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.

On The Limit - Goodwood FoS Pt.1a

I haven’t posted an ‘On The Limit’ for a while – and now I get to do several because I managed to take some very short videos at Goodwood!

I’m not saying they are brilliant, they are just your average fan videos, but they are mine and my first ever video uploads, so I’m going to show them off.

As mentioned previously, the motorbikes were the first batch I saw when I arrived - here is one of the first bikes to depart:

(John Hogan on Barry Sheene's Suzuki)

Here is a somewhat more modern superbike:

(unknown)

I'll continue the review over the weekend and insert the odd little video here and there!

On The Limit

There are those who think F1 tracks and IndyCar non-ovals are 'road courses', which hold 'road races'. These are not road races. In Europe these are just called race tracks.

No.

This is a road race:


[note - this is quite long, over 10 mins]

The Isle of Man TT races. Insane isn't it?! And that's just the production class! The top race-spec Superbikes go even faster, unfortunately the only vids I can find are crappy home-video ones.

They also race sidecars, not your ordinary Wallace & Gromit affair either (keep watching through 8 minutes for the superb helicopter shots):

On The Limit: Jari-Matti Latvala, Rally Portugal

TMR's Video Of The Week

Driver: Jari-Matti Latvala (Co-driver: Miikka Anttila)
Car: Ford Focus WRC
Team: BP Ford World Rally Team
Series: World Rally Championship
Event: 2009 Rally de Portugal

Background: You've probably heard of Jari-Matti's crash last weekend in which he and co-driver Miikka rolled 17 times down a mountain and survived with barely a scratch. What you probably haven't seen, and neither had I, was the build-up to the crash and the way he was driving through the stage. It seems his team boss had already warned him to calm down his driving after crashing out early in two previous events this year.

Important note: Please don't think I'm joining the ranks of the 'crash-happy' who go trawling YT for smash-ups. This is to celebrate his driving and the fantastic safety work done by the FIA and the Ford World Rally Team.

This is some of the best driving I've ever seen, there are times you can barely watch - and this is the calmed down version?!



(taken from The Official WRC YouTube Channel).

You can see how the crash was only caused by a knock against a barrier, pushing him to the right over the edge of the cliff.

Here's the external view and a word from the man himself:



They were both VERY lucky indeed, a testament to the major safety improvements made in WRC over the last decade.

More from Latvala (via Autosport.com): "It was all my fault, I had the corner marked with a double caution, but the night before, I changed it. I have realised you should never change your notes after the recce. I realised we were going to crash, so I tried to use the Armco to slow the car. But it rolled over it and then it rolled and rolled. I can remember the crashing and the roll cage coming in. I thought: 'We cannot survive this, it's just not stopping.' When it did stop, I looked to my co-driver Miikka and his eyes were red and full of blood because we had been upside down so many times. After I checked we were okay, I said: 'Maybe this was our last rally.'"

On The Limit

I've been toying with the idea of an occasional series spotlighting videos of onboard laps, perhaps one a week, perhaps featuring an upcoming racetrack or someone in the news at the moment - and generally enjoy drivers pushing at the limit of their ability.

I've just seen a video which has prompted me to start the series a few days early. Head over to http://www.nofenders.net/ and check out the vid of Robert Doornbos in the 2007 CCWS Assen event.

I plan to use this feature in lieu of writing my own 'track guide' before F1 or IRL events, for I am lazy and this is the easy route.