At 36 years-old Honda’s Rubens Barrichello could have been forgiven for thinking his podium days were over. But on Sunday at Silverstone that is exactly where he found himself after a stunning drive to third in the British Grand Prix.
Starting 16th on the grid, the Brazilian, who last took a podium at the 2005 United States Grand Prix, hadn’t held much hope of a strong result. But a clever strategy switch saw him take on extreme wet-weather tyres as the rain worsened at mid distance and whilst his competitors struggled on their standard wets, Barrichello took advantage. Had it not been for a refuelling rig problem at his second stop, he may even have taken second place.
"It's a great feeling to be back on the podium today after such an exciting race where the weather conditions really helped us to get the best out of the car,” said Barrichello. “The most important decision of the race for us was switching to the extreme wet tyre when the heavy rain started to fall at half distance.
“I had a real moment at Club, going off at high speed and almost hitting the wall, and that made me realise that we needed to make a quick decision. After fitting the extreme wets, I was able to overtake the cars in front easily which was a great feeling. Making such a crucial decision at a key time comes from experience and from the team having the confidence in me to make the call.”
The No. 4 Open Joist Dodge truck should have a familiar ring to it. The Grand Rapids-based Universal Forest Products, Inc., has renewed its marketing alliance with Bobby Hamilton Racing (BHR) this season, and it will be promoting its Open Joist product on the truck. Open Joist is a versatile, open-web, all-wood floor truss. Universal broke into Craftsman Trucks last year with BHR, which lost its founder, Bobby Hamilton Sr., in January of 2007 to cancer. The team drove on despite losing Hamilton, who won the 2004 championship. Last year proved to be a transitional season in which a handful of drivers took turns racing the Open Joist truck, but things are looking up in 2008.
Stacy Compton has been hired to race the Open Joist Dodge full-time, and after clocking in fifth fastest last weekend in a Daytona test session, he said he is confident 2008 will be a competitive one for him and his team.
Universal was founded in 1955 and now has over 100 facilities in the United States, Canada and Mexico. It will be investing in other racing marketing opportunities, too.
"The exposure we have received for the Open Joist brand with this investment is something we would never get in other mediums if we spent the same amount of money," said Larry Kroh, the Open Joist sales manager. "Renewel is the key to keeping this credibility going. We have the opportunity to build brand recognition even more."
Having already earned itself a reputation as a world-class motorcycle manufacturer by achieving outstanding results in the Isle of Man TT and other races, Honda was keen to develop passenger car technologies through competition and started preparing for the challenges of Formula One in the early 1960s. The exciting project started to take shape in 1963 and by the end of the year Honda had fitted its experimental 1.5-litre RA270E to a steel-tube space frame chassis of its own design. In February 1964 Honda determined to press ahead. A new RA271E was prepared for the fast-approaching season together with an all-new state-of-the-art monocoque chassis constructed from aluminium panels. The first Honda F1 car made its Grand Prix debut on the daunting 22-kilometre Nürburgring circuit in early August with Ronnie Bucknum at the helm.
Learning the lessons gleaned from its first three Grands Prix in 1964, Honda's engineers laboured hard through the off-season to overcome their lack of four-wheeled racing experience. To boost the team's chances of success, the experienced Richie Ginther was signed to partner Bucknum in a two car attack. The Californian's arrival started to produce results - Ginther scored Honda's first World Championship point at Belgium's legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in June and led both British and Dutch Grands Prix. The final race of the season and of the 1.5-litre regulations was staged in Mexico - it was a landmark event for Honda too. Ginther grabbed the lead at the start and kept the opposition at bay to record Honda's maiden F1 victory on only its 11th outing.
Paul Tracy found himself in mid-pack running 9th fastest in today's qualifying and only very slightly improving on his time from Friday. Because of his performance yesterday he will start tomorrows race on the front row along side todays Pole winner Will Power. Team Australia's Power, born and bred in Toowoomba Queensland, beat his nearest rival today by an amazing 0.886 of a second. Today's result supports Power's maiden pole at his home race at the Lexmark Indy 300 on the streets of Queensland's Gold Coast last October. Power then went on to claim his first podium in the final race of the year in Mexico and clinch the "Rookie of the Year" title as a result.
Will Power #5 Aussie Vineyards Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone -"I think it's going to be important for everybody to get through the first corner and go racing. I think this is the start of a new era for Champ Car. You've got a bunch of new young drivers that are in the series, obviously showing that they're quick. It's not the scenario that everybody thought it was going to be where everybody was saying in the off-season, Sebastien is going to run away with everything. He's starting near the back.
Paul Tracy #3 INDECK Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone - "It was a little tougher for us today. Obviously we made some changes from yesterday. But it just seemed like my car suited going over that big jump in the chicane. We just never really got a chance to capitalize on the tires. We seemed to either catch a red at the end of the first set of tires, then the second set of tires I had some traffic with Pagenaud, which didn't help. That kind of just killed our qualifying effort.
Carl Edwards and the No. 60 Scotts team flew into Mexico City to compete on the first road course of the season, the 2.518-mile track at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The atmosphere was definitely one of international flavor and high energy tucked in the middle of a city of 25 million. The altitude of Mexico City is 7,380 feet making it one of the highest cities in the world.
Edwards was able to keep his Scotts Ford Fusion in the top-10 for the majority of the race. Pit road strategy and patience became the key for a great points day for the No. 60 team. The “Big Picture” was in the forefront of their strategy and enabled Edwards’ to finish at the TelCel-Motorola 200 with his third consecutive top-five of the season. To cap off the race weekend, Edwards and the No. 60 Scotts team captured the overall Busch Series points standings.
“I saw some things I might use next time we come here,” stated Edwards. “Juan Montoya’s a good driver and he did a good job. I think road course racing involves a whole different strategy and a different mindset. Guys like Tony Stewart and those guys are really good at it and I believe that Montoya has the road course mentality down better than anybody here and he can apply it. He was bringing some tricks out. On the restart I was just letting him know that I knew how fast he was. I had a blast today. There was a lot of excitement at the end. It was great to take over the points lead for this Scotts team. P.K. (Pierre Kuettel) made great calls and the crew did an awesome job keeping us in the front.”
“Our Scotts Ford Fusion team did a great job today,” stated crew chief Pierre Kuettel. “The guys did a good job on the stops. We worked really hard in practice to get this thing turned around. Carl did a fantastic job having a very consistent day. That’s what we needed. We needed to come to this place and get a top-five finish and go on from here. This is my first time here. I’m very happy with our finish.”
JORGE GOETERS-27-STAR Motorsports Ford Fusion (Finished 7th)
"The team did very, very good work repairing my car and everything. I was very pleased to have my opportunity to race with Brewco Motorsports. I'm very excited. This is the kind of race that everybody loves; nobody knows who's going to win until the white flag is coming out."
"We came back very strong. We had to take care about some positions and be careful. At the end, I pushed hard to do better and to get better places. It was good for me. I think the team is happy, and Scotiabank and Xtreme Gel is very happy."
AMBROSE RISES WITH REMARKABLE COMEBACK IN MEXICO TO FINISH EIGHTH
Marcos Ambrose has risen to fifth in the NASCAR Busch Series standings after a remarkable comeback to finish eighth in the Telcel Motorola Mexico 200 in Mexico City today. Ambrose had the chance for an even better result slip away on lap 64 when he was spun while racing within the lead pack in sixth position, dropping him to 24th position and setting the scene for a remarkable comeback, culminating in Ambrose passing seven cars in the final two laps.
Ambrose rises to an outstanding fifth in the NASCAR Busch Series standings, equal with defending series champ Kevin Harvick who did not race in Mexico, as well as maintaining his lead in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings. It was a strong road course result for Wood Brothers/JTG Racing, with both Ford Fusions in the top 10 as Jon Wood drove a smart and consistent race to finish 10th.
“Today was a really long day,” said Ambrose. “We fought all day. When we had clear track the worked nicely but when we went back into the pack after being spun the car couldn’t quite do what I needed it to do. Eighth is still a really good result for us but we had a better result in us today and unfortunately we didn’t get it."
“It was just one of those deals when we got turned around. Greg Biffle was just in front of us and he checked up through Turn Three. I checked up slightly and Yeley got into the back of me at just the wrong moment and we both went around in front of the almost whole field.
“The Ganassi cars were fast this weekend so we have a little bit of work to do on our road course program but we can definitely be proud of what we achieved today. “We got our first top 10 in the Busch Series, we’re still well inside the top 10 in points and we are still the leading rookie. So life is definitely good at the moment.
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