(Copyright 2013, Nigel Kinrade. Autostock)
Carl Edwards (No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Subway Ford Fusion) ended a 70-race winless streak on Sunday - the second-longest drought he's ended - at the Subway Fresh Fit 500 on Phoenix on Sunday. ''This win feels as good or better as any win I've ever had,'' Edwards said. After sighning a big new contract at the end of the 2011 season, Edwards missed the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in 2012 and, to make matters worse, wrecked five race cars at Daytona. Edwards vowed to dominate in Phoenix, and he backed it up by leading the final 78 laps of the 312-lap race in the first non-restrictor-plate race with NASCAR's new Gen-6 car. It was his first win in two years. ''Last year we didn't even make the Chase,'' Edwards said (courtesy of the AP). ''For me to sit home while everybody was at the Chase stuff and in Vegas, that was a little bit of a shock to me and I did not like that at all. To get a victory puts us in better position to be in the Chase, it just feels good to win and I'm just very glad to be here.''
(Copyright 2013, Nigel Kinrade. Autostock)
Carl Edwards celebrates with his Roush Fenway Racing crew after winning the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
(Photo by Harold Hinson for Chevrolet)
Jimmie Johnson finished second in his Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet SS after a furious battle with Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing FedEx Toyota). Hamlin made a brilliant pass low on the apron in the dogleg on the last lap blowing by several drivers, including Johnson, but Johnson battled back to finish second by a couple of inches ahead of Hamlin. Watch the race replay here.
(Photo by Brian Cleary for Chevrolet)
Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney (No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP) won the GRAND-AM of The Americas Presented by GAINSCO and TOTAL in an unpredictable race on the new 3.4-mile Circuit Of The Americas on Saturday, March 2. The pole-winning car led the final seven laps – the only laps led by the team all day – as Fogarty and Gurney won in the Rolex Series for the first time since late 2011. The Fogarty/Gurney duo appeared headed for second place when Brendon Hartley in the leading No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley made contact with a GT car and stopped off circuit. “It’s great to be back,” Gurney said. “We finished second quite a few times last year, and man, what a day! We pushed it so hard the whole way. It was an incredible battle at the end with [Ryan)] Dalziel and [Scott] Pruett, and it feels amazing to hold them off. We had 500 GAINSCO guests today, and we created 500 new racing fans. They were all going crazy.” Dalziel and Alex Popow finished second in the No. 2 Starworks Ford/Riley and championship leaders Pruett and Memo Rojas were third in the No. 01 TELMEX Target Chip Ganassi Racing BMW/Riley.
(Photo by Brian Cleary for Chevrolet)
Drivers Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty celebrate after their victory in the GRAND-AM of The Americas race Saturday. The next Rolex Series race is the Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday, April 6.
(Grand-Am)
Bill Auberlen went from 12th to a GT class victory in Turner Motorsport’s No. 94 BMW M3. He and Paul Dalla Lana capped a memorable day after winning in the Grand Sport class of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge on Saturday morning. They are the only drivers to win races in both series on the same day, having previously accomplished the feat in 2011 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In the Rolex Series race, they came from two laps down after an early spin on the uphill run to Turn 1. Auberlen made what turned out to be the winning pass with seven minutes left when he got around Andy Lally (No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 Cup). Alessandro Pier Guidi (No. 63 Scuderia Corse Ferrari 458) crossed the finish line first in the GT class but was assessed a one-lap, plus 90-second penalty after the race for avoidable contact with Lally five minutes from the end. Lally and John Potter were second, and the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche GT3 Cup of Andrew Davis and Leh Keen finished third.
(GrandAm)
Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M3) won their first Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race in two years, scoring a thrilling victory in the first GRAND-AM competition at the Circuit Of The Americas. Auberlen held off a hard-charging Spencer Pumpelly (No. 38 BGB Motorsports Porsche Cayman) for the win, with the pair changing the lead twice in the final seven minutes. Pumpelly, who took over for Dr. Jim Norman, closed to within four-tenths of a second with one lap remaining. Auberlen then was able to take advantage of lapped traffic in Turn 1 to pull away and win by 3.804 seconds.
(Grand-Am)
The ST race in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge also came down to the wire. Stevan McAleer (No. 5 Mazda MX-5) – racing for only the second time in the series – passed Tom Long and Terry Borcheller in the final two laps to give Austin-based CJ Wilson Racing its first GRAND-AM victory. McAleer took over for Marc Miller and beat Long and Derek Whitis (No. 25 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5), and Borcheller and Mike LaMarra in the No. 23 Burton Racing BMW 128i.
(SCCA images)
Motorsports legends Bobby Rahal, Skip Barber, Carroll Shelby, Bill Noble and Andy Porterfield were inducted into the Sports Car Club of America Hall of Fame on Saturday night in Las Vegas at a ceremony presented by Mazda. The five inductees joined eight previous classes to cap the 2013 SCCA Convention presented by SafeRacer at the South Point Hotel and Casino. Rahal, Barber, and family members of the late Shelby, Noble and Porterfield addressed the nearly 400 event attendees. Rahal used his 1975 SCCA National Championship as a springboard to a long professional racing career that included a win in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 1982 CART Rookie of the Year award, a 1986 Indianapolis 500 win, and series championships in 1986, 1987, and 1992. Even with those highlights, Saturday night’s honor was special. “I’ve been inducted to other halls of fame, and that’s great,” Rahal said. “But being inducted into the SCCA Hall means more, because there’s an emotional attachment. I remember growing up, I lived SCCA. My summer times as a kid were made up of Little League baseball and going racing with my dad. What made SCCA so valuable is that it was a family sport. For the most part, it was just regular guys exercising their passion and their interest in racing. SCCA was my roots. That’s why coming here tonight was so special, because it’s coming home. I thank you all for this tremendous honor.”
(SCCA images)
(McLaren Automotive)The McLaren 12C GT3 has been confirmed as being eligible for the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) by the series organizers, meaning that the British-built racer is now able to compete in North America for the first time.
Honda. The BBC is reporting that the McLaren F1 team will switch to Honda power in 2015. Great news for Honda and F1.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)The 2013 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón begins with the 61st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida on March 11-16. Qualifying for P2 cars takes place at 2:20 p.m. ET on Friday, March 15. Green flag for the 12 Hours of Sebring is 10:45 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 16. SPEED's live coverage begins at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Chevrolet has announced that customers for the limited run of 2013 COPO Camaro factory drag-racing cars will be identified starting Monday, March 11. Only 69 of the cars will be constructed this year. Racers must make their purchase intentions known by signing up on the COPO Camaro Mailing List at chevroletperformance.com by Thursday, March 7. COPO stands for Central Office Production Order and was originally used by dealers in the 1960s to generate special orders, mostly for fleet vehicles. Some racing-minded dealers used the system to create higher-performance models that weren’t otherwise available, including the legendary 1969 Camaro ZL1, which featured an all-aluminum 427-cubic-inch engine developed for racing. Sixty-nine ZL1s were built and they’ve since become valuable collector cars. The 2013 production run will be offered with two all-new engines, as well as a new manual transmission, to make the COPO Camaro eligible for a broader range of NHRA Stock Eliminator classes. The engine range includes three naturally aspirated choices: 350-cubic-inch engine rated at 325 horsepower, 396-cubic-inch engine rated at 375 horsepower and a 427-cubic-inch engine rated at 425 horsepower. A high-feature fuel-injection system is standard on all COPO Camaros, with engine management directed by an all-new Holley HP EFI electronic control unit that features self-tuning fuel table strategies and data logging. The injection system is used in conjunction with a Holley Hi-Ram intake manifold. A new manual transmission joins the Powerglide automatic for the COPO Camaro’s transmission choices. Rear axle gearing is optimized for each vehicle, depending on the engine and transmission. All COPO Camaros are assembled by hand starting with hardware from the Oshawa assembly plant that manufactures regular-production Camaros. Each is fitted with an NHRA-approved roll cage and other safety equipment, along with racing chassis and suspension components – including a unique solid rear axle system in place of a regular-production Camaro’s independent rear axle. Production equipment also includes lightweight Bogart racing wheels and Hoosier racing tires. The starting price for the COPO Camaro is $86,000.
(Porsche Cars North America)This 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8, the racing version of the classic Carrera RS 2.7 street car, was on display at Amelia Island last weekend. Now owned by British collector Philip Basil, it was ordered from the factory by Dr. David Helmick. He hired Brumos Racing to prepare the car, and teamed up with Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood to run the 1973 edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring. Gregg and Haywood had won the 24 Hours of Daytona two months before in a prototype RSR, but the Porsche factory took the car back for a complete tear down after the race. Helmick’s car was subsequently upgraded with features learned from the Daytona winner. Their overall victory at Sebring was one of the few times in history that a race team has won both races the same year. The car underwent a major restoration at Gunnar Racing in Florida in 2001.