It has been overlooked in some circles, but there was another driver to score the first win for a woman this week-end, and she did it in the most dramatic style possible.
In the 1970’s and ‘80’s, Shirley “Cha-Cha” Muldowney regularly defeated the top competitors in the National Hot Rod Association’s premier series, “top fuel,” winning the overall title in 1977, 1980, and 1982. But, since then, the NHRA has been devoid of a truly top tier female driver.
Until now.
This past weekend, Ashley Force drove into the record books, becoming the first woman to win a national NHRA funny car national event, taking home the trophy at the Summit Racing Equiptment NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Georgia.
The drama of the last race couldn’t have been greater.
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SI.com is reporting that former NASCAR Champion Tony Stewart wants to leave Joe Gibbs Racing, the team that originally brought Stewart to NASCAR from Indy cars. According to the website, the deal is almost complete and will allow Stewart to drive next season for Haas CNC.
Hass’s spokesperson issued a statement asserting that there had been no contact between the team and Stewart, but no one is believing it. Stewart’s PR man simply stated that the current contract with Gibbs runs through the end of 2009. According to Stewart’s spokesperson, the Gibbs Racing team would like to renew Stewart’s contract.
Nonetheless, inside sources are portrayed by SI.com as “adamant” that Stewart is leaving and that the final details are all that remain to be worked out.
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Jack Roush, the top Ford team owner in the NASCAR Sprint Series, claims that a Toyota team stole a swaybar from his team last year.
Stories have been bubbling on the internet since Toyota returned a part following a tear-down of vehicles after the most recent Sprint Cup race. A Toyota official described the part as a spring, but Rousch says it was actually an anti-sway bar.
According to SportingNews.com, the swaybar had been stored below a toolbox adjacent to the area allocated to one of the Toyota teams. Reports of the tear-down have suggested that it was Michael Waltrip’s team, but no one has officially specified which Toyota team is involved.
Roush had this to say: "The ... nondescript Toyota team, went behind my toolbox and took my bar out of my inventory and put it in their inventory and took it home with them. That is a fact. It has not been refuted and it has been discussed with the team involved."
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500-SL. Before you would have finished reading that, this drag-oriented 500-SL would have reached 100 mph. Yeah, about one second.
How? It’s got a list of things to help it achieve this feat and 250 mph in a quarter of a mile if driven to the limit.
Total body weight is only 28lbs- Power to weight ratio better than any supercar built to this day.
Over 2,500 horsepower on tap- Two and a half times the power produced by the Bugatti Veyron.
All-aluminum engine (8,619 cc, multiple turbocharged, alcohol burning, electronic fuel injection).
Weight reduction goes aboard- the pedals, the entire rear end housing, firewall, steering columns and even the battery trays are all made of titanium.
Drag cars aren’t my cup of tea. But this one is phenomenal. This car will go from 4.5 Gs to a negative 4 Gs (after the chute deploys) within six seconds. Absolute madness. You will have to be alive to talk about a full-throttle experience in this machine, let alone being impressed!
OK, he didn’t win an actual race. But he won something even more unlikely – an appeal of penalties imposed by NASCAR for a rules infraction.
Gordon was penalized for using an improper nose on his Dodge at the Daytona 500. NASCAR spotted it, so it didn’t get on the track. But they docked Gordon 100 owner points, 100 driver points, suspended his crew chief for six races and fined the crew chief $100,000.
Gordon appealed, arguing that it wasn’t his fault – it was Dodge’s fault. They sent out the part and told his team that it had been approved. It hadn’t been. It was a screw-up at the Dodge end, at the warehouse.
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At a press conference yesterday, Indy Racing League and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George and Champ Car owners Kevin Kalkhoven provided a few more details about the merged league.
First, it’s not really a merger. IRL gets Champ Car’s trademarks and is, in essence, acquiring the company.
Second, the Champ Car races at Edmonton, Alberta and Surfer’s Paradise in Australia will be added to the IRL schedule.
Third, there will be at least one race week-end with two races, using two different chassis: the April 18-20 week-end will see both the Long Beach race using the Panoz chassis formerly used by Champ Car and the Motegi, Japan race using the IRL’s Dallara chassis with Honda engines. Points and purses for the two races will be identical.
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Earlier this week, we reported the rumor that the Indy Racing League was close to reaching a deal to absorb the Champ Car World Series, thereby unifying major league open wheel racing in the United States into one series.
Today, the groups made the official announcement. The rumors were true. The papers have been signed by all of the principals, including IRL CEO Tony George.
The two series will be combined for the 2008 season. A press conference to announce the details has yet to be scheduled.
Rumors, however, have the Champ Car teams switching to the Dallara chassis used in the IRL and running according to IRL rules. The rumors also have the merged series opening its first practice later this month a Homestead speedway in Florida.
With news that there may be a merger between IRL and Champ Car, reported in a previous post, it timely to review how it got to this.
Tony George has customarily been blamed for causing a split in American open wheel racing. The conventional wisdom is that it was just greed that caused the Hulman family to create the IRL.
But, that’s not accurate.
The roots of the split date back to the 1950’s.
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Autoweek seems to thinks so. It is reporting, as “breaking news,” that a deal is close that would effectively merge the Champ Car World Series into the Indy Racing League.
According to Autoweek, Champ Car teams have been instructed to cease work on their current Panoz chassis in anticipation of receiving Dallara chassis used by the IRL.
An official announcement is expected prior to the first IRL test of the coming season, to be held at Homestead on February 27th and 28th.
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One of the sweet mysteries of life has been why Roger Penske has been unable to win in NASCAR.
Here is a man who has prevailed in every form of racing in which he has participated:
Penske has won the Indianapolis 500 more times than any other owner.
His team was so dominant in the Can-Am Series that he destroyed it, because it was no longer competitive. To this date, the Penske 917 Can-Am Porsche is considered the single most awesome racing car ever created.
Back when Penske was the team owner for the original Trans-Am, his Chevies dominated. Until he switched to, of all things, American Motors. Two years later, the Javelin won the championship. A couple of years after that, the series imploded, partly because it took too much money and too much commitment to compete with Penske.
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