Daytona Speedweek... The Stories So Far...

The stories so far... Kevin Harvick won a relatively lacklustre Sprint Unlimited Saturday night and Danica Patrick is on pole for the 500!

Top 10 Reasons I Am Looking Forward to 2013

10 - More NGTC = Better BTCC

It's a bit early in the year for motorsport over here but with drivers being announced and the prospect of more NGTC cars on the grid, 2013 should build on the momentum the series gathered last year.
 

9 - New NASCAR race cars
 

8 - Grand Am Daytona Prototypes, last year before "merger"

2013 is the last year for the Grand Am Series as we know it as next year it will merge with the ALMS series. I like the Daytona Prototypes. They look good, sound good, and as last years championship and this years Rolex 24 at Daytona show, they race good too! I hope the newly merged series keep the Prototypes as the top class next year, and don't let the overly technical, expensive, irrelevant European machinery wreck their own homegrown championship!

7 - New NASCAR race cars

 

6 - Year 2 for the new Indycar Series

With a year in the books the Indycar Series should produce more good racing as hopefully more teams and drivers will be competitive in the DW12 chassis this year. Roll on Indy 500!!

5 - NASCAR Trucks on Dirt

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series... at Eldora... on dirt... What's not to look forward to?

4 - New Air Titan technology for NASCAR
 

For a sport which relies on dry weather, the last couple of NASCAR Sprint Cup seasons have been blighted by rain delays early on in the season. The most famous effect of rain was the JPM vs track drier fireball incident at last years Daytona 500. This new technology, developed by NASCAR basically blows the water off of the track so the track driers can dry the track and not the water on the track. Once the water is on the apron another machine sucks the water up. It is a bit like washing your hands and then using a hot air hand drier, the quickest way to dry your hands is to shake the water off and then put your hands under the drier. This should dramatically reduce rain delays. Simply put, in the event of rain, more racing, less waiting!
 

3 - New NASCAR race cars
 

 

2 - Mercedes and Nissan join V8Supercars

The new spec V8Supercars look great! Mercedes and Nissan have joined stalwarts Ford and Holden on the grid this year under the championships new rules package. The Mercedes is especially tasty!! I can't wait to see how they race. The only pity for me is that after years of supplying the pace car, Chrysler have not joined the grid with the 300C SRT, oh well at least the pace car is still a Mopar!

 

1 - New NASCAR race cars, have I mentioned it?

OK I am in love with the new Ford, Chevy and Toyotas in the Sprint Cup Series! You might have gathered, I am of the opinion that if a car looks right it probably is right, and these look... right! I hope the American press and the fans give NASCAR, the teams, the drivers and Goodyear the time to get the racing package right at all tracks. The prospect of 43 of these 2 and 3 wide, nose to tail at all types of race track is one I look forward to. This will be a learning year but the sport has the right goals for this car!
 

Hey Good Lookin'... Part 5...

We now have the last piece of the puzzle.

This is the new Chevrolet SS!

I am a little disappointed that the new Holden Commodore is only a facelift, a very extensive facelift mind you, of the old car meaning that while this looks very much like a mark 2 Pontiac G8 it is still a good looking car... and who am I to argue with a rear wheel drive, V8 Chevy.

Once again this shows NASCARs latest race car is doing a very good job of putting the "stock" back into stock car racing!

2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevy SS... or... Hey Good Lookin' Part 4

The last of next years Sprint Cup race cars has now been unveiled.

 

Next years Chevy race car will be based on the still to be unveiled new "halo" car, the rear wheel drive, V8 engined "SS". The road car will basically be an American market version of the Australian Holden Commodore.

 

The race version does look good but without seeing the road equivalent we have nothing to compare it to. It is odd that with the new NASCAR bodies putting such a huge emphasis on manufacturer identity, or to put it another way, making sure the race cars look like the road cars, that Chevrolet have decided to show us what the race car looks like, but not the road car. I certainly hope the "SS" is more successfull than the Pontiac G8 was!

 

 

 

We are starting to see more and more 2013 paint schemes now, and it has to be said, again, that the 2013 Cup cars do look good!

 

Are we there yet?