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Weekend Preview: 18-19 July 2009

Feature Events

MotoGP

– Alice Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland
– Sachsenring, Germany
– (9/17)
– www.motogp.com

Last weekend we had the German F1 GP, the 9th race of 17, and either due by design or coincidence this week sees the German MotoGP, also the 9th race of 17 but this time on the opposite side of the country to the Nurburgring over at the Sachsenring circuit between Dresden and Leipzig.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12.50pm Sunday, race starts at 1pm
(qualifying on BBC Red Button on Sat)
USA – LIVE on SPEED at 6pm ET Sunday
(amazing, the US gets a live MotoGP race!)

Support races are live on Eurosport and the BBC Red Button from 9.30am.


American Le Mans Series

– The American Le Mans North East Grand Prix
– Lime Rock Park, Connecticut, United States
– (5/10)
– www.americanlemans.com

The long hiatus to allow teams to compete at Le Mans – and recover – is finally over! This is a 2h45m event on the little Lime Rock circuit which last year was just a little bit frantic! Slightly fewer cars this year of course, but those up front will be trying just as hard.

TV Guide:
UK – Heavily Delayed on MotorsTV at 9.30pm on Monday 27th July
USA – LIVE on SPEED at 2pm ET Saturday

UK fans if you want to follow this event live I suggest listening to www.radiolemans.com instead! Should be at 7 or 8pm Saturday?

Other Events


FIA World Touring Car

– Brands Hatch
– Kent, England, UK
– (8/12)
– www.fiawtcc.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Eurosport
– Race 1 @ 11.45am Sunday
– Race 2 @ 1.30pm Sunday


FIA Formula 2

– Brands Hatch
– Kent, England, UK
– (4/)
– www.formulatwo.com
– with Formula Master

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Eurosport
– Race 1 DELAYED @ 6.45pm Saturday
– Race 2 LIVE @ 12.30pm Sunday

Elsewhere – Live streaming on www.formulatwo.com
Race 1 starts at 2pm on Saturday, Race 2 at 12.45pm Sunday

DTM

– Zandvoort
– Holland
– (4/10)
– www.dtm.com for news
– www.dtm.tv for live streaming and other video

The annual visit to Holland for the Germans appears likely to receive no UK TV airing following the collapse of Setanta Sports, as unlike GP2 no other broadcaster has stepped in to pick up the rights.

There should be live streaming on www.dtm.tv though! It is due to kick off at 1pm UK time.


Superleague Formula

– Zolder
– Belgium
– (6/11)
– www.superleagueformula.com

No TV deal here either for the same reasons as DTM, although I’m a little less bothered about this one!


World Series by Renault

– Le Mans Bugatti
– Le Mans, France
– (6/9)
– www.worldseriesbyrenault.com

There is a 30 minute update at 10pm Sunday on Eurosport, otherwise coverage seems as patchy and randomly-timed as ever.


Atlantic Championship

– Lime Rock Park
– Connecticut, USA
– (4/10)
– www.atlantic-championship.com


Grand-Am Rolex Series

– Barber Motorsport Park
– Alabama, USA
– (8//12)
– www.grand-am.com


Formula 3 Euroseries

– Zandvoort
– Holland
– (4/10)
– www.f3euroseries.com


NASCAR Nationwide Series

– Gateway International Raceway
– Madison, Illinois
– www.nascar.com


NASCAR Camping World Trucks

– Kentucky Speedway
– Sparta, Kentucky
– www.nascar.com
– with ARCA Re/Max

* * * *

I think that’s everything, if you spot anything I’ve missed or if you are attending any of these events be sure to leave a comment!

For those in the UK who missed the Goodwood Festival of Speed show on Tuesday, it will be repeated on ITV4 on Sunday at 5pm – don’t miss it!

Goodwood FoS: Pt.2 – F1

Directly after the classic racing bikes were a small group of modern era Formula 1 cars. No 2009 cars are allowed to take part in the Festival runs due to this season’s test ban regulations, and the running here would bizarrely count as testing and as the track commentator said, quite what they would learn doing burnouts up a 1.1-mile narrow lane remains unanswered. The F1 teams had to run older cars instead, most choosing 2008 versions with Red Bull running a 2006 Toro Rosso in a current Red Bull Racing livery. BrawnGP were the only team to bring a 2009-spec car which remained on static display in the main paddock – they claimed it is the same chassis that will appear in Germany this weekend but I think that’s PR guff. Despite this minor setback the drivers put on an excellent show, notable Timo Glock who was doing burnouts galore and getting his car sideways throughout his runs!

Timo Glock, Toyota TF108, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

David Coulthard took the morning run for Red Bull before taking the helicopter to Wimbledon where he was spotted on TV that afternoon. Interestingly, his motorhome was seen at the Renault World Series event at Silverstone.

David Coulthard, 2006 Red Bull STR1, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Also running on Sunday were Marc Gene in a Ferrari F2008, and some guy called Pierangelo Masselli in a Ferrari F300 of 1998. I got a photo of the ’98 car, and a video of the ’08 car which I’ll keep back for now. 😉

Ferrari F300, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Needless to say all of these cars were very loud and very energetic! I’m not sure if my hearing is going and it probably is after attending events like this, but they did seem a little quieter than usual, it’s probably me though. There was a definite difference in sound between the 2008 cars and the Red Bull and earlier Ferrari, which were both more shrill and peaky with their higher-revving engines. Once the cars had departed I headed into the infield to have a wander around, not really sure where to go next. I elected to locate some lunch and was surprised to find they were charging £5.50 for a burger!! A bit of meat in two bits of bread. Okay so it was top organic stuff from their own farm, with a fresh salad in it instead of the muck from McD’s, but still, there’s a principle at stake here. You don’t pay that for a burger. So I stuck to my packet of crisps and head to the Mercedes stand because I’d heard they were bringing the new SLR Stirling Moss Edition. Sure enough, they had!

SLRs past and present, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

I adore this car. They’d placed it next to the SLR of the type Moss had driven in events such as the Mille Miglia in the 1950s. The similarities are striking, yet the new car is unmistakebly modern. I have no idea how they did it. Several other Mercedes were on display of course, but I wasn’t that interested – what did catch my eye were the signs proclaiming Jenson Button’s interview session in this very pavilion at 3pm, so I decided I should have to come back for that. I had three hours to kill.

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!