Back Home Again In Indiana

This weekend is the height of the racing season, starting in Monte Carlo with the Monaco GP, coming back home to Indiana for the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing", and finishing in Charlotte with the 600.  While I do like NASCAR the first two represent 2/3rds of racing's triple crown (the other being the 24 hours of LeMans).  The main event for me is the 500.  With all due respect to the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 is the still the most significant race in the USA in my opinion.

This year's race is loaded with story lines, the biggest of which is the new car.  First off it's slower, second there is noticeable gaps between engine manufactures.  Its Chevy > Honda >>>>>>>>>>>>> Lotus.  Lotus is way off pace to the tune of 16 MPH off of the pole speeds (yet IndyCar decided not to let them use extra boost).  Its a borderline safety hazard, they will be moving chicanes.  If they don't maintain 105% pace they will be removed though.

There are also new names in the fray, the biggest star thus far in the month of May has been James Hinchcliffe who takes over Danica Patrick's (and what was to be Dan Wheldon's) ride in the Andretti Go Daddy Chevy.  He is quite the character, he is the mayor of his own imaginary internet town Hinchtown.  He missed the pole by a whopping .003 mph average. You've also got Josef Newgarden driving for Sarah Fisher's team who was the best Honda in the field in 7th as a rookie.  He was the Indy Lights champion last season and won at Indy in that series.  Sarah Fisher is also entering Bryan Clauson, a rookie Indiana boy who took the traditional USAC ladder to Indy.  He had a very promising qualifying effort going on pole day before he took a hard hit on lap 4.  Being that there were only 33 cars, all he had to do was get in 4 clean laps on bump day which he did.  He will start 31st, ahead of the two Lotus snails.

Here are some recent clips to get you in the mood for The Greatest Spectacle in Racing...

Sunoco Sponsorship

When you can say you've been associated with Penske, McLaren, Donohue, Porsche, Audi, and Ferrari you're kind of a big deal.  While Sunoco isn't much of a team sponsor these days, choosing instead to put their backing into being the title fuel sponsor of NASCAR, they still were one of the iconic liveries of the 70's. In fact, they were so closely linked with the Camaro Trans-Am program that when the Camaro was relaunched, they were a part of the first Grand-Am Continental Tire Series GS effort (along with the matching #6 as well).  Enjoy!

Photos By Jay Bonvouloir

Photo By Wayne Lamport

Photos By Louis Galanos
Also check out a couple of Mr. Galanos' stories (1969, 1971) on historic races including the story of the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona in which the winning Sunoco sponsored Penske Lola was later stolen and chopped up!

Photo by Nancy Nally

Photo by Bo Nash

The Beginning of the End - IndyCar GP of St. Pete - UPDATE

Tomorrow the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg kicks off the beginning of the 2011 IndyCar series which represents the swan song for the current chassis and rules system. Next year the current Dallara chassis which has seen few updates since its intro in late 1996 will be jettison for the Dallara produced safety cell with multiple aero and engine manufactures. The series is gaining traction with car counts up to the point they actually have had to consider what to do when they hit the artificial cap of 26 (more at Indy of course). With the late season drama produced last year that saw the championship lead change hands in the final race without artificial means (yes that's a shot at the bogus Chase format) and the well documented struggles of NASCAR its an all important season to gain more "market share" so to speak.

Accord-ing to Me

At the end of the 2008 season, Honda turned its back on the sport of Formula 1.  The collapse of the world economy and, to a lesser degree, a lack of Japanese drivers proved to be too much for the company to bear.  However, Honda wants the American consumer to think that they turned these lemons into lemonade in the form of the Accord coupe.

I love me some T-Rex

Shaped like the head of a Tyrannosaurus-Rex, Laguna Seca is my favorite track on Earth.