| Fri, Jul 30 5:39AM (NZ) |
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This website is now dedicated to covering the Black Bullets. Current Black Bullets news is now provided on iSportz » with past news archived here for your continued reference.
Indy 500
Scott Dixon winning the Indy 500 last weekend will not only go down in history as one of the greatest sporting achievements made by a New Zealander but it has brought him into the local spotlight in a way which has so far eluded the world class driver in his own country.
Motorsport fans will remember how after winning the Indycar championship Dixon was nominated and then overlooked for the sportsman of the year here in New Zealand which was then awarded to some guy who won some obscure kayak championship.
Of course it has always been a big ask for Kiwis to look outside of rugby, sailing, cricket and in this case kayaking and acknowledge motorsport as a bonafide sport. Because you are in a car it is just not a real sport - or at least that is the uninformed attitude as I see it.
We in the business know that this is simply not the case and the amount of physical demand on a modern day driver at the top of his field is enough to make any rugby or cricket player feel inadequate.
But enough! Acceptance of motorsport in this country is on the up and suffice to say that the sport is growing in popularity. If the recent Hamilton 400 and the amount of media attention Dixon received is anything to go by the future looks bright for us all.
Scott Dixon himself has gone from being a top driver in the USA to becoming "the" top driver and since his win over the weekend has not had the chance to sit down as he is in huge demand by media in the states and the world over.
The Indy Racing League is not all that popular outside of the USA - let's face it, we have it screened in NZ due only to Dixon's involvement - but the Indy 500 is another story. The event is simply huge and sits as one of the top three motorsport events of the year alongside the Le Mans 24 Hour and Formula One's Monaco Grand Prix.
Dixon will now forever be a well known celebrity in the states and in New Zealand will take his rightful place alongside our great drivers Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Chris Amon who all reached the pinnacle of their field.
Almost forgot - congratulations Scott and the team, well done!
Formula One
In New Zealand the most popular GP on the F1 calendar went nearly unnoticed in the media due to Scott Dixon's win at the Indy 500 and for once took a back seat to it's oval cousin.
But the Monaco GP was far from unnoticed by F1 fans and was certainly quite a race with Lewis Hamilton narrowly escaping an early shower and going on to win and take back the championship lead from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
For McLaren fans it was looking fairly grim when at qualification Raikkonen and team mate Felipe Massa stole the front row at the last minute leaving McLaren to dominate the second. In a race which offers little in the way of overtaking opportunities this could quite possibly leave Hamilton and his team mate Heikki Kovalainen in the dark.
But at the start Hamilton showed why he is pulling in 32 million pounds over four years and shot past Raikkonen to sit right in behind pole sitter Massa. Suddenly the Ferraris were split and there was everything to race for and looking to be quite an exciting two hours.
A few laps into the race and Hamilton uncharacteristically tapped a wall which was enough to puncture his right rear and was limping the car back to the pits. Again things were looking grim for McLaren but this, it was soon to be seen, was to be a stroke of luck for Hamilton and the team.
With the car fully fuelled a safety car intervention brought Hamilton back up with Massa, Kubica and Raikkonen and sitting pretty in fourth with laps up his sleeve all he had to do was wait for when the others had to pit.
To cut a long story short, the other drivers took their pitstops leaving Hamilton to take the lead and he simply pulled out all the stops and put the car 40 seconds ahead of the rest and kept going.
A safety car intervention near the end of the race stole the huge gap away from Hamilton but at the restart he remained in front and kept it until the end.
Poland's Robert Kubica had yet another brilliant drive and after getting the better of Massa early on in the race he stayed solid right to the end to finish in second in front of the Brazilian.
Raikkonen somehow finished in fourth after two scheduled stops, one drive through penalty and a stop for a new nose cone after rear ending Adrain Sutil but surrendered his championship lead to Hamilton who is now at the top by three points.
Driver of the day must go to Germany's Adrian Sutil who took his Force India car to fourth and held on to it until near the bitter end only to have it cruelly snatched away when Raikkonen lost control coming out of the tunnel. He completely trashed the car leaving the team no option but to retire from the race. Sutil was clearly emotional over the incident and rightly so, the team certainly did not deserve the bad fortune and missed out on their first world championship points with only a handful of laps left to run due to no fault of their own.
Motorsport Highlights
My highlight of the week must go to Indy Racing League's Danica Patrick who was knocked out of the Indy 500 by Australian driver Ryan Briscoe.
A mad dash into the pits by nearly every driver in the field during a safety car intervention was only outdone by a mad dash OUT of the pits by every driver. Unfortunately for Patrick a very eager Briscoe pulling away from his pitstop came out too wide and into her path resulting in the two cars sustaining terminable damage and consequent retirement for both with around 30 laps left to run.
Patrick and the car were both pushed back to their spot on the pit lane and shortly afterwards a roar from the huge crowd across from pitlane alerted the media and everybody else to the tiny, yet fiery female driver storming down the pitlane towards Briscoe.
Amid the cheers of encouragement a security agent managed to get Patrick back over the wall off the pitlane and escort her back to behind her own lines and into the team HQ where she could be seen in tears and very emotional over being taken out of the big race.
On her angered walk she was able to vent her frustrations on a few camera men however by pushing them out of the way even if she couldn't get too Briscoe. Reflecting on the incident later she stated that it was perhaps a good thing she hadn't been able to make it down there - I'm sure Aussie driver Ryan Briscoe was really shaking!
MOTOR MOUTH: Have your say!
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The views, opinions and content displayed on this webpage are not necessarily those of Pacific Motorsport Limited. Pacific Motorsport Limited takes no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions.
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