CHAMPION: Brad Keselowski Brad Keselowski used six victories to propel himself to his first NASCAR Nationwide Series championship. (HHP/Harold Hinson Photo) What many thought would be a building year for Brad Keselowski and Penske Racing became much moreSource: http://www.inracingnews.com/nascar-news/nascar/season-rewind-nascar-nationwide-series/
Hap Sharp Brian ShaweTaylor Carroll Shelby Tony Shelly Jo Siffert
During 2010, AUTOSPORT.com once again delivered all the news as it happened, on every day of the year. Source: http://www.inracingnews.com/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/the-top-20-f1-stories-of-2010/
Juan Manuel Bordeu Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais
Fernando Alonso says he would have no problem being team-mates with Sebastian Vettel if the world champion were to switch to Ferrari in future. The Spaniard points to the fact that he has never been out-scored by a team-mate in his Formula 1 career and says he has no reason to fear Vettel. "I'm not afraid at all of Vettel," he told Spanish media in Oviedo this weekSource: http://www.inracingnews.com/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/alonso-i-dont-fear-vettel/
Alain de Changy Colin Chapman Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg
Source: http://www.motorsportsjournal.com/archives/2010/12/jegs_foundation_receives.php
Joe Kelly Dave Kennedy Loris Kessel Bruce Kessler Nicolas Kiesa
Michael Schumacher spun off at turn 8 on his final lap and ended the session in the gravel. Despite this, he ended up ahead of his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. They line up fifth and sixth.
Bruce Kessler Nicolas Kiesa Leo Kinnunen Danny Kladis Hans Klenk
Source: http://finallapradio.com/2010/12/27/todd-gordon-named-crew-chief-of-penske-22-nationwide-car/
Ernesto Prinoth David Prophet Alain Prost Tom Pryce David Purley
Mike Harris Cuth Harrison Brian Hart Gene Hartley Masahiro Hasemi
With a North American launch looming, Ford has announced the 2012 Focus will feature standard torque vectoring control.
Lloyd Ruby JeanClaude Rudaz Eddie Russo Paul Russo Troy Ruttman
Tom Walkinshaw, who has died of cancer aged 64, was one of the most powerful personalities in motorsport for nearly 30 years and, latterly, an influential figure in English rugby.
Walkinshaw's famous TWR racing team won championships in touring cars and sportscars, as well as claiming the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1988, giving Jaguar its first win in the race for more than 30 years in the process.
But Formula 1, motorsport's pinnacle, proved a tougher challenge. Although the Scot was instrumental in the success of the Benetton team with Michael Schumacher from 1992-4, his attempts to conquer it with his own team eventually led to his downfall and exit from top-level motor racing.
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When Walkinshaw joined Benetton in 1991, after nearly two decades of often controversial successes in touring cars and sportscars, his reputation preceded him.
He was known as an uncompromising and controversial character whose granite jaw reflected his determination - he pushed things to the limit, didn't mind who he upset to get his way and used his imposing physical presence to its full effect.
Walkinshaw was not a tall man but he was immensely broad and stocky, and he was not afraid to employ his physical strength to his own ends.
At a sportscar race once, he sought out a journalist to whose reporting he had taken exception, dragged him across the pit lane and hung him over the pit wall as cars passed by at nearly 200mph while he verbally harangued him.
But Walkinshaw had brains as well as brawn. He was a very competent racing driver in touring cars in the 1970s but he was a far better team boss.
One of the people he employed at Jaguar was Ross Brawn, later to transform Ferrari into the most efficient winning machine in F1 history, but then an ambitious young designer.
Walkinshaw took him on to apply F1 expertise to sportscars and the result was a game-changing car that won the world sportscar championship.
With that conquered, only F1 remained and the flamboyant new Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore, an intimidating character himself, decided that Walkinshaw and Brawn were the men he needed to turn Benetton from also-rans to winners. Walkinshaw was installed as engineering director, Brawn as technical director.
It didn't take long for Walkinshaw's ruthlessness to emerge.
He had witnessed Schumacher's talents driving for Mercedes in sportscars and when the 22-year-old German made an electrifying F1 debut for Jordan at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, Walkinshaw told Briatore this was the driver they needed. By the next race in Italy Schumacher was in the cockpit of a Benetton, the fact that he had binding contract with Jordan a minor inconvenience.
Together, Benetton and Schumacher made a formidable team and success was not long coming - by 1994 they were world champions. But, just as in the other categories in which Walkinshaw had competed, the whiff of controversy followed him to F1.
Benetton were accused of cheating. They were found to have illegal driver-aid software in their cars, but were not punished because the sport's governing body, the FIA, could not prove it had been used. Then, after a refuelling fire during the German Grand Prix, Benetton were found guilty of taking a filter out of their fuel hose without authorisation.
Benetton's 1994 pit fire led to the end of Walkinshaw's career with the team
They blamed it on a "junior member of staff", but the rumour was that Walkinshaw had authorised it.
Benetton agreed with the FIA to part company with certain unidentified staff as an act of good faith. It was an open secret that a deal had been brokered behind closed doors that Walkinshaw would leave the company at the end of the year.
He moved first to run Benetton-linked Ligier, before in early 1996 taking over Arrows.
Such was the regard in which Walkinshaw was held that he was expected to make a success of a team that had never won a race in its 20-year history.
He pulled off a coup by convincing world champion Damon Hill to join the team for 1997 but the car was uncompetitive. Hill took a somewhat freak second place in Hungary but left the team at the end of the year.
From then on, it was largely all downhill, despite a few flashes of hope, namely when investment bank Morgan Grenfell bought into the team in 1998 and Walkinshaw signed a high-profile sponsorship deal with mobile phone network Orange in 2000.
Generally, his Arrows years were a struggle against the odds, and they ended in 2002 with the ignominy of a High Court battle with Morgan Grenfell and a damning judgement, in which Mr Justice Lightman described proposals Walkinshaw had made trying to ensure the survival of the team as "underhand and improper, indeed downright dishonest".
Why did it go wrong for him in F1?
Some said Walkinshaw too often had his eye off the ball, concentrating on his other business interests, such as his TWR engineering group and Gloucester Rugby Club, to the detriment of his F1 team.
Walkinshaw found money and new partners hard to come by, despite his long history in the car and motorsport industries - or perhaps because of it, some believed.
Walkinshaw was a hard-nosed businessman and sportsman, always viewed as the ultimate survivor, the man who could be guaranteed to pull off the last-minute saving deal.
But his failure with Arrows spelt the end of his association with top-level motorsport, although he did continue to run a touring car team in Australia.
He turned his business acumen and tough negotiating skills to a new role in rugby.
Related or not, the collapse of Arrows coincided with Walkinshaw's tenure as chairman of Premier Rugby, the top-flight clubs' umbrella body, from 1998-2002.
Later, he led the clubs' team negotiating with the Rugby Football Union over the release of England players, the details of which are now enshrined in an eight-year agreement that has largely ended what for a while were very bitter wrangles over the management of the men playing for the national side.
As chairman of Gloucester, he is remembered fondly for pumping in lots of money and keeping the team at the forefront of the game, even if he never quite achieved his ambitions either domestically or in Europe.
Walkinshaw was a complex figure who aroused mixed emotions but, although he had a dark side, plenty of people will remember him as a warm-hearted and generous man.
BBC F1 analyst Martin Brundle, whose long relationship with Walkinshaw included winning Le Mans and the world sportscar title, says: "He was a mentor to me.
"I wrote to him and asked him for a drive when he didn't know me from Adam and he gave me a chance. If he hadn't done that, I'd still be selling Toyotas in West Norfolk, for sure. He was an entrepreneurial racer and a great tactician."
And Hill, now president of the British Racing Drivers' Club that owns Silverstone, adds: "He was a very big-hearted guy who put everything he had into motor racing in all its forms. He loved motorsport and he liked business, too.
"Tom had competitive spirit and there were a lot of good things about him. He genuinely wanted to compete. He wanted things to turn out right.
"I certainly believed in Tom and his sincere desire to build a team. But it didn't work out.
"He was a major player in motorsport for a long time and that will be his testimony."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/12/tom_walkinshaw_who_has_died.html
Francois Migault John Miles Ken Miles Andre Milhoux Chet Miller
Francois Picard Ernie Pieterse Paul Pietsch Andre Pilette Teddy Pilette
JJ Lehto Lamberto Leoni Les Leston Pierre Levegh Bayliss Levrett
Jacques Pollet Ben Pon Dennis Poore Alfonso de Portago Sam Posey
Prior Design has unveiled their new tuning program for the Mercedes E-Class Coupe. Details inside 
Emerson Fittipaldi Wilson Fittipaldi Theo Fitzau Pat Flaherty Jan Flinterman
Source: http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-honda-reloads/
Piercarlo Ghinzani Bruno Giacomelli Dick Gibson Gimax Richie Ginther
James Calado is confident he can defeat highly-rated new team-mate Valtteri Bottas and become the first Racing Steps Foundation driver to win a single-seater championship when he moves into GP3 in 2011. The Briton narrowly missed out on the 2009 Formula Renault UK title with Fortec, before finishing a distant runner-up to Carlin team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne in British F3 in 2010. Source: http://www.inracingnews.com/3rdparty/calado-eager-to-take-on-bottas-in-gp3/
Markus Winkelhock Reine Wisell Roelof Wunderink Alexander Wurz Sakon Yamamoto
George Constantine John Cordts David Coulthard Piers Courage Chris Craft
Filed under: Toys/Games
Continue reading Tomica returns to U.S. with 20 diecast cars
Tomica returns to U.S. with 20 diecast cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.autoblog.com/2010/12/27/tomica-returns-to-u-s-with-20-diecast-cars/
Lewis Hamilton David Hampshire Sam Hanks Walt Hansgen Mike Harris
Next-generation Porsche 911 will be 56 mm longer and stand 11 mm shorter than the current model. The next 911 will also feature a new, shrunken 3.4 liter straight-six unit and a revised 3.8 liter power plant. 
Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore Bill Aston Richard Attwood
Source: http://www.inracingnews.com/other-news/sports-cars/alms/flying-lizard-retains-alms-drivers/
Karl Gunther Bechem Jean Behra Derek Bell Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo
Jerome D'Ambrosio has secured the second race seat at Virgin Racing for 2011, the team announced on Tuesday. Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard
The final grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi summed up why the 2010 season will go down in Formula 1 history as a classic year.
There were super-fast Red Bulls, world champion drivers in the thick of the action, strategic errors, raw emotion and a final twist in an epic tale as Sebastian Vettel won his first world title.
Before the race was run, the sun-soaked paddock was buzzing with talk of "the greatest season ever" and debate about the highlight of the season swelled.
In fact, as the dust settles on Abu Dhabi, the teams' attentions are already turning to 2011 - all the teams and most of the race drivers get their first run on next year's new Pirelli tyres at the Yas Marina track at the weekend.
With just 118 days to go until the cars and drivers return to the desert in Bahrain to rejoin battle, expectations are already building that 2011 could be another classic year, matching events this season.
As BBC pundit Eddie Jordan exclaimed on Sunday: "We have five world champions competing next year, what are we in for?!"
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Jordan is right to be excited.
The men who defined this season remain in situ - Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at McLaren, Fernando Alonso at Ferrari, and Vettel and Mark Webber at Red Bull.
All of them know they have things to improve in 2010 - particularly the number of errors they have made. And the long winter will give each of the 24 drivers on the grid time to analyse and agonise over crucial mistakes and frittered points that ultimately defined their seasons.
"Every one of us made too many errors and that is why we found ourselves in a position with five guys fighting it out," reflected Button, who saw his title defence end in Brazil.
Though he was the first to bow out, Button had the cleanest season of all the five contenders but found himself let down by a lack of pace - particularly in qualifying - as he got to grips with a McLaren in his first season with the team.
Alonso will rue his uncharacteristic errors in Australia and China, his crash in Monaco and, most of all, the fatal call from Ferrari to bring him in early for fresh tyres in Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton will reflect on his ill-judged passing moves in Monza and Singapore, which effectively ended his hopes, while Webber will relive his frightening somersault in Valencia and his costly crash in Korea.
Vettel, too, made more than his fair share of errors. He must take the blame for crashes with his team-mate Webber in Turkey and an unwitting Button in Spa, while his attempt to go around the outside of Webber at the start in Silverstone earned him a puncture.
For Red Bull, though, one of the biggest areas of focus will be the poor early-season reliability, from spark plugs to wheel nuts, that prevented Vettel bursting into an early lead.
When Red Bull adviser Dr Helmut Marko was asked on Sunday what his next goal was after his team captured both championships, he said they intended to cut out the errors so they could win the titles sooner.
All the top teams will be adding grease to their usually slick operations over the winter at the same time as building their cars to a set of regulations that have been tweaked again.
Gone will be the double-diffusers which caused so much controversy at the start of 2009, as well as the F-duct that McLaren pioneered at the start of 2010, forcing everyone else to follow suit.
Blown diffusers - 2010's other defining technical tweak - will stay to an extent, though.
In come those Pirelli tyres, while Kers energy storage and power-boost systems return after a year away. There will also be a new technical trick in the form of moveable rear wings, an attempt to solve F1's perennial problem even in a season as great as this - the difficulty of overtaking.
The success of the teams' research into the effects of these changes will shape next year's title chase - and it is by no means a given that this year's big three will be the ones who get it most right.
There have been concerned whispers that the efforts of waging a season-long campaign have diverted attention away from 2011 development programmes at Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren.
The strain of winning the 2009 championships certainly drained Brawn Grand Prix, which had a debilitating effect on them this season in their new guise as Mercedes.
However, with no championship to fight for, teams such as Mercedes and Renault, who stopped developing their 2010 car in September so they concentrate on next season, could make it a five-way battle for honours next year.
"It has been a special year," mused McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh. "Can there be more?
"We have to keep the focus on brave, fantastic drivers in great machinery; an even-handed regulator, stability and clear rules that are administered properly.
"We can't guarantee it but there is no reason the championship next year can't be as good - or even better."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sarahholt/2010/11/could_f1_2011_be_even_better.html
Eddie Irvine Chris Irwin JeanPierre Jabouille Jimmy Jackson Joe James
Cecil Green Keith Greene Masten Gregory Cliff Griffith Georges Grignard
Francois Hesnault Hans Heyer Damon Hill Graham Hill Phil Hill
The World Touring Car Championship has released details of the base weights for any Super 2000-spec cars that compete in the series in 2011. Source: http://www.inracingnews.com/other-news/touring-cars/wtcc/base-weights-confirmed-for-2011-season/
Jay Chamberlain Karun Chandhok Alain de Changy Colin Chapman Dave Charlton
Jerome D'Ambrosio has secured the second race seat at Virgin Racing for 2011, the team announced on Tuesday. John Nicholson Cal Niday Helmut Niedermayr Brausch Niemann Gunnar Nilsson
Dempsey Wilson Desire Wilson Justin Wilson Vic Wilson Joachim Winkelhock
I had an old '96 Mustang snap-kit lying around, so I decided to build a hybrid based on a sketchpad article from the April 2002 edition. The rear is a combination of a '68 GT-500 and a '70 Boss.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/scacs/forums/thread/930498.aspx
Jim Hall Duncan Hamilton Lewis Hamilton David Hampshire Sam Hanks
Filed under: Government/Legal, Recalls, Safety, Lexus, Toyota
According to The Detroit Free Press, Toyota has agreed to settle the case in which four people died in a runaway Lexus to the tune of $10 million. The crash, which occurred in August 2009, killed an off-duty police officer, his wife, brother-in-law and daughter and set off a torrent of recalls and investigations into just how long the Japanese automaker had known about unintended acceleration issues. In this case, the accelerator was trapped by the wrong-sized floor mat, but Toyota would later recall vehicles not only with similar issues, but with pedals that could stick as well. Report: Toyota to pay out $10M in Lexus runaway lawsuit originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.autoblog.com/2010/12/24/report-toyota-to-pay-out-10m-in-lexus-runaway-lawsuit/
Rodney Nuckey Robert OBrien Pat OConnor Jackie Oliver Danny Ongais
Source: http://finallapradio.com/2010/12/23/robby-gordon-prepares-for-2011-dakar-rally/
Ludwig Fischer Rudi Fischer Mike Fisher Giancarlo Fisichella John Fitch
Filed under: Classics, Performance, Truck, Auctions, GM, GMC
eBay Find of the Day: 1991 GMC Syclone Marlboro is period smokin' originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.autoblog.com/2010/12/24/ebay-find-of-the-day-1991-gmc-syclone-marlboro-is-period-smokin/
Karl Kling Ernst Klodwig Kamui Kobayashi Helmuth Koinigg Heikki Kovalainen
Base weights confirmed for 2011 By Steven English Friday, December 24th 2010, 14:26 GMT The World Touring Car Championship has released details of the base weights for any Super 2000-spec cars that compete in the series in 2011. New regulations are introduced next year for 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engines, but current model cars will be allowed to compete next year Related posts:Source: http://doxcar.com/wtcc-base-weights-confirmed-for-2011/
Tom Belso JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger
 The wreckage of Jochen Rindt's car at Barcelona |
?Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed Chris Amon in Clermont Ferrand) and I had one accident in Zandvoort due to gear selection failure otherwise I managed to stay out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team. ?Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive with a few extra pounds used to make the weakest parts stronger, on top of that I think you ought to spend some time checking what your different employes are doing, I sure the wishbones on the F2 car would have looked different. Please give my suggestions some thought, I can only drive a car in which I have some confidence, and I feel the point of no confidence is quite near.?A little more than a year later Rindt's Lotus suffered mechanical breakdown just before braking into one of the corners. He swerved violently to the left and crashed into a poorly-installed barrier, killing him instantly.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/the_point_of_no_confidence_is.php
Kunimitsu Takahashi Patrick Tambay Luigi Taramazzo Gabriele Tarquini Piero Taruffi
