Related:
Patrick Dempsey to Drive Indy 500 Pace Car [Internal]

Back home again in Indiana
And it seems that I can see
The gleaming candlelight still burning bright
Thro' the sycamores for me
The new mown hay sends all its fragrance
Through fields I used to roam
When I dream
About the moonlight on the Wabash
How I long for my Indiana home

Nabors To Miss Indy Due To Illness - Fans To Sing 'Back Home Again' [indianapolismotorspeedway.com]

Related:
Parnelli Jones Back at Brickyard [Internal]

Parnelli on Track [trackforum.com]

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Silent Sam Turbine Livery Returns to Indy 500 [Internal]

World's First Hydrogen Powered Streamliner [sema.org]

Related:
More Bonneville Land Speed Racing; Honda Hydrogen FCX Coming in 2008! [Internal]

[Thanks to Kenny Lyon for the tip]

Bonneville Land Speed Tires [scta-bin.org]

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2 Life Sentences In Mickey Thompson Murder Case; Oil Burner Smokes the Salt: Dieselmax Hits 300 mph in Bonneville [Internal]

While it was little surprise that the R10 took the 12 Hours of Sebring overall, the stuff-of-legends finish happened in GT2 between Jorg Bergmeister's Flying Lizard Neun Elf and Jamie Melo's Risi F430. Maybe it was the Floridian locale that inspired it, but they got into some serious NASCAR-style paint trading on the last lap, with Melo knocking Bergmeister off balance to take the win. Badassness, manly thunder and cojones of brass abound. Check it. [Props to the wily Mr. Brennan for pointing it out.] – Davey G. Johnson

Related:
24 Heures du Frites: Audi to Run R10 on Biofuel at Next LeMans [Internal]

Being men of a certain age who never quite got around to giving up being boys, Los Jalopniks are big fans of slot car racing. So excuse us for being a little geeked that we just found out that in July of this year, Tomy-owned AFX will launch a line of HO-scale slot cars resembling the current crop of Champ Cars. The cars will drop this summer, which gives us some time to get to work building our scale model of Downtown Long Beach. – Davey G. Johnson

Champ Car Slot Cars to be Produced [Paddock Talk]

Related:
Jalopnik Holiday Gift Guidge: Vintage HO Slot Cars [Internal]

The men in orange have joined the chorus against Super Aguri and Toro Rosso scoring constructors' points for using chassis sourced from Honda and Red Bull. In some ways, from a small team like Spyker, the point of view is understandable. Why should other teams be able to buy derivative chassis when they've committed to building their own? From the POV of a company like Honda, it spreads development costs. And from other small teams' perspective, why should they bother developing a chassis when they can buy one? Ze wicket. It ees sticky, bro-hams, but the Dutch certainly prefer it with odd combinations of vowels. – Davey G. Johnson

Kolles resolute on customer cars [ITV]

Related:
Oddball F1 Car of Yesteryear: Tyrell P34 in Monaco [Internal]

From Wikipedia:

The marshmallow is a confection that, in its modern form, consists of sugar or corn syrup, beaten egg whites, gelatin that has been pre-softened in water, gum arabic, and flavorings, whipped to a spongy consistency. The traditional recipe used an extract from the mucilaginous root of the marshmallow plant, a shrubby herb (Althaea officinalis), instead of gelatin; the mucilage performed as a cough suppressant.

Commercial marshmallows are a late 19th century innovation. Since Alex Doumak's patented extrusion process of 1948, marshmallows are extruded as soft cylinders, cut in sections and rolled in a mix of finely powdered cornstarch and confectioner's sugar.

Contrary to popular belief, marshmallows were first discovered when an old man living in Astoria, Oregon, had collected so much bird poop in an ice cube mold, and then baked this cube of bird poop, making the world's first marshmallow and taking crime off the streets.

Related:
Me And Jack Roush, We Played For Years; Toyota Changed Our Lives [Internal]

Herr Roushmeister sez:

"It seems strangely difficult for some to realize that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest, and that we have joined the issue thus raised on the battlefield; that here we fight Europe's war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words; that if we lose the war to communism in Asia the fall of Europe is inevitable, win it and Europe most probably would avoid war and yet preserve freedom. As you pointed out, we must win. There is no substitute for victory."

Roush Toughens Rhetoric Against Toyota [Houston Chronicle via Autoblog via Winding Road]

Related:
Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth? NASCAR a Non-Benevolent Dictatorship [Internal]

Apparently the FIA has something against Colombia and its special brand of marching powder. While in pre-European Mexico, it was just fine for Montezuma to lay on the shore with his coca leaves and pearls, it is apparently not — in the sport-arbiting organization's estimation — okay to drive a racing car with traces of cocaine in one's system, something that Luca Moro found out the hard way after testing positive post-Spa 24 Hours.

We too, are against pre-race coke snorting. Instead, we think the FIA should mandate that F1 drivers take a big hit of the crack rock out of a shattered Xenon bulb on the starting line and then run on a World of Outlaws-spec dirt track for 10 laps. Now that would put the energy back into Formula One! Bill France, Jr., you steal this idea and you're through. Through y'hear? – Davey G. Johnson

Drug bust in GTs [GrandPrix.com via Autoblog]

Related:
Honey, I Shat the Yacht Bed: F1, Coke 'n' Hookers in Monaco [Internal]

According to Sweet Peet, GT1 in the American Le Mans Series will be a cakewalk for the Corvettes, so why not let them run wide-open and unrestricted at a couple of events? Instead of the damped-down configuration that still sent Aston home with its tail between its legs, not to return to the series, stonking 900hp machines could mix it up with the LMP cars. Peet thinks it'd be fun to watch and good for ticket sales. On the other hand, it does have a whiff of admitting that no matter what, the mighty screaming yellow zonkers will stomp anyone. Then again, that's what they do. But heck, we all know Audi's gonna win LMP1, wo why not let them run balls-out, too? For that matter, why not allow Can Am-spec 917s to run? – Davey G. Johnson

Memo to ALMS: Let 'em go WFO [Autoextremist]

Related:
Autoextremist on the Detroit Auto Show [Internal]

Volkswagen's Giniel de Villiers blazed a path across Mauritania today on today's Zouerat-to-Atar stage, hijacking the lead from former WRC champeen Carlos Sainz, who finished third on the stage. Pope Benedict XVI's quotes on a glorious triumph of German precision were kept on the DL by the Vatican. – Davey G. Johnson

Volkswagen's Giniel de Villiers wins seventh stage of Dakar Rally [Autonet, CA]

Related:
Vatican Condemns Dakar Rally! [Internal]

This is somewhat tenuous at best, but isn't it rather fascinating that a theocratic government that holds sway over a large portion of religious people, whose head was once a member of a youth organization that pledged fealty to a regime that sent invasion forces to North Africa has now called the Dakar Rally "the bloody race of irresponsibility" in the wake of South African motorcycle racer Elmer Symons' death? An editorial in L'Osservatore Romano exhorts, "The Paris-Dakar, a race which many classify as a sporting event, in reality has very little to do with healthy competition." Dear Vatican: this is not the Crusades, nor is it the Spanish Inquisition. Nor is it an assault on women's rights or an attempt to squelch non-straight sexual orientation. What it is is one of the most grueling races in the world, undertaken by drivers who are willing to risk death for glory.

Given that the Catholic Church has, over its lengthy history, exiled people for things less dangerous than going fast over a vast expanse of desert, we find this to be rather silly. Especially since the Pope accepted a Ferrari steering wheel from Michael Schumacher. After all, Grand Prix racing has killed a number of men over the years as well. In closing, Dear Vatican, we encourage you to stop writing about motorsport and instead do more to spiritually uplift people instead of trying to legislate their behavior from a bully pulpit. Because crap like this is really a downer. Besides, wasn't Christianity's basic spirit established on the basis of one man who believed, pushed the odds and died for it? Just asking. – Davey G. Johnson

Vatican slams Dakar rally as irresponsible [Stuff, NZ]

Related:
Savior Survivor: VW Ups The Ante In The Fight To Provide The Pope's New Whip [Internal]

If you produce the oil that powers the engines, why not own the whole damn car? Or at least a good slice of it? Turns out, the Kingdom of Bahrain's purchase is not unprecedented as Abu Dhabi owns 5% of Ferrari and 15% of Spyker. What does this mean for lay pistonheads like us? Just that F1 will continue to be cash-flush and innovate like mad until Ferrari's manettino gets a sixth-setting in the eventual F430 replacement. Even still, we'd love to own part of an F1 team. Mel Brooks was right; it's good to be king. – Jonny Lieberman

Bahrain buys into McLaren [F1 News]

Related:
Windows 2.4-Liter: McLaren and Microsoft Officially Team up on ECU for F1 [Internal]

When we had our old Acura Legend, we were addicted to its fuel-economy display. We generally averaged around 21 mpg, which included a 33-mile Walnut Creek-to-San Francisco commute that was 2/3 open freeway and 1/3 brutal congestion (hello, MacArthur Maze and Bay Bridge). On a trip from Portland back down the East Bay, we were running low on gasoline coming down out of the Cascades. The meter showed that we were gaining miles to empty, prompting our friend Brett to exclaim, "This is the best car ever! It actually makes gas!" Wayne Gedes also got hooked on eking fuel economy out of an Acura — in this case, his wife's MDX.

And post-9/11, he made a commitment to use as little fuel as possible, exploring techniques and acronyms that have earned him the title "King of the Hypermilers." We've been known to compare our hairball run from Ozona, TX to Sacramento, CA in an overloaded Durango with a misfire towing an improperly-loaded trailer as some sort of low-speed 24 Heueres du Mans. At one point, we planned to fill up in a town where all of the gas stations were closed. And then we had to climb a mountain. Our tags were out of date, so if a cop pulled over to assist, we were toast. The trailer was our only shield. We had to make it to the top of the mountain, where sweet, nourishing petroleum and caffeine awaited us. And we did, just barely. But it was literally 20 minutes of the most nail-biting, sign-of-the-cross-making, RPM-counting, Blarney-stone tonguing, rabbit-rabbit-on-the-first driving we've ever done. And we've engaged in some rather hairball extralegal stuff over the years.

Hypermiling is all about strategery. And according to this bit in Mother Jones, nobody's better at it than Wayne. We doff our cap to his brilliant 180mpg performance. [Thanks to the Mighty Thnderblt for the tip.] – Davey G. Johnson

This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord. Beat That, Punk [Mother Jones]

Related:
Honda Accord Hybrid Gets Price Increase, Mileage Decrease [Internal]

We dig minicars. We also dig Italian cars. And we dig the Dakar Rally very much. Fiat, knowing this, has decided to enter two 4x4 Pandas in the Dakar Rally. They turned the diminutive hatch into a panel van, filled it full of goodies helpful for survival in the desert, and left the 105-horse 1.3L turbodiesel alone. We're interested to see how it fares. The understressed motor should be reliable in the desert, but raw speed won't exactly be the car's forte. An interesting entry in a race chock full of interesting entries. – Davey G. Johnson

Fiat Panda Heads to Morocco [The Car Connection]

Related:
Some Dakarness [Internal]

With the flag due to drop on the Dakar Rally on the 6th, we thought we'd whet your appetite for what is surely one of the most badass automotive events ever invented. Below the jump is a musically-soundtracked video that's all trucks. And yes, Loverman, rest easy, as DAF is represented.

Note, this song contains a bad word in the chorus. Punk rockers say bad words. – Davey G. Johnson

Related:
Double-Radder Than Anything You Could Possibly Imagine: The DAF Turbo Twin II!!! [Internal]

He's a record-setting balloonist, sailor and pilot, and he's even run the 24 Heures du Mans. He's Steve Fossett, and he holds a fistful of records. And now, with the purchas of Spirit of America, he's going after the outright land speed record, hoping to take down the nearly-a-decade-old Thrust SSC record set by Andy Green, the first man to verifiably go supersonic on land. Back in 1997, Craig Breedlove was chasing the supersonic record as well, but a grenaded jet engine put an end to his attempts and a lack of sponsorship dollars has sidelined the car ever since.

Realizing that as he approaches 70, his days behind the wheel are over, Breedlove has agreed to sell the last in a storied line of land speed record cars to Fossett. We'll be happy to see the Spirit back in action, but it's a little sad that Breedlove won't be behind the wheel. And well, we doubt that the Beach Boys will ever write a song about Steve Fossett. [Thanks to Scott for the tip.] – Davey G. Johnson

World's fastest car is sold, Breedlove says [San Francisco Chronicle]

Related:
Sounds of a Record Breaking: Craig Breedlove's First Land Speed Record on CD [Internal]

The close personal American friends of Bruce in Poughkeepsie, Dyson Racing, have decided to trade in their Audi Lola for a Porsche RS Spyder, a car which was only campaigned last season by Penske. According to Porsche Motorsports honcho Hartmut Kristen, the Dyson cars will come equipped the same as the Penske models. Guy Smith and Chris Dyson will run the No. 20 entry next season, while Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace are set to drive the No. 16 car. – Davey G. Johnson

Dyson Racing team to utilize Porsche cars [Poughkeepsie Journal]

Related:
More on the RS Spyder [Internal]