Monday's video blog featured Venezuelan-born race car driver Milka Duno making her first attempt at stock car testing for the Automobile Racing Club of America at Daytona International Speedway a little over a week ago, a foray that turned out to be pretty successful. But it seems it's hard to write about or discuss Duno without IndyCar superstar Danica Patrick being referenced or mentioned in some form or another. Well, sure enough the TV commercial sexpot and would-be NASCAR-bound Patrick was also getting in on the stock car fun at the ARCA's Daytona event December 18 through 20, which is reportedly also Danica's first stab at stock car testing.
With her qualification during this test race, Danica is now slated to appear in an ARCA race on February 6 at the world-famous Daytona Speedway, and she is scheduled to debut in a NASCAR event later in the month at California Auto Club Speedway. Though this video isn't the most exciting thing in the world, it presents Danica giving her insights on her first official stock car event and her orange and green Chevy blazing around the track. If nothing else, this video and the news around it should officially mark Danica's entry into the world of stock car racing.
Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point) is famous outside of California for hosting racing events for national heavyweights such as NASCAR and Indy Car. But California car and racing enthusiasts know that Infineon holds a semi-weekly event called "Wednesday Night Drags".
Nearly every Wednesday throughout the year, car owners can bring their own cars or trucks and race em drag style on the historic Infineon asphalt. And when I say owners can race in their own vehicles, I mean it - depending on the night, you can see vintage muscle cars squaring off against newer pickup trucks, and of course there is an endless supply of rebuilt and custom cars to be seen here as well. According to attendee testimony, some enthusiasts show up hours before the gates open to guarantee entry, and occasionally the raceway has to turn some drivers away because the event is so popular. So what we have here today is a clip compilation of an evening at the Wednesday Night Drags - drivers and spectators arriving in a variety of vehicles and of course lots of neat looking cars burning rubber at the drags. To me, that's the best part of this compilation - just getting to check out the interesting variety of cars being put to the test on the race track. Good stuff.
Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California is usually busy around this time of year, and this last weekend was no exception. While much of the attention was on the Indy Car Grand Prix race held on Sunday with commercials pimping such Indy Car stars as Danica Patrick (duh) and Helio Castroneves, the Formula Drift company had an event of its own at Infineon the night before featuring Round 6 of the Locked and Loaded series.
Formula D's "Locked and Loaded" was held on Saturday August 22 at Infineon Raceway, and based on the video here it looked like a lot of fun under the California sun in Sonoma. Most of the footage in this particular web video is from the practice runs earlier in the day prior to the actual drift competition (which was eventually won by Stephan Verdier), and from most video I've seen available online, the practice clips look even better than the footage from the race later that night. I know part of it is that I'm a sucker for the scenery and landscape in Sonoma, and in the light it's beauty is magnified even with squealing race car tires and smoking asphalt in the forefront. And this isn't just "seen one, seen em all" drifting - these guys are professionals. A couple highlights include the collision (or near collision) of two drifting vehicles as they take a turn around the 4:25 mark, and at the end of the video one drifter pushes his competition out to the grass in order to avoid getting hit.
In case ya didn't know, I report to the Cnet offices here in beautiful San Francisco, California. Being a current resident here in Northern Cali, I have seen many commercials for the Indy Car competition at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Given its proximity to this author and the hype surrounding one of the bigger races on the Indy Car calendar, I decided to give today's video blog to covering yesterday's 2009 edition of the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.
As some of you may know, Indy Car is very stingy about letting video out to the public beyond their ordained resources, so therefore the best video I could find online comes from what appears to be a fan in the stands at Infineon Raceway recording the race on whatever portable device s/he may have. This short video covers the final laps during the Indy Car Grand Prix at Sonoma, in which the commentators have established that former NASCAR driver and returning Indy Car pilot Dario Franchitti (yes, the guy who's married to Ashley Judd) led the race for damn near its entire duration and eventually claimed victory. I for one think that the beautiful NoCal landscape at Infineon is just as marvelous to look at as the race itself, and I wish that I could've been there, no matter how uneventful the race itself was.
Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher aren't the only female drivers attracting attention to the IndyCar circuit. There just happens to be another beautiful lady rockin' the car racing world, and her name is Milka Duno.
Milka Duno's rise to prominence in the racing world (besides being a woman) was far from typical. Duno was born in Caracas and her past endeavors have included modeling and Master's Degrees in Naval Architecture and Marine Biology. Around the mid-1990s Milka turned her attention to car racing, and she hasn't looked back since. She moved to the United States in 1999 to pursue a full time career in racing, and now she stands as a potentially hot contender in more ways than one.
For today's web video I could have taken the easy way out and shown the fight Milka had with IndyCar rival Danica Patrick at a Mid-Ohio race practice, but I decided to take the high road and I dug up a rare video of Duno's first televised race for Club Copa in Venezuela circa 1996. Milka's pushing a fire-engine red Porsche 911 (#18 on the track), and she wins the race in style - sporting a dress at the very end of the video. While this footage is historic and noteworthy, the car enthusiast in me also enjoyed checking out the other cars on the track. Enjoy.
You know, it seems that there's still a widely held notion that cars and racing are a purely man's domain even in these "enlightened" times. But nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion. Women have made great strides in not only the racing world, but have also taken on other car-related areas such as mechanics and customs that are usually dominated by us dudes, and I think that's a cause to celebrate. So ladies and gentlemen, start your engines for this week's video blog tribute to women drivers and women in the car racing world.
The catalyst of this week's video blog concept came courtesy of a chance meeting with the June 7, 2009 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle at a coffee shop. The front page of the sports section had an article debating the potential reality of IndyCar phenomenon Danica Patrick jumping to the big time NASCAR circuit when her contract with Andretti-Green Racing expires at the conclusion of the current season. Racing fans and critics alike have been making a fuss about Patrick since basically the beginning of her racing career, and her off-track exploits such as doing racy swimsuit pictorials and commercials have certainly added fuel to the fire. However, Patrick's having a damn good IndyCar season this year, finishing in the top 5 four times and placing 3rd in the all-important Indianapolis 500.
This video comes from her most recent IndyCar outing at the Texas Indy 550 from June 7, 2009. This particular stretch of video highlights Danica jockeying for position against Dan Wheldon for the number 5 position. Ultimately, Ms. Patrick would end up finishing 6th in the Texas Race. One reason I like this video is we get not just the "around the track" view, but also we get to cruise along with Danica from the camera positioned on top of her vehicle. Whether Danica Patrick is NASCAR bound or not, she's certain to continue attracting attention wherever she goes.
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