ALMS gains weight for Laguna

I'm certainly not a fan of either the Indy Racing League or the Rolex Sportscar Series, but having them race less than 40 miles away from me this weekend and not be able to go is more than a bit irritating. So instead I have to look to October 21st when the ALMS returns to Laguna Seca.

I haven't been to the Laguna ALMS event in three years since it always falls on the same weekend as the street fair I help organize, but this year it will be on the following weekend. This is great news, because it looks like there might actually be an ALMS grid worth watching for once, bigger than the paltry 22 cars that have started all the non-Sebring races this year. So in addition to the Audis, Dysons, Autocon, Highcroft and Intersport Lolas, Penske Porsches, Corvettes, Astons, Panozes, PTG BMWs, and sundry Porsche GT3s and Ferrari F430s, we'll have some "interlopers":

• Creation are bringing over one, possibly two, of their LMP1 cars, perhaps to showcase them for sale as turnkey racecars for the '07 ALMS season (they won't be legal in Europe next year, but will be in the US)
• Van der Steur Racing will have their fab new Radical for Ben Devlin
• Horag Racing has a new Lola LMP2 to play with
• BK Motorsport will be back with their Mazda-powered Courage LMP2 (even though many were predicting their demise due to alleged unpaid bills)
• There's talk of Oreca bringing over one of their lightning-fast Saleens
• Apparently a couple of teams have Ferrari F430s ready to race, in addition to the 2-3 currently in the ALMS
• Tracy Krohn is said to be entering a 2-car Aston Martin team in 2007, but might have one ready for Laguna. YES PLEASE!!!
  
• Zytek were said to be bringing their 06S for Johnny Herbert but that may fall through

All in all, it's shaping up to be quite a race, and given that it's four hours long and runs into the night, will be well worth the trip. Can't wait!

What do you call it? Rally?

Living in the US and being a follower and participant in rallying can be tough work sometimes. We don't get the WRC on TV, and most people have never heard of the sport. This involves a lot of 'splainin'. However I've figured out a solution, and it came to me as I watched the footage of this weekend's Rally Finland that I'd gotten hold of.

The solution: Figure out a way to show people 15 seconds of Rally Finland footage.

The bottom line is this: the best rally in the world is Rally Finland. The one event that communicates the thrill, the speed, the sheer freakin' insanity that is driving along gravel forest roads at average speeds over 100mph, is Finland. There's a reason they call it the spiritual home of rallying. It's because the essence of what makes stage rallying what it is will always be found in its most concentrated form in Finland.

Finland takes the prize for all of the following categories:

• Fastest rally
• Biggest injury-free crashes (Dani Sordo on Day 2 this year is a prime example)
  
• Longest / highest jumps (Moksi and Ouninpohja)
  
• Biggest crowds
• Most spectators dressed as Santa Claus
• Fastest "local" drivers (Janne Tuohino, Jussi Valimaki et al)
  
• Largest field of pukka WRC-class cars (outside of Ireland)
• Fastest stage (Ouninpohja - the section where it turns from the left/right lumpy country road onto the "main" road is simply sick - see below, it's after Phil Mills says "faster now"!!!)

TT Article on Linksheaven

I was honoured to be asked by the excellent Formula 1 Linksheaven blog to write about the Isle of Man TT, and my article is now up there. Check it out...

Rally Organizing

After a weekend up in the Mendocino National Forest (the only National Forest in CA that isn't bisected by a paved road) I posted on SpecialStage about how fabulous the gravel roads up there are. I had a vague memory of a rally having once run up there, and whilst driving up to Lake Pillsbury I was struck by the notion that it would be a terrific rally stage. The surface was relatively smooth, the road pretty wide, it appeared to be regularly graded, and was close to a town that had a number of hotels and would serve well as a headquarters (that town being Ukiah).

My post sparked a host of responses, some reminiscing about previous rallies up there, and some showing enthusiasm for a rebirth of the event. Now I find myself thinking about what actually goes into organizing a rally. Not that I have time to do that, but others do, and I'm sure I'd be glad to help out (my background is in logistics and production so I kind of dig event management).

I suppose the biggest issue is securing the roads. If you can do that, everything else should be reasonably straightforward: secure an HQ hotel and space for service, grab about 100 volunteers, secure a sanctioning body, open up entries, get medical support, choose a route and create roadbooks. Simple, eh?

I've always had a huge amount of respect for organizers but have yet to actually work on an event - my point being that if I can spare the time to go to a rally, I'd rather be co-driving. Perhaps it's time to get involved with working an event. That said, I might be co-driving at the Reno Rally...

Ducati takes its toys and goes home crying

Ducati have pulled out of the AMA Superbike championship, effective 2007. They say it's because they can't use their WSBK and BSB spec-bikes, and have to build special bikes to conform with the AMA rules. In addition, those AMA rules make it difficult for twins to compete with 4-cylinder bikes, and since they won't change until at least 2008, they're leaving.

This is a bummer, since it looks like Yamaha will be back in AMA next year, and we could have had factory presence from the top five manufacturers for the first time in ages. It also means we'll lose Neil Hodgson (but that was highly likely anyway).

I can't for the life of me figure out why the British, American and World series won't align their rules. I'm sure it's an ego and power thing. Whatever it is, the AMA need to figure something out, because it's getting REALLY tedious watching their races. In contrast, the second British Superbike race from Croft was one of the best superbike races I've seen in ages. If you haven't seen it, let me know, I'll point you in the direction of it.

Championship leaders I.M.

Ben Spies and Nicky Hayden exchange a conversation on Yahoo IM:

Elbowz11: hey dude, how was your race
69TheKid: aw man, we couldn't get it done 2day
Elbowz11: nor could we - i busted my hand pretty good
69TheKid: hate to blame the boyz, 'cos they worked hard on the bike
Elbowz11: sucks dude - you wanna ride hard, but can't crash
Elbowz11: not sure i like leading the championship
69TheKid: try doing it with valentino and the spanish dwarf breathing down your neck
Elbowz11: guess i don't need to worry about that - hard to race in the world championship when you refuse to get on a plane
69TheKid: bro, what's up with that?
Elbowz11: hate flying man - scares the shit out of me
69TheKid: so can you beat mat
Elbowz11: sure - he's old and slow now
69TheKid: he was old and slow when i beat him :D
69TheKid: just remember, don't get messed up in the head from his games, and it's all yours
Elbowz11: wish i could tell you how to beat pedrosa, but my only advice for winning is be on a suzuki - guess that wouldn't work for u
69TheKid: no way, john's a crying wreck after every race
Elbowz11: so what happened yesterday?
69TheKid: can't bad-mouth big red, but the clutch was fucked, tires went off real bad too
Elbowz11: aw man, that sucks - at least i know my hand will heal...
69TheKid: so you gonna win?
Elbowz11: yeah. you?
69TheKid: as long as kenny doesn't keep stealing my points, the bike doesn't break, the tires stay good, pedrosa keeps not winning and i don't crash, then yeah, i'll win
Elbowz11: dude, gotta run, my mom's calling me down for dinner
69TheKid: you still love with your mom?
Elbowz11 has signed out

ALMS back on Speed Channel

I was so relieved to find the ALMS back on Speed Channel. For all it's faults, Speed still does a significantly better job at broadcasting endurance sportscar racing than CBS, and yesterday was a case in point. It comes down to this: there are two ways to watch endurance racing. The first is to watch in its entirety, whereby you understand how the race is unfolding, how each car got to where it is, and all the little details such as evolving issues with cars. Alternatively you can watch a nice, pre-packaged highlights show, where a commentator can guide you through the race and point out the important moments of the race. The problem comes when you attempt to do a cut-down show, where you can't get spoon-fed by commentators, nor can you see for yourself how things develop. This is the issue with CBS.

Thanks to the full coverage from Speed, it was easy to see how the #3 Corvette gained a lap during a caution period, how the top three cars finished within 7/10 of a second (when was the last time you saw that in F1???) and how the Penske Porsches managed to once again turn the "suck" knob all the way up to 11.

Hiatus

I'm in the middle of a very busy couple of weeks, so won't be posting again till at least next Monday...

Colin McRae is a GOD!!!

Okay, go here and then go here. Go on, don't came back until you've done that....

Are you done? Good. Now, does anyone want to disagree with the title of this post? Hmmm? Yes, I thought not.

There was never any doubt that the X Games would be a major boost for rallying in the US. But to have the event end like that? Well, nearby Hollywood couldn't have scripted it better. You have hotshot young American going up against legendary European world champ. They battle it out on the stages and end up separated by 0.5 of a second. In the meantime the young American goes off and completes the FIRST EVER DOUBLE BACKFLIP IN FREESTYLE MOTOCROSS COMPETITION!!! Tension builds as other competitors come out and try to overcome their deficits to the top two, but in the end it would always be Colin McRae versus Travis Pastrana. As McRae thundered into the stadium for the second time, he was clearly on target to beat Pastrana, but in typical Colin style he doesn't back off, and attacks the last jump with the tenacity of a dog in a butcher's shop. Over he rolls, and by now we're on our feet in front of the TV, screaming about how likely 4th placed-finisher Laughlin O'Sullivan will surely get the bronze medal. But no, Colin proves his status as a rallying deity by popping the clutch and engaging first whilst he's still in the middle of the roll, and driving full-on for the finish line as soon as all four wheels touch the ground again. In the end, he loses out to Travis by 0.52 of a second. Apart from the now-questionable ride by Floyd Landis into Morzine on the Tour de France three weeks ago, it's been a while since I've seen a sporting moment as exciting as that.

Let me break it down a little. Travis made it clear all week that although he was entered in four events at the X Games, it was the rallying that was most important to him. And he was also very clear about how big a thrill it was to be racing against Colin McRae. When Travis speaks, America listens. Don't underestimate the power of X Games media - this was very, very big, and congratulations to Rally America, the competitors, the TV producers and everyone else involved. It was a great piece of sport (and let's not dimiss X Games events as not being sports anymore - watching Shaun White attempt a 1080 on his skateboard more than 20 times or that amazing Pastrana backflip was far more impressive, and says more about human physical achievement than any basketball, ice hockey or American football I've ever seen.)

Colin, you're a God. And Travis, you're pretty damn good too.

Go Jens!

First off, I'm going to hold off on X-Games commentary for this post at least. It's too exciting to be buried in a "weekend wrap-up"-type posting.

I think it's fair to say that the happiest bloke in the world right now is Jenson Button. He finally broke his duck and won the Hungarian Grand Prix in bizarre circumstances. I've always felt that ole Jens was easily a potential winner, so I was pretty disappointed when he moved from Williams to what was BAR and is now Honda. Until you have a decent car under you, it doesn't matter how fast you are - you won't win (see a certain F. Alonso for more info - he never won any races in a Minardi....) Anyway, here's to our lad Button, God Save the Queen, blah, blah, blah. I'm wearing my Jenson t-shirt today to celebrate.

The other main racing activity this weekend was of the Superbike sort. The AMA series was at Mid-Ohio, and once again Ben Spies was dominant. I don't know what it'll take to get the non-Suzuki teams to be competitive, but right now (and actually for the past few years) this is getting pretty boring. I ended up fast-forwarding much of race two, as Spies cleared off, leaving Mat Mladin and Miguel Duhamel (two of my least favourite riders, Mladin being a prick and Duhamel being a corporate puppet) to fight for second.

Over at Brands Hatch, the World Superbike boys were fighting it out. I've seen race one, no thanks to Speed Channel who are showing the races on Tuesday. I'll watch race two tonight and might have a thing to say about it tomorrow.

Silly season

Why am I always surprised when silly season rumours start circulating this early in the year? Fact is that there's plenty of talk of who's going where in F1, MotoGP and Superbike. The phenomenon doesn't necessarily translate to the world of sportscar racing which tends to be a in a permanent state of silly season.

The big deal in F1 apparently seems to surround Michael Schumacher. Nick Damon was talking on Midweek Motorsport about how his future plans basically unlock a bunch of other moves for the rest of the paddock. If he retires, it's likely Kimi Raikkonen will replace him. If he doesn't, then Raikkonen will most likely take the other potential top slot, the seat at Renault. That leaves an empty seat over at McLaren, and a number of drivers without '07 contracts (most notably Mark Webber).

Over in the bike world, most discussion surrounds Carl Fogarty, Ducati, Max Biaggi and Neil Hodgson. It's unclear if Foggy's going to move to MotoGP or switch manufacturers in World Superbike. What is clear is that the Ducati team in AMA is living with an axe over its head. Ducati want Hodgson back in World Superbike, and there's talk of a "B" factory Ducati team run by Foggy. It's also mooted that the Foggy / Hodgson combo will be a satellite Ducati team in MotoGP, possibly with Max Biaggi coming on board. It's all very tantalizing...

X Games Rally

Today sees the start of the X Games Rally. This is the first time a 4-wheel motorsport has been part of the X Games, and the first time that a national rally event will see network TV coverage.

First off, the good: it's got some of the best drivers, and that great TV coverage.

Now, the bad: Although it features some "real" rally stages, there's only 8 of them, they're all closed to spectators, there's only have 37 miles of actual stage mileage, and the results of the rally part of the event will be divided by five to emphasize the importance of the "superspecial" stage on Saturday.

The focus of the rally really comes down to that superspecial at the Home Depot Center on Saturday, which is not much more than a mile. I don't know if each driver gets multiple runs at it - I presume they do. I can understand why the rally needs to be packaged this way, but I can't help feeling a bit sad that rallying needs to "sell out" in this manner to get widespread coverage. Oh well, I'll continue to be happy that it brings more American eyes onto the sport.

The drivers involved are all awesome, and kudos to Rally America for getting Colin McRae involved. It will be great to see him up against the best the US has to offer. Travis Pastrana is probably the top guy on the scene right now, and after the completion of the first four stages, he leads McRae by about 8 seconds. Other US rally regulars include Matt Iorio (USRC champ), Ken Block (Travis' team-mate), Tanner Faust (PGT champ and Hollywood stunt-driver) and Andrew Comrie-Picard.

The X Games Rally also sees the return of some former US champs.

• Paul Choiniere, who used to be Hyundai's lead factory driver, should go well, even if he is a little rusty. Pat Richard was incredibly dominant in 2004 and 2005, but hasn't raced at all in 2006. I expect him to go faster as the rally progresses.
  
• Ramana Lagemann was the golden boy of US rallying back in '02 and '03 but somewhat slipped from the scene. He's got an Escort Cosworth for this event.
  
• Rhys Millen has taken time out from his drifting schedule to bring his Evo VII out to play, but he has already suffered a mechanical DNF and won't feature at the top of the results.
  
• Group N champ and and sole American WRC Mexico entrant in 2004 Wyeth Gubelmann got a last-minute call-up when Australian Andrew Pinker couldn't put together the sponsorship to run the event.
  
• Finally, and most importantly (to me anyway) is my friend, and fellow San Franciscan, Lauchlin O'Sullivan. Lauchlin is probably the best driver in the US at knowing when to push and when to hold back, and this cerebral approach works well in the longer events. Hopefully in a short event like this he'll go hell for leather from the get-go.

So it looks to be a great fight, even if it's a sprint, and a good showcase for rallying. The TV coverage is on ABC at 2pm PDT this Saturday. I'll have to tape it since I'll be at Buttonwillow for a track day on my bike...

And this weekend we have...

F1 in Germany, FIA GT at Spa, the WTCC in Mexico, the BTCC at Donington, ChampCar crashing its way around downtown San Jose, and the legendary Suzuka 8 Hours motorcycle endurance race.

To be fair, the main endurance race this weekend is the Proximus Spa 24 Hours, a round of the FIA GT series. All the usual suspects will be there, with the grid augmented by a number of local (slower) teams entering in the G2 class.

I'm short of time today, so will have to reserve any thoughts on the weekend's activities until later. Suffice to say I'm not going back to the San Jose Grand Prix until American open wheel racing can get its act together.

Google search answers here!

I've been looking at some of the Google searches that brought people here, and have found that the info they are looking for is not necessarily here. So it's time to address that:

Search: "Dani Pedrosa boring"
Answer: Yes, Dani Pedrosa is boring. Although he has the talent of Valentino Rossi, he lacks his huge charisma.

Search: "Laguna Seca, July 24th 2006, traffic shuttle problems"
Answer: July 24th was Monday, and as far as I know there were no shuttle problems on Monday because there were no shuttles on Monday LOL!

Search: "Fastest Le Mans lap"
Answer: The outright fastest race lap was on a previous circuit configuration in 1971 was 3:18.40 at 244.387km/h set by Jackie Oliver in a Porsche. The current fastest race lap is 3:31.211 set by Allan McNish in an Audi R10. The current overall best lap is 3:30.466 set by Dindo Capello in an Audi R10.

Search: "Fastest lap record Laguna Seca"
Answer: The fastest lap at Laguna in the current configuration was done by Helio Castroneves in an Reynard-Honda CART car at 1:07.722 in 2000. The fastest lap on a motorcycle is 1:22.670 by Nicky Hayden on a Honda RC211V MotoGP bike in 2005.

Search: "Paul Warwick accident"
Answer: Younger brother to Formula 1 driver Derek Warwick, Paul was killed in a Formula 2 race in 1991 at Oulton Park after a wishbone failure caused him to hit the armco at Knickerbrook at 140mph. He won the championship posthumously after winning all five races and scoring all five pole positions.

Search: "Martin Haven motor sport"
Answer: Martin Haven is a motor racing commentator, mainly for Eurosport, where his main gig is the WTCC. He also works occasionally for MotorsTV such as at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours. He is, in my opinion, one of the best commentators out there, mainly due to the fact that he is not afraid to speak his mind especially when it comes to calling out idiotic driving behavior.

Search: "Playboy MotoGP paddock"
Answer: Err... on newstands everywhere....? Uhm, Sete Gibernau's girlfriend? Not sure what this person was looking for but I don't think he'll find it here...

Search: "Dave Jefferies TT accident"
Answer: David Jefferies, one of the legends in Isle of Man TT history, was killed in 2003 practice at Crosby. Dave was the first guy to lap the TT Mountain course in under 18 minutes, and was a multiple-TT winner. The accident itself was caused by oil on the road left by a preceding bike, which was controversially not flagged by marshalls. Dave hit a utility pole at 160mph, which then fell down leaving wires strung across the track. Jim Moodie was the next rider through, and he was caught by the wires and came off his bike. Thankfully Moodie sustained only minor injuries.

Search: "FIM World Superbike torrent"
Answer: Send me an email if you're looking for racing torrents.

Search: "Has Max Biaggi secure any ride in 2007"
Answer: No, although apparently he played around in the Italian GT championship last month in a Camel-sponsored Viper. He may yet beat Rossi to a career on four wheels.

Search: "Who's fastest at Laguna Seca?"
Answer: Fastest at what? I know that I was faster walking up the hill than the three people I went with on Sunday. My friend Jaime was faster at eating his lunch than just about anyone else I saw. Anyone on a bike was faster at leaving the track than anyone in a car....

Search: "V8 supercar illegal test"
Answer: You've got me there, not sure what this is about. There is a great forum on V8 Supercars over at www.ten-tenths.com so you may find some answers there.

That's just a few of the searches. If you get here from a search, leave me a comment if you didn't find what you were after.

A tale of four champions

I do my best here to pay equal attention to cars and motorcycles, so I'll admit it's unusual for me to post about bikes twice in one day.

However, after watching coverage of this weekend's British Superbike races from Oulton Park it got me thinking about how the champions of the top four motorcycle road-racing series in 2005 are having a rough time of it in 2006.

Arguably the guy who's had it worst is Valentino Rossi in the MotoGP championship. He fell off at the very first corner of the very first race, as a result of a poor qualifying effot. When you're that far back on the grid you're always more likely to be involved in a first corner melee. Things didn't get much better after that. A series of poor results were variously attributed to the new frame on his Yamaha M1 and the new wider-profile Michelin tyres. Worst was yet to come as Vale crashed in France and broke his wrist, which had still not fully healed by Assen. Most recently, the hot weather at the US Grand Prix destroyed his tyre, causing him to slow enough to cook his engine. He now finds himself 51 points behind series leader Nicky Hayden, and (by his own admission) no chance of catching him.

Also in difficulties from the get-go was World Superbike champ Troy Corser. His main problem? Plainly put, it's his countryman Troy Bayliss, who returned to the series after three average years in MotoGP. Bayliss was immediately on the pace, and it didn't help that other contenders such as Nori Haga, James Toseland and team-mate Yukio Kagayama were all on-form. A bad race for Bayliss in Australia seemed to redress the balance a bit, but in race two Corser high-sided and was run over by Alex Barros. Corser continued on the defensive, and ended up crashing at Silverstone and Mugello. Even when Bayliss had another bad weekend, just a few days ago in Brno, Corser was unable to capitalize. In a perfect display of "kicking a man when he's down" Italian newcomer Michel Fabrizio stole a certain podium spot in race two with a very stout barging move at the last corner.

Mat Mladin knew that 2006 would see team-mate Ben Spies much stronger in the AMA US Superbike championship, but a sneaky win at the first race somehow tricked everyone into thinking Mladin still had the measure of the lanky young Texan. Alas, the tables turned, and turned fast, when Spies took both wins at the next round in Fontana on the way to a 6-race win streak. Mladin managed to pull things back a bit in Road America, but was helped by a red flag situation that erased a 6-second lead built up by Spies. Even when Spies failed to win at Miller, it wasn't because Mladin won it - Honda rider Jake Zemke was the interloper. At last weekend's one-race event at real-world furnace of Hades, Laguna Seca, Mladin couldn't even stay with the previously struggling Ducatis, Kawasakis and Hondas.

About the only guy who's had anything to cheer about has been Gregorio Lavilla in the afore-mentioned British Superbike series. Despite allowing Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari, 2005 runner-up, the first win at a soaking Brands Hatch, Lavilla went on to dominate the first half of the season. Kiyo and Lavilla's Ducati team-mate Leon "Pocket Rocket" Haslam (son of "Rocket" Ron Haslam) both hung tough, racking up points with some solid podiums. This put them in a good place for when Lavilla's season went down the toilet. Lavilla crashed at Snetterton and Knockhill, and had a clutch failure last weekend at Oulton Park: three zero points finishes whilst Haslam and Kiyo grabbed a bagful of points.

The good news in all of this is that we have some close championships and possible new championship winners in all four series. That's good for racing, after a somewhat dull 2005 in which Rossi, Corser and Mladin ran away with it and Lavilla turned things around mid-season and then took off into the sunset.

Reflections on MotoGP here in the US

Now that I've had three days to recover from maybe the hottest day I've ever experienced, I feel my brain has safely un-addled itself enough to string together a sentence or two...

Man, was that HOT!?!?

I drove down to Laguna Seca on Friday morning with my father, who had never seen MotoGP bikes before, and we got to sample Laguna's new traffic solution, a huge offsite parking lot and a fleet of shuttle buses. It worked wonderfully on the way in, with no jams getting into the parking lot and no lines for the bus. We were very quickly at the track watching the AMA Superbike guys warming-up. I couldn't detect any aural evidence of the Ducatis using traction control, but of course that doesn't mean they weren't....

We chose turns 5 and 6 as our locations for MotoGP warm-up, which started half an hour late at 10:30am. By then it was already warm. Turn 6 in particular was a great spot, and we've enjoyed many an hour there in the past. Last year we never really saw much of it for one reason or another. Check out this pic of Valentino Rossi I got (not bad for a 3.2-megapixel point and shoot digital camera)

All in all, Friday was a great day. It didn't feel like there were 45,000 people there, as reported by the track. In fact, it seemed no more crowded than an ALMS raceday. The shuttle to get out was also very easy, and there was no traffic on Highway 1.

Sunday also promised much, with another easy trip into the track. This time we were with a couple of friends, neither of whom follow motorcycle racing and only one of whom actually rides. It wasn't long before we found out that all morning on-track activity was postponed until after the MotoGP race at 2pm, except for MotoGP warm-up. So once again it was up to turn 6, where our friends were blown away by the spectacle. But then it was a good three hours before the race. A trip around the corkscrew, a visit to a friend in the campsite and watching the riders parade around in the back of Mazda Miatas couldn't distract us from the searing heat - we were guzzling our water (after paying $4 per bottle on Friday we brought our own this time).

Another lesson learned from last year: eat at Ducati Island - they have the best food. After our tasty lunch we found a spot above turn 2 to watch the race from. There's plenty of reports elsewhere on the web about what actually happened, but suffice to say it was terrific and exciting, especially with Nicky Hayden bagging his second Laguna win and extending his points lead.

Now came a couple of AMA warm-up sessions followed by their races. In order to avoid the post-MotoGP crowd we opted to stick around for the Supersport race which ended up being quite exciting, bar Jamie Hacking's dominance. We then headed for the buses. This was where things started to go sour. The lines were HUGE! And what was worse was that they appeared to be completely static. Given the attendance figures that were published afterwards that indicated only a small difference in attendance between all three days, it seems as though something specific caused Sunday's problems. I've heard rumours about over-zealous police officers not allowing buses to turn left as they left the parking area for the track and having to go 10 miles in the wrong direction just to turn around. Just a rumour, mind you. Interestingly enough the people behind us were from England and told scary stories of trying to leave Donington, which is apparently much worse. I certainly remember traffic at the Group C race there in 1990, as well as at Monsters of Rock in 1994.

All in all, it was better than last year, but it sounds as though those on bikes came off best. So next year it's back to two wheels. Hopefully it won't be 105 degrees either....

Comments for all

I've just changed the settings for this blog - now anyone can comment, even if they don't have a Blogger account. However, to combat inevitable spam, I've turned on word verification.

AMA Legalizes Traction Control

I should quickly note that the AMA has legalized traction control in its Superbike and Formula Xtreme classes (e.g. modified classes). It remains illegal in Superstock and Supersport classes unless the system uses stock sensors.

I'm generally against traction control in production-based motorcycle racing, as I've mentioned before, so on the hand I'm not pleased with this decision. However, it brings the AMA in line with the World and British Superbike championships, and finally levels the playing field between the factory entries. I have no doubt that Suzuki has been using traction control whilst Ducati haven't. If I'm right, we should expect to start seeing Neil Hodgson and Ben Bostrom running much closer to the front. They could in theory run the system this weekend at Laguna Seca if the lads in Italy get to Fed-Ex on time. More likely is that they'll test with it first and use it at Mid-Ohio. It's obvious that the 999 can run with the 4-cylinder bikes if it has traction control - just look at Greg Lavilla in BSB and Troy Bayliss in WSBK.

Weekend wrap-up

To be honest, I haven't gotten hold of the MotorsTV coverage of the Le Mans Series race from the Nurburgring, so can't yet comment on that (although I heard it was a cracker). I just got the BTCC race from Croft as well as the British Superbikes from Knockhill, so hopefully will get a chance to watch them later today.

What I DID see was MotoGP from the Sachsenring, and it was spectacular. Many pundits are saying that it was one of Valentino Rossi's finest rides, but to me it seemed no different to any of the other methodical, workmanlike victories he's secured in the past. The main thing that separates this one would be simply that he's coming from a position of weakness at the moment. Having said that, it appears as though his crew chief Jeremy Burgess once again solved some setup problems at the last minute, and that the Yamaha is finally coming good (after returning to the 2005 frame).

Behind Rossi, Marco Melandri once again showed another of his sporadic flashes of brilliance. If he could get some consistency together he'd certainly be much closer to the top of the championship, if not on it. There's no reason to believe he's any less talented than the other three guys he was fighting with in Germany. Meanwhile, Dani Pedrosa again showed that he's stupidly quick but lacks the chutzpah and experience when it counts. Dani does well when everything is working for him, but I've yet to see him ride around problems, and he invariably loses out in scrappy dogfights. That will undoubtedly change as time goes by and he'll certainly grab the title in the next two or three years.

Finally, Nicky Hayden did what he needed to do, as usual, but is finding himself increasingly backed into a corner whereby he has to ride for points, not wins. With a one race cushion he can just about afford to do that, but one mechanical DNF, a string of victories by Rossi, Pedrosa or Melandri or even another Donington-style poor weekend will put him back in the pack, and he'll have no choice but to start taking risks. I suspect Nicky doesn't like doing that, so the next few races will be a real test of his fortitude.

I'll see for myself on Friday when I head to Laguna Seca to watch these guys up close.

Over in American Le Mans, lots of things happened but once again CBS's coverage was so bad I struggled to keep up with what was going on. The jerky, stop-start, commercial-ridden, special-features-heavy broadcast was pretty much unwatchable, so I did just that... switched it off. This was perhaps the first time I've ever stopped watching a race on TV because the coverage was so staggeringly awful. Apparently it was a close one with the Penske Porsches closing down the leading Audi in the last hour, whilst the Aston Martins finally pulled a 1-2 over the heavily-handicapped Corvettes. It must be said that I'm not a Corvette fan, after their unforgivable parking of the cars with a huge lead during the 2001 Le Mans 24 Hours, but I do feel that they've achieved their success lately by simply being better. To handicap them until they're no longer the best seems a tad unfair.

Finally, Formula 1 in France.... I generally don't cover F1, especially because there's so many good F1 blogs out there (linky to the right ---->) so I'm just going to say that it's nice to see Schumacher working his way back into the championship. It would be great to see it go down to the final race. I think that would be good for Formula 1, a sport that is generally one of the more dull forms of racing.

Midweek preview time

Formula 1 visits France sans Juan Pablo Montoya, so Pedro de la Rosa gets another go. I hope he enjoys it because in two weeks time we should expect to see either Lewis Hamilton or Gary Paffett in that seat. That would be great for British motor racing, and might convince me to watch another F1 race. After the string of Alonso victories I'm just too bored to watch anymore.

For the final MotoGP race before we get to see them in the flesh at Laguna Seca, the circus visits the Sachsenring in Germany. It's such an odd circuit, but makes for some tasty racing (think back to Sete Gibernau's last corner pass on Valentino back in 2003). If all goes according to plan, Colin Edwards will get his first MotoGP win, and Nicky Hayden will gather more points than Dani Pedrosa. What would suck would be another Colin Edwards 9th place run, Nicky Hayden crashing out and Rossi, Pedrosa and Melandri on the podium. Whatever happens, Nicky is guaranteed to arrive at Laguna with the championship lead, which can't be bad.

Both Le Mans series are racing this weekend, at Nurburgring in Germany and Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. The LMS is certainly the more wide-open series, despite the relative dominance of the Pescarolo team thus far. An added bonus is that the Zytek will be running with some top-shelf drivers, Stefan Johanssen and Hideki Noda, and although it probably won't challenge for the win, should be good for another podium. In GT1, we'll see whether the Oreca Saleens will continue to be dominant - if so, they can expect handicapping, similar to what happened to Zakspeed Saleen in FIA GT.

Over here, the ALMS continues to suffer with smallish grids. Despite a couple of new arrivals this time, the accident between the BK Mazda and one of the Risi Ferraris at Lime Rock has prevented both cars from racing at Miller. It looks like we can only really expect decent grids at Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca (which isn't too bad for those of us living near either track!).

Back in the homeland, the British Superbikes and British Touring Cars are both racing this weekend. What this means is that I need to get my ass in gear and watch the last round of the BTCC. In BSB, despite an air of dominance from Greg Lavilla, it's still tremendously close racing, and there's no doubt that these guys are really, really serious. For me, Leon Haslam has to be the star. In the tradition of Chris Walker, he's a Brit who is visibly aggressive on the bike and never, ever gives up. He deserves a win, and hopefully he'll get it this weekend.

Montoya moves to NASCAR - why???

I was discussing with my partner last night what could possibly have motivated Juan-Pablo Montoya to leave Formula 1 for a ride with Chip Ganassi's NASCAR team. She wasn't suprised to see him leaving F1, with his pretty dismal record of late, but was surprised that he should go to NASCAR, putting forward sportscar racing as a suitable alternative.

But the fact is that the only other circuit racing series that rivals F1 in terms of TV coverage, sponsorship dollars and pure fan following is NASCAR. JPM is not about to take a big paycut, nor reduce his high profile, so really his options were limited.

ChampCar and IRL don't offer the level of competition, paychecks and exposure that NASCAR does, and plumping for NASCAR doesn't necessarily preclude Montoya from jumping into sportscar racing at some point in the future. There's very few high-paying rides in sportscar racing (Audi, Corvette, Aston, Porsche come to mind), and a comparatively small number of races each year (a driver wishing to run as many ALMS and LMS races as possible this year would at most race 15 times during 2005).

So as you can see, JPM didn't really have too many choices given his requirements, and I for one would love to see a road racing guy jump into stock car racing and kick very large amounts of ass (search this blog for "Marcos Ambrose"....)

ALMS rumour-mongering

There's some interesting sportscar rumours to be found over at the new blog of Murphy, the former Dailysportscar.com rumour bear. He's one of many talking about how Lister is moving to GT1 next year with a mystery partner with deep pockets. His comments on GT2S revolve around the continued non-arrival of Lexus, as well as what PTG will be doing next year (probably not racing their aged M3s...)

Funnily enough he hints that the Zytek chassis on its way to the US is not hybridized. This would point to it either being a full LMP1 chassis that hasn't yet raced or the chassis that belonged to Jota last year (which stays legal in ALMS this year). I was under the impression that Jota sold that car to Creation to form the basis of their second CA06H, and that the only car Zytek currently has is the 06S that ran at Le Mans. I see no reason why that wouldn't be the car to be campaigned in ALMS this year, but maybe Murphy knows something I don't.

There's continual gossip regarding who's running those Acura LMP2 cars next year. Despite the persistant rumours that up to three current IRL or ChampCar teams will be involved, the lack of certainty regarding the future for BOTH those series means that owners can't really commit to sportscar racing yet. Team Rahal, Andretti-Green, Newman-Haas and Fernandez Racing have all been mentioned. Although a separate sportscar effort for any of these teams would require significant resources, I'm sure that Honda will be able to help the teams find the money they need. After all, it's in Honda's best interests to have top-drawer professional teams running their four cars.

The WTCC - more fun than you think

Although I frequently claim to be a fan of touring cars, when it comes down to it I often lack the follow-through. It is definitely true that I think V8 Supercar racing is the business and that the DTM is great fun (provided the commentary is not from Milt Fitzwater, a man so boring he turned me off the series for two seasons on Speed TV). But honestly, V8 supercars are no more touring cars than NASCAR "stock" cars. DTM entries, like the Japanese SuperGT machines, are essentially built to "silhouette" rules - what's under the skin bears absolutely NO resemblance to their road-going cousins. They all use the same tranny and all have V8 engines regardless of whether the road car does or not. Hell, Audi refused to take part for the longest time because they were required to run rear-wheel-drive. When was the last time you heard of a RWD Audi?

The bottom line is that there are really only three true touring car championships in top flight motorsport: the British Touring Car Championship, the World Touring Car Championship and the Speed World Challenge Touring Class. Today I watched the WTCC - not the latest round from Brazil, but the previous one from Germany. Why so late? Well, I tend not to be motivated to watch any of the "smaller" touring car series. But when I actually do get around to it, guess what? That is some DAMN GREAT RACING! Door-banging, love-tapping, wheel-spinning action from start to finish. By the end of race two, the top six guys in the championship were separated by just three points!!! You don't usually see the cynical nudges that send a car around like in V8s, and these cars look a bloody handful to drive, unlike the uber-downforce, stuck-to-the-track stance of DTM. It helps that the coverage I get is from Eurosport, which has better picture quality than MotorsTV. An extra bonus is that it has Martin Haven and David Leslie commentating, one of the best TV racing commentary teams in the business (second only to Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish on the BBC coverage of MotoGP I reckon).

I still have the last round of the BTCC to watch, along with the Brazil round of the WTCC and, returning my attention to sportscars, the German FIA GT race. Now if only the World Cup and Tour de France would hurry up and finish I might get some time to watch racing...

Amazing

My spreadsheet of racing calendars shows NO events this weekend. That's right, none. No sportscar racing, no bike racing, no F1, no rallies, no touring cars, nada. How weird.

Gives me time to catch up a bit on last weekend's fun.

WRC makes some big changes

The biggest piece of news to come from the FIA's World Motor Sport Council meeting today is the replacement of three events on the calendar with three of the six candidate rallies that have run this year under FIA scrutiny. So we say goodbye to Cyprus, Turkey and Australia and hello to Ireland, Norway and Portugal.

What are we losing? Well, it has to be said that Cyprus and Turkey are very similar to the Acropolis event and have run in the past as successive events. Many team managers were calling for the removal of Cyprus because it always did major damage to cars and generally cost more in repairs than any other WRC event. I give the FIA 10 points for getting rid of this one.

Turkey is a newer event, so maybe deserved a bit more of a chance to prove itself. Of the three Eastern Mediterranean rallies, this was the fastest and most diverse, with major elevation changes accounting for occasionally unpredictable weather.

Australia is a very unique event, and in conjunction with New Zealand justifies the travel expense for teams to go Down Under. By removing one of these events it makes the per-rally travel costs for NZ go through the roof. I don't feel one can survive without the other. However the real problem for Oz is local. A well-publicized brou-ha-ha between the sport's sanctioning body in Australia and the government of Western Australia (which plays a big role in promoting the event) has put the whole thing in jeapordy. The FIA probably picked up on this and decided to drop Rally Australia until it can get itself sorted out. I'm sad to see it go, since the landscape and roads are so very different to every other WRC rally.

The best news to come out of the calendar changes is the arrival of a second snow event, this time in Norway. I saw a 7-minute review of the '06 Rally Norway and they certainly weren't short of the white stuff, unlike the Swedish which has struggled in recent years to provide the depth of snow and solid snowbanks necessary. Sweden and Norway will run on successive weekends, allowing snow-rally fanatics to get more out of a rally vacation to Scandinavia. Whether it will impact attendance at the Swedish Rally, with Norwegians choosing to stay home for their own event, remains to be seen. One final item of note is that Delta Airlines has direct flights daily from here in San Francisco to Copenhagen, which itself is now connected to Sweden by the Oresund Link, a combined road/rail bridge/tunnel. How easy is it to go see some WRC snow rallies now? Almost too easy....

The ejection of three gravel events makes way for a snow rally, a gravel rally and another tarmac rally, in the form of Rally Ireland. This reflects a growing diversity in tarmac events in the WRC, from the cracked twisty pavement of Corsica to the smooth, fast roads of Catalunya to the multiple surfaces of Germany. This is a good thing indeed. The Irish stages most resemble the parts of the German event that are not in the vineyards or the army bases - tight, twisty, damp and with poor visibility. It will be a true test of the drivers, and a continuation of the Irish heritage of motor racing on its own roads.

The final new event is actually not new at all. Rally Portugal was part of the championship up until 2001, but must continue to live with its bad reputation for crowd control. Hopefully things have changed for the better. This rally is probably most equivalent to the Turkey event, so questions will undoubtedly be raised as to which is actually the better rally. Being English I'm required to hate everything Portugese at the moment, so I'm going to have to say that I disagree with Portugal's inclusion in the calendar. Actually, that's the truth - I see no reason why it should be back in the Championship, especially with its history of spectator fatalities.

Another racing movie coming out

How cool is this?: The Doctor, the Tornado and the Kentucky Kid, a documentary by Mark Neale. He's the guy who did Faster. It's about last year's inaugural US MotoGP event at Laguna Seca.

Cheats

As the cycling world is rocked to its foundations with yet another huge doping scandal the day before the Tour de France begins, it got me thinking about why we don't often see widespread cheating in motorsport.

Although physical fitness is an absolute necessity in motor racing, especially of the two-wheeled variety, the level of fitness required can be attained without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Now if someone was to come up with a drug that sharpened hand-eye coordination, improved the brain's ability to understand balance and g-forces or diminished a competitor's propensity for fear we might have to be more alert to this issue.

It should be noted that Noriyuki Haga lost the 2000 World Superbike championship due to points deducted for testing positive for ephedrine, a drug that assists with weight loss. In a sport where millions of dollars are invested to save mere ounces from machinery it's understandable that weight loss drugs might be appealing to riders who suffer from "slow metabolism" - hence the continued need for routine drug tests in motorsport.

The area where cheating is most common in racing is inevitably vehicle preparation. This kind of cheating is rife throughout the sport from the lowest levels to the very top. I've been to, and competed in, rallies where we knew for a fact that other competitors in our class were using non-regulation technology. In Rally America's Production GT class, designed for essentially stock turbo or 4WD cars, engine management systems with anti-lag devices, non-stock gear ratios, missing safety equipment (removed for weight reasons) and even illegal restrictors are commonplace. It's not unheard of for a car to pass through tech, have it's restrictor measured, then return to wherever the car is staying prior to the event and have the restrictor changed again. During the final service, the crew will swap out the illegal restrictor for a legal one in order to pass post-race tech. The solution to this of course is a Parc Ferme for cars after they pass through tech - something that would require extra resources such as space and manpower to initiate, which RA can't really spare.

If regional rally teams that aren't relying on prize money are getting up to these kind of tricks, imagine the lengths that professional racing teams are going to in order to gain an advantage! The highly publicized example in NASCAR at this year's Daytona 500 is a great example. Crew chief Chad Knaus had added a device that altered the height of the rear window of Jimmie Johnson's car to gain an aerodynamic advantage. A 2-race suspension and $35,000 fine seemed appropriate, until you realize that the team probably paid the fine, and Knaus would still be able to help direct the team's progress from offiste via cellphone, instant messanging or other technology.

The only real solution to these kinds of infractions should be informed by the approach that cycling organizations employ: extreme, draconian penalties. If the punishment is harsh enough, people won't cheat. In cycling, if you're caught cheating you get an instant two-year ban. Now that's a stiff punishment! Kudos to Formula 1 for handing down a two-race ban last year to BAR for fuel tank infractions. The cost to them through lost TV revenue and sponsorship income was substantial, and I'd like to see the rest of motorsport take cheating as seriously.

So, to answer my own question, why we don't see cheating in racing, I believe that it's simply because it is neither caught nor enforced often enough. The fact we don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there, and I'm sorry to say that motorsport is no cleaner than any other kind of sport. Bummer.

British Superbike Administrivia

I need to take back a portion of my complaint about the AMA's rules regarding red flags in the US Superbike championship. Turns out that the British Superbike championship does the same thing now e.g. use the results prior to the red flag to set the grid for the restart instead of banking the time gaps. Very silly, and cost Leon Haslam the race at Snetterton after he made a bad start after a red flag in race 2.

Also from Snetterton, James Haydon and Dean Thomas had a very nasty crash in which Haydon, who had missed the chicane, rejoined the track at low speed and was absolutely creamed by Dean Thomas' Kawasaki. Very, very ugly, and gave Thomas a punctured lung and broken ribs, whilst James re-injured his rotator cuff and also broke a rib. Sorry lads, get well soon.

F1 makes up with the US, and more

It was a year ago that the US Grand Prix debacle occurred, and it was probably the most shameful episode that the sport has ever seen. With a field of only six cars, four of which were the slowest F1 cars that season, fans had every right to be upset. What makes it worse is that their class-action lawsuit has been thrown out, making for one more blow to F1 in the USA. For me, the biggest loser that weekend was the public perception of road-course racing. I don't really care about F1's status here because to be honest it's kind of a silly genre of racing. But when the public equates "racing" exclusively with NASCAR, we know that any racing in the US that involves one or more right turns is facing a PR struggle.

This weekend, F1 returns to Indy, and they'd better do a much better job this year...

On a happier US racing note, ALMS is back in action at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. Quite why ALMS chooses to race on a track with sub-one minute laps is beyond me, but they've been at it for years. The most noteworthy event will be the final outing for the Audi R8, before the Le Mans-winning R10s return for the next round at the Miller dustbowl. Due to the smallness of Lime Rock, those mean yellow Porsche LMP2s might well be in with a shout again. Odds are that the Dyson Lolas, the other main team with a shot at winning, won't...

Once again the planets have aligned to have three touring car series racing on the same weekend, in this case V8 Supercars in Oz, DTM at Brands Hatch and the WTCC in Brazil. This makes for a lot of downloading for me and a lot of sitting in front of the PC over the next few days. Woe is me.

The V8s are at Hidden Valley near Darwin. I'm a big fan of this track, partly because it's one of the most isolated tracks in the world and partly because it gets damn hot, making for silly mistakes from drivers, and lots of ensuing action. The V8 season continues to be highly unpredictable, so let me predict a winner... I'll have to say Todd Kelly, Mark Skaife's team-mate in the Holden Racing Team. Poor ole Todd's had some bad luck lately, especially at Barbagallo where he had not one, not two but three gearbox failures, two of which involved the whole gearstick coming off in his hand! Bizarre...

The WTCC makes the first of it's Western hemisphere visits, at Curitiba in Brazil. This is a new track for the WTCC lads, so it's unclear as to who will have the best form. One thing's for sure - they'll not want to cause too much damage to the cars since they'll not be returning to their shops in Europe before the next event in Mexico.

The DTM makes its first visit to Brands Hatch, a tantalizing prospect! It's a great track, and those cars are seriously quick. In the "isn't that funny" department, ex F1 world champ Damon Hill had a go in a Mercedes DTM car at the recent test at Brands. Although he enjoyed it, he made clear that his recent appointment as chair of the BRDC, the organization that runs the British GP, will limit his ability to get back into racing. Not to worry Damon, at least you can still play your "rock music", you long-haired aging rocker you.

The other notable race this weekend is FIA GT at Oschersleben in Germany. The GT commission has made some performance adjustments, so just as the Saleens were getting quick again, they've been smacked with a rear wing reduction. This same measure in Le Mans Series racing a few years back saw them shuffled to the "also-ran" category, so hopefully that won't happen here. I'm sure that those in charge of the series are eager to see some Astons at the front, but despite performance handicapping in other series (e.g. ALMS) it hasn't helped. Something is stopping the Aston DBR9 from winning, and I'd love to know what it is. Interestingly, those unfortunate folks at the Italian BMS Aston team have three cars, so even though they removed a couple of corners from one at Le Mans, they still have two fresh and shiny cars to run this weekend.

Colin v Nicky rematch

Thankfully my damaged arm seems to be healing enough to allow me to finally write another post, and not a moment too soon since we have a nice chunky weekend of racing ahead!

Although some of my favourite racing is happening this weekend including V8 Supercars and American Le Mans, I'd lying if I said I wasn't most excited about the MotoGP race at Donington in the UK. I have to say that last Saturday's Assen TT was one of the most nailbiting races I have ever watched, and that's not the first time I've said that this year about a MotoGP race. Despite the smaller grid this year, the MotoGP boys are really making a show of it, and best of all we have Nicky Hayden sitting right on top of the championship table! The last lap dogfight between himself and fellow "first European MotoGP victory"-seeking American Colin Edwards was mindblowing! You can't help but feel sorry for poor old Col' who lost the race and his first ever MotoGP win by falling at the very last corner.

So it's time for a rematch between the Texan Tornado and the Kentucky Kid, assuming that Valentino Rossi and real-life Oompa Loompa Loris Capirossi are still not fit. Colin goes well at Donington, and he'll be hungry for revenge. However, Nicky will have gotten his first non-Laguna win, and will be looking to consolidate his 42-point lead in the championship. A win is less of a big deal to Nicky now. If Col can get his bike working well, he might FINALLY get that win, which he definitely deserves. Anyone who saw his scraps with Troy Bayliss in WSBK at Imola in 2002 will never, ever question the man's ability to win world championship races.

To make things extra-exciting I ordered my tickets for the Laguna MotoGP race last week, so it's nice to finally be certain that I'm going this year.

Preview of this weekend's 4-wheel racing will follow tomorrow.

Something cool about NASCAR

Will Ferrell plays a NASCAR driver in "Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby". Said to be the "Anchorman" of NASCAR. Probably the best thing to look forward to is Ali G creator Sascha Baron Cohen playing a gay French Formula 1 driver....

Crash

I regularly mention crashes in this blog. Yesterday I had one of my own as my bicycle's front wheel got caught in a train track, and I managed to do some decent damage to my elbow. Needless to say typing is tough right now, so it may be a few days before I can get back to my usual quality posts...

Motorsport Press Release of the Year

Goes to....

DR. CLAUDIO COSTA of the MotoGP Clinica Mobile (Mobile Hospital), for this update on the condition of the three riders injured at the start of Sunday's race:

This morning, Loris Capirossi left the Catalunya General Hospital with a smile on his lips, despite still suffering pains to his chest and abdomen and with bruises all over his body after the battle that he had to fight the day before, at the MotoGP race start.

That smile symbolically lights up the road that goes from Barcelona to Assen: on the Dutch circuit surround by green fields, Capirossi will ride his Desmosedici again in just a few days, and will once again be chasing his dreams.

Marco Melandri is still hospitalised in the same clinic, in a room in the Intensive Care department. The early diagnosis of head injury was fortunately modified to concussion after the hospital scans: concussion means no damage to the brain, just amnesia.

Marco could not remember anything after the accident. His memory is coming back now, although he can only remember what happened until just before the start of that fateful race. His left clavicle dislocation is less serious than we had first thought; his arm muscular stretching is luckily only mild. Marco is still suffering a lot of pain in his neck region, after rebelling against the threat of paralysis. The rider is well treated by the Spanish doctors, gathered around his bed like priests around the altar where Marco is celebrating his own resurrection.

Yesterday, the gods that had allowed a terrible accident to happen had also foreseen that the 3 riders would be able to use the resources hidden in the hearts of all human beings. Perhaps, the gods are not entirely malevolent. And they always spare a look from above for motorcyclists, who love to play chess against risk, danger and death, and during this troubling game, even manage to smile to the lady in black.

Reflections on Le Mans 2006

There's full-blown race-reports in many other places on the web, so it would be silly for me to try to wrap up 24 hours of racing in a humble blog. There are however a few things I must comment on about this weekend's 24 Heures du Mans...

Although I didn't necessarily want to see Audi win (again) the fact that they did will almost certainly have far-reaching consequences. In September the US is scheduled to tighten up diesel regulations, reducing sulphur content and making for cleaner fuel. In anticipation of this, many car manufacturers are readying their most technologically advanced diesel engines for the US retail market. Audi is one such company. The fact that they can advertise that their US-market diesel cars share the same engine technology as this year's Le Mans winner will certainly be a boost both for credibility and sales. And if Audi can kick-start new-generation diesel sales in the US, it will help others. A healthy rebirth of the diesel in the US market is obviously a very positive thing most notably for the air we all breathe, so I'm not underestimating the importance of what happened at Le Sarthe this weekend.

Prior to the race, the ACO announced that starting in 2010, LMP1 cars would be required to have a roof. Their motivation to do this is that coupes are easier for the public to relate to. I'm pleased that roofed prototypes will be returning to the Le Mans. Some of my favourite cars are from that breed: the Porsche 962, Jag XJR9, Porsche GT1 and Toyota GT1 for example. LMP2 will apparently stay open-topped. The good news is that the rule change is far enough away for manufacturers to prepare for it and not be upset about having to change any plans.

As for the race itself, I was surprised at how the LMP1 field completely fell apart. The expected "best non-Audi-or-Pescarolo" battle never really materialized and only the Zytek came even remotely close. The factory Courage effort in particular ended up being very weak, out-paced by the privateer Swiss Spirit Courage.

LMP2 was again a last-man standing-battle, but delivered three of the most spectacular moments of the race, including a Courage blowout at 180mph that destroyed the car in 6 distinct steps that all occurred in the space of about 8 seconds, and left a "Back to the Future"-style trail of fire in the grass. The other two moments involved the WR, firstly as it became airborne at the Ford chicane on Saturday and secondly as it burned to the ground on Sunday morning.

GT1 once again found its leaders challenging for overall podium positions. They are certainly more reliable than the prototype cars, and that counts for a lot over 24 hours. It was a tremendous shame that the Aston relinquished the lead with less than two hours to go. Of note in GT1 is the longevity of the Lamborghini. Many of the people on the 10/10ths forum predicted it would be the first retirement. It ended up being closer to the 20th retirement! A nice job by a really lovely car.

GT2 was a dogfight and served up some typical final hour drama. The Seikel Porsche looked set to take the win, but gearbox woes allowed the LNT Panoz to catch it with 30 minutes remaining.

Le Mans typically unfolds in a similar pattern. Saturday daylight hours are generally frenetic, and every drama seems more important. An extra minute in the pits means a lot more on Saturday than it does on Sunday when gaps are measured in laps not minutes. This makes for an exciting first 6 hours. This year was no different. Then night-time kicks in, and the pattern of survival comes to the fore. The air of mystery makes for compelling watching, as serious problems start to show themselves in this part of the race. By dawn on Sunday, things are settled down, and the 8am-2pm period is the one I find to be the dullest. In the US, this is 11pm to 3am, a time when your body is wanting to go to bed. Then, with two hours to go, urgency kicks in. Teams who are still strong start to calculate whether they can make up the two laps to the next car, whilst teams with issues are trying to get the car to the end. Unfortunately by now, most American viewers have gone to bed, me included. After waking up, we usually watch the video recording of the final hours, which means no Radio Le Mans and no live scoring. In future, we may plan to hit the hay at midnight and get up at 4am, to catch the final hours live. That, or get some Red Bull. We'll have to wait till 2008 to try it out, since next year we will be at the track...

Rant about AMA restarts

In European and world motorcycle racing, gaps between bikes are "banked" in a red flag scenario. The times of the pre-red-flag segment are added to the times of the post-red-flag segment, to determine the winner. This is the fairest way of doing it, but can be confusing for the fans, especially if the guy who takes the chequered flag first isn't the actual winner.

In the US, positions pre-red-flag determine only grid positions for the restart. If you're worked hard to get a 5-second lead, it's all for nothing. Yes, you can change tyres and make other changes between racing, but to me that's still very unfair.

I implore the AMA to adopt FIM rules for red-flags, including a parc ferme. I believe that a red flag indicates an interruption, not an end to racing, so everything should remain the same from the end of the last complete lap prior to the red flag.

Bank the time gaps and don't touch the bikes.

Bikes don't care about Le Mans

It should be noted that the AMA Superbike championship, MotoGP and the British Superbike Championship are all racing this weekend.

AMA will be at Miller Motorsports Park, a new track in desolate Utah that everyone's been raving about.

MotoGP is in bike-mad Spain at the Circuit de Catalunya. Catalans would probably argue that it isn't Spain, but I say it is, and it's my blog...

BSB is at Snetterton, one of those peculiar breed of British tracks developed from an old airfield. It's fast, REALLY fast.

Gonna be tough to bring myself to watch any of these after gorging on 4-wheel racing all weekend. Somehow I'll just have to get stuck in and do it!

Flag-waving

As the world chooses which teams to get behind in the World Cup, it seems fitting to point out which teams at Le Mans to cheer for depending on your nationality...

Britain: Aston Martin (British team and cars, one British driver)

Holland: Racing for Holland (Dutch team, Dutch owner/driver)

USA: Corvette (US team and car, one US driver)

France: Pescarolo (French team, car and drivers)

Denmark: Zytek (Danish sponsors and drivers)

Japan: Courage #13 (Japanese sponsor and two Japanese drivers)

Germany: Audi (German car and team, two German drivers)

Russia: Convers MenX (Russian team, one Russian driver)

Switzerland: Swiss Spirit (Swiss team and drivers)

Portugal: ASM Racing (Portugese team and two Portugese drivers)

Italy: BMS Scuderia Italia (Italian team and drivers)

Belgium: G Force (Belgian team and two Belgian drivers)

Le Mans Preview Part 4: GT2 - Porsche vs the rest

It's a bit of a case of been-there-done-that in GT2, with a whole raft of Porsches in this, the slower of the two GT classes. The difference this year is that the non-Porsche entrants are very strong, and could quite easily win.

On the Porsche side of the fence, there are two teams who stand out as clear favourites. From the US, Flying Lizard bring an RSR with a great driver team that includes factory Porsche driver Pat Long and the very fast Johannes Van Overbeek. The Lizards have great experience in the ALMS, and are my tip for the GT2 win.

Close behind them should be the French IMSA-Matmut team, run by driver/owner Raymond Narac. IMSA have gotten their hands on Pat Long's Penske Porsche team Romain Dumas, and have also bagged some factory support after a great year in 2005. Should the Lizards have any mishaps, you can bet these guys will be ready to pick up the pieces.

Elsewhere in Porsche world, we've got teams from Belgium, England, Japan and Germany along with additional entries from France and the USA. Some tidbits of info on each....

Gordon Racing (Belgium): Watch for the legendary Gulf colours on this car.

Sebah Automotive (UK): A solid pay-driver line-up that includes Dane Thorkild Thyrring and Christian Reid. This is the black and bright blue car.

T2M and Team Taisan ADVAN (Japan): A couple of teams from Japan running Yokohama tyres. They may do a little better if it rains. They are the only teams running the old GT3RS model. T2M are yellow and Taisan are black and red.

Seikel (Germany): Squeeked in from the reserve list. This is in fact the Farnbacher Porsche entered under the Seikel name. A rather anonymous white paintjob with "Maldives" sponsorship.

Petersen-White Lightning (USA): The Petersen entry has basically been "bought" by Tracy Krohn's team, hence the presence of Tracy and his regular team-mates Nic Jonnson and Jorg Bergmeister. Should be pretty fast, and Petersen have actually won GT2 in the past. White car with Krohn's traditional bright green flashes.

Noel Del Bello (France): Another white Porsche with a ChampCar champion Seb Bourdais' dad Patrick in the lineup.

Okay, that's the boring old Porsches out of the way. Who's taking the fight to them?

Most significant is the pair of Panoz entries, one from Multimatic (who build the racing versions of the car) and Team LNT from England. Panoz won their class at Sebring, so if they can hold together, they could definitely win, probably with the Multimatic entry.

Ferrari have one representative in GT2 from the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse team. The new F430 has proven to be very fast, albeit a tad fragile. In the FIA GT race at Silverstone, 3 of them retired with the very same failure, so hopefully they've got that fixed.

Finally, in the "isn't that odd" category, those strange Dutch Spykers are back, with two cars that now have roofs. This should help improve aero efficiency and therefore top speed, and the other big help for speed will be the remarkable group of drivers they have. Most notably the hugely experienced Tom Coronel has signed on, along with fellow Dutch touring car ace Jeroem Bleekemolen. Also, returning to Le Mans for the first time since his outrageous somersault in a Merc in 1999, is Peter Dumbreck. Dumbreck actually just won a Japanese SuperGT race a few weeks ago, so still has some good pace.

Le Mans Preview Part 3: The Quick GT cars

Derived from real road cars, the GT classes at Le Mans tend to be a bit easier for the average Joe to understand, and this year both GT divisions feature some very strong entries. Today I'm going to take a look at the GT1 class, where the really elegant, really fast cars are to be found.

Leading the way are two factory teams, Corvette and Aston Martin. Corvette has had the upper hand in the American Le Mans Series lately, partly due to Aston's insistence on using Pirelli tyres which are, quite frankly, no good. For Le Mans, Aston switches back to Michelin. Corvette won at Le Mans last year with their C6R, so Aston will be desperate to win this time out. Corvette have arguably the better driver line up with Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen, Max Papis, Ollie Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Ron Fellows. The stars in Aston's crew include Stephane Ortelli, Stephane Sarrazin, Tomas Enge and Darren Turner. Being British I can't help but root for the boys in green but I fear I may be disappointed again - Aston have the speed to win, but will probably fall down on reliability.

Behind the factory teams are some strong privateer efforts running Ferraris, Astons, a Corvette and a Saleen.

Russian Age Racing return with their Care Racing / Prodrive Ferrari 550, alongside a customer Aston Martin. British sportscar specialists Cirtek are running the team, although the mess of entities involved is confusing. The entries are in the name of Russian Age, since that's who was paying at the time entries opened. Since then, some of the Russian money has departed to the MenX team, allowing some room for British entrant Team Modena to take over the Russian Age Aston. Both cars are, and have always been, prepped and run by Cirtek. The bottom line is that Cirtek knows how to run an endurance race, the Ferrari has many years under its belt at Le Mans (this chassis, #3 of 10, has competed at Le Mans four times), and some of the drivers involved are very good indeed. The Aston looks strongest in this regard, with David Brabham, Nelson Piquet Jr. (son of the F1 legend) and top touring car driver Antonio Garcia.

The first Prodrive Ferrari 550, #1, was still being run, albeit not as competitively, until late last year by the Convers MenX team. For 2006 they've gotten hold of chassis #9, one of the newest 550s. This team is a combo of Convers Bank money that was with Russian Age last year, from Alexei Vasiliev, and Robert Pergl's Czech-sourced financing. It won't be a quick team, but it should make it to the end.

The third Ferrari in the field comes from French team Larbre. Already winners of the FIA GT championship in 2004 with this very car (chassis #8) and the Le Mans Series with an older 550, it was widely expected that they would enter their new Aston this year. Perhaps concerns over reliability convinced them to stick with the old Italian girl. They don't arrive with the strongest line-up, but should once again be there at the finish.

Larbre's main rival as top European GT1 privateer has always been BMS Scuderia Italia, who have also won the Le Mans series and the FIA GT championship. Unlike Larbre, BMS have opted to bring an Aston. They haven't performed particularly well in the first couple of FIA GT races of the season, and will find their Pirelli tyres a handicap. Luckily they have three extremely quick drivers: Christian Pescatori, Fabio Babini and Fabrizio Gollin. Expect retirement during the night...

The third Corvette in the field is an older C5R, from Luc Alphand Aventures. Luc is a former downhill skiing champ, and won the Dakar Rally this year - talk about an over-achiever! The C5 is actually better suited to Le Mans than the newer C6 due to its longer wheelbase and more aerodynamic body, but Luc will not be able to match the pace of the factory cars. He'll probably end up fighting for scraps with Larbre, BMS, Cirtek and......

Saleen! Finally we get to see a Saleen S7R back at Le Mans after two years without them. The ACEMCO team from the US might be the outside bet for a win in GT1. Saleens have already won their class in the Le Mans series this year, as well as an overall win in FIA GT, with the Oreca and Zakspeed teams respectively. If ACEMCO have access to the development parts that those two teams have, this will be one damn quick motor. As if a quick car isn't enough, they have one of the strongest driver rosters in the class including sportscar hotshots Terry Borcheller and Johnny Mowlem and a Fittipaldi, in this case Christian.

The lame duck entry in the class is the Japanese Lamborghini Owners Club entry, who bring one of the Murcielagos that they run in the Japanese Super GT championship. It's had its choking restrictors removed, and aero changed to conform to ACO regs, but has yet to run for 24 hours. Although Lambos are seen more frequently in GT racing these days, they still aren't even close in reliability in order to finish Le Mans. However, it does look the dogs bo***cks!!!