Tag: Ryan Hunter-Reay

Montoya.

There is no doubt he can drive and go fast. The third checkered flag for Montoya and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates is certainly a show of driving force. The 01 Telmex BMW-Riley Daytona Prototype held strong throughout the Grand-Am/ROLEX 24 to take the win.

rlx24_01bmw_inside1It wasn’t just the efforts of Juan Pablo Montoya, behind the wheel for the checkered flag, as the 01 regular drivers Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett along with IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball kept the car on or near the point. The team in the garage kept the car smooth in and out of the pits even as the other Ganassi team suffered through issues that eventually removed the 02 from the field.

There was a strong field to contend with. Dario Franchitti and Ryan Hunter-Reay were challenging from IndyCar. Marcos Ambrose, A.J. Allmendinger and Jamie McMurray were in the seats from NASCAR. Guest drivers from the hottest series were all their to sit in with Grand-Am regulars to get the American racing season started.

However, it was Ganassi and the 01 team with Montoya in for the final laps to take them to the win… again. (more…)

IndyCar ran their championship race over the weekend of September 15th.

Did you know? We watched it and it was only then we saw it was the last race of the season. Granted, the NASCAR “Chase” seemed to cover most of the racing news but you would think there would be some kind of fanfare whipping up about the MAVTV 500 at Fontana to close the Indy season.

Honestly, we were flipping channels and came across it. By chance. The 2011 season ended in October. A mid-September closer for the series was a surprise. It simply slipped our radar.

We’ve said it before. The last race of the IndyCar season should be at Indianapolis. Close the championship with the Indy 500. After all, why put the biggest race of the season and the namesake of the series one third deep in the schedule? Everybody knows the Indy 500. Close the season there. Make it a big deal. Let the season build to the Indy finale. That would be big.

But no. Let’s quietly run it out while nobody is paying attention. (more…)