Honda's New Formula - December 2006 Shakedown

"Wow! What a day!" exclaimed Jenson Button after winning his first grand prix in 113 starts. "This is such an amazing moment for me and one that I have worked my whole motor racing career for. I always had faith that we would achieve our objective together and this victory is testimony to that belief."

Faith is the operative word. Button always had the ability. But after six years in Formula 1 without a victory, some in the paddock wondered if the British driver could put it all together. Others outside the paddock wondered if he would ever shave his blond stubble. One of the two came true at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he showed that he could win. And he did it in the wet.

The weekend got off to an inauspicious start. In qualifying, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso were penalized for dangerous maneuvers. The penalties dropped Schumacher to 12th on the grid and Alonso to 15th. Button started from 4th.

With rain falling, the first corner was a mess. Button lost several places entering the second lap, but that's when he began his charge. He made up five places over the next handful of laps and continued to carve out seconds from the lead. By lap 46, he was right behind Alonso, the race leader. A few laps later, Alonso went into the pits for a tire change. On the second corner out, a wheelnut dislodged from his car, which sent him spinning. Button found himself in the lead with less than 20 laps remaining. After a final pitstop, he extended his lead to over 30 seconds. It was harder than it looked.

"Needless to say, this race was very hard to manage from a strategic standpoint," said Gil De Ferran, Honda F1's sporting director, "right from the start when we struggled with what tires to start the race on."

"The key part of the race," he continued, "came after Jenson caught up to the leader and we decided to split the last stint since we doubted the wets were going to be the right tire for the conditions at the end. But they certainly were when he came in for the second time on lap 46."

While Honda F1 returned to familiar form and missed the podium at the following stop in Turkey, Button finished just outside of top 3 and both RA106s earned points. More encouraging still is team boss Nick Fry's recent assessment that the team is at the threshold of some significant improvements. One can only hope.

Marvelous Marco
Rookie Marco Andretti wins his first IndyCar race at Infineon Speedway.Nineteen-year-old Marco Andretti became the youngest driver to win an IndyCar race. Starting from second on the grid at Infineon Speedway, Andretti stayed close to Scott Dixon, who led from pole, for most of the race. On lap 45, Andretti entered the pits and the team filled up the tank with enough fuel for the rest of the race. While other drivers went back in for another pitstop, Andretti was able to retake the lead. Teammate Dario Franchitti made a late charge and closed in within less than a second. But he couldn't pass Andretti.

"I knew that Dario is normally the king of saving fuel," said Andretti, who is strong on road circuits. "After he got by Tony [Kanaan], I knew it definitely wasn't over, and he would push me hard during the final laps. I had to run some pretty fast laps at the end, but we just needed to stay consistent, save the tires and fuel, and it all worked out."

NHRA Roundup
Jeremy Lookofsky continued his assault on the Honda Tuning All-Motor championship. He took his second win of the year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, beating Scion's Leslie Durst-Armendariz with a time of 10.03 @ 137.82. With two races left, Lookofsky leads with 740 points. Norris Prayoonto is second with 595. "This is so gnarly," Lookofsky said. "This weekend has been so unbelievable. Yesterday I had heat exhaustion, which hindered my performance during qualifying. We did this all while missing one of our crewmembers James Lin. This had to be the hottest day. With the win we were able to increase our lead over the Clutch Masters team."