Wednesday, January 7, 2015

FIA Driver Rankings

After the most recent FIA Driver Rankings were released, I was wondering why they weren't split up for each category instead of one giant list of all the drivers mixed together in alphabetical order. Over late December, I decided to make lists for each category (platinum, gold, silver and bronze) that way it would be easier if you just wanted to see who was a platinum driver or a gold or a silver or bronze.

I hope you find this breakdown useful and I will have a separate FIA Driver Rankings page for you to easily go to when there is an update to the rankings and drivers are promote and relegated to new classifications. 

Here is the list starting with platinum and going down:

Platinum:
Albers, Christjan
Albuquerque, Filipe
Aleshin, Mikhail
Alguersuari, Jaime
Apicella, Marco
Asmer, Marko
Auberlen, Bill
Babini, Fabio
Baguette, Bertrand
Bartels, Michael
Beche, Mathias
Belicchi, Andrea
Bell, Rob
Beretta, Olivier
Bergmeister, Jörg
Bernhard, Timo
Bernoldi, Enrique
Bertolini, Andrea
Bird, Sam
Bleekemolen, Jeroen
Bomarito, Jonathan
Bonanomi, Marco
Bouchet, Chrisophe
Boullion, Jean-Christopher
Bourdais, Sébastien
Brabham, David
Bright, Jason
Briscoe, Ryan
Bruni, Gianmaria
Buemi, Sébastien
Bueno, Caca
Buurman, Yelmer
Calado, James
Campbell-Walter, Jamie
Capello, Dindo
Carroll, Adam
Christensen, Michael
Clos, Dani
Collard, Emmanuel
Conway, Micahel
Coronel, Tom
Dalziel, Ryan
Da Matta, Cristiano
D'Ambrosio, Jérôme
Davidson, Anthony
de Oliveria, João Paulo
di Grassi, Lucas
Dumas, Romain
Dumbreck, Peter
Duval, Loïc
Enge, Tomas
Engel, Maro
Éstre, Kevin
Farfus, Augusto
Fässler, Marcel
Fernandez, Adrian
Fisichella, Giancarlo
Franchitti, Marino
Frentzen, Heinz-Harald
García, Antonio
Gavin, Oliver
Gene, Marc
Gommendy, Tristan
Goossens, Marc
Graf, Klaus
Haase, Christopher
Häkkinen, Mika
Hand, Joey
Hartley, Brendon
Heidfeld, Nick
Helary, Eric
Henzler, Wolf
Holzer, Marco
Huff, Rob
Hunter-Reay, Ryan
Ide, Yuji
Ishiura, Hiroaki
Jäger, Thomas
Jani, Neel
Jarvis, Oliver
Kane, Johnny
Klein, Christian
Kobayashi, Kamui
Kristensen, Tom
Krumm, Michael
Lamy, Pedro
Lapierre, Nicolas
Leimer, Fabio
Leinders, Bas
Leitzinger, Butch
Lieb, Marc
Lietz, Richard
Liuzzi, Vtantonio
Loeb, Sébastien
Long, Patrick
Lotterer, André
Lowndes, Craig
Luhr, Lucas
Magnussen, Jan
Makowiecki, Frédéric
Mardenborough, Jann
Martin, John
Martin, Maxime
Matos, Raphael
Matusda, Tsugio
McNish, Allan
Melo, Jaime
Milner, Tommy
Minassian, Nicolas
Montagny, Franck
Monteiro, Tiago
Mortara, Edoardo
Motoyama, Satoshi
Mowlem, Johnny
Mücke, Stefan
Müller, Dirk
Müller, Jörg
Nakajima, Kazuki
Nakano, Shinji
Noda, Hideki
O'Connell, Johnny
Ortelli, Stéphane
Pagenaud, Simon
Panciatici, Nelson
Panis, Olivier
Pantano, Giorgio
Parente, Álvaro
Pastorelli, Nicky
Pilet, Patrick
Pizzonia, Antonio
Pla, Olivier
Plowman, Martin
Prémat, Alexandre
Priaulx, Andy
Prost, Nicolas
Rast, René
Rigon, Davide
Rockenfeller, Mike
Rossi, Alexander
Rossiter, James
Salo, Mika
Sarrazin, Stéphane
Sato, Takuma
Senna, Bruno
Servià, Oriol
Sharp, Scott
Smith, Guy
Soucek, Andy
Spreafico, Ricardo
Spreafico, Rodrigo
Stippler, Franck
Tambay, Adrien
Tandy, Nick
Taylor, Jordan
Tréluyer, Benoît
Turner, Darren
Turvey, Oliver
Vanthoor, Laurens
Vautier, Tristan
Vernay, Jean-Karl
Vilander, Toni
Viso, EJ
Watts, Danny
Webber, Mark
Wendlinger, Karl
Werner, Dirk
Westbrook, Richard
Winkelhock, Markus
Wittmann, Marco
Wittmer, Kuno
Wirdheim, Björn
Wurz, Alexander
Yoong, Alex
Zanardi, Alessandro

Zonta, Ricardo

Gold:
Adam, Jonathan
Alzen, Uwe
Amado, Ulric
Amberg, Zoel
Ammermüller, Michael
Angelelli, Massimiliano
Annala, Juho
Ara, Seiji
Arenzo, Mathieu
Armindo, Nicolas
Aschenbach, Lawson
Auer, Lucas
Ave, Tony
Avila, Rodolfo
Ayari, Soheil
Bacheta, Luciano
Bachler, Klaus
Baird, Craig
Balzan, Alessandro
Bamber, Earl
Barba, Alvaro
Barbosa, João
Barker, Ben
Basseng, Marc
Bauman, Dominik
Bell, Justin
Bell, Townsend
Belloc, Jean-Philippe
Beltoise, Anthony
Besson, Bruno
Biagi, Thomas
Blätter, Tobias
Blomqvist, Tom
Blundell, Mark
Bobbi, Matteo
Borcheller, Terry
Boss, Geoff
Bowles, Jason
Brabham, Matthew
Bradley, Richard
Bratt, Will
Braun, Colin
Briche, Julien
Bridgman, Timothy
Brito Filho, Valdeno
Brundle, Alex
Buhk, Maximilian
Buncombe, Alex
Busnelli, Max
Caldarelli, Andrea
Cameron, Dane
Campana, Sergio
Catsburg, Nicky
Cerqui, Alberto
Chandhok, Karun
Charouz, Jan
Chatin, Paul-Loup
Cheng, Congfu
Christodoulou, Adam
Cioci, Giuseppe
Clairay, Yann
Clarke, Jack
Cochet, Jonathan
Cocker, Jonathan
Comini, Stefano
Cortes Chavarri, Maximo
Cosmo, Guy
Curran, Eric
Daly, Conor
Danielsson, Alexander
Daoudi, Stéphane
Davison, Alex
Davison, James
Davison, Will
De Phillippi, Connor
Del Monte, Fabrizio
Derani, Pipo
Devlin, Ben
Diaz, Luis
Dolby, Craig
Donohue, David
Dueck, Tyler
Dumoulin, Louis-Philippe
Dusseldorp, Stef
Dyson, Chris
Ebbesvik, Thor-Christian
Edwards, John
Eng, Philipp
Engelhart, Christian
Eriksson, Jimmy
Espenlaub, Charles
Eversley, Ryan
Farnbacher, Dominik
Faulkner, Damien
Ferrara, Liuigi
Figueiredo, Bia
Fogarty, Jon
Frisselle, Brian
Fujii, Tomonobu
Giammaria, Raffaele
Gidley, Memo
Giermaziak, Jakib
Götz, Maximilian
Gonzalez, Rodolfo
Griffen, Matt
Griffin, Matt
Groppi, Laurent
Guerrieri, Esteban
Guilvert, Grégory
Halliday, Matt
Hancock, Sam
Hargrove, Scott
Hawksworth, Jack
Hennerici, Marc
Heylen, Jan
Hezemans, Mike
Hiesse, Steeve
Hirakawa, Ryo
Hirananka, Katsuyuki
Hirschi, Jonathan
Hohenadel, Christian
Hoshino, Kazuki
Hughes, Warren
Huisman, Duncan
Huisman, Patrick
Impreatori, Alexandre
Janis, Jarek
Jeannette, Gunnar
Jelley, Stephen
Jimenez, Sergio
Johnson, Billy
Jones, PJ
Jönsson, Niclas
Jouany, Bruce
Jousse, Julien
Julian, Elton
Junqueira, Bruno
Kaffer, Pierre
Kane, Steven
Kasemets, Tonis
Kechele, Frank
Keen, Justin
Keen, Leh
Keilwitz, Daniel
Kelleners, Ralph
Kendall, Tommy
Kerr, Robbie
Khodair, Allam
Kimber-Smith, Tom
Klingmann, Jens
Korjus, Kevin
Kostka, Tomas
Kox, Peter
Kraihamer, Dominik
Krohn, Andres
Kumpen, Anthony
Kurosawa, Haruki
Ladygin, Kirill
Lahaye, Matthieu
Lally, Andy
Lancaster, Jon
Langhorne, William
Law, Darren
Leclerc, Antoine
Ledogar, Côme
Legge, Katherine
Leo, Federico
Liberati, Edoardo
Liddell, Robin
Longin, Bert
Lopez, Juan Manuel
Lunardi, Dino
Lyons, Richard
Maassen, Sascha
Maassen, Xavier
Mac, Mikkel
Mailleux, Franck
Mäkelä, Valle
Malucelli, Matteo
Mamerow, Christian
Mancinelli, Daniel
Marcelli, Kyle
Martinez, David
Mediani, Maurizio
Melker, Nigel
Menzel, Christian
Meyrick, Andrew
Mies, Christopher
Miller, Joel
Mollekens, Kurt
Montermini, Andrea
Montin, Paolo
Morris, Paul
Moullin Traffort, Morgan
Mullen, Tim
Müller, Alex
Müller, Nico
Naoya, Gamou
Nash, James
Negrao, Xandinho
Niederhauser, Patric
Nunez, Tristan
Nygaard, Christoffer
Ordonez, Lucas
Owen, Steve
Palttala, Markus
Paludo, Miguel
Parisy, Mike
Pentus, Sten
Perera, Franck
Persiani, Luca
Peter, Philipp
Pic, Arthur
Piccini, Andrea
Piccini, Giacomo
Pier Guidi, Alessandro
Pigot, Spencer
Pilgrim, Andy
Piscopo, Edoardo
Plaunt, Richard
Plumb, Matt
Pobst, Randy
Pommer, Markus
Prendeville, Andrew
Pumpelly, Spencer
Radermecker, Vincent
Ragginger, Martin
Ramos, Cesar
Rangoni, Luca
Rayhall, Sean
Rees, Fernando
Ricci, Giacomo
Richards, Steve
Richelmi, Stéphane
Rosina, Stefan
Ruberti, Paolo
Rugolo, Michele
Rusinov, Roman
Russo, Matias
Sanchez, Pablo
Sandström, Edward
Sauriol, Jean-Sébastien
Schlegelmilch, Harald
Schneider, Bernd
Schwager, Dominik
Segal, Jeffrey
Sellers, Bryan
Serra, Daniel
Serralles, Felix
Seyffarth, Jan
Sharp, Ryan
Siedler, Norbert
Sims, Alexander
Sini, Francesco
Soulet, Maxime
Stanaway, Richie
Summerton, Jonathan
Suzuki, Rafael
Tagliani, Alex
Tanaka, Tetsuya
Tappy, Duncan
Taylor, Ricky
Teixeira, Ricardo
Terting, Peter
Thiim, Nicki
Tincknell, Harry
Tinseau, Christophe
Trummer, Simon
Tsuchiya, Takeshi
Tsuzuki, Akihiro
Tung, Ho-Pin
Turkington, Colin
Valiante, Michael
Van Dam, Carlo
Van de Poele, Eric
Van der Drift, Christopher
Van der Linde, Kelvin
van Gisbergen, Shane
Van Hooydonck, Geoffroy
Van Lagen, Jaap
Van Overbeek, Johannes
Vaxivière, Matthieu
Venturi, Mirko
Verbergt, Tim
Verdonck, Nico
Vervisch, Frederic
Vickers, Brian
Walker, James
Wallace, Andy
Waltrip, Michael
Webb, Oliver
Wilcox, Adam
Wilkins, Mark
Wilson, Stefan
Yacaman, Gustavo
Yamauchi, Hideki
Yanagida, Masataka
Yasuoka, Hideto
Yokomizo, Naoki
Yoshimoto, Hiroki
Zacchia, Steve
Zampatti, Ross
Zampieri, Daniel
Zhang, Shan Qi
Zuber, Andreas
Zwolsman, Charles

Silver:
Abelli, Julien
Abra, Richard
Abril, Vincent
Accary, Thomas
Aeberhard, Jürg
Afanasiev, Sergey
Aguas, Rui
Aksenov, Stanislas
Al Faisal, Abdulaziz
Al Harthy, Ahmad
Albert, Michael
Alessi, Diego
Alexander, Iradj
Alleman, Cyndie
Almasaood, Humaid
Almond, Michael
Altenburg, Jeff
Al-Thani Abdulrahman
Amaral, Miguel
Amos, Eugenio
Andre, Didier
Ang, Dominic
Antunes, Nathan
Appleby, James
Arnold, Lance David
Asai, Akihiro
Asch, Sebastian
Assenheimer, Patrick
Auinger, Bernhard
Avemarg, Marius
Bader, Raffael
Badey, Ludovic
Balbiani, Jose Manuel
Barbour Elliot
Barff, Rob
Barlesi, Andrea
Barth, Fredy
Barth, Sven
Bastiaans, Phil
Bastian, Nico
Bateman, Charles
Battistini, Dillon
Battut, Jean-Charles
Beirao da Veiga, Lourenco
Bell, Matt
Beltoirse, Vincent
Bender Mikael
Benitez, Angel Andres
Benitez, Miguel
Benitez, Raphael
Bennett, Jon
Beretta, Matteo
Bergmeister, Tim
Bert, Sascha
Bickel, Sandro
Blanchard, Tim
Bleekemolen, Sebastiaan
Bleynie, Arthur
Bonacini, Alessandro
Bonetti, Alessandro
Bontempelli, Lorenzo
Boon, Jarrett
Booth, Ryan
Borgeat, Etienne
Bortolotti, Perry
Bosi, Brice
Bouvet, Jean-Bernard
Bouvy, Frederic
Bovy, Sara
Braams, Maximiliaan
Bracke, Christian
Bradley, Ellis
Bradshaw, Thomas
Breysse, Kevin
Brière, Bastien
Brown, Daniel
Brown, Ed
Brück, Christophe
Bruins, Recardo
Brundle, Martin
Bruschin, Riccardo
Bryant, Oliver
Buford, Jade
Bullas, Gavin
Buncombe, Chris
Bunting, Marc
Burdon, Joshua
Burgess, Tony
Butcher, Rory
Cadei, Nicola
Caine, Michael
Camathias, Joel
Campanico, Cesar
Campbell, Christopher
Campos, Julio
Canache, Nelson
Canal, Julien
Capillaire, Vincent
Capitanio, Dario
Carbone, Victor
Carrington, Yates Samuel
Casagrande, Gabriel
Casé, Lorenzo
Castellacci, Franceso
Cazenave, Laurent
Ceccato, Andrea
Cerruti, Michele
Chalandon, Gary
Chapman, Zac
Charlz, Ro
Charouz, Peter
Cheever, III., Eddie
Cheever, Eddie
Chen Wei Liang
Cheng, David
Chiyo, Katsumasa
Christodoulou, Riki
Chukanov, Sergey
Cicognani, Alessandro
Ciro, Giuseppe
Cirone, Marco
Cisneros, Eduardo
Cisneros, Henrique
Clucas, Ben
Clunie, Jason
Cochran, Jay
Collins, Ben
Colombo, Christian
Colombo, Stefano
Comandini, Stefano
Combot, Pierre
Correa, Victor
Corten, Christoff
Cottingham, James
Courtney, Jeff
Creel, Santiago
Cressoni, Matteo
Cullen, Ryan
Da Rocha, Frédéric
Davies, Shae
Davis, Andrew
Davis, Brandon
Day, Alon
De Bruijn, Nico Pieter
De Crem, Nicolas
De Leener, Adrien
de Mello Breyner, Manuel
de Mello Breyner, Pedro
De Narda, Joffrey
De Pourtales, Jean
de Quesada, Carlos
Defournoux, Jean-René
Dejonghe, Sam
Deletraz, Jean-Denis
Demay, Jerome
Demoustier, Grégoire
Den Boer, Jeroen
Den Tandt, Mike
Derdaele, Dylan
Despinasse, Kevin
Deverikos, Dimitris
Di Resta, Stefan
Diez Villaroel, Jesus
Dillmann, Tom
Dobitsch, Daniel
Dolan, Simon
Dontje, Indy
Downs, Antonio
Downs, Lucas
Dracone, Francesco
Draper, Julien
Draper, Matthew
Drudi, Mattia
Duarte, Felix da Costa
Ducote, David
Duerson, Duane Hayden
Duez, Diego
Dumas, Philippe
Dumez, Sébastien
Dumoulin, Jean Francois
Dupont, Damien
Dupont, Denis
Dupre, Christoph
Dyer, Tom
Ebong, Christian
Ebrahim, Armaan
Echeverria, Javier
Edwards, Jade
Elgaard, Casper
Empringham, David
Ende, Duncan
Enjalbert, Dimitri
Edros, Thomas
Faieta, Bob
Faisca, Miguel
Fannin, Jody
Farano, John
Farnbacher, Mario
Felbermayr, Horst Junior
Field, Clint
Field, Jon
Figueiredo, João
Files, Josh
Firth, Jody
Fisken, Gregor
Fjordbach, Andres
Fletcher, James
Foessel, Benjamin
Fogg, Phil
Fogg, Phil Jr.
Fong, Adderly
Fontana, Alex
Fontes, Alvaro
Forsman, Philip
Foss, Eric
Foster, Nicolas
Foit, Gabor
Franchi, Greg
Freiberg, Ashley
French, James
Frey, Lorenz
Frey, Michel
Frey, Rahel
Frezza, Marco
Frijns, Charlie
Frisselle, Burt
Frolov, Aleksandr
Frommenwiler, Philipp
Fuentes, Martin
Fulgenzi, Enrico
Fumanelli, David Cleto
Gabillion, Frederic
Gache, Philippe
Gachnang, Natacha
Gai Stefano
Gamo, Naoya
Gardel, Gabriele
Garofall, Rob
Gates, Barry
Gattuso, Stefano
Gaughan, Brendan
Gaunt, Daniel
Gaw, John
Geddie, Glynn
Geipel, Philip
Gentilozzi, Paul
Gerbi, Julien
Geri, Ferdinando
Giallombardo, Mauro
Giannoni, Raffaele
Giebler, Philip
Giesler, Jakub
Gilbert, Julien
Gilbert, Mitchell
Gimple, Kyle
Gini, Esteban
Giroix, Fabien
Gleason, Kevin
Glorieux, Jean
Goikhburg, Mikhal
Gomes, Marcos
Gonzales, Alejandro
Gonzalez, Ricardo
Gonzalez, Roberto
Goodwin, Chris
Goueslard, Patrice
Graves, Tor
Green, Chris
Gregory, Bruce
Griessner, David
Grogor, Jordan
Grotz, Olivier
Gruber, Florian
Guasch, Michael
Gue, James
Guggiari, Diego
Gutierrez, Manuel
Habets, Jochen
Hackett, Peter
Halek, Sascha
Hall, Chris
Ham, Nick
Hamilton, Archie
Hamilton, Bruce
Hamprecht, Fabian
Hancock, Ollie
Harkema, Mathijs
Hart, Jason
Harvey, Martin
Haupt, Hubert
Heemskerk, Melroy
Heinemeier Hansson, David
Hetherington, Benjamin
Heyer, Kenneth
Hindtman, Trent
Hines, Luke
Hirsch, Gary
Hirsch, Patrick
Hoaglund, Wesley
Hoddinott, Jim
Hollings, Charlie
Holmes, Christopher
Holt, Garry
Holzer, Thomas
Howson, Matthew
Hummel, Valentin
Hunt, Freddie
Hunt, Joshua
Hurley, Josh
Hürtgen, Claudia
Hyatt, Jon
Iaconelli, Carlos
Iannetta, Romain
Ickx, Vanina
Ida, Akira
Ide, Enzo
Ineichen, Rolf
Inthraphuvasek, Vutthikorn
Iradj, Alexander
Jackson, Alastair
Jäger, Thomas (1994)
Jahn, David
James, Ian
Jaminet, Mathieu
Jans, Steve
Jeffery, Lee
Jensen, Martin
Johansson, Erik
Johansson, Stefan
Johnson, Michael
Johnson, Steven
Johnston, Sean
Jones, Alexander
Jones, Morgan
Jousse, Maxime
Junco, Rodolfo
Justus, Aaron
Ka, Tom Jim
Kapadia, Alex
Kauffman, Carlos Eduardo
Keating, Ben
Keating, Stephen
Keen, Philip
Kennard, Jonathan
Kentenich, Niclas
Khani, Kourosh
Kim, Michael
Kingsley, Matthew
Kirkby, Simon
Knap, Simon
Kobayashi, Kenji
Koebolt, Max
Koizumi, Hiroshi
Konopka, Matej
Konrad, Frantz
Kovacic, James
Kratz, Owen
Krau, Ary
Kraut, Gerald
Krohn, Jesse
Kronegärd, Christian
Kruglyk, Andriy
Krumbach, Jochen
Kuhlman, Kasey
Kuppens, Renaud
Kuus, Menno
la Rosa, Daniel
Laberge, Jean-Fredric
Ladygin, Anton
Lagrange, Niels
Lambotte, Joakim
Lammers, Jan
Lanchere, Paul
Lancieri, Gabriele
Landmann, Stefan
Langeveld, Niels
Lariche, Benjamin
Lasserre, Lucas
Lathouras, Pasin
Latif, Alessandro
Latinne, Ronnie
Lauda, Mathias
Lawrence, Cameron
Lawson, Eddie
Lazzaro, Anthony
Le Brocq, Jack
Lechner, Walter
Lecuyer, Matthieu
Lee, Marchy
Leipert, Marcel
Lemmer, Mark
Leonard, Stuart
Lester, Jono
Leuenberger, Benjamin
Leutwiler, Nicolas
Leventis, Nick
Levita, Michael
Lewis, Michael
Lewis, Ryan
Lewis, Shane
Li, Zhi Cong
Lian, Denia
Lind, Dennis
Lindsey, Patrick
Lisowski, Mateusz
Littlejohn, James
Livio, Stefano
Lloyd, Daniel
Loboda, Mikail
Loboda, Yury
Lockie, Calum
Loix, David
Lombard, Olivier
Lonmbard, Olivier
Lorgeré-Roux, Bruce
Ludwig, Luca
Lueders, Jan-Dirk
Luff, Warren
Lukas, Robert
Lunkin, Vladimir
Lux, Eric
Lyons, Michael
Ma, Philip
MacDowall, Alex
Machavern, Dillon
Macleod, Callum
Macleod, Ryan
MacNeil, Cooper
Maino, Tommaso
Makse, Brian
Malcharek, Jirko
Mallock, Michael
Mangs, Jocke
Mantella, Anthony
Mapelli, Marco
Marioneck, Lennart
Marjoram, Adam
Markozov, Devi
Marks, Justin
Maroney, Miles
Marrco, Nicolas
Marsal, Michael
Marsh, Matthew
Martins, Lonni
Mathai, Oliver
Matsui, Takamitsu
Matzke, Martin
Mavlanov, Roman
Mayr-Melnhof, Nikolaus
McDonald, David
McGarrity, Kevin
McGregor, Michael
McKenzie, Daniel
McKenzie, Tim
McMillen, Nickolas
McMurray, Chris
McMurray, Matthew
Meadows, Michael
Meichtry, Ralph
Melgrati, Ruggero
Menezes, Gustavo
Mengesdorf, David
Menten, Jos
Merzon, Adam
Metairie, Nicolas
Metzger, Manuel
Michael, Marcel
Michaelian, Jim
Mikulasko, Zdeno
Miller, Bryce
Miller, Bryce D.
Miller, Christopher
Miller, Marc
Miller, Travis
Millroy, Oillie
Mills, Michael
Mineo, Kyosuke
Mitchell, Rusty
Mitsuyama, Shogo
Modell, Devon
Moh, Melvin
Mondron, Edouard
Montecalvo, Franck
Montserrat, Nil
Mora, Francisco
Morad, Daniel
Moran, Rocky
Morcillo, javier
Morcom, Nathan
Morrissey, Dyke
Mortimer, Alex
Moseley, Stuart
Moser, Henri
Move, Daniil
Mugelli, Massimiliano
Mul, Jeroen
Müller, Sven
Murray, David
Muscat, Richard
Muster, Marco
Nalio, Niccolo
Narac, Raymond
Nearn, Robert
Negri, Oswaldo
Neuser, Tobias
Newton, Mike
Ng, Charles
Nicolet, Jacques
Nicolosi, Anthony
Nielsen, Christina
Nilsson, Max
Noël, Sylvain
Nonnamaker, Wayne
Nonnamaker, Will
O'Brien, Emmet
Oestreich, Markus
O'Hara, Kevin
Onidi, Fabio
Onslow-Cole, Tom
Oon, Jordon
Orgeval, Emmanuel
Orime, Ryo
Osborne, Joseph
Ostella, Daniel
O’Young, Darryl
Pabst, Jeff
Palmer, Andrew
Papadopoulos, Tom
Pappas, Timothy
Pastroelli, Francesco
Patel, Aditya
Patrizi, Michael
Pechnik, Lonnie
Pereira da Cunha, Patrick
Perez Aicart, José Manuel
Petit, Michael
Petrobelli, Giacomo
Pew, John
Phipps, Grant
Pialat, Maxime
Pickett, Greg
Pirri Ardizzone, Luca
Pittard, David
Pivoda, Tomas
Pizzitola, Andra
Pla, Jim
Poldmae, Keho
Policand, Jerome
Policastro, Jay
Policastro, Jay Sr.
Polley, Danie;
Pompidou, Xavier
Popow, Alex
Porta, Olivier
Potolichio, Enzo,
Potter, John
Poulsen, Kristian
Primat, Harold
Proczyk, Harald
Pyzera, Peter
Quaife, Phillip
Rademaker, Jeffrey
Ragazzi, Ricardo
Ragues, Pierre
Ramos, Miguel
Ratcliffe, Ryan
Redant, Bert
Rees, Paul
Reip, Wolfgang
Renauer, Alfred
Renauer, Robert
Retera, Dennis
Riberas, Alex
Ricci, Claudio
Richardson, Doug
Richardson, George
Rizzoli, Andrea
Robert, Lionel
Roberts, John
Robertson, Charlie
Roda, Andrea
Roda, Giorgio
Romanini, Diego
Romecki, Stephane
Rondet, Nicholas
Roos, Daniel
Rosenblad, Carl
Rosier, Fabien
Ross, Fraser
Rossi, Michael
Rossi, Valentino
Rostlan, Mike
Rouget, Benjamin
Roush, Kevin
Roussel, Leo
Russell, David
Ruud, Christopher
Ryabov, Sergey
Rzdazinski, Stefan
Said, Boris
Sakaguchi, Ryohei
Sakamoto, Yuya
Salaquarda, Filip
Salikhov, Rinat
Sandberg, Brett
Sanderson, Tim
Sandritter, Maximilian
Santamato, Arno
Sarkissian, Shahar
Sawa, Keita
Sayers, Callan
Sbirrazzuoli, Cédric
Schein, Michael
Schnell, Julien
Schiff, Naomi
Schmidt, Peter
Schöffler, Thomas
Schothorst, Pieter
Schramm, Roger
Schultis, Mirco
Scott, Aaron
Seefried, Marco
Seitz, Robert
Severs, Rob
Shaitar, Victor
Sharp, Tom
Shears, Charlie
Shulzhiskiy, Mark
Silah, Franck
Simon, Patrick
Simpson, Stephan
Skeen, Michael
Skinner, Jordan
Skryabin, Alexander
Sladecka, Filip
Snoeks, Kelvin
Snow, Madison
Snow, Melanie
Sofronas, James
Solomon, Mathhew
Sonvico, Andrea
Spengler, Florian
Sperafico, Alexandre
Springate, Richie
Stanton, Craig
Starck, Ilker
Stirling, Dean
Stoll, Florian
Stolz, Luca
Storey, Dominic
Stout, Robert
Strauss, Florian
Stuck, Ferdinand
Stuck, Johannes
Stumpf, Matheus
Sugden, Tim
Sutton James
Swanepoel, Matthew
Talkanitsa, Alexander Jr.
Tatsuya, Tanigawa
Taylor, Henry
Tengku, Mahaleel
Terada, Yojiro
Thiel, Kurt
Thiriet, Pierre
Thiry, Jerome
Thomas, Seth
Thompson, Gary
Thompson, J. Colin
Thuner, Fabien
Thurn under Taxis, Albert von
Tingely, Michael
Tonoli, Alessandro
Tordoff, Sam,
Toril, Miguel
Torres, Gustavo
Toulemonde, Damien
Trebing, Dennis
Tremoulet, Eric
Tresson, Jordan
Trinkler, Owen
Tucker, Scott
Tuscher, Matheo
Tutumlu, Isaac
Tweraser, Gehard
Twynham, Cameron
Urlin, Jonathan
Vähämäki, Marko
Vähämäki, Mika
Van de Poele, Alexis
Van Der Ende, Ricardo
Van de Hoek, Ardi
Van Haeren, Bart
Van Hove, Martin
Van Hover, Jurgen
Van Ommen, Jörg
Van Oost, Olivier
Van Splunteren, Max
Vann, Christian
Vasilyev, Alexey
Venter, Dean
Venter, Liam
Vera, Ricardo
Vermont, William
Veronesi, Pierluigi
Viera, Jose Carlos
Viljoen, Lars
Villeneuve, Rene
Visser, Beitske
Völke, Maximilian
Von Moltke, Dion
Vorba, Micahel
Wagner, Cort
Wakefield, Josh
Walkinshaw, Sean
Wallinder, Magnus
Wartique, John
Webster, Josh
Weckström, Miki
Weiron, Tan
Welch, Daniel
Wells, Dan
Westphal, Jeff
Wilden, Kenny
Willman, Bryan
Willsey, Lance
Wilson, Kris
Winslow, Jamie
Wirth, Andreas
Wiser, Massimiliano
Wolf, Lucas
Wong, Brian
Wright, Aidan
Wylie, Ross
Yamachita, Junichiro
Yamanishi, Koji
Yazid, Afiq Ikhwan
Yelloly, Nicholas
Youlden, Luke
Yu, Lam
Zardo, Denny
Zemp, Michael
Zimmer, Yann
Zitza, Ron
Zoechling, Christopher
Zollinger, David
Zucchi, Alessio
Zumbrink, Henry

Bronze:
Abbot, Hunter
Abergel, Gabriele
Adams, Rudi
Ahrabian, Darius
Ajlani, Karim
Al Masaood, Humaid
Al Qubaisi, Khaled
Al-Azhari, Karim
Almudhaf, Khaled
Altevogt, Peter
Aluko, Kolawole
Andersen, Dennis
Andreasi, Paolo
Ardagna, Perez Gaetano
Armengol, Nicolas
Arthur, Raymond
Ashburn, David
Attard, Marco
Avenatti, Michael
Azcarate, Justino
Bachelier, Jean-Marc
Baharian, Olivier
Bailey, Paul
Baker, John
Ballay, Pascal
Balthazard, Gabriel
Barbaro, Bruno
Bargenghi, Andrea
Barkey, Martin
Barnhart, Paul Jr.
Barreiros, Filipe
Barthez, Fabien
Basov, Aleksey
Bass, Keith
Basso, Maurice
Beaubelique, Jean-Luc
Becker, Harald
Becker, Jon
Behrens, Eric
Beisel, Gert
Beliën, Franck
Bellm, Ray
Belshaw, Peter
Bender, Jürgen
Bentley, Andrew
Benucci, Nicola
Berg, Rembert
Bermond, Guillaume
Beroujon, Christian
Berville, Roland
Bielefield, Doug
Binnie, William
Blackett, Scott
Blanchemain, Jean-Luc
Blank, Howard
Blazer, Harry
Block, David
Bloum, Conner
Blugeon, Christian
Blum, Brad
Bonaldi, Ettore
Bonifacio, Paulo
Borghi, Stefano
Bornhauser, Patrick
Bourret, Christophe
Bouwhuis, Niels
Brandela, Romain
Bravo, Ricardo
Breslin, Sean Paul
Broggi, Marlene
Bronizsweski, Michal Bartosz
Brouard, Remy
Brown, Zak
Bruneau, Pierre
Brunstedt, Jan
Buckler, Kevin
Bullit, Mark
Cabanne, Georges
Caccia, Beniamino
Calari, Alain
Calvert Jones, David
Cameron, Duncan
Candia, Danny
Carter, Al
Casadei, Mauro
Casteneda, Troy
Cayrolle, Eric
Chahwan, Alejandro Walter
Chaix, Grégoire
Chan, Samson
Cheang, Rick
Chen Chen, Hans
Chen, Jun San
Chen, Morris
Christ, Rob
Chua, Joseph
Chua, Michael
Cicero, Dominic
Cintrano, Michael
Cisneros, Andres
Clement, Eric
Coimbra, Antonio
Cole, Chuck
Cole, Mark
Coleman, Jonathan
Collins, Peter
Comole, Lionel
Cordoni, Mario
Crick, Greg
Crotti, Stefano
Crubile, Sébastien
Cuche, Didier
Cumming, Christopher
Curtis, Bret
Dagoneau, Thomas
Dalla Lana, Paul
Daniels, Paul
Danis, Jan
Danyliw, Andrew
Davidow, Seth
De Doncker, Eric
De Fierlant, Christophe
De Leener, Pierre-Marie
De Lorenzi, Gianluca
Debard, Eric
Debs, Sylvain
Delhez, Bernard
Demirdjian, Alex
Dempsey, Patrick
Dermont, David
Dermont, Eric
Desbrueres, Dimitris
Dobson, Ken
Dockerill, Iain
Doherty, Steven
Dolenc, Swen
Downs, Matt
Drissi, Tomy
Drumwright, Marc
Dryburgh, Phil
Ducote, Chapman
Ducote, Wayne
Duerson, Daniel (Craig)
Earle, Stephen
Ebner, Peter
Edmonds, Michael
Eggimann, Roland
Ehret, Pierre
Ellis, John
Eskelinen, Mikko
Evstigneev, Yury
Farmer, Nigel
Fatien, Frederic
Felbermayr, Horst Senior
Felix da Costa, Duarte
Ferraris, Mario
Fittipaldi, Emerson
Flohr, Thomas
Forgione, Gino
Forsten, Mikael
Foster, Joe
Freidina, Natalia
Garofano, Alessandro
Gatlin, Glen
Gerger, Jack
Gerome, Jean-Michel
Gewirtz, Robert
Giauque, Philippe
Gibon, Pascal
Goethe, Roald
Goldman, Steve
Gomez, Carlos
Gomez, Jorge
Gorini, Leonardo
Gosselin, Claude-Yves
Goudy, Yann
Grandjean, Didier
Grasser, Gottfried
Greaves, Tim
Green, Roger
Griffin, Liam
Grivegnee, Pierre
Grouwels, Roger
Grunewald, Conrad
Guedes, Francisco
Haacker, Tom
Haane, Henk
Haezebrouck, Philippe
Hallyday, David
Hamaguchi, Hiroshi
Handlos, Herbert
Hansford, Anthony
Häring, Jürgen
Hartshorne, John
Hassid, Henry
Hayek, Marc A.
Hedlund, Mike
Hedman, Henrik
Hein, Richard
Hirschi, Pierre
Hissom, Robert
Hoelling, Ronald
Holden, Brent
Hommerson, Nicolas
Hommerson, Niek
Horowicz, Philippe
Howard, Andrew
Hummel, Klaas
Hunter, James
Hurni, Christophe
Ibanez, José
Ihara, Keiko
Iida, Akira
Illiano, Philippe
Invernizzi, Andrea
Jackson, George
Jacoma, Ivan
Jakubowski, François
Janco, Joel
Janz, Norbert
Jarman, Andrew
Jenkinson, Rob
Kensen, Kasper H.
Jiang, Xin
Johnston, Derek
Jones, Christopher
Jones, David
Jones, Gareth
Jones, Godfrey
Jones, Philip
Jordan, Mike
Josephsohn, Andres B.
Jöst, Dominic
Kainz, Oliver
Kamm, Eduard
Kauffmann, Robert
Kaufmann, Wolfgang
Kearby, Gaston
Kelders, Christian
Kemenater, Thomas
Kiaba, Anton
Kim, Tacksung
Klohs, Otto
Kogay, Vadim
Kohlhaas, Christian
Kolen, Harrie
Koller, Hans-Peter
Konopka, Miroslav
Kozankov, Viktor
Kray, Carlos
Kremer, Freddy
Krohn, Tracy
Kroll, Chantal
Kroll, Martin
Kroll, Micahel
Kronfli, Bassam
Kutemann, Peter
Kvamme, Mark
Lafargue, Patrice
Lagniez, Jean-Claude
Lago, Roger
LaMarra, Micahel
Lamb, Todd
Landry, Mitch
Lapierre, Christophe
Lappalainen, Petri
Larsen, Jannik
Laursen, Johnny
Le Saffre, Peter
Lebed, Andreii
Lee, Jeffrey
Lémeret, Stéphane
Lesoudier, Gael
Lewis, Corey
Li, Alain
Lin, Will
Lips, Remo
Liu, Xu
Llano, Mark
Loan, Alex
Loggie, Ian
Lok, William
Longo, Francisco
Lopez, RJ
Lorusso, Stefano
Low, Zen Suan Chuan
Luco, Jean-Marc
Ludwig, Klaus
Ludwig, Peter
Luzich, Michael
Lynn, Shaun
Machiels, Louis
Machitiski, Leonid
Maddalena, Leonardo
Madsen, Patrick
Mahy, Marcus
Mak, Hing Tak
Maleev, Vyacheslav
Mallegol, Yannick
Mancini, Fabio
Manfredi, Ludovico
Mann, Peter
Maranda, Robert
Marateotto, Marcello
Marchal, Ron
Mardini, Bashar
Marie, Philippe
Maris, Erik
Masarati, Piers
Mascarello, Raijan
Mastronardi, Rino
Mathe, Michael
Matthews, Jim
Mattschill, Alexander
Mazars, Lionel
McCaig, Alasdair
McIntosh, Peter
McKaigue, Shaun
Medeiros, Adriano
Mee, Jerome
Meins, Richard
Melnikov, Ilya
Menaham, Jean-Marc
Menendez, Diego Raul
Merafina, Wilfried
Merlin, Jean-Marc
Metz, Jean-Christophe
Meulders, Wim
Mezard, Cédric
Mhitarian, Michel
Michal, Fabien
Miginiac, Jean-Charles
Milesi, Patrice
Minshaw, John
Misslin, Nicolas
Mitchell, Aldous
Mitchell, James
Mizutani, Akira
Moentmann, Andreas
Moiseev, Alexander
Mok, Weng Sun
Molitor, Karsten
Mondolot, Philippe
Montant, Jean-Christophe
Moorthy, Vignesa Singapore
Moreau, Guillaume
Morley, Oliver
Mowle, Lee
Müller, Tim
Muenemann, Michael
Münnich, René
Myszkowski, Teodor
Nandy, Akash
Negrao, Alexandre Funari
Neiman, Seth
Nicolet, Jacques
Nielsen, Per
Nimkroff, Rob
Nonnamaker, Joe
Norman, Jim
Novich, Andrew
Nozière, Philippe
Ojjeh, Karim
Oranje, Bernhard van
O'Shannessy, Christopher
Oswald, Randy
Ott, Christian
Overgaard, Christian
Paillard, Luc
Paladino, Pablo
Palmer, Jay
Parhofer, Dirg
Pasquali, Laurent
Patterson, Mark
Pena, Fernando
Perazzini, Pierguiseppe
Perez Companc, Luis
Perfetti, Daniele
Pernaut, Olivier
Perret, Pierre
Perrin, Jean-Charles
Perrodo, François
Petersen, Jens
Pezzucchi, Stefano
Philippon, Christian
Phillips, Simon
Piera, Michael
Pillon, Christophe
Pinheiro, Paulo
Plachutta, Mario
Plumb, Hugh
Pons, Anthony
Poole, Mark
Poordad, Fred
Potolicchio, Vicente
Pourquie, Stéphane
Prewitt, Hal
Price, Leon
Prignaud, Theirry
Pronk, Nico
Pu, Junjin
Putman, Charles
Quick, Steve
Quintois, Jean-Marc
Quiros, Amadeo
Raffin, Stéphane
Ranaccio, Ranieri
Randall, Rod
Raska, Jan
Rasmussen, Mads
Rehkopf, Stefan
Renmans, Rik
Ricci, Maurice
Rich, Martin
Ricahrd, Henri
Richard, Philippe
Richter, Jens
Riddle, Max
Ried, Christian
Riegel, Hans Guido
Ritskes, Marius
Rizzo, Davide
Robertson, Andrea
Robertson, David
Rocca, Tommasso
Roda, Gianluca
Rodrigues, Manuel
Rostan, Marc
Rotenberg, Boris
Roy, Benjamin
Sahlen, Joe
Saksirivatekul. Somchai
Salini, Philippe
Salini, Stéphane
Salmon, John
Salucci, Alessio
Santal, Bernard
Sardarov, Timur
Sardelli, Sandro
Savary, Mike
Schaldach, Gunter
Schelp, Marco
Schmetz, Michael
Schmickler, Frank
Schmidt, Peter
Scholze, Florian
Schulz, Andrew
Schulze, Michael
Schulze, Tobias
Sdanewitsch, Claudio
Seiler, Toni
Selldorf, Frank
Serwin, Thomas
Sevin, Franck
Shovlin, Patrick
Silva, Luis
Simcox, James
Simonsen, Benny
Simpson, Michael
Sitjhoff, Diederick
Smith, Andrew
Smith, Rob
Sourd, Marc
Steiner, Marcel
Stepec, Thierry
Stevens, Ruud
Stovicek, Jan
Strelzoff, Greg
Stursberg, Mike
Surand, Paul
Sweedler, Bill
Swift, James
Szymcazck, Christian
Taggart, Jim
Talbot, Liam Anthony
Talkanitsa, Alexander Sr.
Tan, Gérard
Tandy, Steve
Taniguchi, Yukinori
Taraborelli, Fabian
Teneketzian, Harry
Thirion, Philippe
Thomas, Mark
Thompson, Chris
Thong, Wei Fung (Shaun)
Tomlinson, Lawrence
Tonelli, Gerard
Touillet, Eric
Tozzo, Felipe
Treml, Wolfgang
Trentin, Mauro
Tse, Kevin
Tsyplakov, Rusland
Tuchbant, David
Twigg, Maxwell
Twyman, Joe
Ueda, Masayuki
Urry, Sloan
Vaissière, Eric
Valvarde, Emilio
Van de Laar, Ronald
van der Straten, Raphaël
van Oranje-Nassau van Volenhoven, Berhard
Van Splunteren, Paul
Vanbellingen, Steve
Vancampenhoudt, Stef
Vance, James
Vandierendonck, Nicolas
Vannelet, Gilles
Vanthoor, Raf
Varverde, Milo
Vess, Mike
Vignali, Massimo
Viljanmaa, Klaus
Vogel, Ronald
Vos, Hoevert
Wainwright, Mike
Walter, Csaba
Walton, Rob
Ward, Christopher
Wauters, Koen
Weeda, Kevin
Weerts, Yves
Weiss, Georg
Welch, Alex
Wells, Anthony
Westwood, Julian
Weyand, Dan
White, Paul
Wilkins, Craig
Wills, Roger
Wilson, Paul
Wolf, Nathan
Wossos, Antonios
Wu, Allan
Wyatt, Stephen
Yanci, Michael
Yeomans, Jason
Yokomizo, You
Yonessi, Rodin
Yu, Frank
Yvon, Jean-François
Zanuttini, Marco
Zlobin, Sergey
Zugel, Christian

A few things I noticed from the driver rankings:

How is Yuji Ide a platinum driver? Didn't he get his FIA Super License revoked after four dismal races in Formula One? That fact should play into his driver ranking. 

It surprised me to see Oriol Servià is a platinum but looking over the criteria, he gets it because he finished fourth in the 2011 IndyCar championship. By the way, Oriol Servià finished fourth in the 2011 IndyCar championship behind the likes of Dario Franchitti, Will Power and Scott Dixon. How the hell is it that he can't get a ride? 

I was trying to understand how Conor Daly was a gold and Tom Dillmann, a GP2 race winner was a silver and it looks like Daly gets gold because he is a Star Mazda champion and finished third in the 2013 GP3 championship but Dillmann won a national F3 championship (2010 German F3, same year Daly was Star Mazda champion) and that should be good enough for a gold ranking. Dillmann also finished 10th in the 2013 GP2 championship, a feat that meets the requirement for a platinum ranking. I expect Dillmann's ranking to change when the next update occurs.

For those NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series fans wondering why Miguel Paludo is a gold and Brendan Gaughan is a silver, Paludo won back-to-back Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil titles, good enough for a gold ranking. 

Interesting to see Eddie Cheever is still listed and he is a silver-rated driver, same as his son Eddie Cheever III. I smell a father-son duo at Le Mans.

Dillon Battistini is a silver. He meets the gold requirement of finishing in the top ten in Indy Lights (he finished sixth in 2008) but I think the lack of him competing has caused him to be relegated. Battistini is sadly one of many drivers who had success in Indy Lights but never got a fair shake at IndyCar. 

If there is anything interesting you notice in the drivers rankings and want to share, feel free to tweet me @4TheLoveOfIndy.


Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Two Lead Changes After Dakar Third Stage

Stage three saw our first repeat stage winner of the 2015 Dakar Rally but two class leads changed, one because of a penalty. We start this stage three recap with the news that bike competitor Michal Henrik has died. The Polish rider was competing in his first Dakar Rally and was 84th in the bike classifications. Henrik was 39 years old.

Orlando Terranova won his second stage as the Argentine won by a minute and 54 seconds over Giniel de Villiers. Yazeed Alrajhi followed his Toyota teammate in third position, finishing 58 seconds behind the South African. Carlos Sainz finished fourth, four minutes and eight seconds back with Nasser Al-Attiyah finishing eight seconds behind the Peugeot driver and retaining the overall lead.

Nani Roma finished sixth on stage three, five minutes and 58 seconds back of his Mini teammate Terranova but has a lot of work to do after a disastrous first stage. Stéphane Peterhansel finished seventh, nine minutes and 26 seconds off of the Argentine.

Krzysztof Holowczyc finished 12th, 19 minutes and 14 seconds back while Robby Gordon came home 15th, 21 minutes and 56 seconds after Terranova.

Al-Attiyah holds a five minute and 18 second lead over de Villiers. Terranova jumps to third after his stage victory but is 18 minutes and five seconds behind his Mini teammate. Sainz and Alrajhi round out the top five with the Spaniard 19 minutes and 32 seconds back and the Saudi trailing by 20 minutes and eight seconds. Holowczyc is 25 minutes and 24 seconds back in sixth position.

Peterhansel is an nearly hour and 13 minutes behind Al-Attiyah in 16th position. Gordon is in 40th, four hours and 24 minutes back with Roma up to 55th, nearly nine and a quarter hours behind his teammate.

Austrian Matthias Walkner won stage three for KTM by 40 seconds over fellow KTM rider Marc Coma. Class leader Joan Barreda finished third, a minute and 53 seconds back, enough for the Honda ride to retain the lead. Toby Price finished two minutes and 45 seconds behind Walkner in fourth position. Paulo Gonçalves rounded out the top five, finishing four seconds behind the Australian Price.

Alain Duclos finished three minutes and 11 seconds back in sixth with Ruben Faria finishing seventh, fifteen seconds after Duclos. Jeremias Israel Esquerre came home in eighth position, four minutes and two seconds back with Jordi Viladoms finishing 34 seconds after the Chilean Israel Esquerre. Rounding out the top ten, five minutes and 21 seconds after Walkner was Juan Pedrero Garcia. Stage one winner Sam Sunderland finished two seconds after Pedrero Garcia.

Barreda leads Gonçalves by five minutes and 33 seconds with Walkner jumping to third overall, five minutes behind the Portuguese rider. Coma is 17 seconds behind the Austrian with Faria rounding out the top five, 12 minutes and 10 seconds behind Barreda.

Price is 14 seconds behind Faria in sixth. Viladoms is 14 minutes and seven seconds behind with Israel Esquerre in eighth, 18 minutes and 33 seconds back. Hélder Rodrigues dropped to ninth after finishing fifteenth on stage three. The Portuguese rider is a second behind Israel Esquerre. Pedrero Garcia rounds out the top ten, 23 minutes and two seconds back.

Duclos is 38 seconds back of Pedrero Garcia in 11th. Olivier Pain fell to 19th, nearly 38 minutes behind Barreda after finishing 21st on the stage. Sunderland jumps to 50th but is two hours and 37 minutes off the overall lead.

Lucas Bonetto made it two victorious Argentines as he won the quad class riding for Honda. Bonetto won by 58 seconds over fellow Argentine Sebastian Halpern. Rafał Sonik finished third, two minutes and 14 seconds back as did Gaston Gonzalez, who made it three Argentines in the top four. Despite his finish, Sonik will not have the quad lead heading into stage four as the Pole was handed a 15-minute penalty. Mohammed Abu-Issa finished fifth, two minutes and 29 seconds back with new class leader, Sergio Lafuente finishing ten seconds behind the Qatari in sixth. Defending quad winner Ignacio Casale came home in seventh, five minutes and 24 seconds after Bonetto.

Lafuente leads Casale by 41 seconds with Halpern in third, seven minutes and 28 seconds back. The 15-minute penalty drops Sonik to fourth, ten minutes and five seconds behind the Uruguayan. Abu-Issa remains fifth, 16 minutes and 38 seconds back.

The lead change occurred in the truck class as Airat Mardeev took the lead after winning stage three. Mardeev won the stage by a minute and 51 seconds over defending winner Andrey Karginov. Gérard de Rooy finished third, four and a half minutes behind Mardeev. Aleš Loprais finished fourth, seven minutes back. Russian Dmitry Sotnikov rounded out the top five, finishing 32 seconds after Loprais.

In the overall truck standings, Mardeev leads Loprais by seven minutes and 55 seconds with Karginov three seconds back of the Czech. Eduard Nikolaev is fourth, eight minutes and seven seconds after finishing eighth on stage three. Martin Kolomy is 15 seconds behind Nikolaev after finishing sixth on stage three and being handed a 30-second penalty.

Siarhei Viazovich is sixth, 30 seconds behind Kolomy. De Rooy was also handed a 30-second penalty and is now seventh, a minute behind Viazovich. Truck leader entering the stage, Hans Stacey dropped to eighth overall after finishing ninth on the stage and behind handed a minute penalty. The Dutchman is now 12 minutes and 42 seconds back of Mardeev.

Stage four will take the competitors to Chile as the stage heads to Copiapo from Chilecito.


Monday, January 5, 2015

Three New Leaders After Stage Two of Dakar

Three of four classes feature new overall leaders after stage two of the Dakar Rally with Nasser Al-Attiyah getting redemption after being penalized after initially winning stage one on Sunday. 

The Qatari won stage two by eight minutes and 30 seconds over South African Giniel de Villiers and now holds the overall lead in the car class with a seven minute and 42-second advantage over de Villiers. Bernhard Ten Brinke finished third in stage two and is third overall, two minutes behind his fellow Toyota driver de Villiers. Krzysztof Holowczyc is ten minutes and 28 seconds behind his Mini teammate in fourth while Russian Vladimir Vasilyev rounds out the top five, 17 minutes and 23 seconds back. 

Erik Van Loon is 20 minutes and four seconds back in sixth position with Carlos Sainz 28 seconds behind the Dutchman driving for Peugeot. Saudi driver Yazeed Alrajhi is eighth, a minute and two seconds behind Sainz. Mitsubishi driver Carlos Sousa is ninth, a half minute behind Alrajhi with stage one winner Orlando Terranova 22 minutes and 23 seconds back of Al-Attiyah. 

A few big names had trouble on stage two. Stéphane Peterhansel finished 27th on the day and dropped to 22nd overall, over an hour and seven minutes back. Robby Gordon had a long repair for brake problems and he finished over four hours after Al-Attiyah. Nani Roma finished 22nd on stage two, just over an hour back but still finds himself nearly eight and a half hours back overall. 

Joan Barreda won stage two and holds the overall bike lead by four minutes and 37 seconds over fellow Honda rider Paulo Gonçalves. Ruben Faria is the top KTM rider in third, ten minutes and 37 seconds back overall. Jordi Viladoms is fourth overall, 11 minutes and 24 seconds back with Australian Toby Price eight seconds back in fifth. Defending Dakar winner Marc Coma is 12 minutes and 3 seconds back in sixth place. 

Notables from the bike class after stage two: Hélder Rodrigues is 13 minutes and 26 seconds behind Barreda in eighth. Alain Duclos trails by 22 minutes and 22 seconds in 12th and Olivier Pain is 17th, 28 minutes and 12 seconds back. Stage one winner Sam Sunderland finished nearly two and a half hours back on the day and dropped to 67th overall.

Rafał Sonik won stage two in the quad class and takes a two minute and 26-second lead over stage one winner and defending Dakar winner Ignacio Casale. Sergio Lafuente remains third, four and a half minutes behind Sonik. Sebastian Halpern jumps up to fourth overall, 13 minutes and 39 seconds back. Mohammed Abu-Issa remains fifth overall, trailing Sonik by 21 minutes and 18 seconds. 

The only class leader to remain from stage one is Hans Stacey in the truck class despite finishing fourth on the day. Eduard Nikolaev won stage two by 46 seconds over Belarusian driver Siarhei Viazovich with Airat Mardeev finishing another three seconds back in third. Stacey finished a minute and 27 seconds behind Nikolaev but holds the class lead by 20 seconds over the Russian. Martin Kolomy is a minute and one second back in third with Mardeev four seconds behind the Czech in fourth. Viazovich rounds out the top five, a minute and 25 seconds back. 

Stage three takes the competitors from San Juan to Chilecito. 


Musings From the Weekend: Cooler Than The Other Side of the Pillow

Happy New Year to everyone as we dive into our first Musings From the Weekend for 2015. Motorsports are slowly starting back up as the Dakar Rally began yesterday and AMA Supercross kicked off their season Saturday night from Anaheim. Next weekend features the Dubai 24 Hour, Formula E race from Buenos Aires and the Roar Before the 24 as IMSA teams prepare for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

It Hardly Felt Like We Were Gone
I know there hasn't been much motorsports going on in the last few weeks but it feels like we were just watching the Race of Champions and Gulf 12 Hours yesterday. Not to forget mentioning that the Formula One season ended just six weeks ago.

It's a great time to be a sports car fan. Dubai kicks everything off on Friday with Daytona making it two, 24-hour races in a two week span. The World Rally Championship kicks off their season the same weekend as the 24 Hours of Daytona with more sports car action following with the Bathurst 12 Hour two weeks after Daytona. Then NASCAR season kicks off with the WRC heading to Sweden. 

I know it's been a while since IndyCar was on track but we are just over two months away from the IndyCar season opener. Speaking of which, are there any more spy shots out there of Chevrolet or Honda aero kits? The IndyCar season is almost here. We are two-thirds of the way through the offseason and teams will surely be testing and finalizing driver line ups in the coming weeks. 

Besides IndyCar, V8 Supercars, Pirelli World Challenge, Formula One, MotoGP and World Touring Car Championship all get kicked off in March with FIA World Endurance Championship, DTM, Super Formula, Super GT and European Le Mans Series all kicking off in April or later. It won't be long until we are back in the thick of the motorsports season. 

Random Thoughts
Looking over the calendars, I'd love to see someone do the IndyCar at Fontana-NASCAR at Sonoma double. Fontana is on June 27th with Sonoma on the 28th. I have always wanted to see IndyCar teams and drivers stuff a NASCAR road course race entry list just to see what would happen. We know Juan Pablo Montoya is a NASCAR race winner but it would be interesting to see how Will Power, Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud and Tony Kanaan would do. 

Marco Andretti will make his Formula E debut at Buenos Aires this Saturday as he replaces Matthew Brabham, who competed at Putrajaya and Punta del Este. Jean-Éric Vergne will return for his second consecutive race. It will be interesting to see how Andretti does just hopping behind the wheel of the car for the first time. Vergne jumped in, was quickest, won pole position and nearly won on debut. 

Remembering Stuart Scott
If you watched ESPN as regularly as I have for the past two decades, you know Stuart Scott and you know he lost his battle to cancer yesterday at the age of 49. 

When I heard the news yesterday, this tweet came to mind:
I don't know how well Stuart Scott followed motorsports. He could have been a massive fan of IndyCar and we never knew it but I doubt that is likely. Scott had seen his share of great sporting moments and to see someone who isn't regularly associated with motorsports appreciate a great battle such as the one between Castroneves and Hunter-Reay at Indianapolis last May and to share his reaction with the world on social media is humbling. IndyCar doesn't get that type of recognition everyday and I only wish he had the opportunity to go to the Indianapolis 500 in person. He would have been a great choice to be the pace car driver.

I will miss Stuart Scott. SportsCenter will not be the same without him but I am glad I was fortunate enough to have him join me for countless numbers of breakfasts when I was a child. My prayers go out to the Scott family.

Winner From the Weekend
Ken Roczen won the AMA Supercross season opener from Anaheim.

Coming Up This Weekend
Dubai 24 Hours starts Friday and ends Saturday.
Formula E is in Buenos Aires.
The Dakar Rally continues all this week.


Sunday, January 4, 2015

Penalty Alters First Stage of 2015 Dakar Rally

Just when it appeared Nasser Al-Attiyah had started his journey for his second Dakar Rally title in style in stage one, a penalty to the Qatari has dropped him from the top. The winner of the 2011 Dakar Rally was handed a two-minute penalty dropping him to seventh. His Mini teammate and Argentine Orlando Terranova gets the stage one victory with Robby Gordon finishing second, 42 seconds back. South African Giniel de Villiers was 50 seconds back in third with Pole Krzystof Holowczyc 54 seconds back in fourth. Another local Argentine, Emiliano Spataro finished stage one in a surprise fifth position, 56 seconds back of Terranove.

Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke finished sixth, a minute and 16 seconds back with Al-Attiyah a minute and 38 seconds behind his teammate. Carlos Sainz was the top Peugeot driver in eight, a minute and 44 seconds back. Erik Van Loon finished a minute and 58 seconds behind Terraova in ninth and Stéphane Peterhansel rounded out the top ten, two minutes and 13 seconds back.

Defending Dakar winner Nani Roma had a disastrous first stage and his title defense very well might be over. The Spaniard finished last, seven hours, 25 minutes and 45 seconds back after being towed to the finish by his assistance truck.

In the bike class, British KTM rider Sam Sunderland won stage one by five seconds over Honda rider Paulo Gonçalves. Defending Dakar winner Marc Coma finished in third, a minute and 12 seconds behind his fellow KTM rider Sunderland. Joan Barreda finished 29 seconds behind Coma in fourth position. Sherco TVS rider Alain Duclos rounded out the top five, two minutes and eight seconds back.

Other notable finishers from the bike class: Ruben Faria finished tenth, three minutes and two seconds behind Sunderland. Hélder Rodrigues finished twelfth, thirty seconds behind Faria. Olivier Pain came home in thirteenth, two seconds behind Rodrigues with Jordi Viladoms finishing fourteenth, 11 seconds behind Pain. Antonio Narino was the lone American to make the start in the bike class. Marino finished 153rd, 49 minutes and 30 seconds back of Sunderland.

Ignacio Casale started off his Dakar defense with a stage victory. The Chilean defeated Rafał Sonik by a minute and seven seconds with Sergio Lafuente making it a Yamaha 1-2-3, a minute and 23 seconds back. Uruguayan Mauro Almeida made it a Yamaha sweep of the top four as he finished two minutes and 41 seconds behind Casale. Mohammed Abu-Issa was the top non-Yamaha in fifth as his Honda came home three minutes and three seconds back.

Hans Stacey won in the truck class with Marcel Van Vilet making it a Dutch 1-2 after finishing 35 seconds back of Stacey's Iveco. Czechs Aleš Loprais and Martin Kolomy finished tied for third, each finishing 47 seconds back of Stacey. Martin Van Den Brink rounds out the top five, 58 seconds behind Stacey.

The top Kamaz was Ayrat Mardeev in sixth, a minute and 43 seconds back. Eduard Nikolaev finished four seconds behind Mardeev in seventh. Gérard de Rooy finished in ninth, a minute and 57 seconds back of Stacey with defending truck winner Andrey Karginov finishing 11th, three minutes and 16 seconds back.

Stage two will take the competitors from Villa Carlos Paz to San Juan.


Saturday, January 3, 2015

2015 Dakar Rally Preview

Sunday marks the start of the 36th Dakar Rally. This will be the seventh consecutive year with the race being held in South America. Buenos Aires plays host to the start of the 13-stage event and will be the finish line in a fortnight. After three stages in Argentina, the rally will head to Chile for three stages before having one stage end in Bolivia in the middle of the event. Chile will host two more stages before ending with four stages in Argentina.

Nani Roma won the 2014 edition in the car class, becoming the second competitor to win in two different disciplines. Roma won the 2004 Dakar in the bike class. Stéphane Peterhansel finished runner-up to Roma in 2014 after losing the lead on the final stage. The Frenchman is looking for his twelfth Dakar victory having won five in cars and six on bikes. Roma looks to extend Mini's Dakar winning streak to four with Argentine Orlando Terranova and Pole Krzysztof Hołowczyc as his teammates and 2011 Dakar winner, Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah also driving a Mini.

Peterhansel moves from Mini to Peugeot where he will be joined by 2010 Dakar winner Carlos Sainz and five-time Dakar bike class winner Cyril Despres. This will be Despres' first appearance in the car class. Peugeot has won four Dakars, the last coming in 1990 with Ari Vatanen behind the wheel.

Toyota will be led by 2009 Dakar winner, South African Giniel de Villiers while Robby Gordon is the lone Hummer in the field. Portuguese driver Carlos Sousa will lead Mitsubishi as the Japanese manufacture looks for their fourteenth Dakar victory and first since the race moved to South America.  Porsche factory driver Romain Dumas will compete for MD Rallye Sport while 1992 Indianapolis 500 rookie Phillipe Gache returns to the Dakar driving for SMG. Guerlian Chicherit will be driving for X-Raid while Argentine Federico Villagra driving for Ford. Tim and Tom Coronel will each be driving for Suzuki.

In the bike class, Marc Coma looks for his fifth Dakar victory as he will have stiff competition from riders looking for their first success in the Dakar. Fellow KTM riders Jordi Villadoms and Ruben Faria return. Villdoms finished runner-up last year and Faria finished runner-up in 2013. Honda rider Joan Barreda won five stages in 2014. Frenchman Olivier Pain finished third in 2014 as Pain is the top contender for Yamaha, who looks for their first Dakar triumph since Peternhansel won his last Dakar on a bike in 1998. KTM has won thirteen consecutive Dakars. Richard Sainct's victory in 2000 on a BMW was the last time KTM did not win the bike class.

Honda has four Dakar victories with their last coming in 1989 with Gillies Lalay. Along with Barreda, Hélder Rodrigues, Paulo Gonçalves and Laia Sanz are Honda's leading riders heading into the 2015 race. Spaniards and Frenchmen have won the last 11 Dakars in the bike class. Italian Fabrizio Meoni is the last non-Spaniard/Frenchman to win in the bike class when he won back-to-back Dakars in 2001 and 2002. Two Americans are competing in the bike class. Tony Gera will be riding a KTM while Antonio Narino will be on a Husqvarna.

Chilean Ignacio Casale looks for his second consecutive victory in the quad class. Pole Rafał Sonik finished runner-up last year and looks to become the second European rider to win in the quad class. Uruguayan Sergio Lafuente is another contender in the quad class. All three riders above are on Yamahas. Qatari Mohammed Abu-Issa and Chilean Victor Manuel Gallegos lead Honda as they look for their first victory in the quad class. All six editions for the quad class have been won by Yamaha. Casale is the lone winner of the quad class racing in 2014. Two-time winners Marcos Patronelli and Alejandro Patronelli and inaugural quad class winner Josef Macháček did not enter for 2015.

Andrey Karginov will return in the truck class driving a Kamaz. Last year, Karginov held off a late charge from 2012 truck class winner Gérard de Rooy for his first Dakar victory. The Dutchman de Rooy returns driving for Iveco. Kamaz will also have 2013 Dakar winner Eduard Nikolaev returning looking to get Kamaz their thirteenth Dakar victory. Czech driver Aleš Loprais is the lead contender for the German manufacture MAN. MAN's lone Dakar victory came with Dutchman Hans Stacey in 2007. Stacey will be driving for Iveco in 2015. Overall winner of the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans and former Formula One and IndyCar driver Jan Lammers will compete for the Dutch manufacture Ginaf.

The first stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally will take the competitors from Buenos Aires to Villa Carlos Paz.