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Racing Legends TampaRacing.com Tampa Racing part 1 page 2

You are looking at Part 1 page 2 on Tampa Racing:
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...pa-racing.html

Part 2 is here on Tampa Racing:
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9383302
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Simon Pagenaud IndyCars

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/auto-x-road-racing/825458-indycar-simon-pagenaud.html

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/auto-x-road-racing/825996-indycar-simon-pagenaud.html#post9382124



PRUETT: Pagenaud’s mind games

Marshall Pruett / Images by IMS Photo, LAT

There's something different about Simon Pagenaud this year.
He's always been fast, but somehow, he's become faster. He's always been smart and calculating, but he's also managed to take that part of his craft to another level. The most obvious difference with the 32-year-old native of Poitiers, France, is his newfound ability to beat IndyCar's fiercest animals – the Will Powers and Scott Dixons – at their own game.
For the first time in his open-wheel career, Pagenaud has tapped into the ability to become scary-fast. Yes, he's still a thinker, but it's no longer a liability.
So what's behind Pagenaud's big change? Wolfing down pounds of red meat? Drink bottles filled to the brim with Red Bull? It's quite the opposite, actually.
"I do a lot of meditation!" he said with a smile. "That's been helping a lot."
The Frenchman isn't the only racer – or IndyCar driver –to use meditation to his advantage, but he might be the first to use the introspective tool to create more havoc from within the cockpit. Forget finding inner peace and calm; Pagenaud is using meditation to tap into his primal tendencies, and it's working.
He earned two pole positions in his first 85 IndyCar races from 2007-15, and after finding a new gateway to unlock his inner badass, he's taken six poles – more than any other driver – in 2016.
"I have definitely learned to embrace it more and more every year," Pagenaud said. "I have discovered throughout the years that there was this animal lying down under. It was just a matter of finding a way to unleash it when it was the right time. I used to be able to unleash it but it wasn't controlled. Now, especially since this winter, I have been able to work on it and been able to unleash it on demand."
In very basic terms, this one change has opened a new world of possibilities for Pagenaud as an IndyCar driver. He's with the same team, has the same engineer, chief mechanic, chassis, engine, tires and all the other items that were at his disposal last year.
Looking at his record in 2016, it's safe to say Pagenaud has become a complete driver after learning how to bring that animal to the forefront of his craft on command. He's tripled the number of poles, doubled his win count (he has four this year and needed five full seasons to get the first four), led more laps (330) than all of his years combined (312), and has been on the podium 47 percent of the time.
Pagenaud previously came up short to the Dixons and Powers who visited ungodly speed on their rivals at will, but that's no longer the case.
"It is a mental switch," he said. "I have just been able to control it more this year. Just by being able to control my mind better. And being able to put myself in that zone more easily, I should say. But also the car is so good everywhere, I can focus only on myself. I am not distracted by anything else, so every qualifying session I improve a little bit. I am reaching something that I couldn't reach before. Now I use it as energy."
It's the most unlikely sources of a year-to-year turnaround I've ever seen. With meditation helping Pagenaud to match the fastest IndyCar drivers lap for lap, he's put himself in a position to earn his first championship on Sunday. What a strange world we live in.

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Austin Cindric Road Racer



PWC: Austin Cindric, Renaissance racer

Thursday, 15 September 2016
Richard James (words and images) At the end of 2015, Austin Cindric thought he had a plan for 2016. Then he didn't, and he was looking at a year with three or four races on his schedule.
Anyone who has paid any attention to Cindric knows that won't fly.
"A busy driver is a happy driver," the 18-year old says. "I want to be driving racecars for the rest of my life. I feel like you can't be picky these days, as hard as it is to make it as a racecar driver because it's the dream of so many. I've been fortunate enough to be surrounded by the right people in the right instances, and get the most out of them. I'm just trying to set myself up to where I have paths to choose from."

To that end, in his young career he has raced in the USF2000 Championship for Andretti Autosport, the Global RallyCross Championship, IMSA Continental Tires SportsCar Challenge, ARCA, NASCAR's K&N Pro Series and Camping World Truck Series – and pretty much anything else he can get his hands on. He's also been nominated for the Team USA Scholarship and been a part of the Porsche Young Driver Academy. His full season campaign for 2016 is in the No. 6 K-PAX Racing McLaren 650S GT3 in the Pirelli World Challenge GT Championship.
However, as noted, that wasn't originally in the cards for this year. When his original plan fell through, he started calling his contacts looking for ideas and open seats. When your father is Tim Cindric, president of Team Penske, that list can be pretty extensive. One of the people he called was Darren Law. Now program manager for Flying Lizard Motorsports, which runs K-PAX Racing's program, Law was at the Bondurant School when Cindric went there to work on his heel-toe shifting technique. After securing some funding, he had a ride.
He's made a good show of it, too. Although he's had some World Challenge starts prior to 2016, this is his first full season in the series. He sits just outside the top 10 in the GT points and grabbed the pole and finished second in the first race at Mid-Ohio. He's discovered that even with a wide range of racing experience, there are still many things to learn.
"I think the biggest thing, driving-wise, was the turbocharger. I'd never driven a turbocharged car; all the stuff I've been in has been naturally aspirated, so that's kind of been the biggest learning curve," he explains. "One thing that took me by surprise is the aggression of the racing. Lots of these guys – and I'm not sure if it's unique to Pirelli World Challenge or not – these guys race extremely aggressively in my opinion, and most of the time overly aggressive.
"You have to plan your races out accordingly, because with a car like the McLaren, it can do the same lap times, but a lot of the time you're not going to be able to keep up on the straights because of BoP. It's really quite hard to race, so it's put a massive emphasis for me on qualifying."
Having raced stock cars and RallyCross, Cindric is no stranger to contact. But it's different in those categories and sportscars, especially when his roof is the same height as the door handles of some of the bigger – and much heavier – cars. Cindric notes that it's harder to keep it straight when there is contact against cars such as the Bentleys, Nissans and Acuras.
While racing in other disciplines has not helped accustom him to the contact in sports cars, there are areas where Cindric's variety has been a boon to his driving as well as his career.
"I think there are a lot of things that you look at and maybe they're not directly relatable, but just having the ability to adapt quickly in these situations has been big for me. For example, before heading to Sonoma, I'm racing at Chicagoland Thursday night in an ARCA car. I show up at Sonoma just in time to get in the McLaren for practice. With all these different experiences, I'm able to jump in the car, know what to do, switch my mind over and use what I have in my back pocket," he says.
Ultimately, he wants to be a part of a manufacturer program, whichever direction his racing career takes him, and says it would be great to be back in Pirelli World Challenge in 2017. "I think I'm at the point in my driving – and outside the car as well – where I feel like I could carry and be part of a team, be part of a manufacturer," he says. "I'm at that transition point from strong amateur driver to professional driver, and I need someone to take that opportunity. There are a lot of things in the works, and hopefully it's all good.

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Simona de Silvestro Road Racer



https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/n...ml#post9382946

Plus INTERVIEW: Why de Silvestro chose Supercars

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Scooter Patrick Road Racer


[h=2]SCCA: Longtime racer Scooter Patrick[/h] Wednesday, 28 September 2016



Longtime racer, Cal Club board member and SCCA national champion Scooter Patrick passed away on Tuesday.
Patrick began his racing career in 1956, going from an owner of an independent Porsche shop in Redondo Beach, California, to driving with Road Race Training Association. A year later, he joined SCCA and Cal
Club and soon was racing a Porsche Speedster in SCCA races. With the "PAM Special," a modified Porsche 550 that he converted to a tube frame using the 4-cam, Patrick won two Pacific Coast Championships. He made hundreds of race starts for Otto Zipper Racing from 1963-72.
He earned SCCA national championships in 1966 and 1967 and drove a rare 908 "Long Tail" Porsche at Le Mans. He campaigned a 906 Porsche in 1967, winning the Doug Revson Trophy in a series of SCCA professional races for under-2 liter Group 7 cars. In 1968 he was one of two drivers selected by Carroll Shelby (along with Davy Jordan) to drive the 2000 GT, earning fourth at the National Runoff and winning the B Sports Racing Championship. A year later, Patrick drove a Surtees TS8 Continental for James Garner's American International Racing. In 1974, he won the last official Can-Am race at Road America in a McLaren M-20.
The accomplished pilot reclaimed his SCCA license for competition in 2012 – 55 years after it was first issued.

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Don Panoz for 20 years by Panoz DeltaWing Racing
Celebrating Don Panoz, the man who kick-started North American sports car racing, created race cars that defied convention and were ahead of their time, and in a very short period of time became a legendary icon in our industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGwY...ature=youtu.be

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Michael Schumacher F1 7 time World Champion

Michael Schumacher - Formula 1 Legend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXw1p2atL4c

New museum to feature Schumacher's collection


RACER Staff
Michael Schumacher's private collection of cars and memorabilia from his racing career will be made available to view by the public free of charge in 2017.
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion's family has come to an agreement with the people behind Motorworld, which describes itself as "a center for mobile passion" and "a true world for experiencing driving culture" in Germany.
Schumacher's collection, which has never been shown in full to the public, will feature at the new Motorworld in Cologne, which is close to the German's hometown of Kerpen.
"It is in the heart's desire of Michael's family that all interested fans should get to see Michael's collection without having to pay an admission charge," said Schumacher's manager, Sabine Kehm.
"It will enable them to revel in memories and bring those great times back to life again.
"The location's proximity to Kerpen, and the passion for motoring that it radiates, were two other excellent reasons for this collaboration."
The collection will feature karts and cars from the early years of Schumacher's career, as well as F1 machinery, trophies and other memorabilia.


Motorworld will also include a Benetton B194 from Schumacher's first world championship-winning season, which it has owned since 2013, in the collection.
"It means a great deal to us to be able to honour Michael Schumacher's achievements in this manner and bring them so close to his fans," said Andreas Dunkel, founder of the Motorworld concept.

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Brock Yates Writer and Editor Car and Driver Magazine

The best way to become a writer is to first be a reader.
Brock Yates taught me how to write.-Bob

Interview with Meguires Car Crazy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6-Ptduhg2k

RTT news and Yates predictions from 2009 American Auto Industry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBQJ9oLC-P4


Writer, Cannonball run founder Yates dies Thursday, 06 October 2016


RACER Staff / Image courtesy All American Racers, Inc.


Above, from left: Pamela Yates with Dan Gurney, Evi Gurney and Brock Yates.
Motorsports journalist and "The Cannonball Run" screenwriter Brock Yates has died after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.
"Today, after suffering with Alzheimer's for the last 12 years, my father finally succumbed," Brock Yates Jr. wrote on Facebook. "He touched many lives, but sadly no more."
Yates, a longtime editor of Car and Driver magazine, created the first Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971 to protest the imminent 55-mph national speed limit. Five Cannonball runs took place between 1971-79, with Yates and Dan Gurney winning the first official run in a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona.

Here is the real car:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeqSFSscqjI

"Our good friend, the brilliant writer, my Cannonball teammate Brock Yates passed away yesterday after a long and brave struggle with Alzheimer's disease," Dan and Evi Gurney said in a statement released by All American Racers. "Although Brock has been 'gone' for some time, the finality of his leaving is hitting all of us in the automotive world with shock and sadness. He was brave, kind, funny, unconventional and talented. For decades starting in the 1960s his columns in Car and Driver magazine were jewels in the sea of motor racing literature.


"Brock Yates' creation of the 'Cannonball Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Run' and the movies resulting from it are cultural landmarks celebrating a freedom loving era which is gone forever. He set a mark in motor racing history and he leaves a hole in our hearts."
Yates and friend Hal Needham, a director and stuntman, co-wrote "Smokey and the Bandit II." Yates also was a prolific author whose books included "Against Death and Time: One Fatal Season in Racing's Glory Years," "Cannonball!: World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race," "The Indianapolis 500: The Story of the Motor Speedway" and "The Decline and Fall of the American Auto Industry."

Interview on Decline and Fall of the American Auto Industry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBQJ9oLC-P4

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Brock Yates tribute
by Robin Miller / Image courtesy All American Racers, Inc.

Above: Dan Gurney and Brock Yates with the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash-winning 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4. Here is the actual car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeqSFSscqjI

He loved cars, was addicted to racing, could turn a phrase with the best of 'em, helped Car & Driver prosper, enjoyed rattling the establishment's cage and created the greatest street race of all time.
Brock Yates, who passed away Wednesday at the age of 82 from complications of Alzheimer's, pretty much embodied the spirit, free thinking and America's love of anything with four wheels and an engine.
"He was a great man and a great friend who I thought had a lot of courage," Dan Gurney said on Thursday from his office at All-American Racers. "He thought about things and was a defender of freedom and wasn't afraid to take on Detroit or Ralph Nader or whomever.
"His columns in Car & Driver were jewels and he was funny, irreverent, kind, unconventional and very talented."
When he wasn't covering a major auto race or penning a feature on A.J. or Mario or Petty or critiquing cars, Yates railed on 55mph speed limits to Nader's arrogance about safety to the bureaucrats that meddled with the automobile.
But his finest act of rebellion to catalytic converters and draconian speed limits came in 1971, when he promoted the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash.
In honor of the Erwin G. "Cannonball" Baker, a racing lunatic who competed at the Indianapolis 500 and also rode his motorcycle from coast to coast in 11 days back in 1914, Yates decided there needed to be a race from New York City to Los Angeles.
It would be contested with passenger cars, trucks or vans and offered no purse and had no rules. It would begin in a parking garage in Manhattan and end on the Pacific Ocean at the Portofino Inn in L.A.
And Yates was clever enough to invite Gurney as the co-driver of his Ferrari.
"I turned him down originally because I think I was probably kinda well known at the time and didn't want to land in jail and I thought it could reflect poorly on the whole sport," recalled Gurney.
"But then (wife) Evi's father, who was dying of cancer in Germany, found out about it and told me I should do it. So I hopped on a plane and flew to New York, and I was always glad I did."
One of the greatest and most versatile racers of all time drove the first 18 hours, caught a little nap while Yates spelled him for six hours and then stormed to the finish. They covered 2,876 miles in a jaw-dropping 35 hours, 54 minutes – averaging 82mph – to score the victory.
Gurney swears he kept the speeds acceptable and not threatening to anyone and they were only stopped one time for speeding. "The policeman asked how fast our Ferrari would go and I said a lot faster than what you're driving," chuckled Gurney. "And we did run it 172mph after the race on an abandoned stretch of road to see how fast it would go, but I ran most of the race between 90-100 mph."
A second version of the Cannonball was held in 1972 (and my co-driver Wes Dawn and I finished seventh in a Vega station wagon in 39 hours and 35 minutes despite six tickets and getting lost in Ohio) but the heat was on Yates from politicians and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in every state, so it then became a tamer, milder rally through 1979.
About 10 years ago I got a call from Brock; he was contemplating one final "Cannonball" with the original mantra of wide open, but his lawyers talked him out of it.
"The Cannonball was a form of freedom that we won't likely see again, nor we will see anyone like Brock," Gurney said. "He was an original and one of my heroes."

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Remembering Lon Bromley, racing safety legend

Sunday, 02 October 2016


Robin Miller / Images by Dan R. Boyd, LAT
Lon Bromley helped shape the best rescue team in all of motorsports 30 years ago and earned everyone's trust in the CART paddock with his calm, level-headed expertise in dealing with trauma at the race track.
Bromley, who lost his life Saturday in a boating accident near his home in Grants Pass, Oregon, was one of the four main figures in the renaissance of racing safety along with Dr. Terry Trammell, Dr. Steve Olvey and Wally Dallenbach.
From the late '80s to 2007, Bromley headed the Horton/Holmatro Safety Team at all CART and Champ Car races and assisted in saving Alex Zanardi's life at Germany in 2001.
"There was never a better match for a person and a job," said Olvey, the former Indianapolis M.D. who served as CART's full-time medical director in addition to his work in neurosurgery. "He was never excitable and kept everyone else calm in volatile situations and he was a leader but not a tough guy.
"There was no guesswork with Lon, and we became a well-oiled machine because of him."
Dallenbach, who along with Carl Horton and Olvey started CART's Horton Safety Team in the early 1980s, was responsible for bringing Bromley into auto racing.
"He was a skinny kid I gave a job to on my contract farm in the '70s, and then he started his relationship with safety when he became an EMT and ran the rescue unit in my hometown of Basalt [Colorado]," said Dallenbach, the longtime IndyCar driver who became CART's first chief steward.
"Then in the '80s I asked him if he wanted to get involved in the CART safety team and he wound up being in charge of it and became one of the top guys in all of safety."
Bromley (pictured, standing while assisting driver Michael Greenfield) and Dave Hollander commanded well-equipped trucks named Safety 1 and Safety 2 at every race and gave CART drivers a sense of comfort. "When I pulled out of the pits and saw those guys, I always felt better," said Emerson Fittipaldi, who avoided being paralyzed in his career-ending crash at Michigan in 1996 because the CART safety team immobilized the two-time Indy 500 winner after recognizing the extent of his injuries.
But Bromley's and the team's finest hour came in Germany, when they assisted Trammell in saving Zanardi from bleeding to death.
"Lon was the calm, quiet voice on my hip and he had an amazing sense for choreographing the scene and also a great sense of timing, both of which really helped in Germany," said Trammell, the orthopedic magician who still works as IndyCar's safety consultant.
"He was the best scene commander I've ever worked with."
Added Olvey: "Lon always knew where to be and what to do and he never said much at the scene of an accident. He kinda read my mind and reacted."
Bromley, who was believed to be in his late 60s at the time of his death, also got heavily involved in making race tracks safer.
"He took responsibility as well as leadership and he always knew what I was thinking whether it came to cars, walls, debris fences or tire barriers," continued Dallenbach. "He was the first to get to the track and the last to leave and I never worried about anything with Lon. He was Johnny-on-the-spot with everything he did, and he could do anything."
Trammell agrees. "Lon kind of built the whole system of what was needed at a race track."
After Champ Car folded, Bromley became the director of safety at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, because Olvey was already there and hired him. He loved fly fishing almost as much as interacting with the drivers and trying to make things safer for them.
"He had such a great demeanor and was such a wonderful person," said Dallenbach. "He was like a son to me and this is really a big loss. He was a pleasure to work with and he really cared about what he did, and it showed."

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Helio Castroneves Road Racer, Indy Car

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9381387

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Marco Andretti Indycars
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9381499