Lenta, Per Favore!

Riccardo Patrese is a former F1 driver. He took his wife for a spin on the race track at Jerez, Spain. You gotta love those Italian women...(3:14 mark)

Kimi, The Iceman!

I hope some of you watched the race because it was a great race. An exciting race! Well, it all depends who you were cheering for. The driver standing going to the race was Lewis Hamilton (107), Fernando Alonso (103), and Kimi Räikkönen (100).

The point leader, Lewis made a couple of rookie mistakes in the early part of the race and took himself out of the championship contention. Alonso didn’t have the speed to keep up with the Ferrari duo, who took charge from the green flag to the checker.

At the end, Ferrari pilot Massa made way for his teammate Kimi to take the checker and the 10 much needed championship points to top both Lewis and Alonso and becoming the 2007 World champion. A long shot before the race. Now a winner!

2007 F1 World Champion
01 Kimi Räikkönen 110
02 Lewis Hamilton 109
03 Fernando Alonso 109

Scoring system for each race;
1st = 10 points
2nd = 8 points
3rd = 6 points
4th = 5 points
5th = 4 points
6th = 3 points
7th = 2 points
8th = 1 point.

Here is clip where Lewis tried to retake his position from teammate Alonso at turn 4 and failed on the opening lap. Also a spectacular crash between Yamamoto and Fisichella.

Down To The Wire.

Formula One’s season finale is in Brazil this Sunday, 10/21/07. The 2007 championship is still up for grab among 3 drivers, with a tight 7 points difference between the first and third place.

This highly anticipated race has so much drama and rivalries within the team (McLaren) and between the teams (McLaren vs Ferrari) ahead of this race weekend. The usual overtaking spots are at turn 1 and turn 4, but with so much on the line, do expect some brave and breathtaking moves elsewhere on the track. It will be one exciting race!

The current standing is;
1 Lewis Hamilton (England McLaren) 107
2 Fernando Alonso (Spain McLaren) 103
3 Kimi Räikkönen (Finland Ferrari) 100

This race will be air live on Speed at 11:30AM E.S.T.

Teammates? No Teammates??

Alonso (right) is penalized for delaying his teammate Hamilton in the pit during the closing minutes of the final qualification, by doing so, Hamilton would not have the sufficient time and a chance to fight for the pole position of Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso, the pole setter, has been dropped 5 positions and to start 6th on grid for tomorrow’s race.

Boy, this is better than the soap opera! Just in case you want to watch this race, it is live at 7:30AM EST, August 5, on Speed.

Teammates....

If you follow Formula One (F1), then you'll get this commercial. If not, those two in the commercial are the fastest F1 drivers this year thus far, and they are teammates for McLaren/Mercedes Benz F1 team. The guy at the end is Mika Hakkinen, a 2 time F1 World Champion, also a McLaren/Mercedes Benz pilot.

He Walked Away With A Sprained Ankle.

If you missed the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal last weekend, you missed this spectacular crash...

Busy Racing Weekend!

Memorial Day is the day to honor and remember those service men and women who died for this country. The Memorial Day Sunday, is also the day the world’s most prestigious automobile races will burn some rubbers. (thanks MikeP...Need to make sure the correct "rubber" is being burned here...)

Formula one will be broadcast live at 7:30AM EST, Sunday morning on Speed Channel, my favorite F1 pilot, the hard charging Fernando Alonso sits on the pole position. The circuit of Monaco Grand Prix is tremendously hard to overtake the car in front. It is not impossible, but it is very difficult. The only place to improve the position is done in the pit. The sooner the pit crew can get the car out to the track, the better chance for that driver to move up on the grid.

Not to forget about the exciting finish of last year’s Indy 500. It was the 2nd closest finish in history with the margin of victory in 0.0635 of a second! The race will be live on ABC TV station, with pre-race at 12:00 AM EST. Let’s hope Michael Andretti can finally win the elusive BorgWarner Indianapolis 500 Trophy.

The Formula One Great - Nigel Mansell (il leone)

Quotes:

"I consider myself one of a very small handful of drivers in the world that are top drivers. The best one? I don't think anybody can say they're the best one because, from one week to the next, you can be on form or off form a little bit."

With this clip, you will see why Nigel is one of my all time favorite race drivers.

500 Horsepower Club - AMG CLK63 "Black Edition"

Pictures from autoblog.com.


A quick snap from Edmunds Inside Line:

"the CLK63 AMG Black Series is modeled on the company's F1 safety car. It is distinguished from the standard CLK63 AMG launched late last year, by an aggressive new lightweight carbon-fiber body kit. It consists of a deep front spoiler, heavily flared wheel arches, additional ducts in the front fenders, new side sills underneath the doors and a reprofiled rear bumper and trunk lid lip spoiler. It's powered by a 500-horsepower version of Mercedes-Benz's 6.2-liter V8....Drive goes to the rear wheels via Mercedes-Benz's seven-speed 7G-Tronic automatic transmission, with remote shift paddles on the steering wheel.

Mercedes-Benz claims a 0-60-mph time of 4.1 seconds, a good half-second faster than the standard CLK63 AMG, with top speed limited to 186 mph."

Dang, I would love to drive this car!

Yes, I am a speed freak.

www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com


What a day! A busy day with the open wheel racing for about 5 hours worth (Indy 500 & Monte Carlo Grand Prix), sorry, I am not a NASCAR fan.

I hope you guys watched this 500 race because it was the 2nd closest finish in history with the margin of .06 second where Sam Hornish Jr. passed Marco Andretti to take the checker flag.

I have not watched the 500 since the CART split, now with IRL and Champ car, each took a different type of racings (oval vs. road course). When I heard Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr, and Eddie Cheever Jr came out of their retirements to race, and I was not about to pass this 500.

There were some spectacular crashes early on, but the thrill came in with about 20 laps to go. Each corner is usually wide enough for one car to go through safely at 200+ MPH, but as the 2005 winner Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan were fighting for the position, they overtook a slower car as three of them going through the turn together!

I really thought Michael Andretti was going to win it, with just a few laps to go under the yellow caution flag, but he fell back as the race went under the green again. Michael’ son Marco took the lead from there to the final turn of the race, but he didn’t have the speed to top Sam Hornish Jr.’s late charge, and finished in second place. What a race!

Now it is time to watch the Monte Carlo Grand Prix that I taped. It is going to be easy to watch because I already know that the sensational Spaniard Alonso had won.

Alonso!

Formula 1, its 2006 season has officially started in Bahrain today. Fernando Alonso (center) comfortably beat Michael Schumacher (left), but with a close call with Michael after Alonso exited his final pitstop, to win the first race of this season. Kimi Räikkönen (right) fought his way from starting last on the grid to finish 3rd! This year looks like it is going to be another great year in F1, fill with great emotions and actions, and I can't hardly wait...