Motorsports Calendar, 18-20 June 2010

[Matthew Little]

With Formula 1 taking a week off and the dust settling from the 24-hour adventure that was LeMans(still can't believe the #61 Matech Ford GT didn't win GT1 honors at LeMans........... ......), there's plenty of motorsports action to keep everyone interested..............shame Valencia isn't this weekend; it might give F1 fans a chance to watch some of the following:


----IndyCar Series: Iowa Corn Indy 250, Iowa Speedway--Newton, Ia.(.875-mile oval)
----NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Toyota/SaveMart 350, Infineon Raceway--Sonoma, Ca.(1.99-mile natural terrain road course)
----TransAm Series: Road America 200, Road America--Elkhart Lake, Wi.(4.048-mile natural terrain road course)
----Grand-Am Rolex Series: EMCO Gears Mid-Ohio Classic, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course--Lexington, Ohio(2.4-mile natural terrain road course)
----Australian V8 Supercars: Skycity Triple Challenge[Round 7/Races 13-14], Hidden Valley Raceway--Darwin, NT(1.78-mile road course)
----MotoGP: British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit--Silverstone, England(3.666-mile Arena road course)
----NHRA Drag Racing: Thunder Valley Nationals, Bristol Dragway--Bristol, Tn.
----World Touring Car Championship[Round 4/Races 7 & 8], Circuit Zolder--Zolder, Belgium(2.492-mile roac course)
----British Touring Car Championship[Round 5/Races 13, 14, 15], Croft Circuit--North Yorkshire, England(2.1-mile road course)

And some of the support series are out in force this weekend as well............................
----Firestone Indy Lights--Iowa Speedway
----Formula 2 Championship--Circuit Zolder
----Renault World Series--Magny Cours
----Star Mazda Series--Iowa Speedway


As always, please check your listings for exact times and feel free to add any events that were not included above............

 

[Matthew Little]

IndyCar: Kanaan Wins At Iowa

If you've followed the IndyCar Series for any length of time, two things have been certain of late.............
(1)Penske & Ganassi are still the dominant teams in the series
(2)On the ovals, a red car always wins.

Scratch #2 off the list for now; the 16-oval win streak Ganassi and Penske had carried since Richmond 2008 ended w/Tony Kanaan's win at Iowa this afternoon. Ironically, TK was the driver who won at Richmond back in 2008. Hopefully we won't have to wait another two years to see a driver who's not in one of the red cars' win on an oval...........

 

[Galahad]

It would be nice to think that a change was in the air in Indycars, but I'm not so sure. Wasn't Dario looking good until he had a mechanical issue? And the points table tells its own story. The others will have to wait for the new car, and even then...

P.S. If a car has been designed to run for 2 hours in a weekend (the Matech Ford GT) don't be surprised if it finds 24 hour running a bit of a stretch!

 

[Matthew Little]

It would be nice to think that a change was in the air in Indycars, but I'm not so sure. Wasn't Dario looking good until he had a mechanical issue? And the points table tells its own story. The others will have to wait for the new car, and even then...

P.S. If a car has been designed to run for 2 hours in a weekend (the Matech Ford GT) don't be surprised if it finds 24 hour running a bit of a stretch!

Yeah, Dario was running well until the gearbox decided to go from 6th gear down to neutral............... It was nice to see Kanaan win, though; it at least broke up the "red car" dominance on the ovals for now.......

As for the Matech Ford GTs.......I'll have to go back through my notes on the race, but one of the Speed announcers(if I recall it was either Dorsey Schroeder or Scott Pruett) mentioned something about that during the broadcast. You have to give them credit, though..........one car(the #61) made it to about the six-hr. mark, while the other(the #60) made it to at least halfway if I remember correctly, so the cars' do have the capability of running long endurance races(hopefully we'll see them at either Petit LeMans later this year or Sebring for the 12 Hours next March.....). Of course, that whole GT1 category, Galahad, was little more than a "last car standing" kind of race, unfortunately.

 

[Matthew Little]

It would be nice to think that a change was in the air in Indycars, but I'm not so sure. Wasn't Dario looking good until he had a mechanical issue? And the points table tells its own story. The others will have to wait for the new car, and even then...

P.S. If a car has been designed to run for 2 hours in a weekend (the Matech Ford GT) don't be surprised if it finds 24 hour running a bit of a stretch!

Yeah, Dario was running well until the gearbox decided to go from 6th gear down to neutral............... It was nice to see Kanaan win, though; it at least broke up the "red car" dominance on the ovals for now....... As for the new car, they're supposed to have an announcement at the end of June about the next-generation Indycar(they've already released the proposed engine specs for 2012; hopefully, the IndyCar Series no longer has that engine-badging rule still in effect..........

As for the Matech Ford GTs.......I'll have to go back through my notes on the race, but one of the Speed announcers(if I recall it was either Dorsey Schroeder or Scott Pruett) mentioned something about that during the broadcast. You have to give them credit, though..........one car(the #61) made it to about the six-hr. mark, while the other(the #60) made it to at least halfway if I remember correctly, so the cars' do have the capability of running long endurance races(hopefully we'll see them at either Petit LeMans later this year or Sebring for the 12 Hours next March.....). Of course, that whole GT1 category, Galahad, was little more than a "last car standing" kind of race, unfortunately.

 

[Galahad]

The Ford is a fantastic looking and sounding car, and I was surprised at how long they were able to make it last to their credit. But it hasn't got much of a future in endurance - the ACO have scrapped GT1 for next season, and presumably that means not just the 24H but their whole Intercontinental Cup, which includes Sebring and Petit. The ALMS has hardly been snowed under with GT1 cars as it is.

So it looks as if we'll only see it in the World GT1 series, where it will get a couple of one hour races a weekend. A shame.