Tag: Daytona 24 Hours

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.

Advertisement

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.