Auto Racing Commentary

I am always amused when people say "what is this world coming to", whenever they hear reports of crimes, accidents, basic societal decay, as if to say the world was that much better say, 50 or 100 years ago, than today. Most cities had a terrible feces smell just a relative short while back, most of the world had no running water, much less sewage lines, politicians used to put contracts on their nemesis in many parts of the world instead of bad mouthing them, and sexual crime has always been bad. Just to a name a few things. Many people had a very unusual response to the recent Stepney-gate, the spy saga that rocked the F-1 world. As if all types of such improprieties never took place, and decay had finally arrived in the hitherto pristine waters of Formulaonedom, fifty seven years down the line!!! The following borders on the comical, and it just goes to show that bad things happened in F1 in the past too, although this was not an "inside job". Jean P

By Carlos de Paula By far, the most important development in Brazilian racing in the 70’s took place out of Brazil: namely, Emerson Fittipaldi’s achievements in Formula 1. Due to this very fact, the face of Brazilian racing changed fast, and racing was transformed from a niche sport, to a mass sport. All of sudden, great media attention was devoted to racing, not only international racing, but local racing as well. Such attention translated into commercial sponsorship, factory involvement, more organized championships, completion/construction of new race tracks, which basically set the scenario for racing in years to come. The opening of new permanent tracks was a major feature of the new decade. Not only was Interlagos reopened in early 1970, with the finale for the International Formula Ford tournament, another important race tracks was inaugurated that year Tarumã, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Cascavel’s paved track was open for business in 1973, Brasilia and Goiania

By Carlos de Paula The 60’s would be a decisive decade in terms of evolution of racing in Brazil. The decade began pretty much as the 50’s ended. Interlagos still ruled supreme as a race track, the gauchos were still on top of their game with their carreteras, and racing specials/pure breed cars would duke it out every once in a while. The major change was the high volume of participation of Brazilian made cars in racing, which eventually would mean that the public, who was accustomed to watch races featuring large 4.5 liter, 200 HP V8 engined race cars, would have to get used to watching myriad DKWs and Renault Gordini saloons on the race tracks. The historic victory by a Brazilian made FNM JK in the 1000 Mile race of 1960, with Chico Landi and Christian Heins, would show that Brazilian made cars could indeed beat the American horses. The FNM would win many other long distance races in 1960 and 1962, and all of a sudden, long distance races became more common than sprints. FNM

I was so excited with the FIA's decision to assign double points to the F1 championship finale, especially given the traditional venue, Abu Dhabi. After all, this is where fine folks like Nuvolari, Fangio, Clark, Stewart and Senna honed their skills and set the parameters for the history of motor racing. Thus I decided to give some suggestions of my own, to enhance our cherished championship. No need to pay, Mr, Todt. I am giving this free of charge. All I want is genuine emotion. First of all I think F1 should adopt NASCAR style score. I reckon things would be narrow. This might also be the only chance Marussia amd Caterham get of scoring points before their ultimate demise. As for the grid, I believe the grid for the entire year should be reverse of the championship order, by that meaning Vettel would always start last, and Marussia and Caterham up front. It will be fun seeing these  two teams leading the first seconds of every race before being wrecked out by a lightning fas

Between Wolfgang Von Trips' 1961 title bid and Michael Schumacher's first title in 1994, German drivers went through a long drought in Formula 1. That, coming from a nation that utterly dominated GP racing in the second half of the 30's, must have been a blow. German drivers during this interval usually did well in long-distance racing, hill climbs, touring cars and even in Formula 2. In fact, German drivers had been runner up in the European Formula 2 championship two years running, 1973 and 1974 (Jochen Mass and Hans Joachim Stuck), during a highly competitive era. During a short spell, between the Spanish Grand Prix of 1975 and the U.S. Grand Prix East of 1977, the three main German drivers of the time rehearsed a bit of a reaction, that did not really come to fruition. All three, Jochen Mass, Rolf Stommelen and Hans Stuck, lead a Grand Prix in that period. Plus Jochen won the first half Grand Prix of the history of the sport. Most unusually, Jochen Mass's sing

These days, we are quite accostumed with the idea of GP drivers from the old Iron Curtain. After all, drivers from Poland, Russia, Czech Republic and Hungary have all driven in Formula 1, and the Pole actually won a race before a rally accident ruined what looked like a great career. However, in the 70's, we still lived under the Cold War, and the Eastern Block was basically shrouded by mystery. Russia every once announced even more mysterious GP level cars, touring car races were held in Brno, Czechoslovakia, as well as Budapest and Belgrade in the 60s, and East Germany also had a fairly active racing scene. However, dreaming of  an Iron Curtain GP driver in Formula 1 in the 70s was as far fetched as an imagination could go. Not that the Eastern Block did not have a representative in F1, for Edgar Barth, Jurgen's father, did drive in the category while still East German. And later as West German. Allow me some poetic liberty. As Formula 2 was, at least in theory, the st

The 6 Hours of Peru is Peru's major car race, and in fact,m a long standing event, held since 1964. In its current form, it is a touring car race, that features more than 30 entrants. A lot of Peruvian drivers who raced abroad, such as Eduardo Dibos, Jorge Koechlin and Neto Jochamowitz have won the event. Ecuadorians  Fausto Merello and Guillermo Ortega won the race in 1968 and American Jim Pace was one of the winners in 2001. 1964 Percy Fox - Kike Pérez 1965 Eduardo Dibós Ch. - Emilio Fort 1966 Leopoldo Barboza - Ricardo Dewitz 1967 Armando Capriles - Alfredo Asencio 1968 Fausto Merello - Guillermo Ortega 1971 Francisco Schettini - Kike Pérez 1973 Miguel Navarro - Udarico Ossio 1976 Eduardo Malachowski - Denis Gonzáles 1977 Pedro De las Casas - Luis De las Casas 1978 Alfredo Bergna - Coco Corbetto 1979 Julio César De las Casas - Luis F. De las Casas 1980 Ricardo Bentín - Gaspare Dalla Francesca 1981 Jorge Koechlin - Gaspare Dalla Francesca 1982 Jorge Koechlin - Tit