DAY 5 - THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2008 TODAY AT THE TRACK (all times local): 9 a.m. Public Gates Open 12-6 p.m. IndyCar Series practice *** Notes and items of interest will appear on these pages during the month and will also be available on the Speedway's official site on the World Wide Web, www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com and the official IndyCar Series Web site, www.indycar.com . Performance histories will be issued at the end of each day in the Media Center and on the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar Series Web sites. Live timing and scoring reports from the Indianapolis 500 will be available on the Internet at www.indycar.com . The live timing and scoring module provides statistical information, including track segment speeds, lap information and much more.  read more »

This special guest Article is written by Vinod Jacob , an automotive engineer and a freelance journalist covering travel and automotive topics. Have you ever wondered how the racing car mounted cameras brings to you the drivers view without any vibration of the car when it goes flat out?  read more »

Obviously the face of Open Wheel Racing has changed dramatically since the Spring of 2006, which was also Pre-No Fenders Yet, interestingly, on Monday following the Roadster Show, RuSPORT announced new primary sponsorship for Justins No. 9 Champ Car, with new primary sponsorship from CDW, while just two days later, (Wednesday) Oriel Servia was signed to replace Cristiano Whats duh Matter? da Matta at PKV Racing as the ever growing Black Hole nebulous shadow of the Zeppelin von Champ Car was ever increasing in size. Meanwhile Captain Kevin Smiley-Face Kalkhoven and Co-pilot Jerry What me Worry?  read more »

The MotoGP series, especially in the shape of Dorna, the marketing body behind MotoGP, loves to compare itself with Formula One and other four-wheeled racing series, the comparisons always coming out in MotoGP's favor. And it is true that there is usually more passing in a single MotoGP race than there is in a season of Formula One. Dorna is always delighted to point out that if it's excitement you're after, then MotoGP is very much the place to be.
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This is just a quick listing of what I could decipher for car counts of the Family Fued occurring in OWR and by NO means 100% accurate, as Ive never before pursued making an Indy Racing League team score card. And while things may be bleak on the CCWSs side of the roster, its not all peaches N cream on the IRLs side either, as theres at least three teams (Dreyer & Reinbold, Panther and Rahal Letterman Racing) whove all dropped a car for their 2008 efforts. Meanwhile it appears that Tony George himself has given two of his three drivers their walking papers, (AJ Foyt IV & Tomas Scheckter) while son-in-law Ed Carpenters ride is still in limbo.  read more »

THE evolution of grand prix cars since the modern world championship started in 1950 is as fascinating as the characters involved. As the regulations have changed, designers have come up with some ingenious creations. And there have been some that have not been so good. Remember the Tyrrell six-wheeler from 1977?  read more »

My first two choices for my series on iconic racing cars from my youth were, in many ways, polar opposites. The Porsche 962 was stunningly, conspicuously successful, where the Metro 6R4's competition history was a story of opportunities missed and what-might-have-been. The 962 had a kind of elegant simplicity about it's design where the 6R4 looked like it could have come straight off the set of Mad Max - all wildly flared wheel arches and giant spoilers. And, of course, while the 962 as a race car, the 6R4 was a rally car.

My final choice falls between all these stools. Both a rally car and a racing car - successful, but never to quite the extent that it could have been, and a car whose beauty, or otherwise, was always very much in the eye of the beholder. The early 1980s saw the replacement of the old Group 1-6 system for rally, sports and touring cars with three new categories - Group C, for sports prototypes, Group B, which was principally a category for ludicrously overpowered rally cars and Group A, for both rally cars (following the death of Group B, it became the premier rally category from 1987) and touring cars. For me, the archetypal Group A touring car was Ford's Sierra RS Cosworth.  read more »

Aw shucks, I just realized that its Saint Patricks Day, you know when youre supposed to pinch somebody when theyre NOT wearing green, OUCH! Mary Ellen So with that in mind, I thought Id pay homage to those plucky Irishmen whove boldly sat behind the wheel of a Formula 1 rocket ship and see just whos Kissed the Blarney stone and whos found the luck O the Irish or the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, eh?  read more »

The three painted lines marking the spot where MotoGP line up on the grid cram a lot of tension into a tiny space. After rolling out of the pits, and round the track for the sighting lap, the riders are in their element doing something they know and understand, riding a powerful motorcycle around a race track. But that release from pre-race tension is all too brief, for it is the prelude to the worst 15 minutes of a rider's life. Once they round the final corner and roll up to their starting position, they are trapped once again inside those few lines of paint, forced to stand idle while the clock ticks away the endless seconds before the race actually starts.

Then, once the bustle of the grid is brought to an end by the 1 minute board, and the bikes head off round the track for the warm up lap, the riders know that things are about to get worse. As they return to the confinement of those three stripes of paint, that sickening feeling in the pit of their stomach intensifies. For though they know they will only be held in that painted prison for a few seconds, restrained by just a red light, they have just long enough to ponder the fact that what they do next is irreversible. No room for error, no second chances, and no quarter given when the flag drops, but until then, motorcycle racers, people who are fundamentally defined by what they do, can do nothing. Just wait. And worry.  read more »

Expectations are a double-edged sword. Expectations, the expectations you have of yourself, and the expectations that others have of you, can inspire you to remarkable achievements. But wanting to live up to those expectations can also place an incredible burden upon you, knowing that you if you fall short, you disappoint not only yourself, but also all those around you. The way you handle that burden is a test of character, self-knowledge, and mental strength.

All professional sportsmen and women face this burden, but for one reason or another, it is heavier in some sports than in others. Sometimes, it is the popularity of the sport which bears upon the protagonists: a Brazilian striker in the World Cup knows that he carries the weight of tens of millions of fans with him. In some sports, it is the lack of margin for error which imposes itself: with just under 10 seconds to win a race in, a sprinter has to get everything right, from start to finish; the slightest hesitation and your race is over. And sometimes it is the danger of the activity itself which creates the pressure: for the solo round-the-world sailor, a single mistake - misjudging the weather, forgetting to tether a safety line properly - can mean serious injury, and even death.  read more »