It's an all Australian front row for the "Grand Prix" of St Petersburg with Queensland's Will Power lining up alongside team-mate and fellow aussie Ryan Briscoe for the opening round of the 2012 Indy Car season. Power set a new circuit-qualifying record of 1 minute, 1.3721 seconds on his way to his third pole in consecutive years. He won the race in 2010 and was runner-up to Dario Franchitti in 2011. Briscoe will start alongside his Team Penske teammate on the front row, while Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe will occupy Row 2. It's the best start in the race for all three (Hinchcliffe didn't compete in 2011). Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud qualified fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Firestone Fast Six. But because Pagenaud's Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports team made an unauthorised engine change after practice, he will be penalised 10 spots on the starting grid.
Continue reading...Wednesday, October 19, 2011
British sportscar drivers Richard Westbrook and Oliver Gavin will pay tribute to countryman Dan Wheldon at this weekend’s Armor All Gold Coast 600. Wheldon tragically passed away following an IndyCar accident in Las Vegas last weekend. He was scheduled to race alongside James Courtney at the Surfers Paradise street circuit this weekend. Both Westbrook and Gavin are life long friends and rivals of their countryman Wheldon, with all three members of the exclusive British Racing Drivers Club. Westbrook and Gavin will unveil special visor stickers in memory of Wheldon in pit lane at the Surfers Paradise street circuit at 9.30am local Queensland time. All BRDC members present at this weekend’s event will carry the special visor stripe stickers as a tribute to Wheldon. They are Westbrook, Gavin, Andy Priaulx, Emanuele Pirro, Gil de Ferran, Marino Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe, Richard Lyons and Darren Turner. Westbrook will partner Todd Kelly in the #7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore at the Armor All Gold Coast 600, while Gavin will drive alongside Greg Murphy in the #11 Pepsi Max Commodore. Source: Kelly Racing Media Release
Continue reading...Tuesday, April 12, 2011
After sweeping to the pole for the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Australia's Will Power was emphatic that this was a race he wanted to win ... badly. Power, who also started on the pole in the inaugural IZOD IndyCar Series race on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park course, finished fourth last April. It cost him points in the championship race over the course of the 17-event season, and he believed he let it slip away. So the Aussie put an exclamation point on the picture-perfect spring weekend with a wire-to-wire victory. Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon was runner-up for the second year in a row and reigning series champion Dario Franchitti was third. Marco Andretti, who wound up upside down on the first lap of the season opener two weeks earlier, finished fourth for Andretti Autosport and Oriol Servia continued to impress with a fifth place for Newman/Haas Racing.
Continue reading...Sunday, April 10, 2011
Australian driver Will Power will start from pole for tomorrow's Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsport Park. Power posted a best lap of 1 minute, 11.4546 seconds on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn natural-terrain course in the Firestone Fast Six to edge out team mate Ryan Briscoe (1:11:7361) in an all Australian front row for the 90-lap race. "It was very tiring" Power said after Qualifying. "but we saved it until the end and put a good lap together. I'm happy to have the the No. 12 Verizon car up front again. It's really important to start from the front at this track. I feel we should have won the race last year with the speed we had, so we're pretty focused on the strategy. The Antipodean flavour continues with Australian born New Zealand driver Scott Dixon third ahead of Team Penske's Helio Castroneves (1:12:1247), the defending race winner. Justin Wilson (1:12:3085), who is driving with an injured wrist, and Oriol Servia (1:12:4394), in his first start at Barber, will share Row 3. First round winner Dario Franchitti will start back in seventh place and the Scotsman was not happy. "(I'm) very disappointed.... We gave up a tenth in the hairpin. We thought we'd have another lap but we had a little miscommunication and we didn't get another run at it. We need to figure out a way to get up to the front from seventh, but if anyone can do it its the Target team."
Continue reading...Sunday, March 27, 2011
Australian driver Will Power will start from pole at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Round one of the 2011 Indycar Championship. Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 01.9624 seconds (the quickest of the weekend) with 2:15 left in the 10-minute Firestone Fast Six shootout for his 11th IZOD IndyCar Series pole. He set a series record last season with eight. Four teams are represented on the first three rows for the 100-lap race on the tight 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit with the scenic Tampa Bay in the background.
Continue reading...Monday, July 5, 2010
It may have been July 4th but at Watkins Glen it was Australia Day as Will Power led home fellow Aussie Ryan Briscoe to win the latest round of the 2010 Indycar series. Power passed Briscoe with six laps to go to take out his third IZOD IndyCar Series victory of 2010. Briscoe passed Dario Franchitti on the final lap to help Team Penske record its first 1-2 finish since Edmonton in 2009. Brazilians Raphael Matos of de Ferran Dragon Racing and Mario Moraes of KV Racing Technology completed the top five.
Continue reading...Sunday, July 4, 2010
Australian driver Will Power continued Team Penske's domination of qualifying by earning the pole for the Camping World Grand Prix at the famous Watkins Glen circuit in New York. Power, who currently leads the points score set a top lap of 1 minute, 29.3164 seconds, 135.832 mph in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske machine to keep Team Penske's perfect pole record over the six years of this race at Watkins Glen. Team Penske drivers swept the top three spots in the Firestone Fast Six shootout. Helio Castroneves qualified second at 1:29.4609, 135.612 in the No. 3 entry, while Power's Aussie compatriot Ryan Briscoe was third at 1:29.9346, 134.898 in the No. 6 entry. It was the first time this season one team has swept the front row in qualifying. The top three rows were separated by less than a second. Six different teams are represented in the first six rows.
Continue reading...Sunday, June 6, 2010
Pole sitter Ryan Briscoe held off Danica Patrick to win the Firestone 550K at Texas Motor Speedway last Saturday night. Marco Andretti finished third for the second consecutive race and New Zealand's Scott Dixon, the 2008 race winner, finished fourth. Briscoe had a late race dice with Patrick who continued her return to form after Indy. "Danica got by us and I didn't want to make any aggressive moves and block." said Briscoe. "I gained some momentum on the next lap, used the push-to-pass and was able to pass her out of Turn 4 and into Turn 1. She gave us a real run for our money tonight. It was fun racing side-by-side with her." Dixon's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti was fifth, ending the two-year streak of the Indianapolis 500 winner repeating at Texas the same year.
Continue reading...Saturday, June 5, 2010
Australian driver Ryan Briscoe will start from pole in Saturday night's Indy car race at Texas Motor Speedway. Driving for Team Penske, Briscoe recorded a four-lap average speed of 215.273 mph (1 minute, 37.3275 seconds) to earn the PEAK Performance Pole Award for the Firestone 550K race which will be held under lights at the high banked 1.5 mile oval. Dario Franchitti, seeking to be the third consecutive Indianapolis 500 champion to win at Texas in the same year, was 0.0057 of a second off Briscoe's pace. He'll start on the outside of the front row for the 228-lap race under the lights after an average of 215.261 mph. Briscoe's teammate and fellow aussie, Will Power, will be on the second row along with New Zealand's Scott Dixon.
Continue reading...Monday, May 31, 2010
A dominant performance by Dario Franchitti has given the Scotsman his second straight win in America's biggest motor race, the Indianapolis 500. Franchitti started from position three but by the end of lap one he had already passed both Will Power and pole man Helio Castroneves for the lead. Second place went to England's Dan Wheldon. Wheldon came on strong late in the race to overhaul Marco Andretti who was the first American driver home in third. Alex Lloyd, drove from 26th to finish fourth. Initially credited with third place, Lloyd was relegated to fourth after stewards determined that he had passed under the yellow flag following the huge accident that took out Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Conway and Hunter-Reay made contact catapulting Conway into the air. His car hit the catch fencing, shredding the car, sending debris flying and leaving Conway with injuries to his left leg. The in-car footage from Hunter-Reay's car shows just how lucky he was to avoid any serious injury.
Continue reading...
Sunday, March 25, 2012
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