Blogs

By Larry Edsall So, you think you know a lot about the early history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

by John Oreovicz   After some challenging early testing, the new Dallara DW12 Indy car chassis is finally showing signs of progress. 

By Brian Wilson, Benson Ford Reseach Center, The Henry Ford In 2009, The Henry Ford acquired the collection of well-known photographer Dave Friedman. The collection documents over 60 years of automobile races and racecars across a wide variety of race types including Formula 1, Sports cars, Trans-Am, Can-Am and stock cars. Now, over 10,000 images from the collection are available for viewing on Flickr.

By John Oreovicz Tech-savvy racing fans have been eagerly following the progress of the DeltaWing project, which is set to make its competition debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June as the 56th entry reserved for new and unique automotive technologies.

By Larry Edsall “When you are 11 or 12, your whole life is filled with people telling you what to do,” says 11-year-old Annabeth Barnes. “But when you’re racing you make your own decisions... You’re totally independent.” Barnes races go-karts. She is one of three young racers featured in “Racing Dreams,” a documentary film to be broadcast nationally February 23 on PBS’s POV (Point of View) series.

I happen to be a Ford guy, simply because the first car I remember was the old blue Ford my dad bought brand spankin' new in Memphis, TN to move our family out to Phoenix, AZ in the summer of 1956.  It was a six-cylinder, impossible to stop tank that doubled as a solar-powered, all-metal, mobile convection oven from May through September. That was one great car.

By Larry Edsall Later this month, they’ll stage the round-the-clock sports car race at Daytona International Speedway for the 50th* time. (I’ll explain the asterisk in a minute.)

By John Oreovicz It’s fair to say that the 2012 Dallara DW12 Indy car has been a disappointment in every way so far. Many fans were aghast when they first saw the car, with its bulbous sidepods that almost completely envelop the rear wheels.

Need to do some last-minute shopping for the motorsports fan on your list? Or perhaps you’re the motorsports fan and want to drop some last-minute hints to your friends and relatives and co-workers. Here is a list of recently published books about auto racing that I’ve enjoyed reviewing and that I think you’ll enjoy reading: Fast Lines: Memorable Moments in Motorsports

On Tuesday I watched, with great interest and enthusiasm, the Grand-Am press conference introducing the new Corvette-ish bodywork for all the 2012 Chevy-Powered Daytona Prototypes in the Rolex Series.