Ken Plotkin wrote:

--- And this year was no exception. An Audi diesel was the star and out
paced the field in fuel economy as well as speed. Innovation is alive
and well in the most technically advanced series in the world...It
seems a mid-west oval race used to offer this diversity???
The names to remember are Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner.
Being this was a question about the world's greatest race, I would
expect the world would know these names a lot more than Sam's name.
Ummmmm, Jimmy Johnson ring a bell?

You don't follow international sports car racing and you don't
follow Nascar. I thought you were a motorsports enthusiast?

"Period" <haysooce (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote


There were also many privateer entries, and not just wealthy ones. They
mentioned a few "fan clubs" who managed to show up.

Lamborghini in GT2 comes to mind, and I know there were a couple of other
grass-roots efforts.

Sound's like the "good old days" at Indy, doesn't it?

"Nomex" <nomex55 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

If I was able to get it on my TV, you can bet your ass I'd be
watching it though ;-)

"SG" <spaamtrapper (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote


Speed covers the German touring car series (which is really good) along with
the European Le Mans Endurance series during the Winter in highlight form, and
it's a shame that Fox owns Speed because Fox is so (dreadfully) dedicated to
NASCAR that those series make up the off season filler. After all, NASCAR
coverage pays the bills at Speed, there's no question about it.

Speed does a great job of showing the Rolex Grand-Am stuff though, and that
series is fabulous because it includes all kinds of drivers, the up-and-comers
and the old farts.

Anyway, it looks like AJ Allmendinger is fitting in well with his new job at
Forsythe.

On 18 Jun 2006 12:31:42 -0700, "Period" <haysooce (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Yes - that diesel was very exciting.

Most of oval racing has, sadly, gone the spec route. Remember when
modifieds were individually built, rather than being spec chassis with
crate engines? These days F1 has variety, but within heavy design
specs. Midget racing has pretty good engine diversity.

But there'll never be another Novi or turbo car. Or GMC 6, like Roger
Rager ran.

Yeah - that's the guy!

There's more to motorsports than sports cars and NASCAR. Or short
term memory.

I follow NASCAR, but after a while don't remember who won particular
races. Same thing with Indy cars. I watch all the races, but at the
end of the season I'm lucky if (other than the 500) I remember who won
which race. I tend to watch races more than championships. Been a
while since I ranted about championships, but IMHO they're detrimental
to racing, so I tend to just give those standings a cursory glance.

Ken Plotkin

"Ken Plotkin" <kplotkin (AT) nospam-cox (DOT) net> wrote

F1 is so tight with the specs now that it's pathetic, and soon it will be even
worse when they take the next step.

To keep costs down and help to enforce rules, they're mandating a single
engine management system and some parts will have to come from a single,
approved supplier. Not only that, but it looks like there will only be a
single tire company too.

I can see why they're doing it because the financial resources available to
teams are not equal, which is the same case in most top flight series, but in
F1 a team like Ferrari or McLaren can spend as much money on engine
development as lesser teams will spend on their yearly salaries.

The "works" teams in Le Mans like Joest Audi are still doing battle with
Pescarolo Sport and Intersport Racing is doing ok against Penske's Porsche
Spyder P2's. Next week, Champion Racing of Florida will start training on the
Audi R10 to compete in the ALMS and I have no doubt that in the near future,
Porsche will be doing a deal with a top P2 team to race the Spyder, against
Penske's team.

It's too bad that Penske's team wasn't at Le Mans this weekend. The Porsche
is an exciting prototype. Maybe Porsche is using Penske's ALMS P2 team as a
training ground. One day, Porsche will decide to move to P1 and fight it out
with Audi!

On 18 Jun 2006 12:18:07 -0700, "Period" <haysooce (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Wouldn't that be Switzerland's cup? :-)

Since the subject line is "race," not any particular kind of race,
then this is appropriate.

I will invoke one rule. If anyone says "The Amazing Race" they will
be DQ'd, with no recourse of appeal.

On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 18:37:34 -0400, "Nomex" <nomex55 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:


Don't forget the step after that - where every car is required to have
regenerative braking. Formula hybrid.

That's the way it always is in racing. Even with tight specs, teams
with money will find ways to spend it. Look at the extraordinary
amounts of money that NASCAR teams spend tweaking their stuff out to
the nth degree. Ot even just building lots of cars so their drivers
can take more chances.

Sounds like I should be paying more attention to sports cars. I
followed them back in the 60s, when I lived in upstate New York and
went to everything that ran at the Glen. The only big sports car race
I've been to since then was the one in the RFK Stadium parking lot
about 3 or 4 years ago. Great race, incredible cars. Even though I
hadn't been following them, it was a major thrill to be seeing the
very cars and drivers that ran at LeMans.

Here I am trying to figure out exactly how one of the Audis works.
(Photo by Greg Gage)

http://www.motorsport.com/photos/alm...as-gg-7389.jpg

Ken Plotkin

"Ken Plotkin" <kplotkin (AT) nospam-cox (DOT) net> wrote

The Human Race?

alien

"alien" <nofenders (AT) mtco (DOT) com> wrote

The race against time!

Damn! I'm getting too old for this!