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Racing comes in all shapes and sizes. All summer long we’ve been inundated with IndyCar, Formula 1, dirt tracks, sprint cars, trucks, drags, NASCAR and more.

The bulk of it has been through television. Now, however, racing is back on and coming to Virginia and it gets rolling with what could be the most basic of the sport. It is “run what you brung” racing at Virginia International Raceway with the Optima Batteries Chump Car VIR 24 Hour Classic!

Yes – It’s a long name for a long race. 24 hours of a track full of cars of all different sizes and colors and makes and models. These cars are the result of tinkering and tweaking in garages and barns and little car shops all over the country. These are Chumps! They are at VIR to race this weekend (August 9-10-11). (more…)

“Third time is a charm” or perhaps things sometimes happen in “threes” or maybe it’s just luck…

Tony Stewart is out of the #14, Mobil 1 – Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for Watkins Glen. That is certain. How many more races he could miss as the season runs closer to Richmond and “The Chase” is yet to be determined.

At Southern Iowa Speedway, Stewart was running quite well in his #14 sprint car when he slid into a slower car and went for an airborne tumble. The result was a smashed car and a broken leg. To be exact, he broke the bones in his lower right leg. (more…)

Trucks.

Trucks racing on dirt.

It certainly sounds normal. After all, trucks have been running rally and off-road in all sorts of competition. This time was a bit different…

These trucks don’t have long travel suspension or skid plates. These aren’t the trucks from the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series . These are NASCAR chassis sanctioned for Daytona and Dover, Martinsville and Michigan. These are the Camping World Series trucks and they ran on dirt at Eldora in Ohio.

Tony Stewart (Sprint Cup Champion / Stewart-Haas Racing) owns the facilities at Eldora and worked with NASCAR to bring the trucks to town. The only real mod on the trucks from their last race at Iowa were box-grooved tires. The surface of the track is hard-pack clay, dimpled a bit with special equipment and periodically moistened and re-set.

The combination made for a slick return to dirt track racing for a NASCAR premiere series. The first since 1970 when Richard Petty won at the fairgrounds in Raleigh, NC. (more…)

The Tour de France has been on. We’ve been somewhat focused on it. It has been a remarkable year for the sport of professional cycling which is racing to re-establish credibility as the cyclists themselves turn over the pedals up every mountain and through every shoulder to shoulder sprint. Cycling, for many years, has been plagued with accusation, secrecy, cover-ups and penalties surrounding the use of performance enhancing drugs and other “illegal” actions.

It came to a head earlier this year just weeks before the Tour started. Lance Armstrong, who claimed 7 Yellow Jersey wins of the Tour de France, was caught in an unescapable vise of accusation and indictment. After years of standing on the claims of never failing a drug test and no real evidence that could taint his record he was caught in a conspiracy outlined by former team mates and others closest to him. Coercion, power, drugs and even blood transfusions and alleged payoffs all came upon Armstrong like the peloton chasing down a failed breakaway. (more…)

Winning races is hard enough. Losing is all too easy.

One can lose by simply not winning. For many, a finish in the top 3, or 5, or even 10, may be considered a “win” with all things considered. However, unless it is “first” over the line it is not the “win” and becomes, in reality, a runner-up or also-ran.

That said, losing by not winning is not all bad. Chasing for the top spot, challenging for the lead, making the winner “work for it” or even finishing better than the start position can all be taken away with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

But losing by having the chance at winning taken, or given, away is as frustrating as spending your paycheck on a date and getting not so much as a handshake at her door. You go home empty with “why did I even…?” spinning about your head. (more…)

Formula 1 raced Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. The weather was bright with temps in the mid-upper 70’s which, on the average, was a bonus for the often damp UK. Lewis Hamilton had the #10 Mercedes on the pole for the homeland. All seemed right in the world for English racing fans.

Rewind.

The F1 Mercedes team with drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg ran through a test with tire supplier Pirelli back in May. The FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile ) were a little upset as the test was private in the sense that only Mercedes was involved and they used a current season F1 car for the tests. This crossed some kind of line in the rule books. (more…)

Why do we watch? It’s an open question with as many answers as there are colors on the cars…

Is it as simple as watching for the contact, the spins and the crashes that will get most out of their seats to see the action play out?

Is it the basic grasp of the challenge of the drive and the lap by lap progress of favorite drivers?

Is it just a love of speed and being memorized by the blur as the race goes by?

It really could be any, all or more. Whatever the reason or reasons that we have for being a fan of racing the possibility is always there that the attraction of the sport can also cost dearly.

In recent weeks, that cost has been paid too often. Jason Leffler, a multi-series driver including NASCAR series, was killed in a sprint car crash. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Allan Simonsen was killed following a spin and hard contact with the barrier. (more…)