The All-Motorsport Power Rankings. Week 1

He may have finished a lowly 81st in the Dakar car class (out of 90 finishers) but exactly what that means for Esteve Puyol earns him a spot in the rankings. He is paralyzed below the waist after a motorbike crash on a race similar to the Dakar. He drove his Ssangsong car with hand controls, completing a course that many “able-bodied” or professional drivers did not. That is power.

It might be illegal to talk about the biggest names in motorsport without mentioned the Moto GP legend (and reigning champion) Rossi. In fact in Italy it probably is.

As sportscar racing warms up for the Daytona 24hrs all eyes are on whether Ganassi can take 4 wins on the bounce. Arguably spear-heading the challenge is Scott Pruett, who looks for his own fourth Daytona win, including his third consecutive.

Massa’s description of the new spec Ferrari as “cute” and “tiny” is probably not the kind of description that the people behind F1 wanted about the appallingly ugly, out of proportion, horrid looking monstrosities that will take to the 2009 grid.

Living in the UK, my knowledge of US Sprint Car and Midget racing is almost entirely based on old “And They Walked Away” video tapes. Swindell was on those tapes–a lot–so has he got better since they were made?

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Listen very carefully. You can almost hear Power phoning his accountant to make sure his taxes are OK.

Dear, Mr J. Logano, Now I have four things you can’t get right now. Three Sprint Cup titles and a beard. Yours, Mr J. Johnson.

Carlos Sainz has no heart. After rolling his car down a ravine he was more concerned with his car than with the screams of pain of his co-driver. No! Really, search for it on youtube!. The brute!

Maybe everyone’s forgotten beneath all the mergers and Bobby Labonte, but Martin’s moved to the No.5 car, giving him the best shot at the title ever. If he wins he might even retire. Possibly. Soon. Eventually.

There is no truth to the rumour that Ron Dennis quit as McLaren boss after being physically sick at the sight of the new car.

Seriously, what Dennis is honorable. He left at the right time. He’d taken his protégé from karting to an F1 title, and he left without the marketing fanfare that would have been so easy to drum up.

Mark Miller was the forgotten man of the 2009 Dakar. He always ended up playing second fiddle to team mates Sainz or De Villiers and came in second overall behind the latter. The best ever finish for an American on the Dakar.

The new McLaren. Devoid of all the scientifically enhanced additions to an original frame, with an engine that produces a beautiful noise.

Hamilton ironically names it “Nicole”.

Robby’s third in the car Dakar was nothing short of incredible. Against the might of works BMW, Mitsubishi and VW teams, in a two-wheel-drive car Gordon threatened to surprise everyone, and may well have done if all the stage had been run as intended. And a call out to his Team Dakar USA team who got his team mate home in 13th overall, making them (by my reckoning) the only team running more than one car to get all their drivers to the finish.

South African De Villiers became the first non-European to take an overall Dakar victory, leading home two more non-Europeans in Miller and Gordon. Such events will no doubt be lost in time behind the other stories of the race, but that right there is history.

Taking the top spot and completing a Dakar-ers sweep of the top 3 places is Mark Coma who took the bike class win by 1hr 25min, taking three stage wins, only finishing outside the top-10 stage time once. In short dominating the class. However, in a race which can and will (Carlos Sainz) snap dreams at a moment’s notice simply finishing is impressive. Dominating is astounding.