Happy Birthday to former Trans-Am racer Jim Derhaag (born 12/17/50),

ChampCar star Paul Tracy (born 12/17/68),

all-round Native American racer Cory Witherill (born 12/17/71),

and open wheel racer and current A1-GP Team USA driver Ryan Hunter-Reay (born 12/17/80)

Reading the various reports about the debut of the “World Cup of Motor Sports” in China this weekend, the A1-GP’s foray into street racing seems to have been plagued by bad circuit design and a sequence of organizational errors.

• During Friday’s practice it was soon apparent that the circuit was too narrow and that overtaking would be almost impossible. The hairpin was too tight for cars to actually get around and exit cleanly so the practice was stopped while the circuit was redesigned overnight.
• On Saturday after the hairpin had been pulled back and the exit opened up the resulting increase in speed fron the cars started to lift manhole covers at various points around the circuit. As a result qualifying was abandined and the grid times formed off what few laps had been laid down during the shortened free practice, giving Team Netherlands the pole.
• The short sprint race was undramatic and was little more than a procession with cars staying in qualifying order, except for a couple of retirments, both of which bought out the safety car. As a result there was little actual racing time.
• The longer feature race was marked by several crashes and spins which once more saw the intervention of the safety car, starting as early as the second lap.

For the record the Netherlands won the Sprint Race while the Feature event went to Team Italy, but I think that all the A1-GP teams will be just glad to get this event behind them and look forward to the next event at the well established Sepang Grand Prix circuit in Malaysia on November 26th.

Other news and results from over the weekend.

NASCAR.

• Mark Martin announces his move to the MB2 team for a partial cup schedule in 2007.
• Juan Pablo Montoya impresses on his stock car debut in Friday’s ARCA race finishing third.
• Champ Car star A.J. Allemendinger fiinishes fifth in the Craftsman truck race won by Mark Martin.

Formula One

• It appears that GP2 star Lewis Hamilton will be running another test session for McLaren ahead of a possible race debut at the upcoming Brazilian GP.

A1-GP

• A1 Team Malaysia have jumped up to third in the A1GP standings after Alex Yoong secured the first double victory of the 2006/07 season at Brno.

Friday October 6th

• ARCA Series – Talladega, AL (SPEED – Montoya’s stock car debut)

Saturday, October 7th

• NASCAR Craftsman Truck – Talladega, AL (SPEED)

Sunday, October 8th

• Formula One – Suzuka, Japanese Grand Prix (SPEED)
• NASCAR Nextel Cup – Talladega, AL (NBC)
• NHRA POWERade Drag Racing – Richmond VA (ESPN2)
• A1-GP  – Brno, Czech Rebuplic

A round -up of some of the stories from the last week that caught my eye but didn’t get a full post.

FORMULA ONE

• After the takeover by the Spyker group it seems that former Midland Sporting Director and GP winner Johnny Herbert no longer has a place on the team. 
• Indian GP driver Narain Karthikeyan will stay at Williams in the test driver role for 2007.

NASCAR

• Ex F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya will make his stock car debut in an ARCA race at Talledega on October 6th.

CHAMP CAR

• It seems that a couple of European races are being lined up to fill the September gap in the previously announced 2007 schedule.

IRL

• The opening race of the 2007 Indy Car season at Homestead will be an evening event run under the lights.

GP2

• A series of four “winter” test sessions has been scheduled for the GP2 runners before the start of the 2007 season.

A1-GP

• A total of 23 teams and 42 drivers have been announced for the upcoming second season of the “World Cup Of Motor Sports.”  
• Dutch star Jos Verstappen pulls out of his national team at their home event in an apparent dispute over appearence money.