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2nd Furious Wedge Blogathon

The drop of the green flag for the start of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona today will also signal the start of the 2nd Annual Furious Wedge Blogathon, featuring 24 hours of continuous blogging about Daytona and a host of other sports happening during the race

The Furious Wedge is a blog covering IndyCar racing and a variety of American ball sports so these (plus Daytona) will be the focus of attention.

Last year Allen Wedge and Ron Furious took on this mammoth task by themselves, and I believe Allen was the only one crazy enough to stick the whole 24 hours. This year they’ve called upon the assistance and resources of the IndyCar bloggers to support them.

Madly, I have been asked to take part, and since I know only a little about Indycar and almost absolutely nothing about the Daytona 24, NFL, MLB, NHL and the rest, I of course agreed without hesitation. I was promised a live chat roundtable discussion and some Mario Kart, who could say no? My only task is to stay awake long enough.

The other bloggers expected to take part are: Roy from Silent Pagoda, Andy from The Speedgeek, James from 16th and Georgetown, George from Oil Pressure, Paul from the Planet-IRL empire, Will from Is It May Yet?, Tony from Pop-Off Valve and the blogging luminaries Jeff from MyNameIsIRL and the master himself, Bill from Pressdog.

Check the inaugural FW podcast for more details, and be sure to read this preview post.

I’m not quite sure what I’m letting myself in for.

Thursday Thoughts: New Tracks, Deleting Tracks

This week’s Thursday Thoughts question comes from Dylan of Triple League Racing, who asks:

What Track or Tracks not on the current F1 season calender do you want added?  Also, what current tracks need to go.  And finally, if this isn’t enough, how many Grand Prix’s should F1 have?

To answer the last question first, I like racing, I like lots of racing and the more the better yet despite this I’ve always felt F1 should feature no more than 19 races per year (too many is overload) and no fewer than 17 races (too few means an agonising wait between events), so the calendars we’ve seen for the last few years have had the right number of races for me. I also like having an odd number of races – I don’t know why – so that leaves either 17 or 19.

People lose interest quickly and with too few events I can see interest waning. Yet most of us like to have off-weekends in the summer months to enjoy that time of year properly, so we don’t want to bombard everyone with weekly races. I believe F1 works best with fortnightly events. Back-to-back weekends can work in some seried but I really don’t think they do in F1 more than once or twice per season, so I’d ensure most races were followed by an off-week, with the exception of some of the ‘flyaway’ races.

F1 seems to be different to other series in that it can take a week to dissect the events of a Grand Prix, and then you spend all of the next week building up the talking points for the next GP. It isn’t just ‘oh I’ll turn the TV on to watch the next one’, there’s a whole cycle and that’s why we love it.

So… which races would I drop, and what would I bring in?

Let’s list the 2010 season and mark in bold the races or venues I consider to be essential.

Sakhir, Bahrain
Melbourne, Australia
Sepang, Malaysia
Shanghai, China
Barcelona, Spain
Monaco
Istanbul, Turkey
Montreal, Canada
Valencia, Spain (European GP)
Silverstone, UK
Hockenheim, Germany
Hungaroring, Hungary
Spa-Franchorchamps, Belgium
Monza, Italy
Singapore
Suzuka, Japan
Korea
Interlagos, Brazil
Abu Dhabi

That’s 9 essential races out of a possible 19, call it 18 if we discount Korea because it hasn’t held a race yet, so that’s half. That’s much better than I thought before I started, but still not enough. If Formula 1 is to keep calling itself the world’s premiere racing series then *every event needs to be unmissable*.

Some on the list have the potential to be better if the car tech specs are changed, yet there are others that will never be good. What’s immediately for the chop with no reprieve?

Valencia – the circuit is too long, too boring and uninspiring and runs through a dockyard. I’d tell the organisers this:  change the layout to run past something interesting like the Arts & Sciences building, any kind of landmark at all. While you’re doing that you can think of a circuit that does not involve 25 corners in 3.5 miles, which is as guaranteed a creator of bad races if ever I heard one. Or drop it completely – if we’re to have a second Iberian race, how about the new Portimao circuit in Portugal? Okay it’s in the middle of nowhere, but so is Silverstone. If Valencia can’t be changed let’s go to the Algarve.

Shanghai – nobody in China cares, and the races are tedious. I can’t suggest an alternative in the region, so let’s use this slot to bring back the United States Grand Prix at Indy, run on the current MotoGP course rather than the previous F1 course.

Hungaroring – the circuit has invested in upgrades continually since it first held a GP in 1986 and the circuit today is FAR better than the one we saw back then… but really, I think we’ve had enough. Let’s go to Brno instead, that’s a fantastic course.

Nurburgring – given the choice of the two emasculated German venues, I’d choose Hockenheim. Nurburgring doesn’t generate good racing, and at least Hockinhalf is wide enough for passing. We need a German race and Hockenheim is it. Plus the atmosphere in the stadium section looks awesome – it has dropped off in recent years, expect the place to be packed again this year with Schumi back and in a German(-badged British) team.

Let’s be controversial – I think there is an argument for retaining Bahrain, some races have been boring but others have created great overtaking so let’s leave it in – ignoring the proposed new fiddly loop. I also think it is too soon to make a judgement call on Abu Dhabi despite the dire race there last year – I’d give it one more year before ejecting it.

I also retain Korea on the schedule because we have to give opportunities to new venues – though we’re all sceptical because of the maps, I’d like to wait until we’ve seen a race there before we completely slate it as I have no doubt we will. I’d keep it for 2010 and be ready to remove after a couple of years.

Also unchanged of the non-bold items:
I quite like Sepang and contrary to many Tilke circuits it has evolved a character and is reputedly developing bumps, so it isn’t ridiculously smooth any more. It has always been an interesting challenge in its own right anyway and it remains my favourite of the new-generation circuits.

Barcelona stays in because we need a Spanish race and I can’t think of anywhere else suitable. The racing is not great at all, I know that, but where else do you go? Jerez doesn’t seem suitable, the Ricardo Tormo Valencia circuit is a bit Mickey Mouse for my liking and I’ve already ditched the street track..

Singapore – Today they announced they were reviewing the circuit layout for the 2011 event to make the circuit faster. I like that kind of thinking and they’d already made good changes between 2008 and 2009, so they can stay. I’d probably tell the F1 personnel to stop being so silly in staying on European time when they run on Japanese time the following week.

I’d move the races around to be more like a journey around the world, mainly to aid personnel travel. Start in Australia, stop in Asia a few times on the way back to the summer in Europe, with a quick visit to North America, before flying back out to Singapore/Korea/Japan and ending in Brazil. I’d also separate the two night races, one early in the year and one at the end.

Rules:
Albert Park to start the year and Interlagos to end it.
Monza always follows Spa.

My schedule would look like this:

Melbourne, Australia
Sepang, Malaysia
Sakhir, Bahrain
Abu Dhabi*
Portimao, Portugal
Barcelona, Spain
Monaco
Istanbul, Turkey
Montreal, Canada
Indianapolis, United States
Silverstone, UK
Hockenheim, Germany
Brno, Czech Republic
Spa-Franchorchamps, Belgium
Monza, Italy
Singapore
Korea*
Suzuka, Japan
Interlagos, Brazil

* to be replaced in 2011/2012 should it prove to be boring

Game Week 1: 30-31 January 2010

Welcome to the Too Much Racing Game..thing! I haven’t thought of a good name yet (help please?).

This is the entry post for the first round of the year, which only covers one race, the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Wait don’t run away! There are plenty of familiar names so just pick your favourites!

If you already know your picks just hit reply and list your entries for this week. You have until FRIDAY at 7pm UK time (2pm US ET). If not, read on.

* * * *

RULES

See here for a further discussion of the Game’s rules, but the following is all you really need to know:

– Pick 10 drivers per week, maximum of 7 drivers per race (e.g. you can pick up to 7 this week, there is only one race).

– The game includes F1, IndyCar, NASCAR, DTM, WRC, ALMS and LMS events, as well as Daytona and Le Mans. This sounds confusing at first – don’t worry, you should only ever have at most a choice of 4 events per week… And you should be able to get by perfectly fine just by picking just two, like F1 and NASCAR.

– I will post updates every Wednesday from now until November. Updates will show points scored that week and provide details of the upcoming races.

– Don’t worry if the only race that week is unknown to you. I’d imagine for most reading now this is one of those weeks. You only need to ask a question and either myself or somebody else will do our best to answer. Or, just guess! It doesn’t matter, the game is only for fun so have fun with it, take risks, do what you want!

– In any case, I’ll try to walk through what’s on each week so that nobody gets lost – this week I have gone into extra detail because it is week one, and because this race isn’t really followed outside of the US. Its included in the game because the driver mix is interesting. The NASCAR champ racing the IRL champ, who’s sharing a car with Montoya, with Bourdais thrown into the mix? Can’t resist that.

– Tip: Picks carry over from week to week, so later on you may like to have a NASCAR driver or two in there just in case you forget to enter, since they race most weeks.

Ready? Let’s go.

* * * *

WEEK 1

Events:

Rolex 24 at Daytona  (Entry List)

Several notable names are joining the series regulars for this race, here is a selection of cars with ‘name’ drivers you may recognise:

Juan Pablo Montoya (NASCAR, ex-F1, ex-CART), Scott Dixon (IRL) and Dario Franchitti (IRL) share a car for Chip Ganassi;

Justin Wilson (IRL) and Max Papis (ex-F1, ex-CART, NASCAR) share the other Ganassi car;

Pedro Lamy (Peugeot Le Mans, ex-F1) and Max Angelelli (sportscars) drive the SunTrust car;

Sebastien Bourdais (ex-F1, ex-ChampCar), Sascha Maassen (LM) and Emmanual Collard (LM) drive a Crown Royal car;

Ryan Hunter-Reay (IRL) and Lucas Luhr (LM) share another Crown Royal car;

Raphael Matos (IRL) and Butch Leizinger (lots of sportscars) share the Brumos entry;

Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR) and Jimmy Vasser (ex-CART) drive the GAINSCO / Bob Stallings entry;

Ricardo Zonta (ex-F1) drives for Krohn Racing;  Buddy Rice (ex-IRL?) is in the Spirit of Daytona;

And of course, lots of series regulars including Scott Pruett. Consult the entry list for more. These are all in the main Daytona Prototype class, scroll down to look through the GT entries – you never know which of the DP cars will hit trouble, might be worth a punt on a GT if you’re feeling lucky.

Important Note – the Game scoring will be based on the overall finishing position, not class position.

*If you have no idea what I’m saying, just pick 7 of the above!*

It is up to you how you pick your entry. You can pick Montoya, Dixon and Franchitti if you like, but remember that they are driving the same car so if it breaks down you’ve lost 3 of your 7. That said, they are one of the hot tips for the win. It is up to you whether you want to spread the risk among cars that might not be good, or place your eggs in one basket. Nobody has the right answer until Sunday night.

Final note – qualifying is on Thursday. I’ve held entries open until Friday because this is the first event of the year and I think maybe less than half of my readership know anything about it – and it is a 24 hour race so qualifying is almost meaningless. For the rest of the year I would like to close entries before qualifying – there may be an exception again for Le Mans, we’ll see!

* * * *

HOW TO ENTER

Two easy steps.

1 – Pick your 7 drivers (that’s individual DRIVERS not cars).

2 – Type it as a reply to this post.

That’s it!

Deadline –  Friday 29th January 2010 at 7pm GMT, that’s 2pm EST in the US/Canada. You have 2 days, and entries MUST be made in reply to this post. Emails and tweets won’t count.

Have fun, and good luck! Don’t forget to ask plenty of questions.

EDIT – This race is covered on SPEED TV in the US and Canada, with patchy coverage on Eurosport across Europe. The race starts at 3.30pm ET Saturday, that’s 8.30pm UK.

On The Limit – Kimi Goes Rallying

It is about time I posted another On The Limit, the occasional featured video of drivers on the ragged edge.

Just in case you were wondering whether to follow Kimi Räikkönen’s exploits in the World Rally Championship this year, perhaps this will help?

Yep, does it for me.

With thanks to Scott in the Sidepodcast comments for pointing this out. Be sure to hit the original file for full widescreen goodness, because WordPress sucks and won’t let me change the size.