Weekend Brief

Busy week for me so here is the schedule of races for this weekend (5/6-5/8).  Expect a re-cap early next week.


>GT1 World Championship and GT3 Euro Championship Algarve (various time slots)

>AMA Supercross Finale, Las Vegas Saturday 10:00PM Eastern

>Formula 1 Turkey Sunday 8:00am Eastern

Brazil Rundown

So the rain delayed Sao Paulo Indycar race went down early Monday morning.  The restart threatened to make it just as bad of a day as Sunday's attempt.  The cars rolled out for their parade laps on slick tires, and just before the start, the rain came back.  Miraculously the field was able to make it through the first four corners to dive into pit lane for rain tires.  The race went off relatively calm after that, Bourdais had a shunt into a tire wall, and although the car lacked visible damage, Sebastian shut the car down and walked back in.  On a restart KV/Lotus racing's Takuma Sato (a Formula 1 alum) passed road course ace and championship contender Will Power, in a textbook outbraking manuever.  Another of the KV cars, EJ Viso was also running toward the front late into the race.  But with about 8 laps to go, both of them had to stop for fuel.  A strategic fuel stop earlier done by team Penske allowed Will Power to take over the lead, and he drove it to the finish.  Graham Rahal finished 2nd, with Briscoe, Franchitti, and Servia rounding out the top 5.


Point Standings (top 12)
1 Power < has taken advantage of the road courses in the early season
2 Franchitti < defending champion, will be a threat for the 500 on the 29th
3 Servia < has finished in the top 10 every race, slowly climbing the ladder
4 Mike Conway < won in Long beach and finished 6th in Brazil
5 Ryan Briscoe < made up for a slow start with two good performances
6 Tony Kannan < was involved in Sunday's incidents but has been solid for KV
7 Alex Tagliani < sold his team but it looks like its helping his pace
8 Scott Dixon < expect his fuel mileage prowess to show up as wins on ovals
9 Graham Rahal < finally gelling with his new team, had a great wet drive
10 Takuma Sato < gets good finishes but needs to keep it out of the wall
11 Simona de Silvesro < caught up in 2 incidents, has potential for top 10
12 Vitor Meira < has shown consistency, expect a good oval program with Foyt

Delay

The rain yesterday at the Indycar race in Brazil postponed the event.  This morning around 8am Eastern (right now) Torrential downpours caused incidents like these.

I will be posting another update when able.

It was also a bad weekend for scary accidents.  The first video is from a Porsche Cup race at Imola (Italy) where two cars get together causing one to go airborne to frightening effect.  The second is a video from a V8 Supercars race in Australia, where a car stalls on the start, and is hit from behind by another driver, rupturing the fuel cell.  Fortunately all of the drivers in these videos walked away from the scene of their accidents.

Indycar Weekend

The only major series race this weekend is the Indycar Series, who are on their first fly-away race in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Due to a contract dispute with Formula 1, Indy is not allowed to run on the hallowed Interlagos Circuit, so iconic of Brazil's car culture.  Because of this an alternative was set up in the streets of the city, utilizing the Sambadrome (a recreational area built for parades during Carnival) and the city's convention center.  This will be the second Indycar venture on this track, which was marred by confusion last year.  In practice it rained heavily, giving the drivers very little time to learn the course.  

Being Brazil, the threat of rain again this weekend is still a real possibility.  Then the night before the race, after deciding the concrete Samba straight was too slick, it was diamond ground.  This caused a buildup of dust which formed a cloud as the field rolled through for the start of the race.  The low visibility was a factor in a number of accidents, especially early in the race.

Vital statistics on the track: It is a temporary street circuit which has seen heavy public traffic since it was paved with its race surface.  It is just over 2.5 miles long, and features 11 corners.  Surface is asphalt, the same blend as Interlagos, except for the Sambadrome straight, which is ground concrete.  The race will be about 190 miles around the course.  The track record is 1:27.74 (Franchitti) and last year's winner was Will Power, driving for Verizon/Penske.

The race coverage will begin at Noon Eastern time on Versus.  Click HERE for a spotter's guide to this weekend's cars.  Enjoy the race!

Cars Post

One of the more recent trends in car modification has revolved not around the usual areas (performance and wheels) but on the car's finish.  The classic finishes like gloss, candy, and metallics are all attractive in their own right, but the new swing strips down the polish.  These are matte finishes, also know as flat.  Previously a car without a shine was a sign that somebody had run out of cash and rattle-canned their rides themselves.  New technologies in the makeup of paints, as well as vinyl car-wrap finishes have made an even attractive matte color an option.  Disadvantages are in the life-course of the paint, which is meant more as a show finish than a daily driver color.  Tree sap, bugs, and other corrosives can be extremely damaging to a flat finish, and it needs constant care to stay condition.  
>The trend started with black cars, taking a stealth bomber approach.

>After the black proved the concept, other dark colors came out, such as these.

>And now even more bold colors are coming out.

Right now the matte finish trend is mostly in the European tuner scene, the asian VIP customizations, and the US west coast.  However as the technology gets more popular other areas and manufacturers are beginning to show their new models in a matte wrap (see the rust colored Alfa above).  Some people claim that going mainstream will kill the look, that too much of it will kill the uniqueness of the look.  What opinions do you guys have on the flat look?

Video Time!

A Porsche GT2 RS having a spin on the Nurburgring

The Official Commercial for the new Lamborghini Aventador

Weekend Post

Well all of the major series I cover here have an off weekend.  This weekend however does mark the first of the tests for the 79th running of the 24 Hours of LeMans.  This endurance classic will be held on June 11th and 12th, over a month from now.  Right now the course, partially the closed Bugatti Circuit, and part public roads, will host 54 cars.   Teams and drivers who have never ran at Le Mans, including those who have been named alternates, must show up this weekend to retain their eligibility.  The massive turnout of 54 cars is due to a change of regulations in the prototypes, and re grouping of the classes in the GT cars.  The three top contenders from Audi, Peugeot, and Aston Martin will all be turning laps this weekend in new spec prototypes. Other cars of note are the Lotus Evora GTE, making it's Le Mans debut.  Both Oreca and Zytek will be fielding prototypes with hybrid engines, trying to maximize efficiency and gain a speed advantage on the 3.7 mile Mulsanne Straight.  Making a driver debut this weekend is retired Nascar driver Michael Waltrip, who is going to attempt the 24 hours in a Ferrari F430, after two years of racing Ferraris in other competitions, such as 24 hour races in Dubai and on the Nurburgring (Where he finished on podium in his class.

Robertson is hoping to field two Ford GTs this year at the 24

Audi's stunning R18 testing at Paul Ricard earlier this week

A lot of the comments I've gotten on the race weekend threads are Formula 1 related, so with the lack of a race this weekend, I'm posting the current series standings for you guys, all together in one place.
1     Red Bull     105    (P1 Vettel, P4 Weber)
2     McLaren       85    (P2 Hamilton, P3 Button)
3     Ferrari         50    (P5 Alonso, P6 Massa)
4     Renault       32    (P7 Petrov, P8 Heidfeld)
5     Mercedes     16    (P9 Rosberg, P11 Schumacher)
6     Sauber          7    (P10 Kobayashi, P21 Perez)
7     Torro Rosso   4    (P12 Buemi, P15 Alguersuari)
8     Force India    4    (P13 Sutil, P14 di Resta)
9     Lotus            0    (P16 Trulli, P19 Kovalainen)

10   Williams        0    (P17 Barrichello, P22 Maldonado)
11   Virgin            0    (P18 d'Ambrosio, P20 Glock)
12   HRT              0    (P23 Liuzzi, P24 Karthikeyan)

Next week we will have Indycar racing from the streets of Sao Paulo Brazil, which produced close competition on an unproven road surface.  There will also be an event from Rally America in Ocean Shores, Washington, aka. the Olympus Rally.  Until then Happy Easter.

Cars Post!

After it's release in 1998, the VW New Beetle has gone on virtually unchanged.  For the 2012 model year the bug is getting some new bodywork.  It appears they are trying to make it less cute, and the styling brings it  more into line with the Mini Cooper, and the Fiat 500.  VW has also announced they will be offering an R-Version of the Beetle running a 270 horsepower, 252 lb-ft turbocharged 2.0 liter inline-four.  This engine will be shared with the Golf R (an intermediate step between base and GTI specs).  VW has promised both of these R types to the US market by 2013, VW faithful rejoice. LINK

 VW New Beetle 2012

 VW Golf R

GM has released pictures of a special edition of their Camaro for next year.  2012 will mark Camaro's 45 anniversary.  The special edition is mostly cosmetic details, such as unique wheels, HID headlights, custom taillights, and '45' branded graphics.  Check it out LINK

Short post today, busy finishing out the semester.  Song for the day.