Annual Kings Royal New Ruler Crowned

After racing well all season but being seemingly short on luck, Daryn Pittman finally broke his chain of close misses by becoming the king of the Eldora Speedway in Ohio at the 25th Annual Kings Royal. The victory marks his first win of the campaign and it seems that a little luck and a fast car combined with some skillful driving was all it took to take Pittman over the finish line first.

It wasn’t a clean cut victory from the start. Pittman managed to pull into second place in the first half of the race and finally slipped past Joey Saldana on the 28th lap to claim the lead. Saldana could give little opposition to the move after a flat tire caused him to make contact with the back straightway and brought him to a screeching halt. This meant that Pittman was first in the restart and he used his slight advantage to the best of his abilities, holding off Jason Meyers as the two sped through heavy traffic on the last lap. In the end he sprinted over the finish line in first place and was able to pick up his first Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory for the season.

However Pittman is no stranger to Eldora Speedway. This was the third time in his career that he crossed the line in first place at Eldora. As part of the traditional winning ceremony, Pittman was given a purple robe, scepter and crown and then seated on the king’s throne surrounded by the Kings Court. However, it was likely the $50 000 in prize money that really got his attention. Pittman was the 14th person to win the Kings Royal and the victory marks his 26th World of Outlaws win, putting him at 15th on the all-time list.

An overjoyed Pittman described his victory as ‘unbelievable’ and counted it as an honor to have his name mentioned in connection with legendary greats like Doug Wolfgan, Sammy Swindell and Jac Haudenschild. Still, he wouldn’t take all the credit for his victory and he gallantly credited his Titan Racing USA team for their diligent hard work and effort this season.

Matt Miller Wins UMP DIRTcar Summer Nationals ‘Birthday Race’

Matt Miller, who has been running just below the radar in the Summer Nationals so far this season, just hit the big time. With his performance in the last two races showing him to be ‘average’, no one suspected that he’d be able to rocket to the front of the pack and take the trophy at the 60-lap event that took place this weekend.

The UMP DIRTcar Summer Nationals ‘Birthday Race’ is the biggest event to hit the three-eighths-mile oval at Oakshade Raceway every season. So when Matt Miller took the checkered flag, he also took the $10 000 racing purse. Miller certainly was pleased with his victory, noting that “it all worked out”. But how exactly did it all work out? For most of the race, Miller stayed just behind the race leaders, using knowledge gained on previous races on this track to his advantage. He made sure to take care of his tires and waited for the track surface to black up before making a late move on about the fortieth lap to overtake Jeep VanWormer and take the winner’s trophy. This is not the first time that Miller has raced at Oakshade Raceway. He has won races at the track before and said that he loves racing at Oakshade. Well his past experiences on this track certainly did help him during the UMP DIRTcar Summer Nationals ‘Birthday Race’ this weekend. The 60-lap race was fast and furious and, as was to be expected, things changed in a hurry near the end of the race. VanWormer was the winner of last year’s ‘Birthday Race’, but this year Miller beat the defending champion by quite a wide margin.

Miller was followed over the finish line by Jeep VanWormer, Dennis Erb Jr., Doug Drown, Casey Noonan, Kris Patterson, Jon Henry, Ky Harper, Jason Feger and Zac Davis respectively. Though he started and finished in third place, Dennis Erb also went home smiling. The points scored by his consistent driving helped him to clinch the tour championship for the second time in a row. This enabled Erb to go home with a whopping $25 000 in prize money after claiming the Summer Nationals championship.

Busch Claims LifeLock.com 400 Victory

It seems that Kyle Busch is set to enjoy the season of a lifetime after he claimed yet another win this weekend at the Lifelock.com 400 held at the Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday Night. The race was tough and though it seemed that Busch had his sights set on the trophy from the start, there was a patch near the end when it seemed that victory had been swept out from under his feet.

The LifeLock.com 400 started out well for Busch and he managed to maintain a striking lead for 165 laps. But then it seemed that his good fortune was fading when Jimmie Johnson, the defending series champion, manage to take the lead with just seventeen laps to go. Johnson pulled into the lead and any chance of Busch reclaiming first place seemed lost, but somehow circumstances ultimately seemed to favor Busch. It all turned around when David Gilliland’s engine blew with just five laps to go. This was bad news for Gilliland, but good news for Busch who managed to use the restart to catch up to Johnson. Busch sat on Johnson’s bumper for a while until he saw his chance and zipped past on the backstretch with just two laps left for the race. From there it was plain sailing until Busch drove across the finish line with Jimmie Johnson coming in second not long after him. This is the seventh trophy he has taken for Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR’s top division this season and it seems that his successes are getting more and more frequent. He has also taken the NASCAR Nationwide Series trophy five times and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series trophy twice.

Some would ruefully say that Kyle Busch has just gotten lucky – while others want his luck to rub off on them. But that is an awful lot of wins for it all to just be luck. Clearly skillful driving, dogged determination and the ability to make the most of opportunities as they present themselves also play a big role. Kevin Harvick came in third, followed by Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth, David Ragan Martin Truex Jr., and Ryan Newman respectively.

NHRA Releases Details for Full Throttle Drag Racing Series 2009

The NHRA recently released the details for the 2009 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. But it isn’t the 24 different events that have everyone talking – it’s the more than $1.3 million purse! The figure is higher than ever before and even beats estimates of what it might have risen to, so fans are excited and drivers are setting their minds on trying to place in next years fantastic NHRA drag racing series.

So exactly how is all that money going to be divided up? There are, after all, 24 different races on the calendar. Well, it starts with the Top Fuel and Funny Car national events which each have a purse of $50 000 (about 25% more than this year). The next biggest winners will be the Pro Stock drivers who stand to take $25 000 home, followed by Pro Stock Motorcyclists who could win $10 000. However even these figures are completely dwarfed by the most prestigious drag racing event in the world – the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. The year 2009 will see that 55th running of this massive race and winners of the top two nitro classes will each walk away with a check for a cool $100 000. The event’s Pro Stock winner will take $50 000, while the Pro Stock Motorcycle winner will be able to look forward to spending $20 000. Increases in prize money will also be made for semifinalists, second-round finishers and runner-ups in a number of the different races. The total purse increase for the Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle classes is $1 353 700. For many drivers this is the stuff dreams are made of.

The 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule takes place in the following order: NHRA Winternationals (Pomona), Checker Schuck’s Kragen NHRA Nationals (Phoenix), ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals (Gainesville), O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals (Houston), SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals (Las Vagas), Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals (Atlanta), Midwest Nationals (Madison), O’Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals (Bristol), O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals (Topeka), NHRA Route 66 Nationals (Chicago), NHRA SuperNationals (Englishtown), Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals (Norwalk), NHRA Winternationals (Pomona), Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals (Denver), Schuck’s Auto Supply NHRA Nationals (Seattle), Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals (Sonoma), Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals (Brainerd), Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals (Reading), Mac Tools U.S. Nationals (Indianapolis), NHRA Nationals (Concord), O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals (Dallas), O’Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals (Memphis), Virginia NHRA Nationals (Richmond), ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals (Las Vegas), Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals (Pomona). The races will take place between Feb 5 and November 15, so racing fans have a whole lot of great racing to look forward to.

Bandimere Speedway to Host Mopar Mile-High Nationals This Weekend

Bandimere Speedway looks set for a fantastic weekend as it gets ready to host the 29th Annual Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals. The race has the longest-running NHRA sponsorship and is always a massive success. So as fans prepare to make their way to Morrison, Colorado, between July 11-13, event organizers are doing their utmost to ensure that the masses get what they pay for.

In 2007 Allen Johnson took the Pro Stock trophy while Jack Beckman took the Funny Car class title. Both drivers will be back in 2008 to defend their position at the head of the pack, but that isn’t going to be easy. A massive lineup of racers has already signed up for the event and of course many of them have already earned a reputation elsewhere. A race with this sort of legacy certainly doesn’t need to scrounge around for good drivers. The Mopar Mile-High Nationals has long been Mopar’s premier event – something no doubt made possible by the long and healthy partnership enjoyed by Bandimere Speedway and NHRA. Nevertheless the walk to fame hasn’t been too easy and this year will see two legendary people returning to the track after years of building the Mopar brand and creating its place in auto racing history – Don Garlits and Judy Lilly. Don Garlits, also known as “Big Daddy”, will be playing the role of Grand Marshal during the event, while Judy Lilly, also affectionately called “Miss Mighty Mopar”, will act as an Honorary Starter. Both are veteran drag racers with Garlits having been proclaimed the greatest drag racer of all time by the NHRA in 2001. Lilly is seen as being one of the forerunners of female involvement in the sport of drag racing and her role on the big weekend will be just as well deserved.

But why so much fuss over this year’s race? The year 2008 marks the 50th year that Mopar has been collaborating with Bandimere Speedway. Speaking for Bandimere Speedway, John Bandimere Jr. noted that they are thankful for the relationship enjoyed by the two entities over the past fifty years and that they were “proud to be the Home Track for Team Mopar”. The action will start with the Mopar Big Block party on July 10 from 18:30 on the streets of Golden, Colorado.

Busch Takes Winners Trophy at Daytona

The Daytona International Speedway has a bit of a reputation for being a tough course, but no one could have predicted the drama that unfolded at the race track this weekend. With cars crashing and spinning on virtually every corner, the race was more about how well you avoided collisions than it was about fastest lap times.

Nevertheless at the end of the day Kyle Busch managed to take the winners trophy, only just managing to cross the finish line ahead of Carl Edwards. This makes Kyle Busch’s sixth win and it didn’t come easy. At the start of the race Busch struggled with steering problems that caused him to drop back to the tail end of the field but instead of panicking, he simple knuckled down and slowly worked his way back to the front. For a while Jeff Gordon was doing well, taking the lead for what appeared to be his first victory of the season. His dreams started slipping away when Busch skillfully managed to pull inside and overtake Gordon with only four laps to go. Then calamity struck for the former leader when a tap from Edwards sent him spinning off the track and ultimately saw him pulling in at a rather disappointing 31st place. Meanwhile the action didn’t stop there and Edwards was determined to give Busch a run for his money. With a little push from Kenseth, Edwards managed to pull in alongside his rival and the two paired up for the ultimate climax to any race – a thrilling drag race. But just as fans realized what was going on at the front of the pack, a terrible collision between Travis Kvapil and Sam Hornish Jr triggered a multi-car accident. The resulting mess was so big that the field had to be frozen and with just seconds to go before the pair reached the checkered flag a decision was made to choose the race winner based on who was ahead.

With Kyle Busch barely a nose ahead of Carl Edwards, the sudden change the course of the race brought about a somewhat unexpected victory and fans were deprived of the final sprint to the end – one which would have no doubt proven to be nail-biting. Matt Kenseth crossed the line in third place followed by Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, David Ragan and Dale Earnhardt Jr. respectively.

Hamilton Wins British Grand Prix

The race day dawned with incredibly wet conditions that ultimately made for some wild racing, but it seems that Lewis Hamilton managed to overcome all the obstacles to take the checkered flag at the British Grand Prix this past Sunday.

Hamilton’s last two races in Canada and France were not so good and he didn’t manage to collect points at either event. If his performance at Silverstone was as dismal this Sunday Hamilton would probably have lost out on taking the overall Formula One title, but it seems that in the end he managed to pull himself together rather well. His win not only gained him the Silverstone trophy, but put him in the overall lead. However, the race wasn’t easy, as wet conditions made the situation tricky at best. While other drivers struggled to find the right tires to keep them on course, Hamilton managed to stay in control for the entire race. His McLaren seemed to cope with the trying situation with effortless ease as other cars veered off course or spun off the circuit. His visor gave him problems and he had very low visibility but still somehow managed to keep going. Yet despite this it was clear that he was in a league of his own from early on in the race and the 23-year-old Briton was leading the field from the fourth lap. By the time he was nearing the finish line he’d managed to lap all but two of the cars still in the field. His performance was so good under the trying circumstances, in fact, that the 90 000 fans present seemed to think it was worthy of a standing ovation! The win marks Hamilton’s first British Grand Prix trophy and is will no doubt have a special place in his heart – not only for surviving under such difficult conditions but because some of his best driving and his most impressive victory happened in his home country.

Hamilton now has 48 points in the Formula One series and is tied with both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari. However, he is in the championship lead because his finishes have been better than the other drivers’. Raikkonen only finished fourth.

Aerodynamics in Sports Cars

With the desire to go faster than ever before cars have been making use of the aerodynamic principles developed for aircraft for some time now. In many cases, good aerodynamics can be the key to success in sports cars, and so it comes as no surprise that millions of dollars are spend researching and developing this facet of auto racing each year.

There are two main factors to take into consideration when discussing the aerodynamics of an automobile: down force and drag. Down force is an aid for good, as it helps to push the car’s tires onto the track and so improves a car’s ability to corner and stay on the road. Drag, on the other hand, is not a favorable factor, since it is essentially air turbulence that slows the car down. Finding the right balance between the two can sometimes be tricky.

Altering the aerodynamic performance of race cars was something that was more or less started in the late 1960s. This is when the wings that are now commonplace on the racetrack were first added to cars. Early experiments with wings resulted in some rather spectacular accidents and so regulations were introduced to limit the size and location of wings in 1970. Race car wings are essentially upside-down airplane wings – instead of creating lift they create down force using something known as Bernoulli’s Principle. As the wind travels over the shorter and longer planes of the wings, it pushes the car down and helps it to stay on the road. Modern Formula One cars have this science down to such an art that the cars are capable of handling a lateral cornering force of 3.5g! The concept was further improved during the mid 1970s when Lotus engineers discovered that adding a wing to the car’s underside could further help to improve road holding. Over time a number of rules have been drawn up regarding this aspect of down force to ensure that no team has a distinctly unfair advantage over other teams. Today wings may be altered from race to race to improve the cars performance on a particular track.

When it comes to reducing drag, wind tunnels have certainly helped to make race cars more streamlined. By now every single aspect of the modern Formula One car has been investigated and improved to make it as streamlined as possible – including the driver’s helmet and the suspension! There is, however, one downside to a slippery smooth car: the incredible heat produced by a Formula One engine does need good supply of airflow to ensure that it doesn’t build up and cause problems. So designers are always careful to ensure that this is something that is provided for, even though they also spend hours trying to make sure that the air travels over the car as effortlessly as it can. No doubt, as racing cars continue to get faster and leaner, you will continue to see more and more of these developments take effect.

Southern Indiana Set To Have Great Racing Weekend

Auto racing fans in Southern Indiana are no doubt looking forward to a fantastic Fourth of July weekend. Both the O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions and the O’Reilly Midwest All Star Series will be heading to the Terre Haute “Action Track” to celebrate the weekend in style in what is one of the most anticipated events of the season.

It will all kick off when the O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions makes a stop at the KC Raceway in Chillicothe, in Ohio, on July 3rd. The event taking place there is called “The Night the Stars Come Out” and it will see the best of the series vying for first place and extra points on the high banked 3/8 mile track. After that the series will head off to the Terre Haute Action Track for the Independence Day festivities. Off the track fans can expect the usual buzz with promotional tents, t-shirt trailers and plenty of excellent food. The autograph sessions will start around 16:30 and fans will be able to get their effects signed by Brian Ellenberger, Kody Kinser, Jerrod Hull, Miranda Throckmorton and more.

The racing schedule promises to be excellent and event organizers have tried to ensure that fans get to see a wide variety of events. The action will kick off with two non-winged sprint car events – the Don Smith Classic and the Tony Hulman Classic – and then go on to feature the main event: the All Star series. The All Star drivers will bring a very high caliber of driving to the circuit and fans will no doubt enjoy watching them blast around the track at exhilarating speeds. Once all the racing action is over, fans can stick around for a massive fireworks display by Sky Magic Promotions. All of this will mark the perfect start to the Fourth of July long weekend. Tickets for the event are only $10, while family’s can organize a family infield pass for two adults and four children for just $25. Reserved Grandstand tickets are also available for those who enjoy their little luxuries. Gates will open at 16:00 and hotlaps will begin at 18:00. So make sure that you don’t miss out on all this hot racing action!

ASCS Northwest is Fast Approaching

Despite a slow start to the season, the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) Northwest Region will soon be kicking into first gear with the Northwest Speedweek, only weeks away. This exciting annual race promises fans some exciting drivers, and cars are already being tweaked to ensure that they provide drivers with the best performance.

The Northwest Speedweek will be taking place from July 14 to 19. The series will feature six nights of non-stop, action-packed racing, during which the best 360 sprint car drivers in the region will be put through their paces. The racing will get started on Monday at the Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford. The action will then continue to be a feature on different Oregon tracks for the next four nights straight. The second stop is Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, followed by Willamette Speedway in Lebanon. The Oregon leg of the Northwest Speedweek series will then end at Sunset Speedway in Banks, before crossing over to Washington where it will conclude with a massive two-night show at Grays Harbor Raceway. Since undergoing an extensive renovation, Grays Harbor Raceway is considered to be one of the premier dirt tracks in the country and fans can expect to see some truly great racing here. This is also the first year that teams will not be given a night off to regroup during the Northwest Speedweek. As the event approaches we find Seth Bergman in the lead with Henry Van Dam just four points behind him. Jayme Barnes is in third place but only time will tell how these positions will be altered by the end of the Northwest Speedweek.

That may mark the end of the Northwest Speedweek, but it is not the end of the racing in the northwest regions. ASCS Northwest Region teams will go on to compete at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa, in a non-points event before darting off to compete in the Fred Brownfield Memorial and the Championship Weekend in Yakima, Washington, on September 26-27. Clearly racing fans in the northwest have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months. You’d better make sure that you’ve got your tickets ready if you don’t want to miss out on all the action!

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