Problems hamper USA preparations

USA's senior and Under-19 teams are scheduled to compete in several major tournaments over the next five months. However, USACA is currently struggling to figure out the best way to prepare them.


USACA is planning on having its National Championship in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from November 13 to 15. The tournament was originally scheduled to take place from October 9 to 11 in Houston, Texas, but officials wanted to move the event to Florida to give players competing for spots on the national teams the opportunity to play on turf pitches, as opposed to the matting wickets used in Houston and around most of the country.

Florida's venues would provide them necessary preparation for when the United States travels to Dubai for the 2010 World Twenty20 Qualifier from February 9 to 13 as well as to Nepal for the World Cricket League Division 5 from February 20 to 27.


The National Championship will pit four regional teams, which qualified through USACA's Eastern and Western Conference tournaments, against each other in 50-over matches on November 13 and 14 to determine the national champion.


November 15 was intended to be used as an opportunity for players from these squads to be selected to face teams from Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago in Twenty20 matches, but those plans are now on hold because a financial agreement hasn't been reached to lure the teams from the Caribbean to play on US soil.


"We would have picked the best team we have and played Jamaica and Trinidad," said Krish Prasad, chairman of USACA's cricket committee. "Seeing that that is not likely to happen, we will have to come up with a different structure, because we're going to Nepal and Dubai to play Twenty20 and Nepal to play 50 overs. We've got to come up with a plan to facilitate both teams' preparations."


Another problem in selecting the senior team is trying to get the entire short list of 40 probables an opportunity to play and be evaluated when some of them belong to regional squads that were eliminated in the tournaments leading up to the nationals.


"Hopefully we have, I think 90% of the players in the four regional teams," said Prasad. "We've already selected 40 players to get there. We're going to have to somehow get all those 40 players there. The ones that are not from the regions that's going to be contesting in the national tournament will also be invited there to participate maybe in the Sunday tournament or something like that.


"But we have to come up with a way of getting these guys there. The original plan we had was going to work well, but unfortunately that's not going to work. So we're going to have to get everybody there because we can't select 40 guys and then don't take them to a trial to see who's the best team that we can send to Dubai and Nepal."


Other financial issues are also a consideration in the planning process of the weekend. The matches for the USACA National Championship will most likely be played at Brian Piccolo Park rather than Central Broward Regional Park because USACA is reluctant to pay for the Broward stadium's rental fees for a non-revenue generating event.


"If the stadium was available, we could have used the lights in there and played two night games also," said Prasad. "That was the plan if the Jamaican team was going to come, because that would be a revenue generating opportunity." According to Prasad, it would cost $2,500 per match to rent the facility.


USACA's financial constraints are also having an effect on the Under-19 squad, which is set to compete in the 2010 ICC Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand from January 16 to 30. A training camp had been planned to take place concurrently with the senior tournament in Florida, but those plans have been shelved for the time being.


"The junior team, we were hoping to get them there at the same time," said Prasad, "but because of the funding situation, we are just going to sort of keep them on hold for now and hopefully get them into some sort of practice sessions, playing a couple of games and fitness because I think our major problem with the Under-19 has been their fitness. Living in the United States, they don't play cricket every day in the summer and when they went to that tournament [Under-19 World Cup Qualifier in Toronto], it showed that nine games in 13 days was a little bit too much for our boys. We learned that we need to get them physically fit for this tournament that's going to be starting in New Zealand in January. There is hope that the situation will change in the near future though as USACA is currently trying to lock in a commercial partnership to generate significant funding to be used for improvements both on and off the field. "We are looking at these commercial programs, which the CEO [Don Lockerbie] is pursuing as we speak," said Prasad. "So if that comes through in a couple of weeks, we could be in a very good position financially to start some very good programs. But like everything else, we have always been hampered by financial problems and once again we are encountering the same thing."

F1 team Williams ends Toyota engine deal

 Formula One team Williams will have a new engine supplier next season after its contract with Toyota was ended. An extension of the Toyota deal was signed earlier this year but it was mutually agreed to end the deal. 

Toyota Motorsport chairman Tadashi Yamashina said on Wednesday: "We respect the wishes of Williams to look for other opportunities and wish them well for the future." Renault and Cosworth are considered the most likely contenders to supply Williams in 2010. 

Williams had used Toyota engines since 2007, but never won a race with them. Team principal Sir Frank Williams said he appreciated Toyota stepping in at a time of "great difficulty" after a series of reliability failures when using Cosworth engines in 2006.

RED FLAG IN F1

In the event of a major incident or unsafe weather conditions, the race may be red flagged. Depending on the race distance covered at the time of the red flag, this can have several meanings:

If under 3 laps have been completed, the race is restarted from original grid positions. All drivers may take the restart, provided their car is in a fit state to do so.

If between 3 laps and 75% of the race distance have been completed, the race may be restarted once it is safe to do so using the race order at the time of the red flag. The two hour time limit still applies and the clock does not stop.

If more than 75% of the race distance has been completed then the race is finished and the race result counted back to the second last completed lap before the red flag.

The format of the Race has changed little through Formula One's history. The main changes have revolved around what changes are allowed at Pit Stops. In the early days of Grand Prix racing, a driver would be allowed to continue a race in his teammates car should his develop a problem. In recent years however, the focus has been on refuelling and tyre-changes. From the 2010 season, refuelling will be banned to encourage less tactical racing, having only been re-introduced in 1994 following safety fears. The rule requiring both compounds of tyre to be used during the race was only introduced in 2008, again to encourage racing on the track. The Safety Car is another relatively recent innovation that meant fewer red flags were required, allowing races to be completed on time for a growing international live television audience.

Schumacher

Michael Schumacher (born 3 January 1969, in Hürth-Hermülheim, Germany) is a German former Formula One driver and seven-time Formula One world drivers' champion, and current advisor for Ferrari. According to the official Formula One website, he is "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen". He is the only German to win the Formula One World championship, and is credited with popularizing Formula One in Germany. In a 2006 FIA survey, Michael Schumacher was voted the most popular driver of the season among Formula One fans. After winning two championships with Benetton, Michael Schumacher moved to Scuderia Ferrari in 1996 and won five consecutive drivers' titles with them from 2000–2004. Schumacher holds many records in Formula One, including most drivers' championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions, points scored and most races won in a single season. Schumacher is the only Formula One driver to have an entire season of podium finishes, a feat he accomplished in 2002. His driving sometimes created controversy: he was twice involved in collisions that determined the outcome of the world championship, most notably his disqualification from the 1997 championship for causing a collision with Jacques Villeneuve. After the 2006 Formula One season Schumacher retired from race driving.

RACING AND STRATEGY IN F1

A Formula One Grand Prix event spans a weekend, beginning with two free practice sessions on Friday (except in Monaco, where Friday practices are moved to Thursday), and one free practice on Saturday. Additional drivers (commonly known as third drivers) are allowed to run on Fridays, but only two cars may be used per team, requiring a race driver to give up their seat. A Qualifying session is held after the last free practice session. This session determines the starting order for the race

SCHMI-THE REAL FI HERO

Michael Schumacher and Ferrari won an unprecedented five consecutive drivers’ championships and six consecutive constructors’ championships between 1999 and 2004. Schumacher set many new records, including those for Grand Prix wins (91), wins in a season (13 of 18), and most drivers' championships (7).Schumacher's championship streak ended on September 25, 2005 when Renault driver Fernando Alonso became Formula One’s youngest champion at that time. In 2006, Renault and Alonso won both titles again. Schumacher retired at the end of 2006 after sixteen years in Formula One.

During this period the championship rules were frequently changed by the FIA with the intention of improving the on-track action and cutting costs.Team orders, legal since the championship started in 1950, were banned in 2002 after several incidents in which teams openly manipulated race results, generating negative publicity, most famously by Ferrari at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. Other changes included the qualifying format, the points scoring system, the technical regulations and rules specifying how long engines and tyres must last. A 'tyre war' between suppliers Michelin and Bridgestone saw lap times fall, although at the 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis seven out of ten teams did not race when their Michelin tyres were deemed unsafe for use. During 2006, Max Mosley outlined a ‘green’ future for Formula One, in which efficient use of energy would become an important factor.And the tyre war ended, as Bridgestone became the sole tyre supplier to Formula One for the 2007 season.

Since 1983, Formula One had been dominated by specialist race teams like Williams, McLaren and Benetton, using engines supplied by large car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Renault and Ford. Starting in 2000, with Ford’s creation of the largely unsuccessful Jaguar team, new manufacturer-owned teams entered Formula One for the first time since the departure of Alfa Romeo and Renault at the end of 1985. By 2006, the manufacturer teams–Renault, BMW, Toyota, Honda and Ferrari–dominated the championship, taking five of the first six places in the constructors' championship. The sole exception was McLaren, which is part-owned by Mercedes Benz. Through the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) they negotiated a larger share of Formula One’s commercial profit and a greater say in the running of the sport.

CIRCUITS F1

A typical circuit usually features a stretch of straight road on which the starting grid is situated. The pit lane, where the drivers stop for fuel and tyres during the race, and where the teams work on the cars before the race, is normally located next to the starting grid. The layout of the rest of the circuit varies widely, although in most cases the circuit runs in a clockwise direction. Those few circuits that run anticlockwise (and therefore have predominantly left-handed corners) can cause drivers neck problems due to the enormous lateral forces generated by F1 cars pulling their heads in the opposite direction to normal.

Most of the circuits currently in use are specially constructed for competition. The current street circuits are Monaco, Melbourne, Valencia, and Singapore, although races in other urban locations come and go (Las Vegas and Detroit, for example) and proposals for such races are often discussed–most recently London and Paris. Several other circuits are also completely or partially laid out on public roads, such as Spa-Francorchamps. The glamour and history of the Monaco race are the primary reasons why the circuit is still in use, since it is thought not to meet the strict safety requirements imposed on other tracks. Three-time World champion Nelson Piquet famously described racing in Monaco as "like riding a bicycle around your living room"[citation needed].

Circuit design to protect the safety of drivers is becoming increasingly sophisticated, as exemplified by the new Bahrain International Circuit, added in 2004 and designed – like most of F1's new circuits – by Hermann Tilke. Several of the new circuits in F1, especially those designed by Tilke, have been criticised as lacking the "flow" of such classics as Spa-Francorchamps and Imola. His redesign of the Hockenheim circuit in Germany for example, while providing more capacity for grandstands and eliminating extremely long and dangerous straights, has been frowned upon by many who argue that part of the character of the Hockenheim circuits was the long and blinding straights into dark forest sections. These newer circuits, however, are generally agreed to meet the safety standards of modern Formula One better than the older ones.

The most recent additions to the F1 calendar are Valencia and Singapore.Also Abu Dhabi will host the last race of the 2009 season and a Formula 1 Grand Prix will be held in India for the first time in 2011.

A single race requires hotel rooms to accommodate at least 5000 visitors.

RED FLAG IN F1

In the event of a major incident or unsafe weather conditions, the race may be red flagged. Depending on the race distance covered at the time of the red flag, this can have several meanings:

If under 3 laps have been completed, the race is restarted from original grid positions. All drivers may take the restart, provided their car is in a fit state to do so.

If between 3 laps and 75% of the race distance have been completed, the race may be restarted once it is safe to do so using the race order at the time of the red flag. The two hour time limit still applies and the clock does not stop.

If more than 75% of the race distance has been completed then the race is finished and the race result counted back to the second last completed lap before the red flag.

The format of the Race has changed little through Formula One's history. The main changes have revolved around what changes are allowed at Pit Stops. In the early days of Grand Prix racing, a driver would be allowed to continue a race in his teammates car should his develop a problem. In recent years however, the focus has been on refuelling and tyre-changes. From the 2010 season, refuelling will be banned to encourage less tactical racing, having only been re-introduced in 1994 following safety fears. The rule requiring both compounds of tyre to be used during the race was only introduced in 2008, again to encourage racing on the track. The Safety Car is another relatively recent innovation that meant fewer red flags were required, allowing races to be completed on time for a growing international live television audience.

FORMULA 1

Formula One is prominently known as F1, and is currently officially referred to as the FIA. Formula One 

World Championship is the highest class of auto racing sanctioned by the Federation International of the Automobile (FIA). The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must follow. The F1 season consists of a series of races, known as Grand Prix, held on purpose - built circuits, and to a lesser extent, former public roads and with closed city streets. The results of each race are combined to determine two annual World Championships, one for the drivers and one for the constructors, with racing drivers, constructor teams, track officials, organizers and circuits required to be holders of valid Super License, the highest class racing license issued by FIA. The cars are capable of pulling in excess of 5 g forces in some typical curves. The performance of the cars is highly dependent on electronics but traction control and driving aids have been banned since 2007, aerodynamics with suspension and on tires. The formula has seen many evolutions and changes through the history of the world sport. Events in Europe and the Americas have dropped in favor of races in Asia and the Middle East part of the eighteen races in 2008, nine were held outer Europe

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QUALIFYING F1-THE WAYS

For much of the history, qualifying sessions differed little from that of practice sessions. Drivers would have the entire session in which to attempt to set their best time, sometimes within a very limited number of attempts, grid order determined by each driver's the best single lap timing, fastest  as on pole position to slowest in last pole position. Grids were limited to the fastest 26 cars and drivers had to lap within 107% of the pole sitter's time to qualify for the every single race. Other formats have included Friday pre - qualifying, and sessions in which each driver was allowed one qualifying lap, run separately in a order prescribed. The current qualifying system, known as "knock-out" qualifying and adopted starting with the 2003 season which is split into 3 periods. In each period, drivers run qualifying laps to attempt to advance to their next period, running as many laps as their wish, with the slowest drivers being "knocked out" at the end of the period and their grid positions is thus set. Cars are eliminated in this manner until 10 cars remain eligible to attempt to qualify for pole position in final period. Very thrilling game! U may love it.