Justin Wilson won the Indycar race at Belle Isle Park in Detroit. The former Minardi and Jaguar F1 man qualified second and trailed the championship protagonists closly most of the day before mounting a serious challenge on Helio Castroneves late in the race. Helio furiously blocked Wilson, something which is a big no-no in the IRL and was forced to let Wilson pass him, giving the Englisman his first series victory and Newman/Haas/Lanigan's second win of the season. The race was one which was, unsurprisingly, devoid of overtaking and ended as a rather processional event. Wilson showed that he is truly among the elite on road courses and that Newman/Haas are clearly the class of the field of former Champ car teams. KV racing have been very fast but have not been able to put together good races, although Oriol Servia and Will Power scored solid fourth and eighth place finishes respectively. The usual gang of idiots in the back of the field were up to their usual tricks with Marty Roth not starting due to an accident and Milka Duno getting tangled with Bruno Junquiera. EJ Viso had the biggest accident of the race when he smashed his HVM car on lap 32, while other drivers to be involved in dramas included Bruno Junquiera (who collided with Duno) Dan Wheldon (who collided with Jaime Camara and spun on his own later on), and the pair of Vitor Meira and Danica Patrick, who had a coming together. One of the usual idiots, Enrique Bernoldi, was not there this weekend. He injured his wrist and while he raced at Sonoma he could not compete in Detroit and his seat was taken by Canadian Veteran Alex Tagliani. Considering that Tags jumped into the car on Saturday morning, a 21st place grid position was pretty good and he backed that up with some good running only to be sidelined by mechanical gremlins. Hopefully this will lead to more appearances for Tagliani. I apologize for the brief race report, the race was not on Television where I am as it was on TSN2 in Canada, a channel not available to most people at the moment. The final result saw Helio Castroneves second, Tony Kanaan third, Oriol Servia fourth, and championship leader Scott Dixon fifth. This result extends the championship chase to the final race of the season, next week at Chicagoland speedway, with Dixon's lead over Castroneves down to 30 points. The last race is on an oval, where anything could happen, but I doubt that we will get that dramatic a turn in events and we will probably see Dixon crowned next week, but stranger things could happen and Helio Won't stop believin'!!!
News and Rumour Roundup
The big, and potentially saddest news, is the death of 1961 F1 champion Phill Hill last week at the age of 81. One of the least known champions and the only American born world championship, Hill made his name with Ferrari, winning three F1 races and the 24 hours of Le Mans Three times. His memory will live on as one of the legends of American motorsports.
In other sad news it has been revealed that there are plans to neuter the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Apparantly the organizers are looking at having the cars go right at the exit of Pouhon and cut across to meet up with the old track just before Blanchimont. This would cut out some brilliant driver corners like Les Fagnes and Stavelot. This has yet to be confirmed and the reasons are a little vague but if they are true then it would be a tragic defacing of one of the worlds best racetracks. There is a rumour that the changes are brought about by Mr B Ecclestone being unhappy with the low lap count at Spa and if this is true then it is yet another dickeaded action by one of the world's great assholes. I hope it is not true, and although Bernie has flipped F1 history the bird in the past, this would be an unforgivabel act in my mind. Eau Rouge may be a challenging corner, but with the drivers able to take it flat out now, this section is the best place where the circuit separates the men from the boys. If this happens then shame on you bernie, shame on you Belgian GP organizers, and shame on you F1 world which has become so politicized and money sucking.
In the Indycar world a few drivers appear to be on the verge of running full time and the 2009 Car count could go up. The first rumour is that HVM are on the verge of being able to run a second car for next year, coinciding with former F1 and Champ Car man Robert Doornbos saying that he is driving for a "good" f1 team. Doornbos has connections with Keith Wiggins and although HVM's status as a "good" team is questionable, it would be great to see Doornbos back. Elsewhere Alex Lloyd and Chip Ganassi racing are apparantly close to securing the funding necessary to run Lloyd in a third Ganassi car. If this is true then it is fantastic news for Lloyd as he will be stepping into the best team in the business. Hopefully this works out as Lloyd is talented and more cars are always better.
In F1 news Luca Di Montezemelo has won the Grand Prix of stating the obvious by confirming that both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen will be back at Ferrari next year. Both men are among the best in the business and have forged a pretty good working relationship.
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