Renault F1 Discraces F1 and Demeans Motor Sports in General

NASCAR likes to use the blanket violation of "Actions Detrimental to the Sport" to penalize those that transgress against NASCAR. Over the past year, Renault F1 has defined what "Actions Detrimental to the Sport" truly are. There are several versions of the story, but essentially here is what transpired at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Flavio Briatore, team principal of Renault and manager for driver Nelson Piquet Jr. along with chief engineer Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jr. arranged for Piquet Jr. to crash out of the race at an opportune time for the other Renault driver Fernando Alonso. Piquet did so and it essentially handed the race to Alonso who ultimately won the race. It took over a year for this to publicly come to light; Piquet Jr. went to the FIA when he was fired from Renault by Briatore in the last couple of months. In the ensuing investigation, Piquet was given immunity for his testimony, Briatore and Symonds left Renault ultimately being handed by the FIA a lifetime and five year ban respectively. I don't believe that the FIA went far enough; those actions truly were detrimental not only to F1 but motor sport in general. It put the whole sport into disrepute.

• Some reports indicate that Nelson Piquet Sr. informed the FIA of the above at the 2008 Brazilian GP. No further action was taken because no one involved stepped forward? The FIA was informed of cheating and attempted race fixing and no investigation was begun because no one INVOLVED stepped forward? As if you really expect them to?
• Nelson Piquet Jr. waited until he was fired from Renault to go to the FIA. He was given immunity for his testimony. The FIA already knew that he was involved if you believe that Nelson Piquet Sr. had already told the FIA what happened. He didn't deserve immunity. Ultimately, it also came to light through testimony from multiple sources that Piquet was the one who thought up the stunt; because of the immunity he got off with no punishment.
• Renault was allowed to keep the win. If it was proven that they cheated and attempted to fix the race, the win should have been stripped. Simply put, the FIA rewarded cheating.
• The FIA should not allow the same person to be both a team principal and driver manager. It is a conflict of interest. Imagine yourself in a young driver's position when your boss, who is also your manager tells you to "do this or else." You are forced to chose between evaporating your developing career and committing a dishonorable act, essentially a choice between worse and worse. Not a position that I would envy.

Mac McCormick III

Earnhardt Jr. Runs Off at the Mouth

Apparently Dale Earnhardt Jr. has continued to carry on throughout the week and throughout the weekend at Dover about the contact between David Reutimann and he at Loudon last weekend. Apparently hurling insults in the garage area wasn't enough for Earnhardt Jr. First thing first: he should take a page out of his Daddy's book and not say a word. File it away in the back of your head and take care of business later. Second, you shouldn't take to denigrating another driver when you're not on top of your game. Earnhardt Jr. telling Reutimann that he needs to "polish up his craft" is like the pot calling the kettle black.

I came across this gem in a David Newton piece on ESPN.com:

Reutimann admitted he made a mistake. He looked NASCAR's most popular driver in the eye and said he was sorry.

But Earnhardt still criticized him after the race and did so again at Dover. Just a guess, but this has to do more with frustration from a disappointing season for Earnhardt than Reutimann, or one wreck.

"He definitely hasn't had the kind of season I'm sure he would like," Reutimann said Saturday. "A lot of us haven't. He obviously had a very good racecar. When you get taken out, that's not going to sit very well with you.

"I can't blame him, but I've been hand-whipped pretty hard this week. … You can only talk about somebody for so long before you get tired of it. That's kind of the point I'm at right now."

For the record, Reutimann didn't comment on how many times Earnhardt has missed his pit stall this season. He also didn't note that he qualified fifth this weekend and his chief critic will start 24th.

Mac McCormick III

Discourse

Obama is no more a socialist than Bush was a Facist.

Our country is going down the tubes not because Obama is President and not because Bush was President. Our country is going down the tubes because we don't know how to sit down and settle our differences. Instead we are selfish, inflexible and resort to name calling.

This is what happens when our elected officials are politicians instead of representatives. They are concerned not with doing what is best for the country, but only what will get them re-elected during the next campaign. We become tools of the PACs and follow their media messages like lemmings.

We're all part of the problem.

Mac McCormick III

IRL at Chicagoland - A Terriffic Race

What can I say about last night's IRL race at Chicagoland? One word can sum it up nicely: WOW! It was the best oval race I've seen in a long time, by far a better show than the IRL oval races prior to the rules changes at Kentucky and by far better than most NASCAR races this season.

At one point Graham Rahal, Mario Moraes, and Marco Andretti were racing 3 wide wheel to wheel to wheel over fourth place. That fight went on for several laps and unlike a NASCAR race, it didn't end in a crash!

The race ended with Ryan Briscoe taking the win over Scott Dixon in a side by side finish with Mario Moraes taking third from Dario Franchitti in a side by side fight that was nose to tail with the fight for the win!

Unfortunately because it was on Versus and most NASCAR fans won't watch the IRL, it is probably one of the best races only a few people ever saw.

Mac McCormick III

Racing on the Brain

ALMS
I blogged awhile ago about rumor that the ALMS would be going to a 2 class structure in 2010. The series will remain with a 4 class structure, but the structure will be different from the current one. Instead of LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2 the structure will be:

1. Le Mans Prototype (LMP)
2. Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC)
3. Grand Touring (GT)
4. Grand Touring Challenge (GTC)

LMP1 and LMP2 will be rolled into 1 class except for Sebring and Petit LeMans. The LMPC class is an entry class prototype car using an ORECA Courage chassis with 450hp engines. This could be an interesting class to watch, offering a relatively low cost prototype platform to both gentleman drivers and up-and-coming drivers. The GT1 class is all but dead, so the new GT class will be what the GT2 cars are now. The GTC class will be Porsche GT3 Cup cars with the class expected to open up to other manufacturers in the future.

NASCAR
I watched very little of the Michigan Sprint Cup race and really didn't miss it, indicating just how much I've lost interest in NASCAR's top level racing. Instead I watched ALMS with it's varied mix of chassis/engine combinations, tires, and classes and enjoyed some good racing. With the exception of a few races (Watkins Glen being one of them), the Sprint Cup racing just isn't that good and the cars are too similar, with no opportunities for engineering or design originality. I don't like the Nationwide series either. It has become essentially an extra practice session for the Sprint Cup drivers; they come down and take prize money and sponsorship from Nationwide teams and drivers.

Mac McCormick III

Oglethorpe Speedway 17 July 2009

For the first time this year (and I hope not the last) I had the chance last night to go out to Oglethorpe Speedway, the .5 mile clay oval in Pooler, GA. After some rain delays and dinner with the family I finally made it out there shortly after 8 PM. I took a scanner along and listened to the officials on both their frequency and the "Raceceiver" frequency which is used for the officials to talk to the cars.

461.500 - Oglethorpe Speedway Officials
454.000 - Raceceiver (Officials to Cars)

The racing was wonderful and there were some great battles for the lead in all of the classes. There was some boneheaded racing as well. The driver of the 29 car in the 440 class got his first victory; it was pretty cool to see him do a reverse donut in front of the grandstand (the 440's are front wheel drive, so you have to use reverse to do a proper donut)! The 6 and 20 cars in the Pure Stock class were black flagged and parked after abusing each other over last place, the result of a previous coming together on the track. I was watching the race for first, which was a terrific fight at the time when I heard race control get increasingly emphatic with the 6 and 20 to stop beating on each other. I look back to the end of the field and there they were pushing and shoving over last place...

Unfortunately, the Street Stock class was cut short because the rain returned about 3/4 of the way through their race during a caution period. The officials polled the drivers at first to see if the track was still good and they restarted. Eventually the rain began to fall harder and the track just became to slick to race on so it was stopped and called an official race. The Late Model race was postponed until next week, when they will have a double 20-lap Late Model feature.

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net

ALMS to Two Classes in 2010?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76994

I saw this article on Autosport's website earlier this week. The idea is that the American LeMans Series may go to a single GT class (GT2) and a single Prototype class (P2?) class in 2010 with the idea of helping the series survive during this economic downturn. This may not be a bad idea. GT1 is obviously going away. Aston Martin and Corvette have been the main competitors in GT1 the last few years; Aston has been gone for a couple of years and Corvette is making the move down to GT2 now. P1 is currently an almost all Acura show although there is a slight chance that Audi may come back later in the season and it seems Peugeot will come back for Petit LeMans.

I would rather watch ALMS than Grand Am any day. If this idea would keep the series strong and enable us to see proper GT and Prototype racing then I'm all for it.

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net