No. 1240
March 27, 2024
 

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Monday
Jun102019

JUNE 12, 2019

(Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR)
Josef Newgarden (
No. 2 Team Penske Fitzgerald USA Chevrolet Turbo V6) fended off Alexander Rossi (No. 27 Andretti Autosport GESS/Capstone Honda Turbo V6) in a thrilling duel over the final ten laps to capture the DXC Technology 600 NTT IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night. Newgarden, the 2019 IndyCar Championship leader, won by 0.8164 of a second to collect his 13th career win, third this season and first on a superspeedway. "Feels awesome to win here," Newgarden said. "I knew we'd get it done here at some point. We've had fast cars (but) it never has materialized. Tonight, it happened." Starting seventh in the 22-car field, Newgarden didn't lead until Lap 190 of the 248-lap event on the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval. A lightning-quick final pit stop on Lap 198, accompanied by lightning-fast laps before and after the stop, put the 28-year-old Tennessean in position to retake the lead on the 202nd lap, and he never surrendered it. "This win was down to the team," Newgarden said. "I knew once we pitted and basically got back to where we were before the pit stop on the green-flag sequence, we had such a fuel advantage on everybody. If we could get to the lead, I could crank out super-quick laps and jump everybody. That's what we did."

(Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR)
Alexander Rossi (No. 27 Andretti Autosport GESS/Capstone Honda Turbo V6) ran second behind Newgarden for the final restart on Lap 236. Time and again in the closing laps, Rossi pulled alongside as the duo launched into Turn 1, but each time Newgarden kept the low line and held off the Andretti Autosport driver. "I think we had a good car, could obviously get a good run on him off of (Turns) 3 and 4," Rossi said. "Lane 2 (the outside line) was really never there for me. We could get halfway around the outside (but) would have to bail out. Ultimately, then it became about trying to beat him for the (start/finish) line. But we took out a lot of the tire life going in Lane 2 there, so we just didn't have the rear tires there at the end to stay close to him. I didn't see him up front all day. All of a sudden, he appears in P1, so obviously they're doing a good job. He had a fast car once he got in front."

(Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR)
Graham Rahal (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Fleet Cost & Care Honda Turbo V6) finished third on Saturday night. "It was a great run by the Fleet Cost & Care guys," Rahal said. "We raced smart tonight and made moves when we had to. The guys did a hell of a job in the pits and made our lives easier. That first stop was phenomenal, we jumped a lot of guys. I'm proud of this organization. We've kept our heads down, and finally, I think we've been rewarded a little bit. Honda was great tonight and the fuel mileage was great. On that first stint, even with the parade and pace, I think we went 63 laps or something, which was awesome, so hats off to Honda for giving us that. Our guys have worked awfully hard and I'm extremely proud of them."

(Getty Images)
Editor's Note: You can read Peter's take on Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix in this week's Fumes. -WG

(Subaru)
Scott Speed (No. 41 Subaru Motorsports 
WRX STI) topped the podium at the 2019 Americas Rallycross (ARX) season-opener at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, closing a dominant weekend with a wire-to-wire winning drive in the final race. Speed and teammate Chris Atkinson ensured an all-Subaru front row in the final by winning both of Sunday’s semi-final heats, paving the way for Speed’s victory in his first-ever race weekend with Subaru.

(Aston Martin)
2019 is the 60th Anniversary of Aston Martin’s greatest victory, when Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby took the No. 5 Aston Martin DBR1 to victory in the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans, 
covering 2701 miles at an average speed of 112.5mph and shattering all records for a 3.0-litre class car. Three Aston Martin DBR1s were entered for the race that year: No. 4 for Stirling Moss/Jack Fairman; No. 5 for Salvadori/Shelby; and No. 6 for Maurice Trintignant/Paul Frére. The 1959 event was the first time that either Salvadori or Shelby had ever finished the race. The winning No. 5 Aston Martin DBR1 that completed the 24 hours of Le Mans in 323 laps was in such good condition at the finish that it was reckoned it could have completed another 24 hours. “The oil pressure was 80 pounds at the start and never varied… The car was 100% for the entire race,” said Salvadori. The above picture shows that winning Aston Martin DBR1 as it appears today. The picture was taken in Le Mans, France.

(DragonSpeed)
Fifty years after Gulf’s second victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the famous oil and fuel brand has announced its partnership with the DragonSpeed LMP1 team for the 2019 edition of the endurance classic, with additional support from FAI Auto Parts and Trico windscreen wiper products – the latter also seen on Gulf’s victorious Ford GT40 in 1969. The livery of DragonSpeed’s BR Engineering BR1-Gibson features the legendary Gulf blue and orange racing colors and pays homage to Gulf’s three outright wins at Circuit de la Sarthe – prominently displayed on the car’s tailfin – while the rear wing lists Gulf’s past world championship sports car victories at ten legendary race circuits. “It all sounds a little romantic, and I suppose it is,” said Gulf Oil International’s Head of Marketing, Alexandra Ip. “But Gulf is very proud of its incredible sports car racing heritage, particularly at Le Mans, so when the opportunity arose to compete 50 years on with a competitive car in the top category, we couldn’t turn it down.” DragonSpeed became the first team to secure LMP2 class wins in the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series, and IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship in the same year. The team also made its Indianapolis 500 debut last month, qualifying Britain’s Ben Hanley in its first visit to the famed Brickyard – no mean feat considering the stellar names who didn’t make it into the field. Hanley will form part of the Gulf DragonSpeed driver lineup at Le Mans, together with Rolex 24 at Daytona winner Renger van der Zande of Holland and Swedish pilot Henrik Hedman. (Hedman will wear a Gulf Le Mans tribute helmet design.) DragonSpeed's No. 31 ORECA O7-Gibson is one of the favorites in the 20-strong LMP2 class as well, having won the most recent WEC round at Spa. Team leader Roberto Gonzalez of Mexico is joined by former Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado and 2014 WEC LMP1 champion Anthony Davidson in the red Soliq-sponsored machine. Practice and qualifying sessions take place on Wednesday (June 12) and Thursday (June 13), with the 87th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 24 Hours starting at 15.00 CET on Saturday, June 15.

(Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Joey Logano (No. 22 Team Penske Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang) dominated Monday’s rain-delayed FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, but needed to hold off a charging Kurt Busch (No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Monster Energy Camaro) in overtime to seal the win by .147 at the finish. It was Logano's second win this season, the third time at Michigan — all from the pole — and the 23rd win of his career. Thanks to Logano’s victory, Ford Motor Company retained the Michigan Heritage Trophy that goes to the manufacturer of the winning car. (Trust us, it's the ugliest trophy in all of motorsport; it looks like something from a garage sale.) Martin Truex Jr. (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry) finished third.

(Volkswagen)
Thirty-six years ago, one of the world’s fastest race cars – a Porsche 956 – tore around the 12.9 miles of the Nürburgring Nordschelife race track in a scant 6 minutes, 11.13 seconds. That record stood for more than three decades as an ultimate testament to power, engineering and skill, only falling to an experimental Porsche last year that was custom-built for the task. Last Monday, that record was surpassed for the second time – by an all-electric car. The Volkswagen ID.R electric race car that set a record for climbing Pikes Peak last year now owns the record for fastest electric car around the Nürburgring. Driver Romain Dumas made the lap in 6:05.336 minutes beating the previous EV record set in 2017 by 40.564 seconds – and in the process, surpassing every fossil-fuel powered record at the track save one. “To be a record-holder on the Nordschleife makes me unbelievably proud,” says Dumas. “For me, this is the best and most difficult race track in the world. The ID.R was perfectly prepared for the Nordschleife and it was so much fun to experience the blistering acceleration and rapid cornering speeds.” With a redesigned aerodynamic package meant to maximize the 670-hp ID.R’s top speed, Dumas averaged 127.36 mph around the course. Watch the video here.

(Aston Martin)
 Aston Martin has announced that it will bid for the overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021. This comes on the heels of the announcement by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s that it will introduce hypercars to the top category of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Aston Martin will field a minimum of two works Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercars specially-developed for the 2020/21 FIA WEC season. 2021 will mark 100 years since an Aston Martin first raced the Circuit de la Sarthe. The Aston Martin Valkyrie represents the combined vision of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, Aston Martin EVP and Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman, and Aston Martin VP and Chief Special Operations Officer David King. It was created as a result of a technical collaboration between Aston Martin, Red Bull Advanced Technologies and project partner AF Racing. In line with WEC’s newly confirmed "hypercar" regulations designed to allow race-prepared derivatives of the world’s fastest road cars to fight for the world sports car racing title, the Aston Martin Valkyrie race car will draw on all the radical pillars of the road car and its track-only AMR Pro variant. The new car will feature a race-prepared version of its bespoke, high-revving, normally-aspirated 6.5-litre V12 engine placed within a lightweight carbon fiber structure featuring F1 inspired aerodynamic technology.

(Toyota)
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will continue its participation in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) beyond 2020 following the confirmation of new technical regulations from the ACO, meaning it will be the second manufacturer to compete in the new “hypercar” class. The team already announced its participation in the 2019-2020 season, the final campaign with the current-specification LMP1 regulations, and it now confirms that it will be present on the grid when the new generation of top-class endurance race cars make their WEC debut in autumn 2020. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will participate in the 2020-2021 season with a hybrid-powered prototype based on the GR Super Sport road car. Both road and race cars are undergoing design and development at the company’s technical centers in Toyota City, Higashi-Fuji and Cologne. Track testing of the new machine will begin next year prior to the start of the 2020-2021 season, while further details of the GR Super Sport road car will be issued by TOYOTA GAZOO Racing at a later date.


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