Motorsport on Monday: 13/10/14
The weekend's action proves why current motorsport will be remembered as a golden era
Committed racing throughout the LMP categories
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
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
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!
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
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
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!
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]
nice to see some V8's coverage though
I do think the WEC could be going places; next year we'll have Toyota, Audi, Porsche & Nissan. So that is great; now they have to promote the series, rather than as is current, which is Le Mans 24 hours, plus some supporting 6 hour races. They really need a 10/12 hour race, plus maybe a shorter 3 hour race - just to break up the generic 6 hour races.
F1 has lost the plot; too much about The Show; too many gimmicks, too many boring Tilke-dromes, far too restrictive regs, a single tyre supplier. F1 needs fresh thinking at the top; time for Bernie to go, but of course he won't.
WRC - well where do you start? A pretty successful sport with Manufacturer, commercial sponsor interest, decent level of media coverage; and what happened? 10-15 years of inept management has confined the sport to obscurity in most countries. Even now, the upstarts VW have come in & dominated, but have started to throw their weight around - demanding a 'shoot out' to decide each event. Go and do WorldRX.... Leave the WRC as it is. Every time it seems the WRC is recovering, someone throws a banana under its foot.
As for the other major series; the BTCC is fine; it's not as good as the 80/90's but gets great LIVE coverage and very good crowds, and with minimal Manufacturer backing is affordable. That was were the SuperTouring days went wrong; the £££££££ went silly, for a domestic series.
The DTM should, and could be great, but just isn't; trying to ape everything that F1 does isn't working, but Audi, BMW & Merc seem happy. I would like to see a station get some SuperGT highlights; the GT-500 cars are awesome pieces of kit, and the races are normally pretty good, BoP seems to work.
Rant/ thoughts over
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