Any Open wheel fans here????

[Guest bulm5]

for me it is CART and a little F1. Definitely not IRL - they sound like stock cars without fenders.  Plus they   finished 1 lap down to the CART boys in their so called marque race " the INDY 500".  For the IRL it was the INDY 497 1/2 this year.

[DBChaffin]

I used to be a big Formula One fan, quite a while back though.  My favorite driver was Ayrton Senna da Silva (known as just Ayrton Senna) who was killed in a tragic crash at Imola (San Marino GP) in 1994.  Since then I haven't had much desire to watch it, or much racing at all actually.  

Many considered Ayrton the best driver of all time.  Here's a bio:

http://www.a-senna.com/Biography/index.html

And a great story/quote:  

1988 saw him partnering World Champion driver Alain Prost. When Senna was asked how he would approach Prost, he answered, "I will make sure I am fitter than him. I will be more motivated and I will make sure that I can drive faster, more consistently and for longer. I will beat him!"  He was as good as his word for this was the year that brought Ayrton Senna thirteen pole positions, eight GP wins and his first World Championship title.

Story taken from here:

http://www.ayrton-senna.com/s-files/start.html

[38supPat]

I prefer BTTC ( British touring car), WRC (rally racing) and of course my favorite The Dakar Rally (oh man its almost here (usually starts Jan 1, however due to the course I'm not sure what is being done this year given the current state of the world) any race where landmines factor into the results has got to be cool!

Hope Klienshmidt repeats (first woman driver to win the race overall) and good luch to Matsuoka (after getting cheated out of the title last year by J.L. Schlesser.

Pat

[Guest bulm5]

Ayrton was my favorite too!!!! Now it is Montoya in F1. He drives like Ayrton.

[DBChaffin]

Good points Pat.  I liked Rally racing back when Group B was at the top of its game.  Too bad it got too dangerous and the cars were toned down some.  Those were some amazing machines!  The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is pretty cool, and The Dakar Rally is a good one.  I haven't followed it for a while though.  

I won't doubt that Montoya is good.  I might just check some F1 out.  Somehow, "he drives like Ayrton" just doesn't seem right.  No one that I have ever seen drove like Ayrton.   I will give you he has a similar style maybe...   I need to watch this guy.   Thanks for posting that.

(Edited by DBChaffin at 4:59 pm on Dec. 5, 2001)

[Guest bulm5]

I guess because he  is as aggressive as Ayrton and this guy knows how to drive in the wet.  

[DBChaffin]

Ayrton was definitely a master of the wet.  I remember a long time ago when Ayrton drove for Lotus, he had an early hydraulic active suspension car.  The hydraulics had gone out and the only suspension the car had was the "helper" springs that held the car up when there was no pressure.  Ayrton was able to keep on pace even with sparks coming from the car almost continuously.  The Lotus team praised him for being able to drive smoothly enough to protect the car, but yet aggressively enough to not drop back.  Pure artistry at the wheel.

Speaking of women drivers Pat, what about Michelle Mouton, the "little French girl" that drove Audi rally cars?  Fiercely fast, but alas crashed quite a bit.  

[Chris Jordan]

Ayrton was THE man, but has anybody ever decided if he was a victim of foul play? Just a rumor that I have heard float about quite a bit.

As for racing this side of the pond it has got to be WoO( World of Outlaws). Those guys have balls!

P.S. These days Schumie is the rain Meister but nothing like Ayrton

[ErikW]

Car racing generally bores me to tears (I don't know how they manage to make a road race into a parade, but they do) but somebody gave me a Rally video to watch. Heee-yaaa! Now that's driving. Anything with that much sideways action is OK with me. The only way it could be better is if they raced head to head. Of course, then they'd all put each other in the trees. Supposedly Senna raced a rally once in the F1 off-season and ended up bruised and battered, with a lot of respect for Rally drivers.

[38supPat]

Watch the Dakar rally and you'll see some head to head stuff, Matsuoka blew out last year trying to pass Sclesser by taking and offroad route and ripping his wheel off on a tree stump. Bad for him, but it looked cool, they didn't have video of it but a truck got taken out by a landmine last year too! Fortunately the driver only suffered minor injuries, but it is by far the toughest race in the world, bar none, check it out on the Web search 'Dakar Rally' and watch 'Speedvision' in January race usually starts Jan. 1 and runs til almost Feb.

Pat

[Kyle Norris]

Rally is the only type of racing where I've seen someone hit a cow during the course of normal driving.

[ErikW]

I'm somewhat familiar with the Paris-Dakar rally and its mutations. Head-to-head racing in a trans-continental race is silly. In the Dakar, do the motorcycles beat the cars overall like in the Baja 1000?

You know what's stoopid-cool? European truck road racing. Not pickups, tractor-trailer rigs minus the trailers. Imagine Hockenheim in the rain with a torque monster with no weight over the axle. You know what else is goofy? Racing similar trucks up the Pike's Peak hillclimb.

[38supPat]

They race those too at Dakar..thats what hit the landmine..probably the only reason the driver wasn't seriously injured. The bikes run separate, and it is started like regular rally, one at a time, but the stages are so long that they catch up quick. I think its the best race in the world, far better than Indy, Nascar, or any oval track race, and slightly better than road course races...Laguna Seca rules whatever cars are racing on it...

Pat

[38supPat]

Dakar Rally starts tomorrow the 28th..woohoo! Leaving Arras France 16 days ending in Dakar on the 13th. Should be a good one!

Pat

http://www.dakar.com/2002/us/

Total-Dakar 2002

(Edited by Pat Harrison at 6:30 pm on Dec. 28, 2001)