish (13), where the car would have finished if it served a stop-plus-60-seconds penalty for avoidable contact. Bruno Junqueira (No. 9 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09, co-driven by Duncan Ende) gave the team its first victory in the Prototype Challenge presented by Continental Tire class. Spencer Pumpelly scored his fifth career victory, joining first-time winner Nelson Canache Jr. in the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Venezuela/eSilicon Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in the GT Challenge class. Next up for the ALMS will be the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, on Sunday, July 21. Check out another set of scintillating images by John Thawley from Lime Rock Park here.

(Photo by Bret Kelley/INDYCAR)
Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) led a first-ever Chip Ganassi Racing podium sweep to win INDYCAR's return to Pocono Raceway after a 24-year absence. It was Dixon's first victory since Mid-Ohio last August. Charlie Kimball (No. 83 Chip Ganassi Racing NovoLog FlexPen Honda) tied his career high of second, and four-time series champion Dario Franchitti (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished third. Dixon, who earned his 30th Indy car victory (his first was at Nazareth, Pa.), is the eighth different winner in 11 IZOD IndyCar Series races this season. He crossed the finish line .4572 of a second ahead of Kimball in a race slowed by only two cautions for 12 laps. The average speed of 192.864 mph bested Danny Sullivan's Indy car record 170.720 mph in the 1989 race on the 2.5-mile tri-oval. The last 1-2-3 team finish was by Team Penske (Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe) at Sonoma Raceway in August 2011.

(Photo by Bret Kelley/INDYCAR)
Charlie Kimball receives congrats from Chip Ganassi after finishing second, tying his career-best IZOD IndyCar Series result. He also finished second in 2012 at Toronto. After an engine change in the Ganassi team cars late Saturday, Honda power came up big in Pocono, delivering exceptional fuel mileage to outdistance the Chevrolet-powered machines.

(Photo by Bret Kelley/INDYCAR)
Dario Franchitti finished third, his first podium finish and third top-five finish of what has been a fairly miserable season so far. He also finished fourth at Long Beach and fifth at Belle Isle 2. The first half of the INDYCAR season has been forgettable for both Ganassi Racing and Team Penske. Will the second half be a different story? We'll see.

(Photo by Bret Kelley/INDYCAR)
Will Power charges out of the pits in his No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet. He finished a very racy fourth, his third top-five finish this season.

(Photo by Bret Kelley/INDYCAR)
Marco Andretti (No. 25 Andretti Autosport RC Cola Chevrolet) almost had a memorable weekend, taking the pole and dominating the first half of the race, but the fuel mileage in his Chevrolet-powered machine came up short, forcing him to stop three laps sooner than the Honda-powered entries. It was a bitter day for Andretti. "Oh, man, I mean we knew early (about our fuel mileage), but not early enough, " Andretti said. "I think we should have responded quicker, but it's so hard to be reserved right now. I'm so frustrated for RC Cola and everybody. We were just so dominant, and I'm just absolutely gutted."

(Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi, Charlie Kimball and Dario Franchitti celebrate in Victory lane. It was a memorable day at Pocono for Chip Ganassi, his racing team and Honda. It was the 100th win in all forms of motorsports for Chip Ganassi Racing and the 200th in Indy car competition for Honda. "When I got out of bed this morning, I wouldn't have guessed this," Ganassi said after the race. "I actually forgot that the next win would have been our 100^th; it's been so long since we've had a win. It's a really great place to do it. In Pennsylvania, in my home state. It's great for the series to have a 1-2-3 (finish) and Honda. You know, Honda needed a boost, and they stepped up and did a great job. The drivers did a great job, and the team did a great job."

(Photo by Bret Kelley/INDYCAR)
Carlos Munoz (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Dialy-Ser) reclaimed the Firestone Indy Lights championship points lead by cruising to victory by 16.2247 seconds in the Pocono 100. It was the third victory of the season for Munoz and fifth overall (second on an oval). He's led all the race laps in the victories. It also was the third victory in five starts from the pole this season for the 21-year-old from Colombia. Including bonus points for the Sunoco Pole Award and leading the most laps on the 2.5-mile tri-oval, Munoz takes a four-point lead over Sage Karam into the race next week on the streets of Exhibition Place in Toronto. Karam (No. 8 Schmidt Peterson with Curb-Agajanian) finished second ahead of teammate Gabby Chaves. Karam and Chaves traded second place four times over the final ten laps in the caution-free race, with Karam overtaking Chaves' No. 7 car in Turn 1 on Lap 39. Chaves crossed the finish line .7280 of a second behind Karam.

(Photo by Harold Hinson for Chevrolet)
Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Lowe’s Dover White Chevrolet SS) celebrates his win in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway Saturday night. Johnson extended his lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings to a 49 point advantage. Tony Stewart (No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Bass Pro Shops/Ducks Unlimited Chevrolet SS) finished second, and Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet SS) was third. Johnson became the first driver to record the season sweep of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at the 2.5-mile tri-oval since Bobby Allison accomplished the feat in 1982. Watch the videos from NASCAR here.

(Honda)
Honda plans to put on quite a show at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed, with legendary riders and drivers taking to the wheels of vehicles old and new, including Freddie Spencer, three-time World Motorcycle Grand Prix champion, and John Surtees (above, behind the wheel of the RA300 at the 2005 Goodwood Fesival of Speed), the only man to have won both the F1 world championship and the Motorcycle Grand Prix world championship.
(Honda)
1985 Honda NSR500.

(McLaren)
An unprecedented collection of McLaren models will be featured at the Goodwood Festival of Speed as part of the brand’s ongoing 50th anniversary celebrations. The display will include some of the most significant McLaren models including championship winners from Formula 1, Can-Am and Le Mans. The McLaren P1™ will also make its debut. McLaren claimed five back-to-back titles in the Can-Am championship between 1967 and 1971 with Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Peter Revson all claiming the coveted title. In tribute to the team’s glorious past, McLaren will be running the 1970 championship-winning M8D of Denny Hulme up the Hill during the course of the weekend. In addition, Peter Revson’s title winning M8F from 1971 has been kindly loaned for the display by the Louwman Museum in The Hague, Netherlands, and will be part of the brand’s ‘McLaren House’ display.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Watch a very cool video (brought to you by Luminox and Michelin) of my friend Jeff Zwart's excellent adventure at Pikes Peak this year here. - PMD

(Courtesy of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca)
Chevrolet has assembled a collection of historically significant Corvettes that have remarkable pedigrees for a special exhibition at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 16-18. The annual event on the Monterey Peninsula this year celebrates the rich 60-year history of the Chevrolet Corvette. Some of the special Corvettes on display include the 1960 Cunningham No. 3 Corvette (Courtesy of Lance Miller) driven by John Fitch and Bob Grossman that won its class and placed eighth overall in the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans; the 1967 No. 9 Corvette (Courtesy of Harry Yagey) raced by Corvette legends Dick Guldstrand and Bob Bondurant at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The duo actually had driven the race car from the airport near Paris all the way to Le Mans, to the delight of locals; and the 1968 Owens Corning L-88 Corvette (Courtesy of Rick Hendrick) made famous by Tony De Lorenzo. This L-88 Corvette is the most victorious Corvette in history. For more information on the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion or to purchase tickets, call 800-327-7322 or visit MazdaRaceway.com.

(McLaren Automotive)
McLaren is producing a new high performance variant of the 12C, named the 12C GT Sprint. With handling and aero tweaks, the track-only model bridges the gap between the 12C and the all-out racing 12C GT3 and 12C GT Can-Am Edition models, in case you just happened to be aching for something in-between. It has been designed and developed by McLaren GT, the race car building arm of the McLaren Group, and retains many of the unique systems from the 12C road car, on which it is based.

(Images courtesy of the BMW Group)
BMW won't be left out of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The German manufacturer will bring a total of nine extraordinary BMW racing cars and motorcycles to Goodwood. BMW will be celebrating two very special anniversaries: the founding of BMW Motorrad 90 years ago and Nelson Piquet’s Formula One World Championship win with the Brabham BMW BT52 30 years ago. Piquet (above) piloted a Brabham BMW to the Formula One World Championship crown, the first driver in Formula One history to win the title in a car powered by a turbocharged engine. The 1983 World Championship-winning Brabham BMW BT52 has been comprehensively restored by BMW, and Piquet will be driving it at Goodwood. The 24 of Le Mans-winning BMW V12 LMR (below) will also appear, to be driven by its original drivers, Marc Surer and Steve Soper.

 

(SCCA)
West Coast SCCA Racers. The Sports Car Club of America, Inc. today announced the locations of the next three SCCA® National Championship Runoffs®, including a long-awaited trip to the West Coast and return appearances to two historic venues. National Champions will be crowned at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in 2014, Daytona International Speedway in 2015 and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2016. The return to the West Coast and Monterey’s Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca comes 50 years after the inaugural event at Riverside in 1964. The event alternated between Riverside and Daytona for six years. Once again, Daytona will follow a West Coast event. Mid-Ohio was the Runoffs host from 1994-2005. The annual rotation, a break from recent tradition, came from lengthy discussion among members of the SCCA Board of Directors – as did the trip to the West Coast. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca becomes just the seventh track to host the Runoffs in the event’s 50-year history, and marks the first time a National Champion will be crowned west of the Rocky Mountains since 1968 at Riverside International Raceway, in Riverside, Calif. The road course at Daytona International Speedway hosted the Runoffs previously in 1965, 1967 and 1969. The Runoffs will utilize the 12-turn, 3.56-mile infield and oval circuit. Of the three venues, Mid-Ohio has the most recent Runoffs records. With 12 previous engagements, only Road Atlanta, with 24, has seen the Runoffs more. The 50th Runoffs will be held September 16-22, 2013 at Road America for the fifth consecutive year. The SCCA National Championship Runoffs has crowned Club Racing National Champions in a winner-take-all, single race format since 1964. Through 24 separate races over three days, the 2013 edition will crown champions in 28 Runoffs-eligible classes.

Editor's Note: Watch Niki Lauda take Ron Howard around the  Nordschleife in the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class here. - WG