Championships were turned on their ears this weekend, from under the lights at Singapore and Austin to the damp Eifel forest. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Lack of Thoughts
I really didn't have much on my mind this weekend. A few things but nothing that expanded into a thought experiment which this blog isn't afraid to explore.
Overall, I am a little somber as that was the final weekend of summer. I love autumn but I feel bad for it because some live and die for days at the beach, days that seem to never end and grilling on a Sunday afternoon. When autumn rolls in and I walk out to a brisk morning I wonder what it was like at Watkins Glen when it hosted the United States Grand Prix around this time of year. This is a great time of the year for a race. The weather isn't too hot, nor is it too cold. Unfortunately, here in the States, IndyCar is over, sports cars has one race left and NASCAR has eight weeks left. The United States Grand Prix is back in autumn but Austin isn't the same as Watkins Glen. It's legacy is still growing and we will talk more about Austin more in a minute.
With only nine days left in September, the focus changes to October then seeing my family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And with motorsports, championships coming to an end, major races such as Bathurst, the Gulf 12 Hours and then a New Year and a new chapter to be written.
Just a house keeping note: Starting this Wednesday will be the first of eleven weekly team-by-team reviews from the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Stay tuned.
With only nine days left in September, the focus changes to October then seeing my family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And with motorsports, championships coming to an end, major races such as Bathurst, the Gulf 12 Hours and then a New Year and a new chapter to be written.
Just a house keeping note: Starting this Wednesday will be the first of eleven weekly team-by-team reviews from the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Stay tuned.
How Many Hours of Motorsports Do I Watch A Year?
This question came to me Saturday, halfway through the WEC race from Austin. I had already watched two hours and forty-five minutes of IMSA action, not to mention watched the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race simultaneously with IMSA and an hour of Formula One qualifying. And believe it or not, that seemed like a light day.
I remember coming in from a run this past January, turning the Dubai 24 Hour on at 6:00 a.m. ET and leaving it on until I went to bed at midnight. The Bathurst 12 Hour I had on when it started at 2:00 p.m. ET and left it on until the finish but passed out with just under two hours to go and woke up about a half hour after the race had ended to find out the results and shut down my laptop after doing it's own 12 hour stint.
The only Formula One races I've missed this year was Silverstone because I was attending the Pocono IndyCar race. Other than the early part of the first Belle Isle race, I didn't miss a beat of IndyCar action. The only bit of the MotoGP season I have missed was the closing laps at Assen. Through four World Endurance Championship races, I've missed about six hours total and that was to catch some sleep during the 24 Hours of Le Mans. I even watched a little bit of the Suzuka 1000km because the IndyCar season finale went so late, I was already up and thought, "why not?" I haven't religiously watched NASCAR for sometime but can honestly say I thoroughly invested in at least a dozen Cup races this year including the last three.
Ever since CBSSN got the television rights to DTM and the Blancpain GT Series I followed those series on live timing and scoring because their online coverage has been geo-blocked. Thankfully no one has bought European Le Mans Series rights because I caught three of four races, only missing Imola. I caught majority of the Pirelli World Challenge season and watched a handful of hours of the Spa 24 Hours online.
What's the point of all this? Do I have a problem? Here is how I am going to argue against it not being a problem: It has not affected my work. It has not affected my health or personal life. It pretty much all happens on the weekends and I could have plenty or worse habits.
Motorsports are something that I enjoy following. There are plenty of other sports I follow closely and spend hours watching but while it's common to hear about people you spend entire Saturdays and Sundays watching college football and the National Football League or those who never miss one of their Major League Baseball teams' 162 games or the 82 games in the National Hockey League or National Basketball Association, who many people spending hours watching motorsports?
Next year, I plan on devoutly tracking my motorsports viewing habits because I am genuinely curious.
Disconnection
During every Formula One race, NBCSN plugs the United States Grand Prix from Circuit of the Americas and promote buying tickets and that's great. We need a race in this country and that consistent reminder hopefully draws people to Austin for Halloween and the first two days of November. I've wanted to go to Austin each year but haven't. One, because I still hold out hope of the Grand Prix of Americas takes place in my home state of New Jersey, that way I avoid the costs of air travel and hotels. New Jersey may never host a race, I realize that but part of me always holds out hope.
I decided to look into tickets for this year's race. While the past two years I have been busy with work and the race weekend doesn't fall at a good time of the year for me, I think about carpe diem. I'm not going to live forever and seeing as I am still young with no responsibilities other than keeping myself alive, I should take advantage of every opportunity I get now because there is no guarantee they will be there when I get older and if I ever have a family, all hopes and dreams I have will be sacrificed to the back burner for sometime.
Right after Leigh Diffey made the plug during the Singapore Grand Prix, I went to COTA's website and all plans to make this year the year for the Austin pilgrimage were thrown into the trash can. Race day general admission: $151.02. Want a grandstand seat? It will cost you $263.62. I know I brought up carpe diem but I can't shell out that type of money just to get through the gate! At least not at this point in my life. I would still need to get a flight and room for a night and those are going to easily combine for over $500.
I know Bernie Ecclestone is basically performing financial sodomy on pretty much every track with outrageous sanctioning fees and they have to make up the deficit somehow but with attendance down at traditional Formula One stalwarts such as Germany and the television ratings going down in many countries, gouging wallets isn't going to bring fans back or draw new ones in. If someone who loves motorsports and Formula One as much as me isn't going to drop over $150 to go to the races, what makes you think someone who is curious about giving Formula One a shot but knows very little about it will?
There is a reason (mostly likely of my age) I am not in charge of anything but doesn't it make more sense to have a reasonable general admission price, say $40 and hope to draw more people? If general admission was $40, I'd be at Austin in a heartbeat and I am sure those who are interested in giving Formula One a shot would because it's practical.
If tracks are struggling to make a profit, maybe they should negotiate with Ecclestone, as tough as that may be, for a slice of the ginormous television revenue pie or lower sanctioning fees; not try and drain the well that is the fan base.
Champions From the Weekend
Laurens Vanthoor won the Blancpain Endurance Series PRO Cup as his #1 Beligan Audi Club Team WRT R8 LMS Ultra won the 1000km Nürburgring with co-drivers César Ramos and Christopher Mies. Vanthoor ends 2014 with back-to-back victory after winning the 2014 Spa 24 Hours in July.
Andrea Rizzoli and Stefano Gai won the PRO-AM Cup with a third place finish in class. The #12 TDS Racing BMW Z4 GT3 of Henry Hassid and Nick Catsburg won the PRO-AM class at the Nürburgring, their second victory of the season.
Peter Mann and Francisco Guedas held on to win the Gentlemen Trophy despite a seventh place finish in class. The #22 Team Parker Racing Audi R8 LMS of Ian Loggie and Julien Westwood won the Gentlemen Trophy class at the Nürburgring, their first victory of the season.
With a second place finish in the Prototype Challenge class at Austin, the #54 CORE Autosport pairing of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett locked up the PC championship with a race to go. Sean Rayhall and Luiz Díaz won their second consecutive PC race in the #25 8Star Motorsports entry.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about what happened from the Nürburgring and in the PC class from Austin but did you know...
Lewis Hamilton won the Singapore Grand Prix and took over the World Drivers' Championship lead by three points over teammate Nico Rosberg after the German retired due to electrical issues.
Joey Logano won the NASCAR race at New Hampshire and joins his Penske teammate Brad Keselowski as the only two drivers locked into the second round of the Chase.
Joey Logano won the NASCAR race at New Hampshire and joins his Penske teammate Brad Keselowski as the only two drivers locked into the second round of the Chase.
The #2 Audi of André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler won at Austin their second consecutive race of the WEC season and closed the gap to the #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre to 11 points. Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke won in GTE-Pro, Aston Martin's first GTE-Pro win in 2014. Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley and Tsugio Matsuda and the #47 KCMG Oreca-Nissan won in LMP2. The #98 Aston Martin of Christoffer Nygaard, Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana won in GTE-Am.
Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas won in IMSA at Austin, there third win of the season. The #93 Viper of Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer won in GTLM, their second victory of the season and will take a 7-point championship lead to Road Atlanta over Antonio García. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating made it a Viper-sweep of the GT classes as their #33 Viper GT3-R won their second race of the season.
Brendan Gaughan won the Nationwide race at Kentucky, his second of the season. Cole Custer became the youngest winner in a NASCAR national touring series by winning the Truck race from Loudon at 16 years, 7 months and 28 days old.
Coming Up This Weekend
MotoGP at Aragón.
NASCAR at Dover.
Super Formula has their penultimate round from Sportsland SUGO.
DTM has their penultimate race of their lame duck season from Zandvoort.
Stock Car Brasil heads to Santa Cruz do Sul.
