Contact
First a word on guest posts because the question has come up a lot lately.
Whilst I’m not actively seeking them, I do accept guest posts under certain conditions.
- If you’re a fan of racing and have something you want to say do feel free to get in touch, I’m all ears.
- The same applies if you have a blog or site already but perhaps what you have to say wouldn’t fit there. Got an F1-only site but want to talk about IndyCar, rally or sportscars? Put it here!
- All I ask is you be civil and don’t denigrate another form of racing for the sake of it, this blog is intended as a broad church which I hope caters to several types of fan.
- To PR people: Nothing against what you do but I don’t usually take promotional content (there may be exceptions) and I’m not interested in advertorials. But if you have a good offer I might think about it! Basically I’m not just looking to add content just for the sake of adding content.
Also I am not a journalist, I make no money from this and the site doesn’t exist as a career move. It’s a hobby because I like racing.
Finally, whoever you may be, don’t ask me what sort of post I want! It’s for you to come to me with an idea. I’m happy to offer any guidance! But come to me with an idea and maybe we’ll hammer something out.
Contact Details
Email: toomuchracing (at) gmail (dot) com
Twitter: @toomuchracing
Facebook/G+: I’ll only add you back if I know who you are, so tell me!
I’m thinking about making specific pages on FB/G+ for the blog, if I do I’ll update this page with links.
About Me
I’m Pat and I watch far too much racing. I read more articles and blog posts about it than is surely healthy. I’ve got a stack of books to read about it. People say I should stop and get a hobby. This is my hobby.
I’ve been watching motorsport since I was a kid, growing up watching the titanic F1 battles between Senna, Prost and Mansell. There was a time when I drifted away as a casual fan but when I was 18 I got heavily into it again, more so than ever before and also started watching BTCC and WRC. Two years later I got my own access to Eurosport for a while and started watching sportscar, European touring cars and especially CART. It was a whole new world! As child in the 80s/90s in the UK you were basically taught that racing was “F1 or nothing, everything else is a sideshow” – how wrong they were.
I was firmly on the CART side of ‘The Split’. Despite only being able to watch races properly for a couple of years before having to resort to reading race reports, it was gut-wrenching when first Penske, then Ganassi and Green packed up and moved to IRL. By 2006/7 I finally was able to watch live again using (the renamed) Champ Car’s online player – the series was nothing like it used to be, despite good racing at the front much of the field seemed padded with nobodies and last-chancers. In the last 18 months of Champ Car I started to learn about the other side of the fence and became a fan of IRL too. New IRL of the day seemed very different to old IRL. Now in 2011 the current IndyCar Series is different again, better, the best it has been since those days of 2000/2001 and in fact better because unlike then it is now on an upswing.
Whilst I’m now into my early 30s, and sometimes feel like I’ve seen almost everything in the last 20 years, there is so much more to learn from this wonderfully diverse sport. What’s interesting to me is how there are so many fans of just one or two series, so you have F1-only people who might watch a bit of Le Mans, or IndyCar people who might watch a bit of NASCAR. The funny thing is, some sections often talk about a subject another group learned the lessons about some time ago and just don’t realise it because they are so entrenched.
However, this is becoming less true with time, I’ve noticed fans these days are far more diverse in their interests than ever before. In any case, this blog exists as a bridge across the gap between different championships and different sets of fans and as a haven for those who want to talk about more than the latest F1 tit-for-tat political battles or regurgitated press releases.
Great site! I moved to wordpress too
Do you create your calendar at yourself?
I also created a calendar containing all A.C.O.-like races, at least that I am primarily interested in:
http://baszero.ch/racing/race-calendar/
the events contained by my calendar are here:
http://baszero.ch/racing/race-calendar/events/
Good luck with your site!
Cheers
basZero
btw: your description in “About” is pretty much matching mine description
Great stuff…. I LOVE IT!
Thanks basZero! Yes I made the calendar myself by checking each series’ website for the most recent schedule.
Your sportscar calendar looks good and covers things I’m not planning to cover here, so I’ll add it to my personal Google calendar!
thanks as well! It would be great to see a link to my page in your “Google Calendar” section?
Good point, will do
ok, great.
Check out my site, just did the linking to yours.
Let me know what “hover” text you would like to have…
Cheers
basZero
Hey, I like your website and I agree with you about watching too much racing. There are alot of races that I want to watch like Indy and F1 but, I don’t have enough time to so, I just watch my favorite races like Grand Am and American Le mans. there are only about 10 races each year. Do you know of any site that will show me the whole Grand Am six hours of the Glen?
Thanks Joseph. Sadly I don’t know anything showing the 6 Hours but you could try looking at http://www.justin.tv under the Racing section. I don’t know if anyone covers that series though.
Hey, thanks, that website really helped me find more live races to watch. I wish I had since this reply earlier. the reason I just found it was because I was searching for my blog on the internet.
Pat,
good blog. I have been following Motorsport in almost every guise since the 1960′s when my Dad won the Macau GP. I watched Jaguar win at Le Mans in the early 90′s (91?) and I went back on my bike in 2005 to watch the MotoGP event. I live round the corner from Brands Hatch and watched Bayliss and Haga battle (Bayliss was promoting the new Superman movie at the time and had the ‘S’ logo on his back and chest) over the SBK championship and regukarly go to watch the British Superbikes which are spectacular; in many ways better than SBK and MotoGP because it’s so much closer and personal. Sidecar events are one of the best Motorsport events to watch especially at Brands as you can see so much of the track. I’m not so impressed with British Touring cars these days, the cars they are using and the specs. they are restricted by don’t really inspire me unlike DTC which is monster cars attracting Europe’s best drivers either heading for, or leaving F1.
F1 has been a disappointment over the last few years. My enduring moan is to eradicate artificially induced downforce on cars altogether to allow following through corners before slipstreaming down straights. Then allow a free engine choice, run what ya brung. As for going to SKY, I will never pay Murdoch a penny for his services and I will find a pirate feed to watch the live Sky races or I’ll abandon F1 altogether and go to Brands and watch real Club racing. Sad after nearly 50 years but the BBC ought to be taken out and shot for betraying the British public paying a licence fee!
OK…..rant over. Keep racing! and blogging.
Thanks David. It sounds like you’ve seen a lot of great racing! I’m envious of you living so close to Brands Hatch, it must be a dream.
I agree I think they should reduce downforce and wings, maybe not completely but certainly by more than they did with the narrow rear wings. Narrow the front wing as well, for a start. I’d love to see V12 vs V10 vs V8 again. Turbo, N/A, all sorts. It’s why I like LMP prototypes, you get all sorts at a pace not too far off F1.
I won’t be paying for Sky simply because I don’t have £360 per year to give. Even if I did, I don’t think it’s worth it just to watch a sport even if I love the sport.