On a busy weekend for racing, with Indy 500 qualifying reaching a climax and British racers taking to the track across Europe, Brits on Pole cast aside its grown-up responsibilities and headed north to relive the pastimes of its youth at the International Donington Slot Car Festival.
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves qualified on pole for this year’s race – but the man who believes he was the rightful winner of the Brazilian’s 2002 triumph, Paul Tracy, lost his place in the field of 33 as the final minutes of Bump Day ended in high drama.
Duncan Tappy has moved up to fourth in the Auto GP standings after grabbing one podium at Imola and narrowly missing out on another as Adrien Tambay and Carlos Iaconelli each took victories.
Lewis Hamilton has been charged in Australia with intentionally losing control of a vehicle after being stopped by police following a practice session for the Melbourne Grand Prix in March.
If Puretech is to succeed in its ambition of inventing the new sport of competitive simulator racing, it’s essential that the technology matches the company’s ambition.
For a moment, as the race began, everything went just perfectly. Slow get-aways by the two cars starting on the front row allowed me to shoot the gap between them and hare off into the distance.
“Racing’s got to change – the age of just watching it on the television is dead,” says Puretech creative director Tim Ball as he introduces his company’s system of ultra-realistic networked race simulators. “But we don’t want to replace it – we want to enhance it.”
Jolyon Palmer has taken his second win of the season at Monza during his first-ever visit to the historic Italian track.
Superleague Formula championship leader Craig Dolby will start tomorrow’s first Magny-Cours race on pole after come-from-behind victories in qualifying against Yelmer Buurman and Sebastien Bourdais.