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Motor Racing Nirvana


BigJag

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Loeb is probably going to retire from the WRC at the end of the year once he's wrapped up another world title. There's a clause in his Citroen contract which allows him to leave if he wins this title and the rumours are that he's going to activate it and move on to other things. With him spending his spare time this season racing in French Carrera Cup races and having his own LMP2 team, he'll probably look to move into sports car racing and have a full time go at that. He's got history at Le Mans and if he can't challenge for overall victories, he'll probably fancy winning the LMP2 class.

 

The season, and myself, badly needs a Kimi R
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I like Kimi and will defend him against Villenerve ramblings anyday. I think Lotus are a very strong team and as said on Sky on Saturday it must cause McLaren blushes that with a smaller budget Lotus are so close to them this year.

 

As a Lewis fan I have still have nightmares about 2007, but I am glad Kimi had his day in the sun. I think after Hungry this year is still wide open, Red Bull appear to be clashing with the system a lot this year and that could effect them going forward, it will be interesting if Ferrari can keep up as well and prove Hungry was a blip. The McLaren uprgrades worked a treat, I just hope it continues in a month at Spa.

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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.

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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?

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Red Bull have just become the new promoter of the WRC, so hopefully that'll give it a boost of some sorts. Time will tell as to what changes they make (if any) though there are suggestions that Sky Sports are going to show coverage of the rest of this season's championship. The series needs changes and it needs them urgently. The sport gets virtually no coverage and even magazines like Autosport are reluctant to give more than a page to the sport. Loeb retiring will probably make the series more competitive in that there might be more competition for the championship, but it loses some appeal with Loeb if/when he goes. There are still rumblings that Citroen might pull out too.

 

This weekend there's BTCC action with the usual support package from Snetterton which will be on ITV4 on Sunday. Aside from that, I know there's NASCAR Nationwide, the continuation of the Race for the Chase for the Cup for the Thing (NASCAR Sprint Cup) and Grand-Am all coming from Watkins Glen this weekend (which you can catch on Motors TV) and the ADAC GT Masters from Austria's Red Bull Ring though I don't think there's any TV coverage of that unless you speak German. That's about it as far as I know on the televised side of things. There's bound to be something I've missed.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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