IRL

“Gentleman” Dan Weldon will start the Japan Indy 300 from the pole tonight from Motegi. Weldon, who was behind Tony Kanaan in every practice managed fast time when it counted. Greg Ray starts second in what has been yet another solid run for the former wuss clocking in at just .0007 of a second slower than Weldon.

Tony Kanaan will start third after setting fast time in all of the practice sessions including the final.

Honda desperately wants to win at Motegi, the track they built but have never won on, and have positioned themselves nicely to do so. They took the top 5 spots and 7 of the top 10. Only Adrian Fernandez failed to get in on the party.

Robbie will not start last! Speedwise that honor goes to Tora Takagi, but lineupwise will go to Alex Baron who changed Chevrolet engines and will have to start from the back of the pack.

This is a big race for Honda and they have put a lot of work into finally winning at their home track. Toyota will have its work cut out for it and Chevrolet best hope their 3.0 liter engine works better than their 3.4 liter engine. It sucks, that’s right sucks!


F1

Not a whole lot to report from F1 this week. BAR had another good week of testing and seem poised to move up the ladder. With McLaren struggling they may just do that.

More and more it is looking like Great Britain, Italy, France and Germany may be the only European tracks standing by the time Bernie gets done. He is running from places that are too restrictive on tobacco advertising. I think this bodes well for the US to get another race, but we have to really get it promoted and so far this year, it has not lent itself to very good racing.

OWRS

Well, they take to the track today for practice leading up to the Long Beach Grand Prix. I don’t wish them any harm, I just don’t think two series can survive. I really hate all of the bullshit the CART fans spew. They will never be back. To me I say who needs them. If they can’t like OWRS and the IRL then they aren’t race fans. And there are IRL fans who are just as bad.

One thing to look for on Sunday is the use of the “push to pass” button. This will allow a driver a bit of extra boost to make a pass. Can’t wait to see how many of these guys hit the walls using this ingenious tool!