| By Scott Mitchell | Monday, March 2nd 2015, 16:16 GMT |
Race-winning British Touring Car team Eurotech Racing will field Martin Depper again in 2015, and has signed former WSR team manager Marvin Humphries to head up its race weekend operations
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| By Gary Watkins | Monday, March 2nd 2015, 16:45 GMT |
Nissan's radical GT-R LM NISMO has been labelled as both "exciting" and "brave" by its opposition in this year's World Endurance Championship
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| By Ben Anderson | Monday, March 2nd 2015, 17:04 GMT |
Renault admits it will arrive at the first race of the new Formula 1 season with work still to do to meet its target of closing the gap to Mercedes
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| Sunday, March 1st 2015, 23:26 GMT |
Jimmie Johnson claimed victory in the Atlanta NASCAR Sprint Cup race despite missing qualifying.
Hendrick's six-time champion was among a group of cars that did not make it through a controversial technical inspection in time to run in Friday's qualifying session, leaving him 37th for the start.
Johnson made steady progress through the pack and then began a lead battle with reigning champion Kevin Harvick in the second half of the race.
Harvick's charge had been even more impressive than Johnson's. His front row start had been lost when an engine failure in Saturday practice put him to the back for the race, but he surged up the order to take the lead from polesitter and early dominator Joey Logano on lap 87 of 325.
The Stewart-Haas driver controlled the middle section of the race before eventually losing out to Johnson, who broke decisively clear in the final 14-lap sprint following a red flag for a multi-car pile-up triggered by Greg Biffle and Joe Nemechek colliding.
Johnson took the flag 1.8 seconds ahead of Harvick, who passed Dale Earnhardt Jr for second late on.
Logano faded to fourth, ahead of brief race leader Matt Kenseth. Pitting for fresh rubber slightly earlier than rivals on a day of extreme tyre wear paid off for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, as he repeatedly gained ground on his out-laps.
Martin Truex Jr, AJ Allmendinger and a great performance by Brett Moffitt, the rookie standing in for Brian Vickers in the Michael Waltrip Toyota for this race only, filled positions six to eight.
Denny Hamlin had been a top-three contender for a long spell and briefly led, but spun after a restart in the final quarter of the race and took Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray with him.
RESULTS - 325 LAPS:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet |
| 3 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet |
| 4 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford |
| 5 | Matt Kenseth | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota |
| 6 | Martin Truex Jr. | Furniture Row Racing | Chevrolet |
| 7 | A.J. Allmendinger | JTG Daugherty Racing | Chevrolet |
| 8 | Brett Moffitt | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota |
| 9 | Brad Keselowski | Team Penske | Ford |
| 10 | Ryan Newman | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet |
| 11 | Aric Almirola | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford |
| 12 | Carl Edwards | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota |
| 13 | Paul Menard | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet |
| 14 | Kasey Kahne | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet |
| 15 | Casey Mears | Germain Racing | Chevrolet |
| 16 | Danica Patrick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet |
| 17 | Regan Smith | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet |
| 18 | David Ragan | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota |
| 19 | Trevor Bayne | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford |
| 20 | Justin Allgaier | HScott Motorsports | Chevrolet |
| 21 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford |
| 22 | David Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford |
| 23 | Alex Bowman | Tommy Baldwin Racing | Chevrolet |
| 24 | Clint Bowyer | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota |
| 25 | Greg Biffle | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford |
| 26 | Kyle Larson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet |
| 27 | Michael McDowell | Leavine Family Racing | Ford |
| 28 | Brendan Gaughan | Premium Motorsports | Chevrolet |
| 29 | Michael Annett | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet |
| 30 | Tony Stewart | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet |
| 31 | Mike Bliss | Go FAS Racing | Ford |
| 32 | Josh Wise | Phil Parsons Racing | Ford |
| 33 | Joe Nemechek | Front Row Motorsports | Ford |
| 34 | J.J. Yeley | BK Racing | Toyota |
| 35 | Jeb Burton | BK Racing | Toyota |
| 36 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford |
| 37 | Cole Whitt | Front Row Motorsports | Ford |
| 38 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota |
| 39 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet |
| 40 | Jamie McMurray | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet |
| 41 | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet |
| 42 | Ron Hornaday Jr. | The Motorsports Group | Chevrolet |
| 43 | Landon Cassill | Hillman Smith Motorsports | Chevrolet |
| - | Brian Scott | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet |
LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER TWO OF 36 ROUNDS:
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joey Logano | 88 |
| 2 | Jimmie Johnson | 87 |
| 3 | Kevin Harvick | 86 |
| 4 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 84 |
| 5 | Martin Truex Jr. | 75 |
| 6 | Casey Mears | 68 |
| 7 | Kasey Kahne | 65 |
| 8 | A.J. Allmendinger | 62 |
| 9 | Aric Almirola | 62 |
| 10 | Clint Bowyer | 58 |
| 11 | David Gilliland | 56 |
| 12 | Sam Hornish Jr. | 55 |
| 13 | Greg Biffle | 54 |
| 14 | Carl Edwards | 54 |
| 15 | David Ragan | 53 |
| 16 | Danica Patrick | 51 |
| 17 | Paul Menard | 50 |
| 18 | Matt Kenseth | 49 |
| 19 | Denny Hamlin | 48 |
| 20 | Michael Annett | 47 |
| By Ben Anderson and Jonathan Noble | Sunday, March 1st 2015, 18:03 GMT |
A bullish Nico Rosberg has no doubts Mercedes will be ready to "nail it" at the Australian Grand Prix, after ending pre-season Formula 1 testing full of confidence.
Having set the fastest time of the winter at Barcelona earlier this week, Rosberg says he has no concerns at all about the potential of the new W06.
"It has been a great winter for us," said the German. "We got off to a running start with not many reliability problems, and have been doing the mileage - which was great and important.
"Now we are able to extract performance from the car.
"I am not 100 per cent happy yet, but we know what we need to do, so that is important.
"And that is why I am sure we will nail it completely in Melbourne."
Rosberg also said that there also a personal psychological boost from having been the fastest overall at Barcelona.
"I am happy to be quickest," he said. "It is better than not being quickest!
"Of course it is not much worth much, but it gives a little bit extra. So it is always useful."
RELIABILITY NOT A MAJOR WORRY
Although Rosberg does not feel that Mercedes can relax totally about its reliability, having had a few problems over the winter, he thinks it is not anything to be seriously concerned about.
When asked about the most worrying aspect of the winter, he said: "Worrying is the reliability, but it is not really a worry.
"It is such a challenge to get these cars perfect for every team. That has been our weakness last year, and that is what we are looking to improve this year.
"We are on the right track, but it is so early in the season and that is one of our biggest challenges."
| By Matt Beer | Sunday, March 1st 2015, 17:50 GMT |
Pastor Maldonado's crash in Sunday's Barcelona Formula 1 test was caused by a brake problem rather than any form of driver error, says Lotus.
The team's test was brought to an early end when Maldonado went into the barriers at Turn 4 on the final afternoon of pre-season F1 running.
Lotus technical director Nick Chester underlined that there was nothing Maldonado could do to avoid the accident.
"Pastor was unfortunate to have a braking-related issue which meant he wasn't able to slow sufficiently into Turn 4 and the car was damaged," he said.
"There was nothing Pastor or any driver could have done to avoid this accident, which was systems related, and we're investigating thoroughly to ensure it doesn't happen again.
"It was a pity we weren't able to run any low fuel laps later in the day."
Maldonado ended up seventh on the timesheets due to his curtailed programme, but said he remained very optimistic after Lotus's stronger winter.
"It was a shame to end the day early, but that was the only issue we've had like this during testing so we can look to the positive that we have a lot of information to take the car in the right direction," he said.
"My braking was compromised coming into Turn 4, meaning I went off the track and hit the barriers.
"I was able to brake and slow, just not as much as the maximum otherwise possible.
"The car was not too badly damaged and I am fine, but it's a shame we had this issue as we would have been looking at running the softer tyres in the afternoon and putting in some fast laps.
"I'm looking forward to getting back in the car in Melbourne as I think we have good potential this season."
| By Lawrence Barretto and Glenn Freeman | Saturday, February 28th 2015, 18:43 GMT |
Nico Hulkenberg believes that Force India's start with its late 2015 car has gone better than the team could have expected.
The VJM08 only hit the track halfway through the second day of the final pre-season test, but Hulkenberg managed more than 200 laps in just a day and a half of running.
When asked if the team expected the car to run so reliably from the off, Hulkenberg said: "No, I think that's a surprise, even to me.
"It's very good that we brought it here and pretty much just shook it out like this.
"It's a surprise to me and the team - to everybody, and obviously it's what we needed."
Hulkenberg admitted that the late debut will inevitably hold the team back in some areas, but he feels it has made a very strong start.
"First impressions are good - yesterday 80 laps straight out of the box and now two and-a-half race distances today," he said.
"No hiccups, no issues - that's very positive. And we were able to do some good and proper work already.
"It's similar to last year's car so straight away we found a good base we can work from.
"I think we've achieved a lot today, and everybody is as happy as you can be."
McLAREN WILL BOUNCE BACK
Force India spent most of 2014 locked in battle with McLaren in the constructors' championship, and Hulkenberg said it would be naive for the team to expect to finish ahead of the Honda-powered team simply because it has struggled so far in testing.
"I don't know where McLaren stand," he said. "Obviously they've had quite a troubled testing period.
"But I also know that a Formula 1 season is very long and a lot can happen in those eight or nine months, so I wouldn't write them off.
"We're not thinking about them at the moment - we're just thinking about ourselves and working on our car."
| By Ben Anderson | Saturday, February 28th 2015, 19:12 GMT |
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes is trying to understand why he and team-mate Nico Rosberg have felt uncomfortable in their car over the past two days of Formula 1 pre-season testing.
Mercedes' pace has shocked F1 rivals at the Barcelona circuit this week, but both drivers have complained about the set-up of the car.
Hamilton spent much of his final day of pre-season testing in the garage while Mercedes crosschecked changes to the car, but he still managed to top the times.
The reigning world champion suspected a shift in circuit conditions might account for the drivers' discomfort, but he said the team was investigating.
"It wasn't particularly a spectacular day," Hamilton said. "I put the lap together, but the track was quite slow compared to the first day.
"We're trying to understand. All of a sudden the car was feeling worse than my first day and we made some changes to understand why, whether something's happened with the track or the tyres.
"The track seems to have lost some grip from the last two days, so it wasn't the best in terms of feeling.
"Nico wasn't comfortable in the car yesterday and I felt the same.
"We think the tyres and the circuit are behaving a little differently these last two days, and we think the track's been half a second to seven tenths slower than the first day."
ILLNESS NO SETBACK
A fever sidelined Hamilton from his first day of driving at last week's Barcelona test, but the Briton said the after effects would not affect his preparations for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
"I should be fine," he added. "The bug's been around - my mum, my sister, my nephew, several of my engineers have it.
"It's just some nasty bug that's going around. I'm kind of on the end of having it, so it hasn't really affected preparations."
| By Mitchell Adam | Saturday, February 28th 2015, 20:19 GMT |
Kevin Magnussen wanted to race alongside his father Jan in this year's Le Mans 24 Hours after missing out on a Formula 1 race seat with McLaren.
After learning that he would be relegated to a reserve driver role in F1 to make way for Fernando Alonso, Magnussen explored the possibility of joining his father in Corvette's factory sportscar programme for the June showpiece event.
However, it was too late for the younger Dane to find a seat.
"I asked my dad if he would ask Corvette if there was an available slot," said Magnussen after his first day of F1 testing in 2015 at Barcelona.
"That would be cool to do, team-mates with dad at Le Mans to try to win class, but they had already signed drivers for the car.
"So it will not happen this year, and this year would have been a good opportunity for it to happen.
"I will have to ask him to keep going for another 15 years."
MANOR F1 DRIVE UNLIKELY
The 22-year-old added that he doesn't expect to appear on the F1 grid with the Manor/Marussia team, which still has a vacant seat for this season.
"I think it would be wrong to say no completely, but it is not what I am looking at," Magnussen said.
"We haven't talked to them. It is not like we are jumping at it.
"We are thinking of everything, it's difficult to know what is the best thing for getting back to F1."
Magnussen is still unsure how his 2015 programme will shape up, as he could end up racing in another series alongside his McLaren commitments.
"I got the call quite late that I wasn't racing in F1, so a lot of things were closed already," he said.
"The options are very limited, but I am also not really sure if racing something else is the right thing to do if you want to get back to F1.
"The best thing would be to drive race cars and do races and keep sharp. F1 is tricky these days with not much testing."
DayLynn Contreras and Angelica Perez have a channel called "Jelly and Day" which uses FameBit to make money with their videos. Since December 2014, Contreras has been using a service called FameBit to make that a financial possibility.
FameBit is a marketplace for brands and YouTube creators to form business deals. Brands post products they want used in YouTube videos. Video creators bid how much they'll do the job for, and brands select the best candidates.
"The biggest [YouTube] stars are quite visible, but anyone in the mid-scale can be hard to find." said FameBit co-founder Agnes Kozera.
Kozera said that while some of the top YouTube sensations might have 10 million subscribers, brands can achieve that same reach by working with several lesser known YouTube creators..
"You hit that same reach and you have a lot more content," said Kozera, who said users can get paid anywhere from a minimum of $100 to upwards of $20,000. "[While] it's awesome to have that one viral video with a giant star -- it can be a hit or miss."
The Santa Monica-based FameBit, which launched to the public in May 2014, now works with over 1,000 brands, some as big as Adidas and L'Oreal or as small as DogVacay.
"We focus on the 90% that no one else focuses on," said FameBit co-founder David Kierzkowski. (Another startup, MiTu, offers a similar service for Latino creators.)
FameBit says 8,000 YouTube creators, with a combined audience of 300 million viewers, are using their service.
Contreras, 22, runs a a channel called "Jelly and Day" with her fiance Angelica Perez, 23. The channel has just over 100,000 subscribers, but hadn't made any significant amount of money until recently. They were getting paid a minor amount each month through a partnership with YouTube network, Full Screen. Contreras said it was "definitely not enough to live on."
Since joining FameBit, "Our whole world has turned upside down," Contreras said.
Among their light hearted videos on their Jelly and Day channel is a monthly "favorites" video which incorporates up to 15 products from brands paying them via FameBit. Each advertiser pays them an amount which typically ranges from $200 to $2,000 depending on their bid.
"We only apply to brands that we'd actually use," Contreras said, which helps make the brands look less like an advertisement and more authentically integrated into the videos.
There's a lot of competition to win a bid -- which Contreras said they've had a lot of success with because they tend to low-ball a lot of brand, something they're able to do if they're incorporating many brands into one video.
"It's like a game," she said. "I saw the Selfie Stick on FameBit. I just wanted it, so I said $50 and I got the stick."
Together, the two have earned roughly $4,000 a month. Plus, they get to keep the products. Though they're new to the service, that monthly rate was enough for Perez to quit her full-time job as an executive assistant this week.
Contreras hopes to follow suit in the coming months and she closely monitors her FameBit account for new postings while at her day job.
"I refresh [the webpage] every hour," she added. "Literally."
Its users aren't the only ones profiting.
Kierzkowski said FameBit -- which has raised $1.5 million in funding from investors like Science and 500 Startups -- is already profitable. The startup takes a 20% commission on all deals, plus offers a VIP service, which offers additional support for larger brands.
Kierzkowski declined to disclose specifics on financials but confirmed that the firm, which has a team of 13, grossed over $3 million in 2014.
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CNNMoney (New York) February 27, 2015: 4:05 PM ET
