Ricardo Favoretto Formula BMW driver

Today a few shots of one of the Formula BMW drivers at Miller for the test session last weekend. This drivers name a Ricardo Favoretto and I do believe that he is from Brazil. I seem to recall a couple of famous F-1 drivers have come from Brazil. Who knows maybe Ricardo will be one more. I checked out his web site, unfortunately I do not read Spanish or Portuguese. He needs to have an English translation on his site. http://www.ricardofavoretto.com.br/

I am posting five photos of this driver.

Today's post.

The best thing about having a four day weekend is having a four day weekend, the worst thing about having a four day weekend is having to go back to work for three day. Today is the start of my work week. Damn, damn, damn.

About the weekend at Miller. This was my first weekend as a working photojournalist. I did get to meet the owner publisher of FormulaCar Magazine and I gave him two Cd's of photos that I took on Saturday or the Formula BMW test day. Now I wonder if they found any that they liked!!!!

On Saturday I went back to the track but the FBMW was over and Motorcycles were using the East track. The Porsche club was using the West track and I did tack some pictures of some of the Porsche's and other cars. I did post a bunch of those pictures on http://hotwheels-paul.spaces.live.com/ If you want to check out any of those pic's. The other day I did post on this site three photos that I took on the FBMW day. Today I am just going to re post one of those and I WOULD really like to get some feedback on it. If you could please email me at tswatson78@msn.com and constructive comments I would appreciate it very much.

Formula BMW testing at Miller

Today I am just posting three pictures that I took yesterday at Miller during the Formula BMW testing.

Bob McKee Can-Am car

Bob McKee

Bob McKee started out working on drag cars and then Stock cars. Bob also served as the crew chief for Dick Rathman at the Indy 500. He was quite the mechanic and made his first transaxle, which he attached to a Buick engine in Roger Ward’s Cooper. This was Bob’s first experience with sports cars. From there Bob went on to manufacturing his own sports cars usually powered by American V8 engines. In 1966 Ralph Salyer became the SCCA National “C” sports racing champion driving a McKee-Oldsmobile. Bob McKee worked out of his shop in Palatine, Ill.
Attached are a number of photos of a McKee Can-Am car with a Plymouth Hemi and one of his unique transaxles.

Formula BMW

Being basically lazy and also due to the fact that I had previously published an article on Formula BMW I am re-publishing that article. The reaso that I am doing this is tomorrow I am going out to Miller for the Formula BMW USA testing at Miller in conjunction with the Snap-on Go-Kart series.

Formula BMW has invited 10 Go Kart friver in the Snap-On series to test the Formula BMW FB02. I am going to see if I can do something for FormulaCar Magazine. The owner publisher of FCM is also going to be at Miller this weekend.

Just so that you have an idea of what a Formula BMW is I am publishing a few photos that I took last year at Miller.

This is the fourth year of Formula BMW. Formula BMW is designed to give new and upcoming drivers a place to learn and show what they can do. The goal of the design behind Formula BMW was “to build a car that would set new standards in the entry level Formulas.” A high standard for safety was of the utmost importance and then low cost, ease of maintenance and flexibility. The gear ratios, shock absorbers, and wings are all adjustable. Young drivers can quickly get up to speed with the process of setting up a car. The front and rear wings are also adjustable, and the car has a stepped underbody for safety reasons.This is the first time BMW has put its name brand on a Formula car. The car was designed by BMW’s American subsidiary, Designworks/USA, in cooperation with BMW Motorsport in Munich.The Formula BMW FB2receives its power from the four-cylinder engine taken from the BMW K1200RS motorcycle. The engine produces 140 bhp and will propel the 1,001-pound car up to 140 mph depending on the gear ratio chosen. The engine is also sealed so that the teams cannot tune it. This gives the engine a longer lifetime, lower maintenance costs and a very high level of equality among all of the teams.

My sopbox for the day:

My soapbox for today!

I was reading in my favorite British car magazine the other day that the IRL and CART have kissed and made up and apparently the IRL has won the long war over open wheel racing in the U.S.

First of all I believe that it is a good thing that they have combined into one organization. Unfortunately, Tony George is now the Czar of U. S. open wheel racing. It appears that the new Champ, IRL car will be just another one make racing series. What a frigging bore. Now I have nothing against one make racing series, the Star Mazda is a good example of a one make series that has a serious place in racing,. The Star Mazda series is a great place and set of rules to help develop up and coming race drivers. As for a premier racing series I foresee a serious lack of interest from sponsors, and spectators. As much as I am not a great fan of NASCAR, the thing that NASCA has going for it is the variety of cars participating Ford fans come to see a Ford race and win, Chevy fans the same along with Dodge fans, heck even Toyota fans can now be a NASCAR fan. F-1 has BMW, Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari’s to root for.

Can you see Ford or Chevrolet putting their names on a racecar that has an engine with somebody else’s name on it? I don’t think so. Honda has already said that they will be pulling out of American open wheel racing.
To bring back the pizzazz and excitement in American open wheel racing Tony is going to have to develop a series that has diversity in it and that encourages manufacturers to get involved with engines and chassis. If you can get Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, Renault and Ferrari or even only a few of them involved then Tony will truly have a world class racing series. Good luck Tony! I am not going to hold my breath until it happens; as I do not think that Mr. George has the will and or brains to make a really great series. The only thing that Tony George wants to do is to promote the Indy 500 and Tony George. To tell you the truth ever since Tony came into power at Indy I have not watched more than a half an hour of the Indy 500 on any year, most of the time I don’t even care who won.

Style vs ?

First of all I want to say that I am a fan of Lotus cars. They may not have had the most in styling but Lotus always made of for their lack of style in engineering. Colin always said to add lightness. Their have been a couple of Lotus cars that did exude style, the original Lotus Elite and the Elan for two, not too many more. A Lotus was almost always about handling. The Lotus Exige is a good example of adding lightness and engineering handling into the total package. I will admit that it is also "styled." The styling though in my poor humble opinion lacks a certain panache. In fact it looks downright Japanese cartoonish.

Photos at Miller.

Yes, I know that I have been very remiss in not posting new photos on this site. I have written and posted on HotWheels paul today. I did get an interesting telephone call a couple days ago. While at Miller last wekend I only gave out two of my new business cards. One fellow called back and was interested in some photos if I had any of his car. I did manage to get a few shots of his car that turned out. He ended up buying them from me to use in an advertising display at his business with his racecar. One of these days I will publish those photos on this site but not right now. Right now I am going to post some pictures of Martin Snows beautiful Porsche. I believe that he raced this car at Sebring last month. It is really pretty and very nicely turned out, on top of that if is fast.

Virus

I finally went and bought an anti-virus program and cleaned up my computer. I'm sorry if my computer has been a problem to you. Hopefully now I wont pass on anything to your computer. Thanks Paul

The start of a new season.

Ah, spring time in the Rockie's, the air is brisk. Brisk Hell, it was down right cold, at least it did not rain like weather person suggested.

My plans were to use this weekend to get used to the new Sigma lens. It is going to take a little getting used to as it is just so big. On Saturday they had motorcycles on the East track, Go-Karts on the go-kart track and sports cars on the West track. On Sunday only the sports cars ran. I did take a couple of pictures of the motorcycles but my main focus was on cars. Sometime this Summer I will go just for the cycles. I Met with John Gardner at Miller and made all of the necessary arrangements for my photo journalist credentials for the season.

The only downside of the weekend at the track was what I consider bad manners, poor taste and just downright rudeness of at least one of the racers. I was in the garage taking pictures of cars and people and I came across a possible interesting photo. While getting the photos one of the racers was giving me the finger. Now don't get me wrong I'm not a prude, but the one thing I do not like is bad manners and rudeness. I can understand if you don't want a picture taken. Just tell me. No problem. At the time I was also wearing my orange Miller Photographers vest, so it was not like I was just some John Doe wandering around clicking pictures. Giving me the finger and thinking that is cute or funny, that is his right. It is also my right to ignore him and his like. Therefore I do not plan on posting pictures of that group of race cars. Pity, some people are just asses. Do not expect any photos from me of Miller racing Mustangs any more this season. I do not need being flipped off and I do not need pictures if Mustangs, believe me there are enough other cars and lots and lots of friendly owners and drivers who do not mind having their pictures taken and usually are more than happy to share information with me.

So much for my soap box speech. There were several interesting and fast cars at Miller this past weekend, including a Porsche that raced at Sebring a few weeks ago, at least three new Stohr D-Mods. I also came across my first Audi R-8, an older Alfa and a Ferrari 308.

Today just a few random photos.

Smothers Bros. Chevron Formula B. race car.

My first time at Miller I came across this car which according to my research is 1 of 3 made. I believe that this a 1968 Model B-14 Chevron. The engine listed for a Model 14 is a 1598 cc Cosworth four cylinder with I think a twin cam head. The engine was based upon an English Ford sedan engine, and in someways was similar to the Lotus twincam engine.

It is even possible that I saw this car race at Kent Washington in 1969. Terri and her Mother and I went on a trip to Washington and to Vancouver, B.C. for a vacation and we stopped at Kent for the F-5000 and F.B. races. Somewhere I have a bunch (at least one roll of 35 mm film) that I took at the races. If I ever find them I'll scan them and post them.

I don't seem to have very many photos of this car, but I am posting the few that I came across tonight.

The new racing season.

The 2008 racing season starts this coming weekend at Miller. Miller has a series of six sports car races for local drivers as a way for local drivers to race and gain experience. I shall be out there taking pictures and I am hoping that the new telephoto lens works out. It had better for the buck$ I paid for it.

I have to go to work tonight and this will be my first 4 day weekend of the summer so that I can have the time to spend at the track.

Back to the Ginetta G4. This time I am showing some of the chassis details. While I was there they were making some suspension changes to either the shocks or springs. Also take note of the shot from the front of the car and notice the aluminum belly pan and the lack of oil and dirt in the engine compartment.

The frame is done in a nice grey and that theme carries through into the passenger compartment. I like being able to see the frame in contrast to the body panels.

This is one very nice race car, good looking and fast. What more could you want in a race car? I can't think of anything.