The latest traffic congestion report from England’s capital city, which in 2003 introduced a daily fee equal to $16 for automobiles entering central London, has upped that fee to $49 daily for 4x4s, high-powered sports cars and other high-emission vehicles, to take effect in October. No increase, however, in the daily fee for fuel-efficient vehicles. The mayor of London estimates that 17 percent, or some 33,000, of the cars that daily enter the city center, will pay the higher fee. In this country New York City is working toward initiating a similar program to reduce traffic congestion. 

Turnabout?  Nielsen Media Research reports on TV viewership of the Fox network telecast of the Daytona 500 indicate a significant uptick from last year’s numbers. This year’s viewer stats tell us the 500 telecast matched the highest viewer rating ever recorded for the race, in 2002, with 17.8 million viewers. That is up one percent from the 17.5 million counted in 2007. This year’s rating zoomed in the closing laps, growing from 11.6 at 5 p.m. to 13.0 at 5:30 p.m., and 13.5 at the finish at 6:20 p.m.  TV ratings of auto races have been declining for more than two years, so this bump, however slight, is welcomed.

Ryan Newman’s victory in the Daytona 500 sent him on a dizzy whirl of TV interviews. He was a guest on the Letterman show, and also appeared on “Live with Regis and Kelly” on NBC and on Speed Channel’s “Victory Lane” show, with others following. The owner of Newman’s winning Daytona 500 car, Roger Penske, who had to wait 37 years for a Daytona 500 victory, was called “The Great American Car Owner” by one sportscaster.

Ye Ed's Take On The Merger

MIDLAND PARK, N.J. — Over the years, there have been very few “big stories” break about U.S. auto racing, which began on Thanksgiving Day 1895 with a road race over horse trails from Chicago to Evanston and back.

Making headlines since then have been the opening of the Indianapolis Speedway in 1908; the first “Indy 500” in 1911; the dazzling speeds created by the 1917-1932 board track era; the 1936 debut of gigantic Roosevelt Raceway and its initial Vanderbilt Cup renewal near New York City; and lastly, the abdication of auto racing authority by the AAA (American Automobile Ass’n) in 1955, which led to the founding of the U.S. Auto Club.

But last week’s handshake agreement between officials of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series has to rank as the all-time No. 1 story in American auto-racing history. All previous events of consequence occurred when racing, though large, did not begin to command the sporting or commercial interest which motorsport does today.

Television was either absent or a minor player during all of racing’s previous moves when team and event sponsorship by American business was minimal, not only in size but in the number of Fortune 500 companies then involved, compared to the number involved today. The size of auto racing as a nationwide sport was miniscule compared to today’s mega-dollar numbers and interest, which prevails today.

The financial consequences of this move are impossible to ascertain, other than they will be colossal.

 The fact that this country’s open-wheel gentry will henceforth speak with one voice, and engage stock-car racing’s giant NASCAR in a move for prominence, guarantees continued coverage by the international press, adds to the significance of this move. It will be a changing world for U.S. auto racing.

But danger lurks. The cost of racing today has escalated beyond reason. For generations the racing gentry existed — not necessarily happily — on prize money. Not so today, with staggering car and engine costs making sponsorship an absolute necessity. There are only so many sponsors! Steps at the sport’s upper levels must be taken, and soon, to bring down the cost of owning and campaigning today’s racing cars — and soon.

Sad news from eastern Pennsy. Constant reader Kevin Wetherhold reports the Jan. 20 death of Buster Warke, a fixture in Eastern open-cockpit racing since the mid-1930s. Warke, whose first name, which he never used, was Granville. He was from the Pennsylvania-Dutch town of Walnutport, Pa., near Allentown. Our paths first crossed in the pre-war years when Buster was trying to make it as a driver. Always the nice guy, Buster, who briefly owned and drove his own midget in the late 1930s, preferred the “big cars.” For years I used to accuse him — in jest — of trying to kill me. Late one afternoon during practice before a night race at the Union (N.J.) Speedway, I took up a place in the infield to take pictures, exactly midway between the back straight and front straight, with one foot on the inner guardrail. Warke, given a chance to show his ability in Sex Perryman’s Miller, roared into the turn too fast and the Miller half spun, then lurched forward, crashing headlong into the inner guard rail right under my foot. All ended well, however, and we both walked away. RIP Buster.

Number surprise. It turns out that number 88, currently on the side of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s Team Hendrick Chevy, was used years ago by his racing grandfather Ralph Earnhardt.

We missed it. General Motors’ PR gentry ballyhooing that the company’s sleek, but aging, turbine-engined Firebird One would make one last pass on the famed Daytona Speedway where the single-seat experimental car debuted on the sandy beach in 1954. The sleek streamliner was part of the pre-race activity for this year’s Daytona 500. But TV apparently decided to overlook it. The Harley Earl Trophy, which all Daytona 500 winners receive, carries a replica of the bullet-like Firebird One, designed by Earl, on its facade.

A new kind of shakeup. A severe mid-Atlantic Jan. 2 storm really shook up the cargo vessel Courage, steaming from northern Germany to New Jersey, fully laden with 732 BMWs. The storm was so violent that its anchoring devices broke, allowing hundreds of brand new M3s to tumble over and over in the vessel’s cargo hold. When the ship docked Jan. 21 in Newark, 430 damaged cars were found, including 30 hi-performance M3 coupes and sedans, plus several 3, 5 and 7 series models, X3 Sport Utility examples and the first 1 Series models for the U.S. market, which were to go on sale next month. BMW says the retail value of the cargo was more than $6 million. Several of the cars were initial examples of new models intended for use as show cars at U.S. dealerships. Buyers of cars damaged less than three percent of their value are being offered discounts. Repairable cars suffering more than three percent damage will be driven by BMW employees and later offered for sale as certified used cars. Wonder if any of those BMW engines might wind up in competition cars? Remember the day the first BMW-engined midget won first time out in the hands of P.J. Jones? The next day the engine was outlawed by USAC!      
 
Hasta luego Fidel. The news that long-time Cuban dictator Fidel Castro would resign the presidency (will he?) reminded this reporter of his long-ago days as the English-speaking track announcer at Cuban auto races. They started under strongman Fuglencio Batista at Havana’s colorful waterfront Malecon Boulevard, moving later to a Havana-area military airport. It was there ye ed exchanged a few words with Castro, thanks to translator Don Pedro Rodriguez, father of Mexican drivers Ricardo and Pedro. Castro arrived in a huff, quite upset over the death of a Cuban driver in day-previous practice. He stood next to me taking my microphone and inquiring over the PA system why it was a Cuban driver, rather than a driver from the dozen or so other countries at the raceway, who died. Also standing out in my Cuban memory bank is the late 1950s kidnapping of Juan Manuel Fangio by loyalists of Castro, at that time a Communist rival of Batista, holding Fangio in a house of ill repute atop a Mercedes dealership on the Malecon. Every time Fangio was asked about this incident, he smiled in delivering his reply.

Here’s a bouquet for Alan Wilson, general manager of Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, for organizing the first workshop at which road-course operators could meet to discuss common problems. The recent two-day Utah gathering attracted 69 people representing 25 raceways who pondered such things as legal and insurance issues; paving technology; community and governmental regulations; track and spectator safety; the Country Club concept and other matters of interest. Miller’s 2008 racing schedule kicks off March 22 with round one of the Icebreaker Kart Championship. Later in the year come the ALMS and Superbike events.