F1, NASCAR, IndyCar, GP2, MotoGP, ALMS, WRC and More! If It Goes Fast...We're Talking About It!!
Infinite Menus, Copyright 2006, OpenCube Inc. All Rights Reserved.
May 16, 2008 - 12:59 AM








PaddockTalk.com Newsletters:

Breaking News!
Racing News
Top News
Daily Forum Update

Enter your email address:
F1 & NASCAR Newsletter subscription form

Featured Poll

Sponsored Links

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Sat, May 17 2008
Sun, May 18 2008
Sat, May 24 2008
Sun, May 25 2008
Tue, May 27 2008
Wed, May 28 2008
Thu, May 29 2008
Fri, May 30 2008
Sat, May 31 2008

XML News Feeds
A1 GP News
F1 News
F1 Rumors
IRL News
NASCAR News
Rally News
ALMS News
Racing News

Auto News Extra!
Futbol Extra! News


Hot PaddockTalk News


· Famous F1 Father To Race Teenage Son (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: IRL IndyCar Thursday Post-Practice 8 Driver Quotes (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: Panther IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Meira Fine Tuning Race Setup (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: Danica Patrick IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Ups and Downs (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: Tony Kanaan IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Where We Want To Be (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: Marco Andretti IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Tough Day (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: Hideki Mutoh IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Great to Start, Became Loose (May 15, 2008)
· Briscoe Leads Team Penske Domination of Thursday Indy 500 Practice (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: HVM IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Viso Back On Track (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: Vision IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Pretty Productive For Carpenter, Hamilton (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: NHL IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Wilson, Rahal Having Fun (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: Sarah Fisher IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Disappointing Day (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500: Rahal Letterman IRL IndyCar Thursday Practice 8 Recap - Lloyd In Wii Fit Colors (May 15, 2008)
· NHRA: Hammonds Determined To End Negative Streak (May 15, 2008)
· Virgo Motorsport Announces 24 Hours of Le Mans Drivers (May 15, 2008)
· Formula BMW Americas Laguna Seca Preview (May 15, 2008)
· Star Mazda: Hacquard Set for Second Round at Miller Motorsports Park (May 15, 2008)
· Laguna Seca: Samax Grand Am Race Preview (May 15, 2008)
· MotoGP Star Vermeulen Supports Biker Charity (May 15, 2008)
· Istanbul, Turkey Gets Europe's Largest Delivery of Trams Equipped With GM-Allison Hybrid System (May 15, 2008)

MultiImage
[ Click Me ]
The build up to the greatest spectacle in racing continues as more PaddockTalk photographers arrive! Paul Hurley, John Duquenne and Tom Link are on it!! PaddockTalk will have photographers at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway every day in the month of May! Check out the daily updates of the IRL IndyCar series action!

Check out over 100 exclusive Indianapolis 500 photos at --> Ptalkphoto.com

Paddock Quotables

"They quit hating us and started hating Ganassi's team." Quote referring to Target Chip Ganassi's fourth straight Champ Car title, and that people were starting to feel sorry for Team Penske.

-- Rick Mears - Source: On Track June 22nd, 2000

PaddockFocus (Feature Articles)
· Briscoe Leads Team Penske Domination of Thursday Indy 500 Practice (May 15, 2008)
· Indy 500 Pole Sitter Scott Dixon Leads Wednesday Practice At The Brickyard (May 14, 2008)
· Racing Realities – Diary of Race Car Driver Andreas Wirth – May 2008 (May 14, 2008)
· 92nd Indianapolis 500 Front Row Shows Consistency And Speed, Plus... Sunday Notebook (May 11, 2008)
· Massa Completes Terrific Turkish Triple (May 11, 2008)
· Scott Dixon Takes Pole For 92nd Indy 500, Red Cars Rule Hallowed Ground (May 10, 2008)
· Massa Takes Third Straight Turkish Grand Prix Pole (May 10, 2008)
· Darlington Produces Fast Speeds During Qualifying Session (May 10, 2008)
· Round 2 Kicks Off For GP2 Series In Istanbul (May 10, 2008)
· NASCAR Drivers Need Some Motherly Tough Love (May 09, 2008)

2008 Standings: By Racing Series

· 2007/08 A1GP Points Standings
· 2007 ALMS Points Standings
· 2008 F1 Driver & Constructor Standings
· 2008 IRL Driver Standings
· 2007 MotoGP Rider Standings
· 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings
· 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Driver Standings
· 2008 NASCAR Truck Driver Standings
·
 2008 WRC Driver & Manufacturer Standings

News & Comment

Briscoe Leads Team Penske Domination of Thursday Indy 500 Practice
Posted by: MSulka on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 07:10 PM
Feature Articles
Briscoe Leads Team Penske Domination of Thursday Indy 500 Practice
By Anne Proffit





Credit: PaddockTalk/Paul Hurley




Incredible! Six hours of practice were scheduled today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of the 92nd Indianapolis 500 set for May 25th; six hours of practice were held. There was no rain, but it was quite cold and blustery – cloud cover obliterated the sun. It began to rain just as the track closed.

And the Team Penske duo of Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves obliterated the balance of 35 car/driver combinations that posted 2628 laps today, giving a grand total of 6907 laps for the month.

Briscoe turned his best of 223.708 mph on his 25th of 74 total laps while driving his T car and Castroneves hit 223.284 on his 26th of 94 laps. Briscoe, like most everyone else, spent the day working on race setup. “Tomorrow might be different and we might have to change the car around,” he said, wondering what the weather might hold for race day. “We’ll probably run as much downforce tomorrow and try to learn as much as we can in the next couple of days.”

Castroneves was grateful that “Mother Nature definitely helped us out today with the weather. We had a great opportunity to run a lot of laps and try several different things,” he said. “I’m happy with the progress we made and I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”


Read more... (9762 bytes more) Printer friendly page

Paul Ricard: Formula One Thursday Test Results - Raikkonen, Ferrari Fastest
Posted by: ASkyler on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 04:11 PM
Formula 1 News
Paul Ricard: Formula One Thursday Test Results - Raikkonen, Ferrari Fastest




Paul Ricard: Formula One Thursday Test Results
Driver Constructor Time Laps
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m05.381 102
Heikki Kovalainen Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1m05.471 89
Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1m05.905 135
David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 1m06.001 82
Jensen Button Honda Racing 1m06.091 155
Sebastian Bourdais Toro Rosso 1m06.125 110
Jarno Trulli Toyota 1m06.205 120
Nelson Piquet Renault 1m06.355 193
Kazuki Nakajima Williams 1m07.080 129
Adrian Sutil Force India 1m07.104 66
Giancarlo Fisichella Force India 1m17.123 64


Read more... (519 bytes more) Printer friendly page

Andretti Green Completes Purchase of Grand Prix of Toronto Assets, IndyCars Expected In 2009
Posted by: ASkyler on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 04:05 PM
IRL News
Andretti Green Completes Purchase of Grand Prix of Toronto Assets, IndyCars Expected In 2009


In a move that is expected to return IndyCars to the streets of Toronto in 2009, Andretti Green Promotions, LLC announced today it has formed a wholly-owned Canadian company, Andretti Green Toronto, ULC (AGT), and has completed the purchase of the assets of the Grand Prix Association of Toronto Corp.

The terms of the purchase agreements will not be disclosed.

Andretti Green Toronto is operating out of a Toronto-based office and will run its first IndyCar Series event in 2009.

The Grand Prix Association of Toronto owned and operated the Grand Prix of Toronto. Throughout its history, the event was one of the marquis stops on the North American Indy car racing landscape, running from 1986 through 2007.


Read more... (3039 bytes more) Printer friendly page

Indy 500 Pole Sitter Scott Dixon Leads Wednesday Practice At The Brickyard
Posted by: MSulka on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 07:57 PM
Feature Articles
Indy 500 Pole Sitter Scott Dixon Leads Wednesday Practice At The Brickyard
By Anne Proffit




Pole sitter Scott Dixon was fastest on a green race track.
Credit: PaddockTalk/Paul Hurley





Following the Greatest Spectacle in Raining/Drying/Waiting, Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened for practice Wednesday afternoon with a running yellow about five minutes to 5PM. Just a few drivers went out initially: Will Power, Jaime Camara, Buddy Rice, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Max Papis and Alex Lloyd.

All of these drivers had turned laps before today, but Roger Yasukawa, newly named to drive for CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports took his first tours of the 2.5-mile oval about 15 minutes later. Yasukawa thought that, for a “shakedown day it was pretty good. We got a couple of runs out of it but we still need to sort out the aero balance and we can do that tomorrow,” if the weather cooperates.

Rookie Lloyd, of course, returned to action following his accident last week and is sporting new colors for his No. 16 Dallara/Honda/Firestone entry that is co-fielded by Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Rahal Letterman Racing. Lloyd’s car is adorned with the bright green and white of Wii Fit, Nintendo’s newest video game that places an accent on fitness.

“It was nice to get in the car and get in at least a few laps today with the way the weather was looking,” Lloyd said. “We were basically just doing leak-checks, having had the accident and put the car back together again. We wanted to make sure everything was OK.”


Read more... (9240 bytes more) Printer friendly page

Paul Ricard: Formula One Wednesday Test Results - Lewis Hamilton Fastest
Posted by: ASkyler on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 03:16 PM
Formula 1 News
Paul Ricard: Formula o­ne Wednesday Test Results - Lewis Hamilton Fastest




Paul Ricard: Formula o­ne Wednesday Test Results
DriverConstructorTimeLaps
Lewis HamiltonVodafone McLaren Mercedes1m05.60084
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1m06.098103
Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1m06.177124
Mark WebberRed Bull Racing1m06.34893
Sebastian VettelToro Rosso1m06.37291
Nico RosbergWilliams1m06.571154
Alex WurzHonda Racing1m06.681131
Timo GlockToyota1m06.93593
Tonio LiuzziForce India 1m07.346106
Luca di GrassiRenault1m07.430146


Read more... (519 bytes more) Printer friendly page

Racing Realities – Diary of Race Car Driver Andreas Wirth – May 2008
Posted by: MSulka on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 06:54 AM
Feature Articles
Racing Realities – Diary of Race Car Driver Andreas Wirth – May 2008






It’s been a busy few weeks since the Long Beach race, and I know I said I wouldn’t be writing again until after our race at Laguna Seca, but I had some time on my way back to North America on the plane and thought I’d take this opportunity to write a little – not much, just a little ;-)

While I was really busy back home in Germany this past month, there’s not a lot to tell you that would be very interesting ... lots of things to catch up on and take care of, and of course training all the time.

It was a special time back home though since it was my girlfriend’s birthday in April – it was really nice to plan some special time away with Linda in Munich and just enjoy our time together – it was very relaxing. I’m also happy to say that our little dog Buddy wasn’t mad at me this time when I got home – he was just so happy to see me – it was so funny to watch him – he was so excited.

Also there was Father’s day on May 1st in Germany and I was spending the day with my dad. We drove to a very nice restaurant in France – I have to say the closest part of France, where almost just German people live - it’s about 40miles away from my hometown, so don’t think we made a big effort just to have dinner in France ;-) It was a great day and I think my dad also enjoyed it since I’m away all the time.


Read more... (4616 bytes more) Printer friendly page

FIRST PHOTO: A1GP Season Four 'Powered by Ferrari' Car
Posted by: MSulka on Monday, May 12, 2008 - 05:38 AM
A1GP News
FIRST PHOTO: A1GP Season Four 'Powered by Ferrari' Car




The new A1GP 'Powered by Ferrari' car.
Courtesy of A1GP





A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has revealed the first image of its brand new 'Powered by Ferrari' car for use in season four (2008/09). The CAD drawing was released ahead of the car's inaugural shakedown test in Southern England.

A1GP's own tv commentator and Formula One legend, John Watson, will have the honour of driving the car for the first time, powered by a V8 Ferrari engine producing in the region of 600 bhp.

The chassis is based on the design of the highly successful F2004 chassis, incorporating A1GP's core values to deliver close, exciting racing among a competitive field where overtaking is an essential part of the entertainment.

Read more... (1959 bytes more) Printer friendly page

92nd Indianapolis 500 Front Row Shows Consistency And Speed, Plus... Sunday Notebook
Posted by: MSulka on Sunday, May 11, 2008 - 02:43 PM
Feature Articles
92nd Indianapolis 500 Front Row Shows Consistency And Speed, Plus... Sunday Notebook
By Anne Proffit




The 2008 Indianapolis 500 front row! - (l-r) Dan Wheldon (2nd), Scott Dixon (Pole), Ryan Briscoe (3rd).
Credit: PaddockTalk/Paul Hurley




Come May 25th, will anyone remember the chess game played by Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Ryan Briscoe – who occupy the front row for that day’s 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race – to snag pole position for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing?

Four laps, ten miles around the 2.5-mile oval is a difficult matter in the best of times. “I guess [people] do remember pole for these couple of weeks,” Dixon mused a day after winning top spot with his incredible four-lap average of 226.366 mph.

“But once you’re the winner of the race, I think it overcrowds everything. I think, from a driver standpoint in means a lot to us because, you know how hard you work for it, and I guess you get bragging rights for a couple of weeks. But that’s about it.”

Dixon did more than set the fastest speeds of the month – without a tow – when it mattered. He also, in his initial qualifying stint shortly after the track opened for time trials, set the most consistent four laps in Indianapolis 500 history, separated by 0.0049 of a second.


Read more... (10878 bytes more) Printer friendly page

Massa Completes Terrific Turkish Triple
Posted by: MSulka on Sunday, May 11, 2008 - 11:14 AM
Feature Articles
Massa Completes Terrific Turkish Triple
By Mike Sulka




Felipe Massa won Formula One's Turkish Grand Prix for the third straight year!
Courtesy of Bridgestone


Hats off to Felipe Massa for another great drive at the Istanbul Speed Park in Istanbul, Turkey. Massa’s mastery of the circuit has become pure magic.

The Ferrari driver won Formula One’s Turkish Grand Prix for the third straight year to complete his Turkish triple, after claiming his third straight Pole yesterday. It was the second F1 win of the season for Massa – and seventh of his career - as he became the first man since Michael Schumacher to win a Grand Prix three straight years.

“I think I should get a permanent passport here!” said a very happy Felipe Massa. “Lewis was pushing me a lot during the whole race, and I thought he was light. The team told me that he was on a three-stop strategy and he did make it past.”

With the win, Massa is now tied with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in the F1 driver’s points standings at 28. Each driver trails 2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen by just seven points heading into the Monaco Grand Prix. For Ferrari, it was their fourth straight victory of the year – and 204th all-time- and the team easily leads the Formula One constructor’s points by over a full race worth of points - 23 - over second best BMW who have continued to fend off the advancing Silver Arrows.


Read more... (10511 bytes more) Printer friendly page

Grosjean Powers Past Petrov To Dominating GP2 Sprint Race Victory In Istanbul
Posted by: MSulka on Sunday, May 11, 2008 - 07:25 AM
GP2 News
Grosjean Powers Past Petrov To Dominating GP2 Sprint Race Victory In Istanbul




GP2 Asia Champion Romain Grosjean took his first win of the GP2 season in Turkey.
Courtesy of GP2





Romain Grosjean claimed his first win of the season today after pressuring early leader Vitaly Petrov all through the first half of race two in Istanbul, taking the lead and walking away in the latter stages for a dominant victory ahead of Petrov and Sébastien Buemi.

While the French driver celebrated on the podium the sympathy of everyone in the pitlane was with Bruno Senna, who drove an incredible race to move up from fifteenth on the grid to have a certain points finish destroyed when he struck a stray dog which had somehow found its way onto the track, breaking his right front suspension and immediately retiring from sixth place.


Read more... (4466 bytes more) Printer friendly page

Tidbits
· ARCA: Toledo Brings New Driver For Win-Tron Racing (May 15, 2008)
· Ramon Aims To Close MX1 Points Gap (May 15, 2008)
· ARCA: Patrick Sheltra Toledo Race Preview (May 15, 2008)
· Lowe's: NASCAR Sprint Cup All Star Race Facts (May 14, 2008)
· Lowe's: NASCAR Truck Series Fast Facts (May 14, 2008)
· Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevad