WORLDWIDE MOTOR RACING COVERAGE, OPINION AND ANALYSIS

IRL OPENER TRUE-TO-OLD-FORM, UNFORTUNATELY; ONLY FOUR CARS ON LEAD LAP AT END

OK, we wanted to like this race, we really, really did ... But it gave us so few reasons to do so. Admittedly, the super-fast "merger" of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car will take at least a season, maybe more, for the effects to be felt, but we'd hoped for a bit more professional racing in this first "combined" event. And, no, I have not been an open-wheel racer and know almost-nothing about going around a 1.5-mile race track at over 200 miles per hour (something which the ESPN announcers feel compelled to mention every five or ten seconds during their race promotion, uh, coverage), but, then again, I am not getting paid several million bucks a year to drive these cars, only to (thank goodness) watch them and comment, based on what we all see, and what we all know about the sport. (Photo Above --- Winner Scott Dixon, foreground, dices with Tony Kanaan).

Quick race report: Gainsco Auto Insurance 300, opening meet of the 2008 Indy Car season. Congratulations to winner Scott Dixon, followed by Marco Andretti (more on that below), Dan Wheldon, Helio Castroneves, Ed Carpenter, Danica Patrick, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt IV and Vitor Meira, the race's Top Ten. All of that group were running Dallara chassis, Honda engines and Firestone tires ... No, no, now wait a second ... This just in: All 25 of the starting cars had that same chassis/engine/tire set-up! And, someone tell me again, why is this not a "spec series"? (Photo --- "Geez, I know I left it in here somewhere...", team owner Dale Coyne still gets down-and-dirty with his race cars).

So, let's see ... The first race of the suddenly-combined Indy Racing League and Champ Car series was run this evening at the 1.485-mile Homestead-Miami race track, with four cars actually completing 200 laps in front of several dozen fans. At the checkered flag, there were: Four cars on the lead lap, and 16 cars still running out of the (event-record) 25 which had started. Tony Kanaan's car, leading the race with only about 10 laps to go, was collected by a spinning Ernesto Viso (who?), resulting in Kanaan's right-front suspension and wheel assembly coming off the car, except for a carbon-fiber safety strap somehow holding it all together. Kanaan was permitted by Indy Car officials to run in the #1 position for several laps under the "yellow" condition necessitated by Viso's spin, while the track was cleared from the same incident which crippled Kanaan. (Photo --- Danica Patrick, in always-fashionable black, has her way with Ryan Hunter-Reay).

Ah, Indy Car ... Welcome back!

Of several other very familiar notes hit by the IRL, which, it is being reported, did not "merge with" but rather has "absorbed" Champ Car, much like worms might absorb dirt and leaves to make mulch, was that of the only Andretti in the race, one Marco, aged 21, son of Michael, grandson of Mario. And what was so familiar about his run? Young Marco led for 85 of the event's 200 laps, yet, as everyone connected to the event in any way, shape or form knew, he wouldn't win. Couldn't win. And Andretti placed second ... And 'twas ever thus. Ain't it? We won't even go into detail about the bad call made from the pit by Marco's boss and dad ... Which led directly to his second-place finish. See what we mean about "familiar"?

And that official IRL hottie, Danica Patrick? See "Andretti", above. Finished the race, brought the car home in one piece, and placed a "respectable" sixth, after starting second (but never the pole). Unofficial IRL hottie Milka Duna finished 20th after starting 16th and running almost 120 laps before problems befell her.

And here's the really big news, direct from the Indycar website:

"Kirsten Haglund, Miss America 2008, will be the grand marshal for the Honda Grand Prix of St.   Petersburg on April 6. Haglund, 19, from Farmington Hills, Mich., is the National Goodwill Ambassador for the Children's Miracle Network. Haglund will participate in pre-race activities and will give the "start your engines" command." (Photo --- Doing his best 'Richard Nixon,' Scott Dixon claims victory at the end of the Miami-Homestead season-opener).

You just know Donald Trump will somehow be involved with that race ... If Miss America is there, The Super Sleaze himself, The Donald, can't be too far behind. After all, this is the racing series which gave new life to rock group KISS.

Like was said: Indy Car! Welcome back!

IT'S SOAP BOX DERBY TIME! GET INVOLVED!

BE THERE! Saturday, March 29, 2008, the "14th Annual Coachella Valley Don Berry Memorial Soap Box Derby" will be run on Avenidas Bermudas in La Quinta, California. From 9am until every entrant has run, late in the afternoon, there will be all the excited thrills and spills which occur in every kind of speed contest, but also a lot more. There will be great amounts of love, enthusiasm, coaching, learning, caring, mentoring and winners and losers ... But truly, no losers at all. All the competing girls and boys, from age 8 through 17, have, along with their adult "partners", built their own Soap Box race cars, made from kits which are shared by every participant, developed new ways to coax more traction and speed from their vehicles, learned about working with sponsors and, especially, the local media, to get the word out about this great annual event. These are great lessons for anyone of any age ... Just imagine if you'd had these kinds of lessons when you were much younger!

And the winners can make it all the way to the this year's "71st Finals" in Akron, Ohio.

This coming July 26, 2008, over 100,000 spectators will gather in Akron for the finals of the "71st All-American Soap Box Derby". Over the decades, the Derby has had its highs and lows, as any large event might, but in the past few years, along with a resurgence in Americans' patriotism, it has re-built itself into a huge, exciting contest not only for boys and girls, but also for their moms and dads, aunts and uncles, granddads and grandmoms, mentors and coaches of all types and kinds.

We'll be there at Avenidas Bermudas on March 29th, cameras and microphones in-hand, interviewing and taping all the kids and their great efforts, along with those of their mentors and sponsors, who are often the most emotional people at the event, based on past experience, for a future  'CAR NUT TV' show, and of course we'll post all the video on this website, too.

Over the years, many people have been great contributors to the Coachella Valley's Derby, including the late US President Gerald R. Ford, who with his wife, Betty, was for many years a local resident, and always a great font of encouragement for the Derby and all its participants and supporters. Don Berry, for whom the local Derby is named, established the event and was a person of non-stop action and enthusiasm, doing everything which needed to be done to guarantee the local Derby would continue on for years, even without him, as it has. Fred Mohler, now a longtime local Coachella Valley resident, was the national winner of the Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio, in 1953, and gives willingly of his time and effort, wherever he might be of the greatest good to encourage his "kids". We do point out, however, that while Mohler was from Muncie, Indiana, the next three finishers that year, 54 years ago, were from Los Angeles, only 100 miles from where our local Derby will be held on March, 29th, in La Quinta.

And we want to encourage all the adults from the Southern California area who visit this website --- more than several hundred a day --- To participate as sponsors and mentors in their own local Soap Box Derby! It's fun, it's a great learning and teaching experience,  and it's a fantastic way for kids and adults together to learn patience and teamwork. And all the local events need sponsors of all kinds, large and small, as you'll read below.

To paraphrase Dragnet's Sgt. Joe Friday, "Here's just the facts":

Race Date: March 29, 2008, 9AM Start - till approximately 4-5PM

Location: Avenida Bermudas in the La Quinta Cove area

Contact information: 760-564-3761; E-mail: [email protected]

Coachella Valley Soap Box Derby Local Website: www.cvsbd.org

Ages: Stock 8-13, Super Stock 10-17

Divisions: Stock & Super Stock (Masters Division to be held in 2009)

Local area for competitors: All of Riverside & Imperial Counties (and portions of San Bernardino, i.e. 29 Palms)

Cost of New Car: Approximately $700

We are always looking for sponsors to help with the costs to send the winners back to Akron. 

Anyone interested in a sponsorship, please call 760-564-3761.  We can get your names in the event program for this year's event if you contact the Derby by March 25th.

Click below to read more for the sponsor and contact information ... Maybe you can help out! Maybe you should help out! What if someone had helped you when you read about the Soap Box Derby as a kid ... maybe you dreamed about participating ... but for whatever reasons, you couldn't ... Maybe that was because that someone who could have helped you never called when they should have ... So NOW is YOUR chance to help! It'll be fun! You'll LOVE it ... So DO it!

HAMILTON DOMINATES F1 SEASON OPENER; CHAMPION RAIKKONEN'S FERRARI IS NINTH

Any doubts F1 fans might have had following the incredible debut year of McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton last season were quickly dispelled even before the start of the 18-event 2008 season-opener at Melbourne, Australia. That's because Hamilton took the pole position and led every lap of the event, except for those few laps he pitted to take on fuel. (Photo - Hamilton leads the pack in Oz).

Other than that "excitement", the winner of the race was never in doubt. Nick Heidfeld in a BMW and Nico Rosberg in a Williams-Toyota took second and third; a great season start, especially for Williams-Toyota.

The 3.3-mile race track in Melbourne, Australia, spends most of its life as a public road, so changing surfaces, from concrete to blacktop to everything in-between, add up to only a small part of what the drivers had working against them in the first Formula 1 race of the season.

Taking on this course is a difficult job even on the best of days and conditions. Add 100 degree air temperature, over 120 degrees on the track surface, humidity of only 15% and steady winds, and there was little joy among the drivers in the Land of Oz. None of this was to stand in the way of the still-remarkable Hamilton. He's only 23, but in his rookie season last year, he was almost frighteningly good, winning four events and being on the podium at races' end for almost every meeting of that season. (Photo - Fernando Alonso represents in his favorite Renault colors).

Leading into this new season, during testing in Spain, it was widely reported that many Spanish fans who  had come to see the testing screamed invectives and insults at Hamilton. Unfortunately, as Hamilton is the only Black man in F1, he's said that he is fairly inured to that kind of treatment. But considering the huge number of problems which surrounded his McLaren team last year, it's kind of a wonder that he not only stayed with the team, but also bravely decided to keep living his dream in spite of what a few racist Spanish spectators might have felt; indeed, possibly because of them.

To say that anyone's first year in F1 would be difficult is a great understatement. Hamilton, who "signed" an agreement with McLaren principal Ron Dennis when Hamilton was only 11 years old, made his dream come true and entered F1 last year as the "second" driver on the two-car McLaren Mercedes F1 team, traditionally one of the best in the sport. With Hamilton #2, his teammate was two-time F1 defending champion Fernando Alonso, who had left the Renault team where he'd won his two titles, for what he thought would be a better fit for him and his career at McLaren. (Photo - Champ Car's four-time champion Sebastien Bourdais in his first F1 race finished a very impressive seventh, gaining his STR-Ferrari team 2 points).

The opposite was true. It was Hamilton, not Alonso, who quickly got the worldwide media attention, whose victories, coolness under pressure and amazing driving skills and maturity, especially with the media, made his team owner proud and gave the fans something very special; the best rookie who'd ever sat in an F1 cockpit.

By the close of the 2007 season, Alsono was not speaking with either teammate Hamilton, or their boss, Ron Dennis. Alonso went back to his Renault team as fast as he could pack his bags and walk out the door of the McLaren Mercedes shop. And no one warned him to "not let the door hit you in the ass on" his way out. No love lost there.

SHOCKER AT '12 HOURS OF SEBRING'; PENSKE PORSCHE WINS OVERALL, A FIRST-EVER FOR LMP2-CLASS RACER

PENSKE/PORSCHE WINS OVERALL AT "12 HOURS OF SEBRING", FIRST 'AMERICAN LEMANS SERIES RACE OF THE SEASON; FIRST OVERALL WIN EVER FOR AN LMP2-CLASS CAR AT SEBRING. (Photo- Roger Penske's Porsches ran like clocks, taking their class and the overall win).

Celebrating the ALMS' tenth anniversary, this year's Sebring competition, from 10am to 10pm, from light into dark, provided a great "birthday party", with fireworks, for the teams, drivers and some 60,000 spectators who found seating, with folding chairs, blankets and on the tops of motorhomes, around the runways of the airport where the racing is held. No one could have been happier than two men who are, shall we say, a bit older than "middle-aged" yet still dominating forces in American racing, "Captain" Roger Penske, the winning team owner, and Dr. Don Panoz, the super-wealthy "patron" and founder of the series.

It was a big day for Porsche at the "12 HOURS OF SEBRING", the longest-running major sports car event in the US. The German manufacturer took two class victories as well as, somewhat surprisingly, the overall win and the first0-ever overall trophy for a LMP2-class race car. Other class wins went Audi's R10 V12 turbo-diesel-engined machine and a factory-supported Corvette C6R.

After winning the NASCAR Daytona 500, his team's Dodge race cars finishing one-two, the first win at Daytona in the history of the PENSKE RACING SOUTH team just a few weeks ago, now brings home the over all (and LMP2 class) win at the '12 HOURS OF SEBRING'. Roger Penske's skill as a team owner, putting together a team which gives their drivers cars which definitely win races, the legend of Penske, known to racing insiders as "The Captain", grows even more.

Drivers Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas (LMP2 class) took the overall and class win at Sebring. Dindo Capello and Allan McNish took the LMP1 class victory in their Audi R10 turbo-diesel racer, a terrific come-down for that team which completely dominated last season's ALMS series. All the "big" cars (class LMP1) had problems at Sebring, and the first car in that class, the Audi R10, finished fourth overall (complete top fifteen results after the jump at the bottom of this story).

Peugeot, which fielded their own "Frenched" version of the Audi R10 turbo-diesel, finished third in class, behind the two Audis. We saw that race car (or a non-running facsimile; a "show car" version of it) at the 2007 TOKYO MOTOR SHOW in October, 2007. Both Audi and Peugeot are going to be selling vehicles with diesel engines in the US (Audi's Q7 SUV is the first Audi diesel-powered vehicle which will be on-sale in the US) and they will both be advertising their "diesels bred by competition"; at least they should. Mazda won the "24 HOURS OF LEMANS" in 1991, the first (and still only) time a Japanese-made car won that race, and certainly the first (and still only) time a car powered by a Wankel rotary engine won there. However, they never advertised that victory, at least not in the US, and Mazda missed-out on a bonanza as far as their reputation as car-builders. The Wankel engine, which had a bad reputation for reliability, could have also gained new believers --- But the advertising which should have happened never did. We don't think Audi nor Peugeot (which also will be selling cars in the US soon) will make that same mistake. (Photo - Audi's R10 diesels dominated the ALMS series last year and won the "24 HOURS OF LEMANS"; but it was not to be for them at Sebring, at least not this year).

In LMGT1, the factory-supported Corvette C6R took the class win and finished ninth overall.  The driving  team of Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows, who have been the team's drivers for several years, celebrated especially for Johnny O'Connell, who set a record by winning his seventh class victory at Sebring, taking the title from Phil Hill, the American F1 and endurance racing ace. I took a ride with O'Connell several years ago at Willow Springs Raceway in Southern California, when he was one of the drivers of the Nissan factory-supported sports car team, and take it from me ... He's FAST! Canadian Ron Fellows also enjoyed the much-deserved win, as he was the lead test driver for Chevrolet throughout the development of the phenomenal C6R machine. Combined with Magnussen, this is a driving team which could win in any class, any series ... Chevy is lucky to have them. The second Corvette C6R finished eleventh overall, second in class, with Olivier Beretta, Olivier Gavin and our old friend, Max Papis at the helm.

LMGT2's winners were the whimsically-named "Flying Lizard Motorsports" Porsche 911 GT3, driven by
Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb.

For all you real CAR NUTS (and super-gearheads) here are the specifications for the 2008 Penske Porsche ALMS race cars ... And the sheer numboer of people on the teams ... And don't forget, Top Fifteen results also after the jump:

Porsche RS Spyder

Concept:         Two-seater, open sports prototype according to A.C.O. regulations;
                      LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) class. (Photo - Peugeot's oil-burners had their first Sebring outing, but the diesel-powered cars will undoubtedly be a factor later in the season; we first saw this car on a display stand in October, 2007, at the TOKYO MOTOR SHOW; check the Photo Albums in the left-hand margin of this page for more Tokyo Motor Show photos).

Bodyshell: Carbon-fibre reinforced monocoque; front, side and rear body sections made of reinforced carbon/kevlar; underfloor cover with skid block and rear diffuser; rear wing adjustable on two wing elements; six-point seat belt with Head And Neck Support System (HANS) modification; fire extinguishing system; helmet protection to FIA and A.C.O. regulations; three-point pneumatic car jack.

Aerodynamics:  Variable as a function of rear wing and body height.

Power unit:      Eight-cylinder V-engine with 90-degree cylinder bank angle; watercooled; four valves per cylinder; oil cooling with oil/water heat exchanger; intake system with a 44 mm (1.73”) restrictor for ALMS Regulations; intake system with individual throttle butterflies; dry sump lubrication with separate oil tank; Bosch MS 4.2 electronic engine management; sequential multipoint fuel injection.