The importance of proper barriers.

The team behind Circuit of the Americas did a stellar job building a world class facility, the only FIA F1 Certified track in the United States.

FIA certification means a very high level of safety incorporating all the latest advances in the field But, to all those who still insist safety equates to less excitement, let me show you how all that work paid off today.  

I would bet you Tim Bell, the Nissan 370Z driver racing in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series,  did not find it boring at all.



In this case,  the paved runoff made things worse but the FIA barriers did a superb job absorbing the impact. Contrast this to the recent crash at Watkins Glen.

A stack of tires, bare armco, just don't not cut it anymore and it's really up to all of us racers and enthusiasts to demand every track make the effort to upgrade.   This is why Axis is fully behind efforts of the Motorsport-Safety Foundation and the Sean Edwards Foundation.

We're guessing Tim Bell will be too.

If You Are Going To Spin, Do It With Style!

During the inaugural Continental Tire Grand-Am of the Americas race in Austin, one of the CJ WIlson Racing Miatas got rudely turned around by a BMW braking into turn 15. The driver, Jason Saini, recovers like a boss!.

The CJ Wilson Racing Miatas had the last laugh on BMW in ST class when Stevan McAleer smoked the faster BMW 128i of Terry Borcheller with a fantastic move in the final corners on the last lap.

(Video by Dustin Kirk)

Monsoon conditions for Grand Am at VIR

One of the best things about VIR is its park like setting with lots of grass.

One of that bad things about VIR is that when it rains it's in a park like setting with lots of grass...and red clay dirt.



Have a look at some highlights of the Grand-Am and Continental Challenge races there this past week end.

One of the more dramatic incidents involved someone well known here in the North East. Rick Deman is a well known for Porsche race preparation but he probably was not prepared for what happened when he put two wheels off exiting turn 10 and slammed an invisible pothole caused by the rain...





Lots more highlights after the jump

Sunday Drive

Joey Hand chasing Bill Auberlen during practice at Homestead, Florida. The two BMW works drivers are testing the Turner Motorsport M3 entered in the Continental Tire Storts Car Challenge.


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Continental Challenge, Homestead-Miami Highlights.

Continental Tire Challenge is what used to be called Koni Cup Challenge, the "entry level" Grand-Am series. Cars are reasonably "stock" and are divided into two classes: GS , Mustangs vs BMW M3 vs Porsche 997 and ST which is Mazda Mx5 vs Mini vs Honda Civics.

Here is a highlight reel from Grand Am. Bit sad American road racing barely gets covered live on tv these days (this race will air March 13 on SpeedTV). Check out what happened to the number 13 Bum Bum Racing BMW M3 (that's just all wrong isn't it?...13...bum rum bum whatever...I'd re-evaluate! Nice gold intake plenum though).
Results can be found HERE




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