Race Review: NASCAR Auto Club 500

2009 Auto Club 500
California Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California, USA
22 Feb 2009
Round 2 of 36

I watched the 1 hr highlights edition and will note edits with "[jump]". There are a lot of edits.

I've decided to post this just for the hell of it - since I'm watching these short shows anyway in order to learn NASCAR for the 2010 season I may as well blog about them!

Green Flag

This is a fast 2 mile superspeedway, Jamie McMurray started on pole but fellow front-row man Jimmie Johnson takes the lead from the start. The guest starter is getting very animated on the stand!

After only two laps we jump to Lap 72.

[jump]
L72 - Johnson leads with Jeff Gordon in 2nd after Jeff passes Kurt Busch who was running a very high line.

L73 - Pit report saying Tony Stewart's car is a little 'loose' but the commentary guys say it should get better as the track will come towards them later. He's 6th.

Another pit report mentions the word 'carburettor'. I chuckle.

L76 - Ex-F1 driver Scott Speed is in this race and he has been lapped, yet we've just been told 38 cars are on the lead lap. Oh dear.

L78 - Jeff Gordon takes the lead from his teammate, on-track pass.

[jump]
L119 - 21 of the 43 starters are on the lead lap, 41 cars are running. Replay of someone sliding the back end to avoid the wall!

Talk of the Chevrolets and Fords getting the best fuel mileage, and the Dodges and Toyotas not being as good. Interesting. This is what I like about multi-manufacturer competition, even if they are tightly controlled. I wonder which develops more power?

[jump]
L177 - Restart after a mystery yellow (we are not shown or told why). 73 laps to go, Matt Kenseth leads. Mark Martin's car slides and his tyre smokes, he has to pit.

Johnson and Gordon are still in contention changing position between themselves.

Apparently they are using the brakes here more with the new car than they did with the old regulations. I'm surprised at this, I wouldn't expect them to even touch the brakes here.

Even though these are heavily-edited highlights I can tell this race was pretty boring.

60 to go - Nice to see Montoya working his way up to 9th.

[jump]
L215 - Kenseth takes another restart. Again we do not see the reason for it. 35 to go. Now we talk to Dale Earnhardt Jr who is talking about something breaking with the engine, he's very disappointed...

Kenseth builds a lead on the restart, then Gordon reels him in again when his tyres are up and working properly.

26 to go. Some good advice from the commentary for the rookies, stop trying to imitate the established stars and just drive the car the way you want to.

[jump]
15 to go - Nothing has changed except the gaps are growing. This is like an F1 race! We are told Gordon is cooling his tyres ready for another push at the end.

8 to go - Hamlin takes 4th from Kurt Busch.

We are told about a 'Monster Moment' and hear swooshy noises for graphics, no graphics appear on screen. This happens often on these highlights packages.

7 to go - The rookie Eric Almirola slows down with an apparent engine problem.
5 to go - Gordon is now pushing hard and catching Kenseth.
4 to go - ..and they are among lapped traffic.
2 to go - Kenseth has used the traffic to build a bigger gap, nicely played!

Final Lap

Matt Kenseth wins!! 2nd race win in a row after winning the Daytona 500, only the 4th driver to achieve feat of winning both Daytona and the race that followed it, the last time was in 1997.


Result (top 10):

1. Kenseth (Roush Fenway)
2. J.Gordon (Hendrick)
3. Ky.Busch (Gibbs)
4. Biffle (Roush Fenway)
5. Ku.Busch (Penske)
6. Hamlin (Gibbs)
7. Edwards (Roush Fenway)
8. Stewart (Stewart-Haas)
9. Johnson (Hendrick)
10. Vickers (Red Bull)

I've decided to include the teams rather than the manufacturers as NASCAR does it as I think it is more telling, and in any case that's what I'm used to in other series.


Points (top 12):

1. Kenseth 385
2. J.Gordon -81
3. Ku.Busch -91
4. Stewart -91
5. Biffle -117
6. Bowyer -119
7. Waltrip -121
8. Ragan -123
9. Edwards -125
10. Montoya -129
11. Sadler -137
12. Reutimann -137

Still early days at this stage of course.

The next races were at Las Vegas and Atlanta but I don't have those, so the next race I'll see is the first visit of the year to Bristol.

Race Review: NASCAR Daytona 500

NASCAR Sprint Cup
Daytona 500
Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, Florida, USA
(1/36)
Held: 15 Feb 09
Watched: 1 Nov 09
Coverage: FOX 1hr edit*, aired on Five

* I watched the 1-hour highlights edition which is obviously heavily edited from the original race coverage. I'm not sure who does the editing, if it is from NASCAR, FOX or Five.

200 laps scheduled

Green flag. These cars may not be impressive but their speeds and car control required are, look how much they move around! Takes some doing to keep them off the wall, I should think.

Kyle Busch leads the early running, Harvick is also quick but some way back.

Spin on lap 8. Almirola. Replay: He had to lift in traffic and the car behind tagged him gently. Yellow flag.
L11 - Restart.

[jump]
L40 - Kyle Busch and Dale Jr side by side for the lead. Busch pulls ahead. Two lines of traffic all the way back, typical restrictor plate stuff, exciting for a while if you are new to it like I am... but then very boring when nothing changes.

[jump]
L60 - Restart, my highlights don't show why it was yellow in the first place. Man in the pits shows us a tyre, VERY worn right down to the cords. Dangerous stuff.

L65 - All the cars are bunched up still. Commentary saying 33 cars covered by 3 seconds... while that is quite impressive, it really is just an accident looking for somewhere to happen. You're watching through your fingers because a big crash is inevitible, that's not what this should be about.

[jump]
L86 - Something of a bad edit and we're on another restart, not told why, not our business. This is a need-to-know operation and we don't need to know.

Chat with Joey Logano, apparently he was in an accident.

L90 - The weather has changed, teams are racing to halfway in case of rain. If rain arrives any time after half distance (lap 100) the race will be declared as finished with full points awarded. Rain is due soon so no more waiting until lap 180 to then race to the end, got to go now..

L93 - Earnhardt Jr missed his pit stall last time, had to go around and came out last but he's working his way up the order again, he's into the top 15.

[jump]
L111 (89 to go) - Single file most of the way back, four car break up front: Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Edwards, McMurray. Finally someone breaks away!

86 to go - Jeff Gordon pits after a long green flag run, commentary says people will now follow him in. Jeff goes a lap down with a green flag stop.
Indeed they do start pitting.. most of the leaders stay out.
During the pit sequence a tyre blows on the track, yellow for debris.

[jump]
L124 (77 to go) - Restart but no, here's the big one straight away.
Earnhardt Jr turns someone into the field who try to avoid the car, but many fail.. Kyle Busch, dominant all day, is taken out of the race along with about ten other cars.

Dale was pushed to the inside below the line, coming back in he caught the back end of Vickers' car when he ought to have lifted slightly to get more space. Okay so he shouldn't have been blocked, but once he was he shouldn't have moved up until he was clear.

[jump]
L163 RED FLAG
The rain has arrived. Replay of Kenseth taking the lead from Sadler.

Official - the race is over due to rain.

Result (top 10):
1. Kenseth (Ford)
2. Harvick (Chevy)
3. Allmendinger (Dodge)
4. Bowyer (C)
5. E.Sadler (D)
6. Ragan (F)
7. Waltrip (Toyota)
8. Stewart (C)
9. Sorenson (D)
10. Ku.Busch (D)

Not necessarily representative of the pace of the race. Harvick did pull himself to the front but Kyle Busch ought to have been up there. That's just how this style of racing goes.

Points (top 12):
1. Kenseth 190
2. Harvick -20
3. Allmendinger -25
4. Bowyer -30
5. E.Sadler -30
6. Ragan -40
7. Stewart -43
8. Waltrip -44
9. Sorenson -52
10. Truex Jr -55
11. Ku.Busch -56
12. J.Gordon -61

I do not understand this points system, I assume points were accrued through bonuses.

Summary:
Interesting stuff from my perspective, the style of racing is completely different to anything I'm used to. I couldn't watch it for three hours or more although I did try to do so live at the time, but this highlights form really works for me. The editing could be better - we need to know why things like restarts are happening, not just that they are.

I'll continue this series of race reviews over the off-season, although I'll only promise to cover IRL, GP2 and MotoGP races, there will be a lot more but the coverage will be patchy.

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: 25-26 July 2009

Feature Events

FIA Formula 1 World Championship

- Formula 1 ING Magyar Nagydig
- (ING Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix)
- Hungaroring, nr.Budapest, Hungary
- (10/17)
- www.f1.com

F1 returns to the dustbowl of the Hungaroring, where as usual the forecast is for high temperatures. The dust of the surrounding area has a tendency to get all over the track and make grip very hard to come by, it is this in combination with the circuit layout itself that tends to prevent good racing at this notoriously boring race track - though the changes to turn one a few years ago have created a divebomb-braking opportunity for the brave/crazy (if not in the F1 race, definitely in the GP2 support races!).

I am not a fan of this event although it did bring F1 to Eastern Europe as long ago as the mid-1980s, and track improvements over the last two decades have improved racing.. a bit..

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC One at 12.10pm Sunday, race starts at 1pm
(qualifying on BBC Two at 12.10pm Sat)
USA – HEAVILY DELAYED on FOX at 3pm ET.

IRL IndyCar Series

- Rexall Edmonton Indy
- City Centre Airport, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- (11/17)
- www.indycar.com

This is the second visit to Edmonton for the IndyCars but the 5th (I think?) running of the event, with this being a former Champ Car venue - but any advantage the CC guys had has now been erased and there should be a nice level playing field, apart from the actual track surface of this bumpy airport circuit!

Of note this year is the first visit to the circuit of the supporting Indy Lights series.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 2 at 10.45pm Sunday (directly after NASCAR)
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 5pm ET Sunday

FIM MotoGP

- British Grand Prix
- Donington Park, Castle Donington, England
- (11/17)
- www.motogp.com

The final visit to Donington for the premier motorbike series, for now at least, as it moves in the opposite direction to F1 and will pitch up at Silverstone in 2010, with apparent mixed feelings from the riders. Some love Donny, some can't wait to leave. I think it makes a great motorbike track with the sweeping curves.

Living in the UK I know the forecast for the weekend. Saturday is due to be warm and sunny so qualifying should be representative - but rain is due to appear for the race on Sunday.

(I can never remember if DP is in Northants or Lincs)

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC ONE at 3pm Sunday (directly after F1), race start 3.30pm
USA – SPEED claims 6pm ET, which is not possible because the race starts at 8.30pm ET.

Other Events

GP2 Series

- Hungaroring
- Budapest, Hungary
- (6/10)
- www.gp2series.com
- (F1 support with F.Master, FBMW Europe and Porsche Supercup)

TV Guide:
UK – Eurosport 2
- Race 1 @ 4.45pm Saturday (this may be slightly delayed due to MotoGP coverage)
- Race 2 @ 7pm Sunday (very delayed - I can't see any live coverage)

World Superbikes

- Brno
- Brno, Czech Republic
- www.worldsbk.com
- (with Supersport, etc.)

TV Guide:

UK – Eurosport
- Race 1 LIVE @ 11am Sunday
- Race 2 DELAYED @ either at 3.40pm or 6pm (Eurosport's website sucks)

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana, United States
- www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 2 at 7pm Sunday
US - LIVE on ESPN at 2pm Sunday

NASCAR Nationwide Series
& NASCAR Camping World Trucks

- O'Reilly Raceway Park
- Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
- www.nascar.com

Firestone Indy Lights

- Edmonton
- Alberta, Canada
- (IndyCar support)

IMSA Atlantics

- Autobahn Country Club
- Joliet, Illinois, United States
(with Star Mazda)

FIA GT

- Total 24 Hours of Spa
- Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
(with European GT4 and British F3)
- www.fiagt.com

Super GT

- Sugo
- Sugo, Japan

Silverstone Classic

- Silverstone Circuit
- Silverstone, Northants, England, UK

A multitude of historic racing series at what used to be known as the Coys Historic Festival.
Featuring: GP Masters, Pre-66 F1, the David Leslie Memorial Trophy for 90s Tourers, BRDC Historic Sportscars, Classic Group C and a lot more.

TV Guide:
UK - LIVE all weekend on MotorsTV

* * * *

Sources:
Live Sport On TV
RaceFanTV
SkySports.com
Eurosport.co.uk
BBC.co.uk
SpeedTV.com

Weekend Preview: 27-28 June 2009

Feature Events

IndyCar Series

- SunTrust Indy Challenge
- Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, Virginia, USA
- (8/17)
- 300 laps
- www.indycar.com

A Saturday evening race as darkness falls at the short oval where traffic will be an issue, it could cause problems or it could help the racing as the better drivers through lapped traffic will run well.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 1:30am Sunday morning
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 8pm ET Saturday night for an 8.45pm green flag (why not a nice easy 9pm??)

Support races: USAC Silver Crown, USAC Sprint Car

MotoGP

- Alice TT Assen
- Assen, Holland
- (7/17)
- www.motogp.com

MotoGP is also on a Saturday as is the tradition at Assen.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12:40pm Saturday afternoon
Delayed on Eurosport

Support races: 250cc and 125cc available on the BBC Red Button

Other Events

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Lenox Industrial Tools 301
- New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, New Hampshire, USA
- (17/36)
- www.nascar.com

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

(The Nationwide Series at Loudon on Saturday night, Trucks are at Memphis also on Saturday)

For all other events I will list the UK time (BST not GMT) and channel only, if you are elsewhere you will have to look it up (check their website).

World Rally Championship

- Rally Poland
- (5/10)
- Eurosport and Dave
- www.wrc.com
This is the first time Rally Poland has been a part of the WRC.

DTM

- Norisring
- Nuremburg, Germany
- (3/8)
- live web streaming: just before 1pm Sunday
- www.dtm.tv
The UK TV deal collapsed when Setanta Sports did, let’s hope someone else picks it up. Check the webstream if you can, Norisring is nuts!
(supported by F3 Euroseries)

Superleague Formula

- Magny-Cours, France
- (1/6)
- Eurosport 2: Race 1 at 10am, Race 2 at 1pm followed by the new ‘extra time final’
- there may be live streaming on the website? I refuse to look at it.
- www.superleagueformula.com
The whole idea is a bunch of hokum clearly, but it features interesting if unspectacular drivers such as Enrique Bernoldi, Giorgio Pantano, Antonio Pizzonia, Yelmer Buurman, Adrian Valles, Tristan Gommendy and Ho-Pin Tung, all in powerful V12 single-seaters.

(also on the bill: Euroseries 3000, this is the series which picked up the old Lola A1 cars, no telly coverage as far as I know)

FIA Formula 2

- Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
- (3/8)
- Eurosport: Race 1 live 12pm Saturday, Race 2 delayed 11:30pm Sunday night but there is live streaming online
- www.formulatwo.com
The first visit to Spa for this series should be a bit of fun!
(with the International GT Open and the Dutch Supercar Challenge)

Formula Nippon

- Fuji, Japan

Grand-Am Rolex Series

- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, USA
- (6/12)
- www.grand-am.com

Super GT

- Sepang, Malaysia
- (4/9)
- www.supergt.net/en

* * * *

For those in the UK, don’t forget Top Gear on BBC2 at 8pm Sunday!

I will be quiet on the blog and on Twitter for a few days because I’ll be offline, if anything crazy happens I’ll text it in but won’t see responses until Sunday at the earliest. Enjoy the weekend!

Weekend Preview: 20-21 June 2009

Feature Events

FIA Formula 1 World Championship

- Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix
- Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England, UK
- (9/17)
- 60 laps
- www.f1.com

The final FIA Formula 1 British GP to be held at Silverstone, for the foreseeable future at least, as in 2010 this event is scheduled to move to Donington Park. Irrespective of how Donington will turn out, it will be a shame to leave Silverstone. The facilities for the crowd, the teams and the sponsors are not brilliant yet the actual racetrack is one of the best in the world. I absolutely love that camera position on the fence on the entry to Maggotts/Becketts, you really get a sense of the speed and the rapid direction change of these cars.

Quite what the motorsport landscape will look like by June 2010 is anybody’s guess – which teams will arrive at Donington? Will the circuit even be ready? Will FOTA organise their own British GP, held at Silverstone?

All this is for the future.

For now though, let us focus on this race meeting. We can reasonably expect the Brawns to be strong and today’s times from Free Practice suggest the recent Red Bull updates have strengthened that team. We could be in for a very competitive race!

While this is a home race for Jenson Button, it has historically been one of Rubens Barrichello’s stronger circuits, expect him to come into play here. As for the other teams.. forget it, they are scrapping for minor points.

TV Guide:
UK - LIVE on BBC One at 12.10pm BST (race start 1pm), followed by the F1 Forum on the red button service
USA – DELAYED on FOX at 3pm ET (I’m not sure how much pre-race they’ll have, if none that’s still a SEVEN HOUR tape delay *shocked*)

Support races: GP2 Series, FBMW Europe, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Historic Sportscars

BEFORE THE RACE at about 11am UK be sure to head to www.sidepodcast.com and join the live Parade Lap! It is an online radio show loosely discussing F1 with a laid-back Sunday vibe. It will end as the BBC coverage begins and there is live text commenting! Stick around on the site to live comment the race.

I intend to both live comment the race on SPC, and live tweet on Twitter. If you follow my Twitter account and are located in the US (or elsewhere) and do not wish the result to be spoiled, you should avoid Twitter completely or un-follow me until you have seen the race. Sorry, the live audience isn’t going to wait for you!

IndyCar Series

- Iowa Corn 250 Presented by Pioneer
- Iowa Speedway, Newton, Iowa
- (7/17)
- 250 laps
- www.indycar.com

The return to the fast 7/8ths of a mile oval in the Pressdog’s back yard, Iowa. Check his site for regular updates from the track during and after the weekend!
Iowa is a small oval but it is designed in such a way that the racing and the speeds are as they would be on a superspeedway. Craziness ensues! They haven’t been coming here long but it is turning into a must-see event, unfortunately year 1 was for all the wrong reasons will lots of crashes. Year 2 was much better with close racing everywhere. What will this year bring?

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports Xtra at 6pm BST
USA – LIVE on ABC at 1pm ET

Support races: Firestone Indy Lights, USAC..something or other

Other Events

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Toyota / Save Mart 350
- Infineon Raceway, Sears Point, California, USA
- (16/36)
- www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK - LIVE on Sky Sports Xtra at 10pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on TNT at 4.30pm ET Sunday

For all other events I will list the UK TV channel only, if you are elsewhere you will have to look it up (check their website).

NASCAR Nationwide & Trucks

- Milwaukee (Saturday on ESPN2 and Friday on SPEED, respectively)

GP2 Series

- Silverstone
- Britain
- (4/10)
- Setanta Sports 1: Feature on Saturday at 2.55pm, Sprint on Sunday at 9.25am (both live)
- www.gp2series.com

FIA Formula 2

- Brno, Czech Republic
- (2/8)
- Eurosport & live web streaming: Race 1 at 11am Saturday, Race 2 at 12.30pm Sunday
- www.formulatwo.com

FIA World Touring Cars

- Marriott Race of the Czech Republic
- Brno, Czech Republic
- (6/12)
- Eurosport: Race 1 at 11.45am, then F2 at 12.30, then Race 2 at 1.45pm(both Sunday)
- www.fiawtcc.com
- with F2, FMaster

FIA GT Championship

- Oscherseleben, Germany
- (3/8)
- Setanta Sports at 10:30am
- www.fiagt.com
- with FIA GT3 European Championship, FIA GT4 European Cup, Formul’Academy, FRenault NEC, ATS F3

Australian V8 Supercars

- Hidden Valley, Australia
- (5/14)
- www.v8supercars.com.au

Grand-Am Rolex Series

- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, USA
- (6/12)
- www.grand-am.com

Super GT

- Sepang, Malaysia
- (4/9)
- www.supergt.net/en

Intercontinental Rally Challenge

- Ypres, Belgium
- (5/12)
- Daily updates on Eurosport
- www.ircseries.com

 

I believe that’s everything, let me know if you spot something else worth noting.

For those in the UK, don’t forget the return of Top Gear on BBC Two at 8pm Sunday!

Finally, if you missed the Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark and Graham Hill docos on BBC Four earlier in the year, as I did, they are repeated in one lump on Saturday night from 8pm. Enjoy!

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: 23-24 May 2009

Feature Events

Formula 1

- Grand Prix de Monaco
- Monte Carlo, Monaco
- (6/17)
- www.f1.com
- Track Map

I will write a full preview shortly.

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on BBC One at 12:10pm

US – LIVE on SPEED at 7:30am ET

Support races: GP2 Series, FRenault 3.5, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup

IndyCar Series

- Indianapolis 500
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- Speedway, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
- (4/17)
- www.indycar.com

I will write a full preview shortly.

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on Sky Sports 3 at 6pm BST (GMT+1)

US – LIVE on ABC at 12pm ET

Support races: Firestone Indy Lights (Friday)

Other Events

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Coca-Cola 600
- Lowe’s Motor Speedway
- Charlotte, South Carolina, USA
- (12/36)
- www.nascar.com

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on Sky Sports 3 at 10:30pm Sunday

US – LIVE on FOX at 5pm ET Sunday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday)

GP2 & Formula Renault 3.5

- Monaco
- (2/10) & (3/9)
- www.gp2series.com & www.worldseriesbyrenault.com

This is the only event in the year where the two biggest F1 feeder series meet at the same place at the same time. This and the extra F1 running on Thursday causes a scheduling shuffle.

The GP2 Feature Race has already taken place, it was held on Friday morning. The Sprint Race will be held after F1 qualifying on Saturday. Not so long ago GP2 only got one race here, and the extra one was a compromise for giving up a slot to FR3.5 which only has one race this weekend – but it is directly before the F1 race.

GP2 Feature: Friday 11:15am local
F1 qual: Saturday 2pm
GP2 Sprint: Saturday 4pm
FR3.5: Sunday 11:10am
F1 race: 2pm

Also in Monaco: Porsche Supercup

ADAC 24h Rennen Nürburgring
(Nürburgring 24 Hours)

- Nürburgring Nordschleife
- http://adac.24h-rennen.de/en.html

This is one crazy event. If you think a normal 24 hour race is tough, imagine driving the 16 mile Nordschleife + GP circuit combo around the clock!

Not only that but 230 cars are entered for practice and 220 qualify, even on this track that is a lot of cars! The organisers also have to keep track of some 800 drivers…

You should be able to follow the event from 4pm German time (3pm UK) on Saturday via streaming on the above website, and there will be live timing. Best of all, www.radiolemans.com will have commentary!

Among the fastest cars are Porsche GT3s, Ford GTs and the new Audi R8 GT which lap the circuit in eight and a half minutes.

There is a brief history of the event on Wikipedia.

WRC

- Rally D’Italia Sardegna
- Sardinia
- (6/12)
- www.wrc.com

Indy Lights

- Indianapolis Motor Speedway

(held Friday)

British Rally Championship

- Jim Clark Rally

British Superbikes

- Donington Park
- Leicestershire, England, UK

* * *

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!

Weekend Preview: 9-10 May 2009

Feature Events

FIA Formula One World Championship

- Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Telefonica 2009
- Circuit de Catalunya
- Montmelo, Catalonia, Spain
- (5/17)
- www.formula1.com
- Track Map

The teams have their luxurious motorhomes (palaces?) back, races are at their usual times again, and people actually will actually be on site watching with their eyes - Formula 1 is back in Europe!

Questions to be asked this weekend:

Which teams will choose to run KERS this week? Which teams will have added a new diffuser? Will the crazy-looking wings actually generate passing at what is usually one of the most boring races of the year? This place will be a true test of the new regulations.
Find out on Sunday!

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on BBC One at 12:10pm with the usual suite of options appearing on the Red Button when the race starts at 1pm.
Qualifying is LIVE on BBC One at 12:10pm Saturday.

US – LIVE on SPEED at 7:30am ET
Qualifying is LIVE on SPEED at 8am Saturday.

Support races: GP2 Series, FBMW Europe, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.
The schedule is here and you can convert to your time zone on the sidebar.

You can listen to a short preview of the event here to get up to speed on the current news.

Other Events

IRL IndyCar Series

- Pole Day for the Indy 500
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- Speedway, Indiana, USA
- www.indycar.com

Indy’s long qualifying process starts with the big one, qualifying for the top 11 spots including the pole position! The draw for the qualifying order takes place on Friday night with the first car in line due to start the four-lap average from 12pm ET (I believe?).

After the 11th run the ‘bumping’ begins – the field is limited to 11 positions and the slowest gets knocked out on each faster run.

Repeat for positions 12-22 on Sunday and positions 23-33 next Saturday. Yes, this means if you are quick Sunday but not Saturday you might qualify in 12th with a faster time than the guy in 11th…

Finally, next Sunday is the last chance qualifying of Bump Day when whole field is opened up again and the slowest car regardless of position is bumped off the list.

There is copious TV coverage in the US but I’d imagine this one is best followed online using the radio, live timing and all of your Twitter friends!

TV Guide:

US – Versus has a huge level of coverage from 12:00pm to 6:30pm EDT on Saturday and Sunday with the same again for next week’s sessions.

UK and elsewhere - www.indycar.com live streaming video with live timing (go to the main page and check the options)

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Southern 500
- Darlington Speedway
- Darlington, USA
- (11/36)
- www.nascar.com

This is another Saturday night race.

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on Sky Sports 2 at 12.00am Saturday night / Sunday morning, repeated on three times across Sky Sports during Sunday.

US – LIVE on FOX at 7pm ET Saturday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Friday)

Le Mans Series

- 1000km of Spa
- Spa-Franchorchamps
- Francorchamps, Belgium
- (2/5)
- www.lemans-series.com

Peugeot rejoin the series in the final European sportscar race before the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month. They’ll be up against the Lola Aston Martins and the Kolles Audis.

The GT2 battle will be as fraught as ever as well!

TV Guide:

UK – Updates on Eurosport at 11:45am (30 mins) and 5pm (1 hr). Pretty shoddy for a six hour race I must say.

Support races: Radical European Masters, Classic Endurance Racing, Formula Le Mans, British GT

GP2 Series

- Circuit de Catalunya
- Montmelo, Catalonia, Spain
- (1/10)
- www.gp2series.com

F1’s feeder series proper gets going after the diversion of the Asia Series. I have to say I need to do some reading up on who is doing what, and which drivers have been promoted from junior categories, because I’m a little bit behind on my GP2 news! Should be fun though.

TV Guide:

UK – Feature race doesn’t seem to be live on Saturday at all, we have to wait until 8am Sunday to watch it on Setanta Sports 1 followed directly by live coverage of the Sprint race.

This is a major step down in coverage compared to what we have been used to – we have had live coverage of the this or its predecessor F3000 for well over a decade, perhaps nearer two decades. This is not good news.

World Superbikes
- Monza, Italy

Don’t follow it so I don’t know…

* * *
Please note there will be no dedicated F1 Preview for the Spanish Grand Prix as regrettably I do not have time to write one. I have a lot of exam and project work to do so the blog will remain quiet for the next couple of weeks – but I will still be updating my Twitter account!

Weekend Preview: 2-3 May 2009

Feature Events

MotoGP

- Gran Premio bwin.com de España
- Jerez de la Frontera
- Jerez, Spain
- (3/18)
- www.motogp.com

MotoGP’s globetrotting is on hold for a while as the series begins a two month, 5-round European leg with the first of three(!) visits to Spain this season, just as with most seasons. I’m completely out of the loop with MotoGP this year because I haven’t had time to watch the first two rounds, I’m sure I’ll catch up at some stage though.

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on BBC Two at 12:30pm with delayed coverage on Eurosport 2 at 2pm.

US – LIVE?? on SPEED at 6pm ET

Support races: 250cc, 125cc, Red Bull Rookies Cup

Other Events

A1GP World Cup of Motorsport

- Brands Hatch
- Kent, England, UK
- Configuration: Grand Prix
- Track map: Don’t be silly, you know what Brands Hatch looks like
- www.a1gp.com

This is the final round of the 2008/09 A1GP season, a very tumultuous season in which anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Cancelled events, reinstated events, reinstated events that were cancelled, trouble with the cars, trouble with the finances…
It has still be fun racing though and let’s hope they are able to hold a 5th season for next winter!

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on Sky1 at 1:30pm
NOTE THIS IS SKY 1 NOT SKY SPORTS 1!

US and elsewhere - www.a1gp.com

Support races: Formula Palmer Audi, GT Cup, Lotus Elise Trophy, Formula Junior, Sports 2000, Heritage GT

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Russell Friedman 400
- Richmond International Speedway
- Richmond, USA
- (10/36)
- www.nascar.com

This is a Saturday night race. According to AUTOSPORT (now in ALL CAPS!) there was a competition and the winner had the race named after him, hence the Russell Friedman 400. Only in NASCAR..

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on Sky Sports Xtra at 12.30am Saturday night / Sunday morning, repeated on SSX at 5:30pm Sunday.

US – LIVE on FOX at 7pm Saturday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday)

FIA World Touring Car Championship

- Race of Morocco
- Marrakech, Morocco
- (3/12)
- Track map
- www.fiawtcc.com

An all-new event on a street circuit which was only finished a few weeks ago, and which the 3-time touring car champion Andy Priaulx described on Twitter as being “like Monza without the runoff”!

TV Guide:

UK - LIVE on Eurosport at 1:45pm (race 1) and 2:45pm (race 2)

US and elsewhere try here - www.fiawtcc.com

Support races: local series

FIA GT Championship

- RAC Tourist Trophy
- Silverstone, England, UK
- Configuration: Grand Prix
- (1/8)
- www.fiagt.com

This is due to be the final year of FIA GT before the all new FIA World GT series kicks off in 2010, and some of the all-new-spec GT1 cars are on the grid for this race albeit some 3 seconds off the pace of the highly tuned current breed. I’m sure a lot of time will be clawed back as the new cars get into their groove.
I had hoped to attend this race because I’ve never seen a proper sportscar race in person, unfortunately other things have got in the way and I’m unable to make it. As always this will be a 2-hour event.

TV Guide:

UK – Same-day delay in full at 10pm on Setanta Sports 2, with 1hr highlights on Sky Sports on Thursday at 6:30pm and 30 mins on Channel 4 at 7am on the 17th.

Listings for Europe/Middle East.

Support races: FIA GT3 European Championship, FIA GT4 European Cup, Cooper Tires British F3 International Series

Formula Renault 3.5

- World Series by Renault
- Spa-Francorchamps
- Francorchamps, Belgium
- (2/9)
- www.worldseriesbyrenault.com

The series which is a bit like GP2 but not as good heads for the hills of Belgium this week. You need to know about it though because it discovered Fernando Alonso, Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel.

TV Guide:

UK – Race 2 LIVE on Eurosport at 12:45pm, no apparent coverage of race 1 so I’d expect short highlights of it just prior to the green light for race 2.

Support races: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, Megane Trophy

Grand-Am Rolex Series
- Thunderbolt Raceway
- New Jersey Motorsport Park, New Jersey, USA
- www.grand-am.com

UK – highlights on Five overnight in the week
US – 1pm ET on SPEED

Australian V8 Supercars (& F.Ford)
- Winton, Australia

Brazilian V8 Stockcars
- Brasilia, Brazil

Super GT
- Fuji, Japan

Spanish GT & F3
- Ricardo Tormo Circuit, Valencia, Spain

* * *
Do we like the sub-headers? Very Champ Car aren’t they?
These posts are becoming a great deal of work so you may find they are pared back to basics in future weeks.

On a personal note, my area finally gets the Digital Switchover on Wednesday! The wider area has it already but with my town in an aerial blackspot we rely on a repeater transmitter – that transmitter gets switched on the 6th. This should mean I get to play with the BBC’s red button service for F1 and MotoGP, as well as watch ITV4’s coverage of BTCC and Tour de France!

Weekend Preview: 25-26 April 2009

* * * *
Feature Event

FIA Formula 1 World Championship (4/17)
- Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix
- Sakhir, Bahrain

Go to the F1 Preview!

Race coverage:
UK: Live on BBC1 @ 12.10pm BST
US: Live on SPEED @ 7.30am EDT

* * *
Other Major International Events:

IRL IndyCar Series
- RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300 (3/17)
- Kansas City, Kansas, USA

Go to the IndyCar preview!

Race coverage:
UK: Live on Sky Sports 2 @ 11.00pm BST
US: Live on VERSUS @ 4pm EDT


MotoGP
- Japanese Grand Prix
- Twin-Ring Motegi, Japan

I can't say I find Motegi's watching road course any more enjoyable than its oval.

UK: Live on BBC Two at 6:45am with highlights at 2pm, and a re-run under the Red Button on a rolling loop overnight from 11pm. I expect British Eurosport will run their version as soon as the BBC coverage is scheduled to end.

US: Not sure, probably Speed.


NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Aaron's 499 (9/36)
- Talledega, Alabama, USA

The taxicabs are on the high banks at Talledega for a long restrictor plate race. What's the 499 about? It can't be the mileage because I can't make the numbers work. It's a 2.66 mile track. Anyway, restrictor plate tracks are boring, everyone is just waiting for the inevitible huge accident and that's not fun.

Race coverage:

UK: Live on Sky Sports 2 @ 7pm BST
US: Live on FOX @ 1.00pm EDT Sunday


FIA World Rally Championship
- Rally Argentina (5/12)
- Carlos Paz, Argentina

More dusty gravel.

UK: Eurosport / Dave


* * *
Other Events - check your TV listings:

Grand-Am Rolex Series
- Virginia International Raceway (2/12)
- Virginia, USA


HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship
- Thruxton (2/10)
- Thruxton, Hampshire, UK

The BTCC's 2nd meeting of the year is at the fastest track in the UK, if you don't include the Rockingham oval. There are always issues with punctures and pushing the limits at the ultra-fast Church corner out at the back of the track.

I was all set to attend this meeting but an overdose of college work has prevented it!

UK: Live on ITV4 and at www.itv.com/itv4 from 11:30am to 6pm, including lots of support races such as FRenault, the Clio Cup and those Ginetta things.


GP2 Asia Series
Sakhir, Bahrain (with F1)

NASCAR Nationwide Series
Talladega, Alabama, United States (with N-Cup)

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Kansas City, Kansas, United States (with IndyCar)

Firestone Indy Lights
Kansas City, Kansas, United States (with IndyCar)

Star Mazda & FBMW NA
Virginia, USA (with GrandAm)

Weekend Preview: 18-19 April 2009

* * * *
Feature Event

FIA Formula 1 World Championship (3/17)
- Chinese Grand Prix
- Shanghai, China

See my Chinese GP Preview here!

Race coverage:
UK: Live on BBC1 @ 6.00am BST
US: Live on SPEED @ 2.30am EDT

* * *
Other Major International Events:

IRL IndyCar Series
- Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (2/17)
- Long Beach, California, USA

See my Long Beach Preview here!

Race coverage:
UK: Live on Sky Sports 3 @ 9.00pm BST
US: Live on VERSUS @ 3.30pm EDT


American Le Mans Series
- Tequila Patrón American Le Mans at Long Beach (3/10)
- Long Beach, California, USA

The ALMS returns to Long Beach for another Saturday race. The field is slightly bigger this week with the final ever North American appearance from the Corvette GT1 programme. Pratt & Miller will be taking the cars to Le Mans before replacing them with a GT2 effort in the ALMS later in the year.

Race coverage:
The race takes place on Saturday afternoon/evening local time.

UK: Tape delayed on MotorsTV @ 5.00pm BST Sunday
US: Tape delayed on ABC @ 12.30pm EDT Sunday


NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Subway Fresh Fit 500 (8/36)
- Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Another 500 miler! This time it is a Saturday night race.

Race coverage:

UK: Live on Sky Sports @ 1.30am BST Saturday night (Sunday morning)
Sky Sports Xtra has highlights at 8am, Sky Sports 2 has highlights at 6.30pm.

US: Live on FOX @ 8.00pm EDT Sunday


* * *
Other Events - check your TV listings:
(according to FORIX (sub req.))

World Series by Renault / Formula Renault 3.5
- Barcelona (1/9)
- Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

WSbR's season kicks off with the usual double-header format at Barcelona. Driver line-ups were still being formalised as late as this week! As ever the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup will be in support, and I assume the Meganes and Clios will be there too.

Race coverage:
There is a race on Saturday and a race on Sunday. This year Eurosport will be providing coverage for selected rounds which is big news for this series.

UK: Race 1 is live on Eurosport at 12.45pm BST Saturday. Race 2 is live on Eurosport at 12.00pm Sunday.
US: n/a


NASCAR Nationwide Series
Phoenix, Arizona, United States

Firestone Indy Lights
Long Beach, California, United States

Australian V8 Supercars
Hamilton, New Zealand
(UK tape delay: MotorsTV 2pm Sunday)

Super GT
Suzuka, Japan

International GT Open
Imola, Italy

Weekend Preview: 28-29 March 2009

This blog covers a great many racing series to a greater or lesser degrees, and as regular visitors know this Weekend Preview strand is intended as a 'broad brush' to briefly touch on as many races happening in a given weekend as possible.

However, the main focus of the blog is Formula 1. For this reason I have elected to write separate preview posts for each F1 round of this season as well as 'special events' such as the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Australian GP preview follows shortly, in the meantime here is a quick run-down of what else is happening in the world of racing this weekend.

* * * *
Feature Event

FIA Formula 1 World Championship
- ING Australian Grand Prix (1/17)
- Albert Park
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- www.formula1.com
- Track map

I will post a full preview shortly!

Support events:
V8 Supercars*, Australian GT, Australian Formula Ford, Aussie Racing Cars, Historic Formula 5000, Mini Challenge, Minardi F1x2 two-seaters, Ultimate Speed Comparison (road car vs V8 Supercar vs 2008 BMW F1 car)

* non-championship races billed as a manufacturer battle between Ford and Holden. This has to be one of the best support race bills of the entire F1 season, and you can add several air displays from the Royal Australian Air Force into the mix too.

Absolutely brilliant that they've included the old F5000 cars for this year. I've not seem them myself, but hear they're quite a sight! A packed programme of events as always at Albert Park.

* * *
Other Events:

NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Goody's Fast Relief 500 (6/36)
- Martinsville Speedway
- Martinsville, Virginia, United States
- www.nascar.com

Another short track for the Cup boys.

UK TV: LIVE on Sky Sports 3 from 7pm BST Sunday.
US TV: LIVE on FOX from 1:30pm ET Sunday.

Support races: Camping World Truck Series (Saturday)


Stock Car V8 Brasil
- Interlagos (1/12)
- Autodromo Carlos Pace
- Interlagos, Sao Paulo Brazil
- www.stockcar.globo.com

Brazil's answer to NASCAR? The first race of the season on the F1 track at Interlagos.


* * * *
Notes
I believe that's all there is this weekend. You'll thank me for the F1 split-out in a few weeks when this post gets busy!

Weekend Preview: 7-8 March 2009

Some more championships get going this weekend with the WTCC and IRC both starting their seasons in Brazil, and interestingly they will be at the same location. More on that later.

Note - My copy of Autosport hasn't arrived today due to snow, so I'm relying on internet links and prior notes - this means no 'minor races' this week.

* * * *

NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Kobalt Tools 500 (4/36)
- Atlanta Motor Speedway
- Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- www.nascar.com

Yet another 500 miler, those guys get through a lot early in the season don't they? This time we head to the fast Atlanta track. Midweek Motorsport said this week that you get 8 lap manic sprints followed by 15-20 laps of running on worn tyres. Can they not do what they did in Days of Thunder and back off for the first bit, then in the later bit pass them all as if you have another gear?

UK TV: 6.00pm, Sky Sports 3 & 3HD
US TV: 1.30pm, FOX

Also racing at Atlanta:
Camping World Truck Series
UK TV: No deal.
US TV: 1.30pm Saturday, SPEED.

* * *

FIA World Touring Car Championship
- HSBC Race of Brazil (1&2/24)
- Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba
- Curitiba, Brazil
- www.fiawtcc.com

The WTCC gets started for 2009 with another visit to Curitiba, where for the 3rd year running there is a charity initiative to help the less well off of the locality, of which there are many. If a spectator brings 2kg of food they can watch the racing for free. I absolutely love this idea, last year the stands were packed and they collected 52 tonnes of food!! More here.

It'll be interesting to see if one manufacturer dominates again. It took a few rounds last year for the balance to be restored. This year there is a new performance balancing formula to replace weights, which I've forgotten to read up on because I didn't realise these guys were starting already...

UK TV:
Race 1 at 4.00pm, Eurosport 2
Race 2 at 7.00pm, Eurosport 1

US TV:
No deal.


* * *

Intercontinental Rally Challenge
- Rally Internacional de Curitiba (2/12)
- Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba
- Curitiba, Brazil
- www.ircseries.com

The second round of IRC is under way already and comes to a close on Saturday afternoon. That's not a typo in the location section - the service park is stationed behind the main grandstand of Curitiba race circuit. Both IRC and WTCC are backed and promoted by Eurosport Events so this marks an interesting cost-saving move whilst bringing a variety of motorsport to one location. It's certainly the first time I've heard of a race and rally being held in the same place.

UK TV:
Updates throughout the weekend on Eurosport's channels.


* * *

Other:

AMA Superbikes at Daytona. I imagine this is on SPEED in the US. It isn't available here, not live anyway.

Weekend Preview: 21-22 February 2009

It's all about A1 and NASCAR this weekend, and in the UK both of these will air live on Sky Sports 2.




A1GP World Cup
- Gauteng (5/?)
- Kyalami
- South Africa
- Website: www.a1gp.com

The World Cup of Motorsport pays its first visit to Kyalami, although for some reason A1GP calls it Gauteng. South African rounds were previously held on a street track by the beach in Durban which was far too narrow, there were always silly little crashes at the hairpin first turn, but despite that it was still entertaining! Let's see how the newer bigger cars get on at the former home of the South African Grand Prix.
(I put a question mark in the # of rounds section above, 'cos really, who knows?)

British air time: Sunday 11:30am GMT, Sky Sports 2
Elsewhere: check listings or use a1gp.com


NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Auto Club 500 (2/36)
- Auto Club Speedway (which is really California Speedway)
- Fontana, California, United States
- www.nascar.com

I'm not sure why, but NASCAR thought it would be idea to make the teams drive from Florida to California in a few days between a couple of 500 mile races. Good plan, NASCAR, nothing like tiring out your teams at the very beginning of a 36 race season. Tune in to see how the boys cope. It'll be late here and I'll be sleeping.

British air time: 11pm GMT, Sky Sports 2
American air time: 5pm EST, FOX


Support races at Fontana include:

Saturday:
NASCAR Nationwide Series
- Stater Bros 300

:shrug: I know nothing.

British air time: Not found.
American air time: Saturday 7pm EST, ESPN2


NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
- San Bernadino County 200

Is that a local county? If they are sponsoring it, times must be tight..

British air time: Not found.
American air time: Saturday 3pm, FOX

Seems the 3rd tier event gets to run on Fox while the 2nd tier doesn't, not sure of the logic but there you go.

* * *

This is all very interesting but probably the most interesting events of the next seven days happens on Tuesday where we will have two important announcements:

1) USF1 making an announcement on SPEED.
2) BBC announcing full details of their F1 coverage, I'm looking forward to that more than the USF1!

Okay, have a great 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!

Weekend Preview: 14-15 February 2009

After a short quiet period following the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, racing gets under way again this weekend and at the same venue, this time for the Daytona 500. This weekend truly marks the beginning of months of uninterrupted competition throughout 2009 - I can't see a completely clear weekend again for months - three cheers for racing!


* * * * Main Event

NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Daytona 500 (1/36)
- Daytona International Speedway
- Daytona, Florida, United States
- www.nascar.com

When we reach the weekend of the Daytona 500 we know the racing season is well and truly upon us. There have been a lot of changes in what is a very short off-season relative to other series, with mergers, driver deals and sponsor changes aplenty. I'm not going to insult you by fumbling my way around this because I know very little about NASCAR, although I am tempted to watch the 500 out of curiosity.

I've watched NASCAR before but never a full race. The UK network Five airs a short highlights show of about an hour, in the depths of the night midweek. I got hold of some of those shows last year and it was interesting to watch - for that length of time. I don't think I can last three or four hours of droning around in packs waiting for big accidents to happen, which is why I'd prefer to try a full NASCAR race at a non-restrictor track. Perhaps some of you NASCAR fans could recommend an event to watch, and remind me nearer the time.

The event is actually already under way, with the Gatorade Duels already having been completed earlier this evening. I'm not entirely sure what they achieved because they've already had qualifying and the quali process at Daytona is mega-weird.


The Daytona 500 will air live on Sky Sports 2 and in Hi-Def on Sky Sports HD2. Coverage begins at 8pm Sunday. I should note that in 2008 Daytona was in HD and the rest of the year was SD only, there is no word yet on whether that will be repeated this year.

American coverage is on FOX at 3.30pm ET. So that's half an hour LESS pre-race build-up than we get here.. hmm. Walk through this with me will-ya? Say it's 3pm in Florida. Add 5 hours to get British time. 3 + 5 = 8pm Am I missing something here? Maybe they are doing that strange American thing of having the race build-up on a completely different channel beforehand, and I missed the listing.


Support races:

Saturday:
NASCAR Nationwide Series
- Camping World 300

The Nationwide Series gets under way on Saturday afternoon local time.

American air time: 1pm ET, ESPN2
British air time: Not found. This race used to be on the North American Sports Network (NASN), which changed to ESPN America over the winter and they don't seem to be covering it this time. I'm hunting around forums as I pull this post together and nobody else can find coverage either.


Friday:
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
- NextEra Energy Resources 250

The trucks-that-aren't-trucks-but-are-really-pickups kick off the proper racing this weekend, as opposed to the 'racing to qualify'.

American air time: 8pm ET, SPEED
British air time: Not found.


* * * * Other Events

FIA World Rally Championship
- Rally Norway (2/12)
- Hamar, Norway
- Website: www.wrc.com
- Twitter: @OfficialWRC
- Video: YouTube and Joost

Every other racing series may only just be waking up, and some are several weeks off yet, but WRC is already on to it's second event of the year as they head north to Norway. It looks like they've had some heavy snowfall and the drivers are very happy to have a 'proper' snow rally for once. The last few years have seen very little snow on what are supposed to be full winter rallies and the guys can't wait to get stuck in, metaphorically speaking.

The Production WRC entrants are also competing on this event.

I should mention that WRC's commerical rights are controlled by David Richards (yes, that one) and it looks like his team is doing a good job of embracing new media! Ironically one of the broadcast partners is a channel called 'Dave' (so-named because everyone has a friend called Dave).

There are daily updates on Eurosport from Friday to Sunday, and an event roundup on Dave on Sunday at 6pm.


GP2 Asia Series
- Qatar (4/6)
- Losail International Circuit
- Doha, Qatar, UAE
- Website: www.gp2series.com

The GP2 Asia boys head over to Qatar for more fun in the desert. Yet more driver changes mean this series isn't really being taken as seriously as the main GP2 Series, though it does serve as a performance indicator for the coming year and a lot of guys are getting some good practice in. The extra track time is certainly helping some of them.

The event is supported once again by the Speedcar Series which is holding a night race.

NOTE - as with all Middle Eastern GP2 Asia events the Feature race is on Friday and the Sprint is on Saturday.

Coverage is on Eurosport at 10.30am on Saturday, I believe this is the live sprint race - it may also have some footage from the feature race because there doesn't seem to be anything at all on Friday.
There appears to be absolutely no coverage at all of Speedcar (there may be something in locally).


Okay that's it. I've decided I will not be posting all the little logos and icons when the main season gets under way, it takes too long!

Next week: A1GP and more NASCAR.