TBK-Light.com

Which is part of racing.

When only half the field was there, since the rest of them were in Long Beach?

She had a top ride. But when TK and Dario left Andretti, it sunk like a box of rocks. It wasn't hard to see which drivers were keeping those cars at the top was it?

I'm tired of people making excuses for her because she has boobs. Deny it if you want, abuse me if you want, you all know it's true. She's achieved nothing special at all during her entire career, and she is there because she is a woman. If she was a man, nobody would care even a little bit that she was leaving the series. I see no reason to give her special treatment just because she happened to be born as a woman.

I wasn't making excuses. I agreed with you when you said that the hype was because she is a lady. Then I tried to be objective pointing out that she did have some good results and is competitive on ovals. That's it.

Still, I wouldn't use the "half the field was at Long Beach" excuse. CCWS teams haven't been much of a factor in IndyCar (apart from Newman Hass this year). The best teams were at Motegi, a guy like Castroneves on a Penske had the same strategy as her and failed. She won the race fair and square. Get over it.

Danica Mania unfortunately has led to one crowd that's overly devoted to her, and another crowd that treats her as if she was the next Dennis Vitolo or Milka Duno (with the later crowd being more vocal on the Internet).

She's a solid but unspectacular mid-pack driver, actually it's more like she's fairly decent on the ovals but pretty bad on road courses. I wish the hype machine wasn't so huge as she doesn't deserve it, she doesn't appear to be top top class. But the main race that gets noticed is Indy and she doesn't do too bad there. Women in motorsport still attracts attention for the "novelty" (which is a shame, but its the way it is).

Were it not for the hype, people wouldn't be hating on Danica either. She can drive a race car on the ovals at least; she's not a moving chicane.

Looking forward to seeing this every weekend in NASCAR next year.

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Panther Racing confirmed today that it will reunite with Chevrolet to run the new Chevy IndyCar V6 racing engine beginning next season. All of Panther's 15 IndyCar Series victories and both of its series championships were captured with General Motors engines during the company's first tour of what was then known as the Indy Racing League, and team officials are happy to welcome the iconic Bowtie brand back to its family.

"I just couldn't be more excited that Chevrolet has decided to return to IndyCar racing and obviously it's a natural fit for Panther to have Chevrolet powering our cars once again," said Panther boss John Barnes. "We've got a long list of race wins and championships together and we're looking forward to continuing our successful partnership starting in 2012. Chevy races to win, and so do we, so we're ready to get to work and pick up right where we left off."

Panther won its first race in 1999 with Scott Goodyear in the team's GM-powered No. 4 entry, and later captured the 2001 and '02 IndyCar championships with Sam Hornish Jr. driving GM-powered cars. Panther was the lone team to remain with Chevrolet entering the 2005 season, when it took a victory at Texas with Tomas Scheckter.

"Chevrolet and Panther Racing enjoyed tremendous success together in the past, winning races and winning championships, and we look forward to more success in the future," said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vp for performance hehicles and motorsports. "As Chevrolet returns to IndyCar competition in 2012 with an all-new twin-turbocharged, direct-injected V6 engine, we're pleased to renew our longstanding relationship with Panther Racing. Both organizations share the same commitment, focus, and dedication to winning."

Panther driver JR Hildebrand, who will be vying for the IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year crown next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the team's No. 4 National Guard entry, notes that he became interested in motorsports watching his father John race a vintage Camaro when he was growing up.

“I definitely grew up in a Chevy family,” Hildebrand said. “My first real introduction to racing was my dad racing a 1968 Camaro out on the West Coast, so that was always part of my upbringing and it's going to be cool to be part of that Chevrolet family myself now.

"The new engine manufacturers coming into the IndyCar Series add a whole new dimension to the racing and the preparation that goes into it, and I know the history and commitment that Chevy has to winning races. I'm excited to be a part of it.”

The problem with Patrick is that the hype surrounding her person exceedes the actual racing performance by a country mile. Will & Dario have dominated the series for past two seasons, scored poles & wins all over the place but they don't get a quarter of Danica's marketing status and I don't think it's all exclusively to the fact neither of them is American. People tend to know whether someone is hyped over actual performance or by off-track presence. We're supposed to be racing fans, not judging anyone by the looks. Back in 2009 it was very encouraging to see Danica finish as the best of the rest, but her last two seasons were very disappointing and took away all the hype she was building since 2005. They say you're only as good as your last race and unfortunately 2010 & 2011 were the worst seasons Patrick's had since her 2005.

Luckily the hype is going over to NASCAR now, but at least there she won't quite conquer the Junior Nation or any bitching from Busch brothers IMO.

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07.04.1968 - Flower of Scotland when will we see your like again?
01.05.1994 - We'll never forget...

Tony Hawk to be the Grand Marshal For Vegas.

$2 million will be offered for any driver who completes a 900 degree ariel backflip in their car...

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"Every day on Memorial weekend, comes the chance to cross these bricks, and live forever. No votes, no politics, no thanks to the Academy. Nothing. Just driver, machine, and pursuit of immortality"

Dario will go for it!

Detroit is officially back in 2012

I just kind of feel the need to point out an exception to this statement. There's a long history of women being successful in drag racing. Several women drivers race competitively in the NHRA, and they are treated and respected just as every other male racer, in multiple classes. Even today drivers like Erica Enders in Pro Stock, and Ashley Force in Funny Car, Melanie Troxel in Top Fuel still compete.

This article is a few years old but it does list accomplishments and stats from racers in the past.
http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/module ... &sid=81986

But I do agree as it regards to Danica Patrick, she has become nothing more than a novelty as far as I'm concerned. I think she does have the ability to progress when she does move to NASCAR, it's a wait and see kind of thing.

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"The track's wet, that's what I think about it. Fucking shit gets wet when it rains."
-Dale Earnhardt Jr.

True, but no other sport has a female legendary driver (Shirley Muldowney), and several other female drivers that are clearly in the top tier. We all can speculate why, and for all I know eventually that may change. But at present unfortunately that's the only category of racing right now where this is the case.

Info about the Belle Isle (Detroit) GP next year and a few new pictures of the 2012 Chevy.

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/12/chev ... t-in-2012/

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I think it might be growing on me.

Lotttuusss....where are yoooouuuu

Doing the maths and realising that spend millions that you don't have, on various forms of motorsport, with no cars to sell is a pretty bad plan.

Those new Indycars look like the car Dan Wheldon drove in the Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 series episode (if you've got kids, you'll probably know what I'm talking about), for the life of me I can't quiet understand why they've gone with this design, it looks fragile, ugly and stupid with bumper guards.

looks better in those paint schemes to me. maybe it wont be so bad after all. and wooooooooot for the detroit race. i cant wait!

Figuring out how to get out of all their investments as quickly as possible.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ ... n-in-2012/

danica's replacement