Yesterday it was confirmed, that as many expected, Ashley Force will make the switch to drag racing NHRA Funny Cars in 2007, moving from the Top Fuel class where she has been a rising star since  2004.

Ashely will drive a 8,000 hp Ford Mustang bodied car as the fourth driver in the John Force Racing stable. En-route to her Funny Car licence Ashley has already clocked times in the 4.8 second bracket at around 320 mph.

Both Autosport and SPEED TV are reporting that former NASCAR Champion and TV braodcaster Benny Parsons passed away on Tuesday at the Intensive Care Unit of the Carolinas Medial Center in Charlotte, N.C.

Parsons, who was 65, had entered the hospital shortly after Christmas as the result of complications arising from the lung cancer he had been diagnosed back on July 13 last year.

The 1973 Cup champion, whose 25-year career as a driver began in 1964, won 21 races in 526 starts in NASCAR’s top division and was named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers, becoming part of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994. Parsons won the 1975 Daytona 500, and in 1982 he became the first driver to qualify a stock car at more than 200 mph for a Winston Cup race at Talledega. He also won the Coca Cola 600 in 1980.

I never got the opportunity to watch Benny Parsons race (other than in clips of races past), but  his incisive, homespun and informative manner when calling various NASCAR races played a major part in my growing appreciation and love for stock car racing after years of being an open-wheel purist.

In recent years Benny also adopted the internet as a way to communicate with racing fans, including his own blog.

Sunday afternoons without Benny’s voice will never seem the same.

According to a report on Autosport.com, The Champ Car World Series will return to Europe in 2007 for the first time in four years. There will be a race in Assen, Holland on September 2, and at Zolder, Belgium, on September 9.“It took a while to finalise,” commented Champ Car President Steve Johnson, “but it was important to us all to persist. We have about five times the number of European drivers as we do US drivers in our series, and so we have a great number of fans in Europe. At some venues, it takes a while to build up a strong fanbase but I’m confident that these races at Assen and Zolder will be huge successes right from their inaugural events.“

Today saw the debut of a couple more new Formula One cars for the 2007 season.

BMW officially launched their new car at Valencia today,

while over at Jerez the new Renault made its on-track debut, although the official launch isn’t scheduled until the 24th January.

also on track was a Williams with a new paint scheme and a dramatically revised front wing treatment. 

Happy birthday today to racing legend, Le Mans and multiple Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt Jr. (born 1/16/35)