THE LINE

September 23, 2009

 Road Racing Fans. You can follow the 2009 Sports Car Club of America National Championship Runoffs at Road America anywhere, anytime at www.scca.com/Runoffs right from the beginning of the first official qualifying session at 8 a.m. (CDT) on Tuesday, Sept. 22. The SCCA website will be be jam-packed with Runoffs information including Live timing and scoring, with results from each class session being available for downloading. A Runoffs photo gallery will also be updated throughout the week to chronicle the event’s first year at Road America. When racing begins on Friday, Sept. 25, all the action will be broadcast live, courtesy of SpeedcastTV.com with commentary from sportscar racing legend and former Runoffs Champion Elliott Forbes-Robinson and eFormulaCar.com’s Rob Howden. All races will be available at www.speedcasttv.com/scca. Additionally, live timing and scoring on SCCA.com will be supplemented with lap-by-lap race notes. All races from the 2009 Runoffs will be available on demand free of charge at www.speedcasttv.com within a month of the event.

(A Touring 3 class battle at Road America, image by Mark Weber/SCCA)

(Shawn Payne/IRL)
Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda-powered Dallara/Firestone) captured his fifth victory of the season and 21st of his IRL career, winning the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi to take over the IndyCar Series points lead with one race remaining. Dixon - who started from the pole position and led a field-high 149 of 200 laps - took the lead for good on the 164th lap and finished 1.4475 seconds ahead of Target Chip Ganassi teammate Dario Franchitti (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing D/H/F). Graham Rahal (No. 02 Newman Haas Lanigan McDonald's Racing Team D/H/F) finished third. Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Team Penske D/H/F), who entered the race leading the points, saw his chance of winning and all but clinch the series championship fizzle after he screwed-up leaving the pits on Lap 106. As he exited the pits Briscoe lit up the tires, brushed the inside retaining wall and ran over a cone at the end of the pit lane. After multiple pit stops to repair the damage, Briscoe rejoined the race, but his chances for a top finish were over. Dixon now leads the standings with 570 points, followed by Franchitti, who has 565 and Briscoe - who ended-up 18th - with 562. The 2009 IndyCar Series season finale - the Firestone Indy 300 on Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway - will be telecast live in High Definition at 4 p.m. (EDT) by VERSUS. 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. A one-hour qualifying show will air on VERSUS at 6 p.m. on Oct. 9. The 2009 Firestone Indy Lights season continues with the Homestead-Miami 100 on Oct. 9 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race will be telecast by Live by VERSUS at 6 p.m. (EDT).

(Sunday Group Management)
The Hurst Pace Car Mustang prepares to lead the field for the start of the Mustang Challenge Championship at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, last Saturday. Andrew Caddell captured his second consecutive Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Championship with a flag-to-flag run to victory in his No. 1 Kaufmann Racing Raybestos/ Hoek'd Up Performance Mustang, with Ted Anthony Jr. (No. 9 TC Motorsports Mustang), finishing second in the race and in the year-end championship. Jason von Kluge (No. 19 Green Filter USA Mustang) returned to the Mustang Challenge podium with his third-place finish to move up to third in the overall championship.

(Mark Weber/SCCA)
Cliff Ebben (No. 36 Lamers Racing/McMahon Group Ford Mustang), of Appleton, Wis., captured his first-career Muscle Milk SCCA Trans-Am Series win Sunday at the season finale race at Road America, taking advantage after a number of faster competitors encountered trouble along the way. Daniel Ramoutarsingh (No. 8 TRINRICO Steel & Wire Products Jaguar XKR), of La Romain, Trinidad, and Kenny Bupp (No. 3 Murray’s Speed & Custom/Hamilton Safe Chevrolet Camaro), of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., completed the top three. Tomy Drissi, from Los Angeles, CA, is the 2009 Trans-Am Series champion.

(Al Merion)
Todd Lamb (No. 84 AMG/Traqmate/Luna-C MX-5), of Atlanta, Ga., took his seventh-consecutive SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup win in dominant fashion at Miller Motorsports Park last Saturday. Lamb averaged 79.559 mph around the 23-turn, 4.486-mile road course, finishing 6.077 seconds ahead of Marc Miller (No. 28 Team MER/MOCA/Race Now for Autism/MMP MX-5), of Holland, Mich. Charles Espenlaub (No. 73 Hale Motorsports/Patron Tequila MX-5 ), of Lutz, Fla., was third. The 2009 SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup season concludes with a doubleheader at VIRginia International Raceway, Oct. 2-4.

 Mark Martin. The veteran won the opener for "The Chase" at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, out-foxing strong runner Juan Pablo Montoya, who finished third and Denny Hamlin, who came home second. Jimmie Johnson was fourth.

(Grand-Am) 

Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty won the Utah 250 at Miller Motorsports Park last Saturday, taking the lead in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype championship. Gurney took over the team’s No. 99 Gainsco Pontiac Riley from teammate (and pole-sitter) Fogarty and then led the final 27 of the 56 laps in the 2-hour, 45-minute race. It was the duo's season-high fourth victory. Max Angelelli and Brian Friselle finished 1.264-seconds behind in their Ford-powered Dallara, and Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas finished third in their Lexus Riley. Gurney and Fogarty have an eight-point lead (309-301) over Angelelli and Friselle entering the Oct. 10 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Pruett and Rojas are third in the standings, 10 points behind the leaders.

 Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds. Publisher's Note: According to Samuel Petrequin, reporting for the Associated Press, Flavio Briatore, who ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to deliberately crash his car in a Grand Prix last year - and who quit as Renault team principal just last week to deflect some of the punishment - was banned indefinitely from F1 activities by the World Motor Sport Council. Engineering executive director Pat Symonds, who also left Renault last week, was banned for five years after expressing his “eternal regret and shame” that he participated in the conspiracy. Surprisingly, Renault received only a suspended ban, although the team will be permanently disqualified from the sport if it breaks the FIA’s rules within the next two years. “We gave them a suspended sentence because Renault demonstrated that the team had no responsibility and the company even less,” FIA president Max Mosley said. Translation? Unlike when Team McLaren was fined a staggering $100 million two years ago after being found guilty of using secret data from Ferrari to improve its own cars’ performances, F1 is in such dire shape that they can't afford for another manufacturer to vacate the series. Thus the slap on the wrist. Yet, “Renault F1’s breaches not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself,” the FIA said. Really? Are they that desperate to keep another manufacturer from walking that they're basically going to let this whole episode slide except for the punishments handed out to Briatore and Symonds? In a word, yes. What a swell bunch of idiots, no? - PMD

 Road Racing Fans, Part II. The Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6 will be broadcast live with uninterrupted, flag-to-flag coverage on SPEED for the first time since 2001.  The 10-plus hours of coverage from Road Atlanta starts at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday, September 26. SPEED’s coverage of Petit Le Mans will also include live video coverage of qualifying from 2:25 to 3:20 p.m. ET on Friday via SPEEDtv.com. MotorsTV also will broadcast the entirety of the event to its wide-ranging European audience. The green flag is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. ET with SPEED's coverage starting at 11 a.m. EDT. American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche and Living Timing & Scoring will be available on Racehub at americanlemans.com. Live coverage also can be heard on Sirius 126 and XM 242. The race will also mark the ninth round of the 2009 MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge. Tickets are available at americanlemans.com and roadatlanta.com.

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