Track and Race

Renault F1 driver Robert Kubica was badly injured on Sunday  in an accident on the Ronde-di- Andorra rally stage in Italy. Kubica, driving a Skoda Fabia in the rally was hurt when the car overturned and a stretch of Armco penetrated the cabin, injuring his right side and partially severing his hand. He had to wait up to an hour for specialist cutting equipment to free him safely before being airlifted to hospital by helicopter. Surgeons are hopeful that he will recover full use of his hand after early scares suggested it might have to be amputated.

With surgeons suggesting recovery could take up to a year, Renault is not left in a good position for the start of the Formula 1 season leading up to the first race in Bahrain. Kubica impressed last season finishing 8th place in the driver’s standings.

The end of summer sees the F1 season reach it’s climax in Brazil with Sebastian Vettel taking the title after a fantastic drive and one of the closest fought seasons in F1. Every race threw up controversy and incident, proving totally unpredictable.

With Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber all battling for the championship 2010 was a season to remember.

Team orders reared it’s head again with Ferrari’s Felipe Massia giving his place to Fernando Alonso, slowing and allowing him to overtake. Ferrari denied any team orders, despite the thinly disguised radio communication to Felipe to allow the overtake. F1 fans cryed foul and the FIA issued a laughable punishment.

Red Bull dominated from the start with the car proving aerodynamically excellent and the team constantly innovated to stay ahead. The flexible front wing was declared legal by the FIA which gave added down force and hence greater traaction than it’s rivals. This left the other teams playing catchup to Red Bull complaining on how they interpreted the regulations. The FIA tightened the rules but as the season progressed Red Bull ploughed their way on to win the Contructors Championship.

However mechanical problems were to dog the Red Bull team with Vettel suffering spark plug failure in Bahrain and brake failure in Melboune.

Sebastian Vettel quickly became Red Bull’s preferred driver much to the chagrin of Mark Webber who, after winning the Grand Prix, quipped “Not bad for a number two driver!” The race in Turkey threw up an unbelievable sequence of events between the two Red Bull drivers. Webber, leading, had been asked by the team to turn down the revs on his engine in order save fuel. Meanwhile Vettel chasing close behind was instructed to do the opposite! When Vettel caught up to Webber and pulled along side, he was pushed out by Webber close to the grass. Vettel made his move and got through but flicked his car to the right and hit Webber who barely had enough room. The pair collided, crashed out of the race leaving Hamilton to take the win.

The rivalry at McClaren was also a notable moment in the season with Hamilton being pursued by Button. However this rivalry never reached a flashpoint like Vettel and Webber, with both drivers displaying excellent driving and exquisite overtaking manouvers without resorting to dangerous and race-threatening moves.

The Spanish Grand Prix at Monza was always destined to be won by Fernando Alonso in front of his home crowd. Driving a fantastic race, keeping Vettel behind, he took victory much to the crowds delight.

The final race had Alonso leading the Drivers’ Championship, followed by Webber and Vettel respectively. Lewis Hamilton was still a title contender, but 24 points behind Alonso meant he was an outsider.

Vettel took pole position and started well, leading into the first corner, followed by Hamilton and Jensen Button. Schumacher spun shortly after, leaving him facing the wrong way, as Luizzi crashed into him taking both cars out the running. The Safety car was deployed until lap 5 when racing resumed again. Webber put in a string of good lap times moving up the field, as well as Vettel and Hamilton setting quicker lap times than their championship rivals, despite being on the worn soft ‘option tyres.’ Alonso and Webber caught up with Petrov towards the end of lap 18, and for lap after lap the Renault driver kept them at bay. Both Hamilton and Vettel pitted, with Vettel managing to rejoin in 2nd behind Button who had yet to pit. Hamilton filtered back into 5th position in traffic behind Kubica, who, like Petrov, raced well to keep infront. When Button pitted, Vettel was granted the lead, with a 12 second advantage over the Kubica. Vettel kept his nerve, and crucially, the Red Bull continued without any mechanical issues to take the win and become the youngest Championship winner in Formula One.

Other notable moments this season include:

Webber’s unbelievable accident when he hit the Heikki Kovalainen at speed flipping the Red Bull high into the air, performing a 360 degree backflip reminscent of the Mercedes incident at Le Mans, before landing and hitting the barrier.

Michael Schumacher narrowly avoiding putting Rubens Barrichello into the wall!

Just a quick post to say sorry for the lack of updates over the last few months due to a house and job move. Normal service will be resumed shortly; With lots of motorsport events having occurred in the last few months, from F1 to WRC as well as trackdays i have been attending, there’ll be a lot of updates in the coming weeks.

The countdown to Le Mans is on, with 3 days to go until the epic event, taking place in France at the circuit de la Sarthe. For those living in a black hole Le Mans is world’s oldest endurance race in motosport. The race is steeped in history with amazing drives, horrendous accidents, fantastic speeds, driver battles and traditions like the Le Mans start.

I went to the race for the first time in 2009 and the atmosphere was fantastic. The journey over to Le Mans itself was half the fun, seeing all the different cars liveried up, with Le Mans stickers and often sporting the traditional Gulf colours. The highlight last year was seeing the cars scream down the Mulsanne straight, at night, hard on the brakes lighting up the discs, then rounding the corner and bellowing away into the dark. It has to be seen (and heard) to be believed and is a memory I will cherish. Watching the sun come up in a serene near silent atmosphere at 5am with 50 other sleepy spectators nursing cups of tea, coats, and cameras,  as the drivers near the end of the race was an experience in itself.

For the unintiated there are 4 classes of car racing on track at the same time, each class more focused and powerful than the last, making overtaking a common occurence.

LMP1 are dominated by the Peugeot and Audi Le Mans prototype cars and this year the Germans will be doing everything in their power to claim back the well coveted win from the French.  Evo magazine have been talking to Audi driver Allan McNish before the race, read the interview here. This year also sees Nigel Mansell and his two sons racing a British-built LMP1 Ginetta Zytek. They are sportingly displaying the Pistonheads logo on their Ginetta,  I would have liked to have seen this logo instead however, designed by a forum member!

LMP2 sees three British teams taking part, while GT1 sports some of the best looking and sounding supercars the world has to offer from Ferraris to Murcielagos.  The GT2 class will be sporting Giancarlo Fisichella, and Jean Alesi both driving Ferraris this year.

For those of you not able to make the pilgramage this year Audi and Evo have produced an iPhone app to keep you up to date with news, weather, leaderboards, driver lists etc which you can download here.

Eurosport are showing the race live in HD and also online which I will be trying out.

Let the excitement begin!

The 15th May, saw the annual Nurburgring 24hr endurance race take place in Germany. The atmosphere at the ‘ring is electric with motorsport fans everywhere you go, in good cheer. I tuned in online to follow some of the action, but the camera angles at night meant all you could see was headlights approaching the camera which was a little disappointing. I think a trip over there in the next few years is definitely on the cards.

The BMW Motorsport Team comprising of Jorg Muller, Augusto Farfus, Uwe Alzun, Pedro Lamy, finished 1st in the fantastic looking M3 GT2 with a winning 154 laps.

Perhaps the mostinteresting story of the day was Chris Harris of Evo magazine fame and team, driving their (almost stock) Porsche 911 GT3 RS to a 13th place, quite an achievement when compared with some of the heavily race prepared cars. Porsche test driver Walter Rohl had intended to drive the car but had to withdraw due to health reasons.

24 hours of track driving puts immense strain on the cars. That the cars finish at all is testament to the build quality, engineering of the cars, and the skill of the drivers to remain alert, and manage their mental state throughout the race, grabbing sleep where they can.

Roger Green (also of Evo magazine fame) driving a Lotus Exige had an ‘interesting’ race, bailing from the car as it burst into flames, and rolled into the barriers. Luckily Roger was ok, click here to read more about the incident and watch the video below.

Toasty:

2010 sees the launch of an exciting new championship the FIA GT1 World Championship. Featuring souped up versions of poster pin ups such as the Ford GT, Lamborghini Murcielago, Aston Martin DB9, and the spectacular Nissan GT-R.

The Icelandic Volcano ash cloud and it’s far reaching effects threatened to disrupt the championship as the teams struggled to get their equipment and cars all the way from Abu Dhabi for the first race to England in time for the second race at Silverstone.

Silverstone saw excitement from the word go with Romain Grosjean in the Ford GT spinning off track on the first corner. The Aston Martins ended up taking a one-two win, with the Nissan GT-R coming in third. However, penalties awarded to the two Astons after the race meant the GT-R of Jamie Campbell-Walter and Warren Hughes was granted the win.

The Turner-Enge DB9 was penalised for an underfloor skid plank underneath the car was worn beyond the permitted minimum thickness. The Accary-Makowiecki Aston was given a 15 second penalty for not serving a drive through within the required three laps during the race.

With flame spitting supercars and silouettes of some of the most exotic machinery on the planet, GT1 is well worth looking into.

For more information on GT1 click here

I went to see a friend who races in the Dunlop Motorsport News Saloon Car Championship a few weekends ago at Brands Hatch. Racing on the same day as the Truck Racing, the DMN offers the chance to race at top UK circuits on a clubmans budget. The variety of cars is quite astounding to see in one race and range from powerful 600bhp 4WD Nissan Skyline GT-Rs right down to 1380cc Mini’s.

The car I went to see a matt black Rotrex supercharged Peugeot 306 GTi-6 fully stripped, caged and race prepared. Pushing 350bhp in such a lightweight, crisp handling shell makes for a powerful combination. Competing in Class B, alongside other cars such as old Cosworth powered escorts, the variety of cars made it very interesting to watch. All classes run on circuit at the same time during the race, the class A cars regularly catching slower traffic and being forced to negotiate their way round the slower cars.

Fantastic weather helped the cars put in some very quick lap times round the Indy circuit. Ash put in a great performance, finishing first in class and 4th overall behind 3 A class cars.

Full results here

Click here for more information about the DMN championship.

A friend send me an amusing youtube link today; Taken at Oulton Park the video shows 2 Fiat 500 Abarth cars going hell for leather, when one introduces a little showboating to proceedings! I will let you watch for yourself:

911 GT2

I came across a motoring blog by accident the other day, which wrote in detail about the driver’s ownership experience. Nothing new there, except this driver regularly chopped and changed between a Porsche 911 Carrera, 911 GT2, Cayman, Boxster, Audi A4, A2, Aston Martin V8 Vantage. For some reason I find it fascinating to read the high end ownership blogs to see what it’s like running supercars day to day.You have to laugh when some of the service costs exceed the value of most peoples’ everyday car!  That’s before you calculate the crippling depreciation costs involved in changing between some of these motors. Still, it makes for a interesting read away from more mundane everyday car blogs and gives you an idea of how attainable some of these cars could be in the future.

Click here to read

TCC mag vanishes

Track and Race cars magazine, favoured by many motorsport enthusiasts has disappeared from our shelves forever. With the global recession taking it’s toll on many publications, it seems the money ran out and the magazine had to cease publication. It’s a real shame to see another magazine aimed at our niche disappear. Perhaps Practical Performance Car Magazine will step in to capture the readership, which is an excellent magazine and it always warms my heart to see people spending hours in the cold and dark fiddling with their motors, something which friends and family rarely understand!

Click here to see Editor  Keith Wood’s messageto subscribers.

Fantastic weather at Brands Hatch saw the Delphi British Truck Racing Championship take to the Indy circuit this weekend. Now if you haven’t seen truck racing before, it is quite spectacular to see the 5 tonne machines making their way round the track at breakneck speed, spewing exhaust, brake and tyre smoke.

The trucks which boast ~1000bhp house 12 litre turbocharged engines and are capable of reaching speeds of up to 100mph.

Saturday consisted of 2 warm up sessions for the Class A and B trucks respectively followed by a 15 minute qualifying session before lunch.

Seeing such a large, heavy cumbersome machine outbreaking another amid plumes of tyre smoke at Druids is truly something to behold! Luckily the bridge to the inside of Druid’s bend was open and spectators were free to get close to the action without any mesh fences in the way.

The highlight for me were the trucks willing to power overtsteer out of Druids half way down to Graham Hill bend a good few hundred metres!

Pickup truck racing, big in the United States, followed shortly after the trucks, cornering suprisingly flat and made for some entertaining racing.

I definitely recommend going along to one of the truck racing events this year, theres plenty to keep families entertained too, from go karting to racing simulators not to mention the bar for Mum and Dad!

For more information visit the British Truck Racing site.

Plato leading in testing

The BTCC has announced this year’s calendar, and it looks like once again, the finale is to be held at Brands Hatch on 9/10 October. Last season’s racing came down to a dramatic climax with Jason Plato winning the race and an emotional Colin Turkington taking the title.

23 cars are running this season with Plato showing early pace in testing, driving the Chevrolet Cruze. He recorded the fastest Brtish Touring Car lap at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit yesterday with a 48.662 lap. Full results here.

ITV4 are providing the official coverage again, a full schedule of wich can be found here

Check out the Official site BTCC.net and the excellent BTCC Pages site for the latest news.

Evo magazine have posted their trackday dates for this year. I’d quite like to make it this year, see some of the cars from the magazine and have a chat to the team. Nearest to me is Bedford, which doesn’t sound particularly interesting being an Aerodrome but I quite fancy seeing ho a standard 12 year old Pug stands up to the latest modern machinery. Would be great if I could time the laps and see how they compare to the leaderboard in the magazine.

In addition theres a competition running for Evo trackday drivers to get the chance to race a Nissan 370Z in the Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup. Drivers can enter the competition and be assessed by BTCC drivers andthe Evo team themselves. The winners get invited back to the final at Silverstone later in the year to compete for a place as a fully fledged racing driver.

Trackday dates for your diary:

• 21 May Bedford Autodrome (evening) £119
• 1 June Silverstone National (full day) £250
• 13 August Bedford Autodrome (evening) £119
• 8 September Silverstone National (full day) £250

Schumacher returns

Excitement is building for the start of the new season of Formula One with qualifiying set to start in Bahrain on Saturday. Having only really got into F1 in the last few years, I am very much looking forward to the return of Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes car competing with the younger generation drivers such as Hamilton and Alonso.

Of course I remember some of the controversial incidents involving Hill and Coulthard but I think Schumacher will bring a real competitive edge making for exciting viewing.

The story on everyone’s lips is the pairing of Button and Hamilton at McLaren and what effect it will have on the drivers’ racing. Will there be a favourite in the team?

The banning of refuelling stops, the new points system, tyre and kers changes will all make for interesting racing, until the teams adjust to their new cars and setups. We can only wait and see when the coverage starts on Sunday. Bring it on…

Moss

Racing driver Sir Stirling Moss is currently recovering after falling down a lift shaft at his home yesterday. Moss apparently stepped though the lift doors at his home which opened incorrectly causing him to fall down 3 flights, breaking both his ankles and injuring his back.

The 80 year old is said to be in good spirits in hospital sharing jokes with staff about the hospital food on offer.

The lift which opened in error, is made compeletely out of carbon fibre and was created by the Formula One Williams team as a one off.

Moss is still regarded as one of the worlds greatest drivers of all time with 16 Grand Prix wins to his name.

He is, however no stranger to injury; A crash in his Lotus at Goodwood in 1962 put him in a coma, with temporary paralysis and nearly ended his career.