This weekend was another mostly racing-lacking weekend, but we’ll make the best of it and tell you all about the stuff that happened anyhow. Some NASCAR, some IndyCar, a bit of WRC and MotoGP. Toss in a DTM race, SuperFormula, and VLN, and it’s enough to chat about for a bit. I was at the Monterey Historics this weekend for a bit, so I’ll share a bit from that as well.
Read along to see what good stuff happened this weekend. Summer is winding down a bit, and the racing is running to the end of the championships, so we’ll do our best to help keep your finger on the pulse. Just be aware of the fact that this post is filled with spoilers. Giant carbon-fiber, multi-element, DRS-equipped, Gurney-flapped, Spoilers! Oh, and in case you missed it, I am also hosting a new motorsport podcast these days…
Super Formula Does Awesome Things From Motegi
MotoGP Brno, Man
DTM Visits Putin
WRC Rally Germany
NASCAR Does The Bristol Stomp
IndyCar Has A Rainy Day In Pennsylvania
Speed Week
Monterey Car Week
Stuff You Should Watch
Stuff You Should Read
Monterey Car Week
Last week I went to Monterey for car week. On Thursday night I went to an Acura dinner and looked at the new NSX GT3 in person. Got plenty of time to talk to Art St. Cyr and Peter Cunningham about the car. Dario Franchitti liked my watch.
Friday I went to Werks Reunion, a Porsche show on the lawns of a golf course. There were a few transaxle race cars, including an ex-TransAm 944, which was awesome, as expected. Michelin and Porsche were displaying a GT4 Clubsport, so that was awesome. That night I went to a Porsche function, and was treated to views of a real-deal 1968 911R and a 550 Spyder.
Saturday was Concours d’LeMons and off to Laguna Seca for track action. Too much good stuff to even begin to discuss.
Sunday was Pebble Beach, and the drive home. On the lawns of Pebble, there was one class dedicated entirely to Ford GT40s, another specifically for Indianapolis Roadsters, and one featuring post-war sports cars. I’ll have a future post on FlatSixes about my favorite car from Pebble, a 1951 Porsche 356SL, the company’s first Le Mans winner.
Super Formula – Motegi
Yuhi Sekiguchi took his first Super Formula win this weekend, extending a pole position into a comfortable cruise win over Andre Lotterer. The Team Impul driver never really had anyone challenge him for the lead of the motor race, allowing him to secure the trophy. Behind, Lotterer spent the whole race fighting off Hiroaki Ishiura. At the line, Lotterer’s gap to third was less than 6 tenths of a second.
NASCAR – Bristol
After a rain delay and a weekend of fits and starts, the race finally got underway on Sunday, after having intended to have started the night prior. Kevin Harvick led 128 of the 500 lap race on his way to victory. Light rain caused a caution with 50 laps to go, and Harvick held the lead at the restart over Denny Hamlin. Hamlin had previously been two laps down thanks to an early race caution, but with a lucky dog and some tire-strategy calls, he found himself in the top three in the closing stages. Ricky Stenhouse, who had also taken just two tires on the final caution period, muscled his way into second with just a couple of laps remaining. Stenhouse was running a Bryan Clauson tribute livery, and was really hoping for Victory Lane, but fell just short.
Harvick on his victory:
“We should have won a lot of races this year, but we just had things not go our way. We made mistakes, or whatever the case may be. But, to get back into Victory Lane here at Bristol feels really good.
We’ve had some good cars here over the last few years … We knew we had the performance that we needed to have in the cars pretty much every week. And it’s been one of those deals where things have just not gone exactly right. But to have the win now and just try to get that momentum before we get into the Chase and get things rolling is really what we needed.”
IndyCar – Pocono
The race on Sunday was postponed until Monday. It is currently running, as I am writing this. Mikhail Aleshin took his maiden pole position, and that kid is heading for major stardom. He’s stupidly fast, and maybe a little too aggressive. We’ll talk about this race on The DFL Show this week.
Edit: Will Power Won. Aleshin took 2nd. It literally just finished seconds before this post went live.
Moto GP – Brno
Another wet race saw another unpredictable finish, another gamble on tires that paid off, and another first-time victor. Cal Crutchlow managed to surge through the field from a 10th place starting position into the lead of the bike race with a tire choice, and managed a wet track to take his first win. Choosing hard rain tires both front and rear, Cruchlow made the right move, as other riders who had chosen a soft front and a hard rear had front tire issues throughout the race. At one point, Jorge Lorenzo swapped bikes onto slicks as a gamble move, but came back in the following lap to switch back to wets. Rossi finished a distant second, and Marc Marquez followed in third.
DTM – Moscow
Race 1:
Mercedes driver Robert Wickens took an easy saturday race victory over Paul di Resta, Gary Paffett, and Maximilian Goetz, making for a Merc 1-2-3-4 victory. Wickins moved past Paffett at the green, and kept the lead of the race until the end on a wet track. The race started with 3 laps of safety car condition, as the track was absolutely monsoon-ish. Wickens’ lead at the flag was an astonishing 10.9 seconds. With the victory, and Marco Wittmann failing to score any points, Wickens has moved into the points championship lead.
Race 2:
Wittmann fought back on Sunday with a massive victory of his own, leading the charge in a BMW 1-2-3-4 victory. Wickens started race 2 from third. With drastically different conditions from the prior day, Wickens deemed his car ‘undriveable’ (at one point radioing in to report ‘no more steering’), and couldn’t hold on to his third placed position. Wickens ultimately finished 5th, best of the non-BMWs. This falter was enough to push Wittmann back into the championship lead.
WRC – Rally Germany
Sebastien Ogier won his first rally in 6 months this weekend in Germany. Being first on the road during gravel rallies has seen Ogier running slower times than the competition, but such nuisances are not involved in tarmac rallying. The fastest guy in the fastest car flew through the stages and took the win. Everyone else was failing left and right, thanks to attrition, a WRC2 car (Esapekka Lappi/Skoda) finished 7th overall, and Dani Sordo took his first podium of the year and best finish in 2 years.
Speed Weeks – Bonneville
After a few years away, Bonneville ran this year, and it was awesome!
Danny Thompson set a new record in his dad’s old car. Nelson Piquet Jr. drove a French car. Renault made an electric streamliner. You know what, just check out Bangshift’s coverage. They have all the salt news you’d ever need RIGHT HERE.
Stuff You Should Watch
Monterey Motorsports Reunion Day 1
Monterey Motorsports Reunion Day 2
Lotus 79 Visor Cam – Duncan Dayton
Porsche 935 JLP-3 ride along – Zak Brown
Kamaz T4 VS. WRC
Go Driftin’!
Stuff You Should Read
WeatherTech Racing Withdraws Porsche From GTD For Remainder Of 2016, citing BoP woes.
Park Place Racing Withdraws Porsche from GTD For VIR weekend, citing BoP woes.
Blackflag’s coverage of Bonneville.
IMSA confirms CTSCC car eligibility.
Motorsport.com interview’s Lewis Hamilton.
Leonard Turner has an awesome photo and history lesson from Sebring 1969.
Combos
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