Category: Weekend Preview

Weekend Preview: 31 Jan & 1 Feb

Weekend Preview: 31st January & 1st February 2009

After last week’s excitement at Daytona we have a couple of quiet weeks again, with my listings only showing two events happening at all this weekend and absolutely nothing next weekend. Time for everyone to get their houses in order before the racing madness kicks off again in earnest.

I was actually thinking of setting up a Google Calendar showing all of these events, but actually I’d be better off giving you the link to one of the sources of info for this series of posts.

FORIX Race Calendar < < < Bookmark this page!

Red dots show events upcoming, green dots are past events and are clickable! The list of series expands as the year progresses so don’t worry if it looks small now.

FORIX (main page) is a colossal motorsport database which aims to record the result of any race anywhere. It started out as a Formula 1 resource in the early 90s, until they eventually filled in the gaps in F1 history and started adding other series. Now they cover all sorts of things. I’m not saying their coverage of other series is as comprehensive as their F1 coverage, it’s getting there though.
These days the site is hosted by Autosport.com (hence the banners and domain) but as far as I know it is still free. I have a sub to Autosport so it’s free for me anyway!

You might think giving the link defeats the object of these posts but I disagree – these posts are to flesh out those single-line entries and hopefully provide a bit of background and context.

On to the listings:

World Rally Championship [website]
Rally Ireland
Round 1 of 12
Rally HQ: Sligo, Ireland

The first round of this year’s WRC gets under way with the cross-border event on the Emerald Isle. I don’t know if this is the only rally in the world held in two countries, in this case Ireland and the UK, as the cars will cross the border into Northern Ireland. For that reason alone this event should be supported by everybody – it’s nice to see that kind of positivity.
For the WRC, the loss of the Monte Carlo Rally to the IRC is a bitter blow but one they put upon themselves. WRC is going through a turbulent time at the moment with crazy rules and crazy schedules. If you are able you should watch this year anyway as it may be the last we’ll see of the current-spec World Rally Cars before IRC-style Super2000 comes in, and let’s face it these guys throwing cars at the scenery (and missing) is still pretty spectacular stuff.

Trophee Andros
Clermont/Superbesse, France
Round 7 of 7

The final round of the sideways ice racing series. Take a look!:

Okay I’m out of here, maybe for a few days, maybe not…

Weekend Preview: 24-25 January 2009

Weekend Preview: 24 & 25 January 2009

Welcome to the first proper weekend of racing in 2009!


Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series [website]
Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona [website]
Round 1 of 12
Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
A field of 52 cars and a huge cast of drivers take to the ‘roval’ (horrible word) course at Daytona for the annual sportscar classic. Will Ganassi triumph again, will arch rivals Penske’s entry spoil their party, or will it be a team ‘native’ to Grand-Am rather than one of America’s big racing powerhouses?
It gets under way at 3.30pm local time, 8.30pm UK. Coverage is live in the US on Speed (with the start on Fox). It looks like you guys get lots of hours of coverage. Here in Europe we’ll get 5 hours live on Eurosport 2 with a highlights show some time later. Note these are not a continuous five hours, and we don’t get the start. We should get from 9.30-11pm Saturday, then 6.30-7pm and 8-9pm on Sunday. I say ‘we’, I don’t actually have Eurosport 1 or 2…

A1GP [website]
4 of 10 (or thereabouts)
Taupo, New Zealand
The World Cup of Motorsport arrives down under. Marco Andretti, Robert Doornbos and Dan Clarke do battle with A1 regulars Adam Carroll and Neel Jani in the new Ferrari cars. The race is live on Sky Sports 1 at 00.30 on Sunday morning (okay, Saturday night). There are replays throughout the day on Sunday on both Sky Sports 1 and 2, the same is true for qualifying.

GP2 Asia Series [website]
3 of 6
Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain
The revolving cast of drivers arrives in Bahrain for what should be an entertaining couple of races, not that anybody will see them. Bahrain attracts zero spectators. This one is for schmoozing the sponsors. These races are on Eurosport. They were due to be delayed but because women’s skiiing got cancelled, should actually be live. Note these races are on Friday and Saturday.

Speedcar Series [website]
2 of 6
Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain
Speedcar returns on the double-bill with GP2 Asia as part of the ‘Grand Weekend’ which I think is a translation error.. I don’t believe live coverage exists outside of Asia but I could be wrong.

Intercontinental Rally Challenge [website]
Monte Carlo Rally
1 of 12
Valence, France; Monaco
This former World Championship rally switches to the IRC this year and has actually got under way already, the organisers taking the opportunity to extend the rally away from the constraints of the WRC.
There is coverage on Eurosport – some of it live – because the network part-owns the series! I believe live coverage is on Friday evening.

Andros Trophy [website]
6 of 7
Serre Chevalier, France
The penultimate round of the French ice racing series.

***
I’d planned to put logos up for most of these but ran out of time.

Before you complain, yeah I know I’ve not done the BMW F1 launch post yet. I’m getting around to it. Tomorrow. Promise.

Weekend Preview: 18-Jan-09

Weekend Preview: 17th & 18th January 2009

Two posts in one day! I think that’s the first time I’ve done that.. On to this weekend’s preview, which is pretty light but I decided to go ahead and write it just for the hell of it. Look out for next week’s post which will be much more interesting.

Dakar Rally
The 2009 Dakar enters its final stages and concludes on Sunday. Shock today as the runaway leader crashed out! Who’s going to win the first Dakar outside of Africa?

Andros Trophy (Rnd 5 of 7)
Isola 2000 / Alpes-Martimes, France
Slip sliding away.

New Zealand V8 Supercar (Rnd 5 of 7)
Teretonga, New Zealand
Yeah I really know nothing about this series..

Blog Notes
– These listings primarily come from Autosport magazine, so thanks to them for compiling the original list. I will supplement this with info from other sources when we get nearer the time.

– I’ve decided to not annotate some listings for the sake of brevity and not at all to disguise my lack of knowledge in some areas.

– I have a new email address for the blog: toomuchracing at gmail dot com
I thought it best to split blog traffic out of my main personal account. Actually it is registered with the UK version ‘googlemail.com’ but ‘gmail.com’ also reaches me. Our version has a different name due to a copyright dispute. Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow when I’ll be hoping McLaren release some decent photos of the new car!

Weekend Preview: 11-Jan-08

Weekend Preview: 10th & 11th January 2009

Dakar Rally
The competitors reach the halfway stage of the famous endurance test over the weekend. Sensation today as a leading car entrant was disqualified for skipping part of the route! So that’s about all I know of the how the ’09 event is progressing. I’m backing Carlos Sainz to win! Mentally, not with an actual bet.. Info at www.dakar.com. TV on Eurosport, Versus, etc.

Toya Tires Dubai 24 Hours
Dubai Autodrome, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The circuit racing season kicks off with the first 24 Hour race of the year, featuring GT and Touring Car teams and drivers from Europe and Asia. It looks like most of them are running Porsche 997s of some description. Actually the only thing of note about this race is that one of the teams is running the new Audi R8 GT car.
This event takes place on Friday and ends on Saturday due to local customs regarding when they have their weekend.
I can’t find details of live TV coverage, although I’m not convinced you’d want them. MotorsTV usually has a half hour highlights package on extensive re-air in the weeks after the race, although that might only have been because they entered two cars last year. I watched it last year, pretty damned boring. I mean who wants to watch a 24 hour race on sandy roads through a desert? You have no bearings or reference points. Imagine the ALMS race at Utah but without the prototypes or people. If you’re as confused as I am about which brand-new Middle East venue is which, this is the one GP2 Asia visits and not F1 (Bahrain) or MotoGP (Qatar). In Dubai’s defence, lots of buildings are springing up nearby so it probably looks completely different now….
The official website is www.24hdubai.com although the Dubai Autodrome website is a far superior source of information.

New Zealand V8 Supercar
4 of 7 – Timaru, New Zealand
I’ve never heard of Timaru, I don’t know who’s racing, I have nothing to add.

Trophee Andros
4 of 7 – Lans-en-Vercors, France
Sideways ice racing at it’s best! Multiple F1 champion Alain Prost is racing again, I expect touring car man Yvan Muller is too. I have no clue where/when you can see this so check listings.

Autosport International
NEC, Birmingham, England
This isn’t a race, it is the annual racing ‘trade’ show at the NEC in Birmingham, being held from today until Sunday. Expect lots of transcripts of Q&As and comments appearing over at autosport.com from their featured guests on the main stage. If you get their RSS news feed that’ll be why it went crazy busy today! Last year they made several interviews available as audio clips, too (but I don’t think those will be in the feed). There are updates throughout the weekend on MotorsTV (Sky ch.413 and also available on Virgin Media).

Blog Note – Next week’s Preview may not appear due to the lack of racing. It’s January! What I will do over the weekend is summarise today’s FIA/FOTA releases as well as the highlights of what is coming out of Autosport International.