Surfing Kangaroos in the Concrete Canyon - Australian V8 Supercars

Opening lap wreck with Grand-Am standout Ricky Taylor at the wheel. Picture from V8Supercars.com.au

                I have talked about the Australian V8 Supercar series in some of my last posts, so I figured I would give them a dedicated posting. Speed has a tape delay on these races, and it finally aired Saturday night. The race happened at Surfer's Paradise in the Gold Coast of Australia. The track is known as the Concrete Canyon to the drivers. They really know how to put on a show, as the picture I opened up the post with shows. This race is known as an Enduro, each team has their normal driver, but they get a co-driver from outside the series. Greg Ritter is the normal driver of the car shown in the picture above, and his co-driver was Ricky Taylor. He races Daytona Prototypes in the Grand-Am series.

Ricky Taylor's Grand-Am Daytona Prototype SunTrust Corvette. Picture from autoweek.com.

                 The story behind the picture above is that the V8 Supercar guys use a standing start to begin the race. Think Formula 1, where everyone is sitting on the grid, and once the lights go out, it's time to go. Well since the international drivers start the race, and most aren't used to this, some people stalled. When this happened, it instantly created a gridlock. Here is the highlight video from V8Supercarofficial's YouTube channel. You can also see the second try at the standing start, and more chaos. Other than Juan Montoya hitting the jet-dryer at Daytona, where have you seen this much excitement in racing?



 

                Before you say it, the international drivers can drive. Here is the list and in parenthesis are their background: Nick Heidfield(F1), Marco Andretti(Indy Car), Darren Turner(DTM/Lemans), Sebastian Bourdais(F1, Indy Car, Grand-Am, LeMans), Richard Lyons(SuperGT), Mika Salo(F1), Simon Pagenaud(ALMS), Jeroen Bleekmolen(Porsche Supercup), David Brabham(GT1), Graham Rahal(Indy Car), Frank Montagny(F1), Justin Wilson(Indy Car), Ryan Briscoe(Indy Car), Will Power(Indy Car), Stephane Sarrazin(LeMans), Gianni Morbidelli(F1), Nicolas Minassian(LeMans/Indy Car), Max Papis (F1/Indy Car/NASCAR), Peter Kox(DTM/BTCC), Jamie Campbell-Walter(FIA GT), Peter Dumbreck(LeMans/DTM), Mike Conway(Indy Car), Ricky Taylor(Grand-Am), James Hinchcliffe(Indy Car), Boris Said(NASCAR/Grand-am), Marc Lieb(LeMans), Lucas Di Grassi(F1), Tonio Liuzzi(Superstar Series). As you can see, many forms of motorsport are represented, and they all are very talented. Unfortunately NASCAR is in season, so we can't showcase our stars in this race. I'm sure Marcos Ambrose would love to make a return, and take some friends such as Juan Montoya, Brad Keselowski, and maybe even Carl Edwards. I was sold on the driving talent of these guys when I was watching an earlier race and Jacques Villeneuve was filling in for an injured driver. He drove three races, and was towards the back for everyone. That guy jumps in a Nationwide car, and battles for the win, but can't even break into the top-20 against their guys, come on now.

                I have gone on long enough, but at least I have filled this one with a ton of pictures, and video for you to look at. The Australian V8 Supercar guys put on some awesome racing that has all the bumping, banging, and mirrors flying that lends itself to some exciting racing. I am planning the trip to Austin in May 2013 to see these guys in action, and I can't wait. One of my friends going, who was part of the Lexington Goat Herd, which was our group of friends who owned GTOs. She is convinced that we can steal a Holden while we are there. Check for us on the news, you may see a 5 foot nothing girl, followed by a 300 pound guy being locked away for it. I'll leave you with a video of 3-time Winston Cup Champion Darrell Waltrip and his ride in a V8Supercar from last year. He talks a lot when he is scared, and as you can tell he won't shut up. Until next time.







The Big Bad Wolfe and Little (B)Rad Riding Hood

Paul Wolfe and Brad Keselowski looking a bit stressed during the race weekend at Martinsville. Courtesy of @Nateryan, this guy is full of good information, and a quite massive vocabulary.



Okay, I know my title is corny but I wanted something kind of funny. All my creative juices are running low at the moment, I just spit out a massive amount of b.s. writing a paper for school, plus the beer pong went a little overboard last night, but anyway back to Martinsville.

Bad Brad and Paul Wolfe really did an awesome job with the circumstances they were given in today race. Well not really given, but how Brad qualified anyway. Even though Brad played it extra cool, as he always does through all the interviews, you know that he knew how much of an uphill battle they were going to have today. Anyone who knows the sport knows the contenders at this track. Jimmie Johnson counting his win from today has competed at Martinsville in a Sprint Cup car a total of twenty-one times. Jimmie has amassed six wins, completing 99.5% of his laps ran, and leading 1789 laps. He leads almost 18% of the laps at the track when he shows up to race. That to me is outstanding. You have to lead laps to win, and that guy does it. But let's get back to Brad.

While I was watching the race, trying to recuperate from last night’s shenanigans, I grabbed some pen and paper so I could keep up with the calls that Paul Wolfe made from the pit-box. Usually they are outside the box, but other than the first caution around lap 58 when they took only driver's side tires, and jumped ten spots from 27th to 17th was the only time they did what they do. I was kind of worried for a while, because every time the positions would scroll across the screen, Brad would be stuck back in the late teens, most of the time 20's and up. Brad was saved from being lapped by one caution, and the third caution was when he started to make his move, especially getting off sequence with Gordon, Kyle Busch, and Truex staying out while the rest of the lead lap cars pitted, and Brad took two tires and came back out in 15th. It wasn't until the 7th caution when Brad stays out while some of the others pit, and finally breaks into the top-10 for the first time all day at lap 231. I'm not going to lie; I was relieved to see him in the top-10.

Now when we get to the last caution, and the top five comes in, I find myself sitting there waiting for the call, and I see Keselowski drive past the commit line. I was excited at first, because this is the stuff I like from this group, the chance to try and steal a win. When the dust settles though, it is just Keselowski, and Dale Jr. At that point I was worried, and images from the spring Martinsville race start to play through my head. Keselowski and Dale Jr. played Johnson and Gordon from the spring on old rubber, while the field was on new rubber again. In the spring, once the green flag flew, the chaos ensued. Much to my surprise, Keselowski held off Jimmie for a lot longer than I expected. I don't know why it surprised me honestly; everything he seems to do in a race car has been amazing when it comes to this year, and much more specific to the chase. Even though Brad was relegated to his sixth place finishing position, he was better off for the call since he was able to lead a lap, and get that one extra bonus point. I hate to be like everyone in the media, but I have to now. "Ask Carl about getting that bonus point."

So the Big Bad Wolfe, and Little (B)Rad pulled another one out of their bag of tricks today. It was especially huge because of the electrical problem that halted Denny Hamlin's shot at the Championship, but weirder things have happened I suppose. I am pulling for Brad, but I am all for the thrill of it coming down to Homestead and not knowing who is going to hoist the cup at the end. With that said good luck Brad, Paul, and the whole Penske Racing team in their quest. If you can pull it off, it will be that much sweeter with Jimmie, and Chad being on their game like they have been. I'll leave you with a picture from Dover and Brad celebrating with the guys after winning the AAA 400 for some good karma. Until next time.



Picture from the Chicagotribune.com

F1 and NASCAR as bed fellows?

Buddh International Circuit in India, site of round 17 of the Formula 1 season.

           

            While watching the first practice of the Grand Prix of India, this turn caught my eye. This is the best picture I could find, but it has many different variations of orange and white in differing patterns. It just looks wild when they go to the helicopter shot while the cars are blasting around the double apex turn. Well back on topic.

            I have started to watch a lot of Formula 1 coverage this year, namely because I finally came into the 21st century, and got a DVR. No more trying to stay up late when getting home from the bar, and passing out before the standing start. But anyway, I could always tell that there was a lot of money in F1, but it wasn't until last month that I really started to look into it. @JennaFryer broke the news about Lewis Hamilton moving from McLaren-Mercedes, to Mercedes for a cool amount of three years, at $100 million dollars. I couldn't believe it, I knew they made good money, but $33.3 million a year is nuts! Well during one of the races on Speed, there was a big deal made about Marissa-Cosworth displacing Caterham-Renault for 10th place in the Constructors standings. The way they did this, is Timo Glock finishing 12th at Singapore. Even though none of the teams at the bottom of these standings have any points, Marussia-Cosworth holds the spot with this finish. The part that really blew my mind though, is that the top-10 teams in the Constructor Standings at the end of the year, split 700 million dollars... Yes that is correct; almost 1 billion dollars are paid out at the end of the year. Let me redirect you into how this plays into my post and NASCAR as well.

            There is no doubt that Formula 1 reaches more fans worldwide, than the traditionally Southeastern sport of NASCAR racing. I know what you are thinking, but NASCAR has races in Canada, and North of the Mason Dixon line, hell they even have made it to the West of the Mississippi too. Well, if they want to continue to grow the sport, and reach younger fans, then that isn't enough. NASCAR was doing a good thing, even though it was just with the Nationwide series in trying to grow the sport. The Nationwide series held a race in Mexico City, and Montreal. The Montreal race is no more, even though NASCAR keeps dropping hints about racing at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park next year to replace Montreal. NASCAR quit taking the Nationwide Series to Mexico City in years.

            Just based on the money that Formula 1 teams operate on, and what is generated, there are a ton of fans out there that could learn to love NASCAR. I feel that on road courses, and even some ovals that NASCAR puts out a good product, with more parody, passing, and drama than F1. They do this either at the track, or sitting on the couch at home. Formula 1 racing at times for me is boring, because if you don't start within the first 5-6 positions, and get a good start or some extraordinary circumstance, you are not winning the Grand Prix. In the top three series of NASCAR, you can start from up front, to back in the 30's plus, and still through pit strategy, fuel mileage, or just getting up on the wheel have a chance to win the race.

            NASCAR has a golden opportunity to align itself with Formula 1 without having to take the sport overseas. That was a big factor in NASCAR ceasing to take the sport to Mexico City anymore. The new Grand Prix of Austin at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), and the Grand Prix of Canada at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. The France family needs to try to work on something with F1, so that they could partner in a weekend with the worldwide love of many. Play second fiddle, because other than the small sector of the Southeast of the United States, that is what will happen anyway. NASCAR needs to swallow its pride, and open their eyes to what is going on in the World of racing. Our guys in the overweight rumbling bumbling V8 powered cars put on a good show, just take the three way battle between Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Marcos Ambrose at Watkins Glen late this summer. That was the highlight of the season bar none, let’s give them some more chances to replay that, and have it be seen on the World stage. Let me leave you with the highlight video from NASCAR's YouTube channel of the battle I talked about between Ambrose, Busch, and Keselowski from the end of the race at Watkins Glen. Until next time.