IndyCar has some deals with overseas carriers or maybe you could use a VPN to subscribe to Peacock?
Even some of the other podiums were wild, like the one where his front wing almost fell off.
The Monte Carlo rally kicked off yesterday with shakedowns. Looks like there isn’t much ice or snow this year (like last year), which is pretty disappointing. It looks like there is going to be a pretty strong three-way competition between Evans, Neuville and Tank for the championship this year, which is really exciting. The WRC2 field also looks incredibly strong this year.
The Monte Carlo rally has been incredibly entertaining this year. There has been fierce fighting for the top position of both WRC1 and WRC2, with 1st place changing hands multiple times for both. There is not much ice, but there are still some slippery parts which have caused a number of crashes. It’s looking like there will not be a single dominant driver in WRC1 this year, which should make for a very close completion this season.
Some of the helicopter video this year has been exceptional, like taking a video of a car as it enters a tunnel and then flying over to the other side as of the mountain as it emerges to show how different conditions are. I know some people find rally boring, but I’ll never get tired of watching the super-fast WRC1 cars driving like madmen on tight mountain roads.
The fans watching the Thursday night Monte Carlo stages were insane, almost bordering on unsafe. It was an absolutely incredible atmosphere though:
Here’s an onboard:
This was our second year at the Rolex 24. We did the driver autograph session this time. The kids loved it. I made a wisecrack to Jenson Button, telling him I could give him some tips on driving Daytona if he needed it since I’ve done a track event there. He seemed surprised – I suppose most fans aren’t into that kind of thing. My cousin asked Sebastian Bourdais if he thought GTP or F1 was more fun to drive. He actually said F1, which we didn’t expect. Everyone was extremely friendly and eager to engage with the kids for pictures, fist bumps, personalized autographs, etc. All smiles. Even the staff at Daytona seemed to perk up to make sure the kids had a memorable experience. I’m sure everyone feeds off their energy when the days and weeks can feel like a grind.
The Rolex 24 was a pretty good race, except the early ending (race control seemed to have flagged it at 1:40, which would ordinarily be fine but for the race starting a bit late at 1:42 the previous day). Even though the extra lap likely would not have made a difference as far as class winners are concerned, I think every racing series I follow has had a noticeable race control screwup in the last year or two.
It’s been a good eight months for Roger Penske (Indy 500, NASCAR championship, and now a Daytona 24).
Rally Sweden starts tomorrow and it looks like we will finally have a decent snow rally this year. It’s really sad how little snow there has been on Monte Carlo these past few years and the Rally Sweden even had to more up further North a couple years ago to ensure that it could consistently have these kind of conditions.
It’s really interesting watch pre-rally interviews with the drivers. Most of them say things like “the courses look tricky and we hope that some of the snow will get plowed”. The Scandinavians, on the other hand, seem almost giddy about it. I’m especially excited to see how Kalle Rovanperä does since he is not driving full time this year.
Rally Sweden has been really weird this year. Two of the top drivers crashed out early on day one and the road conditions and car positioning have allowed some WRC2 cars to have faster stage times than WRC1 cars. On one stage, there was only one WRC1 car in the top five times!
Also, this happened:
Zach Daum went out of the ballpark last night at Ocala in Florida during a USAC heat race.
Wow, really scary crash.
My buddy and I plan to attend next year Tim, so I might need to hit you up for advice on attending the R24
Over the weekend, someone gave me a line on a good idea that I might try this next year.
Join Hagerty Driver’s Club and buy the ticket package for a parking spot in their car corral. Much easier than waiting in line to ride the tram. It should help whether you camp or get a hotel and probably easier to acquire than the normal infield parking that sells out quickly. Both camping and the free parking are a long walk, which isn’t a big deal by itself but it already feels like there isn’t enough time to see everything, so quick access might be nice. We’ll see next year.
Thanks for the tip! I expect we will do a hotel as we are not camping people.
If your parking place is in the infield, how easy is it to drive from the infield out and then back in. At some tracks, that is near impossible. Other tracks its easy except for specific “rush hour” times.
It’s not a problem. At peak times it’s your typical 5 minute line of cars trickling in while the staff checks tickets, like parking at a sporting event. Not fast but not slow.
Anyone here follow WEC? I’m curious about it and might try to catch Qatar 1812 next week. I really wish the WEC app was a bit better though. It is garbage compared to the WRC one.
Some interesting stuff here, especially about the future of WRC. Looks like the hybrid system will be remove from the top-tier cars next year and the support-level cars will be boosted. I guess they can technically compete together next year (at least for drivers championship), but I’m not sure exactly how it will work.
Overall, there seems to be a big focus on reducing costs and encouraging more manufacturers to homologate top-tier rally cars. Also, they mentioned incorporating EVs into the WRC someday, but no other details about how that might work.
I follow it insofar as I look at the results of the qualifications and races, sometimes watch highlights if/when available, and try to find a way to watch a bit of Le Mans every year. Historically, it’s not been the easiest series to watch in the US, but that might be changing this year. I do appreciate how few rounds there are compared to something like F1’s absurd calendar. On the other hand, I dislike how the GT class in WEC is strictly pro-am now. It seems beneath the ‘world’ championship for sportscars to not have a pro GT category.
Anyway, a Porsche Penske has poll for the first race and only one Toyota qualified in the top ten. This is probably the series where qualification matters the least, but it would be interesting if Toyota’s dominance is legitimately coming to an end, much as I love Kamui Kobayashi (who is starting second so it’s not that bad for Toyota).
Yeah, more than ever it seems like the GT cars are now primarily obstacles for the “real” competitors — the hypercars. That said, watching the qualification yesterday I really like how there are only two classes how. Should make it easier to follow the race compared to before.
