Weekend Motorsports Preview: A Classic Race From Italy

It is a really fun weekend for racing this weekend. Not only does Formula 1 head to the historic track at Monza this weekend, but there are races from NASCAR, Super GT and the World Touring Car Championship. Also, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series has a race at Laguna Seca on Sunday, September 8. 

Formula 1

Formula 1 follows the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa with another historic race on its calendar, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The 53-lap race around the 11-turn, 5.793km circuit has qualifying at 2:00pm local time on Saturday, September 7, and the race starts at 2:00pm on Sunday, September 8.  

Monza is among the oldest tracks still on the Formula 1 calendar and has been used for every Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, except in 1980 when the race was held at Imola. While it has 11 corners, the track is really several straightaways broken up with chicanes. It makes it one of the fastest tracks on the F1 calendar.

With the season more than half over, Sebastian Vettlel's 46-point lead is beginning to look insurmountable, but if Vettel has bad luck, Fernando Alonso in second place could still close the gap. Five points separate Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen in third and fourth place, respectively. 

NASCAR

NASCAR has a 300-mile, 400-lap race at Richmond International Raceway on September 7 at 6:30pm ET. 

As things have remained for most of the season, Jimmie Johnson leads with 28 points over Clint Bowyer in second.

Super GT

The Super GT in Japan heads to the sixth round of its season at the 4.563km, 16-corner Fuji Speedway. The 66-lap race starts at 2:00pm local time on September 8.

In the GT500 class, three points separate the top three cars in the class. Masataka Yanagida and Ronnie Quintarelli lead in a Nissan GT-R with 42 points; Tsugio Matsuda and Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira in a GT-R are in second with 41 points; and Naoki Yamamoto and Frederic Makowiecki in a Honda HSV-10 are in third with 40 points. 

In the GT300 class, Hideki Mutoh and Yuhki Nakayama in a Honda CR-ZHonda CR-Z RacerJapan, 2011 > 201110 photos
have 13 point lead over Tetsuya Yamano and Kota Sasaki in a Subaru BRZSubaru BRZJapan, 2011 > present7 photos
.

World Touring Car Championship

The WTCC visits the United States for two, 13-lap races around the 4.032km Sonoma Raceway on September 8. Race one starts at 11:25am local time, and race two starts at 2:20pm.

With four rounds to go, Yvan Muller maintains his commanding lead with 312 points to Michel Nykjær in second with 180 points.