Bloggin' is Racin'

F1 driver Webber has surgery on broken leg

Formula One driver Mark Webber had surgery on his broken leg after being hit by a car during his charity multi-sports race Saturday.
“The surgery is complete, a pin inserted and the recovery begins,” Geoff Donohue, event director for the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
“He'll be in hospital for at least three days, for sure under a week,” Donohue said. “I was speaking to him before the operation, and he was already thinking about his rehabilitation.”
Webber, who drives for F1's Red Bull team, was riding a bicycle along a road near historic Port Arthur in the southeast of the island state of Tasmania when he collided with a four-wheel drive vehicle, Tasmania Police Sgt. Jon Ford said.

-- The Associated Press

F1 driver Webber hurt in bike accident

Formula One driver Mark Webber broke bones in his arms and legs after being hit by a car during a charity multi-sport race, police said.
Webber, who drives for F1's Red Bull team, was cycling along a road near Port Arthur in the southeast part of the island state of Tasmania, Australia, when he and a four-wheel drive vehicle collided, Tasmania Police Sgt. Jon Ford said.
Ford said the Australian driver was competing in his own charity event, the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, a 175-mile challenge using mountain bikes, kayaks and trekking, when the accident happened.
“As a result of the collision, the rider, Mark Webber, suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries,” Ford said. “He was attended at the scene by paramedics attached to the event before being airlifted to the Royal Hobart Hospital.”
Ford said the event was being raced on open public roads and it was not known whether the stage along that road was cordoned off specifically for the racers.
The challenge, first staged in 2003, is scheduled to end Sunday in Hobart.
Red Bull has already begun its testing program ahead of the 2009 F1 season, but Saturday's accident is likely to have a major impact on Webber's preparation for the season, which begins in March.

-- The Associated Press

Edwards wins alot, but finishes second twice

Looking back at the 2008 season ...
Some numbers that put Carl Edwards’ remarkable NASCAR season in perspective and how his Sprint Cup numbers ranked overall:
Sprint Cup stats
9 wins (first), including a first-ever sweep of the Cup races at Texas Motor Speedway
19 top-five finishes (first)
27 top-10 finishes (first)
9.5 average finish (first)
1,282 laps led (third)
1893.35 miles led (third)
10,603 laps completed (fifth)
 
Nationwide Series stats
7 wins in 35 starts (full season)
19 top-five finishes
22 top-10 finishes
9.5 average finish
Carl Edwards, above, won the most races in Sprint Cup and second-most in the Nationwide Series in 2008. And he finished second in the standings in both. How, you ask? Edwards had back-to-back hiccups in the Chase — an accident at Talladega, mechanical issues at Lowe’s Motor Speedway — that stifled his title chances and left him 69 points behind always-consistent champ Jimmie Johnson in the end. In the Nationwide Series, champion Clint Bowyer won only once, but had enough consistency (29 top-10 results in 35 races) to beat Edwards by 21 points in the final standings.

Looking ahead to next year ...
Carl Edwards has to look only as far as his own Roush Fenway Racing teammates to find the most-improved driver of 2008. David Ragan, 22, just barely missed the Chase in his sophomore season and finished a very solid 13th, more than 200 points ahead on 14th-place Kasey Kahne. Under the guidance of veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig, Ragan, right, led the Sprint Cup Series in laps completed (10,661, 99.4 percent), tallied six top-five finishes and 14 top-10s, and dramatically improved his average finish from his rookie year (24.5) to 15.6. Three of his top-five finishes came at the always treacherous restrictor-plate tracks Talladega (spring, fall) and Daytona (summer). Ragan performed so well, veteran Tony Stewart, who once called Ragan “a dart without feathers,” said the youngster was his choice for driver of the year. “The kid has impressed me so much from where he started in this series to where he is at the end of the season this year,” Stewart told reporters a few weeks ago in Phoenix. “I think he’s probably demonstrated the most growth and patience of any of the drivers out there.”  Odds are Ragan will improve on his results and be a Chase contender next season when his No. 6 Ford has new primary backing from UPS.

-- Michele Vincze
Photos: Star-Telegram/Sharon M. Steinman (top), Getty Images (bottom)