Kimi Räikkönen's 'big bang' in the States and elsewhere in motorsporting world, due to his Nascar-debut will be seen in 25 days in Charlotte, North-Carolina.Camping World Truck -serie's 7th race along with qualification will be held on Friday 20th May. Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1,5 mile long so called square oval.
On Saturday they will drive for a million dollar prize in all star Sprint Cup -race, where only the established stars in the serie have been invited to.
Räikkönen's ICE1 Racing -team will lease a car from Kyle Busch Motorsports. Kyle Busch himself won the Truck-season during the weekend in Nashville.
Nelson Piquet junior came in 2nd. It was the Brazilian's first podium on Nascar-level and his all time best result in the three main series.
So far they are still only building up Räikkönen's schedule. On top of Charlotte's races we might see Kimi in at least two Nascar-races on normal racing arenas.
Räikkönen's next WRC-rally is in Greece from where he immediately leaves to California.
Räikkönen spent the weekend with his own motocross-team as a mechanic and supporter in Holland's second race of the season. Kimi participated with enthusiasm in the maintenance of the bikes.
Mark Arnall hasn't yet made any special programs for his driver's Nascar-challenges.
– In tests Kimi drove a couple of hundred laps on an oval per day. They turn into the same direction there all the time and in theory the strain on certain muscles is different than for example in rally. The faster you go, the more harder it is on the neck muscles, Arnall thinks.
– In tests Kimi drove about 20 lap stints. I massaged the muscles in the evening. The neck was a bit stiff but I can't say if it was because of the driving strain or something else.
– Let's just wait for the first races. Then they drive 300-400 laps flat out and we will see if something special is required when it comes to the muscles. I think it's the same as it was when starting the season in a F1-car, the more you drive the better your muscles get used to it.
Arnall can't use any expertise-help since on Nascar-level the drivers don't have a personal trainer to help them.
Kaj Lindström doesn't believe that combining two very different genres would in any way mess up the performance level in either way.
– There's nothing wondrous about that. Kimi has planned his Nascar-job so that it won't interfere with our rallies. It didn't come to me as any surprise. You have to try out everything when you get the chance and they have been asking him there for so many times already, Lindström says.
– We were holding the 5th place and we lost it without the driver's mistake. A success like that rewards in a nice way between the ears and gives more trust into one's own doing in the future, Lindström praised.
Then what does Foster Gillett who lured Räikkönen to Nascar-circles expect from the Finn:
– There is a lot of challenge to come come out of the bushes in the middle of the season. Yet Kimi has so much experience of all kind of racing in all kinds of circumstances that I would believe he would feel good in Nascar-races too. I'm sure he will in a way have an advantage of driving rally after his F1-career, Gillett thinks.
– All decisions about his Nascar-continuance is completely up to Kimi, he reminds.
Turun Sanomat
HEIKKI KULTA
Courtesy: Nicole
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