It’s that time of the year. Football season is winding to a
close, basketball and hockey are reaching the midpoints of their seasons, and pitchers
& catchers report in less than a month. That’s right ladies and gentleman, spring
is nearly here and racing season is upon us once again. In the upcoming weeks we will be providing
you with all the information you will need to get caught up with the offseason
changes of the major classes of motorsport before the kickoffs of the 2012
seasons. And there is a lot to cover, so lets begin.
Sprint Cup/Nationwide
Testing is underway at Daytona and there are a few main
story lines to follow. While no major technical changes have been made for the
season as a whole, there are a few changes in place for this year’s Daytona
500. All the changes address the tandem
racing we have seen at larger restrictor plate tracks, in which two cars hook
up (with the 2nd car literally pushing the first) and are quicker
than any other combination. The teams adjusted last year to having the drivers
communicate by radio to each other and having a single spotter between them,
both of which are not allowed this season.
A smaller radiator size should ensure that the following car won’t be
able to do so for too long before it needs to step out for fresh air without
overheating. In addition, the restrictor plate openings have been increased to
increase overall speed in hopes to break the car’s dependency on each other.
This has resulted in the fastest speeds we have seen in years, with Kurt Busch
posting the fastest lap time so far in testing at 206.058 mph average.
Other things to keep an eye out for (and things we will be
addressing in future posts) is Tony Stewart’s chance of the repeat, Jimmy
Johnson trying to win another title after not being crowned champion for the
first time in what seems like forever, and Danica Patrick running a full
Nationwide schedule with a limited Sprint Cup schedule.
Formula 1
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| Testing of Renault's new R30 Chassis |
We are going to hold off on getting too in depth on the
Formula 1 scene for now for a couple main reasons. Testing doesn’t begin until February 7 in Jerez, which means we
actually only know what a few team’s cars look like and what type of
innovations they are carrying. If you aren’t familiar with F1, each team makes
their own car from scratch each season. Renault
is one of the few teams that have shown off their car, but nearly all teams
will unveil their 2012 machines leading up to the first test, with the
exception of McLaren who state they wont release the new car until the 2nd
test at Barcelona, which seems to have become standard procedure for them. So
when we know more we’ll let you know, but it should be another extremely
interesting season as Sebastian Vettel goes for his 3rd world title
in a row, and Louis Hamilton tries to not crash into everything but the safety
car.
Izod Indycar Series
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| IRL's new 2012 Car |
Without question this is probably the most important year of
the series existence. It is never easy
for a series to move past the loss of a driver, but it becomes extraordinarily
difficult when it is a situation as public, and graphic, as the loss of Dan
Weldon at Las Vegas
in last seasons final race. As they move
past the loss of one of their most popular drivers, they must also adapt to the
loss of Danica Patrick who has left this season to join NASCAR. Patrick brought in a broader fan base to Indycar,
and it remains to be seen whether those fans will stay with the series, or
follow Patrick over to stock car racing.
Finally, the series introduces a brand new car this season, a much
safer, and drastically different looking car took the track in pre season tests
for the first time on January 23, and the overall response from the drivers has
been good. Although it is still unclear how they will be on oval tracks. The Dallara DW12 cars, named after Dan Weldon
who helped the manufacturer test the cars last season, has a body designed to
prevent the horrific air born wrecks we have seen in recent years.
It should be a great season across all three series, stay
tuned as we go more in depth as we approach the first races of the season.
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