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From BMW press release

For the second time this season in DTM, two races are taking place within a week of each other. The teams must move house from Nurburgring to Zandvoort in record time. For BMW Motorsport, more than 350 tons of material must be transported from the Eifel Mountains to the Dutch North Sea coast, where it must then be assembled and made ready for the race weekend.

BMW Motorsport and its three teams are travelling with plenty of luggage. More than 30 trucks are making their way on the 360-kilometre journey to Zandvoort, carrying with them the cars, equipment and the BMW Motorsport Team and Media Hospitality.

Photo: BMW Motorsport

The schedule is a tight one. Long before the drivers climb into their BMW M3 DTMs for the first time at the “Circuit Park Zandvoort”, everything from the cars to the final paper serviettes must have been delivered and the garages and hospitality buildings completely set up by Thursday.

In Germany, teams first dismantled their garages and packed their equipment into special transport cases, before the first parts could be loaded onto the trucks three hours after the end of the race. The tire store and offices for the engineers were also sent on their way to Zandvoort, only to be reassembled there in record speed.

Photo: BMW Motorsport

The BMW Motorsport Team and Media Hospitality underwent the same process. As the Nurburgring race was on, those responsible for erecting the structures on the North Sea coast were already hard at work installing a second ground plate. Then, the hospitality building is taken apart. Step-by-step the front of the top floor was removed, followed by the roof panels and the steel framework.

Photo: BMW Motorsport

The team then loaded the container modules onto special trucks, using a 100-ton crane, before the false ceiling was removed and the ground floor dismantled and prepared for shipping in the same way.

The BMW Motorsport Team and Media Hospitality is far from a simple tent. Nowadays it is more of a modern multi-functional building - with kitchen and medical rooms - covering an area of 1,200m². It can be dismantled and reassembled again in just three days and nights!

Photo: BMW Motorsport

If you've recently spent $100,000 on the Fisker Karma hybrid, you're about to have it recalled thanks to a faulty cooling fan that can, apparently, catch fire.

Following a flaming Karma incident in Woodside, CA at the beginning of the month, Karma has decided a recall is the best course of action to replace the cooling fan (not the lithium ion battery which they say had nothing to do with the fire).

If you own a Fisker Karma (you lucky son of a ...), your cooling fan will be replaced and an additional fuse will be added for more protection. Your dealer will contact you for further details, or you can contact your dealer if you haven't heard from them already.

Source: driving.ca

Photo: Fisker Automotive

As a professional auto racing journalist, I am often asked: ''So, you must be spending a lot of time with the drivers, right?''

Honestly, I don't know how to answer. Yes, it's part of the job, but I can assure you that it has become more of a hide-and-seek game in recent years.

Most Formula 1, IndyCar and NASCAR drivers do not particularly enjoy life in the paddocks. They feel too vulnerable to autograph seekers, fans, groupies, photographers, and the media.

Photo: WRI2

Take NASCAR for example: Drivers usually make a beeline for their team's garage and motor home, preferably in a golf cart so as to move faster than people chasing them on foot.

In order to meet a driver and get an interview, one must normally go through their PR staff. However, in NASCAR, there's a whole sea of them -- one for the team, one for the sponsor, another for the driver himself, etc. That's a lot of folks, and oftentimes they don't communicate with each other. You can be granted a request, only to have it denied moments later by someone else. It happened to me back in April during a DTM race.

Last summer, I knew that Andrew Ranger was competing in the NAPA 200 in Montreal, but I never even saw him. And just try to talk to Jacques Villeneuve when he's in the paddocks; it's like ''Where's Waldo?''

Formula 1 has smaller quarters for drivers to ''hide'' in, so it's easier to stumble upon them. If they're not in too much of a hurry, they will agree to share a few words with you.

Of course, those pesky PR guys and gals quickly step in, like the control freaks that they are. Anytime you interview a member of a racing team, they stand nearby and record the whole conversation. Why? To prevent misquotes and out-of-context statements. It's impossible to get some one-on-one time.

More often than not, racing journalists will catch a driver... on television, like regular people!

A new book, titled Performance Thinking, written by Jacques Dallaire, Ph.D., has been released recently and it explains how to develop mental skills for the competitive world, sports (including motorsport) and for life.

Dr. Jacques Dallaire

Interestingly, Dr. Dallaire was one of my teachers at McGill University in the '80s. In fact, I introduced Jacques to the world of motorsport, and from that interest he and other researchers created the “McGill Motorsport Research Group” destined to help race car drivers with their physical and mental preparation -- a unique feat back then.

Over the years, Dr. Dallaire has worked closely with several famous and successful race car drivers, such as Indy 500 winners Rick Mears, Emerson Fittipaldi and Helio Castroneves, as well as Formula 1 World Champions Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell.

Dr Dallaire started helping Nigel Mansell when he began his F1 career at Lotus. (Photo: WRI2)

In his book, Dr. Dallaire explains how our way of thinking has a direct influence on our performance -- in sports, in real life and at work. Throughout the 238 pages, Dr. Dallaire provides clear, simple examples to illustrates his theories. However, I strongly suggest that you read just a chapter at a time, then sleep on it, as there's a lot of crucial information to absorb.

The main objective of the book is to try to answer a fundamental and universal question: How do I mentally sabotage my own performance, and how can I learn not to?

So, Dr. Dallaire explain that individuals have first to learn the difference between their performance and the final outcome of the competition. The concept is to focus on our own performance without worrying about things we have absolutely no control over.


Since the mind can only actively process one thought at a time, it's better make it a positive one. In the case of a race car driver, that would be to think about the correct racing line through a corner rather that what's going to happen if I crash the car there?

OK, so how do I change my way of thinking?

In the last section of his book, Dr. Dallaire explains his A.C.T. model process (A game, Compare, Transfrom) that represents three key steps that are used in mental reconditioning.

An excellent book not only meant for motorsport champions, but for anyone who wants to perform better and more efficiently in their everyday lives.

Edited by Dallaire Consulting.
www.performanceprime.com

From GMM

Felipe Massa has admitted his future remains unclear, despite talks with Ferrari about the 2013 season having begun "a long time ago".

The Brazilian, who is 13 places and 139 points behind his teammate Fernando Alonso in the drivers' championship, is at risk of seeing his Ferrari career end after seven seasons.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said last week that Massa, 31, "knows what he has to do" to secure a new deal.

"I'll need to stay prepared and finish the races well to try to have better results in the second half of the year," the driver said at an event in his native Sao Paulo on Wednesday.

"The discussions began a long time ago, but until there is a deal finalised, nothing changes."

Massa said his own form is now on an upswing, after Ferrari improved the performance of the F2012 car.

But he denied that because Alonso is pushing for the championship, he faces an even tougher time to prove to Ferrari that he should stay in 2013.

"It won't hurt me," said Massa.

"If I'm near Alonso or in front of him I'll do what I can to help him win the championship, that's obvious."

Massa is quoted by Brazil's Globo as saying he has always been under pressure in F1.

"At Sauber I was fired after my first year, and being test driver I had to have good results to get another chance. Then in my first year at Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen was already signed and no one knew if Michael Schumacher would stop or not.

"Then we can speak about Valentino Rossi ... actually, in my career, I have been through more difficult times," he insisted.

"I am confident. I have a chance to continue with Ferrari. What we need to do is keep working on the car, because (in F1) nobody does anything alone.

"Yes the next races are super-important for my future, but it was also the same at the beginning of the championship.

"I'm 100 per cent focused on my results, and I believe so much in what I am capable of doing, which is what I've done many times."

Daimler would like to build a compact Mercedes-Benz with its partner Renault-Nissan according to the Financial Times Deutschland, which failed to provide sources.

Production would start in eastern Europe around 2016. A small SUV could even follow suit and share the same assembly line as some Infiniti vehicles.

Daimler wants to boost sales and attract more young customers by expanding its compact lineup from two current models (A-Class and B-Class) to five including a two-door coupe and later an SUV and shooting brake.

For now, representatives from Daimler and Renault-Nissan declined to comment on the report.

Source: autonews.com

Rumours indicate that IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard has initiated talks about double-header race weekends on street/road courses for the upcoming 2013 season.

The idea is to increase the number of races on the calendar next season, without having the costs escalating. In the event of a double-header, teams, sponsors and fans would all get more bang for their buck because they would all be already on site for the second race.

Promoters could offer better packages too, without having to invest more money and TV broadcasters could increase their viewership.

So, practices and qualifying could be held on Friday; one race could be presented on Saturday afternoon and another one on Sunday.

At the moment, only street and road courses are considered since crash damage for a road race isn't nearly as bad as on an oval, so a wreck on Saturday shouldn't put a team out of play for Sunday.

From GMM

Volkswagen has played down reports it is making plans to enter formula one in 2015.

The German weekly Sport Bild said the Wolfsburg based carmaker giant was planning to enter F1 with Sauber, or even considering getting involved in chassis design at its state of the art Porsche Motorsport Centre in Weissach.

The report said the FIA was aware of VW's plans.

But the marque's marketing and communications boss Stefan Moser said: "Nothing has changed since our last statement.

"We are continuing to focus on the WRC. Entering formula one is not an issue for us right now," he told Germany's motorsport-magazin.com.

One of Canada's most influential unions on Wednesday approved a radical plan to merge with a smaller rival to create what would be the country's largest private sector union.

Consumer Reports' online magazine is firing more strong words at Ford in a scathing blog written about MyFord Touch.

West Coast Editor Mark Vaughn: Between LA and Monterey are some of the best roads in the world, including one stretch that I would say is THE best road anywhere in the world.

Sirius XM Radio said today it had passed 50 million factory vehicle installations of its satellite radios, and the company expects to top 100 million installations by 2018.

Nissan is considering rolling out its Datsun brand in Africa to better compete with Indian and Chinese rivals for lower-income consumers, a senior executive said today.

Also in this episode: Chevrolet releases pricing information for the 2013 Sonic RS, and

Toyota plans to build a continuously variable transmission factory in China with annual capacity of 240,000 units to supply output of small, fuel-efficient cars there.

Opel is close to agreeing to stop production at its factory in Ruesselheim, Germany, for 20 days this year, a German radio station reported.

Nissan hired David Champion, whose recommendations as the head of auto testing for Consumer Reports have influenced countless car buyers, to help the company ensure its vehicles match up well against competing models.

The sportier 2013

Volkswagen has revealed the first details of its seventh-generation

Opel's largest union is referring all questions concerning any implementation of short-term working in Germany to its Works Council as reports circulate the automaker will imminently reveal details of a change in staffing hours.