THE LINE
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 06:05PM July 1, 2009
(Shawn Payne/IRL)
Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone) won last Saturday night's snooze-fest masquerading as an Indycar race - the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway - by 0.3109 of a second over his teammate (and pole sitter) Dario Franchitti in the No. 10 TCGR machine. The victory (his third of 2009) was Dixon's 19th IndyCar career win, tying him with Sam Hornish Jr. for most in IndyCar Series history. Dixon matched the record in his 104th race - one less than Hornish - who totaled 116 starts from 2000-2006. Graham Rahal delivered his best oval finish to date with his third place run in the No. 02 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing McDonald's Honda-powered Dallara and Hideki Mutoh (No. 27 Andretti Green Racing Formula Dream D/H/F), who led the first laps of his IndyCar Series career finished fourth. Danica Patrick came home fifth in her No. 7 AGR Boost Mobile/Motorola machine. Franchitti, who earned a bonus point for winning the PEAK Performance Pole Award, took the championship points lead (279-278) over Dixon. Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Team Penske D/H/F), the previous points leader, fell to 26 points behind after crashing out and his teammate, Helio Castroneves, also crashed exiting Turn 2 and is now fourth with 225 points. "Achievements like that are something you can look back at someday and treasure," said Dixon afterwards. "There will be many years, hopefully, in my career that I can try to build on that. But there are a lot of people like TK (Tony Kanaan) and Helio that are pretty close. I have to stick at it for a long time to try to keep that going." Next up for the IndyCar series is the natural-terrain road course (thank goodness) at Watkins Glen International on July 5, the first of three consecutive road/street races on the schedule. The Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen will be telecast live in High Definition at 1 p.m. (EDT) by ABC. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 211. The radio broadcast also will be carried on www.indycar.com. The 2009 Firestone Indy Lights season also continues with the Corning 100 on July 4 at Watkins Glen International. The race will be telecast at 11 p.m. on July 6.
(TRG Motorsports photo)
TRG Motorsports together with Circle B Motorcars of Texas will debut the No. 71 Circle B Motorcars Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT in the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Illinois, on July 26. Though the Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR 722 GT has a supercharged Mercedes V-8 engine capable of producing 680 horsepower in street trim, the car will run with a restricted 550 HP V-8 engine developed by Ray Mallock Limited (RML) in England. The car was designed and built by RML in accordance with McLaren Technology and is a limited-edition racer with only 15 in existence. TRG and RML are currently homologating the SLR 722 GT to comply with the SCCA World Challenge GT specifications. The project is being headed by Bill Rader, who is the project's manager at TRG Motorsports' facility in Mooresville, North Carolina. TRG driver Spencer Pumpelly performed an initial shake-down of the 722 at Virginia International Raceway earlier this month. Pumpelly will pilot the car in four races this season including Autobahn, Mid-Ohio, Road America and Road Atlanta. Owner of the No. 71 Circle B Motorcars SLR 722 GT is Peter Blom. More info on TRG and owner Kevin Buckler can be found at www.trgmotorsports.com or www.theracersgroup.com.
(Krohn Racing)
Krohn Racing's two-car team of Proto-Auto Lolas - powered by Roush-Yates Ford engines - will return to Daytona International Speedway on July 4th for the Grand-Am Rolex Series' Brumos Porsche 250 race. Owner/driver Tracy W. Krohn and Eric van de Poele will drive the No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford-powered Lola, and Nic Jonsson and Darren Turner will drive the No. 76 Krohn Racing team car.
(Yokohama)
From the "It's So Orange It's Green" File comes word that Yokohama Tire Corporation has effectively reinvented the tire. Since vulcanized rubber was invented in 1844, tires have been manufactured using mostly petroleum - until today's introduction of the all-new Yokohama dB Super E-specTM tire that is - the world’s first orange oil-infused passenger car tire. Composed of 80 percent non-petroleum based materials, “The eco-focused dB Super E-spec mixes sustainable orange oil and natural rubber to drastically cut the use of petroleum, without compromising performance,” said Dan King, Yokohama vice president of sales. “It also helps consumers save money at the gas pump by improving fuel efficiency via a 20-percent reduction in rolling resistance..." “The idea of combining oil from orange peels with natural rubber was originally conceived by our racing engineers,” said Mark Chung, Yokohama director, corporate strategy and planning. “The same orange oil technology, which improves a tire’s grip, can be seen today with our ADVAN® ENV-R1TM racing tire on Porsche GT3 Cup cars. The ENV-R1 (the official spec tire of the Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama) is the first environmentally-sensitive race tire used in a motorsports series.” The dB Super E-spec, which won Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award at the 2008 SEMA trade show, will initially be available in four sizes: 185/65R15 88H, 195/65R15 91H, 195/55R16 86V and 215/60R16 95V – which fit vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid/Civic GX NGV, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Honda Accord Hybrid, Nissan Versa and VW Golf.
See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and auto industry PR veteran Jason Vines this Thursday evening, July 2, 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:
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