Fighting Talker

The intro from last year’s race

The buildup has begun for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the biggest motor races on the planet along with Daytona, Indy and Monaco and my personal favorite of the three. This year’s race features another battle for overall honors between the diesel-powered supercars of Audi and Peugeot. Other cars you’ll see during the race include Corvettes, Aston Martins, Ferraris, Porsches, Saleens, and Spykers. It’s always an amazing show and I encourage you to tune, even if just for a few minutes. (more…)

The Monaco GP, traditionally the most boring of the Memorial Day racing tripleheader, was an absolute thriller. With rain, then dry, then threat of rain again, the race was full of action. My man Lewis Hamilton came out on top but one has to feel for Force India’s Adrian Sutil who was punted out of fourth place by an out-of-control Kimi Raikkonen who should (but won’t) be penalized for Canada.

Memorial Day Sunday… the best day of the year. Why?

For the past oh, 15 years, here has been the schedule for this day.

7:30 a.m. - Grand Prix of Monaco. The crown jewel of the F1 calendar, it’s prone to bouts of unpredictability especially when wet like today’s race.

Noon - Indianapolis 500. An American classic, and this year, with a unified series, the beginning of the return to its former prominence.

6 p.m. Coca-Cola 600, the longest race in the NASCAR calendar and while never watched in one sitting, perfect for checking in on and then watching the end when any barbecues or parties are finishing up.

It’s my most wonderful time of the year.

Dear Speed Channel:

If we’re the kind of people already watching Speed Channel at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, we don’t need to be reminded at every single commercial break that you’re broadcasting the NASCAR All-Star Race next week. We get it. We know you’re excited but simmer down a bit with all the ads.

Brian Williams avoided the wretched Correspondent’s Dinner, instead choosing to watch something far more intelligent… Talladega.

I did not attend the Correspondent’s Dinner this weekend, though sampled some of the festivities on C-Span (I thought the President was very good). I have attended those dinners for 26 years or so, and on occasion I opt for home and hearth. I saw the first 50 laps of Talladega, however, from the comfort of my kitchen. You were nice to ask.

Good man.

I finished up a new book last night, The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World by Alex Roy. (more…)

This should be obvious, but trust me, being sick is bad times…

Posting may be down this weekend between the hot spells, shivering, coughing, and runny nose.

It’s a big racing weekend though, perfect for laying on the couch and recouperating in front of.

• The 12 Hours of Sebring mark the first race of the American Le Mans Series season
• The Grand Prix of Australia opens up the F1 season
• NASCAR is in Bristol for the “day race”

(Thanks Fiatguy)

I saw a neat story on Autosport about three ex-soccer players starting a car racing team in England as part of a development program for black, and primarily West Indian, drivers. The team is owned by Luther Blissett (best known as one of the first black England stars… and one of the worst AC Milan players in history) alongside fellow and better-known ex-England stars John Barnes and Les Ferdinand. It’s called Team 48, and for an interesting reason too.

Blissett told autosport.com: “This is the start of a three-year plan for us initially, with the aim being to get ourselves competitive in the BTCC and then get to the Le Mans 24 hours in hopefully 2010, or, failing that, 2011.

“The project commemorates the 1948 arrival of the SS Windrush from Jamaica and is a way of getting a small crop of guys from the Caribbean, and other diverse cultures, involved in motorsport at a high level - because it’s something that’s still missing from motorsport.

“Hopefully we can do well and open the doors for lots of others to come in, in the future. That’s driving, engineering, the lot.”

Hopefully, some of the similar programs enacted here to bring more driver diversity to NASCAR and racing start to show results soon.

Nicolas Cage, DO NOT MAKE A RACING MOVIE. Put the helmet down and slowly step away! No one wants to see this. Please, racing fans have suffered enough. Nic, baby, don’t do it.

American movie star Nicolas Cage, the grand marshal for last weekend’s Daytona 500, has told autosport.com that he would “leap at the chance” to make a film about motorsport.

Cage, star of blockbusters such as ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’, ‘The Rock’ or ‘Ghost Rider’, gave the “Gentleman, start your engines” command in his own inimitable fashion before the 49th running of the stock car classic on Sunday.

When asked if he would like to emulate Steve McQueen, who committed the Le Mans 24 Hours to celluloid in 1971, Cage told autosport.com: “I would love to. I would leap at the opportunity if someone came to me with a script about racecars and this great sport, I would participate straight away. Whether it was Le Mans, Daytona, Formula One ­ all of it.

This year’s Daytona 500 followed the typical plot for 500 mile restrictor plate races in modern NASCAR:

1. Someone compares Daytona to the Super Bowl
2. Invocation
3. Commercial break
4. Three bits by Kelly Clarkson
5. Commercial break
6. Darrell Waltrip says something dumb
7. Commercial break
8. Parade laps
9. Commercial break
10. Race starts
11. Three hours of the good drivers trying not to wreck
12. My man Tony Stewart crashes
13. NASCAR contrives reasons for late caution flags to bunch field up
14. Big wreck
15. Great finish
16. Ensuing controversy

It was a great finish. Harvick made a great move to deny Mark “Buffalo Bills” Martin from winning.