Bleacher Report - Articles by Cameron Demers

Timo Glock's Crash Caused by Faulty Part

Cameron Demers — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:45:00 -0400

Toyota’s F1 team determined what happened to Timo Glock’s car that caused it to crash during the German Grand Prix on July 20.

The team said a part on the right rear suspension that was damaged during the British Grand Prix two weeks before was used again at the German Grand Prix. Toyota has now changed their inspection policy to make sure that this never happens again.

"Following Timo Glock's incident during the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Toyota Motorsport initiated a thorough investigation," the team said in a statement.

"This initially established that a rear toelink (trackrod) gave way, causing Timo to lose control of the car, but confirmed that there were no exceptional circumstances before or during the incident in the German Grand Prix.

"Further investigation has established that damage sustained in the British Grand Prix two weeks earlier was the cause. During that race, Timo suffered several incidents.

"As is normal practice, some parts from the British Grand Prix were carried over to Hockenheim, including most of the rear right suspension. Although the parts were subjected to the normal test and screening process following the Silverstone race and passed fit for use at Hockenheim, it has become apparent that it did not identify an issue which subsequently led to the incident at Hockenheim.

"As a result of this investigation, Toyota Motorsport has revised its inspection processes to include such cases and is extremely confident there will be no repeat."

Well, let's hope so. God knows we don’t need any more injuries caused by silly mistakes.

Toyota determine cause of Glock's crash [Autosport.com]

Renault boss says F1 needs makeover

Flavio Briatore says F1 needs a major overhaul to get the fans back love in with the sport. Briatore believes that Max Mosley’s sex scandal problems has damaged the sport's reputation and have also hurt the teams along with the fans.

"His absence is felt, as there's no project for F1. The teams feel abandoned," Briatore told Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. "The Concorde agreement, the number of races, the costs, the spectacle, the imperative increase of revenues. Formula One needs to be re-designed.

"I feel that it should be down to the teams to decide, by electing in turns a director of operations. A guy who does things, not a PR person. On top of that, we need to decide with a 51 percent majority, not unanimously like now. Otherwise, we'll carry on being stuck."

"Nowadays, [Bernie] Ecclestone takes 50 percent of all revenues,” he added. “But we are supposed to be able to reduce our costs by 50 percent.

"How? Starting from the engines. Making them more environment-friendly, accepting Mosley's challenge of reducing fuel consumption by 50 percent by 2015, while cutting the high costs of the engine themselves and also cutting the staff.

"The problem is that us, Renault, have stuck to the letter of the current regulations on frozen engines, and we've been buggered: others didn't do that and are far ahead, while we suffer. It's not fair."

Briatore says F1 needs an overhaul [Autosport.com]

NASCAR Random News Updates: July 28th

Cameron Demers — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:45:00 -0400

Adios, Mexico: After four years of racing south of the border, the NASCAR Nationwide Series will not return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 2009. Attendance at the race in Mexico has dropped every year since the series started racing south of the border in 2005.

"This was never about a single event. The big idea was to strengthen motorsports in Mexico," said Robbie Weiss, NASCAR’s vice-president of international efforts. "We didn't create racing in Mexico and it has a long heritage, but in reality the racing market down there was very fragmented.

"The idea was could we help re-launch and strengthen the Mexican motorsports community with the big idea of launching a national championship that would be the most significant championship in the country."

And so far the idea of launching a National Championship has worked with the NASCAR Corona Mexico Series, which is holding 14 races this year. Unfortunately, holding major series races down there has not worked.

In my opinion, the lack of drivers from Mexico running in the Nationwide Series is probably what keeps the race in Mexico from being more successful.

The Nationwide Series will race at a new venue in 2009 to replace the Mexico race and the most likely candidate to take its place is the Iowa Speedway.

NASCAR Removes Mexico City From Schedule [thatsracin.com]

Petty taking another weekend off: Kyle Petty is taking another week off from driving his Cup car, but with usual fill-in driver Terry Labonte driving for Evernham Motorsports this week means that the Petty Enterprises team will have to find another driver to fill in for Petty.

Most likely Chad McCumbee, who failed to qualify with Petty’s car, may be that driver.

This move is making some people speculate that Kyle Petty’s career as a driver may be slowly coming to an end. Petty has not been behind the wheel of the 45 car since the Coca-Cola 600 back in May.

Petty out at Pocono [ESPN.com]

Newman not on Joe Gibbs Racing’s wish list: Ryan Newman is leaving Penske Racing at the end of 2008, but don’t count on Joe Gibbs Racing to be his destination in 2009. JGR President J.D.Gibbs said that Newman isn’t the person they’re looking for to replace Tony Stewart’s empty seat in 2009.

"It would be hard," Gibbs said before the Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "Another time, another day, maybe. He's a great individual. You would love to have him on your team. It’s just all those ducks aren't in a row."

Gibbs also denied the possibility of JGR expanding to four teams in 2009.

Newman’s most likely replacement at Penske Racing, David Stremme, is feeling pretty upbeat about maybe driving the 12 car in 2009: “We’ve talked,” Stremme told NASCAR Scene on Saturday at O’Reilly Raceway Park. “Obviously, I’m doing testing for them. But there are a lot of opportunities open, too.

“Who wouldn’t want to be racing for Roger Penske? He’s very successful in motorsports. I like how they do their program,” Stremme continued. “I just want to run good, and I want to be around people that want to race and perform,” Stremme said. “I can get right back in there and be competitive. I’m in the cars about every week testing.

“It’d be cool to get to drive for him—or another organization. But it’d be neat really for him because his reputation in motorsports and the success he’s had.”

Newman's List Getting Shorter [ESPN.com]

Stremme has talked to Penske Racing about driving No. 12 in 2009 [Scenedaily.com]

Tony Stewart: The Strange Case of Dr. Stewart and Mr. Smoke

Cameron Demers — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:15:00 -0400

If it's one thing you have to know about Tony Stewart, it's that he is not one to mess with when he's having a bad day. Just look at him during the altercation with the USAC official last Thursday night. Boy, was he pissed:

But the amazing thing is that even with the debacle on Sunday, Tony was in good spirits. I was expecting, and I'm sure a lot of other people were expecting, for Tony to verbally tear someone a new one as soon as the race ended on Sunday, but instead he had this to say:

"Just a tough day," Stewart said in a statment via his PR person. "There are really no other words to describe it."

Maybe Tony was just choosing his words carefully to avoid the possible firestorm he would receive from the press and NASCAR had he gone off about how crappy the tires were on Sunday.

Who knows. Hopefully, Tony can keep his cool like this more often.

Stewart Mum on Tires [Tampa Tribune]

Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman Just Love to Hate Each Other

Cameron Demers — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:14:00 -0400

It's a fact that Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman had a strained relationship during their time together at Penske Racing.

Even now, with Rusty retired and running his own team and also being a "media personality" at ESPN, it doesn't mean that mudslinging between he and Newman has calmed down.

For example, look at the comments that good ol' Rusty made yesterday on Newman's departure from the team that will occur at the end of the year.

"I'll clear this leaving thing up," Wallace said on Friday. "He didn't leave. Roger called Ryan up to his office and said, 'I don't need your services next year.' Ryan didn't come to him and say he's leaving. You all need to write that. That's exactly how it went down.

"Obviously, there was some bad blood there when that happened. I love Roger, so I'm going to help clear up the story for him."

Of course, team boss Roger Penske and Newman quickly fired back saying that it didn't go down that way.

"I have read Rusty's comments and it is important for everyone to understand that I did not fire Ryan," Penske said. "His contract runs though 2008, and we sat down and agreed that we were not going forward beyond this year."

"I don't know what Rusty is trying to prove, but that's not the case," Newman said. "Roger and I agreed not to continue our association. If anything, it was me more than him. Our goals didn't align."

Yeah, like the goal of having Mr. Penske care about his NASCAR team for once.

*Sigh* Why can't we all just get along?

He said, she said: Wallace claims Newman forced out at Penske [ESPN.com]

Indycar Racing in Canada, eh?

Cameron Demers — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:20:00 -0400

The Indycar Series makes its first-ever trip to the fast airport circuit up in Edmonton Canada with the Rexall Edmonton Indy this weekend, also marking the first-ever trip for the Indycar Series itself in Canada.

Of course, the big story is the “catfight” that happened last weekend between the females of the series, Danica Patrick and Milka Duno. The two got into an altercation after a practice in which Duno threw her towel at Patrick twice. The good news is Duno is not racing this weekend, and Patrick can focus solely on the race.

The Penske team is having some fabulous runs lately; last week at Mid-Ohio, the team started one-two with Helio Castroneves on pole and teammate Ryan Briscoe alongside, and the two flipped-flop in the final results, Briscoe taking the victory and Castroneves taking second. This weekend is starting out the same, with Briscoe nabbing the pole and Castroneves taking second.

But, even with the great runs by the Penske team, it is still Scott Dixon on top of the point standings. The good news for the Penske boys is Scott Dixon’s results on road courses have been pretty ho-hum. Dixon has only one top-10 finish on a road course this year, and that was a third last week at Mid-Ohio.

With road courses making up three of the final five races this year, this could make or break the championship for Dixon. But Castroneves can’t rely on Dixon stumbling; he has to get some wins to get himself closer to battling for the title with Dixon.

Edmonton also marks the return of “the Thrill from West Hill,” Paul Tracy. Tracy will be making his first Indycar Series start since the controversial 2002 Indy 500 that saw Castroneves and not Tracy in the victory lane.

"We all want to do well, our expectations are to do well, but I haven't set any type of goal on myself that we have to win the race," Tracy said at a media conference at Edmonton City Centre Airport in advance of the race. “We’re just going to take it step by step every day. From my standpoint, this is my opportunity to get back in the (IndyCar) series."

Tracy, the 2003 Champ Car champion, has a hard time trying to find a ride in the Indycar Series. Tracy drove at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, but has had no luck since, though now things are starting to come together. Tracy hopes that this one-off race with Vision and Walker Racing will lead to bigger things. The race will be live at 5 p.m. Eastern time Saturday on ESPN.

Quick out of the Blocks [Indycar.com]

New Formula One Energy System Has Shocking Results

Cameron Demers — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:24:00 -0400

The FIA's introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), is not going as smoothly as expected.

A BMW mechanic received an electric shock during testing in Jerez, Spain, earlier today. The mechanic only suffred an injury to his left arm. The KERS system, which is basically a new boost system powered by heat, will be introduced to Formula 1 in the 2009 season, but there are still some bugs to work out. Big bugs.

The incident at Jerez isn't the only problem teams have had. Red Bull Racing last week had to evacuate part of their faclitiy after a battery test of the KERS system went horribly wrong.

The teams are now very concerned about introducing the KERS system with all the issuses that have devleoped. Toyota team boss John Howett spoke to autosport.com in Hockenheim about the issues.

"I think all of these issues have been on the table from the beginning. So you have voltage issues, you have the battery issues; you have the cost of registering the batteries to transport them. People who use high-speed rotating flywheels have also got issues there.

"The perception of KERS is very simple, but the execution is incredibly difficult and the road car applications are completely different from a race car. Whereas the motor, the control unit, the battery, and the basic concept is similar, the actual sophistication and needs of a road car are completely different from what we are having to develop in Formula One. So there is a big difference."

Lets just hope that these problems get fixed before somebody becomes a roast duck.

BMW Mechanic Escapes KERS Scare [Autosport.com]

Kimi Raikkionen Will Not Help Up Crying Children

Cameron Demers — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:46:00 -0400

Kimi Raikkonen is very busy man, people, and he doesn't have time to sign your precious autographs or console crying children.

He's just here to race, folks. Sure, that may be cold, but then again he's called "The Iceman" for a reason. He has a reputation to keep up. He'll also shove photographers who get in his way: