T-Minus and counting: Petit Le Mans

Have you been watching ALMS? Don’t lie. You haven’t. Well, GT2 is a blast. LMPs? Well, there’s a running theme there. Jon Field is faster than the Acuras by tons in straight lines, tries to take positions from better drivers, and goes off course and ruins his 2 year old Lola. Repeat over and over. Too bad, really. In better hands, we would have had a duel at Mosport.

But that’s okay: In a couple weeks, Audi, Peugeot, and one of the closed top Lola chassis with a Judd engine will be out there and, well, it won’t be pretty kids if you’re an Acura supporter.

 

Renault: Not how to lie

Pat Symonds (pictured above) was asked by the FIA as to whether or not he and Flavio asked Nelson Piquet Jr., the oft crappy driver they just let go, to crash his car and give the win to Alonso. Assuming this is true, you lie and say otherwise. If its untrue, you tell the truth. Instead, he states to the FIA that, in fact, there was a meeting and it was talked about. Oh, but you see, it was okay, because Nelson came up with it.

I suppose at least that Alonso won the Fuji GP on his own merit. But boy oh boy, that doesn’t look good.

 

Prelude to the Dream: TONIGHT

Did you forget about this? Tony Stewart is having a bunch of dudes from NASCAR and the NHRA (sorry IRL – no one cares about you) busting out in late models around Eldora. I forgot to see if Red Farmer is in it this year, but as long as he can breathe, I’m sure he is. I’ll wait for the replay on SPEED though.

 

Watching the IRL go down the tubes

I just got back from a vacation to Europe yesterday: Did you know they show WSBK qualifying live on Eurosport2? Really. But I’ve returned to see that Murphy the Bear’s claim that the state of the IRL was far worse than being reported seems to be coming true. Among the items:

-Vision Racing is having trouble finding sponsorship and money for next year. I repeat: VISION RACING.

-DirecTV really did end up dropping Versus. No one cares.

-Indycar owners want the 500 moved pronto and are making that clear. Chances someone will listen? Actually possible now.

-Grand-Am really will race at Indy, even if the tires are shit.

-Brazil’s track is picked, and its somewhere that has trees in the runoff area. Chances that race will really happen? Almost zero.

-Danica is leaving for Nationwide and will debut in a stock car in Daytona in ARCA.

-Bourdais shunned the IRL for SUPERLEAGUE FORMULA

In short, the IRL looks to be in absolute chaos at the moment, and probably in the death throes. I can see one more year.

 

NASCAR – Bobby Labonte Scrapes Further Down The Barrel

Oh dear.  The news that Bobby Labonte had been given the partial boot at the irrelevant Hall of Fame Racing wasn’t particularly a surprise seeing as how the team was struggling to find somebody to adorn their sidepods for many race days and that even with Labonte at the wheel, the team was still a shaky rung up from the start and parkers of the world.  Labonte’s replacement for seven races isn’t particularly offensive either.  Erik Darnell has certainly paid his dues on the lower rungs of NASCAR’s theoretical ladder system, although not being able to beat out David Ragan on a reality show isn’t exactly a glowing endorsement of driving talent.  But honestly, Darnell hasn’t embarrassed himself in Nationwide races for Roush this season.

Labonte on the other hand is really grasping for straws, agreeing to a seven race deal with start and park marvels, TRG, who have been fielding cars for David Gilliland throughout 2009.  Could TRG be interested in Labonte’s championship provisionals which guarantee them a spot in the field?  One thing’s for sure, it’s a sad fall for a man who was lifting the championship trophy less than a decade ago.

 

F1 – Shock! Awe! Fisichella Confirmed at Ferrari!

In what was pretty much the worst kept secret since the early portions of the season where Nelsinho was a dead man walking at Renault in favor of Romain Grosjean, Luca Badoer has gotten the chop at Ferrari after two unfathomably poor race weekends at Valencia and Spa.  With rumors on his replacement ranging from the intriguing (Alonso) to the odd (Kubica) to the laughable (Bourdais, Davidson), longtime Ferrari fanboy Giancarlo Fisichella picked a hell of a time to deliver the ride of his and Force India’s life.  Today, word dropped that Fisichella will be taking the newly vacant seat effective at Monza and will drop down to test driver for Scuderia beginning with next season.  Not a bad golden parachute for a chronic underachiever.

Taking his place at Force India will (probably) be Vitantonio Liuzzi, he of very limited success with Toro Rosso a few years ago.  What is it with guys getting a second chance in F1 these days?

 

F1 – Iceman Winneth At Spa

Kimi Räikkönen took the lead on lap 1 in Spa on Sunday and never looked back despite some creditable pressure from possibly Ferari bound Giancarlo Fisichella.  After winning a shock pole, Fisichella drove a good race to lock up Force India’s first points in Formula One.  Sebastien Vettel did well to get on the podium and shave six points off Jenson Button’s championship lead, while Rubens Barichello nursed home a wounded Brawn machine in seventh and claim a pair of championship points.

Button was the unlucky victim of the usual Spa stupidity in the opening laps, with rookie Romain Grosjean playing culprit in causing a first lap melee that also took out Jaime Alguersauri and Lewis Hamilton before one lap had even been properly run.  Also having a bad day were Jarno Trulli, whose first row starting spot meant little when the brakes on his Toyota failed near the halfway point and Fernando Alonso, whose Renault team had problems AGAIN with a wheel on a pit stop.

And poor, poor Luca Badoer.  Well off the pace and the last car running.  You have to feel for the guy, but honestly, he’s clearly out of his depth in a current F1 car.

 

GP2 – Parente, van der Garde Winners in Wild Spa Weekend

The eternally erratic Alvaro Parente finally came good for Ocean Racing Technology in the feature race of GP2’s weekend at Spa.  Parente managed to hold off the challenge of soon-to-be F1 pilot Nico Hulkenberg through a drama filled Saturday afternoon which featured multiple multi-car incidents and Hulkenberg’s only real championship rival, Vitaly Petrov, retire early due to engine failure.

Giedo van der Garde took advantage of the inversion for the Sunday sprint race, cruising to victory over Rodriguez and Nunes in a crazy race that saw eight cars retired before five laps had been completed.  This time it was Parente’s turn for engine woes, while Nico Hulkenberg was taken out in an early lap smash-up.  Vitaly Petrov didn’t make all that much ground up as he looked for a championship miracle, finishing seventeen seconds back in sixth place.

 

IndyCar – Briscoe Wins Foot to the Floor Fest in Chicago

Chicago Winner

Ryan Briscoe took another step towards the IndyCar Series title with a win in Joliet on Saturday night, the fourth closest finish in series history, beating Dario Franchitti to the line.  The “racing” essentially consisted of holding your foot to the floor and trying not to crash while waiting to hit the overtake button on the last lap.  Talentless lump Mario Moraes managed to finish third after not bothering to crash into anyone for the two hours.  The entire race was relatively incident free, with only the soon-to-be unemployed Hideki Mutoh and Helio Castro-Neves finding their way into the wall, the latter after what looked to be a suspension failure pitched his car into the wall.  Expect more of the same on the final two ovals of the season and beyond…if there is a beyond.

 

Super Quick Update

Okay, so I’ve been busy getting ready to head over to the Old Country (TM), and so I haven’t had so much time to take care of things here this week. But just so you can catch up:

-Will Power is still a hot mess after crashing into Frenchie DeRidebuyer. Poor guy.

-Sonoma wasn’t so bad for the IRL. Chicago could be better, since everyone will be within a few tenths of each other minus 3G and Milka.

-Robin Miller sez Takuma Sato will race at Homestead and the Brazil race might not happen. The first part: YES. The second part? Color me shocked! Miracle money doesn’t exist. Next stop: China! Or South Korea, perhaps.

-David Stremme is supposedly out in 2010. Why isn’t he out now? We have no idea.

-Grand Am and Nationwide are in Montreal this weekend. It might rain. WHY DO I ALWAYS MISS THIS

-F1 is at Spa. It might rain. WHY DO I ALWAYS MISS THIS

-MotoGP is within 5 hours of my house. WHY DO I ALWAYS MISS THIS