An American F1 Team?

Formula One, , ,

Reports out of North Carolina suggest that F1 journalist Peter Windsor is one of the main figures behind “USF1” – an American group planning an entry in 2010. The website www.usf1.com is owned by design engineer Ken Anderson, but features nothing but a logo at this point. Anderson was the former Technical Director at Ligier and Onyx in F1 before returning home to work with Chip Ganassi & AJ Foyt Racing. He then designed the G-Force IRL cars introduced in 1996 & 2000, as well as Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers-Toyota for CART. He last worked with Haas CNC in NASCAR while Windsor, former Ferrari and Williams F1 team manager, is a familiar face in the USA thanks to his work as Speed Channel’s pit reporter.

Rumors have the team setting up a base near Concord, North Carolina, where Anderson is a partner in the Wind Shear, Inc full size wind tunnel used by NASCAR teams and occasionally be F1 outfits. They have also been linked with the former Honda team currently for sale, since they would need a European base of operations for part of the season, but this option makes no mention of running the 2009 season.

With Indycar and NASCAR teams struggling to find sponsorship, even with the planned cost reductions in F1 it seems like a very odd time to try to launch an all-new team halfway around the world, especially when there is an off-the-shelf one available in Brackley – that comes complete with Ross Brawn! Even so, we will be following developments closely.

– MCZF1

Post-Superbowl Depression Aids

Sports,

In an effort to minimize your post-Superbowl blues, ponder the order for 2009 NFL Draft, April 25th-26th (Yes, it’s only 82 days away!):

1. Detroit Lions
2. St. Louis Rams
3. Kansas City Chiefs
4. Seattle Seahawks
5. Cleveland Browns
6. Cincinnati Bengals
7. Oakland Raiders
8. Jacksonville Jaguars
9. Green Bay Packers
10. San Francisco 49ers
11. Buffalo Bills
12. Denver Broncos
13. Washington Redskins
14. New Orleans Saints
15. Houston Texans
16. San Diego Chargers
17. New York Jets
18. Chicago Bears
19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
20. Detroit Lions
21. Philadelphia Eagles
22. Minnesota Vikings
23. New England Patriots
24. Atlanta Falcons
25. Miami Dolphins
26. Baltimore Ravens
27. Indianapolis Colts
28. Philadelphia Eagles
29. New York Giants
30. Tennessee Titans
31. Arizona Cardinals
32. Pittsburgh Steelers

You can almost hear it now…
“With the first pick of the 2009 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions select Ryan Leaf – quarterback, Washington State…”

Racing At Last – and what a finish!

Sports, ,

US race fans rejoiced this weekend for the official start of the season was marked with the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Grand-Am endurance car race did not disappoint, with David Donohue beating Juan-Pablo Montoya by just 0.167s – yes, after 24 hours of racing, he won by less than a fifth of a second!
The #58 Brumos Riley-Porsche driven by Donohue, Antonio Garcia, Darren Law and Buddy Rice (who joins a select group of Indy 500 & Daytona 24 winners) led home four cars on the lead lap – separated by just 10 seconds for the final couple of hours – in one of the most competitive 24 hour races ever. Donohue was a popular winner since it was 40 years ago that his late father, Mark, won the race with Chuck Parsons.
Hopefully this great race was a glimpse of things to come the rest of the year. Fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief, the off-season is over – now let’s go racing!

– MCZF1