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Kimi Raikkonen planning Nascar debut this year

The 2007 F1 champion will make his Nascar debut this year according to media reports in Finland.

Reuters

March 30, 2011

HELSINKI // Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One world champion, will make a surprise Nascar debut this year while also competing in rallies, according to a report in Finland's Turun Sanomat newspaper.

The Finn, who took the F1 title with Ferrari, has been driving a Citroen in the World Rally Championship (WRC) since he left Formula One at the end 2009.

The paper said the 31-year-old, nicknamed "Iceman", now plans to enter some Nascar races with his ICE1 team when WRC commitments permit.

"I am excited about getting to know Nascar world. I have been following it for a long time," the paper quoted him as saying.

"I am 100 per cent sure it will be fun and challenging," he added.

The paper said Raikkonen will drive his first race in the truck series, before then moving up to other Nascar series, before the summer and talks with a manufacturer were being finalised.

The autosport.com website said Foster Gillett, whose father George was until last year a co-owner of Liverpool football club, would be a major partner of the team.

Jeff Gordon, the four-time Sprint Cup champion, welcomed the report.

"I think it would be cool and exciting," he told Reuters in a statement.

"Being a fan of Formula One racing, I've watched Kimi compete and win in that series and I think it would be great to have him racing in Nascar."

Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr, a former Renault F1 driver who left for Nascar after triggering one of the sport's biggest controversies when he revealed he had been ordered to crash deliberately, also welcomed the news.

"I think it's great for the series to have Kimi Raikkonen decide to enter Nascar and race in the trucks, and it will be great for him to know what American racing is all about," he told Reuters.

Piquet drives a Kevin Harvick Inc. owned truck in the series.

Other prominent Formula One drivers to have competed in Nascar include Canada's 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve and Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya, who is racing for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

Expert advice

“Join in with a group like Cycle Safe Dubai or TrainYAS, where you’ll meet like-minded people and always have support on hand.”

Stewart Howison, co-founder of Cycle Safe Dubai and owner of Revolution Cycles

“When you sweat a lot, you lose a lot of salt and other electrolytes from your body. If your electrolytes drop enough, you will be at risk of cramping. To prevent salt deficiency, simply add an electrolyte mix to your water.”

Cornelia Gloor, head of RAK Hospital’s Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Centre 

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can ride as fast or as far during the summer as you do in cooler weather. The heat will make you expend more energy to maintain a speed that might normally be comfortable, so pace yourself when riding during the hotter parts of the day.”

Chandrashekar Nandi, physiotherapist at Burjeel Hospital in Dubai
 

So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?

Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
 

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