Tag Archives: nascar

by | August 7, 2010 · 12:20 pm

Motorsportmania blog goes live this weekend!

Over this weekend I will be moving my motoring and motor sport (auto racing) posts over onto a new blog, Motorsport Mania here on WordPress. Motorsport Mania

This will allow those who are following my motoring mutterings to do so without having all of the other stuff that apears on John’s Jottings cluttering up their message boxes.

The new blog will feature all of my car related stuff from this weekend onwards and I’ll have a look at building a page of links back to the various motor sport and driving blog entries from the JJ site.

So that will be the place to go for my thoughts on current matters in F1, NASCAR, Indy and other types of racing and, expecially as I’m doing some other writing at present (Truck & Driver took an article from me last week for future publication for example), I’ll mention these as and when they come up.

Thanks to my followers, and I look forward to your comments on the the new blog as it gets under way.

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by | July 25, 2010 · 6:42 pm

#F1 musings on the #German Grand Prix

Once again Red Bull can’t translate qualifying pace in to race pace, but McLaren again show how to run a race even if not that quick in qualifying. That’s how they win championships, and why they’re leading both again this season..

Ferarri? Well that was a pretty flagrant team order despite the language used. My view is that, under current regulations, Alonso should not have been allowed past. If he was so much quicker then he should have just taken the place.

To me the obvious choice for the stewards would have been to just reverse the result and put Alonso back to second as it was really only those two that were affected, but we’ve been left with the unsatisfactory result of having to wait to know the outcome.

As far as the second division are concerned, a bad event generally for Force India, but Sauber had another good day as did Williams.

Good to see what looked like a decent crowd. Like Silverstone and Monza you can reckon on a good turnout in Germany and this is, for me, why F1 needs to retain the classic events regardless of what Bernie’s mob demand in terms of finances.

So they’ve cleared the Ferarri and Red Bull front wings. Maybe they do pass the static tests, but there does seem to be something that happens under dynamic loads when running. Good luck to them if they’ve found a demon tweak. F1 should be about innovation and I’m all for it.

Going back to team orders, there was a time when the drivers would have sorted it out between them, but those days are long gone. I’m against a ban on them though because we need less rules not more. Massa could just have said no. The team could have turned his engine down from the pits. There are all sorts of things that could have been brought into play so, for me, legislation is pointless.

That’s my lot for now. I’m off to see what is going on stateside with NASCAR fvrom Indy and how Will Power is getting on in Indycar.

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by | April 20, 2010 · 10:28 pm

Thoughts on Texas and late race #NASCAR cautions.

These restart wrecks late in the race are getting beyond a joke. Now I’m not Jeff Gordon fan, but the guy had the best car, was cruising to a win that would have broke a bit of a streak when Rooty had his spin.Differing pit strategies shuffle the pack, but we barely get the green waved when the 99 and the 14 tangle and we get the big one and a red flag.

OK, it’s racing, but it isn’t a demolition derby, so what do we need to let the races run out without all this stupidity? I would start by penaliing any driver that causes a wreck on a restart by stripping the driver and owner of any points for that event and parking them for the next one to try and get the message across.

I’d also look at the question of pitting under caution in the late stages. It screws up the race for teams that have used their strategy well and got themselves a decent postition. I don’t hold with the argument that it makes the race more exiting – especially the phantom “competition caution” – if NASCAR want a 30 lap sprint them they should just run them and not waste everyone’s time with a 500 miler. So let’s try a new rule. If there is a caution with, say, 30 or less laps to go you can pit for new tires and/or fuel, but you go to the back of the pack for the single file restart.

For me the only good thing that came out of the Texas race at the weekend was that Mark Martin got a decent finish after some bad luck (and wrecks).

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