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.

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: 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!

The War Ends Before It Begins

24 hours ago Max Mosely and Luca di Montezemelo were sat discussing the FIA/FOTA fiasco, with Bernie Ecclestone also present presumably as moderator as well as looking after his own interests. The trio reportedly discussed the issues for most of the night in order to strike a deal before Wednesday's crucial FIA World Motorsport Council (WSMC) meeting, in which frankly anything could have happened.

Thankfully the time pressure of the deadline meant common sense broke out and the following agreements were announced:

- There will be no FOTA breakaway, instead they will report back tomorrow with cost-reduction proposals.
- Budgets are to be reduced to "early 1990s levels" within two years. Curiously the method for achieving this was not stated so the budget cap may not be the answer.
- The 1998 Concorde Agreement, which determines the distribution of revenues, methods for agreeing regulations, and more, has been amended and extended to 2012. This means all teams are committed to that date.
- There will be 13 teams in the 2010-2012 Formula One World Championship, this is the list per the press release:

SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO
VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES
BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM
RENAULT F1 TEAM
PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING
SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO
RED BULL RACING
AT&T WILLIAMS
FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM
BRAWN GP FORMULA ONE TEAM
CAMPOS META TEAM
MANOR GRAND PRIX
TEAM US F1

The latter three operations will use the cheap Cosworth engines, it is currently unclear if those will be under 2006 regulations since 2006 was the last year Cosworth competed (as a nod to cost-saving). If so this would give them a 2000rpm advantage over the other teams, and not have to run to the multi-race engine rules. While this is clearly unfair, it could be the new teams' chassis will be so far behind the established teams, for the first couple of years anyway, that it all balances out nicely - should the new teams catch up, they can expect these breaks to be lifted.

You can read the FIA press release on their own website.

* * * *

Within the press release were some other nuggets relating to other FIA series.

World Rally

- The new 1.6 litre turbo engine will be brought in ahead of schedule in 2011.
- Events can now be more flexible. Instead of running to a set 3-day timetable, they may run 2, 3 or 4 days as long as it finishes on a Saturday or Sunday. They may include different surfaces.
- The 2010 calendar is out and you can see it in the link. Looks like the move to a winter championship schedule has been quietly dropped.

World Touring

- Yokohama is the sole supplier for the next three years.
- Autosport reported the 1.6 litre engine will be used in WTCC in 2011 as well, and that it'll be a spec engine, but the release doesn't mention this.
- The 2010 calendar is out, check it out in the link. Algarve and Zolder are in. Pau is out. Valencia and Imola move around, assuming Imola is the Italian round.

I find the whole idea of the top rally and touring car series running 1.6 litre engines to be laughable. At least the rally cars will be turbocharged.


World GT

- Stephane Ratel's plan to expand FIA GT into a new FIA GT1 World Championship has been authorised. GT2 will split into a new European series of its own races, many of which will run on GT1 weekends alongside GT3 and GT4.
- GT1 will be for pro drivers, GT2 for pro-am, and GT3 for non-professionals.
- The Bucharest street race next year is out, instead they'll go to Budapest (I'm assuming this means the Hungaroring).

It seems like a good idea and I really hope it works for them, despite my reservations at losing the element of class traffic from sportscar racing.

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)

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.'"

Weekend Preview: 4-5 April 2009

Here it is people, it all kicks off this weekend! Tons and tons of racing!

* * * *
Feature Event

FIA Formula 1 World Championship
- Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix (2/17)
- Sepang International Circuit
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- www.formula1.com
- Track Map

Please see my F1 Preview here.

Support events:
GP2 Asia Series (x2); Formula BMW Pacific (x2);

A much quieter support card to Australia. GP2 Asia is holding rounds 9 and 10 of the winter series with just one double-header remaining in Bahrain (again supporting F1).
FBMW Pacific kicks off their year here this weekend.

* * *
Other Events:

IRL IndyCar Series
- Honda Grand Prix of St.Petersburg (1/17)
- St Petersburg, Florida, United States
- www.indycar.com

Please see my IndyCar preview which follows imminently!

UK TV: Race LIVE on Sky Sports Xtra from 7.30pm BST Sunday.
US TV: Qualifying recap at 5pm ET Saturday.
Race LIVE on VERSUS from 2pm ET Sunday, race starts at 3.

Support races: Firestone Indy Lights (x2)


American Le Mans Series
- Acura Sports Car Challenge of St.Petersburg (2/10)
- St Petersburg, Florida, United States
- www.americanlemans.com

A very low entry of just 17 cars is a cause for concern with just 6 prototypes and no GT1 cars. GT2 is the battle to watch here.

UK TV: Race DELAYED by one day, from 3.00pm BST Sunday.
US TV: Race LIVE on ABC from 1.30pm ET Sunday.


Le Mans Series
- 1000km of Barcelona (1/5)
- Circuit de Catalunya
- Barcelona, Spain
- www.lemans-series.com/

The European endurance racing season gets going with an entry list of 43 cars this weekend! Aston Martin are currently topping the times in the absence of Peugeot and Audi, which means the LMP1 entry is fairly thin in number compared to last year - but it does boast Aston, Pescarolo and the two Kolles Audi R10s.

UK TV: The start can be seen LIVE on Eurosport at 10.15am BST for 45 minutes, with further coverage at 11.45am for 30 minutes. There will be highlights at 11pm. Eurosport are busy with GP2 Asia, World Rally, Superbikes, cycling and European basketball so they really had to fit in what was a late deal wherever they could.


NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Samsung 500 (7/36)
- Texas Motor Speedway
- Fort Worth, Texas, United States
- www.nascar.com

Yet another 500, they seem to have a lot of them in NASCAR. Didn't 500 mile races used to mean something?

UK TV: TAPE DELAYED on Sky Sports Xtra from 10pm BST Sunday.
US TV: LIVE on FOX from 1:30pm ET Sunday.

The reason for the UK tape delay? SSX is showing IndyCars at St Pete live instead! Three cheers for the ICS bumping Cup! Hooray!

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday)


FIA World Rally Championship
- Rally de Portugal (4/12)
- Vilamoura, Portugal
- www.wrc.com


Intercontinental Rally Challenge
- Safari Rally (3/12)
- Nairobi, Kenya
- www.ircseries.com


Formula Nippon
- Fuji (1/8)
- Fuji, Japan
Support races: Japanese Formula 3;


HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship
- Brands Hatch Indy (1/10)
- Brands Hatch (Indy)
- Kent, England, UK
- www.btcc.net

Time for some proper tin-top wheel banging! The BTCC season opens on the one mile Indy configuration of Brands Hatch, with the three fast and frenetic 20 minute BTCC races and a packed support card.

UK TV: LIVE on ITV4 from 11.45am Sunday with uninterrupted coverage until 6pm including a whole bunch of support races.

The reason for the UK tape delay? SSX is showing IndyCars at St Pete live instead! Three cheers for the ICS bumping Cup! Hooray!

Support races: Porsche Carrera Cup GB, Formula Renault UK, Renault Clio Cup UK, Ginetta G50, Ginetta Juniors


* * * *
Hectic!!

I think that covers everything, please add your comments if you find anything more!

Weekend Preview: 14-15 March 2009

Welcome to what Blogger tells my is my 100th posting! I can't believe I'm at that number already, I only started in August.

We have a quiet weekend this week with only one major series competing, as even NASCAR takes a break from time to time. Next week is very different with ALMS kicking off at Sebring and NASCAR paying a visit to Bristol, among many others.

As always this preview highlights events happening this weekend. Make sure to regularly check your listings for highlights and preview shows! I know that MotorsTV is airing an ALMS preview and ITV4 has WTCC highlights, and over in the US Versus has another of their four IndyCar pre-season specials - so there is content out there to be found if you can look for it.

* * * *

FIA World Rally Championship
- Cyprus Rally (3/12)
- Cyprus
- www.wrc.com

The WRC makes a return to the island after a couple of years away. This year the drivers will have to manage with using gravel tyres instead of asphalt ones, I don't know why this is and it doesn't make sense, to me it sounds like a cost-saving method. I have to admit to not following WRC this year so I don't really know what's going on or who's fast - though I can guess!

The Production WRC boys will be joining in this weekend along with a small number of Junior WRC entries.


UK TV: Daily updates each evening on Eurosport, and a roundup on Sunday on Dave.
Elsewhere: Check www.wrc.com for details, video and live stage timing.

* * *

Other Events:

World Superbikes & Supersport, Losail, Qatar.
I don't follow WSBK at all. I'm sure the racing is good but I just can't bring myself to care. MotoGP has it for me. Now, fans of bikes will almost certainly tell me that I'll like WSBK if I watch it and this may well be true! If I'm cruising the sports channels and stumble upon it I'll watch, but since I don't have any sports channels this may be a long time coming..


Note - Autosport magazine lists the Atlantics as starting this week in Savannah, Georgia, yet Open Wheel World noted yesterday that there are under 14 days until the start of the Atlantics season, as a support to the 12 Hours of Sebring. I'm calling this a cancellation which Autosport forgot to erase from their calendar.


Come back for another preview next week, which may be slightly earlier or slightly delayed depending on what college work I get done, and other reasons.

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.

Weekend Preview: 31 Jan & 1 Feb

Weekend Preview: 31st January & 1st February 2009

After last week's excitement at Daytona we have a couple of quiet weeks again, with my listings only showing two events happening at all this weekend and absolutely nothing next weekend. Time for everyone to get their houses in order before the racing madness kicks off again in earnest.

I was actually thinking of setting up a Google Calendar showing all of these events, but actually I'd be better off giving you the link to one of the sources of info for this series of posts.

FORIX Race Calendar < < < Bookmark this page!

Red dots show events upcoming, green dots are past events and are clickable! The list of series expands as the year progresses so don't worry if it looks small now.

FORIX (main page) is a colossal motorsport database which aims to record the result of any race anywhere. It started out as a Formula 1 resource in the early 90s, until they eventually filled in the gaps in F1 history and started adding other series. Now they cover all sorts of things. I'm not saying their coverage of other series is as comprehensive as their F1 coverage, it's getting there though.
These days the site is hosted by Autosport.com (hence the banners and domain) but as far as I know it is still free. I have a sub to Autosport so it's free for me anyway!

You might think giving the link defeats the object of these posts but I disagree - these posts are to flesh out those single-line entries and hopefully provide a bit of background and context.


On to the listings:

World Rally Championship [website]
Rally Ireland
Round 1 of 12
Rally HQ: Sligo, Ireland

The first round of this year's WRC gets under way with the cross-border event on the Emerald Isle. I don't know if this is the only rally in the world held in two countries, in this case Ireland and the UK, as the cars will cross the border into Northern Ireland. For that reason alone this event should be supported by everybody - it's nice to see that kind of positivity.
For the WRC, the loss of the Monte Carlo Rally to the IRC is a bitter blow but one they put upon themselves. WRC is going through a turbulent time at the moment with crazy rules and crazy schedules. If you are able you should watch this year anyway as it may be the last we'll see of the current-spec World Rally Cars before IRC-style Super2000 comes in, and let's face it these guys throwing cars at the scenery (and missing) is still pretty spectacular stuff.


Trophee Andros
Clermont/Superbesse, France
Round 7 of 7

The final round of the sideways ice racing series. Take a look!:



I didn't realise they send bikes around there as well:



Okay I'm out of here, maybe for a few days, maybe not...

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.

---


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.

---


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.

---

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..

---


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.