The Altamont 24 Hours of LeMons race finished yesterday. If I shut my eyes, I can still see $500 beaters running around a track– and nothing else. I can't even think of thinking of anything else. Now, I've always been– at best– a casual fan of racing. When I was a kid, I'd watch the Indy 500 with my dad, intermittently. As I got older, I discovered different forms of racing. Rallying piqued my interest, as did European-style GT racing; as the cars running around the track bore a passing resemblance to what you see on the street. F1 cars just didn't do it for me. For a time, I became fascinated by historical racing. The 60's racing cars– Jaguar E-type, Ferrari 250 GTO, Shelby Daytona Coupe, etc.– really got my blood pumping. Then I discovered LeMons. Say what you will about the Burning Man aspect of $500-or-less art cars banging around a track. But this, to me, is pure racing. There's no money in it; the winner gets $1000 in nickels. Other teams are constantly asking to borrow a cutting torch or mooching a control arm. Due to the low cost of entry, almost any group of friends can run a car and live out the dream. And finally, while you might see some LeMons cars on the street, most are in the junkyard. So, you?
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Formula 1. Without a shadow of a doubt.
WRC. 100 mph sideways down dirt roads, ’nuff said.
Formula 1
WRC
Drifting
WRC
Andy: I like drifting, too.
Rolex series or..just…road racin.
good question.
as a kid (late 80’s), i watched indy cars…
grew up a bit and followed wrc for 1/2 a year, F1 for ~ 2-3 seasons, but now, i don’t follow any motorsports.
So, I’d vote: none.
Belive it or not, my love for ralley racing came from a video game! If you have access to an Xbox 360, do yourself a favor, and go out and rent DiRT. After playing that game for a couple of hours, I have a completely new respect for those whom can go barreling down a dirt road with just a map book and a caller.
Watching the submarine races.
Whatever I’m in the mood for – either the sideways dirt insanity of WRC, the death-to-you-all competitiveness of the old European touring car championship, the uber-technical and tactical brilliance of F1 or the guilty tire smoking pleasure of drifting – it’s all good.
The notable exception is NASCAR – I can’t stand it. I’d rather slam my d#*k in a car door than waste a good afternoon watching high school dropouts make left hand turns.
I’ve started to follow WRC, mainly due to Suzuki’s SX4 entry.
+1 for DiRT followed by Forza 2.
In the real world I prefer watching MotoGP and WRC.
24 hours of LeMons, of course.
Overall though, motorsport is an incredibly dull spectacle. What’s the point of watching people drive quickly? Unless you can actually participate, I just don’t get it.
Anything Grassroots.
I have next to no interest in watching a race involving cars that bear no resemblance to what I could actually purchase. I would love it if there was a series that involved racing of stock cars, and I do mean stock, I dream about a series that has cars race with nothing changed but the tires. Even with organized sports car racing the cars are so heavily modified they don’t really say much about the stock version the average joe can buy down at the dealership
I think a racing series with totally stock cars would not only be exciting, it would do a lot for brand loyalty. What guy wouldn’t want to watch a race with a car that’s 99.9% like the one he’s got in his garage going up against it’s arch rivals?
WRC
thetopdog,
The SCCA offers quite a bit of what you are looking for if you look.
I will readily fork over my money for any new form of racing that combines
- First 3 minutes of F1 racing, including standing start.
- The next 1:47 of GT ALMS (GT2) form of road racing, with corners & curves and cars that somewhat resemble street versions.
- AND the last 10 minutes of all-out NASCAR-styled rubbin’-n-racin’.
I’ll take the world’s fasted motorport.
The Reno National Championship Air Races. Sorry, but you didn’t say land-based motorsport…
LeMons and stock cars races are definitely fun, and I love going to those in the summer, with cheap beer and hotdogs.
On TV? WRC, no doubt. Highly entertaining and watchable, not to mention impressive. Followed to GT races, whether they’re American or European. I too like to see the cars racing having a resemblance to those on the roads.
I find F1 irritating: suspense doesn’t build up very much anymore, engine sounds don’t do it for me, and the cars are just too out there.
NASCAR? Great for falling asleep and the occasional fiery crash (let’s be honest with ourselves).
Formula 1 by far.
I occasionally watch Motocross and the WRC (when I can catch it).
Dirt track racing is fun live as are drag races. I just can’t watch either on TV.
F1 leaves me a bit cold personally, but World Rally Championship…
I think it’s the apparent accessibility of the cars (hey, that Focus/Citroen/Impreza is just like my Dad’s -they’re not, but still…), that and the bark made by those fire-spitting exhausts makes my spine tingle.
Besides, watching someone pilot a car down a narrow, winding, tree-lined, rutted and mud/snow/ice covered forestry road at triple digit speeds, mostly sideways and frequently airborne while keeping everything on the very brink of A Big Accident fills me with admiration for what must be some of the very best drivers on the planet.
admiration for what must be some of the very best drivers on the planet.
According to most instructors, they are, and are those very, very few people who can actually claim to “know” their cars.
Overall favorite is probably American LeMans Series because they actually do race real cars in some of the classes. They also don’t go around in a circle, and because they have different classes on the track at the same time, the perception of the speed is improved.
Honorable mention to Reno and the Redbull Air Races. Also the WRC. I could care less about Formula One auto, because I think the formula is silly. Formula one air races are much better because the formula allows for competitive planes that are cheaper than almost any professional racing cars.
I seem to be dreaming today, so I want to see a formula race for cars and planes that is closer to real usable vehicles. Put in a passenger, some luggage, and actually go somewhere.
WRC. In part the charm of WRC is that the cars still LOOK like their street counterparts even if underneath they are full-fledged racecars.
NASCAR is a joke for many reasons, not the least of which is the zero relevance of the race cars with their production counterparts.
F1, as much as I enjoy the technology, has become virtually a caricature of itself, with differences so narrow in the capabilities of the cars that the “racing” is basically a non-event. The cars and drivers are incredible, but the typical season includes one very hot team and one which is trying hard while the remainder fight it out for 5th through 20th.
While racing is now safer than ever before, something has been lost with competition among only purpose-built race cars, both those which retain a profile of the original car (like DTM and U.S. “GT” racing) and those which are just flat out racecars like the ALMS prototypes. It would be great to see folks racing things like Mazda3’s and Scions…
Is there any WRC television coverage here in the States?
Speed Racer
The last series I followed was CART back before the efforts of Tony Stewart ruined it.
These days the most exciting motorsports are on two wheels. World Superbike? Modified (heavily!) street machines. Passing? We got lots of it. Spec machines? Bite your tongue, no stinkin’ spec machines here.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, spec racing isn’t about cars. If it’s not at least partly about the cars, what makes it worth watching? Soap opera? Give me a break…
LeMons has implemented my favored solution to the money problem: cap spending. After that, you can build what you want, how you want. That’s my idea of great racing. American racing was great when guys like Jim Hall, Andy Granatelli and Dan Gurney (not to mention Bruce McLaren) were free to innovate. If NASCAR’s so-called “car of tomorrow” is the future, then I won’t be watching.
Finally, I’d love to follow WRC. Sadly the
NASCAR Crap ChannelSpeed Channel doesn’t show it anymore.Whatever Top Gear concocts. The motorhome race I watched on the PVR last night was highly entertaining! The old Civic vs. new Civic race was good too.
I don’t have much interest in any other automotive racing.
Any racing with left AND right hand turns hopefully followed or preceded with hills and dips and a few jumps.
In other words everything NASCAR isn’t.
WRC is my favorite. The Dakar rally is interesting. Anything Grassroots. Anything vintage. Trucks (semi-trucks)…
Really anything except NASCAR and dirt track racing. Of course that eliminates 98% of what is televised in the USA.
1. MotoGP
2. WRC
I used to love F1 but I’ve tried lately and it bores the hell outta me.
I don’t even recognize the existence of NASCAR.
Is there any WRC television coverage here in the States?
There hasn’t been any WRC coverage since Speed pulled it a few years back. Gotta rely on torrents if you want to catch the action. I would’ve thought ESPN would’ve picked it up given how successful the Rally event was at last year’s X Games.
Also a vote for Dakar rally, Baja rally, etc, though they aren’t set up well for TV coverage.
F1 and CART (Champ Car, whatever it is this week) are enjoyable at times, but MotoGP is harder for me to turn off. Rossi is one of my favorite personalities because his on-track and off-track personae are similarly fiery in both realms.
WRC is right there too, I mean, those guys must speak to God in order to manage what they do, where they do, and as fast as they do. Pike’s Peak is intense too, just to add to the non-WRC offroad lovefest :)
Formula 1 and the WRC.
What I like are all the highlight videos of the WRC put to music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ02svoQetI&feature=related
Champ Car for life…and I remain ANTI-IRL and FTG. he can go pound sand.
I’m getting more into ALMS now that my motorsports calendar has freed up a bit :(
WRC, but since we no longer get it here in Canada, F1.
This has to be one of the funniest clips from a WRC race ever!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqQhQSbe6fw&feature=related
Formula 1… WRC is a close second
Formula One, with WRC close behind, as so many others have already said.
IndyCar may yet start getting my attention.
NASCAR? Ummm, NO.
1. Speed World Challenge (ALMS) – Touring and GT
2. WRC
Nothing like seeing a Acura TSX with the 2.4L blasting down Lakeshore Blvd in Toronto at 145 mph with a Audi A4 1.8L Turbo on it’s ass end…
Plus the drivers and crews are accessible…
The race that I’m racing in!
Whether it be 24 Hour LeMons in the Audi V8 quattro, SCCA High Speed Touring in the Boxster S, I can’t get enough of it.
When I watching a race, no question, WRC. Watched it since I was 6 years old, and has fascinated me since… to the point where I own the original template for today’s rally cars. THE Audi Quattro.
Formula 1
ALMS
WRC (Why oh why SPEED TV id you get rid of it?)
always been a fan of the ALMS.
WRC for me. Driving on snow, dirt, tarmac and jumping on one lane roads is cool….
I always laugh when they blow-dry the track in Nascar.
F1.
Le Mans (and ALMS)
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Everything else.
Formula 1, specifically because it IS an engineering competition (all the other complaints about F1 are fully warranted, however – it could be better).
Besides that I’ll watch anything involving different cars racing wheel to wheel on a road course. I have trouble enjoying oval racing, WRC (since it’s basically just solo time trials), and endurance racing. I don’t think less of them… just not my thing.
WRC is definitely a favorite among professional racing. My overall favorite race is the Grassroots Motorsports $200x Challenge. Just over $2k has built 10 second Rx-7’s and DSM’s (w/out overnight parts from Japan a la Fast and the Furious). It is about ingenuity rather than money. Amen, to racing that resembles real cars. I ain’t driving an f-1 car anytime soon, so I can’t really get into it.