Auto News 5

From IndyCar

Andretti Autosport has won five of the seven IndyCar Series races at Iowa Speedway, including the past four. James Hinchcliffe, part-owner of the streak, leads a four-entry effort to extend it July 12 in the Iowa Corn Indy 300.

Hinchcliffe led 228 of the 250 laps on the .894-mile, variably-banked oval in June 2013 en route to his third victory of the season. In his previous two seasons, Hinchcliffe led a total of 33 laps on ovals.

“The cars that the team has had at Iowa have been really competitive since they started going there,” said Hinchcliffe, who started second last year through the three heat race format.

“That gives the team a lot of confidence, but at the same time you can't rest on your laurels because you know everybody will have improved on their packages from last year and many teams tested there (in mid-June).

“Last year we had to race some really strong cars during parts of the race and we know everybody will go back with a stronger package and we have to do the same.”

In 2013, the Iowa Corn Indy 300 followed another short-track race - at the Milwaukee Mile - before the series headed to the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway tri-oval. Iowa and Pocono are reversed this year, with the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at Milwaukee IndyFest on Aug. 17.

James Hinchcliffe, Andretti Autosport (Photo: Chris Jones/IndyCar.com)

“Now you're going from one of the biggest places to the smallest,” said Hinchcliffe, whose No. 27 United Fiber & Data car finished 12th in the Pocono INDYCAR 500 on July 6. “It's a huge shift in mind-set when you get there. The first couple of laps will be tough just to get your head around how quick everything happens.”

Hinchcliffe also has a personal streak - starting in the top 10 the past seven races - and has an average starting position of 6.1 through the 11 rounds of the 18-race season. Strong race results haven't been as forthcoming; he has an average finish of 12.0 in the seven races and 13.9 for the season.

Fifth place at Belle Isle 2 and Houston 1 are season highs.

“Going back after my performance last year is something I'm looking forward to, but again you go with these raised expectations because we did have such a good race and historically the team has had such good cars there,” he said. “I have confidence in the guys that we can sort it out on Saturday night and repeat.”

From press release

Former Belgian Rallycross Champion Koen Pauwels not only races in FIA World Rallycross Championship events, but has also also been an integral part of bringing rallycross back to Belgium and creating the track that will host round six of World RX this weekend at the Circuit Jules Tacheny in Mettet.

Pauwels first approached the club that runs the circuit and it's manager Philippe Dujardin at the start of last 2013 about hosting rallycross, and after a 18 months of planning the first event at the venue is held this weekend.

“Everything is looking good. Of course, the rallycross track is new so we have had some small issues, but I think we have managed to sort them all out now,” says Pauwels. “The goal was to have rallycross back in Belgium, and now we have the World championship and the European championship this weekend, so that's very exciting.”

While helping to run the event, Pauwels will also be trying to concentrate on making it to the semi finals in his home round of the series in his Ford Focus Supercar, having already make it to the final at round one in Portugal, back in May.

“I have had such little time to think about the racing, my engineers are very good and they have taken care of everything. I hope that on Friday evening I can put my organizers badge down and get ready to put my racing suit on before practice, but I don't have any expectations of results this weekend.

“ Making the final in Portugal was a great start to the season, but in England we had bad luck and didn't make the semi finals, and in Norway the turbo broke in the third heat, we didn't fix the car because we knew we were out then. I hope for better luck here.”

From press release

Andrew Ranger has plenty of mastery on road-courses. The two-time champion of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series proved once again he can figure it out on an oval, too.

He showed that Friday night as he picked up the win in the Alberta Has Energy 300 in the inaugural event at Edmonton International Raceway.

Ranger tied the series' all-time record with his 19th career win, and won back-to-back races for the first time since August 2009 following his victory on the road course at Circuit ICAR in Quebec last week. It was also his first oval win since 2009, and fourth overall.

Andrew Ranger celebrates his 19th career win, at the Edmonton oval (Photo: Matthew Murnaghan, Getty Images for NASCAR)

“At the beginning of the day we didn't have a really good car, so we improved lap after lap,” Ranger said “During the race my car was really fantastic.”

The race was stretched to 316 laps around the quarter-mile bullring following a late caution that involved early race leader Alex Tagliani, and required Ranger, who took the lead on Lap 269, to hold off LP Dumoulin and Jason Hathaway on the final restart.

“The pass with Alex [Tagliani] was a little bit tough because it was almost one [racing] line here,” Ranger said. “He did a little mistake and I was able to take him in [Turn] 3.”

Dumoulin and Hathaway waged a battle throughout the last two laps of the race for second and Dumoulin came out ahead, followed by Hathaway, J.R. Fitzpatrick and D.J. Kennington.

Joey McColm, Larry Jackson, Scott Steckly, rookie Stefan Rzadzinski and Noel Dowler completed the top 10.

Fitzpatrick, Kennington and Steckly were all two laps down at different points during the race and rallied back for top-10 finishes.

Tagliani, who won the pole position for the race earlier in the day, finished 13th. He led a career-high 268 laps.

Former American Le Mans Series champion Ron Fellows says he is "missing the driving", now that he limits his racing schedule to a few sprint races a year.

The Windsor native has not lost his touch, apparently. Earlier this year, he celebrated his 100th career win during a Trans-Am race at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. But he doesn't drive as much as he used to.

"As you get older, it gets more difficult, particularly with the long-distance stuff with night vision," Fellows explains.

Ron Fellows at the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans (Photo: Richard Prince/Corvette Racing)

"I still enjoy doing one or two sprint races, but it's getting more and more difficult with all the business ventures," he adds, referring amongst other things to his involvement with CTMP.

As a co-owner, he is overseeing many upgrades to the Bowmanville track.

"I grew up learning how to race (at CTMP). I attended my first car race there as a kid, and I lived most of my life less than 90 minutes from the track. But I never thought I'd be involved with the ownership part of it, never!" he admits.

Fellows is also an ambassador for Corvette, and runs a high performance driving school near Las Vegas.

From IMSA.com

Race car fans need only to look at a list of the past winners at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to appreciate the heritage of Canada's classic road racing facility: Jackie Stewart, Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti.

That list includes a total of 16 F1 world champions and 10 winners of the Indianapolis 500.

The circuit started out as Mosport Park and opened up with the Player's 200, which brought sports car drivers from around the world to race in rural Ontario. Moss won the race in a Lotus 19, and made a suggestion to change a proposed hairpin to two distinct turns to make it more challenging, and the resulting Moss Corner was named in his honour.

Three-time winner Denny Hulme, Gurney and Bruce McLaren were among the winners in the original SCCA Can-Am Challenge that debuted when Mark Donohue won the inaugural race in 1966.

The circuit was also the unofficial home of the second-generation Can-Am, with Patrick Tambay, Alan Jones, Jacky Ickx, Al Unser Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve (brother of F1 driver Gilles Villeneuve) winning prior to Paul Tracy taking the final race in 1986.

Photo: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

Stewart was a two-time winner when F1 competed in the Canadian Grand Prix eight times from 1967 through 1977. He was joined in victory by Jack Brabham, Ickx, Peter Revson, Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt before Jody Scheckter won the final race in a car owned by Canadian Walter Wolf.

The World Sportscar Championship raced twice at CTMP, won by Ickx/Mass and Hans Stuck/Derek Bell, while Gurney, Bobby Unser, Foyt and Danny Ongais won the four USAC Indy Car races held between 1967 and 1978 - before the open-wheeled cars regularly raced on road circuits in the United States.

Formula 5000 - a series combining drivers SCCA road racing with USAC Indy Cars - raced between 1968-1976, with winners including Donohue, Andretti, David Hobbs and Jones. The circuit hosted 15 Formula Atlantic races, with victors including Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Bobby Rahal, Calvin Fish and David Empringham.

The ALMS raced at CTMP every year in its existence from 1999 through 2013. Rinaldo Capello set the track's all-time record of 1:04.094 (138.116 mph) in 2008 in an Audi R10 TDI. Johnny O'Connell was the leading ALMS winner with seven victories, followed by Jan Magnussen and Lucas Luhr with five each.

And this weekend, it is the United SportsCar Championship's turn to race around the 3.9-kilometre track, Sunday, in a 165-minute race.

From IndyCar

Andretti Autosport has won five of the seven IndyCar Series races at Iowa Speedway, including the past four. James Hinchcliffe, part-owner of the streak, leads a four-entry effort to extend it July 12 in the Iowa Corn Indy 300.

Hinchcliffe led 228 of the 250 laps on the .894-mile, variably-banked oval in June 2013 en route to his third victory of the season. In his previous two seasons, Hinchcliffe led a total of 33 laps on ovals.

“The cars that the team has had at Iowa have been really competitive since they started going there,” said Hinchcliffe, who started second last year through the three heat race format.

“That gives the team a lot of confidence, but at the same time you can't rest on your laurels because you know everybody will have improved on their packages from last year and many teams tested there (in mid-June).

“Last year we had to race some really strong cars during parts of the race and we know everybody will go back with a stronger package and we have to do the same.”

In 2013, the Iowa Corn Indy 300 followed another short-track race - at the Milwaukee Mile - before the series headed to the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway tri-oval. Iowa and Pocono are reversed this year, with the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at Milwaukee IndyFest on Aug. 17.

James Hinchcliffe, Andretti Autosport (Photo: Chris Jones/IndyCar.com)

“Now you're going from one of the biggest places to the smallest,” said Hinchcliffe, whose No. 27 United Fiber & Data car finished 12th in the Pocono INDYCAR 500 on July 6. “It's a huge shift in mind-set when you get there. The first couple of laps will be tough just to get your head around how quick everything happens.”

Hinchcliffe also has a personal streak - starting in the top 10 the past seven races - and has an average starting position of 6.1 through the 11 rounds of the 18-race season. Strong race results haven't been as forthcoming; he has an average finish of 12.0 in the seven races and 13.9 for the season.

Fifth place at Belle Isle 2 and Houston 1 are season highs.

“Going back after my performance last year is something I'm looking forward to, but again you go with these raised expectations because we did have such a good race and historically the team has had such good cars there,” he said. “I have confidence in the guys that we can sort it out on Saturday night and repeat.”

From press release

Belgian Maxime Martin sparked a huge surprise in qualifying for the DTM race at Moscow Raceway. With his BMW M4 DTM, the rookie driver completed his best lap of the demanding track near Moscow in 1min28.619s and thus outpaced his seasoned fellow BMW driver, Canadian Bruno Spengler.

Maxime Martin was overjoyed by his maiden pole position in the DTM (Photo: DTM.com)

For the 28-year-old, joy about his first starting grid position for only his fifth DTM race was boundless: “This is just fantastic! We keep getting better and better and it is great that I already scored my first pole at only my fifth attempt. I really like the track here in Moscow. On top of that, the car was simply great. In the race, I want to get the best out of it,” the BMW driver said.

Martin wasn't the only DTM novice to shine in qualifying. Swiss Nico Müller also showed a convincing performance, qualifying a strong third as the best-placed Audi driver.

Bruno Spengler, BMW M4 DTM (Photo: DTM.com)

“A good day for me. Making it into the third qualifying heat was my goal. That worked out and I even made it into third place. This is my best DTM qualifying result to date. I got a lot out of the car, but not everything yet. That is what I intend to do tomorrow,” the best-placed driver of an Audi RS 5 DTM commented.

Reigning DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller (Audi) is lining up on the second row of the grid alongside Müller.

Antonio Felix da Costa, BMW M4 DTM (Photo: DTM.com)

Robert Wickens had to accept a setback. The Canadian, who scored his first win of the season at Norisring, ended up 14th in qualifying.

“Prior to qualifying, we still hade made some changes on the car, but unfortunately, they didn't work out as we had intended. Now, my goal is to still score some points in the race. Because of the long straight, the DRS certainly has a big effect. The tyre strategy will be important, too. We will see what the race will bring,” the 25-year-old said.

Mattias Ekstrom, Audi RS 5 (Photo: DTM.com)

Qualifying results - Moscow International Raceway
1.Maxime Martin (BMW M4) - RMG - 1'28"619 - Q3
2.Bruno Spengler (BMW M4) - Schnitzer - 1'28"638 - Q3
3.Nico Muller (Audi RS5) - Rosberg - 1'28"714 - Q3
4.Mike Rockenfeller (Audi RS5) - Phoenix - 1'28"714 - Q3
5.Adrien Tambay (Audi RS5) - Abt - 1'28"754 - Q3
6.Augusto Farfus (BMW M4) - RBM - 1'28"760 - Q3
7.Marco Wittmann (BMW M4) - RMG - 1'28"844 - Q3
8.Miguel Molina (Audi RS5) - Abt - 1'28"925 - Q3
9.Jamie Green (Audi RS5) - Rosberg - 1'28"805 - Q2
10.Timo Glock (BMW M4) - MTEK - 1'28"855 - Q2
11.Mattias Ekstrom (Audi RS5) - Abt - 1'28"932 - Q2
12.Edoardo Mortara (Audi RS5) - Abt - 1'28"980 - Q2
13.Antonio Felix Da Costa (BMW M4) - MTEK - 1'29"058 - Q2
14.Robert Wickens (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 1'29"148 - Q2
15.Daniel Juncadella (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 1'29"231 - Q2
16.Joey Hand (BMW M4) - RBM - 1'29"270 - Q2
17.Timo Scheider (Audi RS5) - Phoenix - 1'29"425 - Q2
18.Paul Di Resta (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 1'29"509 - Q2
19.Martin Tomczyk (BMW M4) - Schnitzer - 1'29"749 - Q1
20.Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 1'29"836 - Q1
21.Gary Paffett (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 1'29"925 - Q1
22.Christian Vietoris (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 1'30"031 - Q1
23.Vitaly Petrov (Mercedes C-Coupe) - Mucke - 1'30"443 - Q1

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