Free Republic

Chicago tried something new this year. For the first time ever, on the weekend before Independence Day, the city of Chicago hosted a NASCAR street race – yes, in downtown Chicago, one of the best known business, shopping and entertainment districts in the world. This isn’t something that the voters chose consciously; it’s a decision made by the last city government, the office of the recently-defeated Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Chicagoans have been referring to the event as Lightfoot’s last attack on the people of Chicago. Events like this take weeks to set up, so driving barriers and temporary viewing stands...

Fall was definitely in the air. But apparently, COVID-19 wasn’t. At least not judging by all the face-mask-free race fans jamming into the erector-set-like stands too crowded for social distancing at Saturday night’s sprint car finale at Williams Grove Speedway. An estimated 9,000-plus race fans were expected for the season’s biggest dirt track event, dubbed the ‘World of Outlaws.’ Grass parking lost surrounding the Mechanicsburg area speedway became a small town teeming with people playing cornhole, pitching picnics and rolling out tailgating from elaborate RVs. There were license plates from a plethora of states, including some on Pennsylvania’s quarantine list....

The highways and byways of America have been eerily quiet over the past several weeks thanks to responsible citizens doing their best to remain indoors and limit unnecessary travel. Meanwhile, a small group of highly irresponsible drivers have taken these open stretches of asphalt as a sign that they should drive as fast as possible from one coast to the other. That’s right, it’s high time to revive the Cannonball Run Challenge, which you may remember from that cruddy Burt Reynolds comedy. In a recent video, former Cannonball Run record holder and éminence grise Ed Bolian reported that, over the...

President Trump awarded one of the nation's highest civilian honors to Roger Penske, a businessman, professional racer and founder of one of the world's most successful motorsports teams. Trump heralded Penske, a veteran racer who has won hundreds of races, as a "champion and winner," before awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday. Penske, who was joined by his wife and children in the Oval Office, said that "to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom is something special and means more to me than any business success or motorsport trophy." The medal honors civilians who have made "an...

rint This Article >> Jack Roush’s teams had a remarkable run in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, winning the leading GT class nine consecutive times from 1985 through 1993. Roush sat out the 1994 Rolex 24, concentrating on his burgeoning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series operation that took him out of sports car competition. But for 1995, he was called out for an encore – a challenge that Roush found too enticing to pass up. To celebrate Paul Newman’s 70th birthday, Paramount Pictures presented the veteran with a sponsored ride in the Rolex 24 – a Roush-prepared Ford Mustang. Joining Newman...

Update: At the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Toyota announced that the company is now developing the GR Super Sport Concept as a road car, effectively bringing Le Mans tech to the streets, a first since the GT1 era. What a time to be alive. Our original story on the concept, published 1/12/18, appears below. ______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Last year, Toyota boss Akio Toyoda said that as the auto industry approaches times of tremendous change he is "strongly determined to make sure that cars will be fun for the next 100 years." One small step towards that honorable goal would...

The news that the legendary Dan Gurney died on Sunday night after a long battle with pneumonia was something racing legends Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser had difficulty accepting. Although they knew Gurney was in failing health, the fact that he was a “Mount Rushmore of Auto Racing” figure made him bigger-than-life to drivers who have been described in the same vein. “It’s one freaking sad day,” an emotional Unser told Autoweek in a phone interview Sunday night. Andretti echoed those sentiments from his home in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, on Sunday evening.

At the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Audi, Porsche, and Toyota will battle for the win with their futuristic hybrid race cars, but another carmaker is getting all of the attention. Ford and its quartet of GTs won’t be in the running for an overall win, but the Blue Oval is nonetheless the biggest Le Mans story this year. So what’s the big deal? Basically, it’s a case of déjà vu. Fifty years ago, Ford won Le Mans with its GT40, the culmination of a fierce battle with Ferrari. Today’s GT supercar is inspired by the GT40, and Ford...

WASHINGTON, PRNewswire — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a regulation to prohibit conversion of vehicles originally designed for on-road use into racecars. The regulation would also make the sale of certain products for use on such vehicles illegal. The proposed regulation was contained within a non-related proposed regulation entitled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles-Phase 2.” The regulation would impact all vehicle types, including the sports cars, sedans and hatch-backs commonly converted strictly for use at the track. While the Clean Air Act prohibits certain modifications to motor vehicles,...

The rumors, the buzz? Confirmed. Ford will unveil a GT-successor at January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, as anticipated. Sources close to the program have confirmed to Autoweek that the car -- whether or not it is actually named "GT" in production guise, which it very well might not be -- will undertake a full, factory-backed racing effort in 2016. Specifically, a full-season, two-car effort in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship and, most significantly, the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans. The two-car assault will be campaigned by IndyCar -- and Tudor Series -- stalwart, and full-time NASCAR...

DOVER, Del. — The NASCAR driver known as "The Outlaw" testified Tuesday he believes his ex-girlfriend is a trained assassin dispatched on covert missions around the world who once returned home in a blood-splattered gown. Kurt Busch, appearing in court again over Patricia Driscoll's request for a no-contact order, continued the push of his legal team to discredit his ex as a scorned woman out to destroy his career, portraying her as a character fit for a screenplay.

Tony Kanaan, Juan Pablo Montoya qualify 2-3 on Saturday Verizon IndyCar Series championship points leader Will Power earned pole on Saturday for the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at Milwaukee IndyFest. Power, driving the Chevrolet-powered No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, recorded a two-lap average speed of 169.262 mph on the Milwaukee Mile for his third pole of the season and 35th of his Indy car career. The 250-lap race at the Milwaukee Mile will be telecast by NBCSN on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET. - See more at: http://autoweek.com/article/indycar/will-power-pole-indycar-race-milwukee-mile#sthash.l2CIHsHD.dpuf

Sebastien Bourdais took his second and KV Racing's third pole position of the season, with a composed performance in a wet 'n' wild qualifying session for tomorrow's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. While a large number of his opponents slid extravagantly like dirt-trackers through the worst of the rain in Q1 and the start of Q2, Bourdais kept his head, kept his car on the island, and ended up capitalizing on the form he's shown all weekend. Seb's economical steering inputs also appeared to pay off when in Q3, the track dried rapidly, and everyone's wet tires were starting to...

The bullring Iowa short oval is the perfect track for Target Chip Ganassi Racing to get its season in order, and after a day filled with rain delays, defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon led an all-Target front row for Saturday night's 300-lap race. The Kiwi's record-breaking 186.256mph average was set after his No. 9 Dallara-Chevrolet engineers used information from earlier qualifying runs made by Ganassi teammates to make a few quick tweaks before heading out, and it made all the difference. Tony Kanaan will start second in the sister car (185.891). "We missed a bit on balance in...

Juan Pablo Montoya believes that he is emerging as a dark horse for this year's Verizon IndyCar Series championship following his win at Pocono on Sunday. The 38-year-old's victory followed several weeks of solid results and elevated him to fourth in the championship, 55 points behind his Penske teammates and joint leaders Will Power and Helio Castroneves. At the start of the season – following seven years in NASCAR – he had said that his expectations were to reacquaint himself with open-wheel racing, challenge for wins, and help support his teammates' title bids. But in the wake of his Pocono...

This event is worth twice as many points to the teams and drivers but how much is it worth to the fans and to the track organizers itself? That’s the question that was rising like a storm cloud over the Pocono Mountains this week as Brandon Igdalsky, president and CEO of Pocono Raceway, expressed disappointment at the advanced tickets sales. Last year, Indy car racing returned to Long Pond after a long absence, and maybe hearts had grown fonder, as a genuine 30,000-plus spectators showed

Hi, Friends, and Happy Independence Day despite these trying times. I'm wondering if there's a thread or ping list for things Indycar-related. If not, is there interest? I don't know how to set up a Ping list, though it can't be that difficult, and if there are others who'd like to keep apprised about things Indycar, as well as to cheer along our favourites drivers and teams, I'm willing to spearhead it, with Admins' blessing of course. We just saw an incredible weekend of racing at Houston's double header and we have another big 500 miler this weekend. It's been...

These are just a few observations. I encourage other Freepers to add to this thread. I just just in the 8th grade at this time and was addicted to the race, having attended the '62 and '63 races. This event I watched on closed circuit TV at Graumann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Shortly into the race there was a picture that I cannot forget, a screen filled with smoke and fire in a wreck that was so bad it stopped the race and claimed the lives of two drivers. Dave McDonald drove Micky Thompson's car, which used gasoline. He lost...

On January 6, 2000, [Sam] Schmidt crashed his IndyCar and was paralyzed from the neck down. [This week] Sam Schmidt drove a simulated four qualifying laps in the SAM Project (Semi-autonomous motorcar) passenger car in a specially equipped 2014 Corvette C7 Stingray.

Gary Bettenhausen, who auto racing legend Mario Andretti said "was all that we loved about the people who did our business" but who paid a huge professional price for that love, died Sunday night at his home in Monrovia, Ind. He was 72. "It was so natural to become friends with him," Andretti said. "He was a great ambassador of the sport." The oldest of the second generation of racing Bettenhausens from Tinley Park, a family recognized as much for its multiple tragedies as for its success on the track, Mr. Bettenhausen seemed like a sure thing right from the...