JULY 1, 2015

Editor-In-Chief's Note: Watch my old friend Jeff Zwart drive his Porsche 911 GT3 Turbo Cup prepared by BBI Autosport to 1st place in the Time Attack 1 Class at the 2015 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with a time of 9:46.243 - recorded with the GoPro Hero 4 camera. Yee-hah!!! -PMD

(Courtesy of Movistar Yamaha/Motorcycle-usa.com)
Valentino Rossi (No. 46 Movistar Yamaha YZR-M1MotoGP) and Marc Marquez (No. 93 Repsol Honda RC213V) staged a duel for the ages in Saturday’s Motul TT Assen MotoGP, racing the entire 26 Lap distance nose-to-tail. Marquez finally pushed his way by Rossi on Lap 20, with Rossi returning the favor to lead on Lap 24. But in the pivotal last corner chicane of the final lap, Marquez made a last-gasp move and bumped Rossi off-line and off-course. Rossi stayed upright through the sand and came out on the other side in the lead for the win. Trying to describe the pure talent and artistry displayed by these two riders is a futile endeavor. Suffice to say it was flat-out sensational and awesome in every sense of those words.

(Photo by Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Graham Rahal (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Mi-Jack Honda) with his fiance, Courtney Force, and his team following their win in the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway. The victory was the second of Rahal's career and ended a 124-race winless drought dating to 2008 in St. Petersburg - the longest gap between race wins for a driver in Indy car history. It was also a crucial win for Honda in what has been a difficult season. A record 80 lead changes among fourteen drivers during the 250-lap event surpassed the previous Indy car record of 73 set at the same track in November 2001. Rahal won under caution as the cars driven by Ryan Briscoe (No. 5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Arrow/Lucas Oil Honda) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 28 Andretti Autosport DHL Honda) made contact battling for position coming to the white flag. The final restart was set up after a red flag was displayed on Lap 245 of 250 on the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway oval after contact between Will Power (No. 1 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet) and Takuma Sato (No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing ABC Supply Honda) on the front stretch. "Our weakness has been these ovals and I told the guys this morning that the next three races will define our year," said Rahal, who qualified 19th. "It's been so long coming. It's awesome. I think the combination of downforce and tires made for multiple lanes of racing that was nerve-racking but exciting. (With) the width of this place, the guys were able to stay in their lanes."

(Photo by Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Marco Andretti (No. 27 Andretti Autosport Snapple Honda), Tony Kanaan (No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing NTT Data Chevrolet), and Graham Rahal (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Mi-Jack Honda) go three-wide going into Turn 1 during the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway. The action was this wheel-to-wheel close over the entire race distance. Kanaan finished second and Andretti ended up finishing third. "It feels good, and is a big day for us. It shows that our rebound this season is legit," Rahal said. "The team is why all of this has come together. Hopefully I can move on from here and not make it seven years until I win again." Rahal moved into fourth place in the season standings.

(Photo by Chris Jones/IndyCar)
This photo sums up last weekend's IndyCar race at Auto Club Speedway perfectly. Ryan Briscoe begins his tumble after coming together with Ryan Hunter-Reay's out of control machine at the end of the race, while an empty grandstand looks on. Read Peter's perspectives on the current dire state of IndyCar in "Fumes." -WG

(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.0110)
Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook, above, (No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP) won the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International on Sunday in a race plagued by torrential rain and multiple crashes. The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP driven by Joey Hand and Scott Pruett finished second overall, while Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa (No. 5 Mustang Sampling/Cedar Tree Corvette DP) finished third. Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers (No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR) won the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class with virtually no fuel left in the tank as the race finished under caution. Renger van der Zande, Alex Popow and Mike Hedlund (No. 8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA FLM09) won the Prototype Challenge class, while Al Carter, Cameron Lawrence and Marc Goossens (No. 93 Riley Motorsports ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R) won the GT Daytona class. Check out all of the soggy action in John Thawley's tremendous image gallery from The Glen here.

(Pirelli World Challenge photo)
Tomas Enge (No. 25 Blancpain Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 FL2), of Kirchanschoering, Germany, scored his second career Pirelli World Challenge Series GT win in Round 11 at the DeVILBISS Grand Prix at Road America presented by Cadillac last weekend. The triple-header, action-packed weekend also saw Chris Dyson (No. 16 Team Bentley Dyson Racing Bentley/Breitling/Mobil1 Bentley Continental GT3, above), of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., score his first career Pirelli World Challenge GT win in Round 12, and JD Davison (No. 33 AE/Replay XD Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3), of St. Petersburg, Fla., capture his second GT win of the Pirelli World Challenge season in Round 13 at Road America - "America's National Park of Speed"- in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

(IMSA)
Scott Liddell and co-driver Andrew Davis (No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R) won Saturday’s Continental Tire 150 at Watkins Glen International for the second consecutive year in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class. Scotland’s Robin Liddell characterized the heavy rain conditions during the event as, “Typical Scottish weather." It was the third consecutive GS victory for Liddell and Davis. Liddell took the lead with one hour remaining, moments before a caution waved for a spin. From that point, only one lap was run under the green flag, while deteriorating conditions resulted in a 17-minute red-flag stoppage. The field ran three laps under the yellow flag over the final 13 minutes, but conditions did not allow for a final restart. Trent Hindman and Ashley Freiberg (No. 46 IHG Rewards Club/Trim-Tex BMW M3) finished second and BJ Zacharias and Brad Jaeger (No. 14 Nismo GT Academy Nissan 370 ZXT) were third. Austin Cindric and Jade Buford (No. 158 Ford Racing/Multimatic Ford Shelby GT350R-C) finished fourth in the debut of the new Ford Shelby GT350R-C.

 Kyle Busch. The NASCAR driver with the prodigious talent scored the biggest win of his career at Sonoma Raceway in the Toyota Save Mart 350 on Sunday. Not quite fully recovered from his devastating injuries received in a Xfinity race in Daytona in February, Busch (No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing M&Ms Toyota Camry) delivered - big-time - and on a road course, no less. Kyle's brother Kurt (No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Haas Automation Chevrolet SS) finished second, making it the first time in the modern NASCAR era that brothers finished 1-2 in a NASCAR race. Clint Boyer (No. 15 MWR 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry) finished third. Get more details here.