THE LINE

May 4, 2011

(LAT Photo/Levitt)
Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Honda-Powered Dallara), the pole sitter and re-start leader of the rain-postponed Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle, stopped for a splash of fuel on Lap 36 while Takuma Sato (No. 5 KV Racing Technology-Lotus D/H/F), who overtook Power on a Lap 25 restart, gambled on stretching his fuel, but no yellow flag materialized and Sato had to pit on Lap 48 of 55 in the timed race, thus handing the lead and the win to Power. It was Power's second victory of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar season and he's now in the championship lead. "Being on pole four times and had two wins is a great start. It was a matter of keeping calm, getting past people without making any mistakes and then creating a gap to be safe."

(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Graham Rahal (No. 38 Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing D/H/F) spun on the treacherous rain-soaked course on Lap 26 while running sixth, but ended-up finishing second. Poor visibility on the 2.536-mile, 11-turn street course caused by persistent rain and approaching dusk forced postponement of the race until 8:05 a.m. (ET) on Monday. The scheduled 75-lap race resumed on Lap 15. There was 1 hour, 19 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the two-hour race window.

(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Penske Logistics D/H/F) finished third. Here he's chased by Takuma Sato. "It was good strategy," Briscoe said. "We kept our nose clean. There was certainly a lot of havoc going on around me during a lot of the race. At the end, I got passed Dario (Franchitti) going into the hairpin. I was trying to catch (Graham) Rahal, but we were doing about the same lap time. We didn't change wets on the last stop but we had slightly fresher tires. I was sort of hanging on a bit. It's a great day for Team Penske."

(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Dario Franchitti (No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Kellogg's D/H/F) recovered from a slide in Turn 1 on Lap 33 to finish fourth. Oriol Servia was fifth, Mike Conway made up a lap to finish sixth and Justin Wilson was seventh. Sato wound up eighth. The next IZOD IndyCar Series event is the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500-Mile Race on May 29 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be televised live at noon (ET) by ABC and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network. The next Firestone Indy Lights race is Firestone Freedom 100 on May 27 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It will be televised live by VERSUS.

(Photo credit Blake Blakely)
A packed field of historic production cars go at it at Road Atlanta during action at Historic Sportscar Racing's Classic Motorsports Mitty vintage car event. The popular Speedfest at the Classic Motorsports Mitty returned to Road Atlanta under beautiful skies and with huge fields last weekend. Thirty-two races, including four enduros, filled the weekend schedule, offering penty of exciting racing action.

(Mark Weber/SCCA)
Jason Daskalos (No. 7 Dalsin Developments Dodge Viper), of Albuquerque, N.M., earned his second career GT win in the Pirelli World Challenge Grand Prix of Utah presented by Bondurant at Miller Motorsports Park. Daskalos finished 0.349-seconds ahead of James Sofronas (No. 14 Porsche 911 GT3), averaging 82.007 mph over the 23-lap, 70.104-mile race. First-time winners Jordon Musser (No. 05 Momentum/Race Fuel Energy Drink Chevrolet Camaro), of Coppell, Texas, and Aaron Povoledo (No. 88 K-Pax Racing Volvo C30), of Toronto, were the GTS and Touring Car class winners, respectively.

 McLaren. McLaren unveiled its GT3 car today and plans for a 2011 development program. The new McLaren MP4-12C GT3 will be the first McLaren car built for FIA GT series racing since the McLaren F1 GTR finished production in 1997. The 12C GT3 is based on the new MP4-12C high-performance sports car and a team of engineers, designers, and test drivers with vast experience in Formula 1 and GT racing has been assembled to undertake the process of adapting the carbon chassis-based 12C to racing specification. Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren Group Chief Executive Officer said: “McLaren has racing in its blood, and it was a natural step to take our MP4-12C road car and turn it into the most reliable, efficient and easy to drive GT3 car.  Every car on the grid will have its performance balanced by race rules, meaning our objective must be to select a technical specification that ensures any driver is able to access the 12C GT3’s performance limit with ease." Check out a video of the new racing car here.

(Pirelli)
 The first Italian round of the 2011 World Superbike season takes place at the historic Autodromo Nazionale Monza this weekend. It's the home race for Pirelli Moto and it also coincides with Italy's celebration of its 150th anniversary of unity. To honor this occasion, the Diablo Superbike qualifying tires used during the Superpole sessions at this weekend’s race will feature three colored stripes of green, white and red along with personalized sidewall labels with the words “150th Italy” as symbols of Italian unity.

 

Editor-in-Chief's Note: If you really must keep up on all of the latest F1 developments and the potential U.S. GP in Austin, Texas, go here. - PMD

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Michelin's racing website - "Michelin Alley" - and get in on all of the behind-the-scenes buzz. Go here. - PMD

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