Sebastian Vettel’s rivals have all-but conceded this year’s championship following his eighth win of the season at Monza.
So if you’re looking for a close championship battle, now’s the time to cast your gaze beyond Formula 1.
Here’s a selection of top racing series with rather more exciting championship battles.
IndyCar
Driver | Points | |
1 | Dario Franchitti | 507 |
2 | Will Power | 502 |
3 | Scott Dixon | 430 |
In the past three races, Will Power has cut Dario Franchitti’s lead from 62 points to just five.
IndyCar’s mix of road, street and oval courses will play a role in deciding the outcome of this championship: Franchitti tends to do better on ovals, Power on road and street courses.
This weekend’s race in Japan was supposed to take place on the Motegi oval. But that was damaged during the March earthquake so the teams have switched to the road course instead, which could be good news for Power.
After that Power has two races on ovals to contend with, in Kentucky and Las Vegas. Last year he went into the final round 12 points up on Franchitti, but the title slipped from his grasp.
Will Franchitti beat Power again to claim his third championship in a row?
Adding more intrigue to the season finale, Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon will return to compete for a special prize. He’ll bag $2.5 million if he wins from last on the grid, with the same amount going to a fan at the race.
This one’s too good to miss, so we’ll be following the last two rounds on F1 Fanatic Live.
Races remaining: Three
Points: 50 for a win, two for most laps led and one for pole position
Will I be watching?: Definitely. UK coverage is on Sky Sports.
British Touring Car Championship
Driver | Points | |
1 | Gordon Shedden | 182 |
2 | Matt Neal | 181 |
3 | Mat Jackson | 159 |
4 | Jason Plato | 147 |
5 | James Nash | 135 |
6 | Andrew Jordan | 121 |
After a few shaky years, the BTCC is well and truly back to its best. That’s why I’ve already been to four rounds this year, at Brands Hatch, Thruxton, Oulton Park and Snetterton.
Honda team mates Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden are at the front of the title battle and they’ve already collided earlier this year.
Mat Jackson slipped to third after a disastrous meeting in Knockhill.
Reigning champion Jason Plato’s hopes of retaining his crowd will be boosted this weekend at Rockingham as BTCC continues to fine-tune the current rules balancing the performance of the cars. Plato’s normally-aspirated Chevrolet will be unaffected, but several of his rivals will have less turbo boost and more weight.
The Silverstone finale is in the afternoon following the Korean Grand Prix and ahead of the IndyCar final at Las Vegas, which will make for a great day of racing on F1 Fanatic Live.
Races remaining: Nine (Three triple-headers)
Points: 15 for a win, one for fastest lap and leading a lap, and one for pole position for race one of each weekend
Will I be watching?: Unfortunately I can’t make it to any of the remaining rounds but I will be watching ITV’s excellent live coverage.
World Series by Renault
Driver | Points | |
1 | Robert Wickens | 198 |
2 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 164 |
3 | Daniel Ricciardo | 125 |
4 | Albert Costa | 120 |
5 | Kevin Korjus | 118 |
6 | Alexander Rossi | 116 |
Robert Wickens, who had his first run in an F1 car with Virgin on Tuesday, has a healthy 34-point margin with 100 points to be won in the World Series by Renault.
But he’s up against strong opposition in the shape of Red Bull development drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo, both of which have British F3 championship titles to their name.
Ricciardo, runner-up in this series last year, is a creditable third having missed the first two races while on duty for Toro Rosso.
Now racing in F1 for HRT, he may have to miss the final two races which clash with the Japanese Grand Prix.
Races remaining: Four (two double-headers)
Points: Same as F1
Will I be watching?: If Eurosport are showing any of the races live I will.
DTM
Driver | Points | |
1 | Martin Tomczyk | 50 |
2 | Bruno Spengler | 49 |
3 | Mattias Ekstrom | 29 |
4 | Timo Scheider | 29 |
5 | Jamie Green | 25 |
6 | Mike Rockenfeller | 23 |
7 | Ralf Schumacher | 21 |
Audi’s Martin Tomcyk leads Mercedes’ Bruno Spengler by a single point in Germany’s premier touring car series.
While five other drivers are mathematically capable of winning, it’s likely one of these two drivers will claim their first DTM championship wins.
Tomcyk came through to win in a wet race at Brands Hatch at the beginning of the month.
The championship may be close but it’s not been a sparkling year in the DTM for racing.
That will hopefully change next year with the introduction of new cars and the arrival of BMW.
Races remaining: Three
Points: Ten for a win (same as F1’s 2003-09 system)
Will I be watching?: I’d give it a look if I could but it’s on ESPN in the UK.
NASCAR
Driver | Points | |
1 | Kyle Busch | 2012 |
2 | Kevin Harvick | 2012 |
3 | Jeff Gordon | 2009 |
4 | Matt Kenseth | 2006 |
5 | Carl Edwards | 2003 |
6 | Jimmie Johnson | 2003 |
7 | Kurt Busch | 2003 |
8 | Ryan Newman | 2003 |
9 | Tony Stewart | 2000 |
10 | Dale Earnhardt Jnr | 2000 |
11 | Brad Keselowski | 2000 |
12 | Denny Hamlin | 2000 |
If F1 used NASCAR’s ‘Chase for the Cup’ the championship would look very different.
In NASCAR the points are reset with ten races remaining so the highest 12 drivers in the championship have near-equal tallies, and only they can claim the crown.
Jimmie Johnson has made the Chase his speciality and could claim the title for an astonishing sixth year in a row this season.
So should F1 use something like the chase to keep the championship alive until the end?
I don’t think so – for me, the champion should be the driver with the best result over a full season’s racing. Even if that does mean wrapping things up early, as will almost certainly be the case in F1 this year.
Races remaining: Ten
Points: 46 for a win, one for leading a lap and one for leading the most laps
Will I be watching?: Even if it was on anywhere I could see it I wouldn’t bother. For various reasons, NASCAR isn’t my cup of tea.
Other series
The World Touring Car Championship is a close affair between Yvan Muller and Rob Huff. But, like the DTM, the races haven’t been great this year. That said the end-of-season race at Macau is always worth a look.
What was shaping up to be a great battle between the two Sebastiens in Citroen’s World Rally Championship team – Loeb and Ogier – had the edge taken off it after Citroen began using team orders to favour Loeb.
In Superleague Formula, the football-themed series which morphed into an A1 Grand Prix-style countries’ championship, the major point of interest late in the season is which races will actually take place.
Having held six races at Assen and Zolder this year, it has postponed a round in Russia and cancelled races in New Zealand, Brazil and a planned second event in South America.
Are you keeping tabs on the championship battles in other series like Moto GP, Formula Two or others?
Tell us which racing series are you watching over the closing months of 2011 – the more obscure the better!
Why you should watch…
- Why You Should Watch… F1 testing
- Why You Should Watch… DTM
- Why You Should Watch… NASCAR
- F1 hopefuls battle for Formula Renault 3.5 title
- Why you should watch… Bathurst 1000
- Six races to fill up an F1-free August
- F1 may not have a close title fight but these five do
- Why you should watch… World Rally Championship |
- Why you should watch… Superleague Formula
- Why you should watch… IndyCar
Images © IndyCar/Shawn Gritzmacher, BTCC, Renault, DTM, Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR
Cyclops_PL (@cyclops_pl)
15th September 2011, 13:19
In Porsche Supercup (hosted on F1 tracks as a support series) Kuba Giermaziak is just 17 points behind Rene Rast with 2 races to go. The Pole is the youngest driver in the series, won 2 races this season and is rumored to be joining iSport in GP 2 series for 2012.
foocode (@foocode)
15th September 2011, 13:20
Here’s another one:
http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/luis-one-step-closer-to-world-title/
The nVidia iRacing Series. They race virtual Williams FW31 around mm-accurate tracks…
Don’t write it off because it’s virtual – the cars may not be ‘real’ but the racing is genuine.
Try watching the first 10min of the last round held at Spa here and you may just be surprised at the show on offer:
http://www.psrtv.com/archive
infy (@infy)
15th September 2011, 13:53
I wish the codemaster F1 games were as realistic as that :/
Simon Duck
15th September 2011, 13:58
They are for different markets though.
Simon Duck
15th September 2011, 13:58
Thanks for the links, love these kind of things!
ajokay (@)
15th September 2011, 14:53
Virtual racing is easily as much fun to watch as real racing, and as Foocode says, I’d recommend it to anyone, playing or watching.
iRacing has some of the best drivers never to have raced a car, and their IndyCar series, World Road Racing Championship (All in Williams F1 cars) and even the lower formula like the Star Mazdas are great fun to watch.
All edited together and commentated over just like real races.
George (@george)
15th September 2011, 18:39
I’ve been watching some of the races when I remember to catch them live, those guys are seriously good and the quality of racing at the front especially is as good as any real-life series. The commentators are great too, although they suffer from technical problems quite often (it’s just two guys in different places watching the race as far as I can gather).
I have to say I’m a Huttu fan, he’s had pretty terrible luck this year, and the my3id guys feel like an evil organisation to me ;)
Adam
16th September 2011, 15:02
iRacing is the finest simulation of any form of racing to day.
You race foocode?
Magnificent Geoffrey (@magnificent-geoffrey)
15th September 2011, 13:24
I hope Robert Wickens wins the WSR. I like him.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
15th September 2011, 13:27
And he tested for Marussia Virgin recently, so he could wind up in Formula 1 soon.
Shu
15th September 2011, 22:56
I’ve been watching Wickens for five years now in a variety of open wheel(formula BMW, Champ Car Atlantic, F2, GP3, A1GP, WSR). In all these series Wickens has taken poles and won races, always in the championship fight.
Unfortunately he does not have alot of sponsorship but he is becoming impossible to ignore. Hopefully a full time GP2 seat with Carlin next year and more time in the Virgin.
IMHO the best driver outside of F1 right now. Mature, consistent, and fast, fast, fast!
Chris P
15th September 2011, 13:24
WTCC is a joke. It is dull, terrible equalisation and poor stewarding (not even allowed the slightest touch this year – how is that Touring Car Racing?!).
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
15th September 2011, 13:25
V8 Supercars might be worth watching. Jamie Whincup has a nice lead at the moment, but we’re heading into endurance season this weekend with Philip Island, and because the enduros are worth double points, one good result can turn a championship around. Plus, SPEED TV have announced that they are sending their team down here to do live coverage of Bathurst and the Gold Coast.
And there’s one other interesting battle shaping up – last year’s champion, James Courtney, defected from Dick Johnson Racing, a Ford team, to the Holden Racing Team. He’s having a horrid season right now (once Holden got him, they basically ignored him; most people believe Holden were only ever interested in his racing number), and his replacement at DJR, James Moffat, has just passed him in the championship. They’re right down in 17th and 21st, but that’s shaping up as a nice little fight.
Sush Meerkat
15th September 2011, 13:28
That’s below the belt Citroen!
Monster Truck racing on Bravo is pretty good, lots of crashes, great big Trucks and it shuts the kids up.
Superleague is fun, but its jarring hearing “listen to Inter Milan’s V12 belting down the straight”, although I do admire its innovative qualifying system, all the cars go out and set a lap and the race starts in the order from fastest to slowest, MENTAL!
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
15th September 2011, 14:51
It’s come back to bite them a few times – Ogier has been given the order to let Loeb have track position, only for Loeb to blow it and gift Ogier the win. It happened in Germany.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
15th September 2011, 13:35
I’ll be watching the IndyCar too, might give the NASCAR Chase a whirl too. If I can find a WSR feed I’ll be watching that too and hopefully remembering to see the BTCC. The rest, meh.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
15th September 2011, 13:38
Oh and of course, MotoGP.
Sush Meerkat
15th September 2011, 13:41
Anything less than 4 wheels is heresy in Keith’s eyes.
beneboy (@beneboy)
15th September 2011, 15:15
Sadly this years MotoGP has been a bit on the dull side as there are so few people competing in the premier class. There’s been some good racing but the lack of competitors means that there are often huge gaps opening up on the track.
Hopefully next season will see a few more competitors entering and we’ll get closer to having a full grid again.
Moto2 has been fantastic though and I hope the new Moto3 will be just as much fun in its first season next year.
Fixy (@)
15th September 2011, 15:36
Of those listed I’m interested about IndyCar and WSR as they are F1’s stars of the future. And MotoGP, as you said.
Lee
15th September 2011, 16:50
The Moto GP championship has become an absolute snoozefest
BasCB (@bascb)
15th September 2011, 14:40
I am in for the IndyCars, and I guess that’s it for me.
Maybe some clips of DTM or BTTC and some GT/endurance racing as well.
ajokay (@)
15th September 2011, 14:54
I’ll be with you guys watching the Motegi round, I’m sure. maybe I’ll have to suck it up and watch the remaining two ovals rounds as well.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
15th September 2011, 20:49
I’ve watched most of the Indycar this season, it’s really gotten me into it! I love watching Sato race again once more too!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th September 2011, 20:57
I think he could do very well at Motegi.
F1andy83
15th September 2011, 13:35
Has anyone compiled a wdc points table if vettel wasnt in this years championship?
matt90
16th September 2011, 1:21
Do you mean assuming he wasn’t there then everybody who finished below him was awarded points for one position higher than they actually finished?
Hamish
15th September 2011, 13:40
Start of the endurance rounds of V8 supercars are coming up with the mighty Bathurst less than a month away! Very good to see Lowndes on top of his game.
After that there is the Gold Coast 600 which will include Dan Weldon, Rhyan Brisco, Tonion Liuzzi, Mika Salo, Scott Dixon, Gianni Morbidelli, Lucas Di Grassi, Jan Magnussen, Christian Klein and Sebastian Bourdais plus others.
Last years event will be remembered for Jacques Villeneuve sealing his reputation of a terrible driver post 1997.
Hamish
15th September 2011, 13:48
Anyone wanting a laugh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzfMMH_yn_I
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th September 2011, 14:21
Bathurst clashes with the Japanese Grand Prix, doesn’t it?
Might make a point of watching the Gold Coast 600 if it’s on over here, though.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
15th September 2011, 15:16
Only in the sense that they’re on on the same day. You can generally watch Bathurst and then flip over to the Japanese Grand Prix without missing much.
That said, despite being in a manageable time zone for Australians, the Japanese Grand Prix isn’t traditionally broadcast live, so it’s less of a problem here. However, now that I finally have a set-top box, I think I’ll be able to manage it this year.
Uncle Bob
16th September 2011, 13:53
Not broadcast live…. it’s a phrase we’re going to be hearing alot in 2012 in Blighty :(
Sherlock
15th September 2011, 13:42
F1 should do “Chase the Vettel” when difference exceeds some predetermined point amount X everyone is given X divided with count of remaining races points.
Suck it up, NASCAR :D
Girts
15th September 2011, 13:51
I am going to watch at least some of the remaining races in DTM, WTCC and WsbR. Unfortunately Indycar, BTCC and NASCAR are not shown on any of those TV channels available in my country.
I also like Le Mans Series and the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup so I’ll probably watch those races, too. You can see a lot of former F1 drivers there, including one of my all-time favourites Giancarlo Fisichella. But I guess that the participants don’t really care much about what the championship standings look like.
panache (@panache)
15th September 2011, 21:14
What channels are LMS and ILMC broadcast on and where can I find a schedule?
I would especially like to check out Anthony Davidson, currently driving for the Peugeot works team if I’m not mistaken.
He was brilliant in the Le Mans 24 hour race this year and I remember him showing good pace in F1 as a test driver for BAR/Honda when he was driving their third car in practice sessions.
Ultimately though, lots of things seemed to conspire against him and his time at Super Aguri didn’t allow him to demonstrate his potential, much like Senna with HRT last year.
Girts
16th September 2011, 7:59
I watch both series on Eurosport, you can find the schedule here:
http://tv.eurosport.co.uk/
I think you are right about Davidson, he seems to be one of the F1’s wasted talents.
panache (@panache)
16th September 2011, 8:28
Thanks!
Just in time for what has now become my routine morning visit to this site.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
15th September 2011, 13:55
In TC2000 2 Toyotas and a Honda are all within 11 points in the lead, with 3 rounds to go.
But I couldn’t care less, as all I want is 2012 to start, as they’ll fit the V8’s from those Radical prototypes in the TC2000 cars!
Icemangrins
15th September 2011, 14:07
Ralf Schumi spent more than 5 years in DTM isn’t…. such a shame he is not really closer to winning the title. I think it is always hard to adapt to these cars especially for those from F1. Open wheel racing offers more control than the DTM’s.
OzF
15th September 2011, 14:13
V8 Supercars. The race between Craig Lowndes and team mate Jamie Whincup is really heating up. There are atleast 4 contenders too.
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
17th September 2011, 8:50
All 28 regular drivers are still mathematically in contention actually.
Wallbreaker
15th September 2011, 14:36
Here in Germany we´re lucky enough to have plenty of Free TV coverage for DTM, WTCC and especially NASCAR. Servus TV (A TV Channel by Red Bull) reports from every NASCAR race in a one-hour summary and in addition to that it broadcast chosen events live in HD and even with English commentary as an option. Since I´m able to watch Servus TV, I´ve become a big NASCAR fan, which is now more interesting for me than DTM ever was. We´ll see if that changes when BMW joins Mercedes and Audi there next year.
Icemangrins
15th September 2011, 15:28
Here in Canada, TSN and Speed offer unlimited NASCAR racing coverage.. to be honest with you, I don’t watch them half the time. But, there is a MObil update where they show one hour summary of all racing events which includes WRC and DTM. I wish I get the DTM coverage here in Canada.
Mack41
16th September 2011, 4:50
No you don’t. DTM is not good racing. We get it on SPEED during the NASCAR off season when they only show 140 hours of NASCAR stuff (I am a fan but only of the races, not all that other baloney) and all the races I’ve watched were less interesting than last years Bahrain GP. Trust me, you’re not missing out
Izzy
15th September 2011, 14:37
I’ve been watching the formula two. The races far too often clash with F1 but they have some good action. That drivers have individual entries instead of being in a team is not so good but there is still some tight racing. Next race is at Monza for the first weekend in October.
Klaas
15th September 2011, 14:38
MotoGP of course as I’m more of a motorcycling fan. Too bad you’re only covering F1 on this site. I wish it would be called motorsportfanatic.co.uk.
DaveW
15th September 2011, 14:46
If you drink tea, then NASCAR probably isn’t your thing. I can’t really take the 4 hour merry go round either, and the “passing” in NASCAR is about as thrilling as a DRS pass at Turkey.
The problem with the “chase” isn’t just that it tends to moot much of the competition from earlier in the season, is that it is a blatant, transparent attempt to do two silly things: stop Johnson from clinching early again, and give lackluster legacy-man and merchandising juggernaut Earnhardt Jr. a shot at the title every year. They should just let Earnhardt Jr. start the year with a 500 point bonus. Or let drivers score points based on their merchandising receipts.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th September 2011, 14:59
Haha! Well said.
joey-poey
15th September 2011, 17:46
I guess you guys haven’t had “southern sweet tea”…
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
15th September 2011, 15:13
The “Chase” thing isn’t a bad idea IMO. We have something similar in Argentina and it works rather nicely (tho it needs some polishing…)
The problem I have with Oval racing in general is that I can’t stop but thinking “why am I watching this if the really interesting bit is just 5 laps to the end?”.
Not to mention the yellow flags comes out every 5 laps, and the SC periods last a whole hour each time.
I like the close racing and astonishing speeds they reach, but for me it’s a boring survival game.
Doance (@doance)
15th September 2011, 17:04
The Chase makes it more interesting because it means the whole field is racing for a realistic target (top 12) rather than if it was just for first place then there would only be a few cars in the field that are racing for something.
Robyn
15th September 2011, 17:45
Trust me, there are plenty of American coffee drinkers over here who don’t have much use for NASCAR, either. ;-)
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
15th September 2011, 14:49
Stupid Football Thing has become a bit of a joke this year. I had a passing interest in it last year, because it was open-wheel racing and it had one or two races on during a slow weekend motorsport-wise. But the whole A1GP-style restructure seems unnecessary and seems to have taken some of the appeal out of it, particularly when the largest grids have just fourteen cars.
ajokay (@)
15th September 2011, 14:59
And of course, don’t forget the FIA World GT1 Championship. The final round takes place on the 6th November at the absolutely wonderful (I know you agree) Potrero de los Funes Circuit in Argentina.
The Two Aston martin teams and the JR Motorsports Nissan team (in their first year, no less) are in the hunt for the Team’s championship, and the drivers from those teams, along with one of the Lambo team’s drivers are still in the hunt for the Driver’s Championship.
It’ll be live to watch on the GT1 website, or (I assume) the Bloomberg news channel, if you have it (Sky, Virgin, or FreeSat)
antonyob
15th September 2011, 15:00
Is he really called Will Power ? JHC!!
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
15th September 2011, 15:10
His full name is William Steven Power.
So yes. Will Power is his name.
AdrianMorse
15th September 2011, 15:11
No; Keith is part of an internet-wide conspiracy to conceal his real name William Fiddlididdles.
beneboy (@beneboy)
15th September 2011, 15:25
And he’s got a younger brother called Max…
He’s the man who’s name you’d love to touch
But you mustn’t touch
His name sounds good in your ear
But when you say it, you mustn’t fear
‘Cause his name can be said by anyone…
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
15th September 2011, 15:32
And he’s also known as Handsome B. Wonderful.
Lee
15th September 2011, 17:02
Yes and Mark Webber paid Penske for him to keep his drive 2 years ago (i think it was 2 years ago) when he ran out of funding before the end of the season
Shu
15th September 2011, 23:22
I’d like to see Power have a go in an F1 car. He looks like the real deal.
@HoHum (@hohum)
15th September 2011, 15:14
Comments seem to support the theory that people follow the motorsport that is available to them. I would love to be able to follow WRC but US coverage is spotty at best, I watch if I find it. I would also love to follow the Isle of Man TT, but the whole week comes to HD Theatre channel in hour long segments played about 3 times a day over a month or so with no other information than “motorcycle racing from the Isle of Man” it also is repeated about every 3 months so you never know what you are going to see if you decide to tune in. I follow MotoGP and WSBike as well and occasionally will watch Indycar if I know it will be a roadrace, the circus that is oval-racing depends on multiple safety car re-starts for scoring and entertainment value, no doubt made necessary by the reduction of danger on the track.
mike-e
15th September 2011, 15:50
The MOTO 2 championship (motogp support) is really hotting up. Marquez has won I think the last 5 races to close the gap to bradl to less than a win. The action is almost always insanely close as they run a control 600cc Honda engine in custom chasis. My favorite motorsport this season by far.
Richard T
15th September 2011, 15:54
The Scandinavian touring car championship (STCC) has one race left this year and it’s a real nail biter at the top with 3 drivers that can clinch the title
1. Fredrik Ekblom – Vw Schirocco 194p
2. Rickard Rydell – Chevy Cruze 192p
3. Tommy Rustad – Volvo C30 eDrive 168p
we also have drivers like Colin Turkington, Rickard Göransson, Robert Dahlgren (guest apperance), Gabriele tarquini (guest), and James thompson did 2/3ds of the season for Volvo =)
Finale is at Mantorp Park next weekend
kowalsky
15th September 2011, 16:26
don’t forget moto gp. that’s good racing too.
Lee
15th September 2011, 17:03
no its not
Yorricksfriend
15th September 2011, 17:05
yes it is :P
joey-poey
15th September 2011, 16:41
I started out this year trying to watch the entire Indy Car season, but once I moved, I no longer had cable and have been missing races :C. I really ought to make an effort to catch their live website feed for these last ones.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th September 2011, 16:45
I think you’re in for a disappointment – I’m pretty sure they don’t offer it any more.
joey-poey
15th September 2011, 17:47
D:
That could be the dumbest move they’ve made of recent
Quin10-10
15th September 2011, 18:35
Th Indycar site still has live timing and scoring, with audio feed from race control, but no video. And you are right, for a series that is struggling to rebuild it’s fan base this move really makes no sense.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th September 2011, 18:38
If you want income from TV broadcasters you can’t give footage away for free online. I’m not surprised they did it.
joey-poey
15th September 2011, 20:00
Yes, but Indy Car is currently suffering from what I think is one of your worries about F1 splitting the season up to be on Sky. It’s difficult to follow unless you’ve got a high end cable package. It’s kind of a chicken-and-the-egg problem in this case because they need the money from the broadcasters, but the also need to keep building their fanbase.
Doance (@doance)
15th September 2011, 16:57
Will Power win, or will Franchitti? =)
Yorricksfriend
15th September 2011, 17:04
For me MotoGP has been pretty good this year. As an Australian, it’s great to see Stoner back at the top, and due to the reduced field, it’s more essential than ever to get good results in every race, and not crash out.
The Bradl – Marquez situation is interesting too, reminds me of Vettel’s come from behind championship last year. Amazing how much more interesting a title race can be if the best driver/rider/car/bike combination has a poor start to a season.
That bring me neatly to V8 Supercars, which has been dominated by the Vodafone Team in recent years (apart from last year) but former champ Craig Lowndes is looking strong at the moment and could overhaul his team-mate, and also former champ Jamie Whincup, only about 100 points behind (150 points for a win, the weekends are double headers)
Sadly we don’t really get a lot of DTM, BTCC or the lower open wheeler categories here.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
15th September 2011, 18:03
I’ve been following V8 Supercars for two years, and I think this year will be another tight championship fight. Although I don’t know how much TeamVodafone will let their drivers race (most likely quite a lot). Lowndes might win one or both of the next endurance races, so that will close the gap to Whincup.
WRC was turning out to be Seb-Seb battle, but after the last round it looks like Hirvonen is the main challenger again. But as there are two tarmac rallies and just one gravel event left, I wouldn’t bet against Mr. Loeb.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
15th September 2011, 22:01
Definitely the WRC. Hirvonen snatched a win in Australia which throws a bit of a spanner in the works for Citroen. I’ll try catch F2 and DTM but I think that’s about it.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
16th September 2011, 0:59
It didn’t quite go to plan – Loeb was in 10th and was winning the power stage, so he was good for four points. Ford sent Jari-Matti Latvala out with instructions to win the stage and limit Loeb’s points haul, but he wasn’t quick enough and Latvala pushed Hirvonen out of the points position.
Mike the bike Schumacher (@mike-the-bike-schumacher)
15th September 2011, 23:17
Nascar’s points system is stupid.
TheScuderia (@)
16th September 2011, 2:45
Agreed.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
16th September 2011, 3:33
In don’t or won’t be able to watch them all but I guess Moto GP too will have a close finish this year.
PT
16th September 2011, 18:48
Moto 2 too – Rookie Marc Marquez is on stellar form and has more or less outpaced championship leader Stefan Bradl. Though having crashed multiple times in the early season races, the relatively inexperienced and 17-year old Spaniard has trimmed Bradl’s lead to just 25 points with 6 races remaining!
AdrianMorse
16th September 2011, 10:49
This IndyCar article on autosport.com surprised me:
If Formula Nippon is similar to GP2 (?), does that imply that IndyCars are only as fast as GP2 cars?
On a final note (if you look at the times table in the article): Come on girls!
BasCB (@bascb)
16th September 2011, 16:55
While they have an engine not far off a F1 engine in power output, they are far heavier (about double the weight) and have less downforce, as the current chassis was originally develloped for oval racing only and has just been tweaked to do road tracks.
And it is only the training so far, just remember how much the F1 cars improve their times from friday to qualifying.
baldry888
16th September 2011, 12:06
The v8supercars are an amazing series to watch the 500 Kilometere endurance race is on this weekend at philipisland and The Bathurst 1000 is on in about 3 weeks time. Some good footage of some of the typical racing here of tge finish of the 500 kilometer race a few years back (at a different track though):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EIIAieF94c Na dbathurst a few years ago amzing to watch:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZEKz7Y1pBM
PT
16th September 2011, 18:40
I don’t understand what the excitement is in bringing Dan Wheldon to start from the back at the Las Vegas mega prize IndyCar race. Positions do not seriously matter in an oval race and Wheldon is somewhat of an oval master winning the Indy 500 twice. Why would he find it so difficult to achieve? The plan was to bring in a non-IndyCar regular (probably a well known driver from another series or even from a different dimension of motorsport). How does Wheldon fit the bill?
At the beginning of the year I was happy with IndyCar’s concern for the fans and the things they were doing. But now they’re beginning to disappoint again. First they say that there won’t be multiple bodywork styles for 2012 in striking contrast to what they announced earlier, and now they disappoint in their failure to bring in drivers from other series for the much hyped Las Vegas mega rewards race.
Luke (@lmanion)
22nd February 2012, 10:18
Ever tried v8 supercars, comes down to the last round pretty much every year, has decent length races including the Bathurst 1000 and a 500km race every year