Random Thoughts... (Motorsports Edition)

And for those who missed the 500 or want to watch it again, Indycar have decided (before the previous race) to start uploading full "re-runs" of their races on Youtube for everyone to view. And the ABC telecast is here:

[video=youtube;_PQdj-D1FYs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PQdj-D1FYs[/video]

Starts with the 21-gun salute in the pre-race ceremonies and ends in Victory Circle.
 
I have my first kart race this sunday. Not totally nervous at all right now!

Good luck mate! The same feeling is still fresh for me, my first race was in september last year. This weekend will be my second one. Lots of experience under my belt :lol:.
 
So...my second kart race is now behind me, and it wasn't a good one. I've purchased myself a new kart ahead of this seasen, a winning one for that matter, but my inexperience showed big time. It all started very well and qualifying went superb having qualified fourth, after I had improved my time by 2 seconds in that session. That gave me all the convidence for race 1, and that showed, as I made a beautiful start and slotted into third. The two guys ahead of me (positions one and two) were much more experienced and noticeably faster than me but I knew I had to keed up with them. While I was able to do that for a couple of laps, I was then overtaken to go back to fourth. This locked me in a battle for the rest of the race with third placed man, which was getting slower than me later on in the race, and I was about to pull a move on him. But, as I lined myself up for a better exit on one of the straights I went wide and spun on the grass. I decided (in my infinite stupidity) not to rejoin the track and that left me 8th in that race, and I would start from that position on sunday. An incident in the first corner meant I lost time on my first lap, and eventually I finished fifth. Not good having in mind that I had podium pace.
 
I just noticed that historical race cars still keep their original sponsor markings when they're run at revival events. Nice bit of free advertising so long as the company's still around.
 
Well, they must... I mean what's more iconic?

Lancia_Stratos____street__by_Farins.jpg


or

Lancia-Stratos-HF-Group-4-'.jpg
 
:woot:

just won a double combi ticket for the 24h of Spa at the end of the month!!!

:woot:
 
i just read that the 2014 WEC prototype regulations will allow for the new V6 F1 engine to be used!

great news i think, might be a shortcut for mercedes and ferrari to go back to le mans, even if only as engine supplier!
 
i just read that the 2014 WEC prototype regulations will allow for the new V6 F1 engine to be used!

great news i think, might be a shortcut for mercedes and ferrari to go back to le mans, even if only as engine supplier!

It's not specifically allowed, the engine rules are free and governed by fuel/energy flow, and the hybrid system rules are free, but with a limit of at most two systems/car and storage up to 8 or 4 MJ of energy. And if it were allowed, it's not great news, if anything it would encourage a move in the opposite direction (a la Peugeot and Mercedes in the early 1990s).
 
I don't think ti would be a bad idea to help manufacturers get more 'bang for their buck', so to speak, by sharing the same development costs over two sports.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how useful an F1 engine would be in an LMP car and performance balancing them with the normal LMP engines could be rather tricky...
 
There is NO MENTION OF F1-SPEC ENGINES IN THE 2014 LMP1 REGULATIONS! It was all just a thought from someone at Racecar Engineering magazine which got blown out of proportion into a "news" story because of the fact that engine rules are free (and would, in theory, cover F1-spec engines as well).
 
congrats to Evans with his GP3 title!
what a GP3 weekend that was!!! :shock:
 
Robert Kubica just won his first rally!
 
I'm a bit sad that Vainio's chances were finished by a rather silly penalty. It was a pretty dramatic title battle as it was between Evans and Abt, how good would it have been if da Costa and Vainio would've been in it as well...

Kudos to Evans, though. The only driver string in a solid season, while Abt and da Costa struggled early in the year and Vainio in the late parts of the season. Hopefully the top guys find their way forward into GP2 level next year.

Also, can't wait for the new GP3 cars. Twice the power, twice the fun, although in this case it's also twice the ugliness...
 
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