Sunday, August 20, 2006

ALMS Round 7 - Road America Predictions


Overall: Audi will not win. It is crazy, I know, but it's about time for an Audi incident. I call Dyson; the #20 is looking fast.

LMP1: Dyson, Audi, Audi, Dyson, Highcroft, Autocon.

LMP2: Penske, Intersport, Penske. Penske had two incidents at Portland, allowing an Intersport win. After three weeks off the car has gone through some minor changes. I think one car will have problems.

GT1: #4, 007, #3, 009.

GT2: Flying Lizard, Risi, Peterson.

Analysis: Last year this race was a good indicator of the rest of the season. Well, Dyson is fastest in practice, so hopefully they can be the first to beat the Audi R10. I think it is time their bad-luck ended.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Bentley Speed 8: Audi Killer

The story of this Bentley comes out of the story of the Audi R8. VW owns both Audi and Bentley. The R8 started as two cars in 1999, the LMGTP R8C and the LMP R8R. Neither could compete well, but the R8R did better than the closed top R8C. Audi dropped the R8C and focused exclusively on their open top R8R. Then they won every Le Mans from 2000 to 2006 except one: 2003.

Bentley has a rich history at Le Mans, taking fourth at the first Grand Prix in 1923, winning in 1924, then winning 1927-1930 including first through fourth in 1929 and first and second in 1930. After 1951 they quit. They returned in 2001 with the EXP Speed 8, their first LMGTP. Audi had developed the R8C at RTN. Bentley also developed their Speed 8 at RTN as well. They took third in 2001, behind two R8s. Then they took fourth in 2002, behind three R8s.

When the first Bentley, the EXP Speed 8, couldn't win at Le Mans, Peter Elleary restarted the whole project. The new car was the Bentley Speed 8. It took advantage of the LMGTP regulations and proved that a GTP could compete with the open-top LMPs. Elleary said "actually the ACO did a very good job of equivalency on the whole. I think we showed, over the period ’01-’03 that you can make the GTP work, but only if you can optimize those areas where the regulations give you a head start."

The new Speed 8 took little but its suspension from the Audi R8C. It placed one-two at Le Mans in 2003 - the only non-Audi to win since BMW in 1999. This Bentley Audi Killer was born out of the same design studio as the Audis and after taking the win, Bentley hasn't gone back to Le Mans. Some have theorized that VW wanted their Audi power to be uncontested and forbid Bentley from competing again. We will never know for sure though.

Everyone thought that was the end of the Bentley story until the ACO press conference at Le Mans 2006. They announced a major rules overhaul in 2010, the main point being that all LMP1s must be closed top from then on. Lola and KWM Creation immediately revealed that they have been working on coupe versions of their existing cars already. Audi has been silent on the issue. Bentley, Elleary, and RTN, being the last to win at Le Mans using a closed-top car, may decide who wins at the start of the next decade. Perhaps the end of the Bentley story has not yet been written. And now that Bentley is financially more stable than they were in the early 2000s, perhaps we will see another focused project coming from them.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

FIA Formula 1 - Round 13


BUTTON!!!

Finally, after 112 races, Jensen Button (above & below) takes his first Formula 1 victory in race 113! This was the most exciting race of the season as the undecided weather kept teams guessing on wet, dry, or intermediate tyres. Schumacher was in fifteenth early on his wets, then as the track dried his intermediates rubbed down to slicks and he was able to get up into second. Then commenced the De la Rosa v. Schumacher battle of the year as for the next four laps they crossed the Start/Finish line side-by-side. Finally De la Rosa got him on lap 66, a lap later Heidfeld also got around Shumacher's Ferrari, but cut him off, causing the two to crash out of the race.


The other great story from this race was Robert Kubica. The 3rd driver (below) in his debut race scored two points for BMW Sauber - almost impossible for a debut nowadays in F1.