2010 Race Calendar

During the 2009 season I thought it would be a great idea to create a race schedule in Google Calendar featuring different racing series. I was busy with accounts studies at the time and I never got around to taking it further. Early last month I decided it was worth exploring so I set up a trial with F1 and IndyCar dates. I'd add more later if I decided it looked okay. Again I let it drop when other things got in the way.

Christine from Sidepodcast recently created a calendar highlighting F1 events and the SPC / F1 Minute podcast schedules and she did a great job, enough to inspire me to get on and finish my idea.

Here it is!



My schedule includes F1, F2, GP2, IndyCar, Le Mans 24hr, ALMS, LMS, MotoGP, WRC, IRC and WTCC. I've also put in Dakar, Goodwood and a couple of other things. I'll add NASCAR Sprint Cup and DTM soon - there are categories already so if you add them the events will hopefully appear in your calendar automatically.

Christine's calendar is F1-specific and it includes Free Practice, pre-season testing and car launches. My calendar includes none of these things, only qualifying and race. I highly recommend adding Christine's F1 calendar if you would like this extra information.

Click the "+GoogleCalendar" button to add to your own Google Calendar account. I have split events by race series so you can just pick the ones you want. I think there is a way to get them into iCal and other systems, though I don't know how.


The calendar is set to UK time because that's where I am and that's most useful to me. I'm not sure but I believe when you import it, it will adjust it to your own default timezone. Have a play with it and see.

Race start times are estimates apart from F1 and Le Mans. This information is surprisingly hard to find. E.g. IndyCar.com only lists TV start times, not race starts. Many sites only give the dates and I've had to improvise. Then there's the issue of timezones which I may have got wrong. I plan to make each forthcoming weekend as accurate as I can, beyond that just use this as a guide.

I've included qualifying for F1, Le Mans 24Hrs and IndyCar (times estimated). I don't intend to include any more qualifying.

I hope you find this useful and please let me know if there is anything you would like to add. If the demand is there and I think it warrants adding, I'll do so. I'm already considering Indy Lights.

As you can see I've also added a list version to the sidebar. When I create the new site I will have a version similar to the one above on its own page.

On The Limit: DTM highlights - with a difference

It is about time I resurrected the old 'On The Limit' feature, where I either link to or post here a motorsport video on anything that takes my fancy. I've been negligent in updating what was supposed to be a regular feature.

The reason I bring this up now is the appearance of a clutch of season highlights videos, both official and unofficial, appearing all over the web at this time of year. One of the best of these was found by Scott from the Zero Downforce blog and is an artistic and really rather good look at the 2009 DTM season. I don't care if you don't like DTM or that it is mostly in German, it is a high-quality piece of work and well worth a look for any fan of racing in general.

Scott found it so I asked him to post it to his blog rather than steal all the credit here, so I urge you to watch this video by clicking here RIGHT NOW!

If you find a great video, if they are highlights or just a fantastic bit of car control, post it to your blog and I can include it in this series. Let's get a bit of inter-blog linkery goin' on.

Weekend Preview : 1-2 August 2009

Feature Events

IRL IndyCar Series

- Meijer Indy 300
- Kentucky Speedway
- Sparta, Kentucky, United States
- (12/17)
- www.indycar.com

Changes to the aero rules for this race (see previous post) should mean an improvement in the racing on this 1.5 mile oval, as it has been fairly bad on ovals earlier this season. Since side by side open-wheel racing on ovals is the hallmark and unique selling point of this series, let's hope they work.

Note this is a Saturday night race under the lights.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 2am Sunday (repeated 11.30am and 4.30pm on SS Xtra)
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 8pm ET Saturday

Other Events

Le Mans Series

- 1000KM do Algarve
- Portimao
- Algarve, Portugal
- (3/5)
- www.lemans-series.com

The is the first evening/night race for the Le Mans Series in Europe, and also the first visit of the series to this new circuit. The race will begin at 7.15pm local (and UK) time and run for the usual LMS distance of 1000km or six hours.

TV Guide:
UK – Eurosport at 7pm for 1h30m.

Formula Renault 3.5

- Portimao
- Algarve, Portugal

Supporting the LMS, both races are on Saturday afternoon.

TV Guide:

Race 1 on Eurosport at 12pm Saturday.
Race 2 doesn't appear to be covered.

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Pennsylvania 500
- Pocono, Pennsylvania, United States
- www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 3 at 7pm Sunday
US - LIVE on ESPN at 1pm Sunday

NASCAR Nationwide Series

- Iowa Speedway
- Iowa, United States
- www.nascar.com

NASCAR Camping World Trucks

- Nashville Speedway
- Tennessee, United States
- www.nascar.com

DTM

- Oschersleben
- Germany
- www.dtm.tv / www.dtm.com

dtm.tv should have live coverage from 1pm UK time.

V8 Supercars

- Norton 360 Sandown Challenge
- Sandown, Australia
- www.v8supercar.com.au

Indy Lights

- Oschersleben
- Germany

F3 Euroseries

- Kentucky Speedway
- Kentucky, USA

Superleague Formula

- Donington Park
- Leics., England, UK

World Rally Championship

- Rally Finland
- www.wrc.com

Kimi Raikkonen has entered his home round of the WRC in a Super 2000 spec Abarth. After the first day's stages he's performing among the top runners in his class and in the top 20 overall!

Intercontinental Rally Challenge

- Rally Vinho Madeira
- Madeira, Portugal
- www.ircseries.com

British Touring Car Championship

- Snetterton
- Norfolk, England, UK

TV Guide:

UK - The usual six hours (3 x BTCC plus lots of support races) on ITV4 from 11.30am!

* * * *

Sources:
Live Sport on TV
RadioTimes.com
and several of the series sites mentioned above

Weekend Preview: 18-19 July 2009

Feature Events

MotoGP

- Alice Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland
- Sachsenring, Germany
- (9/17)
- www.motogp.com

Last weekend we had the German F1 GP, the 9th race of 17, and either due by design or coincidence this week sees the German MotoGP, also the 9th race of 17 but this time on the opposite side of the country to the Nurburgring over at the Sachsenring circuit between Dresden and Leipzig.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12.50pm Sunday, race starts at 1pm
(qualifying on BBC Red Button on Sat)
USA – LIVE on SPEED at 6pm ET Sunday
(amazing, the US gets a live MotoGP race!)

Support races are live on Eurosport and the BBC Red Button from 9.30am.

American Le Mans Series

- The American Le Mans North East Grand Prix
- Lime Rock Park, Connecticut, United States
- (5/10)
- www.americanlemans.com

The long hiatus to allow teams to compete at Le Mans – and recover – is finally over! This is a 2h45m event on the little Lime Rock circuit which last year was just a little bit frantic! Slightly fewer cars this year of course, but those up front will be trying just as hard.

TV Guide:
UK – Heavily Delayed on MotorsTV at 9.30pm on Monday 27th July
USA – LIVE on SPEED at 2pm ET Saturday

UK fans if you want to follow this event live I suggest listening to www.radiolemans.com instead! Should be at 7 or 8pm Saturday?

Other Events

FIA World Touring Car

- Brands Hatch
- Kent, England, UK
- (8/12)
- www.fiawtcc.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Eurosport
- Race 1 @ 11.45am Sunday
- Race 2 @ 1.30pm Sunday

FIA Formula 2

- Brands Hatch
- Kent, England, UK
- (4/)
- www.formulatwo.com
- with Formula Master

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Eurosport
- Race 1 DELAYED @ 6.45pm Saturday
- Race 2 LIVE @ 12.30pm Sunday

Elsewhere – Live streaming on www.formulatwo.com
Race 1 starts at 2pm on Saturday, Race 2 at 12.45pm Sunday

DTM

- Zandvoort
- Holland
- (4/10)
- www.dtm.com for news
- www.dtm.tv for live streaming and other video

The annual visit to Holland for the Germans appears likely to receive no UK TV airing following the collapse of Setanta Sports, as unlike GP2 no other broadcaster has stepped in to pick up the rights.

There should be live streaming on www.dtm.tv though! It is due to kick off at 1pm UK time.

Superleague Formula

- Zolder
- Belgium
- (6/11)
- www.superleagueformula.com

No TV deal here either for the same reasons as DTM, although I’m a little less bothered about this one!

World Series by Renault

- Le Mans Bugatti
- Le Mans, France
- (6/9)
- www.worldseriesbyrenault.com

There is a 30 minute update at 10pm Sunday on Eurosport, otherwise coverage seems as patchy and randomly-timed as ever.

Atlantic Championship

- Lime Rock Park
- Connecticut, USA
- (4/10)
- www.atlantic-championship.com

Grand-Am Rolex Series

- Barber Motorsport Park
- Alabama, USA
- (8//12)
- www.grand-am.com

Formula 3 Euroseries

- Zandvoort
- Holland
- (4/10)
- www.f3euroseries.com

NASCAR Nationwide Series

- Gateway International Raceway
- Madison, Illinois
- www.nascar.com

NASCAR Camping World Trucks

- Kentucky Speedway
- Sparta, Kentucky
- www.nascar.com
- with ARCA Re/Max

* * * *

I think that’s everything, if you spot anything I’ve missed or if you are attending any of these events be sure to leave a comment!

For those in the UK who missed the Goodwood Festival of Speed show on Tuesday, it will be repeated on ITV4 on Sunday at 5pm – don’t miss it!

Weekend Preview: 30-31 May 2009

Feature Events

IndyCar Series

- ABC Supply / AJ Foyt 225
- Milwaukee Mile, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
- (5/17)
- 225 laps
- www.indycar.com

Just one week after the Indy 500 the teams and drivers head to the traditional follow-up event at the Milwaukee Mile – this will be the 52nd time Milwaukee directly follows Indy in the schedule and the 3rd time under IRL sanction, it really is one of those long-time Indy-racing traditions. According to IndyCar.com the last driver to win both events back-to-back was Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000.

I like Milwaukee, it can be a lot of fun and it is a different kettle of fish to the 1.5 milers the IRL usually uses.

TV Guide:
UK - LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 11pm BST
USA – LIVE on ABC at 3:30pm EDT

Support races: Firestone Indy Lights

Other Events

MotoGP

- Gran Premio d’Italia Alice
- Mugello, Italy
- (5/17)
- www.motogp.com

To Italy! I still haven’t caught up with MotoGP so I really have no idea what’s going on, but this track ought to sort them out.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12.30pm
USA – Delayed on SPEED at 4pm ET

Supports: 250s, 125s, etc.

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Dover 400
- Dover, Delaware, USA
- Charlotte, South Carolina, USA
- (13/36)
- www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK - LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 7pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on FOX at 1.30pm ET Sunday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday), Camping World Trucks (Friday)

DTM

- EuroSpeedway Lausitz
- Lausitz, Germany
- (2/10)
- www.dtm.com (news/results)
- www.dtm.tv (video interviews, live streaming)

The German tourers head to the road course layout at the EuroSpeedway. Turn one is always fun but to be honest this isn’t my favourite DTM race of the year because the huge stands make the place look empty and the track itself isn’t very interesting. There is always a bit of fun at turn one at the start, otherwise there isn’t much to be said.

The good news is that we in the UK return to live coverage for this event, so if you have Setanta be sure to check it out.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Setanta Sports 1 at 12.30pm.
Worldwide – LIVE on www.dtm.tv from 2pm CET / 1pm BST / 8am EDT. When you follow that link it will ask you to choose one of two sites, pick the right-hand one. The live link is on the top right of the page.

Support races: F3 Euroseries

WTCC

- Valencia
- Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, Spain
- (5/12)
- www.fiawtcc.com

I’ve never liked this circuit. It can produce the odd reasonable race but I just don’t like it! In many ways it shares several characteristics with Lausitz. Lots of tight turns, a long straight, lots of seats that aren’t filled..

TV Guide:
LIVE on Eurosport at 11.45am (race 1) and 1.45pm (race 2).

Support races: International Formula Master

Formula 2

- Valencia
- Circuit de Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, Spain
- (1/8)
- www.formulatwo.com

The return of the F2 name to the contemporary motorsport scene, except this time rather than being an open formula it is a spec series run to a budget. It is pitched as a Formula 1 feeder but in all honesty it’ll find itself competing with FR3.5 to get people into GP2 with the odd guy getting a test & reserve deal in F1 - not to mention this is yet another fracture of the development ladder! Still, if it give opportunities to talented drivers who can't afford the alternatives then it will have served its purpose well, and perhaps it is other series that need to be cut back. Time will decide that one.

TV Guide:
Eurosport at 5pm Saturday (delayed race 1) and 12.45pm Sunday (LIVE race 2).
Note race 2 slots directly between the two WTCC races in the Eurosport schedule!
There is also live coverage on the series website at 2.20pm CET Saturday and 1.50pm CET Sunday.

BTCC

- Oulton Park
- Cheshire, England, UK
- www.btcc.net

Oulton Park is an excellent and deceptively tricky circuit which is a lot of fun to watch!

Formula Nippon

- Fuji, Japan

V8 Supercars

- Symmons Plains, Australia

British F3 & GT

- Rockingham, England

* * *
That’s it, if ever if you think I’ve forgotten something please point it out in the comments. Enjoy your weekend!

Weekend Preview: 16-17 May 2009

Feature Events

MotoGP

- Grand Prix de France
- Le Mans Bugatti Circuit
- Le Mans, France
- (4/17)
- www.motogp.com

Much as last year the forecast for this weekend is for rain, it could be fun! I have to say I don’t usually enjoy events at this racetrack – the short Bugatti circuit, that is – but last year’s was very interesting due to the different tyre strategies involved. In fact the DTM race at same venue was under similar conditions. Is there a micro-climate we should be aware of?

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on BBC Two at 12:30pm

US – DELAYED on SPEED at 1pm ET

Support races: 250s, 125s, etc.

Other Events

NASCAR All-Star Race

- Lowe’s Motor Speedway
- Charlotte, South Carolina, USA
- (non-points)
- www.nascar.com

Not a part of the Sprint Cup but featuring all of the drivers and teams, this is basically a race for the sake of entertainment and a shedload of prize money. I don’t really understand how it works and quite honestly I don’t care.

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on Sky Sports 2 at 12.30am Saturday night / Sunday morning, repeated on three times across Sky Sports during Sunday.

US – LIVE on SPEED at 7pm ET Saturday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday), Truck Series (Friday)

American Le Mans Series

- Grand Prix of Utah
- Miller Motorsports Park
- Tooele, Utah, USA
- (4/10)
- www.americanlemans.com

Last week the European LMS held their last round before Le Mans and this week the Americans do the same. Simon Pagenaud and David Brabham raced last week for Peugeot at Spa (Pagenaud won) and this week both are on ALMS duty for Acura in the de Ferran and Highcroft entries respectively.

Of note here is the high altitude of the course which adds an extra dimension to the challenge of the race. The ALMS isn’t in as great a form as it used to be and they’ve had to bring in some GT3 cars as field-fillers, yet while the quantity is down the quality of entrants at the sharp end of each category is as high as it ever was.

Note – while many ALMS races are on Saturday, this race takes place on SUNDAY.

TV Guide:

UK – DELAYED BY ONE WHOLE WEEK to 5pm on May 24th, that’ll be shortly before the Indy 500 then… :stupid:

US – DELAYED at 10pm ET Sunday on SPEED (the race happens at 2.15pm ET)

Support races: Atlantics, Star Mazda, IMSA GT3 Cup, IMSA Lites

DTM

- Hockenheimring
- Hockenheim, Baden-Wurtemburg, Germany
- (1/10)
- www.dtm.tv

At long last the DTM gets started! After what seems like an eternity since the end of their 2008 season in October the German tintops heavily reliant on little aero tabs finally start their season. I’m not sure which genius decided they’d start in May but I suppose it separates them from all the other championships which start in March/April.

Mercedes vs Audi once again then and it looks like the 2-yr-old cars have been ditched, which is great news. It means Kat and Susie can finally demonstrate their known abilities against the rest of the 1-yr-old field, and a well-driven 1yr car can mix it with the current cars and certainly gets noticed. It could be a good year to watch DTM – unfortunately the FTA coverage on MotorsTV has vanished to be replaced with coverage on the pay-monthly Setanta.

TV Guide:
UK – DELAYED at 10pm on Setanta Sports 2

Support: Formula 3 Euroseries

FIA WTCC

- Race of France
- Pau, France
- (4/12)
- www.fiawtcc.com

Pau is a crazy place. Imagine Macau if it only had the narrow part, and fast. The racing isn’t always great but it’s worth a look to check out the precision driving, particularly over the chicanes with walls very close by. Of course it could all get horribly embarrassing very quickly indeed.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Eurosport at 11.45am (race 1) and 1.45pm (race 2).

Support: Formula Master (LIVE between the two touring car races)

Grand-Am Rolex Series

- Laguna Seca, California, USA
- (4/12)
- www.grand-am.com

TV Guide:
UK – highlights at silly o’clock midweek on Five
US – SPEED at 4pm ET

FIA GT

- Adria, Italy
- (2/8)
- www.fiagt.com

BTCC

- Donington Park
- Leicestershire, England, UK
- (3/10)
- www.btcc.net

It’s on!! Donington Park has finally corrected the problems which blighted the running of events between February and this month by realigning the run-off area at the new tunnel and the circuit now has a licence! The BTCC races at Donny are always a lot of fun so make sure you check it out. Those outside the UK can surely get a stream somewhere…

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on ITV4 from 11.30am, they will flash up the race schedule during the programme so that you can plan your day according to which support races you want to watch.

Supports: Clios, FRenault, Porsches, Ginettas

FNippon & JF3

- Suzuka, Japan

* * *
That’s it, if ever if you think I’ve forgotten something please point it out in the comments.

Don’t forget, in addition to these races there are also the final two qualifying sessions for the Indy 500. Third Day qualifying is on Saturday to fill positions 23-33 and on Sunday there is Bump Day as the last-chance qualifying. I’m not sure how many bumps there will actually be, it doesn’t seem like many so unlike last week I won’t be following it all that closely.

I tried an experiment on Twitter on Thursday night. I tweeted some race results, just the top few places, as an idea to promote discussion of series people may not usually follow. It turned out to be a bad idea! It doesn’t work at all on Twitter – but I think it may just work on the blog. I will be writing a test post at some point over the next few days using the format as these Previews and we’ll see how it goes.

Finally, an apology for the lack of updates recently. I am in the final stages of an accountancy course and I have been concentrating on that!

Enjoy your weekend!

A roof over your head

So.. I watched the Daytona 500 last night. You may have seen my Twitter feed at the time (see side panel) and my comments on Meesh's recent post.

I think some of those experienced NASCAR fans following me on Twitter might have been getting a bit annoyed at my newbie-ness. I was going for the 'F1/IRL fan discovers N-Word ovals' take, because that's what it was. I'm not going to apologise for that, I make it clear that I'm not a NASCAR fan, so if I annoyed you that's your own fault for following me! (Yes, I am a bit of a racing snob.)

Someone even asked how long I'd been following racing so surprised were they at my reaction to the US feed I was watching. It was tongue-in-cheek (err, I think?) but perhaps not realising that British sports coverage doesn't have sponsored discussion topics and anthropomorphic camera angles - or maybe it was to suggest I'm a noob for not being aware of the $$ in N-Word. Perhaps it was said not knowing I was British although I'm not sure why - I bang on about it far too often.

I just couldn't believe how many ad breaks were taken, and during the coverage how many times a sponsor was mentioned. They couldn't go more than 20 seconds without mentioning a brand name! It was ridiculous. Talk about over-commercialisation of sports.. and they say the Premier League has got it bad.

Just to rub it in to my American readers, our Formula 1 coverage switches to BBC1 this year - no commercials AT ALL! (apart from lots of BBC self-promotion)

Back to Daytona, and once I found a steady video feed quite late into the race I did actually enjoy it. I'm not stupid enough to expect real racing on a restrictor plate track, you need to look for strategy and leave the driving to another race. Some great strategic racing was developing before a yellow flag was thrown because a car was sent into the infield. I didn't see much debris on the track on this occasion, but that yellow did breed further yellows (for bigger incidents) which spoiled the flow of the race for me, and that persisted until the red flag for rain. As many sites and blogs have noted, it was an anticlimax.

I don't know why I persisted with the less-good feed for so long. I think it contributed to my lack of enjoyment for the first half of the event, however others have noted on other blogs (and on Twitter) that NASCAR races aren't actually that interesting or enjoyable until 50 to go anyway, so maybe it wasn't the video feed...

In summary, it was more enjoyable as a whole than I was expecting and you can't blame them for stopping for rain. If anything the stupid start time did them in. 3.30pm? Madness. Races should always start on the hour unless they are on the undercard. I'll be trying NASCAR ovals at random intervals again this year, follow my Twitter if you can bear it.


Full disclosure: On Twitter I said I'd not seen a full NASCAR race before. That was a little white lie. I've watched Watkins Glen, and I watched a chunk of Nationwide at Montreal last year. I had never seen a full NASCAR oval event before. I used to watch the odd highlights package - they cut so much out you couldn't figure out what was happening so I gave up on that idea fairly quickly.


Before the oval action I took in BTCC at Brands Hatch (Indy) and DTM at Barcelona, both recordings of events held in September, and still found time to go to the laundrette.
The DTM was boring once it had settled down, the field got far too spread out although I liked the battle between Paul Di Resta and Timo Scheider early on.
The BTCC at the short layout of Brands is always fast and frenetic and this was no exception! It won the day for me in terms of tin top entertainment. Giovanardi is a worthy champion and it is a shame to see his adversaries SEAT leave.

Tonight I'm watching WTCC at Imola, the first time I've seen the place since the redevelopment. They've done a great job with the revisions but F1 was right not to go back, even though the revisions were only done to please Bernie. It's a good bike and touring car track but is in no way suited to big open wheel cars. WTCC isn't as entertaining as BTCC but watching Thommo working hard for some good results was fun.

After this sudden binge of racing I'll probably take a break from watching any for a few days - I still have plenty on my hard drive - BTC and WTC have short races which is why I've got through so many this weekend. Knowing me I'll probably be on the podcasts tomorrow instead!

Tin Tops

And so begins the off-season. Here in Britain the temperatures have dropped, the radiators are on and the hot drinks are being consumed in earnest.

Already there is the noticeable drop-off in forum/newsgroup posts, which happens every year yet seems always to take me by surprise. On F1NGers there were over 100 posts after the Brazil race, now they are barely 15 per day. This year for the first time I am following motorsport blogs and I've noticed the same pattern. There's just not enough news - interesting news - to drive the content, what is around is just test reports and speculation about drivers in lower-order teams. Anyway, frankly some of my blogger friends deserve the rest after the amount of good stuff they've written over the year! I don't know how they keep up the post rates.

Not much rest for me though, I'm obsessed with this stuff so I'm gonna keep on trucking, if only a couple of times a week. I've built up a nice archive of recordings to watch to keep me going. This blog was partly set up to rattle on about what I'm watching, as much as comment on latest results and reports, so you might get a few posts like this until March.

I've spent the last few days watching cars with roofs (1). DTM Norisring, WTCC Estoril and WRC Finland.
(1) It should be rooves. One hoof, two hooves. One roof, two rooves.


The Norisring is an interesting place. Basically it is a short, bumpy street track of about 1.4 miles situated in the German city of Nuremberg, the track running around the Steintribüne where Hitler held his rallies. It is also FAST! These DTM cars are no slouches and the track is wide, they get decent speed along the front straight into the hairpin which looked like producing a major smash up on lap one, they did well to avoid one.
The race was entertaining, not the best I've seen and not the best I've seen at the Norisring despite this only being the second race I've seen at the Norisring. Last year's race was more fun. This is my first season watching DTM in full. I like the speed and power of the cars!
Jamie Green won the race despite driving away with a fuel car still attached to the car, which fell off down the road. In any other series he'd get a penalty so the commentary - and me - were wondering how he kept the win. It was a good drive though.


The World Touring Cars were at Estoril in Portugal a week later, this is back in July. S2000 cars are not fast, at least not on tracks of this size, I don't know why WTCC insists on visiting them. 2-litre tourers work better on shorter tracks because they just look slow, slow, slow on GP-length circuits. And you only get 12 laps per 25 minute race! A shorter track provides more laps and more chances to try that overtaking spot. Touring cars are all about fast frenetic action over 25-30 minutes, and F1-style tracks don't provide that. (I don't class DTM as 'touring cars') Okay the racing was reasonable and Tiago Monteiro raced hard to win the second race. But I just didn't care - and I like touring cars.


World Rally was at Rally Finland in August, the craziest rally of them all. Seriously if you think you've seen rallying before, driving quickly along narrow roads, then think again. You've seen nothing until you've seen a Finn on Rally Finland! They push like crazy, take risks over the jumps and I don't know how they get the cars to turn like that, but they do. Loeb won, becoming only the 4th (or 5th?) non-Scandinavian to win the event in 35 years or more.

There has been talk about taking the S2000 rules from WTCC, souping them up a bit, and using that as the basis of a new WRC car. Why can't they also use it as the basis for a new WTCC car? They need pepping up.


I said last week that I'd recommend some music or a podcast whenever I could, just for the off-season. It might be well known or it might be relatively obscure. The first song is in the latter category.
This is from their first album, they have just released their second album. Despite being a video just play the song and look away, love it, then watch the vid later. I love the low-budget quirks like when he carefully places the drumsticks down to clap!

DARTZ! - Once, Twice, Again



If you like it check out the Buy Album link when the video ends or use the other links to see their Last.fm profile to find out more (go to the L.FM artist link to find your way to their MySpace page).

(sorry if my constant edits buggered up your feeds, I was trying to make the video not autostart)

This Week in Racing w/c 4th Aug 08

I thought I would write a weekly post with short comments on the racing I watch every week. Some weeks this is more than others. Some weeks I don't see much at all during the week. This wasn't one of those weeks, this was a Catch-Up Week.

I tend to concentrate on watching F1 and MotoGP live, with IndyCar very shortly after the event. In many weeks I don't watch anything else. I prefer IndyCar to MotoGP, I just don't have immediate access to live coverage of IRL. I might even do Pressdog-style notes. I tried taking notes for the British GP and it is harder than it looks, big up to the 'Dog and any of the other bloggers who do this.

Anything else I want to watch goes into a backlog. Mainly, this is to see me through the barren winter months and that's how I started collecting so much of it in the first place, this time last season. F1 has a 5-month offseason and IndyCar is worse so you need to pass the time. But the pile can get too big, and when F1 and IRL aren't running I need my fix, so I do a Catch-Up Week where instead of watching TV or what have you, I watch racing. Yes, I said I was a nerd, look at the profile.

On to the comments.. I'm going to insert logos here and this could look embarrassingly amateur.

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Greece
, 1hr highlights
Took place: 1 June
Watched: 3 August

I'm not a huge fan of rallying but I've been giving it a shot this season. These are the most talented, craziest drivers in the world. A little less since Marcus Gronholm retired but they are up there. So I put the WRC on whilst I was sorting some food. I can't say I paid much attention - it was yet another gravel rally in some dusty faraway place. Seen several of those this year already. Unfortunately my expectations were met. I just can't get into it. What's wrong with me? So far I'm only watching for the car control and the excellent TV coverage, but for sporting contest - I'm struggling.

I can't remember who won.

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EuroSpeedway Lausitz ('roval'), Germany

Took place: 18 May
Watched: 4 August

Now the DTM is an entertaining championship. Big powerful V8s with star drivers and enough aero grip to get good speed through the twisties.
This particular instance wasn't the best example but I think that was due to the silly pit rules this year. DTM races last an hour and a bit. Drivers must make 2 compulsory pit stops in which they have to take on a bit of fuel and change at least 2 tyres. Great, no problem here, makes for good strategy races.
The problem is the pit window. This year they have to pit in the middle 1/3rd of the race when previously they could stop on lap 3 and lap 50, if they thought that was the best strategy. This means everyone is forced into almost the same strategy. If that's the case, why force the pitstops at all?
I understand the rule has been changed for subsequent events in response to critisism from drivers, teams and fans - I look forward to seeing how that pans out.

Paul di Resta won for Mercedes, he's a very good driver and should be in single-seaters. He's Dario and Marino Franchitti's cousin.

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Throw some ALMS in here from Utah, the SPEEDTV coverage. Not sure I agree with P2s beating P1s on outright pace so it was nice to see the P1s stretch their legs for the time it lasted..
The only two reasons I didn't watch this closely was because a) it was after work and I needed to clean the flat and cook food, and b) the race is so fucking long! And this is only a 2h 45m race, not like the 5h LMS races in Europe. I tend to only half pay attention to these races which is why they make good Catch-Up Week or Off-Season fodder. Hmm I could put music on instead..

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Croft, North Yorkshire, England
live recording

Okay so this one was a strange event.

Race 1
Two red flags caused by heavy monsoon-condition rain flooding the track. Race abandoned. Doesn't look good.

Race 2
Possibly the best BTCC race of the season! Turkington coming up through from near the back, started 18th and passed almost every car to finish 2nd. The other BMWs made it to the front but they were visibly slower by a long way.

Race 3
Also entertaining in a BTCC-type way. Wheels banging, cars passing.

I never usually like Croft but this was a good one, even with the first race red flag. I've become a fan of Jackson's - and of Adam Jones in the independent petrol SEAT outclassing the superior diesel factory cars. I always root for the underdog.

Coming up this weekend:
IRL at Kentucky
Since this isn't an F1 week, in that timeslot I will hopefully get a chance to catch up with some GP2.