A review of the recently concluded Grand Prix season of 17 world-wide Formula One races reveals that in only two races this year did the lead change without benefit of a pit stop, in Germany and in China. In the European GP, conducted this year in Germany, Felipe Massa’s pass of Adrian Sutil and Fernando Alonso’s overtaking of Massa were without pit stop help, as was Kimi Raikkonen’s breeze past Lewis Hamilton in China. Every other lead change during the entire 2007 F-1 season was made while the leader made a pit stop. Why so few on-track passes? Those in the know tell us the aerodynamic package currently favored by racing car designers makes pursuing cars lose front downforce when closing in on a car ahead. Thus passing is very, very difficult as is readily seen at oval track races. Catching a car is one thing, passing it is another. Today’s cars are designed to be fastest in clean air, as teams rely on pit stops by rivals to overtake. This is why drivers execute a series of super-fast laps around the time of a leader’s pit stop so as to emerge in front when he returns to the fray. It is said those at the top in F-1 are aware of this circumstance and its Overtaking Working Group is studying various ways to improve passing.

More F-1, this time on money. Bob Varsha, racing’s most accomplished open-wheel TV commentator, straightened me out on my F-1 prize money observations of recent date. According to Varsha’s data, there is “money for position” paid in F-1, though via a complex formula. The overall prize fund, according to Varsha, is broken into three parts. Part 1: 20 percent of the total money available, goes to the fastest 20 qualifying cars; 2 percent to the pole winner, down to four-tenths of 1 percent to the 20th fastest car. Part 2: 45 percent of the total, is paid out on the placing of each car at the race’s quarter distance, half distance, three-quarter distance and at the finish. Of the final Part 3: 35 percent of the total, half goes to teams based on constructor points earned over the two most recent half-seasons, with the remaining 17-1/2 percent divided equally among the top 10 teams based on points scored over the preceding two half-seasons. Complicated. No dollar figures have ever been made public, but insiders say Team McLaren is likely to have its $100 million fine reduced by about half, based on the value of 2007 points it earned. Find a copy of the current Concorde Agreement (if you can) for the full story.

Racing gets a well-deserved look-see. Of the five people recently inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mich., two were racing drivers: A.J. Foyt of Texas, the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, and Californian Dan Gurney, the only American to have ever won a world championship Formula One race in a car of his own design. Other inductees were inventor and Henry Ford aide Charles King; Sergio Pininfarina of Italy, a leader in automotive design; and Shoichiro Toyoda of Japan, president of Toyota during its world-wide 1982 to 1992 expansive years. 

Some 46 years ago, in the days of this newspaper’s big and bold front page headlines, the top story in our March 29, 1961, editions told of Omaha’s Bob Burdick winning that week’s biggest race, NASCAR’s Atlanta 500. I’m sorry to learn Burdick passed away Oct. 4th at age 70. Budick’s winning 1961 Atlanta 500 paycheck was for $15,775, a fraction of what the last-place finisher in the most recent Atlanta 500 received. In that 1961 race those finishing 30th and lower each got $200. Burdick was an IMCA star in his day, winning 40 feature races in three years.

Lucky 7? NASCAR star Dale Jarrett has decided to call it quits after 32 victories on the Cup circuit and a 1999 championship. This ever-steady UPS brownie, who turned 52 last week, says he plans to enter seven races next season, the first five point events of the year and will end his 660-odd times at-the-wheel career in next May’s All-Star race. Dale’s overall NASCAR winnings are a few bucks short of $59 million.

New Englanders recently got the word that motorsport-type activity at the long-closed Lakeville Speedway and horse track on Cape Cod is a no-no. The STAR (Senior Tour Auto Race) group held a Sept. 30 reunion at the old fairgrounds track which is now owned by the Lions Club, at which antique racing cars paraded the historic oval for five laps before a crowd of 800. There was no racing nor any high-speed running, say STAR officials. But requests for permits to hold an annual auto reunion there have brought complaints from nearby residents. It is interesting to note when Riverside Speedway in Agawam closed in October of 1999 Ted Hebert, owner of Teddy Bear Pools and a long-time car owner, purchased the Riverside grandstands and other track impedimenta in hopes of rebuilding it elsewhere in the Bay State. All that gear reportedly remains in storage today, awaiting a suitable site for a new raceway to appear. Maybe Hebert should check with the New England Region SCCA, which is now building a road course in Palmer, Mass.

Constant reader Randy Easton of Westfield, Ind., commenting on this column’s recent note of presidential aspirant John Edwards’s politicking from the wing of a sprint car, says back in the ’70s Randy and his dad were running a sprint car when local promoter Don Smith was running for mayor of Terre Haute. He asked car owners to put one of his bumper stickers touting his candidacy on the right side of their cars. If they won they got a $100 check from Smith.

Savvy racing columnist Mike Mulhern writes that it takes about 30,000 laps for a new NASCAR driver to “get the hang of things.” He figures Nextel Cup offers some 10,000 laps annually with a full Busch series slate adding 7,000 more laps.

Time to break bread. The Champ Car World Series will honor its perennial champion Sebastian Bourdais, and deserving others, on Friday, Nov.16, at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. For tickets — and more — call Lee Ann Meredith at (317) 715-4164. And that same weekend at the Kalahari Water Park Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, the International Hot Rod Ass’n fetes its champions with a two-night gala, Friday and Saturday the 16-17. Call Sharon Ramlow, (419) 660-4232, for tickets and/or info. 

Cameron Argetsinger, who in 1948 organized the first post WWII road race in this country in Watkins Glen, N.Y., has resigned as president of the International Motor Racing Research Center, headquartered in that scenic Finger Lakes town. Last month the Road Racing Drivers Club honored Argetsinger with its Bob Akin Motorsports Award in a ceremony at the Center. In organizing the first “Glen” road race on a 6.6-mile public road circuit in and around town Argetsinger, who had difficulty persuading the newly formed SCCA to sanction the race, was the first to require seat belt use by all contestants. The Research Center’s annual fund-raiser is Dec. 8 when a 2007 Mazda Miata Touring Convertible will be drawn for. Tickets are $35, two for $60 or four for $100. Checks made out to IMRRC should be sent to 610 So. Decatur St., Watkins Glen, N.Y. 14891. Credit card questions to (607) 535-9044 (FAX 535-9039). E-mail: research@racingarchives.org.