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!

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