The Motorsport Thread (was the F1 thread)

Congratulations to Jari- Matti Latvala for becoming the youngest ever rally winner on rally Sweden today. He beat team mate and event favourite Miko Hirvonnen in the other Ford while, shock of shocks, Sebastien Loeb binned it on the opening day, then got a speeding ticket on the second.

1. Jari-Matti Latvala
2. Miko Hirvonnen
3. Gigi Galli
4. Petter Solberg
5. Mikal Mikolsen (sp?)
6. Dani Sordo
7. Toni Gardermeister
8. Juho Hanninen

Next up, Corona rally Mexico in two weeks.

Wow....Rally
I used to watch it all the time but I can't for the life of me find it anymore. I don't think I've watched a rally since 2005

Anyway.....Ryan Newman wins the Daytona 500

sleeper wrote: I've been following this story on and off for the lst week or two and, though I'm jumping the gun a bit here, I'll say it anyway, the Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing Leage are to merge into a single series before the start of the season. Well, I say merge but to say that Champ Car is all but broke and has been effectively leaderless for the last two years is closer to the truth. What we will get is really an IRL callender with Long Beach, Edmonten and possibly Surfurs Paradise (sorry memo, no Mexico City race this year) added on with Newman/Haas/Lanigin, Forsythe/Pettit Racing, Walker Racing (Team Australia)and Conquest joining the ranks, possibly followed by Dale Coyne Racing. There are question marks over what Minardi Team USA will do and it looks certain that Pacific Coast Motorsport is returning to the ALMS. I have only three words for this: About. f**king. Time!!! Maybe it can become a strong championship once more...

sleeper wrote: I've been following this story on and off for the lst week or two and, though I'm jumping the gun a bit here, I'll say it anyway, the Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing Leage are to merge into a single series before the start of the season. Well, I say merge but to say that Champ Car is all but broke and has been effectively leaderless for the last two years is closer to the truth. What we will get is really an IRL callender with Long Beach, Edmonten and possibly Surfurs Paradise (sorry memo, no Mexico City race this year) added on with Newman/Haas/Lanigin, Forsythe/Pettit Racing, Walker Racing (Team Australia)and Conquest joining the ranks, possibly followed by Dale Coyne Racing. There are question marks over what Minardi Team USA will do and it looks certain that Pacific Coast Motorsport is returning to the ALMS. I have only three words for this: About. f**king. Time!!! Maybe it can become a strong championship once more...

This would be awesome... but do you have a reliable source for this?

 to NASCAR strengthening their monopoly over US motorsport. Montoya, Hornish, Franchitti, Stewart, Casey Mears, Yeley should be dragged kicking and screaming back to open wheel, where they belong. Same thing with Braun and Lally re Grand Am. One offs at Daytona and road courses (like Foyt, Gurney, Andretti, Rahal, Rutherford, Rathmann Johncock, McElreath et al used to do in the old days) 
are cool, full seasons impoverishing open wheel and blocking access to drivers from NASCAR's lower divisions, no way.

How I miss CART around '95, '96... and how I wish Greg Moore, Jeff Krosnoff and Gonzalo Rodriguez were still alive
 

Edited by Visitor13 - February 19 2008 at 14:48

As of Friday its official, the IRL and the Champ Car World Series will unite under the Indy Racing League banner for the start of this year. The split is finnally over. http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/open-wheel-unification-announced/

Now to get started on the other serious problems that American open wheel racing has (sponsors and TV coverage would be a nice start).

Its a strange unification though. Motegi and Long Beach appear to be run at the same time with the CC teams racing LB (dont know whether thats in the Dallara's or Panoz) and the IRL teams racing in Motegi, but both coring points that will count towards the same championship!

Visitor13 wrote: sleeper wrote: Its a strange unification though. Motegi and Long Beach appear to be run at the same time with the CC teams racing LB (dont know whether thats in the Dallara's or Panoz) and the IRL teams racing in Motegi, but both coring points that will count towards the same championship! Heh, reminds me of how the Indy 500 used to count towards F1 in the '50s, but hardly any of the F1 regulars would show up there, and none of the Indy guys would race outside of the US, either. Great news on the reunification, though - now someone needs to break the news to ALMS and Grand Am...

The bizzare aspect of the ALMS and Grand Am is that both series are doing well, but thats probably down to one being supported by the ACO and the other by NASCAR.

With only a week left I thought I'd give you all a quick round up on the state of play at the moment. Its clearly going to be a fight between McLaren and Ferrari again this year, but it seems that Ferarri have a slight advantage going to Melbourne. Hamilton and Kovaleinen seem to be about equal after testing but Kimi is definitely ahead of Massa at the moment. The fight for third is going to be very close this year, with Williams, BMW, Renault, Red Bull, Torro Rosso and maybe even Toyota all getting a look in there. My money's on Williams, Rosberg's been flying and Nakajima has been fast as well. Force India (formerly Spyker, formerly Midland, formerly Jordan) are next up, they look like they've taken a step up and are going to cause Toyota some problems this year. Honda are not looking good. The car is more stable than last years, its just not fast, at all. However, they had a privat test last week before shipping out to Australia and they say they've made a good step forward. As for Super Aguri, they'll be lucky to make it through the year unfortunatly. 

Ah yes...one of my friends reminded me F1 was starting up again...

Edited by JJLehto - March 13 2008 at 21:59

Well my fav will always be Kimi (even though I jumped on the Alonso bandwagon when he won the titles)