Indy Car Info

Monday

2013 Preseason Preview: No. 10 Matt Kenseth

As we count down to the 2013 Daytona 500, we're also counting down how we think the Chase will play out this season as predicted by Nick Bromberg, Jay Busbee, Jay Hart and Geoffrey Miller. So sit back, relax, and watch the 2013 Chase unfold before your very eyes. Though you should be warned, we picked Carl Edwards to win last year.

2012 Finish: 5th. Three wins (Daytona, Talladega, Kansas)

2013 Predictions:
Bromberg: 8th
Busbee: NR
Hart: 6th
Miller: 12th

Crew Chief: Jason Ratcliff

When we last saw Kenseth: He was winning two Chase races but nowhere near title contention. Why? Well, his teammate Greg Biffle, who we profiled Thursday, was out of the hunt after three straight finishes in the teens to open the Chase. Kenseth started with an 18th and a 14th and then finished 35th at Dover to find himself in the basement of the Chase.

Big Question for 2013: This one is pretty obvious, eh? Will there be a transition period at Joe Gibbs Racing? Kenseth announced that he was leaving the only Sprint Cup Series team he had ever known in Roush Fenway in June -- when he was atop the points standings. In the fall, he revealed that he was moving to JGR's No. 20 car and his presence means its an explicit disappointment if all three of the JGR cars miss the Chase.

Track most likely to win at: If this was last year's car and last year's team and crew chief combination (with Jimmy Fennig atop the pit box), this would be easy: Daytona and Talladega. Kenseth and Fennig had something special at the plate tracks, leading 245 laps and winning once at each track.

Track most likely to require a miracle to win at: Sonoma. Kenseth has finished in the top 10 once in 13 races in wine country and that was an eighth place finish in 2008.

How Kenseth could win the Chase: The man who won the last pre-Chase title gets a couple more wins in the regular season and avoids the crazy engine and random troubles that have plagued both Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin over recent seasons. At worst, Kenseth is making a lateral move in teams; not making the Chase with Gibbs would be just as big a surprise as if he was still at Roush.

How Kenseth couldn't: The adjustment to JGR and new crew chief Ratcliff takes the entire regular season and Kenseth misses the Chase.

A Haiku:
A champ makes a move
Matt's now a Husky driver
Another title?

Related NASCAR video on Yahoo! Sports

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/2013-preseason-preview-no-10-matt-kenseth-150353171--nascar.html

JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger

Random facts about the 2012 Nationwide Series

Needing some random and totally useless NASCAR facts about the 2012 season to tantalize your friends with at your New Year's Eve party? You've come to the right spot! Today, it's the Nationwide Series!

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. scored 29 more points to win the title this year than he did last year. That's attributable in part to four more wins (6 to 2) and three more top 10s (19 to 16).

In fact, both Elliott Sadler and Austin Dillon scored more points in 2012 than Stenhouse did in 2011 when he won the title.

Just like younger brother Ty in the Camping World Truck Series, Austin Dillon completed the most laps in the Nationwide Series and completed all but one circuit. That's pretty impressive. That one lap he missed was at the second Iowa race when he finished 15th, the first car a lap down.

To continue the Dillon theme, he had the highest average finish of all Nationwide regulars with an average finish of 7.1. Stenhouse's average finish was 7.3, while Sadler's was 7.5.

13 drivers started all 33 Nationwide Series races. Jason Bowles was the only one of them to not score a top 10 finish.

Drivers who weren't eligible for Nationwide Series points won 20 races, led by Joey Logano with nine. Other points-ineligible winners were Brad Keselowski (3), Kevin Harvick (2), Kurt Busch (2), Carl Edwards, Regan Smith, James Buescher, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Nur Ali. (OK, so we're kidding on that one.)

413 points separated Stenhouse from the 10th place driver in the Nationwide standings, Danica Patrick. To put that in an average finish perspective, while Stenhouse's points average out to approximately 7th place, Patrick's average finish was 18.8.

Stephen Leicht boasted the series worst start-to-miles driven ratio. In five races, Leicht completed 24.57 miles, good for an average of 4.914 miles per race. And Leicht made no starts at tracks shorter than a mile.

The first race on the new configuration at Kansas Speedway boasted the most cautions in the series at 12. The only other race in double digits in the yellow flag category was the second Phoenix race. The fewest number of cautions came at Kentucky (2).

Predictably, the three races with the most lead changes were the three restrictor plate races. The non-restrictor plate race with the most lead changes was the fall Charlotte race with 21. 15 races featured fewer than 10 lead changes.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/random-facts-2012-nationwide-series-232314849--nascar.html

Derek Bell Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo Tom Belso

Sunday

HRC Boss Reveals Details of Honda's Production Racer: Conventional Valves, Standard Gearbox, a Million Euros

The production racer version of Honda's RC213V is another step closer to reality. At Sepang, HRC Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto spoke to reporters and the MotoGP.com website about the new bike, and the progress being made on the machine which will take the place of the CRT machines from 2014 onwards. The bike is delayed, Nakamoto said, but it will be ready in time for the tests at Valencia, after the final race of the season in November.

Nakamoto gave a brief rundown of the specifications of the production RC213V - a bike which, given the amount of publicity it is going to be generating over the next few months, badly needs a new name - though the list contained few surprises. The bike will have conventional valve springs, as opposed to pneumatic valves on the factory machine. It will not have the seamless gearbox used by the prototypes - again, not a surprise, as maintenance on the gearbox is still an HRC-only affair. This was not a matter of cost, Nakamoto said, claiming the seamless gearbox now costs almost the same as a standard unit.

Source:

http://www.gpone.com/index.php/en/201302079337/Nakamoto-Marquez-sta-imit...

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2013/Nakamoto+sums+up+Repsol+Honda+test+pe...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/M-uwA2zDY7g/hrc_boss_reveals_of_honda_s_production_r.html

Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu Slim Borgudd Luki Botha

Q&A With Josef Newgarden

Source: http://www.16thandgeorgetown.com/2012/10/q-with-josef-newgarden.html

Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia

MV Agusta Brutale 675

Posted on 02.10.2013 11:06 by Sulthoni , Serafim

MV Agusta?s Brutale range is considered a bench mark in the naked category as all models are packed with state of the art technologies, come with a modern design language and reward you with first class performances.

In 2013 the Brutale family has become even bigger, as the company launched a fresh model, namely the Brutale 675.

The bike features a refined mechanical design that has been matched with an ultra-technological chassis to deliver top notch performances.

The 2013 MV Agusta Brutale 675 is fitted with a light, agile and powerful engine that is currently the most advanced in the middle-weight segment. The new in-line three cylinder is based on the F3 unit and features a long list of advanced technologies. The engine?s output is rated at 108,5 hp at 12.500 rpm and 65 Nm of torque.

Hit the jump for more information on the 2013 MV Agusta Brutale 675.

MV Agusta Brutale 675 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 10 February 2013 11:06 EST.

Source: http://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-reviews/mv-agusta/2013-mv-agusta-brutale-675-ar145820.html

David Coulthard Piers Courage Chris Craft Jim Crawford

2013 MotoGP Sepang 1 Test, Day 1 Round Up: Surprises We Expected - Marquez, Rossi and Ducati

It would be one of the larger understatements of the decade to say that the first MotoGP test of the year at Sepang was eagerly anticipated. After the anti-climactic washout that was Valencia, many big questions of the 2013 season had been left hanging in the air over the winter. Given that motorcycle racing fans hate a vacuum even more than Nature does, they filled it, with speculation, conjecture, hyperbole and not a small amount of vitriol.

Would Valentino Rossi prove he still has it, or was his switch to Ducati merely the start of his downhill slide to retirement? Is Marc Marquez the real thing, or were his results in Moto2 deceptive, and down only to skullduggery on the part of his former team? Can Yamaha match the Hondas, or does the advantage which Dani Pedrosa had over the second half of the season mean it will be impossible for Jorge Lorenzo to defend his title? What of Ducati? Will Andrea Dovizioso succeed where Rossi failed, and will the Italian factory be able to claw back some of the ground they have been steadily losing to the Japanese factories since 2007?

After nearly 8 hours of track time - more than many expected, with rain forecast for the period during the test - we have answers to replace the speculation, and data to fill the gaping void created by the winter testing break. Were the answers found a surprise? That depends on your perspective. Did anyone seriously think Rossi wouldn't get closer on the Yamaha to the front runners than he did on the Ducati? No. But does the gap to Pedrosa - 0.427 seconds - mean he is fast enough to compete for the championship, or will it leave him running round in third all year? Was anyone surprised by Marquez running up front right from the off? Surely not. But who predicted he would get within a few hundredths of his teammate on just his second proper test? Did anyone seriously expect the Ducatis to have closed the gap to Honda and Yamaha? That would be crazy. But to be two seconds down?

Source:

http://www.motogp.com/en/videos/latest+videos#2013+MotoGP+Sepang+Test+DA...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/I8tEgNClKVs/2013_motogp_sepang_1_test_day_1_round_up.html

Chuck Arnold Rene Arnoux Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari

Richard Childress confirms Kevin Harvick moving to Stewart-Haas in 2014

During the first day of the annual Sprint Cup Series media tour on Monday, Richard Childress affirmed that Kevin Harvick would be moving to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.

The move was first reported in November of last year, but neither Harvick, Childress or Tony Stewart had said anything in confirmation until Monday evening.

From USA Today:

We had a meeting and he told me his plans and we discussed what we were going to do in '13," Childress said Monday. "He'll do well over there at Stewart-Haas, and RCR will keep going and moving forward.

"I think him and Tony will have a good relationship."

For what it's worth, Harvick said he didn't have anything to unveil about his 2014 plans.

Harvick had talked in December about moving on from RCR, the team he's spent his entire Cup Series career with, at the end of 2013 and said he had reached out to Matt Kenseth for advice on how to handle a similar situation. Early last season, Kenseth announced that he wouldn't be returning to Roush Fenway Racing and joined Joe Gibbs Racing. Harvick and Stewart are friends and Stewart drove for Harvick in the Nationwide Series for Kevin Harvick Incorporated.

However, Harvick's situation most closely resembles that of Kasey Kahne, who signed to drive with Hendrick Motorsports starting in 2012 in 2010. That led to Kahne spending a year with Red Bull Racing in 2011 in his transition from Richard Petty Motorsports to Hendrick, where he finished 14th and won at Phoenix in the next-to-last race of the season.

Phoenix is where Harvick got his only win of the season last year and was the race that immediately followed the report of his departure from RCR. Harvick was the only RCR driver to make the Chase in the past two seasons, and after finishing third in 2011, finished eighth in 2012.

Childress comments also jive with Stewart saying earlier in the day at Stewart-Haas that a four-car team was a possibility in 2014 despite the current three-car team having some sponsorship openings for the current season. It's unknown whether Harvick's current sponsor, Budweiser, will make the move with him.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/richard-childress-confirms-kevin-harvick-moving-stewart-haas-133534087--nascar.html

John Barber Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello

Saturday

2013 MotoGP Sepang 1 Test Press Release Round Up, Day 1

Press releases issued by Honda, Yamaha, some CRT teams and Bridgestone after the first day of testing at Sepang:

Year:

2013

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/RRquUeU5OQE/2013_motogp_sepang_1_test_press_release_.html

Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian

Jeff Gordon?s DuPont No. 24 will be changing in 2013

Jeff Gordon's DuPont No. 24 is getting a new look and name.

DuPont's paint business, a longtime sponsor of Gordon's No. 24, has been sold to the Carlyle Group and been rebranded as Axalta Coating Systems and the company will fulfill its 14 race sponsorship of Gordon's car.

?While these are big changes for us, our commitment to the No. 24 team, Jeff Gordon and NASCAR remains the same,? Axalta Coating Systems president John McCool said in a release. ?We are proud to continue our sponsorship of the No. 24 team and Jeff Gordon in 2013."

?Our Performance Coatings business started the sponsorship of Jeff Gordon more than 20 years ago, and Axalta Coating Systems will continue the longest current sponsor-driver-team relationship in NASCAR in 2013.?

The changeover will be official in the second quarter of the year -- after the company's first scheduled race at Texas in April. According to the statement, other brands under the now Axalta label will fill Axalta's races until the change is renaming is complete.

After being the four-time champion's main primary sponsor since he started his Sprint Cup Series career, DuPont scaled back to a partial season as a primary sponsor in 2011 and the AARP's Drive to End Hunger came on board. Fittingly, his final race in DuPont colors was in last year's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where Gordon won.

The Carlyle Group's other holdings include Hertz Rental Car, which recently announced a sponsorship agreement with Penske Racing. Hertz will sponsor Joey Logano in the fall race at Charlotte and seven Nationwide Series races.

NHL video from Yahoo! Sports:

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/jeff-gordon-dupont-no-24-changing-2013-011440766--nascar.html

Ernesto Brambilla Vittorio Brambilla Toni Branca Gianfranco Brancatelli

Budweiser Shootout renamed the Sprint Unlimited for 2013

After Budweiser announced that it wouldn't be sponsoring the race now known as the Shootout in 2013, the exhibition race the week before the Daytona 500 was looking for a new sponsor and potentially, a new name.

It now has both. And, the new name is, uh, interesting.

Cup Series title sponsor Sprint is now sponsoring the race, and it will be called the "Sprint Unlimited." Yes, it's named after Sprint's data plan marketing angle.

?Sprint is entering its 10th season as title sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series,? Steve Gaffney, vice president of marketing for Sprint said in a release. ?From the outset, we promised unprecedented access for race fans, and each year we challenge ourselves to honor that commitment in innovative ways. Thanks to the strength of our partnership with NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway, we have designed The Sprint Unlimited so that fans play a major role in all aspects of the event. It is the ideal way to start this milestone season, and we look forward to sharing all of the details later this month.?

Budweiser's sponsorship has moved to the Duel Daytona 500 qualifying races.

And while you can get unlimited data from Sprint (product plug! I want my royalties!), the field in the "Unlimited" race is not so. It's throttled to 2012 pole winners and past champions of the race. Which means that 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski isn't eligible as he didn't win a pole last season or is a past champion of the race.

Do you like the name? Drop us a line in the comments.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/budweiser-shootout-renamed-sprint-unlimited-2013-154931327--nascar.html

Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger Gerhard Berger

Wikipedia and IndyCar Need Our Help!

For better or worse, Wikipedia is the largest public information repository to be found anywhere on the internet; all of it is all user created and maintained. In some eyes, wiki has a poor reputation, but sometimes with good reason. … Continue reading →

Source: http://anotherindycarblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/wikipedia-and-indycar-need-our-help/

Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi

2013 MotoGP Sepang 1 Test Preview: The Questions of the Winter Soon to be Answered

It's nearly time. In a few short hours, the full MotoGP field will roll out onto the track for the first time this year, and the 2013 MotoGP season will officially get underway with preseason testing.

That, at least, is the hope. For testing to truly get underway, MotoGP needs the weather to cooperate, something it has been reluctant to do for the past couple of days during the two days of extra testing laid on for the CRT teams using the new Magneti Marelli ECU. Part of Sunday and just about all of Monday were lost to rain, and the forecast for the next three days is for more rain than usual in this part of the world. Fortunately, the mornings look like being dry, so the fans will at least get to see some action on track.

And there is plenty to look forward to. The biggest topic of conversation among fans, unsurprisingly, is Valentino Rossi's return to Yamaha. The Italian got off to a false start upon leaving the Ducati garage and heading a few doors down to Yamaha, when the weather at the Spanish track made conditions tricky and comparisons difficult. Yamaha then decided to up sticks and head to Aragon, in the hope of finding some dry track time. They were disappointed.

So Sepang should be the first real test of just how competitive Rossi still is once he is back on a bike which he understands and has a front end which provides him with the feedback he relies on to go fast. Rossi has seen his career come to a standstill for the past two years at Ducati, while the men he will have to beat this year have grown in stature and experience, and are now at the peak of their careers. The Italian will have to hit the ground running if he is to catch Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, and it will not be easy by any stretch of the imagination.

Source:

http://www.cycleworld.com/2013/02/04/ben-spies-will-make-ducati-motogp-d...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/XQ0g4EiLUXM/2013_motogp_sepang_1_test_preview_the_qu.html

John Cannon Eitel Cantoni Bill Cantrell Ivan Capelli

Friday

Turner Motorsports changes name to Turner Scott Motorsports

The biggest Nationwide and Truck Series only team is getting a revised name.

Minority owner Harry Scott has expanded his role in Turner Motorsports, and the new team will be called Turner Scott Motorsports. The team announced the change on Friday.

?Harry becoming a co-owner is very positive for this organization as a whole,? Steve Turner said in a release. ?This team has grown and accomplished so much in the last few years, and it is still continuing to grow. Harry has been committed to our racing program, its drivers and our sponsors for several years, and he is a vital part of our organization. He is passionate about our sport and our employees, and has proven himself as a very successful businessman, so putting him in charge of our marketing and business efforts is a natural and perfect fit. We have always considered him to be an integral part of the Turner Motorsports family, and this is an opportunity for him to formally take over some of the reins as we continue to build this organization into one of the most successful teams in NASCAR. I am very optimistic that Turner Scott Motorsports will build upon our solid base and achieve continued success.?

Scott was a minority owner at Braun Racing when Turner puchased the assets of Braun Racing in 2010 and renamed it Turner Motorsports.

Turner won the 2012 Camping World Truck Series title with James Buescher and earlier in the week Buescher announced that he would be returning to the series to defend his title. The team also announced a sponsorship deal with Rheem that will see the company sponsor Buescher for 15 Truck Series races in 2013. Rheem last sponsored the Richard Childress Racing truck that Cale Gale drove to victory lane in the final Truck Series race of 2012.

Buescher also won the season opening race at Daytona in the Nationwide Series for Turner after a last turn crash took out the leaders. On Wednesday, Kasey Kahne and Brad Sweet and sponsor Great Clips moved to JR Motorsports in 2013 while, in turn, a report linked Danica Patrick to Turner for her 10 Nationwide Races this season. According to Fox Sports, the team is expected to field entries in either the Truck or Nationwide Series for Miguel Paludo, Jeb Burton and Justin Allgaier in addition to Buescher

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/turner-motorsports-changes-name-turner-scott-motorsports-151810192--nascar.html

Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu

Chaotic First Day of CRT Test at Sepang Sees Little On-Track Action

The first day of the extra two-day test for the CRT teams laid on to allow the teams using the new Magneti Marelli spec ECU has been almost entirely wasted. A lack of parts and above all, a lack of data with the new system meant that the day was spent mostly in the garage, with very few laps turned out on the track.

Only CAME Ioda's Danilo Petrucci got in any serious track time, the Italian posting a total of 27 laps. All of those laps were set without any assistance from the electronics, however: with no data, the team had no base set up to work from, and Petrucci was lapping without any electronic aid. "It's really hard to ride a bike without any electronic controls," Petrucci posted on Twitter afterwards, a fact that is borne out by his times. Petrucci's fastest lap was a 2'06.841, two seconds slower than his best time from the race weekend at Sepang, and four seconds behind the best CRT time set back in October of last year.

Source:

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2013/Sepang+CRT+Test+gets+underway

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/6xtVGMykCJ4/chaotic_first_day_of_crt_test_at_sepang_.html

Alberto Crespo Antonio Creus Larry Crockett Tony Crook

Felipe Massa: ?It?s a completely different planet??

Felipe Massa insisted that he was happy with the first day of running in the new Ferrari F138, despite being 1.7s off the quickest time at the end of the day. Massa stressed that it was a much better start … Continue reading →

Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2013/02/05/felipe-massa-its-a-completely-different-planet/

Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore Bill Aston

Peugeot 208 GTI ?Driving Experience?

Peugeot presented the program “208 GTi Racing Experience,” a program that aims on the one hand provide the possibility to eight participants to become racecar drivers, and on the other hand, promote high performance variant of the Peugeot 208, which will soon be among us. The following European countries: Germany, France, UK, Belgium, Spain, [...]

Source: http://www.autocarblog.co.uk/387-peugeot-208-gti-driving-experience.html

Peter Broeker Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown

Here?s the new Force India F1 car

The Force India team has unveiled its latest offering at Silverstone. This is the work of a team of engineers led by technical director Andrew Green. The team says that much work has been done on the aerodynamics and on the suspension design and reckon that the car is an improvement of the 2012 car, [...]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/heres-the-new-force-india-f1-car/

Ernesto Brambilla Vittorio Brambilla Toni Branca Gianfranco Brancatelli

Thursday

2012 season in the rear view: Martin Truex Jr.

Vitals: 11th in the points standings. 0 wins, 7 top 5s, 19 top 10s. 2 DNFs.

Moment to remember: At Texas and Kansas, the seventh and eighth races of the Sprint Cup Series season, Martin Truex Jr. led a combined 242 laps. Texas was a sixth place finish and at Kansas, he looked poised to take his first win since at Dover in 2007. However, after hiding behind the clouds all day, the sun appeared over the final laps of the race and Truex faded while Denny Hamlin's car came to life and he took the win. Truex finished second.

That race was Truex's fifth straight top 10 and through those eight races, he was second in the points standings. While he finished 25th and 28th in the next two races, that stretch showed that Other Junior was going to be a significant player in 2012.

Moment to forget: Given that a typical Sprint Cup race features more than a handful of start and parkers, it takes a significant early calamity for a team who races for the win to finish last. And at Phoenix, the second to last race of the season, that's what happened to Truex. After qualifying second, he lost an engine just 10 laps into the race, or, coincidentally, right before Jason Leffler parked. Truex finished 43rd.

The wrap: In the first 26 races of the season, Truex finished in the top 10 14 times. He didn't deviate far from that trend during the Chase, finishing in the top 10 five times. However, given the torrid pace that Brad Keselowski set and the lack of bonus points from going winless in those first 26 races, Truex never really was in contention. The engine failure at Phoenix dropped him from eighth to 10th in the standings and thanks to Jeff Gordon's win, he fell out of the top 10 and was denied a spot at the banquet despite finishing 6th at Homestead.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/2012-season-rear-view-martin-truex-jr-020456852--nascar.html

Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels

NBCSN ?Safety-blitzes Dakar TV Show...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/Ahf9DOCAqbE/nbcsn-safety-blitzes-dakar-tv-show.html

Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier

The Batmobile went for $4.2 million at an auction Saturday night

Ever dreamed of owning the original Batmobile? Hopefully you had lots and lots of money in that dream.

On Saturday night at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Phoenix, Rick Champagne paid $4.2 million for the original Batmobile from the Batman TV series in the 1960s.

Yes. $4.2 million. From Reuters:

"I really liked Batman growing up and I came here with the intention of buying the car," Champagne, 56, told Reuters in a brief interview moments after he bought the car. "Sure enough, I was able to buy it. That was a dream come true."

Oh, he also has to pay $420,000 in premiums as well. But what's an extra $420,000 when you've already spent $4.2 million? Of course, I ask that not knowing, because, well, that's a crapload of money.

George Barris bought the car, which was based on a 1955 Lincoln Futura, for $1 in 1965 and had 15 days and $15,000 to make the Batmobile what it was currently for the show. And he's kept it ever since. That's a heck of a profit.

At the same auction, NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick picked up a couple of Corvettes for just over a cool $1 million apiece, including the first production 2014 C7 Corvette.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/batmobile-went-4-2-million-auction-saturday-night-171755462--nascar.html

Piers Courage Chris Craft Jim Crawford Ray Crawford