4-6-04: The Indy Racing Experience again will offer fans the chance to experience the thrill of IndyCar Series racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. IndyCar Series veterans Sarah Fisher and Davey Hamilton will be giving rides in the Drink Smart and Menards/JohnManville two-seaters on April 10. Three- and four-lap rides are available at 888-357-5002 or www.sindenracing.com

4-6-04: Indy Racing League officials were encouraged by the first on-track performance of the aerodynamic package to be used by the IRL IndyCar® Series in the Indianapolis 500. Twelve IndyCar Series teams used the new aero package, which consists of a quarter-inch center-line vertical wicker, a reverse quarter-inch wicker on the bottom side of the rear wing and curved skid plate, for the first time in an April 3 private test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. IRL Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Brian Barnhart said the results of the test show the League is headed in the right direction with the aerodynamic changes in seeking to reduce speeds on the 2.5-mile oval.

"We're very pleased," Barnhart said. "We think (the test) was great validation and verification of the countless hours and months of hard work needed to come up with a package for the month of May. Speeds were exactly what we anticipated. The on-track stuff very much validated the wind tunnel stuff, which had done the same for our computer simulation work." The test also marked the first on-track use of the 3.0-liter engine, which will be used by all teams beginning at Indianapolis. The results showed speeds had decreased significantly from Helio Castroneves' 2003 pole-winning speed of 231.725 mph.

"I think all three of the (engine) manufacturers have done an excellent job in making the change," Barnhart said. "We ran in excess of 3,100 miles, and I think with the reliability factor and quality of the manufacturers we have with Chevrolet, Honda and Toyota, it's the type of debut we're all very proud of and happy with. I think it's going to be a good product." Barnhart said IRL officials will continue to evaluate the data from teams until the IndyCar Series Open Test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 27-28. Still, he said the League was on schedule with its plans. "Conditions were a little windy in the afternoon, and the cars were very stable," he said. "Most of the comments from the drivers have been very positive. We have a little tweaking to do, here and there. I'm very excited about the direction and the success of our debut with a new product."

4-6-04: IRL IndyCar Series points leader Tony Kanaan competed in an event of a different kind on April 3. The Brazilian, who resides in Miami, Fla., completed the Ralph's California Half-Ironman Triathlon in Oceanside, Calif. The half-Ironman triathlon consists of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run. Kanaan finished the event, his first attempt at the half-Ironman distance, in five hours, 56 minutes and 13 seconds.

"It was a good effort," Kanaan said. "I managed to achieve my goal of doing it in under six hours, so that's good. Now, I've set a standard, so I have something to shoot at for next year." Kanaan, who won the Copper World Indy 200 on March 21, has competed in several "sprint-distance" triathlon events as part of his fitness program. He said he's not ready to give up race driving to compete in triathlons full time. "I can tell you I'm definitely paying the price today. I am really sore," he said. "Tomorrow I will start my normal training again. But today, I am learning to walk again - literally."

4-6-04: Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk announced on April 1 that Ron Sanders has joined Luyendyk Racing as Director of Partnership Marketing. Sanders will lead Luyendyk Racing's efforts to secure sponsorship to provide Arie Luyendyk Jr. with the opportunity to compete in the 2004 Indianapolis 500. "We look forward to the opportunity of bringing a third Indy 500 ring into the family, and we hope that working with Ron will start making that dream a reality in 2004," said Luyendyk, whose relationship with Sanders dates back to 1997 when Luyendyk won his second Indy 500.

4-4-04: Michael Schumacher continues his dominant run of victories with a third straight win of the season in the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix. Rubens Barrichello finished second but behind the Ferraris an exciting race saw Button claim his second successive podium. The Ferraris streaked away from the grid though Michael Schumacher locked up his front right tyre under braking producing a dramatic streak of smoke. At the end of the first lap Schumacher led Ferrari team mate Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya, Takuma Sato, Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button.

The battle for third place began to hot up as the final round of pit stops approached. Trulli pitted first from fourth, followed next by Montoya from third leaving Jenson Button with four seconds to make up with a clear track ahead of him if he was to win a second successive podium. The BAR Honda driver pitted on lap 39, a lap after Montoya and two after Trulli. Montoya retained third but Button managed to pass Jarno Trulli during the pit stops for fourth. Michael Schumacher continued to lead after the final round of pit stops. Barrichello retained second ten seconds behind the leading Ferrari, but comfortably ahead of Montoya, Button, Trulli and Alonso.

Michael Schumacher cruised to his third successive victory of the season and his 73rd career victory to continue his dominance of the season. Barrichello brought home his Ferrari in second ahead of Jenson Button winning his second successive podium finish. Jarno Trulli brought his Renault home in fourth ahead of BAR's Takuma Sato and Fernando Alonso recovering to sixth after his poor qualifying. Ralf Schumacher salvaged two points at the end of the day ahead of Mark Webber who claimed Jaguar's first point of the season. To read more... (f1racing.net)

4-3-04: Jenson Button may have starred this morning, and Ralf Schumacher was fastest in the pre-qualifying, but when it mattered it was Michael Schumacher who grabbed another pole position. And just to rub it in Rubens Barrichello, who was only 11th in the first run, slipped up the order to take the other front row position. Both Schumacher R and Juan Pablo Montoya had been fast in the first run – indeed, Ralf’s 1m 29.968s from that session was never approached in final qualifying once everyone had decided on their fuel strategy (three stops are the most likely). When it came to his turn Montoya got the second sector badly wrong after dipping beneath Schumacher’s pole time in the first sector, and in the third the Williams was visibly struggling to turn into the uphill left-hander at the end of the lap. The result, a lap of 1m 30.581s, which came nowhere near close enough to Barrichello’s 1m 30.530s, let alone Schumacher’s 1m 30.136s. So that left Ralf. Could he do better? After the first sector the answer seemed affirmative, but then he too struggled in sector two and hunted for front end grip up the hill, so it was no surprise when he also came up short with 1m 30.633s.

On a circuit where overtaking may be possible, the start could nevertheless be crucial, as the fine powder dust off the racing line may discourage heroics come the race. It remains to be seen whether that factor influenced Ferrari into running a slightly lower fuel load than Williams in a bid to take an on-track advantage, while the pace of BAR suggests they too could be key players. The grid might look all too familiar as far as the front two rows are concerned, but things are likely to be very tight once the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix gets underway.(F1.com)...For Full Results... (Speed News Now)

4-2-04: Grammy-winning rock band Blues Traveler will headline the annual Miller Lite Carb Day Concert on Thursday, May 27, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The concert, free with paid admission to the Speedway grounds for Miller Lite Carb Day, will be the final event of a busy day at the legendary 2.5-mile oval. Miller Lite Carb Day will get underway with final practice for the 88th Indianapolis 500 starting field from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (EST), followed by the 28th annual Checkers/Rally's Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge from 1:30-3 p.m. Blues Traveler will take to the Miller Lite Stage for the Miller Lite Carb Day Concert at 3:30 p.m. The Miller Lite Stage is located in the Pagoda Plaza behind the Bombardier Pagoda.

Blues Traveler, fronted by harmonica virtuoso John Popper, has received rave reviews for its live shows, which often feature long, improvisational harmonica and guitar solos and jams, for more than 15 years. The band has recorded seven nationally released studio albums, one live album and a "greatest hits" package since 1990. It has recorded memorable hits such as "Mountain Cry," "Carolina Blues" and the 1994 breakthrough hit "Run-Around," the longest-charting single ever in the history of the Billboard charts. Blues Traveler's greatest hits album, "Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics," was released in November 2002, and its most recent studio effort, "Truth Be Told," hit stores last August on the Sanctuary Records label.

Six of the band's albums have reached gold or platinum status since it was formed in 1983 in Princeton, N.J., with more than 10 million albums sold worldwide. "Four," the band's breakthrough release in 1994, was certified six-times platinum in the United States. Tickets for Miller Lite Carb Day are $10 at the gate, with children ages 5 and younger admitted free. All activities for the day - including the Blues Traveler concert - are included in the price of gate admission. The Speedway's gates open to the public on Miller Lite Carb Day at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.

4-1-04: Ralf Schumacher is reportedly set to kick off the Formula One silly season with a lucrative switch from BMW-Williams to Toyota. According to the British Sun newspaper, the German is set to finalize a five year, $110-million US deal with Toyota for next season. An additional $7-million US in bonuses is also built into the deal. Toyota reportedly have the second highest budget in Formula One, behind only Ferrari, at $321-million. "It looks odds-on that Ralf will be at Toyota next season because there is no way Williams will try and match the offer," a source tells the newspaper.

Schumacher is in the final year of his contract with BMW-Williams, which currently pays him $22-million US. However, Frank Williams is negotiating an incentive-based deal, which would see his base salary reportedly reduced to $5-million US. The remainder would be determined by wins and podium finishes - results which would help the team in its goal of winning the constructors and world championship. The two sides reportedly had finalized a new deal at the Japanese Grand Prix last year but Schumacher says the offer was suddenly pulled off the table by Williams. Since then, contract talks have been at a stalemate.

Top Earning Formula One Drivers (All Figures in US dollars converted from British Pounds)

1 Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) $45.8-million.
2 Ralf Schumacher (Williams) $22-million.
3 Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) $11-million.
4 Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) $8.2-million.
5 David Coulthard (McLaren) $7.3-million. 6 Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams) $6.4-million.
7 Jenson Button (BAR) $5.5-million.
8 Jarno Trulli (Renault) $4.5-million.
9 Fernando Alonso (Renault) $3.6-million.
10 Giancarlo Fisichella (Sauber) $2.7-million. (TSN.sa)

4-1-04: A new Dubai-based series, billed by organisers as a 'World Cup of motorsport', will start up next year to fill the European winter months when Formula One shuts down. Organisers said in a statement on Tuesday that the A1 Grand Prix championship, brainchild of a nephew of the Crown Prince of Dubai, had been sanctioned by the governing FIA and would start in September 2005. It said that Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar, China, South Africa, Malaysia and Australia would host the first races with possibly two more venues to come. Talks were advanced with 23 countries wanting to enter a team.

The series will be run on a franchise basis, with A1 organisers responsible for providing cars and engines and handling logistics. Organisers said up to 30 identical Lola cars, with 3.5 litre Langford engines, would be racing with each team made up of a driver and sponsors from one country who would race under a national flag. A1 said they had recruited Richard Dorfman, who helped to negotiate the television rights for the 2002 and 2006 football World Cups as well as three rugby World Cups, as commercial director. (The Star)

4-1-04: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval will be repaved after the 2004 Brickyard 400, track officials announced March 31. The historic oval was last repaved in the fall of 1995. The 2004 repaving will mark the first time the warm-up lanes and current pit lane, which were constructed in 1993 and 1994, respectively, receive new asphalt. The Speedway's 2.605-mile road course, which was built in 1999, will not be paved.According to Kevin Forbes, IMS director of engineering and construction, 36,500 tons of asphalt will be laid in two or three layers, covering 1,085,085 square feet per layer.

The height of the racetrack, and the track's SAFER Barriers - the energy-absorbing system located on the outside walls in each of the four turns - will not be affected, as 4 inches of the surface will be milled and replaced with an identical amount of new asphalt. The 9 degrees, 12 minutes of banking in the turns will remain the same. The Speedway oval's banking and overall configuration will not be altered.

Preliminary work is scheduled to begin Aug. 9, the day after the 11th Brickyard 400, and paving should be completed by mid- to late October, Forbes said. Formal private testing among teams will not likely resume until spring 2005 to allow the new surface to cure over the winter, Forbes said. Hall of Fame Museum track tours will resume within days of the completion of paving. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway's racing surface has taken several forms since the track's construction. The original coal-tar emulsion and crushed stone surface proved dangerous immediately upon the inaugural weekend of racing in August 1909, and 3.2-million paving bricks were laid down in late 1909, giving the track its venerable nickname, "The Brickyard."

Patches of asphalt were placed on rough portions of the turns in 1936, and by 1939 all but the middle portion of the main straightaway was covered with asphalt. In 1961, the main straightaway was finally covered with asphalt. The track did not receive its first comprehensive repaving until summer 1976, and the process was repeated in the summer of 1988 and again in the fall of 1995.

4-1-04: MARK WEBBER will have an armed guard as Formula One goes on terrorist alert for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The third round of the world drivers' championship will be staged in the Middle East on Sunday behind the most intensive security operation in the sport's 54-year history. Security advisers to Webber's American-owned Jaguar will sweep team cars for bombs every morning and his hotel will be under 24-hour surveillance. Webber, teammate Christian Klien and the Jaguar team have been advised to vary their paths between circuit and hotel and to keep away from the centre of the capital, Manama. Organisers have quadrupled security on the island state, 1000km from war-ravaged Baghdad, and armed quick-response teams are on standby. Michael Schumacher, championship leader after winning the first two rounds, will also have an armed guard and travel in one of the king's private limousines.(FOX Sports)