Weekend Racing Preview

There is lots of action in the racing world this weekend with Formula One at the one legendary not average Hockenheimring in Germany, the IndyCars at the brilliant Mid-Ohio sports car course, and with MotoGP at the Awesome Laguna Seca circuit.

I will start with F1 and the German Grand Prix. This was one the race track where power was everything with the long straights through the forest, but in 2002 someone decided that it was a good idea to shorten the course and the champion of making mediocre race tracks, Hermann Tilke, was called in to neuter the track. The current circuit is OK, one can overtake better, but the charm and character that made Hockenheim so unique is gone. The German fans have shared a similar opinion and with the track struggling to draw good crowds the circuit's financial fortunes have dimmed. Hockenheim used to be a place where the wealthier would sit in the nice stadium section while the average Fritz would be out camping in the woods, drinking copious amounts of beer and cheering on their Hero, Michael Schumacher. Now with the shortened circuit there is no opportunity for camping and the drinking time has been cut because you can see more of the track, and with that crowd you should never mess with the drinking time. The formula one people, who are rather detached from the reality of regular people, like the track and so the show must go on leaving the average German fan with an empty wallet (not conducive to heavy drinking) and with a second circuit they don't really like. This year at Hockenheim it appears that the McLaren's have a slight advantage over the Ferrari's, this judging by the first two practice sessions, and if we get another wet race it could be Lewis Hamilton's race to lose. The Englishman was awesome in the wet at Silverstone and with Ferrari falling over each other to screw things up there, he coasted to an easy victory. If conditions are similar this weekend one hopes that Ferrari won't pull the same ridiculous antics they did at Silverstone and may allow Kimi Raikkonen to compete with Lewis, as Felipe Massa's lack of wet weather skills are well documented. If the cock things up here as they did at Silverstone I imagine that heads will roll, as the Italians have never had much patience for this sort of thing. With the championship so finely balanced as it is, any little mistake can cost a driver big time at the end of the year, and one wonders why Kimi and Felipe are not on their team management to get her done they way that Michael Schumacher used to. In dry conditions I expect it to be much closer. The Ferrari is still the better car over all and in my mind Raikkonen is still the fastest driver in F1, so in dry conditions we may see a close battle at the front. It will be hard so tell because of the changing weather, but this should be an interesting battle. After the top two there comes BMW. Robert Kubica will want to rebound after having thrown away an armful of points at Silverstone while Nick Heidfeld swears his qualifying woes are over, honest! Unless something happens to the top two teams, I would be surprised to see a beemer on the podium here. Toyota and Red Bull appear to be pulling away slightly in the battle for best of the rest, although the Williams in the hands of Nico Rosberg has been high up on the charts recently. The tight nature of the midfield with Renault joining those four should make for some exciting racing and with Honda starting to show a little speed, there will be a tight battle for the minor points. Even Toro Rosso can challenge, but they tend to need chaotic races to do so and Force India, well are drifting even farther away from being ninth fastest. Could be a good race in Germany, but one gets the sinking feeling that it will be another average race.

On this side of the Atlantic the Indy Cars are racing at the Historic Mid-Ohio sports car course. 26 cars will take the green flag (hopefully, although Marty Roth may not get that far) and this will be another opportunity for the Chap Car transition teams to pick up points at the expense of the more oval oriented teams. Despite this I don't expect a whole lot of change at the front, as the top guns all have plenty of road course experience. I might suggest that this will be Helio Castroneves' opportunity to get his first win of the year, although those Ganassi boys will be tough to beat. They can't seem to do anything wrong and even at races like Nashville when things appeared to be going wrong for them, they come up smelling like roses. You have to be lucky to be good and you have to be good to be lucky, and everything appears to be going Target Chip Ganassi's way this year. AGR will also be a force to be reckoned with, as Tony Kannan and Marco Andretti have shown their abilities on road courses in the past, although Marco will have to get over his penchant for hitting things in order to get a good result. But when you consider that both Road Course races where the full field were competing have thrown up first time winners, we may see a surprise come through the field. If that happens my pick would be either Justin Wilson or Will Power. Both men were stars in Champ Car and both men have shown themselves to be very quick on road courses this year. Justin was running very well at both Long Beach and Watkins Glen when he suffered mechanical issues and one senses that this may be his time, while Will dominated at Long Beach and has shown to be very quick on road courses. This could be interesting as the men at the front will have to deal with much more competition than they are used to.

MotoGP will make it's first of two stops in the United States with the Red Bull USGP at Laguna Seca. One of the best motorcycle tracks in the world will be the venue and with things being very close at the front this race could be very exciting. Valentino Rossi is leading the standings, but third placed Casey Stoner has won the last three races and will be looking to continue his streak, while second placed Dani Pedrosa will be looking to rebound from his disappointing DNF in Germany last week. Couple that with Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden looking to impress on home soil, this could be a close race.

Lots of Good racing on offer this week, stay tuned for analysis here at Disgruntled racing critic.