Real Life Racing / News Thread

little P

Super Mod
Link for anyone who might be interested in the new British Touring Car Championship season;

https://www.itv.com/hub/british-touring-car-championship-highlights/1a7783a0101

In the words of the fantastic commentary team - "get ready to strap yourself in to the worlds fastest straight jacket!"

Some interesting elements as always with this championship, it's the most entertaining (entertaining is the key word!) tin top series by far in my humble opinion... It originated in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as the British Touring Car Championship for the 1987 season.

Some interesting points for this 2019 season;

- We have a Le Mans winner and Ex F1 driver in Mark Blundell joining in the fun with his Audi at the young age of 53...

- Former champion Jason Plato has finally got a car he can do something with again and is looking threatening showing the young guns what experience and racecraft in a front wheel drive can do against outright pace and rear wheel drive cars...

- Speaking of young guns we have none other than the F1 man of the moment Lewis Hamilton's younger brother Nicolas Hamilton trying to prove he has some of the family genes to take him to the top. Interestingly Hamilton was the first disabled driver to compete in the BTCC using a specially adapted car to compete for five rounds in 2015 in an Audi for the tuning company that I take my Type-R to; AMD. This year he has a full time drive with Motorbase Performance in a front wheel drive Ford. Good luck Nic!

- Challenging and changeable conditions, strict rules regarding performance ballast to keep the cars close together, reverse grids, multiple rounds per meeting, drivers looking to make a name for themselves, manufacturers wanting to prove they are the best and push car sales, fantastic tracks ranging from technical, under a minute lap circuits to fast sweeping tracks with extreme elevation changes all combine to give you the closest racing you will see anywhere.

If you haven't watched the BTCC before, you are missing out. I've been hooked since I went to see my first BTCC race 30 years ago when I was 8 years old at Brands Hatch, and I go as often as I can in a year to watch them, and if I can't go I never miss a meeting on TV, it's so, so good and the perfect antidote to some of the other forms of motorsport that have become boring in recent times. Even the support series that race alongside the touring cars are entertaining to watch, there is so much there for anyone who loves tin top racing.

If you have any questions about the BTCC series, feel free to ask, and enjoy! :)
 
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Jes_971

Hardcore
Three big heads up for your auto race viewing pleasure.

1.) As @little P has stated, the BTCC series has been underway. As always it's been providing some exciting races. For those of us outside the E.U. (I'm not sure of any other options to watch BTCC other than the ones I'm going to list. Please post some if there are any others.) I have two options that I know of.

a.) Motortrend.com - Pretty slow on getting the replays of the races uploaded and they don't livestream them either.

b.) Someone has uploaded the Brands Hatch and Donnington rounds to YouTube but they probably won't be there for too long. There are also some older ETCC, CTCC, and STCC races uploaded to the same channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAoeFjujUBRopKI4nSIPVsg/videos

2.) I thought @Kenadian might be interested in at least 2 videos uploaded to the GTWorld YouTube channel which take place at VIR for the Blancpain GT World Challenge series. This is a great channel with some premium quality content overall
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-yHapH6mW1ceZ_5PDUf1_g

3.) The GPLongBeach YouTube channel has uploaded the 2019 Historic IMSA GTO Challenge. This features cars from the same era that the iRacing showcased Audi 90 GTO hails from. Great video quality of some badass GTO cars.
 

little P

Super Mod
Nice one Jes!

If people like BTCC, you may like this series, it's one I'm shooting for, I bought the Type-R to learn every nut and bolt of it, and run it as a track slag to learn about setting up a car etc.

One day, my humble dream is to run an EP3 in this series as a privateer;


Some great commentary too, and this is what I'm working towards. Don't care how long it takes me, or even if I'll get there, but we all need something to aim for eh?
 

Deb

Moderator
@Brainling, your boy Hamilton really knocked it out of the park today :cool::cool::cool: What an incredible race between him and Verstappen!!!!! How he held Verstappen off for all those laps, particularly on those crappy tires and didn't make a mistake, and his recovery after Verstappen's mistake, just great driving!!!! Felt sorry for Le Clerc, that was an important race to him and just a series of disasters starting with qualifying :(
 

Kinger

Core
So went to Indy for the 3rd time in my life yesterday. This one was special because it was the first time that I not only went with my dad, but also with my oldest son. Weather looked like it was going to be a major factor according to the forecasts, but the rain held off and we had a great time!

3 Generations.jpg
Pagoda.jpg
Trophy.jpg
Brick Kiss.jpg
Main Straight.jpg
 

Brainling

Hardcore
Awesome @Kinger!

I'll be at COTA in November for the F1 race if anyone else happens to be going. I'll be sure to post pictures. Indy is on my racing bucket list for sure.
 

little P

Super Mod
Went to Santa Pod Raceway (1/4 mile drag strip) here to watch the top fuel drag racing for the first time. Absolutely unbelievable honestly, the engineering that goes into those cars is just incredible to see, and to be just a few feet from where they are launching these cars was like being near something that was ripping a hole in space/time. The top fuels have over 10,000 bhp and weigh as much as a leaf so to say it was epic to watch these blast up the strip in around 3 seconds doing well over 300mph in that time was something I'll never forget. Those poor tyres! In the picture below you can make out the warping of the tyre as they fire up the strip. Crazy.

61617344_10219315370379884_6290626826498736128_o.jpg


Off track entertainment was amazing as always at Santa Pod, stunt teams using various vehicles, drifting, monster trucks, wheelie fire truck, jet cars, really great day out.

Also, representing B2O as always they had a sim racing competition setup where 8 rigs raced each other round Brands Hatch Indy in open wheelers. Practice, then qualifying, then the 10 lap race. They were using rfactor, and I got the best time by 2 seconds and won myself 2 weekend passes to Santa Pod haha. ez money
 

little P

Super Mod
Oh man that looks so gooooooooooood Deb. I mean I know trailers make everything look amazing but that really does look good! Thanks for posting this I had no idea it existed
 

Skid_Marc_

Staff member
Admin
I'm on the opposite side of @little P ... I have an incredibly low standard for movies (I like "Focus" and "Driven", so that says enough), and I think I will enjoy this one, too, but the trailer makes me think this movie is going to be a disaster for race fans ,especially the ones keen on this rivalry.

People are calling this the next "Rush", but I cant see this living up to that level.

We shall see.
 

Skid_Marc_

Staff member
Admin
Some more Le Mans porn, while we're on the subject:

"The 24 Hour War" - Included with Amazon Prime
A documentary about the full series of events between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans starting in 1963.

"The Return" - Included with Amazon Prime
Almost a sequel to "The 24 Hour War" (you'll notice a lot of cross-over in people interviewed), this is a documentary about Ford's return to Le Mans with the GTE car, 50 years after their first triumph.

"Le Mans: Racing is Everything" - Included with Amazon Prime
A general documentary about the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
 
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