the jade gurss blog

1997 Mercedes-Benz CART Drivers

The 1997 season was a good one for Mercedes-Benz in the CART Champ Car Series. It was to the be the only season M-B would win the coveted Manufacturers Championship on the efforts of these seven drivers. Here's a photo I found in the dusty archives, signed by all seven, taken at the start/finish line at Wisconsin's picturesque Road America. It's hard not to wax nostalgic about the 'glory days' of Champ Car, as Honda's Alex Zanardi won the driver's title, but Mercedes-powered drivers won seven races against the likes of Honda, Ford-Cosworth and Toyota.

From left: Al Unser Jr., a second generation star with two Indy 500 wins and two CART titles, drove for Team Penske;  Mauricio Gugelmin, the personable ex-F1 driver from Brazil would become the "240mph Man" with his record qualifying run at Fontana later that season;  Team Penske's mercurial Paul Tracy, an out-spoken and lightning-fast pilot;  Patrick Carpentier, who recently spent part of a season in Sprint Cup, won the 1997 Rookie-of-the-Year title for the tiny Bettenhausen Racing team. (When Patrick jumped to Forsythe Racing, a young Brazilian driver took his seat in '98: Helio Castroneves.);  Mark Blundell, Gugelmin's teammate at PacWest Racing, another former F1 driver who is now a TV commentator and manages the careers of young drivers;   Greg Moore, the young Canadian was much like Kyle Busch today: very young, very fast and a world of talent, except Moore was extremely popular, especially in his native Canada before his horrific fatal crash at California Speedway in 1999;  and Dario Franchitti, a likeable and unsponsored driver with the underdog Hogan Racing team, a short time before he met Ashley Judd and long before he became an Indy 500 winner and IRL champ and then dipping his toe into the NASCAR pool last season.


Forgive the rush of nostalgia from the 90s, but I also found a hilarious shot of me smiling like a madman while being strapped into a Mercedes-Benz C-Class German Touring Car (DTM) at the Hockenheimring in Germany. The driver's window says Jan Magnussen, but I believe the driver is actually Bernd Maylander, a driver who now makes his living driving the Safety Car in F1. Now that's an E-Ticket ride! (As always on this blog, click any image to see a larger size of the picture.)

The New USF1 Team

I was lucky enough to get an invitation today to the official announcement of the formation of the new USF1 team. It was the first announcement I've attended where the team doesn't have drivers, sponsors, cars or even a shop, but the principals involved insist they have the investors and funding to form the team, design and build the racecars and start the 2010 season with two (likely) American drivers. (They named of a long list of potential U.S.-born or based drivers, including musing aloud about signing Kyle Busch...)

It's an exciting thought to have an American Formula One team here in the Charlotte area, and it will certainly be an interesting and perhaps long road to reach a competitive level, let alone a winning team. However, I really like Peter Windsor's (one of the team's two principals) views about this being a new style of fan- and media-friendly F1 team. Stay tuned for each succeeding announcement of technical partners like engine supplier, then sponsors and - most importantly - two drivers.

What do you think of an American F1 team? And what drivers would you like to see in the seats?

California Photo Album

Check out the photo album from an impressive eighth-place finish for driver Ricky Carmichael in his second career Truck Series start. (Or click from the module in the right-hand column...) 

A New Davis.

Former fingerprint inc. staffer Mike Davis (now JR Motorsports' top communications honcho) is a happy father. His wife Sarah gave birth to Virginia Grace at 4:41 am this morning. For those interested in such things, lil' Gracie weighed 6 lbs., 5oz. I'm sure they'll be great parents and a happy family and I'm also confident most of the readers here join me in wishing them the best. 

Behind the Scenes at Daytona

Two weeks. Two races. Two crashes... Here's the fingerprint inc. exclusive behind-the-scenes video of Ricky Carmichael's Daytona experience with the Truck Series and ARCA race.

 

As a bonus, here's a video from the fine folks at MONSTER Energy!

And since we're rollin' the videos out, here are some of the finest moments at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as they celebrate 100 years of action at the Brickyard. I recommend the Tom Carnegie segment and the 1967 Indy recap with Parnelli Jones and the famous "Whooshmobile."

Sometimes...

Sometimes you get the Monster... and sometimes the Monster gets you...

Bonus Coverage:  Check out NASCAR Scene's "First Person with RC."

Surprising Twins?

CARL EDWARD'S ENTRY:  It doesn't handle well in the corners, but passing isn't a problem... Watch out for that duck. 

Was anyone else surprised at the relative calm of the twin qualifiers Thursday? I wonder if it's a sign for the 500... And, it's good to see passing for the lead. Well, at least some passing. Does Scott Riggs in the Tommy Baldwin entry qualify as the only "Cinderella Story" in the field?

QUALIFIED SUCCESS: Ricky Carmichael qualified sixth for his very first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event. He's the top qualified rookie for Friday night's truck race. Click the link to read about Ricky in today's USA Today, or tune-in on SPEED with the pre-race at 7:30 pm.

FREE Stuff!

Perhaps it's truly a gesture of goodwill or a sign of the economics times, but the band the Damnwells will release their new album, "One Last Century," Tuesday (the 10th) for free. 

The Damnwells are a Brooklyn-born band whose singer / songwriter / leader Alex Dezen recently moved to Iowa City to teach school. So, if you like smart, FREE power pop with strong lyrics and harmonies, click to the Paste Magazine site and download to your heart's content. 

I've not heard any of the new record, but they're my fave band of the past several years, which is an endorsement I'm sure will mean one or two downloads at most. Enjoy - and let me know what you think of the album.

Did I mention it's free?

Harvick is Happy

"That's why you don't ever give up, ladies and gentleman..." -- Kevin Harvick, after winning Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout

The ol' Two-Niner team (and the boss... well, actually the bosses' husband) won the Shootout in an unlikely finish, while his protege Ricky Carmichael had a rough day in the ARCA crashfest, getting smashed in the first multi-car episode of carnage of the day.  Harvick comes to play in the glitzy events - as he has victories in the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400, the All-Star race and now the Budweiser Shootout.

The #33 Monster/Kevin Harvick Inc. team worked hard to weld, hammer, grind and tape the car back together after the crash, earning Carmichael a 21st-place finish. It was an almost-Dale Jr.-like atmosphere around Carmichael before the race, as the Florida native was surrounded by reporters, cameras, fans, and a couple of drivers named Harvick and Montoya.

Random rants:  The ARCA boys and girls need some lessons in patience - but won't learn 'em from the Cup guys... Someone on this blog predicted a wild Shootout. If I could only remember who... AJ Allmendinger deserves a full-time ride... David Stremme was a weapon in the Shootout, but I like the new Verizon paint scheme. The Verizon promotions include the key cards at local hotels. They include shots of the car - but no mention of the driver... The other David, this one Ragan, was taken out early in the race, but seems poised for a breakout season if he improves nearly as much as he did last season... I know to never, ever mention the weather again in this blog... and I also know not to blog after having a big can of Monster Energy drink (the no-carb variety) owing to the mis-spellings and poor punctuation... and speedy recoveries for the three drivers sent to the hospital as a result of ARCA incidents...

A Wild Shootout

I'm going on record to predict a wild Budweiser Shootout Saturday night at Daytona. On my way out of the track this evening, I parked the ol' rental car on the inside of turns one and two and played "fan" for awhile. It was an amazing sight, as the field of cars were very visibly bouncing, sliding and careening around in three-wide angry packs. The speed and sheer violence of the rough track - combined with a record number of entries -  will serve to make the action perilous and perhaps more exciting in the coming days. Tune in early to the ARCA race at 4 pm ET. It's also very likely to be a test of survival more than an outright race.... 

An odd aside: The price per gallon on the Sunoco high-octane race fuel pumps is $6.35. Of course, all race teams get the petrol free as a part of Sunoco's deal as the official fuel of NASCAR.

A New Superstition?

There are many people in racing who have some interesting superstitions (such as an Indy car driver who would only climb into the car from the exact same side or team owner Carl Haas, who walks around each of his cars before every race, touching and apparently praying over each significant component on the machine...), but I saw a new one today.

When Ricky Carmichael climbed into his ARCA car for the first practice, he found a brand-new Monster Energy helmet inside the car. He refused to put it on until he handed it to his right-hand man, JH, who took the helmet and rapped the ground three times. Then, Carmichael was happy to strap the shiny helmet to his noggin and zoom off into the Daytona sunlight.

UPDATE / The Explanation: You guys were right. 

"In the motorcycle world," Carmichael laughed, "you'd slam your new helmet to the ground to break it in. Otherwise, the first hit it took would be with your head hitting the dirt!" 

Whole Lotta Waitin' Goin On

Notes and Nonsense from Daytona:  With an ARCA entry list of 55+ cars, inspection is a never-ending thing. The #33 KHI team has been in town two days and have done almost nothing but wait. They were in the garage at 7am today, were allowed into the inspection line by 1pm, and actually rolled into the room of doom at 6:30 pm - almost 12 hours after arrival. A handful of teams never even made it that far - and were sent back to their garage without being inspected. There must be a more efficient and less wasteful manner of organizing inspection - especially at restrictor-plate races. ARCA is not unique: it's almost as slow and tedious on the NASCAR side with Cup, Nationwide and Truck...

Hoosier Daddy: It's amazing to see the disparity in the quality of ARCA entrants. From the Cup-level quality of KHI and Eddie Sharp Racing entries, to others with primer-paint 'colors' and cars that look as if they're held together with twine or masking tape. While waiting for inspection, I watched one team weld together a spoiler while in line. Some cars looked to be a decade old - or worse. It's one thing to have an ugly car, but some of these machines look downright dangerous to their occupants and others... Yet, it should still be an entertaining race at the front - so tune in Saturday afternoon before the Budweiser Shootout kicks off the year for the big boys that night...

Do You Really Care?: Despite the callers to NASCAR Radio on satellite, does anyone really, truly care about the top-35 rule? If so, let me know. Seriously.

I Need More Layers:  I know "cold" is a relative thing, but when did the north wind blow THIS hard in Daytona? Temps dipped into the low 40s at sundown Tuesday, and are expected to be in the 20s overnight. Not the most pleasant for standing around, pushing a car forward a few feet every 10 minutes or so in a cavernous, mostly empty Daytona International Speedway. Luckily, forecasters say it will warm up considerably by the weekend but not until after a wind chill warning from the National Weather Service tonight and tomorrow morning...

Cabin Fever: Thursday is media day for the NASCAR boys, so expect coverage to finally ramp-up after a winter of "no-testing" hibernation from in-depth coverage. Clare B. Lange of SiriusXM radio was running around like a dervish today - and the rest of the masses will begin doing the same Thursday....

Do You Know: Kevin Harvick's middle name?... the NHRA Full Throttle Series (the new sponsor name from fine folks at Coca-Cola) starts their 2009 season this weekend at Pomona, CA...

A Big Leap

 

It's time for the annual pilgrimage to Daytona, where we'll try to give you updates on what's happening behind the scenes from the garage and around the track. 

Watch for Ricky Carmichael in the #33 KHI Monster Energy Chevy in Saturday's ARCA race and then Friday night, Feb. 13 in his truck series debut as he makes the giant leap from motocross legend to NASCAR truck racer. It'll be the first of at least 14 races in the #4 Monster Energy/KHI All-Stars Silverado for the GOAT. 

Photo illustration by Michael Snell at Shade of the Cottonwood in Topeka, KS... Thanks Mike!

Now I'm Not as Embarrassed: I pinched some nerves in my back at Daytona two years ago when I bent to pick-up a cellphone powercord. But Valentino Rossi has me beat: Rossi Injured While Closing Curtains.