SunTrust Eliminated at the 50th Rolex 24
The pre-race favorite SunTrust Racing (Ricky Taylor, Max Angelleli, and Ryan Briscoe) have blown an engine in the first 30 minutes. Marco Andretti has arrived for Starworks. Mike Shank, Ganassi, Starworks and Bob Stallings have been battling for the overall lead. More to come later.
2012 24 Hours of Daytona Preview
Tomorrow is the 50th Anniversary of the 24 Hours of Daytona. I view this as a celebrity event because racers all over the world come to win this big prize. Past winners include: Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, and Dan Gurney to name a few. T.V. coverage is on Speed and Speed.com.
There are a total of 60 entries (14 Daytona Prototype and 46 Grand Touring).
Predictions:
Front Runners: (DP)
SunTrust Racing #10: Wayne Taylor’s team is always strong at the 24 Hours of Daytona. They bring back the same lineup from last year. With the combination of that and their new Chevy Corvette DP chassis it could be a winning combo.
Ganassi Racing #01 and 02: Both Ganassi cars bring back the same lineups/cars/engines from last year. I expect the 01 team (Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Graham Rahal, and Joey Hand) to be great once again since they have been the team to beat the last few years but they will have to it from the back of the pack this year because of an engine failure yesterday.
As for the 02 team, Montoya will be looking for a win after a dismal season last year in Sprint Cup, same story for Jaime McMurray. As for the open-wheel side of the lineup. Both Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti will want to open up strong after testing the IndyCars in Sebring over the winter.
Starworks Motorsport #2: With the confirmation of Marco Andretti, Michael Valiante, and Ryan Hunter-Reay as there so called “guest drivers” this could be a great team for the race. Expect them to contend all day long tomorrow.
Starworks Motorsport #8: After winning the pole yesterday in qualifying, the team will want to show on the big stage. Expect Ryan Daizel to get in the car for the first 5 hours then they switch to Allan McNish and Lucas Luhr at night.
Bob Stallings Racing #99: This year Jon and Alex are back as their main drivers. No Jimmie Johnson or Jimmy Vasser, but Memo Gidley is the third driver this year. This team has the new Chevy car also. They dominated ‘Roar Before the Rolex’.
Also expect the Action Express and Spirit of Daytona cars to be up there also.
On the GT side I see TRG, Dempsey, Mazda Speed Source and AF Waltrip as contenders.
Winner: DP: SunTrust Racing #10
Winner: GT: Dempsey Racing #40
Peugeot Sport Endurance Program 2007-2012
Two days ago it was announced that Peugeot Sport had halted the Endurance racing program. I for one was greatly disappointed. After watching them hushly run this came as a shock to me as well as others who follow endurance racing. It was reported in Auto123 that the test team was in Sebring awaiting testing for the up coming World Endurance Championship. A photo posted on Sebring Raceway’s twitter account showed the Peugeot “Garage” constructed and awaiting a test. The accompanying text summed up it up best, ” “Peugeot’s last stand” Abandoned Sebring paddock garage for testing this weekend. We will miss the Lion!”
I too will miss the Lion. It’s amazing to me that between the 908 HDi FAP and the 908 that they won 24 times in 36 races in between 2007 -2011. But they only won the 24 hours of Lemans once. The Peugeot Sport team won four team championships, four constructors championships, and 3 drivers championships in that same time span. One can’t argue that they dominated the world of LeMans endurance racing. The thing that I hope they are remembered for more than anything is the fierce rivalry that they had with Audi. Although most races the diesels would leave the petrol cars in their dust. I still admire stories like last years Lemans race were Simon Pagenaud in the 908 ran down Andre Lotterer’s R18 in the final minutes of the race. The 908 fell short and finished 13 seconds behind the R18. After 24 hours only 13 seconds!
sigh this is the last time I got to see them race.
The battles between Audi and Peugeot will go down into motorsport and sporting history with the greatest of rivalries. Camaro vs. Mustang, Larry Byrd vs. Magic Johnson, Texas vs. OU, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, and Ferrari vs EVERYBODY. I would like to see a racing rivalry start up at Lemans between Honda and Toyota, but time will tell how that will play out. The Pug vs Audi had everything, running a pace so quick that the rivals car broke down, blocking, partying with the rival team after they won Lemans, getting Audi banned from racing at Sebring because they had a clear aerodynamic advantage. I’m a huge Audi fan, and I deeply hated Peugeot because of it. But as Jason Statham put it in “Truth in 24″ (epic documentry if you havent seen it yet it’s a must), Peugeot was a talented up start in the 2008 24 hours of Lemans. but as there record suggests they were very very talented. I hope Peugeot decides to come back and challenge those, who now have to try, and reach the bar that they and Audi have set.
As John Dagys said on his twitter account, this maybe the first of many teams to close up shop in the WEC. I hope it isn’t true, but anything can happen. Just like with Indycar good things are coming for endurance racing. A rise in car count in the ALMS, ELMS, and the WEC point to that. I do wonder though, if Peugeot may come back. 2014 is going to be a big year. Porsche returns to the top-tier class, its been reported that Toyota should have a newer design. Honda Performance Development has some very quick cars in the ARX chassis. Plus the other chassis teams like Oreca, Oak-Prescarlo, Lola, and Zytek, should provide excitement in all the series’. Just wish that a screaming Aston Martin would make a return. 
Ohhh how I wish I could go back in the day and see these factory monsters again.
A big questions that are boggling my mind is, will Audi keep going? When will they return to the ALMS? Will the Audi teams become the Porsche team? Will Porsche call up an old friend in Mooresville, NC to run a team again? I mean who wouldn’t want to see some Penske Racing prepared Porsches? Would’ve been nice to see some Audi’s prepared by Penske Racing, but I could settle for Porsche.
Rebellion Racing announced this morning that they would return to the WEC with two Lola-Toyotas. Drivers Neel Jani, Nicolas Prost, and Andrea Belicchi return. A new addition to Rebellion is former Aston Martin driver, Harold Primat. With the announcements that brings the total to 4 teams entering the LMP1 class in the WEC.
I hope to have a break down of the whole WEC entries soon on here and on Racing Mania 101.
Geez Is It Racing Season Already?
Do you hear that? Yes off in the distance….the rumble of a idling V8. the shrill cry of the Rotary at full song on the high banks at Daytona. The sound of Darrell Waltrip describing what driving in a pack is like. The unmistakable noise of a V6 Turbo tearing around Sebring. Yes kids it’s once again race season.
After what seemed like a short few weeks, has brought back all the fimilar sounds that gives us racing fans goosebumps well except for Waltrip. Dakar is in the books as well as the 24 hours of Dubai. Were yours truly’s favorite automaker Mercedes-Benz finished 1-2-3 in thier ever so wonderful SLS AMG. I would love to see that car in either Sports car series (Grand-Am/ALMS). But until then I’ll enjoy what we have, ya know instead of bitching about it. 
In just over a week the racing season will kick off in the friendly confines of the Daytona International Speedway, with the 50th 24hrs of Daytona. Even though it’s not my prefered Sports Car series. It’s still a 24 hour race against the clock, and grueling test of man and machinery. So I watch it. I would like more of difference in the top class Daytona Prototypes, but I understand the reasoning. I am interested to see if the Corvette DP’s can keep the speed they had going at the Roar before the 24 test session. With Team Corvette factory drivers Oliver Gavin, Richard Westbrook, and Jan Magnussen at the helm it should be fun to watch. In another Corvette DP entry Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske) teams up with the always quick Ricky Taylor and Max Angelli in the Suntrust/Wayne Taylor Racing entry. The car I will for sure have my eye on is the Starworks Motorsports Riley-Ford. Allan Mcnish (Audi Sport Team Joest/North America) joins Ryan Dalziel, Enzo Potoliccho, Lucas Luhr (Muscle Milk-HPD) and Alex Popow. Personally I’m a huge Allan McNish fan, as my wife found out when I got giddy as school girl at Sebring, when he was just on the other side of the Pit fence from us.
In the GT class ALMS teams Flying Lizard and Extreme Motorsports enter into a highly competitive class of racers. Although they may find some familar faces around the paddock like Tommy Milner (Team Corvette), Dirk Mueller (RLL BMW), Bill Auberlin (RLL BMW) and others. Flying Lizard brings Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, Seth Neiman, and 2009 24 hour of Daytona and Lemans winner Mike Rockenfeller, to do battle with Grand-Am regulars Stevenson Motorsports, Dempsey Racing, and Brumos Porsche. I expect the racing to be extremely close. Should be tons of fun with the addition of the Ferrari 458GT and the mighty Audi R8 LMS. I actually can’t wait to watch.
ALMS’s season starts in March at the 60th running of the Mobil 1 12hours of Sebring fueled by fresh from Florida. With so many late announcements coming, and the uncertainty of even one of the top factory teams. I cant do a very good preview. So when the race gets closer or even after the Winter Test I should have some better answers.
Indycar starts testing the DW12 today with diffrent teams and should give us a better idea of what the new season may hold. Im excited for the upcoming season in Indycar and no I don’t drink the Kool-Aid and I’m not a paid PR guy as someone might suggest. One thing is for sure the hiring of Beaux Barfield away from ALMS was a smart move. It was extremely nice to see the ALMS and other sports cars guys congratulating him on his new job. The way I see it, if he can handle 4-5 classes of cars at say Lime Rock. Indycar racing should be a breeze for him. As with ALMS several late announcments have produced some of the most surprises in Indycar. Like Jay Penske’s move to get Sebastian Bourdais and W.o.P. member Katherene Legge into a Lotus powered DW12. Just an incredible secret secret move. Now only if Paul Tracy’s cryptic tweets would add up to something.
Nascar’s Daytona Test session this past weekend showed us TWO things fans have wanted. 1. Pack Racing: woohoo the show is back. I for one liked the always dramatic two car tandem and the accompyning jokes for Nascarasm on twitter. But if Nascar wants to win back fans this is the start. 2. Speeds above 200 mph: When the EFI system was released it was thought that the cars still wouldn’t go 200mph, fans got discouraged yadda yadda yadda. Well after some tweaking, and I don’t mean by some always itching jumpy in a wal-mart checkout line methbilly, the cars hit 201 in a pack on the final day of testing. Speeds the day before were 206 in a two car tandem and 205 in the pack. But what does this mean in connection to the Indycar fans? Yes the DW12 has some issues but guess what IT WILL GET BETTER!
So there you have it folks a quick synopsis for the upcoming season in some of the racing series’. Be sure to check out the podcasts whenever they get posted on 4 guys opinons on racing. Until then thanks for reading!
Cole Whitt To JRM: Let the Battle of the Newbies Begin!
Former USAC driver Cole Whitt has a ride. He’s been picked up by Dale Junior Motorsports (Hendrick’s team in Nationwide) to run the full season in the 88. He replaces Aric Almirola who’s heading off to RPM’s 43 in the Sprint Cup Series. Cole Whitt leaves the Red Bull fold and now is part of NASCAR’s most powerful team. Here’s the funny thing; Whitt’s teammate is Danica Patrick. Danica is not technically a rookie as she’s ran enough races in the last two seasons to lose that designation. That said she’s not especially experinced and hasn’t seen a lot of success so far in NASCAR. The decision to hire Cole Whitt is especially interesting as instead of hiring a teammate Danica can rely on for help with setup JRM has decided to hire a driver who’s success or failure can be measured directly against Danica.
Danica’s 2011 Nationwide season was forgettable. To be fair no JRM car won a race. If the plan is to get her in a Cup car as soon as possible she needs to win a race or two like Bayne and Stenhouse. While Go-Daddy will likely push for her to get a ride either way for anyone to have any confidence in her then she has to win a non plate and non fuel race. Because if a driver cannot beat Edwards and Busch in a Nationwide race it’s hard to have faith that they’ll be able to beat Edwards, Harvick, Gordon, Stewart, Johnson, Busch, Hamlin, and more during a Cup race.
Red Bull Will Be missed
As for Cole Whitt 2011 was also mixed. At one point he led the Camping World Truck Series points but by the end of the year he had faded to 9th in points. Considering only 20 drivers ran or attempted to run the full season that’s not a great finish. Of course Turn One Motorsports wasn’t a top team either. Whitt also ran a a few Nationwide races and a couple Sprint Cup races. Whitt seems like a good driver and it makes sense to get him in the Hendrick fold since many of their drivers are older (mid 30′s or above) and will eventually retire. His main competitor for the ride appears to have been David Ragan. Considering Ragan did nothing with a Roush ride for five seasons it’s hard to see him having done much with the JRM ride. At least with Whitt they’re developing a young star.
However it still suprises me that JRM would put a rookie with Danica. It gives everyone a benchmark to measure Danica against. You could argue Danica has more experience than Whitt! If one driver does well while the other struggles it will make the struggling driver, whether Danica or Whitt, look pretty bad. As well if they struggle to setup a car who does the team turn to? They can go and hope that another Hendrick driver will help them out but none of the current Hendrick drivers race regularly in Nationwide either.
2012 Nationwide Champion?
The question remains how good is JRM equipment. It should be top tier. JRM is the Hendrick Nationwide program. With a variety of sponsors they’re fairly well funded. Despite not winning a race this year they are still one of the better teams in the series. Danica and Whitt will be given every opportunity to succeed. It’s up to them to seize the opportunity. With the Nationwide series looking pretty weak especially in terms of full time Nationwide regulars Danica and Whitt should be in the top 5 in points. Who knows… either one could end up hoisting the trophy at the end of the year. After all their main competition will be Austin Dillon and Sam Hornish Jr. If Bayne or Stenhouse show up then they would likely be the front runner. I know there are other drivers including Justin Allgier who may do well but can Allgier’s team really compete over a full season against Hendrick, Childress, and Penske? As long as Stenhouse doesn’t show up I would expect Austin Dillon to be the front runner for the title. If Dillon struggles some then Danica or Whitt might be able to profit off of it. Between the two my gut says Whitt will slightly out preform Danica. I wouldn’t go out on a limb and say that’s for sure. If Danica is going to make the move to NASCAR work then she’ll need to stay equal or out preform Whitt. By the end of the season we should have an answer one way or another.
Beaux Barfield Hired By Indycar: Repairing A Broken Race Control
Indycar has many problems. Lack of marketable drivers, no ovals, no exciting races, and an under-preforming 2012 car. Another major issue Indycar has is one of the worst race officiating in modern racing. Thankfully one of those issues looks like it’ll be resolved. Beaux Barfield, former director of the American Le Mans Series Race Control (since end of 08), will join Indycar and replace Brian Barhardt in Indycar Race Control. Barfield was a driver in Indy Lights and worked in Race Control for Champcar and Atlantics. There are many questions and issues Barfield has to work out before we reach St. Pete. Barfield by far seems to be the most qualified person for the job having ran ALMS race control. His experience in Champcar and Atlantic’s means he’s also been around ovals. Overall I’m not an optimistic person when it comes to Indycar. We’ve been burned too many times by false hope. That said I can’t help but feel hopeful that Barfield will be able to repair the damage that has been done to Indycar’s race control.
After ALMS, Indycar shouldn't be too hard
The American Le Mans Series features 2-6 classes on track depending on year and race. Sebring and Petit recently featured LMP1, LMP2, LMPC, GTE, GTAM, and GTC. All at once. There are huge differences in speed and talent between classes. LMP1 teams like Audi and Pegeout and GTE teams like Corvette, BMW, and Ferrari operate just like any other professional team (NASCAR, Indycar, F1). On the other hand many of the cars in the other classes are effectively being run by amateurs as a fun and relatively cheap way to go racing. A timing and scoring issue alone could be disastrous in this situation. Issues with starts, restarts, rain, or a truck out on the race track would be even worse. As far as I know Barfield has managed that series remarkably well. None of the sports car fans I know are unhappy with him or have much negative to say about him. I’ve never seen twitter blow up with angry sports car fans due to Barfield. I’ve never heard Mid Week Motorsport blast him. If you can handle the 12 hours of Sebring you probably can officiating the Indy 500.
Of course it’s not all Barfield. It’s also the people he puts in place. That’s kind of the point. Loudon’s rain restart was due to poor communication. One of the hallmarks of the ALMS is communication between the various members of Race Control as well as the teams. The fact Barfield has built up a strong team in Race Control once should bode well for Indycar. As long as he’s able to make the decisions needed. I tend to think Bernard will give him that power and support.
Barfield does have some oval experience, both as an official and driver
The lack of oval experience shouldn’t be too much of an issue; because he does have some oval experience with Champcar and Atlantic’s. As anyone who follows him on twitter knows he also watches NASCAR and Indycar races. He understands what oval racing is. Also he adapted from open wheel to sports car. I’m guessing he can adapt from sports car to open wheel oval racing. It is unfortunate that he will have to go into Indy without having officiating a current Indycar oval race. It’s unfortunate there’s no pre Indy oval for many reasons, not the least that the 2012 car, new teams, new drivers, and new Race Control director’s first oval race will be the biggest one of the year. Out of all of those issues I think Race Control is the one that concerns me the least (the car is the worst, then drivers).
In interviews and during the press conference Barfield has shown himself to have a good view of what Race Control needs to do. During the press release he did mention that it is impossible to have black and white rules written down. Some discretion will remain. However the point is to have consistent and fair penalties and he seems to understand that.
Just don't let Indycar officiating turn into F1
That’s not to say there are no area’s where I have reservations. Barfield is against the current blocking/defending rule. Overall that’s a good thing. I’m no fan of the current rule. In fact at one point I said the current rule would make the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca and Kink at Road America impossible to race. However my concern is if Indycar were to become very strict on contact while at the same time very loose on blocking it would end up F1 like. If you can block then passing’s harder and if contact’s not allowed then drivers will be too afraid to make aggressive moves. That’s going to create processional racing. Especially at the very narrow and passing challenged road and street courses Indycar runs at. From what I’ve seen in ALMS and what Barfield has said in his press conference he is going to try and find the middle ground. I believe he will do that, but, if there’s one thing that concern’s me then this is it. Should Race Control’s decisions make the racing even more processional then we might be asking for Barnhardt back.
Savoir of Indycar
There is every reason to believe in Barfield. I understand the concern that it’s another Champcar employee trying to turn Indycar back into Champcar. Barfield may have worked in Champcar but his most recent job (and most important) has been with the American Le Mans Series. ALMS race control seems to work well. If anyone’s going to fix Indycar Race Control then Barfield is the guy. He only has a one year contract, but I would expect so long as he does a good job that he’ll get many more. Overall there’s a lot to be concerned about next year for Indycar fans. The racing may be hard to watch. I feel pretty confident in saying that Race Control disasters won’t be one of the issues that Indycar will have to deal with next year.
What Will NBC Sports Mean For Racing?
It has finally happened. Versus been officially renamed and re-branded as NBC Sports. Indycar fans hope that this move will finally produce some real results out of the partnership between Indycar and Versus which has struggled to get ratings above .5. NBC Sports doesn’t just affect Indycar. The goal of NBC Sports is clearly to create an alternative to the sports giant ESPN. Which any reasonable sports fan should be excited about. NASCAR’s TV contracts come up soon. Could we be seeing the Sprint Cup back on NBC? NBC Sports already does the Dakar Rally as well as the Tour De France. With SpeedTV potentially moving away from racing NBC Sports could become the alternative. Versus was at one time interested in the American Le Mans Series. Should the ALMS finally abandon the Non TV Deal could this be the alternative?
Indycar on Versus had a lot of potential. Even before the Comcast/NBC merger it appeared Comcast had big plans for the channel. The Tour De France and NHL do well on Versus. As do cage fighting and PBR. Sure the rest of the programing was a mixed bag of outdoor shows and random other programming but that just meant there was less competition Indycar had to deal with for attention. Everything appeared to be great. The first race was fairly well done. Then the TV ratings for the first race came out. Two years latter and the ratings weren’t a whole lot better. A few bright moments in the 2011 season (two of which came right after the Tour De France) couldn’t make up for the fact that 3 years of Versus has added up to ratings that are significantly down from the 2008 season when Indycar was on ESPN.
NBC Sports represents the last, best chance to turn the Versus/Indycar partnership around. Otherwise it will go down as the biggest failure this side of the Champcar/Spike TV partnership. At least Champcar was able to abandon Spike; Indycar is on Versus with a long term contract. With NBC and Comcast working to build NBC Sports into a major channel the household distribution should improve. Increasing viewers and new properties also give Indycar a chance to advertise to more fans who’re watching other properties. I expect ratings to rise next season. That doesn’t vindicate the 2012 Indycar schedule; what it means is that with more people watching the channel Indycar is going to pick up some residual benefit. In fact, 2012 is the worst time to risk having boring racing because it’s got the chance to show people Indycar for the first time. Do you really want their first experience with Indycar being a parade around China or Belle Isle?
Ratings on Versus Haven't Improved Much since 09
There are some reasons to be concerned. Since Versus and ABC have been splitting the TV schedule there have been 17 races. Versus took 12 and ABC took 5. Now there’s only 16 races and that’s if the Baltimore issues are resolved and the TBA is announced. How will this affect how NBC Sports and ABC feel about Indycar? What happens if there are just 14 races? Just as problematic is the lack of a 2012 TV schedule. People have complained NBC Sports and ABC/ESPN don’t promote Indycar enough, but, how are they suppose to promote Indycar when they don’t know which races they will have? Oh, and what happens if NBC Sports get’s stuck with the boring races and ABC get’s all the good ones (season opener, 500, Texas, season finale)? Indycar already re-upped with ABC as the exclusive network broadcast partner for Indycar until both contracts are up at the end of this decade. Could it be that NBC Sports will get tired of Indycar and either buy it out or just stop trying? If they can’t have the “good races” then what’s the motivation to try? The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. If NBC Sports becomes the next ESPN then Indycar might get treated just like they were on ESPN.
NBC Sports doesn’t just affect Indycar. NASCAR’s TV contract’s end after the 2014 season. They are going to have to start negotiation’s soon. The problem is the last round of contracts where signed when NASCAR was going up and up and up. During the current television contracts ratings were in free fall until the 2011 season when they started to regain some lost ground. The question is will the same companies still be interested in NASCAR next time? NBC left NASCAR in the last contract. Before that they partnered with TNT to broadcast the Sprint Cup series. Should NBC want back in the goal most likely will be to get races on NBC itself. Comcast and NBC may want races on NBC Sports to give their channel more leverage over broadcasters. From NASCAR’s perspective any races on NBC Sports is a risk. Just ask Indycar. From Indycar’s perspective a NASCAR addition could be a repeat of NASCAR’s return to ESPN. All of that said if NBC Sports does start to turn into ESPN then moving to that channel could work out.
AMA Pro Racing Would Likely Benefit from a Move to NBC Sports
NBC Sports also is a potential home for any of the other series NASCAR owns. AMA Pro Racing, Grand AM, and Camping World Trucks are on SpeedTV while Nationwide is on ESPN. Should they lose the ability to use those channels NBC Sports could be the alternative. Whether that happens or not will likely depend on what is going on at SpeedTV right now. There are some interesting rumors and idea’s out there about what may happen and whether or not SpeedTV will continue to focus on racing. In theory AMA Pro racing, or any motorcycle road racing series, could work well on NBC Sports as it could be tied in with the Tour De France and other cycle racing that are already on the channel. That makes so much sense it’s probably not going to happen.
The ALMS was at one time pursued by Versus. Instead they went with the Non TV Deal on ESPN 3. Ask Risi Ferrari how well that went (too bad they had to remove that blog post; thankfully the comment section of the article I linked has a copy). Should ALMS ever admit defeat on ESPN3 then NBC Sports is the best (and possibly only) option. A move to NBC Sports would also be bring Indycar and ALMS closer together which in my (controversial) opinion is a good thing but which many disagree with.
Promised Much and Delivered Little
NBC Sports is a potential partner for any racing series out there. Whenever the contract’s are up even F1 and MotoGP may want to consider it. Whether the NBC Sports thing ultimately works out or not for Indycar is still up in the air. For Indycar’s sake it needs to work out. No, it has to work out. They don’t have any other options and it’s a long term contract. It’s make or break time for Indycar to get better ratings. I don’t know whether or not they will succeed but I’m guessing ratings will improve some next year. With more households and more exposure (and a bar set so low) it will be hard not to improve some; no matter how poor the racing may be. NBC Sports also has the potential to be a destination for NASCAR if the current situation doesn’t work out. NBC Sports is being built as a competitor to ESPN. How that develops will have long term affects on all racing series broadcast in the US. For better or for worse.
2011: A Year’s Worth of Racing In Review
It’s a cliché but the 2011 racing season featured the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. The year featured shocking upset wins by Regan Smith, Trevor Bayne, Dan Wheldon, and Ed Carpenter. At the same time it featured the twin tragedies of Marco Simoncelli and Dan Wheldon’s deaths. 2011 featured the continuation of Dario Franchitti’s Reign of Luck as fortunate race control rulings and random lucky breaks (RE: Beatriz taking Power out on pit road) led to another year of a NASCAR reject winning in Indycar. NASCAR was more fortunate with Jimmie Johnson’s Reign of Terror being stopped dead in it’s tracks by Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards whose battle went down to the last lap. Grand Prix Racing (Both in the MotoGP and F1 sense) was fairly dull. Carlos Checa led his Ducati to the WSBK title despite Ducati’s factory pullout. AMA Pro racing saw some stability return while Grand Am continued to be Grand Am (as in irrelevant to 99% of fans).ALMS/WEC/ILMC/24 Hours of Le Mans featured continued Audi/Peugeot domination.
Indycar and NASCAR both featured surprise winners. NASCAR kicked off the season with Trevor Bayne winning the Daytona 500. Bayne’s win brought the Wood Brothers back into victory lane. Latter Regan Smith won Darlington with Furniture Row racing. Smith’s win was especially impressive as he had to hold off Carl Edwards on old tires at Darlington. Marcos Ambrose finally won his road race. Last and least Paul Menard won the Brickyard 400 on fuel. Indycar featured two islands of unpredictability in a sea of Red cars and Andretti domination. The entire Month of May was a feast for fans of the underdogs. Sam Schmitt Motorsports (and its partner teams that were not Dragon) broke into the Fast 9 qualifying along with Sarah Fisher Racing’s Ed Carpenter. Tagliani won the pole. During the race it appeared JR Hildebrand was about to win the 500 until he crashed. Dan Wheldon managed to clear the wreck and reach the finish line winning for Bryan Herta. It should be remembered that Sebastian Saadevra left Herta last year for Conquest because Herta didn’t give him enough of a chance to win races. Fast forward to Kentucky where Ed Carpenter beat Dario Franchitti to get his first career win. Kentucky has been good to Carpenter and its loss next year will be felt by fans who want to see underdog wins and non processional racing.
NASCAR was generally unpredictable. Besides the aforementioned underdog wins we also saw the rise of a new star with Brad Keselowski winning 3 races and proving himself as a worthy successor to the Penske #2. This is even more significant since he’s going to have to help lead the team with Kurt Busch’s departure. Keselowski also had to pay a secret fine to the NASCAR Police State because he dared to say EFI was not relevant, green, and amazing technology. At least he wasn’t a Busch brother. They had a rough year with extra helpings of controversy. In the end they’re the most hated drivers in NASCAR. This is great as long as it doesn’t cost them their rides. NASCAR would be much poorer for their loss.
Going into 2011 Jimmie Johnson had won 5 Chase’s in a row. Thankfully he was stopped this year by a team of drivers including Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. All of whom deserve credit for helping to end the reign of terror. Stewart and Edwards took the title fight all the way to Homestead. In the end Tony Stewart passed over half the field on his way to winning the race. Carl Edwards finished 2nd and in fact tied Stewart in the points. Stewart won on a tiebreaker as he had 5 wins versus Edward’s 1.
In contrast to that the two Grand Prix series (F1 and MotoGP) were fairly dull. MotoGP featured Casey Stoner Domination while Ducati struggled and Pedrossa, Lorenzo, and Spies injured themselves. A few good races did appear including Valencia and Mugello to break up the monotony. Although it wasn’t a good race Ben Spies dominated Assen to get his first career win. F1 could be summed up with one statistic: 2011 featured a record low of drivers to finish on the podium (7). The 2011 season saw the return of KERS and the addition of DRS but they failed to improve the racing. Instead we saw the Red Bull parade become even more processional as Webber rarely challenged Vettel (likely by design). Fans of “technical” racing, “pure” racing, or boring racing enjoyed it and that’s great for them. For anyone else 2011 Formula One was hard to watch.
The American Le Mans Series fell off a cliff with no prototypes and no TV. It was a pretty sad drop off after a fairly interesting 2010 season. While there are some defenders of the ESPN3 deal including ALMS’s CEO, and Triple League Racing co-writer Ross; for many more casual viewers (myself included) the combination of no TV and no prototypes spelled the end for our interest in the ALMS. With the ALMS no longer on SpeedTV the coverage on SpeedTV.com thankfully continued. However they were more focused on the Grand Sham then ALMS. The World Endurance Championship continues to hurt them. Worse the Petit Le Mans is not even on the calendar! Which means Petit will most likely not see Audi, Toyota, Aston Martin, or Peugeot show up.
WSBK continued to produce exciting racing and featured the resurgence of Ducati despite the official pullout of the factory Ducati team. Carlos Checa was the only Ducati to win a race. He also won the most races this year and the title. Max Biaggi’s destructive personality returned and hurt his title chances. A late season injury ended it. Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty were winners with Yamaha. Sadly the announcement that Yamaha would pull out at the end of this year put a damper on that. Kawasaki also got a win in the rain! BMW continues to attempt to win a race and have announced Melandri as a replacement for Troy Corser. Over in America Josh Hayes won the title against Blake Young. Young won more races however. For Hayes 2011 was slightly disappointing as his goal after winning last year was to win the most races and dominate in a Mladin esque fashion. There is always next year.
In some surprising news Lotus Cars continued to exist throughout the year. They bought into Renault F1 and expanded that partnership heading into 2012. The Lotus engine program in Indycar continued. They signed a few teams and are expected to sign more next year. While an engine has been built they have not been put into a car and will not be seen on track until January. Lotus also has some GT car programs and a strange track day F1 style car for track days (if you have multiple millions of dollars). They made it through this year but will they be here next year?
Austin GP continued in turmoil. Austin has bounced on and off the schedule while constriction continues to start and stop. The announcement of the New Jersey Grand Prix for 2013 was another cause for concern. On the plus side Austin announced a slate of races including a Australian Touring Car race in 2012 and the third US MotoGP in 2013. Will Austin in the end happen? We still don’t know. At least they got the date moved back until November 2012 so that they have more time. It also means the fans that go to the track won’t get backed by the summer heat in Texas.
Sponsorship struggles plagued all series. The pullout of Suzuki from MotoGP, Yamaha from WSBK, and the continued withdraw of Renault in F1 (they continue to build engines but sold the team to Lotus) were the most obvious. NASCAR also saw major sponsorship issues despite strong TV ratings and good attendance. Their problems appear to be threefold. NASCAR sponsorships that were made (or renewed) in the 05-07 timeframe were sold at a high priced based on the idea of NASCAR’s continued growth. Since NASCAR has shrunk in the last few years and only started to right the ship this year that cannot be helpful in getting new deals worked out. NASCAR struggles demographically with younger fans, minority fans, and fans outside the Mid West/South East/Pennsylvania regions and that limits many sponsors (RE: Red Bull). Finally some of the cannibalization of sponsors as well as smaller deals and Official Sponsorship Of NASCAR may have devalued the market. The combination of these issues has led to contraction at Roush and Childress as well as the complete pullout of Red Bull Racing. It’s also prevented expansion of teams like Waltrip, Gibbs, and Stewart/Haas.
MotoGP’s struggles were just as worrying. There were only 17 bikes this year. Teams high and low cannot sign sponsorship deals. The Yamaha team went the entire year without a title sponsor and late breaking news is that Petronas left them. The shocking thing is MotoGP is the 2nd most watched form of racing (behind F1) yet cannot get sponsorship deals as good as what NASCAR and even Indycar teams manage to sign. A major push to sign sponsors is a must for next year or else they could be back to just 17 bikes before too long. CRT’s will help bike count some but without funding they will be horribly uncompetitive. WSBK has many of the same issues although they have a few more sponsors and factories. It’s not even worth talking about AMA.
Indycar is doing well with sponsorship considering they get .3 ratings. Still when Newman Haas cannot get sponsorship things are not good. There are still too many ride buyers and too few real, activating, sponsors. Track title sponsorship is an especially troubling issue and one of the reasons for the horrific 2012 schedule. On the other side of open wheel F1 continues to do okay although more and more ride buyers are creeping in. ALMS is not doing very well. Without TV what do you expect? Factory support remains in GT2 and that is vital for them. Most sponsors in ALMS right now are brought by the driver or the team owner’s business (RE: Muscle Milk).
The leadership in racing continued to make questionable decisions. Bernie Eccolstone and the FIA’s love of Middle Eastern dictators backfired with the protests in Bahrain. Despite this they are obsessed with racing in that nation and have scheduled a return in 2012 and nearly went through with a race in 2011. Randy Bernard opened 2011 with big promises and big idea’s only to end it with the worst schedule in years and a growing number of problems. Brian France continued to say what he wanted to be true rather than what was true. Dorna’s CEO (owners of MotoGP) recognized what was wrong in GP (only 2 winning teams, 17 bikes). The problem is his war on the factory teams could make things much worse. If the factory Ducati, Honda, and Yamaha teams pull out who will pay for the USGP’s and SpeedTV deal?
Sadly a wrap up of 2011 is not complete without discussing the tragedy that struck towards the end of the year. Dan Wheldon’s death at Vegas shocked the racing community both in America and worldwide. In the wake of this tragedy Graham Rahal organized the Dan Wheldon Charity Auction for Wheldon’s kid’s and wife. The amount of participation among drivers worldwide was impressive. It brought together people from F1, NASCAR, Indycar, and even a few MotoGP riders put stuff into the auction. The tragedy created some controversy with many people wanting to find someone or something to blame. Car count, “inexperienced drivers,” ovals, or the Vegas 5 Million Dollar Challenge were popular scapegoats. In reality his death was due to, as the Vegas accident report said, a “perfect storm” of events. Still it motivated a group of oval haters that are a combination of F1 and Champcar fans, drivers, and journalists. Just a week after Wheldon’s death at Vegas another tragedy struck the MotoGP in Malaysia. Marco Simoncelli was killed after crashing his bike and being hit by oncoming traffic. Coming so close after Wheldon’s death was especially shocking. The MotoGP community held a massive celebration of Simoncelli’s life at Valencia which included a “moment of noise” from the Moto2 bikes as a fitting tribute to the “Mad Fro Man.” In the MotoGP community there was a lot less effort to look for someone to blame and more acceptance of the “perfect storm” view.
As long as there’s not a second economic collapse 2012 is looking like a better year for racing. Assuming NASCAR is able to figure out the sponsorship crisis 2012 should build on 2011 and prepare for the “new” new car in 2013 that will hopefully produce better racing on the 1.5 mile ovals. F1 is still boring but maybe revised rules will help? WSBK should continue along as it is and be some of the best racing in the world. However MotoGP, Indycar, and ALMS are in a lot more peril. GP will live and die by what goes on with the CRT’s and factory teams. Should the factories pull out then who will pay for races and television? If the CRT’s are awful will anyone want to sponsor them in 2013? Indycar has a horrific 2012 schedule that has only 15 confirmed races (one of which may disappear). Indycar will not have a star driver in 2012 with Danica’s move to NASCAR. What driver does Indycar have that will attract casual fans? I’m pretty sure 99% of American’s could care less about Dixon or Dario. The 2012 car is not turning out as expected either. Hope seems to rest on the potential for Ford or Fiat/Ferrari/Alfa Romeo entering in 2013. As for ALMS much will depend on who really shows up next year. Does Robertson’s Ford GT and Risi’s Ferrari return? Will Newman Haas and Level 5 show up in LMP2? And will there be more than 3 LMP1 cars?
Positive Thoughts for the 2012 Indycar Season
I get criticized for being to negative on Indycar. In my personal opinion this negativity is warranted. Especially considering the struggles of the 2012 car and the 2012 schedule. However to answer all the critics I’ll write out what I’m looking forward to next season.
First and foremost Brian Barnhardt is gone. That should improve things; at the very least they cannot get much worse.
Car count looks good as long as more Newman Haas/De Ferran Dragon incidents don’t happen. The return of Rahal/Letterman seems like a good thing even if they do end up employing an F1 reject. Overall it looks like a fair number of good and marketable drivers should have full time rides including Ed Carpenter, Joseph Newgarden, (hopefully at AA in the 7) James Hinchcliffe, JR Hildebrand, Tony Kanaan, Katherine Legge (?), Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball. Bourdais and Tracy also may have rides.
The road and street race focus should help non-Dario drivers like Will Power win the title. That’s a positive. It’s never good when a NASCAR reject wins a string of titles in a row. Better yet a rough 2012 season would likely push Dario into retirement.
Surely the 2012 Car can't ruin Iowa... right?
If the new car is doesn’t suck on ovals (big if) then the four ovals should be good. Iowa has been awesome the last few years and Texas usually puts on good races. Fontana doesn’t produce good NASCAR races but it was always one of the better open wheel tracks. Again, pending the fact the 2012 car has struggled on ovals; these should be islands of excitement in a sea of parades . The Indianapolis 500 is a wildcard. As great as the finish of the 2011 500 was the actual on track racing has been lacking since Hornish and Marco battled for the 2006 Indy 500. After that’s it’s been a mix of fuel and rain. I guess there must be some hope that next year it will get better right? With less ovals the development focus from the main teams will generally be focused on other things so potentially a team like Fisher or Carpenter or Panther could focus on the 4 ovals and do very well.
The new car doesn’t appear to be as good on the road and street courses as expected. However maybe a miracle will occur and it will at least be better than the current car and able to produce some good racing. There’s no point in hoping for improvement at Mid Ohio or Barber. Infineon is supposedly going to try and fix that track so since this is a “positive” article I guess we can hope it actually accomplishes something. Maybe the tracks at Edmonton and Baltimore will continue to improve and we’ll see better things there. St. Pete and Sao Paolo should be improved by the new car as well.
Can we hope for a Brawn GP type situation in 2012?
When Champcar went to the DP01 it helped shake things up. When F1′s technical regulations changed in 2009 Brawn GP and Red Bull became race winners and championship contenders. When MotoGP switched to the 800cc bikes Ducati came to the forefront. With a new car there’s the potential that this type of thing could happen in Indycar and the Red Cars may finally be taken down. Conversely, we could be faced with the possibility that only one engine is any good and that the races become even more predictable than ever before; BUT, this is a POSITIVE article so I guess we won’t talk about that this time. KV should be strong next year and perhaps with a new car Andretti Autosport will start to regain traction. Panther also seems to be included in the Chevy testing and may produce some good results. Ed Carpenter seems to be building something strong as is Sarah Fisher (too bad there aren’t more ovals).
The Hopes and Dreams of 2012 rest on this car
That’s my “positive” take on Indycar and what we have to look forward too. It’s kind of a short piece…. I’d like to make one last point. A lot of this relies on hope, faith, and luck (parity, 2012 car producing good races, Infineon improving). Should things break the other way… again, this is a “positive” article but let’s just say it could be rough.
