This past weekend I was reminded why I love motorsport in all its forms. When editor Dan first asked me to spend my Sunday doing what I would have done anyway and formulate some thoughts about the action from the previous weekend's motorsport, the original brief wasn't necessarily for Motorsport on Monday to be a place for straight up race reports.
Committed racing throughout the LMP categories
It was for this column to be a vehicle not just for my thoughts, but as a place of comment for all PHers interested the interface between man and machine and the competition derived from it - from a whole race and the craft it takes to complete one successfully, to just one balls-on-the-block move that sends a 50bpm spike through your body.
This weekend we most definitely got that.
Big brass ones
I'll start off with the World Endurance Championship in Fuji and a manoeuvre that highlighted why, for me, multi-class motorsport is still such a spectacle to watch.
A bit of background: in the final hour of the race, the LMP2 battle's status turned from a gentle simmer to a rolling boil. The #26 G-Drive Ligier JS P2-Nissan was a pit stop's worth of seconds ahead of the #47 KCMG Oreca O3R-Nissan - with just two men to change tyres at any one time, and rubber not allowed to be swapped until after fuelling has finished, that's a significant amount.
Toyota led home at Porsche at Fuji
Despite this, Alexandre Imperatori in the #47 hunted down and passed Olivier Pla in the #26. But a few laps later, Pla, with a potential Nissan LMP1 contract on the table for 2015, must have had to momentarily loosen his six-point harness to accommodate the enlargement of his already big brass ones.
Turn four at Fuji is a neck-bender, where downforce and skill really come into play. Pla entered the 100R corner following Imperatori, himself behind a GTE car. The slower 911 GT3 forced Imperatori to lift and cut to the inside while Pla, with the taps still fully open, went to the dirty side of the circuit.
The Ligier twitched and bucked on the marbles but got the slingshot out of the corner and towards the hairpin, sweeping past both the Porsche and the Oreca, reclaiming the LMP2 lead in the process. The Nissan-powered pair then got promptly dusted by one of the Toyotas giving a crushing example an LMP1-H's power.
There's a Falcon at the back you need to watch
Not surprising given that the 1,000hp TS040s could visibly pull away from even the Audis on the front straight. The incredible thing is the Porsche 919s were even faster, by 5km/h. Surely it's only a matter of time before Porsche breaks its sportscar racing return duck? Sao Paulo could be its best chance.
If you thought that was good...
...you should have seen the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercars race. Or you could just watch the last two laps here.
On lap 159 of 161 Jamie Whincup found himself on reserve fuel, the whine from his fuel pump probably overcoming the snarl of his V8 - watch the link above and you can hear his team manager squawking over the radio and Whincup's dash ominously flashing red.
Yes, that's a victory burnout... see the video!
It came down to Ford vs Holden again for the battle of Bathurst as Chaz Mostert in the former fought Whincup in the latter, reeling him in as the Holden began to cough. Mostert made his move on the exit of the Elbow, powered away from Whincup and smeared a lovely slide on the way out of The Chase.
Celebrating his and teammate Paul Morris's win - from 25th and dead last - in style with another huge stinker of a skid out of the final corner and some big, smoky rolling burnouts, Mostert's maiden victory at Mount Panorama obviously meant a lot to him. And it looked/sounded ridiculously cool. It's nice to see a very non-PR'ed reaction from a professional these days.
Putin and F1
Bernie added a new contact to his little black book last weekend in the form of a bare-chested budget Bear Grylls and part-time president Vladimir Putin.
You can't win on the first corner etc etc
Around £31 million reportedly changed hands to give TV viewers a chance to be talked round the Olympic Park in Sochi, but without the fancy fountain and talk of where medals were presented, it could have been Valencia. The drivers seem to like it, but apart from sector one with the fast turn four and flick right at five, the lap comprises medium-speed constant radius corners, which to me at least, isn't what I want to watch an F1 car doing.
Still, pay £31 million and you can do what you like - including telling teams and drivers to be silent during the Russian national anthem.
Hamilton won, dedicating his win to the critical but stable Jules Bianchi; a classy touch. He extended his lead over Rosberg to 17 points with three to go (Bernie's double points joker in Abu Dhabi, too, don't forget), but the German driver cooked his goose - and his rubber - at turn one, lap one outbraking himself and flat-spotting his Options.
Standard BTCC overtaking pose
"You can't win the race at the first corner, only lose it" is racing 101 pretty much. Nico must feel that Lewis twisted the screw another half-turn last weekend and ratcheted up the mental pressure.
How the battle has evolved between the two Merc drivers this season has been as spellbinding of late - nice that F1 has been preferable to watching Dulux's finest slowly solidify this year. Don't underestimate how big the change in tech has been here, too.
BTCC door-banging creates history
History was made last weekend at Brands by the BTCC doing what it does best: contact. Mercedes became the 25th manufacturer to win a British Touring Car Championship race, albeit in unusual circumstances.
Congratulations Colin, two-time champion!
On a charge for the title, Jason Plato punted rival Colin Turkington off into the gravel at Paddock Hill, eventually crossing the line first only to have 20 seconds added to his race two time, handing victory to Adam Morgan in the A-Class.
It was immaterial, as even having won race one, it was not enough to keep the title open as Turkington in his BMW was crowned champion.
Golden era
Manufacturer involvement and the development of new tech has taken national and international motorsport into another era - a golden one that will go down with the likes of original turbocharged F1 cars and Groups B and C when we look back in another 30 years.
That so many titles around the world have or will go down to the wire this season has me convinced that governing bodies and fans alike have struck a rules sweet spot and a rich vein of entertainment.
[V8 Supercars images: LAT, Ligier Fuji image: G-Driver Racing's Facebook page (c) Clement Marin | G-Drive Racing | Facebook]