Blog

Weekend Preview: 6-7 June :09

Feature Events

Formula 1

– Formula 1 ING Turkish Grand Prix
– Istanbul Park, Turkey
– (7/17)
– 58 laps
– www.f1.com

The Turkish GP is held at another Tilkedrome out in the middle of nowhere, miles away from the city it purports to represent. All the team personnel, media, etc. complain that it takes 1.5 hours to travel to/from the circuit from Istanbul, and that’s on a good run from the ‘near’ side of the city.

The problem in Turkey is the same as at a lot of other ‘new’ venues – lack of attendance. The prices are too high for the locals, or the locals are not sufficiently interested, or they like dressing up to look like grandstand seats.

That said it is one of the more interesting Tilke circuits, particularly the high-speed high-load multi-apex Turn 8, which creates a passing opportunity into the Turn 9 chicane, which in turn leads on to the back straight and another passing opportunity. The cars can race at this circuit.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC One at 12.10pm BST (race start 1pm)
USA – DELAYED on FOX at 3pm EDT

BEFORE THE RACE at 11am UK be sure to head to www.sidepodcast.com and join the live Parade Lap! It is an online radio show loosely discussing F1 with a laid-back Sunday vibe. It will end as the BBC coverage begins and there is live text commenting!

Support races: GP2 Series, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Turkish Touring Car Championship


IndyCar Series

– Bombadier Learjet 550
– Texas Motor Speedway, somewhere in Texas, United States
– (6/17)
– 228 laps
– www.indycar.com

TMS is crazy. Fast, furious, non-stop action. If you’ve never seen a race here you won’t believe what’s going on.

TV Guide:
UK – DELAYED on Sky Sports Xtra at 11am BST
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 9pm ET

Other Events


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Pocono 500
– Pocono, United States
– (14/36)
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 3 at 7pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on TNT at 12.30pm ET Sunday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday), Camping World Trucks (Friday)

GP2 Series

– Istanbul Park
– Turkey
– (3/10)
– www.gp2series.com

British F3

– Hockenheim, Germany
– (4/10)

Grand-Am

– Six Hours of the Glen
– Watkins Glen, USA

Isle of Man TT

– http://www.iomtt.com/
The classic time trials are running over the whole week, up to next Saturday. These guys are utterly insane! I will post an ‘On The Limit’ video tomorrow, when I’ve found one, in the meantime check YouTube yourself.
ITV4 has been running nightly updates at 9pm and will continue to do so throughout the week, and ITV1 will have highlights on Sunday 7th and Sunday 14th.

* * *
This is actually a fairly quiet weekend when you think about it, in Europe all the other series try to schedule races for when F1 isn’t on so that has a big effect. Let me know if I’ve missed anything.

I will try to find time for a Le Mans preview during the week, possibly Thursday when qualifying is on and when things aren’t so hectic for me. Of course since you’ll all be listening to www.radiolemans.com and will have downloaded their preview podcasts, you’ll know all there is to know already!

The Customer Comes First

The esteemed Mr Pressdog has recently taken up the mantle of being the champion of the customer – the fan – who is losing out and needs to be listened to, needs to be taken seriously.

Formula 1 journalist Joe Saward agrees and he tells it straight both on www.grandprix.com and his blog, and he has been talking about how F1 should pay more attention to fans on several editions of podcasts from Sidepodcast.com.

Check out last week’s instalment “The Customer Always Comes First” on the link below (this quote is actually unrelated to fans and is about engines – but he is in the fans’ corner too), and be sure to check the site every race weekend for his latest musings as well as the regular Debriefs throughout the weekend from the SPC team.


http://www.sidepodcast.com/2009/05/27/an-aside-with-joe-the-customer-always-comes-first/

You probably ought to check the archives too.

Weekend Preview: 30-31 May 2009

Feature Events

IndyCar Series

– ABC Supply / AJ Foyt 225
– Milwaukee Mile, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
– (5/17)
– 225 laps
– www.indycar.com

Just one week after the Indy 500 the teams and drivers head to the traditional follow-up event at the Milwaukee Mile – this will be the 52nd time Milwaukee directly follows Indy in the schedule and the 3rd time under IRL sanction, it really is one of those long-time Indy-racing traditions. According to IndyCar.com the last driver to win both events back-to-back was Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000.

I like Milwaukee, it can be a lot of fun and it is a different kettle of fish to the 1.5 milers the IRL usually uses.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 11pm BST
USA – LIVE on ABC at 3:30pm EDT

Support races: Firestone Indy Lights

Other Events

MotoGP

– Gran Premio d’Italia Alice
– Mugello, Italy
– (5/17)
– www.motogp.com

To Italy! I still haven’t caught up with MotoGP so I really have no idea what’s going on, but this track ought to sort them out.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12.30pm
USA – Delayed on SPEED at 4pm ET

Supports: 250s, 125s, etc.

 


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Dover 400
– Dover, Delaware, USA
– Charlotte, South Carolina, USA
– (13/36)
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 7pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on FOX at 1.30pm ET Sunday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday), Camping World Trucks (Friday)

DTM

– EuroSpeedway Lausitz
– Lausitz, Germany
– (2/10)
– www.dtm.com (news/results)
– www.dtm.tv (video interviews, live streaming)

The German tourers head to the road course layout at the EuroSpeedway. Turn one is always fun but to be honest this isn’t my favourite DTM race of the year because the huge stands make the place look empty and the track itself isn’t very interesting. There is always a bit of fun at turn one at the start, otherwise there isn’t much to be said.

The good news is that we in the UK return to live coverage for this event, so if you have Setanta be sure to check it out.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Setanta Sports 1 at 12.30pm.
Worldwide – LIVE on www.dtm.tv from 2pm CET / 1pm BST / 8am EDT. When you follow that link it will ask you to choose one of two sites, pick the right-hand one. The live link is on the top right of the page.

Support races: F3 Euroseries

WTCC

– Valencia
– Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, Spain
– (5/12)
– www.fiawtcc.com

I’ve never liked this circuit. It can produce the odd reasonable race but I just don’t like it! In many ways it shares several characteristics with Lausitz. Lots of tight turns, a long straight, lots of seats that aren’t filled..

TV Guide:
LIVE on Eurosport at 11.45am (race 1) and 1.45pm (race 2).

Support races: International Formula Master


Formula 2

– Valencia
– Circuit de Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, Spain
– (1/8)
– www.formulatwo.com

The return of the F2 name to the contemporary motorsport scene, except this time rather than being an open formula it is a spec series run to a budget. It is pitched as a Formula 1 feeder but in all honesty it’ll find itself competing with FR3.5 to get people into GP2 with the odd guy getting a test & reserve deal in F1 – not to mention this is yet another fracture of the development ladder! Still, if it give opportunities to talented drivers who can’t afford the alternatives then it will have served its purpose well, and perhaps it is other series that need to be cut back. Time will decide that one.

TV Guide:
Eurosport at 5pm Saturday (delayed race 1) and 12.45pm Sunday (LIVE race 2).
Note race 2 slots directly between the two WTCC races in the Eurosport schedule!
There is also live coverage on the series website at 2.20pm CET Saturday and 1.50pm CET Sunday.


BTCC

– Oulton Park
– Cheshire, England, UK
– www.btcc.net

Oulton Park is an excellent and deceptively tricky circuit which is a lot of fun to watch!

Formula Nippon

 

– Fuji, Japan


V8 Supercars

– Symmons Plains, Australia


British F3 & GT

– Rockingham, England

* * *
That’s it, if ever if you think I’ve forgotten something please point it out in the comments. Enjoy your weekend!

IRL Preview: 2009 Indianapolis 500

IRL IndyCar Series
– 93rd Indianapolis 500 Mile Race (4/17)
– Indianapolis Motor Speedway
– Speedway, Indiana, Indianapolis, United States
– 200 laps
– www.indycar.com and www.indy500.com (check both)

Event History
The second of the two great events occurring today, though perhaps only in terms of scheduling. I’ll leave the Monaco vs Indy debate for others and of course readers of this blog must surely agree the N-Word thing happening later isn’t even in the reckoning.

The 500 is one of the longest-standing events in the world if not the longest, it having started way back in 1911. As you can imagine, there is a lot of history and tradition here, right from retaining the yard of bricks at the line, to releasing the balloons before race start, to the three-wide start.

There have also been some very tight finishes!

1992:

2006:

Circuit
On the face of it the track is just a couple of very long straights connected by 90-degree corners, like a rounded rectangle, and while this is somewhat true it very much hides some interesting nuances.

– The banking isn’t very steep for an oval, especially not an oval of this speed, so it requires some balls-out commitment to head into turn one when all you see in front of you is a concrete wall. It is a little bit better now they have the SAFER barrier – but you still don’t want to hit it.

– Unlike many ovals, each turn is unique and has its own characteristics. Dan Wheldon in this week’s Autosport magazine says turns 1 and 2 are tricky and often have crosswinds, while 3 and 4 are easier and allow you to set up a run on someone along the main straight.

The bigger issues at Indy are the traffic, the fuel mileage and the other drivers!

Check out this video of Helio Castroneves on a restart two years ago, if you’ve never seen this you won’t believe how close he gets to the pit retaining wall, and neither did he…

Form
The Penske and Ganassi teams are largely unbeatable on the ovals, yet Indy is the place the smaller teams hope to score an upset because anything can happen. You’ve got to say it is between Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon though, and anyone else is an outside bet!

What to Watch For
– The warm-up lap. Seriously! This is the only oval race I feel the pre-start tension in the same way I do with F1, and it really kicks in on the final warm-up lap as the cars come off of turn 2 and form up in the classic 3×3 formation, which they hold until turn 4. Goosebumps.
– A fast and furious opening section, a long middle section, and a fast and furious closing section.

UK TV
R: Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports 3 HD will air the Race live at 6pm

US TV
R: As usual, ABC (in HD) will air the Race live at Midday.
US viewers should remember to switch to Versus when the ABC coverage is over for an extended post-race show!

Enjoy the race!