Elsewhere in Racing
Updates from the Rest of the Racing World By Mark Alan Jones, Australia
Atlas F1 Magazine Writer
Earnhardt Probe Finds Car Design Flaws According to Newspaper
Investigators have concluded that safety problems in the design of the car and not a broken seat belt caused the death of Dale Earnhardt at the Daytona 500, the Orlando Sentinel has reported.
Citing "reliable sources close to the investigation" who requested anonymity, the newspaper said the four-month probe essentially confirmed the findings of an expert who determined Earnhardt died of a sudden head-whip when his car hit a wall on February 18. The newspaper said NASCAR officials had declined to comment on the findings and it was unclear what NASCAR would do with them.
NASCAR has declined to divulge the identity of its experts or the results until the investigation is complete. The report is scheduled to be released on August 21 in Atlanta. Even before Earnhardt's crash, the Sentinel had run a lengthy three-part series critical of NASCAR safety in light of the recent deaths of three drivers due to basal skull fractures similar to the one he would sustain.
The newspaper also became directly involved in a dispute with the driver's widow.
At the time of Earnhardt's death, a Florida sunshine law allowed anyone to look at autopsy photographs, but his widow Teresa obtained a court order restraining the viewing of photos of his body. The Sentinel fought that restraining order, went to mediation and as a result was allowed to have an expert, Barry Myers, review the autopsy photos and make a report.
Myers said the seat belt, even if it had been broken in the crash, did not cause the fatal injury. Rather, a violent forward motion straining to separate the head from the neck caused death, he said. Since Earnhardt's death, a significant majority of drivers in NASCAR's top-level Winston Cup series have begun wearing head-restraint devices.
The Sentinel said six drivers wearing such devices -- Jeff Gordon, Ward Burton, Michael Waltrip, Roy 'Buckshot' Jones, Elton Sawyer and Earnhardt's teammate, Mike Skinner -- have since survived crashes at angles conducive to the kind of skull fracture that apparently killed Earnhardt.
The most far-reaching independent inquiry in NASCAR's 52-year history found three key points, the Sentinel's sources said.
- the race cars built by teams and inspected by NASCAR lack sufficient crush resistance in the front ends to protect drivers in crashes. Redesigning probably will be recommended, the Sentinel said, with energy-absorbent bumpers and the aluminum-foam 'crush box' currently under development.
- Earnhardt's fatal skull fracture will not be blamed on a broken seat belt. NASCAR announced five days after Earnhardt's death that a broken seat belt had been found in the car, and Daytona International Speedway physician Steve Bohannon offered the theory, later withdrawn, that the breaking of the belt caused Earnhardt to hit his head on the steering wheel.
- emergency medical technician Tommy Propst might have incorrectly concluded that Earnhardt's lap belt was intact when he arrived at the crash scene.
The Sentinel said according to its sources Biodynamic Research Corp. of San Antonio was investigating the body movement in Earnhardt's death while the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln was probing the car crash.
The newspaper said Autoliv, a Swedish-based manufacturer of automobile safety equipment with a research and testing center in Auburn Hills, Michigan, was assisting in the investigation. The companies declined to confirm or deny any involvement.
One other by-product of the crash was not mentioned in the latest Sentinel story. After the seat belt was blamed, the founder of seat belt maker Simpson Performance Products, Bill Simpson, received death threats and resigned his position.
Provided by Reuters
Gordon's Brickyard Birthday
DuPont's Rainbow Warrior, Jeff Gordon, won his third Brickyard 400 at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway the day after his 30th birthday.
Gordon pounced on Sterling Marlin on the second last caution after Marlin missed a gear, to take the lead after steadily working his way through the field from his 27th starting position.
Earlier in the race the DEI team looked like collecting the win, with Steve Park leading for most of the race, but Park finished in seventh. Teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr battled though the field to tenth after being delayed at the start of the race after a clash with Hut Stricklin.
A week later, visiting the former Formula One venue of Watkins Glen, Gordon won again, leading home the Fords of Jeff Burton and Jeremy Mayfield.
The wins carry Gordon further into the lead of the Winston Cup trail, a lead he had taken from Dale Jarrett at Pocono.
Results of NASCAR Winston Cup Round 21, Brickyard 400, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana, USA:
Standings (after round 22): Jeff Gordon 3027, Dale Jarrett 2867, Ricky Rudd 2848, Sterling Marlin 2704, Tony Stewart 2703, Rusty Wallace 2652, Dale Earnhardt Jr 2592, Bobby Labonte 2561, Kevin Harvick 2557, Johnny Benson 2518 etc
Helio's Triumphant Return to Mid-Ohio Fences
Helio got to climb Mid-Ohio's fences for the second year running after a dominant 1-2 for the Penske squad, leading home teammate Gil de Ferran by 1.5 seconds. Patrick Carpentier was third, racking up another podium spot for the Forsythe team, who have come rapidly to the boil in recent weeks.
It was de Ferran who made the early running though, leading his teammate until the first pit stop. De Ferran was in first and got caught in traffic on his outlap, losing track position to Castroneves. Castroneves was able to hold the lead after the first round of pitstops. After the second round of stops, the lead fell to Oriol Servia who stayed out when most drivers pitted during the full course yellow caused by a big shunt for Adrian Fernandez. Servia led for 11 laps until he had to pit, returning control of the race to the Penskes.
Carpentier spent most of the day battling with Dario Franchitti, even spearing off at the same corner at the same time. Carpentier had car speed on the Scot and was able to keep clear in the second half of the race, coming home for a third consecutive podium finish.
Fourth place fell to Paul Tracy, who had the race unfold around him and left him with fourth when the music stopped. Tony Kanaan claimed fifth spot ahead of Roberto Moreno, who put in the drive of the race to come from the eighth row of the grid to finish sixth. Seventh was Alex Tagliani, proving the improved consistency at Forsythe Racing isn't limited to Carpentier's car.
Series leader Kenny Brack had a thoroughly frustrating weekend. Struggling with car set-up, Brack was buried midfield when he was struck by another car attempting an opportunisitic overtaking move. Of all people, it was teammate Max Papis, who later had to suffer a verbal dressing down by team boss Bobby Rahal in the press after the race. This is the second time in three races that the two drivers have come together in a race ending both their chances.
The two Penskes have climbed up the championship standings, with Kenny Brack's series lead now a solitary point over Castroneves while de Ferran jumps up to third.
Next stop is the popular Elkhart Lake circuit in Wisconsin.
Results of FedEx CART World Series, Round 13, Mid-Ohio, Ohio, USA:
Brack Confirms in Chicago
The new 'Superswede' Kenny Brack opened up a gap over his title rivals after taking the Shell Team Rahal Lola Ford Cosworth to victory in the Target Grand Prix. Brack again proved the Lola-Ford was the combination to have on the ovals, leading home Patrick Carpentier, the young Canadian adding to the Forsythe Player's team's run of recent results, backing up after his last start win at Michigan. Defending series champion Gil de Ferran was third ahead of the ever improving New Zealand rookie, Scott Dixon.
Tony Kanaan was the initial leader after the start and made the early running, leading the first 48 laps of the race. Helio Castroneves then took up the running from Jimmy Vasser and Adrian Fernandez, with Kenny Brack climbing up to fifth. Shortly after taking fourth, Brack was the first of the leaders to pit, dropping to eleventh. Kanaan pitted shortly afterwards, handing the lead to Vasser. Soon Vasser, Roberto Moreno and Scott Dixon pitted, which saw the race settle down again, with Helio Castroneves making the running from Brack, Dario Franchitti, Memo Gidley and Alex Zanardi.
The first yellow flag appeared on lap 112 after Michel Jourdain Jr spun in turn one, then stalled in turn two. The only other incident of note to this point was the black flag for Bryan Herta after being pinged for pit lane speeding. Most of the field took to the pits, but the top eight remained out. At the restart, Brack tucked in behind teammate Max Papis who was unlapping himself, which saw Brack take the lead for the first time.
By lap 170 Franchitti was leading the race after some of the front runners pitted for a final stop, dropping them out of the top ten briefly. The new front runners still needed to make a pit stop to make the finish. Activity started to get frantic as the cars at the front pitted one by one. Kanaan, Fernandez, Franchitti and Gidley all led during this period. Andretti retired with a mechanical failure, Jourdain spun again, this time crunching the wall and Mauricio Gugelmin brought out the yellows spinning and stalling in turn one. Moreno pitted immediately, and despite a brief fire over the car, the veteran Brazilian rejoined.
Brack reassumed the lead as those in front of him pitted for final stops. It was a lead he wouldn't lose, taking the chequered flag twenty laps after the restart. Carpentier and de Ferran completed the podium with Dixon top rookie in fourth. Memo Gidley took fifth ahead of Alex Tagliani, with Castroneves perhaps a disappointed seventh ahead of the Mo Nunn cars of Kanaan and Zanardi.
Results of FedEx CART World Series, Round 12, Chicago Motor Speedway, Illnois, USA:
Standings (after Mid-Ohio): Kenny Brack 104, Helio Castroneves 103, Gil de Ferran 89, Dario Franchitti 81, Michael Andretti 73, Scott Dixon and Cristiano da Matta 70, Paul Tracy and Patrick Carpentier 65, Christian Fittipaldi 54 etc.
Honda Dream Team Takes Suzuka 8 Hour
Honda's dream team of 2000 World Superbike champion Colin Edwards and likely 2001 World 500cc Champion Valentino Rossi have won the endurance classic, the Suzuka 8 Hour.
The three factory Cabin Honda team bikes swapped the lead throughout the race with the lead Suzuki led by poleman Akira Ryo. The imported Honda guest riders turning on some fierce racing at times, particularly Rossi and Tady Okada. This rivalry almost brought the team undone at roughly the half way mark when Okada fell while in close company with Rossi.
Despite this the Cabin Honda squad finished on the same lap in first, second and fourth in a brilliant result for the team. Upsetting the perfect result was the lead Suzuki. Suzuki also won the 1000 cc class with Keiichi Kitagawa leading his team home for fifth outright.
It was a miserable run for Kawasaki with Hitoyasu Izutsu and Akira Yanagawa crashing and eventually finishing well down the order. Yamaha also struck trouble, Anthony Gobert and Noriyuki Haga having mechanical difficulties leaving the best R7 performers to be the local pairing of Fujiwara and Nurnata.
Results of World Endurance Championship Round 6, Suzuka 8 Hour, Japan:
Bostrom's Brands Blast
More than any other locale, Brands Hatch is home for the superbikes. A massive and vocal crowd always packs into Britian's most exciting circuit to see the British riders tackle the best in the world on its swoops, rises and dives. This year though, Neil Hodgson, Carl Fogarty's successor in the hearts of the crowd, could only take two second places against the blistering pace of Ben Bostrom.
Bostrom was a class apart on the factory Ducati, with only the local veteran on the orange GSE bike being able to keep up. Bostrom's performance lifts him to third in the world title chase, behind fellow Ducati factory rider Troy Bayliss and Honda's Colin Edwards.
The first race saw Bostrom clear out to a lead before James Haydon and Robert Ulm crashed at Surtees. Haydon highsided his bike, leaving Ulm with nowhere to go, with a ruptured fuel tank bringing a premature halt to proceedings. From the restart, Bostrom controlled the lead of the race by sticking close behind second placed Hodgson, as the results would be determined by aggregating both sections of the race. Edwards was a distant third on the Honda ahead of the Suzuki of Chili and the Ducati of series leader Bayliss.
In the second race Hodgson stayed in touch for most of the race, but Bostrom was again too good and pulled away to win as the laps wound down. Third was Bayliss, regaining points lost to Edwards in the first race. Bayliss now leads by over 50 points with just three rounds (a total of six races) remaining. Edwards was fifth behind Chili. Troy Corser was a mere 13th on the Aprilia, the poor results dropping him out of the top three in the championship.
Results of World Superbike Championship, Round 10, Brands Hatch, Great Britain:
Standings: Troy Bayliss 303, Colin Edwards 250, Ben Bostrom 247, Troy Corser 226, Neil Hodgson 217, Pierfrancesco Chili 179, Akira Yanagawa 132, Gregorio Lavilla 122, Tadayuki Okada 118, Ruben Xaus 106 etc
Wilson Steadies as Pizzonia Breaks Through
His was the drive of the race at Silverstone. Two weeks later and the chink in the Nordic/Super Nova armour opened by Sebastien Bourdais at Silverstone was sundered by Antonio Pizzonia. The Petrobras team ran at the front of qualifying and in the race. Ricardo Sperafico took pole from Nordic's Justin Wilson. Sperafico won the drag from the line out into the forests of Hockenheim. Wilson fought briefly with teammate Tomas Enge before climbing back towards Sperafico, taking the lead prior to the end of lap one.
Out already were Andrea Piccini (Minardi) who spun out while fourth, and Wilson's series rival Mark Webber (Super Nova) with a bent front wing after a coming together with Darren Manning. Manning himself would last only another lap while fighting with Tomas Scheckter.
Pizzonia picked off Enge and Sperafico before taking the lead into the Senna chicane. From there, Pizzonia marched off into the distance leaving Wilson to be content with second, especially with Webber sidelined and pointless.
Enge moved back towards Wilson only to spin down the field. Enge recovered to fourth, passing Sebastian Bourdais and the mechanically troubled Tomas Scheckter, only to lose the car again on the last lap battling with Sperafico, dropping to fifth behind Bourdais.
Wilson now has a ten point lead in the championship with three rounds remaining.
Results of International Formula 3000 Championship, Round 9, Hockenheim, Germany:
Standings: Justin Wilson 49, Mark Webber 39, Tomas Enge 36, Antonio Pizzonia 22, Sebastien Bourdais 21, Bas Leinders 13, Ricardo Sperafico 10, Darren Manning 9, Jaime Melo Jr and David Saelens 8 etc.
Sato Dominates the Masters
The traditional high point of the Formula 3 season, Zandvoort's Marlboro Masters meeting has been won by Japanese sensation Takuma Sato. Sato got the jump from pole position and was never headed in the Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen. Sato was able to pull a gap early in the race and pull away, while the rest of the field squabbled for the minors.
Andre Lotterer took second in the end after launching perfectly from the grid and taking advantage of the gearbox problems afflciting the Signature car of front row starter, Benoit Treluyer. Sato's teammate Anthony Davidson took the fight to Lotterer after Bruce Jouanny spun off. Gianmaria Bruni took fourth while Tiago Monterio just hung on to fifth under pressure from Mark Taylor.
Results of Marlboro Masters, Zandvoort, The Netherlands:
Panoz Return to the Winner's Circle
In something of an upset, David Brabham and Jan Magnussen won the Grand Prix of Portland. They didn't luck into the win though. They took pole and beat the Audis home after a flawless drive, winning by less than fouth tenths over Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela. It's been 12 months since Audi lost an ALMS event.
Tom Kristensen won the start in the factory Audi and quickly built a 4 second lead over David Brabham in the Panoz. The five LMP900 cars moved quickly away from the field but stayed close. After the first hour the five LMP900 cars were separated by less than five seconds. Brabham and Kristensen battled with Johnny Herbert in the Champion Audi, Klaus Graf in the second Panoz and Frank Biela in the second Joest Audi.
After the first round of pitstops, Kristensen led from Brabham and Frank Lagorce in the Panoz. After the second round, Magnussen had the lead from Pirro and Wallace. In the final hour the #1 Audi of Rinaldo Capello struck mechanical trouble but was able to finish and Klaus Graf spun in the second Panoz. A late race yellow for a spun Porsche left Magnussen, Pirro and Wallace nose to tail. In the sprint to the flag the Panoz eked out the smallest of gaps over the Audis to win.
Sixth outright was an uncontested LMP675 victor, the Dick Barbour Reynard-Judd driven by Didier de Radigues, Milka Duno and John Graham. Mel Hawkins and Steve Knight brought their Lola B2k-Judd home twelfth outright and second in LMP675.
The Chevrolet Corvette team again blitzed the GTS class results after the Konrad Saleen was black flagged and finished well down the order. The Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell car led home its teammates, Kelly Collins and Andy Pilgrim. The win was later soured when the second placed Corvette was disqualified after it was found to be underweight. Second in class was picked up by the 15th placed Dodge Viper GTS-R of Shane Lewis and Jeff Altenberg.
The GT Class provided some entertainment as the Porsches gave the new BMW V8s a fight this time, but the BMW of veterans Hans Stuck Jr and Boris Said III finished a lap clear of the Alex Job Porsche of Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr.
Results of American Le Mans Series, Round 4, Portland International Raceway, Oregon, USA:
Johansson Clinches ELMS Championship
Stefan Johansson and BAR test driver Patrick Lemarie won the fourth round of the ELMS, scoring a debut win for the Johansson Motorsport team and providing some salve for Audi on the weekend their eleven race ALMS winning streak was broken on the other side of the Atlantic. The victory also clinched the European Le Mans Series title for Johansson, who will now skip the final ELMS round to tackle the remainder of the ALMS series.
The Gulf Audi won despite two stop-go penalties for pitlane speeding, leading home the ROC Reynard-VW, led by Jordi Gene, by four laps. The second placed Reynard also took LMP675 class honours. In third place was Johansson's expected race rival, the LMP Panoz driven by local heroes Tomas Enge and Jaroslav Janis. Diffuser problems held them up, losing them most of the four laps they finished behind the winners.
Fourth outright was another top finish for the Ray Mallock Limited Saleen after controversially winning the prevous ELMS round outright. They were never seriously pushed. The competitive GT class was won by the GT3 Porsche of Mike Youles and Robin Liddell.
Following the race, it was announced that the eighth place Porsche of Piers Masarati, Robert Babikan and Milan Maderyc had been disqualified as the result of a collision between the car and another Porsche driven by Terry Rymer.
Results of European Le Mans Series, Round 4, Most, Czech Republic:
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