Motorsports News by David Vodden
Ken Roczen won the Monster Energy Super Cross 450cc championship by three points over Hunter Lawrence in Utah last weekend. It was his first title after thirteen seasons in the 450 class in the popular off-season television motorcycle show.
Christian Lundgaard won the Indy car race on the road course inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was a good race where Lundgaard wanted the win more than David Malukas and demonstrated this by making a spectacular pass of Malukas to take the lead and the win. It was Lundgaard’s second Indy car win. Graham Rahal, Josef Newgarden, and Alex Palou completed the top five.
The 110th running of the Indy 500 will feature qualifying this weekend followed by the greatest spectacle in racing on Sunday May 24th. For all who grew up with the whole month of May being the Indy 500, the trimming of the schedule and addition of the road race was hard to take. As it turns out, these were beneficial changes that have helped sustain the world’s longest continually running auto race. I have adapted and now reluctantly accept no more qualifying bump day because there are only thirty-three cars entered. All of these thirty-three cars will start the race in one of ten rows of three to complete the traditional thirty-three car starting field. The race will be shown on FOX TV with my favorite race announcer, Alan Beswick, heading the on-air-team. Brazilian Helio Castroneves is seeking to become the only driver to win the “500” five times. Helio is fifty years old. At forty-nine, fearless Takuma Sato from Japan looms as a dark horse winner seeking his third 500. There will be fourteen countries represented in the field including a first from Norway in rookie Dennis Hauger. German driver Mick Schumacher, son of legendary Formula One Driver Michael Schumacher, will make his first start in the 500. Last years winner Alex Palou of Spain is the odds makers choice for the win. Of the twelve American drivers Newgarden tops the list for the win with Kyle Kirkwood and Alexzander Rossi earning honorable mention. Who will win? History says that the Indianapolis Speedway picks the winner in partnership with lady luck. This is the ultimate world auto race. It has not been equaled in status, presentation or drama. It is an American tradition known around the world from the first race in 1911 to today. Watch it even if you saw it in person in 2016 when Rossi won as a rookie driver by saving fuel. Anything can happen and will.
NASCAR had some great racing at the Watkins Glenn Road course in New York last weekend. Of the four races there, the O’Reilly event on Saturday was by far the best. Connor Zilisch beat his friend Jessie Love with a pass in the last turn on the last lap heading to the checkered flag. It was the third win in a row at the “Glenn” for the nineteen-year-old driver from North Carolina. Zilisch has won seven times in ten NASCAR road races. Tanner Gray, Ross Chastain and Brendon Jones followed Zilisch and Jones to the finish. On Friday, Kayden Honeycutt won the NASCAR truck race beating Zilisch in overtime by one second. Earlier Friday Honeycutt won the ARCA race. He scored four wins over the weekend, counting two more local stockcar race victories on Saturday and Sunday.
The Sunday CUP series race was the least exciting as Shane Van Gisbergen won as expected by seven seconds over Michael McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, A. J. Almendinger, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek. Van Gisbergen made a pit stop late in the race and demonstrated his superior skill as a road racer by driving to first in twenty laps. His advantage comes from his late braking, trail braking and getting on the gas exiting a corner earlier than other drivers. The win put Van Gisbergen in sixteenth place above the Cup series playoff cutoff line by seven points.
The Watkins Glenn Road course puts on the best racing shows for NASCAR in all three divisions. From the start to the finish drivers must turn right and left, enter and exit seven very different turns by shifting, braking and accelerating better than the competition. Drivers make passes by stealing apexes and out braking the car in front. The track is very fast, can produce some hair-raising moves at speed and deliver wild crashes. There weren’t any crazy crashes this year but the O’Reily, Craftsman truck and the ARCA Menards races were thoroughly entertaining. Van Gisbergen’s drive to win in the closing laps was the best part of the CUP race.
NASCAR offers their version of the All-Star race this weekend at the one-mile, cement track, Dover Delaware Speedway. This annual television show features Cup cars in a totally different race format that does not offer series championship points. In other words, drivers can race all-out and not worry about dropping back in the 2026 thirty-six-race CUP series championship battle. The race pays one million dollars to the winner which is supposed to make the drivers crazy and drive like there is no-tomorrow. No points. Big money. Why not.
Justin Sanders won the Dave Bradway Memorial last Saturday night at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. I watched it on Flo Racing because the promoters at Silver Dollar rejected my journalistic efforts to cover their races. This may have been the best race of the year at the Fairgrounds dirt track located next to COSTCO. Saunders beat many time World of Outlaw champion Brad Sweet to a popular repeat victory. Shane Golobic, Colby Copeland and T. J. Neto followed at the line.