Autoblog

History, they say, has a habit of repeating itself. That's certainly the way things have been looking in recent years as some of the greatest racing names in motorsport history have been making a comeback. But instead of the legends squeezing their aging selves into new racing equipment like so many sardines, it's the younger generation that's been hitting the scene lately.

Gilles Villeneuve's embattled son Jacques, it pains this Montrealer to say, may have turned out to be a bit of a disappointment in recent years, notwithstanding his earlier F1 and Indy titles. But Bruno Senna, nephew of the legendary Ayrton, has been working his way up the ranks, as has Freddie Hunt, son of '76 F1 champion James Hunt. Nico Rosberg has already made it into Formula One, following in the footsteps of his '82 world champion father Keke.

The next big thing in racing dynasties, however, is coming with back-up. Nigel Mansell's sons Greg (20) and Leo (22) are boarding the ark two by two to cross the Atlantic for next year. The brothers have been working their way up the racing ladder together, competing in the British series Formula BMW last year after just half a year racing in karts. Like their father who won the CART title in 1993, the pair has confirmed that they're coming stateside to compete in the Champ Char Atlantic Series, joining BMW-backed Canadian driver Kevin Lacroix for a three-car Walker Racing team in 2008. Some good ol' Mansell-style racing is one bit of history we don't mind repeating.

[Source: Auto Week]

The drivers after receiving traditional didgeridoos in Australia

Fans of open-wheel racing awaiting the results of today's season-finale Brazilian Grand Prix had something to keep them busy in the meantime, as the results of the Champ Car race Down Under came in with this season's champion one race early.

If you didn't tape the race to watch later, click through to the SPOILER ALERT to find out who won and who's champion this year in Champ Cars.

[Source: Autosport.com]

In a column for Scotland's The Herald newspaper, James Porteous throws down from the first two paragraphs: "There is a sport more dangerous than any other, that kills far more people than boxing and yet there are no calls for it to be banned. Not rugby. Not equestrianism. Not even Ultimate Fighting. No, it's time to ban motorsport: not to save the drivers, who are probably at less risk of injury than footballers, but the rest of us."

In what some will see as a call-to-arms and others as a hateful screed by someone who apparently doesn't dig the sight of fast cars going fast, Porteous calls auto racing "the most wasteful, harmful, pointless leisure pursuit on the planet." The article is full of end-of-the-world hooks: "a couple of degrees more global warming will trigger a catastrophe," "we need to cut carbon emissions by 90% in the next 20 years," "biodiesel creates more problems than it solves," and so on. It is, though, light on the scientifics -- not that he doesn't have facts to back up his claims, but he should tell everyone where he got them. F1 takes the brunt of punishment because there is more data available on F1, supposedly. Ironic that Porteous' column comes just as F1 announces a hybrid transmission for the monococques. But that's "general waffle" according to Porteous, and anyone who doesn't agree with the assessment is either "George Bush or another Halliburton henchman." Mental note: don't discuss auto racing in Scotland.

In the fourth paragraph, however, Porteous writes "Cars that do 3.5 miles to the gallon are not unacceptable." Apparently, speaking on a soap box and typing at the same time leads to typos.

[Source: The Herald via Daily F1]

It's a sad state of affairs when the pure talent of a racing driver isn't enough to advance his career. In the case of Sebastien Bourdais, the top teams on the F1 grid have apparently been blind to his domination in Champ Cars, as our favorite Frenchman (okay, second favorite, after Talladega Nights arch-villain Jean Girard) looks like he's headed for his fourth consecutive title in the open-wheel series.

Enter Nicholas Todt, who is out to change Bourdais' fortunes and secure him a drive for the 2008 Formula One season. The fellow Frenchman did wonders for Felipe Massa, who started out at Sauber (then powered by Ferrari), then took a test seat at Ferrari (where Nick's dad Jean is king), before moving him back to Sauber (still with Ferrari engines) to race for another season, before taking the race seat at Ferrari alongside Schumacher. Now Massa is a contender for the title.

Nicholas Todt has now signed on to manage Bourdais' racing activities in Europe. In between ChampCar races, Bourdais is driving at Le Mans for Peugeot, and has been testing for Scuderia Toro Rosso. Todt has reportedly arranged for the talented 28-year-old driver to test again for the STR, which uses engines supplied by (you guessed it) Ferrari, and the rumors are that they might have secured a race seat with the squad for next season.

Could Bourdais prove to be the next star "rookie" in F1? Time will tell, we hope, but this proven entity is no rookie. Shame he'll have to start from the back of the grid, but his apparent willingness to do so only confirms his determination.

Related post:
F1 is missing out on Sebastein Bourdais

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

It's hard to believe that it's been almost 11 years since Evander Holyfield whooped Mike Tyson for his first of three heavyweight championships. Evander won the sweet-looking '97 Bentley Continental T shown above along with enough cash to fill the trunk of a Ford Five-Hundred from that fight.

This Bentley isn't just your run-of-the-mill super-luxury either. It's one of a select few coachbuilt Mulliner Park Ward editions. The listing says it's just one of two built (for the '97 model year, we presume). Jealous? No need to be. You can just fork over a cool $1 Million (or more) to make it your own. Now, while this is a nice car with a legit celebrity connection, that sounds like a ridiculous amount of money.

However, if you're still intrigued and you have the money to burn, there's more: Your million-dollar purchase also lets you travel to the Real Deal's 200 acre complex to meet the champ himself and take delivery from him personally. We're sure that if you're nice he'll even teach you some of his sweet dance moves. We'd recommend against a sparring session with him, though. That'd probably end badly for you.

Thanks to Mike G. for the tip.

[Source: eBay]

It's been almost four years since the Champ Car series has raced in Europe, but organizers are planning on bringing it back. 2003 was the last season the declining American open-wheel series raced in Europe, when French ace Sebastien Bourdais – now three-time Champ champ – won both the races at Brands Hatch in England and the Lausitzring EuroSpeedway in Germany.

The latest reports suggest that the 2007 season will include two new races in Europe, though not at the same venues as previous seasons. On September 2, Champ Cars will be racing around Holland's Assen circuit, a former road track that has since been developed into a full facility. A week later, the second European race will be competing with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza when Champ Cars race at Zolder, once the site of the Belgian Grand Prix.

The two new European venues bring the Champ Car calendar up to a very full 17 races around the world, joined by events in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia and China. By comparison, the competing IndyCar series also has seventeen races scheduled for 2007, though the Motegi race in Japan stands alone as the IRL's only race abroad. If you were a driver aiming to climb up the ladder to Formula One, which would you choose?

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

American motor racing has been steadily moving towards "Spec", that is, each team racing the same car with the same engine and other components. The Indy Racing League runs Dallara chassis powered by Honda engines. (Although NASCAR technically uses a few different cars with different engines from different suppliers, they all look pretty much the same.) Now the latest spec racing cars for the Champ Car series – IRL's rival formerly known as CART – have just been delivered.

The new Panoz DP01 has been received by ten Champ Car teams, the first ten before the entire field makes the switch from the previous Lola-built cars. The new chassis will use the same turbocharged Cosworth V8 engines, the now independent engine supplier owning majority rights to the series and having involuntarily withdrawn from supplying engines in Formula One. They all run on spec Bridgestone tires, just as Formula One makes the switch next season.

Constructed primarily of carbon fiber, the new cars weigh an impressive hundred pounds less than their predecessor Lola counterparts. The chassis were delivered unpainted and all-but-identical to the teams who'll be adding their own team and sponsors' livery. We're looking forward to seeing the new cars in action.

[Source: Edmunds Inside Line]

The world of motorsports was watching when Sebastien Bourdais got back behind the wheel of an F1 car on Thursday at the Jerez test track, and managed to get within spitting distance of Scott Speed's lap times in the same Red Bull car.

The reigning champ of Champ Cars, Sebastien Bourdais is an irrefutably talented driver. He's got three Champ Car titles under his belt, along with the Formula 3000 championship from 2002 and the French Formula 3 title from 1999. Bourdais is a winner, plain and simple. But despite its stature as the pinnacle of motorsports, supposedly flaunting the best drivers in racing, Formula One has been missing out on Bourdais.

Thursday's test was not the French driver's first time behind the wheel of an F1 car. In 2002 he tested for Arrows and for Renault. Arrows didn't pan out, and Renault missed the opportunity when Flavio Briatore insisted that Bourdais sign an additional personal management contract with him if he wanted to join the team. More recently BMW failed to snatch him up as well.

As a French driver who made his name in American racing, Bourdais could bring with him audiences from both countries; convenient for F1, since it's has been lagging in popularity in both France and the US. Several leading teams (McLaren and Renault, we're looking at you) have delved straight into the feeder series to fill race seats for next season, while Bourdais returns to dominate in Champ Cars for yet another season. F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, being the shrewd operator he is, could do worse than to recognize the talent they're missing out on and make some suggestions to team principals lest a talent like Bourdais go to waste in a dying series.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Rally racing star Sebastien Loeb was crowned World Rally Champion for a third time in a row...a little early. Loeb's title was secured at a race he wasn't even at, let alone racing in. And he didn't race in the stage before that one, either. Plus there are still two stages left to go, but the title's his whether he comes back to race or not.

The champ watched the Rally of Australia on Sunday from his home in France as he recuperates from a mountain bike injury. His main rival, two-time champion Marcus Gronholm (driving a Ford Focus) failed to finish in the top four in Australia, giving Loeb an air-tight twenty-one point lead, securing the title early. Between the two of them, Gronholm and Loeb won 13 out of 14 races so far this season, virtually locking out the rest of the field.

Two rally stages remain, in New Zealand (November 17-19) and Wales (December 1-3). But with the pressure off, the French driver is likely to focus on his healing and rehab a little longer before hopefully returning for the final stage in Wales. The win is even more remarkable when you consider that Loeb races for Kronos Racing, a private team supported by Citroen Sport, while other rivals race for full factory works teams.

Congratulations to Sebastien along with wishes for a full recovery as he sets his sights on the future to break the records of Finnish drivers Juha Kankkunen and Tommi Makinen, who each hold four championships. Next season Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena leave their old Citroen Xsara behind and move into the new C4.

[Source: Motorsport.com]

Now we've seen some interesting races before, but this is something new: the Team Australia Speed Comparison, to be held in conjunction with the Lexmark Indy 300 later this month in Australia, will pit a MINI against a Porsche and a Champ Car.

The John Cooper Works MINI Cooper S packs a supercharged 1.6-liter four with 210 hp and runs 0-60 in 6.6 seconds; the 400-hp Porsche 911 GT3 reaches 60 in 3.2 seconds; and the Champ Car, packing a 750-hp Cosworth V8, will hit it in a cant 2.2 seconds. Sounds like a fight about as fair as David and Goliath, with The Rock thrown in for good measure.

Of course it's not a straight-up race, or anybody could predict the outcome – it's a single-lap handicap race: the MINI will head out first, followed by the Porsche and then the Champ Car. The starts are timed according to the car's capabilities so that, technically, all three cars should cross the finish line at the same time.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

[Source: Auto Racing Daily]