Autoblog

Juan Pablo Montoya has been a busy boy since leaving F1. After working his way up the American stock-car racing ladder – and winning the NEXTEL Cup Rookie of the Year award for his troubles – the Colombian driver is still planning on making a return to Daytona to defend his title in the Rolex 24.

Montoya made his Grand Am debut behind the wheel of a Daytona Prototype at the event last year, taking the checkered flag to become the first driver in the history of motorsport to win the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona. At the next race in January, Montoya will be sharing driving duties in the #1 Chip Ganassi Racing car along with his NASCAR team-mate Dario Francitti, as well as Scott Pruett (with whom he shared victory last year) and Memo Rojas.

This year at Daytona, Ganassi will be fielding two cars. The second Daytona Prototype will be driven by Salvador Duran (who shared victory with Montoya and Pruett last year), IRL IndyCar champions Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon, and Indy Pro Series champ Alex Lloyd.

Altogether Ganassi is heading to Daytona in January with a star-studded line-up of drivers in pursuit of their third consecutive win at the famous race.

[Source: Autosport]

They go on vacation, they never write, they never call, bupkis is what they send as communiques from the front. Our three erstwhile podcast participants, John, Damon and Alex, have pulled it together this week after far too long a hiatus. We proudly bring you Autoblog Podcast #70. Forty minutes and fifty-five seconds of crispity-crunchity Autoblog punditry. John admits to shabby Alero repair right off the bat, but things quickly move on to how perfect the Audi S8 is. You weren't going to use that $110,000 on anything like philanthropy, anyway, so pony up for the Panda Bear upholstery, you'll be glad you did. You could use your S8 to jet-set to Altamont and catch the 24 Hours of LeMons when it comes back around. Damon was there live blogging it this time, but we're going to be campaigning an Autoblog car in October. We hope.

Turning our gaze to the Roundel, BMW has officially officialized the 1-series coupe. With real snort under the hood of even the base model, it appears that this car may have found some of the DNA that the 2002tii left kicking around. Will the styling be off-putting? Will it poach MINI buyers? Is the price too high to attract new people to the brand? Stay tuned. The breathlessly awaited and endlessly promoted Transformers movie finally hit screens, and Autoblog was there. Alex plays film critic and offers a solid analysis (Let's not get carried away, Dan - AN) which boils down to: awesome, until the people start talking. Oh yeah, it's full of not-so-subtle advertisements and product placement, too. Who cares? It's TRANSFORMERS! We should warn you - if you want to avoid the spoiling about the film, skip from 17m 10s to 28m 35s, and you'll be good to go.

We wrap up with a couple of quick ones: iPhones top the list of status baubles for teenagers, and cars are way down. At least if they don't have a car, they won't be using the iPhone while they should be driving. It sounds to us like a serious issue with priorities, though. Speaking of coveted items, a forum member managed to snag some very nice spy shots of the new Challenger in the wild. We can't wait for the 2009-2010 Musclecar Smackdown. Maybe it'll be just as short as it was nearly 40 years ago, hopefully not. Lastly, the Reader Ride is returning. We love featuring your cars, so be sure to look for the post about what to do.

See you next week!

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Under its new ownership, Aston Martin continues to forge ahead into a brighter independent future. In addition to the production announcement of the Rapide and the rumors of an upcoming "DBX", Aston is not missing a beat on its racing agenda, which should come as no surprise considering the background of its new chairman, David Richards.

To headline its Le Mans endurance racing program, Richards has brought in a big-name former F1 driver. Johnny Herbert, who in his eleven-year Formula One career drove for the likes of Benetton, Lotus, Sauber and Jaguar, will be driving the Aston Martin DBR9 for the Prodrive-run team at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Herbert is no stranger to endurance racing, having won the race for Mazda in 1991 and having driven the dominating MC12 for the Maserati factory team and Audis for customer teams, before briefly returning to the F1 paddock as Jordan/Midland's sporting relations manager. Richards withdrew Aston from the American Le Mans Series for this season, so they'll only be competing in the title race at Le Mans, leaving Herbert with enough time to consider other possibilities, including the Grand Prix Masters. (Aston also announced a new sponsorship deal with luxury hotel chain InterContinental.)

Recruiting Herbert, however, is about as close as Aston Martin will be getting to Formula One anytime soon. David Richards quelled any speculation that the Aston Martin name would be linked to his upcoming re-entry into F1 with Prodrive. Likely taking a page from former corporate cousin Jaguar's unfortunate experience in F1, Richards has wisely decided to leave Aston out of his grand prix venture rather than risk dragging its valuable name through the mud.

[Source: Aston Martin]

When we say that racing drivers are "speed addicts", we're referring to the intoxicating exhilaration of velocity, not the chemical narcotic. Cocaine is another story, as Luca Moro is finding out...the hard way. The 33-year-old Italian GT driver tested positive for cocaine in a routine drug test at the Spa 24 Hours race in Belgium this past year. The driver has the recourse to appeal the revocation, but he's already tested positive twice.

As an international sports governing body, the FIA adheres to the policies and rules of the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA), and cocaine falls squarely in the category of their prohibited substances. The question we'd like to ask is, if cocaine isn't a performance-enhancing drug (like steroids, for example), and motor-racing isn't an athletic sport, what effect does Moro's cocaine use have on his competition?

Do you think the use of drugs should be prohibited in motorsports, or are the two completely unrelated? Leave your opinion in our comments section.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Having unveiled the 908 LM racing car at the Paris show this past September, Peugeot is gearing up to race their new car in the European Le Mans Series. The French company is serious about competing at Le Mans and in the entire series, and they've signed on some key drivers to get them to victory lane.

The biggest name is none other than Jacques Villeneuve. For those coming late to the game, the French Canadian driver recently left Formula One and is trying to make his way into NASCAR. With his efforts looking less-than-likely to materialize for the 2007 season, Jacques is joining the Peugeot racing program in a bid to become the first driver ever to have won the F1 championship, the Champ Car title, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As if his CV wasn't full enough as it is...but unfortunately, despite the enormous success of his early career, subsequent seasons in F1 were less than spectacular, to put it mildly.

Joining Villeneuve behind the wheel of the 908 are Nicolas Manassian, Stephane Sarrazin, Pedro Lamy, Marc Gene (of Ferrari test-driving fame) and three-time Champ Car champ Sebastien Bourdais. Eric Helary, who won Le Mans for Peugeot in 1993, joins the new team as a test and back-up driver.

The Peugeot 908 follows the smashing success of the Audi R10 diesel racing car with an all-aluminum twelve-cylinder common-rail direct-injection twin-turbo diesel with the latest advanced particulate filter system. Between the green power, the big-name drivers and the return of the French carmaker to the series, there are a lot of reasons to keep an eye on Peugeot this season, kicking off at Monza on April 14.

[Source: Peugeot]

Tony George is a looming figure in American motorsports. He's the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, founder of the IRL and host of the US Grand Prix. But that didn't stop him from crashing at Daytona on Friday.

George hadn't driven a race car since 2001, but decided to enter the 24 Hours of Daytona this year in a Crawford-Porsche acquired from Eddie Cheever, entered through his Vision Racing IRL team. Driving alongside the 47-year-old motorsport mogul at the endurance competition are racing scions Tomas Scheckter, Anthony Foyt and George's stepson Ed Carpenter.

Tony was testing on Friday when he reportedly lost control of the car and crashed, but fortunately walked away unharmed. Maybe he'd be better off sticking to running his Indy empire and leaving the driving to others.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]