TBK-Light.com

Yeaa it looks rather nice.

More pictures of this available?

From the Pop Off Valve

Ten years ago, a young driver in the Champ Car World Series ladder system was having a conversation with then-CEO Christopher Pook in the paddock at St. Petersburg, Florida.

Pook had made headlines for all the wrong reasons by publicly alleging that American race car drivers were inadequate against European-trained competition for Champ Car seats, and this young driver - an American - was incensed by Pook's casual dismissal.

Incredibly, Pook - the latest in a long line of "saviors" of Champ Car who would eventually almost single-handedly bankrupt the series -reiterated his comments to the driver's face.

"You're testing the wrong people," the driver retorted. "You give me ten laps, and I'll show you that you are absolutely wrong."

The driver never got that test, though, his bravado notwithstanding. Pook and the Champ Car powers-that-be passed him by, along with several other promising young American drivers in the ladder system.

In the present day, Joey Hand - the young driver told to his face that he was not good enough - is an established and successful sports car driver and factory driver for BMW. His career is thriving... but his dream of racing in the Indianapolis 500 and competing at the top level of open-wheel racing is long dead. And he is not alone.

A cursory glance at the entry list for the 50 th Anniversary Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona held this past weekend shows an unsettlingly extensive roster of other former blue-chip prospects from the American open-wheel ladder system who, for lack of opportunity, found racing homes elsewhere.

It's hard for open-wheel fans who have any sense of history to read the names off of the Grand Am entry list - Allmendinger, Dalziel, Fogarty, Gurney, Gidley, Valiante, Bomarito, Lazzaro - and realize the lost opportunities represented by these names. It is a troubling reminder of the giant chasm in open-wheel racing that was created by the 15-year IndyCar/Champ Car split, a chasm still unbridged even years after unification ended the calamitous civil war.

The drivers of the "Red Dragon" for GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing, Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty, have been racing in Grand Am Prototypes for seven years. They came to sports cars from the Toyota Atlantic feeder series that featured a class of drivers that included Hand, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ryan Dalziel, Buddy Rice, Michael Valiante, and Danica Patrick.

Gurney and Fogarty got their shot with Stallings after the team owner moved to Grand American from Atlantics. Gurney co-drove with Stallings in 2005, and then Fogarty - after multiple Atlantics championships failed to get him a ride in Champ Car - followed in 2006. The mathematics were not hard to figure out - for every sports car ride, there were at least two seats available per car. The formula, too, was more appealing than in either Champ Car or the Indy Racing League - for all the derision brought on by the "NASCARized" sports car formula, Grand Am gave its drivers a better shot to win than they might have in open-wheel, where one or two teams had a chokehold on the rest.

Any idea that their sports car careers were only a temporary stop before returning to open-wheel racing was dashed when the GAINSCO duo combined to win seven of fourteen events in 2007, cementing the team as perennial contenders in their category. But, in reality, the die was cast the moment they ran up against the glass ceiling that separated the open-wheel ladder from "the big time."

The harsh reality was that Fogarty and Gurney simply were not interested in open-wheel racing anymore. Fogarty, in particular, was wholly soured by his experience trying to break through in open-wheel. Even winning championships was not enough to make an impression. With nothing left to achieve in open-wheel cars, his decision to commit to sports car racing was easy. Why pursue the Indianapolis 500, he reasoned, when the Rolex 24 at Daytona has plenty of its own historical significance and the interest of so many big names in racing?

The vacuum created by the departure of so many top prospect racers from the open-wheel ranks ended up being filled with short-term ride buyers -in fact, of the stellar rookie classes from those "lost" years, only one driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay, has a full-time open-wheel ride, and that came only after years of journeyman driving and uncertainty.

As IndyCar works to rebuild itself in the years following unification, a new generation of young talent is gradually making its way into the driver ranks. Young drivers like JR Hildebrand, James Hinchcliffe, and Josef Newgarden are locked into full-time rides for the 2012 season; Newgarden, a highly-prized prospect driver, secured his full-time ride with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing immediately after winning the Indy Lights championship, a sign that the glass ceiling might be on the verge of cracking open.

But for all of the future promise and hope, it is impossible to forget the "lost generation" of American open-wheel racing and the painful realization of what might have been.

I think the car has grown up on my mind already. I'm finally getting accustomed to it.

And congratulations for Barrichello, saying yes to an IndyCar test. More than anybody else I want to see him driving there this season. Bad news today was the interview he gave to a national Newspaper. He used an awesome opportunity of, instead celebrating a possible IndyCar debut this year, to fire the "machine gun" against the entire brazilian press, specially internet news media. He showed to be very spiteful this time, accusing the specialized press of being criminal (possibly because of the many professional criticisms he's received in decades of F1). He was unnecessarily aggressive by doing that. I've never seen any crime against him from the media...looks like he took things way too seriously.

We're not gonna be cynical to the point of denying that us, fans and press have been tough with him...but I reckon that most, If not all criticisms, were all constructive, aiming the best for him. That's unfortunately one annoying behavior he's been using for quite sometime, accuse other people for his fails. One day he's still going to say he never won a F1 title because the fans and the press didn't let him to, bullshit!

Barrica needs to grow up a little bit more, otherwise he already starts a possible IndyCar Season loaded of polemics.

Didn't he say before that he felt that the Brazilian press put him in an unnecessary position because of what they expected from him after Senna?

some more pictures and some more info. it's promotional stuff they are doing since the super bowl is in Indianapolis this year.
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/indian ... wl-display

Indeed that happened, but blame lies 99% on Globo TV at that time. Before may 1st 1994, F1 was one of their on-air most profitable produtcs, from may 2nd 1994, it costed only 10 cents. They needed a new myth, they feed it on Rubens and himself agreed to play that character. They tried to create a new star on Sundays and on Tuesday nights, that very same channel vehicled stereotypical comedians making fun of him, what would you expect? It was a whole generation of false expectations and mockery from that channel.

In this recent interview, it was clear to me Rubens was trying to attack journalists like Flavio Gomes and Fábio Seixas, suggesting that they put fans against him, what's a distorted vision IMO, those journalists are serious, sincere and write what they truly experienced in years covering F1...If there's someone Rubens have to complain with is Globo TV...but this he doesnt have courage to do.

IndyCar has no one to blame but themselves. The track owners are not going to lose money on IndyCar behalf. Given IndyCar lack of popularity, $1.5 million
sanction fee is too high. Hence the increase in street races.

http://twitpic.com/8e1fs6

Pretty cool, imo

Am I the only one who thinks Indy would put on a fantastic show at Sebring? And that video is awesome, the car looks like a blast to drive.

i agree with you zippy. does anyone know why they test there every year but dont actually hold an event there?

Well, he had fun at least.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97231

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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.

i hope they sign him. it'd be cool to see him at indy especially.

If he moves to IndyCar eventually, he sure as hell must do it this season, considering that with everyone figuring out the new car, that'd put him on the same level as everybody else since day one.

Onboard Barrichello in Sebring.

Is the garbage heap just around the corner from that picture then?

Good Riddance!

I hope Bob Kraft buys the Patriots one and displays it at Patriots Place.

OnBoard with TK:

Love the sound. And I hope they use that exact same onboard angle for the broadcasts.

Viso is in the 5. Rubens was quickest this morning.

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If you screw up while skydiving, you have the rest of your life to figure out how to fix it.