Bittersweet Win for Audi at 24 Heures du Mans

LASARTHE, FRANCE -  The 90th run of the 24 Heures du Mans was marked by tragedy when on lap three, Aston Martin driver Allan Simonsen lost his life when his #95 Vantage struck the armco barriers at the high speed entry of the Tetre Rouge.   This is the first driver fatality at Le Mans in 30 years.  The 34-year old Dane was considered a young star in the sport competing all over the world.  “Following the wishes of Allan’s family, the team continued its participation in the race which was obviously very emotional and difficult for everyone," said Aston Martin chairman David Richards. "Both the No. 97 and No. 99 cars led for long periods of time but, ultimately, it was the changing weather conditions in the last hours that cost us the victory we all longed for."

Audi claimed its 12^th overall victory at the famed endurance race.  But this time it was not the seeming cake-walk that Audi has been known for, as the hybrid Toyotas gave them formidable competition.  The Audis looked strong the whole day, but the competition became interesting when some late race pit stops for the #2 R-18 Audi diesel-powered hybrid allowed the #8 Toyota piloted by Buemi to take the lead with only 30 minutes to go.  R-18 pilot, Tom Kristensen, was able to pass the Toyota on the second to the last lap to claim victory.  Kristensen shared the victory with Allan NcNish and Loic Duval.  Third place also went to Audi and the #3 team of Jarvis/Genne/DiGrassi who had to play catch-up following an extended pit stop for body repairs.

Porsche made a strong statement in its return to factory sports car racing scoring a 1-2 finish in the GTE-Pro class with the new 991-based RSR.  It appeared that the faster #97 Aston Martin would win the race as a tribute to their fallen comrade, but Porsche made some very strategic pit calls that clinched the victory.  When the rain started, the #92 Porsche remained on slicks whilst the Astons pitted for rain tires.  A more daring call for the #91 Porsche to change from wet tires to slicks was also found to be the correct strategy.  After the #97 Aston pitted again for slicks, the Porsches were one lap ahead.  With a victory in GTE-Am, Porsche swept the GTE classes. 

I will close this blog entry with a quote from Audi driver Tom Kristensen.  "For me, Le Mans was filled with very personal emotions this time. I’m proud to drive for the world’s best team. …. They make it possible for us to realize a dream.  Now this dream has come true again – winning the fastest and toughest race under the direction of Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. Unfortunately, we lost someone yesterday (with Allan Simonsen) who had the same dream.  He was a very modest and nice person. That’s why I’m experiencing highs and lows this time. With respect to my ninth victory: I’m driving with determination and the ambition my father inspired in me. He died in March. Before his death, he told me that I’d win Le Mans this year with my team-mates. I’m hoping that one day I’ll be able to celebrate another victory with Loïc and Allan that I can dedicate to my father. Because this Le Mans success I’m dedicating to Allan Simonsen."

Greg Biffle on Top at Michigan

BROOKLYN, MI – The Quiken Loans 400  was payday for Greg Biffle.  With 32 laps to go, Biffle grabbed the lead on the final restart and stayed there to win the 1,000^th NASCAR victory for Ford Racing. “The 1,000 wins for Ford, that's pretty exciting,” said Biffle.  “I was worried about the 48 [Jimmie Johnson], but when I got in clean air, it was over.”  It was not a downhill ride for the Roush team as Sprint Cup leader Jimmie Johnson had a hot car and was gaining on Biffle.  With only 0.908 seconds between him and the leader, a cut tire forced him into the wall in Turn 2 with only two laps to go, placing him at 28th.  “We had a fast race car,” Johnson said. “I hate having that problem at the end.

Jack Roush was of course elated with his win at the home track.  "We expect to be at our best when we come to MIS and I am glad we could pull it off," Roush said. "I was a little nervous for a minute there, but I am glad it worked out and glad we could give Ford its 1,000th win."  Kevin Harvick finished in second place followed by Martin Truex in third.

The mood on Saturday however was somber as the drivers and teams remembered Jason Leffler who died last week in a Sprint Car crash in New Jersey. Denny Hamlin and the Joe Gibbs Racing team paid tribute to Jason with wrapping his #11-car with the FedEx livery that it carried when Leffler last drove it. "We feel fortunate to have had (Leffler) as part of both our Nationwide Series program and of course in the Cup Series where he helped us launch the No. 11 team with FedEx," team owner Joe Gibbs said earlier this week. "NASCAR is unique in that it really is one large family and Jason was well liked by all that knew him. His loss will be felt across the entire sport."

Danica Patrick finished a respectable 13th after a poor day of qualifying placed her 28th on  the grid.  Danica’s rookie year has been a struggle.  "It's nice to just get a decent finish for the team and for GoDaddy," Patrick said. "It's been rough going since Martinsville. This will hopefully get everyone's head up a little bit and we will go on.”

Other NASCAR news this week includes some off-the-cuff remarks by Brad Keslowski regarding the Hendrick’s and Gibbs’ teams. According to ESPN.com, Brad said, "What keeps it from going too far is the fact Hendrick and (Joe Gibbs Racing) have this nasty little habit of going to our teams and outbidding different people and taking those employees and stealing our information." Both Gibbs and Hendrick rebutted the comments, with the Gibbs response most telling "We were surprised to read the recent comments and accusations made by Brad Keselowski," JGR said. "Clearly those comments are misguided and irresponsible. Brad's candor is well documented, but he would do well to only speak to subjects on which he is properly informed."

The Longest Day In Racing - Monaco, Indy and Charlotte

EVERYWHERE – This was quite a weekend for racing.  Three of the most prestigious races, The Grand Prix of Monaco, The Indy 500 and the Charlotte 600, in the world all happened on Sunday and all were memorable with unique endings. 

Broadcast Sunday morning in the US, the Monaco Grand Prix took place under a clear and sunny day against the backdrop of the beautiful picturesque Cote d’Azur.  For the third race this year, Nico Rosberg placed his Silver Arrow Mercedes on the pole and drove a clean, incident free race to win his first Monaco GP.  This was also the first time that Mercedes Benz has been in the winner circle at Monte Carlo – a truly memorable race.  It was also extra special for Nico as his father, Keke, also crossed the finish line first at this race 30 years ago.  "Today the team gave me a great car and it's fantastic to see how we've managed to improve in a short space of time." About his father’s win 30 years ago, Rosberg continued, "It's special, but honestly that's not what I was thinking of when I was crossing the finish line."  The Infiniti-Redbull cars of S. Vettel and M. Webber finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.   

The Indy 500 ran next and was probably the most competitive in the 97 year history of this historic race.  Ed Carpenter earned the pole position for the race, but the even money was on Dario Franchitti or Helio Castroneves, both three time winners at Indy.  It was however, Marco Andretti that took the early lead with the intent on being the first Andretti to win this race since Mario in 1969.  But in the end, it was Tony Kanaan, the 12 race veteran that finally finished this race at the top-of-the-podium.  Following a caution period on lap 198, Tony Kanaan made a picture perfect restart to gain the lead.  Then, his good friend Dario Franchitti crashed forcing the race to end under the yellow flag.  Kanaan said the last two laps, particularly the last one, were the longest of his career. He closely followed the pace car, and he held up one finger as he crossed the finish line. (Autoweek)

Sunday’s longest day of racing ended with the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte, which ended up to be a long, long race. The weekend favorite was Kyle Busch who was looking for a sweep after winning both the Nationwide and Busch series races earlier in the weekend.  But the race at Charlotte turned out to be an ordeal for the drivers with 11 caution periods and three red flags.  The most bizarre incident was on lap 122, when an overhead cable supporting a FOX TV camera snapped, falling onto the track and injuring several fans.  Busch, leading the race at the time, ran over the cable causing damage to the right front.  Busch said he didn't see the cable when he ran over it.  "I heard a big thump on the right front tire,'' he said.  "I thought the right front tire blew out and that's how hard it felt. It did have an effect of slowing my car down. I couldn't feel it.” (ESPN)

NASCAR granted an unusual 15-minute race delay to allow the teams to assess and repair damage to the race cars.  After the restart, Busch looked strong, but an engine failure on lap 257 took him out of the race.  Kasey Kahne then looked to be the favored contender, but a pit stop strategy error left him with worn tires late the end giving Kevin Harvick the edge on the final restart.  Kahne finished 2nd with Kurt Busch following up in 3rd.

Corvette Racing Claims Victory in Monterey!

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – It was a very special week for the #3 Corvette of Magnussen/Garcia as they claimed top honors in GT class at the American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca. “I have to say, today was one of the most perfect races we’ve had with Corvette Racing," Magnussen said. "We were under pressure the whole way. We never had a big lead, we really had to work through traffic and not get stopped by the slower cars and lose too much time. It was a matter of being precise the whole race." Crew Chief Danny Binks was elated with his first win in 18 months and exclaimed that “My guys rocked all day. We needed that.” Dave Henninger of GM said “We were not the fastest, just the best!”

Crew Chief Danny Binks was elated with his first win in 18 months and exclaimed that “My guys rocked all day.  We needed that.”  Dave Henninger of GM said “We were not the fastest, just the best!” 

In P1, there was fierce competition all-day between the Muscle Milk Pickett HPD ARX-03c and the Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60.  But with 40 minutes left in the race, the two cars contacted as they tried navigating around a slower GTC entry causing the Rebellion Lola piloted by Neel Jani to pit to replace a punctured tire.  This gave the Luhr/Graf Honda the lead crossing the finish line 6.352 sec ahead of the Lola. Luhr commented that “…we had a little coming together but I think it was by no bad meanings from him or me. It was just unlucky a race situation with a GTC car in between... The way he hit me, I doubt he would have made the corner without me being there!"

Surprise surprise, in the P2 class, an HPD AX-03b won.  The Tucker/Franchitti of Level 5 Motorsports entry finished first in class and third overall with the Cosmo/Sharp car finishing three laps down (16^th overall). "It was a perfect weekend and a great way for Level 5 to bounce back after a tough weekend at Long Beach," Franchitti said. "Especially going into Le Mans, this is what we needed. The guys have been working day and night preparing for this race. Scott, myself and Ryan have worked really hard with the engineers on the setup of the car and I think it showed today."  

The all-Porsche GTC-class was won by the RSR piloted by Cisneros/Tandy of NGT Motorsport, followed by Dempsey/Lally/Foster in second place and Keating/Faulkner in third.  “Today was tough,” Cisneros said. “It was one of those nail-biting races. The strategy was to get to the front, but things happen. We had a speeding violation in the pits from first, but we were able to get the car back up front. Then we got the final yellow, and Nick was not going to settle for second.”

Meanwhile, in Barcelona…

Nigel Hook and the Silverhook 48GP at Biloxi

Commencing their 2013 season, the 77 LUCAS OIL team will be testing the SilverHook 48GP at their race shop near Lake Monroe, FL before heading to Biloxi, Mississippi where they are competing in the 9th Annual “Smokin’ the Sound” Super Boat Grand Prix April 26-28. As a warm up to Sunday’s race, the team is looking forward to participating in the “Smokin’ the Sound” Poker Run on Saturday, April 27.

Comprised of a long straightaway with sweeping corners where most of the action is sheltered by the sound protecting the course from any of the Gulf of Mexico turbulence, the Biloxi Grand Prix’s racecourse may prove to be a very smooth, fast track. “Typically this is not my favorite type of course”, says Hook “as we prefer the open ocean and the potential for big seas, but this venue has the attraction of all the casinos and great viewing for the fans”. The dry pits are based at the Grand Casino and the start/finish line in front of the Hard Rock Casino.

From Sanya, China, host of the UIM Class 1 season opener, English pilot, Miles Jennings, will be making his USA debut in Biloxi standing in for Swedish pilot, Michael Silfverberg. Miles, a veteran international powerboat racer, is also racing with the FENDI Racing Team where their next Class 1 race is mid-June in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Stepping into Michael’s shoes won’t be easy”, says co-owner of SilverHook and throttleman Nigel Hook, adding “I have a lot of respect for Miles. We have raced against each other for many years, in many countries, and he has his own very special shoes”. Miles is often compared to former English Formula One Champion, James Hunt and his reputation of always being accompanied by two beautiful models.
What else is new with the 77 LUCAS OIL SilverHook?

We swapped the Mercury 850hp out of the 17 LUCAS OIL Skater into the SilverHook. These engines were originally acquired by the team for the European Powerboat P1 power-to-weight ratio series and run conveniently on pump gas, which makes the 2013 plan of including Poker Runs in to the season more attainable and economical.

Chief Mechanic Ryan Zivitski from Florida and Kieran Ironmonger from Race Technology (UK) are in charge of telemetry. The 77 LUCAS OIL SilverHook team will be extending the offseason R&D to gain knowledge from the new telemetry system to identify issues during the racing to preempt expensive failures and improve efficiencies from high performance analytics.

NMCA West Burns Stainless Open Comp Winners

BAKERSFIELD CA – Congratulations to Dan Gels for winning the Burns Stainless Open Comp event at the NMCA West Street Car Nationals at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield CA.  Dan Marciano was the event runner-up.  

The NMCA WEST Street Car Nationals, presented by Flowmaster, kicked off its second season at historic Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, CA, the weekend of April 5-7, 2013.  The 1st Annual Lucas Oil NMCA WEST Street Car Nationals was a huge success with lots of race cars and fans...proving that the NMCA WEST series has quickly become "the place" to race on the west coast.

All the cars and all the stars of NMCA WEST were in attendance with many competitors from all over looking forward to great weather and 1/4 mile action.  NMCA WEST fans came to see all the wild heads-up and wheels-up classes and they weren't disappointed!  Supercharged, nitrous assisted, turbocharged, and naturally aspirated...the NMCA WEST Bakersfield event had it all.  Particularly strong was NMCA WEST's top class, Garrett Turbo Pro Street with some of the baddest hot rods in the land racing at 6-seconds, 200+ MPH.  NMCA WEST superstar and former NHRA Pro Stock racer, Joe Lepone, Jr., won Pro Street and has taken the points lead in the series.  

The best part of the weekend was presenting NMCA WEST class competitors with Wallys, courtesy of NHRA Unleashed and Aerospace Components.  Don Meziere, the owner of Meziere Enterprises, took home a Wally and is seen below in our NMCA WEST winners circle.

SEBRING - Audi Finishes 1-2, and Corvette Racing wins GT

SEBRING, FLORIDA – The 61st running of the 12 Hours at Sebring resulted in the not-too-surprising 1-2 victory by Team Audi. The 2012 vintage Quottro e-tron diesel-hybrid finished first at the hands of Treluyer/Fassler/Jarvis with the 2013 car of Kristensen.McNish/DiGrassi following in second place. Both Audis completed 364 laps with the third place P1 Lola B12/60 of Prost/Heidfeld/Jani could only manage 359 laps – pretty remarkable really. "Winning with Audi at Daytona already was an incredible experience. But now an overall victory on my first run at Sebring on top of that is more than I’d ever dared to hope for," commented the 29-year-old Oliver Jarvis.

As the results show, the Audis were never seriously challenged, however the No 1 car sustained some damage after hitting some track debris.  The floor of the Audi came loose and could be seen throwing sparks during the night, but it did not seem to hamper the performance. 

There was some disappointment in the Elan camp with the early retirement of the Deltawing.  After a mere 10 laps, the P1 entry retired with an engine failure.  It should be noted that this car was not sponsored by Nissan, nor was it powered by Nissan.  It was a venture by the car’s developer Elan who had designed and built a turbo-charged engine based on a Mazda 4-cylinder platform.  Also on deisplay at the race was the new Deltawing coupe, a rather elegant rendition of the open-cockpit racer.

GT-class was won by the Corvette Racing VR-1 of Gavin/Milner/Westbrook, followed closely by the Risi Competizione 458 Ferrari Italia of Bruni/Beretta/Malucelli.  The Corvette caught a couple of breaks as the one of the Ferrari drivers, Gianmaria Bruni could not complete his final stage requiring the rookie Malucelli to relieve him.  In the final 15 minutes of the race, The Ferrari then experienced an off-course excursion allowing the Corvette to take the lead and it’s first Sebring GT2 -class win.  It appears that once again, the GT-class will have some tough and exciting competition again in 2013.

P2 class was won by Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe in the Honda Performance ARX-03b, and GTC class went to the MacNeil/Bleekmolen/von Moltke Porsche GT3 of Alex Job Racing.

In other news, The first Formula 1 race in Melbourne Australia saw Kimi Raikkonen again in the winner’s circle with an impressive and dominating performance in his Lotus.  The win was attributed to the excellent tire management of the Lotus team.  Others appeared to struggle with their tires allowing for the two-pit strategy of the Lotus team to end in victory.  Ferrari leads in points after the inaugural race with Alonso and Massa finishing second and fourth.  Vettel completed the podium with a third place win for Red Bull.