We are back! The FIA has a new president. NASCAR did more testing and committed to its regulations. IndyCar signed an extension with Dallara. Marc Márquez is battling double vision. The LMP2 class will have Daytona Prototype international lineups at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Juan Pablo Montoya will share a car with his son Sebastián at Sebring. Dover and Nashville Superspeedway were purchased and are now under the Speedway Motorsports, Inc.'s umbrella, and the duopoly grows stronger. There will soon be less chocolate in Kyle Busch's life. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
Match Race
It is a New Year, but 2021 is fresh in our minds, and we saw plenty of historic moments.
From first time champions in IndyCar, MotoGP and World Superbike, retirements of past world champions, endurance races that went to the wire, but 2021 had two standout performers: Kyle Larson and Lewis Hamilton.
Larson won the NASCAR Cup Series championship in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports after missing most of 2020 due to a suspension for using a racial slur during an iRacing event. Larson won ten races, the most since 2007. His laps led total were the most in over 20 years. It was one of the most thorough seasons we have seen in contemporary NASCAR. NASCAR aside, Larson won the Knoxville Nationals, Chili Bowl and 4-Crown Nationals.
Hamilton did not win the World Drivers' Championship, but the Brit put together a great title fight, coming from behind to enter the season finale level with Max Verstappen on points, the first time the championship lead was tied entering the finale since 1974. Hamilton fell nine points shy of a record eighth championship, but he did surpass the 100 grand prix victories mark, and he put together some impressive drives at Bahrain, Barcelona, Silverstone, Interlagos and Saudi Arabia.
With the seasons both drivers had, cases were made for each being the best in the world.
The two drivers are on entirely different paths. Larson is an oval based driver, running dirt and pavement, from his main job on Sunday to his hobby during the week. Hamilton is in Formula One. There are nearly two-dozen races held around the globe in some of the most technologically advanced cars in the world. Larson isn't going to Formula One anytime soon and Hamilton isn't going to NASCAR. The two will likely never be on the same circuit at the same time, and yet this predicament suggests there is a way to make it happen.
With both drivers having their contingent of followers, and with Formula One at one of its most popular points in the United States, a special event bringing arguably the two best drivers in the world from different sides of the Atlantic could be the one-off motorsports event to capture the world's attention.
In the heyday of horse racing, match races between two horses were common events, the most famous of them all is Seabiscuit defeating Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938. Match races are nonexistent in the 21st century, and for motorsports, they have never been grand spectacles between drivers. In the early days of the automobile, races were held to prove which machine was superior. The driver was an afterthought.
We are less concerned about the machine as we are the man strapped inside of it. With the difference in race cars, the machine needs to be taken out of the equation when it comes to a comparison such as Larson and Hamilton, but there is a level playing field in which these two could go head-to-head to determine who is the best.
Any match race would have to be more of a heptathlon approach, five vehicles each something neither regularly drives, best three out of five. The course would have to be something neither has any great experience at. The Race of Champions would be the perfect place for such a battle. It would have plenty of neutral vehicles and its courses are temporary constructions. Of course, neither Larson nor Hamilton will be going to Sweden this February to compete in this year's event. Though, the ice circuit likely would not be the best conditions for these two to battle either.
Considering the mass appeal of both drivers, this is the show everyone would want to see. They are the best at what they do, two distinctively different disciplines and it would be an event no one has ever seen before. It could be a big money event, though I doubt Larson or Hamilton would demand doing it for a large paycheck. It could be something we have never seen in motorsports, and in 2022, motorsports should try different things.
We are always going to have the Indianapolis 500, 24 Hours of Le Mans, British Grand Prix and Daytona 500, but we have been doing races for decades and if people want to watch they know where to find the events. However, this match race would be unlike anything we have ever seen. Drivers may battle on track all the time, but we almost never see drivers compete only directly against another driver on a circuit. Drag racing is 1,000 feet or a quarter mile, but this type of match race, five heats with the spoils of deciding who is the best driver in the world, it could be the sporadic event of the 21st century that catches the attention of the masses.
Motorsports is not like it was 50 or 60 years ago when cross-pollination was regular. It also wasn't the case where hyper-specialization was required to be the best in a discipline. There are plenty of drivers who run different vehicles, but we don't see the same caliber driver doing it as we did in the decades following World War II. Hamilton isn't following the paths of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss, driving for Mercedes in Formula One and sports car racing. Larson does jump between different categories, stock cars and dirt cars, mostly winged sprint cars and midgets. Larson has dabbled in sports car racing, but it has been a few years.
A Larson-Hamilton showdown would bring together two drivers from two different philosophies, and it would answer many questions about the world of motorsports.
Formula One is about to make big money on the next television contract in the United States, but the money iout there for more. Any television executive with half a brain should be trying to organize this event. It would be a global event the likes we have never seen, and it could also be organized at a reasonable price. It wouldn't require a $25 million sanctioning fee like some Formula One races. Find a stadium in a major metropolitan market, promote the crap out of it and profit. People will show up.
This match race could be a three-hour event with undercard events filling the bill and providing a stadium full of fans with entertainment before the main event. Other big drivers could compete in the undercard races. There could be a celebrity race. The people will be there. This event would attract stars from many different walks of life. Fellow drivers will turn up just to say they were there and support someone who is normally a competitor, Music and movie stars would come out. Other athletes would show up and fill luxury suites. It would be the Monaco Grand Prix meets a prize fight.
Who wouldn't want to see this? Larson fans would want to show his adaptability makes him superior. Hamilton fans would love to silence the globe once and for all. We would have the driver with the most grand prix victories against the NASCAR champion who is also the best driver on dirt. The fact this hasn't be organized already is a shame.
This type of event bringing together those type of drivers could be the future of motorsports and we shouldn't wait a second longer to make it happen.
Winners While We Were Away
Cristina Gutiérrez and Sébastien Loeb won the Extreme E finale, the Jurassic X-Prix for Team X44, but Rosberg X Racing won the championship with Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor.
Dakar Rally stage winners:
Bikes: Daniel Sanders (swept prologue and stage one)
Cars: Nasser Al-Attiyah (swept prologue and stage one)
Quads: Manuel Andújar (prologue), Laisvydas Kancius (stage one)
Light Proto: Seth Quintero (swept prologue and stage one)
SSV: Marek Goczal (prologue), Aron Domżala (stage one)
Trucks: Eduard Nikolaev (prologue), Dmitry Sotnikov (stage one)
Coming Up This Weekend
The Dakar Rally continues!
Supercross opens in Anaheim.
