PERKY JERKY UNVEILS NASCAR RACE TRUCK AND PAINT SCHEME TO BE PILOTED BYFORMER FORMULA ONE CHAMPION KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN IN HIS NASCAR DEBUT

World Waits to See Kimi Räikkönen’s Performance in First NASCAR Race

Perky Jerky, the ultra-premium jerky flavored with a hint of guarana that’s quickly gaining fame around the world, unveiled today the paint scheme set to adorn Kimi Räikkönen truck for his NASCAR debut in the Camping World Truck Series race this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This race will mark the first time the 2007 Formula One world champion will compete in a NASCAR event.

Räikkönen’s self-owned operation, known as ICE1RACING, which also fields his World Rally Championship and motocross teams, has partnered with Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) to assist in the move to NASCAR. KBM will field the No. 15 Toyota Tundra for Räikkönen to pilot Friday night.

Known worldwide as “Iceman” for his surgical driving skills and calculated demeanor both on and off the track, Finnish race car driver Kimi Räikkönen is regarded as one of the world’s most successful professional athletes. His move to NASCAR has captured the attention of the global sporting media and the world is waiting to see how Räikkönen will adjust to the world of NASCAR.

“Perky Jerky might only be two years old, but we have one of the best race car drivers in the world to represent our brand in America’s greatest race series,” said Brian Levin, Perky Jerky founder and chairman on the herd. “We look forward to seeing Kimi take the green flag on Friday for Perky Jerky and we’ll be cheering him along as will our Perky Jerky fans across the country and around the world.”

Already entrenched in NASCAR as the official and exclusive jerky of the Daytona 500, Perky Jerky has developed a marketing strategy that includes consumer sampling via velcro suits, better known as the “jerk suit” and tasting opportunities via the “jerk bar”, a traveling sampling display, which has become a must-stop at many NASCAR events around the country.

Kimi Räikkönen will drive the No. 15 Perky Jerky Toyota Tundra in the NC Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday, May 20, 2011. The race will air on SPEED beginning at 8:00 pm ET.

About Perky Jerky: Four years ago during a ski lift calamity, Perky Jerky’s founders spilled energy drink all over their stash of beef jerky. Stranded, hungry and 40-feet off the ground, they ate the soaked jerky and realized they were on to something. Three years in the kitchen and hundreds of homemade jerky recipes later, Perky Jerky was perfected and launched in 2009. In less than two years, Perky Jerky has quickly reached stratospheric levels of popularity amongst athletes, moms, students, troops and truckers alike. Perky Jerky can be found at many retailers across the country, including Home Depot, 7-Eleven, Publix, Target, Sports Authority and many other fine retailers. Keep up with Perky Jerky on Facebook and on Twitter

Source: PerkyJerky.com
Courtesy: Sleenster

Auton takes Räikkönen's adjustment personally

Series director knows his role is to make sure rookie is comfortable at Charlotte

There may be only a handful of active drivers in the world with a resume as impressive as 2007 Formula One champion Kimi Räikkönen. But when Räikkönen walks into the garage area at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend, it's as a Camping World Truck Series rookie.

And for series director Wayne Auton, that means making Räikkönen feel at home.

"We're fortunate enough to have such a great series that we have a competitor like Kimi Räikkönen want to come and compete in Trucks," Auton said. "The one thing we will do for him, just like any other driver, is bring him in, set him down, talk to him, explain to him some NASCAR ways, and mostly make him feel comfortable. Most rookies who come in here don't set the world on fire right off the bat. As the series director, that's part of my job [to explain things].

"And then we go into things like, 'Here's how this race track races compares to other race tracks that you've raced at. You may have been here before, but this turn's a little different. You want to run high here, you want to run low here.' It's our job to make sure they feel comfortable, No. 1."

And that's as much about what's going on off the track as much as it is getting strapped in and making laps, Auton said.

"We bring them in and say, 'Here's when the meetings are. Here's the papers you've got to sign. Here's where the drivers meeting location is and by the way, you've got to go to the rookie meeting or you miss practice. You've got to be at the drivers meeting or you go to the rear. You've got to be at driver introductions in uniform, ready to go,' " he said.

Räikkönen, who won 18 F1 races over eight seasons, was impressive enough during testing sessions to land a ride with Kyle Busch's Truck team this season, beginning with Friday's 200-miler at Charlotte. Even though he's run more than a dozen World Rally Championship races, Auton said stock cars should present a different challenge to Raikkonen.

"I think the biggest thing he's going to have to get used to is he's used to open-wheel, open-cockpit (cars)," Auton said. "Now he's going to have a roof over his head and windows around him. And oh, by the way, there's going to be 35 other competitors -- and no disrespect to any other racing series, but these guys are usually side by side for 200 miles, 250 miles, whatever we race."

Auton said all rookies go through a learning curve, particularly when it comes to knowing the changes in downforce when another truck is racing close to your right rear bumper at high speeds.

"I think that's going to be his hardest adjustment: What does it feel like, especially for somebody in the Truck Series, when somebody's on that right side," Auton said. "Because if you don't know what it feels like, it will pull you around. And I don't care how great a driver you are.

"We've seen it happen to our two-time champion, Todd Bodine, at Kansas Speedway last year. A truck came up on the right side and off he went. And you can't sit here and tell anybody that. They've got to get that feel for it on the race track.

"Kimi Räikkönen is used to having someone on that right side, but it's not pulling that vehicle and tugging on it. Ricky Carmichael, when he came in, he had that experience but when he got here, he'll tell you it was the hardest thing he ever did, especially when you get to these faster race tracks."

The majority of Räikkönen's racing experience has come in high horsepower-to-weight ratio, high downforce vehicles. Because of that, Auton said his decision to try the Truck Series first was a smart move.

"The good thing about Kimi coming to trucks is -- of all of our NASCAR national series -- the Truck Series has the most downforce, but it's also the draggiest," Auton said. "So it sort of offsets.

"How does it plant when you go in? Where do you let off to actually make the truck turn itself without fighting it? Do I get on the brakes here? For him coming from a vehicle with the tons of downforce that they have, it's probably going to be a lot less than he's used to but it's a lot more than what it would be if he was in a Nationwide or a Cup car."

Auton said Charlotte should certainly provide an adequate challenge for the driver nicknamed "the Iceman." Even though Räikkönen is a world-class driver, it'll be his first time on a track that has befuddled the best, so having a mentor is a huge assist.

"I'll get another driver to go over and watch them on the race track and then while they're out there is run maybe behind them for a little bit," Auton said. "The first thing we'll tell Kimi to do when he comes into Charlotte is get out there and follow somebody for a little bit and learn the line of the race track, No. 1.

"Learning the line is probably the hardest thing that a rookie can do. Kimi's coming into a race track that's so track sensitive that one lap, it'll be this and the next lap, it's something totally different."

Source: Nascar.com
Courtesy: miezicat

Hamilton: The thrill will continue

Having ended Sebastian Vettel's perfect start, Lewis Hamilton heads to the Turkish GP looking for ways to further close the gap on the defending Champion

When Vettel won the opening two races of the season and took his third straight pole position in China, talk was building that the German driver's lightning-quick Red Bull would be impossible to catch - until Hamilton beat him at the Chinese GP last month.

With the season heading into Europe for the first time, Vettel holds a 21-point lead over Hamilton and is 30 ahead of the Briton's McLaren team-mate Jenson Button. Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber is a point behind Button in fourth.

Hamilton, the F1 Champion in 2008, thinks the suspense is just beginning and predicts further twists in Istanbul.

"There's every reason to believe that the run of interesting and exciting races will continue," he said. "I won this race last year and Istanbul Park is a circuit I really enjoy."

Vettel was undone by McLaren's strategy in Shanghai, where Hamilton took one more pit stop and had fresher tyres in the closing stages.

But it will take more than one glitch to upset the 23-year-old Vettel, whose cool temperament is already a hallmark.

"We have to respect our competitors," Vettel said. "People are pushing hard, but we are pushing very hard too to maintain our strengths."

Tire strategy is likely to prove crucial again in Istanbul, especially given the cooler temperatures than usual.

"We'll be seeing drivers working quite hard to look after their tires throughout the race, particularly in Turn Eight, which is fast and bumpy," Hamilton said. "It's one of the most demanding corners for tyres anywhere on the calendar."

The weather could also dictate how quickly the Pirelli tyres degrade.

"It's going to be a bit colder than we're used to," Button said. "The race is three weeks earlier in the season than it was last year, and that might also have an effect."

Red Bull will be hoping history does not repeat itself in Istanbul. Vettel and Webber lost out on a 1-2 sweep last year when their wheels touched as Vettel passed Webber on the inside, forcing Vettel to spin out of the race.

That gifted Hamilton and Button a 1-2 finish, and sparked a feud between the Red Bull drivers that lingered until the end of the season.

Webber has had to watch Vettel dominate so far this year, but the Australian thrilled fans with an inspired drive in China as he carved his way through the field after starting 18th to finish third.

That means Vettel now has Webber to contend with again, along with the resurgent McLarens, the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and the aggressive Renaults of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov.

"Sebastian is very fast, he's got a notable temperament and now he's also got a decent amount of experience," Webber said. "But he's not unbeatable."

Alonso, meanwhile, needs a strong performance to avoid slipping out of contention for the Championship. The two-time former World Champion has yet to finish on the podium this season and is already 42 points adrift.

Alonso's best result was fourth at the season-opener in Australia, but the Spaniard finished behind his team-mate Felipe Massa when finishing sixth in Malaysia and seventh in Shanghai.

Ferrari's lack of pace compared to the Red Bulls and McLarens has been alarming, although engineers have been working hard on improving the aerodynamics in the three weeks since Shanghai.

"We are going through a difficult period and there is no point denying that our start to the season was a disappointing one," Ferrari's chief designer Nikolas Tombazis said.

"We have tried to see if our approach was too conservative and we realized that, for various reasons, we were neither reactive nor aggressive enough in the development stages."

Aggression has not been lacking in Heidfeld and Petrov, with each getting a third-place finish - Heidfeld in Sepang and Petrov in Melbourne.

"We've shown over the first three races that we have a good car," Heidfeld said. "Istanbul could be very interesting because it is the first European race and a lot of teams will bring updates - including us."

Istanbul's circuit features Turn Eight - the 640-meter corner is the longest of the season - and its layout should give Hamilton and other challengers plenty of chances to attack Vettel.

"It is quite a wide track which makes it quite safe," Petrov said. "Overtaking maneuvers are possible so that should help make a great race."

Source: Planet-F1

Former-Formula 1 Champion Kimi Räikkönen in Talks to Join Nascar Team

Kimi Räikkönen, the 2007 Formula One champion, is considering an offer to join a team in the Nascar auto-racing series, his agent David Robertson said.

Robertson declined to identify the team the 31-year-old Finn was talking to.

“Negotiations are ongoing but nothing is guaranteed,” Robertson said by telephone. “Somebody had come to us with an offer and we are considering it.”

Räikkönen is set to join a new team, ICE1 Racing, in the Truck series before moving to the Nationwide and Sprint Cup categories, Autosport.com reported, citing Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper.

One of the team’s partners is Foster Gillett, the son of George Gillett, according to Autosport.com. George Gillett is the former owner of the Liverpool soccer team and the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team.

Räikkönen was the top-earning athlete after golfer Tiger Woods in 2008 with $45 million in income, according to Forbes magazine.

He was dropped by Ferrari after the 2009 season and left Formula One to compete in the World Rally Championship for Citroen last year. Räikkönen remains committed to his contract in the rally series, Robertson said.

Source: Bloomberg.com
Courtesy: sleenster

Abu Dhabi GP 2010: Rapturous scenes of celebration in Red Bull garage + Interview with Sebastian Vettel

Source: FiftyBuckss

Can Mark Webber complete his rise from F1 everyman to world champion?

After a decade spent making his name in the sport Red Bull's Australian veteran is closing in on the Formula One title

Mark Webber is having the season of his life. The Red Bull driver scored his first win only last year, when he triumphed in the German grand prix, and his second victory, in Brazil, was overshadowed by being the race where Jenson Button finally wrapped up the world championship.

In 2010, though, the Australian has sprayed champagne from the top of the podium four times and leads the standings by 14 points with three races left. He was not expected to give his team-mate Sebastian Vettel a run for his money but the man who tweets under the name AussieGrit was underestimated not only by the young German in the other Red Bull but by a good chunk of the Formula One family too.

Not any more. He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season – his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception.

But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.

Of his title rivals three (Button, Hamilton and Fernando Alonso) have been world champion. The other (Vettel) is touted as being a multi-title winner by the time he hangs up his flameproof. After a decade in Formula One Webber was considered a good pro, a team man, fast enough to do a proper job but not a champion in the making. That is why Webber is the sentimental favourite the length of the pit lane. Not only has he come up the hard way; he was not expected to do much when he got there.

Webber has also had a battle within his own team beyond racing the precocious Vettel. He was never a part of Red Bull's young driver programme, which is overseen by Dr Helmut Marko. The former Le Mans winner and F1 driver has been developing driver talent since his career behind the wheel was cut short by a stone piercing his visor during the 1972 French grand prix and blinding him in one eye. The Austrian is a strong influence in the Austrian-owned team and Vettel is his baby, his work in progress.

One well-connected paddock insider suggested that, should Webber win the title when they tot up the points in Abu Dhabi, he might climb out of his car, tell Marko where to stick it, walk away from F1 and go and race V8 Supercars back home in Australia.

It would be a shame if that were to happen because the sport needs more drivers like Webber: honest, open, funny and, most importantly, fast. He leads by 14 points after Japan and his team say they are giving each driver a fair hand but the gap is narrowing. Can Webber hold on? The last three races will be fascinating.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Jenson Button Q&A: Driver who cracks least will be champion

Although victory at the Italian Grand Prix wasn’t his, McLaren’s Jenson Button did manage to resuscitate his floundering championship hopes with his second-place finish at Monza. But with five drivers within 25 points of the top of the table, Button - currently in fourth - knows he needs to play a long game over the remaining five Grands Prix if he is to clinch the title at the end of season. He explains more in an interview with his official website…

Q: On Sunday, you said you felt your race strategy was slightly flawed. Looking back on it, do you still have the same opinion?
Jenson Button: I had mixed emotions on Sunday - obviously, I wanted to win the race, and, having led most of it, that was probably an achievable ambition; but I also managed to score some very useful points over the guys ahead of me in the championship. And that gave me a great feeling. What was also interesting was the damage to the rear of my car. Fernando (Alonso) had hit me on the first lap, and it caused some damage to the floor - but I didn’t realise quite how much damage it had caused until I saw the car after the race. I was quite surprised that we were able to have such good race pace given the damage to the floor. Would I have felt better if I’d won the race, but had Lewis and Mark (Webber) alongside me on the podium? That’s a difficult one to answer. But, I think, in the immediate aftermath of the race, you tend to look at what might have happened, and if I’d stayed ahead of Fernando after his pit stop, then it’s reasonable to assume I had every chance of winning the race. So, did we get the strategy wrong? People have said it was a case of ‘who blinked first’ but, really, the fact was that we didn’t have the fastest car in the race, and, while it would have been possible to have kept the lead, Fernando’s pace meant that, at best, that was still quite a long-shot. So I think the team played its card properly, it’s just that there were a number of factors that were always going to work hard against us to ensure that a victory was difficult.

Q: So are you most pleased, then, that Sunday’s race boosted your title aspirations?
JB: Absolutely, because I took the opportunity with both hands, and I scored 18 points on a day when Lewis scored none, Mark took home eight and Sebastian 12. Now, you can’t help but look at the drivers’ championship table and just think, ‘wow, how can it be so close?’ It’s funny - after Spa, everyone was saying it was a two-horse race between Lewis and Mark, but I can easily see this championship going right down to the last race. I think we’ve seen that not one driver’s going to walk away with the world title - there’s going to be a fight right to the very end.

Q: Obviously, these last five races are under more scrutiny than, for example, the first five. If you’re saying no driver will be able to walk away with it, does that change your approach. Does consistency become more important than a victory, for example?
JB: I think you have to take each race as it comes. I think that driving just to score a certain number of points isn’t in a racing driver’s psyche. I felt that a little bit last year, I knew I only had to keep scoring consistently to take the title, but that was probably more mentally taxing than just putting your head down and going for it. For instance, at Interlagos last year, I had nothing to really lose - I was 14th on the grid and my team mate was on pole. What did I have to gain by driving steadily and taking home a handful of points? I just went for it, and that was a really liberating race for me, and an experience that will be useful this year too. I think consistency is important in some ways though: obviously, you need a car that will get you to the finish of every Grand Prix, and you don’t want to start making knee-jerk, or radical, decisions on set-up or strategy because you think it might give you an advantage. We’re racers, so we’ll always be racing - but the pressure’s now on all of us, because none of us can afford another non-finish or a mistake. And the guy who cracks least will be world champion.

Source: Formula1.com

Lewis Hamilton Q&A: I’ve never enjoyed an F1 car this much

Lewis Hamilton has experienced mixed fortunes in the opening rounds of 2010 - a podium in Bahrain followed by frustration in Australia, where he watched new team mate Jenson Button secure McLaren’s first win of the season. Then came an epic drive in Malaysia, but one that yielded ‘only’ sixth place, thanks to his P20 grid slot. He may not be leading the standings, but one thing’s for sure - the 2008 champion is really enjoying himself, as he explained to his official website…

Q: We've completed three of the four opening flyaway races. You're back in Europe preparing for China, how do you evaluate your opening attack on the 2010 world championship?
Lewis Hamilton: I'm very pleased. I think I'm driving as well as I ever have - I love driving this year's car: I said to my engineers in Malaysia that I'd never had a car that felt as solid and as planted as the MP4-25, it feels like a car that you can not only find a perfect balance with, but you can also really push it, and it reacts well to the changes on full-tanks or when it's empty. And that's meant I've really been able to push to the limit, which is how I love to drive. I don't think I've ever enjoyed driving a Formula One car more than I have with this year's car. Of course, it hasn't been perfect - but then nothing is - but I feel extremely confident for the races ahead.

Q: Despite some uneven results, the drivers' championship is very finely poised though, isn't it?
LH: Yes, it is - which is perhaps surprising given the new points system. But I think the championship order is something that is quite encouraging for us, particularly given the situation we were in last year. I think all the team have perhaps missed some good opportunities - but that's one of those things that can happen when the front of the grid is very close and you're all pushing to gain the maximum advantage.
I came away from the first three races this year knowing that very little was lost and that everything is still to play for. Given where we were last year, that's a major positive for us. Could we have scored more points? Almost certainly, but we were reliable when it mattered, and we've shown we have the pace to fight at the front. And that's what I take home from the opening flyaways.

Q: The team made a big step forward in Malaysia, bringing a reported three-tenths to the car. How important is it to keep improving the car at every opportunity?
LH: We saw in Sepang that the car was extremely quick, even if we couldn't do enough in qualifying to get ourselves up the front. In fact, I think our car's always been quick this season, we just didn't get the job done properly in qualifying in Bahrain, but we've actually been quick in all the races.
But yeah, we made a step forward in Malaysia - we actually brought forward the new parts we'd planned for China. We've got a few more new parts for China, nothing major, but it should hopefully help us close the gap.This is something that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is fantastic at doing. Last year, we did an absolutely incredible job to claw back three seconds to the frontrunners, and turn a car that was at the back of the grid at the start of the season into a race-winning car by the middle of the year. I honestly don't think there's a better team for developing a car during the season.

Q: How do you test new parts when you can't get to the track between races?
LH: Obviously, we can't test as much now, but we run a very disciplined programme on the Friday of each race to make sure the new parts are delivering the level of performance we anticipated.
I think we learned a lot of lessons about how to work in the field when we were battling back in 2009, and I'm very confident that we'll be able to do the same thing this year. As I've always said, the outcome of the world championship could be decided by the speed of development among the top teams - and I know that our team do an absolutely fantastic job in this department. And that's down to all the men and women at the factory - they're people you never see on the TV, but they are so motivated, and so committed, and they do a fantastic job, and I hope they can see that Jenson and I push for every last hundredth when we're out on track to show everyone that their work does make a difference.

Source: Formula1.com

[Video] Sebastian Vettel: I want to be champion

Since it's been nothing but rally today, let's take a break and go back to F1. Here's a look at an interview with Sebastian Vettel at the last testing session.

Source: GP Update

Vettel: I don't care about increased pressure

Sebastian Vettel insists he is not worried about the added pressure that comes along with being one of the favourites to win the World Championship.

The list of favourites is a pretty long one this year. Besides Vettel, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg have all been tipped as possible title winners in 2010.

Vettel, who finished nine points behind World Champion Button last year, admits there will be pressure on him this year, but he's not bothered about it.

"It is true that the expectations are higher from the outside," he told Germany's Salzburger Nachrichten. "It's something I can also be proud of. Our position as one of the favourites this year is down to our achievements of 2009.

"However, there is no time to rest. You must once again prove yourself in each test, in each round. To become World Champion was my goal last year and that will again be the case this year. Whether the pressure comes from the outside, I don't really care."

The new season is just a few weeks away and it's already clear from testing sessions that the four front runners are set to dominate. Vettel, though, insists "there's still more to come" as teams will make further improvements.

"Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and ourselves are at the front," he said. "But everything will be probably be very close. Ferrari have looked pretty strong so far. However, all teams will make improvements to their car before the start of the season, so there's is more to come."

Source: Planet-F1