RE: Kimi Raikkonen To Go To NASCAR

RE: Kimi Raikkonen To Go To NASCAR

Author
Discussion

Lil' Joe

1,548 posts

187 months

Wednesday 30th March 2011
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hornet said:
Last few laps of the Montreal Nationwide race last year http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ziQ9ja8zbM
That was as far from boring as it's possible to get. F1 could learn a few things from that methinks...

superkartracer

8,959 posts

223 months

Wednesday 30th March 2011
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Have to agree. been watching F1 for years and last Sunday i actually fell asleep!

130R

6,810 posts

207 months

Wednesday 30th March 2011
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"Somebody had come to us with an offer and we are considering it."

It's hard to believe "Jim Bob's Truck Emporium" have come up with Kimi's usual $50 million ...

GTRCLIVE

4,186 posts

284 months

Wednesday 30th March 2011
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A75yCUJow1M&fea...

Just watch a few Super Speedway races and you'll be hooked... yes they hardly use the brakes and are constantly near 200mph for the whole race but that close at those speeds is just insane.... I don't watch every race (F1 I do) but they do race 36 weekends a year, and the road course's I avidly watch

Merle

66 posts

169 months

Wednesday 30th March 2011
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It will take the rednecks a while to figure out what state he's from with that accent. He parties and drives like them, though, so he will be welcome.

Carrelated917

1 posts

172 months

Thursday 31st March 2011
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Brutal. From Ferrari to farmyard tractors.

simonpeter

188 posts

160 months

Thursday 31st March 2011
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Kimi will struggle in NASCAR, those guys have been oval racing all their lives.
A completely different discipline. Shame he is following an idiot like Montoya.

JMC1

567 posts

236 months

Thursday 31st March 2011
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Has anyone seen that old Burt Reynolds movie I think it was called "Stroker Ace".
I can't see Kimi in a chicken costume.

Yeloperil

147 posts

208 months

Thursday 31st March 2011
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With F1 under pressure to be seen to be greener and with their move during 2013 to downsize engines to 4 cylinder 1.5 ltr turbo, I guess Kimi loves cubic inches and sees nothing of interest left for him this side of the pond.

bobberz

1,832 posts

200 months

Thursday 31st March 2011
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Sounds good to me! Reminds me of the days when Mario Andretti would do a NASCAR race one day, win the Indy 500 the next, then hop on a plane to race LeMans!

I think being "merely" competitive in several different racing disciplines is a much bigger challenge than mastering only one. He's already won the F1 World Championship, if he can prove himself in NASCAR and WRC simultaneously, he will become a legend. I don't think anyone has ever won an F1 race, a WRC race, and a stock-car race and I can't think of three more-different forms of car racing.

Funk

26,294 posts

210 months

Thursday 31st March 2011
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NASCAR actually seems to offer more than F1 does in terms of close racing, and the sound is wonderful - not sure I'll be saying the same about the 4-pot F1 cars next year.

May have to look more closely at NASCAR from now on! smile

Twincam16

27,646 posts

259 months

Friday 1st April 2011
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bobberz said:
Sounds good to me! Reminds me of the days when Mario Andretti would do a NASCAR race one day, win the Indy 500 the next, then hop on a plane to race LeMans!

I think being "merely" competitive in several different racing disciplines is a much bigger challenge than mastering only one. He's already won the F1 World Championship, if he can prove himself in NASCAR and WRC simultaneously, he will become a legend. I don't think anyone has ever won an F1 race, a WRC race, and a stock-car race and I can't think of three more-different forms of car racing.
The only comparable achievements I can think of, if he does put up a good showing, would either be Jim Clark's multi-discipline exploits, or Jon Surtees' championship wins in F1 and motorbikes.

It's worth pointing out Kimi races snowmobiles in Finland too.

aeropilot

34,654 posts

228 months

Friday 1st April 2011
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Twincam16 said:
There are strong hints of Jim Clark about Kimi Raikkonen, always seeking to see whether he can win in something else. I like that and we don't see it enough.

In a typical season, Clark would do F1, F2, F3, the British Saloon Car Championship, Le Mans, various rallies, and any sports car race he could lay his hands on. Granted, he was driving for Lotus, which had fingers in all those pies, but even more impressively it seems Raikkonen has set up his own team to do just that, albeit on an equivalent fraction of Colin Chapman's budget.
And Clark had a couple of goes at NASCAR as well, at the behest of Ford....... H&M weren't that interested as they'd obviously never heard of him, and Clark was given a bit of a dog Galaxie to use, and promtly went out and drove it around the oval quicker than it had even been timed on the same track.... and in the race, he was doing quite well until the knackered Galaxie gave up and expired....

I admire Kimi for what he's doing.... one of the true 'petrolhead' racers around these days, and I don't blame him for turning his back on the 'circus' that F1 is.


fatboy18

18,949 posts

212 months

Friday 1st April 2011
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Carrelated917 said:
Brutal. From Ferrari to farmyard tractors.
Thought we were talking about NASCAR, not Lamborghini rolleyes , coffee Ive never seen a 200mph tractor scratchchin

kartman24

458 posts

252 months

Saturday 2nd April 2011
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Looks like this Kimi is having a run on Monday:-http://www.nascar.com/news/110401/kraikkonen-kybusch-test-monday/index.html

...........Martin

thunderbelmont

2,982 posts

225 months

Saturday 2nd April 2011
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Look at it this way - he's 31. In NASCAR (if he makes the cut), he's got another 20 years of earning lots of $M a year,

He's starting right, in my opinion, doing the hard bit first - ovals. They are *not* as simple as many think - they are very very tough to get right.

As one of the few drivers in the UK to have raced on a big oval, I can say that.

I hope he does well.

Though like others, I wonder how he'll fit in with the media spotlight out there, and master phrases like....

"I gotta thank God, and ma tire supplier Goodyear, and all the guys back at the shop, the Finlandia Vodka Toyota ran real good today"

Y'all cain't say shayiit on TV over thar! (remember that Kimi!)


ArnageWRC

2,066 posts

160 months

Sunday 3rd April 2011
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Twincam16 said:
The only comparable achievements I can think of, if he does put up a good showing, would either be Jim Clark's multi-discipline exploits, or Jon Surtees' championship wins in F1 and motorbikes.

It's worth pointing out Kimi races snowmobiles in Finland too.
Don't forget Vic Elford - won the 1968 Monte Carlo Rally for Porsche, then won the 24 Hours of Daytona for Porsche a few weeks later.

Two of last years successful Audi Le Mans winning drivers, Timo Bernhard & Romain Dumas - are both doing their respective National Rally series in Porsche 911 GT3's...



IforB

9,840 posts

230 months

Sunday 3rd April 2011
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Any motorsport fan who makes comments about NASCAR such as "you only turn left" or that it's rubbish racing, has obviously never watched it.

The amount of money floating about in NASCAR is also astonishing, just look at what some of the drivers earn, they make most F1 drivers look like paupers in comparison.

hornet

6,333 posts

251 months

Monday 4th April 2011
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Confirmed as a limited race schedule with Kyle Busch.

http://kylebuschmotorsports.com/news/entry.php?nid...

team underdog

938 posts

230 months

Monday 4th April 2011
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GTRCLIVE said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A75yCUJow1M&fea...

Just watch a few Super Speedway races and you'll be hooked... yes they hardly use the brakes and are constantly near 200mph for the whole race but that close at those speeds is just insane.... I don't watch every race (F1 I do) but they do race 36 weekends a year, and the road course's I avidly watch
Err... thats just a crash compilation? Or is that the point you're making?!