John wood

COMMERCE, GA ---- The NHRA rescheduled the 33rd Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals after rain washed out last weekend’s event after only four pairs of Pro Stock cars made passes last Friday. Contesting the race on Mother’s Day weekend at Atlanta Dragway proved to be a tough task for John Force Racing but John and Brittany Force tightened up their Mello Yello point positions with some early success on Saturday. Brittany Force Photo by: Anne Proffit For rookie of the year candidate Brittany Force the loss of half of the qualifying runs was a setback but added to the drama for the Castrol EDGE dragster team. For a few minutes in the final session Force was on the outside looking in but like a racer beyond her years she focused and raced into the show for the sixth time this season. In her two qualifying runs yesterday Force posted a quick enough time to qualify No. 9 and face veteran Clay Millican. Force outran the Parts Plus dragster to earn her second round … [Read more...] about John and Brittany Force lead team at Atlanta

After serving in the RAF and then creating a garage business with his brother Peter, Russell came to motor racing after visiting a meeting at his local track, Snetterton. At the age of 32, he decided that he wanted to take part, and so bought a Cooper MkVI with a JAP engine for the 1952 season. His competitiveness improved when he fitted a Manx Norton engine into the chassis and wins started to come by August 1953. Russell claimed three 500cc BRSCC National Formula 3 titles between 1955-1957.He won 64 F3 races throughout his driving career, 11 Formula 2 events and six sportscar races. But his driving career was halted by a serious crash at Le Mans in 1959. During the night, Brian Naylor had rolled his Aston Martin at Maison Blanche. Although Naylor escaped, Russell's Cooper Monaco struck the abandoned car and he was left with broken legs and ribs, plus minor burns. He did return to the cockpit briefly in 1961, but then decided to hang up his gloves. In 1966, Russell was … [Read more...] about Racing school founder Jim Russell dies

LAS VEGAS --- In order to get a Nitro Funny Car from the starting line to the finish line under power it is estimated that over a million things have to go right. To ruin a perfectly good run only one thing has to go wrong. Today Mike Neff, driver and crew chief of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang, was on the wrong side of that equation in his second round match-up with Full Throttle point leader Jack Beckman. With the chance to knock out the point leader Neff’s Ford Mustang broke a $5 part, a clutch hydraulic fitting, and the result was tire smoke and round win for Beckman at the 12th annual Big O Tires NHRA Nationals. Mike Neff Photo by: NHRA “Losing that round was devastating. You hate to lose a championship that way. I will never make excuses and I will congratulate the champion but I am not giving up. We are going to head to Pomona and give it our best,” said Neff. “My Castrol GTX Ford Mustang has been running awesome since Reading. It was just a mechanical deal … [Read more...] about Early Vegas exit makes for tough road to championship

POMONA, CA – Even though rookie sensation Courtney Force could not hold off the 4.025 second pass by Jack Beckman in the second round of qualifying at the 48th annual Auto Club NHRA Nationals, she managed to make a second noteworthy pass in her Traxxas Ford Mustang Funny Car in addition to the career best 4.032 second run that she opened with on Thursday. “We came out today hoping to hang on to the No. 1 spot, but Beckman took it away from us in that last round. We were only bumped down one to the No. 2 spot. We still made a great pass with a 4.05 so we’ve got a great race car. It blew the burst panel off right at the end; right at the finish line, so who knows if it would have run a little better than that .05,” said Force. Courtney Force Photo by: Michael C. Johnson Today the 24-year-old posted a 4.056 ET which was the second-quickest of the session behind Beckman’s 4.025. Jim Head also ran a 4.056 ET, but was ousted from the second-best spot based on speed; his … [Read more...] about Rookie Force still impressing at Auto Club finals

There were some interesting quotes from Max Mosley in the second media lunch last week (I went to the first one), which took the discussion about KERS and the challenge of designing F1 cars a bit further than the discussion of which I was part. Here's what he said, "It is a little bit sad in Formula One and it is, in a way, our fault with the regulations. They have constricted the areas in which the teams can work, to keep the car speeds under control and also to keep costs under control, to the point where you get the best returns by endlessly refining every single component on the car. The top teams look at every single component even though they don't make the slightest bit of difference, and brave innovatory engineering has completely disappeared from F1. People like (Colin) Chapman, or (John) Cooper or (Keith) Duckworth would be lost in modern F1. "So suddenly having had this culture of minimal innovation and endless refinement, we dump on them an absolutely new concept … [Read more...] about F1 – no longer a challenge?

Reigning world champion Jenson Button and his entourage have just arrived at the Interlagos circuit to tell the story of how they escaped machine gun wielding bandits last night. Button, his father John, manager Richard Goddard and trainer Mike Collyer left the circuit at around 7pm last night in an armoured Mercedes and were attacked at the bottom of the hill which leads away from Interlagos and back towards the city of Sao Paulo. There is a favella all the way down the hill on the right hand side of the road, the side which is next to the lane leading back to town. Six men ran out of the favella and approached the car, "We saw six men, all of them brandishing machine guns, " said Button. "My driver was a legend. He bounced off about five cars. We were driving over the top of them. It was very scary." It seems that the driver, who was trained in evasion techniques, bounced off quite a few cars, which followed the party back to the hotel where they are staying, there … [Read more...] about Button tells of his great escape

Before we got here this week Yas Marina Circuit was hit by a powerful sandstorm, which bent the trees backwards and dumped tonnes of sand on the track. This being Abu Dhabi they have a machine for sucking up the sand, so the racing will not be affected. I've been at plenty of championship showdowns over the years. There is nothing like being here to look the contenders in the eye and see how they are coping with the pressure. There have been some stormy ones, I recall Jerez 1997 for example and ten years later the acrimony at McLaren in the final race. But today we had a phoney war between the contenders in the press conference. Perhaps it is because this is not a duel for the title, but a battle between four contenders (albeit one with a slim chance) it seems to diffuse the tension. None of the drivers was giving anything away. Webber was subdued, not about to hand any more hand grenade quotes to journalists. Vettel was relaxed and bouncy, he has nothing to lose and he's … [Read more...] about Phoney war between drivers during calm before storm in Abu Dhabi

Breen, who drove a Citroen to his best-ever WRC finish of eighth earlier this year, kicked off the rally second behind Elfyn Evans after the first two stages. However, Evans was forced to retire in SS3 with an overheated engine and dropped out of contention. He was back on Day 2 to add a further four stage wins to his tally but failed to complete that day either after a crash. While Breen maintained a lead of nearly half a minute through the first day, his advantage shrunk to just eight seconds over the course of three stages on Saturday. Picking up the pace, he beat Kajetanowicz twice before suffering a puncture and only ending up ahead by five seconds with two stages to go. Breen doubled his lead by winning SS13 and, despite losing 40 seconds to the winner in the final test, he stayed ahead of Kajetanowicz. Northern Irishman Alastair Fisher completed the podium, having spent the rally less than 30 seconds behind the leader before losing some time in the penultimate … [Read more...] about Ireland ERC: Breen holds off Kajetanowicz to win home rally

Kevin Hart will showcase nearly a dozen of his custom-built cars at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show. This is the first time Hart will display all 11 vehicles in one location for public viewing. It has taken Hart over a decade to build his “Kollection.” Each was built to his specifications, with many tailored to a certain theme. Several of his cars have horror movie themes, his favorite genre. Gallery: Kevin Hart Kollection 9 Photos “Bane” and “Dark Knight” were his 1987 Buick Grand National and 1970 Dodge Challenger themes. His 1970 Dodge Charger is Hellraiser themed, while his 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner takes after Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween . Under the Roadrunner’s hood is a 940-horsepower Whipple supercharged Hemi V8 engine that pairs with a six-speed manual gearbox. The Michael Myers-themed muscle car features … [Read more...] about Kevin Hart Bringing His Buick Grand National, Other Custom Cars To LA Auto Show