With the massive repaving project ahead of schedule at Daytona International Speedway, Goodyear has requested Dec. 7-8 as potential test dates at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, according to Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales.
Originally projected for a completion date of Jan. 1, the resurfacing at Daytona has benefited from favorable weather and could be finished as early as a month ahead of schedule. Assuming the desired dates are viable, Goodyear will invite all NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams to participate in the tire test.
The larger the field, the more benefit Goodyear can derive from the test, given the importance of drafting in large packs of cars at Daytona.
Goodyear already has a full-field tire test scheduled for Jan. 20-22.
Fifteen year-old driver wins 2010 Cooper Tires USF2000 National Championship
Fifteen-year-old American Sage Karam has marked himself out as a race star of the future by dominating the 2010 Cooper Tires USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda. Sanctioned by the IRL, the USF2000 National Championship is part of the IRL’s “Road to Indy” ladder system and was restarted this year. Cooper is the sole tire supplier to the series.
Karam, who won $350,000 to help him advance to the Star Mazda Series for 2011 said, “Winning the championship feels great. It's such an honor to represent Andretti Autosport. The team worked insanely hard for me this year and I can't thank them enough. I would also like to thank Michael Andretti, Michael Fux, Comfort Revolution, Mazda, Cooper Tires, Alpinestars, Art Rotondo and especially my family for making this possible. I will always remember this year for the rest of my life. I'm really looking forward to what next year brings.”
Patrick McKenna finished second in the championship, 82 points behind Karam, and third-placed Mikhail Goikhberg finished out the season another 75 points down.
Goikhberg, Raphael Abbate and Karam's teammate, Zach Veach, all finished within five points of each other in what proved to be a close battle for third.
After Veach followed Karam home in the final race their team boss, former Indycar champion, Michael Andretti, said of his team's season, “I’m so proud of both Sage and Zach for the job they did this year. Finishing the season with a ‘1-2’ finish and a championship for Sage is fantastic. He is a special talent, and I¹m glad we were able to introduce both him and Zach into the ‘Road to Indy’ program this year and have it go as well as it did.
2011 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Schedule Announced
With three rounds of championship racing still remaining in this year's short course off road racing season, the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing series has released its complete 2011 schedule. Closely mirroring this season's schedule, teams and fans can now look forward to another thrilling season at the familiar venues where the series drew record crowds this season.
The Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series is the evolution of the long-standing support of short course racing by Forrest Lucas and Lucas Oil Products. Steeped in the Midwest tradition of short course off road racing infused with a West Coast influence, Lucas Oil Off Road Racing brings intense four wheel door to door action to challenging, fan friendly tracks.
The fifteen-round battle for the 2011 season championship begins March 12th at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Az., just outside of Phoenix, and returns to that location in December for the season finale. Firebird will play host to the Lucas Oil Challenge Cup on December 11th.
Other series stops include events at Speedworld Off Road Park in Surprise, Az., Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, Calif., and Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.
In the midst of final preparations for the final two event weekends of 2010, Series Director, Tony Vanillo spoke on next season's schedule. "We have had the opportunity to establish some fantastic partnerships while building these unique, purpose-built tracks. It’s a great feeling to know that we’re preparing to return to these facilities for a second or third year. This sort of stability is fantastic for the sport."
As this year’s season enters the final two weekends of competition, the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series will visit Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Rounds 13 and 14 on Nov. 6-7. The 2010 short course season comes to a close with Championship Weekend Dec. 11-12, where both the season titles in all classes and the Rockstar Energy/Lucas Oil Challenge Cup will be decided.
Pirelli Star Drivers Announced – WRC Rally Spain Results
The PortAventura theme park, where the Rally de Espana service area is based, is home to holidaymakers, a bright blue woodpecker that is the park mascot and, for this weekend, around 2,000 Pirelli tires.
All these tires came to Spain because the Italian team faced a mixed-surface rally for the first time this year and at the same time hosted the Pirelli Star Driver Global Shoot Out: a joint initiative with world motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, that will provide six drivers with a drive on selected rounds of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship.
The six Pirelli Star Drivers will run within the recently-announced WRC Academy, which will use identical cars running on Pirelli tires next year, ensuring that Pirelli continues its participation on the World Rally Championship that dates back to the very beginning of the series in 1973.
A total of 16 young drivers from Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East – including a woman nominated by the Women & Motor Sport Commission – were assessed by an international panel of judges that included Pirelli’s motorsport manager Mario Isola, driver manager Timo Jouhki, rally organiser Joao Passos, noted journalist Guido Rancati and former driver Michele Mouton.
The candidates were judged over an asphalt and a gravel stage, which they drove in identical cars equipped with Pirelli tires, and they were further evaluated through a series of interviews outside of the car.
The drivers selected were Fredrik Ahlin from Sweden (age 19), Craig Breen from Ireland (age 20), Jan Cerny from the Czech Republic (age 20), Andrea Crugnola from Italy (age 21), Brendan Reeves from Australia (age 22), and Molly Taylor from Australia, as well (age 22).
“It’s really exciting to see the next year of Pirelli Star Drivers coming through,” said Pirelli’s motorsport manager Mario Isola. “Once again, I think we have found some real talent. Having drivers coming from across the world for the Shoot-Out has made this a very interesting event for us. Pirelli is proud to have backed the FIA’s young driver development initiative and we are delighted to see this continue into next season, maintaining Pirelli’s presence in the FIA World Rally Championship and furthering our rich history at the pinnacle of world rallying.”
The Rallye de Espana meanwhile was won by newly-crowned seven-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb, racking up his 61st career victory and his 25th on Pirelli tires. He beat Citroën privateer Petter Solberg by 35.3 seconds while the second factory Citroën of Dani Sordo was third; breaking a remarkable pattern of one-two finishes in Spain for Loeb and Sordo that stretches back to 2006.
The opening day of the Rally de Espana was run on mixed gravel and asphalt stages, with the emphasis on gravel. Crews had hard-compound Pirelli Scorpion tires available to them for the first day and the shakedown, before being able to choose between hard and soft compound P Zero asphalt tires. In view of the weather and road conditions, all the competitors opted for hard compound tires.
Matteo Braga, Pirelli’s senior WRC tire engineer, said that the event could not have gone better for the Italian tire company. “Our tires worked extremely effectively under an incredibly wide range of conditions: gravel, damp asphalt following some fog in the morning, and dry asphalt in the afternoon. The wear rate was good and we had absolutely no punctures. Really, we couldn’t ask for any more.”
As well as supplying tires to the main WRC field as part of a three-year agreement with the FIA, the governing body of world motorsport, Pirelli’s tires are used as standard by competitors in the Junior World Rally Championship, which was wrapped up by Suzuki Swift S1600 driver Aaron Burkart* from Germany with a fourth place finish in class using RX tires today. The JWRC category was claimed in Spain by local man Yeray Lemes at the wheel of a Renault Clio S1600.
The World Rally Championship resumes for its final round on the gravel-based Wales Rally Great Britain from November 12-14. Pirelli will provide its Scorpion tire in soft compound only to take into account the cold and damp conditions that characterize the Cardiff event.