Sébastien Ogier won three of the six stages today at Rally Sweden and took a 5.8 second lead over his Volkswagen teammate Andreas Mikkelsen in the overall standings.
The Frenchman won the first two stages on the day but lost precious time to the Norwegian in the following three stages, two of which Mikkelsen won. On the final stage of the day Ogier took victory with Mikkelsen having his worst stage of the day finishing eighth, six seconds back.
Ogier and Mikkelsen lead a Volkswagen 1-2-3 in the overall standings after day two. Their Volkswagen teammate Jari-Matti Latvala is third, 12.2 seconds back. He finished third on four of the six stages today.
M-Sport Ford driver, Estonian Ott Tänak won stage five and is fourth overall, 14.8 seconds back. Mads Østberg rounds out the top five, 22.5 seconds back. Østberg's best finish of the day was a second on the day's final stage, 1.5 seconds off of Ogier.
Mikko Hirvonen is sixth, also 22.5 seconds seconds back of Ogier. Thierry Neuville is having a much better second rally with Hyundai. He is seventh overall, 32 seconds off the leader and the Belgian came close to his first stage win of the season when he finished a half second off of Tänak on stage five. His Hyundai teammate Juho Hänninen is ten seconds behind him in eighth position.
The top Swede is Pontus Tidemand is ninth, trailing Ogier by 44.6 seconds. Kris Meeke is tenth, 46.6 seconds back and Robert Kubica is eleventh, 59.9 seconds.
Tomorrow features nine stages of Rally Sweden. The first stage of the day begins at 2:16 a.m. ET.
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Thursday, February 6, 2014
Márquez Ends Sepang Test on Top
Marc Márquez went three-for-three on top of the speed charts as Sepang MotoGP testing came to a close.
The Spaniard picked up nearly another four-tenths from day two, setting a fastest lap of 1:59.533. The Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were second and third respectively. Rossi was just under two-tenths back of Márquez with Lorenzo a third of a second back of the defending champion. Aleix Espargaró closed out an impressive three days of testing fourth fastest setting a time of 1:59.998 seconds, the fastest Open entry bike riding for Forward Racing. The Sepang track record for MotoGP was set last October when Márquez laid down a time of 2:00.011 in qualifying.
Stefan Brandl was fifth. His fastest time was a 2:00.112, a tenth quicker than factory Honda rider Dani Pedrosa. Andrea Dovizioso finally put a factory Ducati in the top ten in seventh position. Tech3 Yamaha's Pol Espargaró ended eighth with Pramac Racing Ducati's Andrea Iannone and Gresini Honda's Álvaro Bautista rounding out the top ten.
Bradley Smith was eleventh quickest as he was out-paced by his rookie Tech3 teammate for two of the three days. Cal Crutchlow was twelfth ahead of the man he is replacing at Ducati, Nicky Hayden. Hayden was the second quickest Open entry bike, just under two seconds back of Márquez on his Aspar Honda. Colin Edwards was fourteenth on the second Forward Racing bike. Ducati test rider Michele Pirro rounded out the top fifteen.
Hiroshi Aoyama was sixteenth on the second Aspar Honda Open bike. Randy de Puniet was seventeenth testing for Suzuki as they prepare for their MotoGP comeback in 2015 with a chance of an early return late in the 2014 season. The Frenchman was just under three seconds back of Márquez with a time of 2:02.486. Yonny Hernández was eighteenth on the Pramac Racing Open entry ahead of two test riders, Honda's Kosuke Akiyoski and Yamaha's Katasuyuki Nakasuga.
The MotoGP teams will return to Sepang for another three days of testing later this month, February 24-26th.
The Spaniard picked up nearly another four-tenths from day two, setting a fastest lap of 1:59.533. The Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were second and third respectively. Rossi was just under two-tenths back of Márquez with Lorenzo a third of a second back of the defending champion. Aleix Espargaró closed out an impressive three days of testing fourth fastest setting a time of 1:59.998 seconds, the fastest Open entry bike riding for Forward Racing. The Sepang track record for MotoGP was set last October when Márquez laid down a time of 2:00.011 in qualifying.
Stefan Brandl was fifth. His fastest time was a 2:00.112, a tenth quicker than factory Honda rider Dani Pedrosa. Andrea Dovizioso finally put a factory Ducati in the top ten in seventh position. Tech3 Yamaha's Pol Espargaró ended eighth with Pramac Racing Ducati's Andrea Iannone and Gresini Honda's Álvaro Bautista rounding out the top ten.
Bradley Smith was eleventh quickest as he was out-paced by his rookie Tech3 teammate for two of the three days. Cal Crutchlow was twelfth ahead of the man he is replacing at Ducati, Nicky Hayden. Hayden was the second quickest Open entry bike, just under two seconds back of Márquez on his Aspar Honda. Colin Edwards was fourteenth on the second Forward Racing bike. Ducati test rider Michele Pirro rounded out the top fifteen.
Hiroshi Aoyama was sixteenth on the second Aspar Honda Open bike. Randy de Puniet was seventeenth testing for Suzuki as they prepare for their MotoGP comeback in 2015 with a chance of an early return late in the 2014 season. The Frenchman was just under three seconds back of Márquez with a time of 2:02.486. Yonny Hernández was eighteenth on the Pramac Racing Open entry ahead of two test riders, Honda's Kosuke Akiyoski and Yamaha's Katasuyuki Nakasuga.
The MotoGP teams will return to Sepang for another three days of testing later this month, February 24-26th.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Mikkelsen Leads Rally Sweden After Super Special Stage
Stage one of Rally Sweden started off with a Volkswagen 1-2 but the stage winner was less than expected.
Norwegian driver Andreas Mikkelsen took the opening stage by eight-tenths of a second over his teammate, defending world champion Sébastien Ogier. Estonian Ott Tänak finished third, right where Bryan Bouffier left off in the #11 M-Sport Ford Fiesta at Monte-Carlo, as Tänak was third fastest on stage one, 2.2 seconds back of Mikkelsen. Tänak held off a Volkswagen sweep of the top three by two-tenths of a second over Jari-Matti Latvala. Mikko Hirvonen was fifth in his M-Sport Ford, 2.6 seconds back of Mikkelsen.
Henning Solberg was sixth in his first stage of the 2014 season after sitting out Monte-Carlo. The brother of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg is driving his own Ford Fiesta. He is three seconds back of his fellow Norwegian Mikkelsen. Juho Hänninen was seventh, two-tenths back of Solberg in the #8 Hyundai i20 WRC. Dani Sordo drove the #8 at Monte-Carlo. Mads Østberg was the top Citroën driver in eighth running the same time as Hänninen. Thierry Neuville was two-tenths off of his Hyundai teammate in ninth position with Citroën driver Kris Meeke rounding out the top ten, 3.9 seconds off of Mikkelsen.
The top Swedish driver is Pontus Tidemand in eleventh position, 4.5 seconds back of the leader. Tidemand is driving a privately own Ford Fiesta. Robert Kubica was twelfth after stage one, five seconds back of Mikkelsen.
Day two of Rally Sweden features six stages with the day beginning at 4:54 a.m. ET.
Norwegian driver Andreas Mikkelsen took the opening stage by eight-tenths of a second over his teammate, defending world champion Sébastien Ogier. Estonian Ott Tänak finished third, right where Bryan Bouffier left off in the #11 M-Sport Ford Fiesta at Monte-Carlo, as Tänak was third fastest on stage one, 2.2 seconds back of Mikkelsen. Tänak held off a Volkswagen sweep of the top three by two-tenths of a second over Jari-Matti Latvala. Mikko Hirvonen was fifth in his M-Sport Ford, 2.6 seconds back of Mikkelsen.
Henning Solberg was sixth in his first stage of the 2014 season after sitting out Monte-Carlo. The brother of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg is driving his own Ford Fiesta. He is three seconds back of his fellow Norwegian Mikkelsen. Juho Hänninen was seventh, two-tenths back of Solberg in the #8 Hyundai i20 WRC. Dani Sordo drove the #8 at Monte-Carlo. Mads Østberg was the top Citroën driver in eighth running the same time as Hänninen. Thierry Neuville was two-tenths off of his Hyundai teammate in ninth position with Citroën driver Kris Meeke rounding out the top ten, 3.9 seconds off of Mikkelsen.
The top Swedish driver is Pontus Tidemand in eleventh position, 4.5 seconds back of the leader. Tidemand is driving a privately own Ford Fiesta. Robert Kubica was twelfth after stage one, five seconds back of Mikkelsen.
Day two of Rally Sweden features six stages with the day beginning at 4:54 a.m. ET.
Honda 1-2-3 At Second Day of Sepang Test
For the second consecutive day, Marc Márquez was fastest in MotoGP testing from Sepang.
The defending champion set a lap faster than the track record by 0.074 seconds and led a Honda 1-2-3 with his teammate Dani Pedrosa second, 0.410 seconds back. The satellite factory LCR Honda of Stefan Brandl was third quickest just three-thousandths of a second back of Pedrosa.
Valentino Rossi picked up nearly four-tenths of a second and was fourth on the second day. Aleix Espargaró was a surprised fifth quickest on his Forward Racing Open entry, just 0.083 back of Rossi. Jorge Lorenzo was sixth with fellow Yamaha rider Bradley Smith in seventh. Andrea Iannone was the fastest Ducati for the second straight day as he was eighth. Álvaro Bautista and Pol Espargaró rounded out the top ten.
Ducatis took the next three positions with Andrea Dovizioso less than an tenth off Pol Espargaró. He was a quarter of a second ahead of Cal Crutchlow with Michele Pirro just over a second back of his fellow Italian. Americans rounded out the top fifteen with Nicky Hayden picking up over a second from day one and was fourteenth on his Aspar Honda Open entry. Colin Edwards dropped back to fifteenth, ten spots behind his Forward Racing teammate Aleix Espargaró.
Yonny Hernández was sixteenth on the Pramac Racing Open entry ahead of three Japanese riders, Honda test rider Kosuke Akiyoshi, Aspar Honda Open rider Hiroshi Aoyama and Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga. Randy de Puniet rounded out the top twenty testing for Suzuki as they continue to prepare for their return in 2015. He was 3.138 seconds back of Márquez.
This testing session will wrap up tomorrow from Sepang.
The defending champion set a lap faster than the track record by 0.074 seconds and led a Honda 1-2-3 with his teammate Dani Pedrosa second, 0.410 seconds back. The satellite factory LCR Honda of Stefan Brandl was third quickest just three-thousandths of a second back of Pedrosa.
Valentino Rossi picked up nearly four-tenths of a second and was fourth on the second day. Aleix Espargaró was a surprised fifth quickest on his Forward Racing Open entry, just 0.083 back of Rossi. Jorge Lorenzo was sixth with fellow Yamaha rider Bradley Smith in seventh. Andrea Iannone was the fastest Ducati for the second straight day as he was eighth. Álvaro Bautista and Pol Espargaró rounded out the top ten.
Ducatis took the next three positions with Andrea Dovizioso less than an tenth off Pol Espargaró. He was a quarter of a second ahead of Cal Crutchlow with Michele Pirro just over a second back of his fellow Italian. Americans rounded out the top fifteen with Nicky Hayden picking up over a second from day one and was fourteenth on his Aspar Honda Open entry. Colin Edwards dropped back to fifteenth, ten spots behind his Forward Racing teammate Aleix Espargaró.
Yonny Hernández was sixteenth on the Pramac Racing Open entry ahead of three Japanese riders, Honda test rider Kosuke Akiyoshi, Aspar Honda Open rider Hiroshi Aoyama and Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga. Randy de Puniet rounded out the top twenty testing for Suzuki as they continue to prepare for their return in 2015. He was 3.138 seconds back of Márquez.
This testing session will wrap up tomorrow from Sepang.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Testing Galore, Two-Wheels And Four
February reminds us of how long winter is and how soon spring will be on out door steps. While you may be sick of the snow and bitter cold and looking forward to motorcycle or open-wheel racing, I hope testing will be enough to hold you over.
The first day of MotoGP testing took place earlier today at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia and Marc Márquez picked up right where he left off. The defending champion was fastest on day one by over a half second faster than Valentino Rossi. Dani Pedrosa was third, just a little over a tenth of a second back of Rossi with Jorge Lorenzo in fourth. Álvaro Bautista was fifth making it four of the top five for Spain.
Stefan Brandl was sixth, giving Honda four of the top six with Aleix Espargaró in seventh place, the highest of the Open entries riding for Forward Racing. The fastest Ducati was the satellite factory bike of Andrea Iannone of Pramac Racing in eighth. The Tech3 Yamahas of defending Moto2 champion Pol Espargaró and Bradley Smith.
Colin Edwards was eleventh on the second Forward Racing bike. Factory Ducatis took the next three spots on the time charts with Andrea Dovizioso leading test rider Michele Pirro and newcomer to the Italian stable Cal Crutchlow. Yonny Hernández was fifteenth on the Pramac Racing Open entry.
Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga was sixteenth ahead of the Aspar Honda Open bikes of Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama. Randy de Puniet was nineteenth on the Suzuki test bike as the manufacture looks to return to MotoGP full-time in 2015 with the possibility of a few wild card entries late in 2014.
Testing will resume tomorrow and continue through Thursday. After that MotoGP will return to Sepang February 24-26th for more testing before a tire test at Phillip Island, March 3-5th and a final test session at Losail, March 7-9th.
While MotoGP teams are hitting the ground for 2014, IndyCar teams are getting some testing under their belts. On January 17th the Chevrolet teams of Penske Racing, Ganassi Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, KVSH Racing and Panther Racing. Notable occurrences were Juan Pablo Montoya getting behind the wheel of a car while Mike Conway and Sébastien Bourdais made their debuts at Ed Carpenter Racing and KVSH respectively.
Panther Racing brought in Formula Renault 3.5 driver, Colombian Carlos Huertas for the test. Huertas won one race in 2013, a rain-drenched race at the second round in Aragón, Spain. He would go on to score five points in the remaining thirteen rounds. He will be testing for the team again later this month.
The 2010 Formula Renault 3.5 champion Mikhail Aleshin completed his rookie oval test at Homestead-Miami Speedway on January 28th. Aleshin and his Schmidt-Peterson Racing teammate Simon Pagenaud are testing at Sebring the next two days. Also down at Sebring are Andretti Autosport with drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe and rookie Carlos Muñoz.
Ganassi drivers Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and Team Penske's Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves are schedule to test at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California next Monday.
There are still a few unannounced seats in the IndyCar Series. Bryan Herta Autosport and Panther Racing have yet to announce a driver while Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Dale Coyne Racing and possibly KVSH Racing looking to finalize second cars for 2014.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
IndyCar's History In Seattle and Denver
With today being Super Bowl Sunday, it is the largest day in American sports in term of television viewers, commercial budgets, gambling and salsa consumed.
The Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, once division rivals, find themselves playing in my home state of New Jersey for the NFL championship but that is not what this post is about. You will hear enough about Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Champ Bailey, John Elway, Pete Carroll, John Fox and Paul Allen during the marathon pre-game show.
While being far from the mind when you think motorsports in the United States, Denver and Seattle each have there own bit of IndyCar history, granted it isn't all that extensive.
Let's start with the Emerald City, or more specifically close to the Emerald City. While a city just a little further south, Tacoma, featured the early days of AAA championship car racing with a street course and then a board oval that brought the like of Teddy Tetzlaff, Earl Cooper, Eddie Rickenbacker, Louis Chevrolet and Indianapolis 500 winners Dario Resta, Howdy Wilcox, Tommy Milton and Jimmy Murphy to the Pacific Northwest, the closest IndyCar has ever been to Seattle was on October 19, 1969 in Kent, Washington.
The former Seattle International Raceway (now Pacific Raceways) played host to the national championship in the form of two, 99-mile races around the 2.2-mile road course and the event was named the Dan Gurney 200. It was the third doubleheader that season with IRP and Donnybrooke Speedway (now Brainerd International Raceway) hosting the other two.
Mario Andretti had won seven races including the Indianapolis 500 that year as the championship was pretty much in the bag for the Italian-American. Gurney won pole for the first race of his namesake with Andretti starting second and Al Unser starting third. Andretti won the first 45-lap race over Unser and Gurney, needing just a little over an hour to do so. Sam Posey finished fourth in race one, at that time his best career finish. Canadian John Cannon finished fifth. He is the father of current IndyCar engineer Michael Cannon. Michael will be chief engineer for Justin Wilson in 2014 and has previously worked with EJ Viso, Tony Kanaan, JR Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter and AJ Allmendinger.
The grid for race two was set by race one results. Andretti started on pole but was pasted by Unser who won the second 45-lap event that day. Andretti came home in second and would go on to handily win the championship that season. Posey started fourth but would end up finishing third, bettering his career-best finish in one day. It was the only podium of Posey's career. Gurney came home in fourth in race two with Bobby Unser finishing fifth after starting sixteenth on the grid.
That was the last time IndyCar raced in the state of Washington. CART would return to the Pacific Northwest with races in Portland and Vancouver, both highly successful in their day. But the split, preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics and decrease in sponsorship dollars led the demise of both events. Pacific Raceways is the home to the NHRA's Northwest Nationals. The closest IndyCar gets to the Puget Sound is Sonoma, over eight hundred miles away.
The city of Denver and IndyCar's relationship is similar to that of IndyCar and Seattle. Both were second fiddle to a city further south when it came to IndyCar as the national championship was a staple at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for many years. Both started with the early days of AAA. On July 5, 1909, Eaton McMillan won a 20-lap, 290-mile street race in Colorado's capital. It was the only start of McMillan's career.
The next race in the Mile High City wasn't for another forty-two years as AAA headed to Centennial Park, a one-mile dirt oval. Tony Bettenhausen won the 100-lap race from pole position with Henry Banks finishing second from thirteenth on the grid. Banks led a string of seven consecutive finishers who started outside the top ten. Jack McGrath finished third ahead of Joe James, Bobby Ball, Fred Agabashian, Manny Ayulo and Rodger Ward. Johnny McDowell started eighth and finished ninth with Sam Hanks rounding out the top ten after starting eighteenth ahead of Bill Vukovich. Bettenhausen would go on to take the title that year.
The following year Vukovich started on pole and won over Chuck Stevenson and Ball. Hanks started fifteenth this year but came home fourth. Buzz Barton rounded out the top five ahead of McGrath, Neal Carter, Banks, Ayulo and Jimmy Reece. Stevenson would go on the win the title that season by thirty points over that year's Indianapolis 500 winner Troy Ruttman and fifty points over Hanks.
Thirty-eight years after Vukovich victory, CART returned to Denver for a street course around the Civic Center. Teo Fabi started on pole in his Porsche but crashed out on lap seven. Al Unser, Jr. won his fifth win of the season and third of what would be a fourth race win streak that included Toronto, Detroit and Vancouver. Danny Sullivan finished second with Bobby Rahal third. Mario, Michael and John Andretti took the next three positions ahead of Rick Mears. Scott Goodyear was eighth with Didier Theys ninth. AJ Foyt rounded out the top ten with Wally Dallenbach, Jr. finishing eleventh, his best career finish in IndyCar. Al Jr. went on to win the title that season by twenty-nine points over Michael Andretti.
The following year, Al Unser, Jr. started third and won the second and final race on the Civic Center circuit over Emerson Fittipaldi and Michael Andretti. Eddie Cheever and Scott Pruett rounded out the top five with Willy T. Ribbs finishing sixth from thirteenth on the grid, his best career finish. John Andretti, Rick Mears, Colorado-native Buddy Lazier and Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. rounded out the top ten. While Little Al was able to replicate his Denver winning efforts, he wasn't as fortunate in the championship as Michael Andretti took his only career title that year.
CART wasn't done with Denver. Eleven years later the series returned but this time on a street course around the Pepsi Center. Let's just say this track was not the best layout in the history of American open-wheel racing. The first two races were won from pole position by Bruno Junqueira with the Brazilian leading all one hundred laps in 2002. 2004 saw Sébastien Bourdais win from the farthest starting position a winner ever came from on the Pepsi Center circuit, second, beating Paul Tracy and Junqueira. In 2005, we were set for another pole-sitter winning but The Thrill from West Hill, Tracy put it in the wall while leading, handing the win to Bourdais for a second consecutive year.
The final race in Denver occurred in 2006 and was the best race the city ever saw. The race saw six lead changes, after the previous four races had produced a combined seven. AJ Allmendinger, with Michael Cannon as his engineer, was able to pull away from the field but the key battle was for second between Bourdais and Tracy.
In the final corner, on the last lap Tracy made a move to the inside but locked up his tires and slide into the Frenchman, taking them both off the podium and out of the race. The two heated rivals would famously come face-to-face exchanging shoves before cooler heads prevailed. Junqueira finished second, as he went four-for-four on podium finishes in Denver. He missed the 2005 race due to a broken back in that year's Indianapolis 500. Thanks to Bourdais and Tracy coming together, Dan Clarke would pick up his first career podium from thirteenth on the grid driving for HVM Racing.
Despite their shaky history with races, the states of Washington and Colorado each produced champions and Indianapolis 500 winners. Tom Sneva is by far the best driver to come from Washington. Three championships, thirteen wins including the 1983 Indianapolis 500 and not to forget mentioning being the first man qualify over 200 mph and 210 mph for the Indianapolis 500 along with three poles for the race are all on Sneva's résumé.
But The Gas Man wasn't the only Washingtonian to win a race. Joe Thomas won two races in fifty starts from 1913 to 1931. Both his wins came in 1921 on board tracks in California, one in Beverly Hills and the other in Fresno. Thomas made three starts in the Indianapolis 500 and finished all five hundred miles on two occasions. In 1920, he started nineteenth and finished eighth and in 1922 he started seventeenth and finished tenth at Indianapolis.
While the family is associated with Albuquerque, New Mexico the Unser family originated in Colorado and is the birth place of Uncle Bobby and his nine-time Pike Peak Hill Climb winning brother Louis. Bobby Unser won two championships, thirty-five races including three Indianapolis 500s in his career. But he isn't the only Coloradan with a decorated career. Vail's own Buddy Lazier is best known for his 1996 Indianapolis 500 victory with a broken back along with the 2000 Indy Racing League title and eight career wins. Lazier competed in last year's Indianapolis 500 and finished thirty-first. The third and final champion to come from the state of Colorado is Buzz Calkins who won the first IRL race in Orlando in 1996 and split the title that year with Scott Sharp.
Of the seven other Coloradans to win in IndyCar, five of them share the location of their victories, the Pike Peak Hill Climb. Louis Unser won the race twice when it was a championship round. The others winners include George Hammond, Keith Andrews, Bob Finney and Wes Vandervoort.
Van Johnson's only win was at Langhorne in 1959 in his sixth career start. He would lose his life at Williams Grove a month later. Jaques Lazier is the most recent Coloradan to win an IndyCar race (Chicagoland 2001).
There you have it. An exhausted history of IndyCar in Washington and Colorado. I hope you not only enjoy this but the game later tonight.
The Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, once division rivals, find themselves playing in my home state of New Jersey for the NFL championship but that is not what this post is about. You will hear enough about Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Champ Bailey, John Elway, Pete Carroll, John Fox and Paul Allen during the marathon pre-game show.
While being far from the mind when you think motorsports in the United States, Denver and Seattle each have there own bit of IndyCar history, granted it isn't all that extensive.
Let's start with the Emerald City, or more specifically close to the Emerald City. While a city just a little further south, Tacoma, featured the early days of AAA championship car racing with a street course and then a board oval that brought the like of Teddy Tetzlaff, Earl Cooper, Eddie Rickenbacker, Louis Chevrolet and Indianapolis 500 winners Dario Resta, Howdy Wilcox, Tommy Milton and Jimmy Murphy to the Pacific Northwest, the closest IndyCar has ever been to Seattle was on October 19, 1969 in Kent, Washington.
The former Seattle International Raceway (now Pacific Raceways) played host to the national championship in the form of two, 99-mile races around the 2.2-mile road course and the event was named the Dan Gurney 200. It was the third doubleheader that season with IRP and Donnybrooke Speedway (now Brainerd International Raceway) hosting the other two.
Mario Andretti had won seven races including the Indianapolis 500 that year as the championship was pretty much in the bag for the Italian-American. Gurney won pole for the first race of his namesake with Andretti starting second and Al Unser starting third. Andretti won the first 45-lap race over Unser and Gurney, needing just a little over an hour to do so. Sam Posey finished fourth in race one, at that time his best career finish. Canadian John Cannon finished fifth. He is the father of current IndyCar engineer Michael Cannon. Michael will be chief engineer for Justin Wilson in 2014 and has previously worked with EJ Viso, Tony Kanaan, JR Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter and AJ Allmendinger.
The grid for race two was set by race one results. Andretti started on pole but was pasted by Unser who won the second 45-lap event that day. Andretti came home in second and would go on to handily win the championship that season. Posey started fourth but would end up finishing third, bettering his career-best finish in one day. It was the only podium of Posey's career. Gurney came home in fourth in race two with Bobby Unser finishing fifth after starting sixteenth on the grid.
That was the last time IndyCar raced in the state of Washington. CART would return to the Pacific Northwest with races in Portland and Vancouver, both highly successful in their day. But the split, preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics and decrease in sponsorship dollars led the demise of both events. Pacific Raceways is the home to the NHRA's Northwest Nationals. The closest IndyCar gets to the Puget Sound is Sonoma, over eight hundred miles away.
The city of Denver and IndyCar's relationship is similar to that of IndyCar and Seattle. Both were second fiddle to a city further south when it came to IndyCar as the national championship was a staple at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for many years. Both started with the early days of AAA. On July 5, 1909, Eaton McMillan won a 20-lap, 290-mile street race in Colorado's capital. It was the only start of McMillan's career.
The next race in the Mile High City wasn't for another forty-two years as AAA headed to Centennial Park, a one-mile dirt oval. Tony Bettenhausen won the 100-lap race from pole position with Henry Banks finishing second from thirteenth on the grid. Banks led a string of seven consecutive finishers who started outside the top ten. Jack McGrath finished third ahead of Joe James, Bobby Ball, Fred Agabashian, Manny Ayulo and Rodger Ward. Johnny McDowell started eighth and finished ninth with Sam Hanks rounding out the top ten after starting eighteenth ahead of Bill Vukovich. Bettenhausen would go on to take the title that year.
The following year Vukovich started on pole and won over Chuck Stevenson and Ball. Hanks started fifteenth this year but came home fourth. Buzz Barton rounded out the top five ahead of McGrath, Neal Carter, Banks, Ayulo and Jimmy Reece. Stevenson would go on the win the title that season by thirty points over that year's Indianapolis 500 winner Troy Ruttman and fifty points over Hanks.
Thirty-eight years after Vukovich victory, CART returned to Denver for a street course around the Civic Center. Teo Fabi started on pole in his Porsche but crashed out on lap seven. Al Unser, Jr. won his fifth win of the season and third of what would be a fourth race win streak that included Toronto, Detroit and Vancouver. Danny Sullivan finished second with Bobby Rahal third. Mario, Michael and John Andretti took the next three positions ahead of Rick Mears. Scott Goodyear was eighth with Didier Theys ninth. AJ Foyt rounded out the top ten with Wally Dallenbach, Jr. finishing eleventh, his best career finish in IndyCar. Al Jr. went on to win the title that season by twenty-nine points over Michael Andretti.
The following year, Al Unser, Jr. started third and won the second and final race on the Civic Center circuit over Emerson Fittipaldi and Michael Andretti. Eddie Cheever and Scott Pruett rounded out the top five with Willy T. Ribbs finishing sixth from thirteenth on the grid, his best career finish. John Andretti, Rick Mears, Colorado-native Buddy Lazier and Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. rounded out the top ten. While Little Al was able to replicate his Denver winning efforts, he wasn't as fortunate in the championship as Michael Andretti took his only career title that year.
CART wasn't done with Denver. Eleven years later the series returned but this time on a street course around the Pepsi Center. Let's just say this track was not the best layout in the history of American open-wheel racing. The first two races were won from pole position by Bruno Junqueira with the Brazilian leading all one hundred laps in 2002. 2004 saw Sébastien Bourdais win from the farthest starting position a winner ever came from on the Pepsi Center circuit, second, beating Paul Tracy and Junqueira. In 2005, we were set for another pole-sitter winning but The Thrill from West Hill, Tracy put it in the wall while leading, handing the win to Bourdais for a second consecutive year.
The final race in Denver occurred in 2006 and was the best race the city ever saw. The race saw six lead changes, after the previous four races had produced a combined seven. AJ Allmendinger, with Michael Cannon as his engineer, was able to pull away from the field but the key battle was for second between Bourdais and Tracy.
In the final corner, on the last lap Tracy made a move to the inside but locked up his tires and slide into the Frenchman, taking them both off the podium and out of the race. The two heated rivals would famously come face-to-face exchanging shoves before cooler heads prevailed. Junqueira finished second, as he went four-for-four on podium finishes in Denver. He missed the 2005 race due to a broken back in that year's Indianapolis 500. Thanks to Bourdais and Tracy coming together, Dan Clarke would pick up his first career podium from thirteenth on the grid driving for HVM Racing.
Despite their shaky history with races, the states of Washington and Colorado each produced champions and Indianapolis 500 winners. Tom Sneva is by far the best driver to come from Washington. Three championships, thirteen wins including the 1983 Indianapolis 500 and not to forget mentioning being the first man qualify over 200 mph and 210 mph for the Indianapolis 500 along with three poles for the race are all on Sneva's résumé.
But The Gas Man wasn't the only Washingtonian to win a race. Joe Thomas won two races in fifty starts from 1913 to 1931. Both his wins came in 1921 on board tracks in California, one in Beverly Hills and the other in Fresno. Thomas made three starts in the Indianapolis 500 and finished all five hundred miles on two occasions. In 1920, he started nineteenth and finished eighth and in 1922 he started seventeenth and finished tenth at Indianapolis.
While the family is associated with Albuquerque, New Mexico the Unser family originated in Colorado and is the birth place of Uncle Bobby and his nine-time Pike Peak Hill Climb winning brother Louis. Bobby Unser won two championships, thirty-five races including three Indianapolis 500s in his career. But he isn't the only Coloradan with a decorated career. Vail's own Buddy Lazier is best known for his 1996 Indianapolis 500 victory with a broken back along with the 2000 Indy Racing League title and eight career wins. Lazier competed in last year's Indianapolis 500 and finished thirty-first. The third and final champion to come from the state of Colorado is Buzz Calkins who won the first IRL race in Orlando in 1996 and split the title that year with Scott Sharp.
Of the seven other Coloradans to win in IndyCar, five of them share the location of their victories, the Pike Peak Hill Climb. Louis Unser won the race twice when it was a championship round. The others winners include George Hammond, Keith Andrews, Bob Finney and Wes Vandervoort.
Van Johnson's only win was at Langhorne in 1959 in his sixth career start. He would lose his life at Williams Grove a month later. Jaques Lazier is the most recent Coloradan to win an IndyCar race (Chicagoland 2001).
There you have it. An exhausted history of IndyCar in Washington and Colorado. I hope you not only enjoy this but the game later tonight.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Brian France's Last Stand
The newly announced Chase-format confirmed two things: NASCAR is desperate and Brian France is down to last bullet.
With this being the fourth different iteration in eleven years, Brian France has nowhere else to turn after announcing the sixteen driver, win and you are in, three rounds of elimination with a "winner1"-take-all finale at Homestead. This is the most radical of the Chase formats because it is the most unusual format seen in the major motorsport world. A win in the first twenty-six races gets you in the Chase2
Where does Brian France turn when (not if) this doesn't work out. In the first ten years of the Chase the championship always came down to the final race and that wasn't good enough for him. NASCAR no longer wants to be a motorsports series. It is infatuated with being one of the big four team sports leagues in the United States and more specifically the National Football League. It is look for one finale to crown it's champion. The previous thirty-five races have no bearing on the champion. Whoever finish better out of the final four drivers at Homestead, on that one given day will be your champion.
France thinking each of the first twenty-six races will feature drivers going for it more and racing harder because every race will now be worth of a Chase spot is ludicrous. I echo Kyle Busch's sentiment when he said, "how?" I understand every race has a Chase spot on the line but after eight or nine different drivers win, why would say Jimmie Johnson challenge say Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. for a win if Johnson already has three wins and Stenhouse is going for his first?
NASCAR incentivized winning once out of twenty-six. As long as you win one of the first twenty-six, remain in the top thirty in points, qualify for every race and no more than sixteen drivers win a race and the points leader at the end of twenty-six races doesn't go winless, you are set. You don't need to win every weekend, you just need one and maybe a second to be safe.
And in case you are wondering, since NASCAR's schedule expanded to thirty-six races in 2001, only once has sixteen drivers won in the first twenty-six and that was 2003 when sixteen drivers won but Greg Biffle wouldn't have qualified after failing to make the Las Vegas race and three of the remaining fifteen winners would have been outside the top twenty at Richmond but still qualified for the Chase (Dale Jarrett, Ricky Craven and Joe Nemechek).
The next closest to sixteen winners in the first twenty-six would fourteen different drivers in 20013, 2002, 2007, 2011 and 2012. Twelve different drivers won in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2013 and eleven different drivers won in 2010. Only ten different drivers won in 2008. It's pretty much a guarantee you win one in the first twenty-six and you will be fine.
Winning a rain-delayed race just became that much more important. If there is a storm on the horizon, no team is going to pit because they could be in position to inherit the lead and let mother-nature clinch their Chase position for them. It is now worth the risk and those are the risks teams will be now willing to make.
Many have been coming up with the scenarios a driver could win the first thirty-five races and lose the championship but I think we all can agree that is the most extreme example of this format backfiring. But that is the most extreme example of this format backfiring, meaning there are plenty of other ways of this proving everything France said today as wrong.
As much as you can say the emphasis is on winning, the truth is you can still win the championship with one win or possibly no wins. You could qualify for the Chase with no wins, run consist through each round to advance and enter the final race at Homestead just needing to finish ahead of three other drivers. And if that happens, you can bet we will be discussing another change to the Chase format.
Then there is the possibility of a driver finishing thirty-ninth at Homestead and winning the champion but once again that is an extreme example. But it's still possible a driver finishes fifteenth and that is good enough to clinch the title. What an emphasis on winning!
France believes this is a much simpler format to understand. What was more simpler than whoever had the most points after thirty-six races? If it was the points system that fans didn't understand than make that simpler. Adopt a system more along Formula One. Points for only the top ten, no bonus points and larger gaps between first and second. One last point on simplicity, does France really think David Ragan's win, his only top-five, his only top-ten and twenty-fifth position in points is enough of a reason to convince someone why he is in the Chase while Brad Keselowski, nine positions ahead of him in points with six more top-fives and ten more top-tens is out?
The question is, if NASCAR is so committed to the Chase-format, why haven't they implemented it in the other two national touring divisions, the Nationwide Series and the Truck Series?
How contradictory can NASCAR be saying winning has to be the most important thing and meanwhile the defending Nationwide Series champion had no wins and the defending Truck Series champion had one win? Why hasn't NASCAR addressed the issues with those two series (i.e. Cup drivers being allowed to race an unlimited amount of race despite not being eligible for the championship)?
NASCAR is ignoring things that actually have to be changed for constantly back-peddling of previous mistakes. For those who think this is someone who doesn't want to change, believe me that isn't true (I want a title sponsor for the Indianapolis 500). Ten years ago, I was all for trying the Chase. I thought it would be great but as grew up (I was 9 years old when the Chase was introduced) and read more about motorsports history these additional changes were more and more in the wrong direction. Motorsports isn't about one race, it's about a full season of results from day one to final checkered flag. NASCAR has to get back to that.
1 Finish the best out of the four remaining drivers ↩
2 As long as you are in the Top 30 in points and qualify for all 26 races unless you have a medical exemption (i.e. a doctor's note saying you are not fit to compete in an event. ↩
3 Sixteen drivers won in the first 26 races in 2001 but since Kevin Harvick did not qualify for the Daytona 500, he would not make the Chase. ↩
With this being the fourth different iteration in eleven years, Brian France has nowhere else to turn after announcing the sixteen driver, win and you are in, three rounds of elimination with a "winner1"-take-all finale at Homestead. This is the most radical of the Chase formats because it is the most unusual format seen in the major motorsport world. A win in the first twenty-six races gets you in the Chase2
Where does Brian France turn when (not if) this doesn't work out. In the first ten years of the Chase the championship always came down to the final race and that wasn't good enough for him. NASCAR no longer wants to be a motorsports series. It is infatuated with being one of the big four team sports leagues in the United States and more specifically the National Football League. It is look for one finale to crown it's champion. The previous thirty-five races have no bearing on the champion. Whoever finish better out of the final four drivers at Homestead, on that one given day will be your champion.
France thinking each of the first twenty-six races will feature drivers going for it more and racing harder because every race will now be worth of a Chase spot is ludicrous. I echo Kyle Busch's sentiment when he said, "how?" I understand every race has a Chase spot on the line but after eight or nine different drivers win, why would say Jimmie Johnson challenge say Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. for a win if Johnson already has three wins and Stenhouse is going for his first?
NASCAR incentivized winning once out of twenty-six. As long as you win one of the first twenty-six, remain in the top thirty in points, qualify for every race and no more than sixteen drivers win a race and the points leader at the end of twenty-six races doesn't go winless, you are set. You don't need to win every weekend, you just need one and maybe a second to be safe.
And in case you are wondering, since NASCAR's schedule expanded to thirty-six races in 2001, only once has sixteen drivers won in the first twenty-six and that was 2003 when sixteen drivers won but Greg Biffle wouldn't have qualified after failing to make the Las Vegas race and three of the remaining fifteen winners would have been outside the top twenty at Richmond but still qualified for the Chase (Dale Jarrett, Ricky Craven and Joe Nemechek).
The next closest to sixteen winners in the first twenty-six would fourteen different drivers in 20013, 2002, 2007, 2011 and 2012. Twelve different drivers won in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2013 and eleven different drivers won in 2010. Only ten different drivers won in 2008. It's pretty much a guarantee you win one in the first twenty-six and you will be fine.
Winning a rain-delayed race just became that much more important. If there is a storm on the horizon, no team is going to pit because they could be in position to inherit the lead and let mother-nature clinch their Chase position for them. It is now worth the risk and those are the risks teams will be now willing to make.
Many have been coming up with the scenarios a driver could win the first thirty-five races and lose the championship but I think we all can agree that is the most extreme example of this format backfiring. But that is the most extreme example of this format backfiring, meaning there are plenty of other ways of this proving everything France said today as wrong.
As much as you can say the emphasis is on winning, the truth is you can still win the championship with one win or possibly no wins. You could qualify for the Chase with no wins, run consist through each round to advance and enter the final race at Homestead just needing to finish ahead of three other drivers. And if that happens, you can bet we will be discussing another change to the Chase format.
Then there is the possibility of a driver finishing thirty-ninth at Homestead and winning the champion but once again that is an extreme example. But it's still possible a driver finishes fifteenth and that is good enough to clinch the title. What an emphasis on winning!
France believes this is a much simpler format to understand. What was more simpler than whoever had the most points after thirty-six races? If it was the points system that fans didn't understand than make that simpler. Adopt a system more along Formula One. Points for only the top ten, no bonus points and larger gaps between first and second. One last point on simplicity, does France really think David Ragan's win, his only top-five, his only top-ten and twenty-fifth position in points is enough of a reason to convince someone why he is in the Chase while Brad Keselowski, nine positions ahead of him in points with six more top-fives and ten more top-tens is out?
The question is, if NASCAR is so committed to the Chase-format, why haven't they implemented it in the other two national touring divisions, the Nationwide Series and the Truck Series?
How contradictory can NASCAR be saying winning has to be the most important thing and meanwhile the defending Nationwide Series champion had no wins and the defending Truck Series champion had one win? Why hasn't NASCAR addressed the issues with those two series (i.e. Cup drivers being allowed to race an unlimited amount of race despite not being eligible for the championship)?
NASCAR is ignoring things that actually have to be changed for constantly back-peddling of previous mistakes. For those who think this is someone who doesn't want to change, believe me that isn't true (I want a title sponsor for the Indianapolis 500). Ten years ago, I was all for trying the Chase. I thought it would be great but as grew up (I was 9 years old when the Chase was introduced) and read more about motorsports history these additional changes were more and more in the wrong direction. Motorsports isn't about one race, it's about a full season of results from day one to final checkered flag. NASCAR has to get back to that.
1 Finish the best out of the four remaining drivers ↩
2 As long as you are in the Top 30 in points and qualify for all 26 races unless you have a medical exemption (i.e. a doctor's note saying you are not fit to compete in an event. ↩
3 Sixteen drivers won in the first 26 races in 2001 but since Kevin Harvick did not qualify for the Daytona 500, he would not make the Chase. ↩
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