It is fair to say that in recent years I have grown a little tired, a little bored of motorsport.
I will always be a NASCAR fan, will always follow F1, from a reasonable distance, and will always look forward to the Indy 500 each and every year, regardless of whether I have paid attention to another Indycar race over the rest of the season, or not.
However I have recently watched several races which ignited something of the race fan in me again.
Readers may already know of my liking of the FIA Formula E series, and the latest race from Miami was no exception. I loved the shots of the race cars driving under the freeway, with the road cars going about there everyday business above them. In the first half Virgin Racings Sam Bird put on a great show, before fading with power issues later on, while in the second half of the race Scott Speed showed what he was made of. If only Virgin Racing could keep it together for a full race, come on Sam! A lot of race cars have got too big, too aerodynamic, probably too powerful to produce good racing. Maybe Formula E, for all of its quirks it the opposite of this. Smaller cars, more room to race on tight city street circuits. No aero what so ever. Ok they may not be that quick compared to say a modern F1 car but that does not remotely bother me. The racing is good and that is what matters.
Readers will also know of my fondness for the Red Bull Air Race. The first round of the year came down to a gap of next to nothing between the top two. Really close, dramatic stuff. It's just a shame there's such a long wait for the next round... oh well... I'll live.
The other day I watched some of the 73rd Goodwood Members Meeting, namely the Gerry
Marshall Trophy. The Camaro's, Rover SD1's, Minis, Capri's, Dolimite Sprints, among others were an absolute joy to watch. If you want a lesson in what is wrong with modern touring car racing, then this is it! I still can't get the sight of the Minis bouncing all over the back of the big Camaros in the twisty bits but then literally waving goodbye on the straights and the SD1's drifting, out of my head. Just wonderful!
I have also recently discovered Roby Gordons "Stadium Super Truck" series. 600bhp, V8
engined, big off road pickup trucks. Designed to look like a Traxxas remote control car, who also sponsor the series, they roll, they oversteer, they jump, oh boy do they jump, they hit each other, they are great! If you fancy something different, try them out for size.
When was the last time you saw an ugly Penske Indycar. I may be in the minority in considering the DW12, as was, a good looking modern single seater but what it has morphed into is... not... I wait with equal amounts of excitement and absolute dread for the Indy 500 spec cars.
Lastly, someone has to mourn the loss of Chrysler to the UK motoring industry. So here I
go. I have owned a couple of PT Cruisers, and a Voyager and consider myself a bit of a Mopar guy, on a budget. OK so some of the cars were not great like the Sebring, but in the UK we had the PT Cruiser, the Crossfire, Dodge Nitro, the 300C. I may be in the minority but I will miss the only America company to sell "American" cars over here.
Till next time...
