Lewis Hamilton/Tony Stewart trading rides at Watkins Glen!

I don't think this pic has been posted:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Oh, it has yet to happen, I was going to ask if Lew/Crashington ran into anyone >>>

 

I bet the F1 car would lose on an oval... they're not set up / designed for that.

 

I have a feeling this is a taped event. I watched scenes last week of Stewart laughing as he tried to squeeze into the McLaren.

To those that try to criticize NASCAR, you obvioulsy have no experience with the current state of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. I read an interesting ariticle in F1 magazine, an interview with former McLaren Chief Engineer Steve Hallum. Hallum is now running the Waltrip NASCAR operation, his insight into both forms of racing would probably change most minds about NASCAR. The article ended by suggesting that F1 fans need to take a closer look at NASCAR, as it is more technical than expected. Preparation is second to none.

NASCAR has a large following in Europe and Japan. A good friend of mine from Battle actually owned the Western Auto Waltrip car, kept it in a barn behind the house. One of Earnhardt's cars is in a French collection. Broadcasts of the Daytona 500 and Talledaga 500 have great ratings in Europe.

Anyway, as has been said, to try to compare two very different forms of motorsports is really silly and futile. Just demonstrates a lack of knowledge about motorsports.

As for Tony Stewart, and also Jeff Gordan, they both cut their racing teeth in USAC sprint cars. I would bet there is no winning F1 driver in F1 history, except Andretti and possibly Gurney, that could successfully drive a sprint car. That experience should give Tony a real advantage over Hamilton as a sprint car is incredibly difficult to drive. Even when compared to an F1 car. They are light and dangerously fast, require seat of your pants sensitivity.

Not trying to minimize F1, only racing series I watch on TV is F1. I will go to Austin for sure. I will watch/attend Daytona, but I am not facinated by the other NASCAR races enough to watch or attend. In person, both forms tend to be boring in the middle, F1's advantage is a race under two hours, whereas NASCAR can be over three and half hours. For shear excitement as a race fan, a NASCAR race at Daytona is the best of all, highly recommended, especially if you bring a female companion that has never seen an auto race.

For comparison:
Stewart is 5'9" (although it is thought he is closer to 5'5") and 180 lbs
Hamilton is 5'7" and 150 lbs

I doubt that this event would have been planned if results would be extremely one sided. Should be fun and full of surprises. I believe Stewart will do just fine.

 

Follow this twitter account for live updates. Plenty of behind the scenes pictures already.

http://twitter.com/#!/GerardH51

 

I'll take that bet - I honestly reckon the F1 car would be *hugely* quicker.

*Light*

Sprint cars may be many things, but light they aren't:

Sprint Cup Car, with driver & fuel: Minimum 3400lbs (1542kg)
F1 car, with driver & fuel: Minimum 1411lbs (640kg)

Now, I'm not knocking Nascar in any way (I enjoyed Bristol a few years back!) but an F1 car will quite simply blow their doors off..... They produce roughly the same power, and I was a little surprised to learn have about the same mean piston speed (~25 m/s). But 2.5 times the weight....... "Simple physics old chap!"

Then there's the brakes - OK, they don't get used a lot, but I remember a R&T test drive where the guy said something like "when you hit the brakes, the car doesn't so much slow down as reluctantly shed speed!"

Cheers,
Ian

 

Wanted to go to this, but ~6 hours of driving didn't really seem worth it.

Hopefully they don't decide to send both drivers out at the same time, given Hamilton's recent driving....

 

Excellent, thank you!

 

Hey guys,

A heads up - Please be careful of spoilers!...... I'm recording it later and really don't want to know the outcome ahead of time. Thanks! [Maybe start another thread?]

Cheers,
Ian

 

Thanks Ian, nice to know some real facts.

 

...yes NASCAR has about the same "large" following in Europe as the NFL does....Seriously, there may have been a small bump in viewership in Finland when Kimi ran his first truck series but large following is wishful thinking...

 

I've been to watch 'em a couple of times at Sears - A rare road course for 'em, and while there was lots of wheel banging etc, they're really too big for that environment IMHO.

Put 43 of 'em on a 1/4mile banked oval like Bristol and you get a very fun race.

I haven't however seen 'em in their "natural habitat" - The "Super Speedway". But, I do know that even on the big tracks they can take over a lap to come up to speed!

I honestly believe they could start at the same time and the F1 car would have time to stop and go and still be ahead..... Kinda like they do in bicycle pursuit races..... Start at opposite sides of the oval and do one lap. Nascar fans would be seriously depressed [Or I would be! ]

Cheers,
Ian

 

"...It doesn't so much slow down as reluctantly lose momentum"

Much better

Cheers,
Ian

 

Ian, sorry, but you looked up the wrong information about a sprint car, not a Sprint Cup Car. A NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car is mandated to weigh 3400 pounds, that is what you found. A World Of Outlaws, USAC, etc, sprint car called a 410, weighs around 1200 pounds with approx 800 HP. Mostly Chevy block, but nothing Chevy inside the engine. This is where most American drivers that race IRL cut their teeth, and where Gordan and Stewart developed their skills. They race on 1/3 to 1/2 paved or dirt semi banked tracks mostly in the midwest USA, like Ohio, Indiana. Tony actually owns one of the most famous, Eldora, near my hometown of Dayton, Ohio. The old Dayton Speedway held the distinction of the fastest half mile high banked (44 degrees) paved track in the world.

This is true American hometown racing. Since I think you came from the wrong side of the pond, I understand the confusion. ;}

I will no longer go watch these cars, they scare me, way too dangerous. They now have full roll cages, etc, but still, they lock wheels so somebody usually flips over the guard rail and out of the track.

So Ian, here are the REAL FACTS.

This is what I mean by a sprint car:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Ian, here you go, your first sprint car experience:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfyIwfqUcY0[/ame]

Crazy scary eh? To see those front wheels flopping around, is just nuts.

Ian, I see you are in California. In that case, here is a list of race tracks for you to see real sprint cars (not NASCAR Sprint cup cars):

http://www.chucko.com/racing/cal-tracks.html

P.S. is your buddy from the wrong side of the pond always wrong?

 

Ha ha ha >

 

It could beat a NASCAR but I'm not sure about IRL. They had to do a lot of radical stuff on that Honda F1 car that went fast on the salt flats...it had virtually no wing.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this tonight. Don't like either driver but can't wait to see Tony Stewart squeeze into a Sprint Cup car.

 

My apologies.

I've been saying for a long time that I should go visit the dirt track near me in Watsonville - IIRC, the WoO stop by a couple of times a year - Sounds fun!

That tends to kill spectators!.......

Again, my bad for confusing your post. However, you can't really be comparing those beasts with an F1 car can you?.....

As a sometime racecar engineer, +1 on the scary stuff - That's bad!..... 4 contact patches are always gonna out-perform 2 or 3.

I'm sure they're fun cars to drive, but I still don't think anything (on tarmac) is gonna beat an F1 car.

Fun debate

Cheers,
Ian

 

Ian, no issues. I can see how the reference to "sprint" could be confusing if you are not old and from the midwest USA like me. The only comparisons to an F1 car are:

* four wheels/one driver.
* both require the driver to "feel" in zero time what the car is doing by the seat of their pants as we say, requiring the driver to react rather quickly, unlike a large stock car
* both have orgasmic power to weight ratios
* neither has fenders

Other than that, not much else to compare. They are technical opposites. It takes better reaction time to control a sprint car as it is on the verge of disaster much of any lap, but so much more multi-tasking to control an F1 car. For me, training in a sprint car would make for a great basis to drive any opened wheeled road race car, including F1. Most sprint car drivers got their start in go karts. Training in GP2, etc, would not at all be a basis to drive a sprint car. Or a NASCAR. Or much else other than F1. So what I am saying, drivers like Gordan and Stewart can go both ways, where even a Michael Schumacher would have trouble going to the IRL or NASCAR. Or even the DTM.

Thanks for your input!

 

Speed's writeup with video & photos: http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-seat-swaps-thrills-drivers-fans

A replay of the event is at 10 PM Central this evening.