Monday, January 31, 2011

Wood Brothers to honor David Pearson with 2011 ride

Sometimes, you gotta look forward by looking back.

For the 2011 season, the Wood Brothers will run a No. 21 Ford Fusion reminiscent of the paint scheme that David Pearson ran for the team way back in the '70s. He won 43 races and 51 poles in a Wood Brothers Mercury, and it's possible he could win a couple more if you threw him behind the wheel today. Alas, he won't get that chance; the Wood Brothers will send 19-year-old Trevor Bayne out for 17 races. 

Pearson, of course, is a driver unlike any other, a guy who could've been the best in history had he run more complete seasons. And, true to form, he unloaded on Thursday on topics of interest to him, including one Dale Earnhardt Jr.:

"If I was him and had as much money as he had, I'd retire," he said. "He don't need to be running. Of course, he's done good and everything, and he's made a good living out of it. He's got plenty of money. There ain't no need to keep it going. In fact, I told his dad that before he got killed. He said he had too many toys. Them toys don't mean really that much. Of course, I've had airplanes, helicopters, and everything else. Of course, I ain't got none of it now, because I can't write it off. No need to have it if you can't write it off."

We sure he's not an Internet commenter? That line sounds awfully familiar. After the jump, a photo of Pearson's old ride in action.

Sweet. Now, if we can get AJ Allmendinger to run in the Petty Blue 43, we'll be all set.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/Wood-Brothers-to-honor-David-Pearson-with-2011-r?urn=nascar-313678

Dave Kennedy Loris Kessel Bruce Kessler Nicolas Kiesa

Report: Chrysler wants 'S' branding to appeal to youth market [w/poll]

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2011 Chrysler 300

The average age of those who buy new Chryslers? Sixty-two. That's not good for a brand that's looking to expand into new markets and thereby increase sales. Invariably, such a strategy means younger buyers will need to be lured into the showroom.

Chrysler 300S badgeIn order to entice younger buyers, Chrysler reportedly plans to enhance its so-called 'S' sub-brand, starting with the refreshed 200 sedan (the old Sebring) and the more heavily revised 300, that Chrysler says will appeal to those who want something a little more "edgy."

Exterior chrome will be blacked-out, interior wood will be replaced with carbon fiber and traditionally staid interior colors will now be offered in brighter red hues. There won't necessarily be any modifications to the car's driving characteristics, as this is intended to be a styling exercise only.

Automotive News reports that an S version of the 200 will go into production this spring, followed an an unspecified time by the 300. Think it's a good idea? Let your opinion be heard in our completely informal poll below.

View Poll


[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.]

Report: Chrysler wants 'S' branding to appeal to youth market [w/poll] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/31/report-chrysler-wants-s-branding-to-appeal-to-youth-market-w/

Out! Pet Care Toyota Ricky Stenhouse Jr Citifinancial Ford Reed Sorenson

Charlotte Motor Speedway Erecting World's Largest HD Screen

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CONCORD, N.C. -- Three tour buses slowly circled Charlotte Motor Speedway Tuesday and stopped on the backstretch, disgorging dozens of media members into the cold winter air next to the construction site of billionaire O. Bruton Smith's latest promotional extravaganza -- the world's HD largest video board.

This television screen will be 200 feet wide by 80 feet high and will tower some 30 feet higher than the backstretch lights. It will be visible -- with an impressively large image -- from every seat of the grandstands stretching from turn four all the way down the frontstretch and well into turn two.

In typical speedway fashion, the announcement included fanfare -- in this case the arrival of Marcus Smith, speedway president, and FOX NASCAR announcers Jeff Hammond and Mike Joy, all driving front end loaders.

But many in the media were more interested in hearing from Marcus Smith's father, Bruton, who parked his jet-black, brand-new Mercedes right there in the middle of the backstretch just a few yards away.

As a promoter, Smith goes back to the earliest days of NASCAR. He's always been the most innovative of the major racing promoters, and he's always been one to speak his mind. So despite the fanfare engineered by his son, when Bruton stepped out of his car, he was the one who was quickly surrounded by eager reporters.

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2011/01/25/bruton-smith-erecting-worlds-largest-hdtv-screen-at-charlotte-m/

Denny Hamlin Z Line Toyota Kyle Busch Toyota Kimmy Z Line Designs Toyota

2011 Dakar Notes: Stage-4

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/14LimmQ1y3I/2011-dakar-notes-stage-4.html

Dollar General Toyota Michael Annett Germain com Toyota Brendan Gaughan

Sunday, January 30, 2011

NASCAR Drivers Expect 'Wild' and 'Spectacular' Daytona 500

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If a few hours of testing the new pavement on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway is any indication, NASCAR drivers say fans can expect an even more action-packed, unpredictable Daytona 500 than usual. And that's saying a lot.

The prevailing opinion during Thursday's first test session was that the spanking-new, $20 million paving job is going to create one of the most wide-open 500s in recent history. Drivers praised the smoothness of the circuit and say it has created an even playing field between the veterans who knew all of the nuances and the new drivers not afraid to lift in a four-wide draft through the corners.

"It's just going to be wild,'' said Carl Edwards, who was 22nd fastest of the 40 drivers in town for the three-day test session. "The track is so smooth and has so much grip that there's no telling what people will try. You know the last lap is going to be insane.''

Michael Waltrip Racing drivers David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr. led four Toyotas (pictured above) at the top of Thursday's speed chart. Reutimann's top speed was clocked at 195.780 mph and Truex was just a tick off at 195.776 mph.

Red Bull Racing teammates Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne were next fastest. This was Vickers' first official test since being sidelined most of last season with a blood clot. Kahne, who moves to Red Bull this season, is coming off double-knee surgery in the off-season.

Tony Stewart turned in the fifth-fastest lap in his Chevrolet, followed by the Chevys of Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and defending 500 winner Jamie McMurray.

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2011/01/20/nascar-drivers-expect-wild-and-spectacular-daytona-500/

PRISM Motorsports Toyota Travis Kvapil Long John Silver s Ford David Gilliland

RaceHub returns on SPEED, much to one driver's chagrin

RaceHub is returning on SPEED for the 2011 season, and they've released a promo video to get everybody stoked. So here it is. Yes, it starts out pretty slow, but give it time, there's a solid payoff ...

So say we all, Biff. So say we all.

RaceHub will run Monday through Thursday on SPEED at 7 p.m. Eastern. We'd say to tell 'em Yahoo! Sports sent you, but they probably don't want you showing up at their HQ to tell them that.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/RaceHub-returns-on-SPEED-much-to-one-driver-s-c?urn=nascar-312344

Ignazio Giunti Timo Glock Helm Glöckler Paco Godia

F1: Paddock Notes ? January 24th Edition

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/iFK43czvT_Y/f1-paddock-notes-january-24th-edition.html

Bertrand Gachot Patrick Gaillard Divina Galica Nanni Galli

Tony Stewart: 'I'm Embarrassed' About Scuffle at Australian Track

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Two-time NASCAR champ Tony Stewart said Thursday during a break in preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway that he was "embarrassed" and "ashamed" about an altercation with a race track owner in Sydney, Australia, during the last night of a recent month-long vacation there.

Calm, smiling at reporters and speaking in subdued tones, Stewart sported a near full beard, but showed no signs of a "black eye" that was widely reported by Australian media last weekend. According to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, Stewart received a black eye in a brief physical altercation between himself and Sydney Speedway co-owner Brett Morris.

Stewart did not reveal the details of the incident, but confirmed he went to a local police station to give a statement and was released with no restrictions on his plans to travel back to the United States the following day. The issue between him and Morris was the condition of the track.

"I've always been one to speak up for what is right, especially when it comes to the safety aspect,''said Stewart, one of 40 drivers participating in a three-day test on Daytona's new $20 million pavement. "It's not uncommon to see drivers and track operators have disputes, but this one went a little farther.''

"I'm definitely not proud of what happened. .... I've lost a lot of sleep over it. I'm embarrassed. I made it all the way through a trip and the last night get in an altercation. I'm ashamed.''

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2011/01/20/tony-stewart-im-embarrasssed-about-scuffle-at-australian-tra/

Sam Hornish Jr Mobil 1 Dodge Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops Tracker Chevrolet

Saturday, January 29, 2011

On Talladega


ON DRIVING AT TALLADEGA: ?There?s not anything really difficult about driving Talladega.  You have to have a good car and then you can hopefully get out there and get in the right line and get with the right guys and work with the right people to try to make your day go as good as you can.  A lot of times you?re trying to get yourself in a position where you?re trying to let things shuffle out and see what happens.  At Talladega you would like to be able to qualify up front, but you?re really not all that worried about it because you know that in a matter of a couple laps you could be up there leading the thing.?
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron?s Dream Machine Toyota:

on how intense the closing laps at Talladega can be? ?It seems like it only takes one guy to start running up through there and then everybody thinks they have to do it.  The closer it gets to the end of the race, the more you have to get yourself in good position.  It?s not hard to pass early on in the race, but the later in the race it goes, unless you have somebody behind you that will really help you, it?s hard to pass.  You?re trying to get yourself in position to be in the right place at the right time when things cycle out.  Sometimes the outside line with go and sometimes the inside line will go.  You need to be in the right line when it matters.  It?s crazy ? you see everybody behaving so well early in the race and everybody is giving plenty of room and nobody is even close to each other.  Then with 15 or 20 laps to go, it just gets really, really crazy and it gets pretty intense.  The last few laps at Talladega are always crazy and I?ve watched many a replay to figure out why in the world we do what we do sometimes, but in the end you?re out there racing and trying to win.  Sometimes you need to take chances and make crazy moves and that?s what you see at the end of that race."

DODGE DRIVER QUOTES: At Talladega, if you make your move too early or you?re too aggressive, that means there?s that much more time for things to backfire.  Then there are times that if you go too late, you?ll want to kick yourself for not going earlier.  That?s why you have to dig down and forecast what?s going on out there on the track.  You ask yourself if this guy is an experienced racer or is he one of the younger guys?  Has this guy been fast or has he been slow?  You?re out there trying to digest all of that and play all your cards right while you?re just inches from the other guys and doing 200 miles per hour.?
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Operation Home Front/ Miller Lite Dodge Charger


?Talladega has always been a wildcard race and it always will be.  I really like restrictor-plate races and we've typically run pretty well at places like Talladega and Daytona. Superspeedways remind me of IndyCar Series racing because the outcome depends mostly on aerodynamics.  It's like a chess game where you are trying to figure out what to do as the race progresses to position yourself correctly.?
Sam Hornish Jr. No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger

?You really have to pay attention to how the race unfolds at Talladega.  There are times when you need to be patient. There are times when you need to keep your head about you and race smart.  But you are going to have to be aggressive at the end.  Those are three elements of restrictor-plate racing that I work on throughout the race.  I learned that from Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. He gets a lot of the credit for the kind of racer that I am on the plate tracks.?
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Penske Dodge Charger

Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota


Martin Truex Jr. is happy behind the wheel of his No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota and fishing on his bass boat. Truex pursued both passions last week at a Toyota Motorsports media event when he and pro bass angler Mike Iaconelli enjoyed some driving and fishing. The day started with Truex giving a driving lesson to the 2003 Bassmaster Classic champion at Charlotte Motor Speedway then the New Jersey natives visited Truex?s favorite fishing hole on Lake Norman. Both walked away with a newfound appreciation for what each other does for a living. Truex hopes his fishing luck holds true at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series holds its final restrictor-plate race of the 2010 season.  
 
Truex Jr., on trading places with Iaconelli: ?I really enjoyed the experience because I love to fish and it was awesome to go out on his boat with his fishing gear on Lake Norman. I used the opportunity to learn as much as I could. It gave me some insight as to how he does things when he goes to a new lake and gets ready for a tournament. I definitely saw similarities in our jobs during the swap. There are a lot of ups and downs in our professions. He talked about how sometimes he has a great day and then the next day he can do the exact same thing and have a totally different and devastating result. I see the same thing in NASCAR. We both have to stay focused on what we are trying to do and do the best job we can.?

Mike Iaconelli, on his experience with Truex: ?The neat thing about it coming in, a lot of bass pros are hardcore NASCAR fans and I was kind of on that outer fringe and didn?t know really a lot at all. If you want to talk about being immersed into a sport, I was. I was put on the track with one of the best drivers in the world and really got a lot of information firsthand. That was awesome and the nice thing about it was that when we got to flip-flop at the lake, a lot of these deals we do, you get put with another athlete that says he can fish and he can?t. It was really nice because I could see just with what happened in a couple hours, he?s a true fisherman. To cast around those docks like we were, you?ve got to know what you?re doing.  I appreciate the fact that he was honestly a true angler.?

Truex, on the final restrictor-plate race of 2010: ?Sunday I expect to see the typical Talladega race with the welcomed addition of my boss Michael Waltrip. We?ll see three-or-four-wide racing sometimes. Some drivers will lay back and wait for the end. There will be a wreck. It?s always an exciting race to run and for the fans, a great race to watch. The finishes over the last few years have been pretty wild and I think we?ll see more of the same. I just hope the NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota will be one of the cars that can make it to the end. We had a good car and good speed so I hope we can get the luck we need. It?s one of those races where if you are there at the end, you have a shot to win it.?

Source: http://the-auto-racing-journal.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-talladega.html

JD Motorsports Chevrolet Hermie Sadler III Virginia Commonwealth University Ford Brian Scott

G2 Radios 2011 Charity Racing Calendar Now Available

So are you checking off items on that Christmas shopping list but left looking for the perfect unique gift for that fan of local racing in your life?

G2 Calendar photos.JPGOK, maybe you just need a way to figure out what day it is?

Here's the answer.

Available now for purchase is the G2 Radios 2011 Calendar.

"I want the G2 Radio Charitable Fundraising Calendar to raise money for worthwhile charities as a way to give back to the sport of auto racing which has given me so much enjoyment over the years", said Gino Difilippo, one of the developers of the calendar.

Source: http://blogs.courant.com/autoracing/2010/12/g2-radios-2011-charity-racing.html

Terrence Lee Labonte Randy Joseph Lajoie Kevin Paul Lepage William Ashton Lewis Jr

[VIDEO] G1GP 2010 Rd3. Highlights - Drift Tengoku DVD

A friendly Youtube user (sorafate) has kindly uploaded the Drift Tengoku Vol.61 Bonus Track which is highlight coverage from round 3 of 2010 G1GP!



How's that? Us gaijins made it into the Drift Tengoku DVD!!

For anyone thinking of coming over for any future G1GP events, this is the kind of fun and cool stuff you have to look forward to. You could be in Drift Tengoku too!

Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/driftinjapan/~3/rRcj-XHnk9U/video-g1gp-2010-rd3-highlights-drift.html

Charter Communications Dodge Kevin Harvick Armour Vienna Sausage Kroger Chevrolet Brad Keselowski

Friday, January 28, 2011

INDYCAR Unveils New Name, Double-File Restarts, Kids in the Garage

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Speaking to racing journalists and industry insiders Tuesday in Indianapolis, INDYCAR CEO Randy Barnard revealed big changes for the series ranging from a new name for the sanctioning body -- INDYCAR -- to double-file restarts in oval races, to lowering the age for visitors in the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage area.

In his first formal "state of the sport'' address since taking over as CEO a year ago, Barnard (above) spoke about the responsibility and commitment to listen to open-wheel fans as he tries to reinvigorate the once-thriving genre. And that means, according to Barnard, a new name "to move the sport forward.''

One of the most visible changes announced Tuesday will be double-file restarts beginning with the May 29 Indianapolis 500, where, for the first time in the track's 102-year history, children nine years of age and older will be allowed in the garage on race day. The engine committee also revealed it will go with a smaller 2.2-liter engine for the new 2012 car, instead of the 2.4-liter originally approved for the cars. Honda, Chevrolet and Lotus have all committed to supplying engines.

"We're trying to increase the excitement and drama around the events," said President of Competition Brian Barnhart. "Much of it is a response to fans' expectations."

Earlier Tuesday, INDYCAR announced the opening of an office outside Los Angeles with the intent to integrate a Hollywood-feel within the series -- bringing the entertainment industry into the fold to help promote the sport.

"This will be a one-stop shop to pursue opportunities and make deals across multiple business lines and entertainment outlets,'' Barnard said.

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2011/01/11/indycar-unveils-new-name-double-file-restarts-kids-in-the-gara/

Niki Lauda† Roger Laurent Giovanni Lavaggi

NASCAR highs and lows of 2010


Most improved driver: “Flame On” Harvick. Least improved auto manufacturer: Ford.

 

HIGH: Jimmie Johnson won a record fifth consecutive Sprint Cup championship, which is even more impressive in that no one else in the sport’s history as won more than three.

LOW: The exhortation of NASCAR vice president Robin Pemberton – “Have at it, boys” – proved to be emblematic of the season that followed. An on-track feud between drivers Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski boiled over in both the Cup and Nationwide Series. No one was hurt, but the crashes were scary and obviously intentional.

* * *

HIGH: Denny Hamlin’s run for the championship was inspirational and heartbreaking. Hamlin persevered in spite of a knee injury that required surgery … while he continued to race. He led Johnson by 33 points with two races remaining – and won two more races -- but wound up losing the championship by 39.

LOW: Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued to struggle. Ninety-three races have passed since his most recent victory. He will begin his fourth season at Hendrick Motorsports with his third crew chief, Steve Letarte. (A fourth, Brian Whitesell, just took the reins for one race.) He finished 21st in the standings and collected only three top-five finishes.

* * *

HIGH: Another driver who didn’t qualify for the Chase won the season’s two most prestigious races. Jamie McMurray captured both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.

LOW: Upset at being criticized, NASCAR officials tried to fine two drivers, Hamlin and Ryan Newman, in secrecy. Naturally, word leaked out, leading some to wonder what else the ruling body was hiding.

* * *

HIGH: The season’s two races at Talladega Superspeedway produced a total of 175 lead changes. The individual numbers were 88 and 87, the two highest such totals in the sport’s history.

LOW: Two of the sport’s more dignified drivers, Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, exchanged blows after Burton inexplicably wrecked Gordon’s Chevy under a caution flag at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 7. It’s difficult to buy Burton’s explanation that he didn’t mean to do it on purpose.

* * *

HIGH: The Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the Camping World Truck Series, Austin Dillon, actually won two races.

LOW: The rookie of the year in Cup, Kevin Conway, never finished higher than 14th and was 35th in the point standings.

* * *

HIGH: The most improved performance came from Kevin Harvick, who improved his average finish from 19.9 in 2009 to 8.7 in 2010. Under the point system in place prior to 2004, Harvick would have finished the season with 295 points more than any other driver.

LOW: Even though three of its drivers made the Chase, and Edwards won the season’s final two races, Ford’s NASCAR program still had a disappointing year. Chevys won 18 Cup races, and Toyotas won 12. Fords won four, and Dodge’s one-team, three-car effort claimed two.

Source: http://nascar.rbma.com/on-track/general-motorsports/33552-nascar-highs-and-lows-of-2010

Nanni Galli Oscar Alfredo Gálvez Fred Gamble Howden Ganley

Grand Am: 2011 ROLEX 24 - Preview

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/HxxucCf6xVU/grand-am-2011-rolex-24-preview.html

Divina Galica Nanni Galli Oscar Alfredo Gálvez Fred Gamble

NASCAR Drivers Must Declare for One Championship in 2011

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NASCAR
drivers will have to declare which championship they want to contend for in 2011 -- choosing to earn championship points in only one of the three national touring series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide or the Camping World Truck Series, according to a posting from NASCAR's official Twitter account late Monday night.

NASCAR President Mike Helton will be addressing the media in a "competition update" on Jan. 21 during the open test session at Daytona International Speedway and there was no official statement regarding the format change. However, NASCAR.com is reporting that veteran driver Kenny Wallace confirmed the change in policy after receiving his 2011 licensing agreement from NASCAR last week.

According to Wallace, drivers are asked to place a check next to the series of their choice, meaning that while they may compete in multiple series, the days are gone for a Cup driver to also run for the Nationwide title and/or truck series title. Cup driver Brad Keselowski (above), for example, is the reigning Nationwide Series champion and will have to decide whether to defend his title or stay eligible to try to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

It is still unclear how the points will be awarded to drivers competing in multiple series, but that issue and possible changes to the Cup series' Chase playoff format are both expected to be addressed next week in NASCAR's competition update news conference.

NASCAR Chairman Brian France has said repeatedly this season that he was open to changing the format in the Nationwide Series to better showcase the up-and-coming Nationwide Series-only drivers and to entice and reward teams to compete in NASCAR's triple-A series. And he has also hinted that he's open to "tweaking" the Chase format it he felt it would significantly improve the playoff feel.

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2011/01/10/nascar-drivers-must-declare-for-one-championship-in-2011/

Jason Leffler Great Clips Toyota Paul Menard Richmond Menards Ford

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Nationwide Champ Brad Keselowski 'Will Live With' NASCAR's New Format

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TAMPA, Fla. -- Brad Keselowski arrived at Tampa's Busch Gardens theme park Wednesday to help promote the Feb. 20 Daytona 500 wearing a black jacket emblazoned with a NASCAR Nationwide series logo -- a proud nod to the series championship he won in 2010 but won't be defending in 2011.

In a posting on its official Twitter account earlier this week, NASCAR announced that drivers must declare themselves eligible for only one championship among its three national series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and the Camping World Truck series.

That means Keselowski, who drives the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing in the marquee Sprint Cup series, will race in multiple series but won't be able to simultaneously accumulate championship points in Cup and Nationwide as he did this season.

And while NASCAR isn't formally commenting on or confirming the format change yet -- President Mike Helton and Vice President for Competition Robin Pemberton will address it in a scheduled news conference next Friday in Daytona Beach -- Keselowski appeared resigned to his fate.

"There's a lot of different ways of looking at it,'' Keselowski said Tuesday. "Obviously NASCAR has an obligation of trying to do the best for the sport and everything and I respect and appreciate that.

"I still plan on competing even though I can't compete for the championship. I still plan on living up to the commitments that we've made for our sponsors and for our team. I've had the luxury of competing in both series last year and enjoyed it. We'll just kinda live with it and deal with it this year.''

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2011/01/12/nationwide-champ-brad-keselowski-will-live-with-nascars-new-f/

Virginia Commonwealth University Ford Brian Scott BigSpot com Toyota Carl Long

Larry McReynolds says the media's too negative; is he right?

We've just wrapped the first day of the NASCAR Media Tour, a four-day team/NASCAR/media schmoozefest that's more akin to an elementary school field trip than an actual newsgathering expedition. And for the most part, Monday's events were rather straightforward: sponsor announcements, driver Q&As, bus travel from team HQ to team HQ. (Full disclosure: I'm not in Charlotte, though we have correspondents present.)

Everything Monday proceeded without incident, with one major exception. FOX/Speed analyst Larry McReynolds, serving as de facto master of ceremonies at the Earnhardt/Ganassi Racing media shindig, apparently went off-script and began chastising the media for their perceived negativity and focus on what's wrong with the sport.

"I know it's easy to write about all the bad things and I know it can't all be about the good things," McReynolds said (as quoted by SB Nation), "but (here's) the only thing I reach out to you: If it's television ratings (you're writing about), we know the ratings are down, how about also promoting that we're second only to the NFL? If there's 25,000 empty seats at Michigan, how about making sure you document there's still over 100,000 people in those grandstands? Things like that will get our sport back to where we were, along with storylines like this (Ganassi) group right here and with the type of racing that we had in 2010."

You can predict what happened next. The assembled media went into fits of frustration, taking to Twitter and Facebook to vent about the condescension inherent in McReynolds' statements. "'Be More Positive' Lecture From McReynolds Leaves Reporters Groaning," ran the headline from SB Nation's Jeff Gluck. The Gaston Gazette's Monte Dutton penned a column entitled "McReynolds stands up for all that is good: Nothing like being lectured to by a TV guy." And ESPN's Terry Blount called McReynolds' lecture "the flattest moment" of the day.

But here's the thing. We in the media, myself included, can be a thin-skinned bunch, quick to criticize but not so quick to take criticism. It's easy to say a crew chief should get fired or an underperforming driver should lose his ride; it's not so easy to hear someone saying the same thing about you and your job. (In our defense, we do hear some of the most horrid, hateful criticism of our work that you can imagine. And there's only so much you can take before you feel like confronting your accusers, either verbally as Jeff Pearlman did recently, or physically, as Kevin Smith implied in this very NSFW-language clip.)

So with that in mind, we need to take just a moment and wonder: What if McReynolds was right? What if we do go a little too heavy on the negativity? I'd like to think I'm honest and upfront about my biases, and I have a deep respect for every driver, even the ones I think could use a four-tire attitude adjustment, but maybe I'm deluding myself. Lord knows I've made quite a few Junior-stinks, Tony-eats and Hamlin-cries jokes in my day. Is it too easy to roll with the shorthand attendance-is-down, NASCAR-is-clueless, the drivers-are-vanilla storylines?

It's worth the media's consideration, isn't it? Should we blast the messenger without even pausing to think about the message?

Let me stress this: I have no beef whatsoever with any member of the NASCAR media. I'm a relative newcomer to covering the sport, and at all the tracks where I've worked, I've never been treated with disrespect by my fellow media folk. Gluck, AP/Yahoo! Sports' Jenna Fryer, USA Today's Nate Ryan, Landmark Newspapers' Dustin Long, ESPN's Ryan McGee and so many others have been nothing but welcoming and friendly to me whenever our paths cross. (The same can't be said about the golf media. Catch me in person sometime and I'll tell you a very different story about some of those clowns.)

Now, my schedule and job description don't have me on the road nearly as much as the folks I've named above, and perhaps that's part of the issue here. Perhaps I haven't sat in enough press rooms, getting condescended to by NASCAR brass or disrespected by drivers. Perhaps I haven't gotten ground down by the punishing schedule that has you on the road four to five days a week, 30-plus weeks a year.

Still, there's a reason we all went into sportswriting and not, say, insurance sales. (No offense, insurance salespeople.) There's a rush you get being one of the first people to arrive at the track on raceday morning, the haze of campfire smoke and anticipation in the air. It's bookended by the rush you get by being one of the last to leave at night, the engines of the haulers echoing off the empty grandstands as they line up to head back to North Carolina.

Look, I get it. Heaven knows racedays can be overwhelming with interviews and analysis and chasing down sources and transcribing quotes and Trying To Make Sense Of It All on a deadline that passed half an hour ago, but on every track visit, I try to take a few minutes and soak in things from the fan's perspective. (Yes, this sometimes involves me walking up to Kyle Busch's car and asking my Twitter followers what I should do to sabotage it, but hey.)

And that's why it drives me insane when anyone who's in a position of privilege at a track — media, administration, teams, track officials — takes the day for granted. I was in the press room at Daytona a few years back when the call came over the intercom that NASCAR would be giving track ridearounds the next morning, but you had to be back at 7 a.m. "Not a chance," grumbled a couple old-line media types. But here's the thing: You know how many of the 200,000-plus in attendance the next day would've gotten up early to take a spin around Daytona?

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

Perspective, people. Try to hold onto it.

Now, don't get me wrong — this is not at all to say we should lap up whatever pablum NASCAR or the broadcasters spoonfeed us and present it to you as "news." As Gluck and Dutton pointed out, we have an obligation to portray the sport as it is, not as we'd like it to be. If the "changes" and "modifications" and "modernizations" NASCAR happily trots out seem shortsighted or misguided or just plain stupid, we owe it to our readers to draw on our years of perspective to say why. That's not mindless criticism, that's honesty backed by knowledge.

And McReynolds and the higher-ups in NASCAR and its broadcast partners are by no means without fault here. Demonizing the media, as was done so often last year, is a time-honored trick for politicians to get in good with the masses. It plays well with the fans in the grandstands if you can point to those cats behind glass in the press box and paint them as out-of-touch negativists. Saves you from having to answer uncomfortable questions if you've painted the people asking those questions as The Enemy.

Still, there's a middle ground here, one that critics of the media would do well to understand. It's possible to call out a sport while still loving it; it's possible to expose flaws not for the sake of muckraking or pageviews, but because you'd like to see those flaws corrected for the long-term health of the sport.

We all want the same thing here. If NASCAR succeeds, everyone benefits, right? Rather than pointing fingers at each other and away from ourselves, why not relax and understand that what connects us is far stronger than what separates us? That way we can all focus on our real enemy ...

... the NFL. Those guys are the worst, am I right?

Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/Larry-McReynolds-says-the-media-s-too-negative-?urn=nascar-311902

Nick Heidfeld Theo Helfrich Mack Hellings Brian Henton

French people get pretty darn excited over Talladega too

Nothing like a little Talladega Big One to liven up your morning, and if it's in French, hey, so much the better, oui, mon ami?

Hat tip to Jeff Gluck over at SB Nation for this fabulous find: a French broadcast of one of the better Talladega Big Ones, this the 2009 flip that sent Ryan Newman airborne. Listen, particularly at the 39 (ha!)-second mark, for a characteristically French outburst:

Gluck beat me to the obvious Jean Girard/"Reeeky Bubby" reference. Still, I sense a possible meme here. Get out and find us some NASCAR audio in other languages, people!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/French-people-get-pretty-darn-excited-over-Talla?urn=nascar-308574

Loan Max Toyota Aric Almirola JR Motorsports Chevrolet Kevin Lepage

Foresight 2020: F1 Racing projects the future grand prix racer

Filed under: , ,

F1 Racing's 2020 projection
F1 Racing's 2020 projection - Click above for high-res images

Think of what a future F1 race car might look like and you're likely to conjure up images similar to the Red Bull X1 prototype. But the fact is, in all likelihood, an F1 car nine years from now will look pretty much like the ones we see today. After all, how radically different are contemporary F1 racers from the ones we saw a decade ago?

You can expect some significant changes to come into effect, though, over the coming decade, as the sport grapples with finding the sweet-spot in terms of spectacle, environmental friendliness and the like. Speaking with Renault F1 designer Pat Symonds, F1 Racing magazine came up with their projection. It takes into account such anticipated features as low-profile tires on larger wheels, ground-effect aerodynamics returning to replace the downforce reduced by the standardized rear wing and a beefier Kintetic Energy Recovery System good for a 250 horsepower boost.

Of course all these projections could prove way off by the time 2020 rolls around, but they could prove spot on. We'll just have to keep watching to find out. In the meantime you can see the only two images which the publication has released, or head to the newsstand to see more.



[Source: F1 Racing]

Continue reading Foresight 2020: F1 Racing projects the future grand prix racer

Foresight 2020: F1 Racing projects the future grand prix racer originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/26/foresight-2020-f1-racing-projects-the-future-grand-prix/

Red Bull Toyota Bobby Labonte Phoenix Construction Chevrolet Chevrolet Mikko Kozarowitzky

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Why Are Japanese The Best Drifters In The World?

This short commercial explains it...




Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/driftinjapan/~3/omZpKmxNwsg/why-are-japanese-best-drifters-in-world.html

Jason Leffler Great Clips Toyota Parker Kligerman Steve Wallace

Richard Childress predicts Cup championship for his boys

Say this for Richard Childress: the man's not afraid of making a bold statement.

"This year is the year to kick Jimmie [Johnson] off that throne," he said at Tuesday's Media Tour event. "It's going to be RCR. I feel certain."

The man has reason to feel confident. One of his drivers, Kevin Harvick, was in the mix right until the final race of the season last year. Another, Clint Bowyer, would have been the breakout star of the Chase were it not for that little cheating penalty that torpedoed his season. A third, Jeff Burton, is a reliable competitor at every track on the circuit. And new kid Paul Menard? Well ... he won't have to worry about sponsorship, since he's got family money backing him. (All right, all right, and he did run decently enough early in the season.)

The 2010 season was a marked turnaround for Richard Childress Racing, a welcome change for the team after a disastrous 2009 in which no RCR driver made the Chase. Last year, all three of RCR's drivers raced their way into the postseason, and Harvick was the points leader throughout nearly the entire regular season.

RCR hasn't had a Cup champion since Dale Earnhardt in 1994. The team has suffered setbacks ever since Earnhardt's 2001 death, but finally appears poised to make a sustained charge at the top spot. 

"Nothing lasts forever in life, and [Johnson's] time will run out," Childress said. "When it does, RCR will be there with these drivers to win that championship. You get a gut feeling, and I've got that feeling this is the year. We're going to throw everything at it we can, and if we don't win it won’t be because we didn't give everything we got."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/Richard-Childress-predicts-Cup-championship-for-?urn=nascar-312693

Hermann Lang Claudio Langes Nicola Larini Oscar Larrauri

Hornish hopes to expand schedule

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/24/942270/hornish-hopes-to-expand-schedule.html

Sterling Burton Marlin Mark Anthony Martin Jeremy Allan Mayfield James Christopher McMurray

NASCAR's Felix Sabates: Unplugged

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/25/943724/nascars-felix-sabates-unplugged.html

Kyle Thomas Busch Jeffrey Tyler Burton Richard Allen Craven Kerry Dale Earnhardt

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Hancock to race Aston Martin GT4 at Dubai 24 Hours

Aston Martin
London. UK. Mon, 10 Jan 2011


Official Aston Martin Racing Factory Driver Sam Hancock will contest this weekend?s Dubai 24 Hours in an Aston Martin GT4 after being invited to race with Humaid Al Masaood?s HMR team at the Middle East?s biggest endurance racing event.

Source: http://www.motorsportsjournal.com/archives/2011/01/hancock_to_race_aston_mar.php

Kevin Lepage Hyatt Place Richmond Airport Toyota Ricky Stenhouse Jr Citifinancial Ford

NO ? REALLY! They?ve Earned It...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/3O2d7JLnN00/no-really-theyve-earned-it.html

Stanley Ford Mike Bliss PRISM Motorsports Toyota Travis Kvapil

Larry McReynolds says the media's too negative; is he right?

We've just wrapped the first day of the NASCAR Media Tour, a four-day team/NASCAR/media schmoozefest that's more akin to an elementary school field trip than an actual newsgathering expedition. And for the most part, today's events were rather straightforward: sponsor announcements, driver Q&As, bus travel from team HQ to team HQ. (Full disclosure: I'm not in Charlotte, though we have correspondents present.)

Everything Monday proceeded without incident, with one major exception. Fox/Speed analyst Larry McReynolds, serving as de facto master of ceremonies at the Earnhardt/Ganassi Racing media shindig, apparently went off-script and began chastising the media for its perceived negativity and focus on what's wrong with the sport.

"I know it's easy to write about all the bad things and I know it can't all be about the good things," McReynolds said (as quoted by SB Nation), "but (here's) the only thing I reach out to you: If it's television ratings (you're writing about), we know the ratings are down, how about also promoting that we're second only to the NFL? If there's 25,000 empty seats at Michigan, how about making sure you document there's still over 100,000 people in those grandstands? Things like that will get our sport back to where we were, along with storylines like this (Ganassi) group right here and with the type of racing that we had in 2010."

You can predict what happened next. The assembled media went into fits of frustration, taking to Twitter and Facebook to vent about the condescension inherent in McReynolds' statements. "'Be More Positive' Lecture From McReynolds Leaves Reporters Groaning," ran the headline from SB Nation's Jeff Gluck. The Gaston Gazette's Monte Dutton penned a column entitled "McReynolds stands up for all that is good: Nothing like being lectured to by a TV guy." And ESPN's Terry Blount called McReynolds' lecture "the flattest moment" of the day.

But here's the thing. We in the media, myself included, can be a thin-skinned bunch, quick to criticize but not so quick to take criticism. It's easy to say a crew chief should get fired or an underperforming driver should lose his ride; it's not so easy to hear someone saying the same thing about you and your job. (In our defense, we do hear some of the most horrid, hateful criticism of our work that you can imagine. And there's only so much you can take before you feel like confronting your accusers, either verbally as Jeff Pearlman did recently, or physically, as Kevin Smith implied in this very NSFW-language clip.)

So with that in mind, we need to take just a moment and wonder: what if McReynolds was right? What if we do go a little too heavy on the negativity? I'd like to think I'm honest and upfront about my biases, and I have a deep respect for every driver, even the ones I think could use a four-tire attitude adjustment, but maybe I'm deluding myself. Lord knows I've made quite a few Junior-stinks, Tony-eats and Hamlin-cries jokes in my day. Is it too easy to roll with the shorthand attendance-is-down, NASCAR-is-clueless, the drivers-are-vanilla storylines?

It's worth the media's consideration, isn't it? Should we blast the messenger without even pausing to think about the message?

Let me stress this: I have no beef whatsoever with any member of the NASCAR media. I'm a relative newcomer to covering the sport, and at all the tracks where I've worked, I've never been treated with disrespect by my fellow media folk. Gluck, AP/Yahoo! Sports' Jenna Fryer, USA Today's Nate Ryan, Landmark Newspapers' Dustin Long, ESPN's Ryan McGee and so many others have been nothing but welcoming and friendly to me whenever our paths cross. (The same can't be said about the golf media. Catch me in person sometime and I'll tell you a very different story about some of those clowns.)

Now, my schedule and job description don't have me on the road nearly as much as the folks I've named above, and perhaps that's part of the issue here. Perhaps I haven't sat in enough press rooms, getting condescended to by NASCAR brass or disrespected by drivers. Perhaps I haven't gotten ground down by the punishing schedule that has you on the road four to five days a week, 30-plus weeks a year.

Still, there's a reason we all went into sportswriting and not, say, insurance sales. (No offense, insurance salespeople.) There's a rush you get being one of the first people to arrive at the track on raceday morning, the haze of campfire smoke and anticipation in the air. It's bookended by the rush you get by being one of the last to leave at night, the engines of the haulers echoing off the empty grandstands as they line up to head back to North Carolina.

Look, I get it. Heaven knows racedays can be overwhelming with interviews and analysis and chasing down sources and transcribing quotes and Trying To Make Sense Of It All on a deadline that passed half an hour ago, but on every track visit, I try to take a few minutes and soak in things from the fan's perspective. (Yes, this sometimes involves me walking up to Kyle Busch's car and asking my Twitter followers what I should do to sabotage it, but hey.)

And that's why it drives me insane when anyone who's in a position of privilege at a track — media, administration, teams, track officials — takes the day for granted. I was in the press room at Daytona a few years back when the call came over the intercom that NASCAR would be giving track ridearounds the next morning, but you had to be back at 7 a.m. "Not a chance," grumbled a couple old-line media types. But here's the thing: you know how many of the 200,000-plus in attendance the next day would've gotten up early to take a spin around Daytona?

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

Perspective, people. Try to hold onto it.

Now, don't get me wrong — this is not at all to say we should lap up whatever pablum NASCAR or the broadcasters spoonfeed us and present it to you as "news." As Gluck and Dutton pointed out, we have an obligation to portray the sport as it is, not as we'd like it to be. If the "changes" and "modifications" and "modernizations" NASCAR happily trots out seem shortsighted or misguided or just plain stupid, we owe it to our readers to draw on our years of perspective to say why. That's not mindless criticism, that's honesty backed by knowledge.

And McReynolds and the higher-ups in NASCAR and its broadcast partners are by no means without fault here. Demonizing the media, as was done so often last year, is a time-honored trick for politicians to get in good with the masses. It plays well with the fans in the grandstands if you can point to those cats behind glass in the pressbox and paint them as out-of-touch negativists. Saves you from having to answer uncomfortable questions if you've painted the people asking those questions as The Enemy.

Still, there's a middle ground here, one that critics of the media would do well to understand. It's possible to call out a sport while still loving it; it's possible to expose flaws not for the sake of muckraking or pageviews, but because you'd like to see those flaws corrected for the long-term health of the sport.

We all want the same thing here. If NASCAR succeeds, everyone benefits, right? Rather than pointing fingers at each other and away from ourselves, why not relax and understand that what connects us is far stronger than what separates us? That way we can all focus on our real enemy ...

... the NFL. Those guys are the worst, am I right?

Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/Larry-McReynolds-says-the-media-s-too-negative-?urn=nascar-311902

Gene Hartley Masahiro Hasemi Naoki Hattori Paul Hawkins

"Jimmie Johnson is the greatest driver ever" - hmm ... I don't know about that

Source: http://www.4ever3blog.com/2010/12/24/1894884/jimmie-johnson-is-the-greatest-driver-ever-hmm-i-dont-know-about-that

Tony Raines Long John Silver s Chevrolet Joe Nemechek Gator com Chevrolet

Monday, January 24, 2011

WIN Series: UPDATE ON Leilani Munter

Source: http://www.skirtsandscuffs.com/2011/01/win-series-update-on-leilani-munter.html

Dale Earnhardt Jr AMP Energy National Guard Chevrolet Kasey Kahne Budweiser Ford

F1 gurus lead a revolution in car design

Formula 1 is undergoing a quiet revolution.

In two years' time, the cars that line up on the grid for the start of the 2013 season will be vastly different from those that raced in 2010.

Governing body the FIA has already announced that the current 2.4-litre normally aspirated V8 engines will be replaced by 1.6-litre turbocharged versions with integrated energy recovery systems.

Now, BBC Sport can reveal that, driven by this big change to the engine regulations, the cars will also undergo their own huge revisions.

To the casual observer, they will still look like F1 cars and, importantly, will still go like them. But within the limitations of an open-cockpit, single-seater racing car with exposed wheels, they will be very different from current machines.

Gone will be the huge, snowplough front wings that have been required since the last major change of rules. Gone will be the high, chunky rear wings. Gone, too, will be the high-revving shriek of the engines.

In their place will be a car with much smaller front and rear wings and the much flatter, lower-pitched sound of a lower-revving turbo.

And critically - although largely invisible - there will be a shaped underfloor, replacing the flat bottoms that have been on F1 cars since 1983.

The 1982 Ferrari - a 126C2 - also possessed a small front wing

The 1982 Ferrari - a 126C2 - also possessed a small front wing

These external changes reflect a major change in the philosophy behind the cars and, as with the turbo engines, it is a case of back to the future. As the 1980s dominate the latest High Street fashions, so F1 is borrowing from technologies last seen then and updating them for the 21st century.

F1 last saw turbo engines in 1988. The last time cars had shaped underbodies was 1982. Those were the days of 'ground effect', when designers created huge amounts of aerodynamic downforce - and high cornering speeds - by accelerating the air under the car through the use of curved underfloors to create a 'venturi effect'. This was enhanced by the use of 'skirts', which sealed the underbody and prevented air leaking out of the sides.

We are not talking about a return to those days but the general principle is the same. Just as the cars in the 1979-82 period had small front and rear wings, so will the cars of 2013 and beyond.

The difference now is that whereas in the late 1970s and early '80s aerodynamics in F1 cars were still relatively in their infancy and designers were simply chasing as much as they could, now they are highly refined. And the men behind the proposed new rules are using the underfloor of the car to create efficient - but strictly limited - downforce.

The FIA recognised that if it was to make such a major change to the cars, it needed to be done as effectively and credibly as possible. So to help draw up the new rules they asked two of the most respected and experienced designers they could find - Patrick Head and Rory Byrne.

Between them, Head, the engineering director of Williams, and Byrne, now retired but formerly of Benetton and Ferrari, have won a total of 17 constructors' titles and 15 drivers' titles. They were first approached by FIA president Jean Todt in March 2010.

Among the provisos Head and Byrne were given were: a) at the very least, make sure the changes did not make overtaking any harder than it already is; and b) make the cars a bit harder to drive - the target being for a driver to be able to be on full throttle for only about 50% of the lap, as opposed to the current average of 70%.

The new regulations are being fine-tuned by FIA race director Charlie Whiting this week before being sent to the 12 F1 teams for analysis. In the new year, they will be critiqued at the sport's Technical Working Group, a group of leading engineers who effectively define the technical rules.

Head says "sure as hell there'll be some small changes" there. The basic philosophy, though, is expected to stay the same, while Head says the shaped underfloor is "inevitable".

"It all starts with the fact that we are only going to have roughly 65% of the amount of fuel, and a (limited) fuel flow rate," he explains. "When you're very limited on fuel, it's very clear you've got to reduce drag enormously. OK, the tyres are a very high proportion of the drag but we decided not to put tiny skinny tyres on it because it's still required to go around corners quickly.

"So the next thing you turn to is the massive rear wing we're running at the moment and as soon as you replace that with a much smaller one, it's 'Oh, we've lost all our downforce, so what can we do?' So inevitably you end up with a shaped underside."

This idea has been around for a long time - as long ago as 1998, when another working group, led by the late Dr Harvey Postlethwaite, also suggested reducing the sizes of front and rear wings and re-introducing shaped underfloors. The idea was canned by then FIA president Max Mosley.

Back then, the motivating factor was to improve the racing. In theory, cars designed this way can follow each other more closely than modern F1 cars.

Currently, drivers experience a severe lack of grip when they get to within about a second of a car in front because the airflow to their cars, particularly over the critical front wing, is badly disturbed.

In theory, with smaller wings and a greater proportion of the total downforce coming from under the car, there is less disturbance in the wake of the car in front, so a following car loses less aerodynamic downforce. It therefore retains more grip, allowing drivers to get closer to the car they want to overtake, making passing easier.

Under these new rules, any benefit to the racing will be secondary. The first goal is improving the cars' efficiency.

But it's just possible that, in chasing a goal that is all about keeping F1 in step with a world of diminishing fossil fuels, the effect will be to make overtaking easier.

Chastened by years of rule changes aimed at making cars more raceable that made no discernible difference, those involved are cagey about that for now. But one senior figure will at least admit the thought is on their minds.

"One of the fundamental parts of this," he said, "was that it wouldn't make it worse. But we do believe that if you can ensure there's less disturbance in the wake, that's good."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/12/formula_1_is_undergoing_a_quie.html

A J Allmendinger Insignia HDTV Ford Clint Bowyer Cheerios Hamburger Helper Chevrolet

NASCAR execs defer to France on points change

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/21/935503/nascars-helton-confirms-one-change.html

Target Chevrolet A J Allmendinger Insignia HDTV Ford Clint Bowyer

Steve Wallace to Make Sprint Cup Series Debut in 53rd Daytona 500

Source: http://www.skirtsandscuffs.com/2011/01/steve-wallace-to-make-sprint-cup-series.html

Kyle Busch Toyota Kimmy Z Line Designs Toyota Parker Kligerman Dodge Dodge

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Future Supercross and Motocross stars will battle for points and purse at 2011 AMA Racing Pro/Am events

American Motorcyclist Association (AMA)
PICKERINGTON, Ohio Dec. 22, 2010


The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is pleased to announce the 2010 AMA Racing Pro/Am motocross schedule. These events are where dreams begin for amateur racers, and where they earn the credentials to line up at an AMA Supercross or AMA Pro Racing Motocross event.

Source: http://www.motorsportsjournal.com/archives/2010/12/future_supercross_and_mot.php

Nanni Galli Oscar Alfredo Gálvez Fred Gamble Howden Ganley

Toyota-based Subaru Trezia hatchback headed to Europe

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Subaru Trezia hatchback
Subaru Trezia hatchback - Click above for high-res image gallery

When we think about Toyota-Subaru collaboration, the first thing that comes to mind is the highly anticipated rear-wheel-drive "Toyobaru" project. But while the FT-86 and its Subie sibling are first in our thoughts, it wasn't number one to market.

Automotive News reports that Subaru is set to unveil the Trezia hatchback in March at the Geneva Auto Show. The roomy five-door, which closely mirrors the Honda Fit in most every measurement, will be a near spot-on match of the Toyota Verso it's based on, but with an Impreza-style grille slapped on the front clip and some Subaru badging sprinkled throughought. Both the Toyota Verso (named Ractis for JDM consumption) and Subaru Trezia are being sold in Japan now, and both vehicles are destined for Euro showrooms this spring.

In Japan, the Trezia is powered by a choice of 1.3-liter and 1.5-liter inline-four cylinder gasoline engines mated to a CVT, but in Europe the 1.5 will be replaced with a 1.4-liter diesel. In Japan, the Trezia can be had with all-wheel-drive provided car buyers check off the box for the more powerful engine, which will likely be the turbodiesel in Europe.

With its roomy interior and diminutive footprint, the Trezia will likely do well overseas. But will we ever see Subaru's Fit-fighter in North America? With gas prices once again on the rise, it might not be a bad idea.


Gallery: Subaru Trezia



[Source: Automotive News sub. req.]

Toyota-based Subaru Trezia hatchback headed to Europe originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/23/toyota-based-subaru-trezia-hatchback-headed-to-europe/

James Christopher McMurray Casey James Mears Juan Pablo Montoya Joseph Francis Nemechek III