Non-Nascar auto racing anyone?
 

Any motorheads here??? Not a whole lotta racing threads on the board, I see. Am I the only one who gets into road racing? This weekend is just about the finale for big time racing on the tube (well... NASCAR still has a few weekends left, but I don't get into that). This sunday is gonna be a waste for me:

12:30 - Formula 1 finale, the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
3:00 - Champcar World Series penultimate race from Surfers Paradise, Australia
5:30 - ALMS finale at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA

Add beer and other various likkers and it looks like Monday will be teh suck next week. :D Well worth it tho.

THEN I'll finally start to watch pro football again.

I've always been a fan of Montoya, Villeneuve and Paul Tracey. The seem to add character, or at least interesting moments to the races.

My wife doesn't like me getting up early Sunday mornings for the F1 races, but that's better than spending afternoons watching football.

This is why Saturday nights are the best for Hockey, I can't understand staying in the house on a fine Sunday to watch NFL, and when American NHL games are broadcast in the daytime, like NFL, I just can't justify the time spent indoors.

Mr. Warlock! I just finished watching the ALMS final. And its still Sat. where I live.

?????

DTM 1000%. I love watching Bernd Schneider destroy the competition in his Merc. NASCAR is fine for some people, but to me it's all Ricky Bobby and no heart.

I second the DTM racing.

Strange... it worked like that where I live, too. :D


Champcar finale (finally!) in Mehico City (on Sunday, I believe ;) ) anyone???

I grew up with Mid-Ohio in my backyard (literally) and being how my dad was a Lexington Kiwanis (they tended the gates, sold the programs etc.) member I got into all the races for free (had Paddock passes even).

So I grew up watching the Indy cars, the SCCA, Sprint, Vintage, and the super motorbikes. Nothing like them. I can't even watch NASCAR without getting sick..... Indycars are by far so much better, faster and the drivers in the 80's and 90's were far better. (Unfortunately, now the drivers go where the $$ is and that is NASCAR.)

In the late 80's and early 90's, my family had made friends with some of the racers.

Mid-Ohio gets Indycars back this year (after a few years absence) and I can guarantee I'll be wearing my Team Rahal and talking racing with some old, long lost friends.

Speaking of Rahal, what is it with his team? I can't believe he can't produce a winning driver or car.

If you think the Indycars which are returning to Mid Ohio are the same thing they used to have up until 2003, you're gonna be disappointed. They are getting the Indy "Racing" League, a far cry from the Champcars that ran there since the early '80s. Yeah, many of the teams are the same (those teams quit racing in CART (Champcar) when Honda and Toyota dangled huge $$$ in front of them to join the all-oval (at the time) IRL series).

As far as Rahal is concerned, he's not getting the preferential treatment teams like Andretti (Honda's favorite) or Penske (Toyota's favorite until they left for NASCAR) have been getting. He pimped that worthless chick Danica for all she was worth but still couldn't get her to win a race despite her beauty (and despite the IRL looking the other way at rule infractions - see: Indy, 2005). Now that she's with Andretti-powered-by-Honda$$$ I do expect to see her up front at the no-talent-needed, foot-to-the-floor, engine-power-is-everything oval tracks the IRL loves to run, but won't see a top 5 on the evil road courses. Rahal will be an also-ran this year... which suits me fine. After committing to race the Champcar schedule in 2004 and then pulling his cars right before the season started to follow the Japanese manufacturers money in the IRL, he deserves nothing but the fleas from the dogs he's been bedding with over the past 3 years.

Damn. And I was hoping I wasn't gonna bring IRL-hate to this forum. :D

I'm with Warlock! on this one. What's coming to MidOhio in 2007 is Indy Cars in name only. Its Tony George's creation in a power play to control open wheel racing in the US. And as a result he's damned near killed the sport. The IRL for all of its years (11) can barely fill the field at Indy. Its dominated by former CART teams (Ganassi and Penske primarily). The cars look like crap and they sound even worse. I can't imagine what those pigs will look like going through madness at MO.

As far as Rahal, he won't even run his own son Graham in the IRL. Some endorsement there! Rahal got lucky with on Indy win. His track record for making correct racing decisions is suspect.

Sorry to bust on the IRL, pan but you've hit a nerve for me. And welcome aboard Warlock! :thumbsup:

Ah, no need to appologize for the bust on IRL Craven... I was and shall forever be an old CART fan. Listening to those engines whine on the keyhole, standing over the foot bridge and watching them fly by. Watching truly great racers like Unser Sr., Rahal, Mears, Andretti, etc.

What George did was destroy a growing circuit that would have been far bigger and appealing to the fans than NASCAR (at the time he did his power play, CART was crushing NASCAR in sponsors, promotion and popularity).

When he took and closed Indy to CART in his power play no one could win. CART and the owners were able to hold out for awhile but without the race that made them famous and no true planning to capitalize on the road races it eventually destroyed them.

What George did was pathetic, but now that the road races are coming back, hopefully, they can get back to where they were. Which of course until George, was racing at it's finest and a circuit that blew NASCAR off the map.

Rahal had no choice but to go to Indy. That's where the sponsors are, that's where the money is. When the Champcar circuit started losing sponsorships, it became way too costly to stay in, especially for a mid tiered owner like Rahal.

IMHO, Rahal's downfall was taking the Ford/Jaguar position in Europe. He hasn't been able to build a winner since.

As for Graham, he's still young and wet behind the ears, I think Bobby wants him to get some seasoning and experience in. Bobby doesn't want to see his son hurt. Maybe it's the paternal instinct not seeing the potential....or maybe it's the seeing potential but knowing he is not yet ready.

The thing I always loved about Rahal was there was never a safer, more intelligent driver. He would calculate what he needed to do and make the move needed in the safest situation. Hopefully, that is what he is teaching his son and waiting to see from young Mr. Graham.

^ Dude, if we ever meet up at a race track, I'm buying. :thumbsup:

Nice. I'll have freebie tix to the ALMS/Earl weekend at M-O. We can go Saturday, watch the ALMS, then heckle the Yen-whores. :D :thumbsup:

Let me know where and when to meet and I'll be there. I love Mid-Ohio it is a beautiful track and (maybe I am biased growing up there but) the area is one of the country's most scenic, cleanest places.

Nothing like golfing a morning 18 at Twin Lakes, hitting the races and then heading into Mike's Pizza/Pub and having a couple, playing pool and just shooting the shit, maybe see a racer or at the very least a few pit crews.

(Used to party at the old Buck's but..... Larry Popa made sure that would never happen after the old one burnt down).

Damn, all this talk is bringing tears to my eyes...... good times were had... good times to be made yet.

I don't get into watching allot of racing on tv. I do drive a 4 cylinder stock car on a clay oval Saturday nights during the summer. Its alot of fun and reasonably affordable. Also at the track are 3 classes of sprint cars. I don't mind watching a bit of road racing wether its nascar type cars or touring cars but nothing can beat the excitement of 800 horsepower in a car weighing under 1200 pounds sliding sideways on an oval track about a 1/4 mile long.

If the cars only turn one way, I'm not interested ;)

SCCA racing is a helluvalot of fun because it's a bunch of guys who aren't in it for the money (you spend a lot more than you EVER take home), and it's just plain pure racing with anything from old 70's civics all the way up to miniature Indy cars (that can turn more than just left ;)

Rally is also a favorite of mine. What's more exciting than watching some dude blast down a snowpacked logging road at 100+mph with trees just inches to either side of the car?

NASCAR is my favorite motorsport, but I'm a big fan of Formula 1 and rally racing.

Well, how about if you have to turn right to go left? Or steering with the gas pedal?
Also, there arent many forms of raceing where you can loose either one of your left side tires and still finish the race just fine. And be competitive at that!
All of the above is of course in reference to Dirt track Sprint cars.

Or road rally... my personal favorite:
http://www.wackyvids.com/movies/carv...mp_Crash_t.jpghttp://www.lancs.ac.uk/ug/jakeman/project/pic1.jpg

Le Mans is coming up... :hyper: