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Racing Podcasts

The racing season is quickly approaching and in some places has started already, and that means the racing podcasts are doing the same. I just thought I would mention some of my favourites:

Midweek Motorsport
I’ve known about MWM for a couple of years now and 2009 represents their 4th season. At two hours every week it is a pretty hefty commitment which is why I’ve not listened until now, I until now preferred LiveFastRacing’s podcast which was a similar length but every few weeks. With the demise of that podcast I’ve decided to switch over to MWM. They cover all sorts of racing with several guys from different backgrounds. There’s an F1 guy, a sportscar guy (the legendary John Hindaugh who is the track announcer at ALMS events and the man behind Radio Le Mans), and many more.
Very knowledgeable and actually very much like the Eurosport MotoGP commentary in terms of style, the ‘down the pub with your mates’ atmosphere. I say that having only heard episode 1 of 2009 and they are on to no.3 as of today (there’s a new one every Wednesday), so maybe they’ve settled down a bit? I’m playing catch-up so I get back to the ‘current’ week if you see what I mean, and I highly recommend you do the same.

Check it out at RadioLeMans.com!

FastMachines.com
Chris, Josh and George put together a fast and furious ride through the world of racing, everything from NASCAR to ALMS to bikes to their crazy no-holds barred opinions of F1. And all in about half an hour! I’m not quite sure how they cram it all in but they seem to cover everything and in detail. I’ve been listening since ep9 or 10 and it’s a lot of fun.

Ep.21 is coming soon so keep checking FastMachines.com!

MyNameIsIRL.com
Jeff is the host of the I Am Mindy Show, a run through the latest IndyCar news in 30 minutes or less or your money back. Still relatively new to podcasting although you wouldn’t know it from listening, our mate Jeff is considered by many to be one of the ‘senior’ IRL bloggers out there (along with Pressdog) and his blog is quickly becoming the focal point of IRL fandom. You tend to go there first then link through to other sites. His podcast is equally as good.

Head on over to MyNameIsIRL.com and search for ‘Podcast’!

Try all of these once and then settle on the ones you enjoy most. I fully intend to listen to all of them throughout the year.

Twitter

Okay so I decided to try this Twitter business to see what it’s all about. I know it’s quite big in North America but I think only the ‘early adopter’ techies and media types use it over here… let’s try and change that, shall we?

I’ve been thinking about it for a while but didn’t really understand it, but after Jeff from MyNameIsIRL blogged about it this week and I’d already noticed Wedge from FuriousWedge [check out the Blogathon!] and Meesh from So Here’s What I’m Thinking had signed up I thought I’d take a closer look. Got to balance all that North American content with a bit of British charm, right?

So there you are. My profile is @toomuchracing and you can read my little notes in the nice little widget in the sidebar here. I have no idea if this will work. I have no idea if I’ll stick with it. I have no idea what we’re going to do about spoilers – I might have to ban myself from Twitter until I can see the IndyCar races as I can’t watch them live – but those are problems for another day!

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EDIT – Just in case anyone is wondering, my profile photo both here and on Twitter is nearly 5 years old! I just can’t find a more recent head-on shot where I’m not drunk.

Weekly Question – Foreign Drivers

UOWWBA asks:

Is the prominence of foreign drivers in the league hurting the IRL?

The answer to that depends on which drivers you’re talking about. If you’re referring to the highly successful championship winning drivers Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Cristiano da Matta and all the rest – then clearly you are insane if you think that somehow hurts IndyCar or any other series they’ve run in over the last decade. Joel at IRL-O-Rama wrote a good piece in answer to this same question, and I agree with him entirely.

On the flip side if you’re referring to the ride buyers which propped up the last few years of Champ Car then yeah, it does hurt. Several of those guys had no business being in a top line single-seater. But then you could say the same about the ride buying Americans which propped up the first years of the IRL.

Us hardcore fans of racing don’t give a monkey’s where the drivers come from if they are talented and are able to get a ride in a good team.
What I think the question is driving at is the appeal to the more casual fan. The guys who only watch when someone of their nationality is winning. We have the same in Britain, many more people watch F1, tennis, golf, etc. whenever a Brit is winning or competing for wins.

Those ‘fans’ will never change and that’s a shame because they are missing some great racing and great sport generally. They seem to miss the whole point of Indy-style (and sportscar) racing as opposed to NASCAR – bringing top drivers from around the world and racing them against the best America has to offer to see who’s best. And guess what guys: sometimes the Americans win!

From my limited knowledge of the beginnings of the Indianapolis 500 I seem to remember something about those first races consisting of drivers from everywhere racing cars from all over the place to see which combination was best over a distance. I’ll wager that’s one of many reasons why the 500 became so huge in the first place. Surely as the Speedway enters what it terms the ‘Centennial Era’, that’s the one thing it needs to hold on to?

Let me compare it to our little BTCC. Ten years ago it was at its height with big fields of British drivers alongside the cream of talent from all over Europe choosing to join them and race here. Result: big crowds at the circuits, good TV ratings, sponsorships, all the rest of it.
Nowadays we have smaller fields of British drivers and only one foreign driver, albeit he’s one of the best tintop drivers around. Result: far smaller crowds, relatively low TV ratings, and less sponsorships (and this was before the crunch).
OK the modern cars aren’t as good as those a decade ago and you didn’t have WTCC then, but still the point remains:
BTCC fans not only appreciate the foreign drivers racing here but consider it something to be proud of that some the best talent from across Europe chose to race here instead of DTM or any of the other national series. There really isn’t any reason why IRL fans can’t look at it the same way.

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Speaking of non-Americans looking for IndyCar rides, check out Dan Clarke’s quotes when he was interviewed by Autosport.com prior to this weekend’s A1GP event.

“I’m still living in Indianapolis, and we’re still gearing up for a season in IndyCar. But if the opportunity arises to do more of these (A1GP) races then I will jump at them, of course. But after this race I will go back to Indianapolis and continue with the negotiations that we’re having there with the teams in IndyCar.”

More on Autosport.com.