NASCAR has been making changes to the tickets is sells

For many managers and operational directors at the venues of NASCAR, this means examing all aspects of their business, from the price you pay when you buy a ticket to the size of the seat you’ll be sitting upon next season. All of the managers that operate NASCAR’s venues have seen a decrease in the numbers of people in the seats for each race and with the deepening financial crisis in the industry; they’ll have to look at innovative ways to increase their financial bottom line.

Making decisions is a tough business in NASCAR, but somebody has to do it because sitting around and waiting for things to change, just isn’t going to work. NASCAR hasn’t been immune to the financial problems of the world and they have been looking at various ways to increase profits and the number of fans in their seats. They started by taking hundreds of thousands of their tickets and putting a different price on them and they have even taken some of the tickets that they had previously bundled together and created new packages to build interest in their fan base. They have made some of the more expensive seats wider to provide an enhanced level of comfort for fans paying more for their seats, and have been looking at other ways to improve the value of their tickets for their fans.

They have seen an increase of new fans interested in their new ticket prices and packages and this is a good thing that they were hoping to see. In fact, they have seen that most of their new ticket packages and prices have been bought by people that will be coming to a NASCAR race for the first time in 2010.

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New Ticket Prices and Bundles for 2010

Formula one will use a different point system next year

The new system is pretty simple to understand. The race winner for each competition will receive 25 points for the win, with 20 and 15 being awarded for second and third places in their turn. The next seven places will receive 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, and 1 points for their finishing in their respective spots during a race. This will take the place of the current set up for points that saw drives score, 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, and 1 point respectively.

The F1 Commission also decided that the Brawn team will be allowed to make a change to their chassis name to Mercedes for the 2010 Formula One season, but Brawn will continue to receive payment based on their old name. This was allowed because of the long history of Mercedes-Benz has with Formula One and their decades of commitment to the sport.

While the Commission was at work they also took care of putting forward a number of further changes that they would like to see to Formula One next season. The changes they proposed were to the sporting and technical side of Formula One, but these changes have yet to be stated and need to go before the WMSC for final approval, which should be on Friday.
What we do know is that they apparently have strong support for the changes and the Sporting Working Group, a smaller sub-committee of the F1 Commission that is composed of FIA and F1 team members, us leading the charge to implement the changes proposed, which they hope will improve the level of entertainment for the fans coming to the races. We have also heard that FIA and FOM will be working together to increase the communication level and promotion of the Formula One championship for the media and its worldwide fan base.

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A Different Formula One in 2010

Valentino Rossi is busy behind the wheel of a racing car

What kind of competition will Rossi be for racers who have spent the majority of their racing careers racing four-wheeled vehicles? Expect Rossi to hold his own no matter the vehicle he’s driving, it’s really about reflexes and mental acuity, and a host of other qualities that make Valentino a champion racer. Just to be sure someone asked Ford racer Hirvonen about the level of competition that he was expecting from Valentino when he gets him on the track. Hirvonen, who has raced on the type of track that he and Rossi are about to race on, stated that he expects Rossi to be a difficult challenge. Certainly, Rossi will be a racer he’ll remember racing after his racing days end, after all, how many nine-time MotoGP Champions to do get to race in your career? In fact, when you take a look at the racing credentials of the participants, you’ll see that their all talented racers and it should be one hell of a race. Rossi is just having fun, so anything is possible, but don’t expect him to take too many chances. He still has to start training for the 2010 MotoGP season in a few weeks and we wouldn’t want anything to derail the start year when he wins his tenth Premier Class MotoGP title, would we now?

Rossi isn’t the other off season sportbike racer busy behind the wheel of a four-wheeled race car as Mattia Pasini, Andrea Iannone, Andrea Dovizioso, and Loris Reggiani will be competing in the Yokohama Superbikers Drifting contest. This time they’ll be taking Ford Mustangs prepared by Gandin Motors and wearing Yokohama tires around the track as they unleash the raw power of American muscle.

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Valentino Rossi Racing Four-Wheeled Style

Rubens was competing against Felipe Massa on a different stage

Felipe was able to cross the finish line after a total of 644 laps and about 11 hours of continuous racing, with the help of his team mates Lucas di Grassi and Julio Campos. Lucas di Grassi is a tester for the Renault Formula One team and Julio Campos is a Stock Car Lights racer. In combination with his win last week and the birth of his new son Felipinho Massa early this week, he has had a really great two weeks and is probably wondering what is next for him. Felipe did take the time to dedicate his wins and future to his new son and told the world how much he loves his new son in enough ways to get a smile from all on hand.

The win at Granja Viana was is actually his second; he also won this race in the 1997 inaugural race, at the young age of sixteen. This year second place was claimed by former Toyota F1 racer Ricardo Zonta, while Rubens Barricello finished third this year. This win must feel pretty good for Massa, after missing the final eight races of the 2009 Formula One season, and helps to get him ready to try to win it all during the up coming 2010 Formula One season.

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Felipe Massa Racing Again

Jimmie was kind of upstaged by Mark at the Champion's Week ceremony

Mark stepped to the stage and let his charisma and understanding of life and NASCAR come out in words that sparked energy in the crowd and stole the show from Jimmie Johnson. Listening to Mark’s words had me a little misty around the eyes and made me think of other racers who hadn’t quite been able to win it all during their racing careers.

The week long celebration begins on Monday as Jimmie Johnson and his wife Chandra will handing out about $1 million in donations to various schools around California, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, and giving something back to their fans.

On Tuesday Jimmie will show up at the Auto Club Speedway to have breakfast with and answer and ask a few questions with about 700 fans and friends.

Wednesday Jimmie is scheduled to take part in a photo shoot as he travels around to various spots along the Las Vegas strip. Jimmie will then spend a little quality time with the other racers he was competing against during the year and I bet he can expect a little fun pay back for his four years of making them second best.

On Thursday Champion’s Week heads to the real celebration and the official crowning of Jimmie Johnson as a four time Sprint Cup Series Champion. They’ll be having a parade where Jimmie’s fans can watch him come down the street and wave as he heads toward a strip where they’ll be a few burn outs planned, before they head over to have lunch.

On Friday they’ll bring the affair to its pinnacle with the annual Sprint Cup Series awards show at the Wynn Las Vegas and this is when the party will reach its peak and they’ll start to head off to their private parties.

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Jimmie Johnson at Champion’s Week

You can race as Casey Stoner in the newest MotoGP video game

Pulling their chairs up to the screen and turning on the game, they quickly discovered that they could race as any of the current racers competing in the MotoGP and a total of 17 circuits were available for them to race on and the newest video game even has a new feature for this year, an all new Arcade mode. In this mode they were able to take part in different types of race challenges, before giving the Career mode a try. In this mode you can compete in all of the races and manage your team as you try to build up your reputation as a two-wheeled racer both on and off the track. They were even told that when the game releases later in the year, players would be able to access free downloadable content from the real 2010 MotoGP season as it unfolds in real time, and keep their virtual 2010 season up to date with the happenings in the real season. You’ll even be able to compete in the different classes of the MotoGP, the 125 cc, 250 cc, and even the Premier class, and take your bike online to compete around the world against the best virtual two-wheeled racers on the planet. This game will be realised later in 2010, probably about March and is being developed by Monumental Games and published by Capcom, and should be a riot for any fan of the MotoGP.

In other news, the Moto2 prototype bike of Monster Tech3 is being tested for the up coming 2010 MotoGP season, and apparently the first tests have been going pretty good for the team and they expect to compete for the 2010 MotoGP title. French rider Florian Marino was testing the bike this week, before the real racer Raffaele de Rosa gets on the bike later in the week in Valencia.

The testing of the bike went pretty well and they ran some pretty good times, despite just taking the bike through its first test run, and if they can get it running a little better, this sportbike might have enough speed to compete. Of course tests don’t always tell you everything you need to know about a bike and its ability to run fast and win. The bike will have to be tested under all different weather conditions and running conditions yet, but so far, things are looking good for the team.

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MotoGP 2010 is a Virtual Adventure

Formula One will see the return of Lotus in 2010

BMW actually announced to the Formula One world that they would be leaving the tour in 2010 and then promptly sold the team to the man that originally sold it to them, Peter Sauber, instead of the investment group Qadbak, who were originally talking to BMW about buying the team. At first it didn’t look like BMW Sauber was going to be able to grab one of the thirteen available tickets to be one of the teams for the 2010 Formula One season, when Lotus looked like they had grabbed the final berth. BMW Sauber got another chance at a ticket to the big show, after Toyota decided to withdraw their team for the 2010 season.

FIA has been busy finalizing the teams for the 2010 Formula One season and is certainly glad to get this part of the process secured and now they can get onto preparing for the season. This means that the thirteen teams that will be on the grid for the opening race of the 2010 season, will be McLaren, Mercedes (Brawn), Red Bull, Ferrari, Force India, Toro Rossi, Renault, Williams, Sauber, Virgin Racing, US F1 Team, Lotus and Campos. This isn’t written in stone just as yet, and there could still be changes to the thirteen teams that will arrive at the first race of the 2010 Formula One season, but things are looking pretty good for these teams to be the ones that will be competing for the 2010 Formula One title.

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BMW Sauber Confirmed for 2010

Jimmy Johnson spends his time off behind the wheel of other types of race cars

Jimmy has actually competed in five of the last six Rolex 24 races, and has actually helped his team finish second twice in the six races he has driven in. He helped the Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing team finish second in 2008 and the Howard/Boss Motorsorts Pontiac Crawford team finish second in 2005. He also raced in the Rolex 24 in 2006 and 2007 and in the summer drove Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona for Riley Motorsports.

The passion the Jimmy has for racing just can’t be denighed and it shows in the results he has no matter what he’s driving or driving for. His smile when behind the wheel of a race car is only second to his skill and desire to win no matter what he’s driving or who he is competing against.

The accolades and compliments he has recieved from his fellow team mates and the owners of the teams he drives for is amazing to hear and he is impressive no matter what he’s driving.

He also brings out the best in his competitors and his team mates and this is something that can’t be over rated and is surely one of the reasons that he would be welcome as a team mate for any team that he wanted to drive for.

If you want to see Jimmy Johnson in action behind the wheel of a race car other than a NASCAR entry, you can live live coverage of the 2010 Rolex 24 at Daytona on SPEED at 3 p.m. ET on January 30. The action will last until 10 p.m. and will resume again at 7 a.m. ET and continue until the end of the race at about 4 p.m.

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Jimmy Johnson is a Busy Racer

Toni Elias, Randy de Puniet and the boys are on time off, while Rossi is behind the wheel of a race car

Randy de Puniet is one of these racers who is currently evaluating his 2009 performance and thinking of things he can do to improve his performance on the bike in 2010. He equalled his best ever result during the 2009 MotoGP season, with an 11^th place finish in the final standings, and he must be thinking that he could do better in 2010. His LCR Honda team manager, Lucio Cecchinello is one who believes Randy is on the brink of a real breakthrough on the MotoGP tour, and he expects 2010 to be the best year for the French man, so far.

Randy had a pretty good year, and had a series of fine results that eventually lead to his only podium finish of 2009, at the tenth race of the season at Donington Park. After that he had an unfortunate accident while training following the British Grand Prix, which left him nursing a broken ankle that took a number of screws to set in place again. It’s no surprise that after his training accident he had a tough time while trying to continue to race on a broken ankle and his results showed that he wasn’t quite up to form because of the accident.

In fact, Randy was in a heated battle that had him in seventh place in the overall standings near the end of the season, and despite his injury he was starting to put pressure on the racers in front of him in the standings. The toughness that Randy showed and his results has me thinking that we haven’t seen the best from Randy, so far, and that the 2010 season could be his breakthrough year on the MotoGP tour.

Randy’s team has stated they are very happy with his progress, so far, and with his willingness to fight through adversity like he did in 2009, and that they believe Randy has all the ingredients to win it all. It may take more time than they thought for him to get up to speed and show what he can really do on the bike, but that he is gaining speed and confidence and the rest of the racers should be on the look out for Randy in 2010.

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Randy de Puniet Should be Better in 2010

2009 was an eventful year on the NASCAR track

Also notable in 2009 was the financial problems of NASCAR and the state of the financial institutions around the world, which definitely made the ground the racers’ were racing on a little more hazardous and put the future of some teams and races in jeopardy. Chevrolet and Chrysler were on shaky financial ground the whole year and had to make cut backs in the spending of teams in order to make it through the season. We saw teams merge and a few had to put the wraps on their racing and hundreds of NASCAR industry professionals lost their jobs. Still others went with a start and park routine to try to reduce costs and keep the teams working. The drug problems of a few racers surfaced during the year and took the focus away from the racing, and Danica Patrick’s continuous talks with team owners kept interrupting the racing.

Add to these problems reduced attendance at many of the race venues, which certainly can be partly blamed on the financial crisis for many Americans, and 2009 wasn’t the best year in NASCAR history. Media professionals also saw a decrease in advertising budgets and revenue, which resulted in cut backs and downsizing in order to compensate for the reduced funding. 2010 is expected to be a better year for NASCAR, but things can change so quickly that making assumptions can cause real problems.

Jarrod Breeze’s problems with NASCAR dominated the events in the last few days of the season and this still has yet to be resolved. Jarrod’s problems could just be starting and the facts surrounding this whole affair could bring an end to his career. He may win the fight, but his chances of getting behind the wheel of another race car in a NASCAR race, is probably zero.

The events and facts of the 2009 season were often more about the events surrounding the races and racers, than the actual races. Hopefully, in 2010 we’ll get back to concentrating on the racing, as long as the financial situation settles a little and the financial ground becomes a little more secure for the teams and racers.

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2009 Nascar Wrap-Up