by Josh Banker | Dec 31, 2011 | News Slider, Opinion, Sports
Auto racing’s season offered excitement, close championship chases and, unfortunately, death during 2011. NASCAR, Formula One, Indy Car, American Le Mans Series, the World Endurance Championship, Australian V8s and so many more… this past season has been one to remember. Let’s take a look back at what happened–good and bad–during a sometimes tough but always exciting year in this high-speed world. One man, a 24-year old German named Sebastian Vettel ruled Formula One’s season. With an incredible 15 pole positions and 11 wins in one season, the championship was decided with several races left in the season. It was due to Vettel’s dominance this season that he was able to win the championship for the second year in a row. Vettel, along with this teammate at Red Bull Racing, Mark Webber, helped secure the manufacturers’ championship for the team as well. This has been called Red Bull’s year, and it certainly was. In NASCAR, the series championship was not decided as easily. When it came down to the final race of the season, two of its biggest-name drivers were neck and neck. Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart began the final race only a few points apart. Toward the final few laps of the race, with rain looming in the forecast, Stewart was ahead of Edwards by only a couple of seconds. It was a nail biter all the way to the checkered flag. When Stewart crossed the line in first place and Edwards in second, the championship ended in a tie. According to the rules of NASCAR, if the end result is a tie, then the winner is decided by...
by Josh Banker | Dec 3, 2011 | News Slider, Sports
For close to a decade, the Nashville Super Speedway has been a part of the many sporting event varieties offered to the residents of middle Tennessee and greater Nashville area. However, at the end of this year, the track out in Wilson County will close its doors for good. To some, this would seem a huge blow to the area but, unfortunately, this has been imminent for some time. Opening in 2001, the Nashville Super Speedway was intended to bring automotive racing back to Tennessee. The parent company, Dover Motorsports, took a risk in building the Nashville track, along with two others in Memphis and St. Louis. The intent was to bring NASCAR sanctioned races to the middle Tennessee area. The old race track at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds had a long history as a NASCAR track before it became outdated for that purpose. The Super Speedway did as intended, at least for awhile. It also drew the attention of the Indy Racing League for a few races though they have not been back since 2008. However, Dover Motorsports has announced that they will not seek NASCAR sanctioning for 2012. This essentially means that the track will be closing its doors, as NASCAR was the only series that ran professional races at Nashville Super Speedway. The future of the track and other uses for it is still geing sorted...
by Josh Banker | Nov 22, 2011 | Opinion, Sports
For one not in the racing world, it is difficult to understand the sense of loss those in “the family” feel after the fiery crash that killed beloved British racer Dan Wheldon. Wheldon, a good man, died Oct. 16 in a fiery crash in Las Vegas. He was doing what he loved, what all of us involved in racing love…. Some may call it the result of a dangerous sport, but danger is not what pushes these drivers who spend their lives in the pursuit of speed. It is not vehicles, after all, that we mourn or celebrate, but the people involved, the passion, the fervor, the triumphs, the losses and the loss. Passion forms the foundation for the racing family. The passion can come from all over, bringing everyone together to form one cohesive group that becomes so recognizable to everyone involved. Passion is the underlying force to which we as a racing community can go out and participate in the sport that we love so much. The passion that drives us as a community to continuously put it all on the line is not something to be explained but rather experienced. I cannot fully explain the sensations and feelings I experience as a corner marshal, flagging for every level of experience, responding to every incident that occurs near my post, risking my life on a regular basis, all in the name of such a deadly sport known as automotive racing. It is a passion that drives and pushes me back to the track, and it is the same passion that breaks you down when a tragedy like this occurs. The same can...
