Category Archives: Professional Racing

RIP Chris Economaki (1920 – 2012)

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As a kid and growing up, the name and voice I associated most with motorsports was Chris Economaki; he passed away today aged 91.  I especially remember him covering all sorts of events on ABC Wide World of Sports – Indy500, Daytona 500, Formula 1, and Le Mans.  He later switched to CBS and covered similar events including the IROC series.

A couple of years ago, I came across a DVD of the 1965 LA Times Grand Prix at Riverside with Chris doing lots of trackside interviews with the greats of the time like Bruce McLaren and Dan Gurney.  You can still get it here over at The Motorsport Collector along with lots of other cool stuff. Again, as a kid, I loved Riverside from afar. Unfortunately I never saw it in person – it was long gone by the time I landed in California.  You can see a little bit of Chris Economaki as the pit reporter in this video of the 1965 race hosted by a younger Dave Despain:

Chris Economaki did so much for racing in the US – beginning with his first racing column as a 14 year old! His many contributions will be long remembered.  You can find his great book on auto racing as seen from his eyes over the course of many years here.

Update: I came a cross a nice article about Chris Economaki on the MotorSport Magazine website.

 

Coronado Speed Festival

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Not having attended in a coupe of years, I forgot how much I enjoy the Coronado Speed Festival.  For people in the San Diego area, it’s easy to reach, parking and getting in is a breeze, and there is a lot to see and do in a fairly compact area.  I really like that the grandstand, car show, paddock, vendor row, and food & drink areas are so close together. And of course, the Historic Motor Sports Association (HMSA) puts on a great show.  Some really interesting cars showed up at this year’s festivities.  With the passing of the great Carroll Shelby, there were many Cobras and GT 350s in attendance.

Car Show & Paddock

Coronado Speed Festival

Lamborghini Espada

Coronado Speed Festival

1971 AMC Javelin Trans-Am

Coronado Speed Festival

Mercedes-Benz 300SL

Group 5 Race

Group 5 includes 1959 to 1966 Production Cars equipped with disc brakes.  This is a large and diverse class ranging from a 1540cc Lotus S7 to a 5770cc Chevrolet Corvette.  The race pictures are taken looking back into the last turn onto the front straight & start/finish.

Coronado Speed Festival

1969 BMW 2002 & 1971 Alfa Romeo GTV

Coronado Speed Festival

1958 Corvette, 1971 Alfa Romea GTV, & 1967 Porsche 912

Coronado Speed Festival Group 6 Race

Group 6 includes 1962 to 1966 Production Cars over 2500cc.  This race had quite a few Shelby GT 350s as well as unusual cars such as the ISO Rivolta and a very fast Ginetta G4.

Coronado Speed Festival

1965 Ford Mustang (#151) battles with 1966 Shelby GT 350 (#6)

Coronado Speed Festival

1964 Cobra

Coronado Speed Festival

1966 Shelby GT 350

Group 7 Race

Group 7 includes 1965 to 1988  FIA Manufacturer Championship Cars such as Ferraris, Lolas, and Porsches.

Coronado Speed Festival

A couple of Porsche RSRs battle

Coronad Speed Festival

1972 Ferrari 312PSPL

Coronado Speed Festival Group 8 Race

Group 8 is historic NASCAR.

Coronado Speed Festival

Group 8 Race – Historic NASCAR

Coronado Speed Festival

Historic NASCAR – 2004 Ford Taurus

Many more pics here.

Coronado Speed Festival – Fleet Week San Diego

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Coronado Speed FestivalCoronado Speed Festival

Fleet Week San Diego brings the 15th Annual Coronado Speed Festival and 250 historic race cars to a 1.7 mile course on Naval Air Station North Island this weekend.  In addition to benefitting a great cause, the Coronado Speed Festival, sanctioned by the Historic Motor Sports Association (HMSA), is a well run, very fan-friendly, genuine racing event – the only one in San Diego since IMSA left Del Mar after 1992.

Carroll Shelby Tribute

At this year’s Coronado Speed Festival, HMSA, the same organization that sanctions the Monterey Motorsports Reunion, celebrates the great cars of Carroll Shelby.  Expect to see quite a few Cobras and Shelby GT350s out there.

Mazda MX-5 Cup

For the first time, the Mazda MX-5 Cup sponsored by Playboy will be part of the Coronado Speed Festival Weekend.  The MX-5 Cup is the entry level of production car based competition in SCCA Pro Racing.  The series runs on the premier road courses of North America, and many of their events are part of ALMS weekends.

Test Drives

BMW, VW, Mazda, and Chevrolet will be offering test drives on road courses laid out in areas adjacent to the race track and paddock.

Open, Friendly Paddock

The Coronado Speed Festival is know for an open and friendly paddock area where fans can get up close to some great cars and the competitors racing them.  More cars can be found at a car show benefitting the Navy’s Morale Welfare & Recreation fund.  Visitors will also find a vendor village, good food and drink, and a military static display.  This year, Fleet Week San Diego is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Navy SEALS in San Diego.

More information, including directions, maps, schedules, and ticket information can be found in the calendar and the following links:

Coronado Speed Festival, Saturday, September 22

Coronado Speed Festival, Sunday, September 23

 

Ryan Hunter-Reay Is 2012 IndyCar Champion

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IndyCar Champion

Early in the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana

Gripping Fontana Race

After an exciting and surprising 500 mile race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ryan Hunter-Reay is the 2012 IndyCar Champion, and Ed Carpenter won his second ever IndyCar race.  Hunter-Reay entered the race 17 points adrift of leader Will Power.  When Power spun and crashed at Turn 2 on lap 55, Hunter-Reay had his opening – he needed to finish sixth or better to overtake Power and become the first American IndyCar Champion in 6 years.

Power Somehow Rejoins Race

After a simply amazing effort by the Team Penske Crew, Will Power returned to the track on lap 123.  The #12 Verizon car was severely damaged by the lap 55 crash, and the team had to replace the entire rear end plus many other parts to make the car track ready.  Other crews were ‘high-fiving’ the Penske crew members in a mix of awe, amazement, and respect.  I’ve never seen a car so badly damaged return to a race.  Power was able to turn a dozen laps before retiring, and this was enough to move him ahead of E.J. Viso.  Now Hunter-Reay needed to finish fifth or better to be the IndyCar Champion.

 Battle for MAVTV 500 Win and IndyCar 2012 Championship

After Will Power retired, there were two races ongoing – one for the MAVTV 500 win and one to become IndyCar Champion.  In the former, there were 24 lead changes after Power’s crash.  JR Hildebrand ran really well on the high part of the track early in the race.  Unfortunately he had a brush with the wall, which necessitated a repair that put him several laps down and out of contention.  In the middle part of the race, the lead was exchanged multiple times between the likes of Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Alex Tagliani, and Ed Carpenter.  As the race wore on, it was apparent that nobody was clearly dominant, and that promised an interesting finish.

IndyCar Champion

Beautiful Sunset at MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana

Carpenter Wins With Gutsy Drive

Ed Carpenter was competitive throughout, led the most laps overall, and drove a great race to win the MAVTV 500.  The victory was the second of his IndyCar career.  Tony Kanaan spun into the Turn 4 wall bringing out a red flag on lap 242 to preclude a parade finish under yellow.  Dario Franchitti who had taken the lead from Carpenter on lap 237 would lead from the restart and take the white flag, but Carpenter had a strong run thru Turn 2 from high on the track and passed Franchitti down the backstretch just as Takuma Sato crashed out bringing out a yellow flag for the last half lap.  What a finish!

Hunter-Reay A Worthy IndyCar Champion

Ryan Hunter-Reay is certainly a deserving IndyCar Champion, winning more races than anyone including three in a row during the summer stretch and a win in the penultimate race in Baltimore setting up the showdown in Fontana.  In the run up to the finale, Hunter-Reay also turned down a deal to race with Team Penske and signed a new contract with Andretti Autosport.  For Will Power, this makes the third year in a row that he finished second while going into the final race with a strong chance to win.  It was also the third year in a row that a crash in that final race ruined his chances to win.  Congratulations to Ryan Hunter-Reay, IndyCar Champion for 2012.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway Qualifying

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IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Will Power on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

In the IndyCar Auto Club Speedway qualifying session, Marco Andretti took the pole for the MAVTV 500 with an average speed of 216.069 MPH.  Will Power, series leader and favorite for the Championship going into the final race of 2012 qualified third at 215.940 MPH.  His Team Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe was second with a speed of 215.058 MPH.  Power’s closest competitor for the series title, Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport qualified seventeenth at 212.773 MPH.  Hunter-Reay comes into the race seventeen points behind Power and must have a strong finish combined with Power misfortune in order to take the series crown.  Rookie Josef Newgarden qualified fourth at 215.919 MPH.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

James Hinchcliffe burns some rubber heading out to qualify at Auto Club Speedway

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Simon Pagenaud on a qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

Brutally Hot Conditions At Auto Club Speedway

Qualifying was tough on the hot day in Fontana with air temperatures over 100 degrees and track temperature reaching over 140 degrees.  Similarly hot weather is forecast for race day on Saturday.  With the IndyCar Auto Club Speedway race being a grueling 500 miles under difficult conditions, many teams opted to change engines while accepting a 10 place grid penalty.  Troubles also forced some drivers into an unplanned engine change.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

James Jakes heads out for qualifying at Auto Club Speedway

Final Starting Grid

After engine change penalties are factored in, the starting grid looks like this:

  1. Marco Andretti, #26
  2. Ryan Brisco, #2
  3. Tony Kanaan, #11
  4. JR Hildebrand, #4
  5. Ed Carpenter, #20
  6. Rubens Barrichello, #8
  7. Katherine Legge, #6
  8. Oriol Servia, #22
  9. Dario Franchitti, #10
  10. Sebastian Saavedra, #17
  11. EJ Viso, #5
  12. James Jakes, #19
  13. Will Power, #12
  14. Josef Newgarden, #67
  15. Scott Dixon, #9
  16. Alex Tagliani, #98
  17. Helio Castroneves, #3
  18. Graham Rahal, #38
  19. James Hinchcliffe, #27
  20. Simon Pagenaud, #77
  21. Takuma Sato, #15
  22. Ryan Hunter-Reay, #28
  23. Charlie Kimball, #83
  24. Wade Cunningham, #14
  25. Justin Wilson, #18
  26. Simona de Silvestro, #78
IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Helio Castroneves on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

 

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

JR Hildebrand on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

More pictures are posted in a gallery here.

 

ALMS & Grand-Am Merger

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ALMS founder Don Panoz and Grand-Am founder Jim France this week announced a definitive, historic ALMS & Grand-Am merger.  The two series will run independently in 2013 and will merge in 2014.  This will be the first unified sports car series in the US since the original IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) disintegrated in the late 1990s giving way to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and Grand-Am.

Roots of ALMS & Grand-Am

Trouble had been brewing in sports car racing in the US since the late 1980s when original IMSA founder, John Bishop, sold the series and sanctioning body.  Infighting, politics, and a series of ownership changes led to the demise of the original IMSA, which by then was named PSCR (Professional Sports Car Racing).  In 1998, the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship) was created with support from the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) as an alternative to the weakened IMSA.  Interestingly, SCCA has strongly protested the original formation of IMSA back in 1969 – I guess bad blood runs long and deep!  The USRRC failed, but was revived at the end of 1999 with the support of NASCAR and the France family as the Grand American Road Racing Association – what’s now known as Grand-Am.  Meanwhile in 1998, Dan Panoz, dissatisfied with the USRRC, formed a partnership with the ACO (Automobile Club de L’Ouest), the sanctioning body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to run a race called Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta under PSCR sanctioning.  In 1999, Panoz renamed his series ALMS, and in 2001 he purchased the remaining assets of PSCR and renamed the sanctioning body IMSA.

ALMS & Grand-Am Since 1999

Over the last 13 years, ALMS and Grand-AM have evolved in separate ways.  ALMS has run to ACO rules with many teams participating in both the ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  The series has been known for technical innovation and environmental awareness. In partnership with Michelin, they have created the Green X Challenge, which measures factors such as emissions, speed, and fuel economy.  Their efforts have been recognized but the EPA.  ALMS also has attracted European teams to their major endurance races at Sebring and Petit Le Mans.  This year, Sebring was run in conjunction with the FIA sanctioned World Endurance Challenge.

Grand-Am has focused on less costly formulae such as the Daytona Prototype class, named for its classic endurance race, the Rolex 24 at Daytona.  The GT class in Grand-Am has also incorporated more American and Japanese manufacturers  such as Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Mazda, and less advanced versions of European manufacturers such as Porsche and BMW.

ALMS & Grand-Am: The Merger

So what now?  What now is that over the next year and a little bit, the two series have to sort out the class and rule structure, sanctioning, management structure, venues, schedule, and TV contracts.  Generally, the response to the announcement has been positive as can been seen on Autoweek, SpeedTV, & Bleacher Report.  An interesting angle on a class structure and schedule was proposed by Brad Brownell at 9 Magazine.   The ALMS & Grand-Am merger is also covered in detail in a lively discussion in Episode 33 of the Radiolemans.com Midweek Motorsport podcast.

I have to believe that our beloved Long Beach event will be retained with the merged entity.   If the ALMS & Grand-Am merger is handled well, it could be the best thing to happen to sports car racing in the US in over a decade.  As an example, it’s no doubt that the current IndyCar is better than the old IRL and Champ car series at the time of their merger.  Handled poorly…  Well, let’s just hope that doesn’t happen!

Hunter-Reay Win In Baltimore Sets Up Fabulous Fontana IndyCar Finale

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Ryan Hunter-Reay’s late race restart ambush of Ryan Briscoe secured a come-from-behind win at the Grand Prix of Baltimore and set up an exciting IndyCar finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in two weeks.

Ryan Hunter-Reay #28 Andretti Autosport - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

With his win, Hunter-Reay now trails IndyCar series leader Will Power by 17 points going into the final race of the season at SoCal’s Auto Club Speedway on September 15th.  With the race winner collecting 50 points, if Hunter-Reay also wins at Fontana, Will Power must finish second or third to take the IndyCar series title – fourth or worse, and Hunter-Reay takes the crown.

WIll Power #12 Team Penske - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Will Power, who has been at the top of the series standings most of the season and was on fire early in the season with three consecutive victories, has not won since Sao Paolo Indy 300 in April.  Meanwhile, Ryan Hunter-Reay has gotten hot, winning three in a row himself and four of the last seven races, including Baltimore.

The Auto Club Speedway showdown was set up by Hunter-Reay’s fabulous timing of a restart after a late race caution at Baltimore when he accelerated from second place into the lead past Power’s teammate Ryan Briscoe into Turn 1.  Team Penske and Briscoe complained bitterly that  Hunter-Reay jumped the start, but IndyCar race control maintained that Hunter-Reay began the charge after the green flag was waved – a legal restart.  No other drivers are close enough to Power to have a chance to win the championship.  Sure is strange not to have a Target Ganassi driver in contention!

On to the IndyCar finale in Fontana…

Interestingly, SpeedTV has reported that Team Penske is courting Hunter-Reay as a replacement for Briscoe in their third car for next year.  For their part, Andretti Autosport maintains that they intend to have Hunter-Reay resigned for two years by the Fontana finale.  Briscoe’s management has also been aggressively shopping his services to other IndyCar teams as his seat at Penske has been in question for some time.  Sure makes for an interesting build up to Fontana.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE (090712): 

Autosport is reporting here that Hunter-Reay will be staying at Andretti Autosport.

Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon at Auto Club Speedway

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Auto Club Speedway (ACS) in Fontana will be hosting the IZOD IndyCar finale under the lights in September when the series returns to SoCal, and today, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon came to ACS to treat a small group of fans to a lunchtime visit that included interviews, Q&A, a photo session, and a sampling of their signature cuisine.

Dario Franchitti

Scott Dixon

Gillian Zucker, President of Auto Club Speedway was the event host, and she did a nice job of interviewing and engaging the drivers with audience submitted questions. Both of these guys quickly make connections to a crowd and are approachable good sports.

Scott Dixon is currently 4th in the standings and 28 points behind IndyCar series leader Will Power with three races to go.  He has a chance of winning the Championship if he has a couple of good races at Sonoma and Baltimore heading into the finale – especially if Power (1st), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2nd), and Helio Castroneves (3rd) founder.  Dario Franchitti is currently 8th with no realistic chance of defending his Champion status.  Aside from a fabulous month of May that saw him win his third Indy 500, Dario has had a tough year in which just about anything that could go wrong, did.  Aside from trying to take wins, his main role for the rest of the season will be supporting Dixon, his Target Ganassi teammate.

Dario & Scott were having fun!

During the interview we learned that Dario’s family fled Mussolini’s Italy for the ‘place with the worst weather.’  His maternal grandmother is, in fact, Scottish.  Scott Dixon’s wife Emma was a former top middle distance runner for Great Britain.  Dario favors street courses, while Scott favors road courses.

Dario and Scott are both lukewarm on the push-to-pass. In the recent race, the 5 second push-to-pass delay made it confusing and difficult to use it properly at the start. How do you time the boost that will happen 5 seconds in the future when you don’t know exactly when the green flag will drop?  Everybody got it wrong.  Supposedly the delay is going away.

Both of them felt the finale will be an interesting race with changing conditions as the sun goes down – compromising vision – and the track cools off.  500 miles around the Auto Club Speedway will be exciting and tough.

After the interview and a picture session, fans were invited to sample Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti – really.

The guys with Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti

Both of these guys are passionate racers, and the fans love them.  They’re great ambassadors for the sport, and I wish them well for the rest of the season.

Scott Dixon & Dario Franchitti

So What About IndyCar Push-To-Pass?

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Well after watching a few races under the revived IZOD IndyCar series push-to-pass system, I can’t say that I am a big fan – at least yet.  At Edmonton, most of the radio chatter in the last few laps of a competitive race was about when to use push-to-pass, how much to use, how much other guys might have left.  Helio Castroneves was able to hold off Takuma Sato, perhaps with the help of conserving his push-to-pass time throughout the race.  Too much like a video game for me.  This weekend at Mid-Ohio, there was a revision in that there would be a 5 second delay between push and effect.  I never heard an explanation for the change, but I would guess that it was to prevent push-to-defend: the overtaking driver would know where he wanted the push-to-pass boost and would push 5 seconds early, and the overtaken driver would not be able to respond.  At Mid-Ohio, it was not easy to determine the effect of push-to-pass on the race.  Winner Scott Dixon had great pace throughout and the Target Ganassi team executed flawlessly on pit stops.  I do have to give IndyCar kudos for how they reflect the use of push-to-pass on live timing and scoring – which is perhaps the best timing display in professional racing.

Personally I would rather see overtaking more dependent upon driver skill and looking after tires that performed more on the edge.  And I think the cars should have much more horsepower all of the time with less dependence upon aero.  Again this would put a premium on driver skill and car control.  Think of what a race is like in the rain.  In fact, on Twitter, there were folks rooting for rain at Mid-Ohio.  Opinions?

IndyCar Reintroduces Push-To-Pass: Good For Action Or Folly?

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IndyCar reintroduced push-to-pass last weekend at Toronto.  Was this a good move or not?  Well, I was skeptical about reintroducing a somewhat contrived way of promoting overtaking.  After all, during the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, there was plenty of passing at a course where historically it has been difficult to overtake.  At Toronto, since there was no indicator on the broadcast of when push-to-pass was being used, it was difficult to determine the overall effect.  We did hear toward the end of the race that Ryan Hunter-Reay had enough of his 100 seconds of push-to-pass time allotment remaining to use it on the main straight for the remainder of the race, effectively making it push-to-defend in his case.  Unfortunately the race ended under caution with Hunter-Reay at the front, so we never saw what was to happen in his case.  I’d say the final verdict is out for now, but my opinion is that it’s not needed and its reintroduction was a mistake.  We’ll see what happens next week at Edmonton.  I’d rather see at least 25% more horsepower which would make the race outcomes more dependent upon driver skill.

I’m eager to hear what Robin Miller or a couple of top drivers have to say…