BigJag

LariatTom. Do you believe that Loeb is valuable to WRC? I don't really know how people view him in other countries. In the UK however. As much as we can appreciate him for his skill. The fact that he is not British and comes across as fairly dour. Serves to make the WRC as a whole quite boring. We really are missing a driver who is able to capture the public's imagination.

 

It's a tough one. He's been utterly dominant in the sport for years to the point where no one can really get close to him. Eight consecutive titles and he's surely going to win title number 9 this year. After that, I still think he'll leave the sport and start taking his GT racing more seriously but only time will tell. He's valuable to the WRC for the fact that he's a recognisable name in modern day rally, but the WRC is a bit of a non-entity to be perfectly honest, so it's difficult to decide what is valuable to WRC. Crowds are way down, there's virtually no TV coverage, the sport gets almost no coverage in the press unless there's a huge accident and even in motorsport magazines, it doesn't exactly demand a lot of space.

 

He essentially became the rallying version of Schumacher for his dominance of the sport. Red Bull coming in as the promoter should hopefully be able to make things interesting, and with him quite possibly leaving the sport, they'll need something to give it a boost to try and give the sport some sort of appeal.

 

How would people view the likes of Travis Pastrana becoming more prominent internationally? Apparently from next year Red Bull will be taking over promotion of WRC. I can see more X Games style presentation coming. Good or bad?

 

I doubt we'll see more of an X Games presentation with rallycross taking over the entire sport, but it'll most likely start to have some sort of role in the sport with it replacing a few of the special stages. They are the sort of thing that they could get on TV with some appeal of rally cars on a short course, a few jumps and some cool slow motion shots of the cars drifting through corners. That's what can get coverage, but a rethink of the sport and how to make it appealing to a modern audience is needed.

I didn't mean that they would go the Rallycross route. The Global Rallycross championship has proven to be a little lacklustre. Despite the involvement of a number of X Games guys. Rallying needs to remain a point to point event. The IRC seem to be doing things right with competitive rallying and managing to run events like Monte Carlo. The issue is with the lack of exposur. There is no one like Colin McRae who can connect with people and draw them in. The changes with Super 2000 cars seems to have made things closer in terms of performance. Volkswagen are rumoured to be coming in soon too. Things are looking good in that respect.

http://www.festival-of-motoring.co.uk

The above event looks pretty cool. Shame the evening dinner is sold out. Has anyone been before?

Ouch! That Maldonado faux pad must have been painfully embarassing.

LariatTom. Do you believe that Loeb is valuable to WRC? I don't really know how people view him in other countries. In the UK however. As much as we can appreciate him for his skill. The fact that he is not British and comes across as fairly dour. Serves to make the WRC as a whole quite boring. We really are missing a driver who is able to capture the public's imagination.

How would people view the likes of Travis Pastrana becoming more prominent internationally? Apparently from next year Red Bull will be taking over promotion of WRC. I can see more X Games style presentation coming. Good or bad?

Loeb won in Finland. Not much else to say really. There were a couple of huge crashes, which haven't happened recently. Everyone was ok. Loeb was asked about retirement. He didn't really answer the question though. Seemed a little annoyed by it. The event was exciting in parts. Mainly due to the high speeds and bug eyed looks on the drivers faces after the runs. Finland is the fastest Rally around. WRC is still flat though sadly. Needs something to lift it. Loeb retiiring should help with the competitiveness.I think Citroen will still be dominant though. Let see.

What's happening this weekend?

Day two of Rally Finland on Motors TV. Huge scary moment for Chris Atkinson.

Day three can be seen tomorrow at 2235. This will include the legendary Onimpoia stage. The fastest stage in Rally.

WRC on Motors TV. A couple of huge crashes. It's Finland the fastest and one of the drivers favourite rallies. Loeb the bore hates it. Still begrudgingly good at it though. The man is virtually unbeatable.

Is that because of Brundles commentary?

As far as I am aware. The race footage is the same for all broadcasters. Sky obviously have the advantage with showing every race live.

http://tv.audi.com/#/01

Thanks for the link. Cool highlights being shown at the moment. People should check it out. Except you can't on an IPad. Bloody idiotic selfish rotten Apple!

First practice will be on the F1 channel at 0845.

First time I watched the Sky showing of F1 due to the free weekend, I prefer the Beeb's F1 show.

 

Me too, no Martin fucking Brundle to put up with.

Lee Mckenzie on the BBC too. No Lnaky bloke this week. Hopefully its the same for Hungary.

DTM on SS4. It's some sort of special event. Similar in some ways to the Race Of Champions. Looks loads of fun. Like a big Scalextric track. Two drivers line up on separate identical tracks and try to out race each other . Then they tag in their team mate in the other car,by pulling into the pits. Sort of a touring car relay race. Closest thing I've ever seen to real life Indy Heat.

It's taking place within the Bayern FC stadium!

That was very good. After the relay team event, they had an individual drivers tournament. All sorts of goings on here. Very close racing and pitstops playing a part. The rain spiced things up too. Nurburgring is the next proper event. Check out the DTM if you get a chance. It's repeated at 2330 tonight on SS3 ,and at 0300 and 0700 tomorrow on SS4.

Overall it was a better version of the Race Of Champions.

Twenty second penalty for going off track? Wow! Vettel got spanked there. He should have waited a little longer. The Red Bull was clearly faster.

WTCC live on Eurosport HD now. Race one just finished. Race two on soon.

WTC on EurosportHD. Live!

It's the German grand prix this weekend. Qualifying is less than an hour away. What's been happening people?

How long have The Primetime Players been using the Decapitation as a finisher?

It's a very sloppily done imitation of Demolitions version. Not happy!

The DTM show on SS3 was a highlights show. Cracking race. I'm always at wresting training on a Sunday. So miss the live races. Plus that presenter is very attractive. Must have had something to do with the wet weather and her I can speak English but I am actually German delivery.

How does watching the German coverage help with your degree?

Is the Norisring an old airfield?

ELMS? Is that the European Le Mans Series? Donnington is half an hour from my door. I really have no excuse for not going!

I'm pretty sure they were showing some live Le Man's series stuff on Motors TV this past Sunday morning. It looked like an American event. Not sure though. Looked a good race from what I saw of it.

General motorsports thread I believe. No one seems to use the F1 thread.

Just finshed watching DTM from the Norisring. It seems BMW forgot to fit any rear view mirrors. They left massive gaps at the same corner. Allowing the Mercedes to barge through. Good fun!

Sexy top on the presenter too. Something about women who wear their ponytail through a baseball cap. Wow!

Webber has signed a contract extension. Shame. O wad hoping him and Hamilton would swap seats.

Watching DTM on SS3. Wet race. Log jam at the first corner.

Had an update from Orange today on my Desire HD. Can't say I've noticed any differences. Anyone else?

Do the BBC not show the race online?

Unfortunately not on.3G.

Helicopter seems the best way to get into Silverstone. I remember when I went the sky was full of choppers. Amazing to see. If your going tomorrow look out for that.

Regarding the fields. I don't think they actually own them. They have to remain as green field sites. Chucking a load of tarmac on them is not allowed. When I worked on the railway. We had a site that we used for storage. Once the contract was finished it had to be returned to green field land. I think LariatTom suggested this with his chipping idea. Whether thats possible at Silverstone. I don't know.

McLaren are creating a CGI cartoon starring Button and Hamilton. Looks pretty cool.

It is indeed. It has been a fairly interesting season so far. Only Alonso has won more than one race. Looks like it will be monsoon conditions on Sunday. So it will be eventful. Live on the BBC too.

Monkee is the only poster who's posts make me ragingly jealous due to all your motor racing escapades. Damn you!

She's obviously worked very hard to get to the places she has been to. Good luck to her. Very envious.

I went to the British GP I think ten years ago. It was when Arnie was doing the grid walk, I believe he was promoting Terminator 3. Barichello won, plus that idiot invaded the track. We were sat in the grandstand on the start finish straight. Fantastic seeing the start and the pit action. Haven't been to a GP since. My sister has become a big fan over the last few years. Getting her organised though is nigh on impossible. It's also become very expensive. I'm sure the tickets are atleast a hundred pounds more than when I went with my dad and my cousin.

I have been back to Silverstone since. This was for the D1 event about four years ago. There were all sorts of Japanese competitors there, and we were allowed into the pit area and met various drivers. Also got to take a picture on the start finish line. Very cool experience. The track surface seemed quite rough from what I remember.

Whose going this weekend?

Sadly Maria de Vilotta lost an eye in her accident yesterday.

One of my favourite pieces of Hunt commentary is at Monaco when Murray is talking about how Arnoux was struggling because "normally aspirated cars are a completely different car to turbo charged cars" to which James calls him out on that and calls it bullshit. There's a moment of brief silence and then Murray carries on as if nothing happened.

 

He was brilliant though. Great mind on how cars worked, he could see the finer details of a race unfolding and added that little bit of expertise to go alongside Walker's enthusiasm.

 

In this respect, we're quite lucky to have two pretty good commentary teams at the moment doing UK coverage. Ben Edwards is a solid lead commentator with years of experience across pretty much every form of motorsport and while DC is still getting to used to commentary, he's got plenty of knowledge and recent F1 experience. Then you've got David Croft who did a few years on radio before moving to TV this year who is doing a fine job of not having to describe every detail and letting the pictures do the talking sometimes and Martin Brundle, who I still think is one of the best commentators around.

He actually said "Bullshit'. Any chance of a link please?

Rally Cross final coming up on ESPN America.