Motor Racing 2023

[ralphc1]

Big Mac feasts! -- McIntosh Wins Opening Night of 2023 Chili Bowl
Cannon McIntosh wasted little time in qualifying for Saturday's A Main championship race with a dominating showing in Monday's qualifying opener
https://www.si.com/fannation/racing...cintosh-wins-opening-night-of-2023-chili-bowl

The series of Qualifying races lead up to the weekend races.

 

[ralphc1]

Meanwhile, Andretti Racing is raising the stakes in it's Formula One bid.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has called on F1 and the 10 teams to be "more encouraging" of General Motors' attempt to enter the sport.

GM confirmed last week it will be partnering with Andretti in a bid to get its effort to join the F1 grid over the line following sustained resistance from the current teams.
https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/9...-sulayem-f1-teams-demand-general-motors-move/

 

[ralphc1]

Some of the biggest names in NASCAR have banded together to purchase the CARS Tour, helping preserve a popular regional late model racing series. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Justin Marks announced Monday that they formed an ownership group and acquired the CARS Tour, one of the Southeast’s top asphalt late model series. The ownership transition brings in industry expertise with the aim to “bolster the health and longevity of the CARS Tour by providing proficiencies in brand management, business strategy and partnership acquisition and retention,” a release states.
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nascar-auto-racing/article270947647.html

 

[Iron Mang]

Meanwhile, Andretti Racing is raising the stakes in it's Formula One bid.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has called on F1 and the 10 teams to be "more encouraging" of General Motors' attempt to enter the sport.

GM confirmed last week it will be partnering with Andretti in a bid to get its effort to join the F1 grid over the line following sustained resistance from the current teams.
https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/9...-sulayem-f1-teams-demand-general-motors-move/

Just read this morning that the teams now want the entry price to be $700 mil, instead of the $200 mil initial entry. What are they afraid of? lol

 

[legatoblues]

Have been loosely following Dakar for the first time. Great event.

Exciting year ahead in sportscar racing. 13 Hypercar entries for WEC, 11 for IMSA. Just over 2 weeks until the Daytona 24.
Planning to try and follow the full WEC season this year, will try IMSA as well but will depend on viewing availability.

Indycar also looking strong, with 27 full time entries.

New cars for both Super Formula and Supercars.

Lots to look forward to all round.

 

[ralphc1]

Have been loosely following Dakar for the first time. Great event.

Exciting year ahead in sportscar racing. 13 Hypercar entries for WEC, 11 for IMSA. Just over 2 weeks until the Daytona 24.
Planning to try and follow the full WEC season this year, will try IMSA as well but will depend on viewing availability.

Indycar also looking strong, with 27 full time entries.

New cars for both Super Formula and Supercars.

Lots to look forward to all round.

Strange happenings in the rally.
Dakar Rally leader Aleš Loprais has withdrawn from the race after hitting an Italian spectator, who later died.

Key points:

• Aleš Loprais shares footage of the incident from inside and outside his truck
• He says he did not know he had hit anyone until stewards told him after he went to bed that night
• Organisers said Loprais has been helping authorities with their inquiries

Loprais — who was leading the truck category — came over a sand dune in the Saudi Arabian desert and his vehicle knocked over a spectator, identified by organisers as Livio Sassinotti, who was standing on the other side of the dune.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01...prais-hits-spectator-who-later-dies/101847448

Footage of the incident appears to show Sassinotti conscious immediately after the contact, but Loprais said the man suffered a heart attack on the way to the hospital.

"He was injured, he felt nauseous after two to three hours and he had a heart attack while being transported to the hospital," the 43-year-old said in a video on his Facebook page.

The injured man was a photographer who maybe wanted to get photos of vehicles going over the dunes. Of course he couldn't be seen from the other side. Seems like he was looking for a Darwin award.

 

[ralphc1]

IMSA released the Rolex 24 entry list.
https://www.imsa.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2023/01/11/2023_IWSC_Daytona_PreEvent_EntryList.pdf

 

[ralphc1]

Kevin Harvick makes it official. This will be his last season in the Cup cars.

 

[ralphc1]

I just saw that Formula One is changing qualifying by requiring teams to run hard tires in the first round of qualifying. Medium tires in the second round and soft tires in the final round.

 

[rearnakedchoke]

I just saw that Formula One is changing qualifying by requiring teams to run hard tires in the first round of qualifying. Medium tires in the second round and soft tires in the final round.

For the entire session? Or run hards for first run and whatever for the second or third run?

 

[legatoblues]

First round of Formula E in Mexico this weekend. Debut of a new, lighter car with significantly increased power - that's always promising. I'll be watching to see how it all plays out.

 

[ralphc1]

For the entire session? Or run hards for first run and whatever for the second or third run?

It looks like they will only try it at two races this season. Maybe the teams didn't like the idea.

"A ‘Revised Qualifying Format’ (RQF) will take place at up to two events in 2023 “for the purpose of evaluating whether the revisions are suitable for subsequent championships” – as per the updated regulations.

This will see tyre compounds mandated for each stage of F1’s usual three-part qualifying session: hard tyres only in Q1; mediums tyres only in Q2; and, finally, soft tyres only in Q3. Intermediates and wets will be allowed if the RQF sessions are declared wet.

At RQF events, each driver may use no more than 11 sets of dry-weather tyres, four sets of intermediate tyres and three sets of wet-weather tyres. This compares to the normal weekend allowance of 13 sets of dry-weather tyres, four sets of intermediate tyres and three sets of wet-weather tyres."

For some reason they thought that requiring a certain tire in each qualifying session would help the slower teams. I don't know why they would think that when the top teams have already run on harder tires in the first sessions to save the soft tires for the final session when the slower teams were using soft tires in Q1 to try to be fast enough to advance. Somebody has their head a long way up their ass.

They were also supposed to be starting DRS one lap after a restart instead of two but that will be limited to only in the 6 sprint races.

Another tidbit in the article concerns parc ferme after qualifying for sprint events. It isn't well explained but it seems that teams have asked for cars to be locked in on the setups used to qualify to run in the Sprint races.

"Alongside this, parc ferme rules on Sprint weekends are under review for 2023, with the aim of simplifying the set-up-locking process, after the FIA cited a “significant increase in parc ferme requests" between Friday’s qualifying session and Saturday’s Sprint."

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...-you-need-to-know.5EN5ENd23oOqFDnw8fD0rp.html

 

[ralphc1]

First round of Formula E in Mexico this weekend. Debut of a new, lighter car with significantly increased power - that's always promising. I'll be watching to see how it all plays out.

I can't find where it's being televised. NBC has the rights but I don't see it on the schedules.

 

[ralphc1]

16 year old Ashton Torgerson has survived being thrown from his car Wednesday night at the Chili bowl.
https://www.si.com/fannation/racing...erson-involved-in-very-scary-chili-bowl-crash

He was released from the hospital on Friday evening.

https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2...le-busch-hospitalized-ct-scan-brain-bleeding/

 

[legatoblues]

I can't find where it's being televised. NBC has the rights but I don't see it on the schedules.

I'm not in North America, so can't comment.

Cars looked visibly quicker and appeared to race well. A reasonable start, IMO.

16 year old Ashton Torgerson has survived being thrown from his car Wednesday night at the Chili bowl.

Saw that. Also saw comments about safety gear not being worn/not being worn correctly.
Still blows my mind that there are people out there skimping on safety/not taking it seriously/giving it the respect it needs.

 

[ralphc1]

I'm not in North America, so can't comment.

Cars looked visibly quicker and appeared to race well. A reasonable start, IMO.



Saw that. Also saw comments about safety gear not being worn/not being worn correctly.
Still blows my mind that there are people out there skimping on safety/not taking it seriously/giving it the respect it needs.

Back in 1979 on the dirt track in Menomonie Wisconsin, Ben Mizer was killed when his street stock car rolled over and he was partially ejected. I guess the seat belts failed from age and weathering. The one thing you need is good belts properly mounted and properly worn.

 

[legatoblues]

The one thing you need is good belts properly mounted and properly worn.

Absolutely.

Belts - and mounting points MUST be checked before each meet, with belt life considered as well. This is an area that should never be left to chance.

 

[RoastBeast]

What wound up being the consensus with Dale Earnhardt? Wore his belts too loose or did they break?

 

[ralphc1]

What wound up being the consensus with Dale Earnhardt? Wore his belts too loose or did they break?

Here is an article discussing it.
https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nas...nhardt-could-have-survived-daytona-500-crash/
I don't know if it had anything to do with his belts. There was some question of whether his belts were cut to remove him from the car. That wouldn't normally be done because there is a quick release. It was a basal skull fracture that killed him. Basically his neck broke away from his skull. I think Dale did have a soft seat and I've heard that he was very particular about how his seat was mounted with some reports that he mounted his seat and belts himself. Seat belts are designed to stop the body from moving but they don't restrain the head. There were several drivers that died around that same time. Adam Petty had died the previous year and his father Kyle wore a head and neck restraint in the Daytona 500 long with 4 other drivers. Earnhardt's death led to NASCAR and many other sanctioning bodies requiring a head and neck restraint. They are worn in about every type of racing now and as Jim Downing, inventor of the HANS device, points out,

“Since then, we’ve had wreck after wreck after wreck, and we haven’t lost anybody since Dale. Similar wrecks to his. Really bad wrecks (that HANS-wearing) drivers survived. So, now I can be even stronger than in the early days. I can say it’s probably 95% he would have survived. The evidence is in and it’s pretty conclusive that the HANS eliminates the ‘snap’ that causes the basal skull fractures.”

 

[RoastBeast]

Here is an article discussing it.
https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nas...nhardt-could-have-survived-daytona-500-crash/
I don't know if it had anything to do with his belts. There was some question of whether his belts were cut to remove him from the car. That wouldn't normally be done because there is a quick release. It was a basal skull fracture that killed him. Basically his neck broke away from his skull. I think Dale did have a soft seat and I've heard that he was very particular about how his seat was mounted with some reports that he mounted his seat and belts himself. Seat belts are designed to stop the body from moving but they don't restrain the head. There were several drivers that died around that same time. Adam Petty had died the previous year and his father Kyle wore a head and neck restraint in the Daytona 500 long with 4 other drivers. Earnhardt's death led to NASCAR and many other sanctioning bodies requiring a head and neck restraint. They are worn in about every type of racing now and as Jim Downing, inventor of the HANS device, points out,

Yeah looks like Kenny Irwin died of the same fracture as well. Crazy that Schrader didn't die from this wreck in the 125s a few years earlier. Broke his sternum but no head injury at all. Really makes you wonder if some of it had to do with their seats or how they strapped in.