Trophies and Trailers - The ups and downs of the racing weekend

Motorsport.com editors and writers watch nearly every lap of competition from around the world every weekend, and will today start a new feature where we highlight what we feel are the top moments of the weekend – along with some of the brain fades that are just as prevalent in auto racing.

We hope you enjoy the premier installment of Trophies and Trailers.

A Trophy to Pro Stock driver Vincent Nobile this weekend not just for winning the K&N Horsepower Challenge AND the NHRA event at Norwalk, but for repeatedly stating that he was far happier about being able to help Joplin, Missouri resident Peggy Coleman win a new Toyota Tundra as part of the K&N program

Nobile celebrates with Peggy Coleman(left)

Photo by: NHRA

“This is not about the money,” said Nobile following his $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge victory. “It’s not even about the trophy. It’s about the story. Winning the race meant winning a Toyota Tundra for Peggy Coleman. She was in a terrible situation where she lost her house and it’s great to be able to give her something back to her.”

Trophies also to Toyota and to GK Motorsports owner Gaston Kearby for agreeing to cover the sales tax and any other costs incurred by Coleman for winning the vehicle.

Trailers to the McLaren Mercedes team for not being ready for rain this past weekend at Silverstone. See the quote from team principal Martin Whitmarsh and remember that the team’s annual budget is more than the budget than the entire Indy Car field put together.

“A dry race wasn’t what we were expecting – and, undoubtedly, had it been a wet race, as was predicted, our competitiveness relative to that of our opposition would have been significantly enhanced.”

Sébastien Bourdais, Dragon Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

Trophies to Sebastien Bourdais for raising what had been a largely uncompetitive Dragon Racing car up to speed at this weekend’s Indy Car event in Toronto. Unfortunately,we give Trailers to Mike Conway and Charlie Kimball for sticking Bourdais in the fence on a late restart, denying Bourdais a shot at catching Ryan Hunter-Reay. Bourdais was the only driver of the three that would have had a prayer of running down the red-hot Hunter-Reay.

Trailers to Funny Car top qualifier Johnny Gray for suffering a popped parachute on his burnout for his first elimination round battle against Robert Hight. Well, it could have been worse…he could have been Angie Smith

Trophies to Mark Webber for his great late-race comeback to get around Fernando Alonso and win at Silverstone. It would have been easy to be content with second place on a track that doesn’t lend itself to great passing opportunities, but the tenacious Aussie walked Alonso down and took a big victory.

Race winner Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium

Photo by: xpb.cc

Trailers (at least for now) for A.J. Allmendinger for possibly tossing away the One Big Break that a driver gets in their career. The former open-wheel star consistently showed improvement through his five years in NASCAR, earning a shot with powerful Penske Racing. A positive drug test has sidelined him, and the speed with which NASCAR put Allmendinger on the bench doesn’t bode well for those hoping for a false positive.