2023 Motorsport (non-F1) Thread

[Steadfast]

15 hours ago, younGGuns7 said:

Left it late for this announcement, still a few announcements to come yet, one tomorrow @ 8.30. 

Which turned out to be Hamilton's livery reveal. Nice to see a bit of colour on the HARD car, either last year or the year before there seemed to be a lot of black and white cars,  including the Cupras, on the grid making it hard to differentiate in the pack.

 

Looks like the artist formerly known as BTC are going with light grey and yellow this year. Should stand out

 

Jo

Edited April 6, 2023 by Steadfast

[younGGuns7]

2 hours ago, Steadfast said:

Which turned out to be Hamilton's livery reveal. Nice to see a bit of colour on the HARD car, either last year or the year before there seemed to be a lot of black and white cars,  including the Cupras, on the grid making it hard to differentiate in the pack.

 

Looks like the artist formerly known as BTC are going with light grey and yellow this year. Should stand out

 

Jo

Just have to be able to pick out Ash from Nic 🤣🤭🤣

[Steadfast]

Seen the news this afternoon Craig Breen has gone to the special stage in the sky after a testing crash.

 

I can't believe it, beyond words such a nice bloke, a real enthusiast of the sport as well.

 

Jo

[LNERandBR]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/craig-breen-passes-away-in-testing-accident/

 

Thing that gets me is there's so little coverage outside of Rallying Media. If you go on the BBC Website it's on their sports page but nothing on the News pages themselves. Saw most of the 6PM news and didn't see it mentioned.

 

I fear it's a symptom of where Rallying is as a whole. As a test, I asked up at my Model Railway Club tonight if anyone could name a current WRC Driver, none could. Plenty remembered Colin McRae but none even knew who the current champion was.

[peanuts]

7 hours ago, LNERandBR said:

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/craig-breen-passes-away-in-testing-accident/

 

Thing that gets me is there's so little coverage outside of Rallying Media. If you go on the BBC Website it's on their sports page but nothing on the News pages themselves. Saw most of the 6PM news and didn't see it mentioned.

 

I fear it's a symptom of where Rallying is as a whole. As a test, I asked up at my Model Railway Club tonight if anyone could name a current WRC Driver, none could. Plenty remembered Colin McRae but none even knew who the current champion was.

All.part of the master plan by the FIA to kill anything motorsports wise that competes with the financial cash machine that is F1 .aided and abetted by whom ever is in charge of uk motorsport we dont even have a wrc round in this country anymore with our only option likely to be something on tarmac in ireland add that to the dearth of club rallying in this country and you can see why .add on the piss poor tv coverage on some obscure channel at god knows what time and its no wonder .

[Invicta Informant]

13 hours ago, peanuts said:

All.part of the master plan by the FIA to kill anything motorsports wise that competes with the financial cash machine that is F1 .aided and abetted by whom ever is in charge of uk motorsport we dont even have a wrc round in this country anymore with our only option likely to be something on tarmac in ireland add that to the dearth of club rallying in this country and you can see why .add on the piss poor tv coverage on some obscure channel at god knows what time and its no wonder .

Absolutely, Formula One, and NASCAR for that matter, are both nothing like how I remember them growing up in the 1990s. They are both now 'entertainment' rather than sporting spectacles. NASCAR especially is an abomination with the 'Chase' and 'Play-Off' formats. And there are rumours that a split could occur in NASCAR as many of the teams are not happy with how much money they are getting from the broadcasting deal.

 

The WRC only has two full manufacturers, Toyota and Hyundai, plus Ford's pseudo-works effort through M-Sport. The championship from 2004 has been dominated by Frenchmen called Sebastien. Firstly Loeb and then Ogier. I think this plays a part in why people have lost interest over time. And to think back in the early 2000s, you had teams from Peugeot, Ford, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Skoda, Hyundai, and Citroen. Like with what happened with LMP1 cars, DTM (twice), the WTCC, and the Super Touring era of the BTCC, it got too expensive and manufacturers pulled out, and that has knock-on effects with a whole host of different things such as sponsors, fans, media coverage, tracks, driver market, etc.

 

Meanwhile in the World Endurance Championship, the current regulations (agreed by both the FIA and the ACO) has led to Cadillac, Porsche, Ferrari, Peugeot, and Vanwall joining Toyota and Glickenhaus in the championship, with BMW, Lamborghini, Alpine, and Isotta Fraschini also set to join as well (and maybe Acura, but badged as a Honda).

[micklner]

Similar situation when Group C the days of Silk Cut Jaguar etc became too popular and was was screwed by the FIA as they panicked in case F1 was losing out.  WEC will also go the same way, as the FIA will not like all the manafacturers running away from F1.

I still watch F1 but Channel 4 coverage ( always taped and most of the "show" is then ignored when watched) it is simply annoying to watch every race, the same old format with the same nonsense and hype before and after by "know it all presenters". It has also been a one Horse show for years, in recent years Mercedes and now Red Bull , whoever has the biggest budget wins 99% of the time  ( no matter that they all "supposed' to be spending to a limit !!).

 

I have moved on the BTCC live,  good entertainment and a number of winners in different cars every year.

[Invicta Informant]

This weekend there is both IndyCar and IMSA at Long Beach, California, MotoGP from Austin, Texas, NASCAR from Martinsville, Virginia, WEC from Portimão (on Eurosport), and the Le Mans 24 Hours for motorbikes (24 Heures Motos), which races on the Bugatti Circuit and is part of the FIM Endurance World Championship (also on Eurosport).

 

Also, there is the Goodwood Members' Meeting with some coverage on ITV1 and ITV4.

[SR71]

Goodwood members meeting live stream;

 

[Invicta Informant]

This weekend there is the WRC from Croatia, Formula E from Berlin, NASCAR from Talladega, and the BTCC kicks-off their season at Donington Park.

 

The driver line-ups in this BTCC season are:

Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai: Tom Ingram, Tom Chilton, Ronan Pearson, Nick Halstead.

West Surrey Racing BMW: Colin Turkington, Stephen Jelley, Adam Morgan, Jake Hill.

Speedworks Motorsport Toyota: Rory Butcher, Ricky Collard, George Gamble.

Motorbase Performance Ford: Dan Cammish, Daniel Rowbottom, Sam Osborne, Ashley Sutton.

Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall: Andrew Watson, Árón Taylor-Smith, Mikey Doble.

One Motorsport (formerly known as BTC Racing) Honda: Aiden Moffat, Josh Cook, Will Powell.

Tony Gilham Racing Cupra: Dexter Patterson, Jade Edwards, Bobby Thompson, Dan Lloyd, Nicolas Hamilton, Jack Butel.

[woodenhead]

This looks fun

 

[Steadfast]

BTCC live quali from 15.30

 

 

Jo

 

[Invicta Informant]

This weekend there is IndyCar from Barber Motorsport Park, Alabama, the WEC from Spa-Francorchamps, Australian Supercars from Wanneroo Raceway, Western Australia, NASCAR from Dover, Delaware, MotoGP from Jerez, and the inaugural round of the TCR World Tour (the spiritual successor to World Touring Car Cup, which in itself was the successor to the World Touring Car Championship) from Portimão.

[Invicta Informant]

This weekend there is Formula E from Monaco, NASCAR from Kansas, BTCC from Brands Hatch, and British GT from Silverstone.

[LNERandBR]

Also European Rally Championship starts tomorrow, Rally Islas Canarias.

[younGGuns7]

1 hour ago, Invicta Informant said:

This weekend there is Formula E from Monaco, NASCAR from Kansas, BTCC from Brands Hatch, and British GT from Silverstone.

If Brands BTCC is anywhere near as good as Donington it will be goooood. Out of 27 drivers only 4 didn’t score points just shows what a great series this is

[Invicta Informant]

This weekend there is WRC from Portugal, IndyCar from Indianapolis (Road Course), IMSA from Laguna Seca, NASCAR from Darlington, South Carolina, and MotoGP from Le Mans (Bugatti Circuit).

[Invicta Informant]

This weekend there is BTCC from Snetterton, Australian Supercars from Symmons Plains, Tasmania, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

[andyman7]

The long drawn out process for qualifying for the Indy 500 on 28 May has also kicked off!

[Invicta Informant]

This weekend there is British GT from Donington Park, NASCAR from Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Indy 500.

 

[PaulRhB]

Chip off the old Block? Lia Block impressing and has age on her side. Lia featured in several of Ken’s YouTube videos and seems to have that calm, this could be interesting as they are focusing on lower formula for experience. 
 

https://dirtfish.com/rally/ara/lia-block-chasing-european-rally-debut/

 

[Chrisr40]

A few pics from the Masters event at Brands this weekend. One or two of the races had disappointing fields in numbers but the F1 and classic touring cars didn't disappoint.

[Invicta Informant]

Having watched the Indy 500, thank goodness that nobody was the hurt, and the only damage done by that tyre that cleared the grandstands was cosmetic to someone's car in a parking lot. Kyle Kirkwood sustained a 80g impact and later thanked both the safety crew and medical team.

 

[Reorte]

23 hours ago, Invicta Informant said:

Having watched the Indy 500, thank goodness that nobody was the hurt, and the only damage done by that tyre that cleared the grandstands was cosmetic to someone's car in a parking lot. Kyle Kirkwood sustained a 80g impact and later thanked both the safety crew and medical team.

 

Very lucky that that tyre didn't go in to the grandstands.

[Invicta Informant]

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

Very lucky that that tyre didn't go in to the grandstands.

That is what I first feared might have happened. I know of accidents in the past in both IndyCar and NASCAR where cars have got airborne and crashed into the catch-fencing or debris from an accident ending up the grandstands, resulting in spectators being injured or even killed.