Best of the Month: March 2025

It is back to normal. Formula One is here. IndyCar is here and no one is happy. Sebring is behind us and the FIA World Endurance Championship season has begun. MotoGP has restarted and Marc Márquez has turned back the clock. That was March, the month where the swing of motorsports can be felt. It might not be at full force, but after the previous three months, it is seismic. 

Much of the season remains unwritten, but a few races have given us an idea of how the script will turn out. We only have a piece but we are already guessing what will come next. We could be right, but we could be in for a surprise. We must wait and see.

Loeb and Ekström

This month started with the Race of Champions, an event I enjoy more than the average motorsports fan. It is something different in a motorsports world where everyone complains about the monotony. Everyone wants it to be the 1960s where the greatest talent regularly crossed paths. Here is an event that brings together an abundance of talent from various forms of motorsports. What else could you want? 

Sébastien Loeb was the big winner in this year's competition. He won everything. Loeb won the Nations' Cup on the first night, representing France with Formula Two driver Victor Martins. On the second night, Loeb won the Champion of Champions competition for a record-breaking fifth time. In doing so, Loeb became the first driver to win both competitions in the same Race of Champions.

A host of incredible drivers have competed in ROC. Loeb being the first to sweep the weekend is a bit surprising. You would have thought someone else would have done it once prior. Yet, it had never happened until Loeb had a magical weekend in Sydney. 

Loeb is 51 years old, past his prime but in the 21st century, sporting brilliance is finding a new outlook on life. We are no longer seeing tennis players break down in their early 30s or quarterbacks call it quits at 34. The best athletes are still competing at the highest levels deep into their 30s and into their 40s. For motorsports, some are competing into their 50s like Loeb. He is only a little over three years removed from his most recent World Rally Championship victory, and he has finished on the overall podium at the Dakar Rally in three of the last four years, with 14 combined stage victories during that time. 

After Loeb's victories in this year's Race of Champions, I started wondering what his overall record was in the competition. He has seven combined titles between the two ROC competitions. He has raced an unfathomable collection of drivers from around the world and from all different platforms. What is his record and what is his record against specific drivers?

Going over the results, I have found the following....

Loeb has competed in ten Race of Champions. In these ten ROCs, Loeb has competed in 88 races. He has gone 66-21-1 in those races. In 2022, he and Oliver Solberg ended one of their races in a dead heat, but since Loeb won the first race, he advanced to the next round. 

Loeb's winning percentage is 75% in ROC. 

He has competed against 36 drivers. Here is the list of drivers Loeb has a losing record against...

Mattias Ekström 2-4

Johan Krisoffersson 1-2

Will Brown 0-1

That's it. That's the list! And though he lost to Brown in the final of this year's Nations' Cup, Martins bailed Loeb out and they still won the title. 

Loeb went 8-2 against Marcus Grönholm, including winning his final seven races against the Finn. 

He is 4-1 all-time against Sebastian Vettel, which inlcudes going 3-1 in the 2022 Champion of Champions final. 

Loeb is 5-0 all-time against Tom Kristensen. 

There are only four other drivers Loeb has a .500 record against. They are Filipe Albuquerque (2-2), Heikki Kovalainen (2-2), who beat Loeb 2-0 in the 2024 Champion of Champions final, and Loeb got even with Kovalainen in the group stage of this year's Nations' Cup; Andy Priaulx (2-2) and Petter Solberg (1-1).

Loeb has beat David Coulthard (2-1), Jimmie Johnson (1-0), Tony Kanaan (2-0), Colin McRae (2-0), Stéphane Peterhansel (2-0) and he has even beat Walter Röhrl (1-0). It is rather remarkable.

However, entering this year's competition, there were two drivers gunning for their fifth Champion of Champions title. Unfortunately, illness kept Mattias Ekström from traveling to Australia to defend his title, and it is a shame because Chaz Mostert made the final and faced Sébastien Loeb. Chaz Mostert was the driver that replaced Ekström. It was lined up for us to see the two drivers with four titles each go for the record. 

As you saw above, Ekström has a winning record against Loeb. It all began in 2006. Ekström won the Champion of Champions final 2-0. In 2008, Ekström beat Loeb in the Nations' Cup first round. They would not meet again until 2022 in the Nations' Cup semifinal. Loeb won 2-1. 

If we are looking at Loeb's record, and Ekström has one fewer title but the better head-to-head record, how does Ekström stack up overall?

Ekström has competed in nine Race of Champions, but only 17 competitions. He did not compete in the 2011 Nations' Cup in Düsseldorf. 

The Swede has run 58 races. His record is 44-14. That is a winning percentage of 75.862%. If you dropped Loeb's deadhead with Oliver Solberg from the record, Ekström and Loeb would have identical winning percentages in Race of Champions competition!

Who has Ekström beat? Besides Loeb...

Ekström is 4-0 against Tom Kristensen (oof... sorry Tom)...

4-2 against Michael Schumacher (including being 4-1 all-time in finals against Schumacher)...

2-0 against Mick Schumacher... 

1-0 against Sebastian Vettel... 

6-0 against Travis Pastrana (Pastrana's ROC participation is a conversation for another time)... 

And Ekström has beat Sébastien Bourdais, Jenson Button, Mick Doohan, Heikki Kovalainen, Colin McRae and Bernd Schneider in his one meeting against them. 

Who does Ekström have a losing record against? 

Out of 28 drivers, the answer is Marcus Grönholm (2-3), Sébastien Ogier (0-1), Nelson Piquet, Jr. (0-1) and Martin Tomczyk (0-1).

Other than Grönholm, he has only lost to guys he has faced once. Of all the drivers Ekström has faced twice, he has won at least once. The only drivers that are .500 with Ekström are both Petter and Oliver Solberg (each are 1-1) and Andy Priaulx (2-2, man does this make Andy Priaulx look good).

Not many have had Ekström's number. 

Loeb is 51 and Ekström is 46. Both are pretty much done with full-time driving. They still compete in rally-raid and Ekström was third overall in the Dakar Rally this year. A day is coming soon where they will not be at Race of Champions. 

We must probably recognize what they have done in this competition and the greatness of both drivers.

Road America's Endurance Race

At this year's 12 Hours of Sebring, IMSA got ahead of the curve again when it announced its 2026 calendar nearly ten months before the first round. Nothing has changed except for Road America becoming a six-hour race while Indianapolis will revert to the two-hour and 40-minute duration. 

Since Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series merged ahead of the 2014 season, people clamored for an endurance race at Road America. It was generally dismissed over increasing a race distance and keeping the full season to the same number of hours. However, when Indianapolis became the fifth endurance race on the schedule a few years ago, the door was opened and instead of maintaining the endurance race at one of the most famous venues in the United States, it will move to Road America. 

There are plenty of positives to this decision. 

1. We get a longer Road America race.

2. This race will occur during the summer and not during football season at a venue just down the road from an NFL stadium where a game could be taking place simultaneously. 

3. It shows flexibility from IMSA. It is a little surprising it is taking away an endurance race from Roger Penske's venue, but it shows it can work with all parties and give Road America something special after being an outstanding event for all these years while keeping Indianapolis on the schedule and at a pivotal place as the penultimate round. 

This does make me wonder if IMSA's fifth endurance race could be a rotating endurance race. The schedule is pretty short. Half the schedule is endurance races. There are also two races that could not be endurance rounds, the street races in Long Beach and Detroit. That leaves Laguna Seca, Mosport and Virginia International Raceway. 

If it is going to be an endurance race, it will have all four classes competing. Currently, none of those three venues host all four races. LMP2 does not go to Laguna Seca, GTP doesn't go to Canada, and neither prototype class visits Virginia. Laguna Seca is also tight on space, as is Mosport.

One of the faults of the IMSA calendar is certain areas do not see the top class and the top drivers. It is shame GTP doesn't go to Canada and VIR remains the only GT-only round on the schedule. Lime Rock Park for a number of years also had the GT-only distinction but the current prototypes are likely more than the track can handle. 

A rotating endurance race could be the way to bring GTP to some of these places even if it is not on an annual basis. 

For starters, we get Road America, and we should be thankful for that. 

April Preview

Speaking of endurance races, next month the European Le Mans Series begins, a collection of a half-dozen four-hour races spread over spring, summer and a bit of autumn. Though lacking LMDh and Hypercars, Europe's premier sports car champion is an outstanding gathering of talent in the LMP2. 

Take last year's champions AO by TF. Louis Delétraz, Robert Kubica and Jonny Edgar were the drivers. They any good?

Unfortunately for Delétraz, he has lost his two co-drivers from last year, but don't worry, he has Dane Cameron and P.J. Hyett joining him in the #99 Oreca. It will be a pro-am entry, meaning the overall championship will be an unlikely repeat, but there are plenty of stellar lineups set to compete for the top prize. 

How about IDEC Sport's two cars? In preparations for running the Genesis program in 2026, IDEC is holding auditions for next year. In the #18 Oreca will be Jamie Chadwick, Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella. The #28 Oreca will see 2019 champions Paul-Loup Chatin and Paul Lafargue reunite with Job van Uitert filling out the entry. Not bad.

Perhaps you want drivers who are already competing in LMPh or Hypercars. ELMS has that as well. 

Try Nielsen Racing's #24 Oreca, which has Filipe Albuquerque leading the way with Ferdinand Habsburg and Cem Bölükbasi. 

If you are looking for a Meyer Shank Racing Acura driver, you are in luck. Nick Yelloly will be in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca along with Tom Dillmann, who was second in the championship last year, and Jakub Śmiechowski. There is also Tom Blomqvist in the #37 CLX - Pure Racing orca with Alex Malykhin and Tristan Vautier. 

Oh, and the other CLX Motorsport Oreca will feature Lusophone's finest in Pipo Derani, Manuel Espírito Sano and Enzo Fittipaldi. If Enzo Fittipaldi is not the Fittipaldi you are looking for, Pietro Fittipaldi will be in the #10 Oreca for Vector Sport with Ryan Cullen and Vladislav Lomko. 

We haven't even mentioned United Autosport yet. It is approaching five years since United Autosports' most recent ELMS title. It will have Oliver Jarvis, Marino Sato and Daniel Schneider in the #21 Oreca, a pro-am entry. Ben Hanley, Manuel Maldonado and Grégoire Saucy will be in the #22 Oreca, a pro entry.

IndyCar reject Théo Pourchaire has found a home at Algarve Pro Racing in its #25 Oreca with Lorenzo Fluxá and Matthias Kaiser. 

AF Corse keeps two-time defending pro-am champions François Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxivière together in the #88 Oreca. 

If you were wondering, "Where is Sérgio Sette Câmara competing these days?" Look no further than ELMS! Câmara has James Allen and Anthony Wells as his co-drivers in the #27 Nielsen Racing Oreca.

We haven't even touched the LMP3 and GT3 classes in the series. There is plenty of reasons to be excited about this ELMS season. 

Barcelona hosts the first round on April 6 before visiting Circuit Paul Ricard on April 6, Imola on July 6, Spa-Francorchamps on August 24, a return to Silverstone on September 14 with the season closing at Portimão on October 18. 

Other Events of Note in April:

After a round in Suzuka, Formula One will run two night races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

IndyCar and IMSA get together for a weekend at Long Beach. 

MotoGP will be at Qatar and Jerez.

NASCAR visits its core: Darlington, Bristol, Talladega.

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters opens its season at Oschersleben.

Supercross spends a month in the Northeast. 

Musings From the Weekend: Race of Too Familiar

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Another season of Drive to Survive is out. Cadillac's Formula One program has been confirmed. People are mad at a person for having an opinion. Chase Briscoe won an appeal. Austin Cindric lost some points and some money. NASCAR filed a countersuit against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. Meanwhile, in Australia, Sébastien Loeb made history in Race of Champions, winning the Champion of Champions competition for a record fifth time, and Loeb became the first driver to win the individual title and the Nations’ Cup in the same Race of Champions. Loeb and Victor Martins paired for France and defeated Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown representing the host Australians. This year's Race of Champions had me deep in thought.

Race of Too Familiar

At one point, Race of Champions was a regular end-of-year gathering of some of the best motorsports competitors in the world, and it filled a void. Taking place in December, the event fell when most series had been silent for a few months, and we were still about three months from serious competitions resuming. It was a great filler at an otherwise empty time, and just over 20 years ago, it was moved into European metropolises and stadiums were turned into racetracks.

ROC has survived the changing times of the last two decades. Calendars expanded deeper into autumn. November was no longer off limits, and now we are used to championships running into December, running into ROC's once exclusive territory.

The event has moved to the start of the calendar year, and it has even taken time off. This weekend's event in Sydney was the first in two years, and the first to run in March, right on the eve of the Formula One season opener one week later in Melbourne. It was nice to have it back, but the event has lost some of the shine it had 20 years ago.

A competition gathering the best drivers in the world is tough to manage. For starters, you are never going to get the best 16 to 20 drivers in the world all in one place. All you can do is get the best collection of talent that is possible, and ROC did a great job of that at one time. It might not be 16 champions from 16 different series, but it was respected drivers from a variety of categories. It pitted drivers against one another where you were interested to see who would come out on top. 

Lately though, the ROC field has felt familiar... too familiar... and not only has it felt familiar but it is starting to feel outdated. 

In 2005, there were 20 drivers competing in the second Race of Champions to be run at Stade de France in Paris. The average age of those drivers was just under 31 years of age. The oldest driver was German rally driver Armin Schwarz at 42 years old, one of four drivers in their 40s at the event. Ten drivers were below the age of 30.

In 2025, there were 20 drivers competing in the first Race of Champions held at Stadium Australia. The average age of those drivers at the start of competition on Friday was just under 36-and-a-half years old. Four drivers were over the age of 50. Another two drivers were older than Schwarz's age in the 2005 competition. Only six drivers were below the age of 30. 

That is without mentioning that four drivers from that 2005 competition were still competing in 2025, and it would have been five if illness did not prevent Mattias Ekström from traveling. 

Twenty years ago, Race of Champions moving to a stadium was something we had not seen previously. It strived to get the best possible field for people from around the globe to tune it. There was something for everyone. It has weathered some challenges over the last 20 years, but we are not seeing that same effort. The event hasn't come close to drawing that previous excitement.

ROC has become an event where it is resting on the known. It has its cast of characters that they know will not say no. Too many of the current field are retired drivers that do nothing else all year. Twenty years ago, the only ROC driver who did not compete full-time in a series was Colin McRae, and he was only two years removed from his last full season in the World Rally Championship.

Half of the 2025 field is not racing full-time anywhere this year. Kurt Busch, Travis Pastrana, Alister McRae, David Coulthard, Petter Solberg, Sebastian Vettel, Heikki Kovalainen, Toby Price and Molly Taylor are all not competing anywhere, and Valtteri Bottas is the Mercedes reserve driver, which is not competing. The FIA World RallyCross Championship is also in hiatus, and it looks increasingly unlikely there will be a 2025 season, which means Johan Kristoffersson is also without a full-time gig.

Race of Champions is becoming less of a representation of what the best drivers in the world look like every year. 

ROC has a difficult task attracting high profile drivers. It is an unattached event hoping invitees will come from the goodness of their hearts and not because of a paycheck. They are doing this at a time when manufacturers, teams and sponsors have greater control over a driver's career and what he or she can and cannot do. 

It is much easier to get a retired driver, who has no strings holding them back, but we have seen enough David Coulthard. It was nice getting to see Tom Kristensen, but we are good. For all that is good, shake Travis Pastrana's hand and thank him for his service. 

This event must attempt to remain relevant for survival. Running a week before the Formula One opener likely turned out not to be the best choice. What team would let a driver compete in an unsanctioned event a week before the season opener? There is a narrow window for this event to take place and draw drivers from all over. There must be a time between the middle of January and the middle of February where Formula One drivers can participate and plenty of other forms of motorsports are not entirely busy. 

There are more than Formula One drivers out there though. We know Race of Champions isn't going to be the 20 best drivers coming together. That is unrealistic, but what is realistic is bringing together talented drivers from multiple categories of motorsports that makes it interesting. That is what it was in 2005.

Sure, it featured the World Rally Champion, Indianapolis 500 winner and a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, but you also had three active Formula One drivers plus two of the best junior drivers who were on the verge of Formula One. You had a mix of sports car drivers, touring car drivers and rally drivers. The drivers that were competing you felt fit the category of Race of Champions. 

Jeff Gordon wasn't NASCAR Cup champion in 2005, but he was one of the best in NASCAR. Bernd Schneider wasn't Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion in 2005, but he was one of the best in DTM. If you get a smattering of top five drivers from eight or nine championships around the world, you have a pretty compelling competition.

Outside of the local Australians, nobody competing this year did anything notable in a top category the year before. 

Max Verstappen and Kyle Larson might be out of reach, but there are plenty of drivers in this world that would make for a memorable competition. 

The United Kingdom deserves Nick Tandy and James Calado as its representatives. 

The Netherlands has more than Verstappen. Nyck de Vries, Robin Frijns, Nicky Catsburg, Renger van der Zande and Richard Verschoor are out there.

We should have an Italian team with DTM champion Mikko Bortolotti and Antonio Fuoco or Antonio Giovinazzi or Alessandro Pier Guidi or any of the Italian Ferrari Hypercar drivers. 

Pick any of the 300 Danish drivers that are succeeding around the world. 

New Zealand should have had a better team than relying on a teenager to compete. I know they are busy, but between Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin, Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Brandon Hartley, Marcus Armstrong and Earl Bamber, none of them were available? Formula E is in the middle of a two-month break! How busy could Evans and Cassidy be?

How come we cannot get a Japanese team in this competition? Or a Swiss team? Why can't the van der Linde brothers represent South Africa? There is always Jordan Pepper if one backs out. Get Dane Cameron and a Taylor Brother or Colin Braun to represent the United States. 

It is never going to be perfect, but Race of Champions can be better. Perhaps the world has changed too much and it is truly impossible to orchestrate for a respectable collection of drivers to compete in an all-star competition, but the effort must be made. 

Eventually, it will not be possible to call David Coulthard, Petter Solberg and Sébastien Loeb for said competition. Either the event will die because it will be unable to replace the old geezers or it will die because the competitors are drivers the audience did not grow up watching. 

Race of Champions has a place in the motorsports world. Motorsports needs a competition that cuts through the specialization and brings together racers from all corners of the world, but Race of Champions must actually bring together respectable racers that are relevant to the current championships, not to the championships decided 20 years ago.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about France and Sébastien Loeb, but did you know...

Christopher Bell won the NASCAR Cup race from Phoenix, his third consecutive victory. Aric Almirola won the Grand National Series race. 

Kakunoshin Ohta and Tadasuke Makino split the Super Formula races from Suzuka.

Cooper Webb won the Supercross race from Indianapolis, his third victory of the season. Seth Hammaker won the 250cc race.

Coming Up This Weekend

Formula One opens in Melbourne.

Supercars has four races scheduled at Albert Park as well.

The 73rd 12 Hours of Sebring is here.

MotoGP is going to Argentina.

NASCAR makes a stop in Las Vegas.

2025 Race of Champions Preview

After a two-year hiatus, the Race of Champions returns and in a new location. For the first time ever, Race of Champions will be held in the Southern Hemisphere, taking place in Stadium Australia in Sydney, famously the host stadium of the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Twenty drivers are scheduled to compete in this year's competition from nine different countries. The draw has been set for both the Nations' Cup competition on Friday night and the Champion of Champions competition set for Saturday. 

For the Nations' Cup, nine countries have been divided into three groups of three. The two-time defending Nations' Cup champions Norway have received a bye into the quarterfinal round. The remaining seven spots in the knockout round will be determined in the group stage with the top two finishers from each group and the best third-best team advancing. 

Nations' Cup

Quarterfinals

Norway

Best Result: 1st (2022-23)
Drivers:

Petter Solberg : Three-time Nations' Cup champion (2014, 2022-23) and 2018 Champion of Champions Runner-Up

Oliver Solberg: Two-time Nations' Cup champion (2022-23), 2024 World Rally Championship-2 Vice Champion

The Solbergs won the Nations' Cup both years the competition was held in Sweden. The only nation to win the Nations' Cup in at least three consecutive competitions is Germany, which won six consecutive from 2007 through 2012. Petter also won the 2014 Nations' Cup as a member of the Nordic team with Tom Kristensen. 

Speaking of Kristensen, the Dane is not enters in this year's Race of Champions, the first time Kristensen is not a participant since 2004, ending a streak of 16 consecutive ROC appearances. Kristensen also competed in the Race of Champions in 2000 and 2001. Kristensen is a three-time Nations' Cup winner (2005, 2014 and 2019), and he is famously a five-time Champion of Champions runner-up.

Group A

Finland

Best Result: 1st (1998, 2006)
Drivers:

Valtteri Bottas: Ten-time Formula One Grand Prix winner

Heikki Kovalainen: 2004 Champion of Champions and 2006 Nations' Cup champion

Team All-Stars

Best Result: 1st (2003)
Drivers:

Johan Kristoffersson: 2019 Nations' Cup champion and seven-time World Rallycross champion

Chaz Mostert: 2024 GT World Challenge Australia champion, two-time Bathurst 100 winner and third in the 2024 Supercars championship

France

Best Result: 1st (2000, 2004)
Drivers:

Sébastien Loeb: Four-time Champion of Champions and 2004 Nations' Cup champion

Victors Martins: 2022 Formula Three champion and seventh in the 2024 Formula Two championship

Group Breakdown: This is a group of historic Race of Champions participants. All three teams have won the Nations' Cup previously, but none of them have won in the last 19 years. France and Finland were the first two countries to win the Nations' Cup multiple times. 

France's only final appearance since 2004 was in 2012 when Sébastien Ogier and Romain Grosjean were runners-up to Germany. Finland lost the 2007 final to Germany with Kovalainen and Marcus Grönholm. The All-Stars were runner-up in 2023 with Felipe Drugovich and Thierry Neuville as its representatives. An All-Star team won in 2003 with Fonsi Nieto, Cristiano da Matta and Gilles Panizzi.

Group B

Australia (Supercars)

Best Result: Semifinalists (2012)
Drivers:

Brodie Kostecki: 2023 Supercars champion

Will Brown: 2024 Supercars champion

Australia (Off-Road)

Best Result: Semifinalists (2012)
Drivers:

Molly Taylor: Two-time Extreme E champion and 2016 Australian Rally Championship

Toby Price: Two-time Dakar Rally winner (bike class) and 2024 Baja 500 winner 

New Zealand

Best Result: Race of Champions Debut
Drivers:

Hayden Paddon: Two-time European Rally champion

Louis Sharp: 2024 GB3 Championship champion

Group Breakdown: Group B is nothing but debutants. All six drivers competing have never competed in Race of Champions previously, and for the first time ever, New Zealand is participating in the Nations' Cup. Paddon is a World Rally Championship veterans with 82 appearance, and he has won the ERC title the last two years. Sharp will enter Formula Three this year with Rodin Motorsport. 

The host nation Australia gets two teams. This is the first time Australia has competed in the Nations' Cup since 2015 when Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Doohan paired to lose to Germany in the first round. Kostecki replaced seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup, who withdrew due to Cyclone Alfred threatening to hit Queensland, and Whincup wished to remain with his family.

Group C

Germany

Best Result: 1st (2007-12, 2017-18)
Drivers:

Sebastian Vettel: Four-time World Drivers' Champion, 2015 Champion of Champions and seven-time Nations' Cup champion

Mick Schumacher: 2020 Formula Two champion and 2023 Champion of Champions runner-up

United States

Best Result: 1st (2002)
Drivers:

Travis Pastrana: 2006 Nations' Cup runner-up

Kurt Busch: 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and 2015 Nations' Cup runner-up

Great Britain

Best Result: 2nd (2009, 2010, 2014)*
Drivers:

David Coulthard: Two-time Champion of Champions

Alister McRae: 2011 Asia-Pacific Rally Champion

Group Breakdown: While Germany has the most Nations' Cup championships, it has not won in the last three Race of Champions, its longest drought since it went winless in the first eight Nations' Cups. Vettel and Schumacher were runners-up in 2019 in Mexico when the Nordic team of Tom Kristensen and Johan Kristoffersson took the title. 

The United States was Nations' Cup runner-up in 2022 with Jimmie Johnson and Colton Herta. Coulthard's only appearance in a Nations' Cup final was when Great Britain was runner-up in 2014 in Barbados to the Nordic team with Kristensen and Petter Solberg. Susie Wolff was Coulthard's co-driver that year. McRae is replacing his son Max, who injured his hand in the British Rally Championship. This is McRae's third ROC appearance, who competed in 2000 and 2007.

Champion of Champions

For the Champion of Champions competition on Saturday, 18 drivers will be split into six groups for the group stage. A spot in the group stage has been reserved for the eROC competition winner, which pits sim racers against one another in the virtual and real world competitions. The eROC competitions will be held before the Nations' Cup on Friday.

Automatically positioned into the quarterfinals will be four-time Champion of Champions Sébastien Loeb, and 2023 Champion of Champions runner-up Mick Schumacher.

The six group winners will advance to the quarterfinals. 

The six groups have been divided in half with the first three groups comprised of rally drivers with the next three groups consisting of circuit racing drivers.

Group A

Johan Kristoffersson 

Best Result: Semifinalist (2018, 2023)

Molly Taylor

Best Result: This is his debut.

eROC Winner

Group Breakdown: In the last two Race of Champions held in his native Sweden, Kristoffersson lost in the quarterfinals, to Mattias Ekström both years. Ekström went on to win the competition in 2023, a record-tying fourth for Ekström, who was unable to participate in this year's competition due to illness. Taylor has made 17 appearances in the World Rally Championship, most recently the 2021 Rally Finland.

The Group A winner will face Loeb in the quarterfinals. Each of Loeb's four Champion of Champions title have come in four different countries, but all in Europe. He won the final year on the Canary Islands in 2003 before winning the second year at Stade de France in Paris in 2005. He won the final year at Wembley Stadium in London in 2007, and Loeb won the first year at Piteå, Sweden in 2022.

Group B

Travis Pastrana

Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2006-07, 2017)

Heikki Kovalainen

Best Result: 1st (2004)

Oliver Solberg

Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2022-23)

Group Breakdown: This will be Pastrana's tenth appearance in the Race of Champions while Kovalainen makes his ROC return for the first time since 2010. Kovalainen defeated Pastrana twice in the 2006 Nations' Cup final to take the title for Finland. Pastrana competed in the Nations' Cup solo that year and went 5-4 over the three rounds, defeating Germany and Scotland to make the final. Solberg won the WRC2 event at Rally Sweden last month.

Group C

Petter Solberg

Best Result: 2nd (2018)

Toby Price

Best Result: This is his debut.

Hayden Paddon

Best Result: This is his debut.

Group Breakdown: Solberg failed to make it out of the round of 16 in the two Swedish editions of Race of Champions. He lost to eventual winner Sébastien Loeb in 2022 and his son Oliver in 2023. Price made his first Dakar Rally start in the car class this year with Toyota, but retired. Paddon's only World Rally Championship victory was the 2016 Rally Argentina over Sébastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen.

Group B and Group C winners will face-off in the quarterfinals.

Group D

Sebastian Vettel

Best Result: 1st (2015)

Brodie Kostecki

Best Result: This is his debut.

Louis Sharp

Best Result: This is his debut.

Group Breakdown: Though famed for his six Nations' Cup championships, Vettel has only won the Champion of Champions competition once. His only other finals appearance was in 2022 when he lost to Loeb. His semifinal lost in 2023 to fellow German Mick Schumacher was the third time Vettel has lost in the semifinal round. He lost to Mick's father Michael in 2009 and the eventual Champion of Champions in 2010, Filipe Albuquerque. Kostecki won the Bathurst 1000 last year. Prior to his GB3 championship last year, Sharp won the F4 British Championship in 2023.

Group E

Valtteri Bottas

Best Result: Round of 16 (2023)

Kurt Busch

Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2014)

Chaz Mostert

Best Result: This is his debut.

Group Breakdown: Busch competed in the 2014 competition in Bushy Park. He was undefeated in his group, defeating Petter Solberg, Barbadian Rhett Watson and Susie Wolff, but then lost to Jamie Whincup in the quarterfinals. In 2017, Busch failed to get out of his group, with losses to David Coulthard and Tom Kristensen and his only consolation was victory over Ryan Hunter-Reay. In Bottas' ROC debut two years ago, he lost both legs of his first round matchup against Kristensen. On three occasions did Mostert compete in Supercars on the Homebush street circuit, which went around the Sydney Olympic Park. His best finish on that track was fifth in 2014.

Group D and Group E winners will meet in the quarterfinals.

Group F

Will Brown

Best Result: This is his debut.

David Coulthard

Best Result: 1st (2014, 2018)

Victor Martins

Best Result: This is his debut.

Group Breakdown: Coulthard is probably thankful the ROC is out of the Arctic. He failed to get out of the preliminary round in 2023, and lost in the round of 16 in 2022. Brown opened the Supercars season last week with finishes fifth, third and second at Sydney Motorsports Park. Martins has two Formula Two victories, the 2023 Silverstone feature race and the 2024 Barcelona sprint race.

The Group F winner will face Schumacher in the quarterfinals. Prior to last year's runner-up performance, Schumacher lost to Jamie Chadwick in the preliminary round in 2022, and he lost in the 2019 quarterfinals to Esteban Gutiérrez.

There will be six vehicles used in this year's competition. There will be an FC2 rallycross car as well as a Supercar Lite rallycross car. The KTM X-Bow Comp R will be used, ten years after the KTM X-Bow was last used in the competition. The Polaris RZR Pro R is back after being used in Sweden.

Suburu makes its Race of Champions debut with the BRZ tS and Toyota is back with the GR86. The Toyota GT-86 was used in the 2012 competition from Bangkok. 

The Nations' Cup will begin at 3:30 a.m. ET on Friday March 7 with the Champion of Champions competition taking place at 3:30 a.m. ET on Saturday March 8. 

Best of the Month: January 2023

One month down and 11 remain in the year 2023. For the first month of the year, there are a number of significant events. It is a smashing start to the year, especially as many more of our favorite events are still to come. A few endurance races are behind us, as are a few rallies. However, things could be better in some areas, and we start this year with a few new ideas.

Dakar's Green Jersey

Another Dakar Rally concluded this month, and the bike class was a sensational battle from start to finish. Halfway through the race, there were eight riders within eight minutes of one another at the top. The bike battle went to the final day with the top three entering the final stage with only a minute and 31 seconds covering them, and on the final stage, Kevin Benavides came from behind to win the Dakar Rally. 

Not every class was that thrilling, and that is part of the Dakar. It is a two-week endurance race. There is a lot of time to lose over the competition, and if one team limits its stoppages and mistakes, it can be a runaway. That was the case in the car class. Nasser Al-Attiyah won by over an hour and 20 minutes over Sébastien Loeb, and Al-Attiyah's lead was over an hour for the final nine stages. 

In the quad class, Alexandre Giroud led by 35 minutes and 31 seconds after the third stage and that was the closest it was over the final 12 stages. Light prototypes, SSV and Trucks were rather class for most of the race only for the tide to turn late, but I think there is a way can turn each stage into more of a competition. 

Loeb won six consecutive stages in the second week of this year's Dakar, but over those six stages, Loeb never got closer than an hour and 21 minutes to Al-Attiyah. All credit to Al-Attiyah, but there is a way to make those stage victories mean something. 

In the Tour de France, there is a green jersey for a points classification. Each stage awards points to the top finishers and there are intermediate points over the course of a stage where points are awarded. It is a competition within a competition. The Tour de France and Dakar have the same organizer, Amaury Sport Organisation. The Dakar could easily adopt this concept, using the FIA points system to award the top ten finishers at each stage and give competitors a chance to compete for something to the very end without have one or two disastrous stages leave them racing for pride alone. 

Here is what the points classifications would look like based on the 2023 Dakar results for bikes and cars.

Bikes (Difference to overall finish):

1. Toby Price - 151 (+1)

2. Kevin Benavides - 134 (-1)

3. Skyler Howes - 129 (-)

4. Daniel Sanders - 113 (+3)

5. Luciano Benavides - 110 (+1)

6. Pablo Quintanilla - 97 (-2)

7. Adrien Van Beveren - 87 (-2)

8. Mason Klein - 81 (Withdrew)

9. Joan Barreda - 67 (Withdrew)

10. Ross Branch - 64 (+13)

Cars:

1. Sébastien Loeb - 223 (+1)

2. Nasser Al-Attiyah - 176 (-1)

3. Guerlain Chicherit - 154 (+7)

4. Mattias Ekström - 111 (+10)

5. Yazeed Al-Rajhi - 108 (+32)

6. Henk Lategan - 100 (-1)

7. Carlos Sainz - 88 (Withdrew)

8. Jakub Przygoński - 62 (+9)

9. Lucas Moraes - 57 (-6)

10. Vaidotas Žala - 54 (Withdrew)

There would be some changes. Price and Loeb would each have won green jerseys. Benavides and Al-Attiyah would each be second. Some forgotten performances would get highlighted. Audi was not that bad in the car class as the overall results suggest. There were a few accidents and mechanical problems, but the Audi was quick. Ekström was in the top four of the final six stages. Sainz was in the top three in five of the first eight stages prior to his retirement. 

In 2022, Seth Quintero won 12 of 13 stages, but 17 hours lost in stage two due to mechanical failures and penalties meant that he was 16th overall and was left with nothing more than a spot in the record books. Not a bad place to be, but not necessarily receiving the recognition one should get in the moment. 

We would still have the overall classification, and that would remain the big prize, but something else to play for could bring more intrigue into those final stages, and give the competitors something else to shoot for.  

Can we find a better date for the Race of Champions?

Race of Champions took place this past weekend. One problem? It was the same weekend as the 24 Hours of Daytona. 

The Race of Champions once had a good place for itself in the middle of December. The Formula One season had been over for a few months, and testing for the next season wouldn't start until the start of January. IndyCar was in its offseason. NASCAR had just finished its season. Sports cars had been off for months. The World Rally Championship would be in the middle of its offseason, closer to the next season opener, Rallye Monte-Carlo, than the previous season finale. It was a great time. 

Then the world changed. Formula One's schedule expanded. The end of the season inched closer to December and then into December. The FIA World Endurance Championship developed and would race into November in some cases. Formula E emerged and would stage races of its own in December. ROC now takes place after the Dakar Rally, not before. The World Rally Championship doesn't have the same pull. Touring car racing doesn't have the same pull. The December date got squeezed out, and ROC was moved into the new year for some breathing room, but here it was taking place on the same weekend as another major event in the motorsports calendar. 

This year's event took a step back in quality of entrants. For the last seven or eight editions, the field is becoming more dependent retirees. Tom Kristensen has run 15 consecutive Race of Champions. David Coulthard has competed in 15 of the last 16 ROCs, missing only 2010. Mika Häikkinen ran this year. Petter Solberg is an ROC regular. All have been successful drivers, champions in their own right, but in 2023, are they the champions of the moment? 

There were six champions in this year's ROC, in line proportionally with most years since the event moved to stadiums in 2004, but the W Series, Extreme E, eTouring Car World Cup and Nitro Rallycross champions aren't really the upper-echelon of the motorsports world. 

The Formula One title-holder has not competed since 2012, same as the MotoGP title-holder. The most recent WRC title-holder to compete was Sébastien Loeb in 2010! The only WEC title-holder to compete was Timo Bernhard in 2018. The only Formula E champion to compete was the first Formula E champion, Nelson Piquet, Jr. in 2015, oh, and there happened to be a Formula E doubleheader to clash with this year's ROC weekend as well. Australia's Supercars champion hasn't appeared since 2014 and the NASCAR Cup champion hasn't appeared since 2007! That was Jimmie Johnson's second Cup title in case you wanted some context how long ago that was. 

Race of Champions has never been a collection of all the top champions from that season. It averages about five title-holders, about 27.8% of the field, a good mix. Not all great drivers end up being champion that year, but some good ones are being missed, and this weekend didn't help. Location might also be a problem. As fun as it might be to race on ice, it is hard to sell anyone on a trip toward the Arctic Circle this time of year. 

It is difficult to place Race of Champions when the winter has become cluttered with other series, but avoiding one of the biggest endurance races in the world, one that has been held at the same time of year for over six decades, would be a wise first choice. 

This event has incredible potential, it always has and once was a buzzing event, but in the last 20 years, it lives down to what it could be, and that is a great shame. Hopefully once everyone thaws out they can reassess and improve for 2024.

February Preview

The Bathurst 12 Hour returns to February after being canceled in 2021 and moved to May in 2022. After travel restrictions made last year's race less international, this year's race sees the return of many notable drivers and teams.

SunEnergy1 Racing won last year and it will be back with Jules Gounon, Luca Stolz and Kenny Habul in the #75 Mercedes-AMG, looking to become the first drivers to win this race in consecutive years since Christopher Mies and Darryl O'Young in 2011 and 2012. Mies will be in this race in the pro-am #777 Audi for Team MPC with Ricardo Feller and Yasser Shahin. 

Mercedes-AMG has a deep bench of entries alongside the SunEnergy1 team. Triple Eight race has Shane van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney paired with Maximilian Götz in the #888 Mercedes, and the #88 Mercedes has Jamie Whincup, Richie Stanaway and Prince Jeffri Ibrahim in a pro-am entry. Craig Lowndes leads another pro-am Mercedes, this being the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsports entry with Alex Daivson, Geoff Emery and Mr. Scott Taylor himself. 

There are also a few international heavy lineups. Philip Ellis, Nicky Catsburg and Daniel Juncadella will drive the #77 Mercedes for Theodore Racing with Craft-Bamboo while GruppeM Racing has entered the #999 Mercedes for Maro Engel, Mikaël Grenier and Raffaele Marciello. Ellis replaces Lucas Auer, who suffered a back injury in practice ahead of the 24 Hours of Daytona. 

Last year was Mercedes-AMG's second Bathurst 12 Hour victory, nine years after its first. 

Porsche's only Bathurst 12 Hour victory was in 2019, and it will have two cars entered. Manthey EMA Motorsport is the lone pro-class Porsche, the #912 for Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Thomas Preining. Earl Bamber Motorsport and Grove Racing will run the #4 Porsche for Anton De Pasquale, Brenton Grove and Stephen Grove in pro-am.

Audi has three Bathurst 12 Hour victories and it looks to tie Mazda for the all-time lead in this race. Beside the #777 Audi, Team MC has the #74 Audi in the pro-class with Christopher Haase, Patric Niederhauser and Mattia Drudi entered. A pair of pro-am Audi to watch will be the #9 Hallmarc Racing entry with Lee Holdsworth, Dean Fiore and Marc Cini, and the #55 Schumacher Motorsports Fuchs Racing Audi with Frédéric Vervisch, James Golding and Brad Schumacher.

Audi's most recent victory came in 2018 with Team WRT, and Teams WRT is back but this time fields a pair of BMWs. Dries Vanthoor was one of the winning drivers five years ago and he will drive the #32 BMW with his usual GT World Challenge co-driver Charles Weerts and 2022 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion Sheldon van der Linde. Team WRT's other car sees the debut of Valentino Rossi at Mount Panorama with Augusto Farfus and Maxime Martin joining the two-wheel legend in the #46 BMW. 

BMW has never won the Bathurst 12 Hour in the GT3-era. The Bavarian constructor's most recent victory in 2010 was with a BMW 335i touring car.

Bathurst again hosts the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge championship on February 5. It will be a quick turnaround as the second round of the championship is the Kyalami 9 Hour February 25. Round three takes place over July 1-2 at the 24 Hours of Spa. The Indianapolis 8 Hour is the penultimate round on October 7 with the Gulf 12 Hours from the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi hosting the finale for the second consecutive year on December 10.

This year's Bathurst 12 Hour will begin at 1:45 p.m. Eastern on February 4 in the United States.

Other events of note in February:

NASCAR is back in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Clash and then it has the Daytona 500.

Formula E has two races scheduled for new venues, Hydrabad and Cape Town.

World Superbike season begins in Philip Island.

Best of the Month: January 2021

One month is into the books and 2021 has had a fair start. 

A few schedule amendments have been made in multiple series. A few races have already been canceled. Some have fortunately only been postponed. Everyone is still making their way in this uncertain world. There have been a few of the highlight events. The Dakar Rally took place. The Supercross season has started. Rallye Monte-Carlo opened the World Rally Championship. The 24 Hours of Daytona has just concluded. 

It might have been a different January, but it was still one with plenty to talk about. Let's get to it.

Glad to be Back

There are two thoughts every January: It is great to have motorsports back... and motorsports never really went away. 

At the start of a Northern Hemisphere winter, things dial back and there will be a few weeks of nothing as we have Christmas and New Year's. But out of 52 weeks of a year, there are about 48 weeks with some type of action. Formula One races into December now. It's just what they do. The FIA World Endurance Championship has run into December. Formula E doesn't normally start until December. Asian Le Mans Series can race in December. 

Then we get to the New Year and the Dakar Rally begins, as does Supercross. Not long after that, the Dubai 24 Hour takes place, Formula E might have another round, Rallye Monte-Carlo kicks off the World Rally Championship season and then there is the 24 Hours of Daytona. 

Once we get to Daytona, February is on our door step, which means the start of NASCAR's marathon season, testing ramps up for Formula One, IndyCar, MotoGP and many other series, and then it is March and the season begins to hit its stride and remains moving at a good pace until the end of October. 

Outside those final few weeks of December and possibly the first weekend of January, the only other time there is nothing going on is Easter Weekend, and some years there are two or three events that weekend. This year, the FIA WEC season will begin at Portimão on Easter Sunday. 

There is a lull, but there are plenty of other things to fill the gap. I want to celebrate Christmas and do family stuff. I want to watch football and hockey. It is ok to have three weeks off, and it is not a big deal when events resume. 

With that Said...

The 24 Hours of Daytona remains the first major event of the season. This year was different with the Roar test pushed back to the weekend before the actually race, but I think that didn't cause any problems and could be the way of the future. 

It felt odd when the Roar would be January 3-5 or 7-9 and then the race was three weeks later. It makes more sense for all the teams to go down there at once and leave everything set up before the race itself. It does make teams confirm their lineups earlier. Instead of having three or four drivers cycle through a car, all the teams had their lineups set and whoever was testing was likely going to be racing. 

I am not sure the qualifying race stuck. What's the point of having a 100-minute race to set the grid for a 24-hour race? When did starting position matter that much for a 24-hour race? IMSA has been trying to make the Roar an event for the last couple of years, whether that has been instituting a special qualifying session to determine garage position or now a 100-minute race to determine the grids, but this kind of came off flat. 

Some teams pulled out of the race early to avoid damage and when most classes have ten cars or fewer, there is no reason why a team couldn't win from sixth in class in a 24-hour race. I am sure there is a better way to use these 100 minutes, whether that is adding those to an existing race (Road America) or creating another race on the schedule (I am open to another street race, notably Nashville with IndyCar or a return to Barber Motorsports Park). An extra round likely will not happen, but a man can dream. 

Race of Champions

In unexpected pandemic news, the Race of Champions announced it will return in January 2022 with the event being held in Sweden for the first time and this edition will take place on snow and ice. Next year's event will be the first ROC event since Mexico City hosted the 2019 edition. The track will be at Pite Havsbad, about 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

The 2022 edition aims to be fully sustainable and carbon-neutral with electric cars also being a part of the competition. Organizers stated the event will be able to take place in safe conditions even if pandemic restrictions extend into 2022. 

I am excited that ROC is returning, and I am excited for a new venue, however, could they have gifted this competition anymore to the Scandinavian nations? I am going to save you the time and spoil the results because we are going to see at least one Swede in the final of the Champion of Champions competition and the other finalist will either be a Swede, a Finn or Finland will sweep the finalists. 

Either way, Sweden and Finland will likely meet in the Nations' Cup final. Perhaps Norway sneaks in to either of these finals. 

It is cool to do something different, but this is an incredible advantage to the Scandinavians, who have already had great success in this competition. Swedes and Finns combine for nine Champion of Champions victories out of 29 competitions. 

In the Nations' Cup, Finland has won twice while three Nordic/Scandinavian combination teams combine for three other victories. That is five out of 19 Nations' Cup for Scandinavian drivers. Other than Germany, which has won the Nations' Cup eight times, the only other country with multiple Nations' Cup victories is France with two. Spain, the United States, England and a French-Spanish-Brazilian All-Star team all have won it once. 

At least we should have individual teams for Sweden, Finland, Norway and even Denmark. We shouldn't have a Team Nordic with Tom Kristensen and Petter Solberg competing together. There are plenty of Swedes to choose from. Johan Kristoffersson won with Kristensen in Team Nordic in 2019 and Kristoffersson was a part of the announcement of the 2022 event. I bet he will be there. Sweden also has Marcus Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist. Mattias Ekström is still around in Rallycross. The host has plenty of options. 

As for the Finns, I doubt ROC could afford Kimi Räikkönen, but Finland still has Valtteri Bottas and WRC competitor Kalle Rovanperä. There are also BMW driver Jesse Krohn, sports car veteran Toni Vilander and 2004 Champion of Champions and 2006 Nations' Cup winner Heikki Kovalainen could make a return. 

Norway is a little thinner on options, but WRC competitor Andreas Mikkelsen should top the list. Perhaps Petter Solberg or Mads Østberg could make a return. Porsche could let Dennis Olsen compete. Denmark has plenty of drivers. Besides Kristensen, you could have Nicki Thiim, Marco Sørensen, Kevin Magnussen, Jan Magnussen, Michael Christensen, Christina Nielsen, Dennis Lind, Christian Lundgaard or Frederik Vesti compete. 

The conditions and the challenge have actually drawn more interest from drivers. Scott McLaughlin wants to team with Scott Dixon for New Zealand, a move I fully support. Lucas di Grassi has shown some interest. Australians Daniel Ricciardo and Chad Reed got in on the conversation after hearing about the Dixon/McLaughlin pairing. James Hinchcliffe seems game, as does Alexander Rossi. The advantage might be in the favor of the Scandinavians, but the world is not deterred. 

I do think France are the sleepers, because they can pull Yvan Muller out of retirement. Muller is famous for having ten Andros Trophy ice racing championships in France. He also has four World Touring Car championships and a British Touring Car Championship crown, but we are talking ice racing here. Combine Muller with Aurélien Pants, the defending Andros Trophy champion, Nicolas Prost, Yann Ehrlacher or Nathanaël Berthon and they could steal the show. 

As the self-appointed general manager of the United States in Race of Champions, this Swedish snow and ice event presents a difficult task. One, the United States is not setup to succeed in a snow and ice event, not in Race of Champions. Ice hockey? You bet. Figure skating? Maybe. Curling? Apparently. Race of Champions? Competing in a head-to-head motorsports event in unfamiliar race cars in winter's worst weather conditions? That is not going in our favor. 

Who to pick? Honestly, I am not sure I can consider any top circuit racers. I think most options would just cause embarrassment. I thought about dirt racers because they are always racing on slick conditions and battling car control. I have always wanted to see a rally driver attempt to drive a Midget car so why not try the reverse and put a dirt driver on icy conditions in rally cars and buggies? 

But I know we have some ice in this country. Not a lot of places do ice racing. A lot of places can't do ice racing. But some do and the first one that sprang to mind was Wisconsin. And there are notable Wisconsinites, Matt Kenseth and Paul Menard. I don't know how much ice racing Kenseth has done, but Menard has competed on a regular basis and started in ice racing as a teenager. Menard might not fit the mold of champion, but he might give the USA its best chance at victory since Colin Edwards carried Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon to victory in 2002. 

Race of Champions is also an old man's game, and not just an old man's game but a retired man's game. 

Consider that David Coulthard won overall in 2018, six years after his last competitive race over a 43-year-old Petter Solberg and Coulthard also won in 2014 over Pascal Wehrlein. Tom Kristensen made the final four times in five competitions and lost one of those years to Juan Pablo Montoya. 

When the 2022 competition rolls around, Kenseth will be about two months away from turning 50 and Menard will only be 41 years old, but a handful of years removed from full-time NASCAR competition. It might not be the sexiest duo the United States could produce, but it is the duo the United States needs.

February Preview

The big February event is the Daytona 500, and we will have a full-blown NASCAR preview ahead of Speedweeks and the start of the season, but we are going to cover a few bases here. 

This is going to be the 63rd Daytona 500. 

Denny Hamlin has won the last two Daytona 500s. No driver has won three consecutive Daytona 500s. No team has won three consecutive Daytona 500s, which Joe Gibbs Racing could do. Toyota has won three Daytona 500s. Hamlin has been the driver for all three of those Daytona 500s. 

Hamlin will be the only multi-time Daytona 500 winner in the 2021 field. Other past winners include Derrike Cope, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and Austin Dillon.

The most years between Daytona 500 victories is ten, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. from 2004 to 2014. Cope, Harvick, Newman or McMurray could break that record. 

Kyle Busch's 58 Cup victories are the most for a driver without a Daytona 500 victory. 

Since 2005, only five of 16 Daytona 500s have been exactly 500 miles (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017). Ten have had green-white-checkered finish and one (2009) was rain-shortened. However, the longest stretch without a 500-mile finish is three years. 

Last year's Daytona 500 was the longest at 209 laps, 522.5 miles.

Chevrolet has won the last three Daytona 500s scheduled for February 14 and General Motors has won the last six Daytona 500s scheduled for February 14. The last non-GM brand to win the Daytona 500 on February 14 was Plymouth in 1971 with Richard Petty.

The last time the reigning NASCAR Cup champion won the Daytona 500 was Jeff Gordon in 1999. That was also the last time the driver to win the season finale from the year prior won the Daytona 500. 

The last pole-sitter to win the Daytona 500 was Dale Jarrett in 2000. 

Joey Logano has won one of the Daytona 500 qualifying races each of the last two years. The only driver to win a Daytona 500 qualifying race in at least three consecutive years was Dale Earnhardt, who won one of the qualifying races in each year of the 1990s.

Team Penske has won one of the Daytona 500 qualifying races in each of the last three years. Hendrick Motorsports is the all-time leader with 16 qualifying race victories. Richard Childress Racing has 15 qualifying race victories and Joe Gibbs Racing has ten.

Other events of note in February:

NASCAR will remain at Daytona for a road course race and then run at Homestead.

Asian Le Mans Series will have its entire season, a doubleheader at Dubai and a doubleheader at Yas Marina, within two weeks. 

Supercars begins its season with a sprint round at Bathurst. 

The World Rally Championship will contest Arctic Rally - Finland for the first time.

2019 Race of Champions Preview

The 30th Race of Champions takes place this weekend in Mexico City with Foro Sol, the stadium located inside Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, hosting the event. At least nine different countries will be represented in this competition with 20 different drivers set to participate. Two past Champion of Champions winners are in this competition, both of which have also won the Nations' Cup before with two additional Nations' Cup winners also in the field. At least eight drivers will be making their Race of Champions debut this year with two spots still to be decided.

An eight-driver competition will take place on Saturday to decide the winner of ROC Mexico and the winner will get to compete in the Nations' Cup and in the play-in round of the Champion of Champions competition. There will also be the eROC competition for sim racers with the winner also getting to compete in the Nations' Cup and play-in round of the Champion of Champions.

This year's Nations' Cup is split into three groups. Group A features four teams while Group B and Group C each have three teams. The top two from Group A advance to the knockout round while only the group winners of Group B and Group C will advance. The winners of Group A and Group B will meet in one semifinal and the Group C winner will face the Group A runner-up in the other. Each round of the knockout stage will be a best-of-three races.

The Nations' Cup will be held on Saturday January 19th.

The Champion of Champions competition will have four groups of four drivers but the final spot in each group will be decided in a play-in, head-to-head race. The top two finishers from each group will advance to the knockout round. The top of the draw will have the Group A winner face the Group B runner-up and the Group B winner face the Group A runner-up in the quarterfinals. The bottom of the bracket has Group C winner facing the Group D runner-up and the Group D winner facing the Group C runner-up. The Grand Final will be a best-of-three races.

The Champion of Champions will be held on Sunday January 20th.

Nations' Cup
Group A
Germany
Best Result: 1st (2007-12, 2017-18)
Drivers:
Sebastian Vettel: 2018 Formula One vice-champion with five victories
Mick Schumacher: 2018 FIA European Formula 3 Championship champion

Mexico
Best Result: Group Stage (2018)
Drivers:
Esteban Gutiérrez: Mercedes-AMG Simulator driver
Patricio O'Ward: 2018 Indy Lights Series champion

Infinitum Mexico
Memo Rojas: Fourth in the European Le Mans Series LMP2 Drivers' champion
Benito Guerra: Made four starts in the World Rally Championship.

France
Best Result: 1st (2000, 2004)
Drivers:
Pierre Gasly: 15th in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship
Loïc Duval: 17th in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters championship and he finished third overall in the 2018 24 Hours of Daytona

Group Breakdown: This group seems to lean toward Germany and France. Vettel is remarkable in this competition and he has won seven Nations' Cups, including all by himself when he last competed in 2017. Schumacher is a rookie but junior formula drivers have done well before in Race of Champions. Both Mexican teams have a shout. O'Ward is coming off a fantastic year with a Indy Lights title and successful IndyCar debut but Gutiérrez was on the sidelines for all of 2018. Last year, Rojas went 0-6 in the Race of Champions between both competitions and Guerra went 2-1 when he ran the Nations' Cup in 2012 but he went 0-3 in the Champion of Champions. On paper, it seems Gasly and Duval will advance but I think the Gutiérrez/O'Ward is their biggest worry.

Group B
Brazil
Best Result: Semifinals (2004)
Drivers:
Hélio Castroneves: 7th in the IMSA Prototype championship with one victory
Lucas di Grassi: 2017-18 Formula E vice-champion

TELCEL Mexico
Daniel Suárez: 21st in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship
*ROC Mexico Winner

Sim Racing All-Stars
Best Result: Group Stage (2018)
Drivers:
Enzo Bonito: 2018 Sim Racing All-Stars representative
eROC winner*

Group Breakdown: This group leans toward Brazil. Castroneves has been here before and di Grassi is a rookie but experienced driver. Two of the teams still have undecided spots and we have not seen the late addition drivers fair well. Rudy van Buren represented the sim racers in the Champion of Champions and went 1-2. Bonito went 0-3 in the Nations' Cup and lost to van Buren in the play-in round for the Champion of Champions group stage.

ROC Mexico is a decent field. Last year's representative for Mexico, Abraham Calderón is in this competition with Pirelli World Challenge champion Martín Fuentes, NASCAR Mexico Series champion Rubén García, Jr., rally driver Ricardo Triviño, Nissan GT Academy's Ricarco Sánchez, rally driver Pancho Name, NASCAR Mexico Series driver Rubén Rovelo and rally driver Ricardo Cordero.

I think it is either Brazil or TELCEL Mexico but I think it easily goes to Brazil.

Group C
Team Nordic
Best Result: 1st (2005, 2014)
Drivers:
Tom Kristensen: 2018 Champion of Champions semifinalist
Johan Kristoffersson: 2018 World Rallycross Championship champion

Great Britain
Best Result: 2nd (2009, 2010, 2014)*
Drivers:
David Coulthard: 2018 Champion of Champions winner
Andy Priaulx: Currently eighth in the FIA World Endurance Championship World Endurance GT Drivers' Championship
* - England won in 2015 with Jason Plato and Andy Priaulx.

United States of America
Best Result: 1st (2002)
Drivers:
Josef Newgarden: 5th in the IndyCar Series championship with three victories
Ryan Hunter-Reay: 4th in the IndyCar Series championship with two victories

Group Breakdown: This is the toughest group to pick. Kristensen and Priaulx have each won the Nations' Cup before. Coulthard is the defending Champion of Champions winner. Kristoffersson had an impressive debut last year making the semifinals in the Champion of Champions competition and he missed out on the semifinals in the Nations' Cup on tiebreaker to Kristensen and Petter Solberg, who represented Team Nordic. Hunter-Reay has been shaky in this competition and he has advanced from the group stage of Nations' Cup in only one of his prior five appearances. History says this group goes to the Nordic team.

Knockout Round Breakdown: This sets up a Germany-Brazil semifinal and Team Nordic and France in the other semifinal.

The first semifinal goes to Germany. Vettel is not going to lose. Even if Schumacher loses his race it sets up for Vettel to run the rubber match and he will win it.

This France team is similar to last year's Germany team of Timo Bernhard and René Rast. Neither driver was the best for their country but they are damn good when compared to the rest of the field. I think this semifinal will need all three races and I give the edge to France.

Germany vs. France in the final and a rematch of the Group A matchup. Germany swept France in the 2012 Nations' Cup final with Vettel and Michael Schumacher knocking off Romain Grosjean and Sébastien Ogier respectively. I don't think that will be the case. I think this one goes all three races. Vettel gets a victory and as does the French driver that faces Schumacher.

I guess the question should be, who can beat Vettel? In the Nations' Cup, Vettel went 8-0 in 2017 in Miami, 5-0 in 2012, 5-1 in 2011, 2-3 in 2010, 5-1 in 2009, 2-1 in 2008 and 3-1 in 2007. His record in the Nations' Cup is 30-7! In chronological order, his losses have been to Travis Pastrana, Mattias Ekström, Andy Priaulx, Pastrana again, Tanner Foust and Priaulx again.

It is an odd bunch of drivers to lose to. Pastrana and Foust are far from the greatest in the world. Although Pastrana has Vettel's number. Pastrana beat Vettel in the group stage of the 2017 Champion of Champions. Ekström historically was great at Race of Champions and Priaulx is respectable.

This will be the second time Germany and France will have met in this competition. I am not sure Gasly can be the guy. Can Duval be the guy? Can Duval be the sports car guy to finally knock off Vettel?

No.

Vettel isn't going to be stopped. Germany gets its ninth title.

The Champion of Champions
Group A
David Coulthard
Best Result: 1st (2014, 2018)

Tom Kristensen
Best Result: Runner-up (2005, 2011-12, 2015, 2017)

Patricio O'Ward
Best Result: This is his debut.

Round 1A:
ROC Mexico winner

Andy Priaulx
Best Result: Semifinalist (2007-08, 2011)

Group Breakdown:  This is a bit of experience against a bit of youth. I think Kristensen edges out Coulthard and O'Ward gets the other spot. I have Priaulx getting out of the Round 1A. It is kind of forgotten how much success Priaulx has in this competition. It should not be a surprise if he makes a run to the semifinals or beyond. The ROC Mexico competitors that could do the most damage are García, Jr., Sánchez and Fuentes. Regardless who wins the round 1A matchup I think this group will be very competitive.

Group B
Johan Kristoffersson
Best Result: Semifinalist (2018)

Lucas di Grassi 

Best Result: This is his debut.

Josef Newgarden
Best Result: Quarterfinals (2018)

Round 1B:
Loïc Duval
Best Result: This is his debut.

Hélio Castroneves
Best Result: Quarterfinals (2017)

Group Breakdown: This is a tight group and I think Kristoffersson wins it. He won his group last year. It will be a tough fight for second. Newgarden advanced to the knockout round last year and lost to Kristoffersson in the quarterfinals after he collided with the barriers after three turns. Newgarden did advance from a weaker group that featured two Saudi drivers and those were the two drivers he beat. Newgarden could benefit from having two debut drivers in his group but neither are slouches. I think Duval wins Round 1B and I think Duval would be the second best driver in this group if he gets out. Give me the Frenchman advancing.

Group C
Sebastian Vettel
Best Result: 1st (2017)

Daniel Suárez
Best Result: This is his debut.

Benito Guerra
Best Result: Group Stage (2012)

Round 1C:
Memo Rojas
Best Result: Group Stage (2018)

Mick Schumacher

Best Result: This is a debut.

Group Breakdown: We will pencil Vettel into the next round. This could be an interesting group if Rojas advances from Round 1C. I don't think that is the case however and I think this group will only have Germans advancing to the knockout round.

Group D

Pierre Gasly
Best Result: This is his debut.

Esteban Gutiérrez
Best Result: This is his debut.

Ryan Hunter-Reay
Best Result: Quarterfinals (2014)

Round 1D:

Enzo Bonito
Best Result: Play-In Round (2018).

eROC Winner

Group Breakdown: This is a hard group to call. Not one competitor stands above the others. What benefits Hunter-Reay is experience and he has advanced twice out of his five previous appearances. In 2014, he went 3-0 with victories over Kristensen, Pascal Wehrlein and Jolyon Palmer and last year, Hunter-Reay went 2-1 with victories over Castroneves and Rojas but lost to Juan Pablo Montoya. I think Gasly advances as well. Gutiérrez has been inactive for a year and the sim racers are too much of an unknown. You likely have to win twice to advance and last year van Buren won once. I am not sure lightning can strike twice.

Knockout Round Breakdown: Here is what the bracket would look like:

Kristensen vs. Duval
Kristofferson vs. O'Ward
Vettel vs. Gasly
Hunter-Reay vs. Schumacher

These are all crapshoots. They are all best-of-one race competitions. One spin of the wheels at the starting line, one bobble in a corner, one brush of the barrier and you are done. Your opponent is not going to make a mistake. Newgarden learned last year that cold tires can catch you out and if that happens you are out. There is no mulligan. There is no do-over.

On gut, I think Kristensen, Kristoffersson, Vettel and Hunter-Reay all advance. All the group winners. How likely is that to happen?

It happened in 2009. In 2010 and 2011, three of four group winners advanced. Only one group winner advanced in 2012 and 2014. There was no competition in 2013 and 2015 was only a knockout competition. Two of the four group winners advanced in 2017 and last year had three of four group winners advance. It has happened once out of seven possible competitions. That means 17 out of 28 semifinalists were group winners.

What about finalists? How many finalists won a group?

Obvious both in 2009, but both were group winners in 2010, one made the final in 2011, Coulthard was the only group winner to advance in 2014 and won the entire competition, both were group winers in 2017 and both were group winners last year. Ten out of a possible 14 finalists won a group.

Sébastien Ogier and Romain Grosjean are the only Champion of Champions winners not to win a group when the drivers won in 2011 and 2012 respectively and 2012 is the only year when no group winners made the final. Grosjean defeated Kristensen that year.

Give me Kristensen and Vettel to make the finals and Kristensen finally gets his Champion of Champions victory over Vettel 2-1.

The Nations' Cup will be held at 2:00 p.m. ET on Saturday January 19th with the Champion of Champions competition beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday January 20th.

Musings From the Weekend: Dream Race of Champions

BMW ruined the bed in Morocco and it allowed Jérôme d'Ambrosio to get his first victory on track in his Formula E career and his first victory on track since the 2010 Monaco sprint race in GP2. There was a staggered restart and a first time winner in Supercross. German manufactures remain unbeaten in the Dubai 24 Hours. New Zealanders defended their house. Daniel Suárez got a new ride. IndyCar released its television schedule. The Dakar Rally continues on although one competitor was tossed after running over a spectator. The spectator has a broken femur but is still alive. That is a grim note to end on. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Dream Race of Champions
Coming up this weekend is one of my favorite events of the motorsports year. It is the Race of Champions. I still haven't figured out why I like it so much or why I take it as seriously as I do but it is what it is and it is that time of year again.

Mexico hosts this year's event and as with most Race of Champions we are less than a week away and we still do not have a full entry list announced. We will be getting driver announcements on a daily basis likely from now until the start of the competition on Saturday. It is disappointingly unprofessional. It is bad enough that we don't find out the location of the next Race of Champions until two months before the event.

Race of Champions could be a bigger event if people knew the date and location at least nine to ten months in advance and the lineup should be known at least a month or two out. The entire schedule should be known. We know the matches for a World Cup six months in advance. We should be going into Race of Champions knowing who is meeting whom in the group stages and knowing what the knockout round match ups could be.

The Race of Champions needs to take it to the next level and start taking itself seriously.

How great could this event be?

It should feature 32 countries, 32 pairs of drivers. It should be a three-day event. The first day should be just the group stage of the Nations Cup with two sessions, one in the day and one at night. Day two should be the knockout stage of the Nations Cup and day three should be a 64-driver single-elimination tournament to decide the Champion of Champions.

This is what it should look like (P.S. It is a lot harder to come up with 32 countries and driver pairings that I first thought it would be but I made it work):

Group A (The Alps Group)
Germany: Sebastian Vettel and René Rast
Why These Two Drivers: Vettel is one of the best drivers in this tournament and until someone regularly beats him Vettel should always represent Germany. Mick Schumacher has already been announced for Germany this year but Rast is an underrated driver. He won the Nations Cup last year with Timo Bernhard, a DTM title in 2017 and he ended 2018 with six consecutive victories and fell short in the championship. Plus, Rast is a strong sports car driver in prototypes and GT cars.
Notable Snubs: Bernhard, Nico Hülkenberg, André Lotterer

Austria: Richard Lietz and Lucas Auer
Why These Two Drivers: Lietz has been one of Porsche's best drivers with a world championship and three class victories at Le Mans to show for it. Austria doesn't have a deep lineup but Auer did well in DTM and he moves on to Super Formula.
Notable Snub: Philipp Eng

Switzerland: Sébastien Buemi and Neel Jani
Why These Two Drivers: Switzerland has never run at the Race of Champions and it should field a team. Buemi and Jani are World Endurance Drivers' Champions, both are Le Mans winners and both have been successful in single-seaters.
Notable Snubs: Marcel Fässler, Simona de Silvestro

France: Sébastien Ogier and Jean-Éric Vergne
Why These Two Drivers: Ogier has won the Champion of Champions competition before and he has won six consecutive World Rally titles. Vergne won the Formula E title and he has had plenty of success in LMP2 competition. They got championships to their names and that is why certain Formula One drivers are not in France's lineup.
Notable Snubs: Sébastien Bourdais, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Loïc Duval, Simon Pagenaud

Group B (The North Sea Group)
England: Lewis Hamilton and Sam Bird
Why These Two Drivers: One is a five-time World Drivers' Champion and the other is regular winner in Formula E and GT competition. Also, England is lacking exciting young drivers. Norris and Russell aren't there yet.
Notable Snubs: Jenson Button, James Calado, Mike Conway, Lando Norris, George Russell

Scotland: David Coulthard and Paul di Resta
Why These Two Drivers: Coulthard is a two-time Champion of Champions winner and di Resta was vice-champion in DTM while having successful LMP2 outings with United Autosports. In a similar vain to England, not a lot of exciting young Scottish drivers coming up the pipe and it is more concerning that England.

Netherlands: Max Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen
Why These Two Drivers: Verstappen won twice last year in Formula One. Bleekemolen is one of the best GT drivers in the world not with a factory program. Someone has to wake up and get him a sweet gig although it doesn't seem to matter where he goes. He is victorious everywhere.
Notable Snubs: Robin Frijns, Renger van der Zande

Belgium: Laurens Vanthoor and Thierry Neuville
Why These Two Drivers: Vanthoor has won a lot and he is a Porsche factory driver. Neuville let the World Rally Championship slip through his fingers but he is the next best Belgian driver and you want a diverse pairing. Rally drivers do well in this competition.
Notable Snubs: Jérôme d'Ambrosio, Dries Vanthoor, Bertrand Baguette

Group C (The Americas)
United States: Alexander Rossi and Colin Braun
Why These Two Drivers: Read This...
Notable Snubs: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Josef Newgarden, Kyle Busch, Patrick Long, Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kevin Harvick

Canada: James Hinchcliffe and Bruno Spengler
Why These Two Drivers: Because Canada's most exciting driver is not able to compete. You know Robert Wickens would be the number one driver for Canada. Hinchcliffe is good, Spengler is a DTM champion and Lance Stroll isn't good enough.
Notable Snubs: Nicholas Latifi, Zachary Claman De Melo

Mexico: Sergio Pérez and Patricio O'Ward
Why These Two Drivers: I nearly had Daniel Suárez and O'Ward because Pérez slipped my mind but Pérez is the best Mexican driver in the world. Why O'Ward over Suárez? He is 20 years old, has won in Prototype Challenge, Indy Lights and was bad fast in his first IndyCar outing.
Notable Snubs: Suárez, Memo Rojas, Esteban Gutiérrez

Brazil: Hélio Castroneves and Lucas di Grassi
Why These Two Drivers: I stuck with the actually lineup for Brazil because Castroneves is sneaky good and di Grassi probably should be in Formula One. Brazil is in a place though where it could have three or four teams, however.
Notable Snubs: Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani, Tony Kanaan, Augusto Farfus, Pietro Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, Jr.

Group D (Scandinavia)
Sweden: Felix Rosenqvist and Johan Kristoffersson
Why These Two Drivers: Because Rosenqvist should be in Formula One and has succeeded in everything he has every gotten behind the wheel of and Kristoffersson did well last year in the Race of Champions and he just won the World Rallycross title after winning 11 of 12 races. By the way, Scandinavia is too deep to just be Team Nordic. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway should all have their own teams.
Notable Snub: Marcus Ericsson

Denmark: Tom Kristensen and Kevin Magnussen
Why These Two Drivers: Because Kristensen has been knocking on the door of winning Champion of Champions for year and he has won the Nations Cup. I nearly had both Magnussens as a team but Kevin is coming off his best season in Formula One.
Notable Snubs: Jan Magnussen, Nicki Thiim, Michael Christensen, Christian Nielsen, Marco Sœrensen

Finland: Toni Vilander and Valtteri Bottas
Why These Two Drivers: Because Kimi Räikkönen would never do it. Vilander is a Pirelli World Challenge champion and he has plenty of victories in GT competition. Bottas drive for Mercedes-Benz in Formula One. By the way, Finland hasn't had a participant in Race of Champions since Juho Hänninen in 2011!
Notable Snubs: Räikkönen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Esapekka Lappi.

Norway: Andreas Mikkelsen and Petter Solberg
Why These Two Drivers: Because Norway does not have much else to choose from. But Solberg has won the Nations Cup and does well in this event and Mikkelsen is the best Norway has got but shout out to Porsche driver Dennis Olsen. Maybe next year bud.

Group E (The Mediterranean Group)
Italy: Raffaele Marciello and Alessandro Pier Guidi
Why These Two Drivers: Because Antonio Giovinazzi isn't match fit, Marciello won a bunch last year in Blancpain GT Series and Pier Guidi is the defending World Endurance GT Drivers' champion.
Notable Snubs: Giovinazzi, Gianmaria Bruni, Mirko Bortolotti, Davide Rigon

Spain: Fernando Alonso and Antonio García
Why These Two Drivers: It is Alonso and García won the IMSA GT Le Mans title.
Notable Snubs: Miguel Molina

Portugal: Filipe Albuquerque and António Félix da Costa
Why These Two Drivers: Albuquerque has won Champion of Champions in 2010 and since then he has become a great sports car driver. Da Costa never got a shot at Formula One and he has become BMW's hidden gem and has won in Formula E and maybe should have two victories.

Monaco: Charles Leclerc and Stéphane Richelmi
Why These Two Drivers: Because I could form a pairing of Monegasque drivers and every pairing I could get was getting added to the competition but in all seriousness, Leclerc is at Ferrari and Richelmi has had a good career in sports cars after decent success in junior formula series.

Group F (The Rugby Championship)
South Africa: Kelvin van der Linde and Sheldon van der Linde
Why These Two Drivers: They were the only two South African drivers I could think of that are a decent age and moderately successful. Kelvin could be following the footsteps of Laurens Vanthoor.

Australia: Daniel Ricciardo and Will Power
Why These Two Drivers: Why not these two drivers? Australia has a lot of great drivers. These two are head and shoulders above the rest.
Notable Snubs: Jamie Whincup, Matt Campbell, Craig Lowndes

New Zealand: Scott Dixon and Nick Cassidy
Why These Two Drivers: One is Scott Dixon and Cassidy was vice-champion in Super GT and Super Formula. Cassidy is diverse and young and the best kept secret in Japan.
Notable Snubs: Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Brendon Hartley, Mitch Evans

Argentina: José María López and Esteban Guerrieri
Why These Two Drivers: López turned touring car success into a Toyota LMP1 ride and Guerrieri is good in touring cars. Outside of that the pool is not deep for Argentina.

Group G (The Yeesh Group or the "I have built the table and have four extra parts" Group)
Colombia: Juan Pablo Montoya and Carlos Muñoz
Why These Two Drivers: Montoya is the best of our generation and a Champion of Champions winner. Muñoz is underrated and someone in IndyCar should give him a full-time ride.

Venezuela: Pastor Maldonado and EJ Viso
Why These Two Drivers: Because I was able to find two Venezuelan drivers and was stretching for 32 pairs. Plus, deep down you want to see what Maldonado could do in this competition and you know he could end up in the final eight or not win a race and lose each time in a different spectacular fashion.

Russia: Romain Rusinov and Mikhail Aleshin
Why These Two Drivers: Rusinov is the best driver who doesn't want to leave LMP2 competition and Aleshin is a fearless driver. Plus, I can't take Daniil Kvyat seriously.

Estonia: Ott Tänak and Ralf Aron
Why These Two Drivers: Tänak nearly won the World Rally title last year and he has developed nicely over the last few seasons. Aron has been respectable in Formula Three but it feels like he is going to end up like Tio Ellinas, Facu Regalia and Luca Ghiotto who are really good in Formula Three/GP3 and then stall out.

Group H (The Asia Group)
Japan: Naoki Yamamoto and Kazuki Nakajima
Why These Two Drivers: Yamamoto won both Super Formula and Super GT GT500 championships in 2018 and Nakajima is coming off a win at Le Mans and leads the World Endurances Drivers' Championship. Nakajima has had a great career for himself in Japan as well.
Notable Snubs: Takuma Sato, Kamui Kobayashi, Ryō Hirakawa

China: Ho-Pin Tung and Ye Yifei
Why These Two Drivers: Tung has done well in LMP2 competition. Yifei won the French F4 Championship a few years ago and he was third in Formula Renault Eurocup in 2018.

United Arab Emirates: Ed Jones and Khaled Al Qubaisi
Why These Two Drivers: Jones has shown promise in IndyCar and Al Qubaisi was in this competition last year.

Thailand: Alexander Albon and Sandy Stuvik
Why These Two Drivers: Albon is getting a Formula One drive and even if he wasn't he was set to be in Nissan's Formula E program. Albon was third in the Formula Two championship last year behind George Russell and Lando Norris. Stuvik won the Euroformula Open Championship in 2014, had two rough years in GP3 and then moved to GT3 competition where he has been slightly better.

The bracket for the knockout round held on day two would look like this:

It could set up a Germany-England meeting in the round of 16. The Americas would face Scandinavia in the first knockout round. The best of the Mediterranean would face the best of the Southern Hemisphere and a China vs. Russia match could happen in the round of 16. One other change I would make is every round would be a best-of-three with the final being best-of-five.

As for the Champion of Champions competition, how do you seed a 64-driver field?

The best thing I could come up with is super license points but even that is a bit tricky. Those with a super license do not have points and there are some drivers that participate in series that do not receive super license points, most notably the World Rally Championship. Then there are competitors that are not active or have not been active and have zero points but are clearly better than that, most notably Tom Kristensen and David Coulthard. Also, the most updated super license points I could find was prior to the 2018 season and I wasn't going to do the math and deduct the 2015 points and add in the 2018 totals so the 2017 numbers is what I use. Deal with it.

Here is what I did:

I gave all drivers with a super license 200 points, which means they are all top seeds.

I gave Sébastien Ogier 100 points, Kristensen 100 points, Coulthard 40 points and Thierry Neville, Petter Solberg and Andreas Mikkelsen all got five points.

The best way to explain this is to go seed-by-seed.

One Seeds: Lewis Hamilton, Sebastien Vettel, Max Verstappen, Lucas di Grassi
Why: The top three were no brainers and I included di Grassi, one, to make it different and reward a driver successful in something other than Formula One who still has a super license and, two, because the seeding really doesn't matter. One seeds and two seeds are about the same.

Two Seeds: Charles Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso
Why: They all good. You put Leclerc in the same quarter as Hamilton, Bottas with Vettel, Ricciardo with Verstappen and Alonso with di Grassi. One seeds and two seeds are about the same.

Three Seeds: Sergio Pérez, Kevin Magnussen, Sébastien Buemi, Sébastien Ogier
Why: You get the super license drivers out of the way, Buemi has the most points amongst non-super licensed drivers and Ogier has won six consecutive World Rally titles.

Four Seeds: Tom Kristensen, Neel Jani, Scott Dixon, Kazuki Nakajima
Why: All these guys feel like four seeds. Kristensen and Ogier were tied on 100 points but I gave Ogier the advantage and the better seeding since he is active.

Five Seeds: Felix Rosenquvst, Sam Bird, Will Power, Nick Cassidy
Why: Like the four seeds, these all seem about right.

Six Seeds: David Coulthard, Laurens Vanthoor, Alexander Rossi, Hélio Castroneves
Why: Coulthard, Vanthoor and Cassidy were all tied and Cassidy's diversity got him in the better seed. It makes sense that Castroneves is a six-seed.

Seven Seeds: José María López, Romain Rusinov, Filipe Albuquerque, Juan Pablo Montoya
Why: Rusinov seems a bit high because he has only been an LMP2 driver and Montoya probably would have been higher if he remained active in IndyCar.

Eight Seeds: Alexander Albon, Raffaele Marciello, Ho-Pin Tung, René Rast
Why: Albon is this high from his Formula Two success and Marciello is living off his GP2 success. Tung is like Rusinov with a boost from LMP2 competition. Rast could be a bit higher.

Nine Seeds: Antonio García, Naoki Yamamoto, Stéphane Richelmi, Ralf Aron
Why: GT success is not worth that much but you would have to think Yamamoto's 2018 season would leap him up a few seeds. Aron is a bit high. When there are 64 drivers, somebody has to be in the back half and when you lay all the names out on paper you face that reality.

Ten Seeds: Richard Lietz, Jean-Éric Vergne, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Paul di Resta
Why: GT racing is not heavily weighed and Vergne slipped a bit but his Formula E title would likely have boosted him up into at least a six-seed if we had the most updated super license points. It at least sets up a high seed to make a run in the tournament.

Eleven Seeds: Thierry Neuville, Petter Solberg, Andreas Mikkelsen, Bruno Spengler
Why: Those five points gets these three rally drivers off the bottom. Spengler has been good but not as great as he once was in DTM.

Twelve Seeds: Ed Jones, António Félix da Costa, Lucas Auer, Mikhail Aleshin
Why: Because if we have learned anything from the NCAA tournament 12 seeds are dangerous and all four of these drivers could win a race.

Thirteen Seeds: Toni Vilander, Carlos Muñoz, Colin Braun, Pastor Maldonado
Why: Because Vilander and Muñoz were the final two drivers with points. Braun doesn't have any points and Maldonado has been out of Formula One for three years. No points for you.

Fourteen Seeds: Jeroen Bleekemolen, James Hinchcliffe, Patricio O'Ward, Johan Kristoffersson
Why: They all have no points but are better than the remaining drivers.

Fifteen Seeds: EJ Viso, Esteban Guerrieri, Ott Tänak, Kelvin van der Linde
Why: Tänak could be higher. The only reason I didn't give him five points was because his WRC success has not been as spread out as the other three. He is that sneaky 15-seed though and that is not a bad thing. The other three, Viso has been driving Stadium Super Trucks as his most recent gig, Guerrieri is only in touring cars and van der Linde is young.

Sixteen Seeds: Sheldon van der Linde, Ye Yifei, Khaled al Qubaisi, Sandy Stuvik
Why: These drivers are either silver-rated or only won in junior formula series. They are the sacrificial lambs for the top four.

Here is what the top half of the bracket looks like:

And the bottom half:

It seems pretty even. There isn't one quarter that is more stacked than another. But this is what Race of Champions should be. Fans should be looking ahead and seeing what the match ups could be and drivers should be thinking about this. There should be the nerves of a bracket and a top seed being caught out.

You have Verstappen and Ricciardo set up as a possible quarterfinal but Ricciardo has Tänak in the first round. If Tänak takes out Ricciardo early it opens up the bottom of that quarter. Verstappen isn't a lock for the quarterfinals. Power would be a possible round of 16 opponent and Power has a good road. He is in a trick 5v12 match but if he defeats da Costa, I think he knocks out either Jani or Braun in round two and then he has Verstappen. That is more of a toss up than most would think.

In the di Grassi quarter, you have Alonso, Montoya, Ogier and Rossi set to be chalk out of round one in the bottom of the quarter. How do you choose one of those four to make the quarterfinals? Cassidy/Jones is a 5v12 match and that could go either way but Kristensen would be waiting for either of those two and it could set up for a meeting of former Audi teammates in the round of 16 with di Grassi and Kristensen.

If there is one weak area it is the bottom of the Vettel quarter. While Vettel and Dixon could be a round of 16 match up with Yamamoto and Bird being sleepers, the bottom seems to line up perfectly for Bottas. Bottas has Guerrieri and then would face the winner of Rusinov/Pier Guidi. He seems a lock for the round of 16. As for his potential opponent, Vanthoor/Solberg is interesting but neither seems like a threat and then there is Magnussen/O'Ward, not something to be scared of either.

The Hamilton quarter is really tight. Hamilton could have to face Nakajima or Rosenqvist in the round of 16 and then could have Leclerc, Pérez or Castroneves in the quarterfinals. Hamilton could have a difficult pair of match ups between Rosenqvist and Leclerc in consecutive rounds and it would shape up to be a changing of the guard type of meeting each time. Pérez wouldn't be safe in round one. Kristoffersson could knock him off and if Kristoffersson did I think he could beat either Castroneves or Neuville.

There are many things that stand in the way of this happening: Scheduling logistics, driver contracts, time, interest, fitness but one other reason is organization. Race of Champions is relaxed in terms of promotion but it could be much bigger. The event is only as big as the level of effort the organizers put into it. The organizers are playing small ball when they have two outs in the bottom of the ninth with no one on and down a run. It is time to start swinging for the fences.

Until that changes this elaborate competition with over five-dozen of the best drivers in the world will have to remain in the pillows.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Jérôme d'Ambrosio but did you know...

The #88 Car Collection Motorsport Audi of Christopher Haase, Frédéric Vervisch, Dimitri Parhofer and Rik Breukers won the Dubai 24 Hours.

Here are the Dakar Rally class leaders with four stages to go:

Bikes: Pablo Quintanilla leads American Ricky Brabec by four minutes and 38 seconds.
Quads: Nicolas Cavigliasso has over an hour lead.
Cars: Nasser Al-Attiyah has a 37-minute lead over Sébastien Loeb and a 41-minute lead over Stéphane Peterhansel.
Trucks: Eduard Nikolaev leads Dmitry Sotnikov by ten minutes.
SxS: Gerard Farres Guell leads Sergei Kariakin by 13 minutes.

The #22 United Autosports Ligier-Nissan of Paul di Resta and Phil Hanson won the 4 Hours of Buriram. The #2 United Autosports Ligier-Nissan of Wayne Boyd, Chris Buncombe and Garett Grist won in LMP3. The #11 CarGuy Racing Ferrari of James Calado, Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura won in GT for the third consecutive race.

Liam Lawson won the bookends of the Toyota Racing Series races from Highlands Motorsports Park with Brendon Leitch winning the second race of the weekend.

Blake Baggett won the Supercross race from Glendale, his first career victory.

Olivier Panis and Andréa Dubourg split the Andros Trophy races from Isola 2000.

Coming Up This Weekend
You know about Race of Champions.
The Chili Bowl is an all-week affair.
Supercross returns to Anaheim.
Toyota Racing Series will be at Teretonga Park.