While I suppose there have been other venues to host major races in Der Fatherland, Ill focus upon what are known to be truly the Big Three, a.k.a. AVUS, The Hockenheimring and the Nordschleife AVUS AVUS was the popularly used acronym for the Automobil-Verkehrs- und bungs-Strae, a racing circuit located on the southwestern outskirts of Berlin, which called for construction to hopefully begin in 1907.  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 »

So, while Emperor Bernardo has molded Formula 1 into a fairly conducive, single, unified racing series which is arguably the pinnacle of motorsports today, will Open Wheel racing manage to resurrect itself?  read more »

I didn't see it, because I was busy watching Lewis Hamilton giving a wet-weather driving master class to rank alongside Ayrton Senna's magnificent 1993 European Grand Prix win and Jackie Stewart's domination of the 1968 German Grand Prix, but I'm told that this year's Wimbledon Men's Final, between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, was one of the all time classics of the game. In order to get to that final, Nadal and Federer had to come out on top in a knock-out tournament with 126 other competitors, any of whom could, in theory have won.

Contrast that with Formula 1. At the moment, there are just 20 slots on the F1 grid. and just 4 to 6 of those seats are likely to provide a realistic shot at winning a Grand Prix. OK, so the outstanding talents usually, though not quite always, find their way into the best drives once they have got their foot in the door and secured an F1 drive in the first place (Alonso didn't take long to come to the world's attention even at Minardi, while Raikkonen impressed from the outset at Sauber). There is though, a strong element of luck involved in determining who gets a shot at F1 in the first place. It's a fact which has come to play an ever bigger role as the junior single seater series have burgeoned at the same time as the number of cars on the F1 grid has decreased and drivers careers have tended to become longer than once they were. It is all the more of a lottery for the fact that a good number of the great F1 drivers were merely good rather than outstanding in their time in the sport's lower echelons. After all, what did Michael Schumacher ever really achieve in F3000? And wasn't Nigel Mansell pretty uninspiring in F3?  read more »

The No. 71 Tafel/Bell Micro Racing Ferrari F430 GTC earned its third-consecutive American Le Mans Series podium in dramatic fashion in today's Utah Grand Prix. The Cumming, Ga.-based team took-over third- place on the last lap of the two hour and 45-minute event at the 3.048-miles, the 15-turn Miller Motorsports Park (MMP). The No. 73 Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GTC had a less satisfying return to the Series after a two race sabbatical finishing 16th in class. No. 71 Tafel/Bell Micro Racing Ferrari F430 GTC Drivers: Dominik Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany), Dirk Mller (a native of Germany now living in Monaco) Coming off of two-straight American Le Mans Series GT2 class victories (St. Petersburg and Long Beach), all eyes were on the No.  read more »

The Penske Porsche RS Spyders of Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) maintained their LMP2 championship points lead over the American Le Mans Series with a second place finish at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach's Tequila Patron ALMS street race, while teammates Patrick Long (USA) and Sascha Maassen (Germany) finished third in class, equaling their best finish of the season.  read more »

IndyCar Series Press Conference Transcript THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with the morning media availability. Joined by Bobby and Graham Rahal. Bobby is the winner of the 1986 Indianapolis 500, actually here this month with two cars, his full-time team with driver Ryan Hunter-Reay and an entry with Alex Lloyd in a partnership with Chip Ganassi for a second car. Graham is here making his Indy 500 debut. Graham, I guess we'll start with you. You've been on the track now three days. Talk about your experience here thus far. GRAHAM RAHAL: It's been a great last couple of days. I think obviously I've been coming here a long time with dad, and a lot of memories of the track. But it's always different when you're driving yourself and in it.  read more »

Tafel Racing earned its first American Le Mans Series career pole position today in preparation for Saturday's Generac 500 at Road America. Dirk Mller's (a native of Germany now living in Monaco) lap of two minutes, 6.083-seconds in the No. 71 Tafel/Bell Micro Racing Ferrari F430 GTC bettered the previous GT2 class track record by over one second. Dominik Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) will start the Bell Micro machine in tomorrow's four hour race. Alex Figge (Denver) put the No. 73 Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GTC, shared with Jim Tafel (Alpharetta, Ga.), seventh in class with a time of 2:08.385. Ferraris swept the front row for the second endurance event of the season.  read more »

No. 71 Tafel/Bell Micro Ferrari Looks for ALMS Hat Trick, No. 73 Returns to Tafel Racing After two GT2 class victories in the three American Le Mans Series races held thus far in 2008, Tafel Racing is enjoying a surge of momentum entering the Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP). The May 18, two hour and 45-minute feature comes after two straight wins in the Series for the No. 71 Tafel/Bell Micro Racing Ferrari F430 GTC driven by Dominik Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) and Dirk Mller (a native of Germany living in Monaco) and precedes a seven-week break on the schedule. A successful run at MMP can help carry early season momentum into the heart of the schedule for the Jim Tafel (Alpharetta, Ga.) owned effort. The Tooele, Utah-area track also marks the fulltime return of the No.  read more »

The No. 61 Risi-Krohn Ferrari 430GT, prepared by Risi Competizione, is ready to challenge the 56th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring. The Ferrari will be driven by Krohn Racing team owner/driver Tracy W. Krohn, along with teammates Nic Jnsson and Eric van de Poele. The legendary Sebring, Florida-based race is the inaugural event of the 2008 American Le Mans Series (ALMS), scheduled for March 12-15. Krohn Racing and Risi Competizione, both of Houston, Texas, have paired again in 2008 to field a Ferrari 430 GT in the GT2 class for Sebring and the LMGT2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Last year the Risi-Krohn Ferrari team participated in four of the ALMS races, collecting three Top-10 finishes, and a remarkable second-place finish at the internationally renowned 24 Hours of Le Mans race.