Auto News 5

For years, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen Group sang the praises of diesel in the United States as a lonely trio.

Automotive News takes a look back at Subaru's advertising strategy through triumphs and pitfalls, as the brand tried to become a major player in the United States.

TrueCar is irking some dealers again, this time by demanding payment for all vehicles sold to customers who downloaded TrueCar-sponsored price offers.

Tom Doll, president of Subaru of America, wears rubber wristbands as a constant reminder of his 2013 sales goal.

Green shoots of recovery are beginning to appear for Europe's carmakers, despite continued shrinkage in the region's overall new-car sales.

Volkswagen has taken the Golf R hatchback in a more aggressive styling direction, according to photos and details released before its debut at the Frankfurt auto show.

Tom Doll, president of Subaru of America, wears rubber wristbands as a constant reminder of his 2013 sales goal.

Eager to regain market share in the price-sensitive compact segment, Toyota is cutting customer lease payments on the redesigned 2014 Corolla by setting residual values much higher than in the past, according to dealers and lease trackers.

Automotive News takes a look back at Subaru's advertising strategy through triumphs and pitfalls, as the brand tried to become a major player in the United States.

For years, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen Group sang the praises of diesel in the United States as a lonely trio.

Stout pricing has been a hallmark of the four-year sales rebound. Consumers aren't just buying a lot of vehicles.

Cadillac will expand its new vSport line as an answer to rivals' performance-oriented lines, such as Audi's S packages and BMW's M Sport models.

TrueCar is irking some dealers again, this time by demanding payment for all vehicles sold to customers who downloaded TrueCar-sponsored price offers.

Any way you look at it, the first Canadian running of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park was a smashing success.

Chock-full of excitement, from the enormous crowd, estimated at 50,000, and rivalled only by Montreal's Formula One race, to the exhilarating on-track action - with plenty of hard and fast racing, fans got every bit of their money's worth.

But it was probably the resounding slap at the finish - a slap heard around the world - that the inaugural Chevrolet Silverado 250 will be most remembered for.

Chase Elliott. (Photo: Getty for NASCAR)

The 64-lap event featured plenty of lead-swapping, paint-trading, yellow caution flags and punts into the tire walls. At the end of the day, victory was claimed by Chase Elliott in the #94 Chevrolet.

It was a controversial win by the 17-year-old Georgia native, who made contact inside on the final turn with Ty Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet Silverado, sending Dillon into the tires and taking over the lead.

Max Papis and Mike Skeen were battling for second place, when Skeen also took the inside line on turn 10, making contact with Papis' No. 14 Chevrolet and sending both into the tire wall. The resulting skirmish left the track open for Kyle Busch Motorsports' Chad Hackenbracht to take second place in the No. 51Toyota.

Ty Dillon. (Photo: Getty for NASCAR)

In third place was Miguel Paludo, Darrell Wallace Jr. in fourth with Ron Hornaday Jr. finishing fifth. Papis got back on track to finish sixth, with defending Champion James Buescher ninth and series leader Matt Crofton in tenth place.

Emotions ran high with much of the action taking place off-track. Papis and Skeen continued to trade paint during the cool-down lap and one of Skeen's crew members attempted to grab Papis while he was still behind the wheel.

Papis, one of the world's top road-racing drivers and veteran of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Formula One and Champ Car, later described Skeen as not very "sportsmanship-like" and while talking to television reporters, was caught off-guard by a vicious slap delivered by a female friend of Skeen's. To his credit, Papis' reacted merely with raised eyebrows.

Max Papis ( l ), driver of the #14 Sport Clips Chevrolet, is confronted by a member of the crew of Mike Skeen (not pictured), driver of the #6 Hawk Performance Chevrolet, in the garage area after the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. (Photo: Geoff Burke/NASCAR via Getty Images)

Elliott, who claimed he hated to win "like that" celebrated his victory by saying "sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do." It was Elliott's first NASCAR road course win - his father Bill Elliott won his first NASCAR cup race in 1983
- making them NASCAR's first father and son combination to achieve their first victories on road courses.

For an inaugural event, the Chevrolet Silverado 250 was a slap-stick crowd pleaser, and organizers were understandably thrilled. This was truly entertaining racing.

Max Papis seemed to think so.

"If you didn't like this", he said grinning, "come back again!"

Results
1. (4) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 64 laps, 141.3 rating, 47 points, $53,385.
2. (8) Chad Hackenbracht, Toyota, 64, 97.5, 42, $41,875.
3. (5) Miguel Paludo, Chevrolet, 64, 117.2, 42, $27,920.
4. (9) Darrell Wallace Jr., Toyota, 64, 84, 40, $22,660.
5. (17) Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevrolet, 64, 73, 39, $19,085.
6. (7) Max Papis, Chevrolet, 64, 89.1, 0, $14,310.
7. (18) Ross Chastain, Ford, 64, 92.4, 37, $16,060.
8. (15) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 64, 75, 36, $15,560.
9. (1) James Buescher, Chevrolet, 64, 96.8, 36, $17,960.
10. (13) Matt Crafton, Toyota, 64, 74.8, 34, $15,835.
11. (24) Bryan Silas, Ford, 64, 63.9, 33, $14,460.
12. (25) John Wes Townley, Toyota, 64, 55.7, 32, $14,285.
13. (3) Mike Skeen, Chevrolet, 64, 103.7, 31, $14,185.
14. (21) Martin Roy, Chevrolet, 64, 55.5, 0, $14,085.
15. (12) German Quiroga, Toyota, 64, 86.2, 30, $14,960.
16. (2) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 64, 92, 29, $13,785.
17. (6) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 64, 116.9, 29, $13,685.
18. (10) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 62, 68.8, 26, $13,585.
19. (22) Dakoda Armstrong, Chevrolet, 61, 42.2, 25, $13,485.
20. (30) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, 57, 33, 24, $14,010.
21. (26) Derek White, Chevrolet, rear hub, 55, 42.7, 0, $12,035.
22. (11) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 54, 63.8, 22, $11,935.
23. (28) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Ram, 52, 34.4, 21, $10,735.
24. (23) Max Gresham, Chevrolet, 47, 39.7, 20, $10,635.
25. (14) Alex Guenette, Chevrolet, oil line, 45, 50.7, 19, $10,735.
26. (19) Joey Coulter, Toyota, 41, 43.5, 18, $10,535.
27. (20) Brennan Newberry, Chevrolet, transmission, 38, 51.3, 17, $10,485.
28. (16) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, gas line, 34, 35.1, 16, $10,435.
29. (27) Carl Long, Chevrolet, brakes, 4, 29.5, 0, $10,385.
30. (29) Chris Lafferty, Chevrolet, clutch, 3, 28.8, 14, $10,835.

Schmidt Motorsport's Simon Pagenaud won his second IndyCar race of the 2013 season and this time it was in the streets of Baltimore where he had to work hard for it.

Although Pagenaud had been in the thick of it all afternoon, the Frenchman was one of the driver involved in a fierce battle for the lead especially with Marco Andretti (Andretti) following a late restart with only seven laps remaining.

Josef Newgarden (Sarah Fisher Racing) was also part of the final showdown but unfortunately for him, his tires were not able to let him battle it out with Pagenaud in the last two laps.

Newgarden held on for second, putting him onto the podium for the first time in his IndyCar career, while Sebastien Bourdais was one of many to survive contact on his way to third for Dragon.

Simon Pagenaud. (Photo: IndyCar)

There were a lot of incidents during the race involving no less than the main title contenders who had their share of trouble.

Restarts were problematic causing a string of yellow flags, the most significant came when Will Power (Penske) turned towards the wall on the front straight and slammed straight into Scott Dixon (Ganassi), forcing him out of the race.

Points leader Helio Castroneves was involved in an early incident which forced him to pit for a new front wing, a bad pitstop in which he was dropped off the jack before his right-front wheel had been fitted, and a drive-through penalty for hitting one of his own tyres in the pits.

But despite all those misfortunes, the Brazilian extended his points lead to 49. He crossed the line in ninth.

Results - 75 laps:
Pos  Driver   Team/Engine   Time/Gap
1. Simon Pagenaud  Schmidt/Honda  2h16m32.3443s
2. Josef Newgarden  Fisher/Honda  +4.1592s
3. Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy  +7.9588s
4. Justin Wilson  Coyne/Honda  +10.7598s
5. Simona de Silvestro   KV/Chevy   +11.6017s
6. Charlie Kimball   Ganassi/Honda   +21.4160s
7. James Hinchcliffe  Andretti/Chevy   +22.8422s
8. Sebastian Saavedra  Dragon/Chevy   +25.5377s
9. Helio Castroneves  Penske/Chevy   +29.3117s
10. Marco Andretti  Andretti/Chevy   +40.5499s
11. Tristan Vautier  Schmidt/Honda  +1 lap
12. Oriol Servia  Panther/Chevy  +1 lap
13. EJ Viso  Andretti/Chevy  +1 lap
14. Ed Carpenter  Carpenter/Chevy   +1 lap
15. Tony Kanaan  KV/Chevy  +2 laps*
16. Stefan Wilson  Coyne/Honda  +3 laps
17. Graham Rahal   Rahal/Honda  +7 laps*
18. Will Power  Penske/Chevy  +8 laps
* Not running at finish

Retirements:
Scott Dixon  Ganassi/Honda  52 laps
Ryan Hunter-Reay  Andretti/Chevy  42 laps
Dario Franchitti  Ganassi/Honda   22 laps
Luca Filippi  Herta/Honda  12 laps
James Jakes   Rahal/Honda  5 laps
Takuma Sato   Foyt/Honda  4 laps

From press release

Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer strengthened their challenge for the lead of the World Endurance Drivers Championship by taking the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro to victory in the 6 Hours of Sao Pãulo, the fourth round of 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship. 

Despite unexpectedly losing a wheel in the fourth hour and suffering further delays, the No.2 driven by Kristensen, McNish and Duval maintained second place overall and finished one lap ahead of the only other LMP1 finisher, the Privateer entry of Rebellion Racing. The No.12 Lola Toyota of Nick Heidfeld, Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche finished two laps behind the Audi 1-2 after having a trouble-free and unchallenged run from start to finish. 

Photo: Audi Motorsport

Toyota Racing's challenge for the LMP Manufacturers World Championship received an early blow when the No.8 Toyota TS030 of Stéphane Sarrazin was an innocent victim in a collision with the No. 32 Lotus.  The car was heavily damaged after crashing into the barriers and, despite his best efforts, the Frenchman was unable to rejoin and the car was forced to retire after just 35 minutes of the 6-hour race.

McNish-Kristensen-Duval now have 112 points in the World Endurance Drivers Championship standings, with today's 6 Hours of Sao Paulo winners on 90 points, and Audi has extended its lead in the World Endurance Manufacturers Championship to 128 points against Toyota Racing's 67. 

Photo: Audi Motorsport

In LMP2 the No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 03 Nissan of Roman Rusinov, Mike Conway and John Martin had a faultless race from flag to flag, and crossed the finish line a lap ahead of their nearest class rivals, the No. 35 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan of Bertrand Baguette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Martin Plowman. 

In GTE class, the No.51 Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella was involved in a nose-to-tail battle for the 6 Hours of São Paulo with the No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke.  Just 1.4 seconds separated the two cars at the end of 6 hours of hard racing and the result for both partly compensated for the misfortune of their different Pro team mates. The No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari was involved in a spectacular conflagration which destroyed the rear end of the 458 Italia - driver Toni Vilander was lucky to escape unharmed in any way - and the No.99 of local hero Bruno Senna and Rob Bell was caught up in another car's spin across the track which subsequently damaged its rear suspension beyond repair.

In LMGTE Am, Aston Martin Racing was able to claim a much deserved class victory, the No.96 Vantage V8 of Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall crossing the finish line one lap ahead of the No. 81 Star Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia of Enzo Potolicchio, Rui Aguas and Davide Rigon, the young Italian making an assured debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship.  Porsche was the third manufacturer to mount the podium in the category, the No.88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda and Paulo Ruberti taking third place. 

The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) recently conducted a survey of 903 Canadian consumers in regards to the various standard vehicle safety features. Besides ABS brakes and traction control, which are well known, less than 35% of those surveyed confirmed that they have firsthand knowledge of the other safety features.

‘'A growing number of safety features are now standard equipment on new vehicles throughout the automotive industry, as research has proven their effectiveness in protecting motorists,'' explained TIRF Vice-president research, Ward Vanlaar. ‘'The advantages that these systems provide cannot be fully experienced if drivers fail to understand how they function and continue to drive without proper interaction with these systems.''

The TIRF has launched a website in order to provide Canadians the information they need in order to understand these safety systems: brainonboard.ca

Photo: BMW

From GMM

Fernando Alonso is set to become the owner of a professional cycling team.

On Sunday, the Ferrari driver sent the 'Twittersphere' into a frenzy when he announced that "important news" will shortly be flowing.

Some wondered if he would announce a switch to Red Bull, confirm Kimi Raikkonen as his next teammate, or perhaps reveal his engagement to Russian model girlfriend Dasha.

Actually, specialist cycling media outlets on Monday said Alonso, a road cycling and fitness enthusiast, has bought the Spanish world tour team Euskaltel-Euskadi.

El Periodico said Alonso and his sponsors will fund a EUR 6 million budget for 2014 for the team, which was set to fold at the end of this year.

Euskaltel-Euskadi, from the Basque region, released a statement confirming the agreement with Alonso, adding that more information will be forthcoming.

Fernando Alonso training on bike. (Photo: Twitter Alonso)

Jack Hawksworth started from pole position, led every laps and crossed the finish line without any treat winning his third Indy Lights race of 2013, this time around the streets of Baltimore.

Sage Karam made a great start from fourth, and while he managed a good run on Hawksworth on the first restart, he spent the first part of the second leg fending off Gabby Chaves in a Schmidt 1-2-3. Second has given Karam the points lead.

Chaves was well clear of Irishman Peter Dempsey, but it was a poor race for title hopeful Carlos Munoz. The Andretti Autosport driver crashed into the wall. A braking issue was suspected to have caused the accident.

Jack Hawksworth. (Photo: Sam Schmidt Motorsport)

Results - 35 laps:
Pos   Driver   Team  Time/Gap
1. Jack Hawksworth  Schmidt  56m50.6921s
2. Sage Karam  Schmidt  +13.4655s
3. Gabby Chaves  Schmidt  +17.7958s
4. Peter Dempsey   Belardi  +22.0420s
5. Jorge Goncalvez  Belardi   +49.9380s
6. Matthew Di Leo  MDL/Dragffy  +55.1763s
7. Giancarlo Serenelli   Belardi   +4 laps*
8. Zach Veach  Andretti  +4 laps
* Not running at finish

Retirements:
Carlos Munoz   Andretti  5 laps
Dalton Kellett  Pabst  1 lap
Juan Pablo Garcia   Moore  0 laps

Argentinian driver Jose Maria Lopez, who won one of the WTCC rounds presented in his country in August, is rumored to test the new Citroën C-Elysée WTCC in Valencia on september 9th and 10th.

Lopez, who currently runs the argentinian touring car championship, the TC 2000, made a great appearance in WTCC in Termas de Rio Hondo where he claimed victory in the second round driving a Wiechers Sport's BMW 320 TC.

Jose Maria Lopez. (Photo: WTCC)

Jose Maria Lopez, from Santa Fe, Argentina, is set to have a test with Citroën in Valencia alongside Sébastien Loeb and Yvan Muller, who are already confirmed for 2014 in the french squad. A third car will probably be ran in WTCC by Citroën, and former-F1 driver Robert Kubica could ran selected WTCC rounds, depending on his WRC program, as the Pole will be also involved in the WRC championship with Citroën.

The french team would be now looking for other drivers to drive the third car in the remaining races of the season, maybe for one-shot appearances.