2011 Review Gallery

2011 Shiftin' Gears Quotes Part 2... Others

To start the off season I thought I would review my favourite quotes from this seasons blogs... so here we go...

Part 2...

INDYCAR -

I hope, if not for the sake of the series but for the sake of the Indy 500, that the new car brings life to open wheel oval racing in America.

Congratulations to the winner of the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500... DAN WHELDON!!

RIP Dan Wheldon

BTCC –

First 2011 rear wheel drive entry is... an Audi A4?? Pardon?? When was the last time you saw a rear wheel drive A4?? The BTCC NGTC specs state - "Drive-train layout (i.e. front or rear wheel drive) as per base vehicle." So much for that idea...

Good things - The new turbo engines seem to be working. Anybody can now buy an engine, put it in a car and be competitive! Lots of different cars! Bad things - The driving standards are appalling!

Two weeks ago I watched the worst of the BTCC. Rubbish driving standards with far too much shoving and not enough clean overtaking.

It appears the new spec cars are prone to terminal damage when making contact with another car. This means they will have to give each other room and race cleanly if they want to finish races! That would make a change!

We can now look forward to next season, which I hope will see all the top runners in NGTC spec turbo cars.

F1 -

…the DRS "overtaking" system (Drivers can't Race on their own System),

KERS, (the Kinda E-relvant, but the racing so dull we need to, Recover it System)

Hold the Front page... “Latest Grand Prix, NOT A Turkey!”

How much overtaking is needed in F1?? Well "any or some" would be a start!

What happens when you combine the latest line of young “racing” drivers, the most overtaking friendly F1 cars in quiet some time and the tightest, yet most prestigious “racing” venue? The answer... you get racing!

At Silverstone the track and the grandstands have separate postcodes!

Among the topics in my last post, entitled "British Grand Prix - Quick Thoughts", you will not find any mention of the Red Bull team order issue. This is because I wanted to give the issue more than a quick thought. I wanted to take the time to deliberate, consider if you will. This is the end result of those deliberations... Its rubbish, but that’s F1 for you.

Other -

Ginetta is Betta... erm Better...

I am loving the new G55‘s. They look good, sound good and race great! At last a National series I look forward to watching!

In a word Cars 2 is fun. It is entertainment that never takes itself seriously and just revels in taking you along for the ride.

Average

Two weeks ago I watched a Grand Prix, a NASCAR race, three BTCC races, two Ginetta GT Supercup races and the Ginetta Juniors.

This weekend I have watched the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Richmond, and from Thruxton, three BTCC races, two Ginetta GT Supercup races, and one Ginetta Junior race.

Two weeks ago I saw some very good racing, and some appaling racing.

This weekend, average.

The first half of the Cup race was very good. Good racing, Busch vs Gordon... good rivalries, JPM vs Newman... good wreck... everything a NASCAR short track race should have.

The second half of the race was not so exciting. The big wreck took out one of Kyle Buschs main rivals in Jeff Gordon, and in the end no-one could touch the 18. Good win, well deserved!

Two weeks ago I watched the worst of the BTCC. Rubbish driving standards with far too much shoving and not enough clean overtaking. Thruxtons bumpy surface and high speeds meant that this weeks races were not going to be as physical as the Donnington races.

Ultimately I was underwelmed by this weekends BTCC races. A few good battles but not many. Lowering the boost levels of the new turbo engines seems to have levelled the playing field which is a good thing, as it puts the old natural aspirated cars (for this read Plato) back in the game, but I can’t help but think the BTCC badly needs new cars, and new spec cars at that!

A couple of days ago I saw a Thorley Motorsport road going Vauxhall Insignia “show car" parked outside a well kown pizza restaurant. I hope that more teams like Thorley develop NGTC cars and race them as soon as possible to give us a glimpse of the future, as in my opinion the BTCC needs the future to come sooner rather than later.

In motor racing the ultimate goal for an organiser is “more cars”. Always easy to say, always an easy fix, never easy to deliver. I am a fan of the Ginetta GT Supercup, however the series needs more G55's. Hopefully in time more G50 drivers will upgrade and more Ginetta Junior drivers will move up making a good series great.

Next week brings another NASCAR race, and a GP... all this racing, and so little time!

Down To The Wire

A “Good” GP!

A Grand Prix with pit stop strategy and late race overtaking!

With the introduction of DRS, the movable flappy paddle wing things, and the reintroduction of KERS, the nod to the environment slash overboost push to pass button, Formula 1 accepted the need to do something to aid overtaking.

They may be a bit false. They may be gimmicky. They may work, they may not...

They did provide us with a GP worth watching!

Overview - Red Bull badly need KERS, McLaren need more qualifying pace, Ferrari are not good enough, Rosberg is doing well, Schumacher is a waste of space, DeRista is looking good!



4 x 2 x 0.002

The second ‘plate race of 2011 was another two car draft story.

If you like the latest style of restrictor plate racing then it was a good race.

If you don’t...it wasn’t.

I kinda do, so I enjoyed it.

2011 is turning into the year of great finishes and todays was no exception!

Two deep, four wide, and first to second was 0.002 seconds!

You can’t tell me that wasn’t good!?!

British Bumper Car Championship

Good things - The new turbo engines seem to be working. Anybody can now buy an engine, put it in a car and be competitive! Lots of different cars!

Bad things - The driving standards are appalling! Most of the cars are old... I hope the teams running the new spec cars can sort out their issues and be a factor later in the year as I don’t fancy watching old Vauxhalls and Focus’s up front all year.

Come on race control, get a grip, instill some kind of respect and stop the blocking and the bump n’ run.



Ginetta is Betta... erm Better...

I am loving the new G55‘s. They look good, sound good and race great! At last a National series I look forward to watching!

Speed... I Am Speed

Cars started out slow... they went slow, they stopped slow. Early vehicles used to follow a man on foot holding a flag... but that didn't last! Evolution and technical revolution has increased speeds!

In racing chassis designers, teams, engine builders, tyre specialists, engineers, drivers all spend a lot of time and money making cars faster, and brake manufacturers make the cars stop better than ever before. Each generation of race car becomes faster, changes gear quicker and stops quicker than the last.

Some forms of racing attempt to limit the constant advances by introducing restrictors, or by banning technological advancements, or by making the engines smaller. 

The question is... Can a race car be too fast??

 

I raise the question after reading a quote from Alan Gow, the British Touring Car Championship chief at this year's Autosport International show. Talking about the "Next Generation Touring Car" he said... (taken from Autosport.com)

"Very basic explanation behind it - it will be cheaper, faster and better looking,"

"How we have achieved that - basically you don't have to go through an expensive homologation process."

"The championship going forward will be cheaper to compete in, better for spectators to look at, and the cars will be nicer to drive and faster."

"We are not trying to make a race car out of a production car, it is a proper race car underneath,"

"There is no reason why it should not have been quicker, and this is just a beginning of development - there will be five cars on the grid to full NGTC spec – and the cars will get quicker and quicker all the time."

I like some of the ideas behind the NGTC (lower costs, standard mechanical parts, more saloon bodies, less emphasis on manufacturers to build cars), and dislike others (still front wheel drive, wings, wide arches, sequential 'boxes, big brakes) but I couldn't help but wonder... Can a race car go too fast to produce good racing?

I am generally of the opinion that the faster race cars go and the better they brake, the more aerodynamically efficient they are, the harder it is to overtake. So will starting with the premise that the new spec cars will be faster help the racing or hinder the racing?

The only time I can think of a championship slowing a new generation of race car was with the introduction of the NASCAR "COT" which slowed the speeds in the turns allowing for more side by side racing through those turns, but even the boxy COT is now quick again.

Is there a vehicle size, to speed, to tyre size and grip, to braking power, to engine power, to aero grip and drag ratio which makes for good racing, and does changing this ratio hurt the racing?

On one hand you have F1... huge cars with huge amounts of grip, huge power levels, huge amounts of technology, hugely aerodynamic cars, and very little "good" racing!

On the other hand you had the first generation of Ginetta Junior race car in the UK. 1.4 litre engines, no technology, no aerodynamics to speak of, long braking distances, and rear wheel drive made for some really good racing with lots of drafting and overtaking!

Ok, two very different series which you can't really compare, but you get the idea.

I genuinely hope the NGTC kick starts the BTCC as I want to like the series again but find it hard to at the moment. More cars on the grid, more types of cars on the grid can only be a good thing! I am looking forward to an interesting couple of years!

2010 Racing Thoughts

So NASCAR has given the top two series a shot in the backside this season with changes to the cars and rules.

We all know that the Nationwide Series has a new car coming, with muscle car body styles, a more manufacturer friendly front end, and a traditional rear spoiler, changes are also being made to the Cup car.

The "COT" Cup car is dropping it's trademark rear wing in favour of an old style flat blade spoiler. This along with a much more relaxed view towards contact driving, especially at Daytona and Talladega, is intending to liven up the competition this year.

I have a question... why was the COT introduced with the, then new, wing in the first place?

When developed the COT was tested with a flat spoiler as well as the wing. So why did NASCAR decide on the modern wing with its interchangeable end plates? Was it just for a modern look, or was there an aerodynamic reason?

Now I am not bothered by the look of the wing, so I am equally not fussed by changing the cars to a more traditional look, as long as it improves the racing and is not just done for aesthetic purposes.

To me the racing since the COT was introduced has been getting better each year as the teams have learned more about the cars, the drivers have learned to drive them, and Goodyear learned to make tires for them. While the drivers have already said that the spoiler may change the balance of the cars, curiously giving the cars more front end bite, (which is what I believe the drivers are after) what will this change do to the cars in traffic?

I do not pretend to understand all the aerodynamics involved in NASCAR, the real cause and effect of the rear wing and the side draft, or the differences on the cars with the different end plates, but I hope NASCAR does its research before dropping the wing.

If the sole reason the cars have been lifting off the ground as much as they have recently is the wing then I guess it has to go, but only if this is the real reason for the lifting off the ground, not a PR lead action, and only if there are no other options.

I just don't want to see the change take place only for the racing to be worse, as I think if the racing is good fans will overlook the aesthetics of the cars. If the racing is worse then fans will not notice the better looking cars.

As for the newly relaxed bump drafting regs and the introduction of the largest ever restrictor plates, I can but say one thing... bring it on!! The large plate and the current aero package should hopefully produce the best Daytona 500 for some time!! Relaxed bump drafting rules mean it should be pretty dramatic. I for one can't wait!!

In other news I see that the powers that be in F1 have chosen to ban the double rear diffusers from 2011. What a surprise - they should not have been made legal in the first place. I do understand that they were never strictly speaking "illegal" in the first place; the FIA should have banned them last year when they had the chance. It was obvious then that the diffusers were giving the cars more downforce, and were affecting the cars ability to race close together, which was surely the point of the new regs at the start of last year. So now we have the prospect of a year with F1 cars that produce more downforce than they did in 2008 before the downforce cut last year. Hopefully the new teams, new driver line-ups, and a certain German will spice the racing up this year.

I also see that the new Ginetta Junior car, the Ginetta G40 was unveiled at Autosport International. I have already lamented the loss of the H-pattern 'box, I do think the cars look good and am looking forward to the youngsters banging wheels later this year.