Martin Truex, Jr., 2010 NSCS Ford 400 Race Preview

2010 Martin Truex, Jr. - Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCARCORNELIUS, N.C. ? Homestead-Miami Speedway marks the final event of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. It also signifies the completion of Martin Truex Jr.?s first year as driver of the No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota ? a ride made famous by...more»

Source: http://www.catchfence.com/2010/sprintcup/11/17/martin-truex-jr-2010-nscs-ford-400-race-preview/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=martin-truex-jr-2010-nscs-ford-400-race-preview

Paul Russo Troy Ruttman Peter Ryan Eddie Sachs Bob Said

Chase Mattioli / Baker Curb Racing Homestead-Miami Speedway Preview

Baker Curb Racing (BCR)ON AND OFF THE TRACK WITH CHASE MATTIOLI 21-year old Chase Mattioli will pilot the No. 27 Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with sponsorship from CollegeComplete.com and GreenTree Environmental Consultants. Mattioli, a junior at New York’s Fordham University, will also serve as a spokesperson for...more»

Source: http://www.catchfence.com/2010/nationwide/11/17/chase-mattioli-baker-curb-racing-homestead-miami-speedway-preview/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chase-mattioli-baker-curb-racing-homestead-miami-speedway-preview

Stirling Moss Gino Munaron David Murray Luigi Musso Kazuki Nakajima

Making the most of the F1 season

I find it impossible to think that this is it. I said to Harriet, as I packed my bag for the final race of this year, that 2010 has been the fastest 12 months of my life.

I can vividly remember eating pizza in a small restaurant in Richmond back in March as we both apprehensively considered the next nine months of almost constant travel.

In the blink of an eye, it's almost over.

Although I've visited many of the same places, same hotels, even the very same hotel room at times, this year has been an incredibly different journey to the one I took in 2009.

I'll never, ever forget the nerves in the Melbourne pit-lane as F1 returned to the BBC after a long absence almost two years ago. And while the nerves have settled down, the pressure never has.

In 2009, I went into every race having never been there before, feeling anxious, aware I was a total newcomer, looking to please everyone. At the end of what was the most incredible year of my life, I realised that I hadn't actually taken time to step back and enjoy it. I was determined to put that right in 2010.

I think I've managed to do that but, as I've tried to take a step back and be objective about this season, remember the sights and the sounds of a championship year, I wonder if the same can be said of the men who are at the very centre of the storm... the championship contenders.

One of my mottos in life is "savour it". I said it to my wife on our wedding day, to my sister when her first child was born and to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner after last weekend's constructors' title triumph.

As life zips past at an incredible rate and the smallest things become the biggest issues, savouring what is around us is often the last thing we think of doing.

Last weekend in Brazil, for example, David Coulthard turned to me and said: "You'll never see a driver celebrate a win for as long as a team member."

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Zoom in and fly around the Abu Dhabi track
He was referring to the psyche of a driver, the complex psychological make-up that inspires the chosen few to constantly put their neck on the line in pursuit of perfection.

After he picked up pole position last weekend, I asked Nico Hulkenberg what had crossed his mind following the achievement.

"Oh no, two press conferences and then more interviews," was his answer.

He didn't allow himself the indulgence of reflecting on the hard times when an F1 pole was beyond his wildest dreams, or how his family would be celebrating back in Germany. Nope, it was all about what was to come.

F1 doesn't do the present very well. It's all about the next race, the next upgrade, the next season. The constant pursuit of perfection demands that. Live in the now for a fraction of a second and, in this world, it instantly becomes the past.

In this year, of all years, it's been important to take stock of what we are witnessing, to be aware that it may be very many seasons before we encounter another similarly close title battle. And it all comes down to this weekend's final race.

For four of the drivers, there is no looking beyond this weekend. Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton know their entire season - every lap of every track - has distilled to this... one race with everything on the line.

My advice? Tune in, take the phone off the hook and, most of all, savour it. I know I will.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is live on BBC1 (from 1210 GMT) and the BBC Sport website (UK users only) on Sunday with the race starting at 1300 GMT.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2010/11/making_the_most_of_the_f1_seas.html

Chuck Weyant Ken Wharton Ted Whiteaway Graham Whitehead Peter Whitehead

Pick your classic grand prix - race 19

Welcome to the final classic grand prix selection of the 2010 Formula 1 season.

We have an eclectic but hopefully fascinating mix of races with which to whet your appetites for the potentially explosive showdown between Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

In their way, our choices collectively sum up everything that is on the table at the Yas Marina circuit on Sunday - there is a title decider, a last race of a classic season, a twist in a battle between two of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport and a showdown between two drivers in one of history's defining cars.

Your job is the same as ever - tell us which is your favourite and we will use the responses on this blog to help us choose from which race to show you the full 'Grand Prix' highlights programme broadcast on the BBC at the time, as well as the shorter highlights edits we cut for all the races.

We will also make available short and long highlights of last year's inaugural race at Abu Dhabi.

The classic races will be available on this website on Wednesday.

I'll run through the choices chronologically.

First is the 1979 United States Grand Prix East - the last race of a classic season.

It was won by Ferrari's Gilles Villeneuve after a battle with Williams driver Alan Jones, the two fastest drivers of the season, both men overshadowing the new world champion, Villeneuve's team-mate Jody Scheckter, as they had all year.

Villeneuve underlined his status as the fastest driver in the world with a scarcely believable performance in practice at the demanding Watkins Glen track in upstate New York. On Friday, in the streaming rain, he had been fastest by a quite staggering margin - nearly nine seconds - from Scheckter.

In dry qualifying, though, the Ferrari, which lacked the downforce of the English-built cars, could manage only third in Villeneuve's hands, with Scheckter 16th. Jones and Brabham's Nelson Piquet were on the front row.

Gilles Villeneuve in the 1979 Ferrari 312T4

Villeneuve was the star of the 1979 season in the Ferrari 312T4. Photo: Getty

But the race started wet, giving Villeneuve his chance, and the great Canadian duly stormed into the lead from Jones.

Villeneuve built a five-second lead in two laps but after that the gap between the two varied. The Michelins on Villeneuve's Ferrari performed better when the rain was heavier, while the Goodyears on Jones's Williams were faster when it eased off.

As the circuit began to dry, Jones closed on Villeneuve and took the lead on lap 31. Three laps later, Villeneuve came in for dry-weather slick tyres, with Jones coming in after a further three laps. There were problems with the right rear but the Williams was waved out when the team manager thought the wheel was on firmly.

As Jones accelerated away, though, the mechanic fitting the wheel signalled frantically that he had not finished and the wheel came loose at the beginning of the back straight, leaving Jones ruing a lost opportunity.

A classic battle was over - and Villeneuve cruised to an ultimately comfortable win.

The next choice is the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix, our twist in what was to become the long-running battle between two of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport - with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna taking the place of Alonso and Hamilton in our analogy.

This was a season utterly dominated by McLaren, who won 15 of the 16 races. Their drivers, Senna and Prost, locked out the front row, and Prost started the race knowing he absolutely needed to win after a devastating run of form through the summer by Senna.

Senna led off the start but Prost tracked him all the way around the first lap, and was clearly faster and in a position to try to pass as they entered the pit straight.

The Frenchman pulled out of Senna's slipstream to the right, but Senna moved violently over on him, forcing him almost into the pit wall - a move that found an echo in Michael Schumacher's controversial defence from Rubens Barrichello in Hungary this year.

Prost, though, was not to be intimidated. He kept his foot in it and passed the Brazilian into the first corner of the second lap.

Prost went on to a win that was less comfortable than it looked - the McLarens, with their Honda turbos, were very marginal on fuel and Prost had to manage his car carefully while holding off the challenge of the Adrian Newey-designed March of Ivan Capelli, which finished a superb second.

Things did not go so well for Senna. To add to his fuel consumption problems, Senna's digital fuel read-out was proving unreliable, and he slumped defencelessly to finish sixth, putting Prost back into the championship lead with three races to go.

The Mexican Grand Prix of 1991 is our next race, contested between two drivers in one of history's defining cars - the Williams-Renault FW14 representing the 2010 Red Bull-Renault RB6.

Senna, still at McLaren, had won the first four races of the season, but by the time of Mexico, the sixth race, it was clear that the Williams - designed, like the 1988 March and the 2010 Red Bull, by Newey - had moved F1 car design on to a new level.

Unexpectedly, though, it was Williams's unfancied second driver, Riccardo Patrese, who initially got the most from the car, rather than their returning leading star, Nigel Mansell, who was fresh from a difficult season being overshadowed at Ferrari by Prost.

Patrese took pole on the superb Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, from Mansell and Senna.

But the Italian made a poor start, dropping to fourth behind Mansell, Senna and Ferrari's Jean Alesi.

Patrese was soon past Alesi and Senna, and set off after Mansell, who he passed on lap 15, continuing on to a superb, unchallenged win. Only later in the season did Mansell get on top of his team-mate, and go on to push Senna hard for the title.

Finally, there is Portugal 1993 - our title decider.

It is a somewhat overlooked grand prix, which is odd, because in many ways it was a defining race in F1 history.

Prost clinched his fourth, and final, world title at Estoril that sunny Sunday in September, but the weekend -my first foreign grand prix as a reporter, as it happens - was rich with intrigue.

It was overshadowed by Prost's announcement on the Thursday that he was retiring at the end of the season, a decision forced upon him by his Williams team's decision to employ Senna for what turned out to be an apocalyptic 1994 season.

At the age of 38, Prost, whose contract included a clause which said he would not drive alongside Senna, had no stomach for another bitter battle with his arch-rival, and decided to call time on his wonderful career.

But that was not the only way in which the race marked the beginning of the end of one era and the start of another.

That feeling was enhanced by events at McLaren, who had dropped the struggling Michael Andretti after the previous race in Italy and drafted in their test driver, Mika Hakkinen - who proceeded to outqualify Senna and take third place on the grid. The great Brazilian was not amused!

The race, too, had more than a hint of the changing of the guard about it.

Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost on the podium at the 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix

Schumacher, the race-winner, pours champagne over the new world champion, Alain Prost, at Estoril in 1993. Photo: Getty

Prost had unusually been outqualified by team-mate Damon Hill, who then proceeded to stall on the formation lap, forcing him to start at the back.

Prost would almost certainly have cruised to victory had he got a good start. But he had struggled all season with the clutch on the Williams, and he was swamped by the McLarens - with Senna passing Hakkinen at the start - and, particularly, Alesi's Ferrari, which took the lead.

The top six circulated together for the first part of the race, with Alesi leading Senna, Hakkinen, Prost, Michael Schumacher's Benetton and the second Ferrari of Gerhard Berger.

The race distilled down to a battle between Prost and Schumacher, the only two cars stopping only once.

After the stops, Schumacher was in the lead. Prost was right behind, and much faster, but second place was enough for him to clinch the title, even though Hill had now worked his way back up to third place.

Prost made a few attempts to pass, but Schumacher employed some of the tricks that were to become notorious in later years and, not wishing to risk an accident, Prost decided discretion was the better part of valour, and settled for second.

So there it is - what we hope is a great choice to end not only a great F1 season, but our second year of classic grand prix.

I look forward to reading your views.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/11/pick_your_classic_grand_prix_-_1.html

Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian

Vettel is World Champion!

Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver in history to win the FIA Formula 1 World Championship by dominating the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a steady drive to victory, ahead of two quick McLarens, while championship favourites Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso found themselves stuck behind the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, driving the race of [...]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/vettel-is-champion/

Gerino Gerini Peter Gethin Piercarlo Ghinzani Bruno Giacomelli Dick Gibson

Vergne pleased with F1 debut

Jean-Eric Vergne described his maiden Formula 1 test with Toro Rosso as a 'really good experience' and said he was surprised by how much the team was able to achieve. The British Formula 3 champion is testing with Toro Rosso in the Abu Dhabi young driver sessions this week as part of his development deal with Red Bull. "The speed, the grip, the downforce, brakes it's all very different to F3," said Vergne.

Source: http://www.inracingnews.com/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/vergne-pleased-with-f1-debut/

Eddie Russo Paul Russo Troy Ruttman Peter Ryan Eddie Sachs

F1 popularity to surge after great season

Formula 1 will come out of arguably its greatest ever season as the ultimate winner, whoever clinches the world championship in the season finale in Abu Dhabi today. With four drivers still in contention for the championship in the final round at the Yas Marina circuit, the sport can expect one of its biggest ever television audiences as fans tune in to discover who is the 2010 title winner. But rather than that success being good for just one man and team, leading team principals think the biggest success story in 2010 is the sport of F1 itself - which could benefit from the huge interest the campaign, and a lack of off-track politics, has generated

Source: http://www.inracingnews.com/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/f1-popularity-to-surge-after-great-season/

Gary Brabham Jack Brabham† Bill Brack Ernesto Brambilla Vittorio Brambilla