Racing

The Dakar to return - in South America

By Noel McKeegan

01:37 February 18, 2008 PST

February 18, 2008 Just six weeks after the last minute cancellation of the 2008 event due to threats of terrorist attacks, organizers have announced that the 2009 Dakar will take place in Argentina and Chile. The planned 9000 km loop starting and finishing in Buenos Aires from the 3rd to the 18th of January is the first to be held outside of Africa. As well as the name, organizers aim to retain the spectacular and varied topography, demanding competition and the spirit of the legendary 30 year old race. Read More

Details confirmed for first-ever Formula One night race

By Noel McKeegan

18:24 January 31, 2008 PST

February 1, 2008 The timetable has been set for September's Formula 1(TM) Singapore Grand Prix, the first ever Grand Prix to be held at night. Read More

Cannondale's new Scalpel XC racer features zero-pivot swingarm

By Loz Blain

22:10 January 28, 2008 PST

Already the dominant bike in cross-country racing, the Cannondale Scalpel has received some significant upgrades for this year's model. The most fascinating is the company's decision to do away with a chainstay pivot on the rear suspension – instead employing a unique bending carbon fiber unit that uses its designed-in flex to improve bump handling and stiffness while increasing rear suspension travel to 100mm. Combined with Cannondale's amazing single-sided Lefty fork and a host of other new developments that see the bike's overall weight drop by 10%, the new Scalpel is quite a stunning piece of engineering. Read More

First glimpse of Aston Martin's Vantage GT2 race car

By Noel McKeegan

15:25 January 6, 2008 PST

Aston Martin Racing has released a sketch showing its first impressions of the new GT2 racing car. Based on the V8 engined Aston Martin Vantage road car and to be known as the Vantage GT2, the vehicle is designed to run on either standard race fuel or E85 bio-ethanol (where regulations allow), a conversion that was successfully completed for the DBRS9 in 2007. The new car also gives Aston Martin the mantle as the only manufacturer to offer cars in every GT racing category: GT1 – DBR9; GT2 – Vantage GT2; GT3 – DBRS9; GT4 – Vantage N24. Aston Martin chairman, David Richards, will be announcing Aston Martin Racing’s 2008 plans at the Autosport International show in Birmingham, UK, on Thursday 10 January at 10.45 am. Read More

Dakar Rally canceled due to terrorist threats

By Loz Blain

18:10 January 4, 2008 PST

January 5, 2008 For the first time in its 30-year history, the Dakar Rally has been canceled, the day before it was due to start, due to direct threats launched against the race by terrorist organizations based in the area. It appears the event may be moved to sub-Saharan Africa from 2009 onwards. We commiserate with race fans, organizers and the 550-odd competitors for many of whom this "Everest of off-road" event is a lifelong dream. Read More

F1 shock: no more engine development allowed for 10 years

By Loz Blain

00:30 December 10, 2007 PST

December 10, 2007 Last Friday, at the World Motor Sport Council in Monaco, the FIA, which governs Formula One racing, made a decision to immediately freeze engine development for the next 10 years. Unbelievably, the engine each F1 team presents and homologates by the end of next March will be the engine that team races until 2017 – and the billions of Euros normally spent on engine development will be channeled into peripheral systems. The FIA sees development outside the engine, such as with Kinetic Energy Recovery, as a far more valuable contribution to road car development than spending money on squeezing another 1000rpm and 30 horsepower out of an engine that's already spinning three times as fast as the one in your family sedan. Read More

The HB Special: a driving experience from yesteryear

By Loz Blain

22:33 November 8, 2007 PST

Classic racecar fans might find this offer appealing: if the idea of owning, restoring and maintaining a 1950s racecar requires too much commitment, why not “experience” one for a week through the twisty mountain roads of Europe? Contrary to the modern trend of making supercars more and more easy to drive with electronic assistance, the Huet Brothers’ Triumph TR6-based “HB Special” is very much an accomplished driver’s car that rewards concentration, skill and finesse if you want to get the most out of it. Mind the dress code, though! Read More

America’s only 180mph rolling-road wind tunnel

By Loz Blain

01:21 October 1, 2007 PDT

October 1, 2007 The Windshear rolling-road wind tunnel in North Carolina will be one of the fastest and most advanced facilities in the world, and the only in America capable of 180mph (around 300kph) testing. The US$40 million complex will be an excellent resource for Formula One, NASCAR and most other racing teams – but interestingly, street-legal supercars like the Bugatti Veyron at the forefront of high-speed aerodynamic design still have nowhere to test their 250+mph models. Read More

Speedsailing records tumble at Walvis Bay

By Loz Blain

20:32 September 20, 2007 PDT

September 21, 2007 Speedsailing competitors from all over the world flocked to Walvis Bay in Namibia recently where a combination of high winds and smooth seas saw several records tumble. The fastest run of the week was by Italian Patrick Diethelm, who completed the 500m pass at a blazing average of 43.02 knots – a ground speed of just under 80kmh and a new Italian men’s record. Read More

A closer look at the black art of aerodynamics in Formula One

By Loz Blain

03:56 August 21, 2007 PDT

August 21, 2007 Aerodynamics is now viewed by Formula 1 teams as the single most important piece of race car design the rules allow them to control. A good aerodynamic setup makes an F1 car slippery in a straight line, maximizes acceleration and top speed, and provides huge amounts of downforce to mash the car’s tyres into the tarmac and add extra grip in the corners. Massive money is spent on tweaking the wings and body shape for that elusive perfect flow of air. Toyota’s Head of Aerodynamics, Mark Gillan, explains further in the second part of Panasonic Toyota Racing’s ‘Inside a Formula 1 Car‘ series. Read More

Power Tool Drag Racing weapon - the chainsaw powered wheelbarrow

By Noel McKeegan

22:37 August 11, 2007 PDT

August 12, 2007 Since our first report back in May we’ve been waiting impatiently to see what flavor of unlikely contraptions would emerge at the Silverline Power Tool Drag Racing contest - and if the belt sander-driven toaster and the chainsaw powered wheelbarrow are any indication, the entries did not disappoint. Amazing photo library with this story! Read More

World's first hydrogen-powered racecar to debut this weekend

By Loz Blain

July 15, 2007 Alternative engine technologies face several challenges in the battle to be viewed as a serious alternative to the internal combustion engine - and a key hurdle is the perception that they can't deliver enough power and performance to compete with their fossil-fuel burning counterparts. How better to dispel such fears than to race a hydrogen-powered car against petrol-powered competitors? The first hydrogen-powered race car will take to the track this weekend in the worldwide Formula Student category, and if the notion of green car racing catches on, we can look forward to watching the ingenuity of the racing community making some significant contributions to the development of emission-free consumer cars in the near future. Read More

Limited Edition Repsol Replica Blade CBR1000RR

By Mike Hanlon

March 1, 2007 Nicky Hayden's 2006 MotoGP Championship has prompted Honda to announce a limited edition Repsol replica Fireblade CBR1000RR which will be released into European and American markets later this month. It’s the second Repsol Replica Fireblade, the first coming in 2005 to commemorate a decade of Repsol sponsorship. Repsol began sponsoring the Honda MotoGP Team in 1995 when Michael Doohan won his second of five consecutive World GP 500 titles. Since then the team has won seven of the last eleven World Championship crowns including last year's Constructor, Team and Rider's Championship. The CBR1000RR features a host of race-developed technological innovations including the PGM-DSFI dual sequential fuel injection system, the Mass-Centralised Chassis Configuration, the Gravity Die-Cast Aluminium Frame, the Unit-Pro-Arm Swingarm, Radial-Mount Front Brake Callipers and the Electronic Steering Damper. Though it’s nowhere near an exact replica of the racing machines ridden by Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa, the new Repsol Honda Fireblade certainly looks authentic. Read More

New 370 km/h ultra-high performance Pirelli PZero

By Mike Hanlon

February 28, 2007 Founded in 1872, Pirelli is known variously around the world for its Pirelli International Award (involving the communication of Science & Technology), its sponsorship of Italian Soccer Club Internazionale and the Brazilian soccer club Palmeiras, the Pirelli Tower in Milan, its highly-sought-after calendars and more recently its short films starring Uma Thurman, but mainly because of its tyres. To celebrate 100 years of motorsport, the Italian icon has launched its most technologically advanced ultra-high performance tyre ever - the P Zero. The tyre features a new tread pattern, innovative compounds and structure, and is protected by five patents. It is already being fitted to the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, the Lamborghini Murciélago and Gallardo, the Audi R8 and S8, the Aston Martin DB9, the Maserati Quattroporte, the Jaguar XK, the Mercedes AMG, and will shortly appear on the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and the hottest Porsche and BMW models. Read More

MotoGP Season underway for Ducati at Wrooom

By Mike Hanlon

January 16, 2007 The Wrooom - MotoGP Press Ski Meeting 2007 starts each new racing year at Madonna di Campiglio in the beautiful Trentino region of Italy. Every year this traditional appointment sees the Ducati Marlboro Team riders get their season underway in the Italian mountains and it’s happening right now for a week, with the highlight being the unveiling of the new Ducati Desmosedici GP7 built for the new era of 800cc MotoGP tomorrow. The week is the first appearance in Ducati colours for new rider and newlywed Casey Stoner, alongside his new ontrack teammate, three time World Champion Loris Capirossi. One obvious component of the Ducati week was the Superbike team - while the MotoGP team is in the snow, the Ducati Superbike team is topping the leaderboards in Australia in roasting heat. The bookies rate Valentino Rossi as an odds-on favourite to reclaim his crown in 2007 with Hayden, Pedrosa and Capirossi as the most likely to stand in his way, with Stoner on the next rung of betting. Bayliss is odds-on favourite to take the crown for Ducati again in 2007. Read More

HONDA unveils RC212V – 2007 MotoGP machine

By Mike Hanlon

December 7, 2006 Having wrestled the World MotoGP Riders and Manufacturers Championships away from Valentino Rossi and Yamaha, Honda’s next big challenge is to keep them and next year with the rules changing to an 800cc limit, suddenly everything is up for grabs again and in post-season testing of the new 800 machines Honda, Yamaha, Ducati and Suzuki have all shown they will have competitive machinery next year . We’ve already done a complete technical rundown (with pics) of the RC211V 1000cc MotoGP bike which Honda is leaving behind – herewith is the official Honda unveiling of its 800cc, V4 replacement with a stunning all-new chassis built with mass centralization and ultimate handling in mind. Welcome to the future… Read More

Ilmor 800 snares MotoGP championship point

By Mike Hanlon

October 20, 2006 The goal was quite simply to finish the race for the first-time MotoGP team Ilmor SRT, but the Sultan of Slide, Garry McCoy, went one better putting in a consistent performance to bring the team its first Championship point. Given that it was the first 800cc capacity bike (built for 2007 regs), it suggests the 800cc MotoGP series next year might be even closer again. It’s a long way from challenging for the win, but such an impressive first up showing suggests the fledgling team will be a lot further up the field by the time the 2007 championship begins next year. Read More

ABN AMRO ONE retires from round-the-world racing and sets itself for Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

By Mike Hanlon

October 19, 2006 ABN AMRO ONE, the winner of the 2005-6 Volvo Round-the-world Ocean Race will sail in the 2006 Rolex Sydney–Hobart Yacht Race. The world-class race begins its 62nd running on December26 and takes the fleet out of spectacular Sydney Harbour then down the East Coast of Australia, across treacherous Bass Strait finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. The crew has its sights firmly on line honours and a race record if the conditions suit the wide-transom boat. The current race record of 42 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds is held by Wild Oats. Read More

Smart technology for racing cyclists

By Mike Hanlon

October 11, 2006 The future of sport is not just about training hard, it’s about monitoring the body and making intelligent decisions using the data available and a fine example of the high-tech understanding being developed in sport science is the work being done by Dr Martin Becker of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE. Becker has developed a new intelligent training system which uses sensors, computers and actuators to help racing cyclists optimize their performance. Each bicycle is fitted with equipment that constantly registers the forces acting on the pedals. Further significant factors are the rider’s pulse and pedaling frequency, the speed and the gradient. All these readings are collected in a processor on the bicycle and radioed to a central processing unit where they are analyzed. The computer delivers individual training recommendations to each rider: He can view them on a display mounted on the handlebars or listen to them over headphones. Read More

Honda wins MotoGP Constructors World Championship and reveals the secrets of its RC211V

By Mike Hanlon

October 3, 2006 With five riders on three different brands of machinery still capable of winning the World MotoGP riders championship, it has gone almost unnoticed that Honda has taken its 17th Constructors’ Championship and eclipsed MV Agusta’s 16 Constructors’ titles. With 203 premier class victories since it first competed at the highest level in 1966, Honda now dominates the history of MotoGP by almost any measure. Astoundingly, at the Japanese GP, it called a press conference and in an unprecedented move it revealed the complete engine internals of its RC211V, the bike which had won 47 (58.75%) of the 80 races since the 1000cc formula was introduced. Our image gallery for this story contains imagery of many of the famous riders who have tasted World Championship success with Honda such as Hailwood, Spencer, Rossi, Lawson, Gardner and Doohan, plus the bikes they rode from the RC181 of the sixties to the NSR500 V4 and high res imagery of the internals of the RC211V – clearly Honda feels that the internals of the V4 800 of next year with its hydraulically operated valves are so far removed from the V5 1000 that it has nothing to fear. But if you’re a lover of fine engineering, feast your eyeballs on the Honda’s internals. Read More

Microsoft goes F1 racing

By Mike Hanlon

July 7, 2006 In February this year we discussed the fascinating call by the governing body of international motorsport, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), for expressions of interest in providing the standard electronic control system for all F1 cars as part of the drive to reduce the sport's prohibitive costs. Overnight it was announced that Microsoft MES has been selected as the official ECU supplier to F1 in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Now the world's largest software vendor has had its eye on the automotive environment as one of the cornerstones of future computing for some time, recently winning Best Telematics Solution at the Telematics Detroit 2006 with its Microsoft Windows Mobile for Automotive platform, BUT ... let's hope the boys and gals from Redmond are on the ball with this one as anything less than perfect is not good enough in the world of F1 and it could prove to be the almightiest gaffe in Public Relations history if perfection isn't achieved. A large chunk of the world's population watches a Formula One race and F1 drivers are particularly unforgiving of technical failure when they get a microphone in front of them. Read More

Night MotoGP racing on the agenda

By Mike Hanlon

April 25, 2006 As television plays an ever greater role in the globalization and monetization of sport, sport is evolving. Once upon a time a time difference meant just delaying the telecast on the TV, but as the internet has hastened deadlines and live sport means “when it’s actually” happening, time-shifting events is now being considered. One such innovation on the horizon is night racing, a regular and ever more frequent autoracing fixture in recent years but until now not tried in the pinnacle sports of either car or motorcycle racing. Earlier this month the three permanent riders on the MotoGP Security Commission (Valentino Rossi, Kenny Roberts Junior and Loris Capirossi) tried out the Losail circuit in Qatar during full darkness to evaluate the feasibility of holding races at night. MotoGP points leader tried the circuit on a Ducati 999R, the headlamps of which proved to be indispensable for those parts of the track without the benefit of artificial lighting. Similarly, Rossi rode a Yamaha sports bike and Roberts rode a Honda CBR1000RR sports bike in their respective determinations. Read More

A Century Of Grand Prix Racing At Goodwood Festival of Speed

By Mike Hanlon

March 29, 2006 The world’s foremost motorsport event, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is now approaching rapidly (July 7-9) so now’s the time to book those appointments in the UK to ensure your national and international business trips coincide. One of the many highlights of this year’s festival will be the celebration of one hundred years of Grand Prix history. Renault’s Malaysian Grand Prix winner Giancarlo Fisichella will be there with last year’s World Championship-winning Renault R25 and so will be the closest-surviving relative of the car that won the first-ever Grand Prix. That first Grand Prix – the French Grand Prix which was held over two days on a 60-mile road course near Le Mans in June 1906 – was won by Renault’s Hungarian driver Ferenc Szisz aboard his 13-litre 90CV AX. (see image library for some fantastic images from the first ever Grand Prix). Read More

Buell introduces XBRR Production Racing Motorcycle

By Mike Hanlon

January 27, 2006 Erik Buell and company have come full circle with the introduction of the 2007 Buell XBRR, a limited-edition production racing motorcycle designed exclusively for closed course competition. A spiritual successor to Buell’s first motorcycle, the 1983 RW750, the new XBRR is poised to change the face of privateer racing with a professional-level, race-ready, production-based platform featuring top-shelf racing technology and typical Buell innovation. The full-fairing Buell XBRR features a modified XB Thunderstorm 1340cc (103.6mm bore x 79mm stroke) air/oil-cooled V-Twin motor rated at 150-hp (measured at the crankshaft). The engine is fed by a dual-downdraft 62mm throttle-body electronic fuel injection system and a ram-air intake system integrated with a new wind-tunnel developed carbon fibre fairing. Read More

Star Wars-style Pod Racing comes to life - the Rocket Racing League blasts off

By Mike Hanlon

October 28, 2005 Think of a cross between Star Wars Pod Racing and Formula 1 and you have the Rocket Racing League (RRL) – a new formula racing competition with nuclear levels of spectator appeal. The first demonstration flight of the new RRL series was held earlier this month at the X PRIZE CUP in New Mexico (USA). Former astronaut Colonel Rick Searfoss piloted the RRL's EZ-Rocket in a series of crowd-thrilling manoeuvres. The EZ-Rocket is the precursor vehicle to the Mark-1 X-Racer, which is currently under development with planned test flights in the Spring and Summer of 2006. The Mark-1 will utilise a modified airframe from Velocity Aircraft and a single 1,500 - 1,800 pound liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene rocket engine. This engine will have twice the thrust of the development vehicle and will be extremely bright and visible in contrast to the development prototype EZ-Rocket which uses LOX and alcohol. As an aerospace entertainment organization, the RRL will combine the competition of racing with the excitement of rocketry with a series of competitions across the United States, with the finals taking place each year at the X PRIZE Cup in New Mexico. RRL races will operate much like auto races, with the exception that the "track" will be in the sky. Courses are expected to be around two miles long, one mile wide, and about 5,000 feet high, running perpendicular to spectators. The X-Racers, will take off from a runway both in a staggered fashion and side-by side and fly a course based on the design of a Grand Prix competition, with long straight-aways, vertical ascents, and deep banks. Each pilot will follow his or her own virtual "tunnel" or "track" of space through which to fly, safely separated from their competitors by a few hundred feet. Read More