Sarah Fisher Wins Kart Endurance Race

Note: Everything below is true. Info courtesy of Sarah Fisher's PR peeps:

Indy Racing League driver and three-time World Karting Association Grand National Champion Sarah Fisher scared up a P1 finish at a 100-mile Halloween Grand Prix karting event in Norway, Ill. Saturday.

Fisher, teaming with her fiancé, Andy O'Gara, took first place in the 30-kart Yamaha Supercan division. The victory comes two weeks after Sarah teamed with Champ Car World Series rookie Katherine Legge at NewCastle MotorSports Park for a go-kart endurance race. Fisher and Legge finished 31st in that race after a broken chain forced extensive repairs.

“I had so much fun this weekend as I partnered with my fiancé, Andy, to compete in the 100 mile endurance race in Norway,” said Fisher. “The speedway really has a great facility and it is a really nice place to race at. It’s a really fast track yet is very technical which I love! You can go through the corners with momentum and you really have to utilize your skills to hang onto it. I’ve been entering as many races during the off-season as I can to get experience on the road courses to prepare myself for 2007. Go-karts really teach and hone your skills as they have a lot of the elements the big cars use. I definitely want to take my brother-in-law, Kyle, there and run him to get some additional experience. It’s a great place to teach someone about the line.”

Fisher has said her off-season will include a trip to Skip Barber school to continue to develop her road racing skills.

IRL Stunned to Learn of the Existence of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Note: Below is satire. Fiction.

Indy Racing League officials were stunned Sunday to learn that Dreyer & Reinbold Racing has been a racing in the league for years.

"We were having one of our three-a-daily meetings with Andretti Green Racing -- you know, to make sure they had enough sponsorship money and Danica was happy -- and they kept mentioning this 'Dreyer and Reinbold Racing' team," said an IRL official who declined to be named. "At first we thought it was an American LeMans Series team or something."

When news stories surfaced last week that DRR was considering moving to Champ Car in 2007, league officials apparently put two and two together.

"When the media called us for comment about one of 'our' teams moving to Champ Car, at first we were stunned," the IRL official said. "Then we checked into it a little bit and come to find out we do have a team known as Dreyer and Reinbold. Go figure."

Now that the league has discovered DRR, it was unclear how it would react.

"We're not sure, frankly," the official said. "We're not even sure where these DRR people are located. We'll have to get with Ganassi, AGR and Penske to see if DRR going to Champ Car would adversely effect them."

When contacted for comment, DRR officials said the league last talked to team leaders "sometime in mid-2004." As DRR officials recalled it, "it was a good meeting, once we got them to stop calling us Reyer and Deinbold."

Indy Racing League Embraces "Niche Strategy" for 2007

Note to the humorless. Everything below is satire. Stuff made up in order to express an opinion.

The Indy Racing League officials Tuesday confirmed they are abandoning their quest for mass appeal and instead "going after targeted, incredibly tiny and potentially somewhat profitable" audiences.

"We've tried filling barns like Texas Motor Speedway and who are we kidding?" said an Indy Racing League official who asked not to be named. "No matter how many posters of Danica we put up around town we're not going to fill that place. So we decided to do some very target marketing."

For example, an internal IRL memo obtained by pressdog cites research indicating "97% of all American race fans would rather undergo unmedicated dental surgery than watch a street/road race."

"Where others would see a negative -- street/road races are wildly unpopular with a huge majority of American fans -- we saw opportunity," said an IRL insider. "Those three percent who would choose watching a road race over unmedicated dental surgery, they represent tens of hundreds of dollars in disposable income that we hope will be spent on the sponsors who pay millions to be on our cars."

Internal IRL memos also indicate that the league has launched "Operation Key Audiences," the code name for offering races that appeal to key audiences who support the league.

"We got St. Petersburg for the Andrettis, Belle Isle for Roger Penske and Mid-Ohio for Honda," said a league source. "We're in preliminary discussions to race around Chip Ganassi's private residence, perhaps on one of his children's birthdays, but that probably won't happen until 2008."

League officials justified Operation Key Audiences by saying "Andretti, Penske, Honda -- those three groups make up about 76% of the non-George Family revenue for the IRL right now, so it's a good move to keep them happy."

League officials were unconcerned that huge sections of the IRL's already dwindling fan base would rather "hit themselves in the foot repeatedly with a hammer" rather than watch more road racing.

In a related move, the league indicated they were working toward a marketing approach that seems to work for public lotteries. Such a model would ask fans to watch every race on the extremely remote chance that their favorite driver might actually win.

"OK, sure, if you're a fan of a driver like, say, Buddy Rice, you're probably going to get hit by lightning before he wins," said yet another insider. "But what if he does win and you're not watching? You'd totally be kicking yourself. Look at last year. By the third race it was apparent Penske and Ganassi were going to win virtually every race. But suckers still tuned in every time to see if by some fluke chance someone else might win. We figure we can do that for at least another year before everyone gets sick of watching the same guys win all the time."

Elsewhere in open-wheel racing, the Champ Car World Series announced that, thanks to its aggressive cost-cutting measures including the new Panoz DP01 chassis, sponsors for their series will now see a return on investment of negative 40%, which is up dramatically from the negative 60% ROI of recent years.

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Notes from the TV broadcast of the Champ Car World Series in Surfers Paradise, Australia

Notes taken during the international broadcast of the Champ Car World Series Lexmark Indy 300 in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia.

(Note: grabbed the replay of the race off Champ Car's most excellent "Race Director" -- go to www.champcar.ws and sign up for it right now! -- and it was the international broadcast version. No Derek Daly and Rick Benjamin! Some dudes named Jeremy Shaw and Jamie Hinchliffe. So no Dalyisms this time! Bummer.)

pressdog beer of the race has to be a Foster's because it's "Awstrawlyun for beeah."

Bourdais and AJ are the only two with a shot at the points title. Bourdais says he may play it conservative especially on Surfers infamous, car-eating first corner. AJ says he's going for the win. Has to win and get a Bourdais DNF to have a shot.

Video of AJ's mashed car as a result of finding the wall in practice. Video of Bourdais getting the left half of his car ripped off when hitting a barrier.

Will Power of Team Australia is on the pole. Extreme excitement. He thanks Derrick Walker and the posse. Hopes to get through turn 1 on race day.

Starting lineup: Will Power (!), Sebastien Bourdais, Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira, Nelson Philippe (!), Oriol Servia, AJ "The Truck Driver" Allmendinger, Speedy Dan Clarke, Alex Tagliani, Mario Dominguez, Ryan Briscoe, Andy Ranger, Antonio Pizzonia, Jan "Van" Heylen, Charles "Chuck" Zwolsman, Katherine Legge, Adreas Wirth. 17 cars on a nearly THREE MILE track. I hope the audience brought a book to read during the vast expanses of nothingness going on in front of them. Wait a second, they all have lots of beer. Problem solved.

Justin Wilson is out with a broken wrist. Busted it in practice when he hit a tire wall and the steering wheel snapped around. Ryan Briscoe is in the 10 car. That was last driven by Cristianio "What's" da Matta until he hit a deer at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in early August. I still can't get over it being a DEER he hit. WTF? A deer on the track? Nutty. da Matta is back in Brazil recovering. This is the first race with a sub in his car. Briscoe is from Australia and most recently raced in the Indy Racing League (holy cross-over driver!).

Last year 316,000 people attended over three days of the event in Surfers Paradise. Weather today cooler than usual. Wind has switched entirely around.

Let's light this candle. Throw another Foster's on the ice bucket because we are green-green-green.

WTF? We are yellow yellow yellow. The first 7 cars were in tight two-wide formation but then there was about a one-hundred-yard gap back to the next group so the starter waved it off. We'll go around (which under yellow at Surfers takes about five minutes) and try again.

Restart coming. Single file? WTF? Bogus restart. Champ Car wimps out and starts them single-file to prevent carnage in turn 1. Nice. I guess we're not all professionals here. Jan Beekhuis is deployed and said Champ Car made the call to go single file to avoid having carbon fiber all over the place.

If Bourdais gets 9th or better today he wins the title. If three or more cars fall out of the race he wins the title. Jan predicts if three cars drop out Bourdais will start charging.

Lap 3 -- Power leads. Lap 19 is the first pit window and then lap 38. We're going 59 laps unless there are too many yellows and Champ Car gets the stop watch out. Surfers has had 15 different winners in 15 years of events. Bourdais, Bruno and Tracy have all won at Surfers Paradise previously.

Lap 6 -- AJ working on Oriol. Heading toward the front. Gotta win to have any chance.

Andy Ranger Helmet Cam deployed. Not us useless as usual. Usually you can't see squat from Helmet Cam, but they have it aimed a lot better this time.

Lap 7 -- Nelson is pressuring Bruno. Welcome to the Block Party! Bruno puts his ass out to block Nelson. Much reaction in the booth.

Lap 8 -- AJ around Oriol. Oriol gives him room and doesn't Bruno (block) him. Jan reports that Oriol said his car was "harsh" so far this weekend. Very stiff.

Lap 9 -- Katherine spin-o-ramma! Stalls it. Turn 8. Local yellow. Benefit of having a massive track and 17 cars is you can have local yellows because you probably have time to drink a beer before the next car comes by. Crew is scurrying to pull Katherine back to where they can get her restarted.

Speedy Dan working on Oriol. Oriol not having a fab day so far.

Replay of K. Legge's spin. Goes into the corner too wide, hits the breaks, gets it stopped but stalls it.

Lap 10 -- AJ closing on Bruno. AJ vs. Bruno. Block Party II! Bruno makes himself wide again. Much lamenting in the booth.

Lap 12-ish. Chuck Zwolsman pits. He's on a Freaky Deaky Dutch Pit Strategy, apparently.

AJ gets past Bruno. Much speculating that Bruno let him go to avoid getting barked at by race control for blocking.

Lap 13 -- AJ closing in on Nelson. Front three (Power, Bourdais, Tracy) are out front, then about five seconds back to Nelson in 4th.

Holy Crap. Nacho Tracy goes around Bourdais on the outside (right side) going into a left-hand turn. Too easy! Maybe Bourdais screwed up or thought better of taking on Tracy with the championship to win. Many replays.

Lap 14 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Speedy Dan into the wall. Full course yellow. Dan is done. He was 8th at the time.

Many aerial replays of the Tracy pass on Bourdais. Might have been a bit of contact.

Pits are open. Here comes the bum rush. Everyone is pitting.

Tracy hip checks Power coming out of his pit stall. WE GOT FIRE. AJ takes off with the fuel hose in his car and touches off a methanol fire. Wild water throwing everywhere. Cue the circus music.

Replays -- Tracy comes about straight sideways out of his pit and smacks into Power who was in the fast lane. Nice. Then Tracy almost nails Bourdais on the rebound. Dude, always keep an eye on Tracy. I think they just tell the drivers that in the drivers' meeting. "And, of course, everyone should always be aware of where Paul is and keep an eye on him."

Video of AJ going around the track with the fuel hose dangling off his car.

AJ back in to get the hose taken off. Long stop. Casual. AJ stalls it. Got waved out and stalled it.

More pit replays. Briscoe may have darted Mario a bit as well. Reports that AJ's fueler was on fire. It was quickly extinguished, however. Thank heaven for Nomex.

Lap 16 -- Van Heylen and Zwolsman are 1-2 because they did not pit. Then it's Powers, Bourdais, Tracy, Nelson, Oriol, Tagliani, Briscoe, Ranger, Mario.

Tracy pits again so he'll drop back in the field.

Lap 16 -- green. Briscoe and Legge spin and are stalled. Not sure if the spins were related. May be turn 8 again for Katherine. Local yellow again. Props to the crews for getting out the local yellows and not going full course all the damn time.

Lap 20 -- Speaking of, full-course yellow yellow yellow. AJ is into the wall. Just came in to a corner too hot and smucked the wall.

With AJ and Wilson out, Bourdais wins the championship. Holy Anti Climax. Bourdais first racer in 60 years to win three in a row.

Video of AJ going around Bruno before sliding it into the wall. AJ has five wins in 8 starts with Forsythe. Not too shabby. That makes him one of the hotter prospects in NASCAR's feeder system (all of open-wheel racing).

Lap 23 -- GREEN. Zwolsman slows WAY up and then puts the hammer down to get a jump on everyone on the restart.

Jan says with the championship in the bag, look for Bourdais to get after it. Also, Tracy's darting of Power in the pit busted off the Power's car's tire flugelhorn. Downforce affected.

Many minutes of Ranger's helmet cam.

Lap 26 -- report that AJ's fueler is fine. Video of what I think as Katherine Legge and Ryan Briscoe diving under Van Heylen for the pass.

Jan with Bourdais manager Craig Hampson. Hampson sounds happy. Rare. Doesn't claim the team may be screwed. Said they plan to race harder now that the title is locked up.

Lap 28 -- Bourdais making a run on Power. Inside and into some oil dry on the track. Locks up the tires. He's not going to make the turn and slides in front of Power clipping Power's front end before Bourdais goes off into the run off. WTF? Nice place to pass, Sebastien. Bourdais keeps it running and whips it around and gets back out on the track. Power looks damaged but manages to get it going again too.

Power is now stuck. Against the wall. Sucks to be him. Safety guys get him back under way and Power limps around to the pits. Crew Chief Helmet Cam as they work on Power. Send him back out. Have to have him come back in to get a piece on the front end replaced.

Jan with Derrick Walker -- Sebastien tried to make the pass. Bit of a bone-head move to overtake there. Ruin the whole bloody day for us and him.

Lap 31 -- green next lap.

Oriol, Nelson, Tag, Ranger, Paul Tracy, Wirth, Mario, Chuck, Bourdais.

Lap 32 -- green. Zwolsman clips wall. Keeps going. No yellow.

Lap 34 -- Bourdais gets a penalty for "avoidable contact." Will have to drive through the pits soon. PT is all over Tag.

Jan reports that Craig Hampson was OK with the penalty.

Nelson around Oriol. Oriol locks up the breaks and smacks Nelson. No damage to either car, apparently. Nelson immediately checks out. He's GONE. Now Tag is around Oriol. Then Tracy is around Oriol. Replay. Tracy puts a dirt-track-esque "slide job" on Oriol. Puts his car under Oriol and then slides it about sideways to maintain the position and get around the corner.

Lap 38 -- Bourdais pits after setting fastest lap. Nelson is way out in front.

Jan with AJ. AJ says congrats to Bourdais. Not sure what happened in the pits. The fire burned out all the sensors in the car. Eventually the rear locked up and put him into the wall.

Lap 39 and 40. Much pitting. Zwolsman stalls it in the pits.

Lap 41 -- Tracy leads. Tracy sets fastest lap. Tracy is stretching it out in front of P2 Nelson. Tracy pits. Gets out in front of Nelson.

Lap 44 -- Yellow yellow yellow. Van Heylen into the tire barrier on turn 12. Oriol is out of the race. Black flagged for spraying something.

Nelson is in front of Tracy. ??? When did that happen? Nobody seems to know.

Lap 47 -- Now Katherine is into the wall gain. Third time today. Nose is toast. This one is terminal. Not sure if it happened at the same time as Heylen or under yellow.

Pizzonia leads but he still must pit. Then Nelson and then Tracy.

Carl Haas with the bratwurst-diameter cigar gets air.

Race control is eyeballing whether or not Tracy passed Mario under the yellow. Yep, he did. Tracy must let Mario pass before we go back to green.

Lap 49 -- green.

Mario takes a look inside Nelson. They get about an inch apart but no contact. Video of PT shortcutting the chicanes. Didn't gain a position on Mario so maybe no harm no foul. Now race control is telling PT he has to give up a position. WTF? Tagliani was about four seconds behind Tracy. Sha. Later Tracy claimed it was a fix to get a Team Australia car on the podium. Naaaaaaa. Stuff like that would never go on in auto racing.

Lap 52 -- Pizzonia pits. Gives up the lead to Nelson Philippe with 7 to go. Nelson is shitting toothpicks.

6 to go. 5 to go. Mario all up in Nelson's business. 4 to go. Mario has one shot of Power to Pass and Nelson has zero. Helmet cam with Ranger. Why go to Helmet Cam now when we have a race for the lead? No idea. They just love helmet cam, I guess.

3 to go. 2 to go. White flag. Mario can't get him. Went for it, got squirrellly and had to back off. Game over.

Nelson wins. Becomes the youngest winner in Champ Car history. Does donuts in about every corner of the race. Sets record for most donuts in most places on a single race track.

Bourdais goes off into a run off during the cool down laps. ???

Bourdais out of his car. AJ comes over to congratulate him. Bourdais says something like he wished they could have settled it on the track (rather than have AJ crash.) Class on both sides of that exchange. Very happy. Says this was the worst day of his career in Champ Car but glad to win the title. Irony.

Nelson (on the podium with the the Champ Car Australia Grid Girl queen, left) out of his car. Amazing. Fabulous. Great pit stops. Kept it off the wall. Absolutely fabulous.

Grab some Cerveza Tecate and tune in to the next race: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez - Mexico City, Mexico. 3 p.m. eastern on SPEED.

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Sarah Fisher Gives Her PR Guy and Katherine Legge Props

Sarah Fisher PR Czar Klint Briney poses with his boss at a go-kart track during a team outing. Rumor has it soon after this picture was taken Sarah gave Klint a serious smackdown on the track.

Open-wheel driver and three-time World Karting Association Grand National Champion Sarah Fisher today refused to confirm rumors that she gave her PR Czar Klint Briney a serious spanking on the track during a recent team outing.

"Klint is as cool as a pr/marketing guy can get," said Sarah in a quote I am not making up. "He isn't afraid to try his hand at some karting even if he knows he won't be the quickest. We had a ton of fun for sure and that is what its all about."

With Sarah refusing to go on record as to how bad she lapped our boy Klint (shown in full Pit Stallion Mode at right) -- and instead giving him a shout out -- we fired in five more questions about the budding friendship across party lines between Sarah and Champ Car rookie Katherine Legge. Shout out to Klint for getting these 100% genuine answers from Sarah.

1) Have you met and hung out with Katherine and are you tight now?

Sarah: "I hadn't spent much time with Katherine before this past weekend (Oct. 14 and 15 during a karting endurance race) other then occasional appearances that overlapped. She is a really cool person and really down to earth. I would look forward to doing other events with her in the future."

2) Any truth to the rumor that you two are calling your team "team pressdog?"

Sarah: "No, I think it was Team MKPGP." (pressdog gets faced!)

3) Anything you can do to get this whole unification thing going between IndyCar ChampCar?

Sarah: "Not as one person. It's a solution that only the big guys can come up with. Of course, I would certainly volunteer to help because I love open-wheel racing and want to see it succeed."

4) Will you hit up Katherine for any tips and advice on big-car road racing?

Sarah: "Drivers will always share experiences and if something pops in my head that I want to ask, certainly I will."

5) How do you think Katherine would do on a dirt track? Maybe you two could hang at Knoxville in 2007 for the grand nationals. Bring Erin Crocker along or Danica?

Sarah (pictured to the right in a sprint car circa 1998): "I think a good race car driver can drive anything with the right teaching on technique and time. So, if it is enjoyable and you like it then you will study harder to find the right technique. She would definitely have fun in a sprint car! We'll see, schedules for 2007 are packed and I want to do a collection of racing besides what I might get to do in the IRL. Certainly if I am not in a car, I would go cheer her on at one of her races!"

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Team pressdog Hits the Road, Team Officials Fume

Team pressdog (Katherine Legge, left, and Sarah Fisher) hit the road this week after finishing 31st in a 56-kart, 200-mile endurance go-kart endurance race last week in New Castle, Ind.

A broken chain forced the KatFish kart into the pits for extensive repairs and led to the P31 showing. Team pressdog officials were reportedly hot over the dissing of Champ Car's Legge in the photo gallery on the Indy Racing League's official site.

"Yeah, they got some photos of Sarah and Katherine up there and Katherine is always in her helmet. WTF? Like she's some kind of unknown Karting Power Ranger or something," said a team official who declined to be named. "What is that? Can't have a photo of a driver from the 'Dark Side' on the IRL site?"

After the race, which was one by some highly fortunate NASCAR guy, team pressdog hit the road. Fisher, who won national championships in road course go-karting, spent years on dirt ovals before heading to the IRL. With five road courses on the IRL schedule next year, Sarah needs practice turning right.

"I'm going to do some Skip Barber off-season training to prepare for road course racing," Fisher said in nonfictional quote. "I have been helping (future brother-in-law) Kyle O'Gara with some karting races as well. We're going to go run an endurance race in Norway, which I'm looking forward to. On top of all this, I'm also going to school so all of this is keeping me plenty busy."

There was no word on whether Sarah picked up some street/road tips from Legge, who had her season-best drive going at Sept. 24 at Road America until her car went belly first and end-over-end into the wall. The wreck caused much consternation and tense moments on the SPEED broadcast of the race. Legge walked way with only a bruised knee.

"There were no lingering after-effects when I got back into the cockpit at Sebring the other week - if anything, I was more worried that I wasn't worried!" Legge said in her most-excellent journal on her site, www.katherinelegge.com. "I wondered if I should have been scared by it, but I really wasn't. It was just one of those things, and it was component failure (part of the rear wing came off which caused the accident), which is important. I know I was lucky, and I have a healthy respect for the dangers of what I do, but I just got back into the car, a bit like getting back on a horse." Read the entire journal entry here.

Legge said on her site that she still doesn't know what she'll be doing next year, although she hops to carry on with PKV, a team owned by Champ Car honcho Kevin Kalkhoven. Fisher hopes to be back in the IRL. On Thursday, the team Fisher finished 2006 with, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, announced the addition of EurUp! Energy Drink as a sponsor. Rush to www.eurupenergy.com to check it out.

In other news, SPEED commentator Robin Miller served as a judge for the Champ Car Babe Contest at this weekend's race venue, Surfers Paradise, Australia. Sordid details here. There was no word if Robin was able to make bail after the event.

KatFish Fans Freak Out, Wheldon Fights Through the Pain

pressdog moles and operatives tell us that Indy Racing League driver Sarah Fisher and Champ Car World Series pilot Katherine Legge are representing at Newcastle Motorsports Park even as we speak in preparation for the RoboPong.com 200 go-kart endurance race.

The two are aiming to dislodge reigning race champion, shoe enthusiast and Jamie Little (get her in a car!) fan Dan "Yellow Race Booties" Wheldon. Game faces are on. Knickers are twisted. There has been some hope that Wheldon will be so morose over the departure of Jamie Little from covering the IRL in 2007 that he won't be able to see through the tears to drive the kart. Earlier today Danno gave MoneyCJ at So. Damn. Indy. his interesting reaction to Jamie's leaving.

Our boy Klint Briney, Sarah's PR King, is trackside and promises to shoot us some memos on Sunday or Monday re: how Sarah and Katherine (dubbed KatFish Racing by the always-rakish Jeff of My Name is IRL) did. Grab us some tasty photos as well, Klintster.

The crazy phat posse at1070 AM WIBC will broadcast live from kartland from 8 to noon on Sunday. Then fire up your Internet connection to listen to the race online starting at noon at www.racefanradio.com.

Although Katherine and Sarah are seriously sidepod worthy, my effort to make them "team pressdog" without actually sending any sponsorship money did not succeed. No word on rumors that Geiko will sponsor Wheldon's ride. We'll either tune in for the Webcast of the race on Sunday or catch the rebroadcast of the race on SPEED. No word yet on when that will be. Perhaps some race notes will be in order.

Have a fab weekend.

Bloggers Lament Potential Little Departure

Note to the gullable: Jamie Little is, in fact, probably going to cover NASCAR in 2007. The rest is made up. Except the fact that I do, in fact, think it's a kick in the testicles.

Indy Racing League bloggers reacted to the news that sports hotty Jamie Little (get her in a car!) may not be working the IRL pits in 2007 with everything from tears to unbridled rage.

"No J-Lil'? No way!," said MoneyCJ, operator of the IRL-focused blog, So. Damn. Indy. Police apparently found MoneyCJ babbling incoherently next to an exhausted keg in the early morning hours of Oct. 11. No charges were filed, however. "When we heard that he was drinking out of remorse for Jamie leaving, we cut the guy a break" said one police officer who said Money was found babbling something about "SuperStu" getting a new keg.

A report from leading-edge IRL blog My Name is IRL touched off the drinking and whining among Little fandom. IRL quoted the Charlotte Observer which said Little and her pit cohort, Jerry Punch, M.D., would help cover NASCAR for ABC/ESPN in 2007. "If Jamie can stay awake during five-hour NASCAR race races, more power to her," said the CEO of My Name is IRL. "I can't make it past the first caution flag."

"This is a serious kick in the testicles," said the obscure open-wheel blogger pressdog. He blamed himself for the situation. "I never should have given Jamie the pressdog Track-side Interview of the Year award for chasing down Danny Wheldon and making him spill his guts after the Texas race. She obviously parlayed that into this new gig. I'll miss Jamie and her man-killing pony tail."

Speculation ran rampant that Jamie was lured to the NASCAR by the promise of getting 300% more air time given NASCAR's average of 18 yellows per race.

"I swear, if I go into a bar and there's a big standee (life-sized, cut-out, free-standing figure) of Jamie looking hawt and shilling NASCAR and Miller Lite, it's going to be go time," said MoneyCJ. "This is just sooooo wrong."

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Fisher and Legge to form Team Estrogen for Go-Kart Race

Note: Sarah (left) and Katherine are, in fact, on the same go-kart team but the quotes about and reasons for their teaming up are all fiction. Totally made up. Fabricated.

Open-wheel drivers Sarah Fisher and Katherine Legge will form a rare IRL/Champ Car united team for a go-kart race in New Castle, Indiana on Oct. 15.

The Fisher/Legge team will participate in the 200 Mile TaG Endurance Race at the New Castle Motorsports Park. The race also features IRL drivers Tomas Scheckter, Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon and past Indy 500 participant Robby McGehee.

"Yeah, we're in it to kick some bum," said Legge, a native of England who is finishing her rookie year with Champ Car World Series. "Sarah and I are going to have a few pints the night before and talk about all those old boyfriends who treated us shabbily. We should have our knickers in a big twist by the time we get to the track."

Fellow Brit and IRL star Dan Wheldon said he, at least, didn't want any part of twisted-knickers women driving go karts. "You'd have to be insane to mess with a woman with twisted knickers," Wheldon said. "I saw how Katherine went into the fence at Road America and walked into medical center looking at her watch minutes later. I about peed my fire suit just looking at the video of the crash. Besides, a pissed off Englishwoman is lethal. Just send some angry Englishwomen to Iraq and that whole thing would be sorted inside a month."

Fisher, a former dirt tracker from Commercial Point, Ohio, who has been racing since she was five years old said she was looking forward to forming an Anglo/American-IRL/CCWS alliance with Legge. "I'm going to tape 'those pants make you look fat' on my steeringwheel just to keep me and Katherine mad throughout the race. Fear the estrogen, baby."

Asked if this could be the pre-cursor to an all-female team in either the IRL or Champ Car, perhaps under the "team pressdog" banner, Fisher was evasive. "Doesn't matter, I guess, because the men running the league can't get together and get this renunification party started. Too many alpha males in one room raising their legs when they should be figuring things out. Put two women in charge of reunification and it's done in a week."