For the Canada Day long weekend the Demaras Racing team took a break from the track to enjoy a weekend of family camping. Through the miracle of modern technology, every race was streamed to the TV on the outside of the RV.
It was really cool to see Colton Herta and Graham Rahal on the front row of the IndyCar race at Mid Ohio, just as their fathers before them shared the front row at the 1998 Grand Prix of Long Beach race. But it was horrifying to see Simon Pagenaud barrel roll his race car nearly 7 times after brake failure during practice.
The IndyCar season is looking like it’s already over, with Alex Palou taking consecutive wins and a 100+ points lead in the championship. It’s the same story over in F1 where a totally boring season continued with Verstappen (will anybody beat this guy in 2023?) winning from pole at the Austrian GP. The highlight of the race was a clean but ferocious battle for the podium between the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
Not to be outdone, NASCAR put on a show in its first ever street circuit race. The good ol’ boys have created a diverse series racing on short ovals, super-speedways, road courses, street circuits and even dirt tracks. The weekend’s race in rainy Chicago featured road racing ringers, F1 Champion Jenson Button, a master of ‘changing conditions‘. But history was made by Shane van Gisbergen, the Aussie V8 Supercars superstar who won a NASCAR race on debut for the first time since Mark Donahue accomplished the feat in 1973.
Demaras Racing returns to racing action next weekend, with Daniel making his oval-track debut at Sunset Speedway in the No. 9 SKLD Motorsports Integra.
Such a beautiful RV, guys!!!! Happy to see the Demaras had some fun during the long weekend.
I am not a big fan of street circuits but what they did in Chicago was nothing short of amazing. The circuit is beautiful, with lots of room for take overs. I just watched the highlights and to see the cars racing with the Chicago’s skyline in the background was breathtaking. The race itself was also great; it was NASCAR in a totally different perspective.
Yeah…street circuits are tough. The slightest error and the car is in the wall. Or worse, clipping the inside of a corner and ricocheting to the outside wall.
The toughness of those NASCARs is what really impressed. When an IndyCar touches the wall, it almost shatters. Wings destroyed, suspension bent, race over.
But stock cars may have crashed into the tire barriers (thanks to the wet conditions) but once they were pulled out, the cars just kept on racing. Amazing.
Very cool race.