Remember, your comments on this column/blog are always welcome… should you wish to make comments directly on my blog, click here.  Otherwise, just email me at CrashG@SpeedFreaks.TV

And this week’s MyRacer.com Pick of the Week is Arni, The Indy Insider… just go to the site and find ANY of his videos and you’ll see why… fun-knee!!!!  www.myracer.com

 

Open Wheel
Speaking of IndyCar, they had essentially the first winner of the weekend, as Tony Kanaan with the Andretti Green Racing Team won overseas in Japan thanks to some sly fuel management.  Nice trophy girls, TK… for the complete story (and images), click here. 

Champ Car raced in the streets, er, the parking lot of the Astrodome in Houston.  Sebastien Bourdais overcame a qualifying penalty and then a first lap penalty to win his second in a row… with his teammate Graham Rahal in tow.  Poor Graham… he had to sacrifice his Senior Year Prom to take the 2-spot in Houston.  Actually, I don’t think he is too upset about that.  Story here.   

In the Atlantic series, Mr. Ralfy Matos did it again… he made the Triple Play, winning Houston, or more specifically, winning the first 3 races of the season.  Damn boy!

Ralfy’s teammate, James Hinchcliffe was in the SpeedFreaks Pits on Sunday night and had some serious Champ Car fodder for you CC diehards… woah Nellie!!!!  You must hear this!

And to add to the massive trophy case in the Kinser Kamp, Steve Kinser, the 20x Champ just won race #535 of his career by taking the checkered flag at the World of Outlaws race in Indiana this weekend.  Race wrap here. 
NO ONE ELSE WILL EVER ECLIPSE A RECORD OF THAT SORT!!!  Steve Kinser is a HUGE race car driver and if you truly don’t know his name as of yet, then get to reading… he is one of the best of ALL TIME in ALL SERIES!  JMO

 

Sports Cars
Before we leave the Houston paddock discussion, the American LeMans Series again showed how their LMP2’s could beat the bigger, more powerful LMP1’s this weekend.  Is this an issue for ALMS?  Should they merge the two prototype classes to get rid of any confusion?  Or should they just let them race as is and forget about any confusion… WHAT confusion?  Apparently no confusion or at least no issues at all for race winners Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas.  Story Here.

And finally, the opening round of the Mazda Cup (actual series name, the SCCA Pro Racing SIRIUS Satellite Radio Mazda MX-5 Cup) was also at the Astrodome, where Texas native Jason Saini took the win.  Check out, Saini goes flag to flag. 

For the Grand Am series, the KONI Challenge tested that new asphalt at Iowa Speedway’s road course debut… but new was no worry for Tom Nastasi and Ian James… they kept their season perfect with a win in the Midwest. 

But oh, first up in Iowa was another KONI Challenge event, won by Mr. Guy Cosmo and David Tuaty.

Two Wheel
From AMA Superbikes in Alabama to MotoGP in Turkey to Supercross in Detroit, all the boys were racing this weekend…

Let’s start with my boy Mat Mladin… and how he is back and in true form!  He held off Ben Spies in the first AMA Superbike race of the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, but in race 2, Mat had truly dominated by building a commanding lead, only to be held up lapped traffic toward the end, which narrowed his margin of victory to .9 seconds.  Complete Story Here. 

In Superstock, it was SpeedFreaks Mojoed Aaron Yates with the win for Michael Jordan and the gang; and in BOTH Supersport & Formula XTreme, it was Freaks Fave Josh Hayes with the weekend double!  Excellent 2-wheel racing in the States!
 
Then there was just enough time to watch the MotoGP race in Turkey which started with a brutal 5 rider crash on the first lap!  That incident, seen here / , started by Dani Pedrosa, tangled up USA’s Colin Edwards and helped to force more issues on multi time champ Valentino Rossi.   For the race story and info on Casey Stoner’s 2nd win of the year, hit this:  Stoner Takes Victory and Championship Lead in Turkish Thriller
And for bits on the crash, hit this headline: Exclusive On Board Footage of MotoGP Turkey Collision

Defending Champ and USA Fav Nicky Hayden you ask?  He finished 7th.

Up north, we all could have predicted it, but the man, the myth… James Bubba Stewart took home the hardware from the Detroit Supercross this weekend.   

But maybe the bigger story was that Ben Townley, who finished 2nd in the Lites class, sealed the championship off for himself with just enough points to take East Lites Title!  

 

Off Road
The Lucas Oil CORR Series kicked off their season this weekend just a bit north of Los Angeles… even NASCAR’s Robby Gordon came to play for the Sunday edition of races.  Saturday results saw Rob MacCachren and Johnny Greaves the winners, whereas Carl Renezeder and Jerry Whelchel were the victors on Sunday.  For all the weekend’s stories and goings on in the Antelope Valley, check out www.corracing.com

 

NASCAR
Oh yeah, many of you like NASCAR, too!  Ha, ha… I had to tease you with all the other race results before hitting the big dogs… NASCAR raced in Phoenix this weekend and finally, FINALLY, Jeff Gordon took home a win on a track he has NEVER won on before… AND it just so happened to be the win that tied him on the list with the late, great Dale Earnhardt Sr., with 76 career Cup wins.  Good job, Jeff, and nice tribute to the legend on your victory lap, too.  For thsoe of you in the PHX stands who threw beer cans at Jeff, because (I'm assuming) you are upset that he is now tied with the legend you so love, that was completely disrespectful and you should be ashamed of yourselves.  Jeff was paying a tribute to Dale, he completely respects and misses Dale and should be treated with the respet that you would give Dale Sr. had he done the same thing to Darrell Waltrip's record.  Nuff said and I'm stepping down from my soap box now.

The Busch race was won on Friday by one Mr. Clint Bowyer.  For all NASCAR news and insight, here are a couple of places to check on the net:
www.jayski.com
www.nascar.com
www.racingone.com

 

Drag Racing
The IHRA raced at the Rock… and how about that Jack Wyatt!  Taking the win in the Virginia Tech decaled car, just one week after the tragedy.  That is VERY cool… for the complete list of winners and stories, hit IHRA.com  

And the NHRA Sport Compact series raced in Richmond… here is a link to the stories about their class winners (Ladwig, Tran, Prayoonto, Personett and Scheepers).

 

Have a great week, Freaks… keep your eyes and ears peeled for the updated lawsuit between Kentucky Speedway and NASCAR… ouch!  KY wants the France Family to either sell NASCAR or ISC (which owns many of the NASCAR tracks) in order to do more fair business… this is gonna get good in the next few months.  Link here.

And don’t be mad at Sebastien for what he said on our show Sunday night… I applaud him for speaking his mind and not feeling the need to take the company line… geez, he is NOT the only one who feels that way about the state of open wheel racing either!
Interview archive here.

WOW… so much frustration this weekend… but then again, some things never change!