Gavin Makes It Two For Corvette

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – It could not have been a better day to run the third round of American Le Mans series at Laguna Seca. The Muscle Milk HPD or Graf/Luhrs easily claimed P1 and the overall wins with a 3-lap lead over P2 winning Level 5 HDP of Tucker/Diaz/Montagny. Third place went to the PC-class ORECA entry of Bennett/Braun. The GT-class Corvettes of Oliver/Milner and Magnussen/Garcia claimed a 1-2 finish in exciting, nail-biting competition.

P1 was essentially an uncontested class with the second place prototype finishing over 20-laps back. P2 was a bit more exciting, though hard to keep track of drivers. The pole-sitting No. 55 Level 5 of Montagny led the first 3-hours until colliding with a GTC-class car, conceding the lead to the No. 95 Level 5 HPD piloted at the time by Scott Tucker. Montagny was able to complete the final 90-minute stint in the No. 95 entry achieving a top-of-the-podium finish for the Frenchman. PC-class was quite an exciting show coming down to the last lap as the CORE Autosport ORECA of Braun/Bennett passed the RSR Racing’s entry of Junquera/Drissi/Gonzalez as they “picked” around a CTC car. The CORE entry of Popow/Kimber-Smith came in third with only 1.725 seconds separating the three PC cars.

The real show was in GT-class where the race could have been won by either of 7 cars. The two Corvettes, two BMWs, and three Porsche’s were within 2 seconds in the last hour of the race. Oliver Gavin took the lead with an hour to go as he passed the Team Falken Porsche of Wolf Henzler. But then Bill Auberlen gave Gavin a run for the money in the BMW but was unable to pass the faster Corvette. With 15 minutes to go, the Corvette of Magnussen/Garcia went around the BMW giving the Michigan team a 1-2 finish, and their 2nd consecutive ALMS win. The GT Challenge race was won by the TRG entry of Bleekemolen/DiGuida with the Sofronas/Welch/Villenuve GMG RSR coming in second. Bob Faieta of Competition Motorsports managed a third place finish with co-drivers Cort Wagner and Michael Avenatti.

“I Love Him, But I Got Tired Of Hearing About Him”

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - The Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway saw Ron Capps end John Force Racing’s season Funny Car long winning streak. Running consistent 4.16 second runs all weekend, Capps went up against Force’s Robert Hight in the finals. Capps 4.166 s, 303.91 mph run was more than enough to beat Hight’s 4.399 s, 273.44 mph attempt at a win. “I got so tired of hearing about Force [Racing] winning every race,” said Capps, “ I love him, but I got tired of hearing about him on this race streak.”

In Top Fuel, Steve Torrence won his first career victory. Torrence went up against the formidable, seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher who has never won a race at Atlanta. Torrence, the number two qualifier, ran a 3.893 s, 320.66 mph blast taking out the US Army dragster aborted run of 4.913 s, 169.44. Schumacher had to get out of it after losing traction at the start. Torrence said of his first win “I’ve been practicing, and the seat time of just making passes in a good car has really helped me a lot. Getting this first win, it’s unbelievable. To do it here at Atlanta is awesome. This is a great racetrack. It just hasn’t caught up to me yet. Hopefully, this is the start of a lot of really good things.”

In Pro Stock, the Ken Black crew really made a statement by placing all three Summit cars in the semi-finals. In the end, Greg Anderson took on teammate and friend Jason Line with 6.649s, 208.26 mph run in his Summit Racing Pontiac to hold off the quicker, but losing, Summit Racing Pontiac of Line, which finished in 6.618 at 209.62. Anderson won it at the start line with an impressive 0.039 s reaction time compared with Line’s 0.081 s time. “It’s great to have three Summit cars in the semi's, quipped Anderson. “That doesn’t happen too often with multicar teams. It just tells you that everybody is rowing the boat in the same direction and pulling their load. That’s what I’m the most proud of — assembling this team and instilling in them that it doesn’t matter which driver wins. Anderson also made a moving comment about his team owner’s battle with cancer, “It all goes back to what Ken Black does for this team. We just want to dig harder and harder every day because that’s what he is doing, going to rehab, and trying to get back to walking, and he’s darn close. When you see that, you don’t want to let the man down. You want to make him proud. And when he gets back to the racetrack full time, we want our cars to be running at their best.”

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Eddie Krawiec, outran first-time finalist Michael Ray. The Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson of Krawiec ran a 6.905s, 195.53mph to beat the GottSpeed Racing Buell of Ray, which finished in 7.036s, 187.94 mph. “We are just trying to get a handle on the motorcycle and working on getting it to leave well, and I think we did that this weekend,” Krawiec said. “It ran awesome, and I’ve got a killer motorcycle right now.”

Kyle Busch Wins Richmond

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – The SPRINT Cup race at Richmond last Saturday was full of surprises. Qualifying was uneventful with Mark Martin edging out Carl Edwards for his second pole of the season. The race was a different story. Edwards, Johnson and Stewart all looked impressive for much of the race, with Edwards looking to have the edge leading more than 200 laps. But with 82 laps to go, the surprises began. Following a caution, the leader board showed Edwards to be in first place. Edwards also claimed that NASCAR had informed his spotter that he was the leader, and restarted as the leader. Tony Stewart however was officially deemed the actual leader, so Edwards was black flagged and penalized with a stop-an-go, eliminating him from contention. “Right before that start my spotter Jason Hedlesky was told by the NASCAR officials ‘the 99 is the leader,’” Edwards said. “Jason told me, I had a split second to decide what I was going to do, and I thought NASCAR made a mistake and lined us up wrong. I was at a disadvantage being on the outside so I thought ‘I’m getting the best start I can get right now.’ I got the best start I could get and it looked like Tony either waited or spun his tires so they black flagged me. He continued, “I still don’t understand why they black flagged me. They said we were the leader so I restarted the best I could, given the disadvantaged position I was in...”

It appeared to be Stewart’s race to win at this point, until a caution for debris with 14 laps to go stops the action. During the ensuing pit stop, Stewart took too long of a stop giving Kyle Busch an opening that he took. With Busch in front on the restart, Stewart was also passed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Stewart later commented that there was no need for the final caution as it appeared that there was only a plastic water bottle on the track, hardly a hazard to the racers. All-in-all, a third place finish by Stewart was impressive since he had several mishaps during the race, but he wasn’t too happy, “Well, when the caution is for a plastic (water) bottle on the backstretch, it’s hard to feel good about losing that one, I mean. And we gave it away on pit road. So we did everything we could to throw it away; it got taken away from us. That’s the best car I’ve had a Richmond in a long time. So I’m really proud of that and (crew chief) Steve Addington and I’m proud of our guys. But we’ve got some work to do on pit stops right now. I don’t know what their malfunction was but I’m pretty ticked off about it tonight.”

On the other hand, Richmond has been good to Busch, “I’m not sure exactly what it is about Richmond that fits my style. When I first went there in the Trucks I was terrible and then they repaved the place. I went there in a Nationwide car with Hendrick Motorsports and pulled off a win right away. It’s been a good track for me ever since then with both the Nationwide and the Cup Series and I have just taken a liking to it. You have to be so technical there. The speeds are really high, but yet it’s a short track. You really have to be on top of your game to be sure that the car stays under you.”

There was also some action at the RCR pits stemming from a pit stop incidence after which RCR crew-member Erik Pringle was reprimeanded by Crew Chief Slugger Labbe. “After the pit stop, our front tire carrier went over to the 48 pit stall and pushed another crew member over the wall from the 48 team, and I don’t condone that. He was mad because when he was jumping over the wall to carry tires, the 48’s right rear tire landed in our pit box and he landed on top of it. He fell down and our right front tire went rolling across pit road. So that’s whatever everyone saw.” Labbe, lives by a code he’s learned during his 25-year tenure in racing: “Never leave your pit box, never go in anyone else’s pit box and let the crew chief fight your battles.”

The Bloody Grand Prix

SAKHIR, BAHRAIN – After a very controversial Grand Prix race in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Red Bull Racing’s Sebastien Vettel drove to a significant victory. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen mounted a very strong challenge to Vettel, especially considering that he started from the 11th starting position. Kimi was running strong at the end, but a late-race tire change gave Vettel the edge. The second Lotus car driven by Romain Grosjean placed third.

Team Red Bull began the season poorly with weak performances in the first three races. With its first win in 2012, the Renault team has signaled the competition that it is still a contender. “I think we had to work extremely hard in the first couple of races,” said Vettel of his win. “We were not where we wanted to be so therefore I’m extremely happy that we had a much better weekend here. Friday morning, the first time I went out, I felt much happier with the car balance, so I think we found a reasonable package that seemed to work on this circuit pretty well so all in all, I’m very pleased.”

Lotus needed to make a strong performance in Bahrain. The critics had been tough on the 2007 World Champion, but Kimi and his team put in a solid performance. “But at least we got the podium with both cars. After the last race we tried hard and failed, and probably people thought we were a bit stupid. Even after yesterday with what we did,” commented Raikkonen. “But it turned out to be the right decision, and I think the team deserves what we have achieved now. We have been working hard. We’ve not been 100 per cent happy with how the weekends have run so far but finally we’ve got some proper results for the team, so it’s an important step.” Romain Grosjean also made it clear that he is a potential race winner with his first podium finish. “I think we are doing some pretty good starts since the beginning, except Melbourne,” said Grosjean. “Malaysia, China and here we have some very good starts… I have to say that I really enjoyed the first stint, the car was fantastic on the option and I could overtake Mark Webber and then Lewis Hamilton.” I believe there is more to come from this young man.

The controversy of the race was due to the political and social unrest in the country stemming from last year’s Arab Spring revolts. 50 people have been killed in Bahrain since the protests began. Last year’s F1 race was cancelled, and many groups have criticized F1 and Bernie Eccelstone for the return of the race to the island-state. Though the race went on without incident, violent clashes between the police and anti-government protesters occurred during the week prior to the race. Drivers and workers reported attacks by Molotov-cocktail wielding youths.

Team Force India actually sat out the Friday afternoon practice session due to security fears. This allegedly so enraged Eccelstone, that he ordered that the team be excluded from television coverage. Bernie reportedly commented that "nobody cares" about the cars that are not in the running for pole. However, the F1 chief executive told reporters: "I suspect it (the blackout) was more to do with the Bahrain laws on no alcohol advertising. They have a whisky company prominently on the car. They should have taken it off. The TV could not show that." McLaren and Sauber removed their usual alcohol sponsors from the cars; however Red Bull was aptly covered although sporting their Singha Beer logos. Force India's deputy team boss Bob Fernley, in charge this weekend in Vijay Mallya's absence, would not comment.

HPD, ORECA and Corvette Racing On Top At The Beach

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA – Saturday was a spectacular Southern California day for the running of the Long Beach ALMS, the second race of the 2012 series. The Muscle Milk Pickett Racing P1 entry piloted by Graf/Luhr made history by posting their second consecutive overall victory at Long Beach. The #06 Soloson Import ORECA FLM09 of Alex Popow and Ryan Dalziel finished first in the Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) class (third overall) in Saturday’s Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach after starting on the pole. Corvette Racing drivers Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won a hard-fought battle, claiming a GT class victory “at the Beach.”


Starting second behind the #16 Dyson Racing car, Graf/Luhr took the lead 25 minutes into the race, and the HPD prototype dominated thereafter except for a 10-lap stint after pitting for fuel. "It was a great day for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing with this historic win,” commented Graf. “Our HPD ARX-03a ran very good all day long with no problems. We had to push very hard though after our pit stop to get back what we lost after coming in for a splash of fuel under yellow. So, I actually got my qualifying in today!”


The No. 4 Compuware Corvette pair completed 84 laps on the 1.968-mile temporary circuit, finishing 4.26 seconds ahead of the runner-up No. 56 BMW. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen brought their No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R home in fourth place after a first-lap accident left their car battered and bruised. The win was the first for the Milner/Gavin driver combination, and Milner's first career ALMS victory. "Finally a win!" exclaimed the 26-year-old racer. "I've been racing in the ALMS since 2006, and I've had podium finishes and great races. I felt confident that we had a car today that would be competitive and comfortable to drive. We were racing hard, but I kept a gap around me and it worked out well this time. Today the Corvette Racing team had the best combination, and I'm very happy to be part of that."


The Porsche GT3-RSR teams had a difficult time at Long Beach. A canceled qualifying session on Friday dashed the hopes of Bergemeister/Long Flying Lizard Motorsports entry for a good starting position. Though the street-course is notorious to passing, Long was able to move quickly from 10th to 4th, but a punctured tire, causing them to drop down a lap, dashed their hopes for the podium. The best placing Porsche of Team Falken Tire driven by Henzeler/Sellers managed a sixth place finish. “Rain during the two-hour free practice, resulting in a wet track, and subsequent cancellation of qualifying, did not enable our customer teams enough track time to set up the new Porsche 911 GT3 RSR for its best performance potential. The competitors who finished ahead of us at Long Beach all have a bigger restrictor – thus more horsepower – than we do. We must work with the American Le Mans Series to find a solution that gives us comparable classification to our competitors in this area,” said Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport.

The Fuel Injection Era

AVONDALE, AZ – In the second race of the “Fuel Injection Era” Tony Stewart experiences a failure dashing his hopes for a good finish. On lap 249 of the 312 lap Phoenix 500, Stewart shut his engine off to conserve fuel. The engine wouldn’t restart, and Stewart needed a push from a wrecker to get it restarted. "A breaker switch in the system that's there -- I don't understand totally why it's there -- but it kicked off," Addington said. "It doesn't need it when it's running. But when he shut the car off, if you ever shut it off, it won't let the car fire back up… We had no way of knowing that's what had kicked off, or that it would do that under racing conditions. It's not what we wanted. We had a fast car and thought we would get a top-five [finish] out of it, but that's the way it goes sometimes." Lesson One – Carburetors do not have breakers.


Denny Hamlin ran a good race at Phoenix finishing first in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 keeping contender Kevin Harvick at bay in the final laps. Lucky for Hamlin, Harvick lost fuel pressure with only two laps to go, but still managed a second place finish. "I don't know where this came from," Hamlin said. "We were solidly off in practice. We were off, but we kept getting it better and closer and closer to being competitive, but I had no idea that we were going to fire off like we did today." This track was not as good to him in 2010 when his Championship run was dashed with a poor finish.


Greg Biffle placed third placing him in second in points following his third place finish at Daytona. Matt Kenseth finished in fourth place leaving him fourth in points.


In other news, NASCAR officials penalized Jimmie Johnson 25 points for improper bodywork modifications at Daytona. Crew Chief Chad Knaus and Car Chief Ron Malec have been suspended from the next six Sprint Car events. Knaus was also issued a $100,000 fine.




The penalties were issued after inspectors found that the C-pillars of Johnson’s car were illegally modified. Officials cut the posts from the car requiring the Hendrick team to fly new parts to the track to be welded in prior to the final inspection. Unfortunately Johnson crashed in the opening laps of the race yielding only 2 championship points. Johnson started the Phoenix race with -23 points. Hendrick is appealing the ruling.

Roush-Yates On Top Yet Again

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – This year, Daytona has certainly seen its share of Roush Yates race engine cross the finish line in first place. After taking top honors at the Rolex 24 Hour, qualifying two cars on the front row of the 500, winning one of the Duel 250s and on Monday Night, or rather, Tuesday morning they clinched the Daytona 500 with Matt Kenseth sailing across the finish line ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr and teammate Greg Biffle. The Roush—Yates engines equipped with Burns merge collectors had plenty of power at the end though there were some water leaks early in the race. "We had a lot of problems -- it was spewing water," said Kenseth, who notched the 22nd Cup victory of his career. "I have to give a lot of credit to [engine builder] Doug Yates and the guys at the engine shop. We had great horsepower. I could get a pretty good start on the bottom and either Denny or Dale Jr. could push me for a while and then they just couldn't stay attached and I would get away from them just in time to get in front of Greg, and the two of us together could make some unbelievable speed. I have to thank Greg. We worked together really good all day long. He had a really fast car all day as well."



Dale Earnhardt Jr. was pushing second place Greg Biffle on the last lap but they could not gain on Kenseth. "I was waiting and waiting," Earnhardt said. "It looked like he might have been trying to make a move on the back straightaway, but nothing materialized there. Then we came off [Turn] 4, and I kind of waited till the last minute for him to have his opportunity to try to pass Matt, and nothing was happening, so I just pulled out and went around him." Denny Hamlin finished 4th with Jeff Burton rounding off the top five.



This Daytona 500 will go down in the books as probably the most bizarre in its history. Not only was the start delayed due to rain (first time in its 54 year history), Juan Pablo Montoya also crashed into a jet drier causing a great ball of fire (SEE VIDEO), and the wild action in the closing laps of the race added to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. On lap 160, Montoya pulled into the pits complaining of a transmission problem. After getting an all-ok from the pit crew, Montoya went back out on the track under a yellow, but lost control of the car and slammed into a jet dryer parked against the outside wall. The jet fuel on the dryer was ignited by the impact and the resultant blaze lit up the dusk sky. "Something failed in the rear of the car, and the car just spun into the jet dryer," Montoya said after a visit to the care center. "I left the pits and felt a really weird vibration, and I came back in and checked the rear end and [they] said it was OK, and I got into the back straight and we were going in fourth gear but wasn't going that fast. Every time I got on the gas, I could feel the rear squeezing. When I was telling the spotter to have a look how the rear was moving, the car just turned right."
This race was also Danica Patrick’s debut in Sprint Cup. Unfortunately for her, Trevor Bayne and Kurt Busch were taken out in an accident.