Racecars
The Montreal page has already described much of my enjoyment of the first Formula One race I went to, but I decided to expand my gallery and show more of the cars that I took picutres of during that race; and I also have added pictures from an American Le Mans Series race that I saw at Lime Rock Park in northwestern Connecticut. I'm contemplating going to a NASCAR event just to see it (I've heard those races are a great time too), but I haven't decided which one I would go to.
In the meantime, here are some F1 cars, ALMS cars, and some other ones that were running auxiliary races at the tracks I attended. And let me say this: a lot of people I know think auto racing is a boring event and a place for hillbillies to congregate. It's really nothing like that. At least not the races I've been to, anyway.
The current leader in the Formula One season. As of July 4, he had 5 victories this year, and a 20-point cushion over second place. Should he win this year ,he would become the youngest Formula One champion of all time, and the first Spaniard to win it. Spain is going crazy over him right now.
At second place in the season is Kimi Raikkonen, who has won three races, including Canada. No one was more upset about the USA GP fiasco than Kimi, because he felt he would have won the race and closed in on Alonso in the title chase.
The defending champion with seven total championships: Michael Schumacher. Only one win so far this season, but don't count him out for long. Ferrari have improved markedly over the last four races and a few more wins this season is likely.
The third driver for McLaren and thus Kimi's teammate, Pedro de la Rosa. Pedro substituted for Juan Pablo Montoya when JPM had a shoulder injury earlier in the year, which he ostensibly got while playing tennis. The more knowledgable crowd thinks he hurt himself while riding motorcycles.
Alonso's teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella. Fisi won the first race this season, but since then has been plagued by bad luck. At Canada he was leading the race when his hydraulics went out on him.
Last year's darling of F1 hasn't been able to get it together this year. Speculation is that Jensen Button will go to Williams next year, which is where he was originally expected to be this season but BAR-Honda had a contract that kept him there for one more season.
Felipe Massa has worked for Sauber and Ferrari all his career, but storm clouds are brewing; Sauber s being sold to BMW, who will probably recruit Nick Heidfeld of Williams to drive for them (which is the spot Button will take). That means either Jacques Villeneuve or Massa will be out of a drive. Personally I hope they keep Massa; I like his attitude and he's got promise.
Another possible move next year is for Scott Speed to move up to race driver for Red Bull. Speed is the first American in 20 years (or something like that) to get a drive on an F1 weekend, and his times were impressive. He's been doing well in Europe's GP2 this season, and Red Bull are known to want to put an American driver in their car as soon as possible. Speed is probably the guy that will do it.
Here's one from the American Le Mans Series that I saw at Lime Rock. This is the Mazda Courage team car driven by Jamie Bach and Guy Cosmo. Similar in color to the Renault on F1, but not as fast. I think they finished 21st, only completing 114 laps due to mechanical problems.
My favorite part of the race was in the first turn complex; a lot of the Le Mans class cars would shoot flames out of their tailpipes as they accelerated through the apex, but it was so hard to get a good shot of them. This may be the only one I got; it's the Lola B2K of van der Steur racing, driven by Gunnar van der Steur and Ben Devlin (Le Mans cars often change drivers during the race, so two are listed).
And the winner of the 2005 ALMS New England Grand Prix was the ADT Champion Racing Audi R8 of JJ Lehto and Marco Werner, who also happen to be leading the points championship for the season. Lehto is one of the stars of the circuit; the Audi team won the 24-hour Le Mans last month, which is a real big deal in Europe.
One of the great names in automobiles is Maserati. This car is in the GT1 class, which raced at the same time as the Le Mans cars but was competing against a different class of vehicle on the track. This is the Maserati MC12 of Andrea Bertolini and Fabrizio DeSimone.
This I don't understand. The #3 car of Corvette Racing's Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell is smoking profusely from the back, yet they finished the race in fourth. I have no idea what's causing the smoke, and the post-race reports act as if it didn't happen. I'm lost on this one.
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